FAMILY | Luis' Illustrated Blog

Simpsons negotiations. My wife’s book: THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST.

October 6, 2011 in BOOKS, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So of the time of this writing, the news broke out about how Fox is asking the actors to take a pay cut. I would like to say that the studio is “all abuzz” with the news, but we’re not. It’s kinda, business as usual. Naturally there’s some tension. We ALL want to keep working on the show. We ALL want to keep our jobs. We ALL want it to continue.

Everyone is keeping an eye on the situation but we know we can’t do much about it. Worrying about it, isn’t going to help. The word around the more optimistic artists at the studio is that things will work themselves out for, at least, two more season. Just so that we could hit season 25 and maybe THEN the show will end. If the show HAS to end, this is what we all hope for. Especially since, if it ends now, this way, the show wouldn’t end on it’s own terms and it would be a pretty lame way for the longest animated TV show to go. We’re hoping that we will get a chance to end this historic show with some dignity.

BOOKS/FAMILY

My wife’s book is up on Amazon for Print and digital download on Kindle and or Kindle App. The book is called:

Here’s what it’s about:

On her last spy job for the Allies, the wizard Isabella George (codenamed Emelie) must extract a deadly warlock from Nazi occupied France to prevent his alchemical weapon from devouring the continent.

However, a few things stand in her way– betrayal, a vampiric Cruenti warlock bent on draining her powers…and the realization that wizards of the Gray Tower, the very people who trained her, may in fact be her greatest enemy.

I really like what she did here. Here’s how this novel came to be:

I was going home from work when I started thinking about Role Playing games. I had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a play-by-email role playing game going with a few people. They were unsuccessful, for the most part, because I promised people a fun time and then just gave them homework to do, which is not fun. I’d pitch the person how easy and fun the game would be, and how little time it would take to play, only to then throw them in the middle of character creation and world building (which is a lot of work and not fun for many people).

So then I thought, my sister might like to play a game, but having learned my lesson, I wanted to offer her the fun I’d offered others WITHOUT the work. The world building would be done, the character creation would be done and most importantly, the world was catered, inspired, and created for her. I thought long and hard, trying to come up with an original idea that would have the same fantasy elements that she seemed to like (Harry Potter) but which would be as fun and adult as other urban fantasy settings (Jim Butcher‘s Harry Dresden stories). So I started thinking, and I thought about the Dresden books and thought they were cool and fun and they had a wizard in it.

Well, how about if Harry (Dresden not Potter) was a woman? Since my sister is a woman, it would be more comfortable to play one. Well, that didn’t really make things interesting enough. At least, not for me, since I was going to have to develop it. I thought how, when my sister was younger, she really liked spies, so what if the wizard was a spy? That DID make it more interesting but I still though it needed something else. What WOULD make it really interesting for me is if it took place in World War II fighting occult Nazis. Then it’s would have a lot of flavor and it would be fun to play.

Having had that idea, I started trying to come up with a scenario to have my sister play through with this concept. It ended up being too much work for me at the time just for a game, so I thought it would be better to put it off for a while. I never even pitched my sister the idea.

A month or two later I was driving home thinking about stories. This time around, I thought,

“Boy, vampire romances are all the rage right now, even though they’ve been around forever. I wonder what the next big thing will be…Wizard romances?”

That’s when I remembered that wizard thing I had come up with for my sister. What if there was a big underling romantic arch in the story about this female, Wizard, Spy? THAT might be appealing. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Later that day or perhaps a few days after, I told Alesha, that perhaps “Wizard Romance” novels would be the next big rage and pitched her the concept of a World War II female spy, that happened to be a Wizard. She liked the idea so much she said she wanted to write a story about it. Next thing I know, she’s coming up with a plot and started writing the manuscript.

I helped “edit” the book and gave her my two cents but I thought what she came up with was fantastic. The Romance elements are there too. It’s cool. There’s Nazi creatures and vampiric Warlock, double crossing spies, suspense, heists, magical battles and even a sword wielding magical Catholic priest. I’m very proud of what Alesha did here. It was really fun to see this universe come to life in a way I would have never done it and yet it still hits all the things I like in a story. Which is perhaps the best part of all.

It’s ironic that the book wouldn’t have existed if I hadn’t been doing something for my sister that I never did and she never knew I didn’t do it.

I think, next week I’ll start posting up excerpt from the book. If you can’t wait till next week though, go to Amazon and click “Look Inside”. You can read the first three and a half chapters there right now. Or better yet BUY THE BOOK!

You can see what Alesha is up to on her site: http://www.aleshaescobar.com/

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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It was my wife’s birthday this weekend. Roughing out the cover again. 9/11 interview cartoons.

September 15, 2011 in ART, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I managed to finish Act 1 on Monday morning. I’ve been working on Act 2, pretty much for the rest of this week. It wasn’t as heavy a rewrite as act one and I’ll be done by the end of the day today. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on Friday though. I hope I can relax a bit.

FAMILY

Sept. 11th was my wife Alesha’s birthday. So while everyone else in the U.S. is remembering the World Trade Center tragedy, my family is celebrating my wife’s birth.

I GUESS everyone loves Alesha. MAN, we had tons of people come by and to say happy birthday. We knew that some of our family and friends would be coming by. It was going to be nice to have a few people over. Thinking the whole time that it would be maybe two or three people, but no, it was my in-laws and my parents and Alesha’s best friends. Our house got crowded REAL fast. We didn’t expect it.

It was very nice though. Especially since, Alesha can’t really be out of the house while she recovers from her C-section. She was very glad to have the company. She told me she had a good birthday.

Not only that, but many of her family members and friends got to meet baby Luke for the first time.

I was very happy to see that Alesha is so well loved.

VIDEOS

I saw these animated cartoons late last week. They are animated audio recordings of people who are recalling friends and family who died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. It’s so moving. Very powerful stuff to watch. I though I’d share:

http://vimeo.com/28700426 http://vimeo.com/28750995

ART

I’ve returned to the small rough of the cover I’m working on. Now that I’ve practiced a bit and have a few painting under my belt, I thought it was time to give the cover another shot.

First, I needed to make sure I could paint fire. I took one of the reference pictures I took of a red towel I lit on fire in my back yard, and painted it:

I was mostly concerned with the fire itself and didn’t really try to make the towel look like the towel. I think I got what I needed out of the painting.

Next I transferred my small rough pencils to the type of paper I’m going to use to paint on and I began the painting:

This is the very first pass. I simply put in all the blacks. The next step will be to add in all the dark grays, then the light grays. Once I’m done, I’ll study what I liked and didn’t like about the process. See what I could the better. IF it doesn’t work out, I’ll do yet ANOTHER rough. On the other hand, if I’m happy with it, I’ll finally get started on the final painting.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Baby Luke’s birthday! Back on show 500 again. More painting practice.

September 1, 2011 in ART, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I worked Sunday for four hour this weekend. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked twelve hour days. Why? Because I’m not coming into work on Thursday and Friday. I’ll tell you why in a moment.

Since I worked so much early in the week, I managed to get all my work done for the episode I was working on by the end of Tuesday. This left me open to work on yet another episode. Seems there where some new rewrites for episode 500. A few more scenes where added and the director of the show wanted me to take a crack at them. The section seemed simple but it was deceptively hard. I did the most amount of work I could get done in the twelve hours I had. Tough Wednesday.

FAMILY

Why am I not coming into to work today (Thursday, Sep 1st.)? Well, I hadn’t really announced it on this blog. I least I don’t think I have, BUT, my wife Alesha has been pregnant all this time and she’s having the baby today (scheduled C-section).

Today will be the birthday of my son Luke Raphael Escobar! I’m so excited!

ART

I’ve continued to practice my painting these last few days. I’ve made a conscious decision to try to paint slightly more difficult subjects. Subjects whose lighting is a bit more tricky to paint. I was trying to build up to painting a pretty girl.

My first attempt was a painting of Bruce Lee. I picked it because it didn’t really have really black shadows. I was mostly dark grey and light grey tones. I find these types of values much more difficult to control. This is what I ended up with:

Yeah, what’s up with the crazy chin?! Bruce Lee FAIL.

Well, here’s what went wrong: When I was doing the under drawing, I thought that perhaps I’d caricature the drawing, but I didn’t completely commit to the idea and I ended up with a really disproportionate drawing. I didn’t really realize it until it was too late. Serves me right for rushing the preliminary steps.

Unhappy with the result, I tried it again, this time trying to just do a straight drawing with not exaggeration. Once I had that done I thought I’d experiment with the painting approach. Since the reference was mostly dark grey, I thought perhaps I should start by putting the dark grey down first and put the black in after:

I quickly abandoned the painting. I found I couldn’t put in the detail needed in the dark areas because I’d painted over my line drawing with grey. It actually was not very helpful to work this way (that, and the eyes where a bit too far apart).

I went at it again a third time. This time, I tried to get the likeness right and I approached the painting as I had been taught to do. This was the result:

Much better. I could live with it.

Next I tried drawing G.K. Chesterton. Mostly because I really like the guy. The photo I used had a lot of dark grey tones in the face so it was very challenging:

It came out okay but there’s something about it I’m not very happy with. Maybe because I didn’t get the likeness quite right, I don’t know. It’s one of those pieces where my ambition for the painting and what I eventually painted don’t quite match.

The moment of truth arrived. I was going to draw a pretty girl’s face. I looked online for a head shot of a pretty girl that had lighting I thought I could work with. I found one of Keira Knightley I thought would be good and proceeded to paint it:

…and had an EPIC FAIL.

I knew going in that the best approach for painting a pretty girl is, “less is more”. The reference I was using had a lot of light grey tone in it. I had the painting at a certain degree of finish and I though I’d try maybe putting in a little light grey tone. Unfortunately it was a tad too dark and there’s no “undo” button on a practical painting. I tried to “save” the painting by making the dark grey areas darker to make the light grey look lighter. It only made things worse.

Well, having learned from my mistakes I tried it again. This time I took the “less is more” approach:

It turned out okay but somehow I thought it didn’t look finished. I still wanted to add some value to light areas so it didn’t look so washed out. But I didn’t want to screw it up. I scanned the painting so I could at least have a copy of what it looked like before I added the light grey and then went ahead and applied the light grey:

I don’t really think it looks any better. I think it looks worse. Too many brushstrokes. It makes her look old.

Still, I’m learning. I’ll need to practice this some more. I don’t have the hang of this painting thing yet but I’m getting there. Next time I’m going to pre-plan the rhythms on the face a bit better. That way, the strokes I put down better define the planes and aren’t so muddy.

Perhaps, next week, I’ll start working on the roughs for the cover for my wife’s book again.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Finishing up on Simpsons episode show 500. Kids get heat stroke.

July 7, 2011 in FAMILY, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Things got tough last Friday. I managed to turn in the section of my board that was high priority on Wednesday. I thought I was home free Thursday and all I had to do was finish the less high priority, half of my section. I had a regular eight hour day that day. I had been working overtime just about every night. On Friday, because of 4th of July, the studio was going to close at 2pm. I was looking forward to going home early, only at midday, I got told that the section I had turned in had revisions I had to work on. This kinda burst my bubble.

Usually, once you turn in a final board, any notes made on the board are taken care of in the Story Reel phase of production. Thing is, since there were so many notes on my board and it was a special high priority section, they wanted me to address the notes and make the necessary changes.

My heart sunk when I heard this.

When I was given the board with all the notes on it, my heart hit the ground. I don’t think I’d ever seen a board with so much red. I couldn’t help getting a upset. Then I read the notes, and got even more upset. Not because they were nit picky or unjust or whatever. It would have almost been better it they were. That way, I could have yelled “foul”, and said the head director was picking on me. But no, the reason I got more upset was because all the notes where spot on. Just about everything he had me fix made everything better and clearer.

I became angry at myself for not getting it right the first time. I stayed till 7pm fixing the board. This took away time from me being able to finish the other part of the board. This meant that at some point the following week, I would probably have to work late. If I didn’t have to do the revisions, I would have been able to get it done without staying late.

This Tuesday, I turned the fixed up, revised board. It’s going to be sent to Fox where, more notes will be given on it. Thankfully, the director will have to take care of those.

We had Monday off, which would have been great for me, except that it took away an entire day from me being able to finish the second part of my board. Sure enough, I had to stay late on Wednesday in order to try to get done by Thursday afternoon. Tuesday, I wasn’t able to work late because I had to pick up the kids from daycare.

It’s been one heck of a dramatic ride. It reminded me a lot of what it was like to work on the movie. Lots of “do it again” and “it’s due yesterday”. As I get closer to finishing though, I can’t help but feel VERY satisfied with it all. Like I’ve really DONE something. I’ve also learned a LOT.

So why the rush job? Well, it’s because…heh, I’ll tell you soon.

FAMILY

It’s been very hot. So hot my kids got sick, or had heat stroke. I don’t really know which. All I know is that each suddenly came down with a one day fever on different days of the week. We don’t know exactly what triggered it but I’m guessing it was the heat.

Now they all have colds and so do I.

MY WEEK

Wednesday is comic book day and I was so tired of working, I went to lunch with my friends and went to the comic store with them. As usual, I didn’t buy anything, but it felt good to take a break, hang out with them and go look at comics.

Work so hard really takes a toll on the creativity. I’ve been having a really difficult time working on any personal projects. This is the reason I didn’t put any progress drawings this week on here.

I could have worked on stuff over the weekend. I had plenty of leisure time. I just couldn’t do it. I was too burned out. That said, I DID manage to revise a TINY little bit of my treatment. I’ll be getting to the final phase of my “illustrated film” soon. Just as soon as can get some creative energy back.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

February 3, 2011 in FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Moved on to the Halloween show this week. At this point in the week, I’m not sure I’ll get what I was assigned done. I’m going to try my best to finish. It’s my professional pride to finish what I’m given. I don’t like giving back scenes I didn’t get to. Especially since I know I only have this week to work on the this show. Next week I start on Storyboard revisions again.

FAMILY

Dante turned 3 years on Monday. We took him to Travel Town at Griffith Park. It’s an old train yard converted to a park/museum. Dante is train obsessed. He’s into Thomas and Friends. He was so excited to be going into the trains. He loved it.

I did too. Trains are cool. There was an enormous one that had wheels taller than me. It was a giant train engine. Amazing. We rode on the mini train they had there and I ended up buying Dante a James the tank engine from Thomas and Friends. We then drove to the other side of Griffith Park were Dante’s Godmother was. There, we took him to ride a pony and another little train. My parents met us earlier in the day at Travel Town, so they were there too.

Dante was dying to go home mid way through the day, not because he wasn’t having a good time, but because he so desperately wanted to go home and play with his trains. Unfortunately we had a party to go to that day and we went there instead. Lucky for Dante, there where toy trains at that house for him to play with, so it was all okay.

When we DID get home, he took his new toy train to bed and slept with it. The next day, he spent a few hours playing with it. Every day when we get home, he plays with his trains. He’s been doing it for almost a year now.

WEBSITES

Gamification is the concept that you can apply the basic elements that make games fun and engaging to things that typically aren’t considered a game.

I became aware of this concept a while back, but I really didn’t put much attention to it. Then I read an article on Purple Pawn that made me a bit more curious, so I decided to find out more about it. It was an article about a new website that allows you to “Gamify” your site called Gamify.com.

This kinda gave me a more concrete example of what Gamification meant. Not only that, but it made it accessible. I then made my way to the Gamification Wiki where I found these videos explain things a bit more:

All this has got me thinking about how I could “Gamify” my blog, or any comics I make, or any cartoons I create. I’d love to have people get into anything I do because it’s not only fun to read or watch but because it also has a meta element, like a game, to keep you coming back for more. That way you can get a longer lasting experience out of what I do.

As a gamer (and by gamer I mean I like playing table top games, as well as video games) I find this really fascinating. Especially since it would combine the things I love. What do you think?

WRITING

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote from a few weeks ago, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

As I did the last two weeks, I’ll put up the DRAMATICA Table of Story Elements in order for you to understand what I’m talking about and so you can follow along. For a clearer pdf version of the chart (download chart now):

Alright, last act. As I wrote this one out I realized I’m going to have to make a few adjustments to Act 2 (more about that below) but that’s exactly what this process is about. Adjusting the structure of the story until you get the pieces in the right places.

Act 3

OVERALL STORY THROUGH LINE

Innermost Desires – The Lead Sorcerer stomps on the Hot Dog the main character so desired thereby demoralizing him. The Main Character sees his hot dog as a representation of the peace he longs for. Seeing this, the Sorcerers rejoice in the fact that they have can potentially attained the one thing no other Sorcerer so far have been able to do. Namely, kill the Main Character. They relish in the anticipation of the glory they so desire.

Innermost Desires ======> Contemplation – Having lost his Hot Dog and having nothing left to lose, the Main Character truly fights back. Giving into his desire to get revenge for the peace that was taken from him. He beats the Sorcerers senseless. This causes the Sorcerers to realize their mistaken impression of themselves.

Contemplation – A moment at the end there where the Main Character could have taken the Lead Sorcerer’s life but didn’t, makes the Sorcerer rethink who he is, what he does, and what all the other Sorcerer’s say about the Main Character. This leads to a generous act on the part of the Lead Sorcerer, who buys the Main Character two Hot Dogs to replace the one he destroyed. This makes the Main Character thinks that there still might be some hope for peace left.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Doing – Unfortunately the Lead Sorcerer destroys his Hot Dog, which forces him to pick up his weapon and fight them off or die.

Doing ======> Understanding – After dispatching all the monster and the other Sorcerers, he has the Lead Sorcerer in a weakened and vulnerable state. Understanding that the only way to show the Sorcerer that he’s mistaken about who he thinks he is. He chooses to let him go free.

Understanding – Rob realizes that it’s possible to change the minds of the Sorcerers and that gives him hope, that the attacks might stop and he’ll get the peace he wants. He also knows that every time he uses the warhammer, it gets more and more difficult to control himself and it.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Playing a Role – Rob begins striking down the Lead Sorcerer’s monsters and friends, making it easy to prove his point. He drives it home by showing Rob how easily he would strike down a helpless person, by NOT fighting him. Playing the role of victim to Rob’s predator.

Playing a Role ======> Changing One’s Nature – Rob shows the Lead Sorcerer that he HADN’T been as consumed and rage as he let on. Rob surprises the Lead Sorcerer by not attacking him when he has a chance.

Changing One’s Nature – The Sorcerer is deeply moved by this example and becomes very impressed. The Lead Sorcerer, makes a gift of two Hot Dogs for Rob out of respect, leaving Rob with a new perspective about the Sorcerers as a whole.

MAIN CHARACTER vs. IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Future – The Lead Sorcerer insists that the Main Character will enslave the world whether the Main Character says he will or not. The future is set, according to the prophesy. The main character insists it’s wrong, it’s false, it can’t happen.

Future ======> Present – In order to prove to the Lead Sorcerer that he’s not what the prophesy of his future says he is, he forces the Lead Sorcerer to notice how he acts here and now, by NOT treating him the same way the Lead Sorcerer treated, him. He doesn’t kill or hurt him once he’s down and powerless.

Present – Because of the way the Main Character treated the Lead Sorcerer, for now, the two characters end up, not as friends but not exactly enemies. There’s a type of mutual respect for each other that exist for the moment, that wasn’t there before.

Act 3 Themes (Truth/Falsehood, Suspicion/Evidence)

Scene 7 (Desire/Ability)

Ignoring the Sorcerers, Rob goes for his hot dog only to have the Lead Sorcerer step on it, leaving Rob stunned for a second. Rob becomes angry and his Raven flies from the bushes with Robs little weapon in it’s talons. He drops it on Rob’s hand were it magically grows large and he begins to fight off the monsters and Sorcerers in an almost out of control bezerker rage.

Scene 8 (Thought/Knowledge)

Seeing the might they have unleashed on themselves the Sorcerers are shocked and two of them are incapacitated by Rob. The Lead Sorcerer seeing this, thinks he’s proved his case and does the crazy thing of putting his guard down to prove to Rob who he really is. Rob sees this and fights to bring down his rage. The Lead Sorcerer expects to be struck down, only Rob surprises him by NOT doing so. (Act 3 climax)

Scene 9 (Thought/Actuality)

Rob puts down his weapon, walks away. He helps the other Sorcerers up and then starts picking up his things, which are now all over the destroyed area they fought on. By the time he’s done, the Sorcerers are gone. When he begins to walk away, the hot dog vendor calls out to him. He has two hot dogs for him, seemingly bought by the Lead Sorcerer. (Resolution)

And that’s that. I’m thinking about putting the “hot dogs getting stepped on” bit in Scene 6. I think it will fit better there.

I think Scene 8 will need to be the trickiest one, mainly because there needs to be a moment of inner conflict for Rob in order to be climactic and showing it visually will be difficult.

Now that I have a quick synopsis of what will be in each scene, I can star writing the treatment. Once that’s done, I will start writing the dialogue (which is the part I dying to write).

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

Comments Off on Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

Moving on the another show soon. The kids get shipwrecked in a game. Act 2 breakdown.

January 27, 2011 in FAMILY, ROLE PLAYING GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Early this week I got a note telling me I start doing story reel work on Show 19 beginning Wednesday. It was very unexpected since I still needed to finish off the scenes I was given for show 20. I did manage to rush and finish it, only to find out that I don’t move on to show 19 until Monday.

Kinda annoying.

I DID find out that show 19 and show 18 are, the Halloween show and the Christmas show.

FAMILY/ROLE PLAYING GAMES

This weekend, my daughter, once again, asked to play the “scary game” (a.k.a. our fantasy tabletop role playing game). Last game we played, I was a little bored with the adventure I came up with, so this time I tried to add to the variety of the game.

I continued from where we left off last time as if it was a continuous story, that way, it all felt connected. Last time, they had helped a friend escape from the clutches of a big ugly gargoyle thing. The story began in the “hospital” and the friend asked Elizabeth and Dante to go check up on his sister to make sure she was okay. She lived in another city.

Since we’re using the DESCENT: JOURNEYS IN THE DARK game and I happen to have the ROAD TO LEGEND expansion, I took out the board that came with the expansion and used it as the map for where they are. I pointed to a city and told them, that’s where they needed to go. Elizabeth asked,

“How do we get there?” I hadn’t realized that there was no road to the city from where they were. BUT there WAS a river.

“There’s a river that goes to the city. You can go by river.”

“How do we do that?”

“Maybe you can get a boat.”

“Where do we get a boat?”

“Maybe you can ask around the town and find out.” So they went out to town, asked around and found a guy whose cousin sold boats, so they went to see him.

Notice how suddenly the story has gone from hack and slash to role playing. It suddenly started to become fun for me. I have a bunch of little tiny toys that I’ve collected from gumball machines and other toy sets over the years and I started taking them out to play out the towns people.

I also happen to have a Lego boat my mom gave me for a resent birthday and took that out as the boat they got sold. It was a bum deal since the boat wasn’t in very good shape but we all worked together to fix it so that they could take it down the river. I made it out that the river ride was going to be very dangerous, and as they went down the river they heard a monster coming. It turned out to be a little Chibi bear toy from a gumball machine, that was just trying to scare them. This is the point where I just started getting silly with them and I even introduced a gumball machine pig who jumped in the boat and started running around. The kids where enjoying themselves but where also very seriously role playing out conversations with this goofy little rubber bear.

Suddenly Dante cried out,”Oh no, it’s raining!” It kinda threw me off guard a bit. After thinking about it for a second, I realized it would be a good idea to have it storm, so I went along with Dante’s imagination. The storm shipwrecked them and they had to make their way down the river by foot.

They wandered into a dungeon where they stumbled into a gumball machine monkey’s house, who was annoyed to find them there. To make a long gaming session short, they ended up fighting some skeletons and some giant spiders before finally making it to the sister’s house and checking up on her.

We had fun and now I have to come up with the next part of the story because Elizabeth has been asking me to play again ever since.

The thing that makes this the most fun for me, is hearing the kids play act as “adult Superheroes”. It’s so funny because they’re suppose to be adults but they act like a two and a four year old. It makes me want to write a comic of they’re adventures so you can see how silly it would be to see a heroic character being controlled by a little kid and acting like a little kid.

ELIZABETH: “Oh, hello friend, how are you?”

NPC (Non Player Character): “Fine, how are you?”

DANTE: “Look what I can do!” Begins flying around the room for no reason, and without the power to fly.

NPC: “Uh, wow…that’s…uh…really interesting.”

WRITING

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote from a few weeks ago, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

This week I started breaking down Act 2. This time around, instead of finding the Element comparisons I was going to write about and writing the scene around them, I decided to write the scene and assigning them an Element comparisons afterward. This freed me up to just write what I wanted to write without worrying about the Elements. After I was done writing out the description, I then assigned the Elements that best fit what I had written. The interesting thing that occurred was that some of the scenes I wrote, fit really well with the Elements while others didn’t. The ones that didn’t, I just added a few things in the description to make it match a bit better. The ones that fit well, I adjusted to fit a little better as well.

Again, this time around, I looked at the through lines I had written earlier and used it a guide to help me remember what’s suppose to happen in the Act:

Act 2

MAIN vs. IMPACT CHARACTER THROUGH LINE

How things are Changing – The Main Character tries desperately to convince the Lead Sorcerer to listen and understand that things aren’t as they seem. The Lead Sorcerer insists that just because he isn’t completely evil yet, it doesn’t mean that it will stay that way. Things are always changing.

How things are Changing ======> Future – The Main Character understands that things change but it doesn’t automatically mean that the future the prophesy holds, is the true one. The Main Character says that the future is also changing.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE

Gathering Information – The Sorcerers betray him and attack. The Rob defends himself and his lunch while desperately looking around for a way to escape.

Gathering Information ======> Doing -Discovering there’s no way out. He decides the best thing to do is to eat the Hot Dog, right there and then.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE

Developing a Plan – When Rob refuses this plan, the Lead Sorcerer say’s that refusing requires them to kill him, because it’s the only way to be truly safe.

Developing a Plan ======> Playing a Role – The Lead Sorcerer then shows that, by not complying with the reasonableness of the plans he proposed that he’s only showing that he’s guilty of treacherous intentions. He is showing his true colors as the world enslaving overlord he will become.

OVERALL STORY THROUGH LINE

Impulsive Responses – The Sorcerers continue their attack. The main characters defends himself and his lunch with all the instincts and training at his disposal.

Impulsive Responses ======> Innermost Desires – All the fighting leads to the main character being trapped and vulnerable. The very thing that the Sorcerers desire. Meanwhile the main character’s hot dog (which is a symbol of the peace he so desires) manages to end up a few feet away from him, still safely on it’s plate.

You will notice that next to the “Act 2 Themes” I put two thematic breakdowns instead of only one, unlike I did last week. This was so I could actually include both Thematic Issue comparisons instead instead of one. Also, it allowed me to pick from a greater pool of Element comparisons.

So here’s how I broke the Act down:

ACT 2 Themes: Truth/Evidence, Falsehood/Evidence

Scene 4 (Knowledge/Perception)

Rob is shocked by the betrayal. He attempts to convince the Lead Sorcerer to stop by attempting to call up some sort of evidence that he is telling the truth. The Sorcerer stubbornly refuses, the he doesn’t trust any of his evidence.

Scene 5 (Desire/Aware)

Rob tries to escape but the Sorcerers summon monsters to get in his way. Rob’s Raven gets hit into the bushes while trying to protect Rob. The lead Sorcerer points out to Rob that he is only proving his guilt by attempting to run. THAT is true evidence.

Scene 6 (Inequity/Projection)

Finding himself friendless and trapped, Rob decides to eat his hot dog there and then only one of the monsters causes the hot dog to end up a few feet from him, safely on it’s plate. The bad guys close in. They laugh seeing that they’ve won and look forward in anticipation to the glory they will receive. (Act 2 climax).

So as you can see, I only managed to write out three scenes, just like in Act 1. Very odd. I’m guessing the same will happen will happen with Act 3. We’ll see what happens with that next week.

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Baby Ambrose got sick. Free game mastering book. Breaking down Act 1 scenes.

January 20, 2011 in Banksy, FAMILY, ROLE PLAYING GAMES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Last week was my first week doing story reel work and I didn’t really get a lot done. Mostly because I had to stay home to take care of baby Ambrose who got sick. This week has been really hectic for me because now I have to work hard to catch up on the hours of work I missed. It’s been a bit stressful. Since I haven’t done any story reel work since Show 1 (The Fool Monty) of this year, I had to remember what the job entailed and what I needed to do, on top of everything else. It’s been a busy week.

In other news, Banksy put up the rough boards he did that I used to work off of in order to do the final version of the story boards for his Couch Gag, on his site (CLICK HERE). Take a look:

I wish I could put what I did you could compare.

FAMILY
I stayed at home this week on Thursday and Friday to take care of baby Ambrose. He caught a cold or a flu or something. I’m still not sure exactly what it was. He had a temperature, diarrhea, sneezing, and a runny nose. To make things worse, he’s also teething. I’m not sure if he had a temperature because he was teething or because he was sick. He definitely didn’t have any energy at all. I made sure to give him plenty to drink and let him sleep as much as he could. I felt so bad for the little guy. He was miserable.

By Sunday he was all better. You have no idea what a relief it was to see him back to his normal self.

Thank you Simpsonology on Twitter for the link.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES
Played some more Dungeons and Dragons 4E this weekend at our house. I also ran another mini adventure for Elizabeth and Dante. This has me thinking about role playing and specifically, “Game Mastering”. In other words, running adventures. Specifically for Elizabeth who keeps asking me to run games for her. It’s fun to do, but last time I thought it was a bit tedious so now I’ve got to come up with a way to not only make interesting for her, but I have to make it interesting for myself. It’s tricky since she’s only four and doesn’t exactly go out of her way to write a back story for her character for me to work off of.

Coincidentally, on one of the game sites I usually go to, Purple Pawn, had a article on a book on Game mastering that could be downloaded for free online. It’s distributed under the creative commons license. I downloaded it and it’s actually really good. I recommend it for anyone who is thinking about game mastering a role playing game. It teaches you all you need to know to go about doing it. There’s a lot there that I agree with. Check it out:

GAMEMASTERING book

WRITING

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote the last two weeks, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

I’ve decided to start breaking down each scene. The Robert McKee book (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting) suggests I write out a one or two sentence statement, describing what happens in each scene and how it turns on cards. I don’t have any cards so I’ll just type them out. The McKee book also suggests I write what part of the story each scene fulfills. I’ll see if I can do that too.

The DRAMATICA system suggests Elements that will be in conflict in each of the scenes I write. Here’s the thing, DRAMATICA also suggests that if I’m writing a short story (which I am) I shouldn’t breakdown the story as far as I have. In other words, I SHOULDN’T breakdown my story into the Elements level the way I’m going to do just now. I think it’s because you can’t possible stick 24 scenes into a short story. Okay, then I’m going to see how many Element comparison I CAN put in and be satisfied with that.

First, I’m going to look at what I have already written as the four Story Throughlines for Act 1. Using that as a guide I’m going to then start breaking the scenes down for Act 1.

Act 1:

OVERALL STORY THROUGHLINE

Memories- The main character, remembering how good the hot dogs at a certain hot dog vendor are, uses the money he struggled to get, to buy one. While always being cautious of the memories of all the times he’s been attacked by the Sorcerers that are after him.

Memories ======> Type 2. Impulsive Responses- Not realizing that those very Sorcerers have spotted him and remember what he has done to their fellow Sorcerers. The Sorcerers confront the main character who knows what’s coming from the memory of his past experience. They’re hatred of him cause such anger inside them that they impulsively attack him.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

Obtaining– Rob has happily obtained the Hot Dog he’s been wanting for a day and a half. He looks forward to eating in peace and quiet.

Obtaining ======> Type 2. Gathering Information– As he sits down to eat and is confronted by the three Sorcerers. He tries to find out from them, what he could do, in order to have them give him a few minutes to eat his lunch in peace and quite. When they tell him, he gladly does it.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

Conceiving an Idea– The Lead Sorcerers tries to convince Rob that Rob is evil. That the Sorcerers are truly the just and justified between the two of them.

Conceiving an Idea ======> Type 2. Developing a Plan– Rob dismisses the idea so the Lead Sorcerer then puts forth that he should let himself be imprisoned by the Sorcerers, so that he could be watched and not become what the prophesy says he will.

MAIN vs IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGHLINE

- Past– The Main Character and the Lead Sorcerer share a collective conflicting past. Many of Sorcerers the Lead Sorcerer knew, have been beaten by the Main Character. The main Character knows who the Lead Sorcerer is (or at least his type) based on his passed dealings with other Sorcerers. While the Lead Sorcerers knows the main by the reputation of those who have fought him in the past. This instills tension between the two parties. Especially since there is an incomplete understanding of what REALLY happened in the past that the Main Character attempts to clarify without success.
- The Past ======> Type 2. How things are Changing– Their collective negative past immediately lead to distrust, hatred and aggression. Especially since their past is so misunderstood, which leads the Lead Sorcerers into attacking the Main Character.

Act 1 Themes: False/Suspicion

Scene 1 (Equity/Projection)

Rob waits for his hot dog impatiently as his stomach grumbles. Once he gets it he sits down and to eat it. He decides to share it with is White Raven.He’s about to cut it in half when he sees the Sorcerers coming toward him and gets bummed out, knowing he’s in for a bad time. (Introducing the characters)

Scene 2 (Inertia/Order)

The Sorcerers confront Rob about his past and his future. Rob defends by explaining the circumstances behind those moments. If left alone nothing would happen. They try to convince him to turn himself over to the Sorcerers so they can lock him up and keep him from becoming evil. Rob tells them he has no intention of taking over the world. The lead Sorcerer tries to convince Rob that his cause is just. Rob just want to be left alone. The Sorcerers won’t do that. Rob asks if he could at least have ten minutes to finish his hot dog. They discuss it among themselves and grant him ten minutes on the condition he hand over his weapon. (inciting incident)

Scene 3 (Speculation/Inequity)

Rob hands over his weapon believing the Sorcerers will keep their word leaving him out numbered and without protection.The Sorcerers laugh at the weapon and throw it in the bushes.Just as he’s about to cut the hot dog they attack him. (First Act climax)

Well, I was only able to create three scenes. It’s suppose to be eight scenes per Act but I couldn’t fit anything else in. To be honest, I don’t know if I broke thing down into scenes or just broke down ONE scene into three parts. I also didn’t quite stick to the one or two sentence description of each scene format.

I found it very helpful that I’d written out the description of each Story Throughline. It reminded me of stuff I’d forgotten. I think it’s turning out okay so far. I’ll see how Act 2 goes. I wonder if there’s going to be more than three scenes in that Act?

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Heavy week last week, lite week this week. Second color pass. Dante almost loses an eye. Applying some slight interactive motion to a comic book panel?

November 25, 2010 in ART, COMIC BOOKS, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wow, it was a really heavy work week last week. I was under the gun all week and just barely managed to squeak out my assigned Acts both Act 1 AND Act 3. I was even given a last minute fix on Act 1 that I had to finish before my wife (whom I carpool with) and I had to leave to pick up the kids. I was sweating it to the end.

Compare that to this week where I started revising a different episode. I’ve been assigned Act 2 and the rewrite is VERY lite. So lite in fact, that I’m almost finish revising it, and we only have a three day work week.

Can’t say this job doesn’t keep me on my toes.

ART

This is taking a long time and I apologize if you’re getting tired of basically seeing the same drawing over and over. That said, this IS the process. Granted, only doing this in 30 minute chunks everyday, does make the process go at crawl. Believe me, I’m feeling it. I want it to be over so I can get to the next step. Which leads me to think that I’m being too precious about all this and I might be going about it all wrong. Perhaps I should just be rougher with the final product. That way I can finish it sooner than later. I’ll really have to think about it this.

Okay, so here’s what I’ve done this week:

I’ve added shadows to all the drawings and began changing up the edges on them a bit. I’ve also added some core shadows to parts of the drawings. My plan is to continue adding core shadows where needed and then I’m going to add a few slight highlights or lighter areas to places that might need it. I hope to have that all done by next week. Once I do, it will basically be done. The tricky part once I’m done doing it though, is figuring out a way to show you what the finished product looks like. I’ll figure that out, once I get there.

FAMILY

Okay, so, we had quite an interesting start to our week. Sunday night, my 4 year old daughter and my two and a half year old son, were playing together (as they normally do). At some point (as it sometimes happens) they began bickering over who can play with what toy. Well, we didn’t really see what happened exactly but somehow the attempt to either hold on to the toy or take the toy away, led to Dante getting poked, scratch, or swiped on his unprotected eye ball. So began a really tough rest of the night.

Dante came crying into the living room, screaming in pain. It was obvious that there was some serious hurt in his eye. I became very upset with Elizabeth and reprimanded her. She went to her room and cried. I took Dante in my arms and held him, hoping that he’d quiet down soon. When he didn’t I really started getting worried. He wouldn’t let us see his eye and refused to open it. He just cried and cried. I started freaking out. Alesha just got mad at me for it. She decided to tell Dante that if he calmed down, he’d give him a treat. I thought it was a ridiculous notion since the boy was in some obvious excruciating pain. He wouldn’t even be THINKING about having a treat.

She took him and gave him a treat and he was fine as if nothing ever happened. I felt like a complete moron for having freaked out. Was he play acting? Was he just letting off steam? Did he just like being held and pampered so he decided to play it all up? I was upset with everyone after that.

I took the kids to bed, and after praying with them, I went downstairs having to deal with a headache that had been building up all day only to become a migraine after the whole eye poke thing.

I decided to go sleep early to try to get rid of it. Easier said than done since baby Ambrose, who sleeps in our room, was bothered by all the fuss and decided to be fussy too. I fed him a bottle and he fell back asleep after a while. I fell asleep for about an hour myself, when I got woken up from Dante screaming and crying. It was coming from downstairs. It seems Dante was not faking the pain in his eye. He must have been rubbing it in bed and just irritated it more. I had seen him rubbing it when I put him to bed. He was crying as if he’d been hit in the eye again. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t make him stop crying.

Every idea of possible horrible things that might be wrong with his eye began passing through my head. It was heartbreaking. I began to freak out again. Do we need to take him to the hospital?! Alesha tried to be much more cool headed and went more for a, “wait and see” attitude. After all, he was fine and had both eyes open when he went to bed.

After being with him for a while as he cried, asking him questions and holding him, he finally began to calm down. He did NOT want to go back to bed though, nor did he want to open his eyes. I held him for a while and then I asked him if he wanted to lay down with me in my bed. I thought perhaps he would feel more comfortable knowing one of us was there. My headache was still there and hadn’t gone away. I was also really tired.

I took him to our bedroom and lay him down, but he started crying again as if he’s eye hurt. I thought perhaps being prone actually hurt his eye more so I sat him up and he calmed down. I picked him up and took him back downstairs. Baby Ambrose was woken up by the whole thing and was crying as well at this point. Alesha went upstairs to take care of him.

I took Dante and sat with him on the couch. I took the blankets that we have by the couch and covered us both with them. I told Dante that I’d sit and sleep with him there on the couch, sitting up. He seemed fine with that idea and we began to try to go to sleep. Except he kept trying to rub his eye, and I would tell him not too. He’d keep trying or pretending not too and then go for it. I tried holding his hands down but then he’d whined. I wanted him to go to sleep, only he kept being really fidgety with this hands and try to rub his eyes with the blanket. This must have gone on for a good half hour (or at least if felt like that) when I finally just got mad at him and said,

“Stop it. JUST stop it!” He did. Suddenly it was as if he was just tired and he didn’t move his hands again. Ten minutes later, he was asleep.

I fell asleep for a bit too but woke up because I was really uncomfortable. Dante was half on my lap and half on a cushion. I slowly extricated myself from under him, making sure he was sitting up and comfortable and made my way to the other side of the couch where I made myself as small as possible. There, I attempted to be fall asleep. Which I did, because I was sooo darn tired.

The rest of the night I spent, what seemed to me like, every ten or fifteen minutes, waking up, making sure Dante didn’t fall of the couch, making sure he was sitting up, keeping him from rubbing his eye, making sure he didn’t sleep on his eye and generally not getting any good rest at all. The next morning Alesha woke me up and I just felt awful. Alesha hadn’t had a very good night either because, baby Ambrose, sensing the tension in the house, had been fussy all night.

We soon discovered that Dante refused to open his eyes still. The problem now was, what to do. It was Monday and if Dante was seriously injured, we needed to do something about it. We didn’t know if he was just sleepy, so we couldn’t just take him to daycare. Alesha decided she would stay home with him and observe him. If he didn’t recover as the day went by, she would take him to the doctor’s office.

I took the other kids to daycare and went to work, worrying my head off about the boy. By mid morning I was calling Alesha to check up on him. Turns out that Dante was fine. He seemed back to normal and was watching cartoons with BOTH eyes open, asking about when his sister would come home. I was very relieved to hear it. I spent the rest of the day worrying whether or not I would be able to stay awake, on the way home.

We did make it home safe, but even though I was drinking coffee, it was actually starting NOT to work.

COMIC BOOKS

So I saw this video earlier this week and it got me thinking about digital comics on the iPad (or similar touch tablet device).

What if you did something like this with digital comics? What if, when you open a comic page on a touch tablet device, the page would look normal and you can read it like any other comic book page. Only, if you were to touch one of the panels, you could interact with it in some way. It wouldn’t change the panel layout but you can cause some motion to happen in the panel. For example, if there is a person walking in the panel, you can see the person’s walk cycle or in case of a close up, he would bob up and down and the background would pan by. Maybe in a panel there’s a spaceship flying through space, and you can pass your finger through the panel to have the background pan at a speed you want and have the ship’s thrusters animated appropriately. If a person is sad and you touch the screen, he could hunch over a bit more. Nothing extreme, just subtle little changes just to make it more interactive if you choose. What do you think?

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

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Comments Off on Heavy week last week, lite week this week. Second color pass. Dante almost loses an eye. Applying some slight interactive motion to a comic book panel?

Halloween. Got little done. Crazy Wednesday. Puzzle Strike.

November 4, 2010 in ART, BOARD GAMES, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

It was Halloween earlier this week and, on Friday, the studio celebrated with it’s annual Halloween party. Lunch was provided and cash prizes where rewarded to the best costumes of the day as well as the best pumpkins. This is usually done with judges and a runway style display of the costumes. While the pumpkins get a table on the side for all to see. We had fun.

ART

Do to circumstances beyond my control, I wasn’t able to do very much this week on my project. I did manage to fix the expression on the first pose so it’s not so crazed:

I think it looks better. I also tried fixing the second pose and I think it’s an improvement from the last one. Here’s the rough:

Notice how I tend to just search around for the drawing. I’m not the kind of artist that can just project the drawing from my head and just draw it on the paper.

Here’s the more cleaned up version:

I’m still not sure if it’s right though. I wasn’t happy with the hand and hot dog so I redrew it in red, but it still wasn’t right, so I moved it (it was on another layer) to a better position. Once I get it where it works best, I’ll combine the drawings together. Something I was making sure I did in the drawing above was to make the irises in the eyes look like they’re actually on the ball of the eyeballs. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just putting circles there but the they worked with the correct natural perceptive of the eyeball. It’s harder to do than you’d think.

Something I didn’t show was, when I looked at both drawings as a whole, I thought that the heads seemed too big so I shrank the heads a bit. I’m trying to make sure that these two drawings match the proportions of the last colored drawing. I’m still working out the design as I go. I just can’t seem to make him look just the way I want. Perhaps because I don’t have a clear picture in my head as to what it’s supposed to look like. My hope is to solve these issues as I go rather than make a model sheet. I might still need to make one. What I mostly think about when I draw these is, structure, silhouette, rhythm, and whether it all looks natural.

What bothers me most, is that it’s taking me a long time to draw each pose. If it’s taking me this long to draw FOUR poses, how long will it take to draw a multiple scenes with multiple pose?

FAMILY

Wednesday, I had to pick up the kids from daycare three hours after I dropped them off. Baby Ambrose wasn’t feeling too good. Not only that but Alesha had stayed home in order to take Elizabeth to the dentist, only to discover that the car’s breaks were messed up. She couldn’t drive the car and pick up the kids nor could she take Elizabeth for her appointment. I picked up the kids and drove them home, then I took the car to a mechanic down the street from our house in order to get the brakes fixed.

I was gone for three hours, which, I now have to make up. It was a long annoying day.

FAMILY

For Halloween this year, we did pretty much the same thing we did last year. The kids didn’t mind, they where looking forward to doing it all again. We went to local shopping area near the Claremont Colleges and went trick or treating with all the families there.

Elizabeth originally wanted to go as a kitty cat but she changed her mind when we went to the store and she saw a pretty mask there. We got it for her as well as a pretty dress and wings so she went as a pixie princess. Dante went as Superman again. He had grown into his costume this year, and besides, he’s really into Superman right now (we’ve been watching the Fleischer Superman cartoons lately). We didn’t “technically” dress the baby up, but we put him in a warm outfit he had that happened to make him look like a frog.

My parents, my brother and sister-in-law and their little boy Paolo, met up with us there and we all had a good time, talking and helping the kids trick or treat. When it was all over, we went to my parent’s house and spent a nice time there relaxing and talking while the kids played. It was a good day.

BOARD GAMES

I’m a big fan of the video game SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II TURBO.

I own a copy of the original PS1 version of the game, a computer version of the game and a Gameboy version of the game. It’s one of my favorite games ever. Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered some one had made a “deck-building” card inspired by it.

What’s a “deck-building” card game?

A “deck-building” card game is a new genre of card game, which was created when the card game DOMINION got published in August of 2009.

A “deck-building” card game is a game where players start with a small personal deck of just seven to ten cards (depending on the game) from which you get a hand of cards. You then compete with other player to gather the best collection of cards into your deck from a community pool of cards located between the players (which usually has stacks of advantage giving cards). You do this using the cards from your hand, which you’ve drawn from you personal deck. The cards you’ve obtained from the community pool once in your deck, increases your chances of getting cards that will help gather even better cards to achieve whatever victory condition the game has put forth.

But Puzzle Strike HAS no cards.

Yeah but the mechanics of the game play is exactly the same as a “deck-building” card game. The chips in the game have the same function as cards except you take the chips out of a bag instead of shuffling the cards into a deck and drawing the top cards.

Here’s a video of what you get in the box:

Here’s a review of the Deluxe edition of the game plus an explanation of the how the game plays:

I personally think this game looks like a lot of fun. It’s too expensive though. Luckily they have a $10.00 version of the game you can download at the official site. You have to print out and cut out the cards yourself but it still plays like the chip version. I’ve printed out games before so I don’t think I’d mind doing it again. When I do, I’ll let you know. What do you think of this game? Does it sound interesting?

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Comments Off on Halloween. Got little done. Crazy Wednesday. Puzzle Strike.

Watched Cheech and Chong movie as “research” at work. Didn’t get much work done on my drawing. Reading Brother’s Grimm fairytales. An interview with Jim Lujan and Matt Groening.

September 2, 2010 in ART, FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Our Day Care decided to go on vacation Monday and Tuesday. This Monday, my wife started work. We had no one else to look after the kids for those days so I ended up having to stay home and take care of them. This meant that I had to make up 16 hours of work. My job only gives me two weeks to get done with the assignments I’ve been given, this means that I can’t really afford to lose any hours. I need to work every hour I can, in order to get my work done.

The show I’m working on now is the one where Cheech and Chong guest star. Some of us on the show had never seen a Cheech and Chong movie, so for the sake of “research”, the crew took a lunch hour and watched their first movie. It was called a “mandatory” meeting. We got free food and watched the movie along with the director.

ART

Do to the circumstances I wrote about in THE SIMPSONS NEWS above, I didn’t get a much of a chance to work on my things this week. Since I had to take care of my kids Monday and Tuesday, it was very difficult to get any time to draw. I was planning to have the drawing done by this point but it seems it will take a little longer than I planned. This is what I got done:

I roughed out the Winged Apes on a separate piece of tracing paper and once I was satisfied, I transferred them to the main drawing. The roughs of the Apes where too big, so I had to shrink them in order to have them fit:

Lots of things I don’t like so far. The face of the flying one was off. He wasn’t actually looking at Rob so I erased it in order to draw a better one (haven’t gotten to it yet). I’m also unhappy with the way the pose came out overall and I’m going to change it so that it’s a little bit more like my original thumbnail. The claws on the apes need work and I still don’t like how tight everyone is round Rob. I still think Rob’s arms need to be worked out better as well. Some of these problems I will solve once I scan the drawing in for the final pass.

One of the things I changed was the height of the buildings in the background. Since I had increased Rob’s size, he was much taller than the buildings, which meant that, if the building were going to be the darkest dark, I need them to “cover” a bit more of him.

What do you think?

FAMILY

I’ve been sending the kids early to bed lately, that way I don’t keep them up late when I read them a fairytale. I own a copy of THE ANNOTATED BROTHERS GRIMM. It has the Brothers Grimm fairytales I grew up with. In other words, they aren’t watered down and sanitized the way modern re-telling are.

What I’ve discovered is that my kids LOVE them. Just as it gets really scary things turn out alright. They’re great. You should have seen the reaction I got when I read that Little Red Riding Hood got eaten by the wolf. They screamed in delighted tension. “What will happen NOW?!” Then everything turned out alright and they wanted me to read another story.

I think HANSEL AND GRETEL left a big impression on Munchkin. Even though she has a hard time saying “Hansel”. She was amazed at the story. The witch really freaked her out. With the description of her keen sense of smell and red eyes but lousy eyesight. Then when Gretel tricks her, kicks her in the oven and burns her up, Munchkin was amazed and the empowerment of the act. She sat there with her big eyes wide. She loved the story.

My son had a very odd reaction to another part of that story. After I read about how the witch died, the story tells how the kids went back inside the Ginger Bread house and found the witches treasure. Well, when I read the part where the kids went back inside, by son (whose 2 1/2) asked me if the kids were now going to become witches. Wow, he thought they were going to take the witch’s place. What an odd thought for a 2 year old.

I love reading them the stories. They have a bigger vocabulary than anything they get exposed to. I sometimes have a feeling that they don’t understand most of what I’m reading. I figure, the more I read, the more they’ll understand what it means as I use it in context. It’s also just fun for me to try to get “into the parts” to make the stories come to life for them.

We all have a good time.

VIDEO

Jim Lujan has done it again. This time he’s animated an interview with himself. It’s fantastic and great fun. Take a look:

VIDEO

I found this mini documentary of Matt Groening interesting and I thought I’d share:

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

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Watched Cheech and Chong movie as “research” at work. Didn’t get much work done on my drawing. Reading Brother’s Grimm fairytales. An interview with Jim Lujan and Matt Groening.

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