Derrah - Illustration & Design

Amazon Studios Update

2012-01-30T13:43:00.000-08:00

For the past year I've been working with screenwriter Gary Milin creating "test films".

What are test films? Basically they're feature-length animatics (moving storyboards) adapted from original screenplays. Amazon Studios is the creation of Amazon.com. Their goal is to compete with the big studios and produce their own feature films. The innovation of Amazon Studios is that they take script submissions and film ideas from the general public and hold contests and generally try to promote "outsider" talent.

So far, I've been lead artist on 2 of these features, both of which have won the monthly 100K prize. I've also won "best drawn storyboard".

Here are links to the 2 features I've illustrated:

Myth of a Modern Man (Storyboards):

http://studios.amazon.com/movies/6461

Sky Pirates (Storyboards and Art Direction):

http://studios.amazon.com/movies/12914

You can stream them for free courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Image Hosting

2011-04-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, Photobucket has suffered a malfunction of some kind so the images here aren't loading properly. I'm in the process of dumping them and creating a new website to showcase my portfolio work.

Comic Concept

2011-02-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

Cover concept for a graphic novel I'm developing with Luke Henderson

Comic Illustration

2011-02-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

Comic Illustration using Photoshop
(Chimera and Characters © Mike Sage 2011)

Album Cover

2011-02-02T23:36:00.000-08:00

(Nothing Left For Tomorrow and Album Art © Yasmina Ketita 2011)
http://www.myspace.com/nothingleftfortomorrow

Character Designs inspired by "Modern Warfare"

2011-02-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

Work In Progress

Arctic Marines WIP

2011-02-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

Work In Progress

Soviet Futurism

2011-02-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

Some quick concept paintings.

Monster

2011-02-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Femme Fatale

2011-01-05T10:08:00.001-08:00

Cosmonaut

2011-01-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

New Portfolio and Blog Layout

2010-08-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a brand new portfolio, which is focused on concept design, modeling, animation and map design (for games). It should be completed in the next few weeks. I'll probably get rid of most of the artwork that's currently posted (much of it is out of date). The new stuff looks far more professional and polished then what I currently have posted. I'm also redesigning the site banner and color scheme.

Last Words: some storyboards

2010-07-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

My absolute favorite part of production is the storyboard phase. I think it comes from my background of being an avid comic book geek as well as hopeless cinematography enthusiast. Comics and film and the sequential shots they use to tell a story; it's a visual language that I love, live by and will always try to perfect.

Old Portfolio Material

2010-06-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

Last Words - 4th Year Film (rough version)

2010-06-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

LAST WORDS

Last Words - 4th Year Film from Mikey Derrah on Vimeo.

My 4th Year film.

DEMO REEL 2010

Demo Reel 2010 from Mikey Derrah on Vimeo.

Some new stuff! Some old stuff!

Resume

2008-11-13T00:14:00.001-08:00

G.I.Joe Comic book Pitch

2008-11-13T00:03:00.001-08:00

I was working on a pitch to present to Devil's Due Publishing back in '07. They were the rights holders of the G.I.Joe comic license back then. It's a shame I was knee-deep in school because as I had a great concept and story plotted out. It was to be "Ultimate" G.I.Joe.

Some Concepts

2008-11-12T23:56:00.001-08:00

Navy Seal Reel

2008-11-12T23:48:00.001-08:00

Here's my 3rd year action analysis reel. Luckily I got this out of the way in the second week of school. I banged it out in a night. Doing so allowed me to focus on doing some intense digital layout paintings and perfecting the animation. I'd like to animate the whole sequence. If I do, I'll post it here.

Second Year Walk n' Run

2008-11-12T23:41:00.000-08:00

2nd year Walk n' Run assignment. I went overboard. The neck-breaking scene in still one of my favorite animations. The encoding is horrid, so the vid doesn't look crisp as it should. Also there are strange pauses, etc.

Digital Matte

2008-11-12T23:39:00.000-08:00

I was experimenting with the digital composting methods of such films as Sin City and 300. I got a great program and tutorials and made this.

Some old Animatic

2008-11-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

The Cavalry - Animatic

I did this first year I believe. It was for fun! Some action movie idea I was working on. I'd like to finish this sometime.

The editing here sucks. I've learned a lot about timing since then. But I like some of the shots.

More Older Animations...

2007-11-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

Head Rotation of the Great Serpentor! He's a villain from the old G.I. Joe cartoon from the 80's. I grew up on this stuff and yes it was radder than the trash kids are watching these days.

Sack and Tail, Camera Pan and S n' C curve excercises.

2007-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

TNT Sack and Tail

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Class project. The Ball/sack (harf harf) exercise. I cheaped out as this project was supposed to be an exercise demonstrating the squash and stretch principals and tail wave action, similar to my reptile animation. There are some really choppy scenes, like when the sack lands before the lightning strike. I decided to add an explosion at the end to compensate. It garnered me an A+ anyways. Just like 80's action, I cant close a film unless it ends with a nuke, or equivalent sized explosion. Style over substance!

Cobra Commander

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I love GI.Joe! This animation was a simple experiment using flipbook. I was learning the camera move tools, and ended up getting a decent looking track shot of the great Commander inspecting his Crimson Guard! I've always loved Stanley Kubrick's use of long horizontal tracking shots. This scene is inspired by the prison tracking shot from Paths of Glory, one of my all time favorite films.

Reptile C and S curve

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Showing the "C" and "S" curves, principals which are essential for character animation. School project. Quality may suck, I had to convert the .avi to flash. Poo.