Ben Hartnett

Artwork & Play

Animation

Animation Degree – Anniversary Celebration

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My Dad (author of “Dewthor”) and myself in front of “Sloth Darts” (I wore the only animation-themed shirt I had: “Invention of Colour”)

My old university course, the Animation Bachelor Degree at the Queensland College of Art, had a 25th anniversary celebration last weekend. My health nearly kept me from attending at all, but thanks to my Dad I was able to get to the exhibition and part of a screening of student short films from years past.

The best part was catching up with a handful of folks I haven’t seen in many years, including John Eyley (who has been with the course from its humble beginnings), Damian Pin, and Joe Brumm.

Rapunzel in Boots

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Rapunzel in Boots

I had a couple of pleasant surprises recently: the CG animated movies “Puss in Boots” and “Tangled”. I confess I didn’t expect a lot from either of them and in some ways they met those expectations pretty much exactly, but they both had some really funny moments and some enjoyable character animation. I actually liked the character animation in “Puss in Boots” more than the “Shrek” movies, with some natural, fluid motion and subtle, character-specific body language.

“Tangled” had possibly my favourite CG human animation to date, as well as some superb timing and poses on one of the funniest characters I’ve seen for a while: Maximus the horse. Great stuff! To get the main humans so right, though, in both the subtle and the broad acting (along with appealing designs for the main two characters), well, the Disney folks really set a high standard with this movie I think. In fact, while I’ve enjoyed other CG movies more than this one in terms of their complete experience, I’m not sure that any of them have inspired me to just enjoy top-quality character animation like “Tangled” (although “The Incredibles” provides tough competition!).

I did the above sketch in TwistedBrush Pro Studio.

New Stores

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I’ve finally got some artwork available for online purchase in a variety of forms, through two print-on-demand sites: Zazzle and Society6.

Zazzle tends to focus on an amazing variety of products and styles and the ability to customize items, so that’s the place to go if you want heaps of options and a good quality result. Society6 aims for even higher quality, on a narrower range of item types (especially art prints, including stretched canvases).

So far I’ve been impressed with both places, and not a week goes by without me cheering up my workspace with the Zazzle mug you can see in the picture (believe it or not, that smiley face design took as long to do as some of my fancier digital paintings!).




Invention of Colour Again!

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Threadless is advertising gift certificates, and using a character from my design “Invention of Colour” to do it! Unfortunately my design is all sold out, so at the moment you can’t actually use your gift certificate to order it! If you like it, though, you can go to the product page and request a reprint (look just under the “Add to Cart” button).

Edit 11 Feb 2012: It’ back in stock as a 2nd edition!

Old Pencil Animation – Oska e-Cards

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Edit: These links seem to be dead now. I’m leaving the post here anyway, as a reminder to myself that I actually did these animations!

WARNING: Although these animations are all family-friendly, the business has added other markets since my time there (the site is now blocked by some Internet filters) so keep that in mind if you follow the links below.

General Silliness – Gullibility Test

Wedding Anniverary – Husband

Wedding Anniversary – Wife

Grandparents’ Day – Groovy Grandpa

Grandparents’ Day – Groovy Grandma

Mother’s Day – Koala

Romance – Koala Cupid

Romance – “Bee Mine”

I used to work at “Oska” in Brisbane, where I did old-fashioned pencil animation, cleanup, inbetweening, and occasional basic character design. Some of these animations are still online, which was a fun discovery for me! They’re not classics of animation craft but I have good memories of the work and the workers. The above animations are ones which I’m almost completely sure I did, but less sure with some than others! I did all the pencil drawing stuff and none of the digital tracing or colouring. I’d like to animate again. Storyboarding is fun, too. Actually, most things to do with animation are enjoyable… or at least they were where I studied and worked!