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3 Lessons Learned From my First Simpsons Director.

September 20, 2012 in THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – 3 Lessons Learned From my First Simpsons Director

Simpsons quote:

“Oh, everything looks bad if you remember it.” – Homer

Last week I wrote about learning a lot from my first Simpsons Director, Jeff Lynch.

I’m gonna quickly sum up three other lessons I learned working on my first official Simpsons show with him.

Lesson The First – Effects

Remember that little dark room I wrote about in the last post?

One of the many times I was sent there was to shoot an effect that was going to play during the Buzz Cola commercial that played on the television, during the episode.

I had no idea what I was doing but I gave it my best shot.

In order to give Jeff the best impression of the shot possible for the animatic, he had asked me to not only shoot the scene, but to actually cut out the shape of the explosion on each sheet of paper.

The reason for this? We shot animation over a lightbox. That way we could see through the paper and see multiple levels of artwork, like the background and other characters…stuff like that.

Well, if you cut our a shape into a piece of paper and put it on the lightbox, it gives a “glow” effect to the empty space.

I cut out, about, six or seven, jagged explosion shapes and shot them.

Jeff looked at the scene, adjusted the timing, told me to add more cut outs or take some out. BUT the most interesting thing he had me do, was to cover up the camera lens for a frame and then, shoot the bright lightbox without a drawing, for a frame.

This gave a quick strobing black to white pop before the Buzz cola appeared.

Because I did this, it made the effect during the animatic really impactful and it sold the scene.

Lesson? I learned to do a cool explosion effect.

Lesson The Second – Antics and Overshoot

Anticipation drawings (Antics) and Overshoot drawings are some of the first things you learn when y0u’re taught to animate.

Antics are drawing animators put in to help the watcher see the action that is going to happen. It’s basically there to telegraph the action, and by doing so, it makes the action look natural. For example, if a character is going to reach for something, they would lift their hand up a little bit away, from the object before actually reaching for it.

Overshoots are drawings that are almost the opposite of Antics. An overshoot is used when a quick action come to a fast halt. It’s a drawing that “overshoots” were the action ought to have stopped, before it settles into place. The effect in the final product makes the action feel natural.

Neither the Antics nor the Overshoots are really noticeable. They are FELT by the watcher, more than anything else.

When I did the scene were Lisa is yelling with the Malibu Stacy doll and shaking her at Bart’s face, I had Lisa Antic and Overshoot as she came closer to the camera. But I over did it.

What I learned from Jeff was how NOT to over do it. He gave me a quick rule of thumb: “Don’t antic, further than the final movement will be, don’t overshoot further than the movement was.

You’d think it would have been obvious to me, but I guess I got a bit too excited with the mechanics.

When I then did the scene where she almost hits Bart with the doll, I did a much better job.

Lesson The Third – The possibilities of animation

I was then asked to do the scene where Lisa throws the doll out the window. I did my best but it just wasn’t what Jeff was looking for.

He then sat me down next to him at his office and redid the scene for me. And BOY was it epic. I had a front row seat.

I don’t know anyone besides Jeff who would do scenes like this. I’m not sure anyone even notices that he does this kind of thing on occasion.

What am I taking about?

Animated camera moves.

Jeff took that scene and animated the camera move. What I mean to say is, that he took the artwork, characters, backgrounds and all, and animated them as if the camera was moving. Then at some point during the scene, the camera DOES move and you don’t even realize what happened.

Take a look at that scene again. The whole ROOM, along with the characters, spins around, Antics and then animates away, BEFORE the actual camera begins to move. It was a phenomenal bit of animating and directing.

I remember inbetweening some drawing from that scene and tightened up two bits of rough drawings. The rest was all Jeff.

I haven’t worked with a Simpsons director since, that was willing to hand animate a camera move to make a shot work.

Jeff did this in a few of his episodes. Now a days, we think it can only be done with computers.

My lesson from that experience? There are no boundaries in animation except for the ones you put up.

Get Fun E-mails

In this week’s e-mail, I went through the rest of this episode and gave my thoughts and small anecdotes on specific scene I worked on.

It was an experiment and it was fun because the readers got a sneak behind the scenes.

Don’t miss out. Opt in and join in the fun, next time.

WEBSITES – Working on a Drawing Equipment Post

I’m currently working on the next post for The Drawing Website.

In it, I will write about the mysterious drawing equipment you need in order to learn to draw.

Here’s the rough under drawing for the header picture, I will use on the post.

In the post, I compare drawing tools to Kung Fu weapons, so I thought I’d give my character, Brush Lee, a very unorthodox weapon.

Yes, that’s a pack of gum.

Why is he holding a pack of gum as a weapon? You’re gonna need to read the post when it goes live next week to find out.

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

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How I Spent Hours in a Little Dark Room Choking Matlock. Dante’s fractured arm

September 13, 2012 in BOOKS, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Simpsons Quote:

GRAMPA: I say we call Matlock. He’ll find the culprit. It’s probably that evil Gavin MacLeod or George “Goober” Linsay.

BART: Grampa, Matlock’s not real.

GRAMPA: Neither are my teeth, but I can still eat corn on the cob, if someone cuts it off and smushes it into a fine paste. Now that’s good eatin”!

When I first started out on The Simpsons, I was a cocky 18 year old with a big ego and crumby drawing skills.

A bad combination.

It didn’t help that I was just passable enough as a draftsman to get hired on the show. I strutted around as if I DESERVED to have gotten hired. If I could go back in time to talk to my old self, I’d smack myself upside the head.

The Second Simpsons Show I Worked On.

I literally owe my career to Director Jeff Lynch. To this day, I have no idea why put up with me.

If I had been a smarter kid, I’d of gotten his subtle hints that I really stunk and I should really not be so cocky. But, unfortunately for me, and everyone else, I wasn’t.

The second episode of The Simpsons I “officially” worked on was: LISA VERSUS MALIBU STACY directed by Jeff.

I worked on about five scenes in each Act. Mostly crowd scenes. Jeff would find scenes that I couldn’t possibly mess up or that would take me a long time to do and I’d do those scenes.

I remember drawing this scene. It’s one of my first memories working on the show.

The first scenes I worked on in this particular episode were, in fact, the opening scenes with the old people and Matlock.

These were given to me because:

It was full of crowds and
it was all secondary characters

The reason he assigned me scenes with secondary characters was because the family is so tricky to get right, that it’s much more obvious when they’re off model. The secondary characters are a little more forgiving if you don’t get them just right.

It was prudent for him to give the stuck up rookie a scene full of secondary characters. This is the only time Matlock appears on the show. No one can tell how badly off model I drew him since no one had even seen what he was SUPPOSE to look like.

Exiled to The Little Dark Room

In order not to give me anymore work than he needed to, when I turned a scene in to Jeff, he would take one look at it and give it right back,

“Shoot it,”

“Oh, okay.”

This would send me to a little dark room, the size of a closet, where a video machine attached to a camera was set up. Here, I would sit in the dark, time out a scene, and then “shoot the scene”. In other words, put it on video, taking a picture of my drawings, one frame at a time. This was LONG before we had computers to do this in.

The Matlock scenes I remember spending the most time on were the one where you slowly see him coming up the steps with both canes, and the close up choking scene.

Choking Matlock

The choking scene in particular took me hours (or was it days?) to shoot.

I’d done the scene and turned it in, but Jeff had asked me to shoot it. So I did, and I showed it to him. It was stiff as a board and looked awful. So he sat down in that dark room and reworked the drawings. He sketched out new, better, but very rough drawings.

They had a LOT more energy and power than the ones I had made.

He then wrote some rough timing on the corner of the pages and asked me to expose the drawings accordingly. So I did.

I showed him the scene again, but it wasn’t quite right. It was MUCH better but not quite right. He added a few more drawings, took some out and changed the timing again.

I shot the scene again. I showed it to him and he adjusted the timing a little bit again. So I shot it again.

This happened for a while. I spent my day shooting the scene.

When he finally got what he wanted, I asked him if he wanted me to clean up his roughs,

“No, just touch them up a little bit. Erase some of the darker lines and rougher bits but keep most to the drawings as they are.”

“Okay.”

So I did as I was asked. I believe that I still have one of the rough drawings that he took out of that scene. One of my many Jeff Lynch mementos.

The Lesson

I was a complete moron and a lousy artist and animator, BUT those days, doing what Jeff had asked me to do and working under Jeff that way, where the BEST learning moments of my career.

My current understanding of timing and animation, EVERYTHING that I know now, has it’s foundation in those hour and hour of being in that dark little room. It was my own little cave of knowledge where the wise man taught the foolish young man what to do.

Yet I was so foolish, I was hardly aware it was happening.

Thanks Jeff. Lessons learned.

Get e-mails

In this week’s e-mail, I got a bit candid about my emotional reaction to watching LISA VS. MALIBU STACY, for the first time in YEARS.

If you missed out on this e-mail. Opt in below to join the fun.

WEBSITES – The Drawing Website is Officially Up

Finally! The Drawing Website is up!

Alright, so if you don’t know anything about this new site, it’s one that I’ve just put up in order to help people how to draw.

If you don’t know how to draw a straight line, or a good stick figure, I help you fix that problem.

If you’re just, down right embarrassed about how little you know about the whoLE process, I help you with that too.

I’ll teach you what pencils to buy, what paper to use, what you need.

I’ll hold your hand through out the whole process and answer any question you have as you learn.

If any of this sound good to you, click on the link below to start learning:

TAKE ME TO THE DRAWING WEBSITE

BOOKS – Free copy of The Tower’s Alchemist Kindle book

Just a quick plug/update on my wife Alesha’s book.

I’ve been pimping this book ALL week.

If you haven’t heard, for this week and this week only, THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST is FREE to download for the Kindle.

That means, if want to get yourself a FREE copy, you’ve got today and tomorrow to get it. Otherwise, you’ll need to*GASP!* buy it.

But seriously, most everyone reading this post will have missed this deal. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still pick up the book even though it’s now $2.99 (which is less then a Starbucks coffee and even a COMIC BOOK!).

If you don’t own a Kindle device, that’s okay. Turns out, you don’t need one. Amazon is in the business of selling books not Kindles.

As I’ve been telling people all week, if you have an iOS device, download the Kindle app for FREE. Also available for Android, Windows 7 phones and blackberry phones, FREE. Or you can download the Kindle program on your Mac or PC, FREE or you can read the book on Kindle Cloud, for FREE.

CLICK HERE for info about this from directly from Amazon.

In case you’re wondering, here’s what the book is about:

Wizard Vs. Nazi Warlock Vampires.

It’s a very different World War II.

The Nazis have unleashed occult forces throughout Europe and the Allies are forced to recruit and employ wizards to counter their attacks.

Among them is the battle weary spy, Isabella George, a Gray Tower dropout trained in Alchemy. Longing for retirement and a life of peace, she accepts one final job–extract a deadly warlock from Nazi occupied France and prevent him from unleashing an alchemical weapon that will devour the continent.

But France is crawling with the Cruenti, vampiric warlocks who feed off other wizards. When things don’t go according to plan, one Cruenti sets his deadly eyes on her.

Betrayal is everywhere. Even some of her closest allies cannot be fully trusted. Worse still, she finds, she can’t even trust herself. She becomes a woman torn between her charismatic spy lover who offers her what she desires most, and one of her closest confidants, whose soft seductive eyes hold deadly secrets about her past, and the Gray Tower itself.

Plans within plans. Plots versus counter plots. Heists gone wrong, sword-wielding Catholic priests, and the greatest manipulation of history that has ever been seen, is just a taste of what Isabella George is in for, in her final mission.

If this sounds cool to you, click the link below and pick up a copy. Also available in hard copy:

BUY THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST

FAMILY – Dante Fractured his Arm

Thursday night I came home and only three of my four kids greeted me at the door. I asked where my 4 year old son Dante was and my wife informed me he was in bed. Seems he had been misbehaving and was put to bed early.

I went to see him and discovered he was still awake. I went over and kissed him good night. As I was leaving he stopped me,

“Daddy, my arm hurts right here,” and pointed as his arm. This is typical. He’s always complaining about something so I went over caressed his arm quickly and said,

“There, now go to sleep,” and walked out of the room. I didn’t think anything of it.

The next day at work, Alesha calls me from the doctor’s office. Baby Luke had an appointment that day.

“Dante has a fractured arm.”

“What?!”

“He was complaining about pain in his arm…”

“Yeah, I know, he did that last night.”

“Oh, he did? Well, he seemed really hurt because when he moved his arm around he would cry, so I told him we’d have the doctor take a look at it while we were there. The doctor checked him out and took x-rays. His arm is fractured.”

“HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?”

“I have NO idea. He told me he fell.”

“Maybe he through a big tantrum when you sent him to his room and hurt himself.”

“We’ll, he and Elizabeth were playing pretty rough yesterday, pulling each other’s arms. I told them to stop.”

“Yeah, I don’t know…I think he through a tantrum. You know how he is.”

Well, anyway we STILL don’t know how it happened but he had his arm in a sling for a few days before he got his cast.

He was sooo happy to walk around with that sling on his arm.

And now that he has a cast, it’s like he’s proud of it or something.

Kids are crazy.

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

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Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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Why I chopped Quentin Tarantino’s head off. More about My Drawing Website. My current obession.

September 6, 2012 in SOME THOUGHTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSON NEWS – Why I Chopped Quentin Tarantino’s head off.

Simpsons Quote:

“This is indeed a disturbing universe.” – Maggie Simpson

I’m not a Quentin Tarantino fan nor am I a fan of his movies.

I’ve never met Mr. Tarantino. It’s possible that if I did, I might like him and think he’s a great guy. But from interviews, documentaries, and other things like that, where I’ve heard him speak, he’s rubbed me the wrong way.

How it began

A long time ago, back when I was working on Season 8 as a Layout Artist, sometime in 1996, I was put on Show 3, Directed by Chuck Sheetz.

I was given the storyboard for the show and took a look at what we were going to be tackling. It was the Sherry Bobbins show and I thought it was very funny. Then I saw the Itchy and Scratchy section of the show. I thought it was awesome and decided I wanted to do it.

Some Directors ask the Layout artists what scenes they want to work on, while others simply assign them a section they think fits their strengths. My preferred method of getting layout scenes was simply to get them assigned to me. This time, I made an exception.

I walked into Chucks office and I asked for the Itchy and Scratchy scenes. I didn’t know if he had another assignment in mind for me. I just wanted to do those scenes. I explained to him how I REALLY wanted to draw Itchy chopping Tarantino’s head off because he annoyed me.

He told me it was fine and also assigned me some other scenes, since the Itchy and Scratchy section was so short. This was the first and last time I ever asked a director for a specific section like this.

The fun part

I returned to my desk triumphant. This was going to be fun. I was going to go to town on these scenes.

One of the best parts about working on the scene was just making fun of how much Tarantino uses his hand when he talks. I think I had recently seen him interviewed in some talk show and it was fresh in my mind.

I over acted the heck out of the poses during his lines. So much so, that I didn’t think there would be time to put all my poses in the short amount of dialogue he had. I just wanted him to look as erratic as possible.

It turned out looking alright in the end.

The Irony

I don’t ACTUALLY want to harm Tarantino, I thought perhaps it would be cathartic to do it in cartoon form, knowing I wasn’t actually doing anyone any harm.

On hindsight, I think the REAL reason I wanted to chop of his cartoon head off was because of that ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS. When I saw that movie and that scene came up, it made me feel sick to my stomach. I was like,

“What WRONG with this director?! He’s sick in the head!”

I guess this spoof was my attempt to “get even” for making me feel so sick.

Well, the joke was on me.

After all, the scenes I was working on where spoofs of that very scene. When it was time for me to actually work on the scenes, a horrible realization came over me. It never occurred to me that in order to do the spoof justice, I had to…well…do research. I had to see how it was done in the actual movie.

In other words, in order for me to do this spoof, I had to look at the ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS, over and over and over. Analyzing it, freeze framing it, playing it over, ACTING IT OUT. I had to LIVE that scene in order to get the movement right.

“Why did I chose to do this?! Aaah!”

It came back to bite me in the butt.

I also had to do the same with the Pulp Fiction Dancing scenes. But that wasn’t nearly as bad. And it was much more fun to breakdown the dancing in those scenes, so I could pose out my drawings.

It didn’t take away the bad taste in my mouth I ended up with having to see the RESERVOIR DOGS scene so much.

The Catharsis

Well, perhaps it fueled me more when I finally got to the head chopping part. I made sure to make it as silly and cartoony as I could. I made the head bounce like a rubber ball when it hit the ground and added the tongue sticking out. I also added a small swagger to the decapitated body as it took a step back before he fell forward, butt in the air. Too bad this last bit wasn’t quite timed the way I had seen it in my head.

I drew the scenes really fast. Faster than I’d ever drawn any scenes before. There were just so many poses. By the time I was done, the scenes were huge. Some of the biggest ones I’d ever done.

It turned out the be one of the best looking scenes I’d ever drawn too. So much so, that I photocopied the scenes and I still have those copies at home. It’s one of maybe, three scenes that I ever did that with.

So yeah, it was fun and satisfying for me to do that scene in the end. But I think Tarantino got the last laugh, considering I had to look at that ear chopping scene so many times to do it.

When I was working on this episode, I didn’t really have a convenient way of looking at the reference I need.

This week in my e-mail, I write about the archaic method I used to reference the movie.

It was pretty sad and pathetic. If you missed out on that info and don’t want to miss out again, sign up to receive the e-mails from me. Sign up in the side bar or in the opt in at the bottom of this post.

WEBSITES – The Drawing Website Update

Here’s a short update of where I’m at, with the launch of The Drawing Website.

I’ve created a Twitter handle for the site.

It’s: @DrawingWebsite.

It doesn’t have an avatar yet. It’s on my list to do. I just need to get the site up and running before I tackle smaller things like that. You can follow the site if you want. I’ll see about throwing update on there.

I’m also trying to finish up the two site mascots for the main page. Here are my roughs:

And yes, they’re holding pencils.

Did I mention I’m treating the drawing site like a Kung Fu class? Well, now you know. Learn to draw like you would learn Kung Fu. You’ll have fun. I’m having fun already and I haven’t even launched the darn thing.

Get an e-mail about the site’s launch by signing up in the opt in.

SOME THOUGHTS – My new current obsession

Four years ago I wrote a post about my obsessive personality. Included in that post was the following diagram:

Well guess what? You can officially add some new unexpected obsessions to this list:

36. Business

37. Entrepreneurship

38. Marketing

39. Copy writing.

That’s right, I’ve become obsessed with this stuff lately. I’ve just been reading about it and thinking about it and I’ve even started putting it into practice. It’s very possible that I’ll be writing far more about it in this blog, since that’s where my heads at right now.

Similar to the way I was writing about board games and role-playing games.

I hope that, when I do, IF I do, I can show you why I’m so obsessed with it and why I find it as creative as drawing and writing stories.

Oh, and by the way, “Drawing” should have been on the list above, but for some reason I left it out. Just imagine that number 10 reads: “Painting/Drawing”.

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

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Comments are appreciated as well.

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Trying and trying and trying again to get a drawing right. My friend Paul gets an article written about him.

August 4, 2011 in ART, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

This week, I managed to finish my Act 3 revisions in two days. This has given me three days to work on a very elaborate Couch Gag for the rest of the week. The living room gets very crowded in it. Thankfully my Act 3 assignment wasn’t too involved.

ART

I’m still trying to figure out how to best approach finishing my wife’s book cover. It’s getting more and more frustrating. I thought that by doing some experimenting and testing out different approaches, I’d come closer to figuring out what I wanted. If anything, it’s made me more confused and frustrated.

One thing I DO know I want, I DON’T want the final look of the cover to look “cartoony”. I want it to be more on the “photo real” side than the comic book drawing side. Trying to find the best way to go about doing this has been a pain in the neck. Especially since I don’t know how to paint.

So here’s what I did. Since last time when I used markers on tracing paper and it didn’t go well. I thought I’d try it on regular white paper with a little bit of black ink and marker. This is the result:

The result was not what I wanted. It was ugly and sloppy. I made the mistake with the first drawing of painting over my original pencil drawing so I re-drew it and then made photocopies to paint.

I tried again using a different approach and taking what I learned from the first try to try something new. This time I tried rendering interior shadow values with Prismacolor black pencil while using the marker simply as local color:

I don’t think it worked. It still looks too cartoony. It’s not as sloppy but it doesn’t look very “photo real” either. I also don’t think the values quite work in the face. I came to the realization that I think I’ve been drawing the shadow and light shapes on the nose wrong too.

Just to change things up I decided to try an ink wash, experimenting with the shadow shapes of the nose:

Again, like my first attempt with the markers, it turned out sloppy and ugly. Not what I wanted. Also, unlike this scanned version, the original was more Warm Grey than Neutral Grey. Also, the blacks didn’t seem black enough for me. I might try again with the wash but I decided to give the markers another go.

I decided to go all out with the next one. I was going to render the heck out the drawing, trying to incorporate every value I saw in photo I’m using for reference. I decided that I was going to use a little bit of ink around the eyes but the rest I would do completely in marker (with a touch white Prismacolor pencil in places):

I was very proud of it when I was done. This lasted for about a day. When I saw it the next day, I saw I had failed again. It STILL looks cartoony and worse yet, muddy and overworked. It’s not an elegant painting by any means and it looks amateurish to me.

This has all added up to making me frustrated. I’m not quite sure what to do. So I’ve decided to ask my drawing “Sifu” Paul Wee for help. He’s always good at guiding me when I need it. He’s also offered to help out if I needed it after he learned about that I was doing.

I’ll let you know what happens next week.

ART/WEBSITE

And speaking of my friend and “Sifu” Paul Wee, here’s a recent article of Paul written in The Burbank Leader:

CLICK HERE to read it.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Comments are appreciated as well.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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Black Terror Kid #2 page 3 plus roughs and underdrawings. How Alex Toth learned. Steve Ditko documentary. Solving my last story problems.

May 5, 2011 in MY WEB COMIC, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WEBSITES, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

No word on what’s going on with the show. This is my second week off the show. One week left to go. Seems like time is passing by fast.

MY WEB COMIC

Below is the rough of the page above:

This next page is the under drawing for the page that I inked. I increased the levels of the line work because it was drawn very lightly:

I forgot to put the under drawing of page 2 last week so I’m doing it here. I was half way through the inking process when I scanned this, so it’s not JUST the under drawing:

VIDEOS

I had heard a lot about this documentary but I had never seen it. I was made aware of it through the Man Vs. Art Facebook page. Raul Aguirre Jr. posted the link there. Now I’m posting it here as well. I recommend you take a look. It’s a documentary called IN SEARCH OF STEVE DITKO. It’s the fascinating story of mysterious comic artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man. It’s very cool:

WEBSITE

I’m not going to steal anyone’s blog content here but I would really like to encourage any artist to go over to this Live journal post: http://sirspamdalot.livejournal.com/81283.html.

It’s about how Alex Toth, one of my favorite artists, learned. It’s something I myself have discovered from experience but I think it’s very good information to know if you don’t know about it.

Here’s the quote that ends the article. It’s great:

“It was great fun, to learn anew. You think you know enough, but you don’t. You must open up; let it in. …be receptive, admit what you don’t know, which few are willing to do. Start from square one. Again!” ~Alex Toth

WRITING

I was finally able to work out the new versions of Scene 6 and Scene 8. It was by far, one the more difficult things I had to do to date. The reason was because I had to really pin down how the magick would work in my “universe”. I knew it was blood magick, and I new it has to do with binding one’s self with a demon. I also came up with a way to make the blood rituals “practical”, but I STILL didn’t know what magick was actually going to be used against Rob.

In order to figure this out, I thought I should give each Sorcerer a “theme” or “skill” of magick they were best at. I just didn’t know what they were going to be. In order to get ideas flowing in my head, I decided to go to my bookshelf and take three Role Playing game books down. These were CONAN: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME, MUTANTS AND MASTERMINDS RPG, and MAGE: THE ASCENSION.

The Conan book helped quite a bit. It’s basically a book of the Conan universe. The chapter on Sorcery in the Conan universe was very helpful since I’m basically taking that type of magick and having it play out a in a modern setting. What I got most from it was the idea that not all a Sorcerer’s magick is done on the spot, some of it is “prepackaged” and ready to use ahead of time, in the form on alchemical items that they carry around. That would help. Only I thought that in MY universe, these items had to be “activated” with a chant and some of the Sorcerer’s blood sprinkled on it. The book also gave me good examples of spells and themed magick that I might be able to use. For example, the “serpent” themed mind control magick in the book was perfect for my Lead Sorcerer. The section on magick poisons, also got me thinking as did the section on necromancy. Unfortunately it didn’t help much more beyond that. At least it gave me a flavor of what I was looking for.

The MUTANTS AND MASTERMINDS book is a book like a catalog or buffet of superpowers which you can mix, match, and modify to your heart’s content in order to come up unique powers for a superhero character. I was looking through it so that I could better theme my Sorcerers’ powers. I was hoping to come across a power that would get me thinking. Unfortunately, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Somehow the powers where a tad too overpowered and if they weren’t, they were too subtle or generic for me to want to use any.

By this point, after thinking about it for a day or so, I knew I wanted the Other Male Sorcerer to have have Necrotic like powers. But I didn’t want him raising skeletons or anything like that. I wanted him to be more of a destroyer of life. When I opened my MAGE: THE ASCENSION book, I looked specifically into the section on Mages who could control Entropy. Though the description and the powers weren’t exactly what I had in mind, they did give me a jumping off point for my character’s magick.

As I looked at all these books, I would write down things I thought I wanted and began making a small list of key words. This is what I wrote down:

Summoning
Kothic Demon fire
Necromancy
Entropy (Focus?)
Beast Claws
Poisons
Hypnosis (Serpent)
Domination (Serpent)
Alchemy
Acid?
Knives
Wall of Blades
Dancing Blades
Flying Blades

The terms in bold I had circled, meaning I was definitely going to use them, while the other things I was trying to fit together and make something I liked with them.

I the end, this is what I concluded:

The Lead Sorcerer would have domination powers and would use mind control and hypnosis as his main form of Magick. He could also summon the giant serpent creature, but only if he sacrificed a live serpent and mingled his blood with it and chanted the correct incantation.
The Other Male Sorcerer would have power of entropy. He would throw “Entropy Orbs” which he activates with his blood and an incantation. These Orbs cause whatever they crash into to prematurely age thousands of years in an instant. He also has claws in his hands which can rot whatever they touch. He uses them in conjunction with an alchemical mist, which he hides in to reach his target. He can summon a Winged Ape by infusing some of his own blood into the ripped out heart of a gorilla and saying the correct incantation. The resulting Winged Ape would look a little zombie like.
The Female Sorcerer’s magick consists of her control over blades she throws. Due to the nature of these blade, they tend to disintegrate once used. Her main form of attack would be poison tipped blades which she controls by sprinkling them with her own blood and throwing them with an incantation. She can also control larger blade with she can send spinning or dancing, anyway she wishes, as long as he concentrates. They must first be sprinkled with her blood. She also has a blinding powder she uses, when she needs to buy time for her magick to get going. Just like The Other Male Sorcerer, she can also summon a Winged Ape by infusing some of her own blood into the ripped out heart of a gorilla and saying the correct incantation.The resulting Winged Ape is silver and has sharp metal claws.

Once I had these details worked out, it was much easier to come up with the modification to Scene 6 and Scene 8. Scene 6 I finished first. I changed the focus of the fight so that it was more about destroying the hot dog than killing Rob. I’m not sure how well that will flow but I guess I’ll find out once I have the first visual pass of it done.

Scene 8 was much tougher. The hard part was coming up with the “super attack” the Sorcerers hit Rob with, by combining their powers together. I settled with some spinning blades keeping Rob in place while the Lead Sorcerer combines his mind power with the Other Male Sorcerer to try to disintegrate Rob. The rest is similar to what I had originally written, only with the new powers.

I’m a lot happier with this version.

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Fatima Webcomic. Impersonations over a lunch. Scene 6 treatment.

March 17, 2011 in CATHOLICISM, COMIC BOOKS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WEBSITES, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Last week I managed to not only rough out Act 2 but also Act 3 on show 21. I spent this week trying to tighten up the roughs on both boards. I managed to finish Act 2, I have yet to finish Act 3. I’m not sure my revision partner will get to Act 4 and I might end up getting it at the last minute. I hope not. We’ll see.

WEBSITES/COMIC BOOKS/CATHOLICISM

I’m usually not a fan of “Catholic religious comics”. The ones I’ve been exposed to have really been way too sweet with Saints that are so perfect they might as well be walking icons. They’re so perfect they’re inhuman and the stories are so preachy and contrived, they are completely unrelateable.

If they aren’t that, then they are so serious, humorless and full of suffering that, reading them is like subjecting yourself to torture.

I myself have thought about creating a Religious comic in order to see if it’s possible to create an appealing, compelling, fun and entertaining one. Well, I’m happy to say that I don’t have to do that, because someone already HAS.

Mitchelle D’Souza, a cartoonist currently (as of the time of this writing) living in Canada is working on a Fatima Webcomic, and it’s exactly that. It’s appealing, compelling, fun, entertaining AND FUNNY. I LOVE it. It hits all the beats I wanted to see in a Catholic comic. If I make a Religious comic, I hope it’s half as good as this. Reading it really made me smile. The characters are human, and full of flaws, which makes you really feel for them.

It’s a comic that retells the true story of the extraordinary events that happened in Fatima in 1917 to three Shepherd children. It’s all told through the eyes of the youngest of the three, Jacinta. Her antics are just really fun to read.

Here’s a sample page from the comic:

If you’re Catholic or interested in history, or are really into Fatima. If you want to put a smile on you face to see Jacinta do silly things, you should read this comics.

To read the comic CLICK HERE.

VIDEOS

Have you ever seen two comedian battle over who can do better impersonations over their super fancy lunch? I love this. They guys are so good.

WARNING: Contains bad language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nafTdTbfcNc

WRITING

It’s moments like these that I wonder why I decided to go with an action story. There’s nothing worse than sitting down, knowing you have to write action and not knowing what the heck to write. Trying not to repeat myself while attempting to write something interesting was a huge pain. Perhaps I was approaching it the wrong way, I don’t know. All I know is, that this was very difficult for me. In the end, I think I DID repeat myself a bit.

It’s hard because the point of the fight was not the fight in itself but the outcome of the fight, namely, the prevention of Rob being able to eat his hot dog and the knocking away of the hot dog from Rob. In fact, I kinda started in the second part of the fight before I wrote the first part. I don’t know why. It just seemed like a way to get started.

The entire fight was just a stream of conscientiousness kind of thing. I didn’t know what I would write until I wrote it. I’m just glad I was able to put something down.

You will notice that the small synopsis below is different than the original I wrote a few weeks earlier. I moved the stepping of the hot dog moment into this act as opposed to next act. I thought it would create a much more climatic low point for act 2.

Scene 6 (Inequity/Projection)

- Finding himself friendless and trapped, Rob decides to eat his hot dog there and then only one of the monsters causes the hot dog to end up a few feet from him, safely on it’s plate. The bad guys close in. Ignoring the Sorcerers, Rob goes for his hot dog only to have the Other Male Sorcerer step on it, leaving Rob stunned for a second. They laugh seeing that they’ve won and look forward in anticipation to the glory they will receive. (Act 2 climax).

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

Trapped, friendless and alone, Rob sees there’s no hope for getting away. The Sorcerers and creatures slowly make their way closer, relishing the situation. Rob has reached the point of not caring about anything anymore except getting to eat his hot dog. If they aren’t going to let him leave, and they’re not going to leave him alone to eat his lunch in peace, he might as well eat it in the midst of all the chaos. He’ll eat as he fights. At least that way, he can get what he wants in the end. It may not be the most ideal way to eat, but he’ll get to eat.

Rob expresses this out loud to the Sorcerers, and it actually hurts their pride to be taken so lightly by him. Especially considering the situation he’s in.

He grabs his hot dog, opens his mouth and is about to take a bite. Before he can get to it, he ducks under a Winged Ape’s claw. He quickly climbs over a bench and hides behind a tree putting in between him and the Ape. He goes for a bite but finds another Ape behind him who tries to smash him with both it’s fists. Rob moves out of the way and almost drops his hot dog. He then dodges a tree that was hurled at him from an Ape. The plate was hit off of Robs hand and goes flying through the air.

Rob runs after it and catches it. Before he could catch his breath his looks up to see the Viper Creature’s fanged face lunging at him. He doesn’t have time to leap and he finds himself prying open the Viper Creature’s jaw with one hand and his two feet, while holding on to the plate with his lunch the with his free hand. The Viper Creature begins to fling it’s head around, trying to get Rob to stop. Rob tries to hold on to his hot dog while keeping from being smashed. His strength begins to give out. He could only hope he could let go of the jaws fast enough to not get caught in them.

He let’s go and goes flying through the air. He lands hard on the ground, almost right back where he started in between the creatures and the Sorcerers. The plate gets knocked out of his hand when he lands, flies through the air, bounces and lands safely a few yards away; hot dog miraculously still on the plate. Rob sits up.

Everyone stops to look. They all turn to look at each other for a beat.

Then chaos.

Ice flies toward, Rob who dodges it. Rob runs toward one Winged Ape. The other Winged Ape slashes at him but he was using the other Ape to crawl and leap off of. One Ape slashes the other sending it reeling. Rob sees fireballs coming his way, at the same time he sees the Winged Ape that was left standing coming at him. The Viper creature spins around to get at him as well. He heads in the direction of the Viper creature as the fireballs land behind him. The fireballs continue to follow him landing on the Viper creature’s body and it hisses in pain. He heads toward the hot dog, jumping on the viper’s body as it tries to get him off. Fireballs still hitting it. The Winged Ape flies up to reach Rob, and Rob leaps off the Viper Creature as a fireball hits the Ape which land in the spot he had just vacated. The fireball blast sends Rob tumbling to the ground. He looks up and sees his hot dog a feet away. He scrawls to reach it. Right as he about to get it, a foot slams into it and smashes it. The hot dog is nothing but mush and completely uneatable.

Rob looks on shocked. He can’t believe it. After all that. The ONE thing he wanted. The ONE thing that made the intolerable situation he’s in tolerable. He slowly looks up, his eyes following the foot that had smashed his hopes. The veiled face of the Other Male Sorcerer stands about him. His shoulders chuckling in amusement. Rob lowers his head in defeat. He gives up. They won.

The Sorcerer mocks Rob, like a bully in a playground. Asking him if he’s going to cry. The female Sorcerer laughs. The Lead Sorcerer frowns at his colleagues’ childishness. The Other Males Sorcerer, glories in their triumph over Rob, as he announces out loud to the Lead Sorcerer how they will gain honor and prestige from all the other Sorcerers for doing what no others had been able to do before them. The Lead Sorcerer responds, telling the Other Males Sorcerers that even if it’s so, they should at least behave with dignity and have some semblance of honor in their triumph.

The Other Main Sorcerer, tells his boss that he’s giving Rob all the honor he deserves and proceeds to kick Rob in the face.

END OF SCENE

The last kick to the face was just to add insult to injury (or is it, injury to injury?). At this point in the story, I’m hoping the audience is emotionally ready to see some justice done.

Since I wrote the above, I thought about it a bit, wondering if I could improve it somehow. I’ve decided to leave it that way it is for now BUT it’s not set in stone. I think if I change it, I will go with another version that I thought up recently. I was thinking that, instead of the bad guys trying to hurt Rob, they might just be trying to destroy the hot dog deliberately. That would actually change the dynamics of the fight quite a bit and might even make it more interesting to watch. I’ll think about it some more and decide on what I’m going to do at the storyboard stage.

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Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

February 3, 2011 in FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Moved on to the Halloween show this week. At this point in the week, I’m not sure I’ll get what I was assigned done. I’m going to try my best to finish. It’s my professional pride to finish what I’m given. I don’t like giving back scenes I didn’t get to. Especially since I know I only have this week to work on the this show. Next week I start on Storyboard revisions again.

FAMILY

Dante turned 3 years on Monday. We took him to Travel Town at Griffith Park. It’s an old train yard converted to a park/museum. Dante is train obsessed. He’s into Thomas and Friends. He was so excited to be going into the trains. He loved it.

I did too. Trains are cool. There was an enormous one that had wheels taller than me. It was a giant train engine. Amazing. We rode on the mini train they had there and I ended up buying Dante a James the tank engine from Thomas and Friends. We then drove to the other side of Griffith Park were Dante’s Godmother was. There, we took him to ride a pony and another little train. My parents met us earlier in the day at Travel Town, so they were there too.

Dante was dying to go home mid way through the day, not because he wasn’t having a good time, but because he so desperately wanted to go home and play with his trains. Unfortunately we had a party to go to that day and we went there instead. Lucky for Dante, there where toy trains at that house for him to play with, so it was all okay.

When we DID get home, he took his new toy train to bed and slept with it. The next day, he spent a few hours playing with it. Every day when we get home, he plays with his trains. He’s been doing it for almost a year now.

WEBSITES

Gamification is the concept that you can apply the basic elements that make games fun and engaging to things that typically aren’t considered a game.

I became aware of this concept a while back, but I really didn’t put much attention to it. Then I read an article on Purple Pawn that made me a bit more curious, so I decided to find out more about it. It was an article about a new website that allows you to “Gamify” your site called Gamify.com.

This kinda gave me a more concrete example of what Gamification meant. Not only that, but it made it accessible. I then made my way to the Gamification Wiki where I found these videos explain things a bit more:

All this has got me thinking about how I could “Gamify” my blog, or any comics I make, or any cartoons I create. I’d love to have people get into anything I do because it’s not only fun to read or watch but because it also has a meta element, like a game, to keep you coming back for more. That way you can get a longer lasting experience out of what I do.

As a gamer (and by gamer I mean I like playing table top games, as well as video games) I find this really fascinating. Especially since it would combine the things I love. What do you think?

WRITING

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote from a few weeks ago, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

As I did the last two weeks, I’ll put up the DRAMATICA Table of Story Elements in order for you to understand what I’m talking about and so you can follow along. For a clearer pdf version of the chart (download chart now):

Alright, last act. As I wrote this one out I realized I’m going to have to make a few adjustments to Act 2 (more about that below) but that’s exactly what this process is about. Adjusting the structure of the story until you get the pieces in the right places.

Act 3

OVERALL STORY THROUGH LINE

Innermost Desires – The Lead Sorcerer stomps on the Hot Dog the main character so desired thereby demoralizing him. The Main Character sees his hot dog as a representation of the peace he longs for. Seeing this, the Sorcerers rejoice in the fact that they have can potentially attained the one thing no other Sorcerer so far have been able to do. Namely, kill the Main Character. They relish in the anticipation of the glory they so desire.

Innermost Desires ======> Contemplation – Having lost his Hot Dog and having nothing left to lose, the Main Character truly fights back. Giving into his desire to get revenge for the peace that was taken from him. He beats the Sorcerers senseless. This causes the Sorcerers to realize their mistaken impression of themselves.

Contemplation – A moment at the end there where the Main Character could have taken the Lead Sorcerer’s life but didn’t, makes the Sorcerer rethink who he is, what he does, and what all the other Sorcerer’s say about the Main Character. This leads to a generous act on the part of the Lead Sorcerer, who buys the Main Character two Hot Dogs to replace the one he destroyed. This makes the Main Character thinks that there still might be some hope for peace left.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Doing – Unfortunately the Lead Sorcerer destroys his Hot Dog, which forces him to pick up his weapon and fight them off or die.

Doing ======> Understanding – After dispatching all the monster and the other Sorcerers, he has the Lead Sorcerer in a weakened and vulnerable state. Understanding that the only way to show the Sorcerer that he’s mistaken about who he thinks he is. He chooses to let him go free.

Understanding – Rob realizes that it’s possible to change the minds of the Sorcerers and that gives him hope, that the attacks might stop and he’ll get the peace he wants. He also knows that every time he uses the warhammer, it gets more and more difficult to control himself and it.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Playing a Role – Rob begins striking down the Lead Sorcerer’s monsters and friends, making it easy to prove his point. He drives it home by showing Rob how easily he would strike down a helpless person, by NOT fighting him. Playing the role of victim to Rob’s predator.

Playing a Role ======> Changing One’s Nature – Rob shows the Lead Sorcerer that he HADN’T been as consumed and rage as he let on. Rob surprises the Lead Sorcerer by not attacking him when he has a chance.

Changing One’s Nature – The Sorcerer is deeply moved by this example and becomes very impressed. The Lead Sorcerer, makes a gift of two Hot Dogs for Rob out of respect, leaving Rob with a new perspective about the Sorcerers as a whole.

MAIN CHARACTER vs. IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Future – The Lead Sorcerer insists that the Main Character will enslave the world whether the Main Character says he will or not. The future is set, according to the prophesy. The main character insists it’s wrong, it’s false, it can’t happen.

Future ======> Present – In order to prove to the Lead Sorcerer that he’s not what the prophesy of his future says he is, he forces the Lead Sorcerer to notice how he acts here and now, by NOT treating him the same way the Lead Sorcerer treated, him. He doesn’t kill or hurt him once he’s down and powerless.

Present – Because of the way the Main Character treated the Lead Sorcerer, for now, the two characters end up, not as friends but not exactly enemies. There’s a type of mutual respect for each other that exist for the moment, that wasn’t there before.

Act 3 Themes (Truth/Falsehood, Suspicion/Evidence)

Scene 7 (Desire/Ability)

Ignoring the Sorcerers, Rob goes for his hot dog only to have the Lead Sorcerer step on it, leaving Rob stunned for a second. Rob becomes angry and his Raven flies from the bushes with Robs little weapon in it’s talons. He drops it on Rob’s hand were it magically grows large and he begins to fight off the monsters and Sorcerers in an almost out of control bezerker rage.

Scene 8 (Thought/Knowledge)

Seeing the might they have unleashed on themselves the Sorcerers are shocked and two of them are incapacitated by Rob. The Lead Sorcerer seeing this, thinks he’s proved his case and does the crazy thing of putting his guard down to prove to Rob who he really is. Rob sees this and fights to bring down his rage. The Lead Sorcerer expects to be struck down, only Rob surprises him by NOT doing so. (Act 3 climax)

Scene 9 (Thought/Actuality)

Rob puts down his weapon, walks away. He helps the other Sorcerers up and then starts picking up his things, which are now all over the destroyed area they fought on. By the time he’s done, the Sorcerers are gone. When he begins to walk away, the hot dog vendor calls out to him. He has two hot dogs for him, seemingly bought by the Lead Sorcerer. (Resolution)

And that’s that. I’m thinking about putting the “hot dogs getting stepped on” bit in Scene 6. I think it will fit better there.

I think Scene 8 will need to be the trickiest one, mainly because there needs to be a moment of inner conflict for Rob in order to be climactic and showing it visually will be difficult.

Now that I have a quick synopsis of what will be in each scene, I can star writing the treatment. Once that’s done, I will start writing the dialogue (which is the part I dying to write).

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

Comments Off on Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

Heavy rewrites. Begining to finalize my test. Free board game video games. GATCHAMAN boards. Went on the IDIOT ENGINE this week.

November 11, 2010 in ART, BOARD GAMES, MOVIES, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEO GAMES, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The act I’ve been given for this week has some HEAVY rewrites. I told my director I’d try to be done by the end of the week, but it’s pretty bad. I’m not exactly sure I’ll be able to make it. We’ll see how it goes.

Wednesday night, I showed my director my rough fixes for my act. Usually it takes me about a day or two to rough them out. It almost took me three for this one. I spent about a three and a half hours going over the act with my director. It was a very creative and exhausting experience. By the time it was over, it seemed to me that I had more work to do than I did before we started. And that was AFTER I had worked three days on the roughs already. I think the act is better off for it. I just wish I had more time.

…and now for something totally different…

Further down in this post I’ll be writing about GATCHAMAN. As I looked for pictures to use, I stumbled on these fantastic Simpsonized versions of the characters, courtesy of the FELIX IP blog. Go over to his site and give this artist/art director some love.

[G_Force_Team_by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg]

[G_Force__by_SimpsonsCameos.jpg]

ART

Since I just wasn’t happy with what Rob’s design looked like (still), I tried doodling a version on the first piece of paper I had on hand. It so happened to be the last page of revision notes I had for the show I was working on a week ago. The notes are cryptic if read out of the context of the episode.

I liked the doodles and I used them as a model sheet:

I changed the model of Rob’s face from last week. I also added the raven on Rob’s shoulder:

I then began to clean up the drawings, and as usual, have lost something of the “life” from the roughs.

If you notice, the background is blue in some of the drawings. Why? Because that will be the color of the sky BEFORE the bad guys show up.

I’m going to give myself permission to mess around with these drawings a bit more. Especially the raven’s wings in the first shot. Still, they are just about ready to be colored.

Before I even began to do a clean up line, I experimented with timing out the scene, just to make sure it would work. I even thought of roughing out some “anticipation poses” and an “overshoot” pose but I’m not sure it’s what I want. It may plays just as clear without them. So far, it looks like it’s going to look good. Once I’m done cleaning up the last pose, I’ll begin coloring. Doing that will give me a guide as to how long it will REALLY take to finish my “Illustrated Film”. At that point I’ll make the decision whether or not to render out all the drawings or not.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

If you’ve read my blog for while, you know I love playing board games. The problem is that I don’t have anyone around to play them with. Once in a blue moon I might get a game in, but it doesn’t happen very often and my games just sit there collecting dust. Occasionally I play with my kids but they’re 4 and 2 1/2 years old. It’s not quite the same thing.

Sometimes, the only alternative is to play a video game version of a board game. The thing is, most of my favorite games don’t HAVE video game versions…or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this “Geeklist” at Boardgame Geek:

Sebastian Sohn’s SoftBoard Games: Free, Commercial, and Abandoned Computer Version of Board, Card and Role-Playing Games with Computer AI (Artificial Intelligence) Opponents with Screen Shots

and found links to video game versions of my favorite games!

For example, DOMINION.

Though DOMINION is not exactly one of my favorite games, it IS a game that I own that I haven’t gotten to the table almost at all and I’ve been dying to play it. This gives me a happy alternative. To download this game, CLICK HERE.

Then there’s a the homemade unofficial MAGIC: THE GATHERING video game. MAGIC is one of my favorite games (CLICK HERE for my review), so it’s nice to be able to play it whenever I’d like. This one turned out to be a pretty darn good homemade game.

To download it, CLICK HERE

And last but not least. The game that got me the most excited. One of my favorite games, (if not my all time favorite game) DREAMBLADE! (CLICK HERE for my review) So AWESOME! Now I can play DREAMBLADE whenever I want. Hurray!

To download it, CLICK HERE

And if you’re a fan of DnD and don’t have anyone to play with, try this ROGUE like version of the 3.0 rules of the game:

INCURSION

Of course, none of these video games actually replaces playing the game against a human being around a table, but it at least makes you feel like you’re getting a little bit of board gaming done.

I recommend you look at the list to see if you can find a video game version of YOUR favorite board game.

WEBSITES/MOVIES

I forgot who linked to this on Twitter. My guess is that it was ShermCohen. In any case, I thought these storyboard where inspiring. I really want my “Illustrated film” to have this much energy and clarity. I thought I’d share the link below:

GATCHAMAN (FEATURE) Storyboards

I LOVE Gatchaman. I grew up watching them and I can’t wait for the movie to come out next year. Check out the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbk-5cMxEH8&feature

PODCAST

Last Friday I went on fellow CARTOONISTA Ted Seko’s IDIOT ENGINE podcast. It was a lot of fun and if you haven’t heard Ted‘s podcast, you’re really missing out.

Here’s the link to the podcast, if you’re interested:

IDIOT ENGINE episode 36: Passion and how it relates to our Artistic Purpose!

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Comments Off on Heavy rewrites. Begining to finalize my test. Free board game video games. GATCHAMAN boards. Went on the IDIOT ENGINE this week.

Still on the Couch Gag. Thumbnailing more shots. Someone erased my name of my animated gif. Drawing in public.

July 29, 2010 in ART, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Still working on that crazy Couch Gag this week. I’m very surprised at how much work is being put into it. I doubt anyone will say anything more than, “Wow, that was a weird Couch Gag,” and then forget about it and watch the show. Oh well, it’s not like it isn’t fun to work on, so I don’t really mind. It’s just interesting to note.

I’ve also been working on revising Act 2. This show has the least revisions of any show so far this season. It’s a darn funny show. Can’t wait to see the final version.

ART

It feels now like I’m just drawing for the sake of drawing and I’m not getting anywhere with my project. I just want to get on with finishing it at this point. It feels to me, as if I’ve solved everything and I’m ready to start with the “good stuff”. I know this is just me being impatient though. The last time I worked on a personal project, jumped right in and started working without solving everything, I got myself in trouble. Halfway through my project, I realized there were some art issues I hadn’t resolved and it ended up causing problems. Had I taken the time to work them out earlier, it would have been a smoother process.

For my own sake, I might as well write down what I still need to do.

Decide on a final look for the cartoon by drawing a clean concept piece.
Design monsters.
Tighten up the story a bit more in order to know what monsters to design.
Come up with a color scheme for the cartoon and characters (see 1.).
Finalize all the Sorcerer designs.
Once the final look is decided, do an animation test.

(Sigh) It kinda sounds like a lot to do before I can even begin storyboarding.

I’ve been trying to complete task No. 1. It’s tricky because I want to draw a finished piece that incorporates some of the “fun” things I want to draw in the cartoon. I decided that the thumbnail sketches I had been drawing depicted a scene that didn’t have much action in it. I’ve decided to see if I could, maybe, draw a picture with something exciting going on. This is what I’ve got so far:

I’m still going to need do a few more thumbnails though. I think I want to, at least, show the Sorcerers more. I want the drawing to say, “Danger and excitement” all in one drawing while allowing me to work on the color and style of the cartoon.

WEBSITES

So I followed the source of a link that lead to my blog out of curiosity. I found one of my animated GIF files that I did years ago, being talked about on a Spanish speaking forum. To my surprise, a couple of posts later, I found that one of the forum users had translated it into SPANISH. I thought it was great that the person did that and I was really flattered. Then I looked closer at the translated version and saw the translator had decided to take my name off it. Why?!

I was planning to put the translated version up here on my blog. I was going to but my name back on it but I found out, to my dismay, that I couldn’t. I don’t know how the guy managed to edit my GIF but I wasn’t able to edit his. So I’ve decided NOT to put the translated version here even though I thought it was neat.

Perhaps I should do a translated version myself instead. Maybe next week, if I have time. Meanwhile, here’s the original version of the GIF if you haven’t seen it yet:

I just finished rereading the original blog article this drawing was posted with. It seems I was going a little insane at the time. It also answers the question as to why the drawing is signed “Frog 08”.

VIDEO

I liked this cartoon below. It’s sad but true. When an artist goes out and draws in public, this sometimes happens:

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Yoga Podcasts and YoGeek.Me Designs. Jim Lujan’s newest cartoon. Cartoonists helping one of their own.

November 19, 2009 in ART, BLOGS, FAMILY, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Worked overtime this Saturday. It wasn’t nice. We got what we needed done with time to spare though. The show looks great. I even got an hour to relax on Tuesday before I went home. Yay!

FAMILY/ART/PODCAST/BLOG

So my sister has commissioned me to design her a logo for her Podcast (www.elsiesyogakula.com) and her business (http://yogeek.me). She’s a Yoga instructor. She sent me a few example drawings of things that are in the general direction of what she wants, as well as some photos of herself in poses she though I could use. One example was a few very interesting cartoony silhouettes in yoga poses, and the other is of a cartoony Vishnu/Shiva like multi-armed woman with all kinds of devices and things in her hands (no I’m don’t worship these gods, nor does my sister). My job is to come up with something that has the general idea of the things she sent me without actually copying those things. Very tricky.

She asked me to do it in “my style”, but, to be honest, I’m not sure what that is. The “chibi” style I usually do on this blog, and in my upcoming Black Terror Kid comic strip, is not necessarily what I consider “my style”. It’s just what’s easiest for me to do. My “short hand” if you will. Does that make it my style?

So I don’t even know if I’m going to use that style for these logos. Although, it might be the first place I start.

So…here I go. The following is the start of my process of figuring out what to do:

So I chose to start designing the logos using silhouettes. It’s a technique I first saw used in a book called: The Skillful Huntsman. I chose this method because I figured, if the silhouette, by itself, reads well, adding detail would just be icing. My first attempts above, where my attempt to use my “Chibi” style for the logo. It wasn’t a good style to use though. It was too squat and compressed. In the end, the drawings just look like weird bugs. I quit using the style without refining the drawings. It would have been a waste of time.

My second attempt was to try a style that was a little like the “Chibi” style, only with more stretched out proportions. This worked a little better. It was clearer. Only it looks like the character is juggling. Also, it was too much like my source material. I didn’t want to directly copy my reference.

I chose a standing position to try to make the drawing something a little different than the reference. The proportions of the figure are much more naturalistic but still very designed. I think this is closer to the direction I should go. It’s a very clear design. Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite say “Yoga” to me. I also need more tech and health silhouettes in the hands. I’m going to have to go over this with my sister. She might have an idea as to what direction to go.

This last one is my first attempt at the podcast logo. It’s based off the photo my sister sent me, which is the same as her site photo. This was a happy accident. It just looks like a big brush stroke. I almost just want to keep it this way. Still, I might play around with it a bit more. I’ll also try working off the other photo she sent me to see if I can’t do something similar with that.

That’s all I have so far. I’ll post more next time.

ART

Fellow CARTOONISTA, Jim Lujan, has posted up the second part of his John Henry Unicorn trilogy. The story is basically about a manipulative cult leader that causes mayhem wherever he goes. It’s a dark comedy Jim wrote, directed, animated, voice acted and wrote the music for. Jim is a very funny and very nice guy. His humor stems from taking the things that make odd people odd and exaggerating them. It’s very observational. His art is very reminiscent of Mike Judge‘s art (creator of Beavis and Butt-head, and King of the Hill), only he drew this way before he ever saw any of Mike Judge‘s early films and Jim‘s drawings are a bit more stylized.

This lastest cartoon took him 2 months to do, off and on, during his free time. He assures me that it only took him this long because he was getting used to his new iMac. He told me, the next one would be done faster. This is just amazing to me. He was able to do a cartoon, by himself, in the same amount of time it takes most artists to draw a comic book.

He makes me want to try it myself.

My favorite part is the wig bit. That really cracked me up. The ending was very odd and very silly.

WEBSITES

Tom Bancroft posted this on his Deviant Art News page. I thought I’d share it here since it’s a good cause:

ART AUCTION on EBay. Former Disney animator and author Tom Bancroft along with Tony Bancroft (yes, he was also a Disney animator, my twin, and directed MULAN) and a friend (Chad Frye) are putting together a huge Ebay art auction for the Hodge family and their son, Matt. Tim Hodge (the dad) is a long time friend (my family has know their’s since our kids where babies!) and Tim is a former Disney storyboard artist and Big Ides Productions director. His son, Matt, a 17-year old senior in high school was in a terrible accident when his car was hit by a train a couple months ago. He is still in a coma because of the head trauma. Their family is in need of financial help. Thus, the art auction.

The plan is to have the auction hit Ebay in about a month (beginning of December). We have sent out notes to some of the biggest names in animation, comic books, comic strips, and illustration for donations. We are getting in great artwork every day! (I met with John Pomoroy yesterday, who contributed a signed animation drawing!)

Please go to our preview site at: [link] to see what has come in so far and keep going back for more and more artwork as it comes in and updates about the auction. I’m counting on all of you to spread the news about this site and auction! Tell all your friends, these will make GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!

Some of the artists that have donated or have promised to are: J. Scott Campbell, Chris Sanders, John Pomeroy, Drew Struzen, Peter DeSeve, Stephen Silvers, Charles Schutz’s family, Patrick McDonnell, and so many more!

BLOG

I was just checking out Paolo Rivera’s blog. His stuff is so COOL! Man, the guy rocks. He has a video of his process HERE. Here’s a video interview with him:

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If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS – 3 Lessons Learned From my First Simpsons Director

Lesson The First – Effects

Lesson The Second – Antics and Overshoot

Lesson The Third – The possibilities of animation

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WEBSITES – Working on a Drawing Equipment Post

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The Second Simpsons Show I Worked On.

Exiled to The Little Dark Room

Choking Matlock

The Lesson

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WEBSITES – The Drawing Website is Officially Up

BOOKS – Free copy of The Tower’s Alchemist Kindle book

FAMILY – Dante Fractured his Arm

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THE SIMPSON NEWS – Why I Chopped Quentin Tarantino’s head off.

How it began

The fun part

The Irony

The Catharsis

WEBSITES – The Drawing Website Update

SOME THOUGHTS – My new current obsession

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