Spartan Wasteland

Latest screen shot of Martin the Spartan. The idea for the sequence came to me at work and it killed me to sit there for eight hours just waiting to get on my own computer and get this scene completed.

Wall*E and Martin the Spartan

Last week I caught Wall*E. Amazing. The first 30 minutes of the movie you forget that you are watching an animated film. I can't recall a movie that I have seen recently with this much heart. Pixar has outdone themselves. Kudos Pixar!


Martin the Spartan (The Animated Short) is coming along nicely. I had some time this past week to get to the animation of the opening scene. I'm taking a different attitude and sense of patience with this project. I really think this could be a pretty amazing project for me. Usually, I'd be in a rush to get something like this out, but not this time. I may post a snap shot here and there, but that's about it. I'm treating this as seriously as I can. If it takes another year to get this done, I'll be fine with it. I just want to finally complete something that just doesn't last two minutes and has a "to be continued" at the end and never actually continue it. MtS has the possibility to be a ongoing story other then the "short" which will introduce the story of Martin the Spartan and end with a sense of completion.

If it's not hard, it's not worth doing.

Here are some screen shots of the opening of the Animated Short "Spartan the Martin". I especially like how the museum came out. I have no release date for StM as this will be a work in progress. I've been torn about animating this, as I really didn't think I had the chops. BUT, as the saying goes...if it's not hard, it's not worth doing.

I've been fortunate to have some fresh inspiration come from different area's of my life recently and I've finally decided to make this animation happen. I love the story even more as it developes and the character designs and backgrounds have really come along to where this deserves to be animated.

Over this past weekend I saw Kung Fu Panda...for the second time. I enjoyed this movie a lot the first time around. I found it even more amazing the second time as I could take in the animation and design of the film even more. This film is definitely one of those points of inspiration. for me., right down to the soundtrack. Which I now own.

3 minutes of pure Animation Goodness!

I've been following MukPuddy animation for sometime now. I've admired pretty much everything that these four guys from New Zealand have produced. It's stuff like this short below "The Pugh's" that gets my creative juices flowing. After watching this short I told myself that somehow, someway I will get Martin the Spartan animated! If only I can talk four amazingly talented kiwi animators into doing it for me...


It's the Pughs - Help Me Rudy! from Mukpuddy on Vimeo.

The "Forgotten Land" Tablet

The "Forgotten Land" tablet, located in the London Museum of Fine Arts and Antiquities. The tablet was discovered by legendary archaeologist Arthur Mitsbottom at an undisclosed location in 1836. Little is known of the tablet or the Spartan and Evil that the text on the tablet speak of. Unfortunately this is all that was discovered. Though rumor has it that Mitsbottom found additional pieces, but lost them during a cave in of the undisclosed archaeological dig. Escaping with only his life and the story locked within his memory, Mitsbottom before his death passed on the story to his only grandson, Miles Mitsbottom as a bedtime tale.

Or so the rumor goes...

In a Forgotten Land and Time...

The verdict isn't quite out on this background. I like the mountains and the clouds over the night sky. It's the city itself that I'm still trying to decide whether I should stick with it or not. I'm going to start working on the story more over the next week and start fleshing things out a bit more.

Yep, another Martin the Spartan Background

Still working on the style and design of the Martin the Spartan backgrounds. I'm not sure if the shadowing is correct, but I think it's got a great gloomy feel to it.