2008 Animation Guild open house poster

Thanks to everyone who used the Lab, and I wish you the best in 2009.

Special thanks to Jeff, Faris and Michael for letting me use their art on the poster.

I know now most people are having a Blue Christmas, Elvis is singing it right now on iTunes radio.

Hang in there,

Ken R.

Blimp from Final Cut imac

Flash cant do it alone, needs Final Cut on OS X 10.3.5 to function.

RRR!!!

The Northwoods Airport Cafe

For some reason, it was easier to build it in Maya than to draw it. This is where the Bear meets his fellow adventurers.

It also helped me get a feeling for the space inside

Flash Animation - Cast Intro

Little quickie I did in Flash; sort of a 1960's TV intro of my characters.

Halloween 2008!

My favorite characters can't stay out of trouble. The Bear wanted to go trick or treating; (he's wearing a mask so no one will recognize him).

The Dragon-man didn't want to go, so now he has to fight off the evil spirits.

At least they're not out smashing mailboxes, or putting pennies in hubcaps.

Here's to all the hayrides, old scary movies and fun we had at Red Oak Camp, and Kirtland Ohio.

KR

Photoshop Introspective paint effect

Did this in Photoshop with the smudge tool. Did it spontaneously.
Cheers!

My new Wacom tablet!

Finally feeling like I'm getting a line down with this thing. Having CS3 sure helps.

Herman Bear is reeling from Pandora Cubcake's new outfit. I'm not sure I'm going to keep her with a "Pandora's Box", but instead give her a power crystal like sort of like Dr. Spectrum's...Hmmm....But having things come out of the box still gives me plenty opportunities for stories...

I was going over my thumbnails from the beginning of 2008, and I still have a Hell of alot of work to do. I was admiring the new "Seaweed" graphic novel, and feeling a bit crushed.

http://www.saltysugar.com/comic.html

http://benbalistreri.blogspot.com/

This book is totally incredible! And I was a little relieved when Ben Balistreri wrote that it took him six years to finish it. I THINK that's what he said, I better check.

That gives Herman Bear a little time...

Siggraph Sketch 2008

Something I left at the Disney booth at Siggraph 2008. My email is on it.
Lord only knows what will happen to my little butterfly-girl.

Leaner and Meaner Siggraph this year. The display floor seemed smaller. Was feeling nauseous and run down this week, missed a lot of cool talks.

Kept running back and forth, but everyone does that. For a minute, I thought I was in the San Diego convention center. Need another break, but I just got back from a trip.

Will Weston 'a la Maya

I went ahead and did a layout for the assignment; "The world's most wonderful kite" in Maya. Will was a little freaked out that I used Maya, but what the hey. My next step was to flesh it out more in Photoshop, but ran out of time in July. It needed a tail, and some more texture and detail throughout. But I managed to create a good layout with a 60%/40% composition, and some decent shadows. And...
I like it!
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Batkiiiiite!
Badaboom!

Will Weston's Photoshop Session

Will showed us how he can compose a scene using basic Photoshop commands:

Briteness/Contrast
Copy from selection
Invert selection
Feather select
Guassian Blur
Quick mask

He also showed us how to make nifty action buttons out of these so the artist doesn't have to dig around in the menus, or fiddle with hot keys. Very Cool!

How's it look? I did it with only a mouse; gotta get a tablet.

Will Weston composition class

Hello Blog, and anyone looking in, got into Will Weston's composition class at the Guild this late Spring. Brushing up on proportion, design and layout again, these are film studies from "Touch of Evil"; Directed by Orson Welles. Just didn't get a chance to post anything for awhile. Also did some film studies for the "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Bewildering.

Fun! Nice to just draw and create, w/o a computer.

Here's to a good Summer.

The bad guy gets away...

Or does he? We'll see. He's not being crushed, he's being lifted to safety by a giant robot claw that he controls. (After the heroes beat the tar out of him.)

Inside Villian's Lair_02

Same art, fleshed out with Maya objects.

Inside Villian's Lair

A sketch doctored up with Photoshop. First pass.

The old airport

Maya objects, tweaked with Photoshop. Different context than what I wanted, but it was a good exercise.

hermanbear.com

I'm ready for a trip North!

Sito Speaks at the TAG Computer Lab!

(Artwork by Tom Sito) On Monday April 21, the Animation Guild Computer Lab celebrates its fourth anniversary with a special appearance by Tom Sito!

Tom Sito, President Emeritus of the Animation Guild, will discuss topics ranging from education to how traditional art is being affected by computer technology; and how the employment side of animation is being affected as well. Tom has worked as an animator, storyboard artist and director, along with teaching animation at both UCLA and USC. Tom is also the author of Drawing The Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson, published by University of Kentucky Press.

The evening starts at 7 pm at our building on 4729 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. Sorry, seats are limited to Guild members only. RSVP to lab@animationguild.org (you will receive a reply from roskotron@hotmail.com).

Special thanks to Tom and to Jeff Massie for getting the word out. It should be a great evening.

Cheers!

Ken R.

WMMS Buzzard T-Shirt

Scanning groovy old T-Shirt art. They don't fit anymore, so I'm scanning them for posterity. I wore this shirt when I met Jack Kirby at the Comic Con in San Diego.

(Artwork by David Helton)

Frog & ButterFly

Wacky quick pastel drawing

Here come the Bad Guys

In the second act of my story, the bear is tempted to do real violence against his opponents. This happens after he sees what the humanoids have done to the other creatures.

Another pass

Added a little more detail, trying to harmonize things.

Character color styling

Rough blocking in of color for my characters. John K's article on color kind of has me spooked. Maybe I'm not getting it.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/color-theory-neutral-or-natural-colors.html

Animation Guild Computer Lab - Fantastic Four years!

No, not the superheroes, but the Animation Guild Computer Lab will be in operation four years running now.

I want to thank everyone who supported the place, and everyone who able to make use of the Lab to further their career goals. We'll do our best to keep it chuggin' along.

Many thanks!

Ken R.