Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

I just saw this posted at BackFromTheDepths.com and had to post it here at MotionComicMagic.com. It’s a Motion Comic using art of Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo.

War ensues between the forces of good and evil as Hellboy finally confronts the Queen of Blood one on one, setting the stage for a new chapter in Hellboy’s life! Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo conclude an epic collaboration that began in Hellboy: Darkness Calls!

I am really impressed with the animation in “HellBoy: the Fury” (from Dark Horse Comics) the motion is very believable and fluid and still is true to the original art it is created from. They also do some neat work with translating the art into 3D to have the drawing shift in perspective. The voices are fine, but I suspect that they might disappoint some especially compared to other HellBoy animation that uses the actors from the live-action movies to reprieve their roles.

One thing I have been thinking about in motion comics is what source artwork seems to work the best for them. The best examples of Motion Comics to me are still the ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Batman: Black and White’ titles that were released from DC Comics and work really well AND use fairly stylized flat comic art. My feeling (at the time of this writing) is that more flat and/or stylize work allows for more opportunities at creating motion from existing artwork. That is not to say it can’t be done with more realistic/3D looking artwork, but might be harder to make it work it move with out using 3D mapping and other tricks that might take it too far from the core of what a Motion Comic is: taking existing comic artwork and bringing it to life.

It will be interesting to see how the fan community reacts to the HellBoy Motion Comic. I find some people are very negative about Motion Comics, comparing them with other types of animation and expecting them to be what they are not. Motion Comics’ strength lies in the fact that it uses the original comic stories and art making it the Comic Book equivalent to Audio Books. It does not replace the actual comic, but allows you a new way to enjoy it.

Continue reading »]]>  Click here to see a bigger image at Flickr.com

I have been a big fan of the master French comic artist Mobius (aka Jean Giraud) since my college days where I was inspired by his style, technique and color use. With his recent passing I thought I would, like so many around the world, draw a tribute to the master.

My piece is based on Mobius 1985 “Starwatcher II” which many have been doing their version of in the last few years. To read more I would recommend the Tumbler Blog ‘Quenched Consciousness’ which has been my favorite place to follow the work of Mobius.

Visit the official Mobius website http://www.moebius.fr/ 

Continue reading »]]>
I am helping to organize a special inkDrinkDraw San Francisco event on Saturday May 26, 2012, Mini-Comic Day. The event is FREE and open to anyone interested in joining us.

WHEN: Saturday May 26, 2012 – 11am to 5:30pm
WHERE: The Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore
655 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94105
(between 3rd street and New Montgomery St., two blocks from Montgomery St. BART) (415) CAR-TOON – http://www.cartoonart.org

COST: FREE!

DETAILS: Mini-Comic Day at the Cartoon Art Museum Bookstore
For the May inkDrinkDraw we will return to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco for
Mini-Comic Day. Come join us and take the challenge to create and publish your own Mini-Comic with your fellow artists in a day or less. Paper, pens, pencils, and long neck stapler will be provided as well as printed templates to help make your book and there are two copy shops in walking
distance to make copies to trade and share with your fellow creators. (Sorry, you will have to pay for your own copies.)

From the official
site http://www.minicomics.org :
“On Mini-Comics Day, participating cartoonists from around the world will write, draw, and print copies of a mini-comic, completing the entire process from start to finish in a day or less. Anyone in the world can participate. Mini-comics have been democratizing the art of
making comic books since the 70?s or earlier… with the popularization of photocopiers, it became apparent that anyone with an inclination and some spare change could print a little comic book. Wildly varying in both form and content, mini-comics are a wonderful synthesis of cartooning and hand-made art objects.

Guidelines: To participate, create a mini-comic from start to finish on May 26th, 2012 (including writing, drawing and printing it). You can make your mini-comic by yourself or with other artists.
…” (visit the official site for more guidelines for the event)

So, come on down, grab a seat and make a comic. And don’t be shy about bringing down your mini-comics you have all ready made too!

The Two Copy Shops nearby are:

Copy Central 22 3rd street, San Francisco, CA 0.1 mi W (415) 882-7377 ? · copycentral.com - 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Fed-Ex Kinkos – need to verify location do to wonky web listings.

Continue reading »]]>

Cartoonist Jeffery Brown (jeffreybrowncomics.com) has a new book called Darth Vader and Son, which the trailer above promotes. I wanted to post the trailer here at MotionComicMagic.com since it’s a great example of taking existing art from a book and re-purposes it for animation, plus it’s really cool.

What if Darth Vader took an active role in raising his son? In this hilarious and sweet comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other—except with all the baggage of being the Dark Lord of the Sith. Celebrated artist Jeffrey Brown’s delightful illustrations give classic Star Wars® moments a fresh twist, presenting the trials and joys of parenting through the lens of a galaxy far, far away. Life lessons include lightsaber batting practice, using the Force to raid the cookie jar, Take Your Child to Work Day on the Death Star (“Er, he looks just like you, Lord Vader!”), and the special bond shared between any father and son.

Jeffrey Brown is the author of numerous graphic novels and comics, including Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Cats Are Weird. A lifelong Star Wars fan, he lives in Chicago with his wife and five-year-old son.

Plus: You can see the artwork for the book at the Cartoon Art Museum this summer (in San Francisco) April 28 – August 5, 2012!

…the 18-piece exhibition Darth Vader and Son, featuring artwork by award-winning cartoonist Jeffrey Brown. This exhibit opens on Saturday, April 28. Brown will sign copies of his book at the Cartoon Art Museum on Thursday, May 17, 2012 from 7:00-9:00pm.

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

(via http://blog.sciencefictionbiology.com tweet) My posts here at MotionComicMagic.com are all about re-purposing art created for different purposes into animation. For example: Motion Comics take the art from comic books and repurpose it into animated. Well, this cool example that I am sharing with you today is the same idea, but taking the art of children and animating it to help tell a tale of Evolution. Animator Tyler Rhodes did this with some young artist to great effect.

From scientificamerican.com…

How do you make an authentic evolution animation? Quite simply: you allow it to evolve. Tyler Rhodes, a student in the animation program at Virginia Commonwealth University, wanted to create an animation that wasn’t simply linear, but instead represented the true ‘tree-like’ process of evolution. So he enlisted the help of elementary school students from William Fox Elementary School and the Patrick Henry School of Science & Art, and involved them in a type of game.

“Much like the whispered game “telephone” where one person whispers a message down the line until it’s very different by the end due to small “mutations” along the way, I would create a game of telephone using visual imagery.”
…
He then had various groups of students make copies of this sketch, knowing that the copies would contain subtle differences. The natural variation in the ‘progeny’ created from the first salamander sketch was used to determine the survival of the fittest. Tyler would ‘kill off’ 98% of the organisms and start the process again…

The video below is the final result which is lively and very fresh. The animation is the kids drawings brought into after effects and animated with the puppet tool to great effect. It’s a great example of the animator repurposing the kids art into animation. You can see the kids drawings on the official blog HERE.

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

I have been busy on some projects, but I took a break to try a new script for Adobe After Effects … RigIt. I am always looking for tools that can help an artist animate their artwork whether the artwork is from their comic/illustration or created specifically for a protect. RigIt is a script that can take a bunch of parts  that build up a character and use coding to rig them together to allow you to animate it with inverse kinematic. The script is in a Beta Tdest right now so there still might be some bugs, but all-in-all it worked very well. Here is a sample I created in about 2 hours last night (including some trial and error on setting up the figure).

Download the script HERE

RigIt After Effects script test from Brian Kolm on Vimeo.

The script features a window to set the art layers and buttons to set each step of the process. For the final product the script will actually set null objects to control the limbs, but will hide the clutter with the ‘shy’ function which makes the animation space really pleasant to use.

The main hurdle I had was figuring out that you have to place a null object for any parts you don’t want to have as a segment of your figure (for me that was the finger on the hands). Another element that is a bit weird was that you only set the arm and leg on the Left side and then it flips the images and code in the ‘Build’ phase to create the right side. So if your figure has different art for limbs on both sides of the body this could be a problem, but I am guessing you can simply replace/adjust those layers with different artwork before the last step.

In the future I would love to see support for layers that use the Puppet Tool as well as being able to switch which direction the bones work in the middle of an animation.

All in all this has been the easiest character rigging script I have used so far, and it’s only in Beta so it’s not even official done yet. There is a good chance I will be using it on some future projects and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Here is the official video…

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

A few NEW trailers for publications, with the actual published art brought to life through digital animation. Some are more elaborately done and some are more simple.

BONE: Quest for the Spark BOOK 2 Video

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 Movie Intro (fan made) – with art by Dave Peterson.

“a Monster Calls” – animation by Eric Guémise. Illustrations by Jim Kay.

Zero the Hero book trailer

Any Empire Trailer

Bande annonce Pablo – Max Jacobs T1

Continue reading »]]>

I will be attending the Image Expo on February 24-25-26, 2012. I will be sharing a table with talented artist Rae Wood in Artist Alley. It’s a brand new convention, so it will be interesting to see the attendance. You can find me in Artist Alley AA 607.

Dates: Friday February 24 to Sunday February 26, 2012
Location: Oakland Convention Center – 550 10th Street – Oakland, CA 94607
Website: http://www.imagecomicexpo.com

Attending: Image Creators included: Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino, Rob Liefeld, Brian K Vaughan and artists/creators Eric Shanower, Andrew Farego, Jeff Walker, Karen Luk Illustrations, Llyn Hunter, and Rae Wood

IMAGE EXPO is a three-day celebration of creator-owned comics happening at the Oakland Convention Center. Image partners Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino, will be the guests of honor, appearing throughout the weekend for signings, panels, and special events. Other special guests include Image founders Rob Liefeld, and Whilce Portacio, plus the creators of today’s best creator-owned comics, including: Joe Casey, Jay Faerber, Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Ottley, Richard Starkings, Fiona Staples, and Brian K. Vaughan.

IMAGE EXPO is Northern California’s premiere comic con experience in 2012. The three-day event takes place at the Oakland Convention Center in the heart of the bustling nightlife and restaurant center of downtown Oakland, CA on February 24-25-26.

IMAGE EXPO isn’t just about Image Comics, it’s a celebration of independent creativity in comics. The exhibit floor is open to anyone who makes creator-owned comics. We’re also going to be hosting unique programming for fans, aspiring creators, and library professionals. We’ll be continuing our tradition of supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s important work to protect creators and retailers by hosting special events including a massive benefit auction.

More info at: http://www.imagecomics.com/news/120/EXPERIENCE-CREATIVITY-AT-IMAGE-EXPO-A-3-DAY-CELEBRATION-OF-CREATOR-OWNED-COMICS-

Continue reading »]]> I have been wanting to go to the Great Dickens Fair in San Francisco for at least have of my life and this year I took the plunge and went today, Sunday November 27, 2011 with a friend of mine. This is just some highlights and not every detail.

I apologize that the photos are pretty ‘ghostly’ with the dark environments being hard to capture on my camera. I will posting more photos on my FLICKR page later this week.

I started off taking BART to the Glen Park station and took the FREE shuttle to the Cow Palace in South San Francisco. The fair starts at 11 am and the first shuttle did not arrive till 11:15 am, but the trip takes about 10 minuets and we had per-bought are ticket and were able to get in fairly fast.

You enter the Cow Palace through a switchback and find your self on a ‘movie set’ with false front buildings filling the space to create Victorian London. At first it seems odd as you enter a world of perpetual ‘twilight’, but that helps mentally to help hide the limits of a show like buildings with no roofs. Here the characters from Charles Dickens’ books wander the streets with the people of London on Christmas Eve and go about their business whether they have an audience or not.

I did not wear a costume per-say, but tried to be in spirit at least with a dress shirt, vest and cap. I think it is a good way to feel part of the fair’s story if you can accommodate it. When I was younger they actually gave away a poster that had tips on simple costumes for guests to wear. I have not seen that for a long while, but I bet you can find something online to give you some ideas.

Our first stop was to the Victoria and Albert theater to see a classic Christmas Pantomime ‘Cinderella and Aladdin meet the Monkey King’ with a mixture of music hall spirit in a family friendly production. Here fairy tale characters are mixed together with all rules thrown out and some men are played by women and some women are played by men. There is a happy ending followed by sing-alongs and slap stick fun. Next time I would like to also catch their production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Mikado’ that plays once a day.

Next we headed to food and I tried Haggis for the first time and maybe the last. It actually tasted good, but there are other things I prefer. I also had some Chocolate EggNog that was really really tasty.

While sitting down to eat we found a flyer for a life drawing art salon and 3:30 pm at the Adventures Club and we both agreed we wanted to go. We learned how to play the harp and wandered the streets looking into specialty stores. San Francisco’s Dark Garden had a store front selling period corsets and had live ‘manikins’ in the windows. The store always had a male heavy crowd gaping at the lovely girls in the windows and I noticed that there were service men in dress uniforms that seemed to always be there gazing as we passed by, but as a guy I can see why.

A procession of carolers passed by with Father Christmas in tow shouting ‘Happy Christmas’ and the temperance society stopped to tell me about their cause and at the nearby Adventures Club some officers were having some naughty fun with some lovely ladies till they fled their revelry when a high ranking general confronted them. The adventures club was an area that I would have liked to have experienced more with lots of tableaux and presentations throughout the day. For example, near the end of the day we found Prince Albert presenting a model of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

On a friend recommendation who was working one of the booths we tried the Hard Black Cherry Cider which was really good and really relaxes you and puts you in a holiday spirit. There was a royal precision of Queen Victoria and her husband Albert that marched by on their way to Fezziwig’s Dance Party. Next time I would like to learn some of the period dances as well, the dancers were still going at closing time with a large crowd.

Along the way we stopped by the steam-punk inspired La Legion Fantastique, but sadly seemed to miss most of their presentations. Next time I would make an effort to see some of them from a steam powered robot to giant squid feeding. Another thing is to keep an eye open for characters like Scrooge walking with the Ghost of Christmas Future as the stories of Charles Dickens play out thorough out the day.

After doing some shopping we headed back for the Artist Salon at the Adventures Club where they provided paper and pencils to draw from costumed models while live music is played and poetry is read. I would have loved for them to have their own space and have events going all day cause it was lots of fun and the models were very good. The life drawing session was at 3:30 pm if you are going, but be early enough to get a good seat.

(I will post my drawing later this week when I have some more time.)

As we got closer to the end of the day we sat down for some dinner where I had Yorkshire Pudding which was tasty, but I should have purchased a side dish to go with it. I also got some rich roasted chestnuts. While a few of the food items at the fair can be pricy, they are mostly all unique items and at full range of different prices. If you are worried about diet or on a budget, I would make sure to eat a hearty breakfast/brunch before coming and then enjoy the special food/treats knowing that you had something substantial before coming. Next time I want to get one of the small meat pies run that about $6.50 and looked really good.

While my friend shopped I headed back to the La Legion Fantastique and found an impromptu boxing match in progress first with street ladies and then with Gorgeous George vs Charles the Chap who had posters announcing the fight throughout the streets. I was impressed that they had gone to the detail of the posters announcing the fight.

At the Legion Fantastique I chatted with Professor Phineas J. Flockmocker III F.H.S.C about his new discovery: electricity (he claims it might catch on some day a little) and his plans to harpoon his way to the moon. The gent was really in character and was surrounded with props to help tell his story. Definitely worth a visit.

As we neared the end of the fair’s day (the events run till 7:00 pm with the last shuttle at 7:15 pm) we headed to the 6 pm performance of Mad Sal’s Music Hall Extravaganza (featuring the Le Can Can Bijou) which featured all the performers from that day coming together for a bit naughty, raunchy fun. The most adult material in the show was sexual innuendo and lyrics about booze. The other big night time show was the 18 and over only Saucy French Postcard Tableaux Review at the Albert and Victoria Music Hall, but you have to get a FREE ticket to get in due to popularity. Tickets were gone when we check, so go early in the day to get one if you want to see it.

The show runs about 50 min which gave us enough time to stroll to the exit and catch the shuttle back to the BART station. Note: the last shuttle is 7:15 pm by-the-way.

So, was it worth it?

Heck ya. It really was a great way to celebrate the holidays and it feels very organic and alive. The tickets run $25 per-person (unless you have a 2-for-1 coupon to use at the door or buy your ticket early) but you really get your money’s worth with just the entertainment alone. There were so many events/productions that I would have loved to have seen that I would think of trying to get discount tickets early next year and even planning to go more than once. We went on a Sunday and the crowds were never to crazy, so if you don’t like crowds that might be helpful since they say they get more busy as we get near to Christmas. The biggest cost beyond your entrance ticket is transportation and food and drink, but if you are on a budget you can still do a lot with some careful planning. I definitely plan to go back next year and maybe even with more of a costume.

So…

- If you want to see the Saucy French Postcard Tableaux Review, make sure to get a ticket early in the day (tickets are free, ages 18+), if you can’t, don’t worry and go to Mad Sal’s.
- Eat a hearty, nutritious meal before you come and then explore some of the unique food and treats at the fair with out fear.
- Interact with the characters and be part of the story. Feel free to pretend you are from the Victorian era yourself.
- Get there early in the day to get your moneys worth and avoid the crowds.
- Dress the part, even if it’s just a hint of Victorian London to make you feel part of the story.
- The Adventures Club hosted an artist salon with costume models which was a blast. 3:30pm this year when I went.
- Be open to follow your ‘bliss’ and to not feel guilty missing something cause there is a lot going on.
- Use this as a chance to recharge your adventurist spirit and get ready for the holidays and don’t forget to try something new.
- Sunday early in their season might be a great day to go.

Continue reading »]]> I have written in the past in my Motion Comic Magic posts where I talk about re-purposing artwork from comics and books into animation, but today’s post is about re-purposing architecture with animation using video/architectural mapping. Basically a high-tech technique in which video is seamlessly projected on unusual surfaces to wrap it in animation and visuals.They have been using this technique in the last decade years for planetariums and for theme park shows like this one at Disneyland in Anaheim CA…

Even some home holiday light shows are using this technique since it allows you to do a lot more then just flashing a string of lights on and off. So…

Last night I headed into San Francisco not to shop, but to experience all the holiday decorations, spirit and displays. By chance I saw a sign for a new holiday show: Illuminique  at Westfield Mall a.k.a San Francisco Center. The mall was open late for Black Friday and so I headed up to the top floor to check it out.

When I arrived at 9:10 pm there was Christmas music playing and a ‘screen saver’ of video outlined the architecture of the historical Emporium dome that was re-built after the 1908 earthquake from the previous 1896 one. There were a few variations of visuals that changed every few songs.

The schedule for Illuminique is 6pm to 8:30pm (running on the half hour), but I guessed that since the mall was open late they would just keep running the show as well. So I walked around a bit then found a nice chair to sit in and waited to see what would happen at 9:30pm.

Sure enough the 4 min show started as I expected. The show transforms the dome into a whimsical mechanical music box with the architectural elements open and close like a coo coo clock. The animation was done with CGI 3D images.
when projected CGI animation transforms the historic dome into a whimsical mechanical musicbox.

Some of my photos had the flash on and so the actual show will look a bit darker and richer.

Pretty neat stuff and a great way for them to re-purpose  the classic space in a new way. It might not be worth a special trip just for this holiday show, but there are museums (Cartoon Art Museum, Moma, MoAD, Jewish Contemporary, CA history society), Yerba Buena Gardens, shopping and restaurants all right off the BART line to make the day special and meaningful along with this unique show.

The show was created by: obscuradigital.com

Continue reading »]]> Hey all, here it is the last of the CAM-JAM 2011 events I am organizing with the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum and inkDrinkDraw San Francisco. The events this year have really been quite fantastic with the final results being Animation and Paper Toy Monsters! But for this one we will be using the inspiration of the new Wizard of Oz Comic exhibit at the museum to draw our version of the iconic characters as well as having a Cartoonist Boutique! The Cartoonist Boutique will allow museum guests to buy work directly from the artists as well as get customized Holiday Cards and Mini-Buttons. (more info below the poster image)

WHEN: Saturday December 3rd. 2011 12 noon to 5pm
WERE: Cartoon Art Museum – 655 Mission St. San Francisco CA
COST: FREE with admission to the museum

Brought to you by inkdrinkdraw.weebly.com

On Saturday December 3rd, 2011 the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum and InkDrinkDraw San Francisco will present the Holiday Cam-Jam and Cartoonist Art Boutique. The Cam-Jams are a series of artist collaborative events that happen a few times of year, but this December a new element is added…our Art Boutique.

Guests visiting the museum will have the chance to watch artist creating work inspired both by the winter holidays as well as the new Wizard of Oz comic exhibit. A selection of great holiday gifts will be for sale directly from their creators including:

- The premier of the first anthology from InkDrinkDraw SF
- One-of-a-kind Holiday Cards and buttons made while you wait
- Personalized comic books, prints, cards and more!

Another bonus is the artist-in-residence Kraig Rasmussen (www.monkeygong.com) will be located in the museum’s lobby signing his books and demonstrating how he creates his work from 1pm to 3pm.

So come on down between 12 noon and 5:00 pm and check out the current exhibits (Archie 70th and Wizard of Oz) while meeting some very talented artists and celebrate the season cartoon-style.

ARTIST:
Artist wishing to participate in the CAM-Jam can sign-up by contacting me at the links below or showing up at the day of the event. Participating artist get free admission into the museum.

Artist wishing to sell some of their home grown items need to contact me by December 2nd, 2011.

We will be making custom cards and buttons to sell to guests, but a donation for materials will be required with a sale.

Contact info: staff (AT) atomicbearpress.com or DM at https://twitter.com/#!/AtomicBearPress

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

For today’s Motion Comic Magic post I just wanted to share a few nice trailers for comic books from France/Belgium and Germany. I am still surprised that the  major US companies don’t create more trailers for their books.

The first one is a Franco-Belgian BD comic trailer that features a story of three comic artists and their trip to America. Jijé is the creator of Spirou et Fantasio and Jerry Spring, Morris is the creator of Lucky Luke, and André Franquin is the creator of the comics Gaston and Marsupilami.

Gringos Locos (editions Dupuis)

The journey of Franco-Belgian artists Jijé, Morris and Franquin throughout the United States and Mexico.

Concerned about the advance of communism in Europe, artist Jijé decided to leave the Old World with his family. Franquin and Morris decided to follow him, with them all arrived in New York in 1948. Having acquired a Hudson Ford, they travel the U.S. from east coast to west coast, hoping to get hired by Disney Studios. Not a chance, at a time when Disney has laid off more than he was hiring. Seeing his tourist visa expired, Jijé decided to move several months to Mexico with his family and is soon joined by Franquin and Morris.

After the success of “Groom verdigris,” the duo of Yann and Schwartz addresses the picaresque adventures of three monuments of the Franco-Belgian comics.

The next two trailers are from the Berlin based company Stenarts who are a studio that creates art for all sorts of projects including comics. Where the first trailer for Vol 1 below features art from the comic the second trailer looks as it’s art has been created specificly for it. Both of the trailers are especially nice with the second being really impressive.

Ria: Lightclan Chronicles (by Stenarts)

And lastly we head back to Franco-Belgian BD comics  this one featuring the classic comic cowboy character Lucky Luke as a kid. That’s right, it’s Kid Luck which should not be confused with Alexis Fajardo’s comic Kid Beowulf (which I do production work on BTW) though I would love to think they stole the idea for him.  The creator of Lucky Luke is Morris is who is a character in the trailer for Gringo Loco above.

The trailer does a nice job of animating the characters from the comic art with quite a bit of cleaver movement.

Kid Lucky (from Dargaud)

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

To me Motion Comics and Motion Illustration is about taking material that was not designed for animation and bringing it to life with modern multimedia technology. In my previous posts here for Motion Comic Magic I have looked at how illustrations and artwork can be animated for music videos, motion comics, trailers for books, and to simulate what never existed. In fact I first talked about the idea of recreating what had never been built thorough motion-art and motion comics in my post a while back….re-creating the ‘Western River Expedition’ ride. That example used concept art, photos of models and other elements that Disney had in their archive, but it was mostly a slide show.

Recently I discovered the work of  animator David Witt (quasi-interestingparaphernaliainc.blogspot.com) has done it one better with actually animating the characters in the Concept Art itself. It also brings up an interesting idea of how using multi-media could be pre-visulized how an robotic figure for a dark ride could move in the real world.

So here are some animations of Marc Davis’ concept art for the Western River Expedition ride that was never built at Walt Disney World…

Western River Expedition: Last Roundup from David Witt on Vimeo.

Western River Expedition: Horse on the Roof from David Witt on Vimeo.

Western River Expedition: Saloon Singer from David Witt on Vimeo.

David also just release a video that features the art and audio from the Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion. You can read more about it on his blog HERE.

To see all of David’s videos, visit his VIMEO profile.

Continue reading »]]>

A post on re-purposing comics and illustration into animation

For those who are new to my Motion Comic Magic posts, I am very interested in how art/comics can be re-purposed into animation and multimedia.

I just saw this awesome video (via Monster Brains blog) from Jason Willis  that re-purposes a a spooky record from 1973 with the cover art of Eerie magazine.

The Cast of Eerie Publications perform the Johnson-Smith Novelty Company “Horror Record”

A parallel universe alliance between Eerie Publications and the 1973 Johnson-Smith Novelty Company “Horror Record.”

Continue reading »]]> The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco revealed a new logo recently as they re-brand the museum for the future. The new logo is this upside-down ‘A’ below which at first had me baffled, but as they describe….

Why did you change your logo?

The museum is reinventing itself to engage a broader audience. While the logo is a visible part of our new brand, the real change is in how we’re rethinking the experiences we deliver. Our focus has shifted from presenting stunning artworks to delivering captivating art experiences centered around stunning artworks.
…
Why is your logo an upside-down A?

You recognize the symbol, but you’re looking at it in a new way. This is what our curators do in creating art experiences. Our logo catches attention, clearly communicates a new perspective, and is a welcome sign to all. We LOVE that an upside-down A is the mathematical symbol signifying “for all.” Our Asian art experience is for everyone. For all. At the end of the day, it’s all about standing out, and triggering interest, discussion and visits.

…which makes sense. The design does stand out and smartly designed it to be modified with colors and patterns which make it customizable inside a simple bold graphic that will age gracefully and last for a very long time. It’s nice to see a graphic that is functional in such a strong way.

But the Museum also took another bold step to attract new/young audiences who sometimes avoid things that don’t look fun with special branding of their new exhibit ‘Maharaja’ featuring the illustration work of Sanjay Patel (gheehappy.com) who has published books with his clean digital art of Indian themes as well as worked at PIXAR animation studios. The move was bold and exciting to not show the actual historical pieces in advertising, but modern illustration art that is very graphic in nature and could reach out to new audiences.

For me the changes have worked and I think this represents the way of the future as art presentation shifts to being “captivating art experiences”,but that also means that the lines to what is art is also changing too with merchandising, multimedia and theatrical flair thrown into the mix.

Interesting and exciting time are ahead.

(above) Outside the building is list with pink lights that match the color on Sanjays illustrations like the one below…

(above) The illustrations look to be drawn in a vector based program like Adobe Illustrator and feel very much like they are inspired by the work of artists from the 50′s and 6o’s like the Mary Blair who designed the look of ‘It’s a Small World‘ and ‘Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros‘ for Disney.

(above) The color pallet is browns and pinks and blues and golds. Unusual mixes of colors that work great.

(above/below) Tight pencil drawings are blown up as decals on the walls for a stunning effect. To find out more about planning the use of the designs, check out this post on the official blog.

(above) Love the elephant.

(above) One of the murals inside the museum.

Click here to find more Books by Sanjay Patel on Amazon or click the book cover images in the article.

Continue reading »]]> On September 28, 2011 I had the pleasure to attended a talk by Craig Thompson as he talked about his eagerly awaited graphic novel Habibi at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. I am a huge fan of Thompson’s art and have been following the creation of Habibi on his blog. Nathan Parker was nice enough to post some short clips from the talk on his YouTube page which I have posted below.

It’s inspiring to hear the artist/author talking about his processes as well as the artistic growth that were part of the process.

I would love to do a formal review of Habibi, but I do not feel confident in writing it just yet, but I can tell you that I have read the whole 672 pages and it is pretty amazing. The book is pretty adult in nature and not for kids, but I can whole hardly recommended it. The art is beautiful and the pacing and storytelling flow effortlessly with the author controlling the flow to amazing effect. Even the book in it’s epic hard cover form is part of the experience.

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, HABIBI tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them.

At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

View the next parts at the videographers YouTube pages HERE.

Continue reading »]]>
George Webber and I are arranging this months InkDrinkDraw at The Grove on October 14, 2011. The location is right downtown (same block as the Cartoon Art Museum and the MoAD) and easily accessible by MUNI and BART.

Location: The GROVE
690 Mission St. San Francisco CA
Corner of 3rd St & Mission St (across the street from the MoAD between Peets Coffee and A.G. Ferrari)

Date: Friday Oct 14, 2011 — Time: 6:30 pm to Whenever Pm

Event cost is FREE, but we would appreciate your supporting the business by purchasing at least a snack & drink.

Bring: Samples of your work, favorite art materials, samples of other peoples work, and your spirit and creativity too.

Being an artist can be a solitary job, so we want to find a way to meet more like minded artists who are interested in Comics, Animation, Illustration, Video Games and more! After all what’s better than to meet, talk and network with people who “get” what you do as a creative!

October’s inkDrinkDraw Projects:

“MAKEOVER” Challenge:
More then ever artist are re-interpreting pop culture in new and exciting ways. Our theme for the evening is on giving the familiar a make over and transforming it into something new. For our main challenge you can join a small team in re-casting a short classic comic story with new setting, characters and attitude.

A Share and Tell Special Event:
Come see and hear how George Webber ‘s latest short story ALLEY CATS evolved from some rough character sketches, to an even rougher story outline and finally a book. See the original full sized inked pages and the final printed book.

“Open Projects & Share and Tell”
Come and just sit with us, come have fun with us!
Sketch, draw or bring your current projects, copies of your comics and art prints and share with us. As always “Open Projects” is working on whatever project you brought with you, want to try or are currently working on. Please feel free to discuss your projects with the group! We love hearing about what people are working on and will gladly give feedback!

“Other projects”
We’ll have some of the past projects on hand too, so there’s always something fun to do.

To stay in touch you can:
On Twitter Follow:
@inkDrinkDraw or @NoCashComics & @AtomicBearPress

Read the inkDrinkDraw
Blog at inkDrinkDraw.weebly.com

Continue reading »]]> Last month on September 11, 2011 I helped organize another CAM-Jam with the Bookstore at Cartoon Art Museum and InkDrinkDraw. These art jam events happen around 3 times a year for the past 3 years and always have a different theme. You can read up on past events HERE.

This CAM-Jam we decided to have artist make customizable paper toys.

In the last few years there has been a big trend of customizable art with everything from cities filled with animal statues to galleries of DIY painted urban vinyl. The basic idea is to have a blank basic form which then you as an artist customize to make it into something more. Part of this trend is paper toys in which you can print out, cut out and fold, like THESE. But there are also artist who can take a basic form and make it something unique.

The event was great with over 20 artist attending as well as some of the museum’s guests joining in the fun making Paper Action Figures like these…

You can also check out the photos on the Bookstore at the Cartoon Art Museum’s facebook page HERE. If you have photos from the event you want to share, comment below.

Some of the templates we used are:
P.D. Paper Dude / http://www.custompapertoys.com/2007/10/pd-blank-paper-toy-template.html
Paper Toy Adventures / http://papertoyadventures.com/downloads-2
AARC BLANK PAPER TOY / http://www.morgangleave.co.uk/aarc-blank-paper-toy.html
and Nice Paper Toys blog / http://www.nicepapertoys.com/

And…one I had created myself using Blender 3D to help make the pattern. If you click the image below you can download a PDF of my pattern that is free to use for non-commercial use. It’s not fancy, but it works OK with your imagination.

Note: there is not a pattern for the arms which I just cut out of scraps and used double-stick tape to attach them.

Download the template for my basic blank paper action figure.