"MoneyMaker" Progress and Jojo Art

     S'been a while, but here's the lowdown:  still working on the music video for "MoneyMaker", and it is good.  Finally finished animating the star of the video kicking some angels and landing on Earth, getting ready to stroll our streets and experience the high life.  Still have to do a lip synch before everything I have so far can be put together to form the first quarter of the video.

"Who gives a..."

     Sometimes it sucks doing everything on my own since it takes more time to complete, but it must be so and it can and will be done.  It's tremendously satisfying to step back from the work in progress and see how it all comes together, taking shape into this meticulously crafted, breathing life that became sentient through my very minuet fabrication.  Animating is my whole passion for life, and it fills me with such insurmountable pride to see my work and time take form and flourish.  Sorry for drifting off, but I still have a ways to go before completion.  I still have more amorphous faces to melt into one another, and more streams of jewelry to projectile vomit across famous world structures.

     Also gonna animate some quick cuts for the choruses.  That'll speed progress up a bit, and keep up with the song's upbeat tempo.

   

"So what?"

Can't touch this

     Aside from that, I also made two pieces of fan art for my favorite comic series: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.  What a bizarre adventure it is!

Devo the Cursed, Ebony Devil

     Season 3 (the most popular one in the west) saw Jojo and friends travel across Southern Asia to Egypt in a bid to save his mom and vanquish a long-time foe, fighting dozens of psychotic assassins along the way.  My favorite of the villains includes Devo.  This deranged hitman purposely lets his victims attack him first, thus allowing him to let his raw hatred fuel his powers, possess the doll, and murder at a later opportunity.  Because normal people don't know about Stands (the invisible guardians that grant these powers), everyone assumes Devo's victims die from a curse.  

Rubber Soul, Yellow Temperance

     Another cool villain is Rubber Soul, hired to kill Jojo in Singapore.  His invincible Stand Yellow Temperance eats flesh and grows bigger with every meal.  It can also assimilate other people's forms.  But like all other villains in the series, his downfall comes from his overconfidence in his abilities.

     Getting back to work on this here music vid.  More to come...

It's close...

New Project: MeOh!My's "Money Maker" Music Video

     Right now, I'm working on a music video for incredible rapper MeOh!My and his ass kicking single "Money Maker".  I'm uber excited about this project, the video is a warped take on gold digger madness and has the look of a long, distorted hallucination!  All backgrounds weave in and out of interaction with the star of the video as he gets sucked in with the misleading allure of money and hedonism.

     The song itself is awesome, with a nice flow and great tempo that I don't normally hear in rap songs.  So cool is this song that I want to make the video as far out as possible, unique among all the other rap videos out there.  It's gonna be expressive as hell without the ass-shaking-in-your-face cliche plaguing too much media associated with rap now.  This shit is going to be a mind-blowing surreal trip around a lucid dream world!

     Still a lot more to be done before the video is completely done.  I'm not cutting any corners on this great piece of art.  I'm just getting started with the weird on this.  In the meantime, check out the artist's website for more of his wicked material.

     I'll continue with the music video production until it's nice and perfect.  And I can now also be followed on TWITTER now!  Follow me there, yo.

     More to come...

Koth of the Conans (pt.3): Breath and Some Villains

Pt.1

Pt.2

     Last time, I talked about Koth and his sidekick Hank, as well as one of his many adversaries.  The planet Girth is a savage land of constant turmoil, swarming with bloodthirsty maniacs that Koth has to defeat in his quest for greatness!

     To help him traverse the landscape quicker, Koth travels by flight.  He accomplishes this with the help of Hank shooting him through the air...

     And now, on with Koth's next ally: Breath.  

     The tall yellow one from the promo type vid, he's the more educated member of the group.  He's not as strong of a fighter as the rest, and at times scared of fights, but he's a great at strategizing and analyzing many situations.  Because of his royal background as the (former) king of an empire, he's knowledgable in many cultures, something that helps him and Koth as they travel Girth.

     He use to be the emperor of a spiraling empire for the sun people.  He was marveled by his followers for his booming voice, imposing leadership, and height.  Mostly his height.  His people capture Koth and try to sacrifice him to prove Breath's power as The Sun Emperor, but is exposed to be a fraud as Koth pummels him and escapes.  After being spared by Koth, Breath follows him to redeem himself as a warrior.  

     My original idea for Breath was simply to make a character with a disproportioned body.  Small upper body, long mid section, and long legs.  Someone funny to look at and very tall and imposing, all at once.  He'll tower over you, but you 'll laugh once you reach his face.  Since he's an emperor of high stature in the Kingdom of the Sun, his color scheme and clothes are modeled after an Egyptian/pharoah feel.  My friend Kieran named him a random one syllable name.  The hieroglyphics on his atire (in the first image) actually means something.  It means "death to foreigners".

     Last time, I showed designs for the evil shaman, now named Muguzorrat, the necromancer that uses children for his black magic.  He's not alone, as all good villains have their henchmen to help perpetrate evil.

     This one is named Hibi Chibi:

     A created monstrosity of Muguzorrat, this homunculus is the main supplier of the evil shaman's desire for children.  That's because Hibi Chibi is equipped with a purifying gem that lets him shoot people with his amazing "youth-a-nize" ray.  Anyone hit with it is instantly turned into a kid.  No one has been able to stop this monster, as he revels in attacking vulnerable infants and kids alike.  Can Koth stop this demented child killer?

     His design was meant to be as repulsive and perverted as can be.  He's to look like something out of a kid's nightmares, an awkward boogie man of sorts.  

     And then there's Straw Man:

     Like Hank, Starw Man is also a shape shifter.

     Unlike Hank, who's a polymorph, Straw Man specializes in morphing into other people.  He uses confusion and backstabbing attacks to get his prey.  There's no limit to who he can mimic.  His sole purpose is to find and kill Koth and Hank.  His one weakness, however, is his namesake.  The longer he assumes a different form, the more he becomes mentally unstable.  He'll eventually delve into unflattering mockeries of his forms that give him away.  This is why his attacks are quick and unpredictable.  

     That's all for now.  More to come.

Catching up with times.

     I finally decided to get with the times and did away with drawing with a mouse for good.  From now on, I'm doing all my work with my new Cintiq.  I feel really stupid for putting it off for so long.  Productivity has increased tenfold, and I couldn't be happier with the results.

     I've been commissioned by Deviantart user greatdragonad to do a bunch of loops and such for a bunch of his characters.  It's coming along very quick, and with the power of the Cintiq, animation is a snap!  Here's the first completed loop.

   
      For this loop, I did a simple stance, like in fighting games.  Nice exercise in timing and physics.  Good start for the series of loops I'll be doing for this client.
     I was also commissioned to do a Spongebob illustration for another client's girlfriend, who's a big fan.

   
      In the coming weeks, I'm getting my bundle of demo reel cds ready to make my rounds in NY again to apply for work with the studios there.  One's gotta be the right one!

     Next time, I'm talking about Koth of the Conans again, this time going in depth with another of Koth's allies.

"Hey fellas!"

     More to come!

Koth of the Conans (pt.2): Frederator Features Koth & More Art

Pt.1

     Frederator (makers of Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, Adventure Time, etc.) did a video highlighting a bunch of neat cartoons on the topic of barbarians and manliness ala Conan the Barbarian.  These badass cartoons of pure testosterone exploded absolute rage, and Koth of the Conans was featured!



     It's incredible to actually see Koth get recognition and have views from freakin' Frederator!  It was also cool to hear someone else say Koth of the Conans. :)  Although to be honest, I havent seen the old He-Man cartoon much.  I've only seen that cartoon once and I remember cracking up at the theme song repeating "He-Man!" 50+ times in a 15 minute episode, though I did like the animation style.  I do remember seeing a couple of episodes of that reboot Cartoon Network had of He-Man back in 2002.  I'm more influenced by The Herculoids, and (in my opinion) the much manlier Thundar the Barbarian!  Tons of thanks to Channel Frederator for the mentions!

     And as for the giant floating head...

     That is the wise and powerful God of Knowledge Korn.  He's the god everyone on Gerth pray to for guidance and advise.  He hears all prayers and answers all inquiries when he can find the time to get up and reply.  When in a perplexing pickle, Koth enlists the aid of the Mystical Shaman to summon Korn for an instant audience.

     I originally wanted Korn to be made in 3D, but because of time constraints with the project at the time, I had to improvise fast.  So I painted my friend Josh's face and goggles, glued mosaic tiles on him, and put him through AfterEffects to create the awe-inspiring god you see here!  And since he didn't move his lips, I recorded mine and put them in as Korn's mouth.

Inching closer down the path to glorious battle, here's more Koth artwork...

   ...and more of his faithful aboriginal sidekick, Hank!

     And I'm working on the animations for this new villain plaguing Gerth:

     He's an evil Shaman/Necromancer with plans to use the dead to conquer the lands.  What he lacks in physical abilities, he more than makes up for with his immensely potent magical powers.  He specializes in the black arts and forbidden mysticism.  Adding to his fiendishness is his penchant to use dead children (preferably babies) for his dark rituals and summonings.  Society is beyond horrified by his taboo practices, and that's saying a lot about a planet full of perpetually fighting savages!  Koth hears legends of this twisted practitioner of magic, and has nothing but utter loathing for him.  This evil shaman in turn knows of Koth, and knows that his evil plans can never truly be completed as long as Koth lives.

     I wanted to make a magical villain with a revolting design that just oozed hate.  Someone that posed Koth with a huge challenge, as he's weak against magic and it always presents unpredictable scenarios for him.  Demetrius made the colors for him, and I liked it: the pale, powdery skin, the cowardly yellow garb, it all blended so well!

     Can Koth find a way to defeat black magic - a force that can't technically be punched!?

More to come!!!

New Tattoo: Me A Zombie!

     I was commissioned me to make THIS badass tattoo of a zombie!

     He a zumbi an' he eat out ya brain!  Once the tattoo is actually made (and healed), I'll have that picture up.  I only did the line because another (dumb) tattoo dude told me shading fades over time.  Apparently everybody that ever got a tattoo begs to differ, but either way I kept this one simple and did just the lines.  Later I'll go back and do the colors, both in this drawing and in the tattoo.  It's also cheaper to tattoo lines for now.

     Had a blast with this as I love over-the-top violent artwork, like Cannibal Corpse album covers.  This was one previous tattoo I did that I'm not fond of:

     I did this for an emo girl that wanted this on her shoulder.  That's pretty ridiculous since she was thinner than a rail and there's no way in hell this would fit.  If you scaled it, the details would be lost.  Man oh man were there a lot, from the questionable (rats choking on the roots) to the cliched and obvious (moon, dead tree, skull, roses and a sword).  All of this was what she wanted, but it felt cluttered.  Near the end she wanted to randomly add a snake eating money and a heart at the base.

     I'm convinced she still didn't get it tattooed.

     More to come...

Captain America's Pride

     Here's a fun new comic with Ol' Captain America.  His colors don't run, but his enemies do.

     You're against democracy?  Congratulations, your face is now a fist magnet!

     In other developments, Stall & Dean project is doing its namesake (stalling) while they hammer out some merger deal with a certain clothing company run by a certain rapper.  So work resumes once that's squared away.  And the next part of my Koth of the Conans summary will be soon.

     More to come...

Evil is afoot.