Animating Tillie

tourists are meanies

2011-08-04T19:02:00.002-04:00

This is for reals based on a true story.

hammer time

2011-06-25T23:06:00.004-04:00

Here is Hammer George in Mega-Drama mode. Not that it ever happens. In fact, this is all very misleading. HG is a simple and gentle soul, despite all the hammers. I am thinking about bringing this guy back for more adventures.

Read about his first adventure (in space!).

my second MoCCA

2011-05-01T15:38:00.021-04:00

These are the details of my second visit to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's annual festival on Saturday, April 9th, which was pretty great.

As I was walking from booth to booth, I got a bunch of compliments on my shirt, which was the sweet "Algebraic!" Adventure Time shirt that I got from the Frederator Studio Store back when the first season was in production. They still post new shirts on their AT blog every now and then, so check it! Or just go there for awesome art because they're good at making that too. Aside from the sheer joy wearing cool shirts brings me, they also help me talk to people. I have a tendency to be shy and have horribly awkward, stilted conversations with people, so sharing a love of cartoons with these amazing creators of art can turn a boring conversation about how much I admire them into an exciting adventure recounting stories of shared idolatry. Like when Meredith Gran saw my shirt and started talking to me about the time Pen Ward visited her shared Brooklyn studio, Pizza Island. Talking is so great!

This image has been modified from Vera's original - I added the speech bubble.
Unfortunately for me, First Second, the graphic novel book publisher, had a few copies of Vera Brosgol's "Anya's Ghost" on display. I got excited, thinking I must have missed the release day and how lucky I was to be getting it sooner than I expected. I was practically throwing money at the guy when he grimaced apologetically and told me it wouldn't be available to buy until June. But you know what? I'm just going to wait until July when I can buy it and hopefully have her sign it in person at the San Diego Comic Con. If you're interested (and you should be), there are a few pages of the book available for previewing online here.

Now on to another book dealing with death!
Have you heard of The Machine of Death? It's a book of short stories that revolve around the idea that a machine has been created that reads a small sample of your blood and spits out a small card that accurately predicts the cause of your demise. So, fiction, basically. The interesting thing is how maddeningly vague the results can be. Someone might receive a card that says "old age" and think themselves safe, only to end up dying after an old man runs them over with a van. Anyway, my friend Steven and I had just finished reading the book and were happily surprised to see that David Malki, one of the editors, was distributing Death Prediction Cards at the TopatoCo booth. Despite reading about the oft-troubling changes many characters went through due to the burden of knowing their ultimate fate, we eagerly approached the table and took turns asking, "How do I die?" After David took a sample of our blood, by "pricking" our fingers with a red Sharpie, we learned the methods of our destruction. Steven's warned of unavoidable PERIL. Mine promised VORACIOUS ANIMALS. That card is now in a small frame on my desk at work, where I glance at it from time to time whenever I get the urge to draw cute woodland creatures.

Hahaha I'm going to die some day.
Every time I see Scott C. at a convention his table never fails to have a healthy crowd of admirers. This occasion I finally found an opportunity to have a chat with the amiable fellow and buy some of his art. Specifically, this glorious dog print. I also snatched a copy of his book, Double Fine Action Comics, Volume 1, which I find to be very amusing. It is also sitting on my desk at work, where I peruse it from time to time whenever I want to laugh at how silly it is for a baby to have two heads.

Scott's little business cards make my work Cintiq look good.
The Johnny Wander duo, Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya, had a nice setup and I look forward to surprising my friend with a gift of one of their CMYcat tees. I remember thinking that some of Yuko's art prints would make amazing coloring pages. Except that the pieces she actually colors look so vibrant I wouldn't want to muddle her work up with my own sloppy contributions. I would do fanart but I think because Johnny Wander is mostly autobiographical in nature that might be a little weird. Or not! Tally-ho, to the Cintiq!

Anthology Project Vol 2 - cover art by Ed Kwong.
I am so glad that The Anthology Project was there with debut copies of their new Volume 2 book. Hopefully this remains an annual tradition, especially now that Flight will end its 8-book run this summer. Sam Bradley was joined at the Anthology table this year by Joy Ang, editor and artist behind the gorgeous cover of Volume 1 and one of the short comics included therein. Also making an appearance was fellow Canadian and comic creator Katie Shanahan (KT Shy) who was extremely nice and easy to talk with. We spoke of the joys of storyboarding for kids' shows and mourned the loss of the Flight series. Katie actually has a comic in the final Flight volume that comes out this summer, so it will be a bittersweet reunion when I see her again at the San Diego Comic Con to pick up my copy.

oh, he's alright.

2011-04-08T18:44:00.005-04:00

So excited to go to MoCCA tomorrow! The drawing has nothing to do with attending the festival, but I drew it anyway, didn't I?

Hourly Comic Day #2

2011-04-06T15:15:00.008-04:00

How did I forget to post my comics from Hourly Comics Day?! Here they are. From February 1st.

weatherness

2011-03-25T18:28:00.004-04:00

Rain.
Hail.
Snow and lightning.
All in one night.

Seriously, what is with this weather? Hellooooo it's almost April, fer cryin' out loud!

animation nominations

2011-02-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

It's a pity there wasn't just one more qualified feature animation in the running this year or the block of nominees would have been bumped up from three to five. I really do think Tangled was a superb throwback to my childhood of singing princesses and would have made an excellent contender. I was starting to think it was due to my increasing age that I wasn't able to enjoy or connect with the new attempts. But no, as it turns out, it was just the studios' fault for making mediocre and altogether sub par attempts and making me think that my heart was hardening to old childhood fancies. No longer! And now, in an effort to stop from babbling on before it's too late, I present to you the top three animated feature films and the top five animated shorts.

Best Animated Feature:

This is, hands down, the best Dreamworks picture to date (in my opinion, of course). Ever since Lilo & Stitch came out I have been a huge Chris & Dean fan. They put so much heart and character into what they do. They didn't rely on pop culture references or feature some idiotic karaoke-dance number at the end. It is tenderness and action and exhilaration and everything an animated feature should be. (DreamWorks Animation - Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois)

This traditionally animated feature is quite a refreshing change of pace from all the fast and flashy American animation features that have become the norm. It is a beautiful portrait of melancholy that treats its audience to slowly-building heartache and loneliness. The story doesn't go very far, but it's wonderful to see. And just like with Triplets of Belleville, Mr. Chomet has once again managed an entire movie with with hardly any dialogue at all. Impressive. (Django Films/Sony Pictures Classics - Sylvain Chomet)

I was worried when I first heard that there would be a third Toy Story movie. Any trepidation I had quickly gave way to excitement, though, when I remembered it was Pixar at the helm. And rightly so, as it turned out. This was a huge success for them because it was an excellent end to a consistently good franchise and it proved that quality doesn't have to deteriorate with sequels (or three-quels, I guess would be more appropriate). Also, after Beauty and the Beast and Up, it is the third animated feature to ever be nominated for Best Picture. (Disney/Pixar - Lee Unkrich) Winner!

Best Animated Short:

This has got to be one of my favorite Pixar shorts. Smart and creative and just... just brilliant! The two characters play off each other in an awesome tête à tête, contrasting night and day in a way that's never been done before. Also, the implementation of sound effects is genius. (Teddy Newton) Watch.

This (mostly) 3-D short is based on a children's book, so it has all the traditional elements of childrens' storytelling you'd expect. A brazen mouse outwits three hungry predators and then outwits the terror of the forest himself. Nothing really new there, but the animation is very well done and tremendously improves the tale. The character models are lovingly crafted and I like that they gave everything a tactile appearance (or, at least, their CG characters appear to blend into the physical sets very nicely). (Jakob Schuh and Max Lang) Watch.

This 2-D short looks a bit like those old educational shorts from the 50's, but with a little textural flare thrown in. I mean, it looks great. I just wish I could find an English version. (Geefwee Boedoe) Watch in French. Or check out this much nicer clip in English.

A story about a guy who finds a thing. It's a nice sort of thing and this is a nice sort of 3-D short. Nothing much to it, really, but enjoyable all the same. (Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann) Watch. (after a few seconds the ads go away and the player becomes visible) Winner!

A living, breathing journal. A wide sampling of animation styles offer a detailed, wonderfully textured story, bringing to life the pages of Bastien Dubois' travel journal. It moves effortlessly through painted Madagascar settings rendered in 3-D with stop motion car traffic, watercolor landscapes, pastel people, even colorfully embroidered crowds. Much of it is heavily rotoscoped, but there is always so much to look at - it really does feel as though you're flipping through someone's richly detailed scrapbook. I'm guessing this will win. (Bastien Dubois) Watch.

To catch the live awards show and find out which of these amazing artists is the best at being awesome according to a bunch of people you don't know, tune in Sunday, February 27th.

desktops. again!

2010-10-13T23:30:00.001-04:00

Looks like it's time for another installment of Animation Art Big Enough To Be Used As Desktop Decoration (At Least For My Laptop)! Round three... start!

Just in time for the Halloween season, it's wallpaper from the new Epic Mickey Wii game, via Pure Nintendo!

Concept art from Toy Story 3 that I found on The Art of Disney blog. Unfortunately, their site seems to be down. For forever, possibly. I don't speak French so I can't be sure— oh wait. Ah, I've solved the mystery. Here is a cheap (read: free and crappy) Babel Fish translation of the parting words from the blog owner explaining the situation:

It is not without a certain bitterness that I announce to you the closing of The Art Disney Animation following a warning of Disney. Indeed the latter reproach the site for violating the rights d' author of the firm by publishing drawings their pertaining. I try for the moment to find a compromise with them, but the future of the site seems quite dubious. I invite you to visit the facebook page regularly site to keep you informed of the continuation of the events.

Alas. That was a great resource, even if I wasn't able to read a word of their posts. Here are some gorgeous stills from the movie that are perfectly suited for desktop displays.

Continuing on!

This is a background design from Sym-Bionic Titan, Genndy Tartakovsky's new cartoon series, painted by Kevin Dart. I do believe a few episodes of this have aired already on Cartoon Network, but I haven't seen them yet. See more art on Kevin Dart's art blog.

This is very green. Too green? I haven't used it on my desktop, but I thought it looked minty. Yes, I was in a very minty mood when I found this concept art for a scrapped Amblimation Studio production called The Just So Stories, via One1more2time3's blog.

La casa de Pacha! Art from The Emperor's New Groove by Robh Ruppel, found on John Nevarez's blog.

I'll leave you with this... this... smoulder. Lucky you, this could be your desktop! Haha please make this your desktop. You may recognize this, er, charming fellow from Disney's Tangled trailers. Via David Gilson's blog.

daily doodle #32: Mighty Warrior

2010-09-03T21:26:00.001-04:00

I am considering doing these again...

dogs will be dogs

2010-08-11T22:37:00.005-04:00

Oh man. Dogs! Amiright, people? I'm pretty sure my dog, Kiki, has no idea what I'm talking about. And actually, I'd be pretty impressed if she was on the Internet reading this post about her. Damn impressed. Especially considering her surprising lack of general common sense. I've lost track of all the times she's practically jumped out of her skin from various irrational fears, which include, but are not limited to: baths (even in the summer, Kiki? You cray-see!), the vacuum cleaner (I know, what animal isn't scared of this noisy suck-beast?), the electronic cords from our entertainment systems, rotating ceiling fans, absolutely stationary ceiling fans that have not been turned on for months, and sometimes hats. That's all I can think of now, but don't let the small list fool you — even the most inert and non-threatening objects can give her a fright. Still, dogs have this uncanny ability to pick up on all sorts of things outside the human range of senses, right? So maybe... just maybe... I should look into this whole fan thing. What if she's right to be afraid? Why are there so many fans installed in our house?!

featured fan finale

2010-06-15T11:26:00.006-04:00

Dumm Comics is featuring another of my fancomics today! "Another?" you ask. Surely you remember my June post celebrating the first of such occasions. Surely! Since then, another opportunity to pay homage to Gabe Swarr presented itself. As his weekly "Big Pants Mouse" comic strip was coming to an end he reached out to his fans to come up with their own versions of how the strip might conclude. I accepted the challenge and in so doing, most likely created (unintentionally) the longest one-page fan strip that ever saw the light of Internet. Seriously, you should see this monster:
Via Dumm.
Via deviantART.

Tangled trailer

2010-06-10T14:14:00.018-04:00

Here's the first real teaser trailer for Disney's next "happily ever after" feature, Tangled, the story of Rapunzel. Or is it the story of Rapunzel's prince, featuring Rapunzel? After watching this trailer, I'm not sure anymore. Not to mention I was too busy inspecting the new visual style of this 3-D feature (yes, in this instance I mean the bring-your-special-glasses 3-D, but I also mean CGI). Animator Glen Keane initially helmed this project with the desire to bring the beauty of 2-D to computer animation. His team created a new form of 3-D that will hopefully evoke the warmth and feeling of a traditional painting. Behold, the studio's attempt at making a painting come to life through the magic of Disney:

my first MoCCA

2010-04-12T22:56:00.012-04:00

Where am I again? Oh yeah, the MoCCA Festival. Thanks, sign!
My first time at the MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) Festival was a success, as far as my little To-Do list was concerned. The list was mostly comprised of a small handful of names of comic artists whom I admire and wanted to meet. Only I couldn't find that sneaky Johnny Wander duo. They didn't have a booth and were just wandering (ha!) the floor like the rest of us normals. I thought it would be easy to spot them, what with the extensively smaller venue (in comparison to the San Diego Comic Con, that is) but no such luck.

Several different artists/vendors recognized the shirt I was wearing, the Oh My God Puppies tee from the webcomic Octopus Pie, and each of them lamented the fact that artist Meredith Gran was at home in Oregon with her new puppy, Heidi. "She thinks it has separation anxiety," lamented one gentleman in an unconvinced manner, who then proceeded to show me a picture from his iPhone of said insecure quadruped. And then he took a picture of me in the shirt. I think mostly because I was rockin' it with a kickass blue scarf and who doesn't want a picture of this (this being me)?

Chris Makris and Sam Bradley, two of the contributing artists from volume one of The Anthology Project.
This was the first thing I spent money on and, as it turned out, I was the first person in the U.S. to purchase a copy. Firsts everywhere! And let me just say, this is perhaps the best-looking/feeling book I own, based solely on its outer appearance. The hardcover material is soft to the touch, due to the ever-so-slight vertical ridges (so delicate!) and impressed elegant gold foil lettering. The cover illustration by Joy Ang is reminiscent of James Jean's work a bit (especially the moody blue-green tones), which I love. Oh boy, I sound crazy. I sound like I'm in love with the cover of a book. Well so what, America? Maybe I am. Maybe you should just arrest me already.

Kate Beaton!
She was the main reason I attended. Kate lives in Canada, but that shouldn't stop you from reading her hilarious webcomic, Hark! A Vagrant. JK, you guys, Canada's all right by me. Kate is one of my all-time favorite comic artists, so I brought my copy of Never Learn Anything From History with me and got her to sign it. In classic Hark! fashion, she also drew Abraham Lincoln lookin' sharp and sayin' "all the sweetest history" - how cool is that?!

Aaron Diaz, creator of Dresden Codak, drawing a quick portrait for me of his main character, Kimiko.
Aaron's artistic style has really blossomed in the last year or so and I sometimes find myself staring at a certain panel for minutes on end like I'm trying to absorb some of his talent through the computer screen. Some of the topics and concepts go over my head a bit (all the science!), but Aaron is a really amazing, down to earth guy and I didn't feel the need to wikipedia at all during our chat. (That's right, Wikipedia, you've just been verb-ed!) We discussed how awesome it is being from the South, the unfortunate case of Meredith Gran's dog, and other similarly amusing things while he sketched for me on the inside cover of his new sketchbook.

Conversations are great!

disney desktop decorations

2010-03-02T14:21:00.020-05:00

Remember my post a few months back about decorating my computer desktop with animation backgrounds and concept art? Well I'd like to share a few more Disney pieces that I've found. The Art of Disney blog, while written entirely in French, boasts a huge assortment of art from Disney artists. You can easily browse by film, live action flick, short cartoon, and even artist if you have something specific in mind. Here are a few that I found that are decently sized for desktop wallpaper:

Concept art from Disney's upcoming 3-D feature, Tangled, the story of Rapunzel. I cut that first one down to fit my laptop and darkened up the left portion of the image just a tad to make my icons pop (modified version).

This London cityscape from Disney's Peter Pan looks too narrow to be used for wallpaper, but it can be stretched to fit one's desktop and still look fabulous.

A background from an old 1930's short called Mickey's Trailer. The full cartoon featuring Mickey and Donald careening wildly over treacherous canyon roads in their runaway trailer can be seen on youtube (backround at 6:39).

You might recognize this as a still from the first ever Disney cartoon to be combined with synchronized sound, Steamboat Willie. Not your typical colorful desktop image, but it features Mickey Mouse back when he was a lovable rogue prone to comically violent acts.

A background from the 1938 Disney short, A Brave Little Taylor. I haven't used this on my desktop yet but I just might play around with the colors and saturation a bit to spruce it up before I do.

Another Lilo and Stitch watercolor background from Peter Moehrle, found on his blog, The Happy Brush.

Here's a gorgeous layout by Eyvind Earle from Sleeping Beauty. I found this one on the CHIUStream blog.

Though it's a little cold and wet, this is still a lovely bit of watercolor from 101 Dalmations, courtesy of One1more2time3's blog.

daily doodle #31: Flight Status

2010-02-09T16:28:00.004-05:00

::grumble grumble::

(not quite "dailies" anymore, are they? sorry for sporadic updates)

features and shorts of the Oscar sort

2010-02-05T16:08:00.002-05:00

It's Oscars time! This year the list of nominees has grown quite a bit. Where before there were three feature selections, now there are five. It's a shame Miyazaki's Ponyo wasn't nominated. While not one of my favorite Ghibli films, it is nevertheless an amazing feat of artistry and a credit to the traditional 2-D genre. And for the first time since 1991's Beauty and the Beast an animated film is up for Best Picture, so that's pretty cool. Now to get on with the show. Without further ado, I bring you this year's nominees.

Best Animated Feature:

A spectacular and horrifyingly splendorous stop-motion feature with a flair for the dark and twisted, animated flawlessly by the talented folks at Laika. Coraline's magical otherworld is visually thrilling and I adore the character designs, especially the eerie transformations when things take a turn for the worst. And by "worst" I mean exciting! Plus, it has a great listen-while-you-draw soundtrack. (Focus Features/Laika - Henry Selick)

The humor of Wes Anderson combined with stop-motion, my favorite style of animation, really made this film kick. Like a fox! These furry characters had such charming personalities and a lively presence that brought life to Roald Dahl's tale of mischief and trickery. I'm not usually a fan of "star power" voice casting, but Anderson's witty batch of actor pals really brought this film together. (Twentieth Century-Fox - Wes Anderson)

Not quite the comeback I was hoping for, but it was a good first effort since Disney's disappointing foray into 3-D. The songs were nice but forgettable the moment they ended and the two main characters were kind of a drag, not to mention their romance seemed awkwardly forced. All in all, it was a little mediocre and not up to Disney's old musical standards, but at least they are bringing 2-D back. (Disney - John Musker and Ron Clements)

Sadly, this is the one animated feature I have yet to see. Shouldn't be long now, though, as I have a copy of it sitting on my desktop! If I understand correctly it's an Irish tale about a young monk on a quest to save his abbey from approaching barbarian hordes by completing the legendary Book of Kells (ancient Celtic religious texts and whatnot). It sounds like a fun adventure, what with a journey into an enchanted forest, encounters with mythical creatures, and a wolfgirl! The crisp, flat style and smooth animation look pretty darn neat, too. (Les Armateurs/Cartoon Saloon - Tomm Moore) Watch the trailer.

Actually, and don't kill me for writing this, but this film didn't make it onto my Pixar favorites list. I applaud the use of an unconventional main character and the gorgeous landscapes, not to mention the heartbreaking beginning, but man was I annoyed by those dogs! The perpetually broken voice box, the squirrels, the plane-flying... it just wasn't doing it for me at all. I'm glad to see it nominated for Best Picture, though. Animation ftw! (Disney/Pixar - Pete Docter) Winner!

Best Animated Short:

Some lovely 3-D rendering with a great little character-driven story to boot. It was an interesting choice to use the mirror on the back wall to create depth within the small Parisian café and move the narrative along, and I think it paid off. Add to that a few choice plot twists and this short could very well take home the Oscar. (Fabrice O. Joubert) Watch.

Granny shares her own personal twist on a classic bedtime story, much to the dismay of her granddaughter, and that pretty much sums it up. I wasn't too impressed by the 3-D portion of the short, but I thought the 2-D segments were kind of fun. (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell) Watch.

This is a madcap battle between a reaper and a cocky doctor to lay claim to an old woman's life (one wants to reap, the other to save). I really enjoyed the character designs and the softness of the 3-D models - everything looked so cool and smooth. (Javier Recio Gracia) Watch.

It's an interesting visual concept - a world and its inhabitants comprised solely of 2500+ brand logos (imagine the AIM Running Man crossing the street, Windows Live butterflies fluttering in the breeze, and the Evian mountains in the distance), but this 3-D short is more like an iSpy game than a real story. Did anyone else notice the ad for Slurm? Futurama fans know what I'm talkin' about. (Nicolas Schmerkin) Watch. Winner!

Hurray another delightful Wallace and Gromit caper! My favorite stop-motion duo is at it again! This time the pair have turned their downstairs workshop into a full-fledged bakery and, in the midst of a town mystery surrounding a series of baker murders, fallen for a couple of damsels in distress. There is nothing I don't love about this short. (Nick Park) Watch.

Remember, the Academy Awards hosted by the incomparable Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin airs Sunday, March 7th.

Hourly Comic Day

2010-02-02T14:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Hourly Comic Day so are my hourlies:

daily doodle #30: Science

2009-11-11T00:55:00.000-05:00

Here is something! Hurrah!

Not that this will make up for my unannounced break, but hopefully it makes you smile. I think it's a great little ad. Never mind that I found it a month late...

daily doodle #29: Dogs With Jobs

2009-11-05T21:31:00.001-05:00

Cats can't have all the fun.

daily doodle #28: Hungry

2009-11-03T00:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay, folks.

His name was originally supposed to be Starving (much more dramatic/depressing, don't you think?), but it didn't fit as well with the other names. Can you even name them all? Can you?

daily doodle #27: Filming

2009-10-29T00:51:00.000-04:00

Aaaa have to get up at 7:30AM tomorrow what is the world coming to blaaarrg!

daily doodle #26: Zombie Hamlet

2009-10-28T00:45:00.000-04:00

To be, or not to be...and in some cases, to be again.

daily doodle #25: Hammer George in Space

2009-10-25T22:02:00.003-04:00

Here is Friday's doodle... today!

daily doodle #24: Hammer George

2009-10-23T12:35:00.001-04:00

I don't know how to explain this guy. He is unexplainable. He is Hammer George.

*Couldn't get past a Blogger error to post this last night, so here it is today.

daily doodle #23: Sleepy Kiki

2009-10-22T00:51:00.001-04:00

I spy with my little eye...

daily doodle #22: Cats With Jobs 2

2009-10-21T01:12:00.003-04:00

Cats are back. Gah... I do not feel inspired as of late. Sorry this is so blah.

daily doodle #21: Why So Serious?

2009-10-20T01:45:00.005-04:00

While this is a terrible sketch, it is apparently an accurate representation of my face while driving...

daily doodle #20: Interchangeable

2009-10-17T02:39:00.001-04:00

They're fun that way.

daily doodle #19: Mouse

2009-10-16T02:30:00.004-04:00

One of my Halloween costumes from my childhood. My mom made it and it was awesome.

EDIT: I found an actual photo of me wearing this costume and as it turns out I was only 5, which means I didn't have glasses yet.

daily doodle #18: Traps

2009-10-15T03:41:00.002-04:00

They'll sneak up on you when you least expect it! You're not safe anywhere...

daily doodle #17: Go Fetch

2009-10-14T01:42:00.002-04:00

Hurray I cannot draw dogs well at all!

daily doodle #16: SpaceFox

2009-10-13T02:36:00.002-04:00

Trying new things up in here.

it's great to be a finn head

2009-10-11T13:27:00.004-04:00

Oh ho hooooomygoodness! If I had a paid livejournal account I would totally use these heads as my custom mood themes.

From the Frederator Studios Adventure Time blog, I present the many heads of Finn:

daily doodle #15: Cats FTW

2009-10-10T02:36:00.003-04:00

Take some of that, you tiny yip-dogs! Hmm I just realized yesterday's art was also pink. Oh well. Enjoy the color while it lasts.

daily doodle #14: He Is Not A Biscuit

2009-10-08T21:02:00.002-04:00

Silly cupcake!

life's little things

2009-10-08T16:37:00.010-04:00

There's a simple reason behind my love of animation and here it is: it makes me happy. Another thing that makes me happy is being reminded of that happiness. What? I'm crazy? Well yes, but that's not the point. What I'm trying to say is it's the little things that make day-to-day life enjoyable. That's why I have a Catbus pillow and a Powerpuff girl hanging from my ceiling and an Ackbar Mighty Mugg holding a non-photo blue pencil on my desk. Okay, Admiral Ackbar isn't an animated character, but his anti-trap sentiments make me happy, dammit!

Every morning I wake up, glare at my cell phone/alarm clock, and then find myself smiling. Because this is the next thing I see:

I've had it for a while now - did you know you can just refill Kleenex boxes? Yeah, open up that one side with the flaps and then stuff a new roll of tissues in there and seal 'er back up again! Ta-da!

A newly acquired bit of amusement has come in the form of Dr. Finklestein, the mad scientist from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Look at this (just look!):

And his wheelchair rolls and his brain comes out and everything! I picked him up at Borders, can you believe it? In a little box in the graphic novels section!

Next up is my new Flapjack t-shirt.

You guys have no idea how many times a day I say the "two pieces of candy" line. That and, "The most beautiful man in the wooooorld," which is tragically not on youtube anywhere! What is up with that, internet?!

This has been a glimpse into the happy world of Tillie.

daily doodle #13: Hey Sailor

2009-10-08T00:47:00.005-04:00

Atta girl, go get 'em! Ladylike schmadylike, I always say!

daily doodle #12: It Was Nice

2009-10-06T20:39:00.000-04:00

So nice. And then I woke up.

daily doodle #11: Pescetarian

2009-10-06T02:09:00.001-04:00

Mmmm fish blood...

daily doodle #10: The Dailies Continue

2009-10-05T00:16:00.003-04:00

Problem solved!

daily doodle #9: WOW

2009-10-03T19:15:00.004-04:00

This weekend I'm trying watercolors! I hope I learned something from this first attempt. Like don't drown the paper...

daily doodle #8: You Found An ID!

2009-10-03T04:00:00.005-04:00

Zoops! I'm late posting this. I know you're all, "Why does Link have long hair?" and to you I say, "Because he is the me version of he!" Me talk gud. And me drove solo for the first time today (aka yesterday), thank you very much.

daily doodle #7: Ahoy

2009-10-01T20:50:00.007-04:00

I started out drawing a kid in a pirate costume and ended up with a teen brigand. Sort of. He's a very happy-go-lucky brigand. With one leg smaller than the other... badoop!

daily doodle #6: Around the Corner

2009-09-30T16:54:00.002-04:00

October is almost heeeeeere!

daily doodle #5: Cats With Jobs

2009-09-29T19:34:00.004-04:00

Um? Yeah, so I guess this is what I drew today. I realize mechanics don't really wash your car for you but these cats didn't know that when they signed up for the job. They'll find out eventually, but for now they're doing a great job getting those cars sparkly clean!

daily doodle #4: Guitar Hair-oine

2009-09-28T22:19:00.002-04:00

Get it? Get it?

daily doodle #3: Knight

2009-09-25T23:33:00.003-04:00

A knight for the night.

daily doodle #2: Uatu

2009-09-24T22:35:00.007-04:00

Surprise, another comic! My pal Jon asked if I would draw this for him and I obliged. If you don't know who these comic book characters are, then you are slightly less of a geek than we are. Which is a good thing (probably). If you need help in this area, here are links to Wikipedia entries about Uatu (aka The Watcher) and the Ultimate Nullifier.

daily doodle #1: Mr. Manners

2009-09-24T00:49:00.011-04:00

I am going to try something new. I am going to try and post a drawing each day. Nothing serious, just a quick and simple sketch or what have you to keep this blog fresh. I might occasionally try my hand at watercolors because I know I have a little set somewhere and I should put it to good/mediocre/amateur use. So for as long as I can remember to do so, I will endeavor to post a daily doodle.

Here is doodle the first. Yes, I went a little overboard with it and no, not every post will be comprised of a full comic page like this. I felt like I hadn't used a pen in ages and I was overeager. So sue me. No, don't. I have no money. That's right, if you don't like it throw money at me. I dare you.

I double dog dare you.

desktop decoration

2009-08-29T14:33:00.028-04:00

One of the first things I see in the morning after I turn my computer on is my desktop. Duh. Throughout the day I will inevitably see it again and again, so I like to give it some artistic oomph that will stimulate my creative impulses. My favorite displays come from animation backgrounds and concept art. Here, I'll show you:

Borrowed from Billy Wray's blog, painted backgrounds from Samurai Jack. I love the style of that cartoon and it has some truly great layouts.

More Samurai Jack via Billy Wray. I thought this was an interesting layout, especially since it makes me feel like my computer is a window looking out onto a bazaar (it would be awesome if it was somehow animated with various passersby, preferably an assortment of otherworldly creatures out looking for bargains).

A Lilo & Stitch watercolor background by Peter Moehrle, found on Ben Price's blog. It's a shame Disney fell out the habit of doing watercolor backgrounds because they can really add character to a film, and I'm glad they brought the style back for what turned out to be one of my favorite animated movies.

The city of Townsville! A peaceful scene to cool me down after a day of computer work. Background layout from The Powerpuff Girls cartoon borrowed from Lou Romano's blog.

Art from Nickelodeon's The Mighty B! taken straight from the Nick website (except I went in and got rid of that annoying logo). The colors and sweep of this San Francisco scene are pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.

For the life of me I have no idea where I got this. I don't even know who it's by. Ralph Eggleston perhaps? In any case, it's concept art from Finding Nemo and it's beautiful. I used to have this on my computer at work and it made me happy every time I looked at it.

Back when I was working late nights on my animation homework, I cobbled this piece together from Glen Keane's character work for inspiration.

Of course, it's not all about animation. At least, not all the time. James Jean's cover art for the Fables graphic novel series is always a visual treat. Visit his site for more of his work. Or better yet, start reading Bill Willingham's Fables.

Whenever I have a hankering to peruse for more art inspiration, I sometimes use Rob Richard's Animation Backgrounds blog, which has an amazing assortment of, well, animation backgrounds. Unfortunately, most of them are not what I would consider desktop worthy, mostly because they're smaller images that wouldn't look good stretched to fit the screen. Still, it's a great resource.

Glen, Pen, and Hayao

2009-07-30T17:25:00.027-04:00

Now that I'm fully rested from the four-day marathon that is the San Diego Comic-Con I can finally post about my experience.

Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming tide of Twilight fans in line for the New Moon panel, which happened to be scheduled most unwisely in the middle of the day on Thursday, there was really no way for me to attend the Disney 3-D panel preceding it. Well, you can't win 'em all. Plus, I was under the spell of the exhibition hall, with all its displays, free stuff, and cosplayers — everything delicious, tempting eye candy goodness. I don't think I could have dragged myself away until I'd had a few hours to absorb everything, anyway.

Later that afternoon I was able to detach from the main hall, so to speak, and made my way to one of the other panels on my list, Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes. I was there early enough to be let into the panel before it, which happened to be an interesting discussion on costume design for television production. I took a seat in the second row, directly in front of the table of guests and waited. Don Hahn (producer of such Disney films as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and The Emperor's New Groove to name a few), Eric Goldberg (lead animator on Aladdin's Genie and Hercules' Phil), Tom Sito (animator/director/teacher of many things), Ruben Procopio (sculptor of Disney characters and comic heroes), and Glen Keane (creator of some of Disney's most memorable characters like Ariel, Aladdin, Beast, and Tarzan) were in attendance and showed slides of concept art while talking about the life and lessons of Walt Stanchfield. I jotted down a few notes from the guys that I thought were worth remembering:

"Draw verbs, not nouns." - Eric
"Every line should have a meaning." - Ruben
"Don't draw what you see, strengthen the gesture." - Eric
"Impression - Expression = Depression" - a saying of Walt Stanchfield's
"Don't worry about sketching details — get the story across." - another of Walt Stanchfield's lessons
"Gesture first, then add detail." - Glen
"Loose but readable and exploratory." - Eric

It was Glen's first time at the San Diego Comic-Con, so I felt incredibly lucky just to be in the same room as him. It seemed he was just as keen (sorry, had to do it) to attend with his new sketchbook in hand ("I can't wait to get to the Comic-Con and draw weird people"). I caught up with him after the panel, shook his hand, and managed to look relatively calm while taking a picture with him.

I could have floated on air for the rest of the day (week, year, life, etc.) but I had to book it to the next panel across the convention center. Cartoon Network: Chowder! The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack! Adventure Time with Finn and Jake! had a bigger turnout that I expected and sadly, I didn't make the cut. But after waiting patiently in line for about half an hour I was granted entrance, joy of joys. Unfortunately, I came in just as they were finishing the Adventure Time portion of the discussion. His presentation over, creator Pendleton Ward focused his attention on finishing some handmade flip books which he passed out to a lucky few after the panel ended.

Meanwhile, I was happily surprised to notice Tara Strong, voice actor extraordinaire (who doesn't love the adorable Bubbles of the Powerpuff Girls?), sitting at the table and showing her support for Chowder. Listening to her was a treat in and of itself, truly. And speaking of voices, I had no idea Thurop Van Orman sounded so incredibly similar to Flapjack, the character he voices on the show he created, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He still sounds like a kid! That just about made my day. Again. And to top it all off, I ran into Pendleton under the sails after the panel concluded. After complimenting him on his characters' ever-amusing wiggly arms we took this picture:

Whew! And so ended my panel-hopping first day. Despite meeting two of my favorite animation pros, the biggest sight was yet to come! Hayao Miyazaki. He is his own sentence. He just is. To ensure that I got a spot in Hall H on Friday to see the animation legend at the 12:45pm Disney: Animation panel, my pal Steve and I got in line at around seven in the morning, if I recall (though it's hard to recall much of anything at seven in the morning). We were let in for the first panel of the day, a healthy dose of upcoming Warner Bros. feature film screenings like Where the Wild Things Are, The Book of Eli, The Box, Jonah Hex, and Sherlock Holmes, with appearances by many of the cast members, including the amazing Robert Downey, Jr.

Finally, John Lasseter came out to introduce some of Disney's upcoming releases, including new footage from The Princess and the Frog! Let me tell you, I got chills from watching a new 2-D musical number again. "I Got Friends On the Other Side" is a vibrant and spooky song sung by the film's villain, Dr. Facilier, whose long limbs bend and sway in such an exaggerated manner as to lend credence to his strange, voodoo ways. Why oh why does November have to be so far off?! After talking with Ron Clements and John Musker, John (Lasseter, that is) brought out the big guns. And by "big guns" I mean Miyazaki. The audience, from what I could see from my seat in the sixth row right in front of the podium, gave Miyazaki a standing ovation.

It's so rare for him to venture across the sea to visit us Americans. In an interview with The Times he said, "I thought I had to respond to my friendship with John Lasseter and come this time." His answers were occasionally succinct due to the necessity of translation, but often with a touch of humor. Below are some of the questions from the panel.

John: Can you talk a little bit about how you develop your stories?
Miyazaki: My process is thinking, thinking and thinking — thinking about my stories for a long time. If you have a better way, please let me know.
John: How did you come up with the idea for Ponyo?
Miyazaki: The first idea I had for Ponyo was that the little boy picks up a frog. But I couldn't work out a good character for a frog, so I turned it into a goldfish.
John: The music in your films, um, the amazing work in all your films with Joe Hisaishi, [he] has done such an incredible job on your films. How early do you bring him in on the process?
Miyazaki: Fairly early on, I bring in Mr. Hisaishi to discuss what kind of film I'm going to make. I gave Mr. Hisaishi some notes regarding, for example, that Ponyo is a small goldfish, and I gave him indications of what kind of motifs I would like to have in the film. Then he composes the music as he sees fit in a free way. And then he makes an image out of all the music that is going to be in the film. We don't necessarily use all that music, but it is the music that he imagines would be best fitting for the story. And then as the story develops and it gets farther on into the production process we discuss more specific uses of his music. Sometimes we do use the music, sometimes we don't use the music, sometimes he loses the memo that I give him, so we have all kinds of issues going along making the film. We do disagree sometimes. There is some music that I left out of the film My Neighbor Totoro and he is still telling me that I should have used that music. But I insist that it was good that I didn't use that music.

You know what? I'm doing a search right now on youtube. Ah! Here is a good one. As an alternative to reading the above, you can watch most of the interview here:

Here's a question posed to Miyazaki from an audience member:

Girl: I've been a huge fan of your movies partly because you always have female protagonists and I've wondered for years why did you choose to have female protagonists?
Someone shouts from the crowd: Because we're awesome!
Miyazaki: Because women are strong and beautiful.

Indeed. And with that, I shall bid you adieu. Thanks for reading the longest ever blog post and I hope you enjoyed your stay.

comic convention upcoming mayhem

2009-07-21T02:25:00.009-04:00

Get your silly hats ready because the San Diego Comic-Con starts in a few days! Woooo! I've been planning like crazy thanks to the SDCC's RSS news feed. They really like to keep you in suspense up until a week before the convention.

Some of the panels I'm looking forward to most:
Disney: 3-D Panel
Tim Burton will be there? I'm so down. I can't wait to see what he has in store for the new Alice In Wonderland remake. Plus, I need to keep tabs on Disney's strides into the third dimension.
Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes
I have to make a choice between attending the previous panel or this one. As much as I enjoy a good romp into the mind of Tim Burton, I am an even bigger fan of Glen Keane. Must go.
Cartoon Network: Chowder! The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack! Adventure Time with Finn and Jake!
How can I pass up the opportunity to see firsthand the genius emanating from Pendleton Ward and Thurop Van Orman? Adventure Time is one of my all-time favorite animated shorts and Flapjack makes me giggle like a wee child. And I hear there's going to be a kickin' nerd beach party following the panel. Win.
Disney: Animation panel
The great Hayao Miyazaki will be in attendance! This rare sighting is going to cause waiting-line mayhem!! And Mayhem is my middle name. Anyone else see Ponyo? I thought it was just delightful. A lovely, easygoing sort of movie full of wonder and... ancient fish.
Fox's Futurama panel
Now, I hear there is a voice acting upset throwing a wrench in the works of the new Futurama series Fox is bringing back. I say scrap that pathetic Family Guy spin-off and use the money to give these actors the credit (in the form of a healthy salary) they so richly deserve. Take a slice from Ryan Secrest's pay if you want, only stop trying to ruin a good thing. These guys are the show.

Some must-have items at the convention:
FLIGHT vol. 6
A wonderful graphic novel collaboration with such amazing artists as Rodolphe Guenoden, Rad Sechrist, Phil Craven, Graham Annable, and of course Kazu Kibuishi.
What Is Torch Tiger?
From the guys at Disney who brought us Who Is Rocket Johnson? comes their latest collaboration and work of comic art.

And that's just to start. I didn't even go into how much I'm looking forward to meeting Chris Sanders. Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much! I've got my fancy schmancy business cards printed out and a-ready to go and I've been "training" daily for nonstop convention floor action. Make way for this walking fiend.

Here's a look back at that first day of my run/walk workout routine, inspired in part by Meredith Gran's webcomic, Octopus Pie. (color to come later)

UPs and downs

2009-06-01T03:06:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was full of surprises, let me tell you. First, my precious Mac G5 (the one I've been using for six years now) just up and died on me. The nice Apple lady over the phone said I will probably need to replace the hard drive, which is not quite the tragedy it would have been a few months ago, before I bought myself a lovely cherry red 500GB external hard drive. Too bad I didn't think to back up the work I did all Saturday...

Blerg. In any case, here's a taste of one of the things I've been working on: a silly Watchmen lineup. Keep in mind that (obviously) it's not finished and it still needs tweaking here and there, among other things. For example, Laurie will actually be wearing a costume...

Things picked up later on when I went to see Pixar's UP (yay!), except that the theater messed up and forgot to screen the accompanying short Partly Cloudy beforehand (or afterhand). On the bright side, with the free movie passes they gave me to make up for their mistake I'll get to watch UP a second time!

As another plus (such a plus!) my version of Gabe Swarr's "Big Pants Mouse" strip is being featured today on the Dumm Comics website!! I submitted it to them during their Great Dumm Tryout in January and won this Official Guest Spot for Cutest Drawings! Huzzah! It's not as funny as I would have liked it to be. I seem to recall coming up with a funny punchline and then forgetting it midway through. It is what it is, though, and I'm proud of it. See the rest of it here!

hey jobs, i'm coming for you!

2009-04-14T17:37:00.008-04:00

I'm taking a three week trip back to NYC at the end of April to help with my job hunt. And to meet up with some wonderful pals of mine. The above is a little something I doodled for them because it is just too hard to contain the excitement I feel. As it turns out, one of the symptoms of my over-excitement seems to be complete disregard for accurate spatial relationships leading to geographical inconsistencies.

fanart friday!

2009-02-27T13:35:00.004-05:00

Webcomics! Really, who doesn't love some free weekly art of the comedy/drama/action/awesome persuasion? I figure, if I read some each morning it will prove to me that other people are out there creating and hopefully I then have the will to get up and do something myself! And if I'm still struggling to come up with something original, why then it's time for fanart!

Here's a recent piece of fanart based on characters from Evil Diva by Pete Menotti and Brinson Thieme. I thought Diva's sweetness deserved a sweet ride in the form of her not-so-mini-anymore hell-hound, Cerby. Hmmm, she'll need a bigger purse.

This glum bum, er captain, is a character from Sean Szeles' strip, Through the Port-Hole. Never leave your whisky out where the seagulls can get to it.

I also added a section for banners on the right (under Archives - you can't miss it!) that will direct you to some of the webcomics that I read. Enjoy!!

there can be only one (from each category)!

2009-02-02T14:34:00.025-05:00

The 2009 Academy Awards are almost here! I know you guys are all, "It's all about Best Picture and I can't bother with anything less substantial or meaningful," but I think you may have overlooked two very important categories! Shame on you. Here is the list of this year's animation nominees.

Best Animated Feature:

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film. It was funny and even without Chris Sanders' wacky genius I think it did very well for itself. Disney 3-D (aka their attempts separate from Pixar) was never my favorite branch of animation, but I think it deserves a pat on the back for this one. (Disney - Chris Williams and Byron Howard)

One of Dreamworks' better productions, I must say. Now, if only they wouldn't rely so much on acquiring a celebrity cast for each film. They're better than that. Or getting there, at least. Skidoosh! (Dreamworks - John Stevenson and Mark Osborne)

Perhaps not my favorite Pixar flick, but certainly a winner in my book! They tackled our environmental concerns the only way Pixar knows how: with a lot of heart and breathtaking visuals. And an original story, to boot. I would have loved to have seen this film in the Best Picture category... (Disney/Pixar - Andrew Stanton) Winner!

Best Animated Short:

"A grandpa who lived in the house has been constantly building houses on top, as the water level rises." That's about all I've been able to find on this short and I'd really love to watch it. Nishikata has posted an in-depth review of the short here if you'd like to read it and get a better idea. (Kunio Kato) Watch a clip. Winner!

A simple, sweet little romance in an unexpected place. It was a delight to watch, and well-animated, too, but not quite my cup of tea as far as award nominees goes. (Konstantin Bronzit) Watch.

This is one of my all-time favorite animated shorts. Gorgeous Grecian scenery, adorable cephalopods in danger, a wonderfully action-packed story, and beautiful animation. Those Gobelins students really know their stuff. Octopi ftw! (Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand) Watch.

My favorite Pixar short. The methods this rabbit uses to exact his revenge are hilarious. The pure physical comedy reminds me of those Disney/Looney Tunes shorts of old that I miss so much. If Oktapodi doesn't win, I hope they award it to this resourceful rabbit. And I don't want to know what will most likely happen to the Academy if they refuse him... (Doug Sweetland) Watch.

"A series of misfortunes befalls a pair of undertakers on their way to the cemetery." This looks like an interesting 3-D short, to say the least, and it's a pity I haven't been able to find a copy of it yet. *shakes fist at Internet* (Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes) Watch the trailer.

So there you have it. If anyone can point me to a place where I can watch the shorts I'm missing, please please let me know. And tune in Sunday, February 22nd to ABC to see who takes home the awards. Plus, Wolverine is hosting this year's ceremony. I guess Iron Man had better things to do.

adventures in slumbering

2009-01-29T23:01:00.005-05:00

I just had to double-post today because I think this is an amazing piece of stop-motion (pixilation, really). Please do yourself a favor and check it out:

Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan

invest in spout propulsion today!

2009-01-29T10:00:00.012-05:00

These are some characters I did in my free time. Nothin' to shout home about, but sometimes you just gotta... draw a self-sustaining rocket pack-wearing whale, you know?

I present to you, and the rest of the Earth population, my Space Invader. I haven't thought of a name for him yet, but I figure this guy's resourceful. He can name himself if he thinks it's necessary. Anyone care to guess what the message on his flag says?

This is Pippa, and while he may look like he stepped out of the Pokemon world, uh, well he didn't and you should probably never mention pocket monsters while in his presence. He gets quite angry. But when he's not a tornado of seething hate, he delights in eating butterflies.

Wasn't everyone's wish as a child to see magnificent whales roaming not just the seas, but on land as well? That is a rhetorical question because I know the answer is yes. Well, now they can! Introducing Rocket Whale, propelled through the air with his very own water spout-powered rocket pack! Spout propulsion is the way of the future. And so are land whales.

here be arrrtwork

2008-09-20T22:23:00.008-04:00

Hope you celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day with as much enthusiasm as our office did on Friday. We took it to the next level in that we not only talked the talk, we walked the walk. With costumes. On a river barge on the San Antonio River Walk. Accostin' th'public and causin' a hullabaloo. Just another reason why I love doing what I do. These animation-based companies have all the fun. If you forgot to celebrate - don't worry it will come around again the same time next year!

it's enough to make a girl crazy

2008-07-30T13:59:00.013-04:00

OmigodthenewDisneytrailerisout! So yeah. In case you haven't heard, Disney has finally released a teaser trailer for their new 2009 traditionally animated film, The Princess and the Frog. Take a peek.

Look familiar? Mark Henn was also the supervising animator for Mulan, in case you didn't notice. Even in this short clip, Princess Tiana's movements and mannerisms are strikingly similar to those of China's favorite soldier impersonator (that quick head nod, the disarming and apologetic grin, et cetera). You notice it now, don't you?

And to make sure you're all caught up, this is the official story blurb Disney has posted on their site:

A musical set in the greatest city of them all, New Orleans. "The Princess and the Frog" marks Disney's return to the warmth and grandeur of hand drawn animation. The film teams Ron Clements and John Musker, creators of "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin" with Oscar winning composer Randy Newman. From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment and discovery with a trumpet playing alligator, a love sick Cajun firefly, and a host of other charming characters at every turn.

Are you as ecstatic as I am right now? Maybe it's all that Dr. Pepper I just drank, but I'm shaking in my chair. With anticipation. The good kind of anticipation. The kind that gets people saying, "Boy, Tillie sure is weird."

HD is here and it's beautiful

2008-06-15T14:03:00.005-04:00

Prepare to have your minds blown. Ready? Ok. MyToons has gone HD. I know, right? High definition animations?! Just breathe. Then whet your appetite by checking out Blender's 3-D short, Big Buck Bunny in all its glory. Woh.

Did anyone else celebrate Drawing Day '08? I know this post is a little late, but I wanted to include the HD news. So here I am now. Below is my little contribution, a tribute to the discoveries you can make when you unplug and step outdoors (with a little help from your imagination):

a bright future? let's take a look...

2008-05-16T15:46:00.033-04:00

I shall start with a little item I created this week. I was inspired by the silliness of our technological "advancements" and the preoccupation with something I like to call "supreme screen shrinkage." Does anybody actually want to watch a full movie on their tiny iPod or cell phone? What if it was a foreign film and it had tiny, tiny subtitles? The industry, I am certain, is determined to make us all go blind. Then they'll swoop in on their crab-walkers and pluck our money right out of our pockets while we bump about blinking rapidly, trying to find the light. Just... take a look.

Things I'm excited for:

Henry Selick's stop-motion feature for 2009, Coraline. Because any feature length stop-mo film makes me giddy. And because he was director of the darkly amazing Nightmare Before Christmas, I think this has major potential. Not to mention it will be coming to theaters in 3-D! Woh!

Hurrah! A clip:

Sylvain Chomet's newest animated feature, The Illusionist, which comes out in France and the U.K. in 2009. The strangeness that was Triplets of Belleville really intrigued me, so I am confident that his direction will once again bring something more to the table than American-made cookie-cutter films. Seriously, stop with the 3-D already!

Going with the 2009 release date theme I've got going on here, I'll add the tiniest of updates on Disney's return to traditionally animated princesses. The feature length flick is now called The Princess and the Frog, and due to some controversy (gurg, this whiny junk happens too frequently nowadays) there have been a few changes here and there. I personally liked the name Maddy for our musically-inclined princess, but it looks like we'll be calling her Tiana from now on, which is apparently less slave-girl like. Oh, and on that note she no longer starts out as a chambermaid. Uh, hello people, several Disney princess have been "slaves" to evil whosits and it's never been a problem before. Racist image my foot. It's a rags to riches, poor to princess fairytale so get over it. Le sigh.

Ahem! I think now would be an appropriate time for me to lament the loss of Chris Sanders (the quirky genius behind one of my favorite animated films, Lilo & Stitch) and to glare most disapprovingly in Disney's direction. Again. He's been removed as writer/director from his "American Dog" project and his wonderful vision, now retooled, is starting to look and sound annoyingly unoriginal. "Bolt", as it is now called, has been restructured by Chris Williams (of Mulan and Emperor's New Groove) and looks just like any other 3-D film out there. I mean, c'mon! "Too quirky for it's own good"?! Oh, John Lasseter, why? Why would you throw out an oversized radioactive rabbit character? Madness!

It went from this:

To this:

Boy, if I ran the world...

share session

2008-04-06T12:51:00.014-04:00

I know, I know - I'm a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad person. It's time for me to breathe some life back into this blog.

To fill you in on these past few months, I've started working at MyToons. For those of you not familiar with the website, its goal is to help artists showcase their animation and artwork in an enthusiastic, ever-growing community of peers. And if you don't check it out, I may have to hunt you down and slap some sense into you. Here's a quick sampling of some of my favorites to get you in the mood:

Ahmed Bashir's "Adventures"

Joel Furtado's "sushi"

Laure Retif's "fox hound"

And of course, you'll be wanting to watch some of the awesome animation people have posted. Well, try these on for size:
[Edit: now with reliable (comparatively speaking) youtube embeds!]

Three Legged Legs' "Samurai" [digital 2-D]

Phil Dubrovsky and Dale Hayward's "The Flower" [stop-motion]

Terry Ibele's "Babies of the Future!" [stop-motion]

Alban Leliévre's "Do Penguins Fly?" [3-D]

As for me, I've been testing my skills on a Wacom they were kind enough to lend me. It's my first time drawing with a graphics tablet (not counting the old 4x5 inch Wacom Graphire from 1999 that I used with Microsoft Paint in those awkward years before I discovered Photoshop) and I've found that it's quite gratifying, even if I'm not entirely used to it yet. Sketching the perfect line is that much harder without the comforting friction of pencil on paper, but I'm getting there.

Perhaps I've already crowded this post with too much stuff, but thanks to MyToons, you see, I'm in the sharing mood. I'll end today's session with a piece I drew last Friday when I was feeling particularly cheery. Enjoy.

the long and short of it

2008-01-22T18:01:00.004-05:00

The 2008 Academy Awards. For those of you who are as indifferent as I am towards some of the Academy's choices of nominees for Best Picture, etc., I bring you a quick rundown on the more *cough* interesting *cough* nominations. Not that Michael Clayton isn't a swell flick—it very well could be—it is merely the fact that I am too bored by its trailer to make any effort on my part to see it. Juno or bust. That said, I will now proceed with the list of animation nominees.

Best Animated Feature:

This I'm dying to see. I read Marjane Satrapi's books and really enjoyed them. The animation on this piece looks simple, yet elegant - very much like the books themselves. Fingers double-crossed? Check. (Sony Pictures Classics - Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)

I loved this movie a lot—story, characters, animation—the works. I'm torn between this and Persepolis, which I haven't even seen yet. Pixar is the bee's knees, but I gotta show my support for the foreign underdog in this case. Maybe. We'll see. (Disney/Pixar - Brad Bird) Winner!

Meh. Without Pixar, 3-D features just aren't that great. Surf's Up was another letdown. I'm a fan of mockumentaries (woot, Christopher Guest), but this just didn't deliver the laughs like I thought it would. Props for trying a new style, though. (Sony Pictures Releasing - Ash Brannon and Chris Buck)

Best Animated Short:

An animated interview with John Lennon, eh? Could be good, but I prefer something with a story, a plot. Still, from what I've seen the art direction is quite fascinating as it morphs line art and digital art in quick, quirky motions. (Josh Raskin) Watch the trailer.

I was really mesmerized by Tutli-Putli's eyes, and then I realized they were real! Real, as in live action footage seamlessly overlayed digitally onto the stop-motion puppet itself. And it's extraordinary how well the eyes show the emotions of Tutli-Putli while the rest of her face remains inanimate. They really mastered the effect. Beautifully shot. Awesome character movement. I'm rooting for this one. (Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski) Watch.

A silly little 3-D short with really great lighting. Not my favorite of the group, but a delightful romp, nonetheless. (Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse) Watch.

Beautiful paint-on-glass from Russia. What an unbelievable talent, to have to keep working forward, to paint over your own best work again and again in order to achieve beauty on a grander scale - it's madness! This one may just take the cake. Unfortunately, I haven't found an English translation, but that doesn't take away from the visual splendor of it all, now, does it? (Alexander Petrov) Watch part 1, 2, 3.

Stop-motion version of Sergei Prokofiev's classic "Peter and the Wolf" tale. There's some really nice stuff here and it's got a little humor in it as well. The characters really have, well... character. Great job with the sets, too. I definitely had fun watching it. (Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman) Watch. Winner!

There you have it. So tune in Sunday, February 24th to ABC (that is, if the "big shots" at the media companies can get over their "bigness" and throw the writers a bone) and watch Jon Stewart host this year's ceremony. He's great, movies are great, and animation is greatest - watch already!

suit season

2007-10-10T23:57:00.000-04:00

Do you know, I actually completely blanked when I started drawing this. I wanted a boy in a bulky Halloween costume, went with the shark idea, and thought nothing of it. It wasn't until I explained it to my brother and said "shark suit" out loud that I realized that I was perhaps influenced by fellow NYU animator Stephen Neary's short (Shark Suit: The Musical). I trust you see the connection. So this is my unwitting homage to that delightful piece - just in time for the ultimate Suit Season, aka All Hallows' Eve.

And seeing as I will more than likely be stationed here in Texas on that festive night, I've decided to go with the family to collect candies of my own. It's been four years (yes, it was college broke my sweets streak) but I feel I can pass myself off as a tall teen if I wear a mask and my poor animator's posture will help to diminish my thoroughly un-childlike height, especially if I wear a cloak of sorts. Besides, San Antonio folk are a kind and generous people and understand that big kids need candy too. What's the point of living at home if you can't enjoy life's simple pleasures?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

storyboard teaser

2007-09-11T01:39:00.002-04:00

I'm digitally cleaning up some of my storyboard endeavors so I can show 'em off on my brand spankin' new website (coming soon). They would've been fine, except that all of my school papers suffered massive water damage last summer due to the carelessness of a certain college moving/storage service I would not care to mention on this, my cheerful blog. So I present to you some more pre-show entertainment with these doofy frames in all their black-and-white glory.

From an exercise in my Storyboarding class titled "Frog Prince":

Work I did for a friend's film project titled "3 Blind Dates":

the taming of the mouse

2007-08-31T23:16:00.001-04:00

My younger bro Sam drew this picture of me in my bunny hat (it is a great hat). He experiments with manga and anime styles, so as you can see my nose is very flatteringly portrayed as naught but a tiny fleck.

Ho. Ly. Cow. This website I'm creating is really throwing me for a loop. I've always struggled with layout design, you see. As most of my work recently is tied up in this unholy behemoth of an undertaking, I fear the only things to show at this present time are a few pieces of Graffiti (a limited drawing application from dear old Facebook - tool options include only color, brush size and opacity). Naturally these creations are based on inside jokes, but I admit I am proud of my mousing ability enough to show them here. Having never used a Cintiq tablet, I've been forced, like so many out there, to develop a steady mouse hand. Still, what I wouldn't give for a Cintiq...

In honor of Nightcrawler, my champion of choice, while playing a video game with some pals (portrayed here as Iceman and Mr. Fantastic).

So that my friend will not forget the hilarity of Orson Welles' drunken attempt at acting in a wine commercial. Youtube it for a laugh.

Johnny Depp as an edible delicacy, of course.

Ah yes, the Lindsay Lohan music video featuring a tearful bathroom moment steeped in super-pop-princess-drama. A must for Facebook Graffiti.

it's time to do stuff with the ideas in my head

2007-06-25T16:35:00.000-04:00

Doing a lot of thinking lately. That's not as good as doing, I know, but I think I've found my inspiration again. For a couple of months now, I've been really getting into the Flight books: three (soon to be four) compilations of stories by various animators/artists. Some great, some not as great, but each has its own style that I find fascinating to the point where I'm lying in bed at night trying to absorb the movement of lines and colors within certain panels for long stretches at a time. I have so much to learn. Sigh. My head is so full of projects, and I have to release them! Onward and upward, and all that.

And I just wanted to share this delightful short animation by Vera Brosgol called Snow-Bo. It's short, it's sweet, it's funny, and it's free so watch it already! I have a link to her website in, well, my links section to the right if you're interested in more.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am afraid of E.T. It's been a long-standing fear (I first saw it on my cousin's big-screen TV when I was an impressionable and ever-imaginative child), and I'd like to share some early work from grade school depicting this sausage-fiend in a spot of trouble. It's a wonder I could even stand to draw him! Click to enlarge this notebook paper creation (makes it somewhat easier to read my atrocious handwriting):

(to be read in comic-fashion from left to right, then down)

coming to a www near you

2007-06-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

Working on putting up a website for my work.

life after graduation

2007-05-29T01:44:00.001-04:00

I'm back home in Texas for the summer, trying to organize my things. I especially delight in rediscovering my old works of art. Or, in many cases, old works of attempted art. There are a few jewels, including my old high school notebook-cartoons which gave birth to such characters as Tuppy, Boot Boot, and others too random to mention. I drew a lot of sloths and outlandish attacks on the dreaded E.T., that foul, loathsome sausage-fingered bane of my existence. Maybe I'll post some of that old stuff later, if it doesn't embarrass me too much.

And then there's the job hunt. We'll not talk about that. I'm giving myself a month off to get a tan. Oh, and to continue working on STUFFED.

Instead, some old Post-it art:

stage two: the silver surfer

2007-05-03T14:30:00.000-04:00

Mad dash. I'm still working hard on my projects. The one due yesterday was (and is, for I'm going to make this look good for my own sake sooner or later)...really giving me a hard time. Mostly because the two software programs required are kicking it to me hard. I don't know how to use them and they know it. I blame it on Windows and its affinity for crashing. So my motion-capture project showing today won't be as cool as I imagined, but at this point I just want to have something presentable. The performer, my friend Christine, wanted the body of a fat woman, and I just couldn't deliver. Instead, she's a Silver Surfer wannabe minus the 'board. So here's the middle stage of my project in all its messed-up glory:

vicon iq

2007-04-26T19:58:00.000-04:00

Just some screen shots from my motion-capture project while it's in the cleaning stage. Really, they're only part of the Range of Motion, a separate part that's only used to prep the actual footage. I have a video, too, but it's only a silly arm wiggle thing and not that special. Well, it's special to me... Fine, I might as well:

in the zone

2007-04-16T21:23:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I forget what it's like to be outdoors. I worked my butt off this entire week to finish this one shot. One shot! At least it looks good. Floppy bear is on the rise! I've still got a long way to go, but I'm in a pretty good working state of mind and have been for the last three weeks. I am really counting on it to keep me on target so I can finish this baby.

I would like to thank Peanut M&M's, Pepsi, Girl Scout Samoas, and fried pork dumplings. They are my fuel and my inspiration. They are also very tasty, which helps.

This may make me sound like a doofus, but I just now learned how to render out sequences of Maya animation. Below is one of my first projects from earlier in the semester, the rare and highly original beginner's bouncing ball. I call him Orlando.

like a promotion, only geekier

2007-04-03T18:31:00.000-04:00

Not only do I have screen cred, but I'm on imdb!! (And what a bleak profile it is now, that's for sure.) For those of you who don't watch Moral Orel credits, or at all, here's a freeze of the TV at that crucial moment:

progress!

2007-03-26T23:35:00.002-04:00

Three more weeks left until all submissions are due for NYU's Animation Showcase, and I've never had so much on my plate: fixing my roughs and trying to get picture lock (it may look like I'm coloring, but it's all a clever lie), planning my motion-capture project, and various 3-D assignments.

At this pace, I can't possibly keep up with my Netflix!

Did I ever mention I have the most ghetto work desk? My "lightbox" is comprised of a pegbar taped to a pane of glass I removed from a K-Mart picture frame. It uses the light from an upturned lamp that sits between my feet on the floor. The strange thing is I haven't burned anything with it yet. My chair and pants are singe-free. I did, however, kneel on and shatter my first "work table"*, but thankfully frames come cheap. Cheap like a fox.

* EDIT: Well, I did it again. I elbowed my pane in two. K-Mart, here I come.

in the absence of any personal progress

2007-03-14T00:43:00.003-04:00

The Frog Princess, Disney's 2009 release, is a traditionally-animated musical piece (trying to get back into the groove, eh?) set in New Orleans in the jazzy 1920s. Maddy will be the studio's first African-American princess. The directors of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and JohnMusker) will be writing/directing this fairy tale, with music by Randy Newman. I'm really looking forward to this with renewed hope. Still, it's too bad composer Alan Menken was already busy working on another of Disney's films, Enchanted.

As for Enchanted, it's difficult to tell right now whether I'm a fan. I'd like to be, but I'm wary because it switches from 2-D to live action. I like the cast (Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, Idina Menzel), head animator James Baxter, and the composer and lyricist team, but ... a poofy princess cast in the midst of NYC chaos? Fun hi-jinx or old hat? It sounds like another cheesy pre-teen flick to me.

paprika

2007-03-05T22:33:00.000-05:00

I just now heard about Paprika, the new Satoshi Kon film due out May 25th. It looks to be some kind of trippy, and I'm excited. Except for Perfect Blue, which really gave me the heebie jeebies, I have enjoyed his other works, in particular Millennium Actress. This article of praise was pulled from the trailer:

"Evidence that Japanese animators are reaching for the moon, while most of their American counterparts remain stuck in the kiddie sandbox." -Manohla Dargis of The New York Times

So true, lady. While we're recycling old material and feeding cheap sequels to our kids, it's not hard to make us look bad. We do it to ourselves. By "we" I mean our pathetic big-shot American studios who rush through the writing process to get to effects. Pixar is excluded from this, naturally. You've heard about John Lasseter's changes within Disney, right? Pulling this, re-writing that...opening a new studio for its hopefully glorious (and long-awaited) return to hand-drawn 2-D masterpieces. If they can't revive traditional animation in the US, I might have to move to Japan. とても悲しいです。

In other Japanese animation news, I heard Studio Ghibli's latest release, Tales from Earthsea, won't come to the US any time before 2009 because the SciFi Channel's live-action version has the rights. Booo. And though it's no Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece (directed instead by his eldest son, Goro) the Ghibli stamp holds more sway with me than say, Dreamworks. And so I wait.

in love with a show

2007-02-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

Do any of you remember the short-lived show Family Dog, that 1993 cartoon with a supremely stellar crew: Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, and Danny Elfman to name a few. This show was a major inspiration to me growing up and I was constantly renting Hollywood Video's VHS copies to immerse myself in its glory. I was so overjoyed to find someone had posted a few. (Believe it or not, they're not on DVD yet. Bah!!) So because I'm a nice person, and because everyone should see these, I've decided to share them with you directly.

unbridled uni's

2007-02-25T00:17:00.000-05:00

Anti-cute experiment #3. I coulda done better with this one. It's not a fully evilized unicorn, just a little frothy. [shrug] I've never been good at horses, but this was a request and it's done, so hurrah.

it's a slow day

2007-02-22T19:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a site that lets you doodle with the bonus of watching the entire process from start to finish in varying speeds. My brother showed it to me, and so I made a quick doodle for him. If you click on it, you can see its progression, or make your own. Brought to you by art.com

I've also got my stop-mo piece uploaded, but beware! it's not finished. By that I mean I want to add a few shots here and there, tweak others, eliminate the wire stand in the "flight" scene, and add titles and credits. Oh, and sound. Even the file itself is screwy as I exported it with lots of empty space at the end. Who knows when I'll get around to fixing it, so I've decided to just dump it here for now.

My Pet

just working

2007-02-07T18:09:00.000-05:00

Pluuh...took the day off to work some more on my big project. I was doing really well until I ran out of peanut M&Ms. Now I'm just distracted and hungry.

and she probably has lice

2007-02-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

For our second assignment in class, we made a bowl of fruit in Maya. Did I mention I hate fruit? Yes, all fruit. I may actually turn out to be a damn good 3-D modeler (and with all the effort I put into creating a bunch of lousy grapes, I would expect no less). Plus, I'm good at sitting for hours in front of a computer. I've already got the poor posture of an animator, so all I need now is some more training and I'm in business.

Here's the result of my second undertaking to deviate from my regular habit of "cuteness". I will continue my endeavor to make progressively more gruesome and fearful drawings to, you know, just see how far I can morph things.

i'm bringing sexy back

2007-01-26T00:51:00.000-05:00

Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling. I'm trying to get over my super-freak perfectionist ways so I can churn out the rough animation for my 3-minute piece. It's harder for me to think in terms of shapes than it is for me to draw what's in my mind's eye. On the one hand, I have less mess to clean up later, but on the other hand the going is slow. Maybe I should try working without an eraser to keep the form loose and bring out the gestures.

I'm taking some new courses, and by "new" I mean "3-D". And a motion-capture course. This might not be the easiest direction for me, but by golly that's what all the big-time animation companies like to see on resumes. It seems anyone can vomit this stuff out nowadays, so I gotta get with the program.

Also, take this:

simple has never looked so good

2007-01-20T02:01:00.001-05:00

Heehee, this short by Pendleton Ward is to die for. It's called Adventure Time and it aired on Nickelodeon's Random Cartoons show (visit his AT blog for doodles). Ah, I can't get enough of it. "Algebraic!"

happiness, like everything else, is subjective

2006-12-20T10:57:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of Edward Gorey, I wish you all a happy holiday season.

rush hour

2006-12-11T01:24:00.000-05:00

My final stop-mo project will be completed on Tuesday, so you'll just have to be satisfied with this still. I'm going in Monday night for a six-hour session to finish it up, and by "finish it up," I mean work like a rabbit with its tail on fire. That is to say, quickly. I understand that isn't the proper method for this sort of work -rather, the opposite- but I gave myself no choice with all the time I spent testing materials and experimenting.

I'm also working hard on my Advanced Animation Production piece - well, I was until I ran out of animation paper. I had planned to getting at least three more shots done by tomorrow's end-of-semester screening, but it looks like I will just have to be exposed as the procrastinator I am. Qué será, será. That is what NYU's Tisch non-final finals are for: while others study, us film/animation students apply our talents to a more worthy cause: cartoons.

new toys

2006-11-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

I had to buy a new printer, but decided to splurge a little and get one that scans and copies as well. So to make sure it worked okay I scanned a recent sketch, and I couldn't be happier. Then I went a little overboard and started to color. I'm not so good at coloring, so I'm trying to get in some practice.

project catch-up

2006-11-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

I just completed a few stop-motion projects and now here they are for the world to see. Keep in mind, these are from a beginner stop-mo course and my timing is still a little shaky.

Here are the clay face expressions (I had some issues and technical problems, but it is what it is):

Here is a piece done with cardstock puppets using the "cut-out" technique. The assignment was Alternative Locomotion, and some sort of non-conventional movement of a character was required:

shades of chinchilla

2006-11-05T02:03:00.000-05:00

Working on some color models for my chinchilla character. I just spit this out of Photoshop. Not that color really matters at this stage, as I'm supposed to be focusing on the rough animation. But I do what I can to avoid my unhealthy obsession with the refresh button on my yahoo mail.

i've created a monster

2006-10-22T01:10:00.000-04:00

This was not something I should have been working on late at night. Having this clay face stare at me in its unblinking I, Robot-esque state really gives me the heebie jeebies. It's part of a stop-motion project in which I have to animate the extreme facial expressions of a person created out of a block of clay. I may have gone overboard. I plan on deconstructing him a bit so I can concentrate more on the animation rather than sculpting. I really want to dig in and get my hands dirty for this piece to give clay exaggeration its due.

Oh God, how will I get all this clay out from under my nails...?

Right: in progress, Left: completed (still to be scheduled for demolition)

it starts

2006-10-20T23:56:00.000-04:00

Bringing me to you. This will be a journal of my efforts and progress as I come into the world of art through animation. I'm a traditional girl, but I like to get funky with stop-motion as well. Seeing as I've started work on my advanced senior year piece, this should get interesting. My work may evolve, but my mind could (and probably will) deteriorate. I'll keep you posted with updates on this strange phenomenon.