I'm Only Dancin'

Made this fellow yesterday - he kinda reminds me of my friend Adam from college with the headphones and all.

Next up, some cool dance moves.

The Distant Future

Jeff Luce, a friend I met while working abroad in Japan, is a big nerd. Don't believe me? Just ask him to tell you his ROYGBIV joke.

Every now and again, he'll send me a link to something unusual and always awesome. Like this book...


Well, actually he just sent me some images from it. I immediately found a cheap first print on Amazon, no small feat considering most copies are going for 75.00 and up. May have something to do with this -



That's right. It's been "weeded" from an Naval Base library. Already enough to make it worth the $30 I dropped.






Then there's the illustrations -

I'm hoping to post each page eventually, with descriptions or clear enough scans so the text is legible.



One of the reasons it really works is the author's background in paleontology. I haven't gotten too far in the book yet (so I'm not sure exactly why rabbits develop hooves) but he does delve into evolution, explaining how environment can effect an animal's genealogy through mutation and natural selection.


And give us what might be 50 million years in their (not our) future.

My Little Ponies

While flipping through an old sketchbook in search of some blank pages, I came across something I doodled a few years back.


Now, I'm not sure what it is and I'm fairly certain I didn't even know then. Either way, figured this would be the place for it.

Enjoy! It's back to animating more Jewish tales for me.

Survival Tips

In case you ever find yourself in a situation like this -



Try doing this.

Blood n' brains!

As I mentioned yesterday, my time last week was eaten up by a rather tight deadline. How tight? About 2800 frames of animation in Flash… at 12 FPS... umm… tight.

I know what you’re thinking. WTF? 12 FPS?!? It’s just how they roll. Apparently it cuts down on file size. At least, that’s what I was told… Either way, that’s still a lot of animation to do in about four days. To top it off, this parshat happens to be one of the touchiest one’s to date, filled with sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.


Okay, well, maybe not all that, but there is a scene where Moses defeats a horde of vampires! And zombies! I mean, how could it get any better?!? Apparently, it gets better by me making a reference to a 26 year old video game that I didn’t even realize I made!

Check it out here and see if you can spot it! First one to gets a prize!

See monsters!

Like every studious artist in college, I doodled in my notebook. Below is a selection from Computer Animation II with Stephen Jackett (I promise I was paying attention, Steve).


For reasons that are apparent, I was obsessed with deep-sea creatures around this time.


A few are semi-realistic.


But most are hybrids of my own design.



A few have even been translated into sculptures (with some obvious adjustments).



Some even made the leap into CG (compliments of MAYA and the aforementioned Stephen Jackett). Note the rigidness of the character; this was before the lesson on skeletons and splines.


And some are destined for more. I just bought a block of plastilina (my first since Japan) in the hopes of not only modeling this little fella, but also casting him in a variety of materials: solid resin and plastic for the internal organs, skeleton and fins while his translucent skin is realized in a clear softer rubber.

That is going to be one serious three (possibly four) part mold!

Monsters, no ink...

I was encouraged (a.k.a told) I should post more drawings.

To appease the (sparse) crowd I shall, but with a slight twist since I don't like to always do exactly what I'm told. Besides, sculpture has always been one of my favorite forms of art.


I sculpted this guy while living abroad, teaching English in Japan (he was even exhibited in a big art show in Sendai). To give you some idea of what that involved, this sculpture in particular was completely almost entire during working hours (that's how much they cared about learning English... I kid, I kid).


The experience did garner one of my more interesting altercation with a Japanese co-worker about how an artist's mind works. He didn't understand that the design for this creature came from 'my imagination'. He kept asking me where it was from. When that proved to frustrating, he moved on to ask if it was a whale or a camel. I finally told him it was a kind of kaiju like Godzilla and Gamera. You think he would have understood that.


Good thing he never saw this guy... it would have blown his mind.