CHRISTIAN COMIC ARTS SOCIETY :: A NETWORK OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP FOR COMICS FANS, PROS, AND AMATEURS

Lee's Posts (6)

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A New Lease Of Life

Hey.It's seems like ages since I've been around on CCAS, and it's been a really chaotic couple of months.For a year up until around the Easter period I was battling with an unknown chest complaint that pretty much brought my life outside of the house to a standstill and dumbfounded medical professionals, the complaint seemed to appear over night around a year, and I'd often pray that God would heal me of the complaint and that it would go as quick as it came on.Sure enough, my prayers were answered, not right away, but in God's perfect timing and the amazing thing about the whole healing was that, through the grace of God I was healed within a matter of a couple of days, just the way asked in my prayed that it would be!That was during the Easter period, and since then it has been roller coaster ride for me. The healing of the complaint, in itself has given me a new lease of life, and it is an amazing feeling to be free again, thus giving me much more energy and patience that I need to fulfill my work with tale2tell media on the first of a series of 3D Animated shorts, a vision of 'bringing the bible to life' through creative media that we have been working on for around a year now.The 11th of May was another amazing day for me, it was my Baptism and what a great day it was too. I have heard of people say that soon after baptism that they go through a 'Wilderness' sort of experience, like Jesus did, although I haven't been through such experience yet, may I take this opportunity to ask for your prayers that it might not happen, and if it does then the Lord will be my shield and help me know how to deal with it.As well as my motivation and energy, my website also suffered from the chest complaint as I was using the time that I felt most active to work on the animations with tale2tell, so resorted to using blogger as a quick ande and easy solution to communicate and get content out quick.Now that I am healed and my motivation is on the mend too, I have began set up my own website once again, giving it a new design and domain name - I have still much work to do on it, but the basics of it is up and running - so any feedback or comments would be much appreciated.to check out my site visit - www.lets-animate.co.uk and look forwards to any feedback that you may have :)
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Ratatouille

Forgive me if I seem to be on a roll talking about Pixar at the moment, however I have being wanting to write this review/blog now for a while now, so here it comes, my humble opinion on Ratatouille.Pixar have done it again! I was unable to see Ratatouille at the Cinema, due to an ongoing cough, and since have read quite a lot of criticism from critics on the net regarding the film, despite this I decided that I needed to have my own opinion on the film.CharactersAll the characters in Ratatouille are fantastic, but there is one character, that I thought was exceptionally well done, and to be honest it was a shame not to have seen more of her in the film.The character was an old lady, who appears at the beginning of the film, she has huge eyes making here rather lovable, however at the same time, the story has you not liking her as she is out to kill the rats who at this point you're getting to know and like, and in my humble opinion to create a character that you can both love and hate, is work done really well.The AnimationWow, what can I say, I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the animation in this film, being a beginner in Animation myself I really can appreciate the time and effort some of the complex kitchen scenes in this movie must have taken. The animators have also done a fabulous job on animating the rat's movements, and this has to be a result of the animators having real rats in the studios watching their every move.The StoryI'm not a writer, so I'm not wring on experience of a writer, but rather the audience here, but the storyline worked well for me, it kept me amused throughout, and found the concept idea of the Rat cooking a very clever and amusing idea, which again in my own opinion worked really well.Lifted (The New Short)It would be almost impossible for me to finish, without mentioning the new 'Pixar Short' Lifted, which I believe to be one of the best shorts developed by pixar.The storyline is extremely amusing, one that I've been able to watch again and again. The attention to characters in this short is second to none, I say this because none of the characters talk in the short, yet you can instantly you can tell their thoughts and emotions.
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Characterizing Cars

Forgive me for the lousy drawing of the cars, but I'm not pixar and they they did a grand job of creating the feature film Cars! The cars that I've drawn are just to illustrate a thought that went through my mind last night as I started to watch some of the extras of the Pixar film Cars, and just wanted to share my thoughts. And its to do with the way that Pixar characterized their cars. Pixar have placed the eyes of the car on the windscreen, and it has taken me until yesterday to remember a game I played as a kid where I used to look at cars on the road and decide which ones were happy, which were angry and which were sad by looking at the headlights and bonnet (hood). For example if you look at the old Volkswagen Beetle in my opinion this looks as if it might be sad, by the placement of the headlights and the bonnet. Whereas I always used to think that the BMW had a rather stern and angry look to it due to the shape of the headlights. So here I have drawn a car exactly the same only changing the position of the eyes to see if placing the eyes in the headlights would maybe have worked better than in the windscreen. I don't know but, but it'd be great to hear your opinions. Pixar Style Characterization

My idea of characterization

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I Have A Dstinctive Look - It's Partly The Glasses I Wear

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I was creating the construction lines for the Polar Bear as described in christopher Hart's book "How To Draw Cartoon Animals" when I noticed that I had mistakenly created what looked like spectacles!

Instead of rubbing out the unwanted spectacles, I decided to allow them to stay - call it an error allowed to slip through the drawing, and after finishing the drawing - I found that I liked the lookof the glasses.

For the next few characters, I then decided that I'd intentionally give them all glasses - I don't know whether it is just me, but there's something about spectacles on Animals that just adds to the character.


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Baby Cartoonist in the making


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Having trained in 3D I always knew that there was something that seemed missing - an empty space - something that was bugging me, and it wasn't until recently that I really realized what it was.


I had little ability to draw cartoons - or characters. It was after this realization that I prayed that God to help fill this empty space if it was his desire for me to begin creating my own cartoons and characters to create in 3D.

My prayers were soon answered when I found a couple of amazing books by Christopher Hart. It was these books that taught me how to draw cartoons for real and since I got these books this empty space seems to have disappeared.

The above is some of the results from using the advice given by Christopher Hart in his book "Everything You Need To Know About Cartooning" something that about a month ago I would never have been able to do!

I'm still very new to cartooning, so any advice and critism would be greatly appreciated :o)
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My Testimony

When I was born my life was threatened by many health problems; twice I stopped breathing in hospital and it was very touch and go as to whether I was going to live. However God did not take my life, but instead He put on a fierce fight and carried me through those dark months battling against my worst enemy.

I began my education at a special school for physically disabled children, from a very young age, unable to do many things myself I had to learn how to handle my disability. I refused to eat and although I was very much out of the danger zone my future was still very bleak.



During my time at the special school for physically disabled I grew stronger by the day, so strong that at the point of reaching year 8, (key stage 3) I was integrated into mainstream secondary education.

It was another 2 years until I realised what God had done for me. After asking my aunt lots of Questions about God and Jesus at 8 years ago, my aunt told me about her very best friend Jesus, and how whenever she had a thought that troubled her, or was in need of Love he was always there for her. She told me how he had taught her many things during the time he has been part of her life, but more importantly she told me that Jesus was waiting for me, and was waiting for me to become his friend and to let him into my life too!



She then went on to explaining that Jesus was desperately knocking on my door, he was waiting for me to hear him so that he could come in and save me, and bring me closer to God. That night my Aunty and I prayed together, we prayed that Jesus would come into my life and be my Lord and Saviour.

Once I had let Jesus into my life, I began to know and understand God in a personal way. Jesus alone brought meaning and purpose to life and everything that had ever happened to me became ever so clear.

It became clear that God had been with me right from the moment I was born. And although I wasn’t aware of His presence, because I did not have Jesus in my life, He has always watched over me guiding me along the way.

When I was at Danum Comprehensive in year 11, I was struck down by renal failure and my GCSE’s came to an abrupt halt. Beacause of my hospitalisation for major surgery to correct the cause of the renal failure, I was unable to sit my GCSE exams.

After I had recovered and my condition had been stabilized by medication and dialysis I was able to resume my studies and re-sit year 11 and complete my GCSE’s examinations. I passed 6 GCSE’s, allowing me to go on to Extended education.

After my GCSE I started a VCE in Business studies at Danum School. At that time I attended St. James’ hospital twice a week for Dialysis. As well as the dialysis my Dad and I were attending the hospital regularly for tissue type
matching. This was a series of tests carried out over a period of 6 months to determined whether Dad was the perfect match to give me one of his kidney’s

The tissue type matching had proven to be a success. Dad and I were the perfect match for the transplant, and a theatre slot was booked for the transplant to take place.

Once again studies were brought to a sudden halt for my surgery and recovery.
After I had recovered from the transplant I was ready to go back into education again, however God made it clear that the business studies course I had previously started in sixth form was not part of His plan for me.

Instead he led me to discover my passion for computers, and I enrolled on an AVCE in ICT (information and communication technology), where I learned the basics for professional use of computers.

During the course I became very good friends with one of the tutors, who told me about a course he used to teach. It was a Foundation Degree in Multimedia Technology, and although it was run by Sheffield Hallam University it was being taught at Wakefield College's Thorne's Park Campus.

The course involved creative technology in Graphics Design, Web-Design and CD-Rom applications. I hadn’t a doubt in my mind this was the right course for me as the transition between the AVCE to the Foundation Degree was so natural and effortless it was obvious that God was in control.

It was a hard 2 years and the going was getting really tough. During the second year of the Foundation Degree, I lost my Grandad to Lung Cancer. This affected the last two months of my performance and although I couldn’t see it then God was working to ensure that somehow I would pass the course. Eventually I graduated with a Foundation Degree in Multimedia Technology, but those last few months took a lot out of me. I was mentally drained and fed up of education, so much so that at the beginning of 2006 my faith took a nose dive for a short period of time. I settled for mediocrity and went job seeking.

There was so much more that I needed to learn, yet through all of this God did not let go of me and instead of allowing me to settle for anything less than His best for me. He blocked any attempts I made to get a job. Then just at the right time He prompted my Aunty, and through a long conversation with her that night God spoke to me.

Finally I began to understand the need to seek God's will in my life. I saw how silly it was to peruse a job, when there was so much more work that needed to happen before I was ready to leave education.

It was the last week that Leeds Met were accepting students to enrol, but even then it wasn’t certain that a place would be available. Now my faith and enthusiasm I once had previous to the Foundation Degree became stronger and once again I was back on track.

Praise the Lord I was accepted onto the Degree Course, in Multimedia Technology at Leeds Met, but not only was I accepted, it was decided since I had some experience in some areas of the Degree I would be able start the course in second year the first. This was a real faith builder, and my reassurance that God was in control once again.

During the Second year of the Degree in Multimedia Technology I discovered that I was born to love 3D animation; it was almost as if I had reached my destination and the very place God brought me to. I loved every minute of the second year of the degree and I learnt a tremendous amount of skills.

Then as if it were an action replay of the last year at Wakefield College, during the holidays between the second and third year of the Multimedia Course, my Grandma became very ill, and at midnight on the 18th July 2006 holding my hand, my Grandma lost her battle against Cancer. Only about 4 months before she passed away my Grandma became a Christian. Praise the Lord she was saved and now she lives a life with God in heaven.

Unlike my Grandad’s death, where my faith took a nosedive, this time it was strengthened, God made use of the bad experience, and during those intense few days at my Grandma’s bedside His presence was stronger than ever before.
Almost immediately after my Grandma’s death I began to attend Rothwell Baptist where my Grandma had attended on the few occasions she had been well during the final months of her life.

Since then, the Lord has given me given me a fellowship where I canshare my faith and enjoy being part of His body. My faith has grownstronger and stronger each day and Praise the Lord that brings me tothe present where I am now working on a missionary project with Tale2tell Mediawhere I am using the skills I have attained during my years of education 'to bring the bible to life' using creative media.
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