This is not a test!

I designed, modeled, rigged, and posed this guy myself (animation is in progress). I just got sick of borrowing someone else's character just so I can animate something for someone else. This time I'm doing this for me. So there.

By the way, the character shown is the Shaman. The title of the animated short is Why The Sky Is High. It is based on an old Filipino folk tale.

And now for that nap :)

Wolverine VS The Hand v1.0

Hey it's Wolverine month and to start off celebrations here's an animation test I made of good ole Logan duking it out with a few of his favorite ninja pals. I'm calling it version 1.0 because the truth is it's not absolutely, completely finished :(

Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some time to polish it some more, do a few tweaks and of course add music and sound effects. Stay tuned for the final version :)

Something New: SNIKT!

I'm still far off from finalizing the animation for this test (yes another test) but I must admit that I am very excited about how it is turning out. Many thanks to Mike Kiessling for the wolverine model & rig and also to Dan Neufeldt & CGnetworks.com for the ninja model & rig. Couldn't have done any of this without your cool characters.

I guess this is how it would look like if Eadweard Muybridge had a session with Logan and The Hand.

Something New: Ballerina Animation Test

Hey, I can still animate! It's been years since I've done any serious animating and it feels great to get some hands-on stuff going. The animation is part of a secret project I'm working on. (this test is very short. only 7 seconds long)



This Ballerina is the Andy Rig courtesy of John Doublestein

Posterity Post; BTX

In the early part of 2006, a grand project was being planned. A relatively old and successful movie was going to get a reboot. The film project was Peque Gallaga's Batang X and I was tasked to create the teaser pitch. So with a few artist friends and some former students of mine plus the support of the Unitel Production facility we started cooking. First we did some planning and design, then created a CG character and animated her, then shot some live footage against greenscreen, and last we finished it up with some vfx magic and graphics. This is what we came up with.

BTX story reel


BTX 3D animatic



Studio Shoot (photos by Philip Alpajora)




BTX Final


Concept and Direction: Dennis E. Sebastian
Art Direction: Hendrick Gonzales
Cinematography: Philip Alpajora
Camera: Errol Afed
CG Character Model: Voltaire Cada
Character Animation: Albert Ao
Editing and Graphics: Denise Castillo
Additional Graphics: Justin Luciano

Batang X original story by Peque Gallaga
3NA Character Design by Dwight Gaston

So what happened after all that hard work?
The project went to someone else of course.

oh well...

Posterity Post; Ma'yo Storyboards

Here are the complete storyboards for the animated short Ma'yo. I pitched it, it got the "Green Light", and then it went to development limbo.

Ringjo Fua created the great line art based on a shot list I made (I didn't have time to write the full on screenplay but I knew the shots that I wanted inside and out).

It would have been really fun if we got to make this short. sigh...

Maybe Mcdonald's would be interested :)

Posterity Post; Safety Off MV

Yet another animation concept left out in music video limbo. We are developing this one as a graphic novel/novelette. If we get funding this will come out in print. If not then it will probably be just another freebie comic on the web.

As cliche as it may appear, this is actually based on a true story. No, really.

Again Development Art is by Hendrick Gonzales and Story/Concept is by me.