I’ve been moved into an office now. I share it with a long time veteran board artist. I have the office to myself most of the time though, since he works mostly from home and comes into work maybe one or twice a week.
The one thing I’m most happy about is that there is a TV in the office and it gets cable. This means that next Month I’ll be able to watch the World Cup games.
ART
I hadn’t really been in the mood to work on my project. I thought perhaps I wasn’t making it fun enough for myself. It also felt I had a lot to do. I needed to design all the characters and the look of the cartoon, as well as start breaking up the story into “beats”. This just seemed like such a chore. I had to find a way to NOT make it a chore. I mean, I’m doing this for fun right? This shouldn’t feel like work.
The other day I watched an animated movie called DRAGON HUNTERS.
It’s a CG movie with fantastic designs and a great looking world. It annoyed me that it was CG, mostly because I kinda wanted 2D inspiration. Well, in the credits, there are some drawings of a character that was spoken about in the movie. I really liked them so I screen captured the images.
It almost has a stain glass yet art deco look. I became curious of what that would look like in a contemporary setting. I’ll have to experiment with the look to see if I want it (or can even pull it off).
Below is the beginning of my thought process to get to that point. I began to redesigning my characters using the shapes I thought where reflected in the screen captures. I don’t know why I decided to use a ballpoint pen. I guess it was just mood.
The one thing I hadn’t done yet with my designs is work out the contrasting shapes of my character’s silhouettes. Because of this, it made the feel of my characters fairly generic and dull. So in the lower three drawings of the page above, I did it a little bit. Later this week I’m going to do more. Part of the problem I’m having, I think, is that I haven’t done something that basic.
I was hoping that by really pushing the design it would become more fun to draw. So far it’s working.
I did have fun drawing these.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what I want the Sorcerers to look like. I know that I want two guys and one gal. I’ve been looking at some photos of character types for inspiration. For the protagonist Rob, I was used Tom Welling as a jumping off point for his type.
I’m still trying to decide who I will use for the Sorcerers. I also kinda want them to look like rejects from The Matrix. I’m not married to that idea though. It depends whether it’s fun or not. I’m also considering making that Sorcerers look like a grown up version of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine if they were trying real hard to look cool. Another thought for the Sorcerers I had was that, if they weren’t Sorcerers they would just be nerds. The thing about all these ideas which makes me unsure is that, it might not be fun drawing weak looking enemies. I kinda want to make them to look challenging and intimidating.
Any suggestions on actors or models that might fit the “types” would be appreciated. Also, if you think you have good suggestions for interesting clothes that might look magical yet contemporary, cool but not out of The Matrix, I’m willing to take a look. At this point, things are still up in the air.
GHETTOMATION
And speaking of cartoons, if you haven’t seen Jim Lujan‘s newest cartoon, NEW WAVE DENTIST, you’re missing out:
BLOGS
Also, over at the MAN VS. ART blog, Raul Aguirre‘s latest podcast episode on the history of animation is just darn right awesome. Check it out by CLICKING HERE.
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Second week doing board revisions. I’m getting a little bit more used to it. I’ve been told that from this show until show 5 there’s just going to be a lot of rewriting of the shows after the story reel screenings. This means I’m going to have some pretty crazy couple of Months.
To make things worse, I’ve come down with a really bad cold. It’s a bad one but I came into work anyway since I really need to get the work done. There is way too much work and I don’t want to drop it all on my friend’s lap if I have to take the rest of the week off.
ART
Last time I wrote about the basic setting my next project is going to take place in. This time, I’ll tell you the story I’m going to animate. If you don’t want to have it spoiled then don’t read on. Thing is, from now on when I write about the project and my progress, I’ll assume you know the story.
My goal with this story was to write the shortest story I could think of. Nothing epic at all. Very simple. Something I know I can finish and at the same time have fun doing. It was very hard to come up with something that met all those requirements. Especially the “fun for me to do” part. Guess I’m very picky.
So here’s the rough idea of the story I have in mind:
After not eating for a day and a half, Rob Howard has finally managed to scrounge up enough money to buy a hot dog. Not just any Hot Dog but a Super Deluxe All Beef Ultra Dog with everything on it. He and his Raven (which I haven’t yet named) are planning to share this hard earned feast. He takes the Hot Dog to the nearest bench to sit down and eat it. He’s been dreaming about eating this Hot Dog all day, and finally his dream is a reality. He’s starving.
As he’s about to take a bite a shadow comes across him. He stops and looks up to see three Sorcerers looming above him. He rolls his eyes and sighs. The Sorcerer inform Rob they’re there to kill him. That the prophesy will not be fulfilled. Rob is waaay to hungry to care. He just wants to eat his Hot Dog, so he asks the Sorcerers if they would just give him the courtesy of a few minutes so he could eat his Hot Dog in peace. They could try to kill him all they want after that. The Sorcerer refuse and look as if they are about to attack. Rob then pleads with them. He asks if there is anything he can do just to get a minute. The Sorcerers stop, look at each other, and maybe even converse. They tell Rob that if he hands over his anti Sorcery Weapon, they will give him a minute. Rob gladly accepts the terms telling them that he hates the thing and had no intention of using it anyway. But he also tells them that the weapon has an annoying habit of coming back to him somehow. He hands over his weapon that, currently, looks like small Medical Reflex Hammer. The Sorcerers take it, laugh at it and throw it away into the bushes.
Happily Rob grabs his Hot Dog for his first bite only to be stopped by an attack by the Sorcerers. The bastards went back on the deal. Uneaten Hot Dog and plate still in hand, Rob tries to run for safety. He’s blocked and attacked by a Flying Ape. He gets hurt but he’s still okay. He tries to escape through other directions only to come faced to face with something similar. Flying Apes, Giant Serpents, Stone Elemental, all prevent him from leaving and hurt him as he manages to dodge and evade them while always keeping his precious Hot Dog safe. Meanwhile the Raven fights to protect Rob, attacking the creatures and the Sorcerers. At one point, the Raven gets hit hard and gets thrown into the bushes.
Rob realizes there is no escape for him, so he decides to do what he should have done from the start, eat his Hot Dog in the middle of all the chaos. But even this is difficult as he’s attacked left and right, almost dropping the Hot Dog and losing the Hot Dog quite a few times. Finally there is a small lull in the fighting. Rob has managed to lose the Hot Dog (still on the plate), only a few feet out of reach. He crawls to it and reaches out to it. Time to finally eat, only to have the Hot Dog SMASHED by the boot of the lead Sorcerer.
The Hot Dog is no more. The only thing Rob wanted. The only symbol of peace Rob had, was destroyed. The Raven flies out of the bushes, something gleaming in it’s talons. Rob looks at the ruins of the his Hot Dog and asks the Sorcerers why they didn’t just let him eat in peace for only a few minutes. Only a few minutes, that’s all he had asked for. Now they had crossed the line.
Rob gets on one knee, his shirt in taters, his pants burned and full of holes, his face scratched, his hair a mess. Sweat glistening off his battered bloody body. He reaches out his hand and the Raven drops the little hammer into his outstretched palm. Rob looks fiercely at the Sorcerers with a savagery that they’ve never seen in anyone’s eyes before. The Hammer magically grows enormous. Almost bigger than Rob and yet he hold it as if it’s as lite as feather. The Sorcerers gulp. Beads of worried sweat on their foreheads.
Pay back.
Rob attacks. The Flying Ape, The Giant Serpent, and the Stone Elemental go to protect their masters, only to get dispatched with ease by the enormous swingings of the hammer. The Sorcerers throw out all the magick they can in order to get away from the berserker coming at them. Nothing stops him. Bam! goes one. Downed by the massive hit of the hammer to the chest. The demon that gave the Sorcerer his magick is knocked out of it’s body leaving him powerless. A second or two later, the same happens to another. He’s out for the count. Finally the leader tries a last effort. It fails. The hammer knocks the demon out the Sorcerer’s body and the guy is now defenseless. Rob walks over and picks up the quivering man. He looks him straight in the eyes, “You owe me a Hot Dog”.
A trembling Hot Dog vendor standing in the midst of the chaos and rubble of the battle is asked politely for a Super Deluxe All Beef Ultra Dog by the now powerless leader of the trio of Sorcerers. The Raven lands on Rob’s shoulder. He looks at his bird friend, “Make that two.”
The End
At this point the story is still malleable, but this is pretty much what it will be like.
What appeals to me about the story so far is the potential for really dramatic serious moments juxtaposed with lite comedic moments. After all, it’s about a Hot Dog.
What do you think?
The drawing above is another version of Rob I sketched out. I like the drawing but I’m not sure the design of the face is where I want to take the character.
BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES
I’ve been playing a surprising amount of games lately…well…sorta. I’ve been playing some board games and some video games with my kids. I’ve been testing out the capacity of my kids to play board games by the rules. I’ve also been testing them to see how well they catch on to playing video games. Why? Well, for one thing, I’m DESPERATE to play games with SOMEONE. Also, I want to keep the kids entertained because we can’t always go out and play at the community playground.
I’ve discovered that Dante, my two year old, is a bit of a lazy video game player. Around his age, his sister used to at least press the buttons because she understood that she was somehow doing something on the screen. Dante doesn’t do that. I think he understand that he’s doing something but for some reason he’d rather just passively watch the screen. He refuses to press the buttons. I don’t know why. It almost seems like he’d rather have someone else to do it for him.
When it comes to board games, Dante is a little better. He know how to take his turn and depending on the game, he follows the rules to some extent. What he really enjoys is being on the table somehow participating in the activity. He especially likes it when I’m there on the table playing with them. I’ve left them with some board games by themselves to see how they would play it on their own but he loses interest very quickly.
Elizabeth, my 3 year old, is a different story. She loves to play video games and tries VERY hard to learn how to control the game. I remember when she was around Dante’s age, she tried hard to play video games with far less success. Now that she’s older, things are starting to make a little more sense to her. More often than not, when playing video games, the “game”, for her is moving something on the screen around. Although I brought out a Space Invaders Playstation 1 game that came out in 1999 and had her play it. She learned it pretty quickly and knew what to do. She actually managed to clear the first level of “Invaders”. Later we played it cooperatively and had a great time.
I’ve found that Elizabeth “gets” the idea of playing board games now too. She understand that there are rules and that they need to be followed in order to play a game. One time, I took out some Dominoes. I thought that they would probably just stack them and play around with them, making up their own games like they do sometimes. Instead after looking and playing with them for about a minute, Elizabeth turn to me and asked me what we where suppose to DO with them. She wanted some sort of rules that we could play a game with. I was very surprised. We played an open hand game of basic Dominoes and she caught on really quick. With her, I can play very simple games and she’ll play by the rules. I’ve also found that basic roll and move games bore her. Awesome.
It’s tricky to play games with both kids since they are each at different levels of comprehension. It’s great when I find a game that they each can understand how to play. It’s even better when I find a game that they each understand how to play and I also enjoy playing. Now, Dante comes up to me everyday and asks to play a game with me. His exact words are:
…in a very sing song way. He never fails to say “for” instead of “with”. It makes me smile every time. Even when I’m too tired to play.
BOARD GAMES
In other board game news, on Saturday, Alesha asked me if I wanted to play a board game. What do you think I said?
Well, we played LOST CITIES. As always, I lost and Alesha laughed at me. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to beat her at that game. To see my review of that game CLICK HERE.
Then I played a game of BATTLELORE. I wanted to play this game mainly to use the magic and “Lore” mechanic in the game. Especially since I hadn’t yet. Unlike the last time I played BATTLELORE with Alesha, I managed to win this game, although it wasn’t a very satisfying win since we got a rule wrong and Alesha was confused about some rules at the beginning of the game so…it kinda doesn’t really “count”.
Also, this Tuesday one of my Alesha’s best friend Mariam came over in the evening with her husband Anthony and their baby daughter River (who’s a total cutie). Turns out Anthony likes gaming, and he brought over a MARIO BROTHERS Chess set. Seconds after saying hello we were sitting across from each other playing Chess. I have a chess clock I had only used once. Since I’m a really slow Chess player, I thought it would be fun to use it. Otherwise my 15 minute long turns would get old real quick. We played three games. I must say Anthony has some skills because he really had me running every game by at least the third move. It didn’t help that I was making really bad blunders too. My biggest flaw in playing Chess is my lack of full awareness of the board. I always tend to focus too much in one area and miss the potential of other pieces on the board. Needless to say, I lost every game. It was fun though.
Somewhere during that time we managed to eat our dinner. Which was reeaaallly good. I almost wish I hadn’t been playing a game so I could enjoy it more…almost. I’d rather game than eat.
While we were in a Chess mood, I brought out HIVE. Since HIVE uses the same type of mindset as Chess, Anthony not only picked it up right away, but thrived in it. He beat me two out of three games. Pretty cool. We had fun playing that too.
As we played HIVE, Anthony brought up LORD OF THE RING STRATEGO. I’d never played it, but I do own LORD OF THE RINGS: THE CONFRONTATION: DELUXE EDITION. So I brought it out and we played two games of that, switching sides after each game. We both lost using the Fellowship pieces and each game was intense and different. We had a good time with that. Meanwhile Elizabeth really wanted to play too. Poor kid, someday when she’s older we could play those games.
As they were leaving, we mentioned something about, perhaps next time, instead of just Anthony and I playing, we could all four play a game. They mentioned playing their game of CRANIUM. That wouldn’t be a bad way to start a game night. Hope we can soon.
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So I started my new job as a board revisionist this week. I discovered how well the screening went on show 1. We did a good job but the writers and producers didn’t like what they had written. 70% of the show was re-written and my friend Erick and I became responsible for revising the board. We have two weeks to finish all four acts. This big a re-write isn’t usual so, my first show on board revisions is going to be as close to a worst case scenario as it could be. Although Erick tells me it can get worse sometimes. As was the case when I storyboarded on The Simpsons Movie, I was thrown head first into the deep end and it’s up to me whether or not I’ll be able to swim.
After being on the job now for four days, I’m confident that I’ll be okay. I managed to finish the first part of my assignment before lunch on Wednesday and received my act 2 work later that day. As long as we finish all the revisions by the end of next week, we’ll be okay. It seems doable. Especially since acts 3 and 4 are in much better shape.
I’m going to be moving out of my cubicle sometime next week and going into an office which I will share with one of the veteran board artists on the show. It all seems very exciting to me. I’m having fun.
BOARD GAMES
I while back I wrote about a board game called Uncle Chestnut’s Table Gype, designed and published by Paul Nowak of Eternal Revolutions. Well, in February for my birthday, I received the game as a gift from Paul. You have no idea how excited I was. I read the rules as soon as I was able and I thought the game sounded really great. The first person to actually play with the game though, was my daughter. The moment she saw the game she was asking me if she could play it. I let her have it and she sat at her little table and played with the pieces, staking them and knocking them down. That’s not how you play the game but she’s a little kid and she just liked the pieces. A week or two later, I managed to get a game of it played with my brother. Then a week later I played a game with my brother and his wife. A week or two after that, I played with my wife. So what do I think of the game? I LIKE IT A LOT. So now I’m going to review it for you.
What is it?
Uncle Chestnut’s Table Gype is a 2 – 4 player abstract game that can best be described as a cross between Chinese Checkers and Chess but unlike either of those games it has a small element of chance.
Who’s Uncle Chestnut?
Uncle Chestnut it the nickname G.K. Chesterton‘s nephew gave him. Table Gype is therefore a Chesterton themed game. The cloth board the game is played on, has Chesterton quotes on each side, relating to games. The icons on the playing pieces are actually taken from themes related to Chesterton‘s writings. I’m a fan of G.K. Chesterton so I like the overall “theme” of the game.
How does it play?
The object of the game is like Chinese Checker, to get your pieces to the home base opposite from yours. The board is a cloth game board with an 8×8 grid on it and home bases extending out one extra row on each side.
All players are given their 8 playing pieces. The pieces are dice with a different icons on each face. The icons on each dice are: The Flame, The Book, The Tree, The Swords, The Hat, and The Ear. The icons dictate the way each piece moves when that icon is facing up. For example: The Flame moves like a King in Chess, one space in any direction, while The Book moves one space vertically or horizontally. The Ears means you can’t move at all (ears are bad).
Each player starts the game with the following faces showing on their dice: 2 Swords, 2 Trees, 2 Books, and 2 Flames and they can be placed in any order on your starting Home Base. On a player’s turn, they could do ONE of two actions, either move a piece or roll a piece. If a piece you move can jump over another piece, either you own or your opponents, you can jump over it, like in Chinese Checker. You can even link the jumps (like in Chinese Checkers) as long as the piece can legally move in that direction. The trick is that, every piece that is jumped over is NOT captured but must, instead, be re-rolled. Depending on the roll, the piece may change it’s movement or it can even become unable to move (this happens if an Ear is rolled).
Once one of the players gets all his pieces to the Home Row opposite the one he started from, they win. That’s it. Very simple game.
Why I like it.
Okay, so I like Chess. I think it’s a it’s a great game. Also one of my favorite games is Chase which also uses dice as pieces (I reviewed this game in another article a while back). I enjoy games where the pieces are versatile too. Here’s the thing though, both Chess and Chase are “brain burners”, that is to say, that they hurt my head when I play them because there is just so much thinking ahead that must be done when you play them. Table Gype is not like that. It’s got very Chess like elements in how you think and move you’re pieces but because of the random factor of your pieces being able to potentially change movement if they’re jumped over, you really can’t plan too far ahead. It forces you to think on the fly as the game progresses. In other words, where Chess and Chase are more strategic, Table Gype is much more tactical. What this does when you play is, it lightens the game so that it’s not so “serious” and makes it very fun and lighthearted.
I played this game with my brother and he really enjoyed it. He’s not much of a Chess player. In fact I’m not sure he likes Chess but we had a great time playing Table Gype. It was a close game and my brother won. I also got a chance to play the game with him and his wife and discovered that having another player on the board was actually just as fun. It was a bit more chaotic but in a good way. You never felt that you had no control just that you needed to be far more tactical. I managed to pull off a win by one move. When I played the game against my wife, she enjoyed it so much, she asked to play it again. So we did. So far the game has been a hit in my family.
The first time I played with my wife, she was doing some things with her pieces that got me thinking. The second time around, I decided to test my theory. What I did was try to set up my pieces in such a way that I could create a “road” of pieces for my other pieces to jump so I could develop my pieces faster. I did much better in that game than I did the first. I realized that the game had a lot of potential for opening set ups and opening moves.
I will say this about the game though, it’s possible that luck may play a big role in the game. If two equally matched opponents where to play the game, it’s possible that the one with the better luck would be the winner. That said, the game is so quick to play that you can always play any number of games to balance out the luck. In the three player game I played against my brother and my Sister-in-law, my brother played a much better game than us but I managed to pull of some lucky rolls that turned my pieces into Hats (they move like Knights in Chess). This allowed me to be able to move my pieces to my Home Row fast. I managed to pull off the win just barely. Still, I had to really puzzle out HOW to move the pieces in the most efficient way I could in order to get the pieces in the right spots before my brother won. As I wrote above, I won that game by one move.
An experienced player will almost always win a less experienced player, but there is a possibility that a less experienced player may get lucky and win a game. That actually makes it fun.
If you don’t like the luck, the game rules comes with a “no luck” variant as well other changes to the rules you might enjoy playing with. In the end, I must say, this is a game worth having. It can be deep but it’s accessible to everyone. Especially since it has that familiarity of Chinese Checkers and Chess. It’s an odd combo but it’s two great taste that taste great together. I highly recommend it.
If this game seems cool to you, purchase it by clicking the link below:
Finished working on the story reel for show 1. It was screened yesterday so I don’t know how it went yet. I have a Storyboard revisions meeting for that show tomorrow so I’ll find out then. Next week I begin my new position as a storyboard revision artist.
As for now, I’m helping out show 2 on some Itchi and Scratchy scenes. Fun stuff.
FAMILY
This is very sad for me, so I’ll be very very brief. My Abuelita passed away earlier this week. She was the last of my grandparents. I loved her very much and I miss her. Still, I can’t be too sad since she is now probably reunited with my Abuelito and more importantly, God. Please pray for her and my family.
ART
I’ve started my next project. It’s going to be a Motion Comic/Ghettomation. The last project I did I wanted to keep it all secret until I was ready to publish it. Problem with that is, I can’t really write about it or the process since I can’t reveal the details I’m working on. It’s not as interesting to read. I’ve decided this time to write about everything. This means spoiling the story. It also means I can write about everything I’m thinking about. How I’m going approaching the story, the problems I’m coming across and how I’m trying to solve them. So in this post, I’m going to write about the basic set up of the world I’m going to be writing about as well as how I came up with it.
Sometimes on the way home from work (which is often a bit over an hour), I challenge myself to come up with story ideas or, at the very least, story concepts. Mostly for fun. On one of these occasions I decided to come up with an “antithesis character”. I was thinking about Robert E. Howard‘s Conan the Cimmerian and Michael Moorcock‘s Elric of Melniboné. How Elric is the antithesis of Conan. Where Conan is a dark skinned barbarian, Elric is an albino aristocrat. Where Conan is a powerful warrior, Elric is a weak but powerful sorcerer. Both these characters are entertaining to read and both are great characters. I was thinking, that for fun, I’d do the same thing with a contemporary modern character that everyone knows. I was wondering if it would be possible to get just as interesting a character. The “no brainer” character I chose to make an antithesis character from was, Harry Potter.
First both Harry Potter‘s story and my story would take place in the modern world. If Harry was a scrawny white skinned boy, my character, who I later named Rob Howard, would be very fit and dark skinned. If Harry went to school, Rob would not. If Harry was a wizard, Rob would be a warrior. So here’s where things started getting interesting for me, if Harry was destined to fight and defeat the big bad evil guy, Rob would be prophesied to BECOME the big bad evil guy.
So this is how I put it all together:
Rob Howard was born into a family of vile villains who’s only goal in life was to take over and conquer the world. According to prophesy (I haven’t work out details of it just yet), Rob is destined to fulfill this goal. He is prophesied to become the Dark Lord that will enslave the world and rule it with an iron fist. Unlike his family, Rob was born decent, honest, and moral. Everything he believes in, is the opposite of what his family believes. He wants no part of his supposed destiny. To this end, he ran away from home while still in high school. Not only to get away from his evil family but also, to try to get away from the constant assassination attempts by The Sorcerers. The Sorcerers are a group of self appointed protectors of the earth who seek out apparent evil and thwart it. Upon hearing about the prophesy, they decided to use their magick to stop it before it had a chance to come true, by killing Rob. Rob attempted to explain to the Sorcerers that he had no desire to conquer anything or rule over anyone, but they wouldn’t listen. Going into hiding was his only chance of ever finding any kind of peace at all.
Sometime during his self imposed exile, he came across a weapon (I haven’t figure out the details of how yet). In one occasion, when the Sorcerers discovered his whereabouts, he discovered the weapon had the ability to nullify their magick. It also increased his strength, agility, and stamina. Not too soon after that, Rob also met his first ally. A mysterious wise, one eyed man who taught Rob virtue, wisdom, how to survive on his own, as well as, how to best hide and defend himself from his family and the Sorcerers. He also gave Rob a very intelligent Raven to keep him company. A Raven that soon became Rob’s best friend.
It was this mysterious man who discovered that the weapon Rob had found had an apparent sinister side. It seems the weapon’s power came at a price. Whenever it was used, it tried to take control of the wielder. It tried to possess the wielder, control him and enslave him to it’s will. Upon hearing this, Rob decided to rid himself of the weapon, only to discover, to his dismay, that it always found a way back to him. So Rob decided to no longer use it, only the Sorcerers would still find him once in a while and the their attacks had become more fierce and powerful. These attack would often force Rob to use the weapon if he wanted to have any chance of surviving.
Now the questions are: Will Rob succumb to the weapon? Is succumbing to the weapon how he becomes the Dark Lord? Will the constant attack by the Sorcerers CAUSE the creation of the Dark Lord they so desperately want to prevent? I don’t know the answers. It sounds like fun to me, to try to answer them though.
So that’s the set up for my next project. Next time, I’ll tell you the story I’m going to animate based on this set up. Below is a very rough sketch I did of Rob, some Raven exploration sketches and an attempt at the cursed weapon.
Let me know what you think of it all.
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