Cars and Monster House

A while back I went and saw Pixar's Cars with some animation buddies of mine. I was quite disappointed with it. Visually/technically it was gorgeous ... but the story, characters, and their design were lame.

And then came Monster House. I had really mixed feelings with this one. Before it came out, I thought of it as a movie I would see when it hit the dollar theature. Fortunately I got free tickets for it when I was in SanDiego. It was actually a pleasent surprize. While it's not the greatest animation out there, the story, character designs, and style was fresh. It did not feel like a kids movie though ... it was dark, slightly twisted, and felt a bit cold. While I tend to like that over the "Happy-you-know-whats coming" feel to Cars, it was a bid odd.

So tonight I discovered why it had the gloomy feeling that it does. Chris Appelhans was one of the lead designers. He is one of my favorite illustrators. He has a darker style that gives fresh perspectives on characters and enviroments. I wouldn't call it happy art ... more like reflective art. It makes you think about yourself and your life.

Good work!

Off the WoW crack, preparing for school

That's right, no more WoW until the expansion. I'm on my new eat/breath/sleep art schedule so expect lotsa updates often. Here are some random sketch scans to start with.

I'm a true geek ...

So Brant showed me this amazing site: www.bluelaguna.net. You can download soundtracks from various RPGs. They also have other tribute-to-games soundtracks. These last couple of days have been quite interesting. Today I was listening to a Final Fantasy X tune ... but in a Heavy Metal version ... with some guy singing opera.

I think I'm still laughing ... good stuff!

Quail on a Plane!!

My uncle gave me a big lectur on how I need to spend my time more wisely ... so I spent many hours of my Sunday afternoon creating this. And yes, I know the plural of Quail is Quail.

oh .... OOOH! ...crap!

One of the big bosses of WoW...

Hurray for good Art Direction!!

These are screen shots from The World of Warcraft (aka WoW crack) that I took with my main character (Bishopobrian lvl 60 shadow priest). The artists at Blizzard had an extremely difficult task. They had to create a world whose enviroment would change as real life time changed. What amazes me is that the colors are really correct. At night everything is blueish. In sunset (as pictured about) you get clouds with bright orange in them. They have even recently implemented a weather system that brings rain/snow/fog. Anyhow, it's interesting to see how complex digital worlds are getting. Cool stuff.