Just...

...because.

ROBOT ZOMBIE vs NINJA MONKEY!!

SketchBook Pro is my new best friend! Now I can just sketch down stupid random ideas and its easier than a sketch book...plus I don't have to go to kinkos to get it scanned onto a digital format for the blog...NOW YOU WILL ALL KNOW THE WRAITH THAT IS MY SKETCHING MIND!!! MMWWHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHHAHAAHA!!!!

Fishy McSketcherson

I got a new toy recently that will help me draw more! I found Autodesk SketchBook Pro on Amazon.com for $90. To put in perspective on how awesome and cheap it is...It is basically Photoshop without the photo editing (which I'd hardly use anywys) simplified for drawing/painting. Adobe Photoshop is $700 for the straight up copy. If you were lucky enough to have a copy before hand, its $200 for the upgrade to CS4. Hardly a deal for just doing what I'm doing...which is just sketching and faux-painting.

Anyways...this is one of the many results of me playing with Sketchbook Pro for the past 7 hours. Its certainly a lot of fun and easy to use. It all comes very natural, especially if you already have a Wacom tablet to work with. I did a family portrait of Misha, my unborn child and myself from memory...so it might be a little inaccurate. The baby is a little more developed in the drawing than the actual baby.

Expect more sketches to come! :)

I'll throw stuff at you for $5!

WARNING! Liam Rant Ahead! For those brave enough to read on...do so at your own risk. People with pace makers and mothers who are nursing are to stand 5 ft from this rant:

A lot of people went to see James Cameron's "Avatar" recently...it apparently out-grossed the #1 grossing movie of all time, James Cameron's "Titanic". But that's like saying a $17 hooker is better than a $6 hooker because the $17 hooker made slightly more money and if you wear special glasses she's a tad more attractive...but the experience is about the same.

So based on pure dollar sales, Avatar is the top grossing movie of all time. but lets also fail to mention that with the gigantic costs of regular tickets these days compared to 1997, its almost doubled. Then add, that you don't get the same experience if you don't watch with these special glasses that make it 3-D (WHOOP-DEE-DOO!) and if you don't see it in IMax, well then you are just wasting your money! So after the jacked-up ticket prices, 3D glasses, and the IMax theater prices...About a 1/4 of the overall Titanic audience could see Avatar and it'll be the top grossing movie of all time.

The most infuriating thing is that when people talk about it...its all about the technology of the film and how wonderful it is. And when I ask about the plot and if its interesting...I get a bunch of mumbles. Someone actually said to me (which actually set this whole thing off for me), "If you aren't going to see it in IMax, then its not worth seeing." WHAT?! I heard similar verbiage with "Transformers 2" and we all know how that turned out. How does that make it a good movie?! I swear to God...if I dressed up a turd as a cheeseburger with lots of great hand-crafted french cheeses and crisp lettuce and freshly cut pickles and tomatoes from the garden of Zeus himself...these people would eat and say "I loved it! The cheese was great!" Just because someone put a pretty 3D filter on a movie and said it was the greatest invention to movies since colored film...doesn't make it great.

Let's peel back the layers...take away the unnecessary 3D (which is purely there to add dollars to the ticket price) and then put it on the small screen in your living room. So all it has to rely on is the storyline, acting, and general directing and pace of the movie (LIKE EVERY MOVIE ON THE PLANET!!!). I have faith in James Cameron to make a great movie...he did give us "Abyss" "Terminator 2" and "Aliens". So I have no doubt that he can direct. But judging from what I've learned via critics, from what I'm to believe from trailers, and general word-of-mouth...is that this movie borrows heavily from "Dances With Wolves", "Fern Gully" and more recently a forgettable (3D) animated feature called "The Battle for Terra" which is actually more like Avatar than anything else since it features humans conquering a populated planet for its resources and one human must make a choice between his people or his new alien friends (OH! THE DILEMMA!). So originality isn't creeping into this as far as I can see. James even admittedly borrows from his own movie, "Aliens" with some of the designs like the drop ships and the battle mechs.

So if I am going to watch it, I'll rent the dvd. No one is going to make me watch a movie for $17 JUST BECAUSE its in 3D and on a bigger screen. So what...this 3D trend has infuriated me to no end. It doesn't do anything except make it kind of seem like things are flying at you. Really? You'll pay another $5 for crap to be thrown at you? I'll stand underneath the screen of "Avatar" with a cannon loaded up with the members of the Blue Man Group and shoot them into the audience...I'll BE RICH!!!

I made that!

Once again work and just general life has made it hard to post anything lately. But yesterday was a very exciting day that I had to put work on the back burner for a small time to make something special for this occasion.

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!

Just yesterday, we went in to see the first ultrasound of our new baby...and he was a rascal. He was jumping around and I think at one point he was flashing us his lil' bum. (note: I want to say at this point that we don't know the sex of the baby, its just easier to say "he" instead of "he/she" and more respectful than "it")

About this animation...I've been working on this for a couple of weeks...I must be Nostradamus incarnate, because I had no idea how close to bouncy he actually was until yesterday. I realize its unfinished, and I doubt I'll color it in anymore than it is, but its there to really work on timing and some different cycles along with quick transitions from one pose to another.

ENJOY!

Penguins are Jerks

I was working on this periodically for the past two months...a little here a little there. Just a test on timing and tweening. Personally, I like it. I might make into a series of animations if I find myself with the time. But I'm going to be participating more in animation contests for short animations. Hopefully that'll work out to my favor. I'll talk more about that when/if it happens. Right now its all about what work will allow.

ENJOY!

Old Man Walkin'

I finally broke down and got After Effects CS4 (AECS4). I found a copy for a couple hundred dollars less on Amazon.com. Still too expensive, but I should learn how to really utilize it since it is a good animation tool...its got some great animation enhancements including a 3D effect for 2D animation.

Anyways...I was just filling in some holes in my animation reel, one of which I am almost completely lacking is walk cycles. So I may do a few more after this one. But now that I can post these on my blog, I have a good reason to animate outside of work. This clip is a character I came up with real quick just to work on an interesting walk cycle. I originally animated his legs as a blur cycle...but thought the shuffle worked better. I'll try to come up with a couple more soon.

Sorry for taking so long to post anything interesting. Work, holidays and figuring out AECS4 has taken over my life. I'm still trying to figure out how to successfully import Flash .swf files with sound into AECS4...so the Wordgirl clips are still in the process of coming out to the blog.

On another note, the newest "Corporal Cup's Food Camp" short is up on the Lunch Lab website in the video section...so check that out as well!

I'm working on another animated quickie involving two penguins. I'll post that when its done.