How Roode!

Obligatory Guilt Post

2012-01-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

I never post anything. And the worst of it is that I'm not witty enough to make up for it! If I could only write something brilliant and hilarious, I am certain that my legions of adoring blog fans (by which I mean my husband, because no one reads a blog that never gets updated, but I plan on forcing him to read it because THAT'S WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR WHEN YOU MARRIED ME) would instantly forgive my apparent allergy to self-promotion.

Alas, it is not to be. But because I keep discovering other blogs whose owners DO update them regularly, I've managed to guilt myself into creating a post.... devoid of new artwork, of course, but a post nonetheless! Here's an image to break up this giant text block!

You see, I work at Rivet Games in San Francisco (that's me on the homepage in the matchy-matchy brown polka dots), where I am busily creating artwork for a rockin' new game with a team of talented folk. I draw at work every day.... which means that when I get home at the end of the day, I want to do anything but draw. Maybe I'm just not passionate enough about art, or maybe I have ADHD, but in any case, after 6pm, I can usually be found reading my Kindle (which I love, adore, and worship, wondering where it has been all my life).

At some point in the near-ish future, the game will launch and I will start posting art and animation from it (or not, considering my track record), and my husband (who will STILL be the only person reading this blog) will oooh and aaah over how great it is. Meantime, I'm going to hang onto this motivational guilt for all it's worth, and try to draw something worthy or write something witty to put on the blog ASAP. Which could be, you know, next year. But hopefully sooner. :)

Perennial Update? and some sketches

2011-06-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted, the new job, new city, and new house(s) have kept me mighty busy, so while I've been doing a lot, you certainly wouldn't be able to tell from my online presence (or lack thereof)! Though I'm excited about Rivet's newly-launched game, Pet Tales, and about our upcoming launch, *CURRENTLY UNANNOUNCED HAHA!*, I've run into that old problem of not being able to show much of my work until I receive official approval. Curse you, NDAs!

Fortunately, I've discovered some live model sessions here, so please enjoy the fruits of that most recent endeavor. And go play Pet Tales!

Explanation for crazy-long Post Fail

2010-12-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Hello from sunny (well, usually) California! I thought I should post a quick note about the whole vanishing act again, but I promise I have a REALLY REALLY good excuse this time! I have accepted a new position with a social media game development company in San Francisco, California, and am in fact freshly moved out West as of only a few days ago! Crazy, right? Anywhoodle, the move was managed in under a month, so I've been quite preoccupied, and before that it was more freelance work, a friend's wedding, and various Oktoberfest and Halloween happenings.

Until I am able to give the full update, complete with images, please watch this and then get your butt to the theater to see Tangled, in my opinion the best Disney animated feature since the 90s!

An Overview of my Flash work

2010-08-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems the time has come for more shameless self-promotion. No, really: I get a lot of questions along the lines of "what do you do?" and the answer is always difficult, because what I do tends to change by the minute. On any given day, I might be managing a web or game development project, which means lots of budgets and schedules (which I LOVE, because numbers rock and you don't always get to spend a lot of time with them in the art and design universe), creating assets for a social media game (????), creating hand-drawn animation for a Department of Defense commercial, designing characters for a short or show, painting an architectural rendering of a speculative dream-house, or fighting with Actionscript to create a Flash demo. In any case, it's a pretty broad spectrum, so I thought I'd provide a brief overview of some of the work I've done frequently over the last few years: namely, that completed in the wonderful and infuriating program that is Adobe Flash.

First, a comparative sample of both studio and home work:

Then, a sample of a more corporate-style demo, more motion graphics than character animation:

http://www.lumension.com/Resources/Demo-Center/Overview-Endpoint-Protection.aspx

And then one you've seen before if you visited the old blog:

Relient K "Sleigh Ride" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

(Everything up to where the main bunny sees his buddies is mine, and the PLOP! into the Sleigh shortly thereafter is also moi.)

And finally, this one's kind of cheating, because it's IN Flash, but hand-animated:

(Property of Radical Axis, Inc.)

There's TONS more, but this gives a good sample of the variety you can achieve with Flash, which certainly is what makes it most appealing to me. These days, I'm using the program to create assets for Facebook games, which is opening up a whole new world of Flash-y possibilities.

Stay tuned (tooned!), and enjoy the rest of your blistering Summer!

**EDIT** I'll do a post for more of my hand-drawn work later, but since I've had a couple requests, here's a Flapjack bit I completed for a commercial and a personal piece.

The Big Heroes Con Post

2010-07-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

I realize it's a month later, BUT! I shall keep my promise to compose an epic post about my adventures at Heroes Con 2010. After all, "Girl loses way and then finds renewed inspiration" is always a good story.....

I've never been to a Con before. I did attend the 4th Annual Disney Institute Animation Event back in 2001, but as it was only attended by about 120 people, it wasn't quite the same thing. When the opportunity to attend this one within driving distance came up, I decided to give it a try, knowing that at a bare minimum, I would get the opportunity to finally meet Tom Bancroft in person: followers of the old blog will recognize him from the Reliant K music video project, and you Disney fans had darn well better know who he is!

I've never really been much of a comics fan, although I've loved French comics ever since visiting France in 2005, and I can appreciate the skill of many prominent cover artists. As for the popular American superheroes, however, I tend to consume their stories in the form of TV and movies, and so am far more familiar with Bruce Timm and Bryan Singer than with any comic artist. In any case, I expected to be bored after just a day of the three-day event, assuming it wasn't really "my thing."

WOW. Was I ever wrong. Not only was I not bored, but I found myself wishing that Heroes Con was a week-long event! Not only was there a tremendous variety of art, toys, and books to consume, but the artists were tremendously accessible and friendly. Events went on all day and all night, including professional panels, some raucous partying in the hotel, and one very crazy art auction (top sellers went for $8K). Among others, we met Adam Hughes (who has a new book out: Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes (Adam Hughes Cover to Cover) go get it!), J Scott Campbell (tremendously patient and friendly, even with never-ending lines in front of his booth), Frank Cho (also super-friendly and with an excellent sense of humor), and Sean "Cheeks" Galloway (does he ever stop smiling? Nope!).

And of course, we got to meet Tom Bancroft and his lovely wife, Jen. Both were an absolute pleasure to meet, and their laid-back and goofy senses of humor made for some great times over the two days we were there. The only thing better than geeking out about animation with friends is geeking out about animation with a former Disney animator who also works in the Southeast (where the entertainment community is small but growing!). I even managed to snag a few of Tom's drawings, and they just warm my little animation-geek heart. Example:

We made it home with quite a lot of swag besides this as well, leading me to the conclusion that next year, I'd better save up so that I can buy even MORE sketchbooks and original art.

Obviously, I couldn't help but be inspired by all of this talent, but there was on more person I met who had quite an effect on me. While perusing Artist Alley, I came across the work of the very talented Otis Frampton. I immediately found his drawing style and particularly his color work appealing, and we fell into conversation about our respective careers. He explained that he had no formal art education, but had created his first comic book while serving in the Air Force. You could say Otis attended the "School of Hard Knocks," as he owes his fantastic style to constant hard work and refinement, exhibiting a drive that is the only possible road to success.

When he asked me about my work, I told him that I'd graduated from SCAD, and that I'd been working in animation since then. But, when he asked if I had an online gallery or demo reel, I suddenly realized that I had no recent work to show. And it hit me that I'd been using my full-time job as an excuse not to pursue personal projects or work at improving my art, as though the good fortune of being employed exempted me from the dedication any self-respecting professional ought to have. It was a moment of extraordinary shame for me, to realize I was wasting that good fortune (and education) while Otis was making something great of himself. I bought a sketchbook from him (and you all should, too, because he rocks), and came home with the determination to get back on the horse and start creating.

It hasn't been easy, as old habits die hard and I've gotten very good these last few years at coming up with excuses not to work. However, I've managed to attend some models sessions recently and have been trying to do a drawing a day, and though the results have been generally atrocious, it feels fabulous to be moving forward again. So, here's to a successful Con, and I wish all possible success to the artists I met, including the ones I forgot to mention. See you all at Heroes Con 2011!

Famous for a Day

2010-07-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

My husband seems to have accidentally achieved nationwide fame for a day for his "fix" of the immortal Jim Lee's somewhat disappointing Wonder Woman redesign. It's even showing up in the news now: "Wonder Woman Updated, Then Fixed." How awesome is that, seriously?! I think we should all try redesigns of DC's favorite Amazon - I'd love to see the results!

* With respect to Mr. Jim Lee, who is still rockin'.

Zombies and Ladies

2010-06-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

Since the project is currently undisclosed, I can't give details about what we're currently working on at Anthem. However, I will drop this little sample of character design, because we didn't end up using these ones. They are a zombie and a survivor, and I dig the lady because she looks like she could totally survive the zombie apocalypse, no?

Zombies aren't really my thing, however, so I thought I'd also include this from a recent model session.

Not the best I've ever done, but since I draw so few clothed models, I like to give it a go every now and then. As it is, I probably won't be returning to this model session for some time, because the organizers (whom I know and who are awesome) chose the seediest spot in Atlanta to hold it. This probably has to do with budget limitations or similar issues, but being the prudish square that I am, I think I'll wait until they move again. I know, I know, "You draw naked people, but you don't want to go to a strip club?" Well, they're not the same thing! Exactly. Quite.....

Coming soon: a huge, gushing post about Heroes Con 2010!

One Week Website!

2010-05-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

Alternate Headline: Shameless Plug

The company that I work for, Anthem Design Group, has just announced a new service for those in need of a custom-designed website and have little time to get it launched. Check out the One Week Website!

We're also hard at work on an undisclosed video game, so stay tuned for some designs from that, coming soon!

Cheyenne: Evolution of a Character Design

2010-04-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

About three years ago (yeesh, has it been that long?), my then-boss pulled me and several other staff artists into a room and plopped a My Little Pony in front of us. He told us that we were going to bid on a project about a pop-star Candyland princess, and that we needed to create designs based around the girliest, most disgustingly hot pink toys we could imagine. Sounded like fun, so we were off and running.

My first round of designs looked like this:

"Too much princess, not enough pop star," came the response. They told me to back off on the candy theme (no pink hair, alas) and push the stylized look. My next round came out looking like this:

"Lose the crown altogether, and make her edgier." Edgy is probably the single most annoying word that any designer can hear, because it means completely different things to different people. For some, edgy is just about more black and sharp corners; for others, it's just showing them something they've never seen before. In any case, it's a completely unhelpful term that should be banished from all discussion of art forever (yes, I do feel that strongly about it), so I just randomly picked a new approach to my next set of designs: 80s Barbie + Chris Sanders face =

They liked that: "More Chris Sanders!" This time, however, they wanted more of an early Britney Spears, that sort of unwitting sexpot, so I turned the outfit pink and the undies white, gave her some tousled hair and voila:

Now they were really loving the character, but the style was still too classic Disney (I can't help it!), so they encouraged me to really push the design as far as I could while maintaining the cute/sexy attitude. Since pigtails say "cute" to me and big boobs and a big round butt says "sexy," I combined those elements, used the Coppertone girl as inspiration for the pose, and turned out this:

This ended the design phase, so we then hastily put together an animation test and presented it for consideration. We won the bid, and went into production on Cheyenne Cinnamon and the Fantabulous Unicorn of Sugar Town Candy Fudge for Adult Swim. The final design was not created by me, but was a collaboration by my talented friends Todd Redner and Eric Cerda:

I'd like to think that I influenced the design in some way, but regardless, participating in the design process was a nifty experience, and helped tremendously when I later helped design for other show pitches. If those shows ever make it to air *crosses fingers* I'll make sure to post the prelim work again!

Related Reading: Creating Characters With Personality, by Tom Bancroft

Waking Sleeping Beauty (with special guests....)

2010-04-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

This week, I attended a SCAD-Atlanta screening of the documentary "Waking Sleeping Beauty," presented by none other than Peter Schneider, co-director of the film and erstwhile President of Disney Animation. Ah, the perks of being an alumnus!

The movie was excellent, created as it was entirely using old clips (grain and all) from the period in question: 1984-1994 at Disney Feature Animation. No talking heads, as Peter said. This approach gave the film a unique honesty, even showing some heroes of the animation world in a less-than-heroic light, and setting it in stark contrast to the highly sanitized DVD features to which we've all become accustomed. There were appearances by all my favorite artists (I screamed..... er, cheered particularly loudly for a former professor of ours, Phil Young, when he popped up on screen for about two seconds), and plenty of never-before-seen footage that left my little animator's heart all a-twitter. Or twitterpated, as the case may have been. Overall, I found the film highly entertaining and educational, and will be pre-ordering the DVD as soon as it becomes available.

Just before the show, Peter had introduced a special guest.... Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid! Now, I knew she lived in the Atlanta area, but her attendance at the presentation was a total surprise, so when she was announced, my friend Jo and I LEAPT to our feet and clapped and squealed like the fangirls we are. After the movie, she answered some questions along with Peter, until someone got the cojones to ask her what all of us were hoping: "Will you sing for us?"

***EDIT: So YouTube sucks, because they took the video down. Come on, you can't even post a home video of the voice of Ariel singing her own song in a casual setting? Really? LAME. Anyway, just go pop in your copy of The Little Mermaid and close your eyes, and you can imagine the awesomeness of the video that used to reside here.***

Bliss. My husband took this video, so that's me bobbing in and out of frame at left like a hyperactive squirrel.

Anyway, the whole experience was an absolute pleasure, and I highly recommend the movie even if you're not animation-obsessed. As a time capsule of a huge part of many of our childhoods, it's fascinating.

Related viewing: Dream On Silly Dreamer

New Bloggity-Blog

2010-03-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

Alas, the time has come to bid farewell to the old and long-neglected blog, and move forward into the future to as-yet-unforseen art and rants. Should nostalgia for bunnies or naked people strike you, however, The Funnyhoneybee will always reside here, unless of course the internet one day decides to eat it. The beast must be fed some time, I suppose.

With a new name and a new job, it only makes sense that I should follow up these developments with a new blog, so welcome to How Roode!, where the art is cold and the women are fresh. No, wait..... the art is fresh and the women are cold. No..... Okay, so the tagline needs some work. Suggestions are welcome.

Until I can get some real posting underway, however, please visit the website of my illustrious employer, Anthem Design Group. Come back soon!