The game I'm animating for has reached its first goal on the IndieGoGo fundraiser! Let's keep the momentum going... if we can reach $20,000, we'll have enough to complete a playable PC demo. Help spread the word!

igg.me/at/beastsfury

As thanks for contributing to legendary animator Ralph Bakshi's recent Kickstarter, Last Days of Coney Island, I received this complimentary original doodle with Bakshi's signature (first image) and a sticker with a Ralph Bakshi character (second image). Depending on your resolution, the images on your screen should be pretty much true to actual size.

Personally, I've always had mixed feelings about Bakshi's material, but I also always respected him for his originality, and his courage to do things outside the "norm" with animation entertainment. That's why I'm eager to see what he'll come up with next!

The game I've been animating for has a new IndieGoGo! You can check it out at this link:
http://igg.me/at/beastsfury

And you can follow the updates for the game at the new website, here:
http://www.beastsfury.com

Funding would really help this get off the ground so if you like what you see, please consider donating to the crowdfunding campaign. Here's the video from the indiegogo:

It's done!

Or at least as done as it's going to be. Last night I submitted the above video to April's 11 Second Club competition. Fingers crossed! Now to vote on all the other entries.

Before I add this to my 2013 reel I may add a few more inbetweens and color it.

Early this month, I decided to give April's 11 Second Club a shot. These were the character designs I settled on after a heartfelt period of scribbling, sketching, and studying Patrick Stewart's face. And the video is where I currently stand in my animation. I'm a little behind where I want to be, so it's time to pick up the pace!

Here's another commission I finished recently, which I got permission to post here. I'm proud of this one because it gave me a chance to combine some effects using Toon Boom. For example, the static texture on the scarf and other clothing (along the lines of Chowder or The Count of Monte Cristo), which can be accomplished in Toon Boom using a texture fill.

This was also the first time I've ever animated anything in an anime style. I want to continue to expand the variety of styles that I can draw.

Here's a test build with hitboxes for an indie game called Beast's Fury, which I've been working for on a freelance basis. I did all the animation here, and some which has not yet been added to the build.
It's my first foray into 2D fighting game animation, so a lot of things still need animation work and timing adjustments.

So it's past time for an update, though it's not for lack of animating. I've actually been hard at work for the past few months doing animated commissions over the internet. Turns out there's a bit of a market for things like animated icons and short videos of people's own personal characters.

One thing I've noticed many times over the course of my life is the sheer abundance of creativity that's out there, bottled up inside the minds of ordinary people, unseen by anyone else. Your random everyday janitor, engineer, or accountant could have entire worlds constructed in their heads, with ages of history containing countless stories of heroes and adventures. These online commissions I'm doing are something of an intermission in my career while I look for more studio work, but still I take pride in giving people a chance to see their characters come to life before their eyes. It means a lot to a creator to see their creation, even if it's just for a 2-second animated pose.

Here's just one recent example of this work. This character is not owned or copyrighted by me.

Well, the CTN animation convention is done, and it was even more awesome than last year. I learned a great deal and have a new direction and enthusiasm for how to brand myself as an artist and animator.

Expect more updates soon.

All my recent work has been submitted for the CTN Expo's Recruiting and Portfolio Review, so now I just need to cross my fingers. Here's a finished collection of some of those thumbnails I was doing earlier. I'll have to update my portfolio here on HalsteadArt next.

Here's the finished expressions sheet for my angular old man character, named Grandpa Dale. He'll be joining Claire in my portfolio.

Grandpa Dale's previous name had a slang connotation I was not aware of when I first posted. I think Dale is a safe alternative.

I had a lot of fun designing and drawing this character. I may try animating her in the future. For now, Claire will be a new addition to my portfolio, which will be updated once I've done enough new artwork.

Next up will probably be an expression sheet for that old man I was drawing earlier.

I'm considering character ideas for a new expression sheet. I'd been wanting to draw an old man in an angular style, for some reason.

Here are some of the finished designs to come out of my thumbnails. Some of these may end up in my portfolio. Two more are on the way.

I'm continuing to work on my character design. I thought I'd try the strategy of scribbling a bunch of thumbnail silhouettes, and looking for character forms within those shapes. It was fun, and I think it's been helping me come up with interesting ideas. I'll be posting some of the finished designs shortly.

I've been in contact with somebody who is interested in commissioning a brief animated scene involving Dragon-style Kung Fu. These are some of the warm up sketches I've been doing today. I think my first hand pose was closer to Tiger style. Learning as I go.

Some sketches I've been doing. Trying to develop my character design. More to come.

I think all updates are complete, all holes are patched, and all functions are functional for this new iteration of my website. The feed is linked and ready for subscribing. So, in case you're a new visitor:

Welcome to HalsteadArt.com! I will be posting various doodles, sketches, and cartoons over the coming weeks while I work on updating my portfolio before the CTN Animation Expo in November. I hope you like what you see, and if you do, please subscribe so you can stay up to date. Thanks for visiting!

I believe I have this blog formatted into an Atom feed now, so you should be able to subscribe and follow my updates! I'll do some testing to see how it looks in various feed readers, and I'll put up a fancy link soon. For now, you can try this:

HalsteadArt Feed

Now checking the video upload. This was a short experiment I did for my One Hour to Life blog.

Third time is a charm!

Now testing the image uploader...
This should make it easier to upload images to the blog.

I am testing some blog scripting.

So I've been pretty busy the past couple of months, and I wanted to show some of the animation I've done in a new reel. Well, here it is! Just click the pencil button at the top of this site to watch it. Speaking of which - more work will be done on the website shortly to make those links spiffy.

The music in my new reel is by Pogo. You can check out his stuff at www.pogomix.net.

Check back soon for more updates!

Headed to Siggraph here in LA over the next few days! This is my first time going so it should be exciting.

Also, welcome to the new face of my website! I thought I'd spend a few days redesigning the site with some ideas I've been meaning to implement. This is just the beginning - more improvements to come!

Lastly, I have some brand new work so I'm going to be making fresh new demo reels. I'm also expanding into the realm of banner ads and interactive advertisements, so stay tuned, and thanks for visiting!

Finally updating to say a few important things. Namely,
1) I graduated CCS
2) I moved to Glendale, California
3) I got a job! Things have changed rather quickly, but I am now working as an Assistant Animator with Mariposa Pictures. Additionally, I just recently started a blog with some other artists called "1 Hour to Life":

I'll be posting short, rough animations there regularly, so check it out!

Here's a look at the latest progress in my animated short, The Nature of Craenids. Most of the work that remains involves cleaning up and coloring the animation. This is the version of the film that was recently shown for my senior review at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Here's an update on the lip-sync shot of the fashion designer from my short film. Remaining work is basically final line, color, and maybe another subtle movement at the end. Scroll down to see more of the work in progress from The Nature of Craenids!

Also: YouTube seems to have stretched it a bit, and the audio is just a tiny bit off. These are formatting issues and will not be a problem in the final composite of the film.

I've been working on the shots involving stars and planets for my film. I started to get carried away with making a photo-realistic planet for the opening homeworld shot, so I had to stop myself. The end result is a fairly realistic planet... that is cel-shaded.
*shrug* I may or may not keep it like this.

Many thanks to the Stratton Foundation for their selection of The Nature of Craenids as one of the winners of their scholarship prize!

Here is a look at the work in progress on this film. Some important changes that are taking place:
1) This is not the final music, and perhaps not the final narration, either.
2) Backgrounds are being colored and I expect to have all of them more or less finished in the next two weeks.
3) The shots you see that have little or no animation are either being drawn right now, or are going to be made using computer software in the next week or so.

Also, some slight improvements have been made to the site. For one thing, I am no longer hosting the videos on this server; it is easier and more reliable to use YouTube. Additionally, the illustrations and concept art sections have been combined into the Portfolio section. Now I just have to figure out what to put in the Sketches section...

This is an update on my traditionally animated film-in-progress, "The Nature of Craenids." The film is currently nearing completion of animation keyframes. I hope to get some finished backgrounds over Christmas break, so that the next five months can be spent in-betweening and cleaning up.

Here is a glance at what I'd like the style of the film to resemble:


Also, I fixed the Animation section a bit, and also added my Resume to the Contact section. Stay in touch for more updates!

Well it's been a week since Ottawa and I'm back to schedule. I met a lot of interesting people there and I hope to contact them this week. Also I'm working on an animated mock TV series intro that will probably go into the Animation section when it's done.

I have successfully gotten all areas of this site working properly. Feel free to browse! In the meantime, you should know that the "Sketches" section is currently filled with illustrations like the one below. I do have a collection of sketches and gesture drawings that I will upload later, which means I will probably have to make a new section for the illustrations.



In other news, I am making progress in my short film, The Nature of Craenids, with plans to release it next spring. More updates on that to come!

As for now... I'm off to the Ottawa International Animation Festival!

I'll be heading to the Ottawa International Animation Festival soon. Last year was my first time and it was a blast. This year will be even better!

Hello, and welcome to my artist website and blog. At the time of this writing I am just finishing some of the last elements of the site... such as this blog, for example. It seems to be working properly now so we'll get things started. Feel free to look around! - Ben