LAST POST
Tuesday April 15, 2008
Hi. This blog has expired and the new blog is officially WIP.
Also, you can view my new Demo Reel by going HERE. Thank You.
Announcing W.I.P.!
Thursday March 27, 2008
I’m really excited to announce my latest hair-brained scheme, W.I.P. aka Works in Progress!
My goal for this new site is the following:
- Making stuff I like
- Offering it to the public at a reasonable price
- Engaging folks with what I’m up to on a regular basis
That’s it! Pretty simple, really.
Just so you know, this particular blog you are now reading will expire in a week or so. So get on over to W.I.P. and say hello!
Channel VR?
Wednesday March 5, 2008
A friend linked to an article today that really got me wondering if I could realistically make a living making and selling my own animations and related merch. That idea has been on the fringe of my brain for a really long time, but in the end I always go back to good ole freelancing for various clients to pay the bills.
But what if…
What if I create a site wholly devoted to my art and animation thats alive and vibrant with new content as fast as I can create it – and its my full-time gig? What if people are able to watch lo-res versions of the animations via youtube or something and buy a restriction-free better-quality download of it for like a $1?
At the outset, I would make it clear that this is my attempt at making a living drawing and animating stuff that people buy directly from me. I would be as transparent as possible without listing my monthly earnings or whatever. If I were to ask for funding for something, I would make the numbers publically available though. (I’d likely use something like fundable) I think people can respect a guy trying to make a living doing what he loves and I would try to make it as clear as possible that thats all Im trying to do. Hopefully, this more intimate setup would make it special for everybody, definitely not just me. It would be a way to connect as directly as possible with folks who like what I do. Man, thats exciting to think about!
Content-wise, I wouldnt lock it down to one series or genre or cast of characters; it would be open to whatever I feel like doing. Im sure I would revisit certain ideas and characters/worlds multiple times, but continuity would not be the goal – at least not at the beginning. Letting it evolve and surprise people (including myself) would be half the fun! Im thinking the toons would be pretty short. Bite size and sweet.
Types of things I would offer on the site:
- Embedded youtube cartoons I made, viewable in their entirity for free
- An easy way to buy that same cartoon at a higher quality and in a format you can drop onto your media player of choice
- A blog with sketches and videos/webcasts of me making stuff
- A forum for people to fling poo at me and each other. Maybe I could take cartoon ideas in there in-between poo dodgings
- T-shirts, printed sketchbooks, stills from cartoons, etc to buy
- DVDs with a collection of like 10 cartoons on them to buy
- E-mail newsletter – I know, cutting edge right? RSS is still too confusing for a lot of people I think… I’d have an RSS feed too though
- plus more stuff later
Im just thinking all this through and writing out my thoughts here. If Im going to do this, Im going to REALLY go for it 113% so it would be a big deal and very scary and exciting. Im ready for the next big thing in my life though, and before I buckle down and go work for the man somewhere Im extremely tempted to give this a shot for like a year or two.
It is Finished
Friday February 22, 2008
17 months and 21 days later, animation is complete on ’Project X.‘ More info to come when its available.
•••
Life and Work
Sunday February 17, 2008
So I’ve been working a lot lately. I’ve been cranking away on this one huge project, finishing it up. I still cant really talk about it but it should be done (mostly) in the next couple weeks. I cant wait to be done with it and I think it’s shaping up to be a pretty darn fine little film.
It’s interesting what becomes of my brain when I saturate it in just one thing like this. On a normal day, it’s bouncing around from one idea to the next, dreaming up some foolish scheme or what have you. Lately though, so much of my mind-space is occupied by “Project X” it’s literally all I have the energy to concentrate on. Everything else is sort of dim and hazy. It’s a weird place to be but at least Im focused! I can only work at this pace and at this intensity for short bursts though, it’s really not healthy long-term.
Things I’ve learned along the way
I’d like to do a big summary post (or posts) about it when its finished, but for now I think it would be helpful to at least start thinking about what I’ve taken away from it.
This is my first big project I’ve taken on while dating someone. Its crazy to think about, but I started this film a year and a half ago, and at that point Harmony and I had been dating for like 6 months! Man time flies. Im really blessed to have a girlfriend who is so understanding of the insanity required to create something like this. She’s the best! Of course there have been times when we’re both tired and stretched too thin by our respective jobs and lives and we snap at each other. Thankfully those times are brief and we’ve been able to talk things through pretty well I think. She’s only punched me in the face 3 times in 2 years. (I kid I kid)
Im not sure I can do the lone wolf animator thing much longer. Its too isolated and limited in scope. Im not really sure what my ideal team setup is, but I at least know that going it alone isn’t good for me anymore. This current film is unique for me in that Im following someone else’s script and taking direction from them, and I have never really done that before — definitely not on this scale. Thats been nice but I would also like to have a team doing the actual meat and potatoes art/layout/animation alongside me as well. I used to kind of think I couldn’t trust anybody else to realize my brilliant vision or whatever but now I think Im just full of high-horsing bologna. At least by now I’ve proven that I can do this thing that I do pretty well and can hopefully jump right into a team setting feeling somewhat confident. Im through with thinking my way alone is the best way though. Its downright exhausting to think about taking on another film alone. shudder
I think about my time at Dayspring as a temp right out of college a lot in contrast to the lone freelancer gig I have now. It wasn’t my ideal job but it was an amazing place to learn Flash and push myself at a nice manageable pace. I met some great people there too! On one level they are good friends which is great on its own, but on another level I can honestly say that about every project I’ve gotten has bloomed out of the relationships and trust I built up with people there. Thats incredible and I really miss having those kinds of connections. I’ve been floating out on my own in my rickety apartment way too long, its time to connect somewhere fresh! I imagine I’d only last a while at a full-time gig then I’d be pining for a new hermit cave, though. Ah well…
Dream Project
Sunday January 13, 2008
Bear with me while I dream out loud with you my dream project of the moment. I want to make an epic animated music video to Lightning Bolt’s masterpiece, Dead Cowboy. Heres somebody else’s video: LINK Ha, this ones pretty good too. Im linking to it mainly so you can hear the song.
Its the most insanely exciting thing I think Ive ever heard. Seriously, put it on and turn your speakers up to 11, shut your eyes and tell me you didnt wet your pants. Thats 2 sweaty dudes (playing it all live I think) making all that amazing noise and it sounds like the universe is grinding its teeth and out of the teeth sparks planets are being born and are over-populating at vomit-inducing speeds.
Theres almost no way to approach something thats on that level of extreme bile-boiling intensity so maybe I should just leave it alone. But for the sake of argument and to play the bad cop to the good cop you hear in your brain right now heres my idea:
Bravestarr + A Heavy Metal -like movie that doesnt suck + dark southern-American-religious-gothic fantasy myths. Put it all in a blender and see what happens.
I guess the lyrics are about dropping GW Bush into a vat of burning oil in Afghanistan until his “ears fall off” ha ha, but whatever, they’re so distorted you cant understand them anyway.
There, glad thats out of my system. Now its back to the cold crushing embrace of reality and time constraints and bill-paying.
New Painting for sale!
Sunday November 25, 2007
“Picnic Stretch”
Recommended • Issue #4
Friday November 16, 2007
I know I know I just posted one of these recently… BUT I thought I’d spare the ambient haters of the world from a post of nothing but. SO for those of you who like your rock & roll weird and crusty and spontaneous, I give you Thee More Shallows.
I just got Book of Bad Breaks on vinyl and its digging trenches in my root canal but I dont care because I love it. They start with Flaming Lips and Grandaddy as their base and then grind up all sorts of weird stuff into the mix and even let it all break down and crumble on top of itself into ambient dark weirdness -which I hear Mr. Odd Nosdam helped create. At its most energetic moments it really rips into the rock straight-ahead too, so dont let all that artsy talk scare you.
Heres a sample mp3 from it:
Night at the Knight School
Links For Purchasing:
Anticon (vinyl’s only $11 +shipping FYI)
Amazon