MY WEEK | Luis' Illustrated Blog

My top 10 iOS board game apps. Revising revisions.

March 8, 2012 in APPS, BOARD GAMES, Featured, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Slightly less hectic work week this week. I’m trying to finish up both Act 1 and Act 3 this week. I would have been done with Act 1 last week but Tuesday of this week, we got revisions on the revisions. I had to go back and adjust what I’d finished. Turns out this show is too long and there need to be things cut from it.

Act least the rewrites on Act 3 are lite.

MY WEEK

I’m still trying to recover from two weeks ago. It tends to directly effect my creativity outside the work place. I’ve found I need a longer break from my personal project, just to get the energy back to really WANT to get back to it. I’m working on a small project for my wife right now. I hope to get it done fast. I’m already almost done with it.

I think the break will do me good though.

Whenever work gets me stress out, I tend to alleviate the stress with games. My mind just automatically goes there. So here’s the result…

APPS/BOARD GAMES

I love playing board games but I don’t often get to play them. Mostly because I just don’t have the time or the people around to play them with.

Well, the next best thing is actually playing digital versions of board games on my iPod Touch. I can play them on my own time and I don’t have to have anyone around to play them with. It’s not as fun this way but I take what I can get. Although there are plenty of board game apps now, that allow you to play asynchronously against other people. Which greatly increases the social aspect of playing theses games.

That said, I thought I’d write up a list of my top 10 board game apps. ALL of these game have physical board game counter parts. So if you like the app, you might really like the actual board games.

First though, here’s the honorable mention. Game that didn’t make my top ten but they’re worth trying out anyway:

Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino

COST: FREE

Dominion is THE game that created it’s own genre, the “deck building game”. This is a really fun game.

The object of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game. You do this by buying card from the center, which eventually become part of your deck. In turn these cards will allow you to do more interesting things in your turn that may make your deck better so you can have more points at the end of the game.
Why didn’t it make the list?

The interface and A.I. isn’t all that good and it can be downright confusing. But it’s free so it might still be worth a download if you don’t mind fighting through the lousy interface. Give it a try and find out why Dominion is such an incredible game.

Liarr’s Dice

LiARR's Dice

COST: FREE

If you’ve seen the second PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie, you’ve seen this game played. It’s one of the funnest games to play with friends and family. That said, if you want to try out how it plays and don’t have any friends around, this is a good place to start.

The object of the game is to be the last player left. You do this by rolling dice hidden from everyone else and betting on how many dice of a certain number is rolled by everyone on the table (which are also hidden) without going over. Everyone takes turns raising the bid until someone thinks the bid is too high by calling out “Liar!”. Everyone reveals the dice they rolled. If the dice show the bid was lower or equal what the dice show, the accuser losses a die from his hand, but if the accused has bid OVER the dice on the table, then THEY lose a die.

Why didn’t it make the list?

This game is no where near as fun to play digitally. You really need to play this with real people. But again, just like Dominion, it’s free, so why not.

Alright now for:

MY TOP 10 iPHONE/iPOD TOUCH BOARD GAMES:

10. Hive

Hive

COST: $0.99
Hive is an abstract game, similar to Chess, only the pieces move in a way that resembles bugs. The game doesn’t have a board. As you place down pieces a board of sorts is created by the way the pieces are touching each other. The object of the game is to surround you’re opponent’s Queen Bee.

It’s a decent version of the board game. I’d rather play the real deal but this is a good alternative. As you improve, you get more difficult modes.

Unfortunately, as of the time of this writing the game is…well…a bit buggy. As in, the code is buggy…well you know what I mean. It needs a few updates.

9. Button Men

Button Men

COST: $0.99

I tend to like dice games. This one is a fun one. This game is a “dice dueling game”. The object of the game is to capture you’re opponents dice. You pick a character who has certain types of dice that have different sides and affects. You then roll and depending on the outcome, you decide what dice you want to capture from you opponent. It’s a fast game and it has enough decisions to make it much more than a luckfest.

The best part of the app is that it has a pass and play mode. I found it’s best to play the game this way. That said, the A.I. gives you a good challenge so it’s a fun game played this way as well.

8. Kingsburg

Kingsburg Serving the Crown

Cost: $4.99

Okay now, with Kingsburg, we’re getting into a much heavier game. This one take about 20 to 30 minutes to play. The point of Kingsburg is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game. A game lasts about 16 turns and what you generally do each turn is roll dice in order to get the help of a specific person which will give you a special benefit. The sum of all or some of the dice will tell you which person you can choose to get help from. The “help” can be in attaining resources to build special buildings for your town, increase your military might, peek to see who will raid the town in winter, or buy special effect that will help you manipulate your dice rolls. The buildings give you special abilities or protection from attack, as well as victory points. Since each round of turns is one year with four seasons, at the end of winter, there is an attack. Everyone rolls a die and adds their defenses to it. If it roll over the raider’s attack number, you fend them off. If you don’t, you lose a building. At the end of 4 rounds of 4 seasons, the person who has gotten the most victory points wins.

This is a fun game. It’s a little difficult to get used to because the actual game board is so big, it couldn’t all be fit in the iPhone/iPod Touch screen. This means you have to switch screens a lot to really be able to decide what to do. Once you get past that, it plays great. It even has a pass and play option but no online option.

The only reason I don’t play this more, is because it takes so long to play.

7. Neuroshima Hex

Neuroshima Hex

Cost: $4.99

One of THE best board game strategy games out for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The object of the game is to reduce your opponent’s base to zero points. You do this by placing hexagonal tiles on the board with programmed special abilities. Every turn you may put down, 1, 2 or no tiles down and then your opponents may do the same. At some point, either when the whole board has tiles on it and therefore no one can put a tile down, or when someone puts don’t a “combat” tile down, all the tiles are activated and you see how the battle plays out, based on each tile’s special abilities and turn order.

If the bases are still there after combat ends, you continue putting tiles down as before.

The game can be played with up to 4 people and there are 4 different armies to choose from.

You can play asynchronously online or pass and play.

This is a fantastic game and it’s tough to beat the computer in higher difficulty levels.

There’s a lite version of this to try out, just to see what it’s like so check it out.

6. Roll Through the Ages

Roll Through the Ages

Cost: $2.99

Wanna play a Civ game that lasts about 10 minutes? This is your game.

The point of the game is to get the most points by the end of the game. You do this by rolling special dice, “Yahtzee style”. In other words, you roll some dice, and you chose what to keep and what to re-roll. The dice faces have food, workers, money, jars and skulls. Workers can be used to build wonders or build up your town so that you may roll more dice each turn. Food allows you to feed your workers so you don’t lose points each turn. Jars allow you to build up resources that you can use to get special civics. The civics give you victory points and provide you with some sort of special ability or benefit, like protection from famine. Coins supplement your resources when buying civics, but if you don’t use them on the turn you roll them, they go away. Skulls are bad, they do bad things when you roll them (like cause famine) and they can’t be rerolled once you roll them.

For a game that shares a mechanism with Yahtzee, this game manages successfully NOT feel like Yahtzee and totally feels like a Civ game. I really like this game, it’s simple but deep. You can play it solo and try to beat your own score, or better yet, you can play pass and play. But it has no online play.

Great game to have.

5. Ticket to Ride Pocket

Ticket to Ride Pocket

Cost: $1.99

Now we get to one of the “modern classic” board games. Ticket to Ride Pocket is a very good implementation of it’s board game counter part.

Once again, the object of the game is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game. You do this by connecting cities on the board by placing train pieces, but you can only do so if you have the correct number of matching colored cards. At the start of the game, you chose between getting 1 to 3 destination tickets which you must complete by the end of the game. Doing so gives you the points written on the tickets, failing makes you get negative points written on the ticket.

For a more in depth overview of the Ticket to Ride games, I suggest you read, my Ticket to Ride article HERE.

For an article on Ticket to Ride Pocket, CLICK HERE.

Being aware of who is placing things where is key. Deciding when to place your trains and when to pick cards lends a good tension to the game. I’ve found the AI is really tough to beat, which I think is good.

This version of the game supports, solo games, pass and play, and online games. The interface is simple and the tutorial is very good. Expansions are also available to purchase so you can change the game up a bit. I recommend it.

4. Catan

Catan

Cost: $4.99

The people that haven’t heard of Settler of Catan is slowly shrinking. Here’s yet another way people can become aware of this fun little game.

The way I see it, Settler is a “Civ lite” game. The object of the game is to be the first to get 12 points. You do this by building your civilization, or colonies, as best you can with the resources you have on hand, and by trading wisely with those civilizations around you.

For a more in depth view of Settler of Catan, I wrote an article comparing it to Monopoly HERE.

I think the best part of playing this version is the Campaign modes with unique winning conditions. Not only that but you can also buy expansions that change the game up. But even if you don’t get those, the game is different every time because of the nature of the games’ variable board.

The iPhone/iPod Touch version allows you to zoom in and out of the board so you can place things the way you want, and the interface is very intuitive. There’s a hot seat mode, but no online mode. Still, it gives a solo player plenty of options and unique ways to play. Great game.

3. Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice

Cost: Free/$0.99 for multiplayer

Why is this game my number 3? Because I play it quite a lot. This is ALMOST a brainless game (ha, ha brainless…I is funny). Seriously though, this is a fun quick game. It’s a dice rolling game where the object is to be the person to collect 13 brains or more. Once someone collects 13 brains, the other players try to get more, if they fail the person with 13 brains wins.

On your turn you roll the dice, and you see what you get. If you roll brains, you keep them. If you roll foot steps, it’s neither positive or negative, they don’t do anything. If you roll the explosion, that means you got shotgunned. You can then decide to continue to roll, or stop and keep your score. If you choose to roll again, you have the opportunity to get more brains, BUT at any point during your rolling, if you accumulate three shotguns, you lose your points for this turn. What makes this game just a tad thinky, is the color of the dice. Green dice have only one shotgun while the red ones have the most and the yellow ones are somewhere in between. Depending on how many brains you have, how many shotguns you have and the probability of the dice you need to roll, you make up your mind as to whether you should continue to roll or not.

It’s a fun little diversion of a game that you can play in minutes. It’s also very silly. Oh, and it’s FREE! Well, it is if you plan to play it solo. If you plan to play it pass and play, then you can spend $.99 for that option. I had so much fun playing the game solo that when given the opportunity to play with my brother, I bought the option. I haven’t regretted it. It’s so fun to play this game with others.

2. Farkle Dice

Farkle Dice - Free

Cost: Free

For the same reason I like Zombie Dice above, I like this game too. It’s free. It’s fun. I like it. I play it a TON and this version has a great interface. It let’s you play against computer opponents from the start and it’s not just a “beat your best score”, solo game.

First to 10,000 points wins.

I just like dice games.

1. Ascension

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Cost: $4.99

This game is considered, by many, the best iPhone/iPod Touch board game port out there. I bought the game mostly from the hype. I played it and didn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about.

This is a “deck building game” like Dominion above, (I think it was the 3rd game of it’s kind on the market) only much more random. The goal of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game. You do this by buying cards (which give you points) from six random cards that are placed into the center row. These cards give you special abilities once they show up in your deck after they get shuffled into it.

You can also “fight” and destroy monsters that show up in the center row. When you do this, they get banished into the discard pile. Many monster, once you destroy them, give you a special one shot ability.

So I played it and thought it was a bit too random. I didn’t really get it. The game was easy to beat and it didn’t seem like it had many decisions. THEN I played it four player with each AI opponent at it’s highest difficulty setting. I couldn’t win the game. The AI consistently beat me. WHY?!

Turns out the game has all kinds of depth I didn’t realize it had. I started playing this game like crazy. Trying to at least win ONE game. Many many close games later, many many strategies later, and I finally did. That doesn’t really mean I “solved” the game. I still lose more games than I win, but at least now I know ONE way to play the game that can give me victory.

Like Poker, it has that random unpredictability to it that makes it a new experience every game but, like Poker, the game pays off best when you play what cards you have in the best way you can.

This game can be played pass and play as well as asynchronously online.

Alright, that’s it for me. I have nine other board game apps in my iPod Touch I didn’t write about. Perhaps I will some other time. This list was my Top Ten though, and I’m sure as time goes by, it will change.

If you download any of these games or own them already, let me know what you think of them. Or better yet, let me know so we can play together. Bye.

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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.

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I have this week off (without pay). Moebius drawing video. Scene 9, the final scene.

April 7, 2011 in ART, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The last show I worked on before I left the show was the show that stars Neil Gaiman. I really like his stories so I had fun working on the show. It’s one of my favorite shows of this season.

I’m now on a one week break and then I go back to work next week. I had originally thought I was going to be out for two weeks but I guess I’m not. When I return to work, it will be for two weeks. I’ll be revising the last show of the season. Once that’s done, I’ll be out of work for three weeks. I might open myself up for commissions, I haven’t decided yet. Especially since I’ve never done it before and I don’t know if anyone would be interested.

MY WEEK

I’ve been very busy this week. Besides working on my new BLACK TERROR KID comic, I’ve also taken on yet another job. This time it’s for my wife. She has an 85,000 work novel manuscript she’s finished and has been sending it around to agents. She’s had a few close calls but not bites yet. She’s decided to e-publish the book herself. She now needs a cover for her book, so I’ve volunteered to help her with that.

Monday we had a friend of her’s come over to model a photo shoot. That took up a lot of time. I hope to get started on that cover soon.

VIDEOS/ART

The very beginning of this video has one of my favorite artists Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius) drawing on a Cintiq. The man is (as of the time of this writing) 73 and is a master of his craft. The best part about it, is simply seeing his process. Being a master draftsman, he could have simply drawn directly what he wanted, but he didn’t. The piece he draws is a bit more involved and so he chose to not only put in a perspective grid, but he also drew a quick, rough under drawing of what the wanted to draw.

Why do I point this out? Because after so many years of drawing and being a master draftsman, he STILL relies on the basics. I’ve experience, to often, fellow artists who have been professionally drawing for over ten or twenty years that seems to scoff at the idea that they need to put down a perceptive grid or set down an under drawing because they think they are masters themselves after so many years of drawing. Yet I doubt anyone of them has as much experience as Jean Giraud and HE still uses them. If it’s good enough for him, why not us? Are we better draftsmen then he?

WRITING

Alright, before I begin, I have to apologize to everyone who has read my treatment so far. I have recently reread the whole thing since I first wrote it and discovered how awful the writing in it is. Again, I apologize. It’s all written in a stream of consciousness sort of way and I guess I hadn’t realized how reader unfriendly it actually is. The problem is that I didn’t really want to labor over it too much, since:

it’s not the final product, just a guide for myself, and
it’s the first draft.

My hope is that the ideas presented are good enough for you to realize what I’m after, even though the prose style is completely awful.
Okay so, on with what I did with this part:

After beating my head against the wall writing action, this last scene was a piece of cake. It was pretty straight forward.

I developed the hot dog vendor a bit more here. Gave me ideas for sight gags.

If you read the synopsis below, you’ll notice it’s a bit different than the final treatment. It’s basically the same thing, just in a slightly different way. There’s only so much planning you can do. You have let the story do it’s own thing:

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)

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day concluded

The Sorcerer stares at Rob as he walks away. How dare he say those things. Who does he think he is? How DARE he. After the MERCY he has shown to Rob. The nerve. This shall not stand!

The Sorcerer begins to cast a spell. He’s going to strike Rob down once and for all.

Rob kneels down to check on his raven friend. He doesn’t notice what’s going on behind him. The hammer has since returned to it’s minuscule size. The raven seems to just be stunned. It blinks up and squawks happily at Rob. He looks a bit scuffled but otherwise, he’s okay.

The Sorcerer aims and is about to strike. But stalls just a bit too long and sees the way Rob treats his bird. He thinks about what Rob said. He looks around at his companions. One is still knocked out and the other is so self involved with himself sobbing, he hasn’t even checked on the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. He sees the destruction around him. He looks at his hands ready with the spell. He takes a long look at himself and reflects on what’s happened in the last few minutes. He’s about to strike a man in the back. He drops his hands and doesn’t cast the spell. He hates to admit it, but Rob was right. The injustice was theirs.

Rob gets up and takes the raven over to his backpack. He sets him down and the raven shakes itself. Rob unzips a pocket in his pack and takes out some gauze, tape and disinfectant. He begins to apply the disinfectant and cleans his wounds. Once done, he wraps up the wounds. He doesn’t manage to wrap them all up, but he gets enough of them. He then puts the disinfectant away and unzips another part of his pack. He reaches in and takes out a clean shirt. He carefully puts it on. The process is obviously painful. He dearly wishes the Sorcerers would just leave him alone. He doesn’t have a lot of clothes to spare. When he gets a chance, he’ll have to change his ripped up pants also.

He zips up his pack, painfully gets up, and delicately puts the pack on. He forces himself to look around for the Sorcerers. They are gone. There’s no sign of them. Good riddance. His stomach grumbles and he feels the hunger again. He sighs. It’s bad enough he feels the pain all over the outside of his body, but he still has the pain on the inside and he can’t do anything about it. Maybe he could find a water fountain somewhere to fill his belly. He calls to the raven who gingerly lands on his shoulder and he begins to walk out the of the shopping area.

He hadn’t taken two steps before he hears someone call out to him. He turns to see that it’s the hot dog vendor in his stall. Miraculously, the stall survived the chaos of the fight, unscathed. Rob goes over to the stall. The hot dog vendor hands him two hot dogs on a plate. The hot dog vendor still has the same expression and attitude as he did earlier. It’s as if the crazy fight and the destruction around him, hadn’t happened. He tells Rob that the hot dogs are his.

Rob asks the vendor if it’s a gift from him?

The vendor looks scandalized and denies the accusation as if he’d been insulted. He tells Rob the hot dogs were bought for him by the skinny guy with the eighties pompadour. Rob looks around again for the Sorcerer but he’s no where in sight.

The vendor asks Rob if he’s going to take the hot dogs. If he isn’t, he’ll just throw them away.

Rob looks down at the hot dogs. What if it’s a trap? What if they are poisoned or worse?

The vendor takes them and says he’s tossing them. Rob stops him. He’s so hungry he doesn’t care. He asks for them. The vendor hands the hot dogs over. Rob asks the vendor why he’s so calm after what just happened. The vendor tell Rob he grew up in — El Salvador and that he’s seen worse. Rob just kinda thinks oookay and then turns and walks away.

He looks down at the hot dogs and his mouth begins to water. He wonders what made the Sorcerer buy him the hot dog. Perhaps, this is a sign of good things to come. He smiles. He walks over to the fountain and sits down on one of the walls that surround it. He tells the raven there’s enough for each of them. He hands the raven a hot dog and takes one himself. He takes a bite.

Best thing he’s ever tasted. Life is awesome.

THE END

At this point, it’s tricky for me to say how much out of story “business” like the hot dog vendor should be in the final story. On the other hand, he’s kind of important since he give Rob the hot dogs.

Okay, so the next thing there’s left for me to do is figure out a good magick system. Once I do that, I’ll rewrite the parts of the treatment that are effected by the new system. I’m so glad I’m finally done! At least, with the first draft. I think the reediting will be much easier. I don’t think I’ll post the second draft. I might just make a note of the changes (perhaps).

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

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New Black Terror Kid comic coming soon. Jerzy’s Comic Academy. Scene 5 treatment.

March 10, 2011 in MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Just managed to get done with the revisions for the Halloween show. It was a pretty hectic last two days of the week. I’ve now moved on to show 21. My first assignment on the show is the show’s Couch Gag. It was difficult one. It had a TON of Springfielders and it got complicated. Took me two days to do it.

MY WEEK

In spite of the fact I haven’t got the time, I started working on another Black Terror Kid comic. It’s going to be five pages long and will only be in black and white. I’m creating it in order to have something to put up on a gallery for a special event in May. This means I have till April to finish it. The gag is written out already. The thumbnail sketches are done, and all I need to do is start drawing it.

This one will be about what happens when the Black Terror Kid tries to sell The Claw some cookies for charity. I’m looking forward to drawing it.

Once it’s done, the pages will be up for sale at the gallery, so if you like them enough, you could buy them.

Thing is…I probably won’t want to sell them…so…I might jack up the price so that no one buys them.

For more on the Black Terror Kid and his adventures: CLICK HERE.

VIDEO

There’s this dude named Jerzy something or other, that REALLY likes drawing comics. I guess he’s a podcaster, cartoonist, and comicbook teacher or something and likes talking about creating comics. He has a comic drawing course and stuff. Here’s a video of his Comic Academy, Week 1. Check it out:

I’m obviously joking around. Jerzy is awesome. The videos is great.

WRITING

This was difficult. Action is hard.

I had a few things floating around in my head that I thought should happen in the fight, put them into the treatment. What I ended up with, I think, is a good basic skeleton of what should happen. I’ll probably watch some Jackie Chan movies for more inspiration when it actually comes to drawing this stuff for storyboarding. Especially since a Jackie Chan style fight is what I’m really going for here.

As I’ve been doing the last few weeks, I wrote out the synopsis of the scene followed by the more fleshed out treatment:

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.

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

Rob is overwhelmingly frustrated. His stomach growls in spite of the chaos around him. He looks down at this hot dog longingly. He searches for escape routes. If he could just manage to ditch these jerks, he could at least finish his lunch. The situation is so out of hand that he just wants to wash his hands of the whole thing.

He spots a way out of the Shopping Area and he goes for it.

Guessing his intention the Other Male Sorcerer calls out to stop him from escaping. The Female Sorcerers summons an enormous Winged Ape which appears before Rob and slashes him, ripping his shirt and nearly knocking the hot dog off his plate.

Rob gets hit one more time and gets thrown to the side clutching his lunch so that it will be safe. He lands hard. He’s dazed and confused for a moment. The Ape attacks again. Rob’s Raven comes to the rescue pecking and scratching at the Ape. The Ape swats at the Raven and hits it, sending it flying into some bushes. Rob comes to his senses just as the Ape turns it’s attention back to him. It lunges toward him. Rob sees it coming and in the same split second sees another potential exit he can go for. He feints to one side and then uses the Apes momentum to have it crash to the side as he steps over it and goes for the other exit.

Seeing this, the Other Male Sorcerer summons another Winged Ape who blocks Rob’s attempt at freedom. It backhands Rob and sends him skidding to a stop near a fountain. Clothes ripped and bleeding Rob quickly gets to his feet as the Ape leaps at him. He uses the nearby fountain to dodge and hide from the thing. He jumps from the fountain to a wall surrounding the fountain dodging the Ape’s attacks. All the while, nearly dropping and recovering his lunch. He uses the cover of some nearby trees and benches to avoid the Ape.

He looks for more exits. He sees the other Ape has recovered and is moving in his direction. Both Apes are between him and an exit. He turns and see one more exit. His stomach grumbles. He runs. The Apes try to catch him. He leaps just as they get to him. They hit each other. Rob keeps going. He’s home free. Suddenly an enormous Viper like creature appears from nowhere before him. Rob comes to a screeching halt.

The Lead Sorcerer smiles, a little tired after having summoned the creature. He points out to Rob that he says he’s innocent, yet he run like a guilty man. He tells Rob his actions speak clearly.

The Viper thing lunges at Rob and he moves out the way just in time to avoid it’s fangs. Rob moves away from it. All exits blocked.

END OF SCENE

I think even if it’s as straightforward as this, the fight scene should work okay. After all, the point of this scene is to whittle away Rob’s options.

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Comments Off on New Black Terror Kid comic coming soon. Jerzy’s Comic Academy. Scene 5 treatment.

Back on the Halloween show. Treatment of Scene 3. CARTOONISTA cartoons. My birthday fumble.

February 24, 2011 in MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I started board revisions on the Halloween show this week. I was given Act 1 which had the least amount of re-writes while my partner got stuck with the much heavier Act 3. It has a lot more re-writes and it’s much more complicated. It’s also the act the layout crew is starting on. It’s very funny and it had me laughing so much I was tearing up when we watched the screening.

VIDEOS

I’ve got some videos from fellow CARTOONISTAS I want to share this week.First up is Jim Lujan‘s latest cartoon HARD CRUMBLER. A story of a man searching for what he’s lost. Very funny. Jim has a way of making his cartoons seem so serious but they are sooo not. Great stuff:



Next is Raul Aguirre Jr‘s Act 1 animatic for a project he’s working on for El Padrecito Ministries. It’s a cartoon based on the HOMIES and MiJOS line of product of gumball machine toys, you might have seen. It’s amazing. Raul is the man. He obviously did all the voice work and put together an animatic single handed. Fantastic stuff. So much work. The project needs some stimulus money to continue so you might want to think about pitching in a few bucks, it looks worth it. Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYyFwDAjGF8


WRITING


Scene three is very short. The most significant thing about it, is that I officially pass the “antagonist baton” from the Lead Sorcerer to the Other Male Sorcerer (the guy who has his face covered by his hair). The Lead Sorcerer is no longer both the Antagonist AND the Impact Character. He is just the Impact Character. The way I’ve been writing him kinda forced me to split the role onto the other character. I’m just glad I had another character to give the role to.


As I have been doing, I’ll put the synopsis of the scene and then I’ll expand on it:

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)

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

The Lead Sorcerer takes the little hammer and thinks it’s some sort of joke at first. Then he senses that the thing has power. The others think it’s a trick, until the Lead Sorcerer tells them otherwise. The other two Sorcerers laugh at the puny thing. They both wonder that anything that small could do anything to anyone. They laugh at it and at themselves, wondering how anyone would be afraid of it.



The Lead Sorcerer doesn’t like holding or touching the thing any more than he has to, so as his companion laugh at the little hammer, he tosses it as far away from himself as he can. All the while pretending that he thinks the thing is laughable too. The little hammer lands in some bushes a few yards away. The Lead Sorcerer is relieved, knowing that they just barely managed to dodged that bullet. He hadn’t anticipated such power.

Everything being settled, Rob feels relieved that he’s at least going to get ten minutes of peace to eat. His stomach hurts from hunger so much he doesn’t really care anything about what the Sorcerers are doing. He takes his knife and is about to cut his hot dog again.The Sorcerers look on. The other male Sorcerers looks on as Rob is about to cut into his hot dog and hatred erupts in his belly. He sees no reason to give this monster any mercy of any kind. Before the Lead Sorcerer could stop him, he fires a volley of fire balls at Rob.

END OF SCENE

That last bit with the fireball was new. I didn’t know he was going to do that until I wrote it. I haven’t really worked out the Sorcerer’s magic system yet. Which means I kinda making it up as go. What I DO know, is that they get their powers by creating unions with “spirits”.


I find it interesting that, the more I write the more excited I get about it.


MY WEEK


It was my birthday on Sunday. I’m now 36.

For the first time in a very long time, I decided that I would actually voice what I wanted to do for my birthday. Most birthdays I sit back and let people do things for me for my birthday. This was fine for a while but I’ve gotten to the point where I would actually like to do something I really enjoy. Now a days, what I want to do consists of one thing: playing games.

Things haven’t really changed much since many MANY years ago (high school days I think), for my birthday, I invited a bunch of friends over to play video games with me. Things have changed only in the type of games I like. They mostly consist of tabletop games now. Well, I thought my wife knew what I wanted. When she asked me earlier this Month what I wanted, I told her,”You know what I like”. Thinking that she’d noticed I have a lot of boardgames around and I’m always asking her to play with me (which she mostly doesn’t do). I figured she’d think that I might want to invite some people over to play games for my birthday (because she knows I like that). Well, I found out Friday morning that she didn’t have that in mind at all. She thought I wanted to go to the park for some reason. I don’t know why.

I corrected that assumption and told her what I wanted. I wanted a game day and I thought it would be best to do it on a Saturday since people didn’t have to go to Church and some people had to work on Monday. So at the last minute, Alesha started contacting people about coming over on Saturday to play games.

I got very excited. Not only that, but I started to get a little worried as people started confirming that they were coming. It was going to be about eighteen people or so. This is a bit of a problem since most of my games average about four players, and I only had ONE table. My parents said they weren’t going to make it and my brother and sister-in-law weren’t either. I was counting on my parents coming to bring some extra tables, but in the end, I went over to their place to pick them up.

We cleaned up the house and rearranged the furniture to have the most space possible to have three gaming table ready. Then came the tricky part, what games to put out for people to play. I knew I was going to spend a lot of time explaining games because the games I have aren’t mainstream. Most people hadn’t even heard of them. So I thought hard and came up with some solutions. One table would have the game GYPE which requires you to read three sentences of rules before the game begins. It’s a fun fast game and I would just be able to point to the table and people could get started. It also plays tons of people.

On another table, I set up the game FORBIDDEN ISLAND. This is a very simple cooperative game for four people. It’s very pretty and easy to teach. Since it’s cooperative, it would be perfect as an intro to gaming, since everyone at the table is working together. I also wanted to hook up two TVs. One hooked up to the Nintendo 64 running MARIO PARTY. The other hooked up the my PS2 running DOKAPON KINGDOM (both are boardgame video games). Unfortunately I couldn’t get one of the TVs to hook up well, so that left only one. If I needed another one, I’d unplug the one in my office and bring it down.

For the “big table”, I wanted to put something I really wanted to play. Something a little bit heavier that I can really sink my teeth into. I wanted to play AGRICOLA, but I also wanted to go with COSMIC ENCOUNTER since it was silly strategic fun. I just couldn’t decide.

I forgot to tell you that the day before, Alesha had gone over and picked up her friend Rosetta who slept over. She’s one of Alesha’s best friends and she is one the few who LOVES playing boardgames with us. When she heard we where having a boardgame party, she couldn’t wait to come.
Everyone was suppose to come at two but by two o’clock, no one had come. Alesha, thought we should start playing something while we waited. So I chose DOMINION. I explained the game to Rosetta and we got started. We had fun, in spite of the fact that the kids kept interrupting the game. I was hoping to have other kids or people there already to keep them distracted but…oh well. By the time we finished the first game of DOMINION, we had found out that one group of people wasn’t going to make it because they were having car problems. That was okay, there were more coming. We started another game of DOMINION and finished the game much faster but still had lots of interruptions. Especially since Alesha was cooking as she played. By the time we finished the second game, we had received two more phone calls telling us the rest of the people who were coming weren’t going to make it because of car troubles. EVERYONE had car problems. Crazy.And so ended my big game day. We eat dinner after that. I was sung happy birthday and we eat cake. Rosetta had to go home (forty five minutes away) so Alesha took her home promising me that when she got back, she would play some more games with me. I stayed and played FORBIDDEN ISLAND with the kids (we lost twice) and then we played a game of TABLE GYPE (only using the flame side up).I love playing with my kids because it lets me spend time with them and they enjoy it so much. That said, I don’t actually enjoy any of the games I play with them. I mean, I really can’t be serious about playing against them or anything. They are just little kids. The games aren’t very satisfying and I was really in the mood to play satisfying games. After all, it was my birthday party.Well, I put the kids to bed soon after we where done (since it was their bedtime) and I was left all alone with three tables of games that no one used. I began to put everything away. I must admit, I was heartbroken. I knew it was my fault for not speaking up earlier and letting people know sooner. Still, it really sucked. My family was going to hold a birthday party for me the next day. Unfortunately, games are almost never played at parties held for me at my parents house. In fact, Alesha even suggested that we should hold the game night at my parent’s but I told her I didn’t like that idea, for a few reasons. 1) It would mean I wouldn’t have access to all my games, since I couldn’t bring them all. This meant I couldn’t cater the games I brought out the specific group that sat to play a game. 2) It wouldn’t have been about the games at my parents house. It would be about the food and the socializing. Socializing would come first, then food and if we had time (which we almost NEVER do) we would play something. The game day, as I had planned it, had NO finger foods (no chips or anything you eat with your fingers), and the food was secondary to the gaming. It was meant to be unimportant. Also, you could socialize all you wanted and not play a game but if you wanted to socialize with me, you had to play a game with me because I wanted to be playing something all the time. I wouldn’t have gotten that at my parent’s house. Anyway, Alesha came home about three hours later, completely beat. She’d been stuck in traffic for hours in rain and sleet. She was in no condition to play anything anymore and I was emotionally drained and sad so I didn’t really want to play anything either. The next day was my birthday, I went to Church with Elizabeth and got ready to go to my parent’s house. I brought my games with me along with all the tables and chairs I borrowed. As I usually do, I pack up very specific games that I think the people at the party will like to play. I do this every time I go to a party (just in case someone says to me, “Let’s play a game”). When I got to my parents house, I left the games in the car. I do this because we rarely ever play them so why bother taking them out. Like I said, I bring them just in case. I kinda had the impression that I was expected to bring games since they didn’t come to my game party. I knew better though. The birthday party was nice. The food was amazing. Eduardo, my Compadre, barbecued the most awesome stakes. I couldn’t stop eating them. I mean, these things were sooo good. They had this fantastic smoky flavor. Yum. The food was great and the kids had fun. Everyone left early because it was Sunday and no one mentioned games. My games stayed in the car. We left soon after. When we got home we put the kids to bed, Alesha asked me if I wanted to play something. We played a game of the CATAN CARD GAME and two games of DOMINION. We had a great time and I was very happy and grateful to her. But here’s the thing. I might be self centered, walking around feeling sorry for myself but in spite of my flaws, something really good happened in spite of my disappointing game day. Alesha’s friend Rosetta had an INCREDIBLE time with us. She couldn’t stop thanking Alesha on the way home for being invited to come. She had been going through a lot of bad things and having come over to spend time with us and playing games had been the highlight of her year so far. She was so happy. So all this birthday stuff, it wasn’t about me. It was about her and what SHE needed. Sometime you have to stop thinking about yourself and see the big picture. I didn’t NEED a game day. I just wanted one. She NEEDED what we ended giving her and you know what? That makes it a great birthday.

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Simpsons Christmas card. Nobody liked my last blog post. Breaking down throughlines into Acts.

December 16, 2010 in MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Stayed late this week working on getting LAST week’s assignment done. Stressful week so far. I’m hoping that by Friday, things will be under control and everything gets done on time. That’s my goal.

In other news, Director, Lance Kramer came by and gave a me a Christmas card for this year. He draws one every year. I got quite a few of them now and they’re always nice to get. Here’s his card for this year:

MY WEEK

Besides staying late in order to get my work done, I’ve also been working hard at structuring my story out for my personal project. I’ve been using any extra time I have to try to work the story out using the DRAMATICA system. It’s such a pain in the neck attempting wrap my head around all the definitions and theories, but I think that my story will be better off for it.

Last week, I attempted to semi explain what I’m doing but I’m so limited in the amount of time I have to explain it all. I must have really bored people. Either that or the very idea or presentation of the information must have been something almost no one was interested in. Why do I say that? My hit count really went down last week. Usually I stay at an average to above average consistent hit count, but last week, WOW, nobody seemed to really care. It also didn’t help that I made a mistake, explaining part of the theory (more on the in below under WRITING).

The worst part is that it’s such a necessary part of my process I kinda need to show it. I need to show the good and bad parts. To me, this isn’t really a bad part. I like doing it. I like thinking about structure.

Unfortunately, since it’s all about structure, there isn’t any colorful writing involved. It also takes up all the time I usually use to draw. This means I haven’t got anything visual to show. Just story structure.

Well, in spite of the fact that I failed to write my process in a more entertaining way, I’ve got to continue writing it, for the sake of completion. Below is some of what I did this week. I’m sorry if this isn’t very entertaining. I’ll try to find more entertaining things to do on the blog as I get the writing process finished. I’m trying hard to be clear about my process at this point, but there’s only so much I can do without writing a book on the theory I’m using, which I don’t need to do, since there’s a free book online already.

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 last week, 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 last week, 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):

Last week I made a bit of a mistake about the way I added the “Areas of Conflict” to the four “Viewpoints”. (If you’re having trouble following the terminology, you can download the DRAMATICA dictionary on this page HERE. Sorry for all the extra work). According to DRAMATICA the MAIN Character and the IMPACT Character are treated like a “couple”, while the OVERALL Story and the MAIN vs. IMPACT Story, are also treated like a “couple”. What this means, is that if I choose an “Area of Conflict” for one, it’s couple automatically gets assigned it’s “Dynamic Pair”. A Dynamic Pair is the quad found diagonally to the conflict I picked (as is explain in the lower right hand side of the table above). So in my case when I chose, FIXED ATTITUDE as my “OVERALL Story throughline”, it’s pair, “MAIN vs. IMPACT Story” should have automatically been assigned SITUATION as it’s conflict.

Below is the updated version of the way my story is broken down into it’s four “Viewpoints”:

MAIN Character (Rob) – ACTIVITY: This basically means Rob’s personal point of view will be about dealing with all the crazy things that are going on around him.

IMPACT Character (Lead Sorcerer) – MANIPULATION: This basically means that the lead Sorcerer’s point of the view will be his attempt to manipulate the MAIN Character (Rob) in some way.

OVERALL Story (Sorcerer’s attempt to kill Rob) – FIXED ATTITUDE: This basically means that the plot of the story, the structure of the story itself, is dealing with the effects of bias and prejudice and whether things can change in regards to it.

MAIN vs. IMPACT Story (Rob’s attempt to convince the Sorcerers they’ve got the wrong idea about him) – SITUATION: This basically means that the relationship in this story between The MAIN Character (Rob) and The IMPACT Character (lead Sorcerer) will be explored from the history of the situation they find themselves in.

Last week, I broke up the Acts a certain way when I finished the step above. Because I didn’t change the OVERALL Story throughline from last week, I broke up the Acts like this:

Act 1 – Memories
Act 2 – Impulsive Responses
Act 3 – Contemplation
Act 4 – Innermost Desires

The thing is, recently I rediscovered that, my wife Alesha, had bought the DRAMATICA software years ago. I thought it would make things easier, so I installed it and plugged my decisions into it, only to discover it didn’t let me. Instead it forced me to pick this configuration.

Act 1 – Memories
Act 2 – Impulsive Responses
Act 3 – Innermost Desires
Act 4 – Contemplation

Switching the Act 3 and 4 “Types”. At first I was angry, until I realized that it worked better with what I had in mind, so I let it go.

The next step, is to break up ALL the other throughlines into four Act. This means that, not only the OVERALL Story needs to be broken down, but also the MAIN Character story, the IMPACT Character story, and the MAIN vs. IMPACT character story. We do this by doing the same thing we did with the OVERALL Story throughline. We look at the “Types” (the dark gray quads) under each “throughline” and assign it an Act.

Okay so this is what I did:

MAIN Character story throughline:

Act 1 – Doing
Act 2 –Gathering information
Act 3 – Understanding
Act 4 – Obtaining

Once again I plugged this into the DRAMATICA software and it changed it to this:

Act 1 – Obtaining
Act 2 –Gathering information
Act 3 – Doing
Act 4 – Understanding

Which turns out, that it works better than I thought it would. Since the program kept changing my decision because of whatever algorithm it had in it’s programing, I just gave in and let the program tell me what to put where. So this is how the rest of the “throughlines” ended up, according to the what the software decided:

IMPACT Character story throughline:

Act 1 – Conceiving an Idea
Act 2 – Developing a Plan
Act 3 – Playing a Role
Act 4 – Changing one’s Nature

MAIN vs. IMPACT Story throughline:

Act 1 – Past
Act 2 – How things are Changing
Act 3 – Future
Act 4 – Present

I had other ideas but the more I thought about it, the more I thought this might work better.

Now that I got done with that part, I moved onto writing out the Act throughlines, using the “Types” as a “signpost” to what happens in each Act and the bridge between each “signpost”, called the “Journey”, will flesh out the content of each Act. Here’s what I mean, using the OVERALL Story throughline. I decided to add the definition of each “Type” I was working with, so that you could understand where I was coming from, when thinking about each Act:

ACT 1

Signpost #1

Type 1. Memories

(Memories Definition: The Past is an objective look at what has happened. In contrast, Memories is a subjective look at what has happened. Therefore, Memories of the same events varies among individuals creating many different and possibly conflicting recollections. Often one’s current feelings come from memories, both pleasant and unpleasant. Many a taut story revolves around a character’s effort to resolve open issues from her memories by recalling or forgetting them.)

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.

Journey #1

Type 1. 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.

ACT 2

Signpost #2

Type 2. Impulsive Responses

(Impulsive Responses Definition: Built into the mind is an instinctual base of reactions and attitudes that cannot be altered but merely compensated for. When a story’s problem revolves around the unsuitability of someone’s essential nature to a given situation or environment, the central issue is Impulsive Responses. The solution lies in the character conditioning herself to either hold her tendencies in check or develop methods of enhancing areas in which she is naturally weak in reason, ability, emotion, or intellect.)

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

Journey #2

Type 2. Impulsive Responses ======> Type 3. 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.

ACT 3

Signpost #3

Type 3. Innermost Desires

(Innermost Desires Definition: Innermost Desires describes the essential feelings that form the foundation of character. These feelings are so basic that a character is often not aware of what they truly are. When Innermost Desires is involved, a character is moved right to the fiber of her personality. Contrast with Impulsive Responses, Innermost Desires deals with the sum total of a character’s experiences that determine what attracts and repels her, where Impulsive Responses describes the innate responses which are not dependent on experience. )

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.

Journey #3

Type 3. Innermost Desires ======> Type 4. 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.

CONCLUSION

Signpost #4

Type 4. Contemplation

(Contemplation Definition: When one has all the facts, knows all the impact – both positive and negative; when one is fully aware of detrimental consequences and still decides on the poor course of action, there is something wrong with the way one arrives at conclusions. This is the subject of stories focusing on Contemplation. The key here is not to redefine who a character is, but to lead her to relearn how to weigh an issue so that her conclusions are less destructive to herself and/or others.)

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.

Does that make any sense at all so far? I hope so.

My next step is to do the same with all three throughlines I have left. I’ll save that for next week. I hope this clarifies things. If it’s confusing, please let me know (which you won’t, since I don’t believe you’ve read this at all).

VIDEO

…and now for something totally different:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWjh6wM3iH4

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 Simpsons Christmas card. Nobody liked my last blog post. Breaking down throughlines into Acts.

Making up hours again. Taking critique. Fun animation videos. Random free money.

September 9, 2010 in ART, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Had the day off Monday for Memorial Day, and came into work on Tuesday. Stayed late to make up the time since I was going to stay home and take care of my kids Wednesday. Today I’m back at work. I plan to finish what I got assigned and I’m probably going to get more work. Staying late again today.

I’m very tired.

ART

Because of Memorial day, and because I had to spend Wednesday taking care of my kids, I didn’t really get much done on my drawing this week either. I DID get a little bit done though.

One of the “bigger” things I changed was the pose for the flying ape. I like this pose much more than the one I originally had. I then photocopied my drawing and shrunk it. The reason for this was so that I could have a smaller copy of the ape faces. The winged apes were “off model” their faces where too big. I erased the faces I had put on them and then re-drew their faces off of the shrunk copy I had made. I think they look much better. I also changed the “texture” of the viper’s body.

I took a long hard look at the drawing so far and began nitpicking the things I didn’t like. I wrote it all down on a sticky note as a “to do list” and pasted it on the drawing. I added the things I needed to finish to the list as well. Crossed out the ones I finished doing as I went:

The drawing was on my table at work and a co-worker came in to talk to me. He took a look at my drawing and began to make suggestions, unasked. It kinda took me aback a bit, but I listened. He said two things and asked me one question. First he told me that the viper fangs I had drawn were inaccurate, and it dawned on me that he was very right. It’s one of those things I just mindlessly overlooked. He made a note of it on a sticky note and put it on my drawing. He then suggested that I put the tail of the viper in the left corner of the drawing so that there wasn’t empty space there. It was a good suggestion. He made another note of it on a sticky note and put it on the drawing.

I made the adjustments he had suggested soon after. I’m not happy with the viper tail the way I drew it so I’m going to adjust it. Other than that I’m happier with how the drawing is turning out.

Taking critique is difficult, especially when you don’t ask for it. It’s beneficial if you learn to block that prideful side of you that immediately get’s insulted. It’s a skill that takes practice. In this job, your stuff is always getting critiqued. Sometimes it’s done well, and sometimes it’s done lousy. Whichever way you get it, you need to be able to leave your ego out of it and listen to what is being said objectively. In the case of my co-worker’s critique, I’m glad I listened. He offered suggestions and pointed out a blunder, I didn’t know I’d made. I think the drawing is better off for it.

As I said before, he also asked a question, namely, why I hadn’t drawn the running Winged Ape from 3/4 back view. I told him I’d intentionally did that in order to have more of his face show.

He kinda apologized for saying anything but I told him I was glad he did. Especially in this stage of the drawing when I can still make fixes.

Getting critiqued is a huge part of my job now. As a board artist it’s rare when I show my work to a director and it’s accepted as is. Sometime there are a few changes, sometimes half of what I do is changed and sometimes it’s completely thrown out an I have to change it all. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me when everything gets thrown out. Usually, the director comes up with better ideas which make so much more sense, that I end up not minding at all. I learn more putting my ego aside and I end up happier for it. It’s a skill I haven’t mastered yet. I think the more I do it, the better I’ll get. It’s part of my job now more than ever.

VIDEOS

I loved this little shorts. They’re fantastically animated, they’re simple ideas and they’re darn funny. They make me want to animate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOMu027oW0&feature

MY WEEK

On Wednesday, when I stayed home to take care of the kids, I discovered to my dismay, I had to go to the supermarket. The baby didn’t have any baby food. I don’t like going to the store with all the kids. It’s a pain.

It didn’t help that it was cold and it seemed like it was about to rain. It took almost an hour just to get the kids ready to go. We made it to the store, bought what I needed to and made it back to the car, with some help of a supermarket employee. She took pity of my situation. I was a bit overwhelmed with the kids and the groceries.

After getting all the kids in, I sat down and started the car. On my windshield I saw a folded piece of paper with writing on it. It read:

“FOR YOU! GOD BLESS.”

The exclamation mark “dot” was shaped like a heart. I thought it was an ad but I took it off my windshield and put it in the car anyway. I looked around at the other cars but I noticed that no other cars had a piece of paper on their windshields. I shrugged and drove away.

As I drove back home, I thought about the piece of paper, “Maybe it’s a note from someone I’d helped out in that parking lot before. Maybe they recognized me and wanted to just say thank you.”

I got curious and when I came to a stoplight, I opened the paper. In it I found money. I was really surprised. I took it out and found that it was eight dollars. Very odd amount. It must have been something spontaneous. Whoever it was, must just grabbed what was in their pocket and put it there on my car. I wonder why? In any case, it was a very nice gesture. Thank you whoever you are. It’s appreciated. I could buy a lot of things at the dollar store for my family with this much money. Every little bit helps.

I pray God blesses her.

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Doctor Lisa Simpson, Happy Birthday to me. On page 8 of 11 of my web comic. Axe Cop Ghettomation. Cool art blog.

February 25, 2010 in ART, GHETTOMATION, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS

My first week back on layout was a bit rocky. It took me a while to get used to doing it again. By Friday I was really grooving though. I was going through scenes at the speed I’m meant to go. I’ve been able to continue holding up that pace so far. I glad.

ART

I’ve been showing off a bit of my extra curricular Simpsons work for the last couple of weeks. This will be the last of it for now.

This is some work I did for a Lisa Simpson Book. Similar to the Krusty one I wrote about last week. One of the running gags of the book was a Lisa comic done in the style of the Rex Morgan M.D. comic strip. It featured Lisa and Milhouse all grown up solving medical problems. It was fun to do because it was so melodramatic. I had worked on the show “Lisa’s Wedding” which takes place in the future and Lisa is grown up through most of the show. I remembered what Lisa looked like in that show and I drew her in the same way, with slightly stylized wavy hair:

It’s funny to note, now that I see all strips together, that almost all the strips end with a close up of a character or a dramatic up shot. Sometimes, even the exact SAME dramatic upshot as a different strip.

You will also note that, in the roughs I posted, I didn’t really put in any perspective grids like I usually do. Looking through the roughs I DIDN’T post, I see that they are missing in those as well. I “eye balled” the perspective on all of these strips. Granted, I didn’t really put in all that many backgrounds either. These strips allowed me to experiment with doing “short hand” backgrounds.

Above is a rough that I didn’t post the clean up for…for some reason.

Above here’s the rough of the strip below.

It was fun to have Milhouse totally start crying just for the melodrama of it all. I don’t think that was in the script.

Above is the rough of the strip below. The note from the art director was not to have Milhouse come in running on panel 3.

I didn’t post all the strips. Just a few.

Yet again, I didn’t receive a copy of this book so I don’t know what the final version of these strips look like. I’ll need to track this books down so I can check it out:

What do you think?

MY WEEK

I turned 35 last Saturday. The kids, Alesha took me out to eat sushi. Something I really enjoy doing. We then went back home and my parents came over to visit later in the evening. The best part of the day, (besides spending time with my family) was getting time to work on my comic.

Sunday we were invited to my in-law’s house. My mother in law made enchiladas for lunch. It was yummy. Later we drove to my parent’s house were my mother there was a steak dinner waiting for me along with my brother, Deborah his wife, my cousin and her family. We got there late, which was embarrassing since they were there for me. Still, it I had a good time.

It’s odd, even on my birthday, if I’m not playing a board game, I still feel awkward about being around a lot of people. I think it’s gotten worse since I started working my projects.

MY WEB COMIC

Speaking of projects…I’m very close to finishing the inking process of my web comic. I’m very surprised at how much fun I’m having working on this thing. It also has me very frustrated. Mostly because I’m not as happy about the way it’s turning out as I’d like to be. The reason for this, is my fault. I wanted to draw the comic without making it to be too much work. Usually, as you’ve seen from my comic book making process post, I draw one page three times before it’s finalized. If I was to ink the page, it would be four times. Well, in order to speed things up, I decided that I was only going to draw each page twice. I was going to draw the final penciled page and then ink it. No rough plot, no tighter rough, no clean up page. I was going straight to a tight rough and then to ink. This has actually caused a lot of problems because my abilities are NOT such that I can just get everything right the first time. I really needed to take one more step before I got to the inking. Still, I’m learning, so I’ll know what I’ll do different next time.

I’ve also rediscovered that I have lousy lettering, so I’m going to have digital lettering through out the comic and I think even the sound effects I’ve put into the pages will need to be reworked digitally. It’s okay though, practice makes perfect. The comic is still perfectly readable and I’m still planning on finishing it. It’s going to be in color and since I’ve never colored a comic before, I don’t know how long that’s going to take me. Hopefully, not very much time.

And while I’m on the subject of projects…

GHETTOMATION

I’m slowly making headway into the writing and creating of my next Pulp serial ghettomated project. I think I’ve finally nailed down what it’s all going to be about, who the main characters are and what their motivation is. Now, I just have to come up with a quick story to put them in so I can really begin. That, and the fact that I have to work out the look and style of the cartoon.

I’ll write about the process when it really starts getting into gear.

VIDEO

And now some Axe Cop ghettomation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZquaoUMfIc

BLOG

This is fantastic blog if you’re into drawing at all:

The Art Center Blog

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

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

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Reading comics. Drawing frustration. Monkey Mod. Dick Grayson in now Batman after the original Batman dies.

January 7, 2010 in ART, COMIC BOOKS, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

It’s the first week back at work for the new year. It’s been business as usual…sorta. I’ve been asked to work overtime to try to make up for the time lost because of the holidays. So much for our time of rest. I guess it’s okay. I really need the money anyway.

MY WEEK

During my time off, I had all the time in the world to work on my comic. It was the perfect opportunity to work on my project and get it done faster than in any other time. So what did I do? I spent all my free time reading comic books. I got through about 60 comics or more. On the one hand, it was a complete waste of an opportunity, but on the other hand, not only was it relaxing, but I was ready to start drawing by the time the holidays were over. It really recharged my batteries. I got very little drawing done but it was a good trade off.

In case your wondering where I got the comics, they where the ones I picked up at the kitchen at work for FREE. The ones that Drew Johnson leaves there because he has too many. Therefore, all the comics I was reading where DC comics.

Best thing I read was the New Krypton Superman storyline. It had me pretty hooked. I may or may not write more about this. I also read a few Blackest Night preludes and one Blackest Night story so far. It looks like it will be a fun read.

Reading the comics, I was made aware of the fact that Dick Grayson has taken up the mantel of Batman. More on that below:

COMIC BOOKS

Before I begin, I’ll (very quickly) explain who Dick Grayson is and I’ll give a quick explanation on Robin the Boy Wonder.

Who is Dick Grayson? He’s the original Robin.

There have been four Robins so far: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and now Damian Wayne.

Damian Wayne – He’s the current Robin and Bruce Wayne‘s (Batman‘s) son. His mother is Talia Al Ghul. Bruce married her in a story a long time ago called: Batman Son of the Demon.

Tim Drake – The third Robin. He’s been the Robin you’ve seen in most modern Batman stories. My personal favorite so far. You can see Tim as the younger Robin in the Bruce Timm Batman adventures cartoon. He is currently running around as the Superhero Red Robin.

Jason Todd – Better known as, the Robin that died. Jason was the second Robin and was a huge jerk. He was such a jerk that when the readers where asked whether Jason should live or die, the readers voted him dead. The Joker, beat him with a crowbar then blew him up. He’s came back to life a while ago and has made the “Bat Family’s” lives a living hell. He seemed to have died again recently but it’s very unlikely that he’ll stay dead. He’s still a jerk.

Dick Grayson – The first Robin. The Robin most people think of when they think of Robin. He’s the “Holy (insert random word) Batman!” Robin. In the comics, he had a falling out with Bruce Wayne and went his separate way. He later became a new superhero called Nightwing. He’s been Nightwing for about 30 years now. I really liked Nightwing and my brother and I would get into arguments about where or not he was a necessary character.

In a way, my brother was right, Nightwing seemed like he was just a bench warmer character waiting to come into his own. He was just sitting around waiting for Batman to die so that he could finally become Batman himself–which he now has.

It thinks it’s AWESOME. I was getting tired of Bruce Wayne and I thought he was a bit “played out”. I wanted him to go and become the Gandalf/Obi Wan Kenobi character, that way, a new Batman could take over and maybe surpass him. Besides, Dick Grayson is a cool character and it’s pretty much what he was created for isn’t it? To become the next Batman. It’s about time! I haven’t gotten to read any of his stories yet but I really want to. I haven’t wanted to read any Batman comic for a while, until now.

ART

So when I got back to work I thought it would be fun to draw a new Superhero Versus Superhero drawing , like the ones my friends and I did last year (click on the numbers to see what I’m taking about: 1,2,3,4,5,6). I started the drawing and I even began to ink it. I took a break from it before it was done. A few hours later, I looked at the drawing and wasn’t happy with it. I was planning to finish the drawing at home but as the day went on I disliked the drawing more and more to the point where I was considering abandoning the drawing. On the drive home I decided to give the drawing another shot. I needed to adjust the characters so that they were better designed and better drawn. When I got home, I put some tracing paper on it and gave the characters another pass. I was much happier with the drawing after that. As of time of this writing, I’m still working on it. I’ll put the drawing up next week if it turns out okay.

ART

I’ve written about the podcast Big Illustration Party Time. It’s a podcast where the hosts talk about being freelance illustrators and give tips on how to survive being one. Well, both hosts have a passion for drawing comics. They both have comic projects they’re working on.

One of the hosts, Kevin Cross, has begun a web comic of his character Monkey Mod. I think the character has a cool look to him so I decided to try drawing him as a fun bit of fan art:

Check out the Monkey Mod web comic. I highly recommend it.

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

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Finished Black and white Yoga logo. CARTOONISTA meeting. Drawing at the Warner Brothers lot. Munchkin’s drawings.

December 10, 2009 in ART, FAMILY, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The pressure is on this week. We only have till Tuesday of next week to finish the story reel. I’m doing overtime today all the way through Saturday.

ART

Once again, I didn’t get around to finishing the color version of my sister‘s logo. Going to church at lunch time for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, took away my work time. I DID manage to finish the black and white version though. So here is the final black and white of the logo:

Hope I can get the color done next week.

MY WEEK

Went to a CARTOONISTA meeting last Friday. We discussed plans for events that we were going to participate in. As well, as magazines we were going to be drawing in. It was a fun meeting with a lot of banter. We were introduced to one of the newest member of the CARTOONISTAS John Narcomey who draws Ghostface. He was a great guy.

I was also offered a art show for my stuff. Unfortunately I don’t any “stuff” to display. I need to get on that.

I sat around and drew most of the time. At one point during the meeting I drew CARTOONISTA Raul Aguirre:

He saw the drawing and decided to retaliate by drawing me back:

It was a fun little meeting.

MY WEEK

Last Saturday I made my way to the Warner Brothers Ranch lot. The Ronald McDonald house was holding a charity even there. Artists were asked to come and draw for the kids in the event. There were a ton of artists that came out for it. Among them where fellow CARTOONISTAS Javier Hernadez and Jim Lujan. The event was from noon to three.

The event was great. Both Javi and Jim wrote about the even in their blogs. If you want to read their takes, please visits their blogs and read about it. Unlike me, they took pictures (which I’m in) so you could see what it all looked like:

Javi’s blog

Jim’s blog

Overall I enjoyed myself. I wasn’t drawing my best at the beginning. I wasn’t going to tell the people I was giving my drawings to that I didn’t like them though. They probably thought they were great. I drew a picture of Goofy for this girl who was obviously going through treatment, that I really liked. It was the best (and last) Goofy I did all day. I wish I’d taken a picture but that’s okay. I hope she liked the drawing.

From reading Javi’s blog, they past out burgers and hot dogs to the artists but I didn’t get any. No one offered any to me. By the time it was all over, I was starving. Luckily, I was so into the drawing, I didn’t realize I was hungry until it was over.

I sat next to Raphael Navarro the whole time and he was blowing me away with his amazing drawing skills. Raphael has worked at Warners on quite a few of the superhero shows. He’s also the creator of the comic book El Sunambulo. Man that guy can draw! He was giving people fully colored illustrations of superheroes the whole time. Crazy.

To my left there sat a Warners artist whose name I didn’t catch but had I had more time when the event was over, I would have gone around and introduced myself better to him and a lot of fantastic other artists. Lot’s of my friends from work where there, including Drew Johnson the DC artist who is married to one of the re-takes directors on the show. I had to get home because the kids where asking for me, otherwise I would have stuck around and talked some more with Art Leonardi. Art Leonardi was the artist who organized the artists to show up. He’s an old time Pink Panther animator among other things. He was recounting anecdotes to Javi about Friz Freleng and what a jerk he was. It was fun.

Below is two drawings that I drew and gave away. Just so you can see what we were up to:

I had a good time over all. I just wish I didn’t have to leave so early.

FAMILY

Speaking of drawing, I wasn’t the only one in the family drawing this weekend. My kids drew this weekend as well.

A few weeks ago I was trying to teach Munchkin how to draw a happy face. This weekend Munchkin was trying it on her own. For a three year old, I was very impressed and happy to see her figure it out. I was examining her drawings and I could see her thought process very clearly. I’m very proud of her. Below are her drawings. I asked her what the drawings were of and she let me know: