Odds and Ends

I got a Pasta Machine to give my poor hands a break from squashing Sculpey. I don't milk cows for a living, so my hands were getting a bit sore from the exercise. I've been wanting one for awhile, saw this one in the store yesterday when I was picking up some supplies, so I went ahead and got it. I was doing a quick google to find a reference of milking a cow and found this old photo...it reminds me of my mom milking the Jersey cow in the backshed at my grandma's house (my dad's mom) in Louisiana. My mom liked to give the barn cats a treat now and then just like in the below photo. :)

A friend of mine that used to work with me in toy development and is now an animator for an online children's educational site, is also a professional maquette artist and has offered to mentor me as I continue to practice my sculpting skills. Yay! Those kinds of friends are the best. :)

I've been collecting the McFarlane Dragons since they started showing up in toy stores just over a year ago. The other day while I was visiting conceptart.org, I discovered that one of the designers for the Series 3 dragons, Jin Han, has a website with some of the concept art he developed. Really nice to see another artist's process. The above dragon is one of the two that I like in Series 3...while I bought the others, too, to have a full set, I didn't take them out of their cartons just yet.

I just saw a new post on Monster.com for a toy designer at Disney in my daily Monster email this morning. While a tempting way to get over to the L.A. area (and believe me, I'm considering it) and get involved in the L.A. animation creative community, toy design is really not the career direction I want to continue pursuing...but, DAMN, it's tempting. Especially since I seem to be making no headway at all in my current pursuit as visual development artist/concept artist/character designer at an animation studio.

I need to think about it.

New Book! Drawing for Animation Production

I ordered a couple of books this past week from my favorite store in the whole world, Amazon. ;) And so my library continues to grow...

If I recall correctly, I spotted this book, All About Techniques in Drawing for Animation Production by Sergi Camara, in a brief review on one of those random drawing/animation websites I like to check out at home after work just before bedtime...it seemed like a worthwhile addition to my animation library so I ordered it along with The Art of Cars.

Like I wasn't going to order that one, ha!

To NYC and Back

Well, I'm back from another trip to NYC. This time I went on a company trip to the 2006 Licensing Show to check out the properties available that my employer might want to consider for future product development. Alot of interesting stuff to check out although most of the major players and their offerings were already familiar to me from a variety of other resources (animation, tv, games, upcoming movies, etc.).

The toy company I work for also had some products on display for one of the companies we hold a development license for. Along with the life-sized Leatherface and Freddy that we'd developed in the "House of Horrors" section of the booth, New Line Cinema also had a life-size version of the armored polar bear from one of their current projects in development, The Golden Compass. My boss took a picture of me standing next to one of the bears. Can't show the whole bear image, sorry. Once I see an official posting on the 'net, I'll be happy to post more. ;)

I'm really looking forward to the series (it's the first in a trilogy). Hopefully, they'll do a great job on the movie adaption of the book. Well, I know I'll go see it at least once in any case - it has Polar Bears! :)

Edit: Ha! I thought action-figure.com might have a picture, and they did! Here's a full image of the Polar Bear. As you can see, I wasn't even up to the bear's shoulder in the above photo. It's pretty tall!

Recycling Creative Ideas

This is some artwork I created for a student animation short I did a few years ago. The assignment was to create a small animation and then complete the composition in Combustion. It was a fun project and I really enjoyed working with the software to make my little story come to life.

Well, I decided to revisit the project (I liked the idea that much) and flesh it out a bit more. So, for the last week, I've been polishing the storyboard and updating the character designs and the overall visual development. I needed to add some fresh work to my portfolio and this little project seemed like a nice one to add.

All of the elements were sketched out first on cold press paper and then colored with watercolors. Then I scanned the images and did a wee bit of manipulation in Photoshop. All of the elements - trees, house, moon, some clouds, and other building elements you don't see here; were pulled into Combustion as individual pieces so that when the camera moved around the scene, the effect was quite dimensional. In a way like the multi-plane camera effect used in the old Disney animation. But only in a small way, heh.

I'll post some of the other artwork related to that at another time. ;)

Wyvern Concept

A quick concept to break up my Sunday routine of cleaning, working on the website, and feeding my snakes. I also included the initial coloring for the wyvern. I'll post some more when I'm a bit further along.

I don't enjoy feeding my snakes. At least it's only about once a month. I always feel sorry for the mice. sigh. Just to help offset the fact that, hey, my snakes exist in order to keep down the rodent population (one is a rat snake and the other is a corn snake)...I rescue a mouse from the batch now and then. Actually, at the moment I have two white mice that I rescued about a year ago.

Mouse One and Mouse Two.

Beautiful Women

While I do my daily random toy research, I'm also looking for those toys or collectibles that I wouldn't mind adding to my toy display shelf, at work or at home. One of the items I definitely keep an eye out for: female characters. There just aren't that many of them...that are done well. Particularly in the case of action figures. So, when I find a good one, I try and get it.

Today's Toy Pick: Marvel's The Dark Phoenix Saga - Storm Maquette.

What a lovely sculpt! The artist who created that one has some other excellent work as well - Jeff Feligno. Go here to check some of his other work out.

Animal Anatomy for Artists

I love getting a new book! Today I got a really good one that I'd ordered from Amazon: Animal Anatomy for Artists by Eliot Goldfinger. I do have other anatomy reference books that I appreciate, but what makes this new one (well, new for me) stand out is the examples of Proportions as well as the Variety of animals shown and examples of Axes and Volume with skeletal flex and reflex. Not only is this book a good reference for drawing studies or variations of animal or creature poses, the examples provided are also excellent references for sculpting...which is actually the reason I ordered the book.

I give this book 5 Stars! :)

It's a Munster!

This maquette is soo on target for Herman Munster! I love it. So, that's my pick for Today's Toy. Click on the above image and you'll see a bigger version. Sideshow Collectables is distributing it and Electric Tiki is producing it.

I usually spend about 30 minutes first thing in the morning visiting various toy sites in order to see what's out there. It's research for my job that's fun to do and helps me get a list going of things I want to buy...ha! But, it also gives me a good idea of what other toy companies think is the latest cool license, toy trend or character that the consumer market will want to buy or potentially collect. This is definitely something we toy designers will want to keep in mind as we're concepting new products for our own company lines. Research is good.

It's actually one of the reasons why my license Product Manager wants me to check out the exhibit floor the two days we're at the NYC 2006 License show in a couple of weeks. I've been given complete freedom to wander around (the others will mostly be attending scheduled meetings with our licensors), so I'm planning on bringing a camera and visiting lots of booths. There's also a couple of panels I read about that might be interesting, so I'll try and check those out. NYC is a fun place to visit. I'm just not thrilled about the 6 am flight we'll be taking. Good golly...everyone who knows me knows how much I like to sleep in.

Yup, I'll be there. I wonder if they will be giving out any swag....

Well, I have a three-day weekend from my job starting today, which mean more time to work on my comic...oh, and the portfolio, too, of course! Print and Online. I'll be shipping out a couple more portfolio samples on Saturday. No other nibbles just yet other than the toy company in Seattle (which I didn't even apply to), but why should I be surprised. I have a lot of competition.

Wish me luck!

Show Your Love: Give a Bug

For those times when you just can't find a better way to show someone how much you care...give them a gift of Cooties. Or a Stomach Ache. The Flu? How 'bout a Pimple? That and so much more...!

Today's Toy: Giant Microbes!

...And My Creative Life Drags On

I need a vacation. Well, there are a few other things that would also help make my life a bit more meaningful, but a vacation would be a good start. The above picture was a photo that I took on our hotel balcony when we visited Santa Monica a few years ago. That was just too long ago. I miss the Pacific Ocean so much.

It's been rather nice and quiet at work since most of the managers are either in China or traveling or on vacation. Everyone on my team is ready for a vacation, too, I think. It has been difficult to focus on yet another creative brainstorming...this time for lawn and garden novelty and toys and outdoor activity stuff. I myself don't have a house or yard...barely a balcony to be honest...and have rented various apartments for the last 20 years or so, so it can be rather challenging to come up with the "Next Big Thing" for garden decor.

So, I'm doing alot of research. Some online, some offline, and a few interviews to gather information about what consumers are looking for to make their gardens the envy of the neighbors. ha!

Surprisingly, some of my designs for novelty yard products are seriously selling well. I'm stunned actually. I have to admit, that for those particular products, I did take inspiration from my crazy, I mean my lovely sister and her husband...both of whom I always enjoy visiting. I'll have to make sure to give them a few samples cause I know they'll appreciate them. :)

-----------------------------------------------------

I asked a girl friend of mine about the post I made on the ABOSG forum to get a discussion going on female role models in the animation industry...since the professor I mentioned, after reading my comment, thought that I'd been offended by his comment. I wasn't offended so much as I was irritated...and I needed to understand what it was about his statement that bothered me, and I wanted to let him know without interrupting the presentation. The discussion thread and subsequent comments did clear that up and got some others aware of my point.

Anyways, here's what she replied after I asked for her opinion about my discussion thread:

"Personally, I think what you said was great! It's too bad that others didn't really accept your comment as an opening to an interesting discussion/debate and instead took it personally.

I think Rita Street is a good example of the fact that women CAN be successful in this industry, but she's not doing the sort of job that the young people coming to the ABOSG meetings are seeking. As a woman who works in a predominately male industry, it's helpful to see women being successful in this industry. It is however very disheartening that most of them aren't artists working on the floor. That part of things is still very male-centric. Women are still repeatedly passed up for promotions, advancements, etc. Not to mention we're treated like we're doing something "cute" that we have any sort of talent at all in many cases.

Wait - I thought this was 2006?

Women still get paid a lower average salary than men do and working in such a male-dominated industry doesn't help that. It means we have to work harder, longer just to prove that we deserve what everyone else is already getting. It would have been very nice to have had someone to look up to when I was first learning how this industry works. I don't know, I see validity on both sides of the coin on this one. I do think that it would be nice to see some women speakers at some of these meetings. Specifically women who have been in the industry for a while."

And then there's the new private Girls Forum on ConceptArt.org that was created to help the Ladies of CA build a network and potentially provide a professional arena for women who are interested in developing or sharing their skills in concept art development...

They've renamed this new forum the "G-Spot".

sigh.

-----------------------------------------------------

EXTRA, the entertainment newsshow, tonight called the upcoming "Ant Bully" the "sleeper animated hit for this summer" - ""The Ant Bully" is animated with a capital "A" as in A-listers, with the voices of Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Nicolas Cage lending their voices to the family film."

Of course, ExtraTV is owned by Time/Warner, so take that comment with a grain of salt. So sad, though, that DNA Productions, Inc., the company that wrote the script based on the children's book by John Nickle, directed, designed and animated the movie...chose to lay-off just about everyone that worked on it. Yeah, and I bet that their next feature production(s) will have the high quality and talented artists and animators that I've heard about in the development of Ant Bully. NOT.

It's really sad, but true, that we just don't have the available studios here in Dallas like Los Angeles so that talent can rotate from one creative workplace to the next...and it's not that easy to get people from there willing to move to Texas for a year or two of production time. There's just not enough animation work being done here in Texas to make that a feasible decision to bring family and buy/sell their home.

-----------------------------------------------------

Some concept art by Henry Selick for the upcoming stop-motion feature film was posted on Neil Gaiman's blog for "Coraline." Go here to check it out.

-----------------------------------------------------

I updated my side navigation to include some of the books, DVDs and other linkable items that I'm currently reading, studying, or watching. I've noticed a couple of other blogs that have something similar which has allowed me to find some interesting sites and fun stuff, so I thought I'd do a bit of sharing, too.

-----------------------------------------------------

A few weeks ago on the ConceptArt.org forum, I found a new thread with concept art for what looked rather like characters from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight. And I wasn't the only one to comment about the similarity. The artist had apologised in his opening paragraph about the quality of the concepts (which were pretty good), and had stated that these were his first ever dragon concepts...so would we please be gentle. My comment was that the art was great, but if he was doing an homage to Anne McCaffrey's dragons, he needed to get rid of the horns on the dragon heads and make sure that he didn't use scales...that's part of what made Anne's dragons uniquely hers..and she's pointed that out rather frequently. I also added that "hadn't a Canadian company a few years ago also done some pre-viz work on a potential tv series about the Dragonriders of Pern...I remember so looking forward to that". Interestingly enough, the thread was deleted later that day.

And I just so happened to get this announcement this past week in one of those VFX emails that I get periodically:

Ryan Producers Ride Pern Into Theaters
"Anne McCaffrey's best-selling and long-running sci-fi/fantasy series THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN will fly into theaters via Canadian production company Copperheart Ent, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.Copperheart, which produced Chris Landreth’s 2005 Oscar-winning animated short RYAN, has optioned the 19-book series, which began with DRAGONFLIGHT in 1968..." There's a bit more info in the rest of the article...click the title link to go to the source.

Edit: Ah ha! I knew there would be info about the earlier prospective tv series somewhere on the internet....

Crescent Blues: While we're talking about dragons and cameras, Crescent Blues has heard there's a new television series currently in production in Toronto called The Dragonriders of Pern. This is really exciting news for Pern fans. When and how did this come about?

Anne McCaffrey: Zyntopo with Alliance/Atlantis are doing a live-action, digitally enhanced, animatronic TV series, prime time and internationally aired, called The Dragonriders of Pern (R). Robinton will certainly be a player, but the series will start with a combination of Renegades of Pern, Dragonflight, and All The Weyrs of Pern. With some 2558 years to work in, there's plenty of material for adventures. But to the second question, when and how, it all revolves around a kitten and that's a long story. Suffice it to say that there's been pre-production work in Dublin and Toronto, for the past year and a half, and I'm quite satisfied with the work in its present stage.

Hmmm...now, isn't that interesting.

My Alter Ego

A color concept of an 18th century woman...so maybe that's how I would have looked back in that time period. ;) I had posted the original sketch on my blog on an earlier occasion. This is after about 20 minutes of quick coloring in Photoshop tonight.

Here's my original sketch:

Maquette Sculpting panel

The ABOSG presentation was tweaked a wee bit - Riley had to cancel at just about the last minute, so a couple of other people that do a bit of maquette sculpting were kind enough to give a presentation, bring some of their work with them, and hold a Q&A afterwards - Anthony Coffey (I-Station) and Shawn Peters (ReelFX).

One of the guys was actually someone I'd worked with in the past at the toy company where I'm currently employed; however, he now works as a 2D animator. He brought along some of the maquettes that he used to have sitting at his desk...stuff that he'd done in his own time - not for work. The other guy, primarily a digital illustrator and matte artist, was a bit newer to the maquette sculpting process - he'd been learning this technique at work in the past year with the company's go-ahead, by creating actual maquettes as pre-vis tools for a couple of their 3D animation projects.

Their presentation was primarily focused on getting started in maquette sculpting, so they gave us handouts which included a list of basic tools, armatures, modeling clay, brief step-by-steps of the sculpting process, and suggested tutorials for us to check out. They also discussed some of their best practices, some of their mistakes, and some of their reasons for using the different types of clay or, on occasion, combinations of clay.

Since this is exactly what I needed to know, it was all good to hear. I have one sculpt currently in progress, the head of one of my polar bear characters, that I now know how to finalize with details.

I should have taken some pictures to show some of the excellent work that the guys brought with them, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. I'll have to next time. Actually, the next meeting will be the Industry Giants event, and I've already bought a ticket for that, so I will definitely be taking pictures at that time!

Here are some of the recommended websites for sculpting inspiration and reference:
- http://sodafx.dk
- http://www.electrictiki.com
- http://www.miez.nl/putty-n-paint/tutorials.php
- http://www.themonsterlab.com
- http://www.bowendesigns.com
- http://www.alvarezwaxmodels.com
- http://www.peterkonig.com
- http://www.toxic.com
- http://www.studiowillich.com
- http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18287&page=1&pp=60
- http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56203

And may I also recommend these:

Maquette Sculpting tutorial by GoblinQueen:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13943213/

Chiarelli Studios:
http://www.chiarellistudios.com/page2.html

The Gnomon Workshop Sculpting DVDs by John Brown:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/scu_ble.html

The Stop Motion Animation discussion boards:
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=17


---------------------------------------------------------------
Prior to the panel presentation, a comment from one of the instructors attending the meeting had me shaking my head and getting a bit irritated. Rita Street will be the moderator for the discussion panel and Q&A that will conclude the IG 2006 event. This instructor from the Collin County Community College felt that Ms Street would be an excellent role model for the young females of ABOSG who are seriously interested in working in the animation industry.

I disagree completely. Did he say this comment simply because Ms Street is a woman working in the animation industry? Are we going back to the days of the Disney Ink and Paint girls?

The women that attend the A Bunch of Short Guys meetings are generally doing so, not only because they are interested in working in the animation industry, but also because they are learning and building skills as animation artists by studying and practicing character animation, modeling, storyboarding, digital and traditional illustration, and other various 2D and 3D disciplines. Why would they be even remotely interested in becoming an editor, producer, managing director or journalist of animation, particularly at this early creative stage in their art of animation careers? To put it bluntly, those roles tend to be rather non-creative in a potentially very creative environment.

If the CCCC 2 year program in 3D Entertainment Animation/offered courses in the business of animation and was churning out writing degrees for roles in the animation industry, then I would agree that any student, not just females who happen to be interested in working in the animation industry, should see Ms. Street as a role model. She is very successful at what she does and is fairly well-known in the animation community.

From Cartoon Brew:

"Rita Street is the managing director of Radar Cartoons, a boutique consultancy firm focusing on the needs of international animation studios, helping develop and sell her client’s original content onto American networks. Rita is also the out-of-house entertainment producer for the Los Angeles-based design house Mighty Fine (creators of Ruby Gloom and French Kitty) and the co-producer of "The Nicktoons Film Festival" with Frederator Studios for the Nicktoons cable channel.

Before opening Radar, Rita worked as a publisher, editor and journalist focusing on the industry of animation. She has served as the publisher of ANIMATION MAGAZINE, the editor of FILM & VIDEO MAGAZINE and has also authored several books on graphic arts including COMPUTER ANIMATION: A WHOLE NEW WORLD (Rockport). For the Art Institute of Pittsburgh she serves as a program advisory committee member for Game Art & Design. She has also served on several prestigious juries, most notably Austria's Prix Ars Electronica competition for excellence in computer animation and visual effects.

Rita is the founder of the international non-profit organization, Women In Animation and a board member of ASIFA-Hollywood."

I wish I would have spoken up at the time he made that comment. Eh, but I probably would not have been able to speak as directly to the point about why that comment bothered me. Instead I think that I will post these comments on the ABOSG forum, in the hopes that I can better present my argument...and maybe get a nice little discussion going. :)

Done!

---------------------------------------------------------------

One final comment:

A male student from my old school that liked to follow me around, sit next to me in every class we had together, send me email after email asking to be my "friend", wanted me to teach him better English, pestered me about giving him job advice and help him get a job...showed up at the ABOSG meeting. It's like old nightmares from elementary school...but in college!

When we were in school I treated him no better and no worse than any of my regular classmates. This man was not a friend of mine. Just a classmate. One little smile and a friendly hello to him just as I did to any other student I knew while I was in school, and the idiot WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE! I did ask him to stop sending me emails and I told him that I could not help him with his career. I finally just blocked all emails from him. Once I graduated, there was no further in-person contact with him either.

Well, get this: I left the meeting for a short bathroom break. He followed me and waited! I leave the restroom area to go back and there he was. He just stood there watching me, smiling. There was no one else in the bathroom that he could've been waiting for. I decided to leave the meeting entirely and didn't go back. I don't need that kind of annoyance.

What a creep.

It's a Small World

The above sketch is only one of the many interesting characters, I mean people, that I saw at the Taste of Addison festival last Saturday. She was really quite nicely coordinated with her little yappy terrier. Believe me, there were times I wish I had brought my camera...just to be able to show later, "See! She/he actually exists!" There was a guy that looked exactly like Santa Claus, too.

....

I keep forgetting how small and inter-connected the creative community can be.

There was the time I was coming up out of the subway in Union Square one morning back when I was working in NYC heading for my office across the street...as I went up the stairs, one of my former co-workers who had joined with a different company based in Boston while I was in NYC, happened to be coming downstairs. We both just then looked up at the same time and saw each other. Fun!

Yesterday I found out that the sister of one of the tech department heads at my current job was at the WIGI event I was at a couple of weeks ago. She was one of the speakers who gave a presentation about her experiences as a woman in the game development industry. She had originally studied architecture at A&M (the first University I went to) but now happens to be a level designer for Ensemble Studios.

Today I got an email from a toy and boardgame company in Seattle that had picked up my resume from one of the various creative job boards that I frequent. They were curious to find out if I was available for a full-time position with their company. Interestingly enough, a couple of the principles with this company used to work at the toy company where I'm currently employed. Like I said, small world! If I was looking to develop my career further in the toy industry, then they would be someone I'd be interested in talking to further. However, I'm not interested in pursuing additional full-time experience in the toy industry - my goal is to find work in the animation industry. Possibly...maybe... in the PC/console game development industry. So, I basically replied, "Thanks! But I'm not available at this time."

Well, it happened once again. Turns out that Mr. Riley whose presentation on maquettes I'll be seeing this weekend, also did some work for one of my current co-workers when my co-worker was working with George Lucas and Skywalker Ranch for some new Star Wars promotional pieces; the client was Pepsi I think. Anyways, they did several life-size versions of characters like Watto, Yoda, Darth Maul and a few others and hired Riley for some product development. Riley seriously impressed my co-worker with the speed and accuracy of his sculpting of the Watto character.

And that Watto character happens to sit now in the cubicle behind me. And the poor thing wears a raccoon hat. There's a Yoda, too, up further over on the right. And a few other toys and props. Well, alot more, to be honest. We each have all sorts of toys and gizmos at our desks and taking up space in our cubes.

It's one of the perks of being a toy maker...you know, the need for reference material. ;)

Stuff

My mom is in Europe for the summer, something she does every year; so there's no special Mother's Day event today to do. However, I do have a "Care Package" heading out her way in the next few days so that will be a nice little surprise; and I chatted briefly with her this afternoon. Next summer I might be spending a week or two with her - that will be fun. It's been a few years since I've had the time to do that and I'd like to visit before she eventually sells the apartment, although that might not be for a few years yet. Hopefully, my work schedule, wherever it is, will cooperate. Besides, it's time to get in some updates for my photo albums. That's me in the pix above, from a few years ago. No pink in the hair at all and it was still quite long although I usually had it pulled back or braided. I'd just broken up with my sometimes occasional boyfriend (SOB for short) so I think my mom figured a trip would be a nice distraction. The beer with breakfast, lunch and dinner helped, too.

Yesterday, I had a great time visiting with my friend Toni and her little niece and nephew. She flew them in to spend a long weekend with her. They've grown so much! We spent the day at the Taste of Addison festival with the kids and a few additional assorted friends, and had a great time eating, checking out all the interesting people wandering around, listening to the live music, and riding lots of carnival rides. It was a blast. At least, I wasn't the only one about to barf after the many spinning, twisting rides I went on with the kids...the nephew was about to spew on the last ride, but managed to keep it down although he turned rather green and shut his eyes. Toni was smart and let me have all of that fun with them while she watched and took pictures.

It's good to keep in touch with your friends. I try to hang on to the best ones. Which is one of the reasons I'm off in September to NYC to visit with one of my old friends and his family. I've known him for over ten years now. Crazy!

Next Saturday at the ABOSG meeting, Joe Riley will be presenting "Maquette Sculpting". Evidently, he was (maybe still is?) working as a maquette sculptor at DNA Productions. Considering the rather massive layoffs that have been going on at DNA, I'm curious to find out if they're keeping him on or if he was simply there as a contractor and now that contract is over. In any case, I'm really interested in polishing my sculpting and maquette skills (it comes in very handy to have a maquette when creating character turn-arounds and odd angles of a specific character...even for 2D layouts...so I have at times created some very rough maquettes to help me) so I'll be there with a few questions and taking lots o' notes.

Speaking of creating turn-arounds, I'm doing a very rough 3D set of one of my latest product concepts for work. It has a rather odd requirement for forced perspective because of the scene as well as its environment and the different views that we want to have available for the purchaser. Unfortunately, the company I work for, while interested in the capabilities of 3D modeling, refuses to budget or spend the money needed to get even one user license for a decent 3D package. First they say, "Yes, that's a great idea! Do some research and let's get that going here!" then they nod their heads when we get vendors in to demo....then they do nothing. The usual policy seems to be, ignore it and it goes away.

I'm sure, if you know me well, you can already see me rolling my eyes. Bah. So I'm working on this at my home studio, on my own time.

Well, I have to admit, considering that they won't even spend $50 to get us a second scanner for the company (every department comes over to borrow our scanner at some time or another so we have to go hunt it down at times when they forget to bring it back), I shouldn't be so surprised that they balk at buying a 3D application package.

So this afternoon, I bought a scanner for myself for use at work. It will be labeled with my name on it, I will take it home with me (although I already have two high-end scanners at home that I use), and it will be chained to me while I'm at work. Just kidding...sort of; but I'm going to keep a tally of how frequently my co-workers stop by and ask to borrow it and then I'll present that to my creative manager and the marketing director who is in charge of my department. I'm curious to see what happens.

Of course, that may simply be a moot point, if (when!!!) I get another job offer at last. Things are getting interesting yet again. As I've stated previously, my goal is to have a new creative job before August, to finally get closer to my creative career goal...and so that I miss out on the next daily costume show and parades to the buyers, as well as the next trip to China. There is NO WAY I'm going to move to China for six months. While I have, once again, gotten a couple of offers from people I know who would like me to help them out with a start-up game company as well as yet another animation studio, neither one of those situations is of interest to me. While both of those are certainly challenging with some future potential, they will also take time to turn a profit and establish a production pipeline, and I seriously doubt that they will bring in the kind of experienced artists that they will need...at least initially. I realize that I have quite a bit to learn myself which is one of the reasons I'd like to work for an established studio. In any case, I wished them both well.

Watched Dog Soldiers the other day. I'm still on a werewolf kick, I guess. A funny, almost scary movie with some rather hilarous cursing by the British soldiers. While the special FX could have been improved, even without using CG, it wasn't that much of a distraction from the story which was pretty decent. I still want to write my own werewolf story...that, too, is on my list. Surprise! Like Maurice Sendak said,"...write about what delights you."

For a bit of contrast, I also watched Kissing Jessica Stein. I love her apartment...wooden floors throughout, space for an easel and various paintings-in-progress, and all those lovely books and shelves to put them in! My kind of place. Fun story that hits a bit too close to home as far as the dating scene goes, even if I'm not 28 again. Anymore? ha!

The new website is just about finished (finally), so I can soon take that off my list of Things I Must Get FINISHED, and just do maintenance and minor updates. I've been updating that sucker for the past year now. Since I'm keeping this blog somewhat anonymous as it offers me the chance to talk to myself (in addition to the people that live in my head) and Work Things Out as well as post art and get the occasional comment from friends and strangers, I will not be posting a direct link to the new website. Those who know me, know where it is.

What else am I doing... Ah, I ordered a batch of illustration boards (my favs are the Hi-Line Hot Press), so that I can do the final art for the first chapter of my graphic novel. For the submission and editorial review, I'll also include the pencils of the first and second chapters, sketches of the characters, as well as the treatment and outline for the rest of the chapters...of book one. It's a nice little trilogy. I'm really excited about this project and I'm looking forward to seeing that published...soon, I hope.

This week, I've got myself scheduled in Big Red Letters, no less, to do some Maya practice (the above 3D set I'm modeling in Max). I'll be posting random images at intervals to show my progress. Interestingly enough, I saw on CGTalk the other day a new VFS grad's modeling reel where he had modeled a young napping elephant on a branch. I'm curious if it was modeled in the position that it's in, or if he rigged it and then positioned it. I wonder if he also used ZBrush...probably. Most schools have that available for students focusing on 3D modeling. It looks pretty nice.

Hopefully, mine will be better. ;)

WB back in town

Hard to believe but it's been a whole year since WB was here in Dallas talking about Scooby Doo and the various Looney Tunes characters with us in the Showroom. What's really great is that they brought Fred along. While we're all talking about what's the next big thing for these characters as toys or other novelty items, Fred is jumping in with new product ideas and a quick sketch of the character or characters that would be just perfect.

Totally awesome, dude!

To help us get in character when we're creating stories for the product designs, Fred suggested we start having regular Looney Tunes cartoon watching during work hours. Golly, no one had any problem agreeing with that idea. ;)

We also got to see a promo bit on the upcoming Saturday morning cartoon series called "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! It has a new look (see above image I found after a quick google) and a rather different story line from the old mystery van sleuths...that adopts elements from alot of other successful kids shows and stories.

Guess it will be fresh to the little kids that watch it in any case.

Nostalgia

It's fun to go back through some of my really old sketchbooks. Sometimes I'll see an old drawing and think up a new project; other times I'll laugh because it's simply a silly girlie kind of sketch. I was going through some high school sketch books tonight, in particular one set that was from 1980. That's what I call my "year of transition." I was still sketching from photos and whatever was in my imagination at the time. But, at the end of that year I started working at Six Flags and was drawing from life almost every day. It seriously made a different in my drawing skills. Here are a few of my old drawings from my sketchbooks when I was 14 - 15 years old.

Pencils and crayola crayons:





My Star Wars fan art from the Empire Strikes Back. I was drawing these with pencils and crayola crayons from the photos included with the record album of the John William's Soundtrack. This was still before my Six Flags job and actually was really why they offered me the job (my fantasy art didn't impress them one bit).

Here you can really see a before and after, especially if you look at the first picture at the very top (not the Star Wars stuff), and then these two below. Both of these were drawn from my imagination, but the 2nd shows a much better understanding of the facial features.

Sketches with ball point pen.

Charcoal sketches.

A pastel drawing on black paper. It's a scan of a photo I took of the picture which is why it looks a little scratchy.

Yup, all of these pictures were from art I did when I was in High School. I really wish that after I had graduated from high school, I would have gone to Art School. :(

Another quick sketch

I know, I said I would practice sketching hands...and I will. But, in the meantime I thought I'd do another portrait for this evening's sketch. This one is based on an 18th century painting, but with my own added revisions, particularly in the features. :)

Quick Evening Sketch

I can soooo see that I desperately need to do some practice sketching of hands again. This was a quick 30 minute sketch from a photo....of my sister. Ok, I do admit to a bit of tweeking. I'm sure she won't mind. ;)

Variation on a Theme

Contribute...Be Challenged...Learn

I seem to be great at giving advice to new or junior level artists about what they could do in order to grow in their field. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be listening to my own advice.

Last Saturday, in addition to hearing about what the job outlook is like for women wanting to get into the game development industry...I brought in some of my recent sketches and one of my print portfolios to the WIGI event to hopefully get some feedback from people who actually work with games. I spoke with art directors and human resources peeps and game designers from companies like Midway, Ensemble Studios, Microsoft, Paradigm and Sony Entertainment.

What I specifically heard from the art director at Ensemble Studios was that my work was totally great but that I had a definite marketing problem.

I should be posting my artwork on forums like ConceptArt.org. D'oh!

I needed to send out my work. D'oh!

Tailor the submissions to the company I am sending my portfolio to. D'oh!

Like I said, it sounds like I haven't been listening to my own advice. However, I also have not been sending any submissions to companies in the game industry because I've been targeting the animation industry for my dream job. Unfortunately, at least so far, they don't appear to want me.

Boo hoo.

I just know it, I'll have to start my own studio...and I seriously know the headache that that's going to cause me. But, that might be the only way I'll ever get the experience I'm seeking. We'll simply have to see what happens in the next few years.

In the meantime, I'm doing weekly contributions to the ConceptArt.org forums and I'll be doing the same on CGTalk, one of my other favorite hangouts. My "At Home" projects for the next two months (in addition to the job search which is the number one priority now) include the following, some of which I've mentioned previously:

- Creating an Elephant (modeling/texturing/rigging/animation) tutorial for Maya that I got from Lost Pencil
- Updating the Portfolio (online and print...a new round of submissions goes out this week...weeee!!)
- completing Mermaid Morning and other Illustrations (in both concept and "final for print" forms)
- Wicked Kids maquettes (a sculpting skill I'd like to add)
- A children's graphic novel
- The Gnome (revising storyboards and layouts, new character designs and environment concepts)
- Children's Picture book submissions (I have three in various stages of development, I need to submit the drafts to the editors I know for review)

I think I'm going to be a little busy.

Concept Art methods

I got to see a really interesting demonstration by Mark Behm, full-time animator part-time concept artist, at the ABOSG meeting last Saturday morning. The image that I posted above is the final color concept that resulted from the sketch that he brought with him at the start of the demo.

Unfortunately my co-workers who were really interested in checking out the demo couldn't attend for one reason or another. So I scheduled a creative session at work next week to give my own demo of what I learned about the Mark Behm concept art development method.

Should be fun. :)

Chick Challenge on ConceptArt

Well, I turned in my art entry, although I wasn't quite finished with it. sigh. No matter - I wanted to show my support for the ladies of the ConceptArt forum...and have a bit of fun with an illustration project that I just don't often have the time to create. :)

And I did have fun! Soooooo tired today, though.

I've posted some of my WIPs here to show from thumbnail sketches to "finished" product. I'll be doing the last updates to it over the weekend and then post it. Maybe include a before and after kind of thing, heh.

The final image was composited and colored in Photoshop from various scans of the detailed pencil drawings that I did. The pencil work was done on a Hot Press Illustration board at approximately 12" x 18" in size which was scanned in at 300 dpi. I drew the elements with a 2H pencil mostly, with the occasional 4B here and there for a few patches of darkness.

Here are a few (not all) of the thumbnails sketches I did first to explore the story and imagery that I thought could be told by the lyrics of Delerium's "Fallen Icons":

I considered these as primary elements - dark woods, snow, fire/lightening, golden arrow, fortress ruin. And I thought about these themes - self discovery, becoming the hunter, rage at the enemy, change, resurrection, once upon a time long ago, legends, fairy tales. So I came up with these kind of scenarios or Character stories - rising up from the grave, being turned into a vampire, the monster inside, changing into the monster, from the seed to a tree (Shannara style), etc. So, after considering the words, "In a dark woods paved with snow living all alone, I forgot long ago what I'm looking for...", I finally thought about taking an old fairy tale like Little Red Robin Hood and looking at it in a different way. Like maybe one of her descendents has just found out that she's about to become a werewolf (there's the self discovery!) because her many-times great-grandmother got bitten when she got lost in the woods (long, long ago). :) I blame the recent movie series "Ginger Snaps" that I watched and the Patricia Brigg's book, "Moon Called" that I've already read twice for additional inspiration.

Besides, I still have a fondness for "The Company of Wolves" and I do like Angela Carter's other interesting stories...

Here are scenes from my dining table of the pencils in progress:

The project took about 20 hours to get to the above "finished" state. Breaking that down into blocks of development time, I'd say I spent about 6 hours on research and rough sketches; about 10 hours on the detailed underdrawing and 4-5 hours on coloring. Which is why I'm not finished. :)

I have about 4 more hours of pencil work to do on the missing characters and then about another 6-8 hours coloring that and doing the over-painting. I'm going to try and get that done over the weekend. By next Wednesday for sure.

Cause I've got too many other projects I want to work on!!!!

Bwa haha ha ha!!!

Busy Saturday!

Two events going on Saturday that will be keeping me busy!

First thing:
The ABOSG April 2006 meeting: presenting Mark Behm, a concept artist AND animator, speaking about digital painting and character development. "Lighting, value & color, visualizing form and process will be discussed and demonstrated. The medium will be digital although the approach applies to traditional methods as well."

I'm always curious to see another artist at work - you never know what interesting things you can learn about...and maybe incorporate into your own workflow. ;)

And then:
The Women in Games International (WIGI) is hosting an event over at the SMU Guildhall about Advancing Your Career in Game Development: The Women's Perspective. I figure it's worthwhile to attend in order to speak directly with some of the women who actually have a career in game development, as well as get some feedback from recruiters and other game artists on my resume and art samples; particularly since I realize that toy production is simply not the career for me. Since I'm not getting anywhere at the moment with my job search in the animation industry (4+ years but who's counting...ah, me...darn it, sometimes it just gets depressing)...I think it would be a good next step for my creative career, especially since I don't have any intention of living in China in the near future. :)

Also on the positive side, working as a concept artist in the game industry I can hopefully get some real practice with 3D modeling and texturing, something I'm not able to do at all with my current job.

Sunday is going to be crazy: I need to finish my entry for the Chick Challenge.
Fun, fun, FUN!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Random Email

I got this random email the other day from someone named Ashley asking the following questions:

"Hello, my name is Ashley.

For my art class we have to research an art career and i choose visual develpoment artist. could u tell me a little bit about it? and tell me any school requirments? any talents needed for this? what kind of education do u need? do u have to go to college? for this project we must also come up with an project to show of. this will be my first time doing this got any advice or anything. i hope u dont mind me emailing u like this but this looks like an interesting art career. well i hope to hear from u soon. have a wonderful day. bye.

Love Always and Forever, Ashley."
---------------------------------

Every once in a while I get a random email from someone who has either seen my website or seen one of my posts on some forum or wherever. I have to admit, I've sent out a few emails with questions myself. So if it seems legit, I will send an email back. :)

Here's what I sent in reply to this latest one:

Hi Ashley,

I'm not sure what grade your art class is in, elementary or high school, so if you need more information then I've provided here please let me know. :)

You asked if I could tell you a little bit about what a visual development artist does. Well, the title pretty much tells you exactly what it is - you visually develop products and ideas through your art.

In my current role as a visual development artist in the toy industry, I create concept art for a wide variety of toy and novelty products. Sometimes that means a quick pencil or marker sketch to help the product manager communicate their idea to a buyer. Sometimes that means a very detailed illustration with character turn-arounds with callouts of fabric materials, product dimensions, pantone colors, and a picture of the product inspiration if there was one. I have also worked as a children's book illustrator, a multimedia artist, a software interface designer, a portrait artist, a web designer, a graphic artist, a veterinary assistant, a gift-wrap specialist, and so on. I would love to work full-time as an artist in the animation industry one day, too. :) I have two degrees: one is a BFA in Communication Arts with a minor in Marketing, and the other is an Associates degree in Computer Animation and Design. All of those experiences and more have helped me in my on-going creative career as a visual development artist.

As a visual development artist or VDA, you would be responsible for helping to generate new ideas and concept drawings for the company you work for. You might also take those conceptual drawings into what could be called "final art" which would be very tight, clean b/w line art or color illustration (or series of illustrations or storyboards or character turn-arounds and so on) or 3D model of the idea and see it through actual production - whether that is for animation, game development, toy production, advertising, automobile production, book illustration, etc.. There are many industries that benefit from the assistance of a VDA.

School requirements for this job will vary. At the very least, some VDA jobs may require an associates degree and 2+ years of professional creative experience in a particular industry, or a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree (BFA). Other VDA jobs, depending on the industry, may require an Industrial Design degree (4 years) instead. From my own experience, I would say that any education that can help you learn draftmanship skills (drawing, sculpting, painting, CG art), that provides you with a variety of experiences, creative and otherwise, and keeps you interested in learning, inspired and self-motivated...and most definitely teaches good communication skills would be a good school to attend. As a visual development artist, you have to be able to communicate your vision to the people that hire you - so you need to be a good artist and a good communicator (writing and speaking) and have a ton of ideas at every moment. The more you know, the more original or new and improved ideas you can provide.

Talent? Talent might help get you started and keep you motivated to improve your drawing and other creative skills. But, you have to be willing to practice, practice, practice. Ask any artist and they will be practicing their craft every day. Carry a sketchbook around with you so that you can draw in it every day when you're on the bus going to school or instead of just sitting in front of the tv. You know what I mean. :)

To help you better focus your interest in becoming a visual development artist, I would say decide what industry you would like to work in, and then do some research about the kind of education and experiences that they would like to see in their creative employees. You can often find out by visiting those company websites and seeing the job opportunities they post and the requirements for those jobs.

I am not sure what you mean by your last question:"For this project we must also come up with an project to show of. this will be my first time doing this got any advice or anything." Do you mean, what kind of project would a visual development artist do?

I hope the information that I've provided is what you need for your report. Please let me know if you require any additional info. And - good luck with your project!

t

Elephant sketches and Chick Challenge

The first step in order to do the 3D model of an elephant (as per the tutorial): create sketches of orthographic reference views of the object - front, side and top. I've posted the front and side view sketches of the elephant that I did.

As per every 3D project I've done in the past, I sketched the three views of the character I want to model. I also did a rear view, just because. In this instance, however, since I am following a tutorial, I am keeping my sketches somewhat similar to the samples as provided by the tutorial so the elephant is fairly realistic. After this project is done it would be worthwhile to do a more fun, cartoon version that would still apply what I've learned from the tutorial but in my own style.



Chick Challenge
Conceptart.org is hosting a challenge in the Thunderdome arena for the girls of the forum. Sounded like fun so I'm joining in.

Challenge: FEMALE CONTESTANTS ONLY art battle
Medium: Your choice. Have fun!
2D Digital and traditional media are all acceptable.
NO photograpy (or photo manipulations) allowed.

****Subject: Visually Interpret a Song of Your Choice****
Contest ENDS / ENTRIES DUE BY: APRIL 24 2006 11:59pm PST

Of course, the prize is pretty decent, too:
THE TOP 10 ARTISTS OF THIS CONTEST WILL RECEIVE TUITION PASSES FOR THE UPCOMING CONCEPTART.ORG MONTREAL WORKSHOP

But I'm doing this for fun and to have something recent besides the ever so cute Christmas stuff to put in my portfolio. The best part is that you also have to post WIP's so it will be a good way to show how I develop my projects. And I'll get to see how some others do their work as well. There's about 70 different girls signed up to participate, from students to professionals.

Happy 100th, Animation!

According to ASIFA, today is the 100th year for animation.

"The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is celebrating Animation's 100th Birthday on April 6th. From its humble beginnings with J. Stuart Blackton's film, "Humorous Phases of Funny Faces" first released on April 6th, 1906, animation has gone on to become one of the greatest American creative contributions to the arts, second only to Jazz."

Seems like such a short time for such an interesting art form.

Toy Design: the Technical Artist

While my own current role as a toy designer/product designer requires more of the creative skills of a traditional artist (drawing, inking, painting) along with the usual Photoshop, etc.; some companies would rather have a more technical CG artist to assist in the product development pipeline.

For example, I saw this posting and description the other day for a toy designer / 3D modeler:

"...has worked with top studios and designers from consumer based product to high-end collectables - to limited edition “high-art” based licensing with Internationally renowned artists.

We currently are seeking talented and experienced (Maya) modelers with a strong aptitude for 3D modeling tools and capturing character details from style guides for toy production/rapid prototyping.

Ideal candidate will have a working knowledge of outputting to a rapid prototyping machine (converting from obj. to stl.), however, studio is willing to train the right candidate. Modelers must have an eye for detail and be able to work off of 2D specs, designs/turns and capture the product and style (of design) flawlessly and ‘on-model‘. Most projects are character and or prop based (stylized cartoon to ultra-realistic props, action figures and or vehicles), some environmental design from time to time. Strong technical and IT background a plus. Must be self-motivated, responsible, and driven, to work with our fast paced environment. Must have a genuine enthusiasm and passion for toy design.

Must Have:

• 2 years professional industry experience in toy design and or (industry level) character based modeling (Maya)
• Must have experience in working from specs, turn-arounds or style guides and be able to translate from 2D into 3D.

Plus:

• Some knowledge of outputting to a rapid prototyping machine.
• 2 years traditional art background with experience in design, drafting and hands on figurative sculpting."

So. Even if you don't have all of the traditional art skill from years of practical experience, university education, or even raw talent, you can still get a fairly creative role in the toy industry. :)

My Cat Likes to Floss

My cat, Marco Polo, likes to floss his teeth.

I'm not sure how or even why it all got started. I mean, it's not like he can hold the floss between his paws...well, not exactly. He's managed to train me how to do that for him. He is, after all, a charming poser kind of cat. He's all black and happens to understand how beautiful he can look when he's framed by the doorway, laying down on a red blanket, or sitting 'just so' on the window sill. Maybe that's why he likes to keep his teeth shiny and white. Maybe it was originally the sound of the floss being pulled out of the container that attracted him. Maybe it's because he likes to play with string when I let him have the chance. Only when supervised, of course. I'm sure he'd be happy to swallow it down, given the chance, and then impact his intestines or twist them in some horrible fashion that would require surgery at the very least. That's just one of those crazy things cats do.

This is the same cat, after all, that electrocuted himself a few years ago by chewing on my desk lamp power cord. Got the shock of his life, literally. He never chewed on wires and electric cords again, thank goodness.

Interestingly, he's very particular about which brand of floss he likes. It has to be Crest Glide floss in mint flavor. Believe me, I tried cheaper brands once I realized how demanding he is about flossing regularly every night. But, no, it had to be Glide.


He's much better and persistent about flossing than I am. Every night as soon as he realizes that I'm about to brush my teeth (and hopefully floss afterwards...like I said, he's better than I am), he sits patiently at my feet and waits. Waits till I open the right side drawer. Waits till I pull out the floss container. And if I immediately don't offer him some floss, he will ask for it. The demanding type of meow that lets me know he wants something. Now.

I pull out the floss, wrap it around my fingers, bend down and present it to him. He immediately starts to purr and starts chewing up and down the line. It is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen this silly cat do. He's extremely focused and will have the most bizarre expression on his face with his eyes bulging and tongue rasping along the floss strand. He will even move his head side to side to reach the front and the far back teeth. When he's almost finished, I'll release one side of the floss so he can grab that end with his mouth and like a string of spaghetti in reverse, I'll pull at the floss so it goes through his front teeth. He likes to do that a couple of times before I say, "Enough".

I wonder how long this will last...