My website

I just put my website on-line!
This is the link to it:

http://www.valentinagrasso.com

My "angry lady" animation

This a little animation I've been working on lately in my spare time...I really like this character I created, and I focused a lot on her facial expressions and their variations, to make the animation look quite comedic.
I like the lady's 20's look, and I hinted that she could be a jazz singer or something similar in those times (I imagined her whole story while I was drawing her...).
I like her cheekiness and her hot temper, I wanted her to have a lot of character! It was good fun to draw her...= )

Some new character designs and drawings!

I got back to work lately...been developing some characters for few little animations I'm working on. These are some of them!
I'm having fun, I'm drawing loads and animating loads...catching up for the lost time!
I'll be posting my new animations soon! = )

2D flash animator for Loolatopia - Superhero Street!

Here is my latest animation toil...I've just finished working on this music video for kids, Superhero Street. I've done this job for Loolatopia, a lovely american children publishing company, based in Chicago. It was entirely animated in flash by myself, but the characters were provided by the company's graphic artist.
This video will be spread around, posted on websites for kids, and shown in all the public events that Loolatopia periodically organizes, which always involve all families united, parents and children. It's meant to bring loads of positive energies and vibes to all those who watch it.
I enjoyed working on it, although it's been quite a long work...but it's just so nice to see it all together now.
The song played is part of a CD that Loolatopia published, which contains many catchy children tunes, performed by the band "Dave Hamilton and the space cadets".
Nice stuff, you can buy their CD on line as well!
I've got another animation on schedule for them, which I'm gonna be starting soon.
I'll post my work in progress anyway! = )

Illustrations and final layout for wedding invites

Here is the finished version of the wedding invite I did for my dear friend Debbie!
I've posted the illustrations I did first of all, and the final photoshop layout of the card... She loved it, which I was really happy about. I enjoyed it!
Just for record...the theme of the dragon and elf was suggested by my friend, who purposely required a dragon and an elf for her wedding invites (as she's a dragon freak!). I just wanted to point that out in case anyone who sees this starts wondering why I chose such a weird theme for a wedding, also because it's well known that I love my fantasy creatures!
In short...it wasn't me this time!!! ; )

Hand drawn animator at Chase

This is one of the scenes I animated at Chase recently for the animation shortfilm "Samurai", which the studio has been making for the History Channel.
It's been really amazing to work at the studio as a hand drawn animator, and I enjoyed it immensely.
The project was really cool, I love the character designs that the guys created and the characters themselves, as well as the story and the backgrounds, which were absolutely fabulous!
A marvellous project indeed...

Smilies animation for Empress Stah!

This is the second half of our animation for the fabulous trapeze artist Empress Stah, we (me and my friend and colleague animator Sarah) just finished the work this friday, so I thought to post it straight away, cause I'm really happy about the result!
She wanted us to design a number of smilies and animate them, with basic emotions on them. Then show them on the screen repeated as a pattern, across it. She chose the song Video killed the radio star to play on the background, and she wanted the ending to show her face popping up with a glich effect, spinning around the screen.
We had loads of fun in making this animation, I loved designing the emoticons and animating them! Probably because I love emoticons...( =
Well, hope you all enjoy it too!