Lugz Commercial and Such.

   Lugz Commercial!

  I've been hired to do a commercial for Lugz and their shoes.  I start animating Monday.  For now, it's centered on our plucky main character and some sexual innuendo.  It takes place at a crowded community pool.  Below's some concepts on it and backgrounds/completed scenes.

Gals, storyboards, and the main character on the left.

More boards, backgrounds, and reactions.

Some birds, and the establishing shot's background.

     Tomorrow's my meeting with the folks at Lugz, for the last time before production starts.  We solidify the story around the piece: The main character, a plucky teen named Dick sits on a lounge chair and sees some ladies across from him.  He reaches down at "something", and struggles and tugs at it while grunting and everybody looks on in shock and awe.  At the climax, we see that "something" was a sunscreen bottle.  Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

     Simple premise, but they'll let me go wild with the reactions and make them be really exaggerated.

Baseball Cartoon Progress

     I decided to name this piece "The Golden Idol", and below's the screenshots and here's the progress again.

Music Video Progress...


     ...is right here.

     More to come!

Screenshots from Music Video for "Senseless"

Work's coming along at a pretty steady pace.  I got the final cut of Dreams from Gin's single "Senseless", and I'm getting into the really good details surrounding the first verse.  Here's the shots in color (which'll probably change later, depending on how it flows):

These colors came from me thinking of raspberry ice cream.

One mouth for every syllable sung.

4 heads, 1 face!

      I'm taking my time to make this project my best one yet.  I love contradictions, so this video's gonna be filled with wacky/disturbing freaks and mutations, all in cute vibrant colors!

New Project: Music Video for "Senseless" by Dreams From Gin!

     Uh oh, gonna put all my current projects (save one) on hold while I get to work on my new project: a music video!  It's for an indie band from NY called Dreams from Gin and the song's called "Senseless".  I'm loving this song, a quirky romp about a betrayal of the senses that's going to have a frantic and maniacal video to go with it.

     I don't want to reveal too much right now, except that the video will center on an alien puppet man named Moat fighting his demons while running through a warped, dreamy landscape.

Concept sketches of the main character and his demons.

Was going to make this into a painting.  Also, thinking about mules made me mess up the band name on the flag.

     And here's a small sample of the animation as I get this shit started!  Back to production.

Bill Plympton's Global Jam...

And my part...

  ...is coming along swimmingly.  I'm surprised with how fast I'm getting it done.

     Working on putting together a new demo reel containing my new works.  Below's my reel from late 09/early 10.




And I'm gearing to start work on a music video for a New York band called "Dreams from Gin" and their song "Senseless". Gonna give it a listen to hear how it is.

These past two weeks...

1) Continuing Animation Projects: The baseball cartoon, currently called "Inspire Me" or "My Golden Idol" is coming along sweetly, and the progress is viewable HERE.

Our hero is about to feel the true weight of the situation.

     The hero's name is Antonio Mutsarell.  He's the MVP of the league and plays for the Camden Hachi Machis.  He proudly wears his uniform everywhere he goes, and plays for justice.  I'm feeling even more pumped up for this particular project now that this wicked music composer is lending his talents to it.  I asked him to make something sad and melancholic for this hospital scene, so this'll be a real tear-jerker!

     The shaving cream prank cartoon's coming along, too.  (Give it a minute to load.)  Put that on hold for a tad bit while I focus on "Inspire Me" for a little more time.

Rest up, cat.  We'll continue this animation later.

2) Bill Plympton's Guard Dog Global Jam: I'm participating in the aforementioned event by my hero Bill Plympton.  70 scenes by 70 different animators from around the world, and I'm one of em!  Granted, my part will be four seconds long, but I'm going to make those seconds count and be one quick, terrifying blow to your senses!  It'll also be interesting to see how another animator's part will link up to before/after my part.

3) Art Trade: I did an art trade with another artist from Deviantart.  He did this piece of my character Anya...

The slippers were a nice little detail.

     And I in turn did an illustration of his character, named Nin.

I like where she got her name "NIN".

     I made the background and her expression feel like the album cover for "With Teeth" by Nine Inch Nails.  This is my best illustration so far, and the quickest, too. 

4) Pain-In-The-Ass Tutor Sessions: I've been tutoring kids with no desire to learn!  I really have no hope for the future of humanity if these kids are it.  I was hired to teach this one punk kid ALL about the ins and outs of two books in two days.  He didn't want to read them, and he ditched out on the last day when I told him to return so we could finish up.  He's 12, reads like a 7 year old, and hangs out with illiterate morons twice his age in Newark.  Really sad stuff if you ask me.  I'd hate to tutor more kids if they're like him.

He looked more or less like this, but with more hair over his eyes.

5) Collaborations and Other Stuff: I'm also collaborating on an upcoming game with a few fellows on newgrounds.  It's set on halloween and it's about demons and bird-themed assassins!  Can't say too much since it's in the secret starting phase, but's looking to be a hoot!

     Also, I got me a lucky cat!  Here's to even MORE artistic endeavors in the future.

"Inspire Me" - New Cartoon's Backgrounds

     These are two backgrounds from another in-progress animation called "Inspire Me" for now.  It's a twisted tale about a baseball superstar standing up against staggering odds make good on a promise he made to a terminally ill boy.

The scene of the heart-breaking pact between a boy and his hero.

     This takes place at the halfway point of the film.  I wanted to do this scene first, as it has the most (and only) dialogue between three characters.

Like rolling thunder chasing the wind!

     Hospitals always seem sad to me.  Like being in purgatory, or on a twilight.  And I went with the orange sunset color washing over the place as it's contradicting how a sad threshold on life can bathe in such a beautiful and cheerful color.  Sorry for sounding all poetic like.  Yeop.

More to come!

Summertime!

   Finished this last week.  It's an illustration of a character I made named Anya.  It's fun as hell drawing cute girls with lots of bright colors and highlights.  I normally animate and draw angry, scary material, so this is a great departure.  Especially when it's a different style than how I usually draw.

Original line drawing.

Inked, then cleaned up.

Base color!  (I was thinking of strawberries, so I went with this color scheme.)

Final product!  Shadows, highlights, and background.

     Nice!  I'll do some more of this once I find some time between the 3 animated projects I got going on (went up one after a new one I started today).  Back to work.