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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.

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 :)

Angie and I are getting married on July 22nd, 2010 :)

The above is the comic book styled wedding invitation that I made and had printed through lulu. Hand drawn and colored in Photoshop. The illustrations for the mini comic book invitation were inspired by the work of one of my favorite illustrators, Nate Williams.

If you’d like an actual printed book of the invitation you can buy a copy on lulu: Wedding Invitation – Giles and Angie.

ROBOT Love – Here’s a robot design I made for a character concept as part of a music video treatment. Hand drawn, edited in photoshop, built in 3D (2.5D) and rendered in After Effects.

Below is the pen and ink, original drawing showing the character design of the robot bits.
Fairly simple :)

The above is a still from one of the animated sequences I illustrated and animated for Jeffrey Blitz’s new documentary, Lucky. Lucky premiered at Sundance 2010. I was fortunate to work again as an animator and illustrator with Bill Barminski from Walter Robot on this production and it was also great working with Jeffrey Blitz. I found Jeffrey to be a very intelligent and challenging director. The sequences were animated in After Effects, with the illustrations drawn and colored/textured in photoshop.

The reviews of Lucky have been positive and it seems people also liked the animated sequences, as this review from Scott Weinberg testifies “with nifty animated interstitials full of interesting jackpot stats.” You can read Scott’s full review here:

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/01/27/sundance-review-lucky/

I’m excited to see the full film. Please leave a comment if you’ve seen the film and let me know what you thought, thanks.

Faerie and baby color comp illustration for a freelance animation project. Hand drawn on paper and colored in Photoshop.

This is the animated video I completed for the UCLA Anderson School of Management for their home page video and call to action campaign. It’s an animated video of Max Ohlendorf’s original audio application for the MBA program at UCLA. The production company was Fraser Communications.

Hand drawn, Photoshop and TVPaint elements with compositing and animation in After Effects.