UGH!

I was doing so well... Bi-weekly updates and tons of stuff going on. Then silence...

It seems I've become victim to the revenge of compressed nerves. Unfortunately, this time, affecting my drawing arm, of all things. I've barely been able to sit at the computer for more than ten minutes without cringing. Needless to say, everything I've been working on has been put on hold, or has been progressing at a snail's pace.

I'm still hopeful that my animation video tutorial series will be ready by Spring.
And, if all goes well, I'm still looking forward to attending and hopefully drawing tons of character sketches at the Palladium Books 2015 Open House in May!

Until then, more physiotherapy sessions, and lots of stretching.

Animation Tutorials - In Production

With all the Robotech art out of the way, it's been a little quiet the last couple of weeks.
I've temporarily put my other projects on the back burner, as I've been recently working on an animation video tutorial series.

The tutorials will walk the viewer from dialogue analysis, to storyboards, to finished 2D animated scene (no cut-out). I'll be using software from Toon Boom, including Storyboard Pro, and Harmony 11. While I will be talking about how to use some of the software features, the focus will be on character animation fundamentals, which will be applicable no matter what software (or paper) you're using.

The tutorials are being produced for participants of the Skills Canada - Ontario Technological Skills Competition; but will be made available for the public, afterwards, and once I actually get a store page set up.

Pricing has yet to be determined as it's still in production.

If this is something that you think sounds interesting, drop me a line, or leave a comment here, or on facebook. Unfortunately, until the project is fully completed, I can't post images or samples up; but if there's enough interest, I'll be sure to do so, once the project is done!

More Robotech Stuff

So all of my art for Robotech: Expeditionary Force Marines has been approved, but the book's been delayed until probably late Q4. Until then, I'll wet your appetite with my finished Cyclone-Invid illustration. Alas, the other piece with the Alpha will have to wait until later.

 

Also, for any Robotech fans out there that might have missed it, Harmony Gold Productions is looking to crowd-fund a brand new Robotech animated series based on the late Carl Macek's last project during his time at Harmony Gold, called Robotech Academy!

For more information, check out their Kickstarter! As of this post, they've got just about a week to go (campaign ends August 8th) and they look like they could use quite a bit more backers to get funded. So if you're a die-hard fan, I'd definitely head on over to be part of the production and get in on some cool rewards!



UPDATE (August 2nd): With less than 40% of their goal funded, and only six days left in their campaign, Harmony Gold has decided to cancel the Robotech Academy kickstarter, while they explore other options of bringing Robotech Academy to production.

Click here, for more information.

Robotech Expeditionary Force Marines Art Update

Woo, more work in progress art for Robotech Expeditionary Force Marines!
Alas, only WIP for now until art's all submitted and approved.

Cyclone vs Invid Scout - Work in Progress



Alpha - Work in Progress

Invid - Work in Progress



And get this... With this post, I've just doubled my number of posts from last year - Crazy!

My Venture into the Third Dimention

So earlier this month I mentioned I've been trying my hand at learning how to use Maya.
My first project, following online lessons from Digital Tutors, had me creating, rigging, and animating a robot from scratch.

Thought you all might get a kick out of seeing how it turned out.

Since doing this, I've discovered a few things: my laptop can't handle 3D particles, or 3D animation very well, and it's not crazy about tons of textures either.

It's still pretty quirky, but after 2 DAYS of rendering, waiting to see how it turned out (and hogging my computer), I don't think I'll be going back to make changes. But, for my first ever foray into 3D, I'm pretty happy with it.

So this will probably be first and last animated 3D piece I do until I get myself a new computer. Though, in the meantime, I'll probably focus more on learning to model instead.

Next update... More Robotech art.

Beep Boop Beep Beep

It's been waaay too long!

I had hoped to make it a new year's resolution to update the blog at least once a month; but, I'll spare all of you the gory details. I will say that after two-and-a-half years, I'm no longer working for Toon Boom Animation. I still love their software, but sometimes it's better not seeing what happens behind the curtain.

 

I do have another job lined up, down the road; but until then, I thought I'd take the opportunity to stretch my drawing muscles again after barely touching a pencil during the last few years, and actually do some art stuffs!

 

So what's with the "beeps" and "boops"?  Many of you might know that despite me not being a fan of drawing robots, I tend to draw a LOT of them, and this month has been no exception! Here's the breakdown:

 

• I'm creating my own table-top card game about -- fighting robots.
• I'm finally learning Maya, and the first tutorial is to -- build a robot.
• Finishing up an old piece of demo 2D animation -- of a Transformer.
• And Palladium/Robotech fans might be happy to hear I'll be doing a few pieces of art for the upcoming sourcebook, Robotech Expeditionary Force Marines!

 

Lots of stuff to keep you all updated on!

And for my half-year resolution, I promise to update at least once a month!

 

Until the next post, here's an early thumbnail sketch of one of the upcoming Robotech pictures:



Work in Progress

We can Rebuild Him...

We have the
technology

It's been a while. Too long.

 

As it turned out, I did indeed need surgery for my back. It had gotten to the point where I could barely move due to the pain. I went under the knife at the end of July, and I'm glad to say everything went well, though it did take another two months to recover.

 

Of course, right after that, I had some issues with my drawing hand, which apparently also needed surgery for just last month. Thankfully, it's also recovering.

 

Needless to say, not much real drawing or animating from me over the last year.

 

So, aside from work, I've also been spending some time playing lots of board games, getting re-acquainted with programing for video games, and of course keeping up with advances in animation software.

 

 

I'm looking forward to starting the new year, fully functional and ready to draw again!

 

In the meantime, here's my very first attempt at stop-motion.
Even added some drawn animated effects as well, just for kicks.

 

 

2012 - A Retrospective

2012 was a wild year for me. I guess I wasn't kidding when I said it was a roller coaster!!

For the first few months, I was working on a production for my own animated web series: the content of which I still can't disclose. By April, I was already dealing with some big names in the industry, including Disney! Unfortunately, if you've been following this blog, you already know, things didn't pan out, and I was forced to shut the whole thing down.

Not to let that deter me, just a couple weeks later I was packing my bags and moving to Montreal to work as an international animation/software instructor for ToonBoom Animation! Most of my summer was spent in Italy, various parts of the USA, and even Mexico (in that order). While I was practically living out of my suitcase, I was meeting tons of people, visiting lots of studios and schools, and really enjoying the work I was doing.

Alas, for every UP in a roller-coaster, there's always a DOWN.

I'm still not sure how, or why it happened; but early in September my right foot started to hurt. I didn't think much of it at the time, but it kept getting worse, moving up to the rest of my leg. During what was supposed to be a short visit to Toronto, I decided to get it checked out. It turned out that I had effectively broken my back: herniated a spinal disc to be exact - what's also known as true sciatica. I've been in Toronto ever since.

Thankfully, it doesn't seem bad enough to warrant surgery; but it has been painful enough to keep me from doing even basic movements, never mind having to put all my art and travelling work on hiatus.

It is now January 2013, Four months later. I've done some minor side projects here and there, but I'm mostly trying to focus on getting better with lots of exercise and therapy sessions. Speaking of which, I've got a session in about 20 mins...

Here's hoping I'll be on my feet again soon, and 2013 will be a little more teacups and a little less loop-de-loop.

May Update!

It happened, it finally happened...
After almost two years of teaching freelance for ToonBoom, I've been officially given the job as one of their international software trainers. Essentially, I work both in-house and abroad, teaching individuals, schools, and studios, how to use their various animation applications. I also get to draw, rig, design, and animate, all sorts of art stuff, in-house, for various clients, not to mention constantly meeting new people throughout the animation and art industry, all over the world! So it's pretty exciting, super busy, and a lot of fun!

All this happened though, in the blink of an eye. One minute I'm in Toronto, and the next, I'm in Montreal, literally looking for a place to live the moment my plane touched down in Trudeau airport! I'm still not quite settled in, and there's a 50/50 chance I may be moving again in the fall. Until then, I'm bouncing from place to place, meeting various locals, and getting a lot of walking done in the process, hehe.

I'm hoping once I get my bearings, and something loosely resembling an actual routine, I'll have the chance to do some drawing for myself again (yeah, I know I keep saying stuff like that).

Also, huge shout out to all the fans at this year's Palladium Open House! Wish I could have made it to see everyone, but with everything happening all at once, there was no way for me to make it to down to Michigan. Hopefully, they'll decide to do at least one more in 2014...

Okay, enough talk, here's a zodiac Art Jam pic I drew celebrating all you Taureans out there (myself included).

Ringing in 2012!

2012 has proven to be one heck of roller-coaster of a year so far.

For example, that epic top-secret project I was working on, along with Palladium Books... has been one of the most professionally demanding and creatively rewarding endeavours I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. For the last four months I worked as a creative director, eating, sleeping, and breathing that project: writing, drawing, researching, planning, meeting... and in mid-February, it came to a crashing halt.

I still can’t go into detail on what the project was or what happened, since the parties involved are still involved. I can say we had the chance to bring something really cool and unique to life, but between a very small window of opportunity, and some unexpected financial risk, we were simply unable to sustain the project. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to go back and work on this project again in the future, but never say “never” as they say. Hopefully it’ll see the light of day in one form or another.

In the wake of that experience, I’ve been travelling and talking to various studios. I’m currently working with one animation studio from home, and in a week I’ll be flying across the ocean to conduct some animation training for a couple places in Europe. With all this travelling going on, it’s very likely I’ll be moving in the next couple months, though the actual destination hasn’t been decided yet.

This also has me unsure if I’ll be able make it to the Palladium Open House in Michigan (May 4-6, 2012). I had originally hoped to be there to unveil my big project, but now I honestly don’t know where in the world I’ll be at that time.

Admittedly, with everything going on, I've fallen quite behind in my Art Jam drawings, so here’s a couple to make up for it!

Inspired by the development art of Nico Marlet from How to Train  your Dragon.
I wish I had the art book for reference before working on this piece, but it was still a blast to draw!

The theme for this was to draw a super hero or villain  as their opposite gender.
Here's female Shredder of the Ninja Turtles series drawn on my iPhone using Sketchbook Mobile!