First Animation

In 1999 I started taking animation classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I was already working in computer animation however I wanted to do something of my own as well as learn more. My first class was traditional 'cell' animation which was even more fun because it got me to draw - something I wish I would do more of. For our final project we had to create a 60 second animation. Usually that would mean 600 to 700 drawing but I decided to do what is called limited animation. Basically artists use one drawing and move it around or pause often on a still image. I ended up being a bit ahead of the curve because now most cartoons on Cartoon Network are done in this style.

'The Nissa' is an idea I still think about and would love to do more with. This project was done as if it were a trailer or advertisement of a movie. The Nissa is a troll that is assigned to protect a house. The main problem for him is the house itself and all it's annoyances like dust bunnies and electrical shorts (as briefly seen in the trailer). He flies around on a magical hammer that might just be smarter then the Nissa is. It helps him out. Oh, and he turns to stone during the day which accounts for all those ugly 'statues' in the gardens.
The narrator in the movie is me and the story I tell is not completely true, although my Dad did talk about the Nissa when I was very young. The Nissa (or Nisser) is a part of Norwegian folklore and is a very michevious troll. The most famous story involves the Nissa, a farm girl, and a bowl of oatmeal.
I did this project in Macromedia Director because that was what our Professor knew. Everything was first hand drawn, inked, then scanned into my computer. My friend Bryn Hendrickson (a comic artist himself) helped me ink the backgrounds. I would really like to redo 'The Nissa' in Adobe After Effects because I could do a little better job with the better tools. Would that make me like George Lucas? Should I leave it as is?
nissa_final.wmv

Surfing

CR_beach-sunset-pink

Last April Linda and I went to Costa Rica for my 40th birthday. It was my wish to attend a surfing school so we went to Cork Carroll Surf School in Nosara, Costa Rica with 3 friends. Nosara is a small village that is 2 hours from the nearest big city. The last hour was on gravel, thou the paved road was not much better. We stayed for a week right at the school. It was all inclusive. The food was basic and delicious. If we wanted a beer we simply went to the bar and got ourself one. I felt like I was at my own cabin. Rick, the owner, and his ragged band of surf instructors were wonder and I can't say enough to recommend it. We will be back.

I've uploaded some of my favorite shots to my Flickr site. Many of you might have already seen them. Truth be told, Linda and our friend Ann Lund took many of the shots of us surfing. The surf school is even using some of them on their website, including me on the homepage! The one posted here is one of my favorites. It reminds be of the poster for 'Endless Summer', a surfing movie.

Sketch09

sktch_09_pima02

This was one of my favorites and one of most enjoyable drawing days I had in 2005. It was while Linda and I were in Tucson for her tennis tournament. Near Tucson is the Air Force 'boneyard' where some 4000 decommisioned jets are stored. There is also a huge air museum there that anyone can wander around. I spend 4 hours walking around the planes, photographing and sketching in the 100 degree desert sun. It was so quiet that I could hear the creaking and groaning of the metal flexing in the heat. It was so cool. The B-58 has always been one of my favorites jets. It's big and fast! It even looks fast sitting in the desert.

When I got back to the hotel I showed the sketches to Rich, the other husband that came along. He glanced at it then put it down. As I was talking about my day he picked up the sketchbook again and exclaimed, "Wait, you drew these?!?". He had dismissd them as something I had bought.

More sketches

I've added the rest of the sketches that I plan to post to flickr. There are more but I decided to just hit the highlites. I'll single out a few to write about in the future but for now you can find them here.

Spelling Disclaimer

I'm going to apologize just this once for all the past and future abuses to the English language.

I've been a horrible speller my whole life. I can still clearly remember spelling tests at South Jr High. Week after week I would have to tell Mrs. Carney and the whole class that I was logging in another 'F'. I like to think that life is all about balance - so the fact that I have better then average skills to draw some how lessed my grammatical skills. Even writing email is a chore for me because I either a: spend too much time writing and rewriting to get it right or b: fret about how I must sound like an idiot.
So...
I'd like to just say that I am not going to sweat the spelling and grammer in this blog. I would rather it be about my art and less about my writing skills. If I took the time to write better I would probably end up not doing it at all.

Update: I have corrected this 3 times since first posting it. Grr... no more!

Photoshop Presentation

Last Thursday I did a presentation for the Twin Cities Photoshop Users Group. Photoshop, for those that might not know, is a software for manipulating photos or images. My topic was a new feature of Photoshop that allows the creation of high dynamic range images (HDR). For digital artists like me, HDR can be used to create very realistic lighing in 3D scenes. That allows us to combine computer generated (CG) images with photos or video.

The first image here is the orginal 'plate' photo of a room. The second is a shot of the CG objects in Maya (my animation software). The final image is of the CG and photo together. It's not perfect but it was only a demo. It's kinda fun to try to find the tell-tail hints that it's not real. Can you do it? (I'll post some hints in the comments.)







My complete PowerPoint slides can be downloaded. It's mostly graphics and not very self explanitory, but here you go. HDR_Demo.ppt

Landscape Photos

On Saturday I was out taking some photos for a presentation I'm giving to the Photoshop Users Group on high dynamic range images (worthy of it's own post). I really liked this photo. It really showed off the image quality of my digital camera (a Canon 20D for you techies). The second image is an enlargement of the first. Although you probably won't be able to make it out, depending on how good your monitor settings are, I was able to capture detail in the shadowy areas of the grass tuft despite having to expose for the snow. The crytal formations stand out really nicely as well. I think I'm going to order an enlargement.

Details: 8Meg RAW, 1/160s at f/9, ISO 100, 28mm lens, Photoshop, Noise Ninja.

Sketch 03; More Jamaica

sktch_03_jamaica

Here are a couple more from Montego Bay. The first is of the two Life Guards on duty. I thought the arm slung over the back of the chair pretty much summed up these guys work attitude. They have a good job.

sktch_02_jamaica

Sketch 02; Jamaica

sktch_04_jamaica

In March 05 Linda took me on a 4 day trip to Jamaica. We didn't not stay at a resort but at a typical hotel. So we ended up being annoyed by every street hustler in Montego Bay. Friendly as all hell but relentless in trying to get you to buy some over-priced item. Although we didn't buy anthing, we ended up being suckered into follow a couple people. Luckly the beach was just across the street and once there, was free of wonder vendors. This sketch was done on that beach looking towards Montego Bay itself.

My advice about Jamaica is simple - stay on the resort grounds and enjoy the beautiful warm teal blue water, and ultra cheap Red Strips.

Sketch 01

sktch_01

Last year I decided early on that I needed to draw more. My art world has become very digital and I felt the need to get back to the simple enjoyment of drawing. So I bought a small sketchbook and markers and carried them everywhere. I chose markers because it would force me to commit to the drawing and not allow me to fuss with it too much - a problem I have with all my art work.
This guy was 'lucky' enough to be there on the first day. Now, a year later, I have almost 100 drawing. It ended up being a great year to do the sketching because I went to a lot of fun places and ALWAYS made time to draw. I'll be posting some of ones that I either really liked or captured something interestings.

Dial H for Hero

Dial-H-Hero-page

25 years ago, almost to the month, I reached my high point in comic book fame - a character I created was published in a DC comic. It's been all down hill from there.

In 1981 I submitted a character design to the DC comic called 'Dial H for Hero'. The premise was that 2 kids used a magic ring to transform into whatever super hero that would help them at the time. The super heros were ones sent in by fans. The 2 would go through a dozen or so super heros per issue so no character was ever there for longer then a page or so. I submitted 2 and, of course, they picked the sillier of the 2. The penciller of the book was actually someone of relative fame. Can anyone guess?

BTW, DC Comics, I'm still waiting for my 'Dail H for Hero' t-shirt I was suppose to get.