Howard's Way

Hello World,

Maybe it’s because I’m a dreamer or maybe it’s because I’ve never worked in a corporate environment before, but whenever I see bankers or big business men spouting nonsense on the television, I automatically assume they are secret fetish wearing deviants who take late night trips to playgrounds and ride seesaws together and maybe go down slides as well. Taking inspiration from this unsettling thought I decided to introduce a seedy undercurrent to the animation. Before long I’d redesigned my two main characters to be greedy bankers enjoying a good old late night seesaw session whilst wearing ladies underwear, happy in the knowledge that they are filthy rich.

The thought struck me in the middle of the night whilst I was thinking about bankers secretly wearing ladies undies that it might be nice to have an additional character involved in my animation. The new character (I’ve called him Howard) will also be a frilly knickers wearing banker/business man who is sat on the floor getting electrocuted in some sort of kinky sadomasochistic act. Why I hear you ask? I have no answer.

Anyway I think this probably says more about me than I’d like to admit in pleasant company so I’ll quickly move on by showing you my design for Howard.

And here’s a simple looping animation test I made of him being electrocuted.

Well I hope you all found that electrifying…sorry.

The end.

Neon This! And Neon That!

Hello world,

I’m back with another fabulous if slightly boring blog about my on-going e4 sting adventure. Today I started putting together images of dilapidated buildings for the background of my animation and whilst they were all very nice and dilapidated I felt they could use a little oomph! But what on earth could give my buildings the desired spark I required? One word - Neon! (I’ve just realised you probably guessed that from the title).

Below is a bunch of designs I made on an A4 sheet of paper of possible neon lights designs. Naturally I decided to go down the slightly sleazy route as it turns out there are no classy neon lights.

With a few designs picked I then somehow managed to force the paper into a Photoshop so I could make the image glow like a neon light. It can be seen below.

Finally I made a simple animation of the light in action.



Here's the final background plate with added chimney lights for no extra cost. 

And that’s the end of my neon light adventure - or is it? More words and pictures coming soon.

The end.

The Unusual Suspects

Hello world,

As another hot summers day drifts by here comes another ruddy blog post. Today it’s a quick character sheet I knocked out for the two business chaps that’ll be appearing in my e4 sting.

Will another blog post be coming soon?

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Project Infidelity

Hello world,

It’s been far too long since I last plopped out some wonderful words into a blog and you’re all probably wondering what the hell has happened to the Beatles animation I promised you months ago? Well its well on its way (I promise), however I have to admit that I’ve recently been cheating with a newer, fresher more attractive and younger project that won’t get me sued Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono for using copyrighted music. 

TV channel e4 every so often do an e4 sting competition to advertise the e4 channel e4. The rules are simple. The sting has to be 10 seconds in length and must feature the e4 logo and use the e4 music that they supply. The content of the sting can be anything you want within reason (here’s a link if you wish to enter). Enticed with the whiff of fame and fortune (£5000 first prize) I thought I’d give my creative muscle a flex pump and throw my hat (metaphorical, I don’t own a hat) into the ring. I thought it would be nice if I got brewing a regular blog again detailing the journey of making an e4 sting for an e4 competition to design an e4 sting for the e4 channel (the first blog will be a little introduction about me entering the 2013 e4 sting competition).

A lot can happen in ten seconds; you could fall in love, shoot a pigeon, fall in love with a recently deceased dead pigeon (necrophilia and bestiality all rolled into one lovely perversion, I’m sure somebody must suffer from this (not me))  or you could slowly or quickly (depending on your speed) walk up a flight of stairs. My idea for the 10 second e4 sting is two business men going up and down on a seesaw for ten seconds (I’m not joking but seeing it written out like that I’m not sure it’s a good one). Whether I can make this stupid idea entertaining enough to win a shiny prize or get shown on a television that isn’t mine remains to be seen, but that’s the idea I’m going for.

Below are some quick visual representations of ideas that entered my brain whilst I was thinking about making an entry for the e4 sting competition. I’m not going to explain them.

 More to come soon.

The end.

Into the Cavern

Hello World!

Well it’s all been very quiet and dusty on my little blog for…well the last five blooming months really, but let me assure my loyal army of one that I have been busy beavering away on a brand spanking new little project.

Inspired by the positive feedback of my little Beatles animation (as seen here); I’ve decided to devote all my spare time working on a slightly longer animation that hopefully will span the glorious history of the super group. I don’t want to give away too much of what I’m planning to do (mostly because it’s all in my head), but I thought it would be nice to update my progress every now and again with a brand new picture (you can already see a character sheet I’ve made here).

So without further ado here’s a background I’ve made for inside the Cavern Club which will soon be seen in my upcoming animation…coming soon…hopefully…

I hope it doesn’t look too bad.

The end.

All your need is some love!

Hello World!

I’ve been deathly quiet over recent months with various projects on the go and little time to post my usual nonsense. To squash the vicious rumour that I’d perished whilst out at sea I feel now is the time to make a brief reappearance and reward my patient army of a loyal follower with a new picture made by me. This time it’s a character sheet I’ve made for an upcoming Beatles animation that currently I’m working on currently. I hope it meets your approval.

***New picture of The Beatles at Budokan added***

 

The end.

Force it Luke

Hello world,

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks helping the chaps over at FatPancake with something that could be a big thing for all concerned. The result is that I’ve sadly neglected my little blog a tiny small bit, so to make amends here’s a picture of I’ve drawn of Mr Luke Skywalker from the hit space films: The Original trilogy of Star Wars. I made this an age ago but forgot to put it up on the blog.

I hope it meets your approval.

The end.

Meeting the Beatles

Hello World,

I’m a massive fan of the super British skiffle and rock and roll group The Quarrymen, they later became the slightly better mega global band known as The Amazing Beatles; Starring: Mr John, Mr Paul, Mr George and Ringo Starr.

As a special tribute to the fabulous four of them and because I have a lot of time on my hands, I’ve made this little flash looping video of the group performing one of their numerous super sound songs (maybe She loves you or maybe Maxwell's Silver Hammer or maybe one of their lesser known ones).

For a slightly bigger, slightly less distorted, slightly more downloadable and slightly better quality version go to my deviantArt page here.

Is this animation bigger than Jesus? Possibly not.

The end.

Solo Chewing

Hello world,

After a couple of days off I’m back with a brand spanking new picture of everybody’s favourite scoundrels, Mr Han Solo and his best mate Mr Chewbacca. Hopefully Chewie will be back in “Disney’s” new Star Wars films as he was always my favourite hero character.

I hope you like it.
The end.

The Ugly

Hello world,

The last picture in my the Good, the Bad and the Ugly series of drawings is of course of the mighty Tuco (Eli Wallach); the charismatic cowboy that pushes the film into legendary status.

Something else made by me will be coming soon.

The end.

The Bad

Hello world,

Continuing on with my the Good, the Bad and the Ugly drawings, here's a picture I've made of the very bad cowboy, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef).

Guess who's next?

 The end.

The Good

Hello world,

Today I’ll keep it short and simple, here’s a picture of Empire’s 43rd greatest movie character of all time, the man with no name (Clint Eastwood); from one of my favourite films, The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Those perceptive fellows might be able to work out who my next picture will be.

The end.

It's a Thing?

Hello world,

Through most of my life I’ve found myself scraping by in a mild state of confusion; today is no different as I proudly present to you a thing I’ve made which ties together the Nostromo crew pictures that I’ve been making into the thing you see below. The only trouble is I’m not exactly sure what to call it other than a thing, it’s not an animation per se but then again it’s not just a static, soundless picture. I guess the closest thing you could call it is one of those menu things you get on a DVD that play on a loop only it’s not that.

Anyway I think we can all agree that whatever I’ve made proves once and for all that I have far too much time on my hands. For a flash animation looping version click on this link: http://stephencraner.com/flash_video.html


Nostromo Crew from Stephen Craner on Vimeo.

Keep watching for more blogs on things I've made.

The end.

Two for the Price of One

Hello world,

Just like the loveable characters of gold man C-3PO and his best robot mate the R2D2 but not like them at all; today I’ve drawn the down to earth mechanics of the Nostromo spaceship, Mr Parker and his best bud Brett. With these two last pictures drawn and done this now completes my series of pictures of the Nostromo crew from the amazing alien horror film, Alien…or does it?

Stay tuned for something else made by me coming soon.

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Flight of the Navigator

Hello world,

The next picture in my series of pictures I’ve made of the crew of the Nostromo in pixelated form is hysterical bottler and lady female, Lambert…No not the popular cigarette brand Lambert and Butler, or star of the hit film Highlander 2: The Quickening; Christopher Lambert, or lady song voice Miranda Leigh Lambert, but the navigator of the Nostromo spaceship, from the film Alien.

Even more pictures tomorrow.

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You Have My Sympathies

Hello world,

If the Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that you can never trust a robot. From Hal-9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey to Evil Bill and Ted in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, clearly the message of these masterpieces is that given enough time, all robots will eventually go mad and try to kill you until you’re dead, yes even C-3PO. With that in mind the next picture that I’ve made is of Ash, the mysterious science officer on-board the Nostromo (made even more evil because he was English).

The journey continues tomorrow.

The end.

Get Away From This Blog, You Bitch!

Hello world,

Believe it or not, today I’m posting a picture I’ve made of Ripley, yes that Ripley from the fantastically scary alien space film, Alien.

More tomorrow.

The end.

Excuse me sir, but you’ve got something on your face

Hello world,

I’ve got some work to do today so the blog is plopping out relatively early. But what's today's blog about? I hear you cry. Well to quote rap superstar Kano, from Labrinth’s hit musical rhyme and beat tune; Earthquake (All-star remix), “Today I'm doing Kane but not the brother of Undertaker”.  Yes that's right; as a follow up to yesterday’s picture of Dallas, today I’ve got a picture I've made of Kane, no not the biblical son of Adam and Eve, or the guy from the hit computer game series Mr Kane and Mr Lynch, or even the Citizen Kane, but the Executive Officer aboard the Nostromo, from the hit alien space film Alien.

Come back tomorrow to find out which of the Nostromo crew I’ve drawn next.

The End.

Welcome to Dallas

Hello world,

Today I’m posting a picture I’ve made of Dallas, no not the long-running American prime time television soap opera from the 80’s, or the ninth most populated city in the United States of America, or the amazing?...R&B vocalist, producer and writer of the hit song “Get It Girl”...but the laid-back captain of the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo, from the hit space film Alien.

The regular reader of my blog will undoubtedly be aware that I’m a massive fan of Ridley Scott’s unbeatable film, so it was inevitable that I’d end up drawing some pictures from my favourite film. As a change from my normal style I decided to make the picture all pixelated like it’s from the golden days of point and click adventure games. Then, as a bonus treat, I’ve added a mini character profile taken from the Alien 20th anniversary DVD, which is written in a lovely green BBC computer style font.

Check back tomorrow for more drawings of the Nostromo crew.

The end.

The Faces of Foley.

Hello world,

I’ve realised that the last blog might have been too wordy and pointless, so to make up for the time you wasted reading it I’ve decide to put all my drawings of Mick Foley together into one super image. If I ever get the nerve to send the real life Mick Foley a picture I’ve made of him, this is the one I’ll send.

Thanks for looking.

The end.