Kyle's Christmas Present: 2010

Every year I make my best friend Kyle a comic for Christmas. Here's this year's, based on a true story:





This is my favorite frame:


Here's some of the planning my sketchbook:


I've heard that during the layout process in animation the storyboards are often toned down. I usually work the other way with the storyboards being kind of bland and the final product being crazier. The storyboards are more about a general placement of things and basic poses to me.

New Animation

This is the final project for my Maya 3D class. The only guidelines were to have a mechanism that stays on the ground transfer a ball from one container to another. God this stuff takes forever to render.

A Trip to the Vitamin Section

I went to the vitamin section at Henry's the other day and was intrigued by the multitude of designs and illustrations in the children's section.

Good:

Fun, cartoony design. It looks like it's ready to be claymated which adds more charm.

Good:

Minimalist design makes the kid in me think, "Kinda boring," but it makes the design side of me think, "Cool (i.e. modern), clear, and appealing." The design side wins.

Good:

These are some of my favorites. Look at the octopus! So full of life and happiness! Big eyes and pupils are a plus always.

Bad:

Reminds me of Pokemon in the worst sense. Cold, insincere, lame. Belongs back in '98.

Good:

This was probably uncool at some point but they stuck with it for so long that now it's cool again. Taking it to the '80s is always cool.

Bad:

Again, cold, lifeless, no clear and defined shapes. Mushy. Lack of emotion. Bland.

???:

I'm not sure where this falls. It's kind of scary. In that case, I think I'll side with good.

Bee Animation

I was thinking of putting this in my CalArts portfolio submission but decided against it as it's still very crude. It is my first fully thought out attempt at 3D animation.

T-Shirt Design

My best friend Kyle's former room-mate from college asked me if I could do a design for a T-shirt that conveyed the concept of the id, ego, and super-ego for his psychology class. He wanted the ego to be in the middle saying, "So I'm having trouble balancing my life" to a psychologist.

The room-mate originally wanted the super-ego to be a superhero but I made him more of an up-tight moralist, raising his dainty nose in disgust to the barbarism sitting with him on the couch. He was going to stick his tongue out but it felt too immoral and in bad taste, something that the super-ego would never condone.
I first thought about having the id be represented by a burly caveman but then started to think of using a child because children only think of themselves.



But I decided a caveman would be more visually interesting so I opted for that again.
I also put a little Freud reference in with the cigar.

And that's it:

San Diego Zoo

I went to the San Diego Zoo today and brought my sketchbook. I was with my best friend's family though and I couldn't really linger on any of the animals because we were constantly moving on to the next exhibit, so the drawings had to be rather quick.
I had a lot of fun.

Warm up sketches.

More Design Stuff

Cutout exercises:

Design Stuff

Some pages from my sketchbook I had for design class:

Kix Commercial Storyboard

I would love to create a commercial for Kix (or whatever cereal that doesn't already have a mascot) based on this concept, owing a lot to the commercial I talked about previously.
Plus I like the idea of two little girls who love playing video games just as much as any boy.

Hamster Lunch Storyboard

This is the quick storyboard I did for a comic I put in my portfolio that was sent to CalArts recently, plus some watercolor texture technique notes from class.

Elements of Design

Here are some photos I took illustrating the elements of design:

Newspaper Ad

I found this newspaper ad that seemingly has two different artist's work on it. A Milt Gross impersonation above, and a wonderfully amateur drawn guy below. I like the bird too.

Some Cell Phone Pictures

Taken in my watercolor class.


Carlsbad Library.


Juanitas Bathroom


Juanitas Bathroom door.


This is a big mural in the Carlsbad Library children section.