2011

Updating Guild Lab; secret project at Woodbury wearing me down...

The Mighty Thor

Powerful people want us to cave in,

Average people want to be rewarded for mediocrity,

Angry people want us to be afraid and confuse rage for strength.

Here's what I say to them, inspired by of Bill Mantlo, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott in the Mighty Thor number 241.

(Copyright Marvel-Disney)

Merry Christmas!

Bill Melendez Charlie Brown Christmas

A great privilege to meet Mr. Melendez.
Got his autograph, (forgot the date)

(copyright Paramount, now copyright Warner Home Video)

Missed seeing this on TV this year, my VHS tape still plays, but it's wearing out.
Now I'm reminded of seeing this originally on CBS with the Coca-Cola ads, and the Dolly Madison ads...

It's been a stressed out year with the economy and hostile fat-cat politics.

I did begin upgrading the Animation Guild Computer Lab, will try to get more new gear and software in 2011.

Here's to better days,

K.R.

CTN Expo

That's me, on the job for Woodbury University.

More fish and starfish acting

This exercise is just to show basic blocking and timing, but I like the starfish going "Huh!?" as the little fish slips past him. I should push the poses harder.

CTN Expo, year 2

Here it is-if you're in the business, you're on your way.
If you're not in the business, it's still tough to break in-
or if you're trying to get back in...

CTN

http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/ctnx/ctnx2010/

Dr. Spectrum, or, no more spandex.

One reader of my comic said he was tired of spandex-clad heroes.
(Of course, who knows what some of Herman Bear's foes wear on their off-hours;)

Not so friendly faces

More scribblings...

Coffee fix-Doctor Who style

Peguins

Hello blog, its been a long time.
This sketch is from last year.

Maya in a nutshell

Some thoughts on teaching a basic Maya class:

Maya- student is climbing two mountains, technical and creative;
each factor affects the outcome of the other.
Student may go off in different direction.

Students may have very rigid preconceptions of how their 3D projects should look
Some students become hung up on using very specific menu commands and/or procedures that distract them from easier work arounds.

Students are very resistant about buying Maya text books

Learning interface,

Modeling polygons; polygon components

animation, graph editor

lighting & rendering

Putting final reel together

* * * * * * * * * * *

Subjects for projects, General catagories:

Monsters, soldiers, action
Cute characters
Castles, temples, furniture, landscapes, dungeons
Effects-fire, lightning, fog
Photorealism (rare)

Bear Airship Comic

Since it's the day after Thanksgiving, (or "stanksgiving" as someone on Facebook said)

And since everyone is bloated, right?

My thoughts turned back to my bear's airship. Yeah, blimps aren't practical since they can't travel far, can't travel fast and strong winds can destroy them.

BUT...

They do have a longer "loitering" time than an airplane does, and they stay airborne after an EM pulse. Plus Herman would have some kind of techno-magic to get the ship to do impossible things...

Did a little research, the issue seems to be the wind resistance created by such a large, broad volume moving against the atmosphere. I came up with the "vortex Drive" that would create a partial vacuum in front of the ship, and therefore drag it forward.

Sort of like the warp drive on the Enterprise...

This is an old sketch of the airship Utopia in its hangar after Herman (and Professor Behrman) have finished it. They live in a more magic world, but there has to be some believability in its mechanics.

http://www.google.com/search?q=the%20manned%20cloud&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&start=0
http://www.hyperblimp.com/future-hyperblimp/

http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q3/080708c1_pr.html

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.