I have been experimenting with the system with the help of Kevin "The Boy" Wilson. We are trying to straighten out the learning curve and slowly achieving some sucess. We both are learning the innerfaces and I am even gingerly attempting to see how one to hack the form. I have so far figured how to change the background with the help of a Youtube video and a very supportive chat board. Here is the avatar I came up with for said chat boards.
To all my former partners in adventure ... be forwarned. "My pardon. I give it to you. In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me, very good for you - and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it."
Here are two more monsters from the sketchbook. These are creatures of a process that I have been going through for far too long. I am working on a set of characters for a fantasy world piece that has been rattling around in my head. I have the concepts and the story ... Now I have to suffer with the search. Yoko says this is my favorite part. Maybe its true but the frustrating part is this time I am doing a lot of circling. What can I say ... it's an adventure.
I try to post on every Wednesday, but obviously missed my own self imposed deadline. This is because I wanted to talk about the documentary that was done on Walt Disney on PBS' "American Experence." It played on Monday and Tuesday night. A whopping 4 hours of content. So I had the daunting task of watching both episodes back to back. I also had the good fortune to discuss this with my good friend, Walter Deanovich. We both thought it was good ... if a bit simplefied. And while I know a lifetime is a lot to cover in even 4 hours there was a lot left out. Some only hinted at. It is forgotten or ingored that both people and events shape an indivigual. How can you tell the story of a man's lifetime without looking at those that influenced others? And while it stresses that Walt held grudges ... it doesn't touch on the split that happened with Iwerks. This perhaps the biggest equalling the effects of his father and Mintz. And the fact that he set aside his feelings to let Ub come back to work for the company. The worst you can say is that Walt was a man ... a man with all the foils and follies that is inherant in us all. He is proof that a man ... an artist can have the vision but not the skill to carry it through. A man driven to create but has to depend on others to be his hands. This does not create an enviroment of understanding or self expression. But if you worked for Disney ... you had best not go into it with any other ideas. What this bio show is that Walt was a complex man and no matter what nay sayers might say ... accomplished a lot in his lifetime. And there is still pieces of of the story to be told. Hard to believe if you look at the thickness of the Gaibler book. It will be playing in all probabilties to be playing again on this Sunday on your local PBS channel. It is worth a peak or a slot on your DVR. And for those so inclined here is a short articale on how Walter Lantz came to head Universal's animation department and take Oswald from Mintz.
RUN AAAAAAAAWWWWWAAAAY!!!! Here is a collection of characters that started to come to the page as I explored the concepts of a couple cartoony monsters. They sort of remind me a lot of goblins. I really like the expressions I'm gettin from them.
Sometimes a drawing takes on a life of their own. This one did. I was drawing after lunch in my journal ... not sure of what I was really drawing. Maybe a Djinn? I just let it flow ... And when I was done, I looked and saw my fellow cast member Shanoda staring back of me. A characture perhaps but definately his esence.
This is not the first time this has happened to me. Maybe it's the subconscious taking over.I did my first my first Christmas card with the concept of Santa's daughter, Sandy taking over the family business. I drew on the front a very sexy girl. When I posted it at work, I was told how gutsy I was to draw one of the bellmen's girl fiend who I also worked. I looked and my draw dropped as I suddenly saw the drawing was the spitting image of the lady in question. Luckily, other than a good laugh, I received no other reprisal.
One of the projects that keeps recurring is my desire to recreate the cartoon I did as a college project. I used, with permission, Walter Deanovich's character, Cannabis Cat which I called Thom Cat. I think I will redo the titles and be truer to Walt's character. I have 99% or the animation on paper in boxes. I will need to recreate a background.
And of course re-film the paper animation. The last time I did this, when I was in college, I sat for two days on the floor filming the animation ... two .. frames ... at a time. The Bolex camera was c clamped to my drawing table with two lights attached as well. Taped to the floor was a piece of poster board with a rectangle cut out. I would place the drawing in the corresponding rectangle and use a piece of glass as a pressure plate. Pretty crude. Animation stands ... on the professional level are pretty complicated. And even simple ones were better than the Mickey Moused system I used. I was not much better off that Windsor Mccay used in 1911. He used a measured series of registration marks and wooden frame to steady the picture. What Mccay did was utterly amazing. So much that it took a dinosaur named Gertie, to convince audiences that this was not a trick. This amazing to me, since he took great plains to show just how much work animation really is. Later on peg systems were used to steady the shot, both on animation table and on the camera.
With my current system, the scanner serves as a camera. And with out this set up of the Wacom tablet on the Ergrotron arm I would have to get up and place the picture in the scanner. After walking back to the computer and using the software to scan the drawing, it then needs to be manipulated in Photoshop. All and all, I estimate each drawing will take 2 minutes to get camera ready. Then it will be imported into a video program. Obviously there is more involved than the old school method. More time as well. So re-doing a 5 minute cartoon is a hell of a project. Maybe there's an episode of Matlock on TV.
So below is my test of scanner registration. The piece is an animation I did for the film "Rituals" with Walt and Mike Mazzone.
And for those who haven't had enough punishement here is Windsor Mccay's Little Nemo.
According to my Tolkien calendar, today, September 2nd is the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's death. So in his honor I offer this caricature.
A man of accomplishment, he was scholar, professor, translator but what he is best known for, are the fantasies of Middle Earth. His Hobbits and theories of sub creation influenced all that followed up to Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin (whose pen name is a blatant homage) so much so that Tolkien is called the "Father of Modern Fantasy." His books have been made in to plays, radio shows, Led Zeplin tunes, animated cartoons and movies. I personally was touched from the moment David Wilson handed me a copy of "The Hobbit." I devoured everything I could. I drew pictures, wrote poetry and even in my Youth Center days did a Middle Earth celebration. (Mathew Nasworthy at age five won the Hobbit height contest) So if you get a desire to read Tolkien's work whether it's again of for the first time, consider the pod cast "Talking Tolkien." http://www.wondernauts.net/talking-tolkien-pdc/ It is my current drive time passion. Katie and Jonathan are the knowledgeable hosts with Chase playing the "everyman." It's a book club that you can take a more passive approach. At the turning of the last to this new century, Time magazine had the readers vote on the most important piece of literature of the century, their choice ... "Lord of the Rings. Need I say more??? So join me, and raise your glass ... and Toast the Proffesor.
