Tommy Mann Animation

Been a while...

2011-12-04T15:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted anything. I have a few drawings I look forward to sharing soon.. I plan on catching up on this blog in the near future. Big changes to come. :)

Thanks Santa Monica!

2011-04-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

The concept artists out of our Santa Monica studio busted these drawing out of me and my buddy Cody for the Inviro Studio business cards. I just had to share it. These drawing are fantastic. Haha. :)

[Click to Enlarge]

Kilowag Sketch

2011-04-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

In celebration of all the Green Lantern hype this past month. (Thanks to WonderCon) I decided to charcoal out this piece of Kilowag.

[Click to Enlarge]

Chris Chua is Awesome

2011-03-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a short I thought I'd share from the awesome Chris Chua at Pixar.

More work from the man himself:

http://www.cchuareels.blogspot.com/

http://cchua001.blogspot.com/

Tommy

Make Birds Fly Good

2011-03-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

I love the title of this animation tips page. I found it when Guardians of Ga'Hoole was showing in theaters. This is definitely one of the best guides you'll found on how to animate birds.

My favorite part of this page was a great example of how ILM got it wrong with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and they do a great job breaking down the motion in that particular scene. Overall, it's a very well done and to the point explanation.

You can find the page here:
http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html

Tommy

Zombie Keytar

2011-03-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've been calling it 'The Axe', but here's something I've been playing with... still doing some clean up, but this will be a part of the prop library for a short toon I'm working on with Inviro Studios. Designing strange toys is always a good time.

Nasty Keys!

Tommy

Late Night Sketching

2011-03-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

I go to a free life drawing session once a week put together for alumni at the Art Institute of Las Vegas. This is such an awesome thing for us alumni.. especially since it's free! One of my former school instructors, Kevin Anderson, moderates the session, and to say I'm thankful is an understatement. Kevin usually even blasts some great tunes throughout the night, Rage Against the Machine was pretty choice last time around. Next week he's planning a costumed session for us.. I can't wait!

Anyways, this is one of my favorite drawings from the other night.

March 2, 2011

Sketching larger people is always so much fun with all the shapes and curves. The lighting can really make things interesting. That night's model had a great sense a humor, cranked out great poses, and was a bit of a talker. Her personality easily shined through in the drawings when she was smiling or having a good time. I really hope to see more of her in the future.

Tommy

Ugly Sushi

2011-03-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

I started a Podcast recently, uglysushi.com. The site has been up and running for about a month now. We have 3 episodes so far and another on the way this weekend.

My inspiration for the blog was my time talking to my friends over the phone about movies, games, comics, etc.. while on my way to work. We all absolutely love creative storytelling, and half the time we are together that's all we're talking about... so, I called up my buddy Ace, "Ace! Our conversations are way too interesting to keep to ourselves... let's record em'!"

Ace humbly replied, "Okay!" I'm guessing he shrugged his shoulders as he said that, because this guy is so carefree, borderline hippy minus the hallucinogenics. I mean that in the best way possible, of course.

Anyway, we got to work the very next day.

Click here to check it out!

My wife and I are living pretty humbly after our beautiful wedding, and thus, we're pretty far removed from the worlds best recording equipment. Therefore, the podcast was born with a DJ Hero 2 USB microphone. We built a makeshift mic stand and placed it strategically between us, and BAM! we were in business. Things have gone great so far with over 2k visitors and listeners within the first month along with 2 industry exclusive interviews. It's been a load of fun so far.

I really have to say, to all the artists out there, you need a hobby outside of your craft. It keeps the sanity. Brad Bird said it best, "Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one." Luckily, I have a quite a few hobbies, such as fitness, which I believe is a big deal when your sitting in front of a computer all day. (Animators: Sorry, shooting reference isn't enough exercise.)