Mayan New Year

My buddy Chris and I rarely see each other now that we've gone separate ways in our professional lives (he was my work boyfriend) so we schedule time to see each other during our hour lunch breaks.  While enjoying my cheese hot dog, tater tots, and contemplating the world not ending, I thought about how lucky I am to have such good friends.  What was to be a meeting of two grew to nine people pulling together tables and joking and laughing loudly.  This brought me to think about how much I enjoy the technology that keeps us together.  From seeing friends we wouldn't even know anymore on Facebook, to the everyday chats over IM.  I'm grateful that today is just another day.  A day to see friends and break bread like the Mayan's did ages ago, and a day to enjoy how far we have come as a species of animals on this earth.

Epic Mickey 2

"There’s pleasure to be found in Epic Mickey 2’s cut-scenes,... Lightning has struck twice for Powerhouse Studio, the outsourced animation team reunited to create Epic Mickey 2’s retro-flavored 2D cut-scenes. These are a stunning visual highlight, Powerhouse capturing a character’s bemusement or glee with just a raise of a squiggle or a slight shift of a black dot. The team has done well to create animations that retain Spector’s mad vision while feeling distinctively old-school."

Quote taken from an IGN article posted last week.

Happy Halloween

This year I thought I'd dress as our company mascot for the Powerhouse Costume Contest.  I used sheets of styro foam from Home Depot ($9) hot glued together to make a block.  Then I shaved that into form with a house hold box cutter.  Once the nose and chin looked decent enough (did this part in one evening) I hot glued yellow felt ($5) to the styro foam for skin tone and that wanna-be Muppet look.  Next I used a sheet of black crochet plastic mesh ($.59) for the eyes, eye brows, and mouth (in order to be able to see).  The helmet is a plastic army helmet from Pary City ($.99) spray painted yellow ($4).  The gloves ($14.99) are also from Pary City, which I intended to dye but didn't chance after reading the directions.  Then one plain blue button up shirt and some re-use Mario overalls, and there ya go!  Mr. Powerhouse.

sculpting the styrofoam

testing the head fit

Click here to check out more awesome costumes from the Powerhouse Crew

Update: totally scored 2nd place, woo!

Powerlines

Powerlines- n. A collection of art from the folks at Powerhouse Animation

This snazzy publication is brought to you by the talented artists at Powerhouse Animstion Studios. Special thanks to Chris Beaver for compiling the actual print and media. Come by our booth at this years Wizard Con to support the cause. Powerlines will be available for $20 a copy.

ESPN Pod-casts with Bill Simmons

Bill Simmons and Jeff Ross

 When Jeff Ross was on 'Dancing With The Stars,' his "friend" Cousin Sal pranked him by texting Jeff that he was safe from that night's elimination). When Jeff got voted off (to Sal's delight), their ensuing feud could only be resolved by non other then Tom Cruise. True Story!

Therapy Diary Session 3: Give it Three Weeks

Episode 3 of Season 1: Time gets away from our subject when he accidentally starts an intimate relationship with his therapist only to realize it's a bad decision for several reasons.

Follow the creator on twitter here

Therapy Diary Session 2: Love and Therapy

Episode 2 of Season 1: Our subject finds it hard to focus as he struggles with the possibility that he may be sexually attracted to his therapist and the feeling might be mutual.

Follow the creator on twitter here

Therapy Diary Session 1: Inside Voices

Episode 1 of Season 1: After failing to escape a family intervention, our subject is forced into therapy and agrees to begin documenting his progress, but he soon discovers he's not the only crazy person in the room.

Follow the creator on twitter here

Story Time with Jalen Rose

Powerhouse Animation busts out yet another fine piece of animated story telling for ESPN. My work includes the shadows, some small effects, and of course post. Enjoy.

Powerlines

Powerhouse Animation Studios is releasing their first book in what should prove to be a delightful series of artwork. Our very own Chris Beaver has taken lead on manufacturing this most awesome collection of art from various Powerhousians including this piece contributed by myself. See if you can spot all 15 differences. Good luck!

ESPN Pod-casts with Bill Simmons

Check out this very cool Podcast animated by the cool cats at Powerhouse Animation. My work on this piece includes post production, special effects and the character animation in the car scene. Enjoy.

2D Character Design vol.2

Exactly 1 year later, I've taken a stab at redrawing my little guy. So this is sort of a self progress check at how far my 2D skills have come while working at Powerhouse. There is definitely some progress here, some good and bad things, and things I will work on perfecting in the future.

left : 07-20-11 wacom intuos3 tablet, Adobe Flash
right : 07-19-12 wacom cintiq, Adobe Flash

World's Dumbest - Joan Mayo

Spoilers with Kevin Smith: Dick Van Dyke

Powerhouse Animation was recently asked to create several animated shorts for Kevin Smith's smodcasts. We've had a lot of fun working on these over the past few months. Now that they've been released I wanted to show off my (and my fellow Powerhousians') work.

In this "Dick Van Dyke" edition of the show I was in charge of VFX and post production. I got to make some interesting cartoon water and move some clouds about.
Get more info from the PHA blog or watch the full set of episodes on Hulu.

4th of July E-card

This 4th of July Powerhouse Animation teamed up with Sparky the fire safety dog to bring you this awesome E-card.  The Red Unit staff worked hard to animate this funny bunny card, including character animation, special effects, and sound effects, by yours truly.

Click here to watch the E-card

Hot Zombie!

Truncheon M is proud to announce completion of Hot Zombie Hot Sauce's marketing campaign art!

Truncheonm.com

Spoilers with Kevin Smith: Rick Springfield

Powerhouse Animation was recently asked to create several animated shorts for Kevin Smith's smodcasts. We've had a lot of fun working on these over the past few months. Now that they've been released I wanted to show off my (and my fellow Powerhousians') work.

In this "Rick Springfield" edition of the show I was in charge of VFX and post production. In two of the driving scenes I got to tackle the dreaded perspective looping background. I also threw in some some flashing cop lights and Rick's drunk bubbles. Gotta love Trapcode's Particular, I think it's my favorite part of AE. Thanks for watching.
Get more info from the PHA blog or watch the full set of episodes on Hulu.

World's Dumbest - Danny Bonaduce

This awesome piece of animation was made by the Red Unit of Powerhouse Animation Studios. Check out some cool scrolling backgrounds and visual effects done by yours truly.

TM is Twitterpated

So Truncheon M Productions is now officially Twitter-pated!  Check out our social media links and friend / follow / like / link or whatever us. Yeah!

Get Twitter-patted with TM



Truncheon M Channel



Truncheon M on FB



Truncheon M is deviant, are you?



Flicker with TM



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Sport some TM shwag!

Jasper the Mule

The project entitled Jasper the Mule wrapped today after more then two years of hard work from the Powerhouse crew. Out of the four direct to DVD features, I had the honor of working on "Turkey Time" and "Fabulous Fourth". My work included the animation of the 3D assets in the final shot of Turkey Time, as well as some of the lip sync for the character Louise. I also contributed to the clean of the symbols used for Jasper the mule, as well as the post production of both features. In Fabulous fourth I created the fly's point of view scenes using Adobe After Effects. The above image was created using symbols and background from the final scene in Fabulous fourth (animated by Ronnie Wiliford and Aaron Roma) re-purposed by yours truly for the celebratory cake. Check out the official post at the Powerhouse Blog.

I created this image (with accurate medieval horse tack and armour) for Mr. Doug Beck's secret Santa gift Xmas 2011. Thanks for the guidance and encouragement Doug!

Grammaropolis Music Video 3

The third, and perhaps my favorite, music video I did special effects on for the Grammaropolis project. The sparkles and color growth was achieved with masks and particular in after effects. The song is rather catchy too. Enjoy.

Grammaropolis Music Video 2

This is the second music video created by Powerhouse Animation for Grammaropolis. My work on this video includes the character animation on the first scene (up to the pamphlet on fire safety) and all special effects.

Grammaropolis Music Video 7

This is the 7th Music Video created by Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. for Grammaropolis. As the special effects animator on this piece I was responsible for creating the audio bars in the background and the light show in the last scene.

Grammaropolis Music Video 6

This is the sixth music video created for Grammaropolis in which I did the special effects. Check out the Elton John'esk portrait shot.

Grammaropolis Music Video 5

Grammaropolis Music Video 1

This music video was designed and animated by my coworkers at Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. for Grammaropolis. I was fortunate enough to be the special effects animator on this piece. I can take credit for the groovy little sound wave animation you see behind the dancing nouns.

Naked Lunch

Thanks to the model and hosts for this weeks Naked Lunch.  My piece was selected as the model's top pic this session.
Are you deviant?

Rooter the Radioactive Truffel Hunting Pig

My friend Chris asked me to be part of a very special project making an animated 3D short he and a co-worker thought up. I was delighted to agree to help and opted to take on the creation of the farm assets and backgrounds. Several months later I'm honored to show of the final design for the Farm House.

Website Header

I'm in the process of creating Truncheonm.com version 4.0 and here is a sample of the header I'm thinking of useing.