Dean Elliott

FX Guide Article

2011-09-08T13:20:00.004+10:00

FX Guide has just done an article on Iloura's work for "Don't be Afraid of the Dark". Beware, it contains spoilers, ....

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/iloura-vfx-isnt-afraid-of-the-dark/

2009 Demo Reel

2011-07-11T11:07:00.004+10:00

Here's a link to my latest Character Animation Reel. Because none of the films l've worked on over the last 2 years have been released yet l can't show any of my more recent work. So this is all from my time at Act3animation.

http://www.vimeo.com/26223727

Old Men

2011-06-07T10:38:00.004+10:00

I downloaded the trail version of Painter 12 last night. I didn't delve too far into the new features, but it mostly looks like a 'lick of paint' update. Still there's some nice new brushes. I used the 2B pencil for these quick sketches.

Happy Feet Two

2011-05-27T09:11:00.001+10:00

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

2011-04-20T08:52:00.003+10:00

... Coming August 12th .....

Samurai

2011-02-04T08:32:00.002+11:00

Whenever You Think Something Is Done

2010-09-08T13:38:00.003+10:00

You can always push it further. I thought l'd achieved what l was after here, ...

... but taking another look ....

.... and another ....

... always helps! This is an illustration for a childrens book submission l did a while back. The image improved along the way, although l did really like how the ears turned out in the first version.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

2010-08-07T19:43:00.003+10:00

The trailer has been released, ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCaXfiO8hk

Outback

2010-08-01T16:10:00.003+10:00

Well life is as busy in Sydney as it was in Melbourne. Moving around working on films seems to leave little time for painting and drawing unfortunately. Although l have finished developing HenryVille and l'm starting to submit the strip to publishers now. I'll try to update the blog with a couple examples in the near future. As for work, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" is set to be unleashed on the public in January, and "Happy Feet 2" is moving along well.

I'm growing more confident that my old short film, Outback, is never going to be completed, ... and since l don't have a lot of new artwork to update the blog with, l thought l'd add a small selection of the concept art l did for the film 'years' ago when l was developing it.

JMAC Solutions

2010-08-01T15:59:00.002+10:00

Logo Design for an old Mate, ....

Meet Snots

2010-03-10T16:54:00.001+11:00

Playing with Inkscape. An ugly interface, but nice tool selection.

AniRamble

2010-03-08T08:13:00.002+11:00

I've just setup a new blog with 3 fellow animators who are working on the film at the moment here at Iloura. Its basically a place where we can post anything animation related that we find either inspiring or useful to each other. So if your interested, head over and check it out here, ...

AniRamble

HenryVille

2009-09-04T11:25:00.004+10:00

HenryVille is a comic strip l developed over 12 months ago and haven't had a chance yet to see if anyone wants to publish it. The strip follows Henry and his 'unique' friend Monkey as they go about changing the world. The strips are designed to work both as single gags on their own, but also develop together as an extended tale and entice the reader to return to the comic like a soap opera. Something l thought was missing from the current disposable wasteland of commercial cartoons being published. (Generally comics these days l find to be just throw away one-liners, which is why l think they've been de-valued and their page sizes steadily decreased over the years.)

This sample is one of the first strips l wrote while l was still developing the characters and the greater plot line.

(Click on the strip to see a larger, readable, version.)

Quack Quack

2009-08-14T09:49:00.003+10:00

This is a section of an illustration l did a couple of months ago. It was one of three pieces l did for a submission to try to get a book illustration job. The 3 images were done pretty quickly to make the deadline and l wasn't completely happy with how they turned out in the end. I do like this Duck though, l thought the illustration style worked ok here.

Didn't get the job, so l'll be interested to see what the final illustrations look like when it comes out. I'll try to post another one or two of these soon.

Coming Soon ....

2009-05-27T11:53:00.002+10:00

The blog has just had its 4000th visitor!! That's worth celebrating with a new pic. Unfortunately l've only got something small to post at the moment. This is a sample of an illustration l'll put up soon on the site called "Monkey See Monkey Chew".

A Quick Sketch

2009-05-25T13:37:00.000+10:00

Hey Cow

2009-04-07T09:12:00.004+10:00

Things have been very busy lately. And as usual it is my blog who is last to receive some long overdue attention. This is an illustration l've done for a new venture which l will be announcing soon, l don't have all the details yet, but for now it's a sample of what's in store.

Wildebeast

2009-02-19T15:51:00.003+11:00

(An old painter study l did in August 2006)

Calm Down Ladies

2009-02-07T13:38:00.000+11:00

Painter Head

2009-01-13T17:06:00.002+11:00

Another screen recording of a quick sketch, ...

Monster 2

2009-01-08T11:49:00.001+11:00

I tried to screen record this one but l lost it, ....

Monster & the still life

2009-01-07T17:56:00.003+11:00

I've never understood why people paint in Photoshop. I've always found it to be painful and set up badly for painting compared to Painter which is what l've always used for my digital paintings. The brushes are average, the smudge tool is annoying and there's no shortcuts for changing brush size. So when l found a Pshop painting tutorial on Dice Tsutsumi's site l had to try.

The apple was my first attempt, and then l tried to use the process on one of my own designs. Suffice to say, ..... l like it.

Boo Hoo!!

2008-12-11T13:49:00.003+11:00

I've posted a couple of character designs for my children's book on my blog in the past, but l thought l'd like to put up one of the page spreads that l've done. I wrote my ill-fated story "The Muha Monster" sometime last year and put together a package to send around to a few publishers. I kind of hurried it a little because l was so eager and that showed by the fact that it hasn't yet been picked up. When l get some time l'm planning on revisiting it and working out a few of the kinks, but in the meantime here's the first test illustration l did for it. This is actually still a WIP - the intention is to have the illustration span both pages and the text will be worked into a large tree trunk on the left (It's unlikely l'll get to this anytime soon though, ...)

Screen Recording

2008-11-22T11:40:00.004+11:00

I downloaded some screen recording software a while ago to record some of my illustrations as l'm working on them. I always find it really interesting when other artists do the same, its great to watch an image come together.

This is a very quick piece l did simply to test out the settings on the screen recording software when l got it. I did a couple of these so l might upload some more soon. They were interesting because l didn't plan what l was going to sketch. This guy came out of the silhoutte that l started with. The video is sped up, l think this took about 8-9 minutes to do.

Here's the final image, ...

... and here's how it came together, ...

Dont Call Me Stupid

2008-11-19T10:24:00.003+11:00

I thought this may be something different to my usual 2D work that l (rarely) post. You may have seen this character in an earlier post on my blog. Or you might recognise him from my current facebook pic.

This is an old character animation test l did a few years ago now, originally l built the character to use in a short film .... but the film is still in production ... as they all usually are. I've still got some WIPs of this animation as l was creating it, so l may upload a few of those to show how l go about animating a character in such a shot in the future, but for now here's the final render....

A Quick Warm Up Sketch

2008-10-03T18:14:00.002+10:00

James Charles On Main

2008-09-11T14:08:00.005+10:00

I recently designed a logo and some business cards. I'll post the website when its done too.

Nursery Paintings

2008-07-10T11:37:00.003+10:00

A few weeks ago l ventured back to a place that l dont dare travel to very often. It's been a LONG time since l finished my illustration course, and since then l've worked almost exclusively digitally. Its just so much faster to work digitally and it has a couple of great features that traditional mediums simply dont have. 'Undo' is an obvious one, and for me the ability to fine tune colours endlessly makes my work look far better than it otherwise could.

But with the arrival of our baby approaching l wanted to get some "real" artwork up in the nursery. To cut a long story short, painting these canvasses was the first time in a long time that l've enjoyed painting again away from the computer. They actually turned out exactly as l'd planned them ..... apart from one minor oversight .... l forgot to paint the elephant's tail. Oh well.

Ellwaste Booklet Cover

2008-06-27T08:28:00.004+10:00

This is a cover for the Ellwaste Company Information Booklet that l recently did. I've also just completed the Ellwaste Website in the last week ... only took a speedy 3 years to complete!! Check it out at www.ellwaste.com.au if your interested.

We've Had An Upgrade

2008-04-24T09:50:00.001+10:00

I thought the blog could do with a bit of "foofing up"

Go Girl

2008-04-22T11:42:00.003+10:00

This is 1 of 3 tender illustrations l did for a childrens book not too long ago. The other 2 didn't turn out as well as l'd hoped (even though it was a quick brief), ... but l don't mind this one.

Girl

2008-03-06T13:44:00.003+11:00

There might be a job on the horizon where l'll need to improve my rendering skills of the females. This is a snippet from a test illustration l've done recently to try to get myself back into the 2D swing of things.

Meet the Author

2008-02-26T10:05:00.003+11:00

The main purpose for this post is below, but l couldn't go past putting an image up. This one's a snippet from a test illustration l did for my Children's Book idea ....

Now for the important stuff, Leia has kindly tagged me so its time for me to answer a few questions. Here's the deal.
A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog

10 years ago: I was studying illustration in Melbourne and getting told by the teachers of the course that "we would never earn any money from it". (Inspirational people weren't they!)

5 Things on my to-do-list today:
1. Get a coat of paint onto a couple of rooms in our house
2. Eat
3. Go to Bendigo to pick up my suit for my mates wedding
4. Eat
5. Eat again

What I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire:
Number 1 would be to travel. Starting in Africa to see what we didn't see there last year (which is a lot) and just going from there. Possibly spending half the year travelling and the other half making my own films (which l would do by decking out a bus and travelling around Australia working from inside as l go) for the rest of my life. l'd invest a little too, but donate most of it to a selection of my favorite charities.

Three of my bad habits:
1. Sleeping in
2. Eating too many dim sims
3. Always starting too many projects at once and never finishing any.

Three places I have lived:
The last 3 have been Echuca, Cohuna and Taylors Hill in Melbourne.

5 jobs that I have had:
Trench digger
Medical Waste Collector
Wine Salesperson
Animator
Playback Engineer

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I'm really an alien.
2. I take medication that costs more than l earn in a year
3. I happily pay my taxes (look at number 2 for explanation)
4. I don't care what goes into dim sims. I'll eat em anyway.
5. I'd love to travel around the blues fesivals playing John Lee Hooker, Hendrix and BB King on my guitar. Because people need to hear the blues.

Buck

2008-02-07T09:41:00.000+11:00

Well 2000 hits on the blog just ticked over, .... so since about 1900 of them are probably me that makes a solid 100 visitors to the page over the last couple of years. Impressive numbers, l'm sure google will be jealous!!

What better way to celebrate than to throw up a new pic. Here's one l did yesterday for my mate's bucks day which is gonna happen at the gee-gee's in a few weeks.

Alien

2008-01-17T14:08:00.000+11:00

This is something that came together fairly quickly. Aliens with raygun blasters are always on my mind it seems, so l sketched this out and mocked it up pretty quick. It's ok, but l look at it now and see a lot of stuff that needs fixing. not least the character design! mainly though its the lack of a warm underpainting that l like to start with now, the colour design (while not brilliant) would be a lot nicer with the warm/cool contrast under the linework ... oh well, maybe next time.

Animals

2007-12-11T08:49:00.000+11:00

Just a couple of sketches l did the other day. Animals are always fun to draw!

Be Careful ...

2007-11-08T17:45:00.000+11:00

... its hard to keep up with all this bloggin'.

Kids

2007-10-01T16:49:00.000+10:00

Again, its been a long time between posts since work has been really busy and all creative energy has bene sucked into our current job. So in the meantime here's another oldie, ....

Work Vs Cartoons

2007-07-31T08:54:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since my last update since l've been quite busy with work and a few freelance bits'n'pieces. As for work you can see the latest game trailer we've just completed online at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22855.html . And below is one of 2 freelance cartoons that completed the other day ...

REAL ART!! (Thanks to Pixar)

2007-07-02T09:10:00.000+10:00

Finally! Thursday, Friday and Saturday l spent down in Melbourne attending some visiting speakers from Pixar at ACMI's 20 Years of Pixar exhibition. I can't describe in the blog what l got out of this so l won't even try! However one thing l managed to do was to be inspired enough to come home and spend yesterday painting. With REAL paint. I'd bought a small pack of gouache a few months ago with a plan to try to paint again. Something l'd been hoping to do for the last 5 years since l discovered Painter and hid my paintbox under the bed.

To cut a long story short: the following 2 paintings are far from my best work ... but hey, they're REAL.

(I must mention that l used Bob Kato's method when painting these, which is why l stole his intense aqua uplight in the second painting. I'd actually like to go back and fix this (along with a few other things) but l can't remix the colours l need .... if only l had an eyedropper tool.)

Zombie Dave

2007-06-13T09:51:00.000+10:00

This was just an experimental illustration using some new brushes in Painter. I don't really like how it turned out at all.

Ndovu

2007-06-08T14:10:00.002+10:00

The other night l thought l'd do a warm up sketch before starting on a cartoon l'm working on. The first thing l saw was the wood carving of an Elephant we got in Africa. I sketched away. It turned out ok so during my lunch break today l thought l'd add some colour ...

Fireman Sam V2

2007-05-22T17:58:00.000+10:00

New and improved.

Fireman Sam

2007-05-17T18:22:00.000+10:00

Just a quick Tshirt design idea for a local CFA brigade.

Girls & Boys

2007-05-07T13:20:00.000+10:00

Just a selection of sketches from the weekend.

Attack of the Killer Midget!!

2007-04-17T18:13:00.000+10:00

Another project on the 'to do' list. A short, Horror Comedy, live action film. It's on the list, probably won't happen this year but l'll get there one day.

Howdy Partner

2007-04-03T09:16:00.000+10:00

Going to try to post a little more often. Its been a bit hard as l've been putting my children's book submission together since l can't show any of the work. But here's anothery from the vault. The other star from my never-to-be-completed short western, ... the Sheriff.

Self Portrait

2007-03-27T09:52:00.000+10:00

For some reason there's an unwritten rule that great artists create a self portrait very couple of years. I'm obviously not in that crew since this is my first in 28 years. It'll be the first for a while to come too, there are much sexier people to draw out there than me ... it was good fun all the same though.

Another Lucky Monkey

2007-03-19T17:37:00.000+11:00

Why is this one lucky? Because his gun is the one smoking.

Lucky Monkey

2007-03-01T09:43:00.000+11:00

This was a sketch that came about when trying to come up with some ideas for Tshirt designs. Some of the ideas where ok ... many were not, I quite liked this idea of a South American drug dealing chimp though for some reason.

Gone Fishin

2007-02-08T13:55:00.000+11:00

Since there's nothing new l can post at the moment ... here's something from the vault. A couple of ideas for a short film that is yet to materialise beyond these concepts.

Africa

2007-02-08T08:06:00.000+11:00

No new posts for a while sorry. Been sidetracked, mostly with our trip to Africa, but also working on a pet project or 2 that l can't post any sketches for. So in the meantime, here's a couple of pics from our journey through Tanzania & Kenya

I promise there's more visual goodness to come soon.

Go Ahead

2006-11-30T13:59:00.000+11:00

This is a characature l did ages ago when l was trying to learn how to use Painter a bit better. My Painter skills have since improved over time ... unfortunately the same didn't happen to the illustration.

Kids

2006-11-16T18:35:00.001+11:00

Not much l can put up at the moment, so here's an oldish image. Its not too exciting, but its new for the blog at least.

Monsters

2006-11-10T08:37:00.000+11:00

An early character concept design for my childrens book idea. Unfortunately l can't post the good concepts because if l show them here then it breaks the publishing rights for them to appear in a book (that's only IF that happens of course) But if the book fails at least l'll have heaps of great images to post!!

Rico Poster

2006-10-24T08:55:00.000+10:00

Took a still from an animation test l did with the (almost) finished Rico model and made a poster image. Not sure why.

Rico 2

2006-10-16T08:17:00.000+10:00

And here's the textured & rigged model of 'Rico'. The background Rico is sitting on is a miniature set l'm creating for the short film. The building is still the only one l've completed, but this test shows me that it'll work great.

El Blindo Fredrico

2006-10-04T13:53:00.000+10:00

A couple of years ago l started work on one of my short film ideas. A spagetti western called El Blindo Fredrico. The storyboard, concept art and one character, Rico, is all ready to go. Here's some of the concept art for Rico, i'll post the finished model sometime soon ...

Dangerous Curves

2006-09-28T09:51:00.000+10:00

Got around to it!

Finished off my Film Noir Sexpot. Tried to fix a couple of issues with the lineart but its still not right. But l've spent enough time on it, so here it is.

Film Noir

2006-09-26T10:08:00.000+10:00

One day l'll get around to writing my Film Noir comic. (One day l'll get around to a lot of things!) Hot chicks with guns, detectives, silhouette lighting ... that's what CSI should be. This sketch has got a lot of issues, but l love the genre. Perhaps l should greyscale it and finish it off.

Maasai Mara

2006-09-22T10:08:00.000+10:00

Since l'm heading to Africa in January, l felt like painting some Africans! This is just a colour concept rough for a bigger painting l'm planning.

Bin

2006-09-22T10:05:00.000+10:00

Pug

2006-09-01T17:28:00.000+10:00

10 minutes is all you need. Here's a really quick illustration l did of my dog at lunchtime. Thought l'd put up a basic progression to show how it came together. Lineart and everything was done in Painter.

Bette & Barb

2006-08-30T09:33:00.000+10:00

An illustration of Bette Midler & Barb' Streisand for the cover of a Yidcore album. Jewish Punk Rock combined with celebrities being attacked by a swarm of bees ... a match made in heaven!

Nits

2006-08-30T09:25:00.000+10:00

I've always wanted to write & illustrate a childrens book. Especially now that my wife, is a Primary School Teacher and brings home crazy ideas that the children in her class come up with. These are some initial concepts of Nits! Which my (so far very loose) story revolves around.

Mike Moore

2006-08-30T09:19:00.000+10:00

Its been a loooonng time. Here's a quick characature of Mike Moore l did. I don't even remember why it was him l drew, l think l googled people and he came up. I guess he qualifys!

Colour Roughs

2006-04-06T18:36:00.000+10:00

A couple of colour roughs for a "traditional piece" that l plan to paint on the weekend.

Kato it up a notch!

2006-03-30T15:55:00.000+11:00

Another painting. This one is an attempt to recreate the traditional painting style of Bob Kato in Painter. Its a purposeful rip-off as a learning exercise ... l take no credit. Happy with the attempt though, Painters got such a great feel. If only l could hang digital art on the wall.

Check out Bobs art here, awesome stuff!!
www.thedrawingclub.com

Farmer

2006-03-16T14:13:00.000+11:00

A random sketch.

So, ... you come here often?

2006-03-15T21:40:00.001+11:00

If you do, you come more often than l have been.

My lack of posts are largely due to the fact that my wife and l have recently bought a house!! Very exciting stuff.

Banner

2006-02-17T09:45:00.000+11:00

Mocked up this banner for the blog the other day, but then realised there's no option in here for it. Thought l'd post it anyway. I'll try to get it into the html when l get time.

Substance Abuse

2006-02-07T18:11:00.000+11:00

Just realised that this blog will be an interesting exercise in just how much l have to offer which would be of any interest to anyone other than me. My guess is not much!! There's plenty of blogs out there which are simply wastes of harddrive space. I guess this will be the same, maybe the real test is whether l will maintain any interest in it. If l dont .. that's really sad.

Not that l'm expecting anyone else to read this anyway, if you are stop wasting oxygen and go out and do something constructive.

Couldn't Resist

2006-02-07T18:07:00.000+11:00

I had to put something a little better up than that quick little concept peice. This is a logo for Moylo's fishing club l did ages ago and don't think l ever gave it to him ... oops.

First come, First served

2006-02-07T17:16:00.000+11:00

Not that anyones been served yet. Just a quick post to get going, l'll set out my aims and thoughts next time perhaps. Although l think the blog will morph its way through various iterations.

Here's an image to get us started, ...

Nothing special.