Chuck Jones: 100 years

All this, and the space shuttle too! What a day. That's not all folks.

Factory window in Maya

Simple polygon model of factory window.

PreVis

Incredible class I took from Brian Pohl. Brian was a PreVis supervisor at Persistence of Vision studios. http://www.brianpohl.com/

https://vimeo.com/8208316

It was a bear using Maya, After Effects, and a little bit of Photoshop. Plus, just coming up with the idea, storyboards and  timing for the chase. In other words, generating content while mastering two software packages.

3 Point Perspective

Quick sketch out of my head while having lunch at the Choza Mama across from NBC. Tweaked hastily in Photoshop, work in progress. Mister "show biz" indeed! I was daydreaming about some seedy, tropical getaway place while having some grilled chicken and salad. Just trying to show my students how important it is to try to capture an idea, or just a mood, and then develop it. Looks like I have to follow my own lesson first!

Basic polygon modeling tutorials

Here's some basic polygon modeling tutorials on screencast.com http://www.screencast.com/users/roskotron

Online Comics-Intrepid Escapegoat

Guilty pleasure time! I finally got to read the first adventure of the Intrepid Escapegoat by Brian Smith. http://www.briansmithcomics.com/news/I missed it on free comic book day. Classes start Aug. 31st, so I'm squeezing in some goof off time. The Intrepid Escapegoat is the copyright of Brian Smith http://www.comixology.com/ 

Olympic Phoenix

I watched practically none of the Olympics, but I enjoyed the closing ceremony performances. Seeing the Phoenix rising while the Olympic flames were going out moved me to sketch this up starting in Autodesk Sketchbook and finishing in Photoshop. Nice to think the flame will keep going...
( The Olympic logo is  the copyright of the International Olympic Committee)

10,000 page views!

Thanks to all my readers for taking this blog to 10,000 page views. A very modest number for a blog, I guess. While I try to provide technical and artistic material here, it does turn into a scrapbook, or just a grab bag for things that are on my mind. Keeping focus is tough, but working with computers and animation takes me into areas outside the regular studio situation. Thank you again for sorting through all that. Thank you to the Animation Guild for setting up the computer lab, and to Woodbury University for allowing me to teach, and get my hands on some amazing technology.

Early Basic Maya work

Okay, a chicken walks into a bar...Basic polygon modeling and lighting to show students how to get started.

After the Fox animated opening credits

Dick Horn animated these titles for the Peter Sellers movie "After the Fox". I always liked films from the 60's with animation in the opening credits. Dick also worked on "Yellow Submarine. "http://www.animatormag.com/archive/issue-12/issue-12-page-25/

Flamingo Dancer roller skate waitress

A flamingo waitress on roller skates, but I got this great pose of her using Maya. Haven't worked on her in a long time, was having trouble with her rig.

Cabin

Missing Canada already...

Labyrinth built in Maya using Turing patterns

Took a Turing pattern off the internet, converted it into an Illustrator file, then imported it into Maya. From there, lofted the geometry from curves. Done!

Three Musketeers minus one

Herman Bear and Obsidian as swashbucklers! Ruff sketch

Captain America sketch art

Hello, was traveling around Parry Sound Canada, here's a quick sketch of Captain America

Memorial Day commemorative dog-tag art

Artwork I did for one of my first clients in LA: commemorative dog-tags of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I appreciate the sacrifices made by all soldiers. The decisions made by our politicians, not so much.

Over the Mountain characters as Green Lanterns

Gaia, Obsidian, Cubcake and the Bio-Soldier are accepted as alternate, "backup" Green Lanterns. All, except for the Bear. Stay tuned to find out why!(Green Lantern copyright Time/Warner/DC Comics, Over the Mountain characters copyright Ken Roskos)

What's new in blogging?

I am experimenting with a new blog. I'm trying to post something everyday. I'm also trying to learn how search engines and bots find blogs. I'll see if this gives the new blog more popularity. http://adorablediabolicals.blogspot.com/

The 99%

This is a job for...

Logo design in Photoshop.

Remembering Andy's Armenian Burger near Universal

Miss that lamb sandwich wrap he made. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. (Photo courtesy of Bill Ohanesian)