Neuropolis: Animation, Film, Stuff

Pat Grubb. 3D artist and animator. Among other things.

Graduated from The Art Institute of Philadelphia about a year ago. Currently, I do animation gigs in and around Philadelphia, mostly culled from Craigslist. Whatever I can get my hands on. No big industry “ins” yet. Working on expanding my portfolio and demo reel, both of which are looking pretty outdated at this juncture. I do much better work now; it’s a matter of turning all the new bits and pieces I have into something presentable. Here’s a bit of logo animation I worked on for Cold FuZion Studios. Subject to change.

Back in April, Rob Schrab, creator of Scud the Disposable Assassin and writer of Monster House, finished up his long-delayed run of Scud. To celebrate, he started a Scud short film competition. Three minutes, dealing with all things Scuddy. I immediately went to work on a 3D Scud character. Rob liked it. Since then, I’ve been developing an animated adaptation of the first issue of the book for submission. I’ve since finished two more characters and had my good net friend Alex Weitzman, voice-over artist extraordinaire, record dialogue for Scud and Hershel Roundhead.

Unfortunately, life happened and a lot of different events converged to keep me from being where I’d like to be in the production at this point. With the deadline less than a month away, I’ve only just now finished creating Scud’s arch-enemy, Jeff, who has proven to be an extremely complex character with my most detailed rig ever. I have not yet publicly revealed her. By now, there is very little time for creating the necessary environments, blocking out the choreography and camera angles, animating, and rendering for the original idea. What I submit for the competition will likely be several easier scenes from the first issue, as well as animation tests of all the characters.

However, all is not lost. The video will serve as a trailer for my Scud: Issue 1 web series. Five or six installments, released over the course of several months. I’m well beyond winning or losing the competition at this point and am purely doing this for the fun, the experience, and my love of Scud.

I have a vlog you can check out detailing my process. You can also hit the YouTube link to see more. I will be releasing a new one soon once I’m ready to unveil Jeff and after that, it’s a fight to the finish to complete my Scud film/trailer. All pertinent updates from there on out will go here, though I may do a new vlog here and there if the fancy strikes me.

Updates to come. The links up top should be up and running soon. I’m not crazy about WordPress’s page size limitations so until I’m ready to pay for customization, I’ll be linking to my work instead of embedding.