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World War II soldiers drawn in my sketchbook with my new Namiki Falcon drawing pen (fine nib).

Above is a cutout animation character called ‘Chaz’ for the opening tile sequence that I am animating for the independent film, ‘Cooler’. I am also animating several animated sequences within the film.

This model sheet shows my cutout character design process and includes my initial character design hand drawn on paper with pencil, pen and ink, the cutout body bits colored and textured in Photoshop and the final character rig assembled in After Effects. I’ve also included screen shots of the cutout character in Photoshop (with the live action character reference) and the rigged character in After Effects.

‘Cooler’ is directed by Silas Howard and Ernesto Foronda.
‘Cooler’ on IMDB

Sketchbook drawings (pen and ink) colored, textured and composited in Photoshop.

Below are some photos from my recent trip to Belmont Shore, Longbeach LA. I traveled out to LA to attend the premiere for Brian Jett’s film ‘Let Go.’ I created the animated titles and sequences for the film.
‘Let Go’ on IMDB

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ECU = Extreme Close Up
Choker – mouth/eyes

CU = Close Up
Shoulder to head
Used to show facial emotion

MS = Medium Shot
Waist up
Used as a transition between LS and CU. Good for showing body language.

MLS = Medium Long Shot or ‘Cowboy Shot’
Frames the figure just above the knees. Also called a ‘Cowboy Shot’ because this shot type was commonly used in westerns to show the gunslingers and their holsters.

LS = Long Shot or Wide Shot (WS) or Establishing Shot
Frames the whole figure. Used to show where we are, who is there and where they are in relation to one another – the establishing shot.

ELS = Extreme Long Shot
The figure is an element within the environment. Used to show the figure’s relationship to the environment. Can be used as an establishing shot.

OTS = Over The Shoulder

Here are some basic shot types or framing methods that I put together with some of my animated cut-outs for teaching material. I’ve never been able to find images of shot types that I’ve really liked so I decided to make my own using my cut-out figures from previous projects.

The top series of images, of the 1960′s Mercury styled astronaut, is created from the animation that I made for a documentary, ‘Lucky.’ I worked as an illustrator/animator/compositor on ‘Lucky.’ ‘Lucky’ was directed by Jeffrey Blitz.

The last image of the OTS is put together from the animation that I made for Death Cab For Cutie’s, Grapevine Fires animated music video. I worked as an illustrator/animator/compositor on Grapevine Fires. The animated music video for Grapevine Fires was directed by Walter Robot.

I created several of the animated sequences for ‘Lucky,’ a documentary that aired on HBO last month.
The documentary, by Jeffrey Blitz, aired on July 19th as part of HBO’s summer of documentaries. ‘Lucky’ focuses on “chronicling the many, and often sobering, effects winning a big jackpot can have on a person” (Television review: ‘Lucky’ on HBO by the Los Angeles Times).

The above character design is Miss Lotto. She was one of the characters that never made it into the final cut. Miss Lotto is a very simple cut-out character composited and animated in After Effects. Miss Lotto was drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom, lightly textured in Photoshop, cut out and then all her girly bits were imported into After Effects.

Lucky premiered at Sundance 2010.

This is the illustration, entitled ‘Tribute,’ that I created for the cover of MungBeing Magazine. The illustration was for Issue #31 for the theme of tribute. Hand drawn, colored in Photoshop and composited in After Effects.

If you’d like a free iPhone/iPod Touch sized wallpaper, you can download a wallpaper of this illustration here: http://www.gilestimms.com/wallpapers.html

Thanks to Mark Givens, editor of MungBeing :)

‘Dead All Along’ is also screening tonight at the UCLA Animation Prom as part of the 2010 UCLA Festival of New Creative Work. The special guest will be Randy Cartwright (The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast). Animation Prom is the festival screening the work from the UCLA Animation Workshop within the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

‘Dead All Along’ is the title track from Ceri Frost’s debut album CUI.

The screening is at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus, at 7:30pm, Saturday June 5th.

Big thank you to Jenny Sherman and the Animation Students Organization (ASO) for all their hard work and effort to organize Prom <3

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‘Dead All Along’ has the wonderful honor of screening tomorrow night, on the opening night of the 2010 UCLA Festival of New Creative Work. The special guest will be Director Joe Russo (You, Me & Dupree, Arrested Development). I’m a huge fan of Arrested Development, so I’m really excited that Joe Russo is our guest :)

‘Dead All Along’ is the title track from Ceri Frost’s debut album CUI.

The screening is at the James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus, at 7:30pm, Friday June 4th.

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