Inside Flaming Medusa Studios

Flaming Medusa Studios is Born

2010-04-26T11:55:00.001-07:00

Cincinnati, Ohio (April 26, 2010)- DarcyVDesign, Inc. last appeared in the news in conjunction with the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th Anniversary Movie. Now the company would like to announce that it is renamed Flaming Medusa Studios Inc. beginning April 26, 2010.

The name change is being carried out to further focus the company’s branding on animation, and to reflect the company’s strengths, personality, and belief system.

The mythological figure of Medusa was chosen to represent the company because of her fame in ancient lore, and because of Medusa’s inherent ability to captivate. The underlying feminist thread of her tale also provides food for thought for the woman-owned company.

About mythological Medusa

The legend of Medusa originated in Libya, where she was worshipped as a serpent-goddess. Her tale then moved to Greece where she assumed the name Medusa, the translation of which means “sovereign female wisdom” in several languages. The idea of Medusa’s head as a threat or weapon was also developed during that time. Some researchers view her eventual beheading as a symbolic silencing of female wisdom and expression.

Medusa’s famous serpentine hair also adds to her mythology. The serpent is representative of the cycles of nature. It also symbolizes immortality, as the serpent was at one point believed to shed its skin indefinitely.

About Flaming Medusa Studios

Flaming Medusa strives to make every one of our client’s projects legendary by utilizing outside-the-box creative solutions combined with state-of-the-art creative techniques to provide animation, illustration, and graphic design. Let us use our knowledge and experience to create, perpetuate, and enhance your company’s mythology.

Remember: mythology doesn’t just form your business- it can also transform your business, and inform the public. Let us put mythology to work for you.

For more information on how Flaming Medusa Studios puts mythology to work, contact Darcy Vorhees: +1.513.539-7725, darcy@flamingmedusa.com or visit www.flamingmedusa.com

Getting Over Him In 8 Songs or Less

2010-02-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, February 14 at 7:30pm on HBO2 will be the premiere of Debra Solomon's film entitled "Getting Over Him In 8 Songs or Less," which Darcy worked on. Debra is a highly creative director who is also responsible for bringing the animated Lizzie McGuire to life.

Here is a link to an interview of her at Movie Maker magazine:
http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/debra_solomon_getting_over_him_in_8_songs_or_less_20100201/

Enjoy, and don't forget to watch it!

2010-02-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

The article "Cincinnati Illustrated" has a mention of me, AND a mention of the upcoming comic anthology entitled "12-Way with Cheese" that I'll be contributing to. I'll post a bit of my contribution to it when the timing is right.

here's the full article: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/0202cincinnatiillustrated.aspx

Roxy

2010-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

A sketch of Roxy Darling:)

2009 Appearances

2010-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from some appearances made in 2009- I visited Raymond Walters College to participate on a media panel there:

and I also visited a Mason cub scout pack to discuss being an artist.

This was by far the cutest visit.

Cub Scouts

2009-12-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

Darcy will be heading to the Mason cub scouts meeting tonight to shows the little kiddies what it's like to be an artist- and an animation artist no less!

Press

2009-12-01T09:23:00.001-08:00

A piece about DarcyVDesign is now here at Soapbox media: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Tri-State's DarcyVDesign

Cincinnati Enquirer Article

2009-11-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

This just in!

A piece about DarcyVDesign has just gone up on the Cincinnati Enquirer Blog: "Local Animator Celebrates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th Anniversary."

Space Chasers

2009-11-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

Darcy Vorhees is teaming up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles director Roy Burdine to bring his brain-child Space Chasers, an out of the world kids adventure property, to life. This is a piece of concept art for the property, done by DarcyVDesign. More to come later. Also, don't forget the Turtles Forever premiere tomorrow morning!

Website Update 11-16-2009

2009-11-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

The www.DarcyV.com website has been updated with TMNT board samples and some infographics from the Leadership Network. And only 5 days left 'til the Turtles Forever Premiere!

Some of my scenes are in this trailer, I'm really excited to see how it all turns out.

TMNT 25th Anniversary Movie

2009-11-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th Anniversary Movie that I did storyboarding for will premiere on Saturday November 21st 2009 at 10am on the CW. To celebrate I am posting some old turtles boards that I did for the series on www.DarcyV.com.

PS- I didn't do the above illustration

Sketchbook

2009-11-13T10:00:00.001-08:00

These are some life drawings done in pastel and pencil

Character Design Process

2009-11-05T13:12:00.001-08:00

These are some character designs from a project that went unfinished due to some funding issues. There were a lot of characters in the project~ the client provide me with descriptions of the personalities of the characters and their designs were done based on those. We are starting with Asimov and Gustav, who were supposed to be sort of like "bad guys" in the story. They were described as being unscrupulous business men, so here was the first go at them. I also included a quick design of a costume change that I knew the first character would have.

After seeing these it was decided that they should be more sophisticated and less physically dangerous looking, but still ominous.

Here are a few more characters about midway through their development.

And here they are again, with changes, in a line-up of some other characters that were being created.

From here it would have continued to clean up and then creation of rotations of each character, and color. I am glad that these drawings get to see some light though.

Rhoda Illustration Process

2009-11-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of the illustration process that is gone through with each project.

First, A lot of rough sketches are done to explore different ways that the image could be handled. This one was about a rhino that had gotten hurt, and was healing. I wanted her annoyed expression to be apparent, as opposed to a pained one, because this is supposed to inspire an amused reaction and not be a downer. As I sketched I added all of these ropes stabilizing her, and found that funny because they visually represent the uncomfortable and helpless feeling one has when one is confined to a hospital. I and the client both chose sketch #1 to proceed with because it carried out the goal we were seeking perfectly.

A clean line drawing was done to tighten up the rough and define her shapes.

The pice was then digitally colored after some color experimentation. A purple color was tried for Rhoda to add a more imaginative bent to her look, to keep it from being too "real" looking. Ultimately though, it was decided that a more realistic rhino color worked better.

After retooling of her color, cleanup, and more modelling of her form, here is the final product.