Forlorn Hope

A New Leaf

2010-04-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

OK. So I hardly ever blog. And i may not get to blogging a whole lot any time soon. But. Here's why I'm updating today. I've been feeling the itch to create something outside of work, and I've been thinking about making an animated short. Yup. Something of my own that i will write, design, animate, etc etc. I'm excited about it, but it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of work. I, and by extension, you, may not see the fruits of my labor for a while.

But...

This blog will serve as my production blog throughout the entire process. I am adapting this blog to serve as a behind the scenes process both to fill you in on what i'm up to, to gain your feedback, and, most of all, to serve as a motivation to keep me going.

Be patient with me, I'm hoping that this post serves as a motivation to get me working and keep me focused! Now to just figure out what story i want to tell...

TOKYO

2009-09-21T14:20:00.001-07:00

This video makes me pine for another trip to Japan. It's not a flawless video. I wish the filmmaker had committed to a slightly more natural color palette, but overall it conveys a gist of what i love about the city of Tokyo.

I know I seem to post a lot about Japan, but i love that country, and not because I'm some weird geeky fanboy. It's a beautiful land and even their cities seem to have a natural beauty to the way that they're constructed. Tokyo in particular is layered with visual interest, from the ground in front of you to the converging mass of wires and transformers suspended above you. It's a testament to man's ability to create, to build, and to engineer for not just himself, but for society as a whole.

To think that a city the size of Tokyo is able to run as smoothly as it does boggles the mind. If we here in the US were to try to create a city as densely populated it would be overrun by crime, trash and a lack of well functioning services like transportation. And the reason, in my mind, that we wouldn't be able to succeed like Japan has is the culture of individualism that we breed here. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for the individual and the ability to create for yourself a world of freedom that brings you peace, but I also believe that we all have a responsibility to society around us to be the very best that we can be within our spheres and within our families, and to contribute to our world instead of selfishly take and take from it without thought to consequences of those around us.

I know that Japan isn't perfect. I don't think there is anywhere in this world that is perfect. I do believe, however, that there are lessons to be learned from their culture and society, just as any culture has. Yes, even ours. I mean, the US does rock it.

ROBOTO!!

2009-09-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Polysics are awesome. Their music video is even awesome-er.

And also, i can't wait to have a baby, mostly so i can dress it up in these...

WILD

2009-07-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

I realized a bit ago that i've been bad about posting. It's not that i haven't found anything worthy to share, but i just never take the time to put stuff up. Well, for this, i have found the time. I love hearing one of the greatest artists and storytellers of our time talk about another great artist and filmmaker. I seriously can not WAIT for this movie...

EDIT: thanks for letting me know the link was broken kerri. This one should work for the next day or so i hope :)

for irineo

2009-05-14T13:13:00.001-07:00

Yes

2009-05-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

I love the onion.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

YEAH!

2009-05-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

I LOVE LIVING IN THE FUTURE!!!
Now if they could just start getting this mass produced. PLEASE.

dope

2009-04-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Philips : Carousel from Sawacs on Vimeo.

I have no idea how this is done. And i love that feeling.

2009-04-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Yui Aragaki - Piece
by Total_Manga

When i was in japan a couple of years ago i had the chance to visit Ghibli studios and meet the director of this video, "piece", when i was there. His name is Yoshiyuki Momose, and has been instrumental in many of Ghibli's shorts. Its funny because he actually disagrees with miyazaki on many things pertaining to animation and film making but the two must have a great respect for each other due to their long time working relationship. Prior to Ghibli Yoshiyuki Momose was one of the co-founders of Mook Animation where Transformers: Animated has been animated.

I wish that you could see this video in HD glory, because when i was shown the work in progress i marveled at the color pallet and beauty of this music video. Yoshiyuki Momose has a wonderfully gorgeous eye for color and animation, and this video certainly reflects it. My congratulations to all who worked on it. Job well done!

monsters

2009-04-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Monsters: 068 Parking Garage from Volstok Telefunken on Vimeo.

This link is amazing. I love it. So much great stuff.

Beetle

2009-04-17T00:09:00.001-07:00

I'll never be as cool as the man that built the giant robot beetle in his garage...

Lapse

2009-04-14T18:24:00.001-07:00

I love japan, and I love modernism in terms of worthwhile human achievement.
Click the HD button if you can.

Yes...

2009-03-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This time i don't care if you think i'm a generic hipster wannabe with an unhealthy attachment to nostalgia and Spike Jones... I can't wait to see this movie.

Watched the Watchmen

2009-03-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

...And it needed a lot more adapting.

Pompeii

2009-01-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

People would tell me I'm only supposed to like real fancy artsy-fartsy movies, but sometimes this is all i need. The first 2 were pretty awful but Tokyo Drift drove burnouts all over my common sense and i fell in love. Since number four retains the same director as "tokyo" and looks even MORE ridiculous? I'm in. I just wish it was Lucas Black teaming up with Vinnie-boy. Not that namby-pamby Paul Walker.

Dimorphadon

2009-01-09T12:08:00.001-08:00

Thank you Derrick for showing me this piece of genius.

THUNDERCATS, HO!

2008-12-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

This is just too funny not to share. Someone has WAY too much time on their hands, but good for them.

The other Murakami

2008-12-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

All Hail Superflat.
Turns out Takashi Murakami is opening an animation studio in Hollywood. I may just have to get a job there...

Ninja-Style

2008-11-10T18:33:00.000-08:00

Adorably bad-a$$.

The Drum

2008-11-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

This makes me happy...

RAD

2008-10-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

If you love 80's cartoons, or just good stuff in general...

Cabbage patch kid? Now where's my Garbage pail kid?

2008-10-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Cool Beans

2008-10-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Mean Magazine Presents James McAvoy in The Dream from Mean Magazine on Vimeo.

Since I'm crazy busy with work related art, I'll just start posting stuff I like. I like this. Maybe my new format will keep me updating more often. Oh, and I'm engaged. She's very lovely.

Devil Cody

2008-02-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

For all of my friends who seemed to love Juno more than I, I offer you a look at screenwriter and title holder of worst-purposefully-chosen-name's brand new screenplay found HERE.

Please click the link. Quotey is my new favorite character.

It's not that I didn't like Juno, but I was entertained by the movie in SPITE OF the title character. If all i had seen was the first 20 minutes i would have disliked it IMMENSELY, but as the story progressed I ended up admiring the other characters (mostly due to performances by Cera and Simmons, and a surprisingly great turn by Jennifer Garner) and my annoyances subsided. In the end it was enjoyable, but hardly best picture nom-worthy. (see! I can write like a Diablo, TOO!)

Anyway. Someday I'll draw something.

On like Donkey Kong

2008-01-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone, as has the new year. And yup. Transformers: Animated is ON TV! Yay.

Actually, its pretty exciting, but when you're knee deep in post production and you're watching the episodes over and over (I'll have seen an episode upwards of 20 times by the time its on the air... I haven't counted yet) you tend to forget to watch the show when it actually airs. So far i haven't caught a single episode on TV since the initial hour and a half pilot. How pathetic.

But so far so good! The ratings are solid, and the fan reaction is great. There is already fan art up on various websites that i LOVE looking at. It makes it really feel as if something you're doing is really resonating with someone. Its awesome. (If you're a fan doing fan art, leave me a link where to find it, the crew and i would love to see it).

Robots eating pies!

2007-12-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time. I'm here to pimp my show. Transformers: Animated will finally premier! Yup. December 26th on cartoon network at 8pm. Its been a long time coming and though I'm happy to see it finally air, its a bit nerve wracking to see how the public will receive it. Maybe even more importantly now all my friends and family can finally see why I've been neglecting them!

Watch it!

Transformers Own My Life

2007-08-05T02:23:00.000-07:00

So what have i been up to? First off, as things started getting released to the
internet about Transformers: Animated, I got a chance to do an interview with IGN about it. Check it out I think that counts as my first official interview ever, so i was stoked.
Life just keeps zooming at me, and by "life" I mean WORK. So much to do as we start delivering our final episodes, and as if my life weren't busy enough, we took a weekend trip down to San Diego for the annual Comicon. The worlds biggest, hugest, craziest fanfest where were were able to first join Hasbro on a panel about transformers, after which we did a signing at the Cartoon Network booth, where we actually signed autographs(!) for our fans who haven't even seen the show yet:) I know, i know. After about an hour of signing autographs we went over to see the new toys based on our show:

Pretty dope, right? And then while over there we got caught by our good friend Josh Izzo for a Hasbro Podcast about the transformers.
Click on the link and click on the Day 3 "transformers" link. Here's me being interviewed with the gang.

But now, the moment you've all been waiting for...the exclusive sneak peek at TRANSFORMERS: ANIMATED!!!!!!

Its gonna be a HUGE hit.

MORE THAN MEETS THEY EYE!

2007-06-25T11:07:00.001-07:00

So it's out. Hollywood Reporter's got the story, so I figured I can make my official post on the subject. If not then I'm gonna get a slap from PR soon... The new job, as you can see above, is on Transformers: Animated. I'm supervising director, Derrick Wyatt is doing an amazing job on character design, and Marty Isenberg is rockin' it out as story editor. We have an awesome crew here at Cartoon Network working on the show as well as 2 great animation studios in Japan, Answer and Mook. It's been a ton of work for everyone involved but there's a lot of love being put into the show, and i think it shows. Stay tuned for more updates!

A little bit of work...

2007-06-08T22:43:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, I'm worse than i thought at blogging. And I still won't talk about what I'm doing, because i don't think I can announce it yet...but I'll give you a little update. I'm supervising director/show-runner of the show I'm working on right now, and because of that i was fortunate enough to travel to Japan to talk to the studios who are working day and night trying to make me and the crew happy with incredible animation. The best part of the trip is that while there i was able to actually do animation AT an actual animation studio in Japan. Talk about the dream of every anime geek living on this green earth. Here's proof!

How dope is that? And here's me with some of the crew...

And more from another studio...

And check out my guides while i was there...

Basically it was the raddest work trip of all time. 2 weeks of pure immersion into Japanese studio culture. I loved it. I would love to move to japan and produce animation. It'd be hard work, but very creatively fulfilling. So coming soon (cross your fingers) my official announcement of what I'm doing, and what these totally boss people pictured above are working on, and hopefully you'll get some new artwork while I'm at it. See ya!

Long time no see...

2007-04-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. It has been FOREVER since I've blogged, and I know my loyal "hope"-sters are sitting around fuming that I haven't updated this site. Well, your patience is being rewarded. No, not with new art because I'm still that lousy. Instead, enjoy this video!

So, last year I had the opportunity to work on the 4th, and possibly BEST, season of "the Batman". It was an extremely satisfying endeavor. I know "the Batman" caught a lot of flack early on from BTAS loyalists (among whom I count myself a member), but in this season I felt a lot of the wrinkles plaguing the series became unwrinkled. Batman, for example, because of the desire to skew younger was not allowed to be the Batman we all know and love in the early seasons. He loved nachos and techno! But by teaming him with Batgirl and then Robin in the 4th season, the kids took over the chore of lightening the series and allowed Batman to pull back into the dark, the place where we all wanted him.
Combine that with top notch writing headed by the uber-talented Michael Jelenic, art direction by one of my favorite people in the world, Jeff Matsuda, as well as the great guiding hand of Michael Goguen, this season couldn't have been better. I mean, just look at who they got to direct...
The video above is one of the episodes I directed called "the Breakout". Basically "Assault on Precinct 13" starring Batgirl on Robin. I had a great time on this episode and the animation came out very nicely. There are some great scenes in this one, both of action and character. Hope you enjoy!
As for what I'm up to now, I'm sorry but that's a secret for another day. I promise, when the time comes I'll let you know. It IS a project I'm very excited about. I hope to update this blog soon, and yes, with actual artwork. The bug has bit, and I'm looking forward to keep this going.

Nothing

2006-05-08T02:15:00.000-07:00

Awesome.

Need...new...art...

2006-04-17T02:52:00.000-07:00

...but since all i draw all day is stuff you're not aloud to see for months, then i am forced to give you more old stuff. As in, REALLY old. In other words, from my second season on Teen Titans. In fact this was actually a storyboard panel from the Season 2 episode "Winner Take All". Not great, but hey Derrick - it's something.

Moseying faster than a speeding bullet...

2006-03-01T03:22:00.000-08:00

So I've been trying to sketch more. You know, find and hour or so everyday to just throw something on a piece of paper that is NOT work related. So today i sketched out a SUPER quick SUPERMAN. And since i never ink ANYTHING and I want to expunge from me the fear of puting brush or pen to paper, I did a really quick pass with a brush pen. I'm hoping in the next while I become more comfortable with it. Enough to bust out some polished looking inks. Stay tuned.

Have some more!

2006-02-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here's some more art dropping in your lap...

A while ago I had a great idea for a Wolverine (TM marvel copywrite and all that jazz) animated series that i wanted to pitch, and yes, my boy Silver Samurai was going to play a fairly large part in it. Unfortunately, while Marvel is going to do a Wolvie series, I'll have nothing to do with it. But if Marvel were to call me up and ask me to take a stab at it, I'd definitely hear their pitch...After which, they'd hear mine and beg me to save Marvel animation. Yeah, i think big. Here's another couple sketches from the same idea.

Art!! To dump on you!!

2006-02-14T02:49:00.000-08:00

I finally hooked up my scanner. (hey matt! you suck!)
Thanks...(we mean...horray!)
Sure you do. Anyway, here's some sketches I thought you kids might like. Lets start with...

This was the first thing I drew when I heard the crew I was on was going to be doing the Mumbo/Titanimals episode, directed by Ben Jones. If you've seen the episode you know that my drawing had no impact on the character designers whatsoever.
They're so full of themselves.

Here's another...

...From the prom episode.
In 2004 Glen Murakami and the gang at titans gave me my first shot at directing, which I'm very grateful for. The job was to direct a short "webisode" for the Post Cereal, where the titans take on a whole new villain. Punk Rocket. These were various passes i took on the character before Glen and I settled on the final design.

Well, that's enough for now. More to come!

Yup, still artless

2006-02-06T03:20:00.000-08:00

But you know I wannna give you a little something for being so good and checking in every once in a while. Have no fear, I have stuff in the works.
So here's your booby-prize...

Now, I didn't do this, and I don't know who to credit for it, but i stole it from some funny kid on fark.com. They do photoshop contests. I'll admit, I kinda want a pug-pony now.

NO ART!?

2006-01-28T02:10:00.001-08:00

Yeah, yeah...settle it. Just to tide you over i thought I'd introduce you to the first band that made me love metal hairbands. Maybe the only band. Ladies and gentlemen...I give you...

DRAGONFORCE

edit Well, apparently the video is down, but it was awesome, take my word for it.

2006-01-10T02:21:00.000-08:00

Right on! Thanks to a potato farmer you get a wolverine! Yeah, pretty lame, my first post and its wolvie. But why not huh? In all honesty he was probably the first superhero i ever drew. I know he was the first comic i ever bought!
Oh, and click on it for a better view, this thumbnail sucks sheets. Photoshop, quick sketch. Trying to figure that program out.

What!? I have a blog!?

2006-01-02T05:13:00.000-08:00

Well...I'm too lazy to bother creating a website. Oh, and clueless as to how to make one. But...it is about time for me to start posting some art on the internets, so this is where i'll do it. Maybe someday I'll supplement this blog with an actual portfolio! Wait with baited breath...