New Reel, New Me

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this space, but I figured I’d dive right in for a totally seamless, smooth transition. It’s hardly noticeable, really.

Still posting videos every single Tuesday at 6:30 pm eastern over on my Small Plots YouTube channel. That channel has literally nothing to do with animation, I just thought I’d mention it; although it does have animated specials for 1k and 5k subscriber milestones. Lots of stealth camping going on, lots of Tuna Creations.

The hugest news though, is that for the first time since 2018-19, I’ve actually updated my reel. I’ll probably do another slight update in early 2023 with a couple things I’m waiting on other sources to drop, tighten it up, that sort of thing. For now though, go check it out! It’s got a lot of my favorite projects over the past 1-4 years. I have a lot of open spaces right now, get in before the end of the year rush!

I’m also planning on putting out a more “corporate-friendly” reel sometime really soon, one that’s more appropriate for business. This one was meant for more of an Adult Swim audience

Anyway, thanks for reading!
Kev

Small Plots with Kevin

Y’ello! While this is technically a website for my freelance animation business, I figured I should write a quick post cross-promoting something else I’ve been doing; Small Plots with Kevin.

Small Plots is a show on Youtube (YT: Small Plots) that I’ve been making for the past two months (well, technically since last summer, as that’s when I filmed the first two videos) that’s focused on more outdoorsy stuff. The main focus of videos generally fall into Camping, Urban Stealth Camping, and Urban Exploration.

New videos post every Tuesday at 6:30pm (est) so if you want to watch me go stealth camping and possibly get caught, come on by and check it out!

A 2020 Update in the last leg of 2020

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated anything on this site, but work goes on!

2020 was my best year yet, as I was able and lucky enough to work on several projects throughout. Was I overbooked? Yes. Did I work on some of my favorite projects to date? You bet your ass I did.

A major milestone for this independent animator was my role in the upcoming film “The Crash” debuting on Netflix sometime in 2021. During production, I created and colored all 400 or so backgrounds for the film, as well as colored and shaded all the animation, so I definitely had my work cut out for me. It was a blast working with this small team from Kuwait, a time I’ll never forget. I hope I have the privilege to work with these people again.

2020 Also saw the production of two music videos, which haven’t been released yet so I won’t say too much. They were fun to work on, though!

I also completed a few episodes of the Instagram show Criminal Code which was a blasty blast. Hopefully more of those to come as well!

What else, what else… Oh! Of course I can’t forget my continued work on Aramark training videos. They’re bright and cartoony and fun, not your typical training videos. The people over at Parralux kill it on the production side, and I always love working for them.

I believe that’s the bulk of it! I was going to write 2021 plans, but I think I’ll just save that for my next post. Which I’ll probably write right now.

*Bagpipes Play in the Distance*

Sup my sweet baby dudes! I’m back with another hot blog post for this hot blog. According to my page views people do actually click through here, so I figured I’d plop an update out to appease the masses. So massive, those masses. My keyboard is currently in the process of dying, so I apologize in advance for any missing letters here and there. Can anyone recommend a good bluetooth keyboard that has it’s own battery and backlit keys? I will pay literally any price, as I seriously can’t find one that checks all those boxes.

Thanks to everyone for another extremely busy summer! Looks like August is on track to be my busiest month yet in 2019, and I’m ecstatic with all the cool projects I’m doing/currently negotiating. I’ve also got some things slowly cooking for my “Pinkus K” brand (on youtube), two live-action green screen videos and two animations, all at various stages of production. Honestly one of those animations has been cooking since March, it’s just tough to find time to work on this stuff. No idea when any of this will release, I’m targeting sometime in the fall. I love working on personal projects, as they allow me to experiment with new and weird and different techniques and styles that I wouldn’t/couldn’t do for clients.

So after years of planning and searching for an apartment in NYC, I finally landed on… a place in downtown Rochester! There’s too much about this city that I love to leave it right now. Maybe someday, if I ever have a reason other than “yeah lemme do that”, I’ll get down there. For now though, I’m content to have a big apartment with lots of space to get creative, something I couldn’t afford in NYC.

I guess this is as good a time as any to plug my Instagram! Check me out @kevinmarkis I rarely have time to update the feed, but I try to give people a reason to check out the stories. If you want shaky, non-discernible footage taken from the back row of a concert you don’t care about, sorry, you won’t find that there. You also won’t find any screen shots of whatever I’m listening to on Spotify because seriously, who gives a shit. What you will find is me making a fool of myself while I bop around the city. I want to get more into livestreaming some of my stories, as I’ve had a lot of fun with the few that I’ve done.

Well, I guess that’s about as good as it gets for an update, huh? Simply wild stuff. As always, if you’re interested in getting some Animation or Illustration from me, feel free to submit a request via the “contact this guy” tab, or you can e-mail me directly Kmarkis74@gmail.com

Thanks everyone, and have a great end to your summers!

-Kev “Clovis Blovis” Markis

2019 Reel Update, Everybody!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written here, but I figured now would be a good time to give a little uppity update on all the magical shit I’ve been lucky enough to work on this past year. 2018 has been my best, most upward year so far, and I have all of my awesome clients to thank for that! Thank you everyone for letting me to continue making my dream job a reality, seriously.

2018 was amazing, but I want to make 2019 even better. My goal is to start creating my own content again, something I haven’t really done too much of the past few years as my focus shifted more towards the business. Frankly I miss creating my own stuff, as it allows me to experiment and do weird things that I’m sometimes not 100% sure how to do, forcing me to learn new things and take chances without having someone else’s video on the line. I have about a half-dozen random cartoons at various stages of incomplete-ness that I’d love to wrap up; some of which I’ve been slowly chipping away at since 2015. I’m super pumped for some of the things I have in store over the next couple of months.

Also, I finally updated my reel! It’s been close to 3 years since I put out my last animation reel, so I figured it was time. Check it out to see clips of some of the great stuff I’ve been able to work on, including my work on the ihascupquake cartoons, Gibbos Games Animations, a TV show pilot that I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal the name of, and a ton of other awesome stuff from my b2b, music video projects, and a plethora of other interesting things that I’m lucky enough to work on. Man that sentence was an entire paragraph and probably written like a sack of potatoes.

Anyway, happy 2019 everybody! I’ll see everyone on the flippy flip
-Kev

Hey, whoa, slow down

Just writing a mini post here, talking about how I went through and updated a bunch of info on the site.  I updated a bunch of info on the site.  So here's that post talking about that, pretty great, right?  Isn't my level of communication skill beyond anything you've ever experienced in your life?  You're really great at reading though, so I can't take all the credit.  This has been a team effort, and I think we should all be proud of making it this far into the paragraph.

Here's a new post that's way more new than the other posts on here

Hey you guys, just thought I should update this hot blog, seeing as how I'm paying money for this damn site, and want to get the best bang for my buck.  Isn't that what we all are, deep down inside?  Just some cheap, naked idiots?  I think everybody has that in common.  

Anyway, since this is the Kevin Markis site, and I'm like, that guy, I should probably update you all on the great things that have been going on that are now public and I can talk about them.  There's still a bunch of stuff that I won't be posting here because of my rock-solid client/freelancer confidentiality oath every freelancer takes before drawing cartoons for a living (aka some NDAs) but you'll just have to wait for all that.  If you want, you can pretend all the great stuff I'm about to link you to is that secret stuff I'm currently working on, because at one point it was.  Anyway, yeah, sorry, I'm exhausting. 

Ok, so earlier this year I designed 2 adult themed card games for UK company Gibbos Games.  They're not like, porn card games, they're like, drinking card games.  I mean there are penises and boobies and stuff, but it's British, so it's totally cool.  They're not available outside of the UK, so I'm basically the only person in the US with these card games in my possession.  Totally click these words that are clearly links to buy the games if you do happen to live in the UK.  We've got Dirty Hunters and Sick Stories.  I would recommend both to the highest of recommendation.   You can watch the accompanying video to Dirty Hunters below... 

https://youtu.be/XKxLhAApx1Y

I'm not really sure how else to post links in here.  I'm just like, typing stuff into this thing.  Maybe that link shows up as a link, maybe it shows up as a video.  I don't know; I did not invent this text field.  Either way, please totally enjoy that shit, I had a ton of fun making it.

So another thing of note, I had the awesome opportunity to work on a video for youtuber ihascupquake and her husband Red, who's youtube channel you should totally check out.  The video made it to #6 trending on youtube the day it dropped (November '17), and is currently sitting at just over 2 million views at the time of writing this.  It's been pretty awesome and surreal watching all the feedback and interaction with it, and I'm super proud of the animation I made for them.  If you're interested, check out this random link I'm about to post below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEIP1YpFXrE&t=63s      


So last but not least, a music video I made for artist Cuzican throughout 2016 finally dropped this fall, and it's pretty shfabulous.  I love the track and had fun making the damn thing.  Check it out, it's like, totally controversial, probably.  I don't know, I'm not a political guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TQH6GdzWHI

I wish there was a way for me to post like, embedded videos; I probably just have to figure it out.

I've been doing a bunch of other stuff, too, but it's either too early to talk about, or it's dumb and I don't want to talk about it.   

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this totally rad and rockin and hoppin and rad post, I had a decent time writing it.  As always, if you're someone who's interested in hiring me for art/animation, there's like a billion ways to contact me through this site, I'm not even going to link my e-mail.  That's like, a test for you. 

Anyway, thanks everybody for allowing me to work my dream job.  Without all my awesome clients, I'm basically just some idiot in his early 30's who animates cartoons and I'd probably be naked and dead because I couldn't afford clothes or food.  Love you guys.    

Kev