Chalk Outlines: The Art and Animation Blog of Josh Lange

New "8 Bit Cubist" interview podcast up

2012-01-31T22:01:00.001-08:00

Myself and MisterBenja of the 8 Bit Cubist had a fun talk about video games, film, and staying focused on the long road to self-fulfillment over here at the 8-Bit Cubist site. Check it out and leave a comment.

Mark 7

2011-12-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

Original post on the Miracle Mile Marksmen blog

This week was tough because we decided on the mark literally as she was walking past our group of tables and it was hard to absorb all the details in that short amount of time. I'm not even sure that she had an orange bag with a yellow jacket--it could have been the opposite. I guess I still have a long way to go in training my short term memory.

Detail maybe no one else noticed: the horizontal stripes on her boots.

Mark 6

2011-12-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

original post on the Miracle Mile Marksmen blog

This guy was definitely exuding a sense of "please look at me," and I find it funny that he has no idea that six people were observing him to sketch an impression later. Although the color palette of his clothes wasn't more than a few brown tones, he had a lot of details to capture.

Detail maybe no one else caught: the white threads at the end of his scarf & the unbuttoned shirt cuffs.

Jack the Giant Killer trailer is here!

2011-12-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Jack the Giant Killer was the very first movie I worked on with the Third Floor when I moved to L.A. last year, so it has a special place in my heart. The trailer came out great and I'm greatly anticipating the movie when it comes out in IMAX:

Jack the Giant Killer trailer on Quicktime.com

There are only a few shots in the trailer that I personally worked on, but the movie will have many more that I
worked on during my stint on the project.
0:45/0:46 (Jack on the ground/Isabelle in the house being raised into the sky)
1:09 (Elmont preparing for battle with the troops behind him)

Jack the Giant Killer in the news:
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=32705
http://collider.com/jack-the-giant-killer-trailer-poster/131392/

New Sketch Blog: The Miracle Mile Marksmen

2011-12-06T23:41:00.000-08:00

Some other Los Angeles animation professionals and I have started a "sketch club" in the Miracle Mile area. We've been picking random people on the street to all draw from memory and posting the results here:

MIRACLE MILE MARKSMEN

Subscribe, comment, and enjoy!

I've been doing mine by sketching the person loosely once I get back from lunch and then fleshing out the illustration on my Cintiq at home in my spare time. It's been a great way to stay sharp and a good outlet for trying out new styles.

Hat tip to Marcelo and the rest of the Sketch Club in Culver City for showing their support.

Empty Streets

2011-11-26T23:14:00.000-08:00

Last year I helped out with some of the package design and promotional materials for this short film Empty Streets. The short is about a young war veteran returning with PTSD and has been shown in festivals nationwide. The production blog link is here: www.emptystreetsmovie.blogspot.com

Daily Show has a Red Dead Redemption reference

2011-11-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

Saw this video and thought the graphic gag was worth sharing (It comes on at 8:16 and 11:02). Nice to see the references continuing in outlets like this.

New Avengers Movie Trailer

2011-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

The new Avengers trailer came out this week. A few of the shots I did previs for are in it, including the shot of the damaged flying jet (:56) and Thor reaching out for his hammer Mjolnir and catching it "Jedi style" (1:09). Check it out and let me know what you think:

"Grandpa" mini-comic

2011-10-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here it is in full. Feedback is appreciated in the comments section.

©2011 Josh Lange. All rights reserved. All of the characters and events in the story are completely fictional. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. No similarity to any person either living or dead is intended or should be inferred.

"Grandpa" is now at Meltdown Comics!

2011-10-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

The first print run..

Tina and I sold my first copies to Meltdown Comics in West Hollywood tonight. They can be found in the indie comics section at the far left side of the store. Pick one up if you're in the Los Angeles area!

My mini-comic is here!

2011-10-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

I picked up my copies of "Grandpa" at the printer today:

The first two pages:

Sure, it's a mere eleven pages and printed on copy paper, but I learned a ton in the process and it feels great to call my first comic project complete and have it in my hand. I'll be at Meltdown Comics tomorrow night to put it on their indie shelf with the other self-published mini-comics from their Meltdown University class. All those who read this blog that live in the Los Angeles area are welcome to come by and pick up a signed copy.

For those who can't get their hands on a physical copy, check back to this blog later this week because I will be posting the mini-comic in its entirety very soon.

"8 Bit Legends" Prints Now Available on My Etsy Site

2011-10-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

To purchase your very own signed and numbered 18"x24" giclee print from my "8 Bit Legends" game designer series, stop by my Etsy store and I'll send it to you with free shipping.

New "Grandpa" comic is done!

2011-09-23T00:53:00.000-07:00

As of an hour ago, my side project, a graphic short story titled "Grandpa," is finally complete. My remaining (and important) step is to print copies for distribution. The comic was 100% digitally created, aside from a handful of character design drawings that won't see the light of day (I started out a little rusty). In addition to printing out copies for friends, family, and the patrons of Meltdown Comics who visit their indie racks, I plan to also post the comic online in its entirety. So please keep your eyes on this site for the upcoming link to my comic. I'm excited to finally share my work, and hope that it gets some positive feedback and interest in my next excursion into self-published comics.

"Jesse Lange" skin for Red Dead Redemption

2011-09-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason I hadn't noticed this before, but this hombre's got quite the awesome last name:

Just saying.

Food for thought

2011-08-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to Andy Serkis

I like the points the author makes. I think Serkis is right in thinking that despite all the CG people that work with his performance after it has been captured aren't as deserving in the credit as the original actor. It is semi-akin to the fact that there is one director credit despite the fact that directors have second units who literally help him or her make the film. It is strange to see how clumsily Serkis explains the process (I wouldn't assign him the motive of intentionally downplaying the work the CG team does, however).

"A Day in the Life" at The Third Floor, in Animation Magazine

2011-08-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this when it first came out. You can see me in the bottom left picture at our 10th floor patio (left side, all the way down at the end, wearing red).
http://www.animationmagazine.net/a-day-in-the-life/issue-214-the-third-floor/

Video article on The Third Floor's previs for X-Men: First Class

2011-06-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

TheDaily.com has a new video featuring interviews and footage from The Third Floor. You can learn about the previs process as well as see what our shots look like before they're handed off for the final effects work.

300 sketchbook update

2011-06-18T00:47:00.000-07:00

Another page of 15 minute sketched heads, colored in Photoshop. Sure, it takes time away from the minicomic, but I have to keep sharp. These are more topical than the ones I've done in the past, which were mostly drawn from pages of the LA Weekly.

Chris Christie (Gov-NJ), Anthony Weiner (Rep-NY), Louis CK

American McGee's "Alice: Madness Returns" show at Gallery 1988

2011-06-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

A belated post, but here's a writeup my friend Ben wrote of the art show for American McGee's "Alice: Madness Returns" video game. We attended the opening on Thursday and I was pleased with the artwork. NC Winters and Kevin Tong had some standout pieces, as usual. I got to speak with American and his art director Ken (who I was photographed with on that blog post), who provided some insight on the game's production. American had just started up Red Dead Redemption, so we talked about that a bit as well.

I'm about three pages into my minicomic, and am trying to redouble my efforts to make sure it's finished in the near future. I underestimated how long it would take, and I think making it digitally has been about a wash in terms of time saved compared to making it in 2D. I'm planning to post the first six or so pages here on the blog when they're ready.

300 sketchbook update

2011-06-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

So this blog has been static lately, but for those who have been asking for updates, here's the latest 15 minute head sketches from my 300 heads sketchbook. I colored them up a bit in Photoshop. See how many you can recognize from the headlines over the last few months:

Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, Imed Trabelsi

Muammar Gaddafi, Vice Admiral Alex Gortney, Michael Keaton

Melissa Leo, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale

My spare time has been spent on a ten page mini-comic that I'm doing 100% digitally. It should be finished soon (before ComiCon) and I'll make it available as soon as I can.

Now on Etsy...

2011-03-21T23:46:00.001-07:00

Visit my Etsy store! (actual items will be available for sale in the near future...)

Articles on The Third Floor's new partnership with Silverdraft

2011-03-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

Good reads for those interested in visual effects and the way previsualization is changing the game:

FXGuide: Introducing Silverdraft Mobileviz

Hollywood Reporter: Silverdraft Rolling Out Mobile Digital Studio

Now in Tumblr form...

2011-03-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Add me on Tumblr!

New interview and info about my latest print series at 8-bit Cubist.com

2011-03-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple months I made a mini-series of video game-themed prints for the upcoming PAX East convention. Exclusive pictures of the prints and an interview I did about them are now available over at 8-bit Cubist.com, so check them out and let me know what you think!

Red Dead Redemption gets 2010 "Game of the Year" award at GDC

2011-03-04T23:15:00.000-08:00

Red Dead Redemption, was given "game of the year" in San Francisco this week at the Game Developer's Choice Awards.

From the article:

"There was no shortage of groundbreaking titles across platforms and genres this year. From big-budget blockbusters like Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2, to indie darlings such as Minecraft and Limbo, 2010 was truly an incredible year for games, and we're delighted to honor them here," said Meggan Scavio, Event Director of the Game Developers Conference.

Congratulations to all my former teammates on that great project who took home awards for Design, Technology and Sound. (Maybe one day animation will be recognized at the GDCAs) For my comprehensive list of awards RDR2 has garnered, visit this blog post.

PAX East Video Game Prints Update: Getting Closer...

2011-02-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in earlier posts, I've been developing digital paintings themed after designers of the 8-bit video game era in my spare time. The paintings have been a collaboration with my friend and former Rockstar coworker Ben Johnson at The 8-Bit Cubist for the upcoming PAX East video game convention. Tonight I picked up my mini-proofs from Static Medium. They look great, and I'm very excited to get the final/larger 18" x 24" prints this weekend.

Mini-proofs of my renditions of game designers Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario Bros./Legend of Zelda, Nolan Bushnell (Pong) and Alexey Pajitnov (Tetris). Taken with an iPhone.

If you like what you're seeing, I'd like to mention that these prints are a VERY limited run. If you would like one or more of them to decorate your walls, email me at joshlange at gmail dot com. Each comes with a certificate of authenticity with background on the print and subject, signed by Ben and myself.

February Art Update

2011-02-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Lots of new things in development this month, including an upcoming mini series of prints that I'm working on with The 8 Bit Cubist. Those who love video games will get a big kick out of them. On top of that, I also signed up for a class on making a mini-comic at Meltdown Comics. I've been developing several story ideas for what feels like ages, so I chose one of the shorter ones for the ten-page comic I'll be creating. My goal is to have it be a level of quality worthy of being on shelves of Los Angeles bookstores and beyond.

As for my ongoing "300 heads" sketchbook, I'm maybe 40% through at this point. Here's a scan of a page I did last week, with a spot of digital color. Strangely, my wife and I watched Love Actually yesterday and it turns out all these actors are in that movie. Weird...

Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant. No more than 15 mins on each head.

Last weekend I also watched the Lemmy documentary about the Motorhead frontman, and drew a cartoon of the subject while it was on. Oddly enough, there's an annoying DJ in Love Actually who wears a Motorhead shirt.:

Mr. Ace of Spades.

And lastly, some silly cartoons done while watching a spot of TV. This is in the second sketchbook I'm filling up, which has one single rule: "nothing based on reference." It's nothing spectacular, but I want to post this as something to compare later on when I'm hopefully much more skilled at drawing from scratch.

NFL 2011 Faces

2011-01-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of Superbowl-themed faces from my "300" sketchbook that I'm filling up these days. I put more time into shading the heads on this page, so I figured I'd throw it on this blog.:

QBs Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

Time for bed.

Gallery 1988 "Multiplayer" Show

2011-01-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, time to jump into 2011 with my first post of the year. Last Saturday I attended Gallery 1988's inaugural show at their new Santa Monica location. "Multiplayer" featured prints of all kinds of (mainly) retro video games, and garnered a large turnout. If you're at all into video game-related artwork and are looking to spiff up your walls with some new posters, check out the artwork on their gallery. My fellow ex-Rockstar Mister Benja over at The 8-Bit Cubist did a write-up over at his blog, featuring a photo of yours truly.

If you're more into videos, Hailey and the Coin-Op.TV guys got some nice coverage of the event as well, featuring interviews of standout artists Kevin Tong and Mike Mitchell:

P.S. I also attended the "Is This Thing On?" comedian artwork show at Gallery 1988's Melrose location, but was too swamped that weekend to post about it. It was awesome. Consider that my writeup. Thanks!

New "The 300" Sketchbook

2010-12-19T23:45:00.000-08:00

Not much to post, but I've started a new 100-page sketchbook that I'm filling with just portraits. Specifically, 3 portraits per page, totaling 300 when I'm completely finished. I'm trying to keep each head to 15 minutes maximum, and sometimes it's hard to stop and move on.

28 pages into my portrait-only sketchbook.

Red Dead's still winning awards on video game sites, so I'm happy to learn of each one, and I'm updating my blog post as each new one is announced. I hope everyone's having a good Winter break!

The Complete List of Awards for Red Dead Redemption

2010-12-12T22:29:00.000-08:00

This weekend Spike TV held its annual Video Game Awards. Red Dead Redemption was nominated in the following categories:

Game of the Year
Best Song in a Game ("Far Away")
Best Original Score
DLC of the Year
Studio of the Year (Rockstar San Diego)
Character of the Year (John Marston)
Best PS3 Game
Best Action Adventure Game
Best Graphics
Best Performance by a Human Male (Rob Wiethoff)

When all the dust had cleared, Red Dead won the coveted 2010 Game of the Year award, along with Best Song, Best Original Score, and DLC of the Year. In what has been the most incredible year of all my time working on video games, I can't think of a better way to wrap up 2010. All three games I made at Rockstar San Diego went on to be nominated in their respective categories at the VGAs, but Red Dead Redemption was the first one to take the grand prize. I want to take this space to congratulate the massive team that made it such a great work of quality, and thank the fans who have supported the game since its release. It's been a very special thing to be a part of, and I'm happy to be able to look back on RDR2 and see that it got its due.

Update: There are many more awards rolling in. Here is an ongoing update for the other awards Red Dead Redemption has won for 2010:

X-Play's Best of 2010 Awards:
Best Action/Adventure Game
Best DLC

Machinima
Game of the Year
Best Narrative
Most Compelling Character
Best Original Score
Best Sound Design

ShortList
Best Game of 2010

The Times of London
Game of the Year

GamesRadar
Game of the Year
Reader's Choice Award
Runner Up: Most Graphics
Runner Up: Cutscenes You Actually Want to Watch

IGN
Funniest Game (Undead Nightmare)

GameSpot (nearly a clean sweep, taking awards in the following categories)
Game of the Year
Best DLC
Best Story
Best New Character
Best Atmosphere
Best Original Music
Best Voice Acting
Most Improved Sequel
Best Writing/Dialogue
Best Ending
Best Action/Adventure Game
Best PS3 Game
Best Xbox 360 Game

Game Developer's Choice Awards
Game of the Year
Best Technology
Best Game Design
Best Audio

CTN Animation Expo!

2010-11-22T00:07:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I went to the CTN Animation Expo in Burbank and had an absolute blast. I love ComiCon and I love Siggraph, but there was something special about this event--it felt intimate, but it attracted a lot of talented animation and art professionals. It felt very satisfying to meet artists I've admired for years like Eric Canete, Robh Ruppel (who turned out to be a big Red Dead fan!), and if that weren't enough, J. Scott Campbell, who I happened to catch at a moment when there wasn't a line to see him! (impossible to imagine were it at ComiCon).

Me and legendary comic book artist J. Scott Campbell after he signed two of his books for me. He and Jim Lee were the artists who most influenced the way I drew comics when I started in the early 90s.

This week I'll be looking at the websites from all the business cards I collected, as well as working on a new sketchbook which will be 100% focused on heads. I got the idea after speaking with artist Michael Buffington, Jr., who was selling his sketchbook filled with a whopping 1,000 head sketches. He did it in just over a month, so I think I can do it in less than three for sure. I also saw the presentation that my company, The Third Floor, gave about previsualization at one of the convention rooms, and it felt exciting to be a part of such a forward-thinking company in an industry as new as previs. Needless to say, I'll be attending next year.

2010 "Proof-of-Concept" Pumpkin

2010-10-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

Argh. I always look forward to carving a Halloween pumpkin each year, but this time I couldn't pull one off due to time constraints. However, I was able to mock something up in Photoshop in honor of the new "The Walking Dead" TV series:

Click here for some sketches I did of the Walking Dead TV series panel at the 2010 ComiCon.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Now Available

2010-10-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

New day, new Red Dead post. You can now purchase the Halloween-themed "Undead Nightmare Pack" through the Xbox or Playstation online stores. I hope you enjoy it!

Earlier posts on the Undead Nightmare Pack: 1 2

Comedians I Like: Fall Sketchbook Dump

2010-10-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm mostly moved into the new place in L.A. and have been able to make some time to colorize some of the sketches I've done over the last month. Apologies for the lack of polish with some of these and varying degrees of commitment to a caricature-y style.

First up is Greg Fitzsimmons. I haven't seen him live yet, but I listen to his podcast every week. He's been behind the scenes of many TV shows over the years and has a very sharp act.

Earlier this year my wife and I saw Bill Burr destroy at the Brea Improv. He is one of my all-time favorites, and I have been meaning to do a drawing of him for some time now.

Dave Attell is a standup legend, and I had the pleasure of seeing him on a weeknight at the New York Comedy Cellar a few years ago. I was right up front and he did some back and forth with me, which felt surreal. His recent appearance on the "Blue episode" of Marc Maron's WTF podcast had me nearly crying with laughter.

I never miss Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, which features long interviews with the best comedians working today. He's a true original, and digs much deeper into his personal life than most comics, providing material which is very raw and fearless. I did an assortment of drawings for him, one of which came out looking a bit like Steven Spielberg:

Update 12/31/10: Me with Marc Maron after his set last night at The Comedy Store:

Now onto two looser sketches. The two on the left are Joe Rogan, from when I saw him perform at the House of Blues this summer in San Diego. The show started late, and at least four people got kicked out for disorderly conduct, but he handled it like a pro. Joe hosts his own podcast and first gained fame from the underrated TV show "Newsradio" before he watched people do things like eat maggot-ridden cheese and punch each other in the face.

To the right is Kevin Pollak, is an actor-comedian you'd recognize from The Usual Suspects. Like many other comedians in this post, he hosts an excellent online video podcast/chat show. His recent hour special is titled "The Littlest Suspect."

Marc Maron recently interviewed comedienne Kristen Schaal on the WTF Podcast, which inspired me to sketch her and her co-author Rich Blomquist (a Daily Show writer). They have a book out now.

And lastly, Mike Dawson and Donny Misraje, who both work on the Adam Carolla Show, which I did another illustration for here.

New "Daily Geology" Page by John Peña

2010-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

John Peña is a longtime friend of mine and a terrific artist. He's currently a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Over the years he has worked on a wide range of projects, including commissioned murals, a "Conflict Kitchen" that cooked popular dishes from foreign countries the United States has troubled relations with, and "Unnatural Translations," a series of natural events (rainfall, tides, etc.) as acted out by human bodies.

Over the last year, John made a series of playful line drawings where he would draw a significant memory that happened to him on that day. They are now all scanned and posted online to view at http://www.dailygeology.com/. Like the rest of his portfolio, I recommend checking it out.

More on the Conflict Kitchen.

Red Dead Redemption » Undead Nightmare - Launch Trailer

2010-10-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

The latest spookiest trailer for Red Dead's "Undead Nightmare" downloadable content.

I've been working on comedian caricatures again, so keep checking back for new ones. I saw Paul F. Tompkins and Janeane Garofalo at Largo last week and I'll definitely do renditions of them eventually.

New Official Trailer for the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Downloadable Content

2010-10-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

For those who are looking for a new spin on the Red Dead Redemption universe, here's Rockstar's take on ZOMBIES:

It was the last project I worked on at Rockstar San Diego, so I know it's fun as hell. I hope you gamers that read this blog end up picking it up and enjoying it.

Shades of Death wins "Best Visual Effects" at Project Twenty1 Film Festival

2010-10-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Over the last two months my I helped create a humorous samurai short film called Shades of Death for the Project Twenty1 film festival in Philadelphia. The other members of our team "Creative Meat" were in Toronto, but from San Diego I was able to assist with writing the script as well as making the DVD jacket and promotional posters. The theme we had to incorporate was "reading between the lines." My friend Mark Driver headed up the team by directing the short film, which screened in Philadelphia over the weekend and ended up bringing home the award for "Best Visual Effects," as well as nominations for "Best Editing" and "Best Sound Design." It was a lot of fun to make and I'd like to congratulate the other members of the "Creative Meat" team on the win. I can't wait for the next contest!
You can watch the film and a B-roll clip on the Creative Meat Vimeo channel.

Shades of Death | Project Twenty1 | 2010 from Mark Driver on Vimeo.

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Debut Trailer

2010-10-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

The last thing I worked on at Rockstar San Diego is almost here...

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC!

New characters, a new story, and more gore and twistedness than you can aim a Blunderbuss at. Comes out this month.

New job!

2010-09-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

After more than five years and three games at Rockstar San Diego, I'm moving on to join the previs team at The Third Floor in Los Angeles to work on feature films and game cinematics. I'll miss the excellent teammates I came to know at Rockstar over the years, but I'm excited to be moving on to work in the film industry.
For those curious about how the previs process works at The Third Floor, here's a video they made for Autodesk:

'Thick Kids' Blog Mention & Latest 'RDR' News

2010-09-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

The new comedy art blog "Thick Kids and Their Thick Parents" has my Brian Posehn and Louis C.K. caricatures reposted on it. More of my stuff might appear there as I create more comedian caricatures, so give it a look every once and a while.
_____
In Red Dead Redemption news, here are some of the latest web articles to be posted this week:

Brad Pitt to star in Red Dead Redemption movie? (a complete rumor, but that hasn't stopped people from pitching their own casting ideas)
Take-Two Trumps Estimates, Rides Red Dead Redemption to Q3 Profits
Red Dead Redemption Hits 7 Million Sales
And finally, here's G4's verdict on the recently-released "Legends and Killers" DLC for Red Dead Redemption. Pick it up now!

Life Drawing: Rockstar

2010-08-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

I've been helping out on a short film in my spare time this week, but I promised myself I'd post a couple times a week, so here's a stitched-together scan of a drawing I did at one of the life drawing sessions held at work a while back. I wasn't able to finish the rendering, but I liked the pose and how it started out:

New Animation Reels

2010-08-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

I uploaded three new demo reels to YouTube. Each contains a different slice of my body of work. They are broken down into the Main Demo Reel, a Keyframe Only Demo Reel, and a Mocap Only Demo Reel. For shot breakdowns, visit my portfolio site. YouTube videos always exceed the width of my Blogger column, so the best way to view them is off the link to the YouTube site itself.l There's lots of little details in them, so make sure your resolution is set to 720p.

Main Animation Reel (best of keyframe & mocap) YouTube Link

Keyframe Only YouTube Link

Mocap Only YouTube Link

Animation Exercise: "Excuse Me"

2010-08-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

A little keyframing piece I've been doing to mix it up from all the mocap at work. The final version with a higher-quality image is available to view on my portfolio website on either the Main Reel or Keyframe Reel videos. I animated it on the free "Norman Rig," and the sound clip is from Blazing Saddles.

Comics I Like: Sarah Silverman

2010-08-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't seen her live, I've known Sarah Silverman's work since the early 90s when I first started loving stand-up comedy. She's huge now, and has carved out a very memorable niche for herself. This caricature still falls short for me in terms of finding a good harmony between exaggerated and realistic, but it was good practice nonetheless. In some ways I think the original drawing flows better than the final Photoshopped piece, though:

Comics I Like: Doug Stanhope

2010-08-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

When I was first lent a Doug Stanhope CD, he was described to me as a comic with "good bar stories." It's no wonder: his delivery style is profane and crude, and he loves questioning societal conventions from the ground up. Many of his filthy and hilarious stories are from his time traveling out on the road. I was able to see him, inebriated and shaggy-haired, at a packed dive bar in Ocean Beach a few years back and his rants absolutely slayed. If you like blue comedy, he's one of the best out there.

For the caricature, I decided to make him a sunburnt, annoyed hitchhiker alone on an Arizona highway, complete with a cigarette and a beer, and wearing the "Libertarian" baseball jersey he wore for a special he put on in New York when he ran for president in 2008.

Here he is delivering the famous "Aristocrats" joke for Penn Jilette and Paul Provenza's movie (NSFW!):

As a guest on the excellent Charlie Brooker's "Screenwipe":

The Latest Red Dead Redemption News

2010-08-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post some RDR items, the first of which being that the new Legends and Killers downloadable content will be available online August 10th, and it includes models of characters from Red Dead Revolver, the "spiritual predecessor" to Red Dead Redemption.
-Check out screens here and the video at GameTrailers.com:

Video Games | Red Dead Redemption | Exclusive Legends and Killers DLC Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

-The second news item is that a team of young Dutchmen just broke the official world record for uninterrupted game playing. Which game sustained their fanatic attention for 50+ hours? Red Dead Redemption, of course.

-There's a great behind-the-scenes video of how the RDR soundtrack was created that you can check out here:

-A recent write-up of the biggest games of the year in the New York Times.

-Up next, a great webcomic about a fan's experiences in RDR over at 24 Hours Marston. (Press "Next" to start the comic sequence)

-And finally, LEGO Red Dead! 1 2

Comics I Like: Adam Carolla

2010-08-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I distinctly remember the first time I encountered the comedic stylings of Adam Carolla. My friend Carlton and I were doing homework together at his house, and he had MTV's "LoveLine" on. I had never seen it before and wasn't paying much attention at first, but he kept distracting me by making me laugh from his wiseass remarks and eventually I just put my books aside and enjoyed the show. Since that show, I've seen or heard Carolla for probably hundreds of hours on television, radio, film, and now his podcast with partners-in-crime "Bald Bryan" Bishop and Teresa Strasser. For the drawing I kept the style a little less cartoony than normal and colored the scanned drawings in Photoshop. I used the smudge tool to help soften up the rough graphite lines and help smooth out the tone variations in the skin.

9/19 update: I did another pass on this picture to punch it up a bit, added a text border with all the in-jokes I could fit, then printed out some copies and gave them to the Ace Man himself when I saw him over the weekend at a live show in North Hollywood. Here's the new version:

Here's a shot of the two of us after the show (I wore my Red Dead shirt because I wanted to speak with him about the game (He's mentioned it every so often over the last few months on his podcast:

Sketchbook: Caricatures

2010-07-31T03:58:00.000-07:00

Eminem and Dr. Dre sketches, scanned and colored in Photoshop. A bit "meh" and needing of some more love, but I've been busy these days with other things and unfortunately I can't spend as much time on each face as I'd like:

And finally, animators Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena, from a picture taken at Siggraph. After scanning in the drawings, I pushed the proportions with the smudge tool to the point where the hatchmarks are nearly invisible. I went for a loose, distorted look, which was a lot of fun. I think I might be onto something with this style, specifically with how nicely the colors get formed by drawing color out from the variety of values found on a drawing that has a color layer on multiply above it in Photoshop:

Siggraph 2010

2010-07-31T03:39:00.000-07:00

I went up to Los Angeles this week to attend this year's Siggraph expo. In addition to a show floor, demonstrations, panels, and lectures, Siggraph has an area called the Emerging Technologies show, where you get a sneak peek at a variety of engineering marvels from around the world. I took a few pictures as I walked through:

Clockwise from top left: adjusting the direction of a pair of synthetic eyes via joystick, my friend Sabine dancing with a small French robot, a set of sensors that could be positioned in any number of arrangements, tickling a holographic pixie.

Left: Two people testing a "scent sensor" that, when activated by a perfume-scented piece of paper, would bloom and attract bees and hummingbirds cast from a projector above. Right: putting my hand out in a scanning field, where it was then rendered on a computer in real time. It was like putting my hand underneath a falling stream of virtual water and seeing its shape appear on the monitor. Very cool.

On to the show floor. I stopped by the Vancouver Film School table, and saw that I'm now included in their alumni book. It brought a nice feeling of closure to see it.

Another real time 3D scanning booth, only this had a much larger field to step into. The render on the left was taken from my iPhone.

This Tandent booth had some impressive technology. It was able to isolate the shadow layer of an image and remove it to show the subject as if it was evenly lit from all directions. There was one before/after shot that they had of a wrinkled receipt with the after version looking essentially like a printed-out text document, it was so clear. When applied to faces (in real time, no less) you got this result (original video feed on the left, then the isolated shadow layer in the middle, then the differential "diffuse image" on the right):

The man at the booth who was explaining the tech to me said that the main function they were developing it for was facial recognition software.

On the way out, I bumped into animators Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena, co-creators of the world-famous Animation Mentor online school. Both were extremely nice and fun to talk with, and I was very pleased to hear from Shawn that Red Dead Redemption is currently very popular with his coworkers at ILM!

More Sketchbook Excerpts from ComiCon

2010-07-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Sat through more panels today, including:

Hawaii Five-0 & The Walking Dead TV series. They're going to be taking their time on each episode for TWD, and Kirkman and Frank Darabont said that they wanted to throw surprises the viewer's way, even if they'd read the comic books before. There was a scene with Grimes hiding in a tank in downtown Atlanta that wasn't in the books, so I'm curious to see what else they'll put in.

I also attended the one for "Neighbors From Hell," which Patton Oswalt was a part of. I introduced myself to him after it ended and he was very nice, saying he liked my caricature of him, which he had seen from the Facebook post I sent him. We took a picture together, but the angle is looking straight up my nose.

Next were Jill Thompson's watercolor class and Scott McCloud/James Sturm's panel which discussed comic book theory and educating people on how to create cartoons.

Then there was the Drew Struzan panel, which I was really looking forward to. He was joined by two filmmakers that are putting together a documentary about him, 20 minutes of which they screened for the crowd. Frank Darabont, who was interviewed in the documentary, was also in attendance. Struzan seemed very surprised at the standing ovation and overall attention he received, mentioning a few times that most of his life was spent alone in his studio and he doesn't get much contact with his fans. He reminds me of a softer Clint Eastwood:

Then came the Archer panel, which was hysterical, and not just because they showed the next full episode. The cast were all there (including Aisha Tyler, but I wasn't able to get a good angle on her, so I didn't get a drawing in):

Struzan and Archer panel members:

After the Con my wife and I went to see Patton Oswalt's show at the House of Blues, which featured Brian Posehn, Paul Scheer/Scott Aukerman, and was hosted/opened by Kyle Kinane. After the show I bumped into Kinane and James Adomian of Last Comic Standing fame (whom I also did a little caricature of recently) and took a picture, this time far away from my nose:

Sketchbook Dump

2010-07-23T00:54:00.000-07:00

ComiCon started this week, so I've been drawing a bit each hour while I'm in panels. Here are a bunch of recent sketchbook pages:

Queens of the Stone Age.

Softball team and the Scheme Team.

Fist, hats, and people at ComiCon.

Paul Pope, ComiCon attendees, and the Marvel panel.

Panel members hosted by Chip Mosher of Boom! Studios. http://blog.boom-studios.net/

Sketchbook: 7/13/10

2010-07-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

This morning I remembered to bring my sketchbook with me when I gave blood. Unfortunately the magazines in the waiting room were nearly all Good Housekeeping and didn't have much in terms of celebrity faces. The left three women on this page were in the room with me, and the rest were in the magazine:

Cont'd, with some IRL people on the right side of the bottom page:

Later on I did a pass on all the remaining Last Comic Standing contestants in the simple caricature style I've been developing. Still not stylized enough for my taste. (Ref):

More Caricature Practice

2010-07-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to find my go-to style for caricatures. I've been picking themes for subjects, and today's ended up being animators & animated filmmakers. Most of the source images for these came from the podcasts from the Speaking of Animation Blog, which I was listening to today.

Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders (ref), the guys behind the story to How To Train Your Dragon. I did this first thing in the morning, so it doesn't have much flow to it.

Ted Ty, Aaron Gilman, and Richard Baneham. Kind of a spectrum of angular minimalist to straightforward portraiture, which I keep slipping into accidentally.:

And finally Steven Gordon, David Weatherly, Ben Rush & Ken Fountain (ref). I tried something different and "chunky" with these, which ended up being pretty unexpected and fun:

There's a big world of animators out there, so I'll no doubt be including more of these as time goes by and I hunt for more subjects. I'll also be posting some co-worker caricatures on here soon too.

Comics I Like: Brian Posehn, Seth Rogen, and Aziz Ansari

2010-07-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

More caricature sketches with digital coloring in Photoshop. Brian Posehn is one of the "Comedians of Comedy" and went on to appear in movies and recently had a role on the Sarah Silverman Program. He's also a big metal head. The first time I remember seeing him was on the hilarious "Titannica" sketch on "Mr. Show":

I've since seen him live in San Diego, and he had a great set.

Posehn Ref.

10/25/10 Update: Here's me with Posehn and his fellow Mr. Show alum Scott Aukerman after they presented The Blob at the Silent Movie Theater:

Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari are probably the funniest guys of their generation. Rogen popped onto my radar back when "Freaks and Geeks" first aired, and Aziz's $#!++iest Boombox Blast first let me know he was someone to keep an eye on.

This scene from the movie Observe and Report (language NSFW) has them facing off by exchanging the same insult back and forth. Their body language and energy levels contrast nicely, and I wanted to make it seem like Rogen is saying the first part of the insult on his side of the image in an angry way while Aziz is finishing it on the right side of the image almost silently (watch the video link to see what I mean).

Ok, that's enough links and swearing for now. It's hard to turn off the caricaturing part of my brain now that I've tapped into it, so I'll be posting more in the future.

Comics I Like: Patton Oswalt

2010-07-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

I like a good number of comics, but if you were to ask me my overall favorite, I'd have to go with Patton Oswalt. I remember when his 222 album had just come out and it seemed like no one knew who he was. No matter who I shared his album with; however, they were instant fans of his crazy characters and uniquely-worded rants. Now he's a famous actor whose voice starred in the Pixar classic Ratatouille and the disturbing but fascinating Big Fan, which I watched for the first time last night.

In Big Fan, Oswalt plays a New York Giants fan from Staten Island who accidentally disqualifies his favorite player from playing. Torn between standing up for himself or his team, his character's life is turned upside-down. You never know just how far he's been pushed by the humiliating circumstances in his life, and Oswalt plays the character with a mix of enthusiastic, pathetic, and even a bit deranged. I loved the movie, and it reminded me why I'm such a "big fan" of Oswalt himself.

As for the piece, I decided to keep with the caricature style that I've been developing this week. I've been tending to over-render the original sketch, which ends up hampering the digital coloring process a bit. Here's a photo of the original drawing (the scanner on my printer is acting up yet again, so I had to use my camera to get it into the computer):

I decided the sketch was too stretched, so I squashed him down a bit to the final proportion and painted the rest in Photoshop. Caricatures are never flattering, and I wanted to push this rendition of him in a disturbing direction, to mimic the character Oswalt plays in the movie:

Reference for Patton in Big Fan.

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 3

2010-07-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

For this round I chose the two most trusted and competent commanders in the Continental Army under George Washington: Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. Both men were instrumental in leading their divisions and preparing the untested American forces for the battles against the British and Hessian troops. They were mentioned prominently in the 1776 book I finished this week, so they seemed like natural choices for the caricature kick I've been on.

Knox Ref. Greene Ref.

Publish Post

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 2

2010-07-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Started off the day right--with some drawing. Specifically, more caricature practice, with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I got looser with the Jefferson one, and I ended up liking it more.

The original sketches, without the dab of Photoshop color:

Adams Ref. Jefferson Ref.

Founding Father Caricatures, Pt. 1

2010-07-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

This week I've been enjoying the audiobook to David McCullough's 1776 and I've been in the caricaturing mood. Here's a pair, one of the famous 1st president and the other of author Thomas Paine (the second being less of a caricature and more of a mashup, admittedly). I gave both a touch of color in Photoshop as well.

Washington Ref.

Paine Ref. Pain Ref.

I'm not at all experienced with caricaturing, but it's something I want to focus on practicing this year.

Toy Story 3 and Red Dead Redemption

2010-07-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the new movie Toy Story 3 in 3D. I have to say that it was one of the most solidly entertaining movies I've ever seen. It's really something to be almost frozen in a state of joy for such a long time, with each new scene bringing with it new laughs, smiles, and love for the characters I've grown to know more with each sequel. I'm not sure what more I can say without spoiling the movie other than it needs to be seen, and seeing it in 3D made it even more enjoyable.

I have a bit of personal history with the Toy Story trilogy. Not in any direct way like working on it in some capacity, but more from the vantage point of a person directly inspired by it. Specifically, Toy Story 2 was the movie that caused me to drop out of college to enroll in animation school. There was no denying its charm and ingenuity as I watched a night showing in my college town's local mall theater, and I vividly remember walking back to the bus stop with a new determination to become a part of the undeniable magic that was 3D animation. My college was a lot of fun and I loved the school tremendously, but it was clear where I wanted to go now, and the better way to get there was through an animation-focused school. Less than three years later, I finally found myself animating for a living.

All this is what made make this piece on the LA Times' website a funny read. It compares Toy Story 3 with my recently-released video game Red Dead Redemption, with its author Ben Fritz wondering which could be seen as the "signature success" of 2010. Until I read that article, I hadn't realized how closely-timed the release of my game was to the finale of Pixar's flagship trilogy. Both have enjoyed tremendous success so far, and it goes without saying how amazing it feels to be a part of something that is received so well. While I can't answer Fritz's question, it is interesting to think that after such a long period of time (has it been eleven years??) the sequel to the animated movie that influenced me the most in my life ended up appearing like an echo within a month of my latest and best project. It has all made for a memorable summer.

Comics I Like: Todd Barry

2010-07-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Todd Barry is my wife's favorite comic, and is one of my favorite comics as well. In addition to seeing him open for Louis CK at the Spreckles Theater a few years ago, my wife and I both saw him at the Casbah (underneath the San Diego airport's flight path) a few years ago, and he did a great set that kept us in stitches. Being die-hard fans, my wife and I called out "joke requests" once he was done with his regular set, and he was kind enough to honor them all. I felt a little self-conscious doing this, but we met up with him after the set, and he sounded more glad that he had such big fans rather than annoyed at us, and he posed for a picture. When I went to New York for a motion capture shoot for Rockstar in 2007, I popped into Raffifi's (before it went out of business) in Manhattan, and Todd was one of the comics I recognized there. I introduced myself and shook his hand--he was very nice. He can be a very subtle comic whose facial expression often hovers around what I interpret as "are you really that stupid?" Hopefully this reproduction captured this thought. Judge for yourself:

The work in progress, pre-computer. I only used an 8B pencil on this one, as I did the Louis CK and Myq Kaplan pieces. The soft lead makes it easy to move around the page and not have to stress as much about making an effort for the lines to show up.

Comics I Like: Louis CK and Myq Kaplan

2010-07-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

Did a couple sketches and brought them into Photoshop to paint. For some reason I like the look of keeping the sketch in there on Multiply with a slightly lighter opacity. The downside is the somewhat muddy/gritty look that appears where there is a lot of shading.

Louis CK. His new show "Louie" premiered this week on FX and it reminded me of how much his sense of comedy rules. I saw him absolutely destroy at San Diego's Spreckles Theater a few years ago. Even though someone backed into my car in the parking lot right before the show, his act made me forget about it. A lot of his act revolves around his physical appearance sliding out of control, so I chose the scene in his doctor's office to reproduce:

Myq Kaplan. He's my choice to win this year's "Last Comic Standing." I'd never heard of him before a couple weeks ago, but his material really hits home for me. Maybe because I also don't eat meat? I dunno. Hopefully I'll be able to see him live soon. (Update: this piece now seen on Myq's site!)

I love doing portraits, I love comedians, and I need more drawing and digital painting practice, so expect a bunch more comedian pieces in the near future.

John Singer Sargent study

2010-06-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

Another reproduction. Sketched this out today from a Sargent painting:

Then colored the scan in Photoshop:

Link to the Sargent painting of a Spanish dancer.

I put the sketch layer on Multiply, so it kept all the original lines of the sketch, which doesn't look so great on the arm areas. The whole thing could use another hour to really be brought together, but it's time for bed.

Jury Duty sketching

2010-06-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Thankfully they didn't need me in court. Color done in Photoshop because I need to practice that too.

Summertime Sketching

2010-06-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

About to get back into drawing again. Did a 2D piece recently that in no way used a computer, and it was a bit freaky. There's so much out there that inspires, but I don't want to get too wrapped up in appreciating when there's lots more creating to be done. Here are some recent entries from the sketchbook that I colored a bit in Photoshop:

Big Cat Diaries! Because my TV is closer to me than the Zoo or the Wild Animal Park at the ends of town.

Michael Mann and Will Smith's Ali. "The Champ is Here!"

Abandoned idea for a recent Red Dead Redemption piece. For those who know the game, the idea for this was to make a drawing of the night Jack was conceived. Dutch would be glaring at John and Abigail, who share a moment as she fills his glass. Bill Williamson and Javier Escuela are joking around to the side, in their own little stupor. I think the best layout is the one penned out in the bottom left. I liked the concept for this a lot, so maybe I'll come back to it.

Hearts and Minds, from the Bodies exhibit in San Diego last year:

Pedestrians during a Chinese New Year celebration, 1997. Camcorder in the man's hands.:

Self-Portrait from last week, looking busted.

Normally I look a little more like this (pic via The 8-Bit Cubist):

Looks like the cover of a DJ duo's album...

Red Dead Redemption nod from Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead

2010-06-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

Whoa!

It's great to see so many blog posts, tweets, texts, Facebook status updates, etc. out there about people enjoying RDR. I recently finished the single player campaign, and now I need to keep chipping away until I get 100% of the achievements in it.

I've made no secret of my Radiohead fandom, and I've seen Body Song multiple times and thoroughly enjoyed Greenwood's soundtrack for it. That post of his reminds me: I need to do the final pass on my latest Thom Yorke portrait.

Kubrick, step by step

2010-05-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a picture of Stanley Kubrick by my friend Paul for his next online film review. Doing portraits of my favorite film directors is a passion of mine, and I have already drawn Kubrick's face before. After drawing it out, I brought it into the computer for a little digital coloring. Here's the phases, from raw drawing, to coloring the "flats" to the final colored portrait:

What I enjoyed the most about this one was trying to make it my own drawing, and not a copy of an existing photo.

RDR swag from GameStop

2010-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

What a haul! When RDR released, I was able to get all the remaining promo materials from a GameStop in town. 6 promo posters, two stands, a fake box, and a big poster at the bottom. The poster with the cover art (rightmost of the top three in the first pic) is now covered with the signatures of my teammates. The stand on the floor in the second pic has our original April 27th release date. I'm not sure what I'll do with them all, but I'll definitely frame the team poster when I get the chance.

Red Dead Redemption Launch Video

2010-05-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here it is. The final new video for RDR2 before it's released on Tuesday--and it's the best one yet. I know I say that each time a new video comes out, but it's because the marketing team does such a great job of raising the bear each time. If you're an NBA fan, you've been seeing our commercials all this week.

To pre-order, visit the Red Dead Redemption website and pick the place that has the best deal for you (Amazon is a good choice).

R.O. Blechman Letter

2010-05-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I received a dedicated copy of R.O. Blechman's Dear James: Letters to a Young Illustrator via an uncle of mine that is his neighbor in New York. I wrote him a thank you letter after reading it and found in my mail today an unexpected and enjoyable response from him. R.O. Blechman's book is an inspirational read, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys drawing, especially those who would like to get into an illustration career.

To see R.O. Blechman's website, click here.

Ta Daa!

Now on DeviantArt

2010-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

I want to plug in to a community of artists to see more work that's out there and to get feedback on my pieces, so I'm now on DeviantArt.com:

http://joshmlange.deviantart.com/

Right now I plan for that page to have my crossposted work without the Red Dead promotional posts, so if you're on DeviantArt, let me know and I'll 'watch' your page. I'll continue posting in this blog as normal.
_____
Red Dead Redemption has less than a week to release. Have you preordered your copy already? If you go through Amazon or WalMart, you'll get a discount card (Amazon's is $20). Definitely the best deals out there.

New Red Dead Redemption Video: "Revolution"

2010-05-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Your character John Marston spends many days in the harsh and politically-turbulent area of Mexico. This latest promo video shows some of what you will encounter South of the border:

Red Dead Redemption in the LA Times

2010-04-26T22:45:00.000-07:00

The LA Times came to our San Diego studio to see what we've been up to:

Red Dead Redemption Brings the Western to Video Games
Cowboys and six-shooters may have become forgotten on the big screen, but Rockstar Games hopes to bring the western to a new frontier: the video game. Red Dead Redemption is set in the Old West in 1908.

In other Red Dead news, the News for Gamers website has a thread where you can read all the other online articles and blog posts related to Red Dead Redemption.

Red Dead Redemption: New Multiplayer Video

2010-04-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's finally here: the sneak peek video of Red Dead's multiplayer competitive modes. Prepare to dodge gatling guns, cannons, snipers, and horseback riders to get the most gold:

Latest RDR2 Hype/News

2010-04-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

It's tough to balance how much reposted Red Dead Redemption news I should put on this blog, so here's a few of the more important bits that have come out in the last week or so:

-Fox has announced it will air a thirty minute Red Dead Redemption special on Saturday May 15th at midnight. It will be animated, so I have no idea what that will look like but I'm excited to find out.

-For the Nascar fans out there, Red Dead Redemption is advertised on racer Joey Logano's GameStop #20 car, which will be seen during the O'Reilly 300 Nationwide Race. Click the link to see a great photo of it in action.

-In upcoming movie news, Red Dead Redemption will be screening advertisements before three of the spring's biggest movies, Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, and Nightmare on Elm Street. I know the kind of people that will see those movies, and they will definitely be gamers, so I can't wait to see my game in a movie theater (for a limited time). So cool!

-The next multiplayer promo video will be released tomorrow. The last one, about Multiplayer Free Mode, was released the other week.

-Red Dead fever is spreading...

-Lastly, there was a great write-up of a fan's experience playing RDR2 at an official Rockstar hands-on demo event (Scroll down to Day 2 Part 2), which was played in a special spot in Brooklyn filled with authentic set pieces, as well as a piano player and servers dressed in period attire. I wish I had seen it myself.

It's great to see news about the game spreading. Keep sharing links about it and don't forget to pre-order the game for the Xbox 360 or PS3 if you haven't already!

Pieces for Paul

2010-04-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

I first met my friend Paul Booth back in Vancouver when I was going to film school. He attended the Vancouver Film School for the live-action film making program and I was attending the same school, but was taking the 3D Animation course. We've been good friends since then, and he currently writes an Online Movie Review for his paper in Hawaii. This week's article is on The Dark Knight, so I made a photo manipulation piece of his regular picture in the article. I used Photoshop to paint over his features to tie it into the Joker/Heath Ledger theme:

(note the green/purple necklace)

He's also produced a movie called Empty Streets that features American blues musician Charlie Musselwhite on its soundtrack. I did the illustration of him for the liner notes:

Charlie Musselwhite, 2010, 9" x 10"

It was hand drawn, then touched up a bit in Photoshop.

The Tao of Calvin

2010-04-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

This piece is for my friend Tone, who has a sketchbook full of Calvin and Hobbes drawings that people have done for him. I had all the books of Calvin and Hobbes growing up and it remains my #1 comic by far. I've been on the relaxing kick this week, so I wanted to show Calvin unwinding in the woods that are always seen in the comic. To me, it's a much more believable scene than him praying to a cross or choosing sides in the Chevy vs. Ford debate.

It started out as a drawing (2B pencil), then I scanned it and painted/refined it in Photoshop. Took about 3 hours, minus the time it took me to make a veggie burger sandwich.

Self-Portrait

2010-04-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

I've never worked with Adobe Illustrator before, so I decided to spend some time with it to make a self-portrait. I used the pencil tool the most, and it took me a couple days to find out how to expand the art board to get the full image to save correctly (there are so many things I take for granted when using Photoshop that I had to relearn with Illustrator). The Japanese symbol stands for "balance"--according to the internet, anyway. Now that my part of the animation on Red Dead Redemption is complete, I'm now on a month-long vacation, so it felt like the right character to use.

New RDR2 Video: "Multiplayer Free Roam"

2010-04-09T20:25:00.000-07:00

"Free Roam" is one of many ways to play Red Dead Redemption with other people. As the video below explains, during Free Roam, you pick an avatar and explore the Red Dead world in a group of up to 16 people. You are all then free to start a posse and team up with others, start fights, go hunting, or do anything else you would normally do in the game. You and the other players in your group all stay in Free Roam while your group leader sets up a traditional/structured multiplayer match, rather than the traditional chore of making everyone wait in a lobby menu until the match is ready to start. This concept of always being in the game's world was applied to my last game Midnight Club: Los Angeles as well, but RDR2 pushes the concept much further.
But enough of my yapping. This video shows it better than I can tell:

Click here for full "Multiplayer Free Mode" write-ups on the Rockstar website.

And keep an eye out for the new Red Dead Redemption Dueling Facebook Game on Monday.

Newest, shiniest RDR2 video now online at GameTrailers.com

2010-04-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

Titled "Life in the West Part 2," it does a great job of summing up the gameplay in Red Dead Redemption's ambient world. Check it out in HD below:

The video is a definite hit. As of right now it already past 68,000 viewers, 750 comments, and a 9.8 rating from over 1,400 votes. We are now the #1 Game Trailers Game Rank. Click here to keep us at #1

Ready to pre-order? (how could you not be?!) Visit the Red Dead Redemption site and decide which pre-order bonus you want.

RDR2 at PAX East

2010-03-26T21:41:00.001-07:00

The Red Dead Redemption hands-on demo was available to play at The Penny Arcade Expo in Boston this week. You had to wait a bit to see for yourself, though:

Plenty of people blogged about their experiences playing the game at PAX East. Check them out after the break:

IGN
Red Dead Redemption has always had my attention, but today it earned my $60.

G4
Rockstar Games has finally answered the call of many a Grand Theft Auto lover and created a massive and gorgeous open-world western in Red Dead Redemption that has all the hallmarks of a killer Rockstar title: compelling characters, a sweeping and brutal narrative, and more content than you can toss a lasso around.

Red Dead Redemption is one hell of a good looking game.

Kotaku
I was thinking of the sheer potential this game possesses. You've got some damn entertaining gunplay, countless miles of scenery riddled with wild animals and even wilder humans, and some of the best video game horse riding I've experienced since The Ocarina of Time.

Red Dead Redemption is the sort of game I will get completely lost in. I'm sure the story is compelling, but I've a feeling that once I get my hands on the game when it hits stores on May 18th, John Marston's family will be the least of my concerns.

Wired
In less than 10 minutes, I felt drawn in to this rich slice of history that Rockstar has replicated — a place where the harshness of nature and the cruelty of man are at odds with the urge to tame and the desire for progress and for peace. I’m thrilled by the romantic notion of living on the cusp of those two worlds and spilling blood as part of the final death throes of the Wild West. As I watch those wild horses gallop through the night, I know that this is a place I’m going to want to linger in for a spell.

Time Magazine/Techland
I'll preface this by saying that I'm not a big fan of open world/sandbox-y games, but I actually liked RDR. Maybe it was the skinning of animals for trade or the ridiculously large open world of RDR, but I thoroughly enjoyed the few minutes I had with it... Red Dead Redemption is out on May 18 for Xbox 360 and PS3 in NA with a May 21 launch in Europe. May can't come soon enough.

Joystiq
This is the largest world Rockstar has ever created. Can you quantify that? "It's big," a representative assured me.

…there's clearly a lot more of Red Dead Redemption to see, but just ambling through the wilds on horseback was enough to convince me that this is an adventure that I'll saddle up for when the game releases this May.

Shacknews
A fair amount of bloodshed later, we arrived at the mansion, only to find the front door locked. So we went around back, snuck in through the cellar door, and proceeded to lay waste to the remaining foes. The best part? When one of them took cover behind a crate, a crate that just happened to have an old lantern on it, and a stray shot caused the lantern to explode in flames and burn them alive--sweet, flaming justice... All I want is to keep playing. May 18 can't come soon enough.

POWRDUP
To put it simply, Red Dead Redemption is currently my game of the show.... The purpose of the demo was the complete a mission that involved invading a mansion – well, after watching three people complete it, I decided that wasn’t my goal. Anybody who’s played a Rockstar developed game knows that most of the fun is had by messing around, so that’s what I did... First, I ran into another person. I decided to lasso him off his horse and drag him around the desert. This is hilarious, I’m telling you. ... This game is going to be awesome.

MMOMFG
All in all folks, this game looks like a million bucks and plays like a solid and well-rounded action/adventure/shooter/role-player. I was already looking forward to this game (I waited in line for an hour to get my hands on it!) but now I am absolutely dying to play it again. Red Dead Redemption drops on May 18th, and so far looks freakin awesome.

I4U
With their latest title, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar has raised the bar once more.

Red Dead Redemption is a must play. The graphics and combat options (you can LASSO people and pull them off their horses!) are second to none. When this baby launches on May 18, you can bet I'll be first in line.

Platform Nation
Rockstar takes Red Dead Redemption to a place I think we will come to love from the awesome graphics to the gameplay.

Pixelated Geek
After playing the demo I can confidently say this is going to be one o the best games of 2010 and is pushing the boundaries of the open world genre.

Crave Online
The Wild West of Red Dead Redemption is gigantic and looks beautiful, full of wildlife, living and breathing towns, and tumbleweed. Yes, RDR features the greatest tumbleweed physics ever put in a video game, literally making me stop in the middle of an action just to watch it roll by. The music of RDR is also fantastic, something that is usually a very weak point for me when it comes to most classic western movies. And as it is with all Rockstar titles, the characters are all animated and unique, each with their own distinct personalities and backgrounds.

Red Dead Redemption was my number one most anticipated title of PAX East heading into the convention and it did not disappoint.

My Gamer Mom
Graphically it was what you would expect from Rock Star. The world is richly detailed and immense. You go from bustling towns to ghost towns in the course of the game.

Gamer Tell
The combat was slick and satisfying, with the Dead Eye ability allowing for the slowing down of time and automatic target acquisition and the number of weapons available allowed for a number of different deadly matches.

The gameplay’s fun, seems like there’s a ton of replayability and shooting things rarely gets old. Especially armadillos.

8 Bit Library
Just looking at the giant LCD screens showing previews of gameplay to passersby you could tell that if nothing else, this game was a cinematic tour de force. The Old West is rendered in loving detail, all the way down to the dust and the tumbleweeds…

Damn Lag
Since open world games really took off I've dreamed of the ultimate wild west sim. This makes Red Dead Redemption is my most anticipated game of the year…

Co-Optimus
After playing the game at PAX East, I feel very confident in saying that Red Dead Redemption may be the first Western-themed title I've ever played that lives up to its source material.

I can't wait for the game to hit store shelves next month. Not only does it feel like it will finally provide Western enthusiasts with the kind of game we've always wanted to play, but it may just raise the bar for what an open-world game experience can provide.

Gaming Nexus
Throwing the Western theme into the mix of what is supposed to be a huge open world to explore and shoot people in created a charming environment with unique new experiences.

Terminal Gamer
The time I spent with the game was far, far too short. The game world is so vibrant, huge and beautiful that I just want to spend a few hours exploring its nooks and crannies.

I’m looking forward to the full release of the game in May. It’s shaping up to be one of the best titles of 2010.

Other R*/RDR Mentions:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/26/pax-east-2010-clearly-rockstar-is-a-popular-company/
http://kotaku.com/5503068/red-dead-redemption-civ-v-and-the-wil-wheaton-horde-pax-east-sightings-from-day-one/gallery/
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/214590/pax-east-postmortem-or-everything-aj-and-andrew-retained-on-day-three/
http://loot-ninja.com/2010/03/29/pax-east-has-ended/
http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/gaming/pax-east-2010/2010/03/pax-10-the-sights/
http://gaygamer.net/2010/03/paxeast_swag_bag_whats_inside.html
http://www.thebitbag.com/2010/03/29/pax-east-photo-gallery-for-our-fans/
http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/gaming/gaming-news/2010/03/more-red-dead-redemption-screens/

RDR2 Cover Art Revealed

2010-03-24T23:29:00.001-07:00

Drumroll please...the official cover art for Red Dead Redemption:

New RDR2 Video: "Gentleman and Vagabonds"

2010-03-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

The Marketing team is on a roll. This week's video contains snippets about some of the characters you'll encounter on story missions and side quests. Take a look:

Greener Guy as Popeye

2010-03-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Greener Guy was a character I came up with while attending a very liberal arts college. He resembled many of the students who went there. After coming up with my first parody piece using this character, I later used it to reinvent the Popeye characters. I watched Popeye after school a lot when I was younger, and for a reason I've now forgotten I sketched some concepts of the Popeye characters in this vein.

I came up with a super-villain that tried to sell sneaky credit cards with high APRs on the college campus, and went very "Mr. Burns" with the design:

Finally, I had the idea to use the Popeye-version Greener Guy in a cartoon about the WTO riots in Seattle (aka the 'Battle in Seattle') that I witnessed in 1999. It ran in the Evergreen school newspaper.:

New RDR2 Video: "Life in the West"

2010-03-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

There's a new Red Dead Redemption video up, and it might be the best one yet. Titled "Life in the West," it showcases the big picture of what your character John Marston faces in his day-to-day life as he tracks down the members of his former gang. The big port town of Blackwater gets some screen time, as well as mini-games such as herding, breaking horses, gambling, drinking, and shooting down the vultures that circle around a fresh kill.

More RDR2 info

Super 8 Theater Spotting - Chicago

2010-03-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

I took a Super 8 filmmaking class in Chicago years back, and one of the urges I had while that little camera was in my possession was to take a picture of all the major theaters I could get to in one day. My buddy Joe, another camera and movie enthusiast, agreed to join me and we spent the day driving from theater to theater and taking snapshots and videos (we didn't have time to catch any films, however). Here's some of what I saw through that little camera:

Here are the short videos I shot:

Time-lapse shot of the Pickwick movie theater in a northern suburb of Chicago:

Plane flying across the sky:

Sears Tower on an overcast day:

The shadows of three flags against a wall:

The American flag floating inside the downtown Bank One lobby:

For Sean's 28th birthday

2010-02-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday, buddy.

"Sean," Digital Painting, 2010

Stats: 6 1/2 hours, 4 layers, 2 brushes, and 3 tools in all, aka "6.5/4/2/3." Used only one layer for the character strokes and used plenty of smudge tool to clean as I went. I'm getting more comfortable with relying on the smudging method, but my hand still isn't very graceful as I draw on the tablet, so I find myself eating up a lot of time with redrawing lines. I used the source photo to help save time with nailing down the proportions, which I would normally do 100% by hand. I gotta keep life drawing to maintain that skill, though.

New RDR2 Video: The Women - Sinners, Saints, and Survivors

2010-02-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Lots of new cutscene footage from the game.

Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi

2010-02-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

"Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi," Digital Painting, 2010

More tablet practice. I wanted to step up the difficulty this time with some details and a specific likeness to recreate. The subject is the former Shah of Iran, which I chose for a very early Norooz gift for my father-in-law. The first layer in Photoshop was all lines, then I made a smudge tool pass, then came a light layer of tighter lines. It's still too blurry for my taste, but I didn't want to dwell on it too long. I signed my name in Farsi along the bottom (while I remember how).

Insomniac Blogging

2010-02-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

Julian Field, Digital Painting, 2010

I'm back late from a comedy show in LA so I wanted to close the night off with a soothing session of painting. This one is of the landscapes I'd pass on my way to Julian, a small rural town less than two hours away from San Diego that I go to every now and then. One of the things I realize about digital painting is that I need guidance with choosing and creating the right brushes in Photoshop. I've been using the smear tool after doing the initial painting and I feel like there's a much better method that's escaping me. Any recommendations?

New RDR2 Video: "The Law"

2010-02-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

Today a new Red Dead Redemption video was released online. It showcases some of the lawmen you encounter throughout the game, set to a nice track from the score. I like the stormy scenes that made it in there, too .

5 Story RDR2 Ad is Now Up in NYC

2010-02-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

As seen on the corner of Canal and Greene. Rockstar's website has the pics.

New "Gamestop Outfit" Contest Video for Red Dead Redemption

2010-02-06T02:09:00.000-08:00

Voting has started to determine what special outfit your character John Marston will have unlocked if you preorder your copy of Red Dead Redemption from Game Stop. Watch this video to learn more:

Thumbnails: Breakdancers from "B-Boy"

2010-02-06T01:41:00.000-08:00

Back in film school, I wanted to do a demo reel that showcased motion that not only was difficult to animate with a computer, but was visually interesting and exciting to watch. Breakdancing was the perfect choice. To do this, I had to pick up every video I could find (this was before YouTube, and most breakdancing videos were shot on tape at that point), and go through them frame-by-frame to find out what the key poses and breakdowns looked like. It was a lot of work, but as any animator will tell you, there's no other way to pull off complex animations. In my student film B-Boy, the moves I had my character do included a 6 step, Swipes, Turtle, Headspin, and Windmill (the 6 step and Turtle were the only two I was ever able to do in real life). Here are some of the thumbnail drawings I did to get the poses and timing down (30 frames per second):

The 6 step:

This 6 step is similar to the style of the one I did in my reel. He does it all at once in the last 3rd of the video.

And here are the thumbnails. The order of the pages goes from left to right on the top, then left to right on the bottom. The three number columns represent the frame # on the video, the # of my scene in Softimage 3.7, and the overall # it would be if it were on its own:

Turtle:

These thumbnails go in order from top to bottom, left page to right page:

And finally, the famous Windmills:

Sketchbook: Clothed Pictures of Famous People

2010-02-06T01:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some more selections from old sketchbooks that I scanned recently. The first is the author Zadie Smith from her great novel White Teeth:

After looking through some old sketchbooks, it turns out I've drawn Edward Norton twice:

Key facial features of 4 famous women (2 singers, 2 actresses). Can you recognize them all?

Clockwise from the top left: Angelina Jolie, Fiona Apple, Natalie Portman, Bjork.

Stylized portrait of Terrence Stamp from one of my favorite movies, The Limey:

Quick sketch of the godfather of noise, Rahzel:

Sketchbook: Classical Art Studies

2010-02-06T00:37:00.000-08:00

This assortment is from a range of books from different years, but are pretty good examples of when I would try to focus on classical art through line drawing. The first page was done in 2002 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The top figures are from Cezanne's The Bathers, Hopper's Nighthawks is cropped on the left side (I believe it was temporarily at the Art Institute at the time), and the bottom right quarter is a portrait of Vincent Van Gogh:

Speaking of Van Gogh, I drew a sliced mango in the way I imagined he would in the top right of this page (circa1998). The left side is a line-by-line recration of a drawing by Picasso (whose title and internet link escape me) that I did in 1999. The woman's profile in the bottom right was taken from an art school flyer I had handy at the time (2000).

Rounding out this post are two more artist's portraits. On the is a portrait of the young artist prodigy Amedeo Modigliani (2000). On the right is a quickly-drafted Wasily Kandinsky below a recreation of his signature, both done by brush pen in 2000. I take Kandinsky's philosophies on painting to heart each time I try to work on something abstract.

Unfinished Blue Line Pro pages

2010-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

This pair of unfinished drawings were done on Blue Line Pro pages. I had high hopes for this rendition of the Drew Struzan poster for The Phantom Menace, but never finished inking it.

This comic book splash cover was done a year earlier, if memory serves. It's of Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon comic, which my friend Sean got me hooked on when I was a teenager.

Sketchbook: Preparing for Film School

2010-02-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to get the better drawings scanned from my old sketchbooks, and I think I'm all caught up. For my first post in this series, these are some pages from 2000, when I was still a student at the Evergreen State College. I knew I wanted to become an animator, but I first had to flesh out my sketchbook to apply to film schools. The Vancouver Film School ended up being my next destination.

This first page has drawings of a dancer from a magazine ad, along with some Matrix poses:

The dancers on this page were "x-rayed" from a cigarette ad, followed by a more healthy yoga couple:

And this page contains my arm without its skin, and some life-drawings from a Pinoy Eskrima (Philipino Stick Fighting) session held at the college. The man with the short ponytail is the sensei. I took his Ninpo Taijutsu class the term before.

The first page in this pair is from a book by the famous photographer Eadweard Muybridge. The second is from an animation book, if I remember correctly. Nothing is traced, just drawn to start becoming familiar with the subtleties of how animals move:

More animal drawings. Trying to guess what muscles are under the fur:

New "Weapons and Death" video for Red Dead Redemption

2010-01-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

My game Red Dead Redemption has a new video out showcasing its variety of weapons and features like Dead Eye, which slows time and helps with targeting. I worked on the fire/reload animations shown throughout the trailer, as well as the in-game facial animations that accompany them.