The Paper Fox Project

Look at my range!

2012-02-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

The very talented animator, Emma Kelly has joined Team Fox and has rigged up our papery hero. Here are some quick (ie: not great) poses I did. Every tweak gives him so much personality!

Environment Concepts

2012-01-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce that Team Fox is now working with Mike Manalac. A good friend and very talented concept artist, Mike will be helping out with the environment concepts and storyboarding!

Check out his blog, it's chock full of fantastic work.

Digital Arts Magazine

2012-01-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to announce that The Paper Fox is featured in February's Digital Arts magazine! I was lucky enough to be chosen for the "Creative Freedom" piece. It's a great article and I'm honored to be featured.

Back to it!

2012-01-11T19:28:00.000-08:00

Most of the prints are done and being packaged for sending. Laura (my wife) is doing a brilliant job of making sure the prints get to everyone in spiffy condition. The A4 animal prints are being packaged and sent very soon, we're just waiting on a back order of envelopes.

3D Artist Magazine

2012-01-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

Happy new year all. Twenty-Dozen has started off with a bang! I did an interview before Xmas with 3D Artist Magazine which has just hit shelves. I also just finished an interview with another great magazine which will also be on sale later this month, will keep you posted. Very chuffed indeed. :)

Print store open!

2011-12-06T19:04:00.001-08:00

With the crowd funding coming to a close with a fantastic result I'm still having a lot of people asking to buy prints. So with the help of shopify - we've opened a little webstore for prints! :) Click the banner on the right to have a looksee!

Sweet words: Funding Successful!

2011-11-30T14:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday marked the end of the 90 day funding period. To say it went better than expected is a MASSIVE understatement. What an amazing result! A sincere thanks to everyone who supported the project. After the funding money has been released, I'll be getting the print run done and hopefully get them all out to everyone as soon as possible.

Limited Edition Print!

2011-11-25T14:14:00.001-08:00

With the crowd-funding drawing to a close, I'm happy to reveal the final Limited Edition A3 print! There are still a fair few left, so if you'd like one - click here before time (or they) run out! :)

Click the image for a better view.

Environment Sneak Preview

2011-11-09T17:15:00.000-08:00

As we hammer out the story, I'm working on some test environments. These will most likely make it into the story but they are a work in progress - hence the sneaky crops :)

Object Palette

2011-10-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

Now that the characters are all but complete (some un-posted on the blog - got to keep some surprises!), I'm working on the environments. The first stage is to draw some thumbnails so I can use those as a basis for the compositions. The second stage is to build an object palette. I'll be putting the commonly used assets in there so I can get faster at populating the scenes and keep everything a consistent scale and art style. It's slow going, but a lot of fun :)

And finally: The Toad!

2011-10-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

The Toad is a simple creature with simple needs. Will the fox make a friend or a furry Hors d'oeuvre?

Badges Badges Badges

2011-10-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Just got a test batch of badges back. Good news is that they look great. Bad news is that they're not good enough. I want them to be perfect - so I'm going to make some tweaks and get another batch done :)

Introducing: The Owl!

2011-10-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

When the other animals run out of answers, they know who to come to. He is the keeper of information, literally, his library is vast. But this time, his books cannot solve this problem...will our hero be able to?

Introducing: The Goat!

2011-10-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

The goat's massive horns and thick skull can smash through boulders, but do not think that this makes him dim witted. The fox must tread carefully both in conversation and literally as not to be squashed under one of his hulking hooves!

Gallery Show

2011-10-03T02:56:00.001-07:00

I was asked to include some of the characters from The Paper Fox in a new exhibition at the NGV. If you're in Melbourne, then you can head to the new Studio space in the NGV (Federation Square). Seven of my prints are in the exhibit Game/Play which runs until November 6th. I'm honored to have my artwork included alongside some incredibly talented artists.

Introducing: The Trout!

2011-09-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

This piscine powermonger is a purveyor of information. He knows the secret of the fox's quest, so will he help or hinder our hero on his journey?

Introducing: The Boar!

2011-09-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

This mighty swine from the lowlands has much responsibility resting on his powerful shoulders. Will the fox be able to aid him in his hour of need?

Introducing: The Fireflies!

2011-09-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

These little guys will help the fox in his darkest hour...

Introducing: The Stag!

2011-09-09T00:52:00.000-07:00

This wise old creature has inhabited the deep forest for as long as anyone can remember. There's not a lot that goes on in the land without him knowing. With all his wisdom, will he be able to help the fox figure out the mystery of the earthquakes?

First milestone reached!

2011-09-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

The project has now reached it's initial funding goal of $5000. Thank you to all those who have pledged, you're the best!

But it's not over yet...The next milestone is to reach $8000 so we can add in a "stage 2" level of finish to the project! Some simple animation, music and basic interactivity.

So keep spreading the Paper Fox word and hopefully we'll get there, and then some!

Pozible LAUNCHED!

2011-08-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

UPDATE
Wow it hasn't even been 24 hours and my project is already 43% funded!! A massive thanks to all who have pledged their support, I've been really blown away by all the positive feed back I've been given.

Thanks also to those who have been passing the message along, the more people who see this the better the finished book will be.

If you haven't had a chance to pledge yet there is still plenty of time :)

*****

I finally finished everything to launch my Crowd Funding page. So head on over using the link in the side bar if you would like to pledge your support and buy a print (or two!).

I'm really happy with how it's all coming together.Funny as soon as it launched I had equal feelings of relief, excitement and the realisation that there's still a lot of work to do. Exciting times!

The prints are in!

2011-08-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hot off the press, the prints have arrived. I must say, they've blown me away. I got them done at Image Science in North Melbourne and couldn't recommend them highly enough. The stock is beautiful, thick and lustrous: 'Museo Portfolio Rag' an ultra-matte fine art cotton rag paper with no optical brighteners at all. The colours are stunning and the characters and scene jump off the page. Lovely!

Test environment completed

2011-08-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

This is the first full scene I've worked up. I'm calling this a test environment because I'm not sure if this is definitely going in the book, but this is certainly an example of the quality I'm looking for. Everything came together really well, I'm very happy with the results.

Introducing: The Crystal Spider!

2011-08-30T16:42:00.000-07:00

This massive arachnid inhabits the wulfenite caves. She has lived there for such a long time that the crystals from the caverns have begun to form on her spinnerets. Her appearance alone scares most spelunking creatures out of the caves, but if they would stay and talk to her, they would be quite surprised...

Introducing: The Dire Wolf!

2011-08-30T16:36:00.001-07:00

To be the leader of a pack of dire wolves, one must have a certain countenance. This is not to say he's the meanest of the bunch, but he's rather a no nonsense kind of canis lupus. Usually inhabiting the mountains, his pack is forced to retreat to the forest by the earthquakes and he is none too happy about his re-location.

Introducing: The Snapping Turtle!

2011-08-30T16:30:00.001-07:00

He may look like a grump, but this ancient creature of the swamps has seen a thousand seasons come and go and is as gentle as they come. Years of solitude have left this soggy sage with an odd demeanor and a special way about expressing himself... will the fox understand his riddles?

Introducing: The Fox!

2011-08-30T16:29:00.001-07:00

Meet the hero of our adventure! He's a tenacious and chipper fellow. Although he will have to travel far and wide, he won't complain! He's forever the optimist.

Finally...what is the project?

2011-08-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

I finally have a bit of time to tell you all about the Paper Fox (working title).

I created the paper fox in my spare time last year and decided he would make a dashing character for a children's picture book. So earlier this year I sat down with my sister Amanda, a published fiction author, and started brainstorming.

Within a week Amanda had written a great first draft from our ideas. I started thinking about ways I could fund for this project so that I could really devote some time to bringing the book to life. A little research led me to the idea of crowdfunding and the company Pozible. They enable people to pledge money towards your project in return for rewards. It's a win win, where creative people can get some money for a project they want to get off the ground and people can not only support them, but get some cool stuff in the process.

At the moment I am getting everything in place to put my project onto Pozible and will keep you updated as to when it gets launched

I will be updating this blog weekly so please check back for updates, or better yet you can follow me on facebook.

Cheers Jez

Crowd Funding Video

2011-08-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks my friend Marcelo has been busily editing, splicing and refining some footage that he shot for the crowd funding video. It's nearly ready to go and looking fantastic! I've decided to go with an Australian site called Pozible for the crowd funding. It's well designed, clean and easy to use. Now we just need to get everything together for it... More details to come! Here's a sneak peak at the vid (what a dork):

Thanks again to Marcelo for making this experience fun, painless and producing something way above my expectations :)

An early 3D paper test

2011-08-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

This was an early test I did to see if I could get a nice looking paper texture for the animals and the environment.

After a lot of tweaking textures and numbers, I was able to get the look I was going for. :)

Some more storyboards!

2011-08-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

Here's some more storyboards. These'll be going into the video! more on that later... WOOP!

Storyboards

2011-08-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of storyboards I worked up. Very rough - just to give an idea of the general vibe rather than the template for the final images. These took about an hour each. Fun to make! Will post some more as I make them.

First Post!

2011-08-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Set up project blog. Tick! :)

Updates to come...