Dark Siders 2 TVC

I'm not sure if this will get played on Australian TV? Not that I would know if it did as I don't watch TV anyway. I haven't watched broadcasted television in close to two years and I can't say I miss it. Fascinating you say? Fine, I'll keep my personal life to myself. Anyway, I'm responsible for the horse (Despair) and rider (Death) shots, along with the demons in the Despair dismount shot. I sunk a bit of time into some nice muscle jiggle action on Despair which didn't seem to come through in the final renders unfortunately. A lot of it is hidden behind the wall of FX igniting from his mane, legs and tail. I found a great slow mo video on youtube of a horse galloping which I used heavily for reference. I ran it through After Effects and made a cycle out of the frames I cherry picked, and spat out a render that was at the speed I wanted my horse to move at. I took that into 3D and did a little roto to get started and then did my own thing with it from there. The more creature work I do the more I love it. I think it's the area in animation i'd most like to specialize in now.

WARNING: 30 seconds of "WTF just happend?" below


Reference footage  

I like to make stuff...

As stated above I like to make stuff. Stuff with stories and characters more specifically. Sometimes visual ideas are enough for me to get into something, but in most cases it doesn't do much for me unless it has a story I like and characters I find interesting. It was the characters and high concept that appealed to me enough to keep developing Teen High as far as it is and it's what has gotten me interested  in a new project I'm starting to produce some initial designs and scripts for now. So I've decided to dump bits and pieces from the project here as I go along to help keep me motivated and to document it's evolution. It's impossible to finalise a design while you're still developing the creative engine of a project, so nothing posted will ever be final and a lot will probably get thrown out as it evolves. Updates will be infrequent and whenever I get to it too ;). So here are some initial designs of the main protagonist and her mech. I like simple bold shapes in design for strong silhouettes which keeps things easy to read. Like a barre chord on the gee-tar. I haven't done much with Agatha's design yet. I'll probably move onto that next. I'm still debating how much story elements I should divulge on these posts so for now the designs will be out of any meaningful context. The title font has had no love yet either. I'll get to it sooner or later.    

 

Neverwinter Trailer

Mmmm Animated violence. Check out the new Neverwinter trailer I was lead animator on. The schedule was tight but everyone pulled through with sexy results. I want to work on more stuff like this. Zombies, sword fighting, demons and dragons. Make it so!

Figaro Pho

So I've been working on a TV series for the last 5 months. It's a neat little project with some amazing talent working on it. I struggle to think of an animated TV series that looks as nice as this.

http://figaropho.zdfe-b2b.de/trailer.php

Happy Feet 2

I had a great time working on this film. The environment was fantastic to work in and by far the best I have experienced (apart from the leaking roof above my desk!). George Miller and Rob Coleman were both really nice guy's and a pleasure to work for. I'm quite proud of this film. How many CG animated features come out of Australia at this level? Pretty happy to have been a small part of at least one of them.

Animation Showreel WIP 2012

Password provided upon enquiry

Rising Sun Pictures Showreel

A couple of shots I worked on from Red Tails made it into the latest RSP showreel. Werd.

http://www.rsp.com.au/portfolio/players/rspPlayer_reel.htm

If you don't know what Red Tails is check out the trailer below

Teen High Zombie Squad Trailer

Teen High Zombie Squad Trailer from darren randall on Vimeo.


Teen High Zombie Squad began as a personal project I developed in my own time, working with the very talented stylings of my good friend James Brouwer, who developed the character designs with me. We merged our art styles together calling it "Brundle fly" resulting in the art style you see in the video. The project was pitched to Krome Studios where it was successful as far as getting a team of up to 12 assigned to the project, among which was my good buddy Damian Pin who is responsible for the kick ass animation in the trailer. Under my direction, we created this trailer and a playable demo in 3 weeks (a lot of the art assets here were already built before the project was pitched to Krome). The trailer was successful in catching the eyes of a few different publishers but unfortunately Krome recently went into liquidation. As the creator, art director and co-character designer this is my most proud work to date.
If you're intersted in the project and would like to see more check out the THZS blog http://teenhighzombiesquad.blogspot.com.au/