www.wickedtaylor.com Open in urlscan Pro
208.113.220.118  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.wickedtaylor.com/

<form role="search" method="get" class="form-search" action="https://www.wickedtaylor.com/">
  <div class="input-group">
    <label class="screen-reader-text" for="s">Search for:</label>
    <input type="text" class="form-control search-query" placeholder="Search…" value="" name="s" title="Search for:">
    <span class="input-group-btn">
      <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default" name="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"></span></button>
    </span>
  </div>
</form>

<form id="jp-carousel-comment-form">
  <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" class="screen-reader-text">Write a Comment...</label>
  <textarea name="comment" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-textarea" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-comment-field" placeholder="Write a Comment..."></textarea>
  <div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-submit-and-info-wrapper">
    <div id="jp-carousel-comment-form-commenting-as">
      <fieldset>
        <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">Email (Required)</label>
        <input type="text" name="email" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-email-field">
      </fieldset>
      <fieldset>
        <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">Name (Required)</label>
        <input type="text" name="author" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-author-field">
      </fieldset>
      <fieldset>
        <label for="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">Website</label>
        <input type="text" name="url" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-field jp-carousel-comment-form-text-field" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-url-field">
      </fieldset>
    </div>
    <input type="submit" name="submit" class="jp-carousel-comment-form-button btn btn-default" id="jp-carousel-comment-form-button-submit" value="Post Comment">
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to main content


MIKE TAYLOR

Toggle navigation
 * 1979
 * My Work
 * About


 * 1979
   
   At long last, I’m pleased to announce the release of my short film, 1979!! A
   passion project that I’ve been working on for years, 1979 is a nostalgic look
   at young love all stop-motion animated using paper cutout puppets. You can
   find more information here, or view it in all it’s glory on Vimeo.


 * WYLDE FLOWERS
   
   Just released on Apple Arcade, I’m excited to announce Wylde Flowers! I have
   been animating on this game for almost two years and am thrilled and proud to
   have been part of the amazing team of developers. We had a great time
   creating this game and now release it into the “Wylde” for everyone to […]


 * DUNE, PROVINCETOWN EDITION


 * LISBON!
   
   We concluded our twelve day trip to Europe in Lisbon.  Most of the two full
   days were spent in Alfama, the older section of Lisbon.  It was fantastic,
   with it’s narrow, winding streets and ancient history.  At one point, we
   wandered through Roman ruins that they were just uncovering.  Amazing. We
   also walked along the […]

 1. 1
 2. 2
 3. 3
 4. 4

 * 
 * 


1979

June 11, 2022June 11, 2022 mike Leave a comment

At long last, I’m pleased to announce the release of my short film, 1979!! A
passion project that I’ve been working on for years, 1979 is a nostalgic look at
young love all stop-motion animated using paper cutout puppets.

You can find more information here, or view it in all it’s glory on Vimeo.


WYLDE FLOWERS

February 18, 2022June 11, 2022 mike Leave a comment

Just released on Apple Arcade, I’m excited to announce Wylde Flowers! I have
been animating on this game for almost two years and am thrilled and proud to
have been part of the amazing team of developers. We had a great time creating
this game and now release it into the “Wylde” for everyone to enjoy.

Wylde Flowers is a cozy life and farming sim with a witchy twist! Join Tara on a
heartfelt journey to become a witch in Wylde Flowers. Farm by day, and cast
spells by night as you craft your cottagecore life and bond with your coven.
Come to know and love the fully voice-acted characters of Fairhaven, as you
unravel a local mystery.

Download it here, or go to the Wylde Flowers web site to get more information
and sign up for the newsletter.


DUNE, PROVINCETOWN EDITION

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 mike Leave a comment




GOOD OMENS INSPIRATION

July 17, 2019October 17, 2019 mike Leave a comment



LISBON!

January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 mike Leave a comment

We concluded our twelve day trip to Europe in Lisbon.  Most of the two full days
were spent in Alfama, the older section of Lisbon.  It was fantastic, with it’s
narrow, winding streets and ancient history.  At one point, we wandered through
Roman ruins that they were just uncovering.  Amazing.

We also walked along the harbor a ways until we got to the LX Factory.  A little
hipster village in the middle of the city.  We had one of the best meals of the
trip there at 1300 Taberna.  We were then blown away by the size and scope of
the Museum of Modern Art.  I was enthralled by the way the museum played out the
timeline of modern art, from it’s roots to present day.

Great little trip.

 








PARIS!

January 5, 2019January 5, 2019 mike Leave a comment

Paris is beautiful!  The light!  The blue haze over everything!  Wow.

Despite the cold we walked miles and miles every day to take in as much as we
could.  Montmartre is amazing and so inspirational.  The highlight for me, of
course, was seeing the Cafe des Deux Moulins, the restaurant where Amelie was
filmed.  (We also stumbled on the now famous grocery store also featured in the
film.)

Another highlight was seeing L’Atelier des Lumières, an immersive,
projector-based experience in an old warehouse.  There were three shows, one
featuring the work of Gustav Klimt.  It was fantastic!  We enjoyed sitting
through each show twice and wandering around the space to see it from multiple
perspectives.  It reinforced in me the desire to create my own immersive
experiences in a large space such as this.








ANIMATING A TALKING MASK

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 mike Leave a comment

In my 15 months working for OtherSide Entertainment on Underworld Ascendant, I
created whole animation sets for at least 10 different characters and creatures.
 There were undead skeletons, lizard men, ghosts, even a massive slug.  All fun
stuff.

However, one of the tasks I enjoyed the most was making a static mask move as
though it was speaking.  I love bringing simple, inanimate objects to life.
 Plus, this gave me a very focused way to practice and study head movement
during dialog.  I found it fascinating.

With over 4 minutes of dialog to animate and a limited time frame, I knew I had
to be pretty efficient.  I didn’t want to just jump in and make it move around
as though it was speaking.  I wanted to try to get across some of the sub-text
of what Cabirus was saying as well as how he was speaking.

For me, that process always starts with recording myself delivering the lines.
 I shot multiple takes of each phrase and then cherry-picked what I thought was
the best performance, often editing clips together.  Click on the image above to
view reference with the finished animation.

When animating, I quickly settled on a very different approach to my usual
‘pose-to-pose’ method.  Moving straightforward through the reference, I would
key one transform at a pass.  That means that I would start by just keying the
head translation in Z – to and away from the camera.  Then, separately, I keyed
Z rotation (side to side tilt), Y rotation (twisting) and X (nodding).

At this point, I would stop to do a quick, overall polish pass.  I would push
any extremes and adjust timing to give the performance as much life as possible,
without going over the top.  I would also focus on making sure the nose and chin
were following nice arcs.  I would wait to adjust the overall timing to better
match the dialog until the very end so I could more easily follow the reference.

Then, I would key the Y and X translations – up and down, side to side.  These
translations really helped give life to the mask and make it seem like maybe it
wasn’t so disembodied after all.  Finally, I would slide the keys around a bit
so the movement better matched and accentuated the dialog, punch things up a bit
more and remove any sort of hiccups in the movement.

I found that by keying each transform individually, the masked moved more like
our own heads do when we talk.  Sure, the movement is all coming from a single
point, but not every rotation hits extremes at the exact same time.  Things are
offset a bit.  By focusing on each one individually, the offsets are built right
in to the initial animation and I could move quickly through the set  while
still creating a good performance.

A seemingly simple task, but an enjoyable one and a great exercise in head
movement.  I can’t wait to apply this technique to a talking head that’s
actually attached to something.

Cheers!


THE NOT STARVING ARTIST PODCAST

November 5, 2018January 5, 2019 mike Leave a comment

I had a lovely chat with Angie Noll of The Not Starving Artist Podcast.  She
normally interviews traditional artists, but when she talked to my wife a few
weeks ago, Jacquie mentioned me and Angie thought I’d make an interesting guest.
 Hopefully, I don’t disappoint.

We discuss how I got started in the animation industry, how I manage to keep my
career going as a freelance animator as well as what my new company, NuHalu, is
doing with mixed reality and character animation.

Have a listen!


HOMETOWN VISIT

October 8, 2017October 8, 2017 mike Leave a comment

Yesterday, I made a quick, nostalgic trip to my hometown of Lewiston, Maine.  I
had hoped to take plenty of photos of all the places that fill my memories, but
didn’t manage to do that.  I think I was just enjoying the moment too much to
make an art project out of it.  Anyway, here’s the best I could come up with.







 


FORWARD TO THE PAST

September 24, 2017September 24, 2017 mike Leave a comment

I’m excited to let you know that my personal project, 1979, is now ready for
production and up on Artella.com .  First, is the search for an illustrator to
draw all of the characters in the music video.  Then it will be up to me to make
the paper cutout puppets out of the drawings and then animate them.  It will be
a completely different challenge for me, but this is an idea that’s been burning
in me for a while, so I can’t wait to finally realize it.

You can follow the process here.


POSTS NAVIGATION

1 2 … 4 Older posts


SOCIAL

 * View wickedTaylor’s profile on Instagram
 * View wickedTaylor’s profile on LinkedIn
 * View wickedTaylor’s profile on Vimeo


TAGS

animation life photo work


RECENT POSTS

 * 1979 June 11, 2022
 * Wylde Flowers February 18, 2022
 * Dune, Provincetown Edition October 14, 2019
 * Good Omens Inspiration July 17, 2019
 * Lisbon! January 16, 2019


ARCHIVES

 * June 2022
 * February 2022
 * October 2019
 * July 2019
 * January 2019
 * December 2018
 * November 2018
 * October 2017
 * September 2017
 * April 2017
 * January 2017
 * December 2016
 * October 2016
 * September 2016
 * January 2016
 * December 2015
 * November 2015
 * July 2015
 * December 2014
 * November 2014
 * October 2014
 * July 2014
 * September 2013

Search for:
 * 1979
 * My Work
 * About

Mike Taylor All rights reserved. Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress

 

Loading Comments...

 

Write a Comment...
Email (Required) Name (Required) Website