Yawn

A little something I did for Sardine Productions early this year. Haven't posted in a while, been crazy busy working on a show called Ugly Americans, the best show I have ever worked on.

bird poop

So excited!!!!!

A few weeks ago I finally bought a Cintiq. I have been wanting one desperately for a long time, and I finally bit the bullet and got one. I had to purchase it for a gig I wanted. I got the Cintiq, I got the gig. I am working on a show called Ugly Americans. The production keeps me very busy so I haven't had much time to fool around with the Cintiq on my own stuff. So I finally got around to doing this sketch tonight with my new piece of equipment. As for Ugly Americans, all I can say is this; Finally, after a long career in animation, I know what it is like to work on a show that I am actually a fan of myself. I have often wondered this; what would it be like to work on Sponge Bob, or Flap Jack, or Fosters, or the Venture Bros, or any other show that I really like. Now I know, it feels every bit as good as I thought. Anyway, check out Ugly Americans on Comedy Central on TV and you can also watch full episodes on Comedy Central's website.

Old Kung Fu Master

My girlfriend and I came up with an idea for a great little animated short, it is a spoof of 'The Five Deadly Venoms." This is the the first rough of the Old Kung Fu Master. This short is going to be an educational piece to teach kids. No, it's not going to teach them how to 'climb walls' like the Lizard, or have 'iron skin' like the Toad. It is going to teach them a grammar lesson.

T-Rex walk

Normally I would bob the head up and down, but because this is part of a pan and the T-Rex will also move his mouth during a lip sync as he walks, I decided to keep his head stationary.

brontosaurus walk cycle

Elephant and giraffe walk cycle

Here's a little walk cycle I did for Sardine Productions. It's part of a short I animated for them. It is based on Mordillo, a comic strip artist and animator that was very popular in the 70's and 80's.

Vader's costume

Here's Vader with his Guyver costume.

VADER TIME!

A couple quick rough drawings. PAPA SHANGO on the left. BIG VAN VADER on the right. VADER was definitely one of my all time favorites. He was scary!

Papa Shango

I felt like drawing a wrestling character that I always liked, PAPA SHANGO. I may keep working at this, refine it, add details, that kinda thing. This rough sketch is just the start.

lightning effect

This is an example of a very easy, yet very effective, lightning effect. Step 1- Take the frame before the lightning is supposed to flash. Make it a png image and bring it into photoshop. Step2- In Photoshop; duplicate the layer. Step3- Use the Image-Adjustments-Threshold, to change the duplicated layer into a black and white image. Step4- You have two options. You can either duplicate the black and white layer and simply do Image-Adjustments-Invert, or you can duplicate the color frame again but adjust the threshold to make it look different than the previous threshold adjusted layer. Step5- Again duplicate the color layer and make a third threshold adjusted layer that is different than the other two. Step6- Export each of the three black and white layers as separate png files, import the png files into whatever program you are using, Flash, ToonBoom, or After Effects, insert the png's into frames, on two's or ones, or a combination, whatever works for the scene.
It ends up looking like THIS EXAMPLE from my earlier post.

T-Rex front view

We see this T-Rex from two angles, a three-quarter front view for most of his scenes, and this front view for only one or two scenes. I added a bit of brush work to the tree in the background.

mirrored shades

I like how I designed this angel character, with the tube-like body and simple lines. Here she is wearing mirrored sunglasses, like a cop. Call me retro, call me nostalgic, but I think mirrored shades are the coolest shades ever.

horse back ape

Everyone remembers the shocking ending of the first Planet of the Apes film, when Taylor sees the Statue of Liberty; but the film had more than one shocking moment, another being the first time the camera pans up to reveal the guy on the horse chasing everyone is an ape!

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

In the original 'Planet of the Apes' there's a scene where these three judges strike the classic 'see, hear, and speak-no evil' pose during Taylor's hearing. I like the scene, so I did this.