2009

Another chance. That is what 2009 signifies to me. I have had to reinvent myself several times in my career, but I believe this time is different. In the past , the reinvention always was dictated by the marketplace, what styles were current, what was commercially viable. I have decided that it is time to get back to what excites me as an artist and try for once in my life to find my style. I have been a chameleon far too long, and although it has given me some longevity in this wacky field, I have lost myself in the process. 2009 is my time. Sounds dramatic , I know, but as a selfish artist who always bolsters himself with such proclamations, please bear with me. Reinvention is a necessary evil in this rapidly changing animation world and creates a wonderful challenge to my ability to make it happen. I wish all of us luck in 2009, but mostly, I wish us lots of skill.

Hula almost complete

All elements are complete. The only thing left to do is to tweak, and check the image. This has been a very tedious process, but since it will be on the website animating on a regular basis, it is important to get it right, or at least close.

Dashboard Hula taking shape

After several rounds of tweaks, and the addition of the arms, the Dashboard Hula Girl is getting closer to completion. I will probably post the final tomorrow, if all goes well.

Finishing the Hula

When finishing a traditionally animated sequence in Illustrator, it is important to note several critical issues. First, make sure you animate your images larger than they will appear in the final file. This will insure accurate drawing and aid greatly in the final finish in Illustrator. Secondly, build and test your image as you go, it is essential to analyze each section as you are creating it in Illustrator, you can see you errors more clearly when you are taking a section at a time. The main two issues with this sort of technique is the fact that you are dealing with an image with no line and that you are going to get small "wobbles" no matter how accurate your initial animation is. Having no line creates a circumstance where accuracy is at a premium, without a border your image edge has to me right on otherwise you will definitely see a small flicker. The good thing about Illustrator is the fact that you can "zoom in" work in outline and manipulate points with relative ease. It is a tedious process, in many ways more tedious than traditional cel finish. Here is my progress on the Hula girl for my website, and although you will probably not be able to see the tiny flaws that remain, I assure you that they are there. But luckily the mistakes are manageable.

"Pretty Good"

I was eating breakfast at the local, "Good Egg" the other day and as I normally do, I brought my sketchbook. I try to make it a habit to do at least a page or so of sketches everyday and the Good Egg is one of my favorite places to accomplish this task. I mean, doesn't bacon make everything better, even art? After having my meal, I went up to the counter to pay and the hostess commented, "I saw you sketching today, you're pretty good". I thanked her and walked out of the restaurant, happy to have received a compliment. Then it hit me, "Pretty GOOD?!", I have been doing this for 40 years, shouldn't I be at least "Good" all ready? Is "Great" too much to hope for? I stood in the parking lot racing through my sketchbook pages, hoping I was better than, "Pretty Good". I think I am, but that just might be the bacon talking.

Derf Xmas Card

I received a Xmas Card from my good friend John Backderf, "Derf", a great humorist and Comic Strip artist. This just cracked me up. Derf you are a frickin' genius.

A Flash in the Pan

Here is a retinal scanner for my website. Just a little gag about the Animation Witness Protection Program. It will be bigger and more readable when the site is up...soon.

Finalizing Pages for the Launch

Here are some of the final page designs for Horrendous Fiasco's website...Coming not soon enough.

Happy Holidays

Just my warm-up today. Now back to Photoshop hell

Hula Girl Revisited

Another animation test for the Hula girl. I started the vector art on a previous test and noticed some problems, so I went back on board, enlarged the image for better control and tweaked it as best I can. There are still minor problems but I am sure I will fix them when I am in Illustrator.

Webpage Format

Completed a mock up of the website, the internal panel is where the various designs for the Bio Page, Gallery, Movies, etc. will reside. The hula girl will dance on the home page...the present central image is only a rough. I will be up and running relatively soon.

2009 Demo Reel

Sorry

Haven't been posting lately because I am working on secret stuff. Will be back posting like a fool soon, maybe even today.