Spider-Man On The Eve Of 2019

Since 2018 was the year of the Spider-Verse, I've been itching to get to some fun 2D Spidey animations. I've got a couple more I'd like to do, but I started with this one, which pays a bit of tribute to a shot from the intro to Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends -- a Saturday morning cartoon I never missed as a kid.

I really wanted to approach Spidey's design in the Marvel Vs. Capcom games with this, which in my opinion is exactly how he should look in a video game. I didn't go quite so cartoony exaggerated, but it was definitely in my head as I did it. 

I also just love classic Spidey -- the one I grew up reading. With all of these crazy new versions of the character out there nowadays, I really wanted to bring it back to the original.

But even when I first started reading the comic books -- in the early to mid-80s -- they gave him a completely new costume which was not without some controversy. Looking back on it, I can't believe what a radical departure the black and white suit was compared to the original.

Anyway, I've always had a soft spot for it, so I wanted to depict the two versions of Spider-Man I grew up with -- pre-Ben Reilly-clone-Miles-Morales-Spider-Gwen-etc Spider-Man.

(Though it could be cool to include the 2099 version here, since that particular book was among the last I bought before I stopped buying comics).

I'd love to just keep doing these for the next month, but I've got an Animation Focus assignment to get to work on. So much I wanna do. It's past 4 am. Where can I find the time?

Merry Christmas!

Only had time to animate the BACK of this year's Christmas card. Started doing the front and ran outta time. Maybe when we get back from Oregon in a couple days.

Happy Solstice!

Engine Trouble -- Final!

Added some animation to the girl to finish this one off. Next!

I really wanna do a Spider-Man piece to add to all the Spider-Verse madness going on.

The Underappreciated Engine -- Minus Two Blinks

Removed two blinks from the little engine, and it made all the difference.

The Unappreciated Engine

This one is for our neighbor and good friend Michelle, whose birthday was a couple days ago.

Happy birthday, Michelle!

The Hero Returns

I got to see Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse last night with a bunch of good old DigiDudes, not to mention an old friend who just happened to be an animator on the movie!

Me with my hero Nick Kondo at Lincoln Square in Bellevue after the show.

Nick Kondo was a year ahead of me at DigiPen. Even back then everyone knew he was gonna do something great. I interned at Nintendo Software Technology for a summer while he worked there, and we worked together at WB Games and Signal Studios. He taught at DigiPen for a while before rocking Animation Mentor and getting an animation job at Sony Imageworks in Vancouver, B.C. His first feature was this crazy good movie! Everyone's rightfully so proud of him.

Loved Spider-Verse. Loved Nick's work in it. Hope to see it (and Nick) again soon.

In honor of the occasion, I present to you the sprites I did for Spider-Man 2: The Hero Returns -- a hardly known mobile game from the dark ages (2004ish) that a small team at Handheld Games made for Sony Pictures Mobile. It was my first job doing art and animation in videogames.

Sized-down Spidey

 

Poor pixelated Mary Jane

Revisions to Easy Rider

Noticed I left a frame out, needed more frames here and there and some extra grassy FX. Looks better.

Happy birthday Dad!

Actually, it was three days ago. I got way too ambitious with this one and couldn't get it done in time. Anyway, happy birthday, Dad! Love you, and see you soon!

Happy birthday to my little brother

My brother's birthday was yesterday. Because I spent the weekend getting a reel together for a maybe job, I didn't get around to making a little birthday animation til late. So now I'll be late making one for my dad's birthday, which is today.

Anyway, happy birthday Dave. Love you lots.

Also, smoking is bad for you.

Xmas GIFs

I went ahead and bought the full version of ProMotion NG after realizing how much easier animating pixels would be using layers, so I'm experimenting with some fun Christmas animations before getting back to my little Visionaries thing.

Actually based on my house and wife's car.