stop, don't shoot!

I drew this a while ago and wanted to give it some color, and I finally got to it. Although, I don't know if it's finished.

Drawings inspired by Nacho Libre

I was watching Nacho Libre the other night with the sketchbook in front of me and this is what came out.

AM class 2

UPDATE: Made some changes, thanks for the feedback, keep it coming.

I've decided to give myself assignments and hopefully learn what I can from different challenges I can find on the internet, books, etc... This one is from AM class 2. Just a 180 degree turnaround. Here's where I'm at so far. I would love some feedback.

here is what's left of my christmas cheer

i think this santa is highly influenced by a guy i play walleyball with. he's a little rough around the edges, the only difference is that his tattoo is a big, red number eight.

Blocking for skull thievery

Here's a small preview of what I'm working on right now and I thought I put it on the blog and get some feedback before going into more breakdowns and polishing the animation. It's rough right now because I want to make sure that the emotions are clear and the idea is playing out right before i get to far into animation. One guy makes 3 attempts to get this skull. Each time he fails he gets more frustrated. This is attempt 2... Check back in a day or two for more progress

UPDATE: attempt #1 (blocking as well)is the right video

It's time for some animation!

Here's a run cycle I started about 3 years ago. I wanted to try my hand at a 4 legged creature. So I modeled this dog, rigged him up and started him running. Anyway, I always wanted to go back and tweak a few things here and there with the feet push-offs, the up and down on the body and some of the secondary motion, so I did, and here it is.

drawing in a meeting

I think the drawing on the left is inspired by my late 4th cousin named Harley. He was born with a cactus for a left hand.

left hands aren't just for holding a watch

my left hand can draw too....sort of. The first guy was highly influenced by Sean Penn

muenstro del lago

the bug

This is the bug that is beating up my insides and threatening the integrity of my throat

waiting for "The Pixar Story" Documentary

found some 'mall' people to draw whilst I was waiting for the big show(Pixar documentary at the Keystone Arts Cinema). I've noticed that I love drawing people with coats, thick clothing, layers, hats, accessories, etc. Perhaps this is an internal rebellion to all of hours spent drawing the oh-so majestic, $5/hour, nude college student. Although, I think I may have mastered 'the sitting man' from every angle.

One little thing can be so important...

!!!

In Progress Animation for Mediasauce

This guy is trying to get across the room with all of these space heaters in his way. He then sees this woman frozen in a block of ice (hard to see) and jumps back.

....another pass

Backgrounds

Here are some backgrounds for an upcoming animation for a Heating/Cooling client. We're trying a new method at work, where we give each part of the animation process it's due focus and time. I definitely feel that dealing with each step seperately, has improved the end product, ....so far. I'm currently in the midst of storboards, ...more to come on that.

Color

First of all, there are no right or wrong colors, but I think there are colors that just seem to work so well together. Color is a ongoing challenge for me. As soon as I think I've got it all figured out, I find a new color struggle. I look at it like a relationship of color, give and take, colors have to be in agreement and harmony. I tend to desaturate colors in order to get all of my colors in agreement with each other, but I learned with this illustration (and others) that obviously you can take it too far and you end up with a lifeless scheme. Of course colors will agree when they are so desaturated that they almost become the same color of gray. When everything is desaturated it's all 'give' and no take. So, as I began to (take) add some saturation into certain colors and areas, life and energy began to creep back into my colors. I guess I look at it like a hierarchy of color. There are one or two important color 'leaders', and then every other color has to support those leaders, but also do there own job in the right amount. If there's too much agreement....boring. Get some rebel colors in there to spice it up. All right, ultimately, formulas/books/strategies only get you so far, the magic comes from your departure from that. I did this a while ago and revisited the colors, recently. Hope you like what I came up with. This is more about me figuring this stuff out for myself by writing it all down, but I'd really love to hear some other people's approach to color as well. That is, assuming that people are reading this.

meeting drawings

more planning and character ideas

more planning for the dialogue test. I think I'm gonna go with an angry Joe Pesci audio clip.

some planning

I'm working on doing a scene with dialogue. Here are some sketches to try and map and where I'm going. I haven't committed to anything yet, but it's helpful for me to see it all together to see all of the possibilities. I think this will be 2D ultimately, so there are also some ideas for the characters.