Empty Streets Movie Soundtrack Now Available

In 2009, I contributed some graphic design work to Empty Streets, an independent short film made by my VFS roommate Paul Booth and other Hawai'i filmmakers. The movie is about the struggles a returning veteran has when he adjusts to life after the military. It was a passion project for Paul, and it is great to see its continued success well after the filmmakers completed their initial push to promote it. The film has played in film festivals worldwide and continues to raise awareness of how difficult it is for our troops to acclimate back to civilian life after the harsh experiences of wartime. As someone who has a sister in the military, this is a very personal cause for me.

I'd like to take this post to promote the project and include some of the print media/graphic designs I contributed to the project, starting with the movie poster:

Movie poster design.

Although the film did not receive distribution, copies of it are available to check out from the Hawaii, Sacramento, and Orange County library systems. I did the jacket design for the DVD, which at one time was going to be a two-disc bundle with the soundtrack (more on that below). I popped the levels on the oranges from the movie poster to help the jacket stand out more. Apparently it worked, because the film is constantly checked out.

DVD jacket design.

Now on to the soundtrack, which as of Veteran's Day 2013 is now available for sale online. 55% of all sales goes to The Veterans Resource Center at Golden West College, with another portion going to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The musicians on the soundtrack include Grammy winners and nominees, as well as several great young talents. Here is the CD album I designed: 

Album design.

If you would like to support the Veterans Resource Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center and pick up some great music, please buy a copy of the soundtrack or some singles from any of these online retailers:

       

Life Drawing: Rockstar

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 Red Dead Redemption Video: "Introduction"

This week, the new video for Red Dead Redemption went online. Called simply "Introduction," its structure is very different than the flashy trailers you might be used to seeing to advertise video games. Instead, this video approaches the game from a History Channel/Documentary approach, going into four minutes of detail on how the game's ambient world works, and what you as John Marston can expect to encounter on your travels throughout the game's vast world. Enjoy!

New official trailer for Red Dead Redemption: "My Name is John Marston"

My current game, the Western-themed open world Red Dead Redemption, has a new trailer out. Called "My Name is John Marston," it takes a closer look at the world and characters of RDR, including the main character John Marston. The link below is to the full version (language NSFW) and has no watermark:



Television commercials have now started airing as well. As always, you can find the complete selection of videos and screenshots at the official Red Dead Redemption website. The game's release date is April 27th, 2010, so get your preorder in!

Iron Giant Project submission: Class of '66

This week my side project has been a piece for the excellent fan art blog The Iron Giant Project. I'm titling my piece "Class of '66," since it is an imagining of Hogarth's high school graduation in Rockwell, ME.

The original idea was of Hogarth walking along the lake where he swam in the movie and holding the Polaroid photo first taken of the Iron Giant. It evolved to a piece that contained the two other main characters, as well as the Iron Giant statue, which is showing some signs of age by this point (notably in the form of "visits" from birds). In the sky is the recycled glowing star of when the Giant exploded with the nuclear missle at the end of the movie. I thought about framing the piece as a Polaroid picture at first, but I wanted the full Iron Giant statue with the glowing star, and the aspect ratio was too rectangular this way. The background started with screenshots I took of paused YouTube clips, combined with a lot of Photoshop painting to establish the trees and grassy hill.

Here are my "model sheets" for the reconceptualized characters, which were made by digitally painting over the existing ones from the movie (thanks to the amazing Ultimate Iron Giant site):

It was very enjoyable making the clothing and style choices for the reimagined Annie, Dean, and Hogarth characters, and I did a lot of research into 60s clothing to help the accuracy. Dean's look was heavily inspired by the Beatles, who I think he would be listening to in '66--jean jacket, bell bottoms, round John Lennon glasses, and shaggier hair that's greying at the temples. Annie has a Jackie Onassis haircut and a fairly straightforward bright '60s outfit with a color palette similar to the waitress uniform she wore early on in the movie. Hogarth is in his high school graduation cap and gown--his ears remain big, but his jawline was reworked to be a bit more square like Dean's. Line quality is always crucial to making animated drawings like this successful, and it was tricky to accomplish it on a tablet.

Big thanks to Dan at the Iron Giant Project for continuing to allow submissions after the original deadline.

Happy Halloween!

One the Senate's scariest...

Thom Yorke: Analyse (WIP)

Thom Yorke: Analyse (work in progress). 2009. Oil on canvas. 20"x24".

This weekend I painted the portrait portion of the next piece in my "Illustrated Music" series. The series will continue to explore the idea I had for painting how I visualize the sounds in of some of my favorite songs, which was first entertained in the Bjork: Bachelorette piece I did back in 1999. Much more information on the concept behind the series can be found in that blog post.

Photoshop was used to tone down some of the shadows that showed up when I took the flash photograph. Right now this canvas is sitting in front of a fan set on full power in order to speed up the drying process. When I tried painting the colored shapes over the black and white portrait of Bjork, some of the underlying paint mixed with the song layer, which desaturated the colors a bit. Hopefully that won't happen this time when I come back to this once it has dried.

This is the third time I've worked on a piece with Thom Yorke's image, the previous two being the Weezer vs. Radiohead piece in 2002 and the graphite portrait in 1999. For this new painting, I'll be painting the sounds and shapes that come to mind for the Thom Yorke song "Analyse," off his 2006 album The Eraser. It's a very haunting and melancholy song, and so the lines and shapes for the song will reflect that when they are later painted in the vacant areas around his head and shoulders. For now though, I thought I'd post the portrait part of the piece to give some background into the next painting in the Illustrated Music series.

I'll be painting The Eraser's LP version of "Analyse." The song starts at 4:55 in the video below:

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption Screenshot

Although Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar San Diego's follow-up to 2004's Red Dead Revolver, it has new characters and a new story. It is my current project, and contains an enormous world full of dangerous situations for your character John Marston. It will be on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but currently doesn't have an official release date. You can read more about it on other websites, and here is the debut trailer:

Video Games | Red Dead Redemption | Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I'll follow up with more videos and news about RDR as they come out. The official website is here: http://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption/

Midnight Club: Los Angeles/South Central

Video Games | Midnight Club: Los Angeles | Trailer 2

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Midnight Club: Los Angeles (2008)

I was the Lead Cutscene Animator for MC:LA. This put me in charge of coordinating cutscene assembly, mocap editing, laying down and polishing camera shots, importing and tweaking facial animations (the original files were from Image Metrics), placing/animating pedestrians in cutscenes, and script editing files associated with the cutscenes. The "What'you here for? Race some cars, man" shots were part of the first cutscene. In the beginning of the project I also animated and polished driving animation sets for some of the vehicles. The game was a 2008 Video Game Award nominee for "Best Racing Game."

Video Games | Midnight Club: Los Angeles | South Central Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Midnight Club: South Central Downloadable Content (2009)

For MC:SC, I was in charge of the new vehicle animation sets as well as setting up the character animations and cutscenes for the new "hangouts" and the new garage.

See all Midnight Club Los Angeles/South Central Videos: http://tinyurl.com/nlshol
Official site: http://www.rockstargames.com/midnightclubLA/

Greener Guy: Issue 1 Cover

Greener Guy: Issue 1. 2000 (colored 2009). Multimedia. 11"x17".

Time to add some color in this blog! This was done during my time at the Evergreen State College, a very liberal arts school that had its share of dreadlock'd folk. I loved the culture there, and did this as an homage to the conflicting nature of so many people I'd met: outraged and motivated on one hand, and hedonistic and free of responsibilities on the other. It originally debuted on the college newspaper's art page, and I revisited it years later with a digital color pass in Photoshop. As I colored it, I tried to convey the gray and desaturated campus (as it was most days).