Bhopp's Art Blog

Lowlights From 2011

2012-01-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

Just a couple pieces I did and some bits from my sketchbook over the past year. In my personal opinion, not a whole lot to get excited about, but at least I'm drawing regularly. The highlight is the mosiac below, which was made from paper tiles hand-painted by me when I was taking art classes at the University of Kentucky. They've been waiting for 15 years just to be in this mosiac and didn't even know it!

I also did this Christmas card. Just drew it straight-up in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet.

Quick cafe portraits. Hmm, shame, no women!

Caricatures of my brother, Nick Kondo and Nick Vigna, and a spaceman ...

Abstract weirdness done while on jury duty ...

A sneak peek at a comic strip I've been developing. The old man at the bottom right is based on my late grandfather.

More to come.

New Scanner!

2011-12-31T16:09:00.000-08:00

My beautiful wife Amanda got me a new scanner for Christmas, so after a couple years of erratic posting, now my home art studio is complete and can now share some of the work I've been doing.

Here's an unfinished portrait of Dave ...

My First Shipped Title With Signal Studios -- 'Toy Soldiers: Cold War' (!)

2011-06-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. I haven't updated my art blog since Christ knows when. My biggest excuse is my current lack of a scanner, so I can't scan any of the work I've been doing in my sketchbook. However, I've also been busy working at Signal Studios lately, and finally, after working for over three years at Snowblind and not shipping a game (my credit in Death Tank excluded), I'm happy to announce that after barely a year at Signal -- and, no joke, a bald eagle is cawing outside my window as I write this -- my team's game, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, will launch on Xbox Live Arcade on August 17 as part of Xbox's "Summer of Arcade" promotion.

And you know what else? The game is really good. Trust me. I've played the shit out of it. It's fun. But I don't have an Xbox 360 at home, so I can't buy it. You do have an Xbox 360 at home, and you know someone who's worked on this awesome game, so you should probably buy it.

This game marks my return to Actually animating on a project that Actually produces a playable game instead of spending all of my time processing motion capture data for a project that gets canceled or has a release date that keeps getting pushed back, and back, and back, and soon on. Incredibly, this hasn't happened for me since the Handheld Games days, when That's So Raven: Psychic On The Scene was released for the Nintendo DS (coming not-long-after Phil Of The Future for Game Boy Advance). Not that I want to take this time to revisit my time at Handheld. My former brave colleagues from that Hellhole That Still Managed To Ship Playable Games will know what I'm talking about. (And by the way, the above link is worth clicking on. The Wikipedia entry for TSR:POTS is maybe the worst Wikipedia entry ever, but somehow describes the game exactly.)

ANYWAY, Toy Soldiers: Cold War. Great game. I worked on it. My team was comprised of a group of guys who worked like crazy to make this game into what I think will be the best game on Xbox Live Arcade this year. Actually, when I think about what my job on this game actually was: Moving War Toys Around Just Like I Did With My G.I. Joe Toys As A Kid -- I had it pretty easy. The animations Nick Kondo and I created for TS:CW will likely go unnoticed by most people who play this game. Not because they're bad. I actually think they're quite good. But this game has such absorbing action that you'll be too busy blowing shit up to notice the soldier I made scratch his ass while his weapon is reloading. The programmers, designers and artists on TS:CW made awesome stuff.

I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself here since the game hasn't even been released yet. I should probably reserve my joy for when people actually start buying it. I've just forgotten the feeling of following a game project through to its completion, and the end product actually being good. I felt that with Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile, but hardly anyone played that game. I think people are going to play this game and love the hell out of it -- August 17, 2011 (seven days after my birthday).

recent digital artwork ...

2010-04-30T01:49:00.000-07:00

The top one was an assignment for Snowblind's internal art blog in which you listen to music and just paint whatever comes to you.

The second one is a color concept for my "Scavenger" project.

Both were done in Photoshop Elements 8.

A Short Reel Of Some Recent Work ...

2010-04-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Recent Life Drawing

2010-01-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets. Drawing is a problem for me right now. I need lots and lots of practice.

My Brother's Birthday ...

2009-12-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

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

Back ...

2009-12-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T01:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-07T11:44:00.001-08:00

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

2009-03-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

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."

Weird Fishes progress update ... and other things

2008-05-23T09:18:00.001-07:00

So the work on my Weird Fishes/Arpeggi music video is going very slow. It'd be a miracle if I finish in time for aniboom.com's deadline at the end of June, but I sort of knew that taking on a project like this on my own. It looks as though I'm up against teams of artists and animators, so I have very little chance of winning the $10,000 anyway. I will get it done, however long it takes me. I am disappointed though that I haven't been able to find more time to work on it.

In the meantime, I saw the new Indiana Jones movie last night, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Good God, what a silly movie. I mean, you were required to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the previous three films, but this is ridiculous. The cheese and corn factor is just pumped up to absurd proportions, and I just wasn't into it at all. This movie didn't have to be made, so in my opinion it's proof that Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford will do anything for a big payday, whether or not they have a decent story to work with.

I had way, way, way more fun watching "Iron Man" a few weeks ago.

I also saw "I Am Legend" a couple days ago, and I really liked it. Not amazing, but well done, and it gave me some ideas for the animation I'm currently doing at Snowblind.

Turn me on to phantoms ...

2008-05-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more concepts for the video. Now that the storyboards are finished, I gotta figure out how to make this thing. I'm working on finalizing some designs as I start modeling, but my time is limited ...

Thankfully, I only need to animate one minute of the video for the next submission, so I won't have to model the phantoms. But they should be fun to animate when the time comes.

I'm trying to spend most of my energy on the main character. I know how I want him to move, now I just gotta decide how best to achieve the look I want.

I probably won't post again until I get some preliminary stuff modeled. I still have no idea what to do about the backgrounds ...

In Rainbows storyboard submission

2008-04-27T17:15:00.001-07:00

'

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom'

Select storyboards for Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

2008-04-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. That's because I've been working my ass off trying to get these storyboards done for the deadline on Sunday. I've got all the storyboards scanned in. Now I just have to put them to the music in a video format, which I'll do Friday and Saturday. Here are some of my favorite scenes ...

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the video presentation.

P.S. My Radiohead tickets came in the mail today! Aug. 20 can't get here soon enough!

Bottom Feeders ...

2008-03-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

Who knew drawing starfish could be so fun?

In my video for "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," there will be starfish in the background moving to the music. I'm not sure if the designs for the final animation will have so much detail. It might make more sense for them to be simplified shapes. The song very much describes a dream, or an escape to another plane, so appropriately, I want the visuals to be more abstract. I'm aiming for life that comes from the "Id." I want everything to look like the product of someone's imagination, or how the protagonist will perceive things in another existence.

Still, I enjoyed drawing them. Starfish always had a creepy quality for me. They're so quiet and unassuming, but they're predators. I wanted to explore a "deadly beauty" design for them.

I'd like to have shellfish scurrying along the bottom at some point. Again, I don't think these are strange enough. I really want them to look different, but getting some ideas down on in my sketchbook lets me see what works.

Now, if I can stay awake, I'm gonna watch "Paprika" and see if it gives me any ideas.

Weird Fishes ... My New Project

2008-03-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

I've decided to enter Aniboom.com's In Rainbows Music Video Contest, in which you pick any song from Radiohead's new album and make a music video for it. The band is involved in the judging, which is pretty awesome. Doing a project like this by yourself is a little daunting, but I'm an animator, and Radiohead is my favorite band ever, so how big of a loser would I be if I didn't at least try?

The great thing about this contest is that the first entry is a storyboard submission, after which you submit a minute-long animation to the song you choose. The winner of that phase get $10,000 to make the entire video.

So I've started some ideas in my sketchbook, and hopefully soon I'll have a rough storyboard together. The song I've chosen is the excellent "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi."

My initial ideas for the lead character were very non-specific. I didn't really know what I wanted him to look like, just how I wanted him to move ...

I then tried a robot design who has some of the characteristics of Thom Yorke, since I'd like the character to exhibit some of his movements ...

I finally decided to use a more realistic character ... based on a homeless guy that lives in my neighborhood. I plan on using a more abstract design in the final animation, but I like starting with something grounded in reality, so now the character automatically has a history and story behind him.

Here are some ideas for "worms and weird fishes," which are described in the song. I think my final fish designs will be more "weird" than "fish," but I drew these without looking at any real fish. I'd like them to look like they came out of someone's imagination, but these don't look strange enough to me ...

Below are some quick compositions of what the scene might look like. I still need to put down a lot more ideas as there needs to be much more going on in this scene, but for now, this helps me get an idea of the direction I need to follow.

Saturday Life Drawing ... blah

2008-03-23T16:35:00.001-07:00

It was one long pose during Saturday's life drawing session. Below is my second try ... not too happy with it. I made her head a little too big, and her face should be thinner. Her facial features look a little funky to me. Better luck next week ...

Saturday Life Drawing ... Second Week

2008-03-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

The more I look at these, the less I like them ...

I like parts of this one, but one thing I'm struggling with is getting the whole figure rendered. I'm not drawing fast enough, and I find myself concentrating on details before I get the whole figure drawn. Still, I kinda like the lower half ... feet can be fun to draw.

Again, I like parts of this ... I finally did a decent job on a hand, but it's not fully rendered. I think there are some funky things going on in the left leg, and I would have liked to get the head in there, but again, I took too much time focusing on little bits instead of getting the whole figure. Same story with the one below.

I think part of my problem lies in just getting my hand skills sharp. I need to practice more at home just drawing myself. But at least I'm drawing regularly now. I'd like to be posting stuff at least twice a week though.

No Dollar Signs

2008-03-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

So I dug out my old piece of shit computer and scanned the stuff from yesterday and today. Feels like I've got a long way to go, but it's a start.

Page from yesterday ... with dollar signs

2008-03-08T13:57:00.001-08:00

Here's a page from the coffee shop yesterday. The only thing I dare post as the rest was complete garbage. My old scanner isn't compatible with Vista, so I had to download this scanner software that puts watermarks all over your images unless you buy it. I might need to hook up my old computer as this laptop has none of the software I need.

I'll post some stuff from today's life drawing session at the Art/Not Terminal Gallery when I figure out the scanner situation.

First Drawing Day

2008-03-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

Back to the drawing board ... fucking literally.

Today I walked to my neighborhood Caffe Ladro and drew in my sketchbook ... and fucking yikes.

I knew the first day wasn't going to be pretty, and holy shit, was it ever rough. I've got a lot of work to do. It really hurts seeing the crap I'm currently capable of, but I'm determined to get back to where I was.

The good news is that the shit state I'm in has forced me to come up with a real plan to climb out of this funk.

I hope by maintaining this blog and posting my progress, I'll be forced to set some time aside everyday to just sit and draw. I'll be posting life drawing, self-portraits, concepts for an indie video game project and original cartoons for a comic I want to develop.

It'll be basic and low-tech ... no digital paintings, maybe some animations later down the road, but for now just pencils and pen and ink on paper. Hopefully after I've worked on this blog a while, I'll be able to get a revamped online portfolio up. Until then, my portfolio presence online is kaput.

So ... I gotta dig my scanner out and hope I can find a Vista driver for it. If not, I'll do my scanning from work.

I'm gonna try to go the Art/Not Terminal drawing session tomorrow morning. I'm ready for the pain.

Peace.