Animation Workout

I'm finally at a place where polishing my demo reel isn't consuming my life so I thought I would get back to working on my animation skills. Ever since I seen the Jason Ryan tutorials I've been wanting to work on some 2D animation. Actually this is something that I've been interested in since I saw the famous Jason Ryan work flow video at Animation Mentor. I love his work flow and how he uses 2D animation to plan out his 3D work. Computers are great and they do some awesome things but sometimes they just get in the way. Like my grandpa taught me you gotta use the right tool for the right job.

The funny thing is that it is easier to do a bouncing ball in 3D than in 2D! But I got to learn 2D somehow and the classic bouncing ball exercise is a great way to do that. I'm still using the demo version of Plastic Animation Paper which is a great free program but it is difficult to get smooth lines with my current set up. So enjoy my scratchy/rough bouncing ball.

Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

Here's some practice drawing that I've been doing. I've been trying to do more of this stuff to improve my drawing, rendering, and perspective skills. I didn't get to do much of this stuff when I was at CSUH. If I remember right they only required us to take two or three drawing classes. Which was a shame, I remember trying to take more but I could never fit it into my schedule. I'm planning on taking more drawing class in the future at Chabot or online or something. For now I'll keep on doing this sort of stuff.

New Drawing Table!

I'm super excited about my new drawing table. I got it as a Christmas gift from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad) and I just finished putting it together today. Ok, I know this image is pretty crumby but I can't find my camera so I had to use my web cam. There is a bit of a story behind this table. My parents bought me different table that while it was great it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I'll admitt I'm pretty fussy when it comes to things like this. If I'm going to spend hours at a time drawing on this thing I don't want a table that I'm not happy with. So I returned the original table and did a bit more research. I found a couple of tables I really liked but they were way too expensive. I could only spend around $200 but I didn't want something cheaply made. After a lot of debate I decided on the Alvin CraftMaster II Deluxe Hobby and Drawing Station from Utrecht for $179.

Before I made that purchase I wanted to see the table in person just to make sure it was a solidly built table. I didn't want another wobbler. You can only buy the CraftMaster II online but Utrecht had the slightly smaller CraftMaster I in there store. I decided test driving the Craftmaster I would be good enough so yesterday Lisa and I took a trip to Berkley to check it out. But fortune had another plan for us.

As we drove up University Avenue in Berkley we decided to drop by Dick Blick and see what they had. We ended up buying a totally different table at Dick Blick and Utrecht didn't have the CraftMaster in stock. I'm really happy how things turned out. My new table, the Alvin Workmaster Drafting Table, has a large drawing surface and is sturdy too. I love it!

Stan The Man

Check this out.

http://www.1988stantheman.blogspot.com/

Here are some of my favorites.

"Louie: Space Rancher" Character Roll Call

(Click to view larger)

Here's most all of the character's from my up coming comic titled "Louie: Space Rancher". It's a working title for now but it is one that I like. I've been fiddling with this story on and off for over a year and I think I finally got all the bugs ironed out. There are a couple more characters that appear but these guys carry most of the action. That is Louie on the far left and his nemesis the pirate on the far right. I'm planning to first publish "Louie: Space Rancher" on the web and then try Ka-Blam the print on demand printing house to publish a book. But it will probably be awhile before you I start posting the first pages. I want all the pages to come out in a quick and organized fashion with no breaks in the action. I'm thinking of this a learning project so I'll be testing out a bunch of things. It's already been a lot of fun.

Demo Reel and Stuff

Hey there true believers!

I thought I'd post my in progress demo reel. It is the same thing that is under the My Work link to the right but after talking to a couple of you people I don't think anyone ever clicks on the link to check it out. I understand completely. So I thought I'd save you some work and show off my reel. This is the practically the final reel! As soon as I hear back from AM this reel will be sent out to fend for it's self in the big bad world that is the animation industry.

Excelsior!

Editors Note: I just noticed that I left out the credit to Animation Mentor for the creation of the rigs. Oops!

Louie Practice

Here's some practice sketches of Louie the main character in my next comic. I've been practicing inking and just getting a hang of drawing Louie. Some of these sketches are more successful than other but I learned from each one.

Updated walk

Here's the latest on my walk cycle. I really haven't worked on it that much since I last posted it up here. I've been sick and have been working on my other demo reel pieces. I've also been doing some drawing. I'll post some of that sometime soon.

Happy New Year

And a belated Merry Christmas.

I've realized I forgot to post my progress on my walk cycle. This isn't done yet but it's getting there. Some of my favorite people from my animation mentor days gave me some critiques that I haven't addressed because of the busy holiday season. I hope you like it!



Otis Frampton the author of the Oddly Normal series of graphic novels has just started auctioning of some sketch cards on ebay. The first auction if for a pretty sweet King Leonidas card. I like it.

Sequential Exercises #4

Click image for a larger view

Here's my latest sequential exercise. This month I focused on the words and word balloons. In the past this has been a real weakness of mine so here's hoping this works better.

My Terrible Dilemma

You see I have this terrible dilemma. Racing season is coming soon and it's time to replace my mountain bike. So I journeyed across the globe in search for the perfect bike. And by globe I mean Eden Bicycles. I narrowed it down to two bikes, the Scott Spark 15 and the Giant Anthem 1. The Anthem was the best dual suspension race bike on a budget and the Spark 15 was the best bike money could get me (well not really but I'm not going to pay $10,000 for a mountain bike). What am I supposed to do!

Line vs Shape

Red vs Yellow

Good old fashioned chicken racing, enough said.

Walk Cycle Test

I'm working on a walk cycle for my demo reel. Here's a little test I did to get me thinking walk cycles and to plan out some things. 2D animation is hard!

Land Narwhals Rule!

One of my favorite bloggers Mr. Andrew Fulton over at his blog mumblier called upon his mutant ability to create awesomeness and drew a Land Narwhal. How cool is that? Go check it out!

http://mumblier.bundle.com.au/mumble/2007/dec/land-narwhal-eats-some-heads

Blog Stats

Last week on a whim I installed a free traffic counter on this blog and I got some interesting results. Of the 35 unique hits I got 2 of them were from Egypt! Of the 35 hits 15% of them came from countries that don't speak English as their native language. That's pretty cool. Most of my traffic comes from the Flight forums. People read one of my posts and then check out the link in my signature that points the here.

	19	54.29%	United States
	4	11.43%	Canada
	3	8.57%	Unknown	-
	3	8.57%	United Kingdom
	2	5.71%	Egypt
	1	2.86%	India
	1	2.86%	Australia
	1	2.86%	Bolivia
	1	2.86%	Lithuania

Some times when I'm throwing stuff up here I don't really think anyone reads it except maybe my family. But I guess people do read what I'm posting. Not that 35 people is that much, but hey its something.

--I just updated my demo reel. You can get to it by clicking on either of the two "My Demo Reel" links on the side bar to the right. Or just click here to view the QuickTime version. There's some more polishing I need to do but there where a couple of studios that I wanted to send a reel to before it was too late. If you are reading this in the year 2008 or later. I'm sure the link will be dead and a newer version will be available somewhere else.--

About My New Blog Tittle Image

So I finally put up some of my own art behind the title. Honestly I'm not too happy with it. Originally I thought it would be cool to have some of my sketches up behind the blog title. I don't think it was a bad idea but I don't like how it turned out. I'll probably change it later on.

Here's all the images I started with. I just selected a bunch of images from my sketch book that I thought where fun. Not necessarily my best art but images that I thought had the most appeal to them. Appeal (at least in the animation world) is kind of a nebulous term. It encompasses good art but it also covers things that are just fun, interesting, or engrossing to look at. A super simple cartoon character, a beautiful woman, and a rotting corpse can all have appeal. They just have different kinds of appeal. Any who, here's the image. Your probably going to have to click on it so you can see it better.

YouTube Dump

I was going to post about four Youtube clips on Ira Glass talking story creation. But then in the process of watching the videos I found this. . .



I can’t believe people actually get together and do this! I’m jealous. Oh in case you wanted something not so goofy, here are the links to those Ira Glass storytelling clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KQ4vkiNUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmtwa1yZRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9blgOboiGMQ

Ape Chase

Click the comic for a closer look.

I've been a little slow in getting this one out. It has been done for a week or so but with Thanksgiving and everything well . . . Thanks Amy for giving me a little push.

10-12 with 71Paul2

Last night I went a ride-a-long with my brother Joe. According to Joe it was a quiet night. But is seemed like non-stop action to me. I got to see a domestic disturbance call where a son and father got into a shouting match, but everything ended up cool. I saw a bunch of Vietnamese gang members that who had 10 machetes, a couple of samurai swords, and baseball bats in their trunk get to go scott-free cause they knew the system. I saw the aftermath of a drunk who flipped his car getting off 101. I also saw a crazy old Mexican slum lord lady who charged a family of five $800 a month for a 15x10 room with no kitchen and only a communal bathroom that was shared by all the other tenants. I got to watch as my bro with the help of another officer cleared a Grocery store with guns drawn. I also got a little lesson in prison tattoos from an 20 something ex-con (I mean parolee) who Joe pulled over for a broken license plate light. My sketch above is from my two guys who Joe stopped outside a motel. One of them was on probation (which means he could be searched at any time), a quick search of their room only revealed the stench of marijuana but no actual drugs so they got off free too.

It was a busy night. By the time 6:30am rolled around I was really tired but had a new appreciation for cops and a new understanding of how hard police work is these days.