Weakly Animated

Toy Story 3 Review

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:20:00 +0000

I know I promised to put this up earlier, but here it is, finally. My review of Toy Story 3.

If you are reading this, and you haven't already seen it, then go out to the theater or your local video store (not in stores as of the date of this post, but you know... you could be from the future). See this movie, one way or another, (legally though please, no illegal downloading). I will keep this short and spoiler free.

Story

The story of Toy Story 3 takes place about 10 years after the last one. So far, as we can all remember from the first movies, Buzz and Woody are best friends and share being Andy's favorite toy, Woody has saved many of the toys from being sold or thrown out, or even stolen, and they all lived happily ever after. Or did they? After about 10 years, Andy is ready to go to college, and they are never getting played with anymore. Their attempts to get played with are futile and depressing. They worry that Andy will just throw them out, or store them for years in the attic. However, through a series of mishaps, they end up in a donation box heading to Sunnyside Daycare, where the promise of being played with for the rest of their days is before them. However, not everything at Sunnyside is all flowers and rainbows, and the gang find themselves in a heap or trouble, with only Woody to rescue them. Buzz is reset to his standard setting, but this time, in Spanish mode!

My opinion on this is very high. Not only did they address the issue people were wondering from the first movie, what happens to the toys when they are no longer played with, but also adds a new side to the story, and we get to see things from Andy's point of view a little better. We also get a whole new cast of characters, humans and toys, each well portrayed.

This story gets far more intense than the previous ones. While in the past, the greatest danger they had to face was being lost, in Toy Story 3, they have greater dangers and concerns that start off right at the beginning of the movie. The ending will really get to you, as you realize how far they are taking this film, and just how intense it really gets. Some children might be too young for this one folks.

Graphics

The graphics in this movie are amazing. The characters are better rendered than the previous movies (I never thought that they could improve on it but they did), the humans are far far better (I'm sure Ratatouille and Wall-E helped with that), the lighting and special effects are perfect, and the animation itself is flawless. Once again, they showed that not only can they master the animation, but also the story, and all other aspects of making an animated film.

The character designs are great too. There are a lot of fun new toys, many recognizable toys, and others reminiscent of existing characters (I swear to you I saw Aqua Teen Hunger Force in there).

The Good

There are a lot of good things about this movie. For one, the story is spectacular! Not only did it pull me right in, but it also kept my interest, and made me really feel for these characters. My favorite part of this movie is the very beginning, where they visually show young Andy's imagination, as he plays with his toys. It has everything from One-eyed Bart, to their force-field dog, and even the T-Rex, summoned by Jessie's yodel, that eats force-field dogs. (These are all lines straight out of the first movies). It was hilarious, and a lot of fun, and a great way of getting the audience into the movie by showing how the toys were played with and how much Andy loved them.

The Bad

There were a few minor things that I wasn't crazy about in this movie. For one, the new cast of toys included a new cast of voice actors. Now granted, they want to focus on the characters we already know and love, and not on these new characters that will only play second fiddle to the main cast, but I felt that many of these actors and actresses did not have enough lines. Many famous names give these characters life, but often they only have 2 lines in the movie. While this is not a bad thing, for the sake of the main characters and the story itself, it does leave you wondering why get such big names if they are only going to be lending a few lines to the movie?

Further, it does seem as though the humans are even more oblivious to the toys' actions in this movie. You'd think adults in charge of a daycare would try to avoid letting the youngest kids play with toys that are for the older kids. However, this again is a minor issue, easily overlooked, and not really distracting at all. In short, all the bad things were for the benefit of the movie, and I think were done properly, and do not distract from the story, in fact they seem to help the story.

In Short

See this movie. This is the best ending possible of one of the greatest franchises ever made. The graphics are amazing, the characters really get attached to you, and there is something in this movie for everyone. Little kids will love the toys. Adults will remember their own childhood toys, and perhaps think of their children playing with them. And that younger crowd, well Andy is about that age, and seeing his struggle to decide, and moving on to go to college, will really ring with them.

Now that last question I have is which is the cuter couple? Buzz and Jessie, or Barbie and Ken?

I give this a full 5 of 5 stars, they could not have made a better ending to Toy Story than this.

SCAD review

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:51:00 +0000

Hi all.
Sorry for the delay in posting. Today, I will be giving a brief review of my trip to the Atlanta campus of SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design).
(I will be adding a few pictures shortly, since they are still stored on a different computer).

SCAD is a full accredited college, with 4 locations, one in Savannah, one in Atlanta, one in France, and one in Hong Kong. They also have online offerings for several eLearning courses. There are lots of opportunities to go between campuses if you wish. Because their acceptance is for the entire school, if you accepted to one location, you can go to any location you want. So if you wish to take some courses through eLearning, you can chose to take them while attending other classes without any trouble.

The Atlanta campus is located in the heart of Atlanta, where they have taken residence in a variety of buildings across the city. They occupy several buildings, but I took a tour of 3 of them. The most impressive thing about these buildings is that they either refurbish existing buildings, or they build very green buildings. Their goal is to be as environmentally friendly as they can, while integrating themselves into the community. The buildings I had the opportunity to tour included the Main building, the Digital Multimedia building, and the student housing.

The main building was once a government building, that was later owned by a "dot com" company that went under shortly after spending millions to refurbish the building. It is a very large building, with several floors dedicated to separate areas of study, and a large cafeteria, where students and mingle with each other and meet people in other areas of study. There is a large library, several galleries, including student work in hallways, and professional galleries for inspiration to students. The main building even has a student store, where the students can sell their work to guests. Some of their more interesting and impressive points include traditional presses for printing press classes, large dark rooms for traditional film processing, a large fashion department using a variety of industry standard devices, and a very impressive sequential art department.

The Digital Multimedia building is the most interesting and exciting building there. This building was made in 2009, using very green methods, and designed to function with green technologies. The building uses recycled materials throughout the structure, water that is naturally cooled to regulate the temperature within the building, and natural lighting whenever it is possible. The building includes a real, working film studio, where they can broadcast and film, including green screen technologies, and motion capture. They include Wacom Cintique monitors in all the classrooms for students to use. The facilities are very impressive, and are located close to the main building, with regular transportation provided.

The student housing building is actually a refurbished hotel. This building has a pool, community areas, and security. The rooms are hotel room sizes, with 2 beds, which can be bunked, and fully furnished from Ikea. The best part of this building is that it has a secure walking path to the main school building, and is less than a 5 minute walk away.

All of the buildings are open 24 hours, with full security. There are a variety of other building that I did not get to tour. One of them is a large mansion, but I did not have the opportunity to look at it.

I will go more into this at a later date. I will update this post with pictures from the tour, and any updated information as well.
I will be posting some movie reviews soon too, so Stay Tooned!

New webcomics and SCAD

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:27:00 +0000

I know it has been a while since my last post, and I apologize. I also do not have any more of Phil Foglio this week, but I will let you know when I have more to offer. Things have been busy lately. I will make this post short, but I will like to talk briefly about what I have been doing.
There are actually 2 things I have been busy with. The first is my new webcomic!!

That's right! I have finally put up a teaser page for a new comic written by my brother, Spencer, and myself. I am doing the art, and the coloring is done by me and my sister Rachael. This comic is called "Twist of Feyt", and no I didn't misspell Fate. For those of you who don't get the reference, the Fey is another word for Celtic fairies and fairy-folk. In short, elves, pixies, pookas, banshees, fairies, brownies, etc. etc. are all creatures of the Fey (or Fey Realm).
When Adele and her brother, Nolan, take a short-cut through a nearby forest to get to school, Adele finds that her brother is kidnapped by a group of elves from the Unseelie court. With the help of the prince of the fey, who is actually a human under fey protection, and who look suspiciously like her brother, they mount a rescue. However, there are other greater forces at work, as gods and Fey ready for an epic war of mythic proportions. Can they save her brother from a fate worse than death, and prevent a war about to break out? Be prepared for action, adventure, romance, and a talking horse in Twist of Feyt.

My wife, Christina, is also working on her own comic, with our friend and writer Jamie Simo, and coloring by Indy Adenan. Into the Ever is a story about how a young girl, named Naomi, who makes a wish for adventure, only to find that her wish comes true 30 years later. Transformed back into her 8 year-old self, can this middle-aged woman find the stolen heart of the Queen of Mere? With the help of a viking, Eyarson, Naomi takes her first steps on an adventure of a lifetime.

Where can you find these comics? Well eventually they will be up on the Tangent Artists website, but for now, you can look at a preview/teaser of these comic. Check them out at www.TangentArtists.com. We hope to have these comics online and rolling by this fall.

There is another comic in the works, written by my brother and myself, but I will not say more until we have something to show. So don't hold your breath, it could take a while to get it ready, with Twist of Feyt getting ready to launch.

The second thing I have been working on is a much more important and daunting affair, going back to school. Now I am not enrolled in a school yet, but I am in the process of submitting an application to SCAD, or the Savannah College of Art and Design. As some of you may remember, I have mention the DAVE school in the past. Now I have nothing against the DAVE school, and I understand they have even expanded their classes and are getting or have recently become accredited. However, I have found that for me, SCAD has more to offer, including a very nice MA and MFA program, and really good facilities and connections. I recently took a look at their Atlanta campus, and I am very impressed.
So later this week, I will be providing a brief synopsis of the SCAD Atlanta campus, and what they offer, as well as come photos of their facilities. I will also be providing a new movie review, in fact, 3 of them! Expect the first one, for Toy Story 3 next week, followed by Despicable Me, and then my first live action, special effects extravaganza, Inception.

Stay tooned!

Phil Foglio: A Summary

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:49:00 +0000

Today I'd like to talk a little about Phil Foglio.
For those who don't know who Phil Foglio is, he is a comic artist who has been active from the 80's on. He has done a number of different projects for a variety of venues, and has launched his own studio to further explore his own endeavors. Phil Foglio is a man with a plan, and 3 Hugo awards.

Phil Foglio got started in 1978, when he won a Hugo award for best fan artist. He won it again in 1979. Ever since then, he has been keeping himself busy with his art, and his story telling.
His earliest works can be found in the now defunct Dragon Magazine, THE magazine for gamers of its day. He ran a monthly comic strip for the magazine starting in 1980 called "What's New with Phil and Dixie". This strip explored a variety of gaming and gamer topics, in humorous ways. The running gag of the original run was that Phil and Dixie were always trying to convince the magazine executives to let them talk about sex and D&D. Usually, they would be interrupted or forced to change the topic. The final issue for the original run of What's New brought about the appropriate end to the gag. (One of my online aliases, CptGreedle, aka Captain Greedle, was originally a concept of Phil Foglio, which ran in a single frame of the What's New strip.)
The strip was later relaunched in The Duelist, where it ran for the majority of the magazine's life. This time, the comic, as well as the magazine, focused more on the Magic the Gathering trading card game. Phil had the honor of drawing the art for several Magic the Gathering cards, including some of the "unbroken" sets.
(I owned a few Phil Foglio cards myself, back when I still played Magic the Gathering, and a few collectors made a point to collect specific artists, something I could never achieve.)
He has worked with a wide variety of artists and writers, for fantasy and sci-fi themes alike. He illustrated the MythAdventures series, which eventually led to assignments for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and First Comics. He did a variety of titles, including Plastic Man, and Dynamo Joe.
Eventually, Phil created his long-running character Buck Godot, which was both written and drawn entirely by Phil Foglio.
In the 1990's, Phil married his wife, Kaja. They worked together on several Magic the Gathering cards, resurrected What's New, and launched new series. They even worked on an erotic series called XXXenophile.
Later, they formed Studio Foglio, which is now the main studio for their work, including their latest, and arguably greatest, series, Girl Genius.
Girl Genius is a "retro-fantasy", or steampunk inspired comic. The original idea to use steampunk was apparently Kaja's. She noticed that a lot of Phil's sketches were very steampunk-ish, and had a certain neo-victorian retro-sci-fi-fantasy look to them. This led in part to the development of Girl Genius. Initially, it was made and released like all his other comics, as published periodicals. However, in 2005, they decided to stop publishing periodical-style comics, and released Girl Genius online as a free webcomic. The comic is in full color (with the exception of the beginning of the comic, which is said to be in the process of being colored for a new print, I have not confirmed this however), and it is updated 3 days a week.
Phil has said that going online was one of the greatest move he made, increasing his readership and sales. The entire comic is available online for free, on their website, GirlGenius.net, but it is also available in print form through the site. Phil frequents science fiction, fantasy, comic, and steampunk conventions, and has a schedule of appearances listed on his website as well.
His site now sports several of his comics and shorts. The main headline comics are Girl Genius, What's New with Phil and Dixie, MythAdventures, and Buck Godot.
Phil has worked on several games, comics, magazines, and more in the past. He has covered a variety of topics, and is technically adept. His latest works are not only well drawn and well written, but are also award-winning and inspirational. He started from the ground up, with what he had, and writing about what he loved and enjoyed. His own style has been emulated by others, and he is achieved great success in his own right.

With any luck, I hope to have more about Phil Foglio next week. Please look forward to it!

Comics for beginners, part 2

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:15:00 +0000

Last time, I said I would talk about how to find good figure drawing classes, and also how to get good resource material for drawing. I will talk about this today, but I will also talk a little about one of the great comic book artists and writers, Phil Foglio, in my next post! But first, the art stuff.

There are really 2 types of drawing classes: regular drawing classes (from simple to advanced), and figure drawing. Most student love to take figure drawing, but you almost always start with drawing still-life... that is, the boring pictures of fruit and cubes.

Still-life isn't always boring, and many artists have demonstrated a perfect knowledge of color, lighting, and shade by using still-life. The advantages of still-life over figure drawing is that an apple doesn't need to breath or scratch, an orange doesn't need to take a break, and a wooden cube rarely charges by the hour. So these are perfect for learning how to draw, when it comes to understanding light, shadow, form, and relationship. As regular drawing classes progress, they often explore deeper topics. Sometimes it gets so deep, they start to explore the relationship between drawing and painting. What is the difference? Why does it matter?
Once you get up to figure drawing, you start to learn the way the body is shaped, the connections and relationships, the inner-workings and the elegant lines of the form. It is necessary for all good artists to understand the human form on a deep level if they wish to ever draw a human. That often means drawing bones, muscles, and skulls. But it also means drawing from live models.
My school was lucky enough to have the art department situated next door to the dancing department. I had the pleasure of drawing many attractive young women, which is ideal for art. Unfortunately, there were very few attractive young men who were interested, so I had only 1 class with a young man.

When you are looking for a figure drawing class, there are 2 places to look, universities/colleges, and art groups/clubs or galleries.
In order to take classes at a university or college, you first have to be enrolled in the school, often in the specific field of study, and paying your dues and fees. Because college classes need to budget ahead of time for their term, they usually have to charge students an extra fee to help pay for the models, who do not come cheap. This usually means there is an upfront cost, which can easily be over $100 for a term. Not all university classes will be able to use young, attractive models either. When young models are not available, there are plenty of older people ready to take their place. (I swear, as an art student, you start to wonder if the only thing people do when they retire is pose naked in front of other people.) Now drawing older people is very good too, and you can learn a lot about drawing different body types, different details such as wrinkles, and how the body ages. I did find that most of these older models were quite good.
However, unlike colleges and universities, art groups and art galleries can chose to allow anyone to participate, provided they are willing to learn and pay to participate. Sometimes there is a membership fee, sometimes it is an up front class-by-class fee, sometimes it is a term fee. While I have not priced them myself, I have heard that models can easily make $100 an hour, and they will pose for several hours at a time. That is easy money, if you think standing still in a room full of people staring at you naked is easy. So classes of all sorts need to compensate their models for their time and service. You may also find that some colleges and universities will offer figure drawing classes to anyone interested as well.

You will find that most figure drawing classes advertise in local art publications, local art galleries, art stores, and even online. Art clubs and other art groups will often hold a figure drawing class in a studio, where they will either have a series of instructions for those who pay to take the class, or they will have a free form drawing session, where they provide the model, and you draw whatever you want, however you want. That way, they do not instruct the class, they merely provide a service. Usually, these classes range from weekly to monthly. The average cost for these classes seems to be around $10 per class. They will also often advertise the types of posts they will provide. Sometimes they have long poses, that can last up to an hour, or short posts, that may last 5 minutes or less.
One exercise is to do gesture drawing. This is where the model posts for about 30 seconds, maybe less, and changes between different poses one after the other. The idea is that you have only enough time to get a feel for the motion, the gesture, the essence of what they are doing, how they are moving, and to get that on paper without any actual detail. This usually allows for a good idea of motion, but it also lets you see people in motion, standing in an uncomfortable position, something you can not do in a long pose, where the model has to be as comfortable as possible. When they have to sit or stand for 30, 45, even 60 minutes, they often needs breaks, have to be as still as they can, markers are often left where their limbs were so they can get back into position after their breaks, and maybe even need heaters to keep them warm.

Now the biggest and best advantages of drawing from real life, is that you have a person you can communicate to for your pose. If you need them to lower their hand, or change their balance, or shift their weight, or anything else, they can do it for you. You also have a 3D life-size model in the room, that lets you walk around them, chose your best position, and even take compliments when they do a good job. The disadvantages are important to know as well, but are workable. First, they are not cheap. Also, you have a human, who moves and itches, and scratches, and has gas, and gets cold, and can sweat, and needs to breath, and take breaks. This means they are going to be moving, even if just a little bit, which could be enough to throw you off, if you are still learning. Sometimes the model will be perfect, other times they will be troublesome, and if you have never worked with the model before, you have no way of knowing. Finding the right model can also be hard. If you need a middle aged woman to pose for you, but all you can find are old men, you are out of luck. However, the way I see it, all the great masters managed to create the most beautiful art using live models, long before still-pictures, aka photography, was invented. If they could create these great works of art, there is no reason we can not follow their example.

Luckily, thanks to the modern science of photography, drawing from a picture is a very good experience as well. Here, you can draw someone who is in a pose that a live person can not possibly hold, such as in the middle of the air or some other action. You will also find photographs don't move or take breaks. There are also a large variety of books and other resources, giving you a plethora of choices for your model and position, and usually books cost less. However, there are some major draw backs to drawing from photography. First, the camera. When you are drawing from a photograph, you have to remember that a camera does not tell the truth, it tells only what it sees. So nothing is in 3D, you cannot walk around the model and chose your position, you can not chose to readjust the focus, the lens and aperture and film and such all can affect the way the model looks. Most images are printed at a set resolution, usually around 300 dpi, which means you are stuck with the details presented on the page, and you can not get a close look to get more information. Whats more is that, while there are a plethora of options, sometimes it isn't enough, or it takes too long to find exactly what you want. If the model is not right, you have to find one that is close, or keep looking. If the model is in the wrong position, you can only change what you can figure out, but you can't reposition the model. If the camera is at the wrong angle, there is nothing you can do to fix it.

That being said, there are a lot of good books available for figure drawing resources, that are a great help when you don't have a live model available. This is better for if you are trying to draw something for a comic, because you can use stylization and like to compensate, but not so good for leaning if you are just starting out. If you already can draw people, and have already had classes, these books are great.

Pose File. From what I can tell, are are 2 series of Pose File books. The American pose file books are good mainly for costumed super-hero and anime/manga themed comics. All of these models are dressed, either fully, or at least in underwear. The often are dressed in costume as well. The book itself uses a series of camera angles for each pose, showing all of them on one page. However, if you look at the included CD, you will find that they actually took many photos from a series of angles, with even more positions than the book has. Since they specialize in costumes, you can see anything from superhero costumes, to schoolgirl outfits. And of course, they pose as these comic characters should as well. They provide various flying poses, fighting positions, weapon forms, and so on. You can even see some detailed shots of the weapons they use. It is good for getting some unusual shots and positions most reference books just do not do. They have a series of them available, mostly involving action and combat poses.
Besides the American Pose File books, there are the Japanese ones. I have not had a change to look at one of these myself, but I can say that they are available on Amazon, and usually involve nude models in various poses, including sports, dancing and martial arts.

The Nude Figure. There are a few books by photographer Mark Smith, which explore the nude figure. While he usually works with female nudes, you can also find men, couples, pregnant women, and unusual poses. He has books with models jumping and dancing and moving. His photography is excellent, with each model well depicted. Since this is a traditional reference book, he does not provide costumes or props, and does not cater to the comic artist specifically. However, he does an excellent job choosing which photographs to use, and provided top quality, detailed images. His books are usually black and white, but some of them (such as this one) is in full color. The one drawback to his work is that he does not provide panning or revolving perceptive. He only takes the images as they are, from his perspective, and from no other position. I find that, because of this, these are very limited in use for something like a comic artist, since we often need to have the characters in just the right position, from just the right angle.

People and Poses. There are actually 3 books in this series. Each one of these has a different theme, which is specific for the comic artist. There is People and Poses, Men and Boys, and Women and Girls. While there are other reference books by the same artist, these are the only ones that follow this theme. He tends to photograph specifically for the comic artist, choosing which angle to present in the book. These are in full color, and use a series of camera angles for each shot, similar to the Pose File books, but unlike the post file books, he does not represent them all on each page. Often, these books use a single dynamic shot, one that would be ideal for a comic layout. These each have flying shots, jumping, weapons, fighting, and more. they use dynamic photography to give you those head on, close up, and angled shots you love to see in comics. They even include pages from actual artists that used these models in their art, often with a presentation on how they made the shot. The best part is, these also include a CD, which has a huge variety of poses, weapon close ups, angles, and more. All of these use excellent side lighting to see the best details of the models, and they are all in full color. Unfortunately, while they provide a few costumes, there are no nudes, and the models are all fully dressed or in underwear. However, this is a minor drawback as these offer some excellent photographs, with some excellent tips and advice.

Facial Expression. This is perhaps one of the best tools for any artist. While you may be limited to using a mirror for your own face, these image provide you with a series of models posing in a large variety of expressions, often exaggerated for effect. The models are listed in order from youngest to oldest, and include everything from young attractive men and women, to acne riddled teen, to the wrinkly old woman. They include all face types, and the photographs are taken from 3 different positions surrounding the face. They include side shots, overhead shots, 3/4 shots, straight on, and several in between. The end of each model also has some art inspired by the expressions of that model, which are often creative and expressive. This is an excellent way to see how other people react, how emotions are portrayed on the face, and how the age and gender and race can differentiate how we look. As my good friend would say, it is also the favorite book of her kids, who call it the "funny face book". The best part of this book is that it includes not only a huge series of expressions from many angles, but also a sequential expressions gallery for animators, a kissing gallery (woohoo!), a hats and headgear gallery, and a Phonemes gallery (that is the shape the mouth makes when you say words and make certain sounds)!

This is only the tip of the iceberg for reference photo books. There are literally thousands of them out there. There are entire websites that are dedicated to giving you the best reference picture you can find. Some of them specialize in live models in various poses for your drawing benefit, others give you samples of various parts of the body for 3D modeling and the like. There is even a program out there that gives you a full 360º rotation around the model, for best viewing angle.

So for the best reference material out there, you have to get to a figure drawing class or session. The more live model practice you get, the better you will become at drawing a figure from your mind, or from a small reference material like a book. Book and photograph reference materials are also great, but only if used right. Don't forget you can use the internet, such as google, to search for a pose, a figure type, even a costume, if you need help. And while the photographs at websites like istockphoto, corbis and gettyimages are not free, you can often download a watermarked image with their giant logo on it, and use that for your reference for your drawing. Just make sure you don't draw their logo with it.

Next time, Phil Foglio, and Girl Genius!

Comics for beginners

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:17:00 +0000

Time for another update again!
Today, I will talk about the basics of web comic creation, from a beginner, to beginners. As they say, there is no better way to learn than to teach. So, I am going to go over a few books, and tools, that I find useful, as I try to figure out how best to tackle web comics.

If you have not already seen my post on drawing tools, check it out here. I basically went over Paper, pencils, computers, tablets, Photoshop, and so on. Here, I want to talk about drawing technique and style.
While I am no professional illustrator, I have taken several classes in college on drawing, including large format (such as 6 foot tall canvas drawings), and figure drawing. I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who is even remotely interested in learning to draw, to draw from real life, especially figures. Take a drawing class, and more importantly, take a figure drawing class! This will teach you the basics of the human anatomy, the shapes and contours, as well as the weight, the movement, the form and function, and so on. One class (as in a semester, not a single session) is really not enough, and I am actively seeking local figure drawing classes. Even the great masters of our past learned to draw from life, and often used models for all their work. In one amusing case, the artist could not find any female models, so he has to work from men, and the result? Rather masculine looking women... with coconut shaped chests.
Regardless, learning to draw from real life, not just photographs, not just internet, not just books, is the best way to learn to draw people.

Now then, on to the books.
Currently, there are several books that are in print that are excellent for both comic art, and figure drawing. There are many more that are very poor as well. Finding the right book for you might be difficult, but there are a few things to look for.
Are you trying to learn a specific style, or just enhance your skills? Are you trying to imitate someone, or develop your own style? The best answers to these will be to enhance your own skill, and your own style. Anyone can learn to draw like someone else, but to have your own flare, your own look, your own style with influences from many sources is what makes good art. I am no master, and my style is still being developed, and still emerging, but I have seen it peak out from behind my pencil lines every so often, and I want to encourage it.
The best way to do this, is to study the classics, the style of art that best represents the human anatomy, and artistic schools of thought. There are many different things to think about when it comes to drawing even a simple picture, including perspective, horizon lines, depth, weight, form, and so on. Any good art book will show you all these things, and more, and integrate their study into what you are trying to learn to draw.
One such series of books are by the artist Burne Hogarth. His series of books, which include Dynamic figure drawing, Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery, Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Hands, and so on, are all excellent books that cover all these elements and more. They teach you the relationship between each part of the body, the full range of motion, the reaction of cloth and clothing on the body, and so much more. He is a true master artist, who has thoroughly studied the classical style and very accurately and effectively relayed his knowledge into these books.
While I own some of these books myself, there are a few more books that everyone should know about as well. Unfortunately, these are no longer in print, but luckily they ARE available online, if you know where to look for them. The artist that made these? Andrew Loomis.
Loomis was an artist in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, even stretching into the 60's. His books are hard to find, although some are available through Amazon. However, luckily, a simple web search can reveal many (if not all) of his books in their entirety ready for download from various sources. His method is very thorough, and covers all of the things that Hogarth discusses, and more. His style is classical, but is also the influence of many other artists, and can be seen in such classic characters as Superman.

These are some excellent books for learning the classic art style, and for bettering yourself. You must make sure, however, that you actually read these books, and don't just look at the pretty pictures. Sure, they are full of pictures, but they also often discuss how to do variations of their technique, or how many times you should work on this specific problem they illustrate, and so on. Yes, artists need to read, not just draw or look at art books and comics.

Speaking of comics, there are several more books, which also require a fair share of reading, that are absolutely perfect for comics, and web comics. They discuss the more visual and theoretical aspects of comics versus drawing. Anyone can use these Hogarth and Loomis books to learn to draw anything they want, but the books I will discuss next talk specifically about the art of the comic.

In fact, there are 4 of these books, all by the same artist, Scott McCloud. McCloud is the creator of Zot!, a poplar comic from the late 80's and early 90's. McCloud decided that he would fully explore the theory behind comics, in an attempt to better learn them himself. Thus, he wrote a book all about them. He discusses everything from the boxes that we limit our sequential story telling to, to the complex relationship between the elements within each frame. He gives hints, tricks, and advice to all the major problems artists face, and provides excellent real-world knowledge of the comic making process. It become so popular, he actually went on to write 3 more books, which discuss everything from understand and creating comics, to how the internet has changed the face of comics, and even a book on how to make a full issue comic in only one day.
These are truly invaluable sources for both the professional level artist, and for the aspiring artist. In fact, I find these so interesting, I would suggest these to people who have no intent to every put pencil to paper, and only read comics. Understanding the full art style of the comic is far more intriguing than one would imagine, and is actually more entertaining than many comics.

For people are interested in drawing in the very popular "anime" or "manga" style, there are a series of books that do an excellent job of showing how this style differs from classic study, and so on. I highly recommend learning the classic art style first, as this is a specific variation that is best studied when you can already draw pretty well. The "How to Draw Manga" books cover a huge variety of anime and manga topics and styles. They include everything from how to get started, to how to draw specific costumes and genres. There are also a variety of similar books, which are by different companies, and tend to range in quality as well. I will say that, from my experience, learning to draw anime and manga is best left taught by those who are from the country of origin, Japan or Korea (Manwa is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese Manga, and follow the same rules). One artist to avoid, who is actually quite good at drawing American style comics, is Christopher Hart.
I am not bad mouthing Hart, or saying he can't draw, cause he can, and many of his books are excellent, but he does not draw manga style effectively at all, even though he sells many books on the topic. I highly recommend looking at his book Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy, it has amazingly simple and useful techniques for simplifying drawing people. However, avoid his books that focus on manga and anime, as his style wreaks of Americanized copycat, which does not stay true to the Japanese form, and actually fails to accurately depict any sort of Japanese style.

Now aside from books like these, which teach you how to draw in various styles, there are also books that do not teach anything, but are just as useful to an artist. These are reference books. As I said before, working from a model is second to none, but when a live model is not available, which is most of the time, a book photo reference book is an acceptable replacement.

Next post, I will discuss reference books, and finding live model classes.

Update (About Time)

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:30:00 +0000

I know last post seemed like a complaint, and ever since then I haven't made any posts or updates.
Well that is simple. I have been really busy, and haven't been working on any animation or drawing projects at all.

Well I am desperately trying now to get back into my creative mode at full force now. About 2 weeks ago, I started picking up the guitar. I have actually been learning to play both the classic acoustic guitar, and the electric bass guitar. Since both work on a similar principal, I have slowly been teaching myself both. I have also decided to start learning how to sight-read music, a skill that is most useful in the music world, and something which far too many people lack. While many accomplished musicians never learned to read or write music, I find it is not that hard to do if you let your hands do the learning before your mind. By that, I mean let your fingers figure out the muscle movements before you memorize what all the note names are. Sure, knowing the names of the notes is important, but it comes second, in my opinion, to your ability to play the music you see. Once you can play it, you can better understand the technical side as well, such as the note names.
So WHY am I talking about music in an animation blog?
Simple. Music, just like drawing and animation, is an expressive art form that takes practice and determination, as well as skill, to master. While I will never be a master guitarist, I find that getting my creative juices flowing again is a very good habit. By thinking in a creative, and eager to learn way, I am readying myself for the next step in what I am trying to do. Drawing.
My drawing skills have very much been a roller coaster. At times, I can barely draw a person, even if they are standing in front of me. At other times, I am able to draw very well, especially from a model. I admit my weakness if drawing without a model, so I am constantly looking for reference shots to help aid my drawing. But that only works so well. Lately, being mainly out of practice for a long time, I find my skills are lacking, and I need to get them back to where they belong. Drawing is not like riding a bike. It takes constant practice, otherwise your skills decrease and you find yourself at square one again.
I am looking into a few books to help me out, as well as a few tutorials. However, most importantly, I am back to drawing again. The animation right now, "Weak 1", will be put on a temporary hold so I can work on the prologue to a web comic my brother and I have been working on. It isn't up yet (obviously), and we want to have the first 8 or so pages finished before we go any further, but I am using this opportunity to get back in the habit of drawing. I need to do a lot of drawing, in practice and study, as well as in real-world applications. Here, I am going to using this project for both. I am going to be setting up a deadline to finish so many pages a month, I am shooting for 1 entire drawn, inked, and colored image every week. This is to allow for a timely and regular schedule on a web comic, something most people rely on if they like to read web comics.
So why web comics? Again, it is part of my attempt to get myself back into my creative mode, and the best way is to do creative things. Writing stories, playing music, drawing, all these are important creative processes, and all of them can help with animation. The better you are at drawing, the better you will be at animation of any kind. So I must start from the basics, and improve from there! Besides, most of my readers enjoy web comics, and probably have found this site, if not directly through me, than through Tangent Artists, a web comic site that I am a part of. In fact, this very comic, when it is ready to be uploaded, will be featured there, but I will be updating more on that in the future.

Now most comics will update at the very least once a week, but many update far more often. I have seen ones from 1 or 2 a month, to one or 2 a day. Sometimes they keep no schedule and update when they are ready, other times they have a regular update at a specific time which they stick to. I find that those comics that update regularly have a better readership, and a lot more content to play with. The artists also improve the most in their drawing style. While many start simple and crude, some eventually become truly impressive as time goes on. I am hoping that, by spending a week per page, I give myself plenty of time to practice, draw, ink, color, and finalize one page, while still leaving time for everything else I need to do. I hope that this will help me improve draw better and faster fairly quickly. Without a set deadline, I will slack off and not follow through.
For now, I am still in the process of drawing the first few pages. I have been experimenting with inking and scanning techniques, and will be moving onto color soon after. I have a few ideas on what I want to do, but this is really meant to be a learning experience for me, as well as a tool to help me practice and get better at drawing.
Of course this means the beginning will look rough, stiff, awkward, and even bad at times. I am always hard on my own work, but every good artist is. I hope that by using a few books, models, and (someday) classes, I will get significantly better. This comic will help with that, and I hope that by the time the entire comic is complete, anyone who compares the first chapter and the last chapter will see a world of improvement in the art style and drawing.
Most comic artists improve their style of drawing, but they use a very stylized form, and often encourage that in their art as they develop. Sometimes this works out wonderfully for them, other times they find they can only draw that style of character, and nothing else. I plan to use characters that, while inspired by Japanese manga (comics), is clearly not mimicking them, and trying to use fairly accurate depictions of people, in such a way that I can apply the principals of figure drawing to this comic, despite the awkwardness and time consuming process this will create. It may start hard, and I may never be as masterful an artist as many of my artist heroes, but with this knowledge, I plan to take a new look at my short animations, and start making quality work at a fast pace.

So, for now, my animations are on a short hold, while I work on this comic. It will be called "A Twist of Feyt", which is a play on the Celtic inspired fey-realms and fairy creatures. Once this comic is completed, I have plans to work on a sci-fi comic next. I am hoping to write a story where I can combine cyber-punk and steam-punk, but that is still a long way off. So for next time, I will be posting some drawings of my latest comic pages, with some of the techniques I will be using and some of the things I have learned.

Look forward to it!

Reasons to avoid the cinema

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Long ago, a trip to the cinema was a major event. People would only go see a moving picture a few times a year. Later, it became a regular event, and people would go all the time just to pop in to see the news, or the latest serial. Nowadays, it is a regular event, one that many companies rely on for their income and success. Long gone are the days of dressing up in one's finest to go to the movies, instead people will just wear their t-shirts and jeans and go out to see a movie.
While a part of me wishes I could see the grandeur of the cinema in its golden years, the rest of me is glad it is so readily available and commonplace. Regardless, the ease of access and laid back casual approach to movie watching has generated a variety of bad habits and annoying circumstances that make going to the movies a pain. Worse still are the real dangers of going to the movies, the ones that can do physical harm. Don't know what I'm talking about? I'll get to that, but first I will list the pros and cons of going out to the movies.

Pros:
You will see the latest films before they are available online, on DVD/Blu-ray, or anywhere else.
You will see said films on the biggest screens available
And with the best sound (quality and surround sound a home theater could not even hope to achieve)
You will see the latest in movie technologies, like 3D and IMAX
Your friends can enjoy the movie at the same time
You have fun going out with family and friends and make a night of it
There are more pros, I am sure, but here are some cons...

Cons:
The price is not always cheap for tickets, and never cheap for consessions
The screens are not all the same, some are better than others and you never know what you are going to get
The new technologies have drawbacks (3D can cause headaches, IMAX can cause nausea, etc)
People

People is the main point of this post today. There are those annoying habits people have like talking during a movie, making a mess, causing a disturbance of some sort, and so on. In modern times, we are also bombarded with people who decide they can leave their phone on, or outright talk on the phone during the movie. There are those who think their mobile device's bright screen won't disturb anyone else in the theater. There are the messes of food and drink all over the floor from the last showing which is not always cleaned easily. Luckily all these have warnings before the movie, asking you to turn off your phones, don't text (finally), clean your mess, no talking, etc. Other than that, the common crowd noises are easily ignored (even by me), and if all these rules are followed, a movie is easily enjoyed.
But wait, these things are physically dangerous are they? No, not normally. Sure the threat of fires or illness from food exist, but that is rare and not a serious problem in theaters anymore. What I meant earlier by danger and physical harm can all be boiled down to one word, people. I will demonstrate with an event that happened yesterday to me and my dad at the theater.

We decided to see "Clash of the Titans" in theaters for Easter, while we waited for Easter dinner. We got to the theater early, got our snacks, even chose assigned seats at the Director's Hall where they were showing it. We decided against 3D, since this film more or less faked the 3D (it was filmed in 2D, and the 3D was added later). The movie started, and was somewhat enjoyable at first. Decent quality theater, clean, and quiet, at first. I was caught up in comparing the bizarre film to the original in my head, noting the many unusual changes (and reminded myself that the original had its fair share of cheese) when I heard a noise that didn't belong, a man talking loudly.
I looked over and saw my dad walking out to use the bathroom, and his shirt (which was unbuttoned as an over-shirt with a t-shirt underneath) was sticking out strangely, it was a little far, and in the dark, but it looked like it brushed over a man's bald head in the front row (one row down from us). Instead of just letting it go, he demanded an apology from my dad, loudly. My dad said sorry at a normal tone (which seemed loud in a quiet theater), and suddenly the man starts cussing at a yelling tone at my dad as he tries to walk to the bathroom. He bolts out of his seat, and runs after my dad, when the yelling (all coming from this man) continued in the hall.
Seeing how this man so violently got out of his seat and continued yelling obscenities, I was genuinely scared for my dad's safety. I was sure, not just slightly but absolutely, that this guy was chasing him down intending to start throwing punches. I ran after them and motioned to them to leave the theater before they continued the disturbance. I wish it ended there, where I heard my dad say for the second time that he was sorry he bumped into him, explaining it wasn't intentional and he didn't notice. I wish the guy would have accepted that as an apology, like any normal, logical, sane human being. Alas, he is not a normal, logical, sane human.
Now, outside the theater and still in the hallway (the one that leads to each screen), the man explodes at my dad for assaulting him. He used that word so many times, it sounded to me like he was trying to get my dad to admit he assaulted him, or at least find someone else who might side with him against being attacked. It was like he was trying to scam us.
Regardless, my dad walked into the bathroom as this man yelled after him, as though he was going to find a back way out of the bathroom and disappear. I was there and managed to keep the guy waiting. I asked him what happened, and he turns to me and says "that jerk grabbed my head and hit me in the theater". He then realized I was related, and asked me to tell my dad to "Come back out here and apologize like a man!". At this point, images of high school bullies, most of whom dropped out, came rushing into my head. This man already received 2 apologies, but that wasn't enough. While he was telling me this, he started his tough guy act. He tried to stand up taller (still a foot shorter than me), rolling up his sleeves, waving his arms around with his chest out, and yelling.
Hind sight is always useless for the situation you were in, but does give ideas for how to protect yourself from the same or a similar thing happening again. I realize now I should have whipped out my iphone, and started taking video. Photos wouldn't work, cause I can manipulate those, but I can not manipulate video (yet). That would have been best, but at least I will be sure to be ready next time someone makes visual physical threats against me or my family again.
I went into the bathroom to tell my dad that this guy has started threatening to call the police, and that his new favorite word was "assault". We went out together, and found the man still fuming, still yelling. My dad asked what was the problem, and the guy repeated his mantra (using "assault" for the 50th time). My dad apologized for bumping into him again, and explained he didn't notice and didn't mean to. The guy refused, loudly, to accept that answer. He was egging on my dad at this point. He was trying to get my dad to say he assaulted him. He was trying to show how big and tough he was with his waving arms, rolled up sleeves, and cocky attitude. He repeatedly asked my dad what he was apologizing for "(what did you do? what did you do?", he repeated his at least 6 or 7 times in a row). My dad said, "you tell me". I realized now that this guy looked like he was off his medication. It became apparent to me that I was not going to go back in to see the rest of this movie. Every time me or my dad tried to go back inside and just ignore the guy, he was block our way. He came within inches of touching us, as though he was trying to either provoke an actual assault (which he would have regretted since we were both bigger and both have black belts), or tried to get one of us to physically touch him so that he would either feign injury or retaliate in "self-defense". This guy really has a few screws loose, especially since he was in his 40s maybe, while my dad is a senior citizen.
About this time, 2 of his friends (or family, no idea the relation) came out trying to apparently calm him down. We explained that my dad apologized for the 4th time, and didn't do anything, and this guy was still yelling and would not accept the apology. By now, the managers had come over, and my sister also came out of the theater as well. We all argued, mostly against the crazy nutjob, while his friends did little, as they apparently didn't know why he was acting this way. They asked him to drop it, and he only got more mad.
The managers could do nothing, except comply to the request the nutjob gave them, to call the police. Which was fine cause my sister and I had both already dialed 911 and were about to hit the send button when they said this. By now the guy was so loud and obnoxious, we were asked to be apart from each other. We had no problem with this, but we heard the man repeatedly say he was going to press assault charges.
Several minutes later, 3 police officers showed up. First they talked to Nutty McNutjob, while we tried to calm ourselves down and have a chat with the manager about movies and 3D and the like. He was actually a cool guy, but made sure we understood that when the police get involved, they can do very little.
We occasionally saw the police talking amongst themselves, and one loudly asked "It's a simple question, yes or no?". Now they were still talking to Nutty McNutjob, when they said this. Now this brings to mind the many reasons someone would ask this question. Usually, it is either they didn't get a clear answer, or they didn't believe the guy from the get go. Here, I think it was both, but that is only speculation, as I heard nothing more of their conversation, but I knew then that the police didn't believe this guy either.
One of the officers came over, took down out information, and asked us to explain our side of the story. We explained all that happened, how we felt physically threatened by this man, and how he refused to accept an apology. The officer noted to us that they felt this man had no case, and was blowing hot air, and that they didn't believe him either. There was no motive for an assault, there were no witnesses to support him and plenty to support us, and so on.
In the end, what came dangerously close to a fist fight in a theater, which probably would have ended in Nutpants McNutter being arrested for assault, and sent to the hospital for injuries when we defended ourselves, as well as spending a night in jail ourselves, finally ended with the police asking him to leave and escorting him out instead. While charges are still a possibility, there is no case, and no evidence. If this guy wants to claim assault, where is the evidence? He had no injury, no bruise, no red spot, nothing. He was physically threatening, and verbally abusive. Where are his witnesses? What is the motive? He appeared to be either drunk (although we smelled nothing on his breath), on drugs, or not on drugs (i.e. medication he should have been on). We are convinced it was either the 3rd option, or he is truly one of those people who explode at the tiniest things and should be on drugs and in therapy.
We ended up going back inside to see that last 4 minutes of the movie, meaning we missed about half of it thanks to this guy. We got refunds from the theater. The managers were very cool about it. My adrenaline was all worked up, I felt sick in many ways over this, and my wife was left in the theater during all this although she waited in the hallways since no one came back in for most of the movie.

So, people, like Nutty McNutter here, are a major reason not to go outside and have fun with friends and family anymore, especially at theaters. You never know when someone is going to forget to take his medication, and decide you are his punching bag.

The irony here is that this guy, while clearly not on the level, and not thinking straight, messed up our movie watching experience, and yet we now have 2 free tickets each to see whatever we want to see at the same theater. Do not let things like this scare you into not going to the theater. You should always be ready to defend yourself against an attack, but also be more willing to forgive and let go, especially when you are the one yelling obscenities at people. Either you get free tickets, or you get escorted outside by the police.

All is well in the end, but I will be using my iPhone to capture video on all events I deem worthy of being evidence in court, if it should come to that.

Update, Schools, and Review

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:20:00 +0000

I have been very bad lately. The point of this blog is to help give me the incentive to work on animations, and even comics. I wanted to use this as a reason to draw every day, to finish more animations for demo reels and just for the experience of it. And of course to have fun.
Instead, I have been using excuse after excuse in my head, to avoid working on the things I really want to do. The problem is, I don't get paid to do what I want to do. In fact, I get paid very little, and only when I find the work doing freelance jobs. This is not a complaint, only an observation, on which I have full control over the situations. Currently, I have been doing album layouts for a wedding photographer, some image edits as well, and I just finished up a big job with a photographer who is trying to get his work in a museum. He also has a few book deals in the works and he may want my help with that too. I am busy, no doubt about it, but I do not enjoy the work I do, not the way I should. I am good at image editing, I enjoy the artistic side of it, but I am forced to do menial tasks, with little reward, and limited creativity. I don't mind a deadline, in fact I work best when under a deadline, but the work that I do is not enjoyable to me and I am unable to really get behind the work I should be doing. In the end, I avoiding the work I want to be doing as well. I rather spend my days doing house keeping and playing games, but this will get me no where, and I must use all the time I have to work on what needs to be worked on.
I have made too many promises to too many people that I have not fulfilled, due mostly to my lack of discipline and self-motivation. I can not go back on these promises, I will move forward and work on these, as well as all the work I need to do for both income and education. I have a lot of work ahead of me these next 2 days, but I will somehow find the time to prepare some more art to fill this blog by this weekend!

It's time I put my mind and efforts BACK on the right track!

This brings me to the topic of schools, which I am still looking at. The DAVE school was an experience, and it isn't a bad school at all. There are a few downsides, the cost being the biggest for me. Since it is not accredited, it is not eligible for scholarships or grants. The best a student can hope for is a student loan, in the amount of approximately $40,000! Now this is a one year school, and it is not an unheard of price for a specialty private school, such as this, and they are well within their rights to ask for such an amount. However, for me, since I am already in debt to a school that didn't go anywhere for me, I need to consider my options more carefully.
Luck is with me on this topic though. It just so happens that I have been put into contact with a company, College Lift Off!, which specializes in finding the right school, at the right price, for each person. We have been working on finding a school that both excels in the field of animation and visual effects, and is also affordable with ample financing options. There are several candidates right now, one of which is especially interesting, and I am hoping to learn more this week. I have tried to get in touch with them, but my timing has been off. I must concentrate on what I need to do, which is making money, and finding a school. I have long-since given up the job hunt, since my unemployment benefits are no longer active, so I should be spending all my time furthering my career, not just get a job. I am a little hesitant to mention specifics at this time, I feel it is in my best interest to continue my search for now, and report back later when I have something significant to post.

So since I am currently, and reluctantly, without any art or animations for you to gaze upon, I will offer a short review on the latest anime title my wife and I have been viewing on Blu-ray, Samurai 7.

Samurai 7

Samurai 7 is a retelling of the classic 1954 film directed by Akira Kurosawa, Seven Samurai. The original film is a masterpiece of cinematography, story telling, acting, and film making. I know of no other film to date that can compete with the subtle complexities of the story and cinematography. Seven Samurai is, without a doubt, one of the greatest films ever made. I could go into a detailed explanation and review on how absolutely magnificent this film is, detailing the masterwork in each scene, but I will not. For one, many people may not appreciate all the nuances and subtle ingenuity, in much the same way most people do not recognize the genius of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of course most film enthusiast would agree that both these films are timeless works of art. Regardless, a work of art Samurai 7 is not.

Blu-ray
Movie
Oh, boy, where to begin. Most of you know I am a big fan of the Japanese pop-art 'sensation' of anime. I have been an avid watcher since the early 90's, before most people knew what anime was, so you can say my interest is not a mere passing fad. I appreciate any good animated feature, although recently I have found little to interest me short of Hayao Miyazaki and Pixar films. Still, I have been interested in the cover art of this particular series when I see it on shelves, and I decided to rent it on Blu-ray to give it a twirl.
Imagine Seven Samurai, now replace all the bandits with (dear God I can't believe I am saying this) Giant Robots. Yes... Giant Robots. Oh, I should have stopped watching there, right in the beginning of the first episode when they first showed up, I should have turned off the disc, returned it, and removed the next 2 discs from the queue. Sadly, I did not.
In an attempt to make the struggle between the samurai, the farmers, and the bandits all the more epic and grandiose, they turned the bandits into 4 story tall robots. It appears someone from the staff of Gundam snuck in to a staff meeting and decided to throw in a few of his poorly sketched mecha designs. Granted, the reasoning behind this is quite complex, although convoluted. They intended to further develop the complexity of the relationship between the samurai, the villagers, and the bandits, as well as the capitol itself, which is run by merchants. By having the bandits steal the rice, they could sell it to the capitol, which would use it for trade, to become wealthy, and keep the villagers under thumb. While this seems simple enough, the mechanical nature of the bandits leads to discrimination and fear for anything mechanical. To this end, they attempted to further complicated the already complicated and well developed character of "Kikuchiyo" (Which the English dub pronounced "Kikucho" or "Kiku" for short), by turning him into a mechanical samurai as well, so not only does he bridge the gap between the farmers and the samurai, but he also brings in an innate understanding of how the bandits work and think, as well as becoming a point of hatred for the leader of the merchants, who fears anything mechanical.
Kikushiyo isn't the only character butchered by this loose interpretation. While many of the samurai undergo minor character changes, the villagers are downright backwards. Instead of the village elder sending out 4 men into the city to look for samurai, they decide to send 1 man, 1 "water priestess", and 1 little kid. Of course, the water priestess is a combination of Shino and many of the villagers, yet she is not Shino, as her character still shows up. This new character has the ability to dowse for water, or apparently samurai. The little girl seems to have no point but to be an annoyance that dumbs down any complex aspect and retells the story for those who fell asleep. Cute, sure, but pointless and annoying. The rest of the villagers have little importance. The conflict between the youngest samurai, Katsushiro, and Shino is not even existent. Instead, they try to move the love triangle (a triangle??) to Katsushiro, the water priestess, and Kambei. YES... Kambei. Oh, is that a spoiler? Well, trust me, watching this will spoil your appetite, and probably your eyes.
I could go on. They continue to mutilate this story by adding new characters, factions, overly complex politics, overly simplified and lacking character development and relationships, and extremely unrealistic and laughable fight scenes. It is amazing they managed to take a 4 hour long masterpiece and turn it into a 26 episode long travesty. The gigantic explosions at the end of the series signify not only the destruction of the capitol, but also the destruction of any redeemable quality of this anime. There is a reason I don't watch many anime series anymore, so many of them turn out like this. Apparently, they assumed that by sticking direct quotes from the original movie into this series would be enough to justify these mutilations, but they only serve to further bury the enormous sonic sword into the heart of Kurosawa and all cinematography.
I give this a 2 out of 5 stars. It could have sucked even more, but it is so far from the original source, it should be banned in most countries.

Video
Oh. My. God! This has got to be the worst Blu-ray I have ever seen in my life! Nay. The worst disc! I am sure the DVD would look better than this. Allow me to explain. This transfer most assuredly uses a 1080p HD image, capturing all the detail, or lack thereof, that this anime boasts. Unfortunately, like some other animated movies, banding is an issue. That is actually a lie, banding is much more than an "issue", its a serious problem. It is hard to watch ANYTHING with the MASSIVE banding issues this series sports. It is consistent through the entire series, from the first unexplained and confusing flashback, to the final eye-gouging explosion. It is downright hard to see any of the other compression errors this series has thanks to the massive banding. Scenes that should have no banding at all are full of them. It is as bad as trying to watch a movie with an 8-bit color pallet, only worse. The flashbacks, previews, and reviews at the beginning and ending of each episode use a cookie-cutter effect, filled with black dots that start to look like dead pixels or dirt. Granted this is a minor annoyance, but enough to distract me and make me want to clean off my screen.
The real problem is the fact that the Blu-ray producers decided that 50GB meant they can stick 8 or 10 episodes per disc, rather than the standard 4. This means they instead of dedicating the extra space to quality video and audio, they compressed the HELL out of it to fit on more content. The result.... a mess that wreaks as bad as the bog of eternal stench.
I give this a 1 out of 5 stars. It was in HD... I think... but I bet you watching the DVD will prove less painful.

Audio
I am not really sure where to go with this. The Japanese had much better sound than the English. The English changed names and such. They used decent voice actors to more or less fit the parts, and the acting is not half bad, but there is really no quality to the audio. It just didn't impress me... sort of blah.
I will give this a 2.5 of 5, since it neither has absolutely awful quality, nor was it really notable. Just meh.

Extras
What are those?

Overall
This is quite simply the worst anime I have seen in a long time. Not the worst I have ever seen, but it is pretty bad. The original movie is so full of nuances and complex relationships, as well as well developed characters and an epic battle, I was hoping to see some of this in anime form, with more explanation into what was going on. Instead, I am bombarded with a corrupt government stealing rice from farmers through a complexly organized system of giant mechanical bandits who sell rice to "gaurdians" who in turn trade it to the merchants for land (?), who in turn sell the rice for trade. No one eats this stuff except the samurai, who have no real part in society. The ingenious schemes of Kambei are suddenly more convoluted and far less impressive. The crazy antics of Kikuchiyo have turned him into a mechanical samurai equivalent of a 5th grader on crack. The restructuring of the characters is both pointless and annoying, and only serves to further complicate matters in the wrong way. Main characters are given completely different goals, outcomes, and roles. All these things, while occasionally throwing in a random quote from the original film where it best suits them. About the only thing they did right in this series was kill off the right characters in ways similar to the original film... mostly.
What is it they say? You can't judge a Blu-ray by its cover? Something like that...
I give this a 1.5 out of 5. The story is awful, the video quality is unforgivably vomitous, the audio falls short of anything acceptable, and there are no extras in sight. But most importantly, they put Akira Kurosawa's name RIGHT ON THE FRONT of this atrocity! Kurosawa must be spinning in his grave. The abomination called Samurai 7 is an attempt to assassinate quality film, and the Blu-ray format, as well as HD, anime, and human sight. To call this watchable is an overstatement. Most would probably not even rate this as bearable. I will say it is unforgivable. A POX on the Blu-ray Authoring group who made this pile of muck. Even though the story is convoluted, laughable, and an atrocity to the source it names itself after, the very least you can do is spare our eyesight from the banding...

... The Banding...

... THE BANDING!!!

DAVE School Visit

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:05:00 +0000

Well it's that time again! Time for me to come up with another excuse as to why I have nothing to show you all.
This week, it is simply that I have been too busy with work (as in trying to make money while unemployed), and research. The research here is actually more important than that of simply drawing and animating, which is why I have not finished anything this week. I have paid the DAVE school (that's "Digital Animation & Visual Effects School" for those who haven't heard) down in Orlando Florida, a little visit.
Upon checking into our hotel room, we called one of the DAVE school representatives, who happens to also be a 3rd block student, I'll go into blocks a little more later. He was kind enough to pick us up, drive us around town a little, give us a tour of the school, and answer some of our questions.
DAVE school is located on the back side of Universal Studios Orlando, on the premises. It is not inside the gate to the back of the park, but it is on their back lot. While they are on Universal's property, they are not owned by Universal but have a good relationship with them. Students get employee-like passes to let them into the back side of the park, where they can go on rides, enjoy the shows, or even eat in the staff cafeteria, which I am told has VERY reasonable prices. Fun aside, the school is currently in a sound stage which they converted for teaching classes. Despite this, it is decently equipped, with a mocap (motion capture) studio, green screen, small theater, and dozens of work stations. The front room is the entry where their receptionist can help with anything you need. Next to this is the guest lounge, where they show off all the movies, posters, toys, et al that they have made. They also have an impressive collection of student awards on display.
Upon entering the actual classrooms, we are confronted by an array of computer work stations, each one with 3 or 4 computers on it. They assign all 3rd and 4th block students a computer in each station, and they have to work together to complete their assignment. Again, I'll go into blocks shortly. Next to this, is a small theater where they show movies and such to students, and also give lectures. While it is nice to have it there, in their current location, it looks more like a temporary set up. I assume this will change in the near future. After the theater, there is a long hallway that is filled with past works they have done, including story boards, screen shots, character designs, etc. At the end of the hallway is the 1st and 2nd block classroom, where each student is assigned a computer, which all face a screen at the front of the class. This lets them see what the teacher is doing, so they can copy it on their own computer. All of the computers in this school are PCs, and while they recognize that both Macs and workstations are prevalent in the industry, they find it is more affordable and standardized to just use PCs in the classroom. They will even help a student build a PC, if they want one in their home.
Next door to this, is the mocap studio, which doubles as a green screen. Here, they have a full sized green screen room, where half the room is a green screen, complete with props and computers and monitors. They also have a series of mocap cameras in the room, about 20 I believe, to track movements of anyone wearing the mocap suit. This is the same mocap system that was used in Monster House and Polar Express.
Other than these main areas, they also have a small reference storage area, full of varous reference materials, props and toys all over the place, offices for faculty and staff, a small sound room, and a meeting room I could not see, cause there was a meeting in it at the time.
Now, the entire school lasts for only 1 year for each student (assuming they don't fail). Each year is split into 4 blocks, which are 3 months apiece. A student is assigned wither night or day classes, which stays that way for the entire year. Meaning the faculty have to change which times they teach classes every 3 months to accommodate the new recruits. In the first block, you are bombarded with information, most of which is 3D modeling. I understand that while the first few days might be typical for a class, it shortly becomes their hardest and most grueling block with the pure mass of data they require you to learn. This weeds out anyone that can't handle the workload right off, and anyone who is not serious about animation. It also gives student a good strong base to start with the 2nd block, which I understand to be mostly animation and mocap. I think 3rd block covers the more advanced features, like visual effects and green screen. And finally, 4th block is one big long class project. Students have very limited creativity in the class assignments. While they are encouraged to come in before or after class, and on weekends, to work on their own projects, so they can build their demo reel up and their skills, the class itself acts more like an actual animation studio, where the directors call the shots, and the animators have to make it happen. Therefore, we have to act like animators to make their vision come true. Students will have some limited creativity within each shot, but the majority of it is just to make the scene work the way it should.
The computers are not the most advanced, and most are only running Windows XP. This is fine with me, since upgrading that many computers that often is expensive, and it is always smart to wait on the latest OS until all the bugs are out. It is my firm belief that Vista is not an OS, it is a Beta. 7 is the real OS, since it actually works the way it should, more or less.
Despite this tour, it appears the school has been in negotiations with Universal Studios about moving into a bigger building. While this will probably happen after my first block, it will be a big change for the better. They will be moving into a location very close by, still on the same property, with a new set up. Instead of horizontal, it will be vertical. It will have more space for computers, a theaters, and a better mocap and green screen room. I look forward to seeing this new facility, which promises to be a big positive change for them.
Another change they are seeking is to become accredited by the State of Florida. Right now, they are not accredited yet, which is always a draw back, especially for financing. There are no federal financing options or scholarships/grants for non-accredited schools. While they have turned in all the paperwork to the proper Florida officials, it is now up to the State to declare them accredited. This will also probably happen at around the same time, while I am in school. This is particularly good, because it means that I will be able to get scholarships and grants to help pay for all of this, since it is going to cost me a pretty penny to go to this school.
Overall, I was rather impressed with them. While they are not a perfect school, there are no perfect schools out there. DAVE school has flaws, but they know they do and work around them to make it the best experience for the students. Their faculty/staff are well connected with Hollywood directors and actors, and they can sometimes get big names to donate their talents to the students. If you want to see a perfect example of this, go to http://www.daveschool.com/movies/, and check out "Batman: New Times", which stars Adam West, Mark Hamill, and Dick Van Dyke. Also look at Antrho, which was made for a Hollywood film maker to try to pilot his idea for a film. With the boot camp style of teaching, this looks like a great opportunity to really learn what I need to know fast, and get a job doing what I have always wanted to do, making movies.
There is one big drawback though, it is located in Orlando Florida, which isn't the problem, but the fact that my wife will have to stay here in DC for at least a few months, if not the entire year, is a problem. I hope we can figure something out so she can find a good job down there, and perhaps get her into the school as well, but we will just have to wait and see, and try our hardest.
Well I am looking forward to going, although I am not at all happy about leaving my wife behind. That is all I will write for now, I have a lot to do, including more work, more drawing, and more research.

Orlando trip

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:53:00 +0000

I am going to be going on a trip this weekend to Orlando, Florida. I am planning to check out this aforementioned DAVE school (digital animation and visual effects) for myself.
I should be able to work on some more drawings when i get back. I plan to have a big update next week. I want to have all the backgrounds finished, and start work on the main character animation.
This will be the most time consuming part, but I plan to use a few tricks, such as recycled animation and cut-out animation, to get it done quickly.
I also plan to get some help this weekend and this week on coloring some of these backgrounds so that I can continue to work on the main drawings while the rest of finished. Multi-tasking so to speak. I suppose I'll have to ask someone to help with that.
So The next big update should be next weekend. I will also let people know how my trip to the DAVE school turns out.

Katsucon!

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:01:00 +0000

As many of you know, I am part of a group called Tangent Artists. You can look at our webcomics and other online content at www.TangentArtists.com.

Well, this week, the TA crew, at least some of them, will be representing at Katsucon in the National Harbor. Katsucon, for those that don't know, is an anime convention that is very popular in the area. There are a few anime conventions in the area each year, and while Otakon is the biggest out here, Katsucon is a popular alternative choice. It has shorter lines, fewer crowds, ans lots of good events.
If you are in the area, and thinking about or planning to go to Katsucon 2010, by all means check out our booth in the artist alley.
I myself will not be there this year, but say hi to the members that could make it.

Weak 1 update, with pictures

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:05:00 +0000

Greetings!
It's about time I did another update on my progress relating to my Weak 1 animation. So far, I have given you all a glimpse at the animation through a storyboard, which took enough time, but was well worth it.
Now, I would like to show some of the original sketches I have done. These sketches are intended to be used in the final animation itself, and are merely elements of the scenes, but not all of them are up to par and will need to be re-worked, some from scratch, before they are ready to be put in the final animation.
I realize that these are very sketchy, and they don't have color and are probably not very accurate, but this wouldn't be "weakly animated" if everything was drawn really well now would it?
The first ones I will show are ones that will need the most reworking done, and the last one is a final image that is ready to be put into the production for coloring and masking, although it may need a better scan first.

Now these are intentionally kept in pencil with a sketchy feel to them. I particularly like the last image, it has worked out the best so far and probably doesn't really need much more work, if any, to be ready for the rest of the production. I will probably scan these all again at a later time, but for now these are good to get opinions and suggestions.

The hardest one of these will be the 4th one, as it will need to have animating wheels. Since I have already drawn this, I will probably have to go back and draw the wheels again separately, in sequence to show the animation. The traffic light will also need more done to it, to make sure the light sways back and forth as the little car flies past it. I will be adding the bird, Adam, Marge (the little lady), and the cop at a later date, once the backgrounds and other elements are mostly completed. Once I have these in place, figuring out how to get the characters in place should be easier since I will have a lot of reference to work with.

So, enjoy these images, and please please PLEASE give me your feedback and opinions. I look forward to hearing from you about what you think of these images. I am always striving to better myself and my art and animations.

Later this week, besides working on more of these images, I will probably write a review for the movie 9, a movie that really inspires me, since it is really the director's first major motion picture, based off his college thesis. I want to achieve that kind of success, and that is what I am striving to do with the DAVE school, and my Weakly Animations.

Avatar Review

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:24:00 +0000

Today, I would like to do a brief review of James Cameron's latest film, Avatar.
As most of you know, Avatar is a movie about an alien world inhabited by blue people who are fighting for their own world against humans. Well that is part of it at least. I never like to give away spoilers, although most people have seen this film already.
When I first heard about this movie, I was confused between this Avatar, and the TV series Avatar, The Last Airbender. The airbender tv series is a great animated show with a very different theme from Cameron's movie. Both were announced as movies at around the same time, and with he same name. They are even both due out this year, although one has been in theaters and the other is due out in a few months. Regardless, the confusion over the name used to be a very strong thing, and still affects a lot of people. Just doing a search for "Avatar" in Google Images, you will find the first several pages dedicated to the tv series, not the movie.
Luckily, M. Night Shamalan, the director of the airbender film, has decided to change the name to simply The Last Airbender, which hopefully will clear up any further confusion.
Now on to the film.

I felt that I needed to see this film twice in order to get a full idea of the story, characters, and effects. Both times, I saw this at an AMC "IMAX" 3D screen. This is a great experience, which I could go on about for hours, but I will keep this very brief. In order to summaries, I will split this into sections: story, characters, effects, IMAX 3D, and finally quality and overall.

Story:
I have heard many people say that this movie is just a reenactment of Disney's Pocahontas, or even Dune. However I have to respond that it is not the same, and despite the strong similarities, there is another view. All stories borrow from other stories. Whether they are movies, comics, books, or whatever, there are no original stories. So while this may borrow heavily from other titles, it is still a unique aspect, and a well delivered story. And indeed it was well delivered, closing any loose ends, bringing together all the important and even some subtle bits of information into a cohesive ending. They did an excellent job of giving this story life, and of making it enjoyable from beginning to end. The main themes are universal and well understood, with a strong message that has been repeated many times lately. Our planet is a living thing and we need to treat it better. I do like the aspect that the spiritual and natural ways of the Navi are actually measurable scientifically. By using special neural connections in their hair, they can interact with animals, plants, and event he planet itself in way we can only imagine. The connections between all these living things physically embody the ideals of many of the American tribes, and give us even better reason to believe that these beings are not just pointlessly spiritual, but that they are physically and mentally connected to every living thing.
I have heard others say that even though this movie is roughly 3 hours long, it does not feel like it. And I agree. After we saw this film for the last time, it was already after 10:30 at night, and I could have sworn it was only 9. This may be so in part to the story, and in part to the effects.

Characters:
The characters are well rounded, 3 dimensional characters with a lot of development. While the main character of Jake Sully starts off with a past, problems of his own, and even a family, the story quickly launches him into a world where we has no more family, no more goals, and just want to stick with what he does best, despite his lack of funds to allow him to be healed so he can fight again. The changes that happen to him so fast in his life lead to him being the character we all have to associate with. He knows little to nothing about Pandora, he has never piloted an "Avatar" before, and he open to learning just about anything. It is this openness, and his skills as a marine (combined with the only way he has been able to walk and run in years) that has lead him to really engage with the Avatar program. He must pilot a biologically grown Navi body. It is this same openness and warrior status that drive the Navi to teach him their ways, and accept him, eventually, as one of their own. That is all I will give away, since it is really the premise of the film, but I will say that many of these characters are strongly affected emotionally by the events and actions of the story. The heir to the clan is of course skeptical and only wants to protect his clan, his people and planet, his position, and his woman. But as he grows, eventually he too changes his views as events unfold. The female lead here, a Navi flying warrior, also grows. She is next to be the spiritual leader, and at first views Jake as an enemy, then as an annoyance, growing into curiosity, to a friend, and eventually lover, only to feel betrayed later on.
Even the character of the General in charge of the human forces is well designed. He has one goal in mind, to protect his people while they mine for resources. But in the end, his own tough attitude and power hungry ego gets the best of him as he wages an all out war not only against he Navi, but also against his people, and the man he once relied on for intel. Even the head of the company's operations is a conflicted characters, not wanted to hurt or attack the Navi, but not understanding their view and forced to look out for the company's best interest as he sees it.
I must say that these characters are all multifaceted, with a lot of development and emotional connections.

Effect

Wow! Amazing! I can't think of anything as amazing as the effects in this movie. The quality of the effects is astounding! Every minute of the work that went into this film was well worth it. Every frame is a masterful work of cinematic art. But lets get down to it.

The effects are indeed drop dead gorgeous. If the story and characters weren't also excellent, this movie would still have a chance on the graphics alone. Granted, all these aspects are astounding, but none of them show off the quality of this work as well as the graphics do. The characters interact so flawlessly, I can not for the life of me see where the CG begins, and the acting ends. It is just flawless. I feel that the best part about this was the outdoor scenes. Every blade of grass, every leaf, every animal, every drop of water, mist, clouds, fire, everything is completely believable! It is full of subtle details that really make you wonder how they could have done so much! The characters are a close second however. The Navi are incredibly amazing, with perfect details and animation. The subtle emotions on their faces, the body movement, the way they balance on their feet, their tales, even the fact that the Avatar bodies (having human DNA mixed with Navi DNA) have 5 fingers while the natural Navi only have 4, are flawless spectacular details that I only dream about doing myself one day. Even the humans are perfect. Makeup on the colonel is amazingly good and distinctive, really adding to the character. The actor Sam Worthington, who plays the main character Jake, is a healthy active guy who stars in many action movies, and yet here, he is a crippled human with legs that have dystrophy (weakened and unusable). I am amazed at how realistic they made his legs look when you see him moving around with these 2 bony weak legs, like anyone in Jake's position would naturally have. Amazing.

On that note, I did notice two, and only two things that may or may not have been there. With my keen eyes and attention to detail, I noticed 2 scenes, fairly close together, where is something off. The first is a scene when Jake wakes up in ashes (you know what it is when you see it), the arm band he wears is black with little blue stones in the center. However, without any interaction from navi or humans in between scenes, by the time he is landing before the people on his newly acquired "ride", he has a cyan beaded armband. Why would be go change armbands, and how? Still, I might have overlooked something there. The second issue is actually in this same scene. As he approaches the clan leader, the look on the leader's face is priceless (mouth agape), but it is also a little off. This one is a graphics issue, which I have noticed twice now. The lighting that shines onto the face of the leader doesn't look quite right in the area of his mouth, almost like too much light is getting into around his teeth. It almost looks like he has a CG glowy mouth, but the rest of him is real. Now it could be that it is an artifact of the light shining into his face, and is at just the right angle to make it look this way, but it did look off to me.

Regardless, if these are the only problems that I could find, then I have to say it is by far the best CG I have ever seen in my life.

IMAX 3D

This film was presented in IMAX 3D. In the AMC screen I went to, this is not the IMAX format screen, but an IMAX brand screen. Therefore it is NOT the full sized IMAX screen and you may actually lose information due to this. What I mean is that some movies, like Dark Knight, and Transformers 2, use select scenes to fill an IMAX screen, and present an amazingly engaging scene. But the IMAX format for these traditional IMAX screen are very square, and very large, at a 1.44:1 ratio. In fact, the average traditional IMAX screen is 72 ft × 53 ft, while the largest is 117.2 ft × 96.5 ft. Typical films use 35mm film, while IMAX films use 70mm film. Regardless, the AMC IMAX screens are not even close to this. However, they are very impressive. One big disadvantage of the traditional IMAX screen is that any seat that is not in the ideal spot can be downright painful to watch a movie in. I have seen several films this way, where in one I was so far off to the side that I got very bad neck aches, and in another I was so far to the front I got awful eye and head aches as well. This screen is still very high quality, and does not have this problem no matter what seat you get. Luckily, it is a good experience in most seats. The IMAX quality is still there, although, like I said, not in IMAX format. This means it is not a 70mm film, not is it a 1.44:1 ratio screen, and is probably not as wide either. But I would still say that this is an excellent experience to see. These screens are high, high quality, and have sharp detailed images with no distortion, no noise, no dirt, nothing. A flawless presentation.

The 3D, aka stereoscopy, was impressive, but more subtle than I would have liked. There are 2 planes for 3D films. The back plane, where the stereoscopy happens "behind" the screen, and the forward plane, where the effect is in "front" of the screen. Really good movies try to utilize both, to great effect. Downright bad movies focus too much on sticking out and can really give you a headache trying to focus on the action. However, this movie focuses more on the back, pushing the effects into the screen. Instead of seeing the flying reptiles hovering over the front row, you see him on the screen, while the background goes way back into the distance. I like this for the reason that it presents itself more as a film, and less as a gimmick, and lowers the amount of headache complaints. However, as others have told me as well, I think it should use a little more of the forward plane than it does. I does indeed use the forward plane, and to good effects, but usually for minor foreground objects like debris and floating seeds. It brings you into the scene this way, but I feel they could have pulled a few things out a little further to really show off the 3D.

That being said, I will say that this subtle 3D style is perfect, and looks amazing. You get so used to it, you hardly even realize it is there after a while, you just get used to seeing it.

OVERALL

Finally, the overall quality of this film is perfect. You can not find a better presented film with better effects, better story, or more memorable characters than this. The amazing visuals really bring in the audience, who are then taken by surprise by the amazing story to go with it. Everything from the grand outdoors scenes, to the subtle details and movements, to the lighting and color, this movie is as good as it gets!

I can not give any movie a higher recommendation than I give this one. A+++!!! If you only see one movie this century, Avatar is the one to see.

Well that about raps it up. Again, Avatar is an amazing movie worth seeing multiple times. I can't wait to get it on Blu-ray, and by the time this film hits 3D in the home, I may just have to upgrade my system again.

If you have already seen it, see it again! If you haven't, GO SEE IT NOW!

If you really get into the story and world of Pandora, check out this great book, Avatar, An Activists Survival Guide. It shows a lot of things you didn't notice, teaches you things about the world you didn't know, and is a fun book to just pick up and flip through.

Portfolio is up and running

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:28:00 +0000

I have just recently created a new website designed to accompany this one. While WeaklyAnimated.com will remain my main blogging site, with all the latest information and updates, this other site will feature some of the artwork that I complete, stored there for easy access.
It's called David's Portfolio, and it is what it sounds like. My portfolio website currently includes some of my older works, along with some image editing samples, some photography and drawings, and of course several animations.

It will be updated every few weeks or so with new content, many of which will appear on this site. I hope it is an easy and convenient way to see a good sample of my works, and most of the content posted here.

It's easy to get to the site, I will be adding permanent links on this site soon, but for now, just visit http://web.me.com/cptgreedle.

Thanks for the support, please enjoy the site!

Weak 1 Animatic

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:55:00 +0000

Exciting news everyone!
I have finally finished the animatic for the Weak 1 project. While it is currently under the working title, "Red light, Green light", it will have a final name before too long, but no rush.
This animatic is still a work in progress, and some tweaking will be needed, but I have uploaded what I have done so far to show you. Most of this is black and white, poorly scanned, with very sketchy drawings. It might be a little hard to understand right off, so please give me your feedback and tell me what you think. The most important this here is timing and layout.
Does it go by to fast? Is it too slow? Is the scene confusing?
Do you like it? Do you hate it?
Please let me know, and be helpful too. I am always looking for ways to improve things, so please let me know what you think and how you think it could be better.
Well, without further ado, here it is!

Possibly good news

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:58:00 +0000

Yesterday, my beautiful and bright wife was going through Facebook when she saw an ad for a school that had my name on it... literally.
It is called the DAVE School, as in Digital Animation and Visual Effects School. It is based in Orlando Florida, and is part of Universal Studios. Now this is not a 4 year degree program type school, it is more like a 12 month technical school. They teach you everything you need to know, in small but intense classes. And since they attached to Universal Studios, you know they have the knowledge and equipment needed. What's their main focus? Get you to have a really kick-ass demo reel in a year.
What's a Demo Reel you ask?
A Demo Reel is the usually short example of work you have done in the past, much like a portfolio on a DVD. Usually, for animation, acting, and film, a demo reel will either be your portfolio, or accompany it as part of the portfolio. You put all your best work on there to show off your talent and (hopefully) get the job.
I do not have such a hot demo reel. In fact, I was trying to make some animations through this website to use as part of my demo reel. However, it will take me a long time to really make that happen, and there is no guarantee what produce will be anything like what the industry pros are looking for. I have really been hoping to get into a school to get more experience and work to show off, but usually I am tied down with pointless general education classes, and classes that do not focus on what I want to do. It can take years before you even start taking the classes that are really interesting, and the quality and quantity of that work varied greatly depending on the school.
The advantage of a school like this is if you have some background with animation already, you have a head start into a very intense course. If not, they will still teach you everything you need to know. As their representative told me over the phone, it is a "Boot Camp" for VFX and Animation.
Oh didn't I say, we submitted info for an information packet, which is coming in the mail. This morning, they called me and we talked over their school and my situation a bit. I am glad to hear from these guys so soon, it means that they mean business and are actually interested in me.
I have a lot to do to decide if this is really right for me, I have done a lot of things in the past looking for schools. I graduated from GMU (George Mason University) with a BA in Digital Art and Animation, but I was never really satisfied with what I learned. They didn't have access to a MoCap (motion capture) studio, and they taught me a grand total of 1 (one) 3D modeling and animation class. For an animation degree, it was more like a light glance at the topic than what I wanted. Needless to say, I didn't have the skills I needed to get into the jobs I wanted. Not that GMU is all bad, it was that specific set of years they were redefining a lot of the classes, changing instructors, adding a new college, and more. I ended up getting stuck with repeat classes, temporary instructors, mislabeled courses, and no way out. Since then I have been trying to get into a graduate degree program, but found that most places wanted me to take a slew of remedial courses, or just start with another undergrad degree before I was eligible for a graduate degree.

I even tried taking courses online through Westwood, but it just wasn't for me. I tried looking into Ohio State University's (OSU) DAIM (digital animation and interactive media) program through their ACCAD (advanced computing center for art and design) laboratory, but it is very hard to get into and asks for a lot of experience up front.
Well, that is all behind me now. I hear that GMU has greatly improved their animation offerings, and I will still keep OSU in mind, but what I really need is a jump start in the right direction. This DAVE school sounds like a winner to me, so far.
The biggest downside is that they use only Windows PCs. As most of you know, I am a mac head, but I have used and even built PCs, so if this is the only drawback, I will just have to swallow my pride and do what it takes. At least I know they help people like me build PCs, so who knows, they might like my new one as is, or they might make it even better!

I will keep you all posted how things turn out.

I have a lot to look at and think about, especially since it would involve moving to Orlando Florida for a year. Classes start every 3 months, so I could sign up as early as March if I really wanted to.

Tools of the trade

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:36:00 +0000

Hello again everyone!

I have something exciting to show you later this week, unfortunately, I have been too busy to complete it just yet. I have been working on an animatic for the first animation.
For those who aren't familiar with that term, it is essentially an animation made using the storyboard images, in order to get a better sense of timing and layout. It is also a good way of showing people the concept behind the idea of a scene, and sometimes end up as extras on a DVD or Blu-ray.
I am over half way done with the animatic now, and it shouldn't take too much longer to complete, so I should be able to post in online, via YouTube, later this week. Of course, I will also post a new blog entry when I do.

For now, however, I want to talk about some of the tools I use to make the animations. There are a huge variety of tools, both hardware and software, that people use, and I cannot pretend to know them all. But I will give a list of a few of the ones that I do use.

Hardware:
Paper
Big surprise, I use paper to draw. I usually use 3x5 notecards for storyboards, but for all sketches, I use a sketchpad, usually by Strathmore. Green covers, marked Sketch, are the ones I use the most for sketching, while the brown covers, marked Drawing, are for final drawings, but I am always on a look out for recycled paper as well. When it comes to drawing the final images, I use drawing paper, which is usually thicker and nicer, but not as thick as Bristol board, which is used mostly for my nicer work, such as poster-style art or pen-and-ink drawings. Although I usually use Strathmore for most of my paper, sometimes I find good deals on other brands, such as the "create" style spiral bound books at Borders Books, which usually convince me to buy some of those as well. I use Bristol Board for all my nicer work, usually poster-style artwork. This current animation project is using the Create book, while the web comic I am working on is in a Strathmore Sketchbook.
Pencils
Yup, I use pencils with my paper. I find that unless I am drawing very detailed shadow work, such as following form and contours with detailed lighting, I usually just stick to mechanical pencils. They are always sharp, sturdy and easy to transport, and can be very comfortable and accurate. I like to use graphite at around HB - 2B, but I also use blue (aka non-photo blue) graphite for the initial sketch which allows me to remove any unwanted lines easier. I have also used a variety of charcoal to draw, but I usually use that for larger art pieces, and not for digital work. However, one animation, which I hope to post soon, was made entirely out of charcoal. I did not have the time to achieve the effect I desired, but I think it turned out very well despite that.
Computer
In the world of computers, there are usually 2 camps of thought, Macintosh and Windows. There are other Operating Systems out there, such as Linux, but they are not as popular overall. I do have friends that swear by Linux, but most of them also use other computers as well. As far as I am concerned, I have worked with both PCs and Macs. I have built PCs, and I grew up with Macs. I always prefer my iMac for anything important, such as work and artwork. My PCs are almost always used for gaming. I have run into several things that Macs actually do better in terms of graphics, but you will find people who will argue against it. I can say that in my experience, I have run into fewer bugs, fewer viruses, fewer compression errors, and fewer compatibility issues when I use my Mac. If you love your PC, great. I will give you some advice about things I have run into on a PC to keep a look out for, but if you have a high end machine, you should have no real issues. I currently use a 24" iMac, (although I would really love a mac tower), and also a custom built i5 processor PC. All my work here will be done on my iMac. This is mainly cause the software I use is on my iMac, and some of it is not even available on the PC (how about that for a change).
Tablet
While I don't use it as often as I should, I do have access to a relatively small graphics tablet. These are usually made by Wacom (pronounced Wack-um), and are very useful for digital artists. They are very expensive, and I need to upgrade to a newer model, but that is something I will have to save up for. Regardless, tablets are great for fine detailed work an accurate drawings in the computer. You can draw straight in the computer with one, or trace an existing drawing, or edit a scan/photograph with extreme precision.
Scanner
Having a background with National Geographic Society, I know a think or two about scanners, since my main job involved work with the scanning technicians to make the best images available. The scanners they have there are very expensive, large, and accurate. I have access only to small, cheap, and somewhat lacking scanners, but they are good enough to get the job done. I am not scanning in high quality photographs and positives/negatives, I am only scanning in drawings. To that end, I use a Canon Canoscan LiDE. It does have some artifacts, but with the right editing, they are easily removed or reduced. I use a scanner for this work because I like to draw on paper rather than straight into a computer, plus you have flexibility of mediums and techniques. I will explore direct digital drawings with tablets at a later time.
iPhone
I know I need something better, something more dedicated, but for now, until I can afford a better solution, I use my iPhone for a variety of purposes. I use it to take pictures for reference shots, I use it to record sounds outdoors if I need something like a car engine, I use it as a calculator to figuring out frame rates, etc. It is very useful, but there are better things out there for each job.
Home Theater
I use my HDTV with 7.1 surround sound home theater to test my animations when they are done. I can play things on my PS3, either as files or DVDs (I cannot make Blu-rays yet). It is a great way of seeing the final product and showing it off, especially when playing with surround sound.
Accessories
I have a lot of accessories I use as well. For example, I use a PowerMate, by Griffon Technology, for "scrubbing" and navigating timelines. I also have a variety of hard drives, including La Cie drives, and Western Digital drives, not to mention a MyBook drive used as backup. The grand total of space I have right now is around 1.75TB, but I backup only 1.5 of it. I am only using around 500GB at the moment, but it is good to have breathing space. I also have JBL speakers, surround sound headphones, several USB mics, and much more.

Software:
Adobe Photoshop
I use Photoshop CS4, but in all honesty, most people don't need something that new or advanced. For basic editing, you only need Photoshop Elements. However, for animation, having Photoshop is great. I am used to it, I know it very well, and I use a lot of the advanced tools all the time. You can easily use CS, CS2, or CS3 as well, having CS4 only adds a few new nice features which you don't need. Unless you do medical work, or 3D work, there is NO REASON in the world you should get the extended edition. It is great, and I do have it, but I never use the extended features.
Adobe After Effects
Again, I use After Effects CS4. It has been a while since I used After Effects, so I am relearning some of the tools, and I find that it is a very good program. I used to use CS, but have been out of the loop ever since. I will be exploring some of the newer features, and experimenting with it. But After Effects is essential to these animation, because it is the main program that puts all the elements together into an animation.
Adobe Flash
Once again, I have Flash CS4. I am not familiar with Flash, in terms of animation and programming. So for me, it will all be a learning experience. I will not start out with Flash at first, since I am trying to get back into animation after such a long hiatus, and want to stick with things I am familiar with.
Apple Final Cut Pro
I am not using the latest Final Cut, but it is still sufficient for my needs. This is the program that takes all the scenes, the music, the text, etc., and put them together, and renders it into one single file ready to burn onto a disc. I have the entire suite, but I have to figure out how to use more of it since I only ever focused on 2 of the programs in it before. This is not available on the PC, but the Mac/PC equivalent, which I will also explore and experiment with, is called Adobe Premier. Premier advertises that it burns Blu-ray discs, but Apple computers lack the hardware at the moment. (Then again, so does my PC).
DVD Studio Pro
The second program I learned in the Final Cut Suite. Also not available on PC, this program lets you create the menus and options for use on a DVD. You can burn a final product with this program. I think that Adobe Encore is the Mac/PC equivalent to this, but I must explore it more.
Maya
This is for people who want to explore world outside the second dimension. For 3D modeling and animation, Maya is a must-have. While many companies have their own software (Pixar uses Marionette), they are not available to the general public, and learning Maya is usually the best way to get a head start in the right direction. This is a very advanced, expensive, and complicated tool. I am trying desperately to better familiarize myself with it, but it will be a while before I can really dig my teeth into it. I need to get a few 2D animations out first to get the workflow organized and refined better. You can also use Studio Max and other software to create 3D effects and models. Maya comes with MotionBuilder, which I fully intend to explore, and also Combustion, which I am not familiar with... yet. There are other tools 3D artists use, such as ZBrush, which gives you more refined control over various aspects of the modeling and animation process. ZBrush lets you brush in details to a model with ease and accuracy. I need to save up to get this.
Other
There are lots of other programs I use. I use Quicktime and Sound Studio to record audio, but I may be exploring other options. I use Soundtrack Pro also, for mixing sounds. I use Firefox, Safari, and Chrome when I do web work, as well as Dreamweaver for creating websites, which I will probably not use much for this project.

Well, that is it for now. Another long post, but a there is lots of information in it. If anyone wants more information about what tools I will be using, or have suggestions for any tools you use that might work better, please send me an email. And no anti-mac/anti-pc spam please. I use both, I like both, I just prefer my Mac. If you prefer your PC, more power to you.

Review of Monsters Inc.

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:13:00 +0000

One of the items you can always find on my holiday and birthday wish lists are Blu-rays. For those who don't know, these are the DVD-like discs that play movies in High Definition. Where a DVD has up to ~9GB, a Blu-ray has up to ~50GB, allowing for better image, better sound, and better extras. It also uses more interactive features, including the pop-up menus, picture-in-picture, games, and even web content, to name a few. The image is usually very sharp and amazing, the best in the market to-date!

Well, one such title I recently watched was Pixar's Monsters Inc. For this review I will cover 2 different aspects of the release, the movie itself, and the Blu-ray.

MOVIE
What an amazing movie! The story is unique and fun, playing on the idea of the world of the monsters that live in your closet, and how they are more afraid of you than you are of them. The main characters, Mike and Sully, are employees at the Monstropolis power plant. Their power? Children's screams. They must frighten kids in order to power their city. But when one monster tried to cheat on the all-time scare record, a fearless little girl, dubbed Boo, playfully waltzes into their world, where children are thought to be toxic!
This is a great movie, with lots of fun characters and surprises, and a story that really impresses me. The characters are well-developed, and grow to care for the child they once thought to be deadly, and set out to make sure she gets home safely, even if that means they can never see her again. I have seen this movie several times, and I still feel for these characters.
The comedy throughout the movie is spot-on. With plenty of slap-stick, and a number of visual gags, kids will love this movie. But there are also a number of jokes only the older audience will get (or at least appreciate), leaving most of us with something to really chew on.
There are some pretty dramatic scenes as well. While most of the monsters are funny, cute, or even cuddly (Boo calls Sully "Kitty"), there are a few that might be too scary for little kids. There are also a few scenes that get very intense, including the great door chase at the end. However, I think these make this movie really spectacular. The visuals are stunning, and colors are bright, and the setting is fun.
I highly recommend the movie to everyone who still has a little kid in them.

BLU-RAY
The Blu-ray release itself will be split into different categories, including Video, Audio, Extras, and Overall.

Video
The video on this movie is stunning! The characters show more detail and subtly than I remember in theaters. The colors are bright and stunning, and the dark levels are good and even through the whole movie. The image is so good, in fact, that you can see the fine details that give away how old the movie is. Sometimes the lighting doesn't bounce off the image just right, or the shadow doesn't quite work right. However, this is a very minor thing and is something I would like to stay in the movie, since it shows, in-part, the evolution of the medium. To have created a main character with long detailed fur was really pushing the envelope, and to have pulled it off so well is very impressive.
Speaking of fur, this leads me to the one aspect of this film that kept hitting my eyes like needles. Sully's fur is detailed, and colorful, and aliased. All the fur on this shoulders (i.e. the long bouncy fur) is aliased through most of the movie. It can be seen in screenshots, but even more so in the animation, as movement creates an effect that makes it stand out even more. I am sure MOST people will not notice this problem, but eagle-eyed as I am, I cannot avoid it! I promise not to point this problem out to anyone I invite over to watch the film, as I am sure they will not see it unless I point it out. My eyes just go right to it, and stay there the rest of the movie. I am not sure if this is a resolution issue, a rendering issue, or a source issue, but whatever it is, it is a distraction. I hope this is merely a rendering issue. I am sure the HD is high enough resolution that it should be a problem there, however it is possible the rendering technique is not detailed enough to pick up the small hairs smoothly with enough anti-aliasing. If that is the case, they would need to scrap the HD source they made, make the proper adjustments to the files, and re-render everything! I doubt they will be willing to do that, and I would be surprised if someone in their staff didn't notice this. It is probably something they figured would be a minor glitch no one would notice, but I hope that someday they fix this issue.
That being said, I want to say that besides this small aliasing artifact, the rest of the movie is amazing! It IS still worth a Blu-ray release just for the video.

Audio
But the audio is even more impressive. They remixed this movie with a Home Theater 5.1 surround sound mix, using lossless compression, for the highest quality sound. Every sound is accurately depicted and well placed in the sound field. The range is impressive as well. You have some scenes where the voice acting really moves the story (and what great acting it is), and others where the sound effects and the music really take over. The musical score is another hit, with a song by Randy Newman, and a score that really fits well with the film. The voice acting is perfect. They got a wonderful cast and a lot of great interaction between them. The sound effects really take the cake though. You can really hear the work of the foley artists who created them, and can really appreciate the amount of work that went in to adding the sounds of their world. One scene is particular is very impressive. The door chase scene is full of large sounds, from the booming of the factory, to the powering up of the doors, and, of course, doors closing all around you. You can pinpoint where the characters are exactly on the sound alone.
That being said, the English version is in full quality, but also included are DVD-quality French and Spanish versions. It is interesting to note that the animators actually made a few minor adjustments to the video to better fit the language. For example, in one scene, Sully is trying to get Boo to go to sleep. He uses his hands to visually act out the words, resulting in a bit of humor as well. In English he says, "You go to sleep" while he points at her for You, then shows his fingers walking for go, followed by holding up 2 fingers for to, and then puts his hands by his head like a pillow and pretends to snore for sleep. However, in the other languages, he does not hold up 2 fingers, but instead waves 1 finger. While I cannot figure out EXACTLY what he is saying in each language, it makes sense that 2 fingers would not translate well. I am very impressed that they actually have these changes on the Blu-ray release.

Extras
There are actually 4 discs in this set. That's right, 4! The first is the movie on Blu-ray, with everything in HD. The second is an extras disc, which should all be in HD, or at least mostly. The third is the DVD copy of the movie, so you can watch it on-the-go, or on the computer, or anywhere you don't have a Blu-ray player. I love this idea, cause it not only helps persuade people to buy into Blu-ray, but also gives them more value for their money. The fourth disc is the digital copy in SD, which allows you to put the movie on your computer, and even your iPod/iPhone. Another great idea, since this helps fight the idea of piracy. People complain they want to watch the movie on the metro or bus, or on a trip, and that they need it even more portable than a DVD. Now that excuse will not work with a digital copy. It allows you to watch the movie on your computer, on the train, on the plane, anywhere you can fit your iPod/iPhone. Obviously this won't stop pirating, but it is a step in the right direction. Even I have made copies of DVDs before, although I only copy movies I own, and never give them out. I use these copies as backup and to watch foreign DVDs on my PS3/iMac when they are the wrong region (somewhat less of a problem with Blu-ray).
I have not gone through the second disc yet, but I can say that the first disc has all the basic extras from the DVD, as well as a few new things, including a tour of a new ride in Disney Tokyo, where you can play flashlight tag in the streets of Monstropolis. There was one thing, however, that was not on the first disc that I spent a while looking for. At the end of most Pixar movies are usually gags that they like to play during the credits. While I don't recall there being any in the movie Up, I know that Monster's Inc had both gags and a fake play Mike and Sully were using as an excuse in the movie. They actually acted out the events of the movie in a low-budget play (CG of course) for their company. Only, there was no singing and dancing at the end of the movie, no gags or jokes, and I could not find them on the disc at all. I did find the short Mike's New Car (which is hilarious), and also the short that played before the movie in theaters, For the Birds, but no company play or gags. However, it has come to my attention, thanks to my friends over at www.Blu-ray.com, that both the gags and the play are indeed on the second disc. But you'd think they would put these regular extras on the first disc where most people will look for it
The 2nd disc advertises that it has a 100 door challenge, with 100 mini games, a factory tour, banished concepts, "and much, much more". I have not gone through the second disc yet, but I do plan to look at it soon. I may (or may not) update my review with the content from disc 2 at a later date.

Overall
The Blu-ray itself is impressive, but not the best by Pixar. The aliasing issue on Sully is a distraction that seriously dampened the experience for me, but I think I can overlook it. It is still an amazing release, worthy of a Blu-ray, full of detail and color, with amazing sound and loads of extras. I give this a 4 out of 5 stars, due in part to the aliasing issue, and the misplaced gags and short.

That does it for my review for Monster's Inc. This is an amazing movie, with touching scenes, adventure, and lots of comedy. If you have a Blu-ray player, add this to your collection! If you don't have a Blu-ray player, what are you waiting for?

Weak 1 Update part 2

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Here I am with part 2 of this simple update.
If you haven't guessed by now, I am planning to call each project a "weak", so this is week 2 for weak 1.
I have finished scanning in all the cards for the storyboard, and I am starting the next phase or 2. The next 2 phases involve drawing the actual images and scanning them in, and compiling all these storyboard cards into an animatic.
An animatic, for those who don't know, is a simple and dirty animation that uses the storyboard cards to show a basic idea of what the final scene should look like. Often, there are many tests between the first animatic and the final product, and these are also sometimes called animatics, and sometimes just called test scenes. I am not going to be doing any test scenes for this short, since it is very simple. However, I will probably explore tis idea later for a future project.
For now, I am going to draw more of the images I know I am going to use, as well as putting together this animatic.
I will try to make the animatic by the weekend, so I have something animated to show. This will let me feel better about myself, get a better sense of the timing and length, and also set up videos on this site (probably through youtube).

So now I am off to pick up my sketchbook, which was accidentally picked up by a friend and is still at her house. I have a lot to do, and little time to do it in, but what else is new?

Next, I will post a review of Monsters Inc. on Blu-ray.

Weak1 update

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:33:00 +0000

Well, this week, I was a little behind. I had birthdays and parties to go to, so I didn't get everything finished in time, but I am still working on this and I have something to actually show this time.

I just finished hooking up my scanner again, so here are some very sketchy and weakly-drawn storyboards for your enjoyment.

I have a total of 35 cards, but I will only upload the first 5 for now. Also, these are early storyboards that probably could use some better direction. I am keeping this animation limited in terms of complexity, such as camera scanning and movement, and animation. However, if there are techniques and other tools I should use to make these better, please let me know. I will be researching more into this on a later project, but for now I will try to get through as much as I can.

Here are the first 5, enjoy:

I may post more of these later, but I will probably put together an Animatic to test the timing and to make sure all the scenes work out. The actual drawings I have finished for the animation itself are looking really good so far, and still have more work, but I am excited that this project will actually get off the ground.
As always, I am open to constructive feedback and criticism, but do keep it helpful. :)

Happy New Year!

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:49:00 +0000

Hello everyone, and welcome to Twenty-Ten! It sounds so futuristic! Speaking of future...
I am trying to get this blog started up now officially as a way of building a series of animations and strengthening my skills for my own future. Last year, I lost my job, in January! So it has been a full year since I have had a steady job, but I have been working freelance for a few months now. It brings in some money, but it isn't what I want to do. Photography is great, and I am really good at what I do (which is photo-editing and design), but I am bored with it, and really want to create something!
That is why I am working on this site now. I want to document, and broadcast my latest projects and things that really interest me.

If you haven't read any of this blog yet, don't worry, you haven't missed too much.
Here is a brief list of what I will do with this blog:

Project Updates on my animations
Movie reviews
Things that inspire me
Ideas and inspirations I want to share
Working through the hard times...

by working through the hard times, I mean there are a lot of hard things in my life right now, and I need something to help me work through them. That means anything from the difficulty to making these animations, to the realization that time doesn't stop for anyone, etc. Now I will NOT use this blog to complain or talk poorly of anyone. All criticism will be for productive purposes only, and I appreciate the same from anyone who feels they have something to contribute!

So let me get started with this blog this year. And to start the blog, I need to start my first animation. Well I already started last year, if you read the other posts on this blog, but I had to give it a rest for the Holidays. Since I haven't gone far, I have decided to slightly revise this site. Instead of trying to finish a project every week (which is a little insane), I will try to set a goal every week and meet that goal, and then give an update at the end of the week on what I did or did not accomplish.
So far, I have brainstormed my first animation, drawn a storyboard, researched some imagery, and even started drawing. However, I have mostly only drawn backgrounds, so this week my goal is to draw some animation, to finish all the small animation, and hopefully the drawings of the character himself.
Once that is done, I will use next week to focus on scanning, coloring, and layering all these files for use in the animation.

There is one drawback to this. The school I hope to apply to has a deadline in the middle of the month, and I will not have time to finish any new animations before then. So I will be gathering what I have done in the past, writing up some letters, and trying to get the ball rolling ASAP. Unfortunately, it may still be too late to really do this, I fear. But I have come this far with the goal of getting into a good school, and I am not going to stop because a deadline is coming up! I am going to face this head on with hope that they will accept that work I have already done.
Maybe someday I will post some of these animations online, in fact one is online now, but I will link to it later. For now, I will focus on the animation, and getting into school. Now I already have a BA in digital art and animation, but I was not satisfied with what I learned, and I want to take it much farther, hence my goal to get into a better school.

Well that just about does it for this post. This week I will be focusing on the animation and the submission process, as well as my regular freelance work. There is one more thing however, I just feel I have to mention...

For those that know me, I am a bit of a videophile... ok ok.. I am a big videophile. What's a videophile you ask? Simple. A videophile is someone who really likes and is very particular about high quality video. That means I can easily spot flaws, compression, dirt, noise, DNR (digital noise reduction), and other visual effects on a variety of screens and formats. I really love HD, especially Blu-ray, so I have been getting a few titles every so often. For Christmas, I got one of my favorite movies as a child, The Dark Crystal.
I am not going to do a movie review at this time (although I might later on), but I did want to mention something that inspired me that was on the Blu-ray (possibly also the DVD). There are 2 featurettes on the disc that essentially look back at what they did and how they did it when they made that movie. Looking at the images of Jim Henson, and his staff/crew of talented professionals, I am always awestruck. He managed to create an entire world, fully believable and alive, through puppetry. The concept is one of creating something completely new and original. While many will argue there is nothing original anymore (and in many ways they are right, and there never had been anything original), I must say that the world he created has really struck home with me. I see the passion and the eagerness he has to build and create and direct, and I am filled with the desire to just create something like he did. It took him 5 years just to get to a point where they could start filming, and I know that I have that kind of drive, if I only had the resources and knowledge he had. It doesn't help that today, puppets are mostly only for kids and almost no one uses them anymore. The only thing people do now are computer graphics. However, director Guillermo Del Toro has stated that he wants to use puppets combined with CG to create something no one has seen before. That idea also inspires me! A puppet that is designed to be partially or fully integrated into a CG creation can truly take the best of both worlds and put them together. With puppets, you have the instant interaction, the ad-lib ability with other members of the cast, and a talented actor in the form of a puppeteer. With CG, you have amazing effects that can defy explanation, you have ultra realistic characters and environments, the ability to create fully animated worlds and characters, but you lack the instant acting and ad-lib gratification without using motion capture. But if you combine puppetry with CG and MoCap, I am sure you can achieve more than ever! Characters that are completely non-human, but absolutely believable and amazing, and well acted.
So right now, the thing that is inspiring me is Jim Henson and his crew, and his ideology of combining the impossible with the possible, the real with the imaginary, to a point where the entire story is imaginary and created, the entire world and all the characters are his creation, but with the same acting talents as any live-action film.
I may explore this idea in the future.

Merry Christmas!

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Merry Christmas everyone. And Happy Holidays! I will see you all next week.

Weakly Update

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:58:00 +0000

This week's update is indeed weak.
Needless to say, with Christmas and Holiday festivities looming, I had very little time to start working on my animation. While I did make some headway, I think it would be best to use the rest of this year to complete the one animation, and work out any bugs I find in the process.
So starting next year, I will officially begin (again) the weakly animation. This time with a new animation (assuming the current one is finished) and with the 1 week time limit. I will, however, be preparing and updating my college applications and (god-willing) be sending them off during the first week or so of January.

Here is what has happened so far:
I have started the site.
I have brainstormed a good story with my brother on an animation.
I have story boarded the project, and made a few extra sketches.
I researched reference photographs and took a few of my own.
I have drawn the first half dozen or so images for use in the animation, mainly backgrounds.

That is where the constructive work has ended, and here is what I learned:
I learned that brainstorming with my brother, while fun, often goes in direction no one should ever follow.
I learned that there are few things in life as fun as creating something your own, nor are they as time consuming.
I learned that procrastination is like that buddy that is coming around to your place and hanging out, drinking your beer, and wasting your time, making sure you get nothing done, and he's hard to kick out.
I learned that I need to practice my drawings more.
I learned that we need to get a snow shovel (more on that later).

Well I have no images to show as of yet, since my scanner is still not hooked up to my computer. However, I did do a lot of cleaning around my apartment so with any luck I will actually be able to find the scanner, and find room to fit it next to the computer. I have also cleared off a table (mostly) to help with drawing, when we aren't eating off it.
But Christmas and the like is a big issue that takes a lot of time. Combining that with about 2 feet of snow in one day, and snow plow workers who (apparently) don't work on weekends, makes this weekend very... slippery. It took at least half an hour to dig the car out of the parking space, it was enough snow that having a snow shovel actually would be useful for parking in a parking lot. So as you can imagine, we went out as little as we had to, never leaving the house all day on Saturday. You'd think being stuck indoors all day with no guests or meetings or game nights, just you and your wife, would mean lots of time to work on things. Well... it isn't often I get to spend the entire day with just my wife, and me, alone, all day, snowed in.... lets just say we didn't waste that time.

*Ahem*

Well that being said, I will continue to work on the animation this week... Yes, yes, I know it is Christmas. I will not be able to spend long on it, at least not before Christmas. But I will do what I can! My goal is to get most of this done before new years weekend. I want to have something to show you all this year. So I will be spending another week on this weakly project.
I don't know when I will post next, but just in case, let me wish you all Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year too.

Project Update: Day 1

CptGreedle@gmail.com (David Hixon) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Well I am busy at work on the second day already, which is mostly going to comprise of drawing the various scenes and elements of the animation. I will focus on getting the easiest parts done first, so I can finish the majority of the animation before I get to the more complicated animation (frame-by-frame) which will take longer. Luckily there is not much of that in this animation, which is the point of making it a short film, and by short, I mean SHORT... like 30 seconds, which is about average for a commercial.
So here is a recap of what happened yesterday.

Alas, I did not get as far as I wanted yesterday, but that is mainly due to my own inherit laziness. I have been focusing on chores and other activities (like my 60+ and growing unread emails) rather than focusing on the animation. What I DID do was still very helpful to get a head start today and tomorrow with the drawings.
Essentially, I drew out the entire story board on a series of 3x5 index cards, which I will be scanning in later this week (when I start scanning the actual drawings, since my scanner is not hooked up at the moment), and I will post online as soon as I can. It took about 40 cards, but a lot of those scenes will actually just use re-cycled animation to save on time.
I also researched the various elements in the animation that I will need to draw, to give me a good reference for a starting point. I needed lots of pictures of cars, cop cars, old cars, insides of cars... In all, I have collected the best ones (about a dozen) that best suits my needs (plus one really awesome concept car design just to look at :p) and will be using these (printed out) to get a start on these drawings with fairly accurate, or at least decent, depictions of what they are suppose to be.
I also started some of the drawings, but spent too much time on other tasks, that I didn't even finish the first one yet, so i am going to buckle down and spend the rest of the day today and tomorrow working on finishing up these drawings.

Onward I go, to victory!