What about me? Don't I matter?

we need more superheros

Playing with some brushes.  This is not the doodle you were looking for.  Move along.

sketch club doodles

I had a free day yesterday and filled it with good things.  I took Max to school, went to the gym with Kristen, saw the Muppet Movie with my kids and wife and had a chance to visit Sketch Club with Marcelo Vignali and the gang.  It was awesome to see the familiar faces those people are amazing.  Here are some doodles from the lunch.  

Cool little drawing exercise, I took this quick doodle and filled in the face.  I'm sure you're like me, everywhere I look, I see faces.  I'm not hearing the voices yet, though.

Happy Birthday Adam Sandler

Did you know it's Adam Sandler's birthday? Of course you did.

feelin a little slow today...

new caricature

Meet Alexa, she has been at Sony Pictures Animation for a while and now she is leaving. I had the pleasure of working on this caricature for her.

Pokemon Max!

My boy is turning 6 years old next week! He wants to have a Pokemon themed party and so we made a playing card for the invitation to his party! I love that Kristen put that he evolves from a five year old!

Happy Birthday buddy!

Bad boy...

I gotta figure out how to be a better hubby.

Luc Desmachelier

Sony says good by to an amazing artist. Bon voyage, ami.

Creating the Anhedonia Logo

This is the animated logo at the end of the new television show, Mr. Sunshine. Think "Sit, Ubu. Sit." or "Bad Robot!!" You can see it better quality at http://vimeo.com/20228001

A few months ago I got a call from my friend Matt Davis asking if I would maybe, possibly be somewhat interested in considering working on a logo like that for Matthew Perry. I jumped at the chance. The company is called Anhedonia Productions, and you're probably wondering what in the world "Anhedonia" means. It's the inability to experience pleasurable emotions from normally pleasurable life events. A pretty crappy situation, but comedy goldmine.

I worked with Andy Erekson and Marcelo Vignali (and his daughter) to come up with a list of 50 ideas of what this logo could be within the theme that Perry had already set up. I boarded out 7 of those ideas and created 3 animated beta tests. Here are some of my favorites...

For exploration:
Face on Jumbotron
Rodeo
Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center
Birth of a child
Bear Attack
Jack in the box
looking at the Mona Lisa

Storyboarded Ideas:






Animation Tests:

I took all that stuff into a meeting with Matthew Perry. It was one of the few celebrity encounters that I have ever had and it was awesome, I won't deny it. We didn't have much time so I started with the story boarded examples, then the videos, then we went over the list. My original idea was to have a new tag at the end of every episode, and Matthew liked that idea a lot. We were all set for it but when he found out that this would be coming from his own pocket and not the studio's, he reconsidered.

The work on this logo went quickly. I probably spent a total of 10 hours on it is all. I think the fact that it was only 4 seconds long was a perk. I finished everything up and sent off a version to be approved and never heard anything back. I knew that they were running out of time and didn't have the final logo so I contacted them. Ben, the guy I was working with, said that there were no notes back on it, which is good news. I delivered the final version and collected my check. It was a great experience.

You know how normally you start out all excited about a project and when you get into it you start to hate it more and more until you question your own worth not only as an artist but as a human being? That never happened on this project. I completely loved working on this thing and now I'm sitting here wondering how I can get more business like that. If you know anyone who needs an animated logo at the end of a sitcom on network television, be a pal and send 'em my way, will ya? Thanks!

I just wanna be tough

Lately I have been trying to work out a little bit more and every time I hear about some fitness app my ears perk up. Recently I heard about this Nike Training Club and I downloaded the app. It has a bunch of really great workouts to get you into shape or help you lose weight or whatever. I did one workout for only 15 minutes and called it good for the day. For the next three days, my legs and hind quarters have been paying for it! Then I found out that it's targeted for women. The longer I live, the more I realize that women are WAY tougher than men. I don't know what I was thinking before....

Mighty Max

Playing with after effects. I've always liked this idea of having these blocks of wood spell out words. Could get pretty fun.

What is Q?

My friend Chris Mitchell has a store in Little Tokyo in LA and he's got space for a little art gallery. I was lucky enough to be asked to participate and this is my piece with one of the preliminary sketches. Check out his blog if you get a chance or check him out on Facebook.

New Post on Drawing a Crowd

Check out my "Drawing a Crowd" blog for this and other caricatures. And let me know what you think, the good and the bad. I want it all!!

Yule tide Smurf

Working on the Smurf's movie stuff, I realize how much Papa Smurf looks like Santa Claus. Merry Christmas to anyone who may read this!

Tilt-Shift effect

Like my model of the Grand Canyon? Just finished it.

Anim Test

Click on the image to see the animation.

warm ups

Getting ready for a pumpking carving. More pictures soon. Going to enter my pumpkin into a contest at work, we'll see how it goes.
Saw this guy as I was walking back from lunch yesterday. Interesting bulging shapely head.

Sketchclub faces

Mr. Perry

Santa Logo

I was asked to come up with a graphic for a logo for the Run with Santa charity event that the Grossman Burn Center is holding sometime during the holiday season. I don't know when the race is, but I'd love to be in it. I've never run so much as a 5k before - I gotta get out and move!

last frame

This is the final color image for the end of this short film I'm working on. Hopefully I can get this shot animated tonight. I can feel that I'm running out of steam.

Caricatures

When you get a chance, take a look at my new blog dedicated to caricatures. I find that when I am just sitting there (in church, in meetings, at lunch) I end up drawing the people around me. And often the results aren't too flattering. So I figured it would be good to post this stuff online. If you spend any time around me, you might find your face up on that blog soon.

Not that I hang out with Stephen Tyler but...

Plane Landing

I promise, this will all make sense soon....

thinking of the ideas

animation

There are going to be something like 28 shots that I will be posting online as they come along.

failed idea #1

Animatic for engagement video

I've been spending the early hours of my days working on this great little piece for an engagement video for a commission. I'll be posting the after effects clips periodically. There is no sound on this clip, so don't think your computer is messed up. You're not missing anything. Let me know what you think about the piece.

Engagement Animation

I am working on a little animation of a guy deciding how best to propose to is girl. Much more to come. I'm going to post beat boards, story boards, test animations and all that. All in a months time!! Please feel free to comment and suggest stuff. I love it!

BEAUTIFUL

I want to create stuff this beautiful. I love everything about this. I love the style, I love the story. I love the idea of taking real interviews and giving them this new perspective and heart through animation, I love it ALL. It feels a bit like the scene in UP where Carl loses Ellie, and thats because there is real emotion in this piece. Well done Rauch Brothers

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

DON'T LOOK AT ME!

I know this belt-buckle-totin' feller didn't want me to notice him, but this BRIGHT red shirt and that amish had were too much to ignore.

Mini Minnie

The other day, I was asked to come up with a caricature of a colleague who is leaving Sony. I'm pretty pleased with how it looks for how much time I put into it (a little under an hour). I just wish I was a better painter. I need to work on that.

3 minute gestures

Whitecloak

I haven't read the Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series so I may be WAY off here, but a friend asked me to come up with a design for a White Cloak. I hope I got anywhere close. This is supposed to be a birthday present.

Think Zoetrope

You take this still image, and roll these black bars over the top, you get a simple form of animation.


Click the image above to see it animate. Interesting, simple little concept here. I am not sure who developed it, but I'm thinking about exploring it some more.

Playing around in After Effects

I was messing around with an idea and wanted to explore which is the better scared look: the Wiggler, or the Turbulence deformer?


This is the Turbulence deformer:




and this is the wiggler:

5 Year Old Spy

My friend Tom Curtis's son is turning 5 in a couple of days. On his cake he wanted an image with a very specific image. This is the description that I got, "He wants a picture of a secret spy agent (sunglasses and very covert), who is on the ceiling with suction cups on his hands and feet. He is looking down on a bad agent guy with laser eyes who is trying to 'get' him with the laser eyes."

I hope he likes it.

Photoshop CS5

I just got the trial version of CS5 at Sony to try out and present to the studio. I've been playing with the brushes this morning and there are some really cool additions. Anyone familiar with the Photoshop kingdom knows that we've been waiting for this for a long time! The brush bristles now follow the direction of the line. Photoshop now dynamically tracks the angle of your stylus and interprets it like this.