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...

Harryhausen: You're the Coolest

So cool to see and hear from an artist whose work I've long admired and whose movies are a blast! I still get all silly when I watch some of my favorites, especially "Mysterious Island", "Clash of the Titans" and "Jason and the Argonauts".

Thanks to A Bunch of Short Guys (Dallas Animation Group) and Janimation and the other sponsors for putting this together.

Yup, I got the book, The Art of Ray Harryhausen; AND got it autographed. Had a fun discussion with a singer from the Dallas Opera while I was in line...it helped make the wait to meet Mr. Harryhausen go by faster. It made me think that I need to get me a ticket or two for a show again and listen to some fine music. Not that I'm a major opera fan, but I did notice in the brochure I got the other day from the Ft Worth Symphony Orchestra that they're putting on a Warner Brother's Cartoon Music set called "Bugs Bunny on Broadway". Now THAT sounds like a whole lotta fun. :) And what a great introduction to Bass Hall - I'm sorry to say that I still haven't been to a musical performance there yet.

But back to Harryhausen...

I was so impatient to go through the book as soon as I picked it up that I missed when they started letting people in. D'oh! Turns out that the guy that ended up sitting next to me is running a small 2D animation studio where one of my former co-workers is now animating. Based on what Anthony had said before about the place, it reminds me alot of the multimedia group where I first started learning some animation and layout after university. Lots of long hours, some really fun stuff, and so much to learn from some seriously experienced artists. Sounds great! I'm glad to hear that he's doing well.

Now for real, back to Harryhausen....

We got to see the short film of a new production he was involved with called "The Pit and the Pendulum", which is based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was really cool! Made me want to rethink the offer I had earlier today to work on a stop motion project. It would totally be on our own time. I need to talk to the guy again tomorrow and see if we can't get something going. Why not? It would be fun.

Spring 3D Tutorial

It's Spring! Time to start new things....or at the very least clean out the closet. :)

After the not so steady progress I had with the 3D book tutorials to keep up my modeling skills, I determined that since I wasn't going back to school (again) that a strong video tutorial might be a better idea and a better fit for my wacky non-work creative schedule. While I won't have the direct teacher contact and can't turn to the student(s) sitting next to me to ask about what I missed...I will be able to watch someone build the project, and follow those steps rather than reading about it. Plus I can still post my progress on one of my favorite modeling forums for added feedback. The DVD's that I currently have aren't necessarily project specific, but do give good walk-thru's of the various 3D programs. What I really wanted was a video that took me thru modeling, rigging, texture/UV, and finally basic animation with one project.

I'm gonna build me an elephant in Maya. :)

Check back soon - I'm on a schedule, so I'll be posting my progress regularly. Or at least, more so than I did with the book tutorials, heh.

My first task: research! Always fun. I need to find some good elephant images so I can sketch my poses for the modeling portion. Also, it probably won't hurt to get some good skin references while I'm hunting down elephants for the later texturing part of the project. I've already found some excellent references of elephants in motion from the BBC Motion Gallery for the basic animation portion of the tutorial set. It's my favorite online video library. I also (surprise!) already had a book on African Elephants in my library that I probably got from Half-Price Books at some time. I have a good reference library. ;)

Other Random Projects
One of my co-workers has offered to show me how to design the pattern and sew a plush toy based on one of my critter designs. I'm hoping I'll be able to pull in an hour or two at the office after I've signed out so that I can use some of our sewing room equipment. One of the reasons I want to do this is because I happen to like plush toys. :) I've also always wanted to make a few, for myself, similar to the Steiff type of collectible plush toy made of mohair. There's also a Russian artist who does some hand-made ones as well. They are sooo cute! Maybe one day I'll have my own limited edition line made right here in the U.S.A...not in China or Germany.

I've been learning the flute. To make sure I keep up my practice for that, I'm scheduling some music time during each week for flute as well as some relaxing time at my keyboard. I'm totally a hobbyist with my music and have no intention of being anything more than that. I'm just glad that I took all those piano lessons when I was a tot so that I can enjoy playing as an adult.

Sculpting a Maquette. I'm doing a couple of sculpts based on the line of Halloween dolls that I designed at my job. While I'm sure the final samples that the factory produces will be quite interesting (I hope) and will be a fun mix of vinyl/PVC and plush...and even include animation (the robotic, motion-sensor kind) and sound; I like the designs well enough that I'd like to create maquettes of a couple of them. One of my co-workers has also promised to show me how to make a cast of my final sculpts.

Oil painting. I've got the canvas and the paints just waiting for me to find some time. This year seems a good year for that. The painting I've been planning for awhile is based on a photo that I took at the Ft. Worth Zoo some years ago in the bird exhibit. My thought is to try and recreate some of the style that I have with watercolour but in oils. It will be a fun project. :)

Me Day. Today was my birthday so I celebrated by having a "Me Day". It was nice and relaxing. Yes, I did actually start cleaning out my closet. I think it's going to take all week. Doh! My co-workers knew I was taking the day off today, so last Friday they took me out for a lovely lunch at Cozymel's (tableside guacamole, YUM!) and we all shared a birthday cake later that afternoon. Although I was out, some of my friends (you know who you are) sent me a lovely flower bouquet that made me smile all afternoon. Work is just a few miles away, so after "Night Watch" was finished (I treated myself to a matinee), I swung by the office and brought the flowers home to enjoy for the rest of the week.

Communicating Vision: Developing Trend Boards

I'm rather surprised that I didn't learn how to use or develop trend boards until I was already a senior web designer. That was about 6 years after graduating from University. Granted, I did focus on Illustration rather than Advertising Art so maybe I simply didn't have that class, but even so... What with the variety of products I've worked on as a professional artist, not to mention the fact that I attended a four year university program to gain my BFA in Communication Arts, I should have run across them before.

Trend Boards are SO useful!

While the Fashion Industry uses boards all the time to help determine the next season's designs, they aren't the only industry to benefit from working with trend boards. There are a variety of reasons that trend boards would benefit any product, whether software or automotive design or publications like magazines or film development or toys - it's a great way to communicate your product's design vision in a visual way that most people can immediately understand.

Trend Boards for Toy Development
Concept boards are used in the early stages of product development to coordinate the efforts of everyone on the design team. Having a visual indicator of the design direction helps in the decision process by narrowing down the different directions from various ideas proposed by the team. This also provides a consistent vision from the design team to the product managers and buyers. From what I've read about the fashion industry, boards are used in selling apparel internally to the manufacturer’s sales force and externally to retail buyers; much in the way they can be used to present concepts and themes of products to the sellers and buyers in the toy development industry - or so it has been with my experience as a toy designer.

We've used single trend boards to show references of inspiration; and other boards to show colors, fabric, fonts, along with the particular style of art specific to the trend. Other times with other projects, we've used one board for presenting color, one for the trend theme (which included fabrics, materials, animation, fonts, characters, story), and another to show the concepts developed within the trend theme.

Trend Boards for Web and Software Design
One of the ways we developed trend boards for web and software application design for clients was to have them select product designs and layouts that they preferred because they liked the colors, they liked the layout, they liked the use of white space, they like the fonts...they felt it could convey their brand, or fit the image that they wanted their product to present. A quick way to do this would be to have them pick out web sites and send us the links. However, back in the early days when there simply weren't that many websites (or there were few sites that didn't have every color and font the browser provided plus a GIF animated flashing logo...horrid!); we would provide a big batch of magazines from all kinds of industries and interests in one of our conference rooms (or the client's specified workroom), tear out sheets, and have a half-day or all day exploration of what key elements they wanted as part of their product design aesthetic. It was always a fun day. :)

Trend Boards for Animation?
During the Disney work session, the Disney creative directors and their design staff provided trend boards for the licensed products that we'll be working with in the next year. But that was for consumer product development. I don't know how or if trend boards are used in developing animation. I have no actual experience with animation development (outside of my brief internship); and have not read any information about it at all in any of the "Art of..." animation books and others that I've picked up over the years. Maybe I just haven't run across any mention of it yet, or they go by a different terminology in animation development.

Here are some examples of design trend boards that I found on the internet that have some similarities to boards that I've created or worked with in the past:

Trend Boards sample 1

Trend Boards sample 2

Trend Boards sample 3

Ho, Ho, Ho....eh?

Yup, it's Christmas time. Again. Just plop a Santa hat on it and you're done. ;)

Our product development schedule runs at least a year in advance, and that has to include enough time for concept development, sample development and various stages of approvals from product managers to licensers (in some instances like Disney for example) to vendor buyers (like Wal-mart). So, what I'm working on now you might see in stores late 2007 or 2008.

Last year, I listened to Christmas music to try and get in the Holly, Jolly spirit of Christmas. Just couldn't do it this year. Instead, I'm trying to do something new and different (and listening to whatever is on my iPod...NOT Christmas music). Something that, after almost two years (my, how time flies), I feel more comfortable about doing since I have a much broader understanding of what we have produced, what products of ours will be in stores this season and next; and, what our competitors have been doing. Plus, because of the popularity of some of my designs with the buyers and our product managers, I can push out something completely different and call it my own. :)

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, of my concepts survives the final cut and sell. Guess I'll find out Christmas 2007...

In Other News...
I got an email from the AI Alumni association a couple weeks ago asking for my assistance in their Mentoring Program. I politely replied with an email that basically stated, "I'm nowhere near to the new career path that I planned to have (a creative role in the animation industry) after graduating from the Dallas Art Institute. I would have nothing positive to say to any AI student as a mentor at this time."

The job that I currently have as a toy designer utilizes NONE of the new skills (admittedly, quite junior level) in 3D production and design that I learned in order to gain my associates degree at AID in 2004 (my second degree). Instead, my current job which is junior level since I had no prior experience in the toy design industry, relies on skills that I already had developed from the years of practical experience working as an artist after receiving my BFA from UNT in 1992.

I don't think my education at AID was a complete waste because I love to learn and I did gain a better understanding of 3D production. I also appreciate the time and effort it took for me to both work (sometimes part-time and sometimes full-time as an internet consultant and designer) and be a full-time student again for what I considered "continued education" in order to change my career. So. I don't feel that I can mentor any student as an AID alumni until my job reflects and builds on the skills and career path that was my whole reason for attending AID.

Makes total sense, right?

Anyhoo, I just got back an email from one of the alumni coordinators in response to my comments about my lack of qualifications to be a Mentor for their students. Basically, how they hate to hear of my disappointment with the progress, or lack thereof, in my career since graduating from the school. And what they can do to assist me.

Assist me?

Hmmm...I'm thinking there's really nothing they can do today, particularly if they couldn't help me before when I was fresh out of their program. I found more job leads on my own than from what I got from the job search program, the AI staff had no industry contacts that they could directly refer me to; and honestly job leads is really only what I would or could expect from them at this point.

EDIT: The online mentor/mentee for all of the current AI students and alumni could be a good thing...if more alumni participate. In any case, I went ahead and signed up that I was looking for a mentor - "a successful 3D modeler working in the animation industry, not game development, who could provide guidance and advice." :)