Doug's Intro

Animator/Illustrator/Student Director

A drawing is an idea. As an animator, I turn ideas into stories.
I am currently a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute. It's been a blessing and privilege to be a student there after earning my AFA at the Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, IL. I keep this as a journal of my latest projects and explorations in animation.

Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/user4679231
DeviantArt - http://drmeloche.deviantart.com/

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Abstraction In Motion #1 - Pendulum

Through early explorations of 3D-Layers in After Effects I've recreated the old Pendulum exercise.



Inspired by U2's music video "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight".

The Makings of Maya Modeling

Digging into Maya CG modeling. This seems a lot trickier than necessary; mostly because of my perfectionist tendencies. Like all animation, I have to first get past the idea of getting it to look perfect. That only costs me time and sanity. That effect increases exponentially in Maya. Enough gab...Here's some screen captures of my progress so far.
Reconstruction of Perspective Drawing in Three-Dimensional Space

Currently Reconstructing a Still-Life Photograph (I'm looking forward to the cloth)


Wednesday, August 31, 2011

No More Mr.Sadman


I could hardly believe it. It was only my second week back at KCAI and I had already threw myself into a phunk. I had all these drawings finished at the end of the summer and thought I'd have them colored by now. I was letting it get me down. I was bumming because I also hadn't found any time to dig back into hand drawn animation.

Then amidst my self-induced suffering, a savior spoke these words, "Loosen Up Man". Studio truly is the greatest place on earth. I figured I had to take the time to draw, because I just wasn't enjoying my 3D-Modeling stuff.

VIOLA!! I let my pencil fly and something wonderful happened. I began drawing rough sketches that had more life to them then my neat and clean illustrations. You'll be seeing a lot more of these speedy "fun" drawings. I think I finally found my niche with drawing.

About time I beat that bad attitude. I'm no fun to be around when I get sulky.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Stop Motion Break Through


Daybreaks from Douglas Meloche on Vimeo.

Alright! I have had some considerable progression with animation. While there are a lot of things happening here that I'm proud of there's still room for obvious improvement:
1) LIGHTING!! (apparently it doesn't help if all your light sources are behind the camera.)
2) After Effects Post Comp
3) Camera Moves (probably can't do a smooth one without some kind of stable rigging)


Here is the complete video after all our films were edited together. CHEERS!!

Exquisite Corpse from Matthew Lloyd on Vimeo.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

2010-11 Demo Reel

Just realized I hadn't posted my Demo Reel from last semester. This collectively allows me to assess my strengths, weaknesses, and which pieces have the potential to become portfolio grade quality.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Getting My Feet Wet

Okay, I've begun playing around with Illustrator, and . . . I LOVE IT! Oh Vectors, how you amaze and perplex me. This portrait is part of a small series of a few of my friends back home.

Issues I'm still working on:
Figuring out the Layering System
Brush & Pen Tools
Exporting an image to a specific size and file type


Friday, June 3, 2011

Roger Evans, So Totally The Man

I know he's already taken Cartoon Brew by storm, but I just HAD to share the latest about his epic "Quest".

Being a fan of the Hanna Barbara animated series, "Johnny Quest", Roger Evans has set out to reproduce the show's popular intro sequence in Stop-Motion. His puppets are incredible and he offers valuable post-production tips.

Check out his website (do it, DO IT NOW!) http://www.rogerevans.tv/jq_page2.html