Thursday, December 06, 2007
First time 3D modeling w/ Z
Fluid's going into some downtime now with the holidays coming up, so it gave me some chance to monkey around a bit with Zbrush.
It was pretty fun :) i started monkeying with a sphere and sculpted this old guy's head out of it. 1st 3D model ever! It took like 2 hours, so i'm looking forwarding to spending more time and seeing how well things are if i spend more time on it. Hoping to learn more about zBrush - right now i'm only fluent with using it for texturing :( maybe a little bit about displacement maps but we havent found a use for Disp Maps with any of the projects currently going on.
Sorry for the lack of updates :( with things around the office, at home, and a new xBox 360, finding time to post anything worthwhile is proving difficult :P
Thursday, October 11, 2007
My typical illustration process
Everyone has their own process, but a majority follows the same basic formula that is pretty much engrained in most of us either from a natural progression or formal training.
I'm taking an illustration i've done at work as an example. The fundemental process is a no brainer: Thumbs -> rough or polished work -> color roughs -> final
The current illustration i'm using as an example is for a development project years ago. The simple art direction was to take heroes and villains and put them in a Rockwell like thanksgiving pose. It wasn't hard to find reference as this particular painting from Norman Rockwell has been spoofed numerous times for comics.
I first started out with same basic roughs, trying to get what each character is doing or how to make the composition flow better. I find myself usually detailing up the roughs i really like, while others i tend to just jot down quick info to see if that composition worked. I even tried to see if the composition could work horizontally in a landscape. I found myself leaning towards the lower right design the most, and once it was approved, went in to detailing it more.
Some artists can skip the detailing stage and go straight into painting. I find myself needing the extra detail, otherwise i just get stuck painting. Once detailed, i normally go through a black and white value study (here is done slightly in pencil) and color roughs, exploring different pallettes.
Because the original art direction was "spoof much as possible," i didnt do too much color roughs and went straight into color. On the left panel, you will see me splashing in quick color just to get an idea of general/local color. The progression after that is just me working into the painting on a single layer - literally painting it up (I dont do this anymore, as i'm finding more often than naught that people always wants changes last minute. Now a days, I use quite a few layers to make my job easier in the long run). I start detailing and rendering like mad trying to get to the final look.
The final touches ( logos, text, etc...) are added after finish - and there you go! a finished illustration that suits the needs of the client and fulfilled art direction clearly. Overall, i enjoy this process because it's predictable and systematic - i can easily gauge the time required to do a finished piece and how polished it can be. Rarely do i jump in and do an illustration straight up; more times i find that way leads me to go back and do some arduos fixes.
anyways, this piece is now a large poster hanging in our office :)
I'm taking an illustration i've done at work as an example. The fundemental process is a no brainer: Thumbs -> rough or polished work -> color roughs -> final
The current illustration i'm using as an example is for a development project years ago. The simple art direction was to take heroes and villains and put them in a Rockwell like thanksgiving pose. It wasn't hard to find reference as this particular painting from Norman Rockwell has been spoofed numerous times for comics.
I first started out with same basic roughs, trying to get what each character is doing or how to make the composition flow better. I find myself usually detailing up the roughs i really like, while others i tend to just jot down quick info to see if that composition worked. I even tried to see if the composition could work horizontally in a landscape. I found myself leaning towards the lower right design the most, and once it was approved, went in to detailing it more.
Some artists can skip the detailing stage and go straight into painting. I find myself needing the extra detail, otherwise i just get stuck painting. Once detailed, i normally go through a black and white value study (here is done slightly in pencil) and color roughs, exploring different pallettes.
Because the original art direction was "spoof much as possible," i didnt do too much color roughs and went straight into color. On the left panel, you will see me splashing in quick color just to get an idea of general/local color. The progression after that is just me working into the painting on a single layer - literally painting it up (I dont do this anymore, as i'm finding more often than naught that people always wants changes last minute. Now a days, I use quite a few layers to make my job easier in the long run). I start detailing and rendering like mad trying to get to the final look.
The final touches ( logos, text, etc...) are added after finish - and there you go! a finished illustration that suits the needs of the client and fulfilled art direction clearly. Overall, i enjoy this process because it's predictable and systematic - i can easily gauge the time required to do a finished piece and how polished it can be. Rarely do i jump in and do an illustration straight up; more times i find that way leads me to go back and do some arduos fixes.
anyways, this piece is now a large poster hanging in our office :)
Monday, October 08, 2007
We're Sober!
OHHHHH how funny it is. I totally thought we were sober. Here's some pictures of Patty (the assistant director), Me, and Loren Bouchard (Ther person patty is assisting) at the Lucy Premiere party. I could have sworn we were sober? I could have sworn Loren was drunk? I guess we were wrong :( and Loren has the pictures to prove it :)
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Chuck Pyle's blog!
dept director (dean?) of the illustration department for Academy Art University.
http://chuckpyleart.blogspot.com/
Great teacher/mentor/director/person/moustache?
Him and many teachers at the academy is what makes the illustration dept kick-arse.
http://chuckpyleart.blogspot.com/
Great teacher/mentor/director/person/moustache?
Him and many teachers at the academy is what makes the illustration dept kick-arse.
Friday, August 17, 2007
LUCY
SEPT 9th!!!!
12:15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
edit to add: OOPS!
it's LUCY: The daughter of the devil, airing on cartoon network's ADULTSWIM @ 12:15 am on sunday'ish (monday morning technically), September 9th.
Tune in and check it out. I was responsible for most if not all the character designs and art direction for the BackGround Plates. ALSO check out Grant Alexander's and Justin Martin's handiwork (their efforts intto creating the environments for lucy to play in). Grant and Justin did a great job painting up the matte/bg plates for Lucy (They also had some handy work with Character designs: JUSTIN for his awesome MEAT LUCY and Grant for his disgusting SATAN TUMOR). They also did a wonderful job poking fun of me (YOU BASTARDS).
and to ANSWER CHRIS'S QUESTION: "IS this the pilot?" - this youtube commercial should say it all!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
I MISSED COMIC-CON
AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
YOU lucky bastards that went! heck, even my boss went. But i heard it was sold out friday and he was there on wednesday, thursday, just going in everyday and paying the fee for the day pass. Couldn't get in on friday!
Ohhhhhh the books i would have saught out for. Ohhhhhh the toys i would have purchased! OHHHHH all the robot-sie transformery goodness i would have been in.
Congrats to those who went, congrats to those who brought their ports and got good reviews and not so good reviews (hey, it's all part of the process). Congrats to those who picked up MP-5 Masterpiece Megatron :)
MAYBE next year, maybe.
anyways, you know, still doing the same thing, sketching on the bus... workin' at the same place doing the same thing :) LOVING every moment of this crazy thing called work :)
anyways, doing some doodles, did some car doodles too. these were fun way to pass the time while waiting for the Harry Potter line to dwindle.
I MUST SAY - finished the book in 3 days. I've heard others doing it in 8 hours flat. JEEEEEBERS that's crazy! But now that THAT crazy thing is out of the way, i can return to my collective hobby of just doodling and dwadling and buying toys :)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Something to Share
Bus sketches!!!
Meg and I are getting married soon! She's set a date already... OCT 24th, city hall...
My parents scared her good, what with my brother's wedding topping at 550 people! So we'll be doing some wedding ring shopping on the weekends and she'll be looking for her simple summer dress for city hall.
Now on the lucy end, it looks like Lucy's got pushed back a bit to better promote the show. Airdate sometime in September... Sept 9th? Who knows, [adultswim] keeps me in the dark :D
If there's one thing to say about work, it's that I'm grateful that I have a wonderful, flexible team that can self manage things on their own and follows art direction (most of the time ;P ) - w/o them, the show would be nothing.
On the personal obsessed level: I want that new Leader Class Optimus prime now! ARrrgH! that new Transformers movie rocked!
Meg and I are getting married soon! She's set a date already... OCT 24th, city hall...
My parents scared her good, what with my brother's wedding topping at 550 people! So we'll be doing some wedding ring shopping on the weekends and she'll be looking for her simple summer dress for city hall.
Now on the lucy end, it looks like Lucy's got pushed back a bit to better promote the show. Airdate sometime in September... Sept 9th? Who knows, [adultswim] keeps me in the dark :D
If there's one thing to say about work, it's that I'm grateful that I have a wonderful, flexible team that can self manage things on their own and follows art direction (most of the time ;P ) - w/o them, the show would be nothing.
On the personal obsessed level: I want that new Leader Class Optimus prime now! ARrrgH! that new Transformers movie rocked!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
me DailY doodles...
on 'de BUS or waiting...
I have not had any chance to do any photoshop paintings/sketches :( AYE YAH!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
nO updates!
super buzy and just moved. cant even find the scanner to scan some bus sketches :o
only can post old stuff...
LuCy Airs August 5th, 11:45 PM on adult swim right after Robot Chicken!
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Some Sketches
I really like this portrait. Captured his likeness very fast, one minute flat :) I smell my pencil burning, YOWZAH!
Friday, April 06, 2007
The angry robot
Hello. This is an angry robot. He is mad at me. I do many mean things to him to make him mad... like call him names and laugh at him. I call him POO POO HEAD! Ka-ka-pee-pee-poo-poo SHIRE! He is an angry robot. He says "I WILL STOMP ON YOU! RAWR!"
But he cannot do that. It is because I am a nice person, but I am also a bomb. He cannot stomp on me or I will blow him up! It will be certain death for the angry robot.
Too bad I am tired. I cannot blow up an angry robot when I am tired. I am napping in my bed now.
Take that stupid angry robot!
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
The way I've been sketching lately
I normally like to sketch during my commute to work. That used to be pretty simple when it was a 45 min train ride... but now that I'm closer to work, my train ride is just 2-3 minutes... sometimes less. I also switched from the smooth riding Bay Area Rapid Transit trains to local underground city subways; things are a little bit shakier and a little bit more crowded. Drawing in the bigger sketchbooks becomes alot more noticeable - and believe me, I had my share of angry people catching me drawing them (thanks to my poor ninja drawing abilities).
To be able to draw in the more confined space of undercity subways, I decided to dump my larger (11x14 & 9x12)sketchbooks for a 3x5 inch moleskin plain paper. Drawing on the smaller book is a lot stealthier and I can quickly pull the little 190 page notebook out (w/ my stubby black verithin) at anytime & anywhere to do some quick sketching. Most will just think I'm taking notes, but little do they know that I've secretly stolen their soul and burned it into my little black book MUHAHAHAHA!
Most of the drawings turn out like dirt... sometimes having less than 5 seconds to draw. Not to mention that the train bounces and people constantly coming and going. And the lack of elbow room!!!
You'll notice below a mass of sketches. Most if not all are quickstudies on the train. Those with a seamingly good finish tend to be 3-5 minutes. A lot of the other quickstudies ranges from 1 - 30 seconds... some go unfinished, others might be drawn while intoxicated, and most get the "I'm the artist, I draw as I please!" mentality - lines going everywhere, artmarks, overstylizing :)
For an artist, as they say, Pencil Mileage is very important. I try to keep that up during my spare times. That's why I'm glad for the train rides, even though they are short - It's a nice brief workout before tackling the bigger drawings/paintings later during the day.
To be able to draw in the more confined space of undercity subways, I decided to dump my larger (11x14 & 9x12)sketchbooks for a 3x5 inch moleskin plain paper. Drawing on the smaller book is a lot stealthier and I can quickly pull the little 190 page notebook out (w/ my stubby black verithin) at anytime & anywhere to do some quick sketching. Most will just think I'm taking notes, but little do they know that I've secretly stolen their soul and burned it into my little black book MUHAHAHAHA!
Most of the drawings turn out like dirt... sometimes having less than 5 seconds to draw. Not to mention that the train bounces and people constantly coming and going. And the lack of elbow room!!!
You'll notice below a mass of sketches. Most if not all are quickstudies on the train. Those with a seamingly good finish tend to be 3-5 minutes. A lot of the other quickstudies ranges from 1 - 30 seconds... some go unfinished, others might be drawn while intoxicated, and most get the "I'm the artist, I draw as I please!" mentality - lines going everywhere, artmarks, overstylizing :)
For an artist, as they say, Pencil Mileage is very important. I try to keep that up during my spare times. That's why I'm glad for the train rides, even though they are short - It's a nice brief workout before tackling the bigger drawings/paintings later during the day.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Unnatural History
Unnatural History art. I got obsessive compulsive and spent 3 waking days to illustrate the alleyway piece when it just really needed to be roughed :)
Now i goto bed! zZZZzzz
Monday, January 29, 2007
I want to be Sedated!
o/` Twenty Twenty Twenty-Four Hours agoooooo, I want to be sedated!
is the current song stuck in my head at work today. So anyways, the ever so lazy Albert finally updates his blog, yet again. Here's a fun design of many that i wish i could post.
I've been browsing the other member's blogs here and everyone else's art just amazes me! Puts me to shame really :) you guys are awesome. If anyone's reading this, please visit the other links in my blog and you'll see why these guys are pros if not great artists!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
CK... for dog
Her name is Anne and she is SEXY.
a photo i took at work. Her name is Anne, and she visits often. Her hobbies include: lying about... drinking water... and more lying about :)
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