May 2023

well…time to draw Michael Distortion

First pass exploring Michael Distortion! I think round 2 will be slightly more realistic, but i’m happy with the shapes here!

Michael Shelley vs Michael Distortion!

I’m so KNACKERED by all of this LABELLING.

getting started!

Ok! I’m going to storyboard the first minute of Michael’s appearance in 101! A few things I want to focus on:

  1. Working in vertical compositions. My cool friend made a tik-tok ration storyboard pro camera, and I want to do a little dramatics with it!
  2. Warp/transform animations on Michael. Because I am more than a little obsessed with Eris from Sinbad and I want to give Michael those vibes.
  3. SPEED. Gotta go fast.
  4. And, as always, believable human acting! Sorry jarchavist, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Hope is to finish all of the drawings by Friday, color it over the weekend, have it done by Monday!

IF I can finish it on time (and still complete the OFMD roughs I’m supposed to do this week too, lol) then I’m hoping to do the LAST few minutes of Michael’s 101 appearance (and disappearance, rip)

Wish me luck! There may be late night streams on this, but probably not until it’s coloring time.

Who would have guessed my TMA 159 animatic was just an elaborate way of creating a model-sheet for Jon I can reference for other animations…


“I mean my skin’s in better condition than… ever. Is that a weird thing to say?”

Ok, turned out more creepy than I planned, sorry about that. But the storyboards are going great! I’ll finish up some nice Michael drawings for you tomorrow.

Illustration process!

  1. Sketchy thumbnail getting the general layout!
  2. still working loose and sketchy, but figuring out layout and proper perspective. You can see I changed where the camera sits, instead of focusing on the tape recorder I dropped down to the floor to show more lotion bottles! I also moved the waxworks hands up higher, to make it look like they’re reaching for Jon!

3. Very blurry, because I copy the picture and shrink it WAAAAY down to block in the lighting. I want to make sure I can tell what’s happening in the picture even if it’s teeny-tiny.
4. Lineart! Everything is split into different layers between foreground (table, bottles, big hands), middle ground (Jon, chair, spotlight) and background (ooooh all those waxworks)

05. Mattes! Nice solid colors behind each item, also in their own layers so it’s easy to edit later if i want. And finally–

06. Lighting! I put big soft shadows on the left hand and lower sides, to tone down the “visual noise” there and put a nice bright highlight on the star of the show. I want viewers to look at Jon first, then follow the hand to the table, then down to the bottles on the floor. And while I want the bg dimmer, I also need it visible enough that if people study they can see it alllll the horrors

asdfsdajfkaslfjl my friend is halfway through s3 of TMA and her guess for the podcast IS:

“Oh, I think there will be an actual apocalypse. They’re not going to be able to stop one of the rituals. I think most of the archive staff will become Avatars or die. Maybe they won’t though, maybe they’ll get out of it and end up somewhere else, away from it all.”

Me:

Oh, Archivist!

It’s almost sad to see you like this!

…Almost.

After a week of drawing “spooky scary shelley-tons” I took today to draw some jmart fluff instead. Vaguely season two-ish vibes.

Audio from the “Gaming and Giving” charity stream where Jonny and Alex did requests.

“It’s earlier than I had hoped, but that’s life I suppose…your life!”

Sorry if you were expecting more fluff, I’m doing something scary next 😅 two shots left on this one, and it’s Michael’s scary laugh entrance.

omw to tell the archivist about the HSE/OSHA violations at my workplace

Teaser meme for my Magnus 101 boards 😆 Final video is just under a minute, I’ll share it on Tuesday.

Michael “I’m going to KILL you!”

Archivist: *Frustrated Groan*

CONTENT WARNING: Body horror.

Spooky scary Shelley-tons!! Ok Michael Distortion fans, this one is for you.

Drawn in Storyboard Pro 20.1 with custom brushes from Rozlyn Waltz. The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonathan Sims, Directed by Alexander J Newall, and distributed by Rusty Quill! This clip features voice acting by Jonathan Sims and Luke Booys!

Had a lot of fun figuring out how Michael moves! Now that I’ve drawn his grand entrance, maybe someday I’ll draw the scene where he…uh…leaves.

Hey sorry, you haven’t seen a dog, have you?

Jonmartin meet-cute WIP!

teaser clip of my current project! Shots 2 and 3 are a pretty good example of what my roughs look like, getting my acting juuuuuust right!

Final video is 2 minutes, should go up on June 06th!

“WHY would there be a dog in the ARCHIVES?”