Wood Burning and Family Guy

I've been doing some wood burning...


and

Family Guy = cheap laugh + poorly written

Reformatting, Micheal Cera, and Reality TV

First, I reformatted my laptop but its especially frustrating. I've got a PC and if you use a PC, you know how those go. The issue I'm having is dealing with memory card slots. For whatever reason, its not detected. As far as a mac goes, simplicity is key. If you asked my favorite design styles, you would get a simple design style (Scandinavian minus IKEA, Bauhaus, and Japanese).

Am I one of the few people that feels that Micheal Cera has been playing the same character since he played 'George Micheal' on Arrested Development? Wait, I lie; I know there are more people out there that feel the same. Same goes with Jack Black and every movie he is in, ever (except for King Kong). Comedic Actors make me mad.

Reality TV, doesn't it seem like every reality TV show milks every moment it has? I do watch some shows that are somewhat in that rhelm and it feels as though they just move too slow. Way slow in reality.

BONUS: DVD collections are nothing but a waste of money on your wallet. If you purchase a DVD, think this one question "How many times will I watch this?" If it is less than probably 5 times; a waste of money it is. Rent instead of own, no matter what. You save on the environment and your wallet.

Adventures with America

As promised... 

I am continuing the 'comic' further along and am aiming at around five pages.  Each panel is thought out at a time.  Even though I sorta think around "a page at a time", I try to improvise as I go.  

Writing a comic

and drawing it as you go lands you in an un-happy territory...

I'll post the results this weekend.

Tab Pop

Sure this has nothing to do with art but I feel like this has been long overdue but I'm gonna write a review of this lovely soft drink.  Tab soda (or 'POP' as we call it in the PacNW) is a drink that was created by the Coca-Cola company sometime in the 1960's by some dude.  They made this drink to expand their line.  Kinda like how Sprite is also part of the coke family.

So they made it and it was good, people liked it and all that stuff.  It was featured in some movies like Back to the Future in some scene where Marty drinks it and surfs on a hover skateboard with his hat backwards.  Then sometime in the late 80's or 90's the coke people got sick of hawkin' money out for the drink and stopped advertising for it because people were addicted to it so much they didn't need to advertise it anymore.  They knew they were so cool and didn't have to try.

They still make this stuff but I've never had it.  I'm assuming it kinda tastes like Coke because its some kinda cola and its made by Coca-Cola.  If you ever get a can or bottle of it, let me know and send it my way so I can taste it.  I'd prefer it in a bottle because aluminum doesn't taste good.

Final Review: 10 out of 10.

Zombie Fun

Here are some zombie sketches I did a few weeks back.

The formatting on this is frustrating.

One Panel

Here are some more one panel comics that I did one day for fun.  They're supposed to be for a real hack job of a comic book that I haven't finished yet.

Sore Thumbs

I'm having some sore thumbs today.  I recently played some old school video games via emulator at one of my buddy's house today.

This made me think a bit.  About how kids of the future will never have sore thumbs of the past...

The longest I've ever spent gaming on a console has been 10+ hours...  Straight.  I know that doesn't seem like much to many people out there.  Especially the RPG/MMORPG losers (I hate you; your games suck).  

What game I do remember spending 10+ hours on was....  

I mean, thats at least what I could say I actually spent 10 hours straight on.  There have been other games that I have easily played for just as long but I mean...  This one was a binge.  Only food, urinating, and defecating were the only sources of a break.

When I look back at it, the game itself wasn't even that great.  It had flaws but maybe it was being around at that time.  Before the Xbox, or Xbox360 or PS3...

Although I played this game for 10+ hours, I never had a sore thumb.  By this point in time, I think console creators were able to come up with a control set up that didn't allow you to have sore thumbs.

Instead of having a concave button surface, it was a convex one.  The issue with the left thumb was greatly reduced with the advent of the 'joystick' type of button.  Both allowed the gamer to play for extended periods of time.  

I remember playing NES and SNES games for only a few hours and having horribly sore thumbs.  So sore, that you got those lovely blisters.  But like a crack addict, you had to keep playing.  

Maybe also game developers caught on around the PS1 and N64 days and said "Hey, lets stop the whole button mashing thing".   That could probably be part of it.  

Whatever.  I don't know what I'm talking about anymore.  

Final Fantasy is for losers. 

World of Warcraft is for losers.

Everquest is for losers.

Any RPG is for losers.

Job Search

Its difficult.. I'm just sayin'..

The Hermit - An Unfinished Project

That I did back in 2004/2005ish?

Ignore the audio if you want, I just put that in there for a sense of something. And I did use the same static Nathan used in 'Tearjerker'. And I hate youtube for making every video I upload look like crap.

Flash

I have a love/hate relationship with this program. On one hand, you're able to animate in it, fairly freely. Its great for putting together quick movies, simple movies, whatever. Just a nice, snappy looking, vector based program.

What I don't like about it, is the final results. Since its final product is web output, so many aspects for output for TV or film have been over looked. Even though it is somewhat of a compositing program, you can't composite in it. Your files created have to be brought into another program like after effects... Which after messing with it in there, has to be brought into premier or final cut.

It would be nice to work inside and only inside of Flash. It may sound confusing but the reason flash can just be such a demon is because of how it handles sound and movie clips...

Which is a real pain...

I know I have to articulate more on the matter for it to make any sense. Its just finding and then using a third party program to convert swf files is a pain.

This is a great example of that delima.

Although, the results are interesting...

I'll post some flash stuff once I figure out diss program crap.

Crabby Joe

This character sheet was done a while back. It spawned from the first drawing on the far right.

I began to do a ton of sketches one day (I'm still trying to locate that file which had a bunch of fun sketches I did. I really hope I didn't loose it.) I was then browsing through them and liked this character so I decided to do some expressions. It was a fun exercise and something I don't do too often.

UPDATE: I can't find it so I probably lost them all.. Sucks. Thats what happens when you end up reformatting. I hate it.

Sasquatch, as promised

I have always been obsessed with Bigfoot since a young age. During my last week of Coraline, I ended up drawing a lot of pictures of the legend himself. I probably will continue to keep on drawing him.

It took me a while though to find them on my hard drive. Everything I have is so disorganized and improperly named that it makes searching for it impossible. I thought the series I named these was "Skookum" but to my surprise, for whatever reason, I named them "Giganto". What a pain. I'll see what other kinds of work I can find on here.

Star Trek 2009

When I was younger, I spent many of hours watching Star Trek with my dad. Most of it consisting of TNG. Of course, I was young at the time and I didn't understand everything going on.

I grew up a bit but would go back and watch ST on occasion. I watched the Original series, the movies, TNG, DS9, even some Voyager. I watched the new 'Enterprise' with Scott Backula but something was off setting about that one.

Obviously time passed and the franchise was dying. It needed a make over. Instead of doing a complete remake of the series, the story was told in a prequel sense. How the crew came to be.

It was told in somewhat of a parallel Universe. I don't want to give much away but some of the events that went down in this movie never happened in any of the series. Which means, you have a different Spock and J.T. Kirk.


Aside from how its told and the effects used... This Star Trek was awesome. I think it satisfys both the Trekkie and someone who has never seen Star Trek. Its good enough for me to go see it in the Theater again and again... Sadly I'm broke so maybe just one more again and I'll wait till it hits DVD.

The movie got me thinking a lot about the film and other franchises. How it stacks up against em' and such. It also made me think about a second film. There is probably going to be one, there is no doubt. But will it be as good?

Hopefully so.

Go See It!

Wreck a Movie

I recently came across a website that is pretty awesome.

Wreck a movie.

The service or really service you offer on this website is to contribute to a film that is made around the world.  You sign up for different roles, sometimes just general ideas or concept art.  It seems to be put together on a volunteer basis.

I think its a pretty cool idea.  Considering you can get movie credit and experience.

Most of the films are around the independent/b-movie variety but thats ok.  Those ones are generally the best.

I'll look around and maybe see if I can get myself on a crew for one of the films.  Might be fun.

Bigfoot Drawings

Are on their way...  In the meantime.  Here is a smaller version of a larger piece I will be posting...

Working with the MilkMan

Here is another project I did while working with my buddy Nathan...  

Tearjerker

It took me a while to find it somewhere on the interwebs but I found it. Aside from helping with the special effects (computer animation, compositing, film scratches, grain, etc.) I also helped with elements of the story and things like dat. I was there for a few of the shoots on some of the days and helped out with giving him different input. It was a pretty fun time and probably the most amount of work I spent on a project that wasn't directly tied to school or work.

Adventures with Charlie

Here is something to hold people over...  

Me with a cat.

Dead Poetic - In Coma

Almost a year ago, a friend of mine (Nathan Mielke) asked if I would help him out on a music video.  Since I've worked with him before on previous projects, I agreed.  

My role for this video was basically just drawing.  Almost all the sketches you see, with the exception of one (the picture of the girl kissing the boy) were done by me.  All the title slates were of my hand except the visual effects.  That work was done by someone else in post (how it looks like its being drawn, etc).

Anyway, here it is.