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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 »]]> This short animation was created as part of the 3rd year of CAM-JAM artist events at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco CA. Produced on Sun May 22, 2011 in 6 hours for the art and then composited in After Effects later. Each event is an art jam with a different theme, from comics about tiki’s to tarot cards to paper toy monsters.

- The event started with some warm-up animation drawn on a white board (purchased at Daiso America store)  and filmed with a iStopMotion.

- Then each artist started drawing a sequence of animation which were then were strung together thanks to some storyboarding by Rick Lucey. The mini animation drawings were composited in Adobe After Effects.

Take a look…

You can see an announcement and find out what our goals were HERE

Artists: Karen Luk, Rick Lucey, Mouser, Brian Kolm and Jeff Plotkin

Technique inspiration: Fran Krause’s sketchbook animation ‘Nosy Bear’ – frankrause.com
editing and compositing: Brian Kolm
music: Kevin MacLeod/incompetech.com
Sound Effects: soundfx-free.com, soundbible.comMike Koenig, pacdv.com
with thanks to: Heather Plunkett and the Cartoon Art Museum and Bookstore/Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco

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After working on and off with my friend and colleague Alexis Fajardo for the last 5 months we have created an animated trailer for the graphic novel, Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland. This is our best one so far and took the most time too. That was partially since it was not only the 2D motion comic stuff going on, but also 40 seconds of 3D animation. I have never done 3d animation before, but it was always a struggle. But after finding a great demo that showed how to use After Effects with the free program Blender 3D it became a lot easier.

Here it is: the Kid Beowulf and the Song of Roland trailer (from Bowler Hat Comics)….

The 3d for this project was done with the Open Source program Blender 3D, the 2D animation and composting was done in Adobe After Effects and the image editing and coloring was done in Adobe Photoshop.

And here you can see an evolution with the four other Kid Beowulf videos I helped create with Alexis in the past… (chronologically going back in time BTW)

Kid Beowulf and the Blood Bound Oath (book number one published though Bowler Hat Comics)….

A teaser with Hama the pig…

Kid Beowulf the original self-published graphic novel…

Continue reading »]]> Well, after a couple months of busyness, this blog and website are back. A while ago something/someone hacked my Database and messed up my website. With my projects, work and holidays not much happened after that. Finally I took the plunge and got my site back up and working, but with some missing posts from the three months it was down. I guess the site is back to being a work in progress.

It’s 2010 and now that glow from the New Year is starting to fade it’s time to get back to work. I have a couple things in the works, but I don’t want to talk about them until they are further along.

- I will be at Wondercon 2010 Easter weekend and am working on a few projects for that.

- What would you like art wise from me at Wondercon? Comment below.

- I have new artwork on display at briankolm.com (which is really my portfolio page above)

- I am organizing the next CAM-JAM at the Cartoon Art Museum on February 21, 2010.  Why not come by and draw.

- or/and you could come by the Cartoonist Conspiracy San Francisco comic jams that fall on the second and last Thursday of the month. Check out our NEW BLOG.

- New random links to friends, family, artist and organizations appear on the left sidebar –> (reload the page to see a new one)

-I have some open spot for teaching at schools as well as Private Lessons if anyone is interested.

- Does anyone read my blog anyways, or should I be doing something else. How about some comments to make it worth my while?

Continue reading »]]> Well, my good ol’ site is still not up, but I hope to see if I can rescue the database and back it up this weekend.

Until then I thought it would be good to post some interesting links to artists and comics stuff. It will be 2010 soon and there is no time like the present.

Becky Dreistadt is an amazing talent. She does the web comic Tiny Kitten Teeth and was able to use the website kickstarter.com to raise money for a new project. Check out her amazing hand painted work. I met Becky and her writer in a bar during the San Diego Comic Con in 2008 and then followed her work on Deviant Art. (sample below)

Totoro by Becky Dreistadt

Artist James Gurney, the author of Dinotopia has a blog full of amazing information on the process of traditional painted illustrations. So much great info for any type of artist. His new book looks great.

Sam Hiti has posted on his blog notes on how he is creating his new web comic Death-Day.

My friend and peer Alexis E. Fajardo has posted his favorite comics of 2009. Check it out HERE.

Well, there is some cool places to visit here on the ol’ internet. I will hopefully post my end of the year thoughts tomorrow.

Continue reading »]]> Yesterday was the second Comic Jam that I arranged at the Cartoon Art Museum, CAM JAM 2. The event was nothing like the first one we did in May 2009, but it was very successful.

My main goal for the event was to create jam comics and then publish them as a zine the same day. You see last time we did some amazing work with a lot of people, but we did not get it finished and so lots of folks are still waiting to see what we came up with. So I was determined to have us complete comics and have everyone take a copy home with them the same day if possible. The amazing thing is that we did accomplish that goal, but if we had the number of artist drawing that we did on CAM JAM 1 then it would not have been possible due to the sheer amount of art produced.

You know you want to see the zines. So, before we go on, CLICK here to see the final product…. (photo by Romy)

We had six artist show up from my invitation, but that did not mean that we did not have others participate in our madness. Joe did an amazing job of inviting folks visiting the museum to come and draw for our contest. You see we started the event by doing a drawing warm up and contest with the prize being 10$ to spend at the museum bookstore. Artist had to draw their interpretation of a villain from a Disney animated feature and boy did we get some awesome work. CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF THE DRAWINGS I will be posting the drawings after I scan them, so stay tuned.

So after the core artists finished their villain drawings, we kept it going with a Speed Jam. That is we had each artist take turns to create a comic story by only spending two minuets per comic panel. I had pre-printed zine size pages with box printed on them taped to sheets of news print on the window of the bookstore. Then it was a matter of someone keeping time while artist jumped in and drew. One issue that always pops up with Jam comics is that ending them is a lot harder then starting them. So the cleaver artist at work went in and added not only an ending panel, but a few intermittent panels as well. So as we then moved forward again we had certain locked in elements that we had to make the work flow into. The result was a simple story, but a story none the less. CLICK here to see a picture of Joe in front of the speed jam pages. We ended by creating a title page with Chris doing pencils for five min and then Jeff inking it for five min.

Now all the while we had guest artist doing their villain drawings too which Jason in the bookstore tallied which ones the visitors liked best. Thanks Jason.

So next we tried to start a jam comic, but it ended up with us just doing our own thing. The art was again drawn on the pre printed zine size pages (5.5″ x 8.5″) The amazing Romy finished a short piece as well as our new artist friend Chris. Meanwhile Jeff started a beautiful piece with a group of nuns and I worked on a story of Pinocchio in the old west. Sadly my story was too long for me to finish at the jam, but it was still going pretty well.

So around 4:45pm I started to paste the pages into a dummy of the completed zine. I then ran over to Copy Central on Market St. and first made copies of the pages then fed them into the copy machine to make booklets. I had brought some card stock from home for the covers since the cost is usually less then buying it at the copy store. We finished the zines by bringing them back to the CAM and every one helped to staple them. So most everyone could bought a copy of the book (for only the price of printing) and take it home with them the same day. Copies of the book might be available at ZineFest SF next weekend, I am working on it.

So then everyone helped to clean up the space and then another Comic Jam had ended.

What did I learn? That the number of people changes what can be accomplished. That we can have a better understanding of how we work as artists and that others will jump in and help when you need it.

A big thanks to: Joe, Chris, Romy, Jeff, Audry, and all the visiting guest who participated.

I know there will be another event like this in the future, but who knows what form it might take.

TO SEE ALL OF ROMY’S PHOTOS, CLICK HERE

Continue reading »]]> Well, here I am in sunny Southern California getting ready to head back home to the Bay Area. What? You didn’t notice I was gone? Well, I have been surrounding myself in geeky delights for the last week and a half. Would you like to hear what I did? Of course you do.

My adventure started on Wednsday July 22, 2009 as I flew to San Diego for the US’s largest Comic Book/Pop Culture convention the San Diego Comic-Con 2009 (i.e. SDCC). This is my sixth year and it seems to get bigger and better every time I go.

Now the convention does not start till Thursday, but they have their Preview Night starting at 6pm the Wednesday before. So I decided I would visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. First I stopped at my favorite resturant in Balboa Park, the Tea Pavilion for a California Roll Sandwich. I don’t have a lot of photos since my batteries died on my early on, but I loved what I saw. Plus not having my camera working made me focus on just enjoying myself instead of recording everything I saw.

Click here to see more pictures from Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo.

That evening I returned to the convention after checking in at the Hostel to pick up my badge and set up the Cartoon Art Museum table for the next day.

Then I just wandered around and visited with my fellow artist.

The next day the conention was in full swing as I helped out at the Cartoon Art Museum table for their 3rd annual Sketch-A-Thon. The idea is that artist create original custom art for a mer $10 each. A sweet deal indeed.

Here are some photos of Anthony Hon and Wahab Algarmi drawing. I will post more on the convention soon as well as my trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios. Click here to all my SDCC photos I have posted on Flickr so far.

More to come.

Continue reading »]]> Today we celebrate the Independence of the USA! I hope my fellow Americans all have a wonderful day with their friends and family.

Why not check out the Disney and More blog to see original artwork from Disneyland’s ‘America on Parade’ show from the bicentennial. I have faint memories of seeing the show when I was a kid.

Have a great day.

Continue reading »]]> On April 18th, I invited a bunch of my friends to share the day with me in San Francisco to celebrate my Birthday. I had a schedual for the day and folks who come come and join me at any point.

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Before Mom and I arrived at the museum, we took a look at the mural in the Monadnock building. My Mom worked in this building in the past.

To start the day was my Mom, Mike Hales, Jeff Plotkin, and Toni Noble at the Museum of Craft and Folk art to see the exhibit “Inside/Outside : Artist Environments.” The work is by Mike Shine based on his real life “Surf shack”. Take a tour of Mike’s shack here: www.shinelounge.com/ Most of the exhibit is a full cottage with working 8track tape player and hand painted cartoon gods everywhere you see. Everyone should see the show and it runs till May 24, 2009.

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Also here is a review of the show: www.miromi.com/webpress/?p=486

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Next it was off to Mel’s diner for lunch. Audrey Soffa joined us for great comfort food. I love their Ruben Sandwhich.

After a jot to the Cartoon Art Museum to say ‘Hi’ to the weekend crew we headed off to North Beach.

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Audrey, Toni, Jeff, Mike, and I meet up with Mike Capazola and we headed to my favorite candy store, Z-Chocolat for free samples of Taffy and Fudge. Then we headed to a cafe for sketching and drinks.

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We were joined by Anthony and headed to the Artist and Craftman Supplies. An awsome art supplie store in North Beach.

Then we headed to Zeitgeist on Valencia St. where we met up with Rick Lucey, Summerlea and Nathan. We did not go in since the place was standing room only. So we walked down to Pancho Villa Taqueria for tasty Mexican food where we met with Lori and Dan.

There were drinks at Casanova and then Summerlea, Nathan, Jeff and Toni joined me for crepes and some hard cider in stone bowls. We then walked to Deloris Park and then it was time to head home.

It was a beautiful day and a great time. A great way to celebrate my birthday.

Thanks everyone.

Continue reading »]]> Well, Spring is in full force and the sun is out and warming the Bay Area. Of course my allergys are up too and worse then ever, but that won’t keep me down too much. I am not much of a hot weather person, but I love spring with it’s half-way point of coolness and sun mixed together.

Spring is a time of change and new growth. Both are elements I am looking forward too this year. I have a big birthday coming up this month as well.

Here’s whats up:

- I am doing production work on the new Kid Beowulf graphic novel by colleague Alexis Fajardo.

- Creating some new graphics for a local non-profit

- Designing a logo for a local business.

- I will be teaching the Cartoon Boot Camp at the Cartoon Art Museum this summer as well as teaching at the Schulz Museum for a one week session

- I am going down at the San Diego Comic-Con in July with some new art to show. The trip will also included 2-3 theme parks.

- I donated some artwork to a favorite Disney theme park video podcast for a special story.

Continue reading »]]> I just saw that Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer who were the Mock band in This is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind are performing for real in a six week tour. No characters (i.e. no wigs) and playing acoustic only. If you have seen either of the excellent mocumentry’s then you know that these guys are pretty good. I will look forward to hearing how they sound. http://www.unwigged.com

UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer (March 2, 2009 – Los Angeles) — Actors/Directors/Musicians and Comedy Icons Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer are doing something they have never done before; performing a six week, 30 city multi-media acoustic tour without wigs and electric instruments. UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED: An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer has the legendary musical and comedic trio performing music from heavy metal’s loudest band Spinal Tap along with the folk music from A Mighty Wind, and more. Tickets for the UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED tour go on sale Friday, March 6th, with the tour starting Friday, April 17th in Vancouver and ending Sunday, May 31st in Milwaukee. UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED is not about funny costumes and characters, but rather three long time friends and collaborators who make each laugh and love nothing better than to find some excuse to get together and play music. The trio commented, “With this being the 25th Anniversary of the film This is Spinal Tap, we thought this would be a fun and at the same time, a little challenging, as we have never performed as ourselves. Think of the evening as three old friends jamming in your living room. As opposed to OUR living rooms; we won’t be home.” UNWIGGED & UNPLUGGED will feature songs from the original soundtrack This Is Spinal Tap (1984), the studio album Break Like The Wind (1992), and A Mighty Wind (2003) along with some special surprises and rarities thrown in. Guest, McKean, and Shearer have a rich history going back decades. Guest and McKean first met in college where they wrote songs together. As for McKean and Shearer, they have known each other since 1970 when they were both members of satirical group The Credibility Gap on radio, stage and records. In 1979, Guest, McKean and Shearer appeared together for the first time in a Rob Reiner-produced, sketch comedy television pilot called The TV Show. It was here the world got their famous glimpse of Spinal Tap featuring lead singer David St. Hubbins (McKean), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Shearer). In 1984, Reiner and the lads devised a way to bring the group back this time in a major motion picture, This Is Spinal Tap, and the rest is history, literally. This Is Spinal Tap was ranked #29 of the “100 Funniest Films of All Time” by The American Film Institute and The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry’s list of 25 American cinematic works selected for historical preservation calling the film a ‘culturally significant’ work. Entertainment Weekly recently awarded TISP eleventh place (of course) in their “cult film” list. And Netflix has ranked This Is Spinal Tap in the Top 1% of all Netflix Titles in terms of total rentals to-date!

Continue reading »]]> Jillian Tamaki has a great post on coming up with ideas (thanks Romi) http://www.jilliantamaki.com/sketchbook/2008/10/idea-generation.html

The Bronze Age Blog has a nice post on Eclipse Comics’ Sabre, the first graphic novel that was sold directly to comic book stores and not to news stands. Of course this was back in 1978 and now in 2009 most graphic novels (the physical paper kind) are sold in book stores more then in comic book stores. It’s an intersting read: http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/2009/03/sabre.html

I am really enjoying the new webcomic Tiny Kitten Teeth. It’s hand painted in full color and is odd and fun. Here: http://www.tinykittenteeth.com/

Continue reading »]]> I am very excited to announce that Walt Disney World will be customizing there “what will you celebrate” promotion to…Me. They knew my birthday was coming up and produced this video…

OK, you can be the star of the park by going here, http://www.sun7news.com. Just scroll down to the video and skip the email to friends area. Goofy actually says your name.