Do I really need to say anything, other than I'm really bored?

A Monster Escapes...

As some of you may remember, my old man's auto shop has some pretty interesting pieces floating around. Once in a while, something new will mysteriously show up & make itself at home.

Well look what turned up this time:

It's one of those creepy singing & dancing animatronic pizza robots.... SANS EPIDERMIS!!!

What kind of animal is it supposed to be anyway? A cat? A bear? A wolf? 

Those eyes...... those terrible, soul-sucking eyes....

God, it's head looks like a Furby after a grease fire.

& the worst part is.... it has a friend. A friend with a unibrow....

If anyone has ANY idea where this thing could've came from, &/or has a picture of this thing when it had all it's skin intact, PLEASE show it to me. I'm really curious. 

Also, could somebody destroy it for me? I think it'll kill me while I sleep.

How I Feel Every Day...

I like making these.

Desserts......

Made this in 5 minutes. Enjoy (& bring me cookies)

Happy Thanks-a-ma-Givin'!!!!

To all who come to this happy place...... gobble.

My Sketchbook from September

Besides doing my assignments for SVA, the one thing I've been wanting to do was post my long overdo sketchbook drawings from September up here. I finally had the time & energy to do it, but I did something a wee bit different this time around.

Instead of posting each page individually, I scanned each page into Photoshop, lassoed, copied & pasted what I thought were my "satisfactory" drawings all onto one page. Doesn't sound too bad right? Well... you'll see for yourself.

Since the file is WAY to big to post on Blogger, I posted it on the next best place: deviantART. To see the image, click on the link below & click on the image to enlarge it a little bit. To see the image at close to it's intended size so you can see each doodle up close, click the "Download" button on the left side. It may take a minute or two for the page to load, but hopefully it will be worth the wait for you.

MJR's September Sketchbook by ~FantasiaMan on deviantART

The School, the Film, the T-Shirt & the Pen...

The first semester of the year is almost through & so far it feel's like I haven't accomplished much. Sure, I've been learning a few new things like compositing in After Effects & a few more helpful tidbits for storyboarding & animation, but other than that it's been pretty lifeless. My segments are complete, most of my homework is done, I've met a few new friends & spent time with the old ones, but I still feel like I'm getting nowhere. It seems like these past few months have gone by so quick yet I can't remember anything of any real significance happening. 

Well, not completely.... I did see a sneak preview of Henry Selick's new film Coraline a few weeks back. Even though I saw only about a half hour of footage, it was a really amazing sight. The animation, the voices, the effects... simply breathtaking. I'm looking forward to seeing it all done when it comes out in February.

Ok, back to SVA... last week, my good friend Pat Woodruff reminded me that this year's SVA T-Shirt Contest was underway again. Because of my busy schedule last year, I didn't have the time nor the energy to participate, but this year I jumped into the rat race. So far, the only other entry I've seen was Pat's, & by the look of his I'll say that it'll be a tough competition this year.

 

I thought since the shirt is going to be for all SVA students (not just the animation & cartooning majors), I designed a shirt that encompassed a wider audience, so I included snippets of  the other majors in there as well (Film, Photography, Graphic Design, Fine Arts, etc.). I came up with a rough sketch on the spot in about 5 minutes, then fleshed it out later on. 

For inking, I didn't resort to the old crappy microns this time around. Around the same time as hearing about the t-shirt contest, my friend Mirella showed me this awesome pen called the Pentel brush pen. Curious, I went over to the local art shop & bought one to try out for kicks. This pen is a revelation to me! It's durable, it's easy to refill, no real maintenance whatsoever, & most importantly it give me just the right lines I want!  I can't do any real quick ink sketches with it, but it's no big deal now. My pen journey is over! This is MY PEN!

I don't know when the judging/voting will take place, but whether I win or not, it was still fun to draw. Still, it would b nice to win the prize. Wish me luck!

Some Cintiq Doodles...

While in the computer lab over at the SVA animation studio, I doodled on one of the school's brand new Cintiqs to pass the time. Here's a select few of the probably 50-60 random drawings I did in that hour. 

Bork! Bork! Bork!

I drew these demented looking Muppets over a month ago & forgot I had them. At least they're new to you. 

(By the way, despite the striking resemblance to one, the one on the top left is NOT a Muppet).

For the Birds to the Dogs...

These last few weeks have been so busy I haven't had any time to post anything. But fortunately, most of the work is finally done with & out of the way, including my segments for $ooPaH NIN10Doh!, which I shall elaborate on soon. But for now, the new main event in my life is this:

This little guy is the star of my FIRST REAL FILM! Until April of next year, I shall be hard at work on a 2-3 minute film here at SVA. I just completed the rough storyboard for the film & presented it to the class, which was accepted fairly well. Now I'm just fine tuning a few bits of the story, & then I'll start production! If anyone would like to see/hear the story, let me know & I'll write it out &/or post a few panels of my storyboard up to check out.

I plan on having the film being almost completely without dialogue (maybe a background voice or two in the beginning, but nothing important to the story). I wanna try doing something without dialogue & to just tell the story with actions, poses & expressions. I already know that it's gonna be a difficult film to animate, but I like a good challenge. I don't do something because I feel obliged or pressured to do it. I WANT to do it! Sure, it'll be a living hell to make, but the payoff at the end when I see it up on the screen is always worth the labor pains.

***By the way, I'm going to be posting my latest sketchbooks bit by bit up here in the next few days & I'd like an opinion....would you rather have each individual page posted on it's own or would you rather have me compile the "good" images all together in Photoshop & post them all on one/two pages?