Fireworks
Have a Happy 4th of July Everyone!
Jul
3
Jul
1
Butterfly!
For whatever reason… I found myself doodling Dean Trippe’s “Butterfly”…
I also posted the sculpt process over on the Araknid Kid section. If you’re not already, be sure to be checking there for updates as I plan on posting more there as the Zuda competition gets underway this Monday.
Jun
26
Jun
25
Araknid Kid Take 2!
Here Goes! Yesterday Zuda made the announcement for July’s Invitational, and thanks to the nominations you gave (yes YOU!) I’m happy to say that Araknid Kid is getting another shot at the Zuda contract (THANKS)! It’s gonna be a CRAZY month… it’ll be very interesting competing against comics that are in my list of favorites (and were on my list for the invitational)
That being said, over the last couple weeks while I’ve been getting the pages together for the competition I’ve also been working on a few other things that I’m excited to show you guys. I’ll be posting updates here, but for the latest, check out the behind the scenes and bonus materials HERE. To get things started I’ve posted info on how YOU can get an ARAKNID KID sculpt (actually THE sculpt that I posted here a bit ago)!
Jun
24
Collab with my Daughter
One of the things my 3 year old (almost 4) loves to do is draw, and we have fun drawing together. Usually when we do we just sit together doodling on seperate pieces of paper. Yesterday was one of our first collaborations. She’s been getting the hang of drawing shapes (in particular the triangle… she’s had the circle and the square down for a while). She drew her characters and said that the square was dancing on grass and the triangle was going into the water and asked me to draw it, which I happily did. Here’s the result:
Jun
19
Jun
16
Thanks Future Thought!
Hope all the dads out there had a great weekend! I did! Saturday’s mail delivery brought me my prize from Future Thought’s contest…. my iPod Touch! I know that in the scheme of things, entertainment technology doesn’t mean much… but boy is it fun/cool. Here’s the thank you vid I posted:
This was my first ever attempt at combining video with animation and was pretty happy with the result. I’m REALLY liking Anime Studio (although it probably could’ve been done with flash).
The one drawback was when I exported the animation (that included the movie file), the sound didn’t export. So I took it into iMovie to try to lay the sound back in and discovered that the movie was now 7 seconds longer than the original (so now the original sound didn’t line-up correctly).
I had exported the initial video at 24 fps, imported it into the Anime Studio project (that was also set at 24 fps), and somehow the video’s timing changed (it should’ve lasted only 648 frames, but it extended to 823). Still trying to figure out why, but I figured out a workaround extracting the sound from the original video, and compositing them in the old iMovie (since the previous version has speed control). With some experimenting/tweaking I was able to speed the video up to align it (for the most part) with the sound.
Gonna look into finding out why that happened….. unless you know.
Jun
12
Soapbox Derby
Every year, right before the soapbox derby was raced here, I’ve done a soapbox related TLC toon. Unfortunately, it crept up on me this year, and I missed it (it was last weekend). So instead, THIS year, we’ve got a post-race toon:
Things around here have been busy as usual. We’ve switched to a 4-day work week in my department at work, which means more hours on those days…. but 3 days a week off! And the way the rotation works, sometimes I’ll be getting a 4-day weekend 
I’ve been working on various projects, one including playing with an animation program…. we’ll see how that goes 
Jun
5
TLC, In-Flight Services & Cleopatra in Spaaace!!!
Right after my longest post title, comes, what could be my second longest post title? I dunno, I’m not really keeping track.
First, this week’s Tastes Like Chicken:
If this one leaves you scratching you head, go here.
Next, a couple friends of mine are competing in the Small Press Idol. While doing warm-up sketches I ended up doodling their characters from their “In-Flight Services”
They’re in round 3 and could use your votes. Check them out here, and just reply “Yes” to in that thread (only one vote a day)
And last but not least, I’m been meaning to mention this for a while, but artist extraordinaire Mike Miahack has been posting pages of a project of his on his blog. Cleopatra in Spaaace! I love it. He’s got 6 pages up with more to come. Check it out!
Jun
3
What Happens to Shifty Next? It goes something like this….
Probably my longest title to a post yet!
So a few months ago, the incredible folks at Future Thought decided to run a contest for their series “Crime Time” (a series of shorts featuring Shifty and his mis-adventures in “crookery”…. if that wasn’t a word before…. it is now ) They invited folks to submit ideas for a Shifty adventure, which I did, and was recently notified THAT I WON! Which is only *part* of the awesomeness. Winning brings me a new iPod Touch (Wahoo!) AND a t-shirt !
On TOP of that, I learned that my entry was reviewed by their Director, Nassos Vakalis! Emmy award winner artist who has worked on MANY films and other projects. Just knowing that he saw my work and liked it meant alot!
Here’s the entry: