Mad Dog Movies » NOTLD:R

Vote for Animated Zombies

Mike — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:29:15 +0000

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated has been nominated for a Rondo Award! Lovers of animation and horror alike can vote for NOTLD:R as Best Independent Production of 2009.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards are highly revered in the independent horror community. The voting is open to anyone! I highly encourage you to vote, not only for Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated but for the horror sites, blogs, hosts, movies, and magazines you love.

Visit www.rondoaward.com to find out more.

EDITED TO ADD (03/08/10 )

Maybe you’d like to watch the film before voting?

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated will continue to be hosted by Count Victor Von Scary and the gang at ‘Friday Night – Fright Night’ until this Friday, March 12th at
http://www.fridaynight-frightnight.com

So if you haven’t seen it yet, this is the last week.

How I do the things I do

Mike — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:21:01 +0000

We all like going behind the scenes, right?

When Mike Schneider, director of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, asked me to contribute a featurette to the upcoming DVD release, I was afraid I wouldn’t have the time to do so. Well, last week I gathered strength and put together a 6 minute tutorial on interpretive rotoscoping.

Rotoscoping is an animation process that involves a lot of tracing. For NOTLD:R, I changed my style up depending on the shot — and sometimes that meant tracing 15 pictures a second with my Wacom stylus.

In this video, you can see some of that process, albeit sped up to make it more interesting.

Interpretive Rotoscoping for NOTLD:R from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Side by side comparisons

subterranea — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:58:15 +0000

Now that I’ve completed three scenes for the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project, I thought it might be cool to show my cartoon shots next to the original movie footage. You’ll see where I applied faithful rotoscoping and where I deviated from the original acting.

The following video clips show the animation, then side by side comparisons with the original live action scenes.

NOTLD:R Don’t worry from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Here he comes now from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Down in the basement from Mike Boas on Vimeo.

NOTLD:R Take a seat why don't ya?

subterranea — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:02:03 +0000

I nearly blew it on this one. After what I THOUGHT was the final render, I noticed I had animated everything at double speed. So 13 seconds of footage was zipping by in 6 seconds.

So… I went back to the keyframes and had to double the space between them. And then add in some more animation so things didn’t look… so… deliberate…

Overall, a cute little scene. No zombie attacks, but it gets across a plot point — that Judy is now watching the sick girl in the basement.

NOTLD:R Turn your pretty head and walk away

subterranea — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:18:38 +0000

Here’s a continuation of my latest scene. Helen Cooper turns around and leaves the basement. Next, I’ll add the Judy character, who takes her place watching the sick child.

Once I’m satisfied with the movements, I’ll go back in and add the grayscale coloration to the characters. Traditionally, I do that before the animation, but I’m changing things up a little.

Some of my new drawings for Helen’s back and Judy:

NOTLD:R Get Up Stand Up

subterranea — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:11:24 +0000

I’m trying to crank out a short segment this weekend. This shot has Helen Cooper leaving the basement, with Judy taking her place to watch over young Karen.

I started off tracing the background and foreground elements, but to change things up, I’m using my “cartoon” style on the characters. Does it save time? Well, there’s a lot more planning up front, drawing all the character pieces. Once that’s done, it’s simpler to move them around… except Helen has to turn around to leave! I haven’t drawn her from the rear yet, so it’s back to the drawing board.

Here’s the first part of the animation. Helen stands up:

NOTLD:R Johnny to the Rescue

subterranea — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:27:20 +0000

It was a marathon session tonight. Just me and my Ustream channel and a few friendly observers.

Lo and behold, I’ve finished the scene. The leering, lurching Bill Hinzman zombie attacks Barbara, she screams, and Johnny leaps to the rescue. It’s only 14 seconds, but I think I put in more hours on this section than the last one, if possible.

All in all, my method is pretty… methodical. George Romero is a director who uses a lot of cuts and handheld work, which means time intensive roto.

Enjoy the scene below. I’m sending it off to director Mike Schneider and going to bed.

NOTLD:R I'm Getting Out of Here!

subterranea — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:35:15 +0000

Same section as last time, but now Johnny has lip sync, the zombie is properly rotoscoped, and so is Barbara.

Roto is tedious. I’m doing sketchy work, but every 2 frames. That’s 15 times a second. Per character. Now my wrist hurts.

To prove it, I actually recorded my work habits with a webcam today. See my Ustream channel for two hours of NOTLD:R Roto work.

Really, it’s boring. Don’t bother.

But, you can enjoy the animated result below:

NOTLD:R He'll Hear You!

subterranea — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:18:55 +0000

Weeks later, I’m back on this “Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated” scene. I’m jumping around a bit, so Johnny still needs lip sync. The Hinzman zombie is a junky placeholder — I’m thinking of rotoscoping him in that shot. There’s also a severe lack of Barbara there.

But… I wanted to get this test up to show what I’ve been doing with Johnny. He’s probably the most fun character to draw so far. Something about the horned-rim glasses, I guess.

A new trailer for NOTLD:R

subterranea — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:55:32 +0000

All this week, while I was focused on animating a few scenes, Mike Schneider was thinking about the big picture. He was getting all the pieces in place for a relaunch of the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated website, along with a new trailer for the project.

Behold, the latest trailer! If you watch closely, you’ll see some of my animation.

NOTLD:R a new scene

subterranea — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:17:47 +0000

I heard today about a short scene early in the movie that still needed attention. It’s about fourteen seconds of action in the cemetery featuring Barbara, Johnny, and the Bill Hinzman zombie.

Exciting! It sounded fun and easy. I just worked on the first few seconds for a couple hours, but I don’t even have lip sync yet.

Well, it’s still fun, but it always takes longer than I think. Anyway, here’s what I have so far.

NOTLD:R animation part 3

subterranea — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:45:54 +0000

Here is the completed animation for the 49 second section I’ve been working on. The deadline for content is the end of this week, so I’m sending my files off tonight.

My half rotoscope / half flash puppet method is very time consuming. If I’m called on to do some more orphan scenes (which I’d love to do) I’ll be using a different approach.

This latest test features Ben making a phone call. More difficult than you might think!

NOTLD:R continued

subterranea — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:10:55 +0000

Here’s some more work from that same scene for Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated. My style is changing from shot to shot because I’m playing around, having fun. When finished, the whole movie will have a patchwork quality, so I don’t feel the need to stay consistent from shot to shot.

When I’m done with this sequence, I may move away from rotoscoping and do something with a cartoon look.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated

subterranea — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:27:10 +0000

As if I don’t have enough going on this month with Script Frenzy, I’m also doing some animation for Mike Schneider’s Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated project. The idea is to take George Romero’s 1968 zombie classic, which fell into public domain many years ago, and redo the entire feature in animation. Artists from all over the world are contributing scenes. The result will be a hodgepodge of styles, a crazy quilt art project that is tied together by the original audio track from Night of the Living Dead.

Since the project is nearing the end, there’s only a handful of orphaned scenes left. Here’s some work I did over the weekend. Watch this space; I’ll be posting more soon!