Mel Miller Art

Dynamic Duo

2012-01-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Well, here's a fun exercise. One of my current commissions has me helping to design a back tattoo for my good buddy Patrick. One of the tattoo's overriding themes is animation, including two iconics - Mickey and Bugs. So, to start, it was pretty important to make sure I can capture both characters - above are my initial doodles for the pair. I actually hadn't attempted to draw either characters since preschool, which is really a shame - they're both allot of fun. Mickey, surprisingly, for looking like a simple little chap, is a challenge to try to get on model... boy is he cute, though.

As a tattoo design - a detailed one, at that - I suspect I'll be creating a whole host of sketches for this particular project. Once I have a fair amount, I'll make a more in-depth post with them.

-Mel

Practice, Practice, Practice

2012-01-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

A couple of random silly photos from daily life soas this post isn't completely nekkid.

Anyhow! Lately I've been getting a number of emails and messages from folks asking how I've gotten where I am art-wise, what resources I use to create my artwork, how I do what I do, and a number of variations thereof.

The short answer to all of these is, of course - I surround myself with artwork, other artists, and I practice, practice, practice. However, I know how annoyingly vague and unhelpful short answers can be at times, and frankly, you guys deserve better then a pithy one-liner. So!

Since I both an more then happy to answer questions the best I can, yet have an absolutely terrible attention span with non-work-related emails, I thought I would share some of that correspondence here, with the gracious permission of one of the fellows doing the asking - a fellow artist named William. Hopefully this is informative in some manner, and answers some of the questions folks have been asking as of late.

From William:

I found you on FA and love your artwork and style.

I practice hours every day trying to get better, I don't really have the resources to go to school so its just me and I am really looking for any great artist like you to give some advice. Its a very slow climb sometimes.

If you have any time I would really like to ask you a few things, like where you got inspiration form, and references or resources that you found especially helpful in your climb to where you are. When you are practicing or where practicing to get where you are did you copy other's stuff and try to learn from it? What did you do to learn photoshop painting? How about expressions, what did you do to learn them and be able to apply them to any character?

I appreciate anything that you could give as it would be a great help to me, hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you!

My response:

Pleased to meet you! Thank you for the kind words - It's always great to hear that other folks enjoy my work :) Also, I apologize for not getting back to you sooner on this - I seem to recall seeing this message on DA, but I think it accidentally got lost in a busy day.

I honestly always find it a little tricky to give a solid account as to how I've gotten to where I am artistically. The short answer, really, is that I've worked my butt off for a very long time. And, I know I have a whole lot to learn still, so I continue to do so every day. I definitely understand not having the resources for school, too - I didn't either (I was actually homeless for about 6 months of my time in college, flopping at a very generous set of friends' apartment) and am up to my butt in loan debt. It's a very hard thing to make work for folks who aren't of means, that's for sure!

As to answer your questions, I'll do my best :)

Most of my inspiration comes from four main places:

North American comic book style art, often surrounding artists who have an eastern-inspired flair, like Joe Madureira, Chris Bachalo, and Humberto Ramos, or others with their own unique flair who simply have more talent in their left pinkie then I have in my whole body, like a long-time favorite, Greg Capullo.
Feature Film Animation, most of which, as a kid, consisted of various movies from Disney Feature animation and Don Bluth. In college, my horizons spanned drastically from there, finding a huge assortment of inspiration from the short film circuit, cinematic game development artwork, as well as pretty much anything Hayao Miyazaki has ever put out of Studio Ghibli.
Being surrounded by other artists as much as possible. There is an absolutely massive amount of learning and inspiration that comes from simply putting yourself in a room with other artists. A tremendous amount of my friends are all creatives, my fiance is an artist, and I try to stay as active as I can in both online art communities and "IRL" art projects, such as The ARMSmasters Project. The people involved in all of these are among the kindest, most generous folks I know, and we frequently talk shop, trying to learn from one another and improve wherever we can.
Spending a great deal of time in my own head. I can be a pretty distracted person sometimes - I'm constantly mulling over characters, ideas, stories, and imagined places and cultures. I'm also always looking for new visuals to help culture those ideas. Creative image hubs like Tumblr, in recent years, have been pretty amazing for that.

I haven't tried to copy another artists' work since I was about twelve years old. I think most people start out trying to emulate the work of artists they admire, it's part of the process, but I do encourage folks to draw the line between being influenced by an artist and outright trying to reproduce their work as early on as possible, and there is a point when copying becomes a crutch - a hindrance to learning and developing more.

In terms of reference - I've personally made a habit to reference photographs for anatomy, form, poses, etc, as opposed to other artists' work. I try to adhere to this as much as possible - I figure, hey, nature got it right first, I might as well check with the source ;) Photo reference sources come from me in very random and varied places - online searches, books, Tumblr. Wherever may be of service.

Where did I learn photoshop painting? Blood, sweat, tears, a great deal of time and practice, and literally years of really bad attempts before I even started to get the hang of it. My fledgling attempts at digital coloring started back in 2000 or so, using a super limited photoshop knock-off whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember. And when I cay these early attempts were bad, I mean, a vexing, unholy sort of awful. (Granted I was only 17 at the time, but that stuff is embarrassing! lol.) I don't feel like I really started to grasp color properly until around 2006, and allot of that had to do with determination to really get better, as I had finally gotten my self in gear enough to start college classes soon. I didn't start producing colors I was actually happy with until the past couple of years - 2007 through 2008 or so starting the trend, and it culminating to pretty solid pieces from the past year.

A couple of things I've done that have really helped in pushing me more towards results that I like?

Finding photographs of textures and surfaces and trying to reproduce them through paint. Lately, I try to tackle at least one new type of texture or surface in every image I do. I also try to study light, how colors interact with one another, and appealing color combinations through both photos and artwork by others.
Finding examples of images whose coloring really appeals to me, and trying to dissect how the artist may have produced that look. I don't try to reproduce these things, but I do try to understand how they work, and apply that methodology to my own pieces.
Micromanaging the hell out of my PSD files. Up until the very last few completing stages of an image, I literally have a layer for just about everything - shading lighting, each and every object, so that I can go in and adjust everything individually whenever needed. While my old jalopy of a computer frequently weeps at the file size this habit creates, having this much control to tweak an image has helped me learn allot just through the ability to experiment.

And, expressions! I adore expressions, and letting them bring a character to life. Allot of learning here, again, is from studying. Watching people, how the human face works, what expressions bring across an emotion clearly. There are entire books dedicated to the range of expressions of the human face - this one for example is a great addition to any collection. Spending allot of time studying animation is helpful as well. Frame through any piece of Disney feature animation, for example, and you're going to see a whole host of gorgeous expression work. Glen Keane is godlike in his ability to produce wonderful expressions, for example.

Anyhow! Sorry for the length of this email, but I hope my rambling is helpful to you in some way :)

If anyone has further questions, please feel free to drop them in the comments section below!

Cheers,
-Mel

Whisper Woods

2012-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

Here we go - Marie's completed illustration :) Since Marie and her husband have been tremendously supportive in commissioning me multiple times, I took extra time on this one, and has a wonderful time with it as a result. For process on this piece, check out previous posts displaying its line art and flat color stages.

Description CopyPasta: Here, late one evening, Tyra and Marthin set up camp deep within a mysterious forest. As Tyra sets up a dry, cozy place for them to sleep, Marthin casts spells by the fire, assuring that their campfire will stay alight and warm without the need for rekindling through the night, and setting a couple of protective spells about as well, to assure they will rest unthreatened. I thought it would be fun if, this deep in the magical woods, there is a type of nocturnal luminescent moth that is attracted to spell-casting. As Marthin casts his spells, these beautiful, silent little bugs draw near, glowing prettily, feeding off of the energy conjured by Marthin's magic. Tyra is bemused as one flies before her, watching her curiously.

-Mel

Fireflies in Flat Colors

2012-01-10T02:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the approved flat colors for my previous post's line art. I have to say, I'm enjoying this commission so much it's just silly. I do love these characters, and it's a pleasure to illustrate them every time their creators' kindly commission me to do so. Love it!

-Mel

Fireflies Lines and Poster Process

2012-01-09T04:17:00.000-08:00

Line Art for a new commission for Marie and her husband of their wonderful characters, Tyra and Marthin. I went through probably 6 potential compositions for this - I've been sketching like a madwoman! lol - and settled on this one, as I think it'll be a fun, story-telling illustration once it is complete. Here, late one evening, Tyra and Marthin set up camp deep within a mysterious forest. As Tyra sets up a dry, cozy place for them to sleep, Marthin casts spells by the fire, assuring that their campfire will stay alight and warm without the need for rekindling through the night, and setting a couple of protective spells about as well, to assure they will rest unthreatened. I thought it would be fun if, this deep in the magical woods, there is a type of nocturnal luminescent moth that is attracted to spell-casting. As Marthin casts his spells, these beautiful, silent little bugs draw near, glowing prettily, feeding off of the energy conjured by Marthin's magic. Tyra is bemused as one flies before her, watching her curiously.

Also! By request, I created a process step-by-step for the recently completed ARMSmosters poster. For a full-res look at this process presentation, check out my submission over at DeviantART here.

-Mel

ARMSmasters Poster Variations

2012-01-06T02:09:00.000-08:00

A brief break from drawing for colors - and the latest ARMSmasters promo poster is complete. The fun part about this particular deign is the ability to present two different images for its final render. Below is variation number 2, which, unlike the above poster wherein a large portion of the cast calls upon the ground, they become the primary focus of a bright, bold image.

The poster as a whole was a 3-way collaboration. The original layout concept was conceived by VanAndy Prevalus, which was fleshed out in a rough sketch by the concept's creator, Mike Winn. From there, I created the clean, final line art for the piece, colored it, and comped the final poster layout. For more on the ARMSmasters Project, check out the series' production blog here.

-Mel

ARMSposter Flat Colors

2012-01-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Taking a slight pit stop from drawing to focus on colors for the latest ARMSmasters poster. Pending any requested alterations to the flat colors, the rest should come together pretty quickly. On to shade and lighting!

-Mel

2011 Art Summary

2012-01-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

This meme's been floating around the 'net art community like wildfire over the past month or so. It looked like fun, so I thought I'd give it a go, and to be honest, this past year is the first in recent memory that I've been pleased enough with the full year's art productivity to try such a thing - an exciting occassion all on its own, being such a hard-ass critic of my own work. ;)

2011 was a great year for artwork - I had the opportunity to create a nice range of imagery in varied styles of drawing and rendering, and I managed to grow and improve in areas as well. Success!

Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to an excellent 2012!

For anyone interested, the original meme can be found here.

-Mel

Rarakie and Ossy

2011-12-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

The final results of Gabrielle's commission of she and her fiance's lovely characters Ossy and Rarakie, sharing a cute n' cuddly moment in the jungle treetops. I really enjoy how this one turned out - colors especially. I made a special point this time around to allow the characters' colors themselves dictate the tones for the world around them.

-Mel

Jorzan and The Viscount

2011-12-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

Story time! So, a couple of months ago, a lovely gal named Andrea commissioned me to illustrate she and her other half, Lochlan's, schnazzy gangster RPG characters as a surprise for Lochlan's birthday present. The illustration was great fun to do, and to my excitement, the gift's recipient loved the final piece. So much so, in fact that Lochlan approached me not long after with the request to create a similar illustration for his brother of their RPG characters fro Christmas. Now that the holiday has come and gone,I can share the results with everyone. Above is Jorzan, (Whose outfit was loosely inspired by this awesome painting of Stephen Colbert by request) The Viscount, and the Viscount's feisty familiar, Cholmondeley (pronounced CHUM-lee.) I had a particularly great amount of fun rendering Chum and the boys' curly hair on this one. Thanks again, Lochlan!

-Mel

Thugs for Jugs

2011-12-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

Recently, my long-time-buddy Candice asked me to help her create the event poster for the breast cancer awareness fundraiser her medieval re-enactment group is holding in 2012. My portion of the poster was the character logo art, designed to loosely mimic 13th century illumination artwork. The simple finished graphic is above, and the colors (As well as a requested gray-scale version) are below.

-Mel

ARMSboarding (Part 1)

2011-12-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all have been having a safe and happy holiday season. News on the art front: Storyboards for the newly minted script for The ARMSmasters Project's Stage Zero are underway! Here's a glimpse at the first couple of boards for my designated scene. More will be coming soon.

-Mel

ARMSmasters Townsfolk Ideation

2011-12-11T22:45:00.001-08:00

Our weekly Sketchbook Jam tonight finally loosened me out of an art block following a studio-based freelance compositing blitzkrieg I took part in this past week - It's great to get back into the swing of drawing after such a focused stint in the digital realm. I ended up producing a couple of "Towns Folk" character ideas for the ARMSmasters pilot currently in production. I'll design more soon, I think, after I make a proper dent in my storyboard sequences for the same project.

I had a go at various classes and types of characters to start, a rather horrible, fashionably stunted Noblewoman, a middle class pain-in-the-ass punk teenager (Tried to consider what general style the "cool kids" may wear in this world, and pushed her clothes similar to Collette's for this reason) a middle-aged middle-class fellow amidst his trip to the market, and a poor, lower-class beggar. These were a great deal of fun to doodle.

More soon,

Mel

Additional Life Drawing

2011-12-11T21:15:00.001-08:00

It just dawned on my that I hadn't yet posted the updated life drawing I recently made available on my website's recent content overhaul. So, here we go! All of these were sketches based on stock photos, taken both my myself and other folks.

Cheers,
Mel

Rara & Ossy Flats

2011-12-02T16:42:00.001-08:00

A quick little update for you - Here's the flat-colors stage for Gabrielle's commission. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to move on to painting tonight - I'm quite enjoying these colors!

Cheers,

Mel

Holy LineArt, Batman!

2011-11-30T18:43:00.001-08:00

Hi all! Here's lineart I completed for two of three images today (The third of which is a commissioned gift, which I won't be able to share until it reaches its recipient.) Above is a new promo-poster-in-progress for the ArMSmasters Project, which is yet another collaboration between myself and the project's creator, Mike Winn - He sketched the image, I'm cleaning up and coloring it. In the foreground is the show's leading man, Riot, while, clockwise from top left is Aeslyn, Tyr, Kongou, Inari, Rune, and Colette. It's great to see the whole gang together in a poster, since the recent finalization of their designs!

And here is the line art for Gabrielle's commission, of she and her fiance's characters Rara and Ossy. Both these pieces and my gift-commission will be moving on into color stages this evening. Should be fun!

Thanks for viewing,

Mel

The Littlest Angel Storyboards

2011-11-28T22:55:00.001-08:00

As promised, here's a selection of my storyboarding work from The Littlest Angel, a 3D animated holiday feature recently released on DVD. I had an absolutely wonderful time working on this show - storyboarding is wonderfully fun to me, and the opportunity to do so on a Michigan-based production was quite the thrill.

These boards, as well as five additional sets from the film are now up and viewable on my website. Check it out at www.melmillerart.com/gallery under the newly updated Storyboads section. Also of interest - now that The ARMSmasters Project's production is in full tilt, I'll be boarding for its newly minted script - something I'm very much looking forward to, as that project - a comic book/manga style adventure, will help show how diverse my storyboarding style can be. Looking forward to it!

-Mel

Jump Magic Jump

2011-11-24T00:47:00.001-08:00

A wonderfully fun Labyrinth-themed commission, based on this promotional image of David Bowie/Jareth by request. I had a blast with this.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

-Mel

Code Monkey Backgrounds

2011-11-22T16:50:00.001-08:00

With the launch of his brand new website, my fiance Niles has also posted his 2009 thesis film, an animated music video for Jonathan Coulton's "Code Monkey" online for folks to watch and enjoy. This film was the first of many (and many more to come) creative collaborative efforts between Niles and I. In this case, I had the opportunity to assist with coloring all of the backgrounds that Niles drew for the short. Below are a couple of my favorites from the set.

Do check out the film, enjoy - and for more of Niles' awesome work, check out his new site at www.artoftheniles.com!

Cheers,

Mel

The Littlest Angel on DVD

2011-11-15T18:43:00.001-08:00

Great news, everyone! The film I had the wonderful opportunity to be a lead storyboard artist on, The Littlest Angel, is now on DVD! This movie was wonderful to work on. It's an adorable holiday film for the little ones - a cute, kiddo-friendly Christmas movie with a great message. Do check it out!

I'll be posting some of the storyboards I contributed to the film soon. For now, below is the official trailer, as well as a couple of stills from shots that I boarded. You can also check out a number of clips from the movie over at ToonZone - I boarded the first half of "Halo" and the entirety of "Escape." It's a thrill to see them both completed!

Storyboards soon!

-Mel

Vito's Pizza Ads Online

2011-11-11T07:00:00.001-08:00

Well, this was a cool discovery. Back in 2009, I helped polish up the backgrounds for two TV commercial spots for Vito's Pizza, which were created by Thunderbean Animation. Receiving rough watercolor paintings, I pulled the backgrounds into Photoshop and digitally enhanced them - gave them deeper warmth, greater depth contrast and definition, while still maintaining the charm and integrity of the original painted pieces. A lovely fellow CCS alumni, Alex Chapman, who worked on the spots as well (Check out her work, she's awesome!) has posted the spots online, giving me the ability to share them with you now.

Cheers,

Mel

A Cacophony of Colorful Blokes

2011-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Just wanted to add a quick new post to share some art updates. Above are four more finalized ArMSmasters Project designs, in a series of additional collaborations between Mike Winn (Line art) and myself (Colors.) While below is a completed model sheet commission for Collin, wherein I helped him begin to establish his new character's design, as well as a digital quick-doodle of an additional in-development ARMSmasters character, Deacon.

More soon. Thanks for viewing, as always :)

-Mel

Devil's Night Color Process

2011-11-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

I've had some folks asking me about how I color digitally as of late, so, I thought I'd put together something explaining the process of one of my most recent images, a commission for ~shaylinn "Devil's Night Discovery."

The original image can be found here.

If there's anything else folks would like to see the process of with my work, let me know in comments. I'll do my best to put something together as I get the chance to do so.

Cheers,

Mel

ARMS, Eden and a Fluffy Fellow

2011-10-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, Everyone! Have some artwork :)

The above line was created by my good friend and talented artist, Mr. Mike Winn.

Characters are (L-R): Rune, Tug, Aeslyn, and Inari.

A recent flux in production efforts, as well as improvements in the story's plot (And the creation of a script, no less) has prompted the need for revisited, finalized looks for the main ARMSmasters Project character line-up. So, while Mike (The series' creator) is compiling his drawings of these final designs, it's been up to me to solidify their color designs. Hence, the above line-art is his, while the color and final shading/lighting are my own.

This is only a portion of the cast however - more will be coming soon!

Above is a birthday present for my good buddy Kate NY, of her lovely original character, Eden. This was a fun bit of practice - created start to finish digitally, as opposed to my usual hand-drawn-lines method. Again, Happy Birthday, Kate! :)

Here's the current state of line art for my current commission from a fellow from FA, Collin, whose character I'm helping him design. In the end, the commission will contain a front and back pose in simple flat, digital color. Most of the time spent has been/will be in the creation process itself, establishing the character's physical appearance and markings. While these lines may be tweaked a little in the upcoming week, I rather enjoy how they look at current, so I thought I'd share.

Cheers,

Mel

Devil's Night Discovery

2011-10-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

So, this one ended up being a doozie, albeit a really entertaining one - one of those projects where Photoshop decided to crash a couple of times at really inopportune moments (While saving, no less) and hours of progress were lost and re-done thereafter. As a matter of fact, I was literally on my last save for this one, and Cayla, one member of our triforce of cats, took that exact moment as a cue to come running into the room like a spaz, leaping up onto the trunk beside my desk, missing her footing fantastically, and dropping like a dead weight... onto my surge protector, turning of my computer. Felt a bit like a bad sitcom, actually.

Occasional comedic tragedy set aside, this image was great fun - I tried a number of new things, and learned quite a bit in the process as well - including textures I'd not attempted prior, some new fun lighting angles, and creating/using a depth map for a lens blur effect on the bottom portion, helping it to look like the rather dazed flashback it should be. :) I also saved progression stills of the coloration of Jay (The crouched gal)'s face lighting/coloration, specifically, as folks have recently been quite kind to request more step-by-step progress of my work. (Will be putting that presentation together tonight, after I've updated my commission list here on the blog.)

Anyhow, all that said, here's my buddy Trisha's awesome characters, Rick and Jay, stumbling across a murder weapon in an old dingy Victorian home's abandoned sun-room, amidst their investigation of a Devil's Night killing. Jay has the ability to sense the history of an object with the slightest touch - the scene below her erupts into the sight she glimpses when making contact with the knife. Their creepy killer has struck again.

Last but surely not least - I'm not certain at what point I went from 90 or so followers here to 145, but I am truly grateful and very humbled for the interest. Thanks so much for following, guys. I appreciate the support!

Cheers all!

Mel

Preposterous Penguins

2011-10-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

When work permits, my roommate, fiance and I try to hold to a weekly Wednesday sketchbook meetup, for doodles, hotwings, and other such general silliness. This evening's get-together was spent watching the wide array of often humorous reactions sports fans have to watching their games in progress, which in turn, for whatever reason, spawned a half-page full of silly Penguin sketches. I enjoyed this lot too much not to share.

More soon,

Mel

Spooks and Doodles

2011-10-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

Above are the flat colors of the Halloween-themed commission I'm currently working on for a great gal and long-time buddy, Trish, of her characters Ric and Jay. It also dawned on me that I really posted no proper process for "The Snazzy Shapiros" previously, and since the bare bones of images are always fun to seen, here's the main sequence of steps that went into that particular image:

Last but not least, since my Fiance and I's recent engagement, I've been musing over the idea of going by simple "Mel B" online. A as result, a silly little character "Mel Bee" was born, a quick doodle of which is below. Expect more of her :)

Cheers,
Mel

The Snazzy Shapiros

2011-10-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Was sitting on this one for a few days, as it was a birthday present for my commissioner Andrea's other half. Once again, Happy Birthday! This commission was a fun one, surrounding their two original role play characters - Fia and Marvin Shapiro, 30's con artists who managed to get themselves 'time machined' back to the Renaissance. I had a great deal of fun researching, referencing and combining clothing and color styles from both periods. Thanks again for the commission, Andrea!

Having just completed another commercial freelance blitzkrieg this past weekend (Getting allot of those lately, it has been wonderful!) I'm moving on to Trish's commission next - a big one, as a two-character full-body illustration, background, full color at all. Should be fun!

Cheers,

Mel

Engaged!

2011-10-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

It's official! As of yesterday evening, my wonderful boyfriend of over 3 and a half years, Niles, and I are engaged. Niles popped the question at our favorite restaurant, sneaking a beautiful white-gold heart-shaped-diamond engagement ring to our host without me knowing, to have it delivered atop our chocolate espresso desert. (I have officially dubbed him The Desert Ninja. It was brilliantly well timed.) Our excited host was kind enough to serve us champagne on the house immediately thereafter, which I'm told was excellent (I don't drink, but Niles made sure not a drop went to waste, of course.)

The whole thing was picture-perfect, and an neither of us could be happier.We are both positively elated, looking forward to bringing our wonderful families together, and spending the rest of our years with each other in all of our artsy, nerdy love.

-Mel

Mobibo on Fox 2 News

2011-09-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Mobibo App Pays You as You Go: MyFoxDETROIT.com

The online commercial my other half Niles and I recently created for an awesome new cell phone app, Mobibo, appeared on Fox 2 News this morning! Check it out :) For more on Mobibo (As well as the full commercial) check out www.Mobibo.com.

Cheers,
Mel

Nileses!

2011-09-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I like to draw myself as a kitty. And, as it happens, even my kitty-self is head-over-heals for that Niles fella.

-Mel

82nd Airborne Girl

2011-09-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

My latest completed commission is for a rather awesome group of folks: The 82nd Airborne, 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment, Easy Company reenactment group, and their website at www.508pir.com. This project was a particularly awesome challenge, as not only was I going for a classic pin-up look (Even dated the result as '42, for kicks) but the uniform details needed to be as spot-on as I could manage them, as well. In the end, I'm very pleased with the result. Sassy and classy - I think we achieved both ;)

For fun, here's the initial rough sketch as well.

More art soon,
Mel

Iisjah Sees the Shinies

2011-09-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

So, this was a fun one. I love portrait commissions for the fact that all you have, really to tell a story about the character - as much as you possibly can - is a single facial expression. Then, I get handed a character as fun as Iisjah here, in all of his calamity-prone, thieving glory, and I can't help but have some fun. One thing to be known about Iisjah, I was told by his creator, Natalia, is that he is utterly enamored by sparklies. If there are shinies to be had - he's one very happy (scheming, clepto, endearingly unlucky) fellow. So, be it for me to resist showing him said shinies... and taking a "picture" of it, of course.

I'm actually, albeit slowly, beginning to figure out the whole Livestream thing. Iisjah here was my artistic guinea pig for my first proper recording, and despite a few technological hiccups, I managed to get the majority of his coloration (From initial shadow blocking, to finish) recorded. Below is the largest block of the recording... not too shabby for schlupping along with my other half's cold all day ;)

melmillerart on livestream.com.

More artwork soon,Mel

Birthday Pups for Kat

2011-09-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Chandrak and Hinepouri, looking positively dastardly late one summer night. This image is a birthday gift for my good buddy Kat of her two characters, because she is, without a doubt, one of the most wonderful people I know. Love you, gal!

♥Mel

Commissions Are Open!

2011-09-10T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I'm officially re-opening for commissions. I currently have 6 of 7 spots available, so if you'd like to claim one, email me with your information at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom.

Again, if you are interested, please email me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom to claim a spot. As I'm offering commissions through various sites, it's easiest for me to track everyone's requests that way :)

Thanks! I look forward to working with you.

EDIT: Wowza! Those slots filled up in a hurry! Thanks, guys! Although my immediate available slots for commissions are now taken up, I'm still open for offers on a waiting list basis, by all means! If you'd like to commission me, please don't hesitate to email me about it and I will add you to my waiting list of people to contact immediately when a commission slot does open up (I'll contact waiting list members on a first-come-first serve basis, much like the order in which I create commission pieces) - you'll get first dibs on a newly opened slot that way, before I announce its availability publicly! Not a bad deal, eh? ;)

And as always, thank you all SO much for your continued support. You all are an inspiration!

Cheers,

Mel

Sunset Swordplay

2011-09-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

And - complete! Shamael gives Selene a bit of sweet encouragement one evening as he teaches her defense with a sword beside their lush forest encampment.

I had the opportunity to really sit and utilize this pieces as practice for improvement in my coloring, and it ended up being a fantastic experience over all. Thanks again for the commission, Helene!

Cheers,

Mel

Selene and Shamael (Flat Colors)

2011-09-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Flat colors for Helen's commission, currently in-progress. Between interesting character outfit color combinations requested, and a fantasy world where the flora as a whole is no longer green, I've had a fun and challenging time so far syncing up all of the different hues. More progress soon!

Cheers,
Mel

Selene and Shamael (Line Art)

2011-09-03T04:11:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a commissioned illustration for Helene of her lovely pair of original characters, Selene and Shamael. Here, Shamael gives Selene a bit of sweet encouragement amidst their sunset sword training session, on the very edge of their deep-forest camp site.

It's always a particular treat for me when I get to draw such well-developed characters, and these two are every bit of that - everything from their personalities and interactions to their clothing styles to the world they live in has been wonderfully crafted by their creator. It's been a great deal of fun to draw all of these elements combined. I'm very much looking forward to coloring this one as well!

Below is a bit of progress for you - both the rough sketch thumbnails for the piece and the tied down sketch created prior to the clean-line drawing you see above.

Cheers,
Mel

Mobibo Assets & Animation

2011-09-02T02:03:00.000-07:00

With the gracious permission of our clients, I'm able to share with you some of the assets and animation I created for Niles and I's efforts towards the creation of their recent introduction ad. Above are the series of puppets and a couple of props I made - both puppets of Maxx, the mascot for the app, were fully jointed and animatable, rigged by Niles in After Effects.

Here is the series of rough pencil tests I created for the ad. We made the decision early on to hand-animate Maxx'a facial expressions traditionally as opposed to puppeting features around in After Effects. In the long run, this brought an extra level of personality and fun to the spot.

-Mel

Introducing Mobibo

2011-09-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

My other half, Niles, and I were recently hired to create a 50-second introductory add for a great new iphone and Android app called Mobibo. We had a fantastic time creating it, and I'm pleased to be able to share it with you here. Next I'll be posting some pencil tests and assets created for the project.

Time to Completion: 1 Week

Crew: Mel Miller and Niles Bontrager

Specs: A mix of puppet and hand-drawn animation. Background and bunny and butterfly assets were provided by the client, while the rest, as well as all animation and puppet rigging, were created by Niles and Mel.

Much thanks to Mobibo and Speedshape Inc for a fun and engaging project. For more information on this awesome app, check out the Mobibo official website at www.mobibo.com - I'm definitely a fan, myself!

Cheers,

Mel

Riot Model Sheet

2011-08-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

After much finagling, Mike and I have finally worked ARMSmasters' leading man, Riot, in to a model sheet. While I suspect a couple of tweaks may still be on this character's horizon, as he is ever evolving, it's pretty exciting to see him so solidified as a character as he stands now. Riot is definitely finding his own as the host to the series' awesome cast, and I'm very please to have had a small hand in that process.

Initial sketches to these drawings were by Mike Winn. Clean up and final color are by myself. For more on the ARMSmasters Project, check out the series' production blog. Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in Theaters

2011-08-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

Over the past many months, I had the opportunity to help a team of talented folks convert the entirety of Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World into Stereoscopic 3D. It was tremendous fun learning our program of choice, Nuke, and to be able to see the lot of us make the film's credits for our efforts as well. (Congratulations, everyone!) So, if you happen to have a kid or two (this is 100% a kiddo popcorn flick) Gather them up and check out Spy Kids 4. It's now in theaters!

-Mel

Farelo

2011-08-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

A long-awaited commission piece for Davina of her character, Farelo.
More artwork will be coming soon.

Cheers,
Mel

Posters in Print

2011-08-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

So, it's official! The "May Dad The Giant" posters have officially hit print, and WOW. I'm absolutely thrilled how well they've turned out and printed, and at the size Pat was able to get out of the file I sent him. It really turned out wonderfully - I'm so happy to have been able to take part in it's creation. Also, it's fun to see my buddy "live" for the first time since he moved to Texas, here. Stay awesome, Mister Stannard!

For more on the "My Dad The Giant" short film, check out its production blog.

I should have more artwork to post soon in general, by the by. I'm working on about a half a dozen things at once at the moment. Stay tuned! :)

-Mel

My Dad The Giant

2011-07-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

So, this was tremendously entertaining. I finally had the opportunity to complete coloring on the promotional poster for my good buddy Patrick's short film in production, "My Dad The Giant." This was quite the awesome exercise in general, as I've had so little time in Photoshop over the past many months, as a recent feature gig has kept me headlong in to Nuke-based compositing instead. It was actually quite fun to jump from that to a more painterly look coloring this poster - I learned a great deal very quickly.

Anyhow, do be sure to check out Patrick's production blog for the film, if you get the chance, it's a fantastic piece. Thanks for viewing! And thanks again, Patrick, for such a fun and challenging commission project.

I'm hoping to have some personal project-related art to show you all soon. Keep an eye out. :)

Cheers,

Mel

MDTG Poster Previews

2011-07-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of previews of the My Dad The Giant promo poster I finally have the opportunity to color. Should have this one completed soon. Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Loosen Up!

2011-07-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings new watchers! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog.

So, for the first time in a very long time, I'm taking a couple weeks off from my usual maddening 60-80 hour a week work schedule. Of this, artwork for fun, a trip up north, updated demo reels, and very likely, a commission or three will come to fruition. One of the things I started with almost immediately this week is getting back to quick, rough sketching. SO much (really, the majority) of the scant drawing I've had time to do in recent months has been clean-up line art for other folks for their personal projects - awesome fun, but sticking to clean-up only tends to bring a level of rigidity to my own drawing that just won't do (particularly with animation.)

So I'm back to sketching roughly whenever I get the chance, with the goal of getting back into the flow of doing so with some level of speed and visual cohesion. Above are some examples - the lower two image sets were first attempts two days ago - the topmost image is from today, managing to hold a bit more form then previous attempts, which was nice to see. All of these images are from a re-sparked drive for my TKP project. I'm particularly keep on taking the top image of Remi, and the running sketch of Deloco to closer states of completion. They're surprisingly spot-on to how I currently see the characters in my head.

More art soon,

Mel

Snarls and Slytherins

2011-07-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

I really love the bold, graphical look and feel to the cell-shade style of coloring I recently used on the ARMSmasters Pitch Party add, and decided to fiddle around with it some more, briefly, for the fun of it. Moxie here was the Guinea Pig. I'll definitely have to keep up with this style of coloring when I get the opportunity - it's quite fun.

Also, some line art-in-progress.

I’m still futzing about with what exactly I’d like to do for the background - or really, how extensive I want to get with it. Minimally, I know Hogwarts will be ablaze. We’ll see where else it takes me from there. For now, though, enjoy some Slytherins :)

Based in an interview quote by JK Rowling:

“A part of the final battle that made me smile was Slughorn galloping back with Slytherins. But they’d gone off to get reinforcements first, you know what I’m saying? But yes, they came back, they came back to fight (…) I’m sure that many people would say “Well, that’s common sense, isn’t it? Isn’t that smart, to get out, get more people and come back with them?”

Unfortunate for Slytherin fans, this was never made a clear point in the book, and who knows if Filmmakers will bother to depict it in the final film, either. Chances are genuinely slim that they will. So, here you have it. My depiction-in-progress of the Slytherins returning with Professor Slughorn to the Final Battle at Hogwarts. Characters clockwise from back left: Malcolm Baddock, Graham Pritchard, Theodore Nott, Horace Slughorn, Tracy Davis, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass. I’ll post more progress as I make it :)

And yes, as a matter of fact. In my mind, Horace Slughorn totally has a monocle.

Cheers,

Mel

Inspirations on Tumblr

2011-07-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

So it just dawned on me - I haven't shared my Tumblr account with you all yet. My apologies! With as busy as I've been as of late, it completely passed me by.

Anyhow! Please feel free to join me at The Shimmy Spot - my little online hub for anything and everything that moves me, from artwork (Including my own process work and thoughts) to images, music, quotes, videos, philosophies, silliness, fan-geekery and more. I'd love to see you there :)

Next post will be artwork, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me!

-Mel

To everyone curious about when I’ll be taking commissions next :)

2011-07-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve had so many people asking in the past two weeks alone - you guys make me giddy, seriously. Thank you for your interest, it’s always a thrill to know folks enjoy my art that much. ♥ As for when? I’m shooting for being able to take on more within the next 3 to 4 weeks. Having spent the past 6 months straight working 60-80 hours a week, I’m definitely in need of a little R&R, so that I can be rested and able to produce quickly for you guys once I start drawing for you again (As always - I want to do my best for my customers!) So, yes - soon! I’ll absolutely announce everywhere (Tumblr, Twitter, DA, FA, etc) as soon as I open up for available slots.

Thanks again, all! You help make this art-for-a-living gig as awesome as it is with your wonderful support ♥
-Mel

PLEASE VOTE! ARMSmasters for Animation Pitch Party 2011

2011-06-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone, PLEASE VOTE! The ARMSmasters Project is now able to be voted upon for the online readers vote for Animation Magazine Pitch Party 2011! Please visit http://www.animationmagazine.net/pitch-party-2011-vote/ to support the ARMSmasters Project and the Michigan based artists working on the project & spread the word. Thanks!

For more on The ARMSmasters Project, visit http://www.thearmsmasters.blogspot.com/

♥Mel

ARMSmasters Project - 2011 Teaser

2011-06-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

Cross-posted from The ARMSmasters Production Blog:
(As written by Mike Winn)

This video has been a long time coming! For awhile now we've had videos that showed what our intention was for a finished complete look for ARMSmasters and it was my desire to string these together to create another teaser trailer that featured these most complete and finished looking shots. Well time and circumstance stepped in and I wasn't able to get -every- shot that I wanted done in this fashion done and so as a result I pushed back the creation of this new teaser, and pushed and pushed. Well recent events have lit a fire under me and I decided to just use what I had to create the current edit. While working on it I was again struck by how much artistic talent is available here in southeastern Michigan and the colors and effect treatments were done by people on their own time and with no budget!

This will likely be the last edit that uses the original short footage, excepting a smoothing out of things here or there or an addition if another shot is finished, but we intend to look forward towards a Pilot Episode teaser, Kickstarter and hopefully results and direction following our participation in the Pitch Party for Animation Magazine. Thanks for continuing to send your support!

For more on The ARMSmasters Project, visit www.armsmastersproject.com

-Mel

ARMSmasters Pitchparty 2011 Poster

2011-06-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I have some awesome news.

Through an amazing opportunity, the ARMSmasters crew will be participating in the 2011 Pitch Party competition in Animation Magazine's August issue (to debut at San Diego Comic Con)

This competition is a great opportunity for aspiring animation producers and designers like ourselves, who are not necessarily industry veterans but are working professionals with an idea to share, to get it out there infront of the industry vet's. There will be a Judges pick, readers choice via online voting and an editorial pick. No matter what, the idea gets an ad in that August issue and gets published the world over. This is something we couldn't pass up and so ARMSmaster's creator, Mike Winn, decided to work out a promo piece shot since we were overdue for one anyway. Ultimately we'll be having a print version of this and other pieces as well.

The poster was a bit of a marathon run to complete, admittedly. I received the rough drawing this past week, and weaving in and out of a 60 hour work week, cleaned it up and laid down the color. It was an exciting process - wonderful to be able to create an illustration after months doing stereo compositing, though - and we're pleased with the results overall.

If you're interested at all in ARMSmasters and would like to help us then please stay tuned to this space for notification as to when the online voting for the Readers Choice begins and for more information as we have plans to get onto Kickstarter and pursue several fund raising efforts this summer.

Thanks for hanging in there!

-Mel

MDTG Film Poster Flats

2011-05-22T03:28:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Thanks for sticking with me despite my prolonged business as of late. I'm currently pulling 60 hours a week on this feature at the post house - it's been a phenomenally fun time, but as you could imagine it has also, more often then not, kept me away from my sketchbooks and Photoshop with impressive consistency.

Of the few things I'm able to squeeze onto my non-3D-stereoscopic-film-conversion To-Do List, I've taken up colors on the promotional poster for my good friend and roommate Patrick's in-progress short film ,"My Dad The Giant." I managed to squeeze enough time out of my one day off this week to get a start on it, laying down some simple flat colors, which helped us further explore the tones, at least, I may be using for the final piece. The ultimate goal is to use more Renaissance-inspired tones, textures and lighting for the image, which should prove a fun challenge.

More art will be coming as soon as I can. Cheers!
-Mel

Odds and Ends

2011-04-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

She lives! Life's been super hectic lately, hence my scarcity. Thanks for sticking with this blog though - I quite appreciate it. As of late I've been pulling what's amounted to about a 70 hour work week, occasionally more, hopping between various gigs. It's been fun, I've learned a tremendous amount, particularly where 3d Stereoscopic film conversion and Nuke compositing is concerned... but damn, if it hasn't kept my time at bay.

Above is the first page in a new sketchbook I've been dicking around with for going on three weeks now in my "Spare Time." And by that I mean a literal line here... a line there... a scritch and scribble on occasion, if I'm lucky. An agonizingly slow process when "free time" amounts to "two minutes until you're up for dailies" - but still an entertaining and much needed little project, especially given my recent musings over the idea of turning Nexus into a graphic novel one of these days (Though, hell if I know where I'd get the time. lol!)

Anyhow! Here's Nexus in its current incarnation, including some new-comers. Clockwise from top left: Blitzkrieg, Geist, Kayo, Noir, Creeper, Oracle, Shay, Dante, Inferno, Annex, and Velocity. All are pretty spot-on in their designs as I see them at current, save for V - She'll be up to bat for a re-design soon, as this look just isn't suiting her character well at all. Over all though, this page has been a fun little diversion, the minute or two per scribbles I got in on it. Plus it was really fun to draw this gang again - it's been a while!

Unfortunately, for the moment, I haven't much more I can show you in way of drawings -

... Though that's certainly not to say I haven't been drawing in abundance over recent weeks. The above dandy stack is the collection of drawings I've done for one of my freelance gigs as of late (Not including rough sketches - all those have been binned. Had I kept those too, this stack would easily be thicker by a third) Alas, it'll likely be a long while before I can share any of these with you all. One day!

I am amidst Riot's character sheet for ARMSmasters, and Davina's bust commission is underway. I'll also likely be moving on to another "sanity-keeper" sketch page soon, so more art will be on its way... albeit slowly. ;)

Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Ancient Ruins in 3D

2011-03-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome, new watchers! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog. I just wanted to drop by and give you guys a glimpse of what I'm doing for my current freelance gig - 2D to 3D stereoscopic conversion. The above was an exercise I did during some down time, converting Marie's commission into Anaglyph 3D - requiring red-blue 3D glasses. If you happen to have a pair at your disposal, check it out! The above image, all said and done, required the creation of 62 rotos and a rather fun learning experience ;)

I keep joking with my other half, Niles (Who, consequently, is working the same job with me at the moment) that our lives have become a Don Hertzfeldt short... making a great gig with awesome people even more fun. Had to share:

-Mel

Commission Status Change

2011-03-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Just so everyone's aware, I may be a bit slow to post over the next many weeks (though certainly still active.) This past week I was fortunate enough to be hired on as a feature film compositor, (Learning Nuke - it's a phenomenal program, I absolutely love it) to be added to my re-existing freelance gig as a concept artist (as well as, of course, our much-loved ARMSmasters Project) All combined, my work weeks come out to something like 80 hours - it's fun, but completely insane. I will have work to post inevitably - Davina's commissioned head-shot and a new ARMSmasters character sheet for Riot, as soon as they're completed, for example, but beyond that, I'm swamped.

That said, apart from the one commission I have left to create for *Psamophis I'm going to have to put my availability for taking on new commissions on hold for the next couple of months - likely through June. As soon as I am able to take on more work again, I will be certain to announce so here. Those on my current waiting list (as well as folks who have emailed me their interest in obtaining commission slots recently) will be contacted immediately on a first-serve basis at that time. Thanks for your patience and understanding, all!

That aside, on a very different note, I'm sure many of you, like myself, are completely shocked by the recent devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. For anyone wanting to help, Text "redcross" to 90999 to make a $10 donation or go to redcross.org for more options. Lord knows these folks are going to need every bit of aid they can get. My prayers (and donations) are with them.

Cheers everyone,

Mel

Aeslyn Model Sheet

2011-03-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

Cross-posted from http://armsmastersproject.com/

Capturing Aeslyn was not an easy task - something Mike and I found out readily in creating her reference sheet. There's bound to be a challenge with a character carrying her level of complexity: She's bold, confident, yet reserved and sophisticated. She's sexy and highly feminine, while absolutely commanding respect from herself and those around her. (Defying many action-fantasy female tropes.) Even her color modeling came down to a tremendous amount of thought - what tones could Aeslyn embody that no other female member of the ARMSmasters line-up pull off? Through all of our effort, and the total blast we had exploring the character, I'm really pleased with the results.

Posing this gal was one of the greater tricks to creating her reference sheet. Screaming "Sophisticated Sexy Confident Intelligent Noble-woman!" all in one go is a mouth-full for any one pose to maintain, to be certain. Above are among the many quick sketches of Mike and I's that lead up to the final full-body pose.

Last but not lease - Color exploration with Aeslyn. In the end, purple, feminine colors seemed to call out to the character the strongest. She, without a doubt, is the only female in the cast thus far who could, or would even want to based on personality alone, pull off such graceful "pretty" tones - they're inherently Aeslyn, and manage, I feel, to accentuate her beauty and roots as nobility all the more.

Cheers,
Mel

"Into the Ancient Ruins" (Complete)

2011-02-27T00:36:00.000-08:00

Whew! This one took a while - I really pushed myself to learn new things - new ways of rendering water, foliage, skin, stone. Care with how I handled the light, multiple light sources. Marie, my commissioner, was blessedly patient throughout its creation - and thank goodness for it. I feel like the results winded up being my strongest digital piece yet - I'm really pleased. Thanks again, Marie, for commissioning me to illustrate your wonderful characters!

Also! For anyone not yet aware, I now have an "Inspirations Blog" on Tumblr, set specifically for anything and everything that I find visually interesting, inspiring, or moving in some manner. I also tent to post image progression on there, as it provides a great slide-show feature. For progression on the image, check out its entry at The Shimmy Spot.

Cheers,

Mel

ARMSmasters: Tyr

2011-02-18T02:46:00.000-08:00

Cross-posted from The ARMSmasters Project. Mike and I are amidst an effort to nail down finalized reference sheets for each member of the ARMSmasters cast. First on the list was one of the characters whose design has remained quite iconic and concrete since early in on in his conception, Tyr, which is now up in our Artwork gallery. I've often found myself describing Tyr as a living sculpture - his hulking body-builder physique makes him fascinating to draw, as much as his intelligent, approachable nature makes his intimidating size and strength a curious and interesting juxtaposition of character.

Creating these character sheets is proving a great deal of fun, as well as an exploration between what makes Mikes Style and mine our own - how each of us approach drawing shapes in different manners. My ultimate goal with these, of course, is to tailor them as closely to Mike's wonderful style as closely as I can. I receive initial rough sketches for every pose, every expression, and begin to tie them down more and more - each phase of tie down altered with Mike's red-line revisions. Once the line work reaches final approval, the final color treatment for these character sheets is made to reflect all of the final, polished elements we would like to bring to the finalized animation: dual layers of shadow, a gradient light layer, as well as colored line work.

Below is an example, starting from the initial rough sketch I received through flat colors, of the revisions process these character sheets are going through, as we work to nail down the final look for these reference sheets.

Cheers,

Mel

MDTG: Color Thoughts

2011-02-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

My roommate asked for some thoughts and help with the color design for the film that he’s currently working on. As I’m an absolute sucker for color (And seeing as he is my buddy) I happily obliged. Above is a comparison of thoughts - what Pat handed me and what I, in turn, handed back to him as food for thought. Some of my accompanying notes:

Avoid using gray for a basis of color. It has an unfortunate talent for draining the life out of the hues around it, and tends to make the eye choose desaturated, sickly colors to try and match it: This can work in some instances, but there is ultimately a great deal of warmth in the story Patrick is telling with this film; it may serve better to reflect that in its color design. Pat’s also going for the warmth and sophistication of renaissance painting - gray as a neutral is about as far from that visually as one could get. Best avoided.

Try not to use pure white for anything accept the glint of white light in the eyes. In this case, the same thing goes for gray - No touchie. Sepia tones will treat this design with more kindness - and better evoke the warmth found in renaissance painting. Emilio especially is a child with a great deal of life and spark to him, like a little candle flame Whereas. Mia Talbert, in my own in-progress film, Caravan, was the polar opposite in her color design - she was supposed to look drab and miserable, like a plant that’s been kept indoors too long. Emilio, on the other hand is a happy, healthy child when tucked away in his own little world of imagination. You want him to look like he has blood running through his veins - a sense of warmth. Using a color tone for his shadow - I used a deep brown on a multiplied, low-opacity layer here, for example, and various tones of off-white to tan (all in warm hues) for Emilio’s colors helps. He instantly looks cheerier and more comfortable.

A quick, fun collaboration. More may be on the horizon. You can find much, much more on Pat’s film, My Dad The Giant, here at its official production blog.

♥Mel

Into the Ruins (Line Art & Flats)

2011-02-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

A quick update to show you the clean line art and flat color stage of my current in-progress commission for Marie, of her characters Tyra and Marthin. Below is the line art of the rough sketch seen in this entry, and above, the flat colors, including some simple gradients to begin to explore the overall look and feel for the lighting. More updates will be coming along soon. Thanks for viewing!

-Mel

Roughage

2011-02-07T16:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of rough sketches for you all. The above is the approves rough sketch for my current in-progress commission, including the thumbnail I settled on for the image. I'm having a brilliant time drawing Marie and her husband's lovely characters, Tyra and Marthin, again. The concept behind the image:

Tyra and Marthin are just entering an ancient ivy-covered mausoleum, its stairs likely winding down miles below ground into ethereal and uncharted ruins. As they've just entered, Marthin is traveling ahead just a little ways, reading the ruins with excited curiosity, to be certain they are not walking onto a trap or curse of any kind. There are curious stone edifices cropped up out a pool of crystal water, they covered in glowing, mysterious markings The pool itself has a small waterfall, pouring from a stone gargoyle's mouth. The light back by Tyra, she further up the stairs near the entrance, poised to fight at a moment's notice, would be brighter and beautiful, the ancient paneless window behind her allowing light to pour in from the deep forest outside. Down by Marthin the light would be darker and much cooler - he's heading underground, after all - and he would be lit, on one side, by his glowing staff, and on the other side, by the glowing hieroglyphs he's reading upon the wall.

In addition, here's a couple of quick early-AM ARMSmasters-related doodles created while working on the project's newly launched production blog. They're rough and a bit dodgy, but were amusing to create whilst pushing around HTML and cropping thumbnails all the same. ;)

Cheers,
Mel

Ketrina DeLioncourt in 3D

2011-02-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! It's not often I share other folks' work on my blog, but this happening was far too awesome not to. Many of you may remember the character model sheet I created for miss Kat Bongard of her pirate RPG character, Ketrina DeLioncourt. Well recently, a very talented San Fransisco-based 3D character artist and modeler, Tim Woody, was kind enough to take on modeling Ket in 3D.

While the model itself is still a work in progress, the results already are absolutely beautiful - I love how well he's captured her design and character, and am very grateful for his time in effort in bringing Ketrina to life in 3D. I'll be sure to post the model's progression toward completion, as I receive it. Thank you again, Tim!

-Mel

ARMSmasters Production Blog is LIVE!

2011-02-04T22:38:00.000-08:00

After a week of hard work putting the site together, The ARMSmasters public production blog is officially live! Please stop on through, follow us, and stay tuned as we chronicle our animated development process. Thanks, all!

-Mel

Attack of the WereChicken!

2011-01-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

Eric's commission is now complete! I admittedly had a wonderful time with this whole concept - it was far too silly not to. It started as a mere play between a werechicken and a rather unfortunate coyote.... and between the two of us, just sort of spiraled further and further into silliness from there. Thank you, Eric, for being such a wonderfully humored, creative commissioner!

Up next, I'll be starting Marie's latest commission - I'm quite looking forward to it. I've been drawing droves of anthropomorphic creatures as of late between commissions and contract work - it'll be a nice breather to be able to draw/paint humans again. :)

Cheers,
-Mel

ARMSmasters Blog Banner

2011-01-31T00:47:00.000-08:00

In efforts to continue the momentum of the ARMSmasters Project, I've recently begun two new undertakings: Creating what will be an expansive public production blog for the project that will be available for all to see, and collaborating with the project's awesome creator, one mister Mike Winn, to create finalized, polished concept art and design model sheets for each of the Project's characters. The first of those collaborations is the above image, created for the header of the new blog, wherein Mike gave me a myriad of wonderful rough sketches of the characters, and I cleaned up, arranged and colored them into the above final image. Below is the process of this image's creation - the same process of which we plan to use for the model sheets to come.

Blogger actually won't allow me to upload the Process image any larger than what's been provided here (click to enlarge) - I'll upload a more viewer-friendly version elsewhere soon, and will direct you all to that link.

UPDATE: The aforementioned "More Viewer-Friendly Version" :)

Thanks for viewing!
-Mel

Kavi, Aeslyn and Inari (Doodles and Such)

2011-01-31T00:29:00.000-08:00

My apologies for the slight lull in posts this month all - I've been keeping plenty busy. Apart from contract work, which has been keeping me busy enough on its own, I've been pecking away at commissions, teaching a weekly character design class for a wonderfully creative group of middle schoolers, and have picked back up with aiding the ARMSmasters Project, cleaning up shadow test animation, collaborating with its creator, Mike, to begin to create polished, finalized concept art and character designs, as well as create a public production blog for the project, which I'll be sharing with you all in the next week.

Above is a page out of my current sketchbook of a little blond haired, golden-eyed lantern-baring fellow of no particular origin, by the name of Kavi (Kuh-Vi). Started sketching him during last week's design class, and finished him at yesterday's ARMSmasters production meeting. Below is the current status of the Aeslyn shot form the ARMSmasters trailer - now with shadow model, animated by Patrick Stannard, cleaned up by myself and composited by my other half, Niles. Below that still is a quick color study I created of a couple of 2-inch-tall thumbnail doodles - outfit and color model ideation for the ARMSmaster's Inari.

ARMSmasters Aeslyn Turn shot from Niles Bontrager on Vimeo.

Also! Less I forget, this blog now has specialized pages - About, Links, Gallery, Demo Reel, Resume, Comission Info and Commission List pages, to be precise. I'll have their individual content set up fully soon.

More artwork soon, and as always, thanks for sticking with me, everyone.

-Mel

WereChicken WIP and Moxie Progression

2011-01-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Here's flat colors! On to the final render.

Attack of the WereChicken (Line Art)

Alongside a concept art freelance gig, I'm currently having an absolute blast working on Xyk's commission. He has had all sorts of good-humored ideas to go by, making every step of the process a great time. I'm looking forward to getting this project to color. That said, here's the line art for what will be a mock horror movie poser, "Attack of the WereChicken!"

Also, just for the fun of it, below is a quick doodle and it's steady progression into flat colors of my character Moxie, created in those rare tidbits of time available while I'm awaiting feedback on projects. Here's hoping this one gets finished amidst everything else ;)

More again soon. Cheers, everyone!
-Mel

SNAFU Review and Production Blogs of Note

2011-01-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

First post of the new year brings us a great new review of Thunderbean Animation's definitive "Private SNAFU Golden Classics" DVD release, which I was recently given the opportunity to help illustrate the cover for. The Review, written by Pietro A. Shakarian at goldenagecartoons.com was kind enough to include a very positive segment about the cover art as well.

"The cover art by Eric Goldberg and Mel Miller is not only impressive but also seems to possess more energy and feeling than most of the cover art from Warner Home Video's recent Looney Tunes DVD compilations."

For the full DVD review, and some interesting history about past attempts to bring SNAFU to DVD, check out its page at the Golden Age Cartoons website. And as always, Private SNAFU Golden Classics comes highly recommended, and is now available at Amazon.com.

Received my own copy of the DVD today. Thanks, Steve!

Also! Over the past couple of years, the College for Creative Studies' Entertainment Arts department has sprouted a number of production blogs for its students' individual senior film projects. Two of those blogs, this year, have really stood out, and are well worth the look at their film maker's progress. The gals behind these productions are extremely talented - I wanted to share them with you all here:

While much of the work I've been doing as of late is under NDA, I will have more artwork to post for you all soon, care of commissions and the rare free-moment doodle. A tremendous thanks to everyone for supporting this blog into the new year, and here's for an exciting 2011!

-Mel

WoW Hurst & Blaine (Completed)

2010-12-31T20:02:00.000-08:00

One last post for 2010. Here's Hurst's WoW-themed commission, completed. Happy New Years, everyone!

Thanks again, Hurst!

-Mel

toonbots.com Site Headers

2010-12-23T04:46:00.000-08:00

FYI for those interested, toonbots Animation and Illustration, the same awesome Michigan based studio collaboration whose demo reel I features in the last post here, also now has a spanking new web presence at www.toonbots.com! The site features demo reels, work and bios from multiple members of the toonbots crew - definitely worth a look.

One of our fearless leaders, Chris Carden, was gracious enough to include some of my artwork for the site's many colorful headers, and I thought I'd share them here with you as well.

For more schnazzy artwork by a slew of wonderful folks, be sure to check out the site!

Cheers,
♥Mel

toonbots' Demo Reel Premieres!

2010-12-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

The Premiere demo reel of toonbots, an animation and illustration company based in Detroit that I am thrilled to be a part of, is now online. Included is the work of Michigan-based talent Steve Stanchfield, Chris Carden, Michael Winn, Niles Bontrager, Patrick R Stannard, Jared Hart, VanAndy Prevalus, David Bentley, myself, and more!

toonbots 2010 Demo Reel from Chris Carden on Vimeo.

toonbots is an animation and illustration company based in Detroit. We love story, character, color and line. This, our debut reel, shows where we've been and what we can do. We love what we do, and hope you do, too!

Thanks for viewing!

♥Mel

Private SNAFU DVD Cover Progression

2010-12-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently had the opportunity to illustrate the DVD background for Thunderbean Animation's latest release of "Private SNAFU Golden Classics," to accompany Eric Goldberg's wonderful character illustration of SNAFU himself.

The cover background itself was a nod to yet another World War 2-era cartoon, "The Spirit of '43" starring Donald Duck, posted below (see around 5:02) The original incarnation of the background closer aped its inspiration's color palette, while subsequent revisions became lighter brighter, cheerier, and pushed far closer to the good ol' red, white and blue.

It was an absolute joy to create a cover in collaboration with Mr. Goldberg, as well as to be able to have a small part in such a wonderful DVD production. Thanks again, Steve!

Cheers,

Mel

Private SNAFU Classics DVD on Amazon!

2010-12-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

After tremendous effort and a myriad of fantastic collaborations, my friend and mentor Steve Stanchfield has completed "Private SNAFU Golden Classics" - a gem of a new release through his Thunderbean Animation Studio.

This definitive collection of beautifully restored animation is now available on Amazon.com.

On the DVD itself:

The hilarious 'Private Snafu' cartoons hold a unique and unusual place in the history of American animated films. Originally produced during World War 2 as part of the Army/Navy Screen Magazine, they remain the most entertaining series of shorts never intended for general audience. The series was idea of Frank Capra, with many of the early entries written and supervised by Ted Geisel (Dr. Suess). They feature some of the finest work produced by the Warner Brothers/Schlesinger Studios in the early/ mid 40's by directors Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett. Over 60 years since the last of the series was produced they remain fresh and entertaining.

Thunderbean presents this special collector's edition, beautifully restored and resmastered almost entirely from the original 35mm elements! All 30 'Snafu' cartoons are included, counting his four appearances in the 'A Few Quick Facts' series. Special Features include a four page illustrated booklet about the films and their creators, still galleries featuring rare original production art, and commentaries by cartoon historians Mike Kazaleh, Jerry Beck, Eric Goldberg, Mark Mayerson and John Kricfalusi.

The DVD was graciously featured on Cartoon Brew on two instances recently by animation historian Jerry Beck, who also provided his wonderful incite to the DVD's special features. Below is a preview of the DVD's special features, narrated by Mr. Beck himself.

Private SNAFU, Golden Classics: Jerry Beck Special Feature from Patrick Stannard on Vimeo.

The DVD also includes a title sequence animated by Mark Kausler (cleanup by Steve, and my good friend Patrick Stannard) As well as cover character art by Eric Goldberg. I was honored to have the opportunity to illustrate the environmental background for Eric's wonderful drawing of SNAFU for the DVD cover - process of which Steve has kindly granted me permission to share with you all in a post to come.

For anyone looking to add a fantastic addition to their animation collection this year, this is the DVD to get!

-Mel

WoW-Style Blaine & Hurst (WIP)

2010-12-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

WoW-Style Blaine & Hurst (Flat Colors)

Sorry I've been so quiet as of late, everyone. Life's been hectic - I was fortunate enough to get hired on as a Storyboard artist for a feature-length animated film, and it, as you could imagine, has consumed the majority of my time as of late. It's been an excellent experience, however, and has produced a massive amount of work. Hopefully one day down the line I'll have the opportunity to share some of it with you :)

I had some time off over this past weekend for the first time in a few months, and was able to get a large way through one of y commissions: This time, a WoW-themed image for Hurst and his other half Blaine's wonderful character personas. It's been a great time so far - I look forward completimg the colors on this one - hopefully being able to stay fairly true to the wonderful sorts of textures usually seen in-game for WoW.

That says, above are the beginning-stage flat colors for the image, giving a very general idea of what I'm leaning towards for feel, and below, the live art.

WoW-Style Blaine & Hurst (Line Art)

Cheers,

Mel

Sneaky Snow - Complete

2010-11-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

"Sneaky Snow" now fully rendered! I've begun what will undoubtedly be a very long and intriguing process of starting to learn to utilize custom photoshop brushes with this image - already I'm really digging the result.Thank you for the commission, Dana!

Coming soon - Hurst's WoW themed commission of he and Blaine's original characters. It will no doubt be a fun one! Also, I will be responding to new commissar offer related emails soon. Thanks for your patience in waiting for a reply to everyone who have generously offered me new commission work - this work and life combined have had me swamped this past week especially. I'll be replying to you soon.

All the best,

Mel

Sneaky Snow Progression

2010-11-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the progression on the commission I'm currently working on - Snow, a sleuthy kitty-lady created and owned by Dana Jock. I'm hoping to have this particular commission completed by the end of the week, alongside my current storyboarding madness.

The final line work.

The initial ideation sketch, as well as the revised sketch that followed soon thereafter.

Flat colors, as well as some simple gradients to begin to fiddle with light source and direction.

More soon,
Mel

Back from Ottawa 2010

2010-10-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

Another year, another wonderful stint at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. While I admittedly felt that the selection of films this year was a slight bit more timid then in years previous, it was an excellent time none the less, and the films that did stand out were stellar, as always. It was a great event, with great people - I met so many awesome animators - professional and student alike - caught up with old friends. As always OIAF delivered, and good times were had by all. I thought I'd share a collection of photos taken form this year's flimapalooza. Enjoy - my mates and I sure did! :)

1) The Television trolley markers returned again this year, rebuilt and schnazzy as ever. 2) How I spent the majority of the festival this year - screening dozens of animated short and feature-length films. 3) Niles and I enjoying breakfast at the fabulous Cora's.

1) Ottawa being positively lovely at dusk. 2) Heading into the bustling Byward Market late-afternoon.

1) I was fortunate enough to snag an interview slot with Disney during this year's Animator's for Hire event. 2.) My pass! :)

1) My roommates were also, consequently, my hotel roomies for this year's festival, which was great fun :D Niles, Patrick, and Kerry! 2.) How animators start their morning: Doodles and a hot cuppa Joe.

Disney Feature Animation's Patrick Osborne talks about his work on Tangled.

1) Myself and my other half - OIAF 2010 gets official Nerd Approval. 2) The latest addition to our animated household. 3) Niles and Patrick, and a whole lot of silly to go around.

I also wanted to mention that I was fortunate to get pulled into a studio feature project recently, and it will have the brunt of my attention over the next few weeks, so my posts here may slow just a bit. However, commissions are back on and in-progress, so keep an eye out for those as I start posting those up once again!

Cheers,

Mel

MMA Vlog 001: Portfolio Madness!

2010-10-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

My 150th post to this humble little blog begets its first video blog post. Do excuse my intensely haggard, under-slept appearance/voice here - it's been an impossibly busy roller coaster of a past few weeks in general, and the lack of rest is definitely whooping my butt by this time of the morning. Anyhow! Here's a quick update on what's going on at the moment (Swimming in portfolios! Eek!) and what'll be coming up soon. It may also be an interesting look into self-promotion for animators/artists, as I know I've got quite a few art students watching. :) I hope this is helpful.

This Vlog mentions:

Cheers (And I swear, I'm going to go get some sleep now),
Mel

Mel Miller's Demo Reel

2010-10-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

Mel Miller Demo Reel 2010 (v2.0) from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

Here's my current Demo Reel as of 10/15/10. Thanks for viewing!

Music has been made available through Creative Commons Liscensing by Kevin McLeod of http://www.incompetech.com

Reel Break-Down Information:

Mel Miller
MelMillerArt@gmail.com
www.MelMillerArt.com

CREDIT LIST:

Shots 1 through 3: “Cabin Cat” (2008)
Description: Kitty rolls his eyes as Trucker cries, “Well maybe none of this is really true...”
Contribution: Animation, Layout, Character design.
Additional Credit: Audio clip from HBO’s Six Feet Under.

Shots 2: “Riot Eye Shot” from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Riot glances up menacingly.
Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough animation by Mike Winn. Color, Compositing and SFX by Niles Bontrager.

Shots 3: “Aeslyn" from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Aeslyn Head Turn.
Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough Animation by Mike Winn. Tie Down by Patrick Stannard.

Shots 4: “Tyr” from ARMSmasters (2010)
Description: Tyr hammer swing.

Contribution: Clean Up Animation.
Additional Credit: Rough and Tie Down Animation by Mike Winn.

Shots 5 through 15: “Caravan” (2009-2010)
Description: A selection of completed shots from my short film currently in production, “Caravan.”
Contribution: Direction, Animation, Concept Design, Layout and Background Illustration, Color.
Additional Credit: Compositing and SFX by Niles Bontrager.

Shots 16: “Nanmia” (2008)
Description: Nanmia peers about warily.
Contribution: Animation, Character Design.

Shots 17: “Pup Romp” (2008)
Description: A floppy puppy run test.
Contribution: Animation, Character Design.

Shot 18: “Something Terrible” (2009)
Description: Basic Man does a double take, spotting something terrible across the way.
Contribution: Animation.
Software: Autodesk Maya.
Additional Credit: Rig by Dale Myers.

Shot 19: “Not Chinese” (2009)
Description: Basic Man recieves some shattering news from his off-screen friend.
Contribution: Animation.
Software: Autodesk Maya.
Additional Credit: Audio from Season 1 of Showtime’s Dexter. Rig by Dale Myers.

Cheers,
Mel

Mini Portfolio 2010

2010-10-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

This year's Ottawa International Animation Festival is quickly approaching - next week, in fact! So, as per every year, being a repeat attendee of of this awesome event, I'm compiling new versions of everything - Business cards, portfolios, and demo reels alike. Below is the mini-portfolio I'll have about half a dozen of to hand out to interested parties.

More soon,
Mel

Prints for sale!

2010-10-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's official: I now have a myriad of my artwork online and available for sale as prints! If you'd like to own some of my artwork by aren't yet ready for commissions, or you are simply awesome and would be kind enough to help a gal out, please check out my new PRINTS galleries at Imagekind, which include both illustrations & photography!

Prints, framed and matted artwork, and greeting cards are available.

Prices start as low as $9.50 and & $11.40!

All proceeds go to helping me buy food/keep from living in a cardboard box, and are genuinely appreciated!

ALSO, if there are any pieces of mine that you would like to be made available as a print that is not yet seen in the gallery, please feel free to let me know! All print requests can be sent to melmillerart@gmail.com. I'm sorry, I cannot legally add fanart to this gallery.

Thank you for your support!
It helps more then you could know ♥

-Mel

Color Design & Snack'em Back'em

2010-10-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Bloomies Return!

Patrick recently doodled a sequel to the original "Bloomies" drawing of his that I lent color too, so once again, I'm having some fun with this drawing as well. How could I resist? He drew three quarters of our household as their favorite critters! I make a mighty cute penguin too, if I do say so myself.

This time around Pat did flat colors himself for me to start with and gave me open reign to tweak them as I saw fit, which actually ended up being an extremely interesting exercise. It's interesting to see how two different brains approach similar color patterns of the same image. Thought you all might find the comparison intriguing as well. Oh! I also started to build kitty-Niles a viewable cat ear and whiskers, to hopefully push the fact that he is indeed a kitty a little bit further, as opposed to a squirrel or a lemur or any other myriad of things he could be otherwise. I'll be finishing the colors to both this and "Waking the Big Dogs" soon, amidst commissions.

Also! Since I really do enjoy the "Snirf and the Snack'em Fox" background as its own stand-alone piece (One I'm planning to place in my environment/layout portfolio soon) I thought I'd share it here as well.

Currently, I'm working on Dana's commission of her elegant leopardess, Snow. I'll have more to post on that quite soon, no doubt. Thanks for viewing, everyone! ♥

Cheers,
Mel

Snirf and the Snack'em Fox

2010-10-01T01:06:00.000-07:00

Epic Nomming in 3... 2...1...

A fun, colorful, rather whimsical commission this time, of the perpetual cat-and-mouse antics of Snirf the Coyote and Big Blue Fox. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, if you ask the dastardly Snirf) little Blue is about ready to lose this game big time.

The chance to use animated poses and such lively colors completely made this project for me - I love it. I'm also quite excited to note that I'll be doing another image of these two lovely characters again in the near future. Definitely looking forward to that! Thanks again for the commission!

As always, I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these full-color full-body character illustrations with environmental backgrounds. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom. Thanks so much!

Cheers,
♥Mel

Charity & Snack'em Fox Progression

2010-09-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

"What, that hurt? Good."

Ren52's Charity

Above is a line-art commission of my good buddy Renee Atkinson's wonderfully hard-edged character Charity. I went ahead and colored it, both because I adore Ren, and because it makes for a nifty example of this type of commission. These fully-colored character busts run for just $35 a pop. Anyone interested in this or any type of commission are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom and I'll gladly set you up on the waiting list that'll be sure to snag you a commission slot as soon as they become available.

Speaking of commissions, I'm on to a rather cute one at the moment that I'm thoroughly enjoying illustrating: Karsten's characters Snirf Coyote and BigBlueFox, in their perpetual game of cat and mouse. I'm amidst final color in it now, but thought I'd share some progression images meanwhile.

More again soon,
Mel

The Prince of Parkour

2010-09-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Flippin' Fun with Eric Bell

Another commission, this time for my good friend Kat Bongard of her time-controlling Parkour pro character, Eric Bell. Eric's ace Parkour skills were an opportunity to illustrate a pose one would rarely have any reason to draw otherwise, and that in itself was tremendous fun. I also made it a point to utilize a color scheme I've scarcely touched before - starkly combining bold blues with salmon and purple tones definitely hit that mark.

As always, I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these full-color full-body character illustrations with environmental backgrounds. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom. I look forward to working with you!

Cheers,
♥Mel

Sugar Thieves

2010-09-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

Sugar Thieves

Recently, by good buddy Kate NY was kind enough to code my website and get the project live and online. I offered in return a commission image of her choice for her talent, and here are the results. It's Kate's character Trice, and our good buddy Kat's characters Evan and Danne, Trice's significant other. As I told Kate, coloring this image was criminally fun - I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks again, hun!

-Mel

Mel Miller's Resume

2010-09-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone. I thought I'd make my resume available on my blog. A downloadable PDF of this information is available at your convenience on the "About" page of my website. I am currently available for hire for both freelance and studio-based work. Thank you for viewing.

Mel Miller

Animator • Illustrator

Education

College for Creative Studies 2006 - 2010

BFA, majoring in Entertainment Arts with a focus on traditional hand-drawn animation, character and concept design illustration.

Experience

Private SNAFU Golden Classics 2010

DVD cover background illustration in collaboration with character artwork by animator Eric Goldberg for Thunderbean Animation's Private SNAFU Golden Classics 2010 release.

The ARMSmasters Project 2010-Present

Concept Art and Clean-Up animation for Michigan-based Alpha Omega Animation Design’s ARMSmaster’s traditionally animated project trailer and pitch bible.

Caravan 2009 - Present

Thesis film in production. Animated traditionally, colored in Photoshop, composited in Adobe After Effects.

Raya Sunshine 2009 - 2010

Created a series of character design concepts for "Raya Sunshine," a pitch for a children's television show created by Michigan-based Tickle Entertainment.

Vito's Pizza Commercials 2009

Digitally enhanced and painted a series of 3 backgrounds for two Vito's Pizza television commercials produced by Michigan's Thunderbean Animation.

CodeMonkey 2008 - 2009

Digitally rendered color for 30 illustrated backgrounds in Adobe Photoshop CS3 for this three and a half minute long independently animated music video.

Biore Daily Recharging Moments 2008

A series of web adds for Biore.com, through Thunderbean Animation Studio. Roles in production include concept art, asset creation, traditional animation, storyboarding, and frame-by-frame watercolor painting.

Mel Miller Art 2003 - Present

Freelance mural painting, concept design and illustration for both companies and individual clients.

Accomplishments

Film Festivals 2009

The 2009 Detroit Windsor Film Festival: "CodeMonkey."
The 2009 Psyche-o-Delic Film Festival: "CodeMonkey."
The 2009 Ottawa International Animation Film Festival's Salon de Refuse: "CodeMonkey."

KAFI 2009 Cartoon Challenge May 2009

A member of the 5-animator team selected to represent the College for Creative Studies at the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International's 2009 Cartoon Challenge.

Scholarships & Collegiate Honors 2006 - 2010

Graduated with High Honors from the College for Creative Studies 2010 with a 3.974 Cumulative GPA
The CCS Scholarship of $24,000.
The 1st place 2010 Stratton Foundation Scholarship of $1,500 for Caravan.
The Alumni Scholarship of $1,500 awarded to students with the highest GPA in their major.

An ARMSmasters Weekend

2010-09-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

First off, once again, welcome new watchers, and thank you for viewing and supporting my wee bit of an art spot here on the 'net. I appreciate it :)

ARMSmasters: Tyr Hammer Swing Clean-Up from Mel Miller on Vimeo.

I winded up putting a good deal of much-needed focus time towards the ARMSmasters Project this weekend. Above is clean up animation for Tyr's hammer swing shot - it'll be passed along to my roommate for shading pass, and I'll be doing cleanup on the shadow passes as well.

TYR Clean-Up Stills

As is seemingly the case for every character for this series I've had the opportunity to draw so far, Tyr is absurdly fun to draw. He's a great character as well - both brains and brawn, engineer and warrior. Damn spiffy.

Sekaida, first full-body poses

Full-body shots of Sekaida's outfit. I've altered it from the previous image - buckles and straps have replaced other details, to better reflect these predominate elements in other now-established sky pirate characters' designs. She's also been pushed a bit more "pirate" - hat, boots and blades. I'd still like her to have the giant blunderbus as her signature item, but these blades - a mix of swords and defensive gauntlets - ended up being an interesting and suiting addition to her repertoire of weapons. I've also leaned more towards having her be full-figured: plenty of "junk in the trunk," as they'd say... mostly because it's fun to draw. I'd like to keep the warm-color palette previously posted, as having them against what will often be cool blues of the sky appeals to me. I may re-draw her full-body stance entirely though - I'm still not all that keen on the pose. It worked better in its rougher stages. For now, though, this at least gets the extent of her outfit across :)

Concept ideation for Rune.

My take on Rune, a member of the cast she's finally getting the TLC he deserves. I couldn't resist, honestly - I got rather attached to the fellow working on clean-up animation for him. I absolutely love trickster/Fae type of characters - and Rune strikes me as such a sassy bloke. This is how he appears in my head currently at least, taking into account versions already pitched. I've used predominantly darker colors then have been seen as of yet, with lighter ones to pop details here and there, have him in a two-tone vest that buttons in a triangular pattern across his torso, giving it something of a harlequin effect, have made the purple slightly redder in tone, given him a rusty orange as a secondary "theme" sort of color (with the dark pants, vest and boots, I think it helps "butch up" the purple coat and hat a bit, while still helping him look like a sassy, confident, flamboyant fellow he is) and have maintained the quirky, more fly-away hair seen in the trailer, be cause it's ridiculously fun to draw.

Completely unrelated to ARMSmasters, I know, but I also ended up getting "Waking the Big Dogs" as far as flat-colors before having to set it aside for other more important things, and wanted to share it real quick. I'll plug away at rendering it properly soon enough.

Nexus' Kayo & Dominic

I'll be back on commissions later today, starting with Kate's kitchen-bound pirate trio. Looking forward to it!

Cheers,
Mel

Waking the Big Dogs

2010-09-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

Somebody's Kibble in 3... 2...

A drawing whose doodle started Wednesday night at my roommates and I's usual Buffallo Wild Wings venture, and was picked back up last night with a little dash of insomnia. It's Kayo and Dom again... I'm on a kick. This time, Kayo is in her human form, and Dom in his full-on hulking "werewolf"-type form. I'm not sure who Kayo's waking the ol' boy over to rat out, but I suspect that mystery someone is going to wish he'd gotten a better head start in a moment or two.

-Mel

Color Pups and a New Look.

2010-09-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

Dominic & Kayo

I actually drew this rather quickly months ago, and the sketch fell to the wayside. Between waiting on information needed to proceed with my next commission, having been illustrating so many humans lately, and knowing I have a couple of canine-related commissions coming up, I thought it'd be a good idea to get in some color-practice on something fuzzy. Also was the need to overcome a recent obstacle - my Wacom tablet has been DOA for months: I've been coloring strictly with the use of a mouse for as long, and hadn't yet really had the opportunity to tackle a stylized and timely method of coloring fur at length. This was the perfect opportunity to do so, and I enjoy the results.

A Spankin' New Look

Also, my newly re-designed double-sided business cards, created in eager anticipation for this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival. Last year's theme was a simple Caravan layout - this year, it's mirroring my new website at www.melmillerart.com. The print version, I should note, will contain my phone contact on the back as well.

Cheers,
Mel

Animation

2010-09-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

My ever-changing animation portfolio, as I'm constantly looking to improve upon it in any way that I can. This portfolio is typically 12 pages long. At the moment, this version is sans a page of character design concept work that is still under NDA, as well as a page of animal study drawings, which I'm revisiting entirely as this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival approaches (which yes, I certainly will be attending once again this year, my 4th year running. I'm so looking forward to it - always do!) That said, the portfolio:

Thanks for viewing,
-Mel

Facebook!

2010-09-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! Wanted to let you all know that my artwork and related updates now have their own little home on Facebook as well. Please feel free to drop by and give me a watch if you have a moment, I'd love to see you there! Click the banner below for the link ♥

Said banner will also be getting a permanent new home on my sidebar on this blog, so it'll be here for your convenience at any time. Thanks for the support! :)

More art soon,
-Mel

Shayne for Jamie

2010-09-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Some characters are just too cool not to be a blast to illustrate - such is the case with Shayne here, commissioned by the talented Jamie Woodward. For this particular image, I snatched up the chance to play with multiple different textures and make them apparent - different woods, metal, glass, liquid. As well as fun, it turned into a great exercise, and I learned a couple of new things as well. Thank you for the commission, Jamie!

Also, welcome, new watchers! Thank you for taking the time to check out my blog :)

Cheers,

Mel

Chubby Chicken!

2010-09-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

A super-fun commission for Kate for our good buddy Kat's birthday this year. It's Kat's pirate character Amelia as a kiddo, expressing her life-long love for chickens. The image and general palette here was inspired by some of Norman Rockwell's endearing scenes. Anyhow...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAT!

Love you to bits, woman!

Cheers,
♥Mel

Imren Character Sheet for Marie

2010-09-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

First off - Welcome, new viewers! Thanks for taking the time to visit my art blog, I quite appreciate it.

Above is the third in a set of three character reference sheets commissioned by the lovely Marie.This fellow, Imren, a character belonging to Marie's husband, was a particularly fun one to do, as his skin and hair colors are unusually pale - it was a nice challenge, actually, getting them right where they needed to be to be true to the character. (And any challenge I can get artistically = instant field-day! I love it.) It was also great to be able to be able to draw three characters with such varied clothing types - Tyra in her more Frazetta-style slinky fantasy female garb, Marthin in full, billowy robes, and Imren above here in full leather and steel armor instead. Thank you, Marie, for the commission work, as well as providing such lovely characters to illustrate!

As always, I am currently open for multiple different types of commissions, including these basic full-color character reference sheets. Detailed commission information can be viewed here. Folks interested in commissioning me are welcome to contact me at melmillerartATgmailDOTcom. Thanks!

Cheers,
♥Mel

MST3K Meme (Part 2)

2010-09-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Onward with the MST3k Meme! I'll likely continue to post these in pairs as I complete them during my break-time, as that's been working out quite dandy so far... and has been ridiculously fun. A huge plus to this exercise beyond stress relief (and getting to geek out over something I so enjoy) is the fact that I'm getting to play with color - I'm making various attempts to see what I can do with coloring in a manner that is both quite fast and visually appealing. So far, I'm digging the results.

"So, you're an MST3k fan? Prove it by drawing us your favorite episode!"

*...Personally, I think it's next to impossible to pick *one* definitive favorite episode - there are too many great shows to narrow it down, so, consider "Space Mutiny" more of *a* favorite as opposed to *the* favorite, less we forget the pure levels of awesome seen in episodes like "Pod People," "Manos, The Hands Of Fate," or "The Final Sacrifice." Also - my first shot at drawing Mike. :)

"Ok, I believe you. So, how old were you when you started watching the show?"

*... ok, admittedly, this question doesn't exist in the original survey. It's more of a filler-attempt, given that question #14 is literally, "We're almost done!" (aka, a complete non-question.) Consider this shiny new addition my replacement-14, and an attempt to infuse a bit more substance into these 15 little ditties. That said though, I was indeed a wee pup when I started watching MST3K, drew a whole host of terrible little-kid fan art (Including the above paper bag hand-puppets. I was that nerdy, folks.) One thing I loved about the show is that it can be viewed by all sorts of age groups and still be completely fun for all - the humor is varied and clever enough to pull it off with ease. Kudos.

More of the Meme:
Part 1

More to come,

Mel

Prop Design

2010-09-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

Another thing I quite enjoy doing is creating designs for the props that pop up in my own concepts and animation, as well as for various other projects, professional and personal alike. Above are examples of this, including a closer look at the Bogey Family Caravan, as I like the layout a bit better then what the confines of an 8 1/2 x 11 page allowed me to create. :) Thank you for viewing.

More soon,
Mel

Environments & Characters

2010-09-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

For those interested, here's a current incarnation of my character and environment design print portfolio, sans a page of work that is still under a NDA. Cheers!

-Mel