The Jolly Green

AnimC FALL '11

2011-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

On the last night of the semester at AnimC, I sketched everyone from my Wednesday Animation class. It didn't scan well, but I thought I would share anyway. Thanks for the great semester, guys! (Starting from the top left: Marat, Rob, Gin, BK, Dhar, Chris E., Chris R., and Joe.)

MOTHER EARTH AND FATHER TIME

2011-11-28T00:37:00.001-08:00

Father can be cruel, but mother is always kind.

A MUPPET THANKSGIVING

2011-11-25T16:23:00.001-08:00

Hopefully, everyone's Thanksgiving went a little smoother than Bert and Ernie's! I drew this up for Austin's Chades Challenge the other night and finished coloring it today (had an intermission for turkey). The theme was "A Muppet Thanksgiving" and the first thing that came to mind was that Turkey Day must be a little uncomfortable for Rubber Ducky.

THE MUPPETS

2011-11-23T12:43:00.001-08:00

COMES OUT TODAY!!!

EVERYBODY GO SEE IT!!!

The world needs more muppets in it.

GESTURE 101

2011-11-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

Over summer, I took a gesture drawing class with Alex Woo and it was hands down one of the best drawing classes I've ever taken. He introduces a new element of gesture drawing to you each week, so by the end, you're telling stories with your drawings. If you have the time and money, I highly recommend Alex's class. Here's what I did for my final assignment:

MUPPET ME

2011-10-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

I'm getting pretty excited for The Muppets and thought I need to update my profile picture on here, so I drew me as a muppet.

ONE OF MY FAVORITES

2011-10-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

The beginning of 101 Dalmatians is one of my favorite sequences of animation ever. The whole movie is beautiful, but this opening is pretty much perfection, in my humble eyes. Truth of the matter is I wanted to post this here to share with a friend (Hope this helps, Gin!), but now, everyone can check it out! Classics like this never get old to watch.

CORGIS ON THE COUCH

2011-08-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

CORGI

2011-08-29T23:54:00.001-07:00

"DRAW, GOD DAMNIT!"

2011-08-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

My former Cal-Arts animation and life drawing teacher, Corny Cole, used to tell that to me in class. He was an amazing teacher, he had so much life, that he constantly challenged you to stay sharp. Almost challenging you to prove your passion for animation at every corner with an attitude saying "Oh yeah! You LOVE animation?! THEN F#CKING PROVE IT!" During my forth year, he would ask me to describe a specific principle of animation, and after I correctly defined it, he would tell me, in a clever challenging tone, "I don't believe you. Prove it. Show it." On the spot, I would animate in front of him something to prove that I correctly knew the principle. I loved every second of it. Corny has recently passed away, but his passion for animation lives on through every student and artist he inspired. Thanks, Corny! You helped me raise my passion for animation higher than I thought was possible. You're an unforgettable character and make sure to tell them on the other side to "DRAW, GOD DAMNIT!"

"WE GOTTA GET THAT BEAR IN A CAGE."

2011-06-16T01:58:00.000-07:00

I'm in love with this photo.

MOUNT DIABLO

2011-06-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

SURVIVOR

2011-05-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

(WARNING SURVIVOR FANS: POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW)

Lately, I've become quite the fan of the show, "Survivor". I've always liked the show, but since "Survivor: Samoa", the show has captured my attention to new levels. From survival to strategy, I love every aspect of the show, and in this last season, Rob Mariano aka "Boston Rob", played a near perfect game and won the big prize. It was such a good season that I have started watching the previous seasons that I have never seen before, so don't be surprised to see more "Survivor" drawings in future posts.

CLINT ROULETTE

2011-05-23T01:57:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this character for over the past year or so, and I've finally got him to a place where I'm ready to share a bit. Everybody say hi to Clint Roulette, the coolest man on the planet.

(Play the Youtube clip for mood music, if you're so inclined, but be warned... you WILL want to bust a move.)

"BELIEVE IN LOVE"

2011-05-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

My sister, Carol, is putting on a benefit concert at the end of the month, to raise money for a Kona musician named Maka Gallinger, and asked me to make a poster for it. Maka is my niece's ukulele instructor and will be head lining the show. One of her songs is below as well as the poster I did for the show. If any of you live on the big island of Hawaii, go to the show and support Maka, good music, and my sister too!

BUSINESS CARDS

2011-02-27T00:51:00.000-08:00

So for one of my classes this week, I had to make myself a business card.

Watch out, Recruiters. I'm prepping my attack.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

2011-02-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

It's a been a while since I've updated this ol blog of mine. For the past year, I have been busy finishing my first year of grad school. I've been working on a 4 minute CG animated short for my thesis with a great group of people at AAU. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post much about the film for a while. But for now, here's a viking I'm working on:

R.I.P. MICHAEL DANCKERT

2010-03-16T02:33:00.001-07:00

My sister's brother-in-law tragicly pasted away recently. He was an amazing person and had that rare quality of being instantly trustworthy. He was extremely hard working and giving. I didn't have time to do this drawing before the memorial, but after hearing all the stories about Michael, and how many people he touched, I felt compelled to make something. So to anyone who is reading this that was close to Michael, I hope this helps you heal and reminds you of all the great things that made Michael Danckert a great person. Rest in peace, Michael.

DIALOGUE TEST

2009-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

This is a test that I have been working on recently in Maya. I used the Norman rig and the audio clip is from "Anchorman: The Legend of Burgundy". Any feedback is more than welcomed!

"FLIGHT OF A PHOENIX"

2009-09-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

My final year at CalArts was a huge challenge for me. I had a huge decision to make with my film. I spent the major of my year trying have my cake and eat it too; I wanted to have a film with a great story and I wanted to have top notch animation. It took my four years to finally figure out that I can only do quality work when I am focused on one thing. My story suffered because I wanted to rush into animation, and my animation suffered because I wanted to have substance to my story. When April rolled around, I came to the realization that I couldn't animate the story I was trying to tell without either the animation or story suffering. I had to make the decision to either have another animatic, unanimated film, or to just animate my film characters in a simple situation. The "film" above is the animation that I was able to do in the last two weeks of film time after I abandoned my original film. It was truly a hard decision to make, but I want to be a character animator and I am going to pursue it no matter how many hardships it brings my way. Anywho, hope you enjoy it!

FINALLY... SOME NEW STUFF

2009-09-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been forever since I've done anything with this blog, so I have finally gotten around to updating it a bit. I took a break the other day from working on my CG stuff, and drew for the first time in forever. Hopefully, I can post up some of the other things I drew sometime soon, but for now, I hope you dig the new look of the blog.

CHARACTER ANIMATION GALLERY '09

2009-02-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

For this year's Character Animation Gallery, myself, Chris Sturgulewski, and John "Duze" Dusenberry collaborated on a piece of James Bond inspired art that we called "From Valencia With Love". (Picture of all three of us next to our piece at the show above) Each of us did a group of drawings inspired by characters from the world of James Bond. Here is the logo from our piece and the drawings I did for the piece. Enjoy!

LOCKDOWN '08!!!

2008-10-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's that time of year again! CALARTS Character Animation is hosting its annual (6th, if I'm correct) 48 Hour Lockdown on Friday, October 24th, at the stroke of midnight, which would technically make it the 25th, but who cares. The theme of this years lockdown will me drawn at midnight, and then participants will have 48 hours to animate a short film that integrates the theme. Previous themes have been "Lollipop," "Snow," "Candy," "Tube-sock," and "Piranha." The Lockdown is open to anyone who wishes to participate and the show will probably be on the weekend after Halloween. I will post updates as I get them. (Oh ya, I just realized that I forgot the "HR" in the poster, but everyone got the point, so whatever.)

4TH YEAR!!!

2008-10-08T18:31:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been way too long since I last posted, mainly due to how freaking busy I have been with everything, but I am happy to share some new things. First off, I'm now in my final year at CALARTS, which is crazy, stressful, exciting, and enjoyable all at the same time! I am so stoked for everything that this year has in store for me and what is to come after. Secondly, I am happy to say that I have my final CALART's film idea, and am happy to be able to share a little about it. The working title is called, " Crash or Burn" and it is about a baby phoenix learning to fly... and learning it the hard way. The picture above is an inspirational drawing of the main character once he succeeds.

2008-05-19T19:40:00.001-07:00

For Dad.

A DOG AND HIS BOY

2008-05-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

THIRD YEAR FILM AND 2008 PORTFOLIO

2008-05-06T01:57:00.000-07:00

Finally films and portfolios are done!!! And now, I can finally post my film and my portfolio I've been working on! I've made a new blog for my portfolio, and have a link to it, so feel free to check out! The new blog will be primarly for professional use, while this blog will be more for my personal works, thoughts, and such things. Anywho, I'll be posting news on the end of the year festivities after everything pans out for the summer, so until then take care!

CRUNCH TIME!!!

2008-03-08T17:52:00.001-08:00

With roughly six weeks left to go before films are due, it is officially CRUNCH TIME! I finished my final animatic this last Thurdays, and now I have nothing left but to just animate as much as I can between now and 5:00 PM, April 21st. For those of you who have not experienced Crunch Time before, I felt this picture sums up the pain and frustration that we go through to reach the finish line.

VALENTINE'S DAY '08

2008-02-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

I actually have a Valentine this year! I'm currently dating this awesome girl by the name of Breana, so I decide to make her something special since this is her first time celebrating Valentine's Day. One of my friends in the department, Noel Belknap, had made some cool stuffed animals/creatures for presents this past Holidays (Check her stuff out at http://fishbot.blogspot.com/). I decided that this would be a pretty sweet present if I made Breana her own stuffed animal, so with Noel's aid, I made Breana a stuffed pig for Valentine's Day!

This was the design that I came up with...

I'll post a picture of the end result as soon as I get a picture.

CHAR. ANIM. SHOW '08!!!

2008-01-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

I decided last minute to particate in the show this year and split a space with Jesus, a fellow 3rd year. I threw up a couple of things from the blog and also did three story vinyets and a digit drawing of Josh Homme (Lead Singer of Queens of the Stone Age). This year was by far the best show that I have been to. Hopefully, I will get some pictures to share, but for now, here are some of the things I put up.

MERRY BELATED X-MAS, EVERYBODY!!!

2007-12-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year I got a Wacom tablet, so I decided to do something festive to celebrate! I hope everybody had a happy holidays!!!

TWISTED TATS

2007-11-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

This is my 48 Hour Lockdown film that I finish two weekends ago, and was showed this weekend in the Lockdown Show. The word for this Lockdown was "Piranha." There was a great turn out this year, abou 27 films, and I highly recommend that you check them out (They should be on YouTube by now). The name of my film is "Twisted Tats" and I hope you enjoy!

VIVIEN AND THE DINO

2007-10-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

It's my niece, Vivien's, birthday this month on the 21st and she requested a drawing of her riding a dinosaur. I did this on my spare time, and used it as an chance to get better at using the Wacom tablets. So, in short, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VIVIEN!!!

CAVEMAN GIBBERISH

2007-10-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

This is a caveman design that I might animated for my new "gibberish" assignment. He's name, I think, will be Grah!

PRETTY GOAT

2007-10-03T17:37:00.001-07:00

This is Curtis, an award-winning goat that brings back the gold every year from the State and County Fair. He's a character I'm developing in my story class at school.

DANCE, EVERYBODY DANCE!!!

2007-10-03T17:35:00.001-07:00

This is something I did for my girlfriend about a month ago.

DAVE GROHL IS THE MAN!

2007-09-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

Now that the labs are open at school and I have my new cube, I final finished this drawing I did of Dave Grohl when I was listening to some Foo Fighters a few weeks back. I played around with some lighting effects in Photoshop with this one.

BACK TO SCHOOL

2007-09-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Class and cube sign-ups are this week, and everybody is showing back up at school, so I guess you can say that the year is starting up. I'm totally stoked to see everyone again and get back to business as usual.

SOME OLD STUFF...

2007-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

These are a few old pieces I found that I thought I would share with you'll. Enjoy!

CHADE CHALLENGE: TELESCOPIC PLACEBO... KINDA...

2007-06-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

So I kind of confused the meaning of the word "telescopic" this week with "microscopic" and did this drawing.

By the time Mr. John Dusenberry informed me of the definition of "telescopic" I had no time to turn out another drawing because a group of us took part in the L.A. 48 Hour Film Project and made a live action short in less than 48 hours. As soon as I know if I can post the film, I will. Until then I'm going to try and draw a "telescopic placebo" opposed to a "microscopic placebo."

TECHNOLOGICAL NIGHTMARE!!! AKA THE INTERNET SHORTAGE OF 'O7

2007-06-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

It appears the technological Gods have not been smiling upon me because not only did my neighbor (who I share internet with) didn't pay the bill for the internet, but the servers at school caught on FIRE! Ya, that's right... there was an electrical fire in the CALARTS library where the servers are held. So not only have I had no why of scanning and uploading new work, but I also had no internet. So in short, expect some new stuff soon as I have a working scanner.

CHADES CHALLENGE: ELDERLY MERMAIDS!!!

2007-06-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

So Ben-JAMIN and I were chilling at the apartment when Mister Austin Madison issued us a character design (aka ChaDes) challenge of elderly mermaids. This is what I managed to do.

PARROTS!

2007-06-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally back in Valencia and back to work after weeks of visiting folks and recovering from the year. D-Rock and Chez ( aka Derek and Cole) decided to come up with some character design assignment to keep themselves on their toes, and I've decided to join the club! These are a couple of parrots I've manage to do yesterday. I did one in just straight pencil and the other in illustrator (it's my first attempt using the program so it's kinda crappy). I included the original sketch of the illustrator drawing just so you could see what I was thinking. Any who, I'm still really busy sorting stuff out and adapting to the summer schedule, but I should be posting more often now! My next post will be some "Summer School" make-up work, so to speak...

"CAPTAIN OBVIOUS: VOLUME 2"

2007-05-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

The story revolution continues!... This compilation features the talents of Andres Salaff, Ben Adams, Derek Evanick, Dave Quion, and myself. Enjoy!

"SHOT IN THE HEART"

2007-05-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

This is my second year film that I made at CALARTS. ENJOY!

FINALLY, A BLOG I CAN BE PROUD OF!... HOPEFULLY...

2007-05-09T00:32:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody! I started a new blog cuz I thought my old one was kinda half-baked and thanks to the motivation of my buddies, Ben and Cole. I'm gonna be using this blog to show my friends and family my work, keeping in touch with my partners in crime, and talking about random adventures. Hopefully this blog will be worth everybody's time!