5 upside.

Phantasmo and his Hand of Fate lay the smack down on any criminal element caught running amok in Monstroville!

burn.

A newer version of the Baron. BTW he's makes Halloween candy in his secret candy factory.


The clean lines of the Vamps in their Hot Rod. This one burnt me out due my not being able to settle on any design for the hot rod that i was truly happy with. Poor planning (as far as the car was concerned, the characters were the easiest part) and just generally trying out everything to the point where I got seriously off track. Days of post-its and light boxing and redrawing and erasing and fuggedaboutit.

Here's the rough of what I eventually used for the complete version above. You can see the post-its where I basically drew and redrew parts over and over. This isn't counting the post its I threw out.


Going off on a tangent. The original intent was a "wacky racers" feel and this is like some gothic skeleton space ship... thing. More layers of post-its. This is maybe version 3 out of 5 versions I did. All of them with their layers and layers of post its.

Drag-u-La

WIP. Some Vampy Greasers speeding around in their blood fueled coffin shaped conveyance.

Gonna head out to Amoeba and satisfy a DVD craving real quick then I'll finish this up.

Something for something...

Some designs inspired by Viktor Von Kreep's Monstroville


A short gag sequence...

Bits of Gold.

Mr. Fun's Blog



Floyd Norman, AKA "Mr. Fun" has a damn interesting blog consisting of anecdotes about his experiences in the animation Disney and of his life in general. I'm led to believe he was the first black animator to work at Disney studios but the blog really shows that the subject of being a black animator is besides the point, he is experienced, full of wisdom and is one of those rare artists that seem open to sharing his opinions as shown on the "gag wall" section of his site. Brilliant stuff.

Cal Arts.

Hey. I got in. Woohoo!

Uhh... can't think of anything further to say about that at the moment.

oh wow...hey.... drawings.

The Cellar...

Hold on!

The Dragon's Den...

Yeah. Rough sketches and dirty scans... Just the way I like it.

Quality Control.

Let's face it, regardless of if you love or hate "Anime," Japan is kicking our asses when it comes to outright technical skill and creativity and actually taking advantage of the 2d animated medium. Not just 2d, but also using technology and combining 2d with 3d and even live action to get effects and shots you could only dream of in your wildest imaginations. Meanwhile, we live in Disney's shadow. Simply trying to relearn and relive what has already been. While we're catching up with the past, they're actually creating things that are completely new. Chances are being taken.

To think that hand drawn animation is considered a "risk" in today's CG saturated market, let alone hand drawn animation that seeks to experiment and manipulate rules to create new stimulating visuals. Certain elements in Japan at least acknowledge animation as a craft, not just a commodity. In the states we "ooh" and "ah" in 7 minute intervals at something mildly different and creative that was made by some obscure animator living in a closet somewhere. They've got at least a couple of entire studios dedicated to trying out new things.

Apparently they're making money or how else would movies like Mindgame, Paprika or Tekkon Kinkreet keep getting made? One could argue that their audience is more sophisticated and appreciative of art, comics and animation and recognize that the mediums are in fact, MEDIUMS and not just a "kiddy genre." Is it simply a difference in culture or could a lack of effort to challenge status quo here in the west be all that stands in the way of saving a dying (and believe me, almost dead as far as big business in the West is concerned) craft?

There is an incredible lack of skill concerning art and entertainment in the United States, in general, that I think is brought on by serious ignorance and a lack of historic context. Instead of capitalizing on hundreds of years of technique and knowledge developed by master illustrators and painters and building upon that knowledge and moving ahead with even better work, many people that "draw" simply seek to emulate what they saw the day before. Copying copies of a copy of a copy and not ever once thinking about the source of that style or technique and what that particular line on a character's chin is really supposed to represent. Merely content to emulate drawings superficially and without thought as to WHY the artist they copy put that line in that particular spot.

Gee, where have I seen that hand before? I'm not even gonna bother with pointing out everything else wrong with this drawing.

An even more disturbing thing I notice is that some so-called "professional" artists and animators don't even know how low the standards for their craft have gotten. One need only look to foreign art and animation to see that people around the world, particularly in places like France, Spain and Japan, have been able to develop well-crafted, original art, comics and animation more consistently for mainstream purposes. That's the key right there... MAINSTREAM art. Not some guy, in a closet, working for crumbs and living simply off of passion and getting lucky enough to be showcased in a festival seen by people who already like animation, in essence, preaching to the choir.

Obviously those countries have their fair share of crap as well. People that hate anime are, for the most part, justified in their prejudices, but you can't ignore the fact that the small percentage of well-crafted work in Japan still exceeds the standards of what we consider well-crafted in the States.

Please top yelling...

Many details simply get lost and only serve to make compositions harder to read.

This probably also causes A.D.D. in children...

Quite honestly, shows like El Tigre are a bit overdone and lack focused art direction. Everything is yelling at you in terms of detail and color and there is no seeming hierarchy that leads your eye to focus on what is important at any given moment. The backgrounds are loud and the characters are loud and the storytelling.... well, that's loud too. It's wonderful that all of these talented (and many personal fav's of mine) are working on the show, but some detail must be held back in order for the other elements to be their most effective. Still, it's one of the most well designed shows on tv...

When it gets right down to it, our priorities in the West are simply counterproductive to any attempts to add to the culture. Instead we've simply perfected capitalism and made everything into an assembly line. That's fine and well when it comes to creating cars and toothpicks but when it comes to something so incredibly personal and customized to each person's way of thinking, the culture suffers. We have nothing personal to show or to say to each other. Nothing to be proud of and to look back on as an incredible accomplishment. We've replaced culture with hollow nostalgia. Even the shows and movies we create nowadays simply seek to remind us of better entertainment that has long since passed. Family Guy makes a fortune off of it. But even Seth McFarlane is at least personally invested in his creation as he pitched a fit when Fox decided to continue the series after he decided to leave it. I understand a guy like Seth McFarlane is a huge fan of good entertainment and he is certainly cares about celebrating good entertainment, but when your biggest achievement was simply a creation that gets most of it's entertainment value from reminding us of past entertainment, well... there's something wrong going on there.


Eh... let's just end this rant right there. I hope that whoever reads this at least gets the gist of what I'm trying to articulate. We gotta try harder and take more chances. Don't look at what's current to set your standards for what's "good," look to the past for what was "best" and seek to go miles beyond that.

peace.

'Sup?

What've I been up too? Helping my good friend Breehn Burns on one of his new Dr. Tran shorts! Seriously the best job I've had in animation so far, and I get paid in free food. Typical. Hahaha.

It's been a really interesting experience trying to step away from the super limited, pose to pose puppetry style of animation the Dr. Tran shorts usually have and getting into more complex, traditional style animation using Photoshop and After Effects. Being able to set up a scene, animate frames onto separate layers and composing them in after effects and being able to seamlessly go back and forth between the programs allowing me to instantly test the animation and edit frames. Still not quite as easy as flash but it's getting there. My hope is to be able to set up a workflow that can achieve traditional style animation without paper and expensive camera set ups and without the "Flash-ness" of using Flash. It's giving me quite a few ideas for executing my own personal project.

Also having a good time just hanging with Breehn and his roommate Pendelton Ward who's known for his awesomely charming Adventure Time short.

Check out Breehn's production blog.

The hole.

art desk/short film project peek.

I like it so far.

WIP.

No love for dem alien bastards.

a drawing I lost interest in...

Initially done to mess with CS3's nifty tools. Stylistically this is what I get when putting together all the "rules" and whatever I've learned throughout my experiences, but this kind of stuff doesn't really hold my interest. I probably could go the whole "concept art" route or whatever but I like messing with styles and trying to push the personality of drawings. More than anything I'd really like to go the route of Ronald Searle or Eric Sokol.



I love that loose, shapely quality that goes right to the heart of the character's personality. It's simple and to the point. Doesn't get caught up in strict anatomy, perspective or realism. Even though it does excel in those qualities, they take a backseat to the point of the picture... the CHARACTER. maybe this is why I spend a lot of time drawing people, faces, body language... I don't do fan art or even post a lot of what I draw.. they're not for show or to get props from my peers. I just like capturing people and their attitudes and moments of humanity.

Meh... I'm easy. I would be a lot more successful if I finished more pieces or did shit that appealed to a wider audience and became a total art attention whore, but I just don't. Or maybe I'm lazy, who knows?

I prefer storyboarding. I'm weird.



currently in progress... It's a lot more fun and intuitive. Unfortunately I have to go to work in the morning and finalize my portfolio so I might not touch this until the weekend.

Back on the Ball.

We're using this sequence to try out some V.O. talent (friends/family/ourselves)...

'Choo lookin' at?

Finally! A day off. Really quickly (like 5 milliseconds, that's why it's sorta cruddy) did this in flash. Experimenting with possibly doing my comic this way instead of pencil and ink which just takes up time that I really don't have anymore. It just might work. Also need to catch up on personal/freelance stuff that I haven't been able to touch due to a whack work schedule.

Haha, I used the word "whack."

Damn you, old man!

I'm just plain out of steam at the moment. Hopefully I can regain my spark after the New Year. Right now I'm just trying to get my portfolio ready for submission, worrying about money while half-heartedly doing pro bono freelance (for friends), and spending a lot of time in philosophical bewilderment and spiritual defeat. My waking hours aren't very lucid and I'm just sort of mulling about in a zombie trance. Thus is the temperament of a lazy, unfocused artist with more ambition than energy. Like a bear, I only wish to hybernate until Spring breathes life back into my lungs.

Simply put, I hate Winter.

Load yer pistol.

Busy trying to make some comics.

Meh.

My thoughts, exactly...

Inside UPA

Yay! My book just came in.

It even came with this nifty placard SIGNED by living, former UPA artists.

sweeeeeeeeeet.

Inside UPA is a pretty cool book with lots of rare photos and descriptions of what it was like to work at the legendary UPA animation studio during it's heyday. I got the swank $150 signed copy limited to only 50. Even though my stomach is empty and I'm all out of coal for the furnace, it was worth it...

Worse comes to worst... I can eat the book!

(Apologies for the really crappy photos, my hands shake like crazy... I'll never be a surgeon ;_;)

You Win!

More boards. Trying not to give away the story.

Portraits.

Done with guache. Practice, Practice, Practice...