I, Robot!

I love robots.  Here's a little digital painting I made from one of my robot designs.

Man of Steel

I hadn't drawn any superhero stuff in a long time, so for the hell of it, I thought I'd give it a shot. As I was sketching this, I decided to read Action Comics #1 for the very first time (yes, I know...). I was surprised to discover that Superman's first appearance in comics was as much (if not more) about his life as Clark Kent as it was about being Superman. And that his first exploits as the Man of Steel weren't about giant robots or even bank robbers--instead, Superman gets a pardon for a woman put on death row for a murder she didn't commit, takes out a man who was beating his wife, and defies his editor's orders to stir up some dirt in a South American country, and instead goes to Washington DC to take on a crooked lobbyist. An eye-opener!

Why Don't You Come Up and See Me Sometime!

If you're going to Comic-Con International 2013, make sure to stop by my Artists' Alley Table DD24 and say hello. I'll be selling all the regular stuff--plus, I have a few copies of my new Focal Press book, Professional Storyboarding: Rules of Thumb.

Season's Greetings! (And Some Fun with Stereoscopy!)

Well, there goes another year!  Hope you all had a good one and I hope you have an even better one in 2013! 

I'm sure you've all noticed that 3D is still big in the movies these days.  Seems like everything is being offered in 3D, or being retrofitted into 3D.

Stereoscopy is a very old technology, and though the particulars have changed and been improved over the years, the basic principles remain the same.

Normally, an image has to be shot with two cameras to create this kind of stereoscopic effect.  I recently figured out a simple way of creating stereoscopic still images from movies that weren't originally shot stereoscopically.  Here are a few images from a couple of my favorite movies in 3D for you to enjoy.  No enhancement or manipulation of the images was involved with this technique.  To view any of these images stereoscopically, stare at one of these pairs of images with your eyes crossed.  At some point, there will appear to be three images.  The center image will appear to be in 3D.  Click on the image to view it larger.

I'm So Board!

I know I sound like a broken record on this blog talking about how busy I've been, but it's true!  The last year and a half has been non-stop for me, and my brain has been too fried to spend a lot of time worrying about this blog.  But I've taken a week off to recharge my batteries, so here's an update:

The History Channel just finished broadcasting it's miniseries "The Men Who Built America".  I did some early pitch boards for an episode about Andrew Carnegie.  Above and below are some samples of boards I drew for this show.

I also worked on a film called "Order of the Seven".  It was to be another take on the Snow White story, with the twist on this film being that it took place in turn of the century China.  It was to have starred Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), and was to be directed by Michael Gracey.  The film was shut down for various reasons, but here are a few samples of work I did for this show.

During the time I was working on these projects, I was teaching a storyboarding class at Otis School of Design and was helping write a book on storyboarding with Sergio Paez.

Another project I worked on will be a straight-to-video sequel to a very popular horror franchise.  I can't show you any boards for it at this time, but the video will be released around Halloween of 2013.  Here's a little hint on what the project is:

Another film I contributed to earlier this year was a concept pitch for another horror film, this one with vampires.  It's still in the early stages, but from what I understand, it's got the green light.

Most of this year has been working on boards for yet another film pitch, which is top secret for the time being.

Anyways, that's it for now.  I'll try to be a little better about posting updates and artwork in the future.

Beat It

Things have been very busy for me. Life has delivered a few curve balls and I've been trying to keep pace. A couple of car accidents, the eventual search for and purchase of a new car, taxes, freelance work, the flu, teaching and several other things have smacked me all either simultaneously or in succession, leaving precious little "me" time lately. But, luckily I have been working--in contrast to my situation a couple of years ago. I've already worked on a feature film this year and currently have two more in the pipeline (one I'm currently working on, the other scheduled right after that). None of this I can show you, of course. But in the interest of having something I can show you, I dug up a couple of pieces I did a while back. This is part of a concept I was working on a while back for a personal multi-media project I wanted to do. It's on hold for the moment, but it's something I'd like to see cross the finish line someday.

A Bit of Inspiration

Here are a couple of my favorite lectures. They never cease to be inspiring to me...

Simon Sinek talks about commanding influence by simply changing the order in which you present your information. The basic message is that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it....

This lecture at Stanford by Ed Catmull talks about the beginnings of Pixar. The title of the lecture is "Keep Your Crises Small", but a lot of this is really about breaking away from certain conventional beliefs.