Skeleton Kid

Here's the original pencil which is about 5x7":

Harvey

TRS Background

I made a background for The Totally Rad Show which features fan-made backgrounds weekly. I've always thought the three host's features could lend themselves to a simplified approach.

EDIT:
It was featured!

Making Traditional Affordable

The Secret World of Arrietty - Budget: $23 million. Gross: $143,925,084

I don't understand why major animation studios don't make cheaper traditionally animated films. I was thinking about the worldwide gross of Arrietty and how, paired with a $23 million budget, its $143 million gross is a huge success for Studio Ghibli. Traditional animation can be done cheaper and faster (but not necessarily worse!) with today's technology than ever before.

I don't see any reason not to put out animated films in the $20-30 million range. If it makes up its budget, then that's ok. But if it's a runaway success and brings in big money on a small investment then great! If it bombs but is still critically acclaimed, there may be some reward later on during award season.
I don't understand the mindset that all the chips have to be bet on a $200 million CG extravaganza every year.

Puss In Boots Budget: $130 million plus a crap ton of marketing

I'm not making the case that traditional animation should be revived from a rosy, nostalgic point of view, but strictly as a business decision that makes sense.
Give artists the opportunity to make films that don't have to appeal to the widest demographic; to make films that aren't huge spectacles and are instead more subtle and thematic. Sure, still have your major releases, but also have one or two of these smaller films released throughout the year. Why not?

Ponyo Budget: $34 million. Gross: $202,614,288

The Illusionist Budget: $17 million. It bombed but was critically acclaimed.

Culture Draw

I've started a new Tumblr blog called Culture Draw where I draw comics or whatever based on films, tv, video games, books, music, anything that's a part of our cultural zeitgeist. I hope to do at least one a week.

Here's the first one I did for The Secret World of Arrietty:

Rejection, the sequel

This is my second rejection from the Calarts character animation program. They say third time's the charm but I'm done with this. I'm planning on signing up for Animation Mentor this Fall.

Dinky Dink

Final GIF

Process GIF

I made this on my phone with an app called Dink. So far it's the best animation app I've tried. It could be better but it's fun for quick little ideas and sketches.

New Mixtape

Oh Miyazaki

Miyazaki on animation:

Why Miyazaki doesn't like modern anime:

The interview can be seen in two parts here and here.

iPhone 4S vs. Nikon D3100

 I wanted to do a quick comparison test between my iPhone 4S and my Nikon D3100 with a 50mm 1.8 lens. As much as I love my iPhone's camera, there's no comparison to the DSLR. But on a bright day outside the HD camera on the phone is scarily close to the Nikon's video. Still, it can't beat that depth of field on the 50mm lens.

iPhone 4S

Nikon D3100 50mm 1.8

Chew It

Here's a new song from myself, not from Harkosion:

KONO

New Equipment, New Song

This Christmas my best friend Kyle and I both got microKORGs:




This is the first song we made with the microKORG:

CTNx

I went to the Creative Talent Network Animation Expo or CTNx the other day and it was a really fun, inspiring event focused on animation and everything that goes with it. It definitely made me feel like a slop artist because of how good a lot of the art on display was, but I expected that and handled the feeling of inferiority better than I thought I would.

One thing I did notice was a feeling of the slight inbreeding going on in the character designs and styles which was disturbing, especially CG characters. But for the most part there was a lot of good stuff to see and study.

Some topics I'd like to see discussed at next year's Expo:  

• Why is tuition so damn high at Calarts?
• Discrepencies between US animation and Japanese animation in terms of themes and maturity of the topics explored
• A panel dedicated to talking about animation from a single decade in animation history
• Animation history in general
• Television: Last bastion for traditional animation?
• The decline and rise of the theatrical short
• CG: Just another tool or a change in mindset?
• Outsourcing and its effects on the US animation industry

One thing that surprised me was the presence of professional (clothed) models posing in the lobby with art horses propped around them for anybody to sit down and sketch. Here are a couple I did that turned out ok:

Harvey