The Creative Talent Network Animation Expo 2009

...has left the building. It was fun, met some cool people, and even a few old friends...

But,

How do we help animation people get back to work?

Moon over Los Angeles

My photo from 2009, up on Mulholland Drive.
http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/moon_phases.phtml

The Iron Giant lives! 10 year anniversary reunion.

Got to see Brad Bird and the other top artists that brought this great film to life.
This blurred picture is my only decent snapshot of some of the crew that was there that night. Trying to avoid being a total fan-boy, I let the younger fans and animation students get autographs and pictures taken with Brad Bird. Almost near the end, I was able to shake his hand, but Brad was distracted, and Warner Security was trying to herd us towards the exits. They also turned out the lights, so Brad couldn't see who I was. I tried using the flashlight in my cell phone, but that was not effective.

I'm still disappointed, but not surprised, when big corporations have to cajoled into producing gems like the Iron Giant. Some have complained that the animation isn't on a Disney level, or that the scenes are too talky. I say look at "Home on the Range" or "Treasure Planet", and ask which of their worlds draws us in.

Still, it was a privilege to be there, and I got to speak a bit with some of the other artists, especially the one who developed the cel-shaders for the Iron Giant in Maya. He gave the CG a more hand drawn look, and he was working with one of the early beta-versions of Maya. Gotta tip my hat to him!

Over the Mountain comics sold in the Los Angeles area

I would like to thank these shops for carrying my Over the Mountain mini comics!

http://hidehocomics.com/

http://www.meltcomics.com/

http://www.artoffiction.com/HOS_index.html

Hope you can check it out.

Thank you to all the shop owners for giving shelf space to Herman Bear.

Will Eisner Halloween Spirit

Herman Bear as Will Eisner's "Spirit". Someone at the union thought he was dressed up as "Indiana Jones". Well, that works too.

This is still a rough sketch; tried laying in the "ink" using the lasso tool in Photoshop. Still not satisfied.

Halloween 2009 Ruff Cover

They won't stay buried!

Halloween 2009, Rough comic thumbnail

The Characters discuss the place of androids or cyborgs in their world. This is really a mess, I'm using comic-sans type face just as a place holder.

Over the Mountain #3

So...nearly done, learned the hard way that jpegs need to be RGB. For Blogger anyway.

The TAG Lab has landed.

Before:



Okay, its not the Apollo Lunar Mission, but I am so glad to get the Animation Guild Computer Lab settled into our new digs. No damage, no data loss that I could see.

And I am grateful to get it done before my trip to Ohio. It's my parents 50th wedding anniversary.





After:











http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/scenes-from-moving-day-part-2.html


Here's to a great future!

Signing Off

Well, this is my last post from 4729 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.
Hopefully, the new building will be fine.
Just saying farewell to the old place, since I have to take our only internet station off line.

Good luck to us at 1150 North Hollywood Way, and many thanks to 4729 Lankershim. You've been a good port in the storm.

Cheers,

Ken Roskos

Over the Mountain #2 now on sale!!!

Many thanks to Meltdown and Hi-De-Ho Comics in Hollywood and Santa Monica respectively; they've been Herman Bear's guardian angels.

And House of Secrets in Burbank too!

The summer is going by fast, have to get this done.

KR

L.A.M.B. Lupus Aggression Management Battalion

I'm claiming this, sort of a tribute to Gerry Anderson's UFO; except little lamb-guys run around in cool tanks and jets blasting the hell out of nasty wolves.

Will Weston's compostion class July 2009

Got distracted by my comic book business. Finally got one decent composition done.

I like it, Will said it needs more definition in the basic shapes. Yes, but I still want a dreamier edge to it, it's not "Tailspin" or something like that.

Will's classes at the Animation Guild are definitely worth taking!

http://www.willwestonstudio.com

Over the Mountain # 2

Almost ready, still shopping issue No. 1 around to more comic shops.

I have to be better prepared the next time I approach a comic shop cold. I was hoping to make a sale at Golden Apple, but they said only if I could could get in with other artists when they make their personal appearances...

Definitely have to work on that!

Sunset

This has kind of an Autumn feeling to it, and I did it on May 31st.
Just a ruff sketch colored in Photoshop, lot of lasso tool and radial blur filter for the sky. Herman Bear and friend admire the sunset at the end of a long day.

Felix the Cat Book - Being useful...

I found this at http://www.thesantis.com/khxc/ccp0-prodshow/99102620.html

Its the cover of a Little Golden Book my Grandparents kept at their house when we came over to visit. It got thrown in the toybox, and eventually disappeared. The story was about how Felix the Cat visited a farm, and how he was having trouble fitting in. He finally became the Medico for the farm animals when he found out he couldn't give milk or pull a plow.

I hope my services to my fellow artists at the Animation Guild Computer Lab and Woodbury University are a useful in a similar way.

Blend Shapes in Maya

Hi, for some reason I couldn't get this video to upload. Maybe it was too big, but look for it on Vimeo. Let's see if this link works.

We'll use simple, but solid modeling in Maya to create mouth movement for your characters. Later, we'll import a soundtrack and try to do some lipsynch.

Using Blend Shapes in Maya for mouth shapes from Rosko on Vimeo.

Milton Glaser And Ronald Searle - Art Lessons...

Here are some cool links to artists I knew practically nothing:

Milton Glaser, best known for his I(heart)N Y logo, (copyright Milton Glaser)

http://www.areaofdesign.com/americanicons/glaser.htm






And Ronald Searle, illustrator/cartoonist for the New Yorker;(copyright Ronald Searle)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Searle








My friend Faris told me about them.

http://visualdiaries10.blogspot.com/

I'm still interested in design, wild characters and composition -

Things have been either too quiet, or too negative around here.

Dig it!

Richard Williams survival guide - Micro!

One of my teaching partners, Tim Ingersoll put this page together from the Richard Williams book. If he was trapped on a desert island, and he could have only one page from the book, then this would be it.

Check it out.

Oh yeah! Copyright Richard Williams.

"Luxo" with more polish

The lampshade rotates after the top of the arm bounces; and the top of the arm bounces after the base portion bounces.

We'll try to cover this more in class.

Ken R.

Maya interface, most important things labeled

This is a great graphic. I found it over the Holidays, and I couldn't find it again.

I'd like to give credit to whoever made this.

Good way to identify Maya's most important tools and menus.

Luxo Part V - Animate!

Remember the Bouncing Ball exercises?

Luxo Part IV

Luxo Part III: Parent objects to skeleton

The top and bottom polygon objects can be used as controls. The bottom root joint is parented to the small polygon cylinder at the bottom of the lamp(not the base). The arms of the lamp, and that one polygon disk in the middle are parented to the joints.

(They just go along as we animate the lamp.)

Luxo Part II

Basic Modeling.

Luxo Rig Part I

Part I - Basic Rig

Flamingo Waitress Updated

Here she is with more smoothing, and her legs are a more accurate color.
Did a bit more work on her skates-

Leave her a good tip!

Flamingo Roller Waitress

Here she is, quick, elegant, and ready to take your order with a smile.

She's still at a rough low-poly stage, her limbs are still separate objects.
If you want to know more about how this model was built, let me know.

I don't know why; I just doodled this character the other day, and she insisted on being modeled in Maya.

Fun!

Theme for student project; idea

Here's a quick sketch I colored in Photoshop, just to give you my impression of a style and a "look" for the Woodbury student Maya projects.

Silly, but it sets a direction. Yours can be more whimsical, or more serious.

Its up to you, you look like you have settled on a style, now you need to develop it soon.

I'll help you with any Maya questions you may have.

Ken Roskos

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.

Another Old Drawing from the 70's

Don't know when this was done. I drew with much more gusto back then.

Old Xmas drawing found in attic

When did I do this? Middle school? I must have done it in the 1970's. It was inspired by the old Mr. Magoo version of a Christmas carol. I always wanted to do this by scanning something from my parent's house. Now I have the training to use the technology. Thank God for little joys.

Camp Ronald McDonald

Animation Artists volunteer to draw for the kids! Organized by Art Leonardi. This was my only snapshot as I had to leave early. This is to help families with children dealing with cancer. I forget to count my blessings some days.

Animation Guild Holiday Open House poster

Thanks again to all the guest speakers we had for 2007. This poster wasn't as detailed as last year's, but I think it was clearer and easier to read. I'm grateful to everyone who volunteered their time.

Happy New Year group!

KR