My Brother's Birthday ...

Drew up a birthday card for my brother in about 30 minutes ...

Back ...

After an extended lazy period, I'm finally back to drawing again. I've got some stuff in my sketchbooks that I'll share as soon as I get my scanner hooked up again (hopefully tonight).

The Beatles: Rock Band trailer

This is a kickass piece of animation to promote the new The Beatles: Rock Band game. I love the transitions between the various moments in their career, and how the visuals complement the music so amazingly well. Superbly thought-out and edited ... enjoy!

The Beatles: Rock Band Trailer

It's very inspiring to watch something like this. I've gotta finish my Radiohead animation. I need to find a reliable artist to help me, however.

Little Rose

Here's a better version. For some reason the compression in the last one caused some problems at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu63ujIIF4U

Flower Bloom in Color

I finally finished the flower bloom. I was asked to change the end to have the flower bloom so it takes up the whole frame. It could have turned out better, but I didn't have the time to draw and color all the frames needed to make it nice. Besides, it's supposed to have a childlike quality to it, hence the quick and dirty color job (done with Crayola crayons and colored pencils).

Pencil Test No. 2

Here's the second part of the pencil test -- the flower blooming. I'll be coloring this in either crayon or colored pencil to give it a child-like quality, but I can't decide how to handle the background. It'd be nice to have a separate element animating as a background. I'd like to have some sort of movement back there instead of just a static color.

Pencil Test No. 1

Here's the first part of a pencil test of a little animation I'm working on for a friend. Nothing fancy. Eventually, this little guy grows up into a rose.

Death Tank

If you own an Xbox 360 and wanna play a fun game, download "Death Tank" from Xbox Live Arcade. It's a really fun multiplayer action game from Ezra Dreisbach, a former Snowblind Studios programmer. The original game was included as an Easter Egg is the Sega Saturn games "Powerslave" and "Duke Nukem 3D." Snowblind helped him with development of this finely polished sequel, and is publishing it (I helped with the Italian localization, and also did some animation that didn't make it into the game).

Anyway, it's a great game, so cough up the $15 and blow some shit up.

Death Tank XBLA Site

Game Over

So I've been really struggling in being productive outside of work. I've been spending months searching for some kind of inspiration to get my ass in gear. As a favor for a friend, I'll be doing a little animation sometime this week of a flower growing, so maybe that will spark something.

What I really want to talk about is this great book that hooks me every time I read pick it up.

"Game Over: Press Start To Continue" by David Sheff is an amazing account of Nintendo's rise to power. It's the book that really made me want to work in the game industry, or more specifically, made me want to work for Nintendo. I read this book right before I started my internship at Nintendo Software Technology in 2003, and I was beyond excited to be on the inside of the place that saved the video game industry in North America.

Nintendo's story is truly inspiring to me. Some of the methods they used to become the unquestioned industry leader back in the late '80s might be suspect, but they took an industry that American companies created (and subsequently brought to its knees and left for dead), and against all odds, brought it back from the brink and became one of the most successful and profitable companies in the world.

One really has to question why American companies continue to operate with such inefficiency after Nintendo showed the world how to do it right. They invested heavily in their R & D divisions, planned a long-term strategy, and didn't spend lavishly on things like private jets.

The book chronicles the history of the industry. From Nolan Bushnell's sloppy management of Atari, Shigeru Miyamoto's inspiring career and value to Nintendo, Trip Hawkin's arrogance, the many lawsuits Nintendo fought (and won), and Sega's challenge to Nintendo's throne -- "Game Over" covers it all objectively.

I remember my first day working on Nintendo of America's campus. It was such a thrill for me to walking around the offices where it all started. I would have quit DigiPen had they offered me a permanent position at NST, and I tried like hell after graduating to land a job there. Most of the people I knew at NST are gone however, and it seems that the studio (like Nintendo's other American studios), isn't doing so well on the inside. Most everyone I knew while working there have moved on, citing frustration and poor management. So maybe it worked out for the best that I never got hired there. I have to say though, seeing my name under Miyamoto's in the credits of "1080 Avalanche" and "Mario Vs. Donkey Kong" is still pretty special for me, even if it's just "special thanks."