Announcing: John Celestri Comics

 

Check out my new online shop! It has something for all types of comic book readers and fans of animation! I'm building my online store to offer my comics and prints of my Boba Fett Star Wars Holiday Special animation poses.

https://johncelestricomics.square.site/

Boba Fett's First Appearance

 

BLOODWING ANGEL CHRONICLES: Sha-Dow the Prince of Darkness Rough Animation

Here's a sample of my rough animation keys I'm drawing for a test of a villain in my Bloodwing Angel Chronicles graphic novel series. This is followed by a short pencil test.

 

Bloodwing Angel Chronicles Book 2

If you've read many of my posts, you'll know that I pour all that I know about drawing and storytelling into my work. Check out my Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.

BLOODWING ANGEL CHRONICLES: Book 2

52 pages of the continuing adventures of Mychal, an angel who is unjustly banished to the mortal realm and struggles to survive amongst demons and living dead! Along the way, Mychal becomes the guardian angel to a neighborhood filled with killers and sinners!

• Episodes 3 & 4: "FLY or DIE!" and "ALTAR of DEATH!";
• and a special seven page 1717 CLUB standalone story "MIDNIGHT SPECIAL!”

Mychal must learn how to use her now limited angelic powers of flight and flaming fist while defending herself against demons! She, Josh Combs and his family, along with the dangerous Boys of the 1717 Club are the pawns in the opening play of a Cosmic Chess Match between the gods of Light and Darkness.

Bloodwing Angel Chronicles Book 2 is a full color mature action/adventure comic. Set in an altered universe, this series will appeal to you if you like the following: 

• Heavy Metal Magazine 
• Supernatural Heroes 
• Mature Stories 
• Fantasy/Horror

 

Sept. 1st Indiegogo Launching: John the Animator Comics

 

https://igg.me/at/JohnTheAnimatorComics/x/22300073#/

Bloodwing Angel Chronicles

I'm using my sense of animation in posing action in my web comic "Bloodwing Angel Chronicles", and not going for the more realistic style of sequential art. I prefer a web comic that is drawn as a caricatured reality...after all, it IS a comic!

Using Angelic powers burns up a lot of calories! To survive, Mychal has to eat what’s on hand.
#comicbookart #comics #fantasycomics # #indiecomics #independentcomics #makecomics #webcomics #digitalcomics #bloodwingangelchronicles #blackandwhitecomics #lgbtwebcomic #lgbtcomic #lgbtcomics #sequentialart

Good Posing For Both Animation And Comic Book Art

I use the same principles of drawing for both my animation and comic book art. I follow the same stages of development in both types of projects. (Check out the completed comic page at: www.bloodwingangel.com

The sketch stages are: 1) Thumbnail; 2) Rough Pencil; 3) Blue Pencil Refinement; 4) Final Black Line. See the following samples below.

1) Thumbnail sketch and its enlarged version.

2) Rough Pencil Layout. Note the dialog balloon and spotlight placements for composition.

3) Blue Pencil Refinement of the character poses. The dialog balloons and spotlights will be on separate levels. 

4) Final Cleanup/Tie-down Black Line. Did this using a Blackwing 602 and a Mitsu-Bishi 9850, then scanning it at 300 dpi and adjusting the contrast. As I said earlier,
check out the final completed comic page at: www.bloodwingangel.com

Bloodwing Angel Chronicles Webcomic Thumbnails

Here are the thumbnails for a six page sequence. These thumbnails measure 2 inches by 3 inches, which I blow up to fit in a 7.5 inch by 11.25 area for my original pencil pages. I then scan the cleaned up penciled pages as jpegs, adjusting the contrast to get the darkest line...which then gives my drawings an "inked" feeling.

Note that I lay out the caption boxes and dialog balloons at this earliest stage, so that I can incorporate them into the layout for posing. I'll put in the lettering per "A", "B", etc.

How To Draw Like An Animator

My latest YouTube video is now published! Hope you like it, and if you do, please leave a comment on YouTube!

Squash and Stretch More Than Bouncing A Ball (Part One)

The first full episode of my YouTube series is now live!
If you enjoy it, please subscribe and leave a comment on my YouTube channel.
I'm now editing the next video, and as I plan on maintaining a weekly schedule, it will be posted on my channel Saturday, October 28.

Introducing John the Animator Guy Celestri YouTube Trailer

I'm busy editing together the first episode...it should be ready next week!

Rock & Rule - Cindy and Angel escape

 

This is my favorite sequence I animated on. Basically, I directed myself and was allowed complete freedom...as long as I followed the basics of the script and the recorded dialog.

Below is the thumbnail analysis I did for one of Cindy's early scenes. I animated this particular scene 35 years ago, but I don't think I could do a better job today...the result might be different but not technically any better.

Nelvana Seminar Notes (circa 1981): Part Three

These are the third and final set of notes from my Nelvana seminar. Please remember that I was asked to explain my personal method of animating (and the Frank and Ollie tomb "Illusion of Life" had not yet been published). We were all youngsters, experimenting on our own and trying to learn from each other.

The third seminar session consisted of answering questions that were handed in by animators a week after the first two sessions. I believe that the material covered in this series is as relevant today as it was 30+ years ago.
 

The following is how I rough out my full-size poses after working out my thumbnails.

Above is my first rough pass at a Quadhole key pose.

Above is my second rough pass at a Quadhole key pose...I mold the character's form over the forces I laid out on the first pass, making subtle changes as I feel the body reacts to those forces. This pose would be cleaned up on a third sheet of paper.

The next three sheets show how I filled out the basic posing and interpreted the timing of the previous examples shown in sessions one and two. Please refer to the exposure sheets in session one to see how I described the action with particularity. I find that writing it out in this manner forces me to analyze the movement in terms of "anticipation, action, and reaction".

If you have a mind to, you can cut out the poses (registering them by their leg placement and shifting of weight), then film them in sequence as a rough pose test, using the exposure sheet for timing.

Nelvana Seminar Notes (circa 1981): Part Two

This post contains the notes from the second of three seminars I gave at the Nelvana Studio back in 1981. The Quadhole artwork included here is a portion of what I handed out during those lectures, helping to illustrate my personal creative process in molding my animation. In a future post, I'll include the rest of the artwork with those third session notes.

 

 

To see how the phrasing of Quadhole's acting works with his dialog, please refer back to my exposure sheets in my previous post.

Nelvana Seminar Notes (circa 1981): Part One

It's been a very long time since I last posted. I always promised myself that I wouldn't write just anything just for the sake of posting something on my blog. Now I have a topic that I believe will be of interest to those visiting here.

Recently in a communication with Ken Duncan (Owner/Executive Producer of Duncan Studio), Ken said "John, when I was in Paris in the 80's I thought I saw some 'how to' notes that you'd done during Rock 'n Rule.....
1- Am I delusional?
2- If not, are they available to see?"

Well, Ken is not delusional...and after searching through my files I found the original typed notes that were xeroxed and handed out at Nelvana during the production of Rock & Rule. Basically, it was an explanation of my approach and work-flow method, going from initial thumbnails through to tie-down drawings.

Originally, there were 20+ pages in my handout for the three session seminar, which took place over three afternoons, using poses of my character Quadhole the Policeman to illustrate my approach. Because of the amount of material covered, I've decided to post them all here as a series. I have also supplemented the examples with Cindy Schlepper development material I created months after this seminar was given.

(Note: At that time, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's bible "The Illusion of Life" had not yet been published. Young animators such as ourselves were basically learning from our own experiments...studying the silent results on the studio's Lyon Lamb Video Animation System...not seeing if it worked with the dialog until it was shot on 35mm film and synced up on the flatbed.)

The following are my original typed notes from the first session. I'm including the exposure sheets and samples of my thumbnail analysis of a couple of Cindy Schlepper scenes.

 

These above poses were my very first exploratory sketches of Cindy Schlepper.

 

 

 

Above are my thumbnail analysis of the first time we see Cindy.

Cindy has arrived at Club 666 and is excited. "Oh, Boy! Mutants in the foyer!"

The following exposure sheets are for a Quadhole scene---the poses of which were originally handed out as a packet including the typed notes. I'll be posting those drawings in the next installment...and you can then cross-reference them with these sheets.

For those who are not familiar with the process, there's a lot to digest on these pages.
Hope you find it informative and useful.

Thoughts On Developing Educational Mobile Game #1

To me, one of the most important elements of a successful educational game for preschoolers is the ability to capture their attention. One way to do this is to have characters who show appealing personalities. The younger the child, the bigger the language barrier is to communicating the character's personality. Thus, I'm using pantomime to convey personality in the game play actions.

The preschool player should be entertained by the way the character performs the actions chosen.

I'm also planning a variety of ways each character can do a specific action, so that the player won't become quickly bored with the actions they are controlling. I want various versions of the actions be programmed to come up in random order, so that it'll be a surprise to the player which one appears. It'll be like the character has made it's own decision how to perform the action.

Various Bear Actions Across The Screen

Milt Kahl Letter

It has been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd look through my files for something different to add to my blog.

I found this treasured response from Milt Kahl, to whom I had sent a fan letter back in 1982. I had just finished animating on Rock & Rule, and wanted to let Mr. Kahl know that his work had been an inspiration to me.

Here is his response.