Gug's blog

My storyboard reel

2011-04-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

My brand new storyboard reel for your inspection and (hopefully) enjoyment :-)

TS3 Buzz quick sketchin'

2011-03-10T09:25:00.001-08:00

Some quick sketching from Toy Story 3. Buzz is so fun to draw!

HPI racing

2011-03-05T00:29:00.000-08:00

First teaser for something.... Stay tuned, I think there is much more to come.

"Wrapped Up" wrapped up!

2011-02-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

I just finalized "Wrapped Up", a short film I wrote and directed. The DVD is on its way to Annecy festival. Here goes... :)

"Wrapped Up" is the result of a collaborative effort of CG artists, who liked the premise and agreed to participate for fun. The film was co-produced with Crew972, who generously backed up the film with facilities, pipeline, a place to work in together, moral support and manpower.

Credits:
Written, storyboarded and directed by yours truely.
Design - me, Rafi Ben Aharon and Irena Tsibulka, plus some help from Elin Rozen.
Original Score - Assaf Shlomi.
Sound Design - Nati Zeindenstandt
Modeling - Irean Tsibulka, Jonathan Katzman and Roni Yahel
Shading - Irena Tsibulka and Dana Gussman
Layout - Paul Wolf, Yonni Arroussi and Kobi Levi
Rigging - Menashe Morobuse
Animation - Liron Aluf, Gabi Berger, Shuki Gamliel, Kobi Levi, and myself.
Render - Irena Tsibulka, Yanir Kleiman, Arik Jana
Composite - Yanir Kleiman and Irena Tsibulka
Produced by me and Maria Veskan
Executive producer - Dror Daliot

Special thanks go to Irena, who worked tirelessly and made the film possible; Gabi and Liron, who did a lot of work and also designed a poster and a website for the film; Crew 972, who had been very helpful and cooperative in every way; my girlfriend and fellow animator Elin Rozen, who listened to my ideas and added her own ideas and generally put up with me working on this film on weekends and evenings; and Dror Daliot, who was the first to notice and mention that the stars are aligned to allow a short film to be made.

Thanks you everybody, and see you in June at Annecy!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Some drawings from a sketching session organized by my good friend Rafi Ben Aharon, featuring a hung-over Santa.

David Goreman painting

2010-08-21T05:48:00.001-07:00

My 2nd Photoshop painting ever. I’m sure it leaves a lot to be desired, but I’m quite happy with it. As always, comments and suggestions for improvement are very welcome.

Edit: I realized the original painting was way too bland and also slightly green, so I played a bit with the values. The old version is down here:

Man gets in car - animation doodling

2010-03-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

Having learned animation through working in the industry, I’m used to focusing on results. I decided to break away from that and try some “animation doodles” - just like I doodle on a piece of paper in meetings, where I don’t care what’s coming out, and just enjoy the ride!

Stepped to Smooth tutorial – Part 5

2010-02-26T11:44:00.001-08:00

Ok THAT took a while… Truth is I actually recorded it quite a while ago, but I got all tangled up with the YouTube 10 minutes limit, and eventually decided to just split it to 2 parts.

This is probably the last part of the Stepped to Smooth tutorial. I was planning another part with some extra info, but the whole thing just got out of hand and became a much bigger project than I had initially expected.

Anyway, hope that helps some people. At least I can now tell my students “hey, I don’t have time to explain this, but you know what? Here’s a link!” :)

Slow-mo cat

2010-01-11T21:36:00.001-08:00

Stepped to Smooth tutorial – part 4

2009-11-14T10:42:00.001-08:00

In part 4 we finally start looking into the smoothing process. We begin with a short study of the inherent timing cheat involved in stepped animation. Enjoy!

Stepped to Smooth tutorial – part 3

2009-10-23T15:56:00.001-07:00

Enjoy :)

Stepped to Smooth tutorial – part 2

2009-10-17T00:49:00.001-07:00

In the second part of the tutorial, we add some motion info to our raw acting keys. I show how to use the tweenMachine script to introduce inbeweens and breakdowns.

I’m using here a very old version of tweenMachine here (an old dog likes his old tricks). The new version has a far more advanced UI and the numbers work a bit differently, but the essence of its function stays the same.

Stepped to Smooth tutorial – part 1

2009-10-10T02:54:00.001-07:00

This took much much more time than I had expected. In the end, the only thing I’m entirely pleased about is the little guitar tune I played :)

Brave Little Tailor - animation exercise

2009-10-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

I watched the Disney short "Brave Little Tailor" for the first time the other day, and one sequence clearly stood out with complex animation and great appeal. It was the sequence in which Mickey tells the king his tale of bravery. I later discovered it was animated by Frank Thomas, which explains the outstanding quality.

I was inspired to do a classic animation exercise with it. Here's what I did: I quick-sketched about 20 drawings that seemed to be the major key drawing (they are the ones with the circled frame numbers). Then, I animated the scene according to theses keys, without looking at the original scene again. The idea was to compare my results with the original animation, and see what I might have done better. It was a great exercise and I feel I learned a lot from it. The result also shows, I think, how solidly you can define 4 seconds of animation with just 20 very quick sketches.

Note: YouTube is apparently not so good with short videos like this (it won't play it through. To get a better look at it, try the mp4 file here.

Superhero comics style chick

2009-09-26T00:05:00.001-07:00

This is something I did for Hands Up studio a little while back. The semi-realistic, anatomical superhero comics style is not something I have much experience with , so I was glad (and a bit scared) of the opportunity to try it out. In the end, I think I pulled it off reasonably well.

It got canned, by the way. Turns out what the client really really wanted was an owl. :-D

Abstract City: art outside the box

2009-09-21T21:09:00.001-07:00

This is beautiful, this is one of my best finds yet. It’s a blog on the “New Yorker” site. It’s too rare to find something which is both “arty” and fun; artists tend to take themselves so seriously! Anyway, have a look, and make sure to check out some older entries. Here’s a good one to get you started:

I Lego NY

Army doodles

2009-09-19T08:25:00.001-07:00

Well what do you know, I’m not dead after all... I was just very focused on my secret project, a book I’ve been working on for the past 5 years (!). I’ll write more about it soon; for now, I’m happy to say I finished the first draft, and I hope and believe that re-writing is going to be much easier than writing.

As soon as I finished the thing I was called to the army for a couple of weeks (routine stuff), and while I was there I sketched these (ballpoint pen). The colors are Photoshoped in.

JOUST by Mike Koizumi

2009-06-13T01:41:00.001-07:00

Amazing manga-style action storyboard (well…it’s practically animated, really).

Mp3 interviews

2009-06-11T22:04:00.001-07:00

Audio interviews are great. You can carry them around on your MP3 player and listen to them while driving, washing dishes or standing in a particularly long line at your favorite government institution.

Here’s a great resource of MP3 interviews with many great artists. They have quite a few prominent animation people on: Brad Bird, Pete Doctor, Chuck Jones, Tim Burton.

Enjoy

http://www.movingimagesource.us/dialogues/

Jungle book quick-sketching #2

2009-06-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

To be perfectly honest, the last two were so disappointing in the original quick sketch session, that I just had to re-sketch them this morning. These are the new ones.

Jungle book quick-sketching #1

2009-06-04T22:49:00.001-07:00

From a quick-sketching session at Snowball VFX. To be continued – there' are also some Baloo sketches.

Playing with facial shapes

2009-05-25T10:47:00.001-07:00

I drew all four during one of our longer “dailies” meetings at Snowball. The upper left one was the inspiration for the other four (loosely based on my friend Nir G., though it looks more like his evil twin…sorry Nir!)

The other three are my attempts to interpret and accentuate the special feature of the first drawing: mainly the forehead and the jaw. My favorite interpretation is the cubical dude.

I noticed that I somehow I got much better at controlling my lines, even though I don’t use pencil so much – it’s mainly Wacom these days. Maybe it’s because the Wacom is so hard to control? Either way, I’m not complaining :)

"Skinners" pitch

2009-05-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is my pitch assignment for Kris Pearn's storyboarding course at Schoolism.com. I have to confess, this turned out to be rather difficult. Pitching requires a certain fluidity of speech that I'm not sure I can even muster in Hebrew, and definitely not in English. In the end, I just opened Premiere and edited out a lot of slowness and stuttering. I think the result is not so bad.

Comments and thoughts and also critique, are even more welcome than usual.

People (and a motorcycle)

2009-05-22T08:28:00.001-07:00

More Jaffa sketches

2009-05-15T06:05:00.001-07:00

When I sketch outdoors, I often get into exploring something in different ways, trying to really “get it”. This is just a small part, I had several pages full of this thing :)

Old Jaffa house x 3

2009-05-10T06:26:00.001-07:00

I’m not terribly good with drawing landscapes. As an animator, people and gestures are my thing. But here and there I give it a go, just to make sure I still suck. :)

So there was this house/restaurant down in Old Jaffa, and as usual I had a hard time drawing it. I made several attempts before I was relatively satisfied with this one:

With me and sketching that very house was my good friend JP Vine, who’s as good as anybody at drawing these kind of things. I looked at his results and asked some questions, then I tried to capture it “JP style”:

I think this result is much more fun, and even though it’s not structurally accurate at all, it retains much more of the building’s charm.

Back home, I scanned my initial attempt and I stared at it for a while on screen (always helps to see your work in a different way). I realized the main problem is that the drawing is drowning in detail. It’s flat, not just because there isn’t really a definite light source, but also and primarily because all the details have the same weight, the same level of importance in my drawing.

So I asked myself - what’s the most important thing about this house? What made it worth painting? I experimented with several answers. The answer that presented itself in the end took me a little bit by surprise. Turns out it wasn’t so much the architecture that got me interested - it was actually the colors. So, here’s the Photoshop sketch I did at home, trying to limit myself to what really matters:

So…thanks for reading this relatively long post. Any thoughts on which drawing does a better job and why? My comments area is open for your input.

Head’s up

2009-05-06T09:16:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I succeeded in doing a long, serious sketch from a sculpture. I tried it several times, but “on location” I can never muster the patience. So much to see!

This one was different, it’s my own sculpture which I have at home and I just took it outside, placed it under a single light source, and allowed myself to get lost in the drawing. It was very relaxing.

The small version on the upper corner is something between a warm-up and a quick “proof of concept”. I find that doodling these little quick sketches before I start drawing, helps a lot in keeping me focused on what I’m going for.

I got tired for drawing before I got to start shading it. Maybe I’ll continue the drawing some other day.

Flexi-tips part 1

2009-05-01T05:20:00.001-07:00

A: Flexi symbols: (1) normal state, (2) bend, (3) stretch, (4) twist, (5) squash.

B+C: The silhouette of twist is reinforced with overlap lines (also called “T’s”), indicating depth.

D: readable, feels like rubber.

E: not very readable (esp. silhouette), feels flat and weightless.

Applied to a simple character:

Mike Sponged WIP

2009-04-23T14:12:00.001-07:00

After the lesson at Sapir college today, I decided to join my students for their sponge sculpting lesson. I chose to sculpt a sketch of Mike from my “Skinners” storyboard. Never tried sculpting in sponge before... The softness is a real challenge - it’s quite hard to be accurate. Here’s the result after half an hour for preparation, and about 3 hours of sculpting. Will post more pics as the work continues.

Hot links: Savage Chickens

2009-04-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Savage chickens is a great comics blog. It’s funny and inventive, and very charming in the simplicity of its drawings. Check it out! [click the pic].

Dragon concept

2009-03-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of storyboarding something with dragons. Maybe I will. A bit of concept in the meanwhile.

Dysfunctional Dam board

2009-03-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

That took way too much time, but here it is. The script was a given, so all I did here was design the characgters and the envirnment, and board it.

You will notice I scraped the environment sketches in the end. Lesson: first design a rough set, then make a rough board, THEN design the final set (including everything that you had to shift around to accomodate the storytelling), then do the final board.

Hope you like :-)

Dysfunctional dam - environment prep

2009-02-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'm not so good at set design, but here's my rough attempt at two POVs in the room. This is a beaver's home, so the way to get in and out is by diving through a hole in the floor. I gave the hole a door, and placed some towels by the entrance. I'm going to have mama beaver wash dished, and I thought it would be cute if the "sink" is just another hole in the floor. The junk food is needed for the script, and I knoe the stove is a bit strange - but what the hey, I missed a big round shape and pushed in a stove. Sue me.

Dysfunctional Dam - prep designs

2009-02-28T02:46:00.001-08:00

For my next storyboard assignment....

The script I chose is about a domestic fight in an inter-species family. Mom is a beaver, dad is a raccoon. I wanted them to look like one of those couples who are so busy in day-to-day survival, that they can't see the big picture anymore. They forgot what's really important, and so they get more and more beaten, bitter and fat by the day.

A few older versions:

His or Hen's - preperation sketches

2009-02-27T08:50:00.001-08:00

I forgot to mention that the "His or Hen's" story was developed by me and my girlfriend together. Couldn't have done it without her.

I'm not much of a color person, somehow I get bored by very detailed color work. I threw in some colors just as an indication, but I wish I had the patience to really make a painting out of this. I can see a lot of opportunity for interesting lighting here.

His or Hen's

2009-02-19T22:02:00.000-08:00

An exercise for Kris Pearn's storyboarding course at Schoolism dot com. I'm including the script in case some of the story points turn out vague. Any ideas how to improve?

Morning

2009-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

My latest arty-farty attempt. Inspired by Pablo Picasso and my girlfriend.

Elderly cowboy

2009-02-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

Been a while eh? :-) Happy to update with a doodle again.

The BG is a photoshop distortion of an actual arisona photo. I thought the realistic shapes would make a nice contrast with the simplistic shapes of the guy. What do you think?

Cool 2D demo reel - Pedro Daniel Garcia

2009-02-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

Very solid drawing, nice flow of motion. It's not every day that you see that combination. Cudos!

"Compliance" in animatronics

2009-02-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

This is really cool. I never knew they've reached this level of movement in animatronics!

From an animator's point of view (and especially as animation instructor), I thought it was very insteresting that the brakethrought in believability was what the call "compiance" - counter balancing quick movement with the entire body. It's quite amazing how this very specific physical notion changes a robotic machine into something that feels quite alive. Definitely something for an animator to keep in mind.

A doodle

2008-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm taking Kris Pearn's storyboarding course at Schoolism. Joy! (The drawing has nothing to do with it, it's just an absent-minded doodle).

Treezomania!

2008-07-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

Meeting doodles #1

2008-06-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been in blogging mood for a while, but I think I'm back now. These are a couple of doodle pages from some meeting back in Crew972. Scanned and untouched, except for some small adjustments to save space. Hope you like my strange braindrops.

Don't be silly

2008-05-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

I started a comics blog named "Don't be Silly", which I will probably abandon sooner than you can say "comicstrip". Hurry before it's too late! You can find it here, and follow it with this RSS.

Stripgenerator

2008-05-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

There's a cool little web application called "stripgenerator". Like with a lot of other web applications, you're very limited in what you can do with it. Which sparks up creativity like nothing else! You can start a comics blog, or just play around and make standalone strips.

Here's my first attempt (direct link here).

Old boiler factory

2008-05-10T00:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went out to sketch some architecture. I was thinking of going to Neve Tzedek, an area famous for its unique and beautiful architecture. On the way there, however, I noticed a shabby old building. I've seen it many times, but this time I was really looking. The wealth of texture in form and detail was truly fascinating. Drawing some fancy "straight" house suddenly seemed boring.

So I stopped and sketched it. I drew two versions in my sketchbook, then went home and did a more relaxed Wacom sketch, which is the one I'm posting.

A guy working in a nearby garage told me that 60 years ago, it had been a boiler factory.

Picture book previews

2008-04-25T04:25:00.000-07:00

More previews from the picture book I'm illustrating.

Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas

2008-04-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

Very few people get to really make a difference in the world. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (I can't really separate these names) made it twice: once by giving us some of the greatest animation ever made, and again by telling us how to do it. These people helped transform animation from silly curiosity, to perhaps the world's most complex, refined and deep art form.
If you think about it, very few people can take that sort of credit.

To them, to the rest of the nine old men, and to Walt Disney himself - all now gone - I take off my hat and bow.

Running in the rain

2008-04-12T13:07:00.001-07:00

So here is one of the illustrations from the picture book I'm working on. I'm quite happy with this one. More to come!

Springboard: a storyboarding software

2008-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

A long time ago I promised to tell y'all about Springboard, a small but powerful storyboarding software I'm using. I love this software, and here is why.

Basic drawing tools: the drawing tools are good enough for getting the point across, but they're too simple for beautifully executed artwork. This makes it easier for me to stay focused on storytelling.
Zoom: you can zoom in and out. It's great to be able to take a step back and "watch the film", then go in again and draw. These screenshots show my 'story pass' for "catch!".

Export/Import: When I was happy with my story pass, I did a 'drawing pass' - exported the panels, re-drew them in a different program, and imported them back in. You can even do this automatically, using an "external editing" feature.
Presentation: Once the stuff is ready, Springboard offers an amazing variety of presentation outputs - you can pretty much arrange the panels into every storyboard format known to man. You can export them to HTML, as I've done in my previous post. The presentation can include text (there's a text box for each panel), timing (you can time it inside Springboard, play it, and even export it as AVI), headers, footers, filename, date - you name it.
It's CHEAP!

The program does have some flaws, especially concerning stability. However, (a) I'm using an old version, so they might have fixed some bugs, and (b) the problems are absolutely minor compared to the software's amazing advantages.

Check it out! The trial version is fully operational except for printing (at least, that's the way it was when I first tried it).

Catch!

2008-04-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

A while back, I tried to come up with a 4-legged animation exercise - and somehow ended up with this silly 1 minute short. Maybe I'll even animate it some day, who knows :0)

Click the picture to see the complete storyboard.

YouTube analysis #2: Final answer

2008-04-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Poor guy...note to self: get a good night's sleep before my next gameshow appearance.

What I find so interesting here, is the switch from self confidence, almost to the point of being cocky, to complete embarrassment and humility. BUT even though the change happens in a single moment, the reaction is gradual and goes through several different beats.

First Beat (1:00) - he realizes something is wrong. This is also gradual - you can actually see realization dawning on him, in slow motion (I'm guessing the transition would have been a bit quicker, had he not been so tired). He says "no, wait" - but by the end of this "shot" he's still smiling: the full impact of the mistake is not yet clear to him.

Second beat: he stares at the monitor, dumbfounded. There's a very subtle transition here - starting with a vague shadow of his former confident smile, then no no smile at all, and finally - a first trace of an embarrassed smile. It's interesting that the change is so subtle that I can hardly see any movement at all - and yet, the change of expression is very clear.

Look carefully at the corner of his mouth throughout this beat. This is what texture is all about: layering very slight variations on top of a very strong pose or transition. It's a great way of making your animation feel rich, without loosing clarity.

Third beat: the embarrassed smile is his brave attempt to hide his frustration and shame.

Conclusion:
I like thinking of emotional changes in terms of weight and inertia (something we animators know about). Just like a moving object takes time to change direction (AKA motion arc), so mood and attitude take time to change. I think this clip shows a great example of such an "emotional arc".

Unspam your blog

2008-04-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I tried to be optimistic and trust the goodness of human kind, but spamming got the best of me. Lately I've had to delete a spam comment almost every day (that's double spam - my Email AND the blog!). So, as much as I wanted to avoid it, I've had to add the standard Blogger password protection thingy. I hope it won't discourage anyone from commenting.

Which is a good place to say again, that I love getting your feedback! Comments are a big part of what motivates me to keep the blog alive. So talk to me - I'm listening :)

Sketch Crawl #1

2008-03-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

Led by the fearless J.P. Vine, we stormed the old Tel Aviv harbor, armed to the teeth with sketchbooks, pens and pencils. These are the less lousy drawing I came up with. Does photoshopation add anything, or does it take away? You be the judge.

Hospital

2008-03-28T22:56:00.001-07:00

Unfortunate circumstances have brought me to spend some hours in the hospital.

I hate hospitals. They stress me out. The neon lighting, the bland colors, the constant humming, the still quietness with the occasional cough. I saw a doctor; for the life of me, I can't understand how anyone would be willing to go through years of hard training, only to end up spending most of his waking hours in such a bleak environment. Yes, I know they're helping people and all. Perhaps I'm just not enough of an altruist.

You know what I really missed in there? Something to focus on, some points of interest for the eye to rest upon. It's all so damn repetitive! A small colorful picture here and there, an occasional plant, perhaps a cheerful decoration hanging from the ceiling – why not? It's not expensive, and I think it can do so much for the wellbeing of both patients and staff.

Or maybe I don't understand anything.

Animation thumbnails

2008-03-28T05:22:00.001-07:00

Dr. Pane

2008-03-27T01:29:00.000-07:00

Absent minded doodling can bring out some strange stuff out of one's brain. Here's something I did during dailies at Crew972.

Looking for style

2008-03-03T22:00:00.001-08:00

More design pondering for the children book I'm illustrating.

Art and process: William Whitaker

2008-02-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

Behold the art of William Whitaker. Very romantic stuff, very classic, beautifully executed. As a bonus - it's not very often that you see a non-digital artist taking the time to show his process. This guy does. Look under demonstration.

Pablo Lobato's caricatures

2008-02-24T21:33:00.000-08:00

Look the these jazzy caricatures from Pablo Lobato.

Bad Obama caricature

2008-02-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

So it doesn't look like him at all, but I like the drawing. It was nice to touch a real pencil again. Wacom is great, but it's just not the same.

Cameron Fielding's animation process

2008-02-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

Hello boys and girls,

I've already shared this post in my "Google Reader Shared Items" page, however I think it's such a valuable resource, I decided to share it more "aggressively".

In his blog "Flip", Cameron Fielding shared not only a cool reel of his animation for "Turok" (a computer game), but also an amazingly detailed account of his process for making it. It's a long and demanding read (at least when English is not your native language), but it's SO worth the effort. If you're interested in getting the hang of making clear, appealing, effective action-packed animation, take the time and READ IT. Twice.

Straight Ahead #1

2008-02-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Rune Brandt Bennicke, here is some straight ahead animation. It's so easy to get lost in all the rules and restrictions and perfectionism of animation, till you forget what it's really all about. This kind of things brings the fun back! I recommend.

3 Mamas

2008-02-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

I'm currently illustrating a children book - a very interesting adventure for me. I'll post more details, including some of the working process, when the time comes. In the meanwhile, here are 3 sketches trying to capture "mom". The writer wanted her to be very beautiful; I wanted her to feel "real", not too perfect. So I was trying to walk this fine line of attractiveness without perfection. None of these really hit the mark - but between them, they give me a pretty solid direction.
As always, comments are more than welcome.

Car quick sketch

2008-01-21T10:02:00.000-08:00

Something I sketched as a test for a test for an illustration. I think I might have stolen the small wheels idea from my good friend JP Vine. Turns out he stole a lady from Gary Larson, so he can't complain :-P

YouTube analysis: "You get away from here!"

2007-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most animated live-action clips I've ever seen. The timing is simply perfect!

A few things I've noticed:

Much of the charm here comes from the contrast between the busy, wild 7 seconds of the beginning, and the remaining 5 seconds of quiet aftermath.
The dog detaches and leaves not at once, but gradually. It reminds me that the principle of arcs is much broader than we usually give it credit for: things tend to change direction over time, not in a single moment.
Another gradient is his posture. He's hunched down for the first 6 seconds or so, then straightens in three beats:
00:06 - slightly straighter, the dog is further now
00:07 - almost fully upright, but his back is still arched forward - he's still inside the situation
00:10 - fully upright, spine arch reversed, he's out of the situation.
His arm up when he says "you go" is clearly an act of pride and victory.
For the first 10 seconds, the only thing in the world is that dog. This we see through change: when he feels the crisis to be over, he looks at the photographer - the rest of the world is relevant again

I'm sure there's more - feel free add your own observations.

Kudos for Shuki Gamliel, who sent me the link.

Finito

2007-11-28T23:24:00.000-08:00

The head is finally finished, and it's time to move on. I made a little turntable version, too. Big thank you to Oleg Kuklin, my teacher. I wonder what my next project should be. Something more expressive, I think.

Quick sketch: a cute girl

2007-11-21T10:38:00.001-08:00

It's about time I started uploading some drawings again. Here's a recent one.

Out of the cocoon

2007-11-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

SO....the cast head is all but done, and I'm very excited and pleased. Still have some cleanup to do - a couple of hours of work, and my first real cast sculpture will be ready. It's going to be SO great to have it in my living room.

Sculpture update

2007-11-14T06:34:00.000-08:00

Haven't been here in a while (busy busy busy...really). Did you miss me?

Here are some work process photos. First, I added a nice clay base to the thing. Then we prepared some cast and started splashing it onto the clay. It has this cool effect:

In the end you get this cast cocoon, in which hides the clay head. It's a very strange feeling, having your work buried in like that. It took 5 hours of hard physical work to bury it!

Today we opened the cast, removed the clay, and poured cast into the mold. These pictures were taken while we were removing clay:

Next time, we remove the mold, and the session after that we'll cleanup and make some correction on the cast statue itself. And then, hopefully, it will be over. I have to say, I'm looking forward to finishing this, and starting something new.

Finished clay stage

2007-10-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well! My first clay sculpture is finally finished. I still need to transfer it to cast and all, of course, but the clay stage is done. It's not perfect, but perfectness is not an option on your first attempt.

...so nice to be old, you get so much more relaxed about not being perfect:)

So far so good

2007-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

So today was lesson 7, and it's suddenly starting to look like something that could, in theory, have a slight chance of not being a total disaster.

Sculpting demo

2007-10-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Absolutely brilliant.

Sculpting scene

2007-09-21T14:29:00.001-07:00

Bit creepy, ain't it? Nice photo taken by my teacher Oleg. This is where it's at so far (around the end of session 5). Proportion and basic facial features are more or less there. Now starts the REAL work....
Will upload a turnaround in a week or so.

Photo Analysis 1

2007-09-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

Following something Alex Orrelle was talking about in the studio, I'm recently trying to notice interesting pictures and analyze what's interesting (to me) about them. Well, here's one:

So what's interesting about it? I did a few sketches trying to simplify and exaggerate, almost as if I was caricaturing the photo. I think what made me stare at it in the first place, was the sudden streak of strong warm yellow within all the blueness.

In this black and white, high contrast version (thank you Photoshop), something else comes up: the attractiveness of the small, relatively bright tree, in the midst of his big dark peers. Being an "oddity" in the context of this picture, it stands out and becomes a natural focal point for the picture.

[Disclaimer: I'm not a great painter to say the least, and I don't intend to teach anybody anything. These are just some illustrated thoughts, sort of a visual analysis for my own enjoyment.]

Sculpting frenzy!

2007-08-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not posting here as much as I would have liked, but what the hey. Doing my best.
After dreaming it from plenty of years, I've finally taken sculpting lessons. So far it's a huge pleasure, worth any penny and every moment invested. The head above is the model for my very first sculpting mission. I've started by sculpting the underlying skull. Below is the result after two lessons (about 6 hours). Judging from my teacher's response, I think it must be fairly quick for a first try.

And me:

I'll keep y'all posted as the thing comes along.

Joseph Christian Leyendecker

2007-08-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of great illustrations by Joseph Christian Leyendecker. Enjoy!

Yet another Team Fortress 2 video

2007-08-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

Hair

2007-08-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

A few doodles from a meeting at work, loosely based on a fellow animator. For some reason, he didn't seem to like me having fun with his face. Go figure :)

Team Fortress 2 trailers and teasers

2007-08-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, here's something I haven't done before in this blog: embedded teasers. However, I think the artistic value of this stuff is so great, that it absolutely justifies stepping out of character. So, here as some teasers for a multiplayer game called Team Fortress 2, and I think you'll agree that the character design could have easily made a Pixar feature film

Meet the Heavy: The heavy weapons character introducing himself. Excellent performance!

The Teaser:

Illustrative Rendering Featurette: A short presentation touching on artistic decisions and tech solutions.

And finally, a trailer showing some in-game footage:

Well, isn't that juicy? Can't wait to play already!

Bertrand Russell Doodle

2007-07-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

I was working on a character concept for something, and I remembered the philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell, thinking he might make a good reference. Here's a quick doodle I did based on his features (which, by the way, didn't work for my character at all).

To be honest

2007-07-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

I have to admit: when browsing through my art blog feeds, I usually look at the pictures, briefly go through the the text, and proceed to the next blog. A post from Emma's "Art, plz" blog made me stop and read carefully. It's really, really well written. It has a touch humor, a touch of personality, and a ton of wisdom. And good sketches to go with it, too! No wonder she works for Pixar. Have a look. Then come back, I want to add something.

[No no, don't continue - read her post first!]

So. Drawing honest is absolutely where the gold is. That's a great notion. Problem is, most of us consume mind-food in the same way we consume body-food: if it's not tasty, we're not going to eat it, no matter how good the nutrition value is. You can be honest till you're blue in the face, and it won't do anybody any good if it's not well put together.

That, folks, is the catch22 of good artwork: if you focus on good form you lose the honesty, if you don't – you lose your audience. How do you get honest, then?

I think, by taking the long road. You spend some years climbing up the mountain of craftsmanship, working hard to conquer form. Then you spend some more years climbing down again - down to reality, down to where your audience lives, down to content. It takes time and effort to learn how to use the craft as a consultant, not a tyrant. Once you can do that, then – and ONLY then – you can, and should, draw honest.

Ecologists

2007-06-29T13:08:00.002-07:00

This was done for a forum drawing challenge under the title "Mom! Dad! Look what I found!". I took a big breath and plunged into some experimental painting. I have to say, I sort of like the result.

Strangely enough, my conscious brain had no say in choosing the subject... My hand just kept doodling silly dinosaurs, and after a few attempts to regain control, I just decided to play along and do something with dinosaurs.

Yet another silly comic strip

2007-06-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

My business card trio

2007-06-22T07:16:00.001-07:00

I designed these business cards with the idea that people would be able to choose the one they like. So far it's not working too well, everyone seem to want all three of them :)

It's interesting that, when I ask people which one they would have preferred, they don't have to think about it much - one of them is always much better than the rest. But it's not always the same one; in fact, the distribution between the 3 cards is quite even. I like that.

My Google Reader shared items page

2007-06-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

Google Reader is an amazing tool for keeping track of your favorite blogs (and any other internet content that supports RSS). Among other goodies, it also allows you to create your own "shared items" web page, to which you can very easily (a single click) add interesting items. What you're practically doing is creating your very own "web magazine", sort of a mozaic blog made of bits and pieces you find interesting.

Long story short, HERE is my google reader share page (I'm also adding it to the links list on the right). You can find there a link to the RSS feed, to help you follow.

Enjoy!

Angry dude

2007-06-09T00:53:00.001-07:00

Did that as a caricature for something, but I won't tell you what it means. Make of it what you will. And if you come up with something interesting, write us a comment, won't you?

Policeman

2007-06-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

This one started out as a fun little morning doodle, but I think I got rid of most of the fun now. Some of it is still there though, and I haven't been posting anything lately, so here it is. Comments and whatnots are, as usual, very welcome.

I decided his name is George, if that's ok with everyone.

Old and Gray

2007-05-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I'm quite cheerful these days. I bought a new, wide format A5 Wacom - and you're watching the very first doodle I made with it. Things are slowly falling into place now, and soon I'll be updating regularly again.

She Donkey, or: the beauty of ugly drawings

2007-04-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Some months ago my Dad was complaining to me about a cartoon he was trying to draw, which was giving him a hard time. The drawing involved a guy riding a lady-donkey, who obviously had the hots for him (don't look at me, it's his idea!).

I offered to help, and he agreed. So I took a bunch of papers and started doodling, just idly exploring some possibilities. Dad was puzzled; as an amateur cartoonist, he was sure his professional son is going to be able to just draw the thing right off the bat - which was what he was trying to do the whole time.

In my mind, however, being a pro means more than having more knowledge or better tools. It also (perhaps chiefly) means better problem-solving strategies. It's the ability to recognize how complex a problem really is, and finding ways of breaking it down so it can be dealt with one step at a time.

That drawing Dad was trying to make requires designing two characters, communicating the donkey's feelings (and the guy's reaction), all that while dealing with the weight and pose problems that come from one character sitting on top of the other. Add staging, donkey anatomy, composition, and the usual challenges of drawing, and it becomes clear that trying to do all that in one step, is really asking for trouble.

He got the idea pretty quickly. We sketched together for a while; below is a collection of some of the butt-ugly drawings we made. The hopefully nice she-donkey design at the top of the post, is based on these careless doodles. By allowing ourselves to explore without fear of ugliness, we were able to explore a lot of ideas before making a commitment.

A sign of life

2007-04-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

As was expected, the move to Israel is causing some blogging stagnation; being homeless, usually internetless and also having lost my Wacom pen, makes things a tiny bit difficult. But not to worry; the blog is on my mind and I plan to get busy updating it the moment I settle a bit, which should be in about 2 weeks or so.

In the mean while, just to show I mean business, I'm preparing a post with some scanned stuff and a few thoughts. Coming right up.

Yet another attempt at a self caricature

2007-03-18T01:12:00.000-07:00

This is me. I think. Maybe. Dunno. Is it? I probably look a bit younger in real life, but after years of failed attempts, I'll settle for a recognizable older me.

Haven't been very active lately on my little online sketchbook here, but this is not because I've been lazy or unproductive. I'm actually working on some really interesting things these days, only these are not yet ready to show off.

I'm doodling all the time at work, and some of it is pretty funny. maybe I'll get some of it scanned and posted soon.

Idle doodles [1]

2007-03-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Just draw, is all I say. Don't make it a sacred thing that needs to be solemnly scheduled and prepared. Keep a pen and a bunch of papers at hand, so that you can doodle around whenever your hands are free. You'll find that cool drawings have a tendency to happen on the back of a coffee-stained paper napkin. Don't worry about it, it's just part of the crazy way the universe was built.

Above - a strange doodling session, that lasted the whole day: Every time the computer was rendering an animation preview, I did one or two of those. As for what it means, your guess is as good as mine.

Angry dude

2007-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

Nature sketch

2007-02-05T23:35:00.000-08:00

Another brave attempt to go beyond my usual realm of characters.

Recognize?

2007-01-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

Been trying to get it right for a while now. Wonder if it works now.

Bird flew

2007-01-21T00:37:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to try animating a small bird for ages, bun never got around to it. So when I started on this silly short film venture, I thought - hey, as long as it's silly, it might as well have a bird in it. So here we go - my first bird animation test. What say you?

Oh, snap!

2007-01-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

Stanly & Ron

2007-01-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time - ever since I got to know Calvin & Hobbes. I had to wait for the right idea to come along though. I don't know if I'll ever do more Stanly & Ron comics, but anyway, here's the first one:

P.S.
If you don't own "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" yet, you're wasting your life away. Get it immidiately!

Facial animation concept

2007-01-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

This here is a very small test I made to show how a mouth might work for this character (right click + save as on the picture). The idea is that most of the time there will be no mouth, and it will only pop up for stuff like fear or laughter. Don't mind the actual animation, it wasn't meant to be perfect.
The "facial rig" is very simple. Most of the animation is done with free Translation/Rotation/Scale animation. There are a few morph controls for the mouth, and one squash/stretch control for the whole face, just to make it feel a bit flexible.