Looking back...way back!

After finishing the animation and looking at some of the backgrounds i decided that they needed work, also composing the shots was another important thing to improve on. So after doing a few sketched i come up with this composition.

The End Of An Era......Nah!!!

Well after a few weeks work and design the animation showcasing the origins story of spidersam and J-flash was finally animated in the style 2 emulate the intro to the film Zoom Academy of superheroes. I decided that some of the characters needed a little more editing to give them an improved look so after adding shade and tone this is what they looked like.



































































































And Here is the animation i created using after effects and photoshop alone. The sound was created by Jed Backhouse and The Voice Over done by Stuart Fitch.

Creating a Template and Presenting!

As I had to present my idea to tutors i created a few simple slides to show what i was going to get at. These are The Inital ideas board and A Comic Book Presentation board.

Lets Put A Face To A Name!

After reviewing the whole story and looking at what we had designed we noticed that every character has a mask or something hiding their face...and then begun to wonder what they actually looked like underneath. After some deliberation and a few designing sessions we decided on this kind of image tho the style the lines are done in again do not reflect the constant look that was finally achieved. The Second image is again a concept for the final pages of the 1st and only issue of 'J-flash and Spidersam' as the second issue is planned to be called 'Red Thunder And The Dark Phantom' and follow the discovery of the heroes new found abilities.
The Faces drawing also shows J-flash Mk 4, tho this is the only time this style has been seen. (it was my first attempt at drawing with a graphics tablet. Didnt go too bad I think)

A Whole new style!

After recieving the 2008 D&ad Competition Briefs i discovered my next chance to revive j-flash in yet another different way. sticking to the story devised using the "urban knights" i am sam started to properly storyboard a 1st issue.
Here is a sketch of the 1st page and its photoshop'd counterpart.













































Along with this the characters were again re designed after watching a short animation on the net. Here is a full list of characters along with short descriptions.

The New Look J-flash



















The New Look Spider-Sam





















The New Look Emo Boy






















A New Character, Dream























And Gud Old Galaxy Girl in her villain costume.

A New Beginning.

Once that project had ended and university was over it was time to start working in the summer which ate into alot of time. There was a few separate projects on, one with a group of comic book fanatics who recond there hand at creating there own and i was welcomed in. The second style of j-flash was created then which gave the character a much more western animation look shown here.



















Each different person had there own job and yet gaps in the team began to show. Mainly a devide straight down the middle. Some members came and went but for a couple of months it was all good. Then the petty squabbling and pointless attacks at each other were breaking the group and progression stopped. This is where i took my leave from the team and went back to my own passion "jflash and spider-sam".
Back with the univerity course for another year and new ideas were found. yet still nothing.
Then I recieved an email from Sam again, he had revised the story and introduces several new characters. So on with the task of designing the characters. firstly 'galaxy girl'.
Here is a concept drawing of her.





















And Another One of a prototype emo-lad


























So Now we have a small team beginning to assemble and things start to pic up quite quickly.

A Simple Story For A Simple Game

After attempting to combine my passion for the ever developing "adventures of j-flash and spider-sam" with my university coursework, I attemped to use flash to generate an online game following one of the many stories me and my collegue had created. The follow up to the 1st issue a short story about the restoration of the powers they had previously recieved (granted the final story line went another way but wel shall get to that later).
This is the photographic story that i designed to illustrate the flow of the game and to provide a bridge between the 6 levels. After much arguing with actionscript i managed to get a semi-working level demo. Anyway i digress
Here is the 6 page photo comic. Click to view full screens.

Giving it a bit of style!

With the main concept's down it was time to add in a bit of style and give a definative look to the characters . I started to play with the designs looking at my most recent influences. being marvel comics. and looking at the whole montage of two characters.





















And also the quickly inked versions of the characters.




















Not the best work i have to add but still an important stepping stone in the overall scope.

The Vectored Touch!

The Christmas period came and life at uni halted. Things were quite quiet at home so what does an artist do when he is bored, he draws. So by this point i had just gotten hold of the adobe suite and was tinkering and found a liking to illustrator. So the designing process began all over again. This time playing with the fine tools i had at my disposal. These did take a while but that was with the old mouse there and the pen tool was a fantastic way of getting round it (the pen tool in photoshop not quite being what i had hoped). With a laptop in one hand and the sketches in another it was time to design. And Design i did! After the main layout was down it was a matter of filling in the gaps and showing what i can really do with a new programme.
These are the two main representations of the j-flash character and his super powered counterpart "red thunder"











Soon After these images came revamps of the brother character in the story
"Spidersam" And the "Dark Phantom" altho this is the brain child of Sam Eastwood, and the final look for The Dark Phantom is still yet to be officially finalised, mainly because its his character not mine.

Here is a shot of both Spidersam And J-flash which was a quick mock up.

Concept ideas mk 1

Well after a drunken night out and some great snapshots of us all dressed up as superheroes the original images were no more. The character representing myself was changed. The colours and name now in place. With a shift from blue to red and the name of "J-Flash" after the DC character things were starting to look like they could heat up.
After this inital idea the old pencil started its work and devised a character look over night that has only minorly altered since its birth.

Some of the primary sketches of "j-flash"

The Beginning

The Start of a long project (sorry am only just getting it online shoulda been a while ago really)
Neways follow the story and flow if you will.

This Very Quick Sketch is what started the ideas rolling over a year ago now. Ah how far its come. Taken from a photograph of myself and a friend in manchester on a day of collectormania and freerunning. little did we know it was the start of something very big indeed!