The Art of Christina Beard

Angro's Journey

2011-12-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

I just finished up some freelance work for a start up project. And they're holding a contest for character designs for the game. You can vote on mine and the other artist's work here:

Angro's Journey Survey

I'm also working on my Socket Bunny short and finishing up some freelance for a children's iPad game, but I can't share of the work from that yet, but as soon as I can, I will. So look for it!

Socket Bunny Short Shorts Started!

2011-11-23T12:54:00.001-08:00

I've started animating my own series of Short Shorts for the Socket Bunnies. Here's a little sneak peak of some blocking progress. I'm having a good time animating these guys. I'm hoping to finish a short once every three months. So four a year or so. Not sure how many I want to do, but I want to have a nice, cute little series of fun shorts.

Concept Art Fun!

2011-10-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Created a piece of art for myself this last week. Had some fun with it. Going to probably do a series of stuff like this.

The Bleeps, Update 4

2011-10-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Another small update on progress with The Bleeps.

Some early animation and the full textured Bleep character.

The Bleeps, Update 3

2011-09-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, not a lot here to update, things have been hectic for me at the moment. But here's some more concept artwork and some images of a Bleep model I am currently working on texture painting and rigging.

OMSI After Dark

2011-08-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

If you're going to be in Portland this Wednesday night, you'll should come to the OSMI After Dark Game On 2.0 exhibit. I will be there showing off Purify Puzzle and some of my other artwork I've done for games.

There will be many local developers and some other pretty awesome Indie Games. So come on down if you'd like!

The event started at 7pm and goes until 11pm, 21 and older only. For more information on the event, please go here: http://www.omsi.edu/afterdark

"Treat yourself to childfree, brain-building science fun at OMSI After Dark! Check out live demos, new featured exhibitions, and old favorites. Sample tasty snacks and sweets along with beer and wine, and talk to regional food and beverage artisans about the science behind them. The OMSI Cafe will be open with a special dinner menu and cash bars will be available for those who want more than just a taste! It's geeks gone wild! (21+ only, IDs required.)"

You can demo Purify Puzzle here.

The Bleeps, Update 2

2011-08-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

Second update for The Bleeps artwork extravaganza. If you'd like to learn more about the game and Battery Powered Games themselves, you can their website here!

The Bleeps, Update 1

2011-08-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some work I've been doing for a new mobile game called The Bleeps. More updates to come was my get further along in the development process. I've been having a lot of fun working with Battery Powered Games on this little project.

Monster Sketchies

2011-08-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Did these today for fun. If I could just draw monsters for a living I totally would. Forever.

Lying Down is on the web!

2011-07-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

A film I worked on a long time ago creating several animated shorts for in now on the web and can be viewed at the website below!

Lying Down

Reel 2011

2011-06-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

I recut my reel recently. It is more focused now on character animation, it's not perfect but I like it a lot better then before. Have a lookie!

Christina Beard's Demoreel from Christina Beard on Vimeo.

Celebrity Animation WIP

2011-05-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

Just got through the initial blocking for this and have started tweaking, splining and will be lip syncing soon, enjoy!

Seeds of Opportunity

2011-04-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

I did some of the inbetweening animation and clean up for this film for Happy Trails Animation a while ago, it's a really cute little animated film about opportunity for women and girls. Enjoy!

Finished Playtime Short

2011-04-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Finally finished!!! Onto the next one. :)

Animation

2011-03-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Another work in progress on this piece. I've been learning a ton of stuff about 3D animation lately, and been putting those lessons to work for me as I build up my animation portfolio with these new short acting pieces.

For instance, the computer is a terrible animator and thus needs to be controlled in order to make it work well for you. I find that animating in 3D is actually significantly faster on average then animating in 2D, it's just the ramp up to that which takes forever; ie modeling, rigging, texturing, concepting.

I think for The Bird Princess I might hire out someone else to do the major character modeling, since it is really not my strong suit and not something I particularly enjoy either.

Let me animate however, and I am as happy as a clam.

Here's the latest work in progress! It needs the lip sync obviously, but it is definitely getting there in terms of quality. A few more tweaks here and there and I'll be ready to slap it too into my reel.

Purify Puzzle Released! / Animation Progress

2011-03-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

The game I was recently the Lead Artist for has finally been released by Blitz Game Studios! Purify Puzzle is a very cute addictive puzzle game that I had a ton of fun working on creating concepts, background art, sprites and animation for. I managed a few other artists and loved working with the team at Paperchild Studios.

Here's the newest trailer for it:

If you're interested in purchasing the game and supporting a really wonderful game development team, you can do so here, or here!

It will be available on other venues very soon. It's the studios first title and something we've put our hearts and souls into to finish. We humbly hope it'll make your day way more fun!

I also have some splining in for this piece finally. I had another animation job last month so I had to put it off my plate for a little while.

Enjoy!

Characters

2011-02-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

I did these two characters recently for Mojizu and thought I'd share them here. I think they're kinda cute and fun.

Hamicorn

Zombitorte

Animation and Bird Princess Concepts

2011-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

This short piece's audio was taken from the movie Hot Fuzz, I had a lot of fun with this first blocking pass, obviously a lot needs to be cleaned up, but the intention is hopefully clear.

More concepts for The Bird Princess!

Art Updates

2011-02-02T17:50:00.001-08:00

I did a bunch of art the last few weeks that I'm posting the finished products of. I finished the fire dragon and the short animation piece I've been working on for the last while.

Predator Animation

Fire Dragon

Some character silhouettes

These character designs are the beginning of a new short film I've been pondering, these are super rough, but thought I'd post them anyway. I think I'm going to name it The Bird Princess.

Fire Dragon

2011-01-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

The works in progress for this fire dragon, which I will also be updating as this comes along during the week. Two blogs posts in one day oh yeah!

Another WIP

2011-01-16T19:34:00.001-08:00

Another animation WIP for this predator short. I've gone into splining it. It still needs a lot of work, but it's really fun to post the works in progress here and then look back on them in a few weeks.

Feedbacks! Do want!

EDIT:

Another WIP, much more polished! Today was a superman animation day for me. Made a lot of progress.

More works in progress

2011-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd post some in progress work, concept art and animation. Yay!

Animation WIP for this short piece. I have a lone way to go on this, but I think that the posing is pretty solid.

More Animooootions

2011-01-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

I worked more on the Bat Dragon and am starting a new short piece with the 11 Second Club dialogue from October. Got a lot of good feedback and research about this stuff and am determined to do a better job this time with acting. I think I really need to start filming myself acting this stuff out. Once I get a little tripod for my camera that'll be good I think.

Feedback appreciated!

Bat Dragon

Predator WIP 1

Bat Dragon Animation WIP

2010-12-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a work in progress sequence of animation for this character, finally getting around to finishing this character. Feedback is encouraged, as I want to finish this up and get it on my reel.

Rigging is finished on Bat Dragon

2010-11-20T16:46:00.001-08:00

Finally finished the rigging for this guy. Have been chipping away at it for a long while. Here's a few fun poses I made out of the finished rigging for this model. Now I'm working on getting the texture map together to do a color, specular and normal map for this model. Then it's onto some good old animation.

No Real Updates

2010-11-14T22:36:00.000-08:00

Been knee deep in contract work, personal life stuff and life philosophizing, so have had little time for personal art projects. But I can say that I have a few in the pipeline that I plan on finishing. Here's some stuff to look at in the meantime that's kinda old or a work in progress.

WIP on a Metal Dragon

Some old life drawings I did on my europe trip. Enjoy! Done with pen.

Purify Puzzle Podcast!

2010-10-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

The game I'm working on was recently featured in a podcast on game development. They interviewed my coworker's Monjoni Osso and Enrico Crevecoeur.

Listen to the CA Games GDC Special Podcast on Purify Puzzle

The game will be published soon and more information will be available when that happens!

Breaking into the Video Game Industry

2010-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so you want to work in video games?

Maybe you have a degree in art, design or programming and aren't sure where to go from here? Maybe you can't afford one in the first place? You've applied to a million studios and haven't gotten a single reply?

The lucky thing is that the industry itself is still in it's relative infancy, and that means there are many different avenues which one can use to break into it. The unlucky thing is that it's a talent based industry, and even though a lot of people love games and would love to make them; talent, work ethic, creativity, and people skills are what are going to get you hired and what will ultimately sustain you a career.

Today colleges like Full Sail pump out thousands of eager, bright eyed students every year wanting to break into the industry as artists, designers, programmers, and others. But not every one of these people is guaranteed a career, it's tough competition out there. You're competing against hundreds of people who want the same entry level position you're eyeing, and so it's critical that you stand out. With the current recession, things are even tougher for today's graduates, and so it's even more important to make yourself noticed.

How do you get shipped titles? How do you get experience without having experience? It's a definite Catch 22.

Go out, show up, and make learning, experience, improvement, and work your life. Here are a few ideas to get you started in development if you're unsure where you're going.

Go out and make a game... it's that simple:
If a studio isn't giving you permission to be a game developer by responding to your interest in employment, give yourself permission, screw them if they don't think you're good enough, find some people to collaborate with, and make a game happen. A good place to start would be to join up with a few friends who can compliment your skill sets and are just as passionate as you are.

Volunteer For Game Projects:
A lot of people may scoff at the concept of doing work for free, you may think “But I want to work at Valve, or Blizzard, or Microsoft, or Vigil!” Well someday you can, but the problem is that you have to earn it. A lot of studios very rarely hire people into entry level positions, especially just out of school with no shipped titles to speak of. Valve usually not until you have three years or more of experience in the industry.

Mingle and Socialize:
The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) is a wonderful resource for making connections with people who share your passion and drive. Sign up for an account, pay the fifty dollar fee for a year of membership, and network within their forums, go to your local chapter, mingle and make friends. It's a great way to get a leg up and get noticed.

Ultimately if you're not getting the experience you need and desperately want, make it happen for yourself, even if it means you'll be eating ramen for months, taking a sponge bath instead of showering and living in a sleeping bag. Ultimately it's all up to you and your drive and determination to make something happen.

Trying Modding:
Pick up a gaming package like Unreal Tournaments Unreal Editor, start modding. If you're not a programmer, find one who loves games and has free time and collaborate. It may take a while to find the right person, but don't give up, you can make it happen.

Show Up:
I cannot stress how important this is. You need to show up at events, conferences, places other people will be who work in games, and socialize. Always have a business card, go over there and talk about stuff you like. Networking is incredibly important. The game industry is very small, and it's who you know that can and will get you a job.

For some people the thought of striking up a conversation with a complete stranger is a terrifying venture. But you must do this, and don't be afraid, these people are geeky and interested in games just like you, talking with them shouldn't be a huge deal. Be confident and remember, you're a game developer.

Make learning a part of everyday life:
Regardless of your game profession, you need to be constantly learning and bettering yourself. Use the internet's vast resources, read books. Sites like Kotaku and Gamasutra are wonderful free resources for news, as well as tips for game development. New articles on game design, art, programming, etc are posted on these websites and others very frequently.

Game Developers Conference:
If you can afford it, the GDC is a wonderful place to meet new people and make connections. But it is expensive. It can also be a bit of a sensory overload experience for individuals, especially if you don't know anyone else who's there. But this networking event is one of the best in the industry, and a wonderful place to make new contacts, friends, and finding out who's hiring.

Focus on the studios your love:
A lot of new people to the industry make the mistake of casting their nets really wide and hoping that someone, anyone, will give them a job. This is a mistake. Focus on the studios you like who make games you enjoy, and in your inquiry letters, make this clear and ask them questions. But don't get to be too fan-girl or boyish on them, you also don't want to come off as creepy. Studios are looking for someone who loves their work, is dedicated, talented, personably, and who will fit into the culture of their studio as a whole. It's important to make it clear you want to work for them, and the why should be, because I love and admire your work, instead of 'PLZ HIRE ME YES!?'.

Be persistent, but not a pest:
When contacting the places you love in order to inquire about work, be persistent and aggressive, but you don't want to turn into a pest. My personal rule is to e-mail studios about once every three months to let them know I'm still interested in them and the work that they do. Don't be disheartened if they don't respond, a million things happen in-between you sending your message and the lives of the people receiving it. Game developers are busy people, and often stacked with other things to do, but it doesn't mean they aren't paying attention to what you're sending.

In conclusion, game development isn't for everyone. Ultimately this needs to be said. Making a game is hard. You need passion and drive to work in this industry above all else. Everything that can go wrong, will. One needs to have the stamina to pull through, you need to be passionate enough to make it worth it. If you aren't, might be time to find something else to do with your career.

But try these steps and with a little luck and some more research, you'll be well on your way to snagging a nice internship, or even better, an entry level position with a game studio doing something you love.

September 11 Second Club

2010-09-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

This month I participated in the 11 Second Club. Here's my finished entry, which I actually may tweak a little more tomorrow or tonight depending on how ravenous my perfectionism streak is.

This entry took me a while to put together, as I got terribly sick in the middle of this month and had to start it over once as well, so it's come a long way. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and will most likely be entering next months 11 Second Club as well to get some more character animation experience and stretch my animation legs.

Some 'works in progress' of this entry for your enjoyment:

Wood Element Dragon Works in Progress

2010-09-06T01:01:00.001-07:00

This isn't completed yet, but I thought I'd throw this up here anyway. Will update with more works in progress on this as I go.

EDIT: Latest version with a background that's roughed in.

EDIT: Almost finished background and dragon.

EDIT: OMG FINISHED!!

Batdragon - Expression tests

2010-09-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

I've been busily making blendshapes in Maya today for my Batdragon model. I was playing around and combining them today along with the ears for some nice expression play. I'm hoping to have the rig to this done by the end of this week and move onto texturing. I still have some work to do with the face, particularly the eye rig, tongue and facial rig setup.

I'm looking at a lot of tutorials at the moment to learn a little more about rigging and about how to create more affective blendshapes. I think it's starting to pay off.

Lying Down - Animated Shorts

2010-08-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

These three animated shorts are work I produced for the documentary film 'Lying Down'. The film itself will be live on the web soon, in which case I will link to it here. The design and animation in all of these was produced by myself, while the brilliant script and voice acting was done by not-me.

The film itself examines mental health and the affect that depression has on individuals. I had a lot of fun working on these pieces.

I used AfterEffects, Illustrator and Photoshop to produce the puppets here, then animated them in AfterEffects using the puppet pin tool. It was a lot of fun learning a new animation tool. I hope to return to using it again soon in the future.

Please enjoy! Warning, cartoon nudity is evident in one of these, if this offends you, you've come to the wrong blog. Look away, look away!

Also, I was in Europe for six weeks, and if you're interested in reading about my travels and all the horrible typos I produced while writing blog entries about them, check out my travel blog of which I now have a link to on the sidebar as well!

I'll be updating it more as I travel more within the states and overseas. I hope to make a trip out to Japan next year, I will also put up the one zillion photos I took while I frolicked around the old country.

Traveling outside of the US was a truly eye opening experience for me and one that I'm happy to share with others. I hope to return someday, but for now, I'm content just sitting on my butt and drawing.

Purify Puzzle Announced for the PC

2010-06-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I'm proud to announce the game Purify Puzzle, which I've been working on for the last couple of months alongside Axelo Inc. and Paper Child Studios. It'll be out for download on the PC later this year. We will be releasing on a variety of digital distribution channels.

I did a good chunk of the art in this game, including the majority of the gameboard assets. Ie Background paintings, some of the game sprites, and little things here and there to fill in the cracks.

More information will come as soon as I know a more definite date for release! We're currently in private beta testing and should be finished within the next month or so.

Look for updates here and online elsewhere!

Atlanta Horror Film Festival!

2010-06-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hey all you cool cats, my short film Marauder's Mistake will be screening at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival, August 13-15 this year. I unfortunately will be out of the country, otherwise I'd totally go and hang out at the showing.

But if you're in the area it'll be a cool festival to visit and enjoy, a lot of other films will be present and I'm sure all of them are equally wonderful.

Find out more information here:

http://atlantahorrorfilmfest.com/schedule.html

Simon and Mao Illustration + 3D Modeling update

2010-05-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

I worked on completing an illustration that's been on my to do list for a while. Since last year as my anatomy skills have gotten better, I've been wanting to redo an image of these two characters.

I also started rigging the Bat Dragon character. Probably going to be a few more hard days of rigging work, but it's coming along nicely.

Bat Dragon - Modeling

2010-05-02T20:25:00.001-07:00

Finished the character modeling for this creature today and thought I'd share. Going to be texturing it probably starting next weekend. Enjoy!

'Guardian Prints' are almost done!

2010-04-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Got to do some more progress this last week on these prints of the six characters I've been slowly working to complete over the last few months. You can witness the nearly finished print below. Just need a few more tweaks, some logo-rama action and a nicer background and I'll declare them both finished.

Note that these are still in progress! Between a job and other things it's hard to make time on fun side projects like this. Also I learned a lot about digital painting over the last year and that has really affected the way I do these kinds of character studies. So some of them are less even and awesome then others.

The Guys:

The Gals:

In progress parts of Pierot:

Creature Concept Processing - 2

2010-04-10T13:43:00.001-07:00

This will be the final design for this bat dragon model. Now I just need to put together the model sheets and model it.

Creature Concept Processing - 1

2010-04-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

First part of a monster concept for a dragon.

Monsters

2010-03-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Some crappy fast drawings of some monsters!

Sketchings

2010-03-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

Some sketches. I was too lazy to scan these. Hope you enjoy!

Rosaline Illustration - Finished

2010-03-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished illustration for Rosaline. Along with an image showing my illustration progression using a grayscale technique that you the overlay color on. I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

GDC 2010

2010-03-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I head out to San Francisco to attend the Game Developers conference. It should be wonderful. I'll edit and update this post as the week progresses. At least if I'm not dead tired whenever I come home!

More information on the GDC can be found here:

http://www.gdconf.com

EDIT: MARCH 10 2010 - San Francisco Exploring!

A few touristy photos to wet the appetite, these were taken before the conference itself.

EDIT: March 12th

I've been really loving San Francisco this week. Been to a lot of really interesting talks covering things like quality of life in the games industry, women in games and as gamers, animation and storytelling techniques in games and met a lot of really nice individuals so far.

I think my take away from this event as a whole has been worth worth the high cost in cash monies. Even with a slumping economy I find it's still really important to network, learn and grow. It keeps you active during the tough times and lets you keep exercising your brain.

I'm pumped up to finish the rest of a game I've been working on for the last few weeks, as well as a few side projects. I'm kind of swamped with work I have both given myself, as well as work that has, thankfully, come to me. I'm very happy and grateful and counting my blessings.

I know a lot of people are hurting in this recession and it shows up in the relatively smaller expo and crowds attending GDC this year. At least that's what I've been hearing. I'll post some art later.

Comment if you have any burning questions about the event you'd like answered.

EDIT: March 13th

Went to the game career seminar lectures today and picked up a bunch of very useful and wonderful tips for networking, online portfolio creation and how to interview. I'm sad that the fest is over but I had a lot of fun and met a lot of really great people.

Casual Video Games vrs. Hardcore. Why you should respect the Wii

2010-02-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd take a deviation from the usual posts about art and address a topic that I think is really pertinent for my livelihood as a game artist.

I've been playing Nintendo practically since I could talk, and I do love me some good old fashioned hard core gaming titles. Yet as I grow older, longer, more complex games have become less and less appealing to me over all. I just play them less. I don't have the time to pour into a Final Fantasy, or a Chrono Trigger anymore.

There's a lot of bitterness in the last few years in the hard core gamer community over platforms like the Wii. There's a mentality in the hardcore community that there should be more titles for the Wii to satisfy the base that built Nintendo as a company. I can understand the anger, I have a little of it too. But I think this same group has also often neglected to see the benefit and the opportunity in what the Wii, and platforms like Facebook have done to the game market overall. As well as what they will eventually do for us game nerds and our precious multimillion dollar titles.

If you look at the numbers, non-casual games appeal to about five percent of the base in game sales these days. Just look at the sales numbers between titles like Wii Sports and Mass Effect. The difference is phenomenal! Tens of millions of copies have been sold of Wii Sports, and only a fraction of that sold in games like Mass Effect, Little Big Planet, Spore, Dead Space and many others. And Wii Sports is still selling like crazy. It's now hallmarked as the best selling title of all time.

Now you may be saying; Little Big Planet? That's a hardcore title? What? I will very resoundingly say yes, I really think it is. The reason I say this is because I think compared to the recently released title, New Super Mario Brothers Wii, the controls for Little Big Planet are much more suited for someone in the hardcore group.

I've played both titles with people who don't normally play games and witnessed the immense difference in reaction to the controls. For New Super Mario Brothers, most people I've played with relative ease after a short period of time. But with Little Big Planet, many people fumbled over the controls, quickly became frustrated and didn't have as much fun.

The other indicator is just in the number sold. Little Big Planet barely reached over 100,000 sales in it's first month. A travesty for the game itself, since it's artistry and the money poured into it was so great. In comparison, New Super Mario Brothers Wii has sold several million since it's release a few months ago, and continues to sell well.

Casual titles are so popular because they reach out to people outside of the mainstream of gaming culture. They reach out to people who have perhaps never touched a video game before and provide a welcoming introduction to the world that many of us have loved and cherished for years, perhaps decades. That's why instead of condemning the Wii specifically for not delivering on hardcore titles, I think people need to understand a few things first and really think about them.

1) For most people, better graphics don't matter so much, what matters is fun in a casual game.

2) One day, a lot of those indoctrinated by the Wii are going to move on and make the game market more diverse, demand better quality in their titles and become more intensely interested in video games overall, like us weird nerds.

3) More women play the Wii and the Nintendo DS then any other systems. More girls makes for a stronger, better market, because girls are half of the consumer base. Statistics also show that overall, ladies aren't as interested in the FPS genre, one that is popular for hard core titles.

4) The Wii's controller was specifically designed to be less cumbersome and intimidating for those not familiar with games. The minimalist design works wonders because of this, and should be praised.

I think it's small-minded to complain about the Wii, and things like it, when it's actually a positive thing for gaming as an industry. The Wii, along with many other online casual gaming spaces, are breaking barriers and making games a more viable, creative, and lucrative form of entertainment comparable with film, and the written novel.

I become irritated when I hear people talk about how the graphics really suck on the Wii compared to the other systems, and that the games aren't interesting, and that there's nothing for the devotees of Nintendo to play.

Games themselves now take out about five percent of the entertainment industries pie of profits, and that number is growing.

Farmville, a casual flash Facebook title has around 60 million monthly active users, as opposed to World of Warcraft, with around 12 million. Another interesting piece of data is that World of Warcraft's user base has plateaued recently. Now most users who sign up don't get past level 10.

I think as we move into the future, many hardcore titles themselves might become more popular with this expanded base. More people interested by games may decide to try out a big budget title on a whim, and become hooked. This is one of many reasons why I support the Wii specifically. Because more people, and a larger market overall will deliver better quality titles in all spectrums.

The more people you introduce and seduce into the market place, eventually the more richness and diversity in what is produced will spike up. And that my friends, is why I think you need to respect the Wii!

Bell, Colored

2010-02-08T15:33:00.001-08:00

The finished colors for Bell. To be updated if I have a perfectionist fit and decide to tweak some things. Which is normal for me. :p

Lung, Colored

2010-01-31T14:32:00.000-08:00

I finished the coloring on Lung and have posted the finished work here.

Bump and Krash - Concept Art

2010-01-30T21:52:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I've been working on the development of a video game with an independent group. I've decided to post some of the concept art here from it. It's still in pre-production, but coming along.

Ken and Jake

2010-01-20T21:26:00.001-08:00

I'm still working on finishing up these two. I decided to retouch Kens arms because they were really starting to bug me, and I think now they look a lot better! Both are still not finished, but getting much closer!

Messing Around with Maya and Photoshop

2010-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some tutorials and finishing up some digital painting as of late. Here's a few images that show the fruit of my labors trying to learn Maya hair, which I actually found to be rather easy once you get the basics down.

And here's the illustration progression for Ken thus far. I'm going to be working on this more tonight.

There are some anatomy, proportion and coloring problems with this illustration that I need to iron out.

Edit: Ken, finished! Now onto Jake!

Edit: Jake, coloring base, I'm going to show a progression of his coloring as it moves further along.

Marauders Mistake

2010-01-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

My short film that took 2 years to complete, a new years treat! :) Many thanks to all those who helped make this films completion possible. I hope it is enjoyed by many!

Character Concept Processing Part 2

2009-12-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

More characters, refined. Rosaline, Pierot and Bell:

Pierot

Rosaline

Bell -

Refined

Older

Character Concept Processing

2009-12-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm currently putting together about six character concept drawings and thought I'd post some of the works in progress here as they evolve. They're eventually going to be colored, but right now are in pretty early stages of development as I just try and get the drawing for them down and working.

Ken:
Refined gesture with pencils -

Early Gesture, which I changed -

Jake:
Refined gesture with pencils -

Early gesture with some facial structure / anatomy problems:

Lung:
More refined drawing with clothes -

Early gesture which actually went pretty well -

Bell:
Changed gesture, no clothes has been drawn quite yet -

Early drawing / gesture, which has some anatomy and posing issues -

Rose:
Early gesture -

The sixth guy I haven't taken a stab at yet, but he'll be present in the nest round of these drawings as they evolve.

Some life drawing sketches and concepts!

2009-12-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

I did these about a week and a half ago before Turkey Day in Columbus Ohio whilst visiting family. Mostly with a brush pen!

I went to the Zoo with my cousin and my dad and wandered around in the cold looking at awesome animals. There was this really creepy snapping turtle with his mouth hanging wide open under the water in the reptile room. He looked like an evil muppet, but he moved before I could make a better sketch of him, so I drew over it.

Other then that I did some life drawing in this gourmet pizza joint called Deweys and did some more airship concepts and silhouettes. I also tried to draw some roof tops, but got rained on before I could finish them.

Enjoy!

MET 2009

2009-12-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

I had a great time at the MET in Minneapolis showing my film! Was a great celebration in all, my friends Holly Thorstad, Katie Maren, Justin Weber and the MAKE crew won some stellar awards!

Now to get my butt in gear submitting to festivals, hrrrrmmmmm.....

Demoreel 2009

2009-11-16T12:01:00.001-08:00

My newer, better, faster, stronger demoreel! Yay! :D This will probably get updated again in a few months.

Marauder's Mistake - Screenshots 2.0

2009-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

Another nice round of screen shots concerning my almost done film! It's going to be showing at the Minnesota Electronic Theater this year and will be finished this Wednesday! This baby has taken about two and a half year of my life to finish, but I'm happy to say It's been worth it.

You should come and see it, and the work of a lot of other really wonderful local animators and CG artists. There is also usually lots of beer, which is always nice! The Minnesota Electronic Theater will take place this year on Thursday, December, 3rd 2009 at Sneaky Pete's, Downtown Minneapolis. We have a guest speaker this year, Doug Sutton from ILM, he worked on the amazingly gorgeous special effects on Transformers 2!

Dragon - Air Element

2009-11-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a series of dragon illustrations that correspond with the five Chinese elements; air, fire, water, wood and metal. This is the first one, air. Colored version will come in the next few days.

The next one I want to draw is a wood element dragon. I have some great ideas for it, and am excited to get started on doodling for it.

Got Bored and Drew Myself!

2009-10-17T22:24:00.001-07:00

I drafted up a new self portrait today, it's going on website probably tomorrow. I'm really liking my new glasses and hair right now, and haven't actually updated my website portrait for a while.

Hooray!

Apparently I drew this in the future according to blogspot. If only I had that kind of power for real!

Fallcon 2009

2009-10-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

I had a great time hanging out at Minneapolis Fallcon with so many wonderful and talented artists! I sold some more socket bunny stuff, made a decent little amount of cash and made some good new contacts!

Some others news: my film Marauder's Mistake will be showing this year at the Minnesota Electronic Theater. I'm finally a few weeks away from completion. Also finishing up two other shorts for a documentary film called Lying Down, more information to come on that project as it develops.

I'm also participating in the MCAD Art Sale this year as well, going to be selling some original prints of illustrations and two large format drawings. More about the MCAD Art Sale here!

Socket Bunny - Style Sheet and Animation Test

2009-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I've been rethinking the texturing style of the Socket Bunny characters. I now have a full animatic done for the first short, all the models rigged and retextured for animating. Pretty soon I'll be setting up each shot for the blocking stage, and then animating like crazy!

I'm choosing the texturing style to the right of this page for the look of the characters. Some tweaking will most likely have to be done still for each character, but it's getting closer to what I'm imagining.

I really like using the toon shader along side other render layers to create a final product. Enjoy!

Here's a quick animation test I put together after rigging this character. I wanted to quickly test out the rig and what I can do with it. I'm going to need to add a few more blendshapes and ear controls, but thankfully everything else works perfectly. :)

Autumn Animation

2009-07-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

A quick experiment I created in the last two weeks using Maya and After Effects. I wanted to relearn how to create vines in Maya and get more comfortable and more familiar with some of the tools in After Effects that I don't use as often.

I may be making this into a really short series, one for each season and then find a way to string them together. But for now, enjoy!

Socket Bunny Shorts - The Beginning!

2009-07-08T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today I finished rigging these three characters in order to use them in my upcoming series of shorts. I have yet to have finalized the overall style of the characters, and the story for the first short, but I'm having a lot of fun with these models! I still have to weight paint some of them around the mouth, but they're coming along!

If your eyes glaze over when I mention the word rigging, here's a quick explanation on how is applies to 3D animation; rigging is the process in which you make a 3D object easily animatible be creating an interface. This operates much like the string of a puppet, or like the armature of a stopmotion character, except it exists in a virtual space.

A lot of animators find rigging to be a pain, me included. Although the process is slowly growing on me the more I practice and learn!

Bump and Krash! - Car Combat Game for Facebook!

2009-06-27T18:15:00.001-07:00

I've been quiet about the game I've been doing work on as the art director for some time now. It's called Bump and Krash, and we're slated to release it later this year for Facebook and the iPhone!

The game draws it's inspirations from classic car combat games such as Hover!, but with a splash of Tron and Mario Kart to make the experience electric and fun for all ages!

I've been working with a great crew of people all over the world! We're currently in the stages of preproduction, and working our way into full swing production later this year! We're working doing updates on this title as often as possible with some concept art and small gameplay trailers like the following:

A few pieces of concept art created for gameplay:

If you're interested in being updated about the game, feel free to find us on facebook, comment here or e-mail me! I'll answer what questions I can and give periodic updates here about the state of the games production!

Bump and Krashes Facebook page:

Stone Arch Festival - Thank You!

2009-06-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to shout out a quick thank you to everyone who came down to the festival and hung out around our booth! It was a pleasure being out in the crowd and having so many wonderful comments about the art we were selling! I'll probably be signing up for Fallcon this year in Minneapolis! I plan to sell some comic and animation work, as well as some Vinyl or handmade Socket Bunny toys, postcards and other things.

If you're interested in seeing more of my work and are interested in buying some of the stuff that was at the fest, but you didn't have the money or felt sure, feel free to visit my ETSY account, which I will be updating soon with all the leftovers from Stone Arch.

Sockey Bunny - Baby Bunnin

2009-06-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Created a new socket bunny model! Have I look! I've brained stormed a brief sort that these three characters will be participating in. Hopefully the short itself won't take me super long to do. The rigging, etc, on these characters should be relatively simple.

Enjoy!

Socket Bunny - Red Bunnin Model!

2009-06-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Quick render of another Socket Bunny model I'm working on!

More to come! Going to probably print these out as toys sometime soonish! I need to clean up the model itself a bit though.

EDIT:

more painted socket bunnies! Almost done for for the festival Saturday!

Some Sketchings and Boston Photos!

2009-06-17T22:39:00.001-07:00

Did these while I was in Boston on the plane there and back! I now have a Moleskin sketchbook and I love it to death! I'll never go back to old types of sketch books!

Speaking of Boston! I visited there last weekend with a friend and took many awesome pictures of the city itself. It was an amazing place, a lot of history and a lot of street layouts that made me want to both claw my eyes out and revel in the brick work beauty of some of it. The city was designed after very old road systems before cars or the conception of city grid layouts really happened. Have some pictures and be merry! That is not a request....

Graphic Design and Socket Bunny Modeling

2009-06-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

I'm working at MCAD this summer doing Summer Expresson sessions with some high schoolers as a Graphic Design teaching assistant. The kids are awesome and I'm having a fun time teaching them. Today I was asked to put together a poster example for the students to show them how you can create illustration and layout simply with type. It was a fun exercise and one that I really enjoyed.

The poster is composed of lyrics copyrighted to a musician I love named Goldfrapp. The song is called Happiness on her album Seventh Tree. She does a lot of Trip-Hop, and the most recent album is composed of more indie smooth and mellow acoustic. I love her voice and songs, they are so strange, beautiful, powerful and inspiring to me as an artist and designer.

I've also been slowly working on creating some models of these socket bunny characters which I am thinking of printing out in a rapid prototyper soon and figuring out how to market them to a distribution line.

Also doing some more art for the Stone Arch Arts Fest of hadmade Socket Bunny toys made out of found objects of plugs. I'm going to be staying up tonight to finish the painting for these (I hope). Also creating some baskets and doing prints for the Stone Arch Festival in Minneapolis this weekend. If you're in town and want to come down and say hey, feel free! The festival is going on June 20th and 21st!

If the Socket Bunny stuff doesn't sell as well as I hope I'll be putting these little guys up for sale on my ETSY shop! Including any left over buttons and postcards. I am also dabbling in the idea of producing an animated short about the bunnies to promote them and also to have fun, but I'm not so sure, I have a few ideas rolling around for my next large project! I've really enjoyed the challenge of doing the combination of 2D and 3D for Marauder's Mistake, and am thinking of just going in a completely different direction and trying a tool and style that I haven't before to see how it works out!

Pete Docter Radio Interview

2009-06-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Great interview with Pete Docter, the director of Pixar's newest film, UP, can be found here! I've seen UP twice all ready and absolutely loved it! Go see it if you haven't yet!

Pete has now become my favorite Pixar director over Andrew Stanton. His films tone and mood have such a wicked sense of physical comedy, touching scenes and great storytelling. How can you go wrong?

Socket Bunny Swag is Here!

2009-06-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey world! My ETSY shop now has socket bunny swag! Postcards are what is up there now, but if I do well at the Stone Arch Arts Fest, I will put up some Socket Bunny buttons and stationary. As well as handmade baskets!

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to market these little guys, and since I'm not a marketing specialist in any sense, I'm current researching a bit and looking for some advice on the subject. I hope to maybe sell this stuff to shops like: ROBOT Love, The Source Comics and Games, and possibly some anime conventions, all though those don't happen too often.

Enjoy the picture of buttons and postcards!

If anyone has any advice or comments, I welcome it! Thanks! And now for shameless self promotion. I feel dirty....

Socket Bunnies + New Concept Art!

2009-06-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I ordered a number of postcards and stationary with the Socket Bunny characters I've created. They should be getting here in about two weeks, hopefully in time for the festival. I'm also creating some hand-made baskets, and selling prints of some of my fine art. Today I'm purchasing a button maker with which I can create cute little socket bunny buttons as well.

If you'll be in the Minneapolis area and are interested in coming to the festival, here's some info on it. I'll be participating with a few other MCAD alumni selling work, not sure where we'll be set up yet though.

Hope to see you there!

Also another one of the heads I finished a while ago. This character is owned by my friend Jesse Latimer. His name is Sirhan!

Socket Bunnies! Coming soon to an Internet near you!

2009-05-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hallo everybody! I've been working on some illustrations for these small characters for a while. I'm going to be selling many kinds of swag for them at the Stone Arch Arts Festival in Minneapolis. Here are two composite illustrations I did of ten of my designs. I'll update more on these characters as the festival gets closer in the middle of June!

I will also be selling some stuff on Etsy! I'll let everyone know when stuff is actually up there, right now it's dry and bare.

Anyway, enjoy the wretchedly adorable electrical rodents! I had fun drawing them!

Marauder's Mistake - Screenshots

2009-05-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

Latest screen captures from my short film, which I hope to have done within the next month, looking like the end of June will be the time it's finished and ready to show to the world.

In the mean time, have fun looking at these screen shots of it! I'm excited to see it done!

It's almost done! I swears!

New Concept Art

2009-05-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

These two portraits are part of a short series I'm doing of characters that have been devised by myself and several friends. I'm planning on doing eight in all. Here are the first two. Simon Underveldt (owned by Robert Wheeler) and Mao Lien, owned by moi!

More to come in the next few weeks!

Activision Work!

2009-05-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd update today with just some news on what titles I worked on for Activision, since I was let go a few weeks ago. There are still a few that I can say nothing about, but the ones I can talk a little on here, I will. One of them, Science Papa, was announced yesterday.

For this title I was an art and design helper to the producer. I designed a lot of the experiments that are present in game, as well as worked with the developer to give feedback on a fairly regular basis for both art and design. I'm excited to see it's release soon!

Another title I worked on as a designer, which will also be out soon is Space Camp. Again here I did some design work and gave feedback via the producer of the project from Activision Publishing.

I think the adventure is befitting for the target audience and I hope kids who play it find it to be a fun experience, I had a good time seeing it evolve every week when a build would come in and I'd play it in order to feedback to the development team.

Two other titles that are all ready out in the market that I worked with as an artist are below. The first one, Monkey Mischief: Party Time, is a mini-game collection that obviously has to do with monkies! For this game I worked as the user interface designer for the game's menu system.

The other title, Block Party, I worked as a concept artist for the playable characters in game.

Overall I had a fun time working at Activision Publishing and was given some great insight and experience in the industry of video game production, art, and design. It's a really rewarding experience to see the titles you work on evolve and grow as the year progresses!

Right now I'm looking for some freelance work and trying to finish up my film that seems to never end. But soon that will be up and out into the world too. I am nearly done. All that is needed now are some backgrounds, coloring and compositing. After that it's all good!

Trip to DC!

2009-04-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm having a grand time hanging out in Washington DC with a good friend. The weather here is wonderful and it feels so interesting to be here. The entire East Coast of the United States is just soaked with history and it makes me feel a bit small and curious walking around and realizing how little I actually absorbed about my countries history during school. It's given me the motivation to learn more since I feel I truly know so little about the state capital. I want to pick up a few good books about it and just read.

So far I've been to a few of the Smithsonian institutes here, including the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History. Me and my friend also visited the capitol building and later today I'll be making a tour of the Lincoln memorial, the White House and the Museum of Space and Aeronautics. I've been taking a lot of pictures, but none of them are uploaded to my computer yet, I'll be making a big dump edit later.

I'm feeling inspired just being here and seeing these monuments, embassies and the tons of people from places all around the globe. The sights of the architecture, the people and the experience has been a great bolster to my low outlook as of late. I'm ready for a change, and I know this change of scenery is helping me along with that greatly!

And tomorrow, I'm making a trip to New York to wander around for the day. It'll be great fun! Lots of pictures to come!

EDIT: and here is said photo dump of DC! Hooray!

I saw the hope diamond, Muhammud Ali's boxing gloves, Dorothies ruby slippers and many famous memorials and landmarks whilst I was there. It was deeply inspiring and relaxing!

Milwaukee

2009-03-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Went to visit in Milwaukee Wisconsin this last weekend and thought I'd update with a few of the photos that were taken during the trip. I had a lot of fun and hope to head back someday soon!

Itsa me!

On the beach at Lake Michigan, it was cold and windy and unpleasant. but I like the picture!

I had a lot of fun on the trip, despite catching a wicked speeding ticket on the way back.... drive safe.

Great Behemoth

2009-03-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration that I've been working on for a while. It's based on a creature that I had a incredibly vivid dream I had about a month ago or so. I call it the Great Behemoth:

I might be perfecting this piece a bit more depending on how I'm feeling later. Right now, it's time for sleep!

Socket Bunny Picture

2009-01-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start messing around with Corel Painter more. I have the essentials version and so I got up this morning and started sketching. Here's the result!

I would really like to get more skilled in this program, because it's capacities to color vastly outplay photoshop, making it a wonderful tool that I hope to master.

Also, Socket Bunnies are cute!

Shaolong Lien Sketch Process

2009-01-05T17:54:00.001-08:00

Here's the revised version of another character of mine from sketch to ink form. It took me many drawings and revisions to get him to this stage, but I'm very happy with how this picture turned out. Enjoy!

New Character Sketch!

2008-12-17T21:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a sketch that I whipped up tonight in a few hours. I'm really satisfied with it, and plan to ink and then color it. Here's the finished sketch! Enjoy! The characters from left to right are Mao Lien, Simon Underveldt, Cambrie and Chelsea. The last three belong to a friend of mine and are involved in the Dungeons and Dragon's etc game that I'm playing in at the moment.

EDIT: Here's the inked version

EDIT: and finally, the finished colors!

2D Animation - Officially Redone!

2008-11-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

Here is the last sequence of animation that I had to officially re-pencil for my senior project. Next week I will be tackling finishing up the two or so sequences of animation that I still need to do for it, then comes the clean up and scanning stage, then color, then 3D.

This is like an unstoppable train! Choo choo!

And now, for something adorable!

<3

More Animation and Sketchings!

2008-11-09T09:46:00.001-08:00

I have a few more in progress things to show this week from working on senior project stuff and other original sketches. Enjoy!

New Animation for Senior Project!

2008-10-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

Last week I finally started working on my senior project again. I have a few pencil tests to show from the hours of work I put in last Saturday. It's slow going working on this stuff, but I'm going to be there eventually. I planned to try and finish everything up by the end of the year, and I'm pretty sure now that I can make that goal if I work on this stuff once or twice a week.

Here are the pencil tests. There are do overs from what I had in several parts of the animation before. Enjoy!

I'm going to be working more on redoing animation this coming saturday. I plan tpo post my redos for those other scenes here as well.

Fall in Minneapolis

2008-10-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Fall here is brief, brutal and beautiful! This weekend I decided to get out and take some photographs of the turning leaves. Here are a few samples for your enjoyment:

More art may be on the way soon, depending how fast I get my ass in gear. Enjoy!

Inspiration and Art for the Month!

2008-09-25T17:37:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a lot of personal sketches this month that aren't really finished enough to put up here, but I will share one that I particularly am satisfied with:

I've had an interesting few weeks at Activision and I'm starting to become pretty accustomed and happy with my job. I've finally gotten back my artistic juice and I'm going back to working on my senior project after several months of break. I was getting so tired and sick of looking at it that I needed it to stay out of my brain for a while so I could recuperate.

I've also been watching a lot of movies. One of the recent ones that I saw that I thought stylistically was rather amazing was the movie Appleseed Ex Machina. I'm not really a huge fan of Shirow's work as an artist, I tend to find the way he protrays women to be shallow and annoying, but this movie had a great feel, a decent story and was way fun to watch. Here are a few pictures from it:

Kaiba

2008-08-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

I recently watched an anime called Kaiba, and the art, world and storytelling blew me away. It's definitely not a main stream suited series, but it was quite interesting and had a very deep quality to it that really struck me. The character design and world were superbly weird and tantalizing and I suggest checking it out if you're into the more weird side of the animation world as I am.

It's one the few anime that I have enjoyed and I think really stands out above the crowd. The world is unique, the character designs are original and the animation is very very high quality. I love the simple shapes and the color designs of the characters and the world and story work together in a very entrancing quality.

I have two large criticisms of it, it felt too short and some of the storytelling, particularly the scene changes were confused at several moments. Here are some screen shots from it that I found:

Activision

2008-08-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Just to let anyone know who's interested. I got an internship with Activision Value in Minneapolis as a concept artist. Unfortunately I won't be able to post any of my work here from the job due to non-disclosure agreements and such.

But I will still try and continue to post my own stuff, once I get a god damned scanner that actually works and once I start sketching on paper again (mostly I've just been using my Wacom).

Over the next couple of months I plan to try and accomplish two things:

1) finish my senior project
2) get better at digital painting, it's one of my weak points and it's something I need to practice.

Caoi for now!

Mao Eeva Lien

2008-07-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

Introducing Mao (who's name in my book may be subject to change, since she is a different character now in my mind.) she's a kick ass soldier and bounty hunter. A very hard nosed and suspicious girl by nature, but if you're in a tough spot, she'll get you out of it.

Colored version to come later!

Rock Island Wisconsin

2008-07-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

I had an adventure this last week and headed out to Rock Island Wisconsin. It's at the tip of the peninsula in Lake Michigan. I had an amazing time there and am filled with inspiration and the feeling of relaxation and happiness that I can express through a select few of the pictures I'm posting here of the island.

Below is the house of Chester Thordarson. A famous inventor who worked alongside Nikola Tessla in the early twentieth century.

Here's a close up of the fireplace. Chester had an Icelandic heritage and seemed to like having these runes and the saying engraved above the hearth.

Underneath Chester's house there was a waterway and a bunch of swallows nesting under the rafters in these woven baskets. I also got to see a really neat spider eat a worm.

Some more pictures.

Here's Paul, an incredibly cool caretaker and camping host who told us stories and part of the history of Rock Island. We gathered on the terrace surrounding Chester's house to hear his tales!

The windows of Chester's house look like they were on fire during this sunset. I thought it was beautiful.

We found two snakes sun bathing on the docks while we waited for the ferry to take us back to the mainland.

Fun with website shit!

2008-06-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

I got bored and so I made a cute little thing related to my brand/website design. If you have the desire, you can use the little button I made to link to me at yonyonderstudio.com!

And now.... ooooon with the pictor!

I'm finding that the more I use and play with the design I've made for myself, the more and more that I'm enjoying and liking how it looks. I think it fits my personally well overall.

I've been feeling itchy to write lately and also itchy to just relax and do some more personal illustration work. Those will probably pop up here and there in the next couple of weeks, thanks to this interesting and fun itch!

*scratches*

Eddy the Lizard

2008-06-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

I finished the coloring for this today and thought I'd put it up here to show. This is a portrait of one of the characters in my book. I still don't know why he's carrying a scythe.

Blog Lizard Y Samurai Ragdoll BONANZA!

2008-06-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Two Illustrations that I'm going to soon be posting to my official website. I did these out of boredom, and they were entertaining to draw. The one with the panda was highly inspired by a lot of Japanese prints that I've been admiring lately.

I really love doing illustration, it calms me.

Some Old Sketches

2008-06-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

These are a little old, but I still like them, so I thought I would post them up here for fun!

Twisted Delicate

2008-05-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

I am working on a feature film being produced in the Minneapolis area called Twisted Delicate. It's a rotoscoped feature about quantum physics, insanity, and details the love affair of to people caught up in the same delusion about the fabric of reality.

The official website is here:

http://www.twisteddelicate.com

I'm working as a concept artist and creative technical consultant on the project, and will probably be doing a few other jobs as the project gets underway this summer.

Commencement Show

2008-04-30T11:44:00.001-07:00

Pictures from my commencement show, which is now up at MCAD. These are pretty crappy pictures, I'm so NOT a photographer... lol!!

Woot!

Zelda Fake Movie Trailer - Making of

2008-04-23T21:41:00.000-07:00

Because I'm a huge Legend of Zelda dork, I found this very interesting and fun! The making of they made for the April Fools day fake movie trailer on IGN!

863/863515/zelda_makingof_040308_flvlowwide.flv&allownetworking="all"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360' >

I love Zelda far too much! :)

Gasket Spots

2008-04-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

I posted the spots that I helped work on during my internship at Gasket Studios LTD. in downtown Minneapolis. You can find and view them here! It's the first preview picture, just click away and watch!

Here's a view gorgeous images from the Korbel and St. Thomas spots themselves that I thought I'd post here. My specific works on these projects was a little of everything and varied depending on the spot. The one that I worked on the most would be the St. Thomas short, did a lot of those crawling vines, leaf animations and stuff, was very cool!

Laying in Wait for Commencement!

2008-04-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I've been up to a lot of stuff in the last couple weeks, much of which I can't really post here. On top of all my homework and some scarce work on writing various things. I've been sketching with my Wacom tablet here and there if I have an hour and really don't want to use something involving traditional media.

I drew two cute concepts of what the children of one of the main characters in my book might look like:

I've also been working on animations for the game Awesome Wars which will be out sometime this summer once our main programmer stops being swamped by him own senior project and gets a second wind. I penciled the title illustration for the game and Owen Dennis will be coloring it within the next week and a half or so. Here's a quick sketch of that:

There's a new version of my demoreel on my website. Some of the character animations and models that I worked on for Awesome Wars are now on it.

As I draw closer and closer to commencement, I draw closer and closer into locally looking for a full time job that can gain my some money and a reputation for a few years. After this point, I either want to go back to school to study to become a game artist, or I'll try and finally land a position at a Game Design company. My problem is networking and experience.

I've worked in team environments many times before and I always found it to be a pleasant experience.

Slayer - Page 1

2008-03-13T21:53:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty frustrated, stressed out and not getting a lot of sleep this past week and so I decided to do some art to relieve some of that anxiety and anger. This is the first page in a short series. The monster creeps me out... but I guess this is what comes out during hard times.

Ugh... need sleep badly.... >_<