Travis Ramsdale - Random art and other stuff by me

New website/blog etc etc

2012-01-30T05:29:00.000-08:00

After about 8 months of trying to get a new website up and running I've finally achieved it. Hoorah!

Check it out here: www.travisramsdale.com.

You may also notice that there's a blog section built in. This is going to replace my blogger account so feel free to head on over and click 'subscribe' on the new blog because I won't really be touching this one anymore from now on.

Cheers
Trav

I feel great

2011-10-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Just realised I never actually posted this. My last assignment from iAnimate. Just started a body mechanics workshop so hopefully will be adding some more things within a few weeks.

Reasons

2011-08-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

I finally rendered out my first iAnimate assignment so thought I may as well put it up here. I'm just finishing off the second one as well so hopefully I'll get that up next week.

Playin around...

2011-05-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Something new...

2011-03-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Unoriginal from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

I was originally planning on doing this for the February 11 Second Club comp but between moving house, work, and a quality weekend with my mate Ben and few beers I got nowhere near finishing it in time. Anyway I put a bit of time in afterwards and it's now done. If I get the desire I might make it look a bit prettier at some point but the animation is at least there.

2011-03-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'll be geeking out come May. Finally have the chance to hit FMX this year to check out some cool presentations and hopefully get to meet a few new people while I'm at it. I haven't been to Stuttgart yet either so it should be a nice few days away.

iAnimate

2011-03-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

I just signed up last week and I'm pumped about this. Everything at work lately has been either rigging characters or mocap fixes so I'm hanging out to get into some hardcore animation again.

I've actually been working on something at home lately so God willing I should get that up in the next few days.

Ollie's Brollies

2010-12-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit busy with the new job and life in general but last weekend I finished the texture and rigging on the cart for my short film idea.

That didn't take too long...

2010-10-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

Well my English experience didn't last as long as I'd hoped but it's all turned out OK because I now have a job in good old Munich. I start on Tuesday as Lead Animator at Coreplay Games which should be fun. They're only a small studio but I'll get the chance to do a lot of tech work as well as animation, and finally have a chance to work with Germans here in Germany...and be with the girlfriend to boot which is a bonus.

The beauty of losing your job...

2010-09-29T10:47:00.001-07:00

I knocked this out today which was a bit unexpected. I'm heading to Cologne and then back to Munich tomorrow for some Oktoberfest drinkies and look for a new job but hopefully I'll get some time soon to rig the little sucker up.

Environment Test Render

2010-09-29T01:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a WIP of the environment for my short.

Good enough for now...

2010-09-10T17:33:00.001-07:00

Okey dokey. Jack is all done for now. I think the environment is next on my list so hopefully I'll have a simple blockout of that in not too long.

Character Model WIP

2010-08-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here's my first pass on my character model for the short film.

A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation

2010-08-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

The boys from Dancing Squirrel have put up a trailer for the short film that I animated on last year. I animated two large scenes of the boy sitting at the table which you can see a small part of here. The film is currently doing the rounds in film festivals all around the world.

A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation (Trailer) from Dancing Squirrel on Vimeo.

I told you I had no money...

2010-08-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick background sketch I put together for the film...

The Umbrella Salesman

2010-08-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Since I'm in Guildford with heaps of time (and not much money til I get paid) I decided to put some more work into this short film idea that I have.

There is a fair chance this won't be the final design of the character but after doing a bunch of sketches it's at least in the right direction to start doing some storyboarding.

A little bit of violence...

2010-08-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

I got a little inspired today after looking at my mate Petes blog. It's nowhere near his standard but after having a good laugh at his 'Violent Friday' stuff I did this. I call it "Chinese Burn"...

What I'm working on...

2010-08-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes friends or family want to know what I'm working on so I thought I'd pop this up here. I've only been at the place for two weeks so I've actually done nothing so far but it gives you an idea at least...

Back to it...

2010-08-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well I'm all packed and flying to England tomorrow morning to start another small chapter of my life and work at Lionhead Studios for a while. It's certainly going to feel weird once I'm sitting on the plane and things start to sink in but I'm pretty excited about the whole experience at the moment. It should be good fun getting back into the games industry and I'll get to fiddle with some mocap and hopefully learn a lot of new tips and tricks since the whole mocap game is kinda foreign to me. The project looks incredibly cool from what I've seen so far and with a bit of luck I'll also get to discover a bit more of England as well while I'm there.

Anyway it's time to cook up a delicious Jaeger schnitzel and spätzle for dinner.

Strutty Cat Walk Thing...

2010-06-08T13:03:00.001-07:00

I've never really messed around with quad animations but a recruiter asked me to do a small test so I thought a walk would be a good place to start. I tried to have a bit of fun with it and I don't think it's too bad for my first crack and the time that it took me.

Strutty Cat Walk from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Another commercial...

2010-05-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

This isn't much really but I thought I may as well pop it up here. This is another commercial I worked on last time I was in Spain. I did the Ele character who fires the gun at the beginning. I also worked on a few character tests for a short film that the studio is producing while I was there.

Danone Actimel Commercial 2 from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Ok that's it...

2010-04-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

Alrighty so here it is. Now I know it's not perfect but as I said in the last post I've learnt a lot from it and considering this is my first attempt at doing anything like this, and it only took me about a week or so, I'm pretty happy with it.

Shadow this!!

2010-04-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I made some adjustments to a couple of shaders and added some more lighting to create some more realistic shadows in the place.

I have to say I'm kind of satisfied with this for now and it's served its purpose as a good learning exercise for me. I might spend another day on it trying to play around with things as well as doing an ambient occlusion pass but I'm not going to waste my time on it for too long.

Ok ich muss jetzt in der Schule gehen also bis spaeter.

Loving animation just that little bit more...

2010-04-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

Alrighty so I've been messing around with a bit of GI and Final Gathering and am slowly getting my head around Mental Ray. It's a damn long and frustrating process but I have to say I'm enjoying learning a bunch of new stuff. So here's what I have now...

It's all a bit soft, dark and washed out at the moment but I'm pretty sure I know what my next steps are so it's all good. Anyway it's Friday and I'm a bit over being nerd boy for the week so I'm gonna head out and do some fun stuff for a while.

Putting some colour into it...

2010-04-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

Ok so here we go. I've added some rough textures into the mix and some very basic lights and so far so good.

I also added a few more objects to start making the place look a little more lived in. Got a few other things happening over the next few days so we'll see how I go from here..

Playing around...

2010-04-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have to say I don't tend to step away from the animation very much so I thought it might be fun to create a simple modelling/texturing/lighting thingy to teach myself a few new bits and pieces and dust off some of the old things that I've picked up over the years. So what I've opted for is to recreate our nice little dining area at home here in Lochhausen.

So this is what I'm starting with...

(The real thing)

And this is what I've got so far...

(The not so real thing)

Anyway we'll see how I go. I'm actually quite happy with it so far considering I haven't modeled anything decent in years and this was less than a days work. I have this week off so hopefully I can pop in some rough textures and post something new in the next day or so.

Umbrellas anyone?

2010-03-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Nothing to say really. Just had a little idea for a short film that I've been doing heaps of sketches for and I decided to do a quick photoshop job of this and throw it up here.

I might try scan my other ones once I get back to Munich.

What I was doing in Spain...

2010-03-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

"Were you in Spain?" I can hear you asking. Well yes I was and here is why. It's a TV spot that I worked on at Pasozebra Producciones and I did all the 3D character animation for it.

Danone Actimel Commercial from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

They were a great bunch of people and I had a good time working on it. So much so that I'm already back there doing a couple of other things for them as we speak.

Arrrggghhh!

2010-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

Was a little tired of my German homework so thought I'd do this instead.

Vessel trailer

2010-01-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

The guys at Strangeloop Games have just released the first trailer for 'Vessel' so I thought I'd pop it up here. I haven't really done much on it so far besides some rough animations but I'm looking forward to putting some more time into it as the year goes on.

More 2d funness...

2010-01-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

Saw an old bloke at the train station the other day who made me laugh and I threw this together quickly based on him. I laid it all out in Photoshop then put it together with Anime Studio Pro. I know it doesn't really have a punchline but I just wanted to have a bit of fun and try something different style wise.

Harry eats a banana from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Look who got a new wacom...

2009-12-09T05:52:00.001-08:00

I did this exercise back at uni and thought it could be a good simple way to play around with my new toy. It's not perfect but it was fun to do as a test. Been ages since I've tried some 2d as well so have to try and do some more.

Sack test from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Vessel

2009-10-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've started helping out a couple of ex Pandemic guys on a 2d indie platformer that they're developing which is pretty cool fun. Quite a few of the guys are chipping in to lend a hand from various parts of the world and it should be a great little game once it's done. I can't really show too much since the animation is still in the early stages but this run cycle at least gives you an idea of the style. When more has been implemented I'll try to get a few captures of the gameplay to show it in action.

Vessel Run Cycle from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

I've also been plugging away on the short film for Dancing Squirrel which has been great. I've just finished a 70 second scene for them and I'm about to start working on something else soon. Unfortunately I can't show any of that until it's complete which should be at the end of this year.

Keeping busy...

2009-07-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Ok I had about a week and a half off but I've now started helping the guys out at Dancing Squirrel with some animation for their short film. It's a different kind of animated short and it gives me a good chance to try some serious, gritty type animation which I'm looking forward to. They're a good bunch of guys so it should be fun.

Ich bin arbeitslos... wieder

2009-06-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

So here I am without a job once again...and I'm happy to say that it was my choice this time. Well it kind of was last time as well...but whatever. For those of you who don't know I've been working as a tour guide showing people about Munich for the past 2 months or so which has been a stack of fun and a good random experience to boot. But I thought I'd call it quits for now to try and concentrate on learning this crazy German language as well as focus on improving my animation and do a couple of trips while the weather is nice over here. Looks like Stef and I are heading to Spain in a few weeks and who knows where else I might end up.

Anyway there wasn't really a point to this post but I hadn't put anything up for a while and I had some time to kill before I have to head off to school. Not that anyone probably reads this anyway but in any case I'll try to pop something new up in the next week.

See em fly...

2009-05-31T01:55:00.000-07:00

So I decided to pop an entry into the 11 Second Club animation competition this month (www.11secondclub.com) I got onto it right at the start of the month and was excited because I loved the audio and it seemed that I had a heap of time to really put some love and attention into it. Well as usual things didn't go to plan and between work, school and moving into a new apartment I simply ran out of time. I still like what I've come up with though and hopefully once things settle down a bit I can put another day or two into it and iron out the clunky bits.

See em fly from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

And one more...

2009-04-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

This ones a little longer and was also a lot of fun to do. I got this rig from Ian Jones' website and it was pretty cool once I got used to it. It was great to have a bit more of a play around in Maya as well to refresh my memory on a bunch of stuff.

Taxi reverse parallel park from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Car animation...

2009-04-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

While on the job hunt I came across a company that is looking for someone to animate some vehicles. So since I have this week off school I thought I'd use the time and have some fun doing some car animation. I got this cool little rig from Highend3d. I haven't done much vehicle work before apart from a few things on Saboteur so it was a nice change.

Cartoony car - 180 degree turn from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Some random drawings I found...

2009-03-30T06:27:00.000-07:00

Found some of these drawings that I did while at Pandemic so thought I'd put them up here to give me a rest from german verbs for an hour or so. Sorry about the poor quality but I'd already packed my scanner and my camera was all I had at the time.

Demoreel back online...

2009-03-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

So here's my re edited demo reel. Unfortunately I was asked to remove all of the work from my last project at Pandemic (about two years worth) so some of the animation isn't really the stuff that I'm most proud of... but what can you do.

Animation Demo Reel from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

So far so good...

2009-02-17T23:46:00.000-08:00

So after an eventful couple of weeks I've made it to Gammelsdorf, Germany. I still can't believe I'm actually living in a village....let alone one called Gammelsdorf... but I am and so far I'm loving it.

Gammelsdorf Google Earth Style

Anyway for now I'm just settling in and enjoying some time off to do some travel and hopefully do a little bit of my own animation as well before I start getting into the job hunting.

Oh and as a side note... you may notice that my demoreel is no longer accessible. Unfortunately I've had to remove it due to some issues with my past employer and am in the middle of making changes and plan to get it back online as soon as I can.

What a week...

2009-01-19T03:52:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a weird week to say the least and now my four years at Pandemic is all over. It's been a great company and I wish the guys all the best...

And with that all said, I'm already booked and flying to Munich on the 5th Feb to be with my girlfriend, do some travel, and with a bit of luck get some work in the industry over there for a while. As Benjamin Franklin once said "I'm excited"

Wanted: Evil Dog

2008-12-21T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture that my 8 year old niece Ebony did of their dog Gus that I thought was pretty cool.

Now this might not be a good thing to admit publicly but I'm always a little envious of children's creativity when I see something like this. Sure I've been an professional animator for a few years now and probably should be beyond Grade 3 arts and crafts, but after working in the industry for a while I find it hard to not get bogged down worrying what other people may think of my work, and even worse, find myself only doing something because it's what I believe other people want to see. Anyway I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this, but I think my point is that I've recently realised that I need to do art for fun again, and not just to pay the bills or because I need a new piece for my reel. Basically I need to start thinking like an 8 year old again.

Zieh Die Schuhe Aus Rough Animatic

2008-12-19T23:55:00.000-08:00

Ok I've thrown all the thumbnails together as an animatic to help me plan out this animation that I want to do. It's pretty rough and scratchy but it's helped me solve a few problems already and it was good fun messing around with a wacom again.

Zieh Die Schuhe Aus Rough Animatic from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Alphabet Snoop

2008-12-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick little student film I did in 2nd year uni. Pretty dodgy but it's a bit of fun.

Alphabet Snoop from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Another quiet day in the office...

2008-12-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

Well the powers that be seem intent on not giving me any work so I thought I'd try a dinosaur run today. The leg setup wasn't great so I had a few issues getting it looking right but I've learnt a few things about animal legs and anatomy so all is not lost. I also attempted to make the dinosaur look a little smaller with the run. If I still have no work by Monday I might try and do a slow lumbering motion to make him feel larger.

Dino Run Complete from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Zieh Die Schuhe Aus Thumbnails

2008-12-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of rough thumbnails I put together for an animation that I want to do. It's to a German song by Roger Cicero called "Zieh Die Schuhe Aus" that my girlfriend ironically introduced to me. It's a cool song and I figured it could be a good way to brush up on Maya and German both at the same time.

Dino Walk Complete

2008-12-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

Another quiet day sees me finish it off. Most notable changes are on the feet but I also made some other minor tweaks to the body as well. I also couldn't do a proper cycle because of the rig which is annoying...but it was still fun to do.

Dino Walk Final from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Dino Walk WIP

2008-12-02T23:43:00.000-08:00

Work was a bit quiet today so I took the chance to play around with this dinosaur rig from XSI and do a walk cycle. It's not polished but I thought I'd throw it up anyway as a work in progress. If I get some more quiet time I'll try to finish it off.

Dino Walk WIP from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Something different...

2008-11-25T05:27:00.001-08:00

After a good talk with the guys at work I got a little inspired and decided to come home and mess around with something different. I've started to set up an old character in Anime Studio Pro and I haven't got to any animation on him yet but here's what I've got so far...

And here's the original sketches from years ago...

With a bit of luck I'll have some animation pretty soon.

Back in town

2008-11-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back in town after spending the last two months working in Pandemic's LA office on the Saboteur cinematics. Overall it was a damn good experience and they were a great bunch of guys to work with. It was also nice to see that even in my absence I shall not be forgotten.

"You're dead to us now" - George

So it's back to normal life for me for a month or two while I plan a well earned break to travel Europe and hopefully try my hand at working in the German animation industry. With a bit of luck I might even get some spare time to bust out some new artwork and start using this blog properly.

Puppet Up!

2008-10-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I went out with a bunch of mates and saw Puppet Up Uncensored at the Avalon in Hollywood. It was the second time I've seen the show and if you haven't seen it i vote you look them up and get along to a show as soon as it's playing in your area. It's a damn good laugh and since it's totally improvised you will never see the same show twice. So do what I did. Go see it... then go see it again.

"I"..."Want"..."Crack"

New Demo Reel

2008-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't really used this blog as much as I'd planned and since there's been a lot happening over the past couple of months I've had even less of a chance to do anything new. But with that said, I have been able to pull a bunch of work together from the past few years and re edit my demo reel which I've wanted to do for quite some time. So...here it is...

Animation Demo Reel from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

My mate and I also cooked and ate a couple of quality steaks so all is not lost...

Above: One of the previously mentioned steaks.

Some updated animation

2008-06-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

Change for Barry from Travis Ramsdale on Vimeo.

Well considering I'm an animator I thought I should put up some animation that I've done. This is my 11 second club entry from November 2007 that I decided to spend a little more time on for my demo reel. I was originally going for something snappy with broad gestures and I got a bit lost with it along the way. If I had to do it again I'd change quite a few things but I had to do the best with the decisions I made at the time and I still think it worked out OK. Hopefully I'll be putting a few more of these up in the not too far distant future.

Something old that I found

2008-06-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

I found this while I was going through some old work and didn't mind it so I thought I'd throw it up here.

Getting Massive

2008-05-13T04:26:00.001-07:00

Saw this guy at the gym and this was some kind of representation of what I saw. Not very accurate....the guy at gym was wearing a wife beater.

Monster Fun

2008-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Here's another super simple one to try and get my imagination kickstarted again.

Old Guy

2008-05-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

Just another quick painting in Photoshop. I've done stuff all of this over the past few years so I'm trying to start simple and hopefully one day get into the groove.

Puppet Designs

2008-05-04T04:56:00.000-07:00

Well to start off something that I've wanted to do for a long time I bought myself a puppet pattern from Project Puppet and am starting to do some quick concept designs for one that will be nice and simple to get me started. Here's my first attempt and there should be many more to follow...with a bit of luck the drawings will get better as I go on. They've slowly rotted away in the corner while I've been occupied with xsi and other 3d antics.

Last St Pats Day

2008-04-16T18:43:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd have a bit of fun in photoshop with some photo's taken from St Pat's day 2008.

Popping by blog cherry

2008-02-27T23:39:00.000-08:00

Ok I figured I'd get my act together and make one of these just in case something interesting ends up happening and I need to share it with the rest of the world. So here I am....unfortunately nothing interesting has happened in quite some time but hopefully I'll be back at some point before 2012.

Trav