Gnomon: The Making of Guardians of the Galaxy

This past Thursday I had a chance to trek up to Hollywood and visit Gnomon for their “The Making of Guardians of the Galaxy” presentation. Some really awesome artists were on hand to talk about their work and process. I was fortunate to get a great seat and really take in all of the information that Josh Herman, Andy Park, Jackson Sze, Anthony Francisco, Rodney Fuentebella and Charlie Wen shared with the group. Wish I could have taken some pictures. There’s a great recap with some pictures on Gnomon’s site.

After getting home I added a drawing of Groot to my “One Sketch a Day” sketchbook.

I am Groot!

I am Groot!

Painting and Vino – Summer Meadow

Gallery

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Had a great anniversary date night with my wife the other night. We decided that we wanted to do another painting and vino session. Always a lot fun and very relaxing. Work has been keeping me very busy lately (which … Continue reading

Happy New Year!!! (2014)

As the year the new year gets underway I wanted to reflect a little about this past year and where I see this next one taking me…

Life was pretty awesome this past year. Did a lot of learning and networking. Was able to go to some awesome workshops and conferences. I met a lot of really cool people and have been inspired by seeing so much amazing work that it is time to release some of that creative energy.  I didn’t do as much art or personal projects as I would have liked, but that is one of the things I’m going to do better with during this new year. Work has kept me busy during the day with a variety of different jobs. Still renders, animation, interactive/game engines, trying to learn how to code, R&D, some CAD basics, teaching, mentoring and sharing ideas and techniques with co-workers. Overall I’ve seen my skill level increase. Of course there is always room for improvement, but my base set of skills has expanded and my core skills have continued to improve.
During this past year I have finally been active with this website. It has taken me a long time to get something up on these pages thanks to laziness and procrastination. My goal is to continue to “blog” and share my work and experiences as well as other things that I find entertaining and inspiring. I’m hoping that I can get at least 1000 views to this site over the next year (hopefully most of them won’t be me checking in on things and making sure they are working correctly).  I plan on using as much of this social media stuff as I can figure out to bring people here, help me connect with them and maintain a digital friendship with those that I can’t always interact with in person.

So here is to more art making, movie watching, book reading and video game playing.

Speaking of video games, my son and I work together and play “Clash of Clans” on our iPad. You know, some good old father son bonding in the 21st digital century… We recently saw the commercial for the game and it is pretty awesome. Have a look, enjoy, and Happy New Year!

MB Workshop LA

MBworkshopbanner2013

Just signed up to go to the MB Workshop coming up, December 5-8. Looking forward to multiple days of awesome demonstrations, mind exploding inspiration and more learning and skill development in a couple of days than I might get in a year. I’ve wanted to go to one of these workshops for the last few years, but they have never been close enough to home to allow me to go.

If you have the time to go, you should do it. If you’re already going or plan to go, let me know so we can meet up.
http://massiveblack.com/workshop/

Pageant of the Masters – 2013

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My wife and I were given tickets to The Pageant of the Masters for our anniversary. Our tickets were for July 29th (yes, I know this post is a little late). In all my years growing up in Southern California I have never seen the show. I must say that it was absolutely fantastic. The orchestra and the “live person” recreation of famous works of art was a sight to be seen and heard. When I saw the first piece (a sculpture), my initial thought was “wow, they did a great job remaking that”… That was until, the lights went off around it and you saw the dark shadow of the sculpture move and for lack of a better phrase, walk away. Our seats were next to a few other sculpture recreations, and the attention to detail in the costumes was amazing. Its not everyday that you get to see a “sculpture” blink.

I really enjoyed the break down and explanation of the recreation process with the live actors. The use of fore, middle and background elements along with the placement of the actors into the scene was interesting. The forced and distorted perspective to make the images work at a large scale and yet still appear like the original paintings on stage was an effective optical trick for the audience.

If you’ve never seen the show before, I recommend going. It really is an inspirational experience that must be seen in person.  I know am already looking forward to attending The Pageant of the Masters again next year to witness another feat of creativity.

Gnomon Live – April 2013

I’m up, bright and early so I can make my way up to Hollywood to attend a 2 day workshop hosted by Gnomon School of VFX (Gnomon Live!). It’s going to have 10 instructors and be full of all sorts of awesome learning and inspiration. Looking forward to hearing so many talented folks talk about their work and process while being surrounded by like minded artist and maybe a few new friends.

I’m sure there will be more updates and pictures to follow over the next few days.

Video Games and Classical Music

Having grown up playing video games, it is always interesting to see how different aspects of the “art” have grown. I heard an NPR broadcast on video games music being interpreted into more classical themes. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up purchasing the music album that was being discussed. Hearing the Tetris theme performed by a string quartet is pretty amazing.
Enjoy!

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/10/166875717/a-classical-musicians-game-theory