John L. Miller

John L. Miller was born (January 28, 1995) is a Cape Breton-Based Canadian Freelance Concept Artist, illustrator, digital artist, animator, writer, producer, graphic designer, screenwriter and director. He did numerous works, his pre-freelance work includes The Bear Cartoon (2009), Brinderella (2009), Eye Monsters (known as Aliens) in 2011-2014, went on a hiatus in late 2015 to mid 2016, due to mental health crisis, By fall of 2016, he returned and designed Screech the Eagle but rejected due to lack of character profile and not thinking outside of the box. And he's currently working on Marco the Moose, the official mascot of Marconi Campus of NSCC and the upcoming web full featured Adult 2D Flash/CGI Computer Hybrid Animated Film, Randy.

Animation (2006-2010)
He started animating in 2006 after figuring out of how the animation process works by putting multiple moving .bmp files that he had made into Windows Movie Maker and shrink it all into 0.5 seconds apart. His parents encouraged Miller to do an Animated short for his class, he spent a day illustrating and animated the short and show to the class. In 2008, one guy was pleased over Miller's work and suggested him to take Animation course within the community. Miller became motivated and created the 30 minute-long "10th Anniversary of his drawings" but was later lost. In 2009, He began to upload animated shorts on youtube. He created numerous animated shorts throughout 2009, and one in 2010. By April, 2010, he no longer makes animated shorts as he went on a hiatus, then by December, 2010, he departed from Microsoft Paint and switched to GIMP.



Pre-Freelance Career (2010-2015)
During the departure and abandonment of RALTC in 2010, Miller designed the eye logo for his failed computer company due to unprofessionalism. In which it lead him to design his new work, "Eye Monsters" (known as Aliens) in 2011. While experimenting with GIMP's tools while he was still learning, his drawing style has changed drastically. In 2013, he designed numerous artworks of the Eye Monsters, and sold it in the High School cafeteria stand. In which most customers bought his magnets than his Picture framed artwork, resulting of making the total of $95.00. In the same year, he suffered a condition that was caused by the Anti-Depressant, Prozac mixed with caffeine (took the medication with Caffeine) that lead him with gastrointestinal problems, extreme anxiety, dissociation and severe panic attacks, but was fully recovered two months later.

In 2014, he departed from the "Eye Monsters" project and focus on his own artwork. In 2015, he designed a Mascot for the Justice of Kurt Cobain Movement, in which he gave them, "Dan the Bear" to have it as a Mascot including some of the related artworks that he has done, then he became inactive from the Mascot project. In early 2016, he went on a hiatus due to having an Mental Health Crisis for 8 months, before returning to his career.

Freelance Career (2016-Present)
After returning to his Illustration career, Miller did an initiative on designing an existing Mascot from the Junior Major Hockey Team, he designed many concepts before giving it to his manager in later he turned down on him due to lack of character profile, and not thinking outside the box.

A month later, Miller was suspended from volunteering at the Junior Major Hockey Team. His college instructor saw his previous artwork and redirected him to their Hockey League known as "Marconi Moose" in which Miller called that Moose a symbol, then the instructor suggested Miller to design the Moose, in which Miller agreed and decided to draw the moose on paper, before digitizing him, then Miller named him, "Marco The Moose". He originally have Marco the Moose to be the official mascot of Marconi Moose, then he decided to drag him from the Hockey League and expand his mascot to the Campus. Marco was revealed to the public on January 30th, 2017. Resulting of having positive reviews from student and staff that praised Miller to keep designing Marco. Over the next two months, Miller made Marco the Moose to promote people that Marco is the Official Mascot of Marconi Campus, as of this result, it went very successful. On June 16, 2017, Marco the Moose went public during the Convocation Ceremony. The College's Principal made an announcement on his speech stating Marco the Moose is now the Official Mascot of Marconi Campus at Nova Scotia Community College as he took the plush doll from his back to show it to the audience, then applauded. Miller is now studying Applied Media and Communication Arts at Marconi Campus for two years due to accommodation reduction that was put into place due to underlying Mental Illness that he suffered.

In the same time, Miller did some artwork outside of Marco the Moose. In which he decided to open up his deviant art page to show his previous works including current ones.

Both Screech and Marco the Moose were not released on Deviant Art due to Confidentiality and may be Copyrighted, even though he designed it for them until November, 2017 after receiving permission from his old instructor.

In April, 2018, Miller returned to Animation after a 8 year Hiatus, and successfully released a demo reel for the upcoming Adult Animated film, Randy, after being taught how to use Adobe Character Animator that picked up his interest quite well, but he criticized himself for lack of camera movements, character glitch, pulling their arms too much, while he was criticized by his instructor stating the music and voice is creepy and disturbing. His demo reel was refused to play on Campus. Miller later explained that he was working under pressure a day before it was due, and it was too late to find voice actors and finding a band member by asking permission to take their work. Miller is friends with certain band members. Despite of refusal to play on campus, His Instructor was stunned over his professional work and gave him a 100% on his final project. To heal his instructor's pain over his controversial demo reel, he decided to revive Marco the Moose that he had shelved since Christmas and animated the whole series, even having a whole class to voice act certain roles, and cheering as a crowd. Unlike his previous work, he modeled an arena in CGI, using Blender, and implanted textures onto the mesh. It turn out fine. He mastered Adobe Character Animator skills and implanted on CGI background cel while the video was playing. Marco the Moose is the last animated short to feature Stock SFX and Music, one part that he couldn't find an organ music that is Creative Commons, but Miller has a good musical ear, knowing what pitch does it belong. Miller Learnt how to play hockey organ digitally though LMMS, that he used for 4 years using keys Ranging from F3-D4 to fill in without risking to be sued by the original owners.

Influences
Miller was Strongly Influenced by 2000s Flash Animation-esque Vector Illustration including Meomi, Richard McGuire and Bob Shea. Other Influences include, Mike Matas and Gene Mackles. When Miller was 8, he used to draw in semi-stick figures until his favorite channel, PBS Kids has replaced P-Pals with Dash and Dot in which it influenced him to draw similar to theirs. When Miller was 10, he discovered Honbatz (from Burger King, designed by Monkmus) where he brought it home and took a piece of napkin with a pencil and trace in order to draw just like that. By the age of 11, his drawing was improved because of the influence. When he was 14, he discovered the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots that gave him a positive great impact in his illustrations. In 2011 he discovered the Delicious Monster Logo that influenced him to design the "Eye Monsters" project. In 2016, he finally mastered his GIMP illustration skills that he managed to take his influences and designed two of his works, one project that failed due to lack of character profile, and another became successful. Few months later, He transitioned from Raster to Vector and switched to Adobe. He described his drawing style as, "Meomi-like, mixed with Richard McGuire, Bob Shea, Mike Matas, including his original style and Monkmus, in which it's like a melting pot of all of them"

Illustrative Projects
Pre-GIMP Animated Shorts/Artwork

The Bear Series (2009)

Experimental Animated shorts (2009-2010)

Brinderella (2009)

Aquais (Mascot for the WPM winter carnival activities for Grade 8) (2010)

Bear and Vydra (Mascot for the WPM Mock World Cup for Czech Republic for Grade 8) (2010)

Animated Demo Reel

First Scene of Randy Act 1 Demo (2018)

Early GIMP Artwork

Mock Advertisement (2011-2014)

Visual UI for Android and PC (2012-2013)

Pre-Freelance Artwork

Eye Monsters (Aliens) (2010-2014)

Dan the Bear - Mascot of Justice for Kurt Cobain (2015)

Pharaohs Curse Logo (Digitalizing) (2015)

Freelance Artwork (Pre-Adobe/Vector and Early Adobe Artwork)

Screech (2016) - unsuccessful due to lack of Character Profile

Marco the Moose - Official Mascot of Marconi Campus of NSCC (2017, 2018-Present)

Various Artwork for his own studio, Aquais. (2017-Present)

Randy (2018-Present)

Jack the VR Tech Man (2018) - Designed for a Small Business that runs a VR Arcade

Books

Marco the Moose - What do you want to be when you grow up / coloring/activity book (2017)

Pretenders - Mini Comic Series (2017)