YFE The Animated Adventures Ep 5

Be careful not to meditate too hard, or you might pass-out. 
Yes, I know, WTF?

During 2011, I was recruited by the Canadian band “Your Favorite Enemies” to produce a series of short animations. I was originally invited over with many possibilities up in the air for illustration work, but in the end I settled with time consuming task of animating short episodes which were presented during the band's live Ustream broadcasts, titled "The BlaBlaBla."

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of this missing episode, I have decided to do something with it and post it. It tells the story of Alex looking for locations in Japan to film for his next project while the rest of the band arrive later and do a bit of the usual tourist activities.

Video after the jump...

YFE - The Animated Adventures [playlist]

During 2011, I was working with the Canadian band Your Favorite Enemies. As well as providing some fun illustrations, I produced a series of short animations which were shown at the end of their live Ustream broadcast. They had a broadcast roughly once a month. I did a total of 5 animations for them over the course of 8 months. Each episode had a 3 or 4 week turnaround. 

I managed to create a playlist which skips to the segments where my animation is shown. I included some commentary from the band before and after the segments, but just in case there are any glitches (or you just get bored), you can easily skip to the next episode. 

I have included some promo images I did (for myself for fun) after the jump...

Old Man of the Island #2 (Backgrounds)

Old Man of the Island (working title)  

The story is about a mysterious man who sets up home on an uninhabited island. He repairs an old bothy and lives there for many years. The only visitors to the island are tourists (during the summer) and fishermen who have agreed to help deliver goods from the mainland.

Without warning or explanation, the tourists and fisherman stop arriving... 

Old Man's House (Interior)

Old Man of the Island #1 (Rough Concept Sketches)

Island layout

I don't know yet if I will make these posts a regular thing. I started this animation project back in December 2012. At the time, I dedicated 2 weeks to creating a script, rough concept images and one background (I will include that image in my next post). I then put it on the back-burner  until the end of May when I continued another new background. This is one of the projects that may never get finished, but I don't want my work to go to waste. So, from time to time I might post anything I do related to any animation project.

Old Man of the Island (working title)  

The story is about a mysterious man who sets up home on an uninhabited island. He repairs an old bothy and lives there for many years. The only visitors to the island are tourists (during the summer) and fishermen who have agreed to help deliver goods from the mainland.

Without warning or explanation, the tourists and fisherman stop arriving... 

More Isometric Concept Art (2011)

Continuing with the Isometric ideas from the summer of 2011, I also toyed with the idea of some locations. I didn't have a story in mind, but there were a few locations or themes I wanted to do for a while. What I was thinking mostly involved epic journeys through isolated villages and dangerous paths through mountains.

The idea behind this village is that it is the last rest point before the massive hike up into the mountains. The location is populated my explorers that managed to survive the journey this far, but still question themselves about travelling further.

Your Favorite Enemies (Isometric RPG Perspective) 2011

Back in the summer of 2011, I was working on a series of animations for the band "Your Favorite Enemies."  During a quiet period while waiting for the next script, I created some rough concept art for a different kind of animation. I didn't have a story or anything in mind, I just wanted to see if it would be interesting to do something in an isometric perspective. During that time, FaceBook games such as FarmVille, CityVille and Indiana Jones Adventure World were popular. Although I am not a fan of level grinding time-sink games like them, I like what they do with the isometric layout.

The following are a collection of rough work that wasn't really intended to be a finished representation of anything.

The band, a Buddhist Monk and the band's SFCC mascot.

St Patrick's Day parade 2013

This year I was asked by the principal of the local primary school to help with a float for the school parade. The idea for the float was "school of the future." The school is hoping to raise funds for upgrades and improvements. The most noticeable example of this is the roof (the current is a traditional Gable roof, like the ones on houses. The principal would like to improve that with a more modern flat roof).

Féile Scoil Drámaíochta 2013 (backgrounds / props)

From time to time I do art work for the National (primary) School here in town. The Féile Scoil Drámaíochta (School Drama Festival) was coming up and they needed props. This year I was fortunate to have large cardboard packaging boxes to use as backgrounds that can stand on their own. I don't know how to describe the boxes. They had Kodak labels on them and were about the size of A1 sheets, maybe bigger (at least 4ft x 3ft and thin when closed up properly). The school has access to a resource centre in Castlebar which often has these handy boxes as well as paper and other strange bits and bobs.