SUPER

Just finished watching all the dvd extras for the new direct to DVD Superman:DOOMSDAY. Very nice indepth look into the superman mythos. I really enjoyed the film and thought it was a nice addition to the superman universe. Got me inspired to do this quicky sketch of supes up in the sky. Put a nice old school print look on there 'a la Darwyn Cooke' as well.

IM STILL ALIVE. I SWEAR

Ive never had to deal with so much stressful amounts of work in my life. But, Im plowing thru it inch by inch, while at the same time trying to complete a demoreel. And Im seriously considering ditching this blog. Its been a relatively good documentation of my progress since my very first year, but ive been thinking....I mean......does anyone even read this?
Blogger doesnt provide post notification and posting can be really tedious on the longer more image involved posts. I guess I'll determine whether I keep this blog or not by the amount of people that are willing to see me keep it up.

Heres the dealio:

IF YOU THINK CHRIS SHOULD KEEP THIS BLOG, POST A COMMENT.ANYTHING YOU LIKE. If enough people are interested ill keep it up, with no guarantees on more frequent postings or anything.

I mainly started the blog to showcase any random works I had done, to friends and family, I dunno if its worth it anymore. anyways. VOTE!

( in the meantime heres just a random shot of a WIP, trying to get the conceptwork vibe a'goin)

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuSwj5ok24k

A multiple studio anime direct to dvd rendition of Batman. Due out just before the release of the Dark Knight. Im not the biggest fan of anime, but it'll be interesting to see their take on the 'bats'. There are to be six different shorts depicted in seperate styles and will feature the villains: killer croc, scarecrow and deadshot.

Definetely looking forward to this. Thank god the japanese still do traditional hand drawn animation.

(sry the link thing didnt work out for me. you'll have to copy and paste )

StarWars clonewars 3D animated

I got some issues with this whole production. But before I get into WHY...Ill post some recent images I found in comparison to the Gennedy Tartakovsky 2D version. Ill let the visuals speak for themselves first





VS







Im a fan of Samurai Jack and the combination of that stylistic approach to the starwars universe was awesome, and extremely appealing when I first saw the clone wars animated cartoons. once i was hearing about a third animation installment i got my hopes up only to be let down with the first viewing of the character designs.

The main thing that bugged me right off the bat was that the design approach was completely akward and inconsistent. Whereas you have non realistic characters the environments and skies and effects are uber realistic, creating a sort of conflict of interest. And even between characters the design is inconsistent. Yoda is very angular and closest to his 2D design of all the characters ive seen so far, whereas Asajj Ventress is very fleshed out and minimalist in charicature. The acting is also barely even existant. In the 2d screengrabs you can pick up right away what the characters are thinking, or how they are reacting. Can you do the same for the 3D version?

My second big beef was with the story timeperiod itself....this is actually happening right inbetween the animated series. How much more can you possibly stuff in there or milk out of it?

Anyways. I just thought I'd share my artistic evaluation. Ultimately, I find it just sad that they couldn't have taken a different approach, either gone in a completely different direction from the 'sam jack' style of the 2D version, or at least taken a more simplistic and appealing design approach to everything. When it comes to 3D animation you either put out your best 'pixar/feature film' quality animation or you go with something that looks like...well.....a video game.

DARTH MALAK: video game



Ahsoka Tano: 3D animated character/ video game cinematic




The official air date for the new animated show is AUGUST 15. im going to watch it, and hopefully the stories and music will save the terrible visuals. Just going to have to wait and see.

Where Ive been...

well. I dont even want to know the last time I got to post. Its felt like ages. Much much work has been done in the meantime and much sleep has been lost as well...
We've had zero grace periods in terms of workload. As soon as assignments are handed in the same day we receive the following assignment. So, Ive been in a constant flux between balancing schoolwork with personal/demo reel work. Thus resulting in zero postings on my poor neglected blog.

Heres a molecule of some of the work I've done recently:

A random alien Character Design who is part of a line-up im working on.



And a bit o school stuff. Research preparation for a western themed pitch I have to do in storyboarding class. I've done loads of sketches. but Im to tired to post all of em now.

these are quick 2 min max compositional/lighting studies from actual classic western films. Primarily Sergio Leone stuff. Im sure you can recognize some scenes.



And these are some character/ clothing study sketches to get a feel for a 'damsel in distress'. feel free to point out a favorite, I have yet to nail down the final design.




and thats it for now. Im guaranteed not to post for another month at the least. but in a fashion that also means twice the postings as soon as I get a nice break. maybe for reading week.

Royal Winter Fair

So, I know....Its been a verrrry long time since I last posted. School's in the way, and keeping me constantly busy. I've still been producing my usual amount of art on the side, but not having a scanner is really taking its toll. I haven't done any digital colouring for a lonnng time.
Went to the winter fair with the school as is the usual yearly tradition and got some decent sketching done.
Here's a couple of the good ones.








I'm planning to update my blog format and approach it a bit differently, once its up and running. going to change the title as well. It will be done by december I hope. If not for sure after the break. And by then I'll have a brand spanking new scanner and printer.

Also I have a neat little idea for a side blog, which will feature monthly updates of on a very grand scale of something specific of my choosing. I know...mysterious...... But if I can't even keep one going, I might not do it. stay tuned .

Broken Process

Creating the concept and summing up the dedication to make a comic is super difficult. Over the summer, I had spent alot of time just juggling ideas about. I love most things sci-fi and euro comic sci-fi comics are definetely top notch when it comes to being beautiful and inspiring. I wanted to do something like Keepers of the Maiser, or Skydoll. Just dazzling visuals, combined with fun stories.
The truth is though... Those took years and years. So I decided to come up with just something really short, just to keep me entertained. Didn't end up being sci-fi. But, it is a fun little undevelopped short story. Its one of those personal projects that will most likely fade away, until I find it useful at some point in the future.( or maybe never)

Point is: I didn't want it to go unseen, or just waste away and disapear from my memory.

Ill give a brief outline ( since its super rough )BTW I actually just PS'd over my thumbnails of the layout of the pages. These are the uncluttered by snow, original thumbnails. Sorry about the crappy scan. There is a summation at the bottom just incase it was hard to follow.




Here are the story panels. RIP WIP











TITLE: ASSASIN

Its off in a desserted snowy mountain setting.
The man bursts out from his shack after hearing a howling sound

He gazes out. And finally, barely spots the cause of the noise. He laughs, making it clear that he has spotted the perpetrator. It is a shimmery silouette in the snowstorm. Its just standing there.

He challenges it. Then upon hearing the 'twang' of a bow releasing an arrow...realizes that was a bad idea. He gazes towards his oncoming death.

He falls to the floor ( inside his shack ). Blood following his descent.

We see his look of horror frozen on his face and the arrow jutting out from his skull.

Then from a sequence of the same size and ( birds eye view )angle, in which the 'shack'man's feet can be seen jutting out from the shack:
Assasin walks into shack. Pulls body in. Shadow is seen reaching for the door...And BAM! Slams the door closed

END

* NOTE* Any panels that appeared in red I was going to re-work.