yes sir...get them while you can..

so I have been wanting these for my collection for a while.. I saw the Calvin and Hobbes collection a while ago but it is was some $$$ and something always came up which stopped me from purchasing it. Luckily Nicole remembered that I wanted it and gave me a good surprise. Two good surprises! I had a feeling that the Batman Animated Series: The Complete Collection would be released as a bundle but it was just a speculation. A few months ago I saw it and was geeking, but still didn't want to shell out the ends at that time. If you love animation and art both of these are worth the money. I fell in love with the animated Batman and Bruce Timm's take on it. I was in high school when it came out and I watched it faithfully everday after school. So many cartoons mimicked the style after and Bruce set a trend.

Calvin and Hobbes is an American icon that I think if you are a fan of comics you should get it. The skill of coming up with short, funny, and clever ideas for strips is a great skill. Inspirational is the only word for it. Bill Watterson also hints to why he has never let anyone touch the characters. I am glad that they have not been animated. I know people have approached him to have them hit the tv screen and movie theatre, but I believe he has made the right decision in holding on to his work ....as is...

doing what? storyboarding and stuff

So I have been doing a lot of stuff at work and a big part of it has been doing beat boards and story boards. I can't say what it is for but you will get to see it soon. It has been taking time away from personal work a bit, but it is helping me grow in different areas. Our team is becoming tighter knit and we are moving forward with a lot of good ideas. Especially with all the economic issues going on..it is definitely good to be where I am at..and doing what I am doing.

stay tuned...

WildCart: CTF

visit CONSUMPTION

CONSUMPTION

color on Shopping Cart, one of the images from the Consumption project. Click the picture or click here to check it out: CONSUMPTION

this is a project I have been working on after work there will be more progress posted on the Consumption website as I move forward.

post office alien

sitting in the post office with a prismacolor and pencil...on the back of a bubble packed envelope.

piano..?

sketchbook study. experimenting and playing with some different character stuff with hands and facia. Sketching between opening and closing files, waiting for playblasts..etc..

...are you still hungry...

HUNGER.. you know the thing that musicians talk about a lot where you have to stay hungry. It goes for everything in life right... Remember when you used to draw as a kid. It was that escape into your own world. I was happy with a stack of paper and a pencil. I am sure it made my mother happy at points when she didn't have extra money to buy me toys or whatever else I may have asked for. She give me a stack of paper. I have been really drilling into those memories and trying to put that into my work....and I mean the work I do for myself. That is the only way I think you will survive mentally as an artist. Knowing that part of you. To quote Shawshank Redmemption "its something inside of you that they cant touch" the thing that know company, studio, or other person can take from you. I think there are many artists that are broken by some studios. They get broken down to where they begin to hate what they do. I only say this because I felt it before, but I had to snap back into the part of my mind that wanted to do this as a child. The part that would draw to escape any pain, worry, or strife... HUNGER.. My friend said to me the other night.."your either going to be a wolf or a sheep..and if you dont stay hungry then get ready to be eaten". Sounds harsh doesnt it. Probably one of the major problems with our country at the moment.. many of us have become sheep and just want to graze. So if you are a wolf in this game of artists, animators, storytellers, and life in general you know the HUNGER I am refering to and if you decided to be a sheep...well....

HAS: animated

between animating and waiting for files I was looking at a picture of my brother and my cousins. started transforming Has into a Cartoon... need to start animating on the Cintiq..

Common Animated and characters

there was talk a few month back about an animated Common video. These were some of the concepts I drew up real quick.

clarification...Milt Kahl's work!

I posted this drawing but it is not my work. It is a production drawing by Milt Kahl from Sword in the Stone that I purchased from a collector.

playing around

thumbnails and Animation: Surfs Up last shot

So this was my last shot on Surfs Up. Animation by:

Cody and Reggie(Otter at the end of the Shot): Me
Lani: James Crossley
Two Intro Penguins: Seth Hippen (flippin hippen)

I began the shot by shooting reference(yada yada yada) but that is probably lost in the archives of Sony. Once I got my reference laid out; I usually do so many takes that I have to spend a good amount of time sorting through it. I look for the best performance but within that I try get the best poses. From the poses I work out my thumbnails. I do not like to take my reference exactly. I use it just as that ...reference. In my thumbnails I look for the areas to push on as if I was going to animate it in 2D. Adding the keypoints of dialogue to the top of the key poses ensures that I will hit the poses when I need to, but there is always room to experiment if you plan right. I spend most of my time planning and luckily on Surfs Up, Chris Buck and Ash Brannon were open to looking at thumbnails during the shot launch. Before the shot launch we had a sequence launch which allowed us to know what was going on in the scene.. this made a smoother transition when we had to go listen to the specifics about the shot. I had to make sure I broke my neck in time to pitch the thumbnails before I touched Maya. I few times I believe I showed my acting reference and got great feedback. I had fun working with the people on this shot..camera things changes a little bit on the final product and the track a little but the essence pretty much stayed the same.

I probably could give you every last detail of how I work but ...eh. Just a brief explanation of the images you see below should work for this post.


Anyway... I have never shown animation on this site, but this shot was kind of a "release".












before added FX, background characters, fur, and lighting




Final Shot

..its about time... a place to work

once I moved to California I had to draw on some broken down desks, animate on some of the worst tables with my elbows touching each other, and sometimes drawing on the floor hunched over. Dont get me wrong, its nice to draw on the floor sometimes.. it reminds me of my childhood, but .. after a while the old age kicks in and your back is not the same. Anyway..its about time! I finally have a place to work and call my own. My favorite room in the house. Call me crazy but I like to work on my own stuff. Its a balancing act I suppose. You have to try not to burn yourself out, but you'll sleep good!

60lb Hoagie: half-life size Sculpt Study (WIP)

research: sculpt update

bad pictures.. need to continue refining the legs, feet, and hands. working on muscle implied muscle structure and trying to avoid making a comic book sculpt

...life drawing...

few segments from life drawing..need to put more time back into this.

research: sculpt

using sculpture class to enforce construction in drawings. this is the phase of refining the shapes and planes of the form