Ain't It Cool News

Mike, aka Muldoon, over at Ain't It Cool News runs a weekly Saturday short film post. I submitted my short, M'aidez a few weeks back and kind of forgot about it. I was bowled over yesterday when I was perusing this weeks selections to see my name and video posted. This is a big deal for me. I have been a very dedicated follower of Ain't It Cool since about 1999 and rarely go a day without checking in on what's new. Yes, I'm kind throwing all of my geek cards out on the table. I really appreciate the post and kind words from Mike. The post has been a big boost in getting people to check it out. Click the image below to see the page and check out the other animation shorts posted along side mine.

Are We Not Men?

I might be working on some cover art for a Devo tribute album coming up. I've been doing some research lately, revisiting and discovering old music videos. Deanna and I fell in love with the album "Q: Are We Not Men?, A: We Are Devo" when we were driving down the California coast for our honeymoon. So I'm really looking forward to working on some Devo inspired artwork. Here is a video for the original version of Jocko Homo. It's a bit more raw than the album version which is a nice variation. ENJOY!

ICON

Deanna and I drove up to Providence, Rhode Island this past weekend so she could attend the ICON illustration convention being held there. I was able to attend some of the conference and really enjoyed what I saw. I spent the rest of the time exploring Providence, which I really enjoyed. I had been there once to tour RISD while I was looking at schools and liked the feel then, but it was great to have a few days to really explore. I walked most of the city, front to back, back to front. I visited just about every book store I could find, and there were quite a few. Cellar Stories Books and Myopic Books were my favorites. I also got to meet illustrator/musician Marcellus Hall at the convention. I am a big fan of his former band Railroad Jerk, so it was a great thrill to meet him. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few.
 

View from our hotel room over the water

View of the India Point Park

Gondola in the canal

Deanna sitting behind Matt Groening at the conference

We got delicious and cheap treats from the porchagese Silver Star Bakery

One of many telephone pole sculptures in Wickenden

Danny Boyle's Frankenstein

Tonight we went to see Danny Boyle's stage version of Frankenstein being screened at a movie theater. It did lack a little of the impact you know would have been present seeing it live, but the production was really impressive. The two main actors, Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, would trade roles each night. So one would play Victor Frankenstein and one would play The Monster, then switch for the next performance. In the showing we went to Johnny Lee Miller played The Monster. His take was really intriging. The character throws the viewer back and forth over and over again; feeling deep sympathy for him followed back deep disgust. He said he based a lot of the physical performance on his 2 year old daughter. There is a wonderful progression with him, learning to walk, run, and talk. You can certainly see the child show through, as well as touches of stroke victims, and Autistic mannerisms. I was affected to be sure. I am a great fan of all things Frankenstein and this was a great addition to the mythos. I hope they release this on DVD at some point. We have become followers of Benedict Cumberbatch after watching the new Sherlock series on BBC. He was very respectable as the doctor, but that character doesn't quite get the same chance to shine. I would love to see his take on The Monster to compare and contrast the actors. Here is a trailer for the play-

Short Film M'aidez

 I recommend watching this in HD, fullscreen, with headphones on 

Complete!!! I have finally finished my short. I have spent so much time with this that its going to feel odd not staring at that figure for a little while. I am pretty pleased with the final product. It is not the longer form narrative that I originally intended, but maybe I will come back to that someday. I wish I could give some estimate of hours spent, but I can tell you it was a lot. The figure, the suit, the backpack, the electronics, the sculpting and painting; and then of course the shooting all took a good chunk of time to complete. I have been working on these types of figures for about eight or nine years and its really satisfying to seem one brought to life a little bit. I am hoping to continue stop motion work in the future. Who knows what little short is next. I'll leave it at that. Thank you for watching!

M'aidez inspiration and sketches

I started work on this project years ago and came back to it from time to time. I have many sketchbook pages dedicated to different ideas and designs relating to it in one way or another. I was working out the proportions of the armature around this time. You can see I originally envisioned the backpacked being more like a jet engine, but pulled that back to a more realistic design later on.

  I also pulled a lot of space and astronaut images as inspiration from different sources. Sadly, I don't remember the book I scanned these from. You can definitely see some areas I looked at when creating the suit for my character. You can click the individual images to see them larger.

Baltimore Science Center Observatory

I've been absent for a while now, hard at work on my short. I am exporting the final version of it as I type this, so hopefully I'll have it posted tomorrow or Monday.
Last night Deanna and I went to the observatory at the Maryland Science Center at Inner Harbor. On clear Friday evenings they have free, guided access to their observatory. We were there for maybe half an hour and were able to see Saturn, Mars, the moon, as well as some selected stars. It was really beautiful.

This photos is an approximation of what we saw. I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a fun activity over the summer.