Art Buddies and the Artist in all of Us!

Ahh my art buddies. You know who you are! My inspiration and motivation which hopefully leads to less procrastination!

Art and Story is full of "it" err them! Yes I pay a monthly fee but you can pay yearly too! In any case it has been well worth it because it has introduced me to cool people like (please excuse me if I miss you) Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph and Kevin W. Cross (happy birthday) and then Calmplex, Rene van Belzen, Rodger Langridge, Jonathan Rector, Trevor Kent, Peter Palmiotti, Jose Gonzalez and many more!

You can "toil alone" but when you put your work out there we "soar together"! I think people forget how easy it is to criticize but how hard it can be to create and then let go!

Guys do it! I know Nike co-opted the "just do it" phrase but it is troo!

These guys are doing it! They are in it and they are creating and you know what? I'm tired of people tearing things down! These guys are more worthy of your time and your support, more so than many of the "jacks" out there!

Whew! A rant! I haven't done one of those in a while...

Here is what I have been working on...





No animation to show but I have been working on some walking bits. I am a work in progress and so are you! Keep creating and send me some links comments and create, create, create!

I had an art teacher Miss Hoika. She was a staunch supporter of the "great" idea that there is an "artist in all of us!"

She is right...

ArrrOOooo!

Wassssuuuuuppp??? An Animator's Lament!

Ok. I know I'm in trouble when my title is from an old ad campaign!

My weekly blog is "not so weekly" and I am trying to remedy this. I'm trying to make this blog about things I have done (and learned) so that I can pass on some "good" info to anyone interested.

Self promotion in the blog is secondary or tertiary (not bad word eh?).

So what I have I learned lately? I learned that a good foundation leads to the best result! This goes back to mini comic project (which I am still working on). I picked up a retail copy of Toon Boom Studio v 4.5 for a cheap price and now version 6.0 is already out next month! The good thing is they are having a sale on the upgrade for 79.00 (instead of 99.00 after Sep 1)... So I will have the lastest version (once I upgrade) for 138.00! Not a bad deal for a 329 dollar program... But (as usual) I digress...

I have been working on some animations. I guess they would be called walk cycles.

Above is Richard Williams "proper" walk cycle from his book

The Animator's Survival Kit




Another good book is Animation From Script to Screen




Both available from Amazon, your local library or Ebay. And highly recommended!

Here is a little voice eye test I did through Toon Boom after watching too many vampire movies!

ArrrOOooo!

Failure is Not an Option or Life's Tough in the Ghetto!

So I was challenged to finish my mini comic and I missed the deadline. In essence, I died :D
I can give many excuses, I'm good at those but when it came down to finishing, the technical work wasn't good enough. Now it isn't a failure... Not really... I learned that if your thumbs/pencils are too loose then your inks will suck. And that my cars and city scape's bite and need work. Pretty succinct eh?

I have been doing lots including receiving my copy of Toon Boom! Wah friking hoo! I am ready to embark on animation and I know it is cool. Look at my Ghettomation guru Jim Lujan! I just got his Ghettomation Garden DVD and it rocks. Get yours here In fact get 2! One for you and one for your mom!





I'm practicing some inking and have some stuff to post sooner than later!

Remember "It's better to regret something you did then something you didn't do!"

ArrrOOooo!