Hi, I'm Alex! I'm a freelance animator/director out here developing independent 2D/3D animated productions!
Business E-mail: AlexHendersonAnimation
@gmail
.com
Do you guys remember on April 1st when I said I was going to resurrect the old Donkey Kong Country TV show?
I only ask because I'm genuinely curious how many of you thought I was joking.
New animated short coming to my YT channel next week!
Sure, Peaches was fun, but should Bowser be the only Nintendo villain to get a song? Other game characters deserve their time to shine as well. That's why I've teamed up with Bootleg Dubs for the spiritual successor to Curse of the Crystal Coconut! Enjoy!
Finished my entry for
@SMBSWReanimated
collab (until I find an error immediately after I upload it). Animating Bowser was a fun challenge, and I really wanted to push how expressive I could make him.
I've been experimenting a lot with compositing lately. My goal has been to keep a consistent look that feels like Samurai Jack meets Into the Spiderverse. One trick I'm trying is using chromatic abberation on out of focus areas, for a grungy look that keeps the focal point clear.
This year was Donkey Kong's 40th B-Day, but he has another milestone to celebrate, as this month was the 25th anniversary of his glorious TV show! To mark the occasion I've teamed up with
@BootlegDubs
to make this animated anniversary short:
FULL VIDEO:
Animation commission done for
@hazzarazzo
with his black wolf character. I think what I like most about doing these commissions compared to some of my old jobs is that it really lets me explore working with a wide range of environments.
Decided to do a slight compositing update on my SMB Reanimated submission with some newer tricks I've learned, (that probably aren't even visible with twitter's video quality). I figured I'd reupload it for any new followers.
Another animation commission under my belt. This was made for
@LeonBeeNic
of his wolf character seeing how quickly he can drain the battery on his phone.
You can check out the HD files and get early access by checking out my patreon:
Welcome to the valley. Stay alive. Keep hydrated. make it home.
My latest animated short "Tales from Scorchwater Valley: The Rhino and the Redbill" is now up on my youtube channel. Check out the full video in the link below.
FULL VIDEO:
Things are about to get chaotic! This here is an animation commission made for
@jimy55
of his supervillain character General Chaos showing off for the camera.
Welcome to the valley… stay hydrated.
The KICKSTARTER for The Rhino and the Redbill is now live! Uncover a journey about friendship and survival in this animated, action-adventure pilot. Check out the trailer and link to see how you can get involved!
A while back I did an animation for
@hazzarazzo
, since then I've picked up some new compositing tricks, and I wanted to try them out here to see how my new character renders compare to my old.
Took a break from the pilot short this weekend to animate my entry for
@Saberspark
's Joshua and the Promised Land Reanimated Collab.
I had one of the shots of the Red Sea parting, and I wanted to see if I could make it look like a 90's Disney movie
I do a monthly drawing/anim. based on suggestions/polls from my patreon supporters. Here's the result our first Patron's Pick. K Rool was the winning character in a very divided vote. You can get early access and the HD files by becoming a patron:
6K ANIMATION RAFFLE!
Hi everyone, while I'm rolling out my Patreon, I thought now might be a good time to host an animation raffle.
-1 Char, No BG, Max 5s, PG
-Enter by RT
-Must be Following to enter
Winner will be picked Noon EDT May 9th
For those who missed, the lastest animated short I worked on, "Return to Krocodile Isle" with Bootleg Dub Production is now up on my youtube channel.
Big thanks to everyone whose checked it out so far!
This was an animated twitch intro I was hired to make for
@gamutfeathers
. I wanted to try something a bit more experimental, and for it to feel like an oil painting that was coming alive, with brush strokes gradually filling it.
Just finished another animation commission! This time for
@SoCalGshep
These are kind of fun to do. If you're interested in getting one, just shoot me a message
Now that it's April 1st, I can officially announce that I've abandoned all my personal and professional goals and have been hired to revive the old Donkey Kong Country Animated Series!...
...or maybe I just felt like redoing my
@DKReanimated2
scene, one or the other :P
*Stayin' Alive music starts playing*
I threw together this walk cycle to test the textures and rigging of the
@Adler_the_Eagle
rig that I built. I think I can officially call this rig done.
Hey, quit scrolling and sit still, can't you see Elwen the Elder Dragon is trying to draw you, and he can't do that when you don't sit still!
I got brought in to make a new animated avatar for
@gamutfeathers
livestreams, so we made a fancy new model and brought it to life.
Can't have an action adventure cartoon without some villains. Here's an early rig test for The Rhino and the Oxpecker, now live on kickstarter!
Donate now to get a digital copy upon the pilots completion!
Being in the studio with Ben and the OG voice cast was such an amazing experience. They're some of the most talented people I've gotten to work with. I want to emphasize that they all slipped into their old roles like it was nothing.
Full DKC:RtKI Video:
Finished another animated illustration commission, this time for
@magarnon
. This one was a fun one to work on, particularly because the costume provided some interesting challenges and opportunities.
In between managing the kickstarter and answering messages, I've been managing to get a bit of animation done. Figuring out the colors for this shot was a challenge, but now that it's more nailed down the next few should be easier.
Check out the link below to see the trailer!
For those of you who were asking last time, this is a shot from the upcoming trailer for my animated pilot short. Check out the pre-launch to see the trailer when it launches:
About a year ago I got asked to contribute a scene for
@RealSMRetold
, and am just now getting around to it. I had a six second scene from the original Sam Raimi movie. I tried to make it more in the style of Into the Spiderverse, or at least a bargain bin version of it.
It's my last animation of the year, an intro card for
@purplebirdman
, getting ready to do some drawing after hitting the gym. It was a real challenge to sell such a heavy sense of weight, my cheap trick is to just have the camera shake.
Banana Slamma! Our animated Donkey Kong fan film "Return to Krocodile Isle" just passed 1 MILLION views!
Thanks so much for all the support everyone!
FULL VIDEO:
"SO I GOT MYHANDS UP THEY'RE PLAYING MY SONG, BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAAAY!!...
New Character Illustration Comm for L.Frostad of their character Hogarth rocking out
Another animation commission, this time for
@Zhen_greninja
. by total conicidence, this animation goes pretty well as a companion piece to my last one.
Designing for Return to Krocodile Isle is probably the most characters I've had to design for a video, and while my first takeaway is that I'm never working with crowds again, I've also been thinking about making some of the Maya rigs public
FULL VIDEO:
Tangletorn is already past $40,000 on kickstarter! I animated the gameplay sample from the trailer, and modelled/rigged the snake. Check it out on kickstarter now:
(Sorry for the double post, the last one accidentally tagged someone and wasn't visible)
If you enjoyed any of my recent videos, and are finding yourself in need of freelance commercial animation work, you can check out my newest demo reel.
You can find my website and business email in the tweet below.
Just wanted to welcome all the new followers and say thanks for helping me get to 14K. There have been a lot of changes for me these past few months and it's comforting to know people are supporting me as I transition into more independent content.
"Tales from Scorchwater Valley: The Rhino and the Redbill", is reaching the end of it's festival exclusive run. We were recently finalists at the New York Animated Flim Awards and the short will be making a public release on my youtube channel very soon!
Gyuh-huh! Here's an animated commission for
@HiHungry_Im_Dad
and
@itakeyourlemons
, featuring their characters on a banjo-kazooie style adventure.
Tried changing up my style a bit for this one. Definitely learned a lot, and it was fun designing these environments!
Just finished an
#animation
commission for
@TanukiDad
. It was certainly a nice change of pace from my usual freelance work. I tried to take into account everyones notes, but didn't quite have room for all of them
Watch out for flashing lights and killer dance moves when
@SWolvesComic
's latest villain Flashbang hits the scene. Here he is showing off some of his talents in the animated cover art I was hired to make for
@RyanComics
.
@gamutfeathers
has stumbled into some surprise moving expenses. He's got lots of cool art and time lapse videos, so why not check out his page and patreon to help this dragon take flight
Took a break from regular work to develop some animation for more personal projects, and managed to churn out this walk cycle. I'm still working on it, but I'm just happy the rig is working
I'm still spending the Halloween season churning out matte paintings and animation for some of the creepier scenes. This shot was a fun one to figure out the atmosphere for.
Plus you can check out the video to hear Rolo's voice for the first time, provided by
@RobSchwarbVO
Animated poster commission for
@jimy55
This one was interesting to figure out. I'm used to corrective blendshapes, but this really had me push my boundaries to get the body to completely change shape.
Check out my patreon for access to the HD version:
When are we getting a trailer for that Mario movie? Illumination has a movie coming out this month so it's gotta be soon, right? I want to see how accurate my portrayal was.
This was an animation I did a few months ago for
@jimy55
that I think turned out nice. It was nice to work on something where I got to animate funny expressions, and I'm looking at starting up some projects where I'll get to do a bit more of that.
Here's my monthly illustration that people who support me on Patreon get to suggest and vote on. It's Sly Cooper, on the run from the fuzz. I've been doing a lot of modelling lately for work, so it was nice to break it up with some painting.
Super excited to announce that my pilot film The Rhino and the Redbill is making it's festival debut this week at the Animation Studio Festival in Paris, where it recently won an award for Best Design!
Big thanks to them for inviting us to be a part of this!
I've had a few people ask about closed captioning on the Curse of the Crystal Coconut video, so I've gone in and added subtitles as an option for anyone who would like them.
Link to the full animation in the thread below!
Rolo practices healthy hygiene by touching his face as frequently as possible. That way the germs get wiped away from the mouth and onto the hands, obviously.
Alright, he may not be who you should take advice from. This is some lip sync work from an upcoming project.
After about 50 million tries, I've finally gotten the lines on these characters to actually look how I want them to look. It's taken a lot of compositing experiments, and the methods were probably more tedious then they needed to be, but this one is finally wrapped up.
Pumping out more composited scenes today. As fun as it is to see the pieces of a shot all put together, it's pretty easy to get obsessive at his stage and want to nit-pick every little detail.
Animation commission for
@EgyptianKonsu
. It took way longer than I care to admit to get the lighting I wanted in after effects, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
This was an animated intro card I made earlier this year for
@gamutfeathers
twitch channel. If you're looking for art livestreams, be sure to check his out!
Again, for any new followers, this is Red's travelling buddy Niles. In contrast to Red's quick and energetic movements, Niles' animations are very heavy and lumbering (and often a bit grouchy). These two were animated with a combination of 3d and 2d animation techniques.
Animation commission for
@Aegisclaw
,doing some crazy parkour and transforming all over the city.This was a lot of fun to work on, particularly when it came to designing the environment.
Check out my patreon for early access, HD files, and more:
Character illustration commission for
@Eligecos
of Keel cosplaying as K Rool.
Those who follow me know I've never worked with K Rool on any projects before, so this drawing really challenged me to move out of my comfort zone.
Sometimes people reply with "owo what's this?" Today I personified that phrase into a horror movie character.
This is the worst idea I've ever had and I'm excited to see what new lows I can reach.
Hey everyone, the kickstarter for The Rhino and the Redbill is still going strong. A spot just opened up for someone to have their character make an animated CAMEO! Check out the page to see the trailer and how you can get involved.
For any new followers, this is Red, the oxpecker, and this is me finally getting to do some acting with his new wing setup. My goal was to be able to animate him in a way where his wings could function like regular wings, but also be able to transition into more hand-like poses
I'm working on a freelance gig that requires me to animate crowd shots of a lizard army, so I've been putting together a basic walk cycle to populate said scenes. Here's a rough look at what I have so far.