The Work of Jared D. Weiss

They're Here!

2011-12-27T21:12:00.004-05:00

After a couple of months of waiting, the first tapes from Otherworldly Mystics are now available and ready for order!

When Chris (the label owner) sent me these photos tonight I got super excited. I'm really proud of the OM logo I designed and I think it looks really great and fitting on these packages. In addition to the logo design, I also assisted in the overall packaging format. While different artists are in control of each albums' artwork and package design, I've supervised the general layout to make sure each Otherworldly Mystics release has a semi-uniform layout.

Both Teeel's Amulet and Teams' Catch Pool EP are available to order now (in limited quantities), with more tapes from other artists on the way. Seriously, they're both awesome albums, and the sound quality from the tapes is fantastic!

Labyrinth

2011-12-17T23:06:00.003-05:00

Hi there. Here's a quick Labyrinth/Kermit thing.

I've been wanting to draw something of Labyrinth for awhile now, so I just got this out of my system while I had a little bit of a break from my regular classes. Now back to thesis work...

One of Us

2011-12-03T17:30:00.006-05:00

Was gonna go with "Won of Us" as per the show title as a joke, but I figured people would just think I'm illiterate...

Below, when you click it, you'll find a larger, non-GIF'd version.

Now back to serious work ;)

Walter

2011-11-24T14:08:00.003-05:00

I saw The Muppets last night, and made a comic of my favorite part.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Goodbye Old World

2011-11-19T04:48:00.006-05:00

Feast your eyes upon it one last time...

In an effort to keep up with the 2010s, I've gone an re-done my blog here. Now, it's more or less seamless with my Twitter and Tumblr designs, and for an extra modern achievement, I now have a nice mobile version too! ...which should've been done before I made those business cards with QR codes, but at least that's all remedied now.

In other news, working diligently on backgrounds for my thesis film. Detailed interiors with lighting are a nightmare...

Kermit: The Muppet Avenger

2011-11-15T01:24:00.005-05:00

Did a little something for Chris Samnee's birthday, combining my love of Kermit, Samnee's Thor: The Might Avenger series, and a chance to do some hand inking.

Oddly enough, The Might Avenger was written by Roger Langridge, who wrote and illustrated the recent Muppet Show comics....

Update: I completely forgot this wonderful Muppet Thor comic existed. Was worth re-reading.

A Real Human Being

2011-10-30T21:53:00.004-04:00

I've been listening to the Drive soundtrack non-stop after seeing the film last month, and this song has been stuck in my head since. The application to Pinocchio just kind of occurred in my mind today...

Since I took a different approach to inking this (lately I've been using brush pens), and used a new Photoshop brush, I decided to show you my original pencils as well. I have to say, drawing in that Disney style just really isn't for me hahaha.

The Things

2011-10-24T05:00:00.003-04:00

A couple of doodle pieces, based on things that don't really go together...

Used a different brush pen than usual, still adjusting to it. That is all. Be sure to check my Tumblr for more doodles.

Check My Tumblr

2011-10-07T13:55:00.004-04:00

No, I'm not leaving this behind. I'm still using Blogger as my main 'website' and home to more formal posts about my work. But I wanted to point you visitors in the direction of my Tumblr because I've been using it to post doodles and stuff that I normally wouldn't post here. Some examples:

Also, I've got business cards now, gonna have a few on me when I go to New York ComicCon next week. Though I suppose it would be good to just carry a few on me at all times anyways, since I've been asked if I had business cards before.

So if you want one... come find me I guess? I'll be that awkward guy walking around...

Changes

2011-09-06T19:04:00.005-04:00

I know I made a post all the way back in May regarding updating all my sites, but.. I got distracted. So, after my first day of class and a day before I have to get hardcore on my thesis, I figured I'd finally do it.

So I did.

Inked in my sketchbook then scanned and edited in Photoshop. The white version started as a Photoshop error, but I liked it so I included it as well.

My Tumblr, Twitter, and my profile pics everywhere else have been updated.

Otherworldly Mystics

2011-09-03T12:28:00.004-04:00

I've designed a logo for Chris Roberts' (Orca Life) new cassette tape label, Otherworldly Mystics. Because it's a tape label, I purposefully went for an 80s electronic company look, which ended up looking like the logo for a menacing corporation from a sci-fi film. But it ended up working out perfectly thanks to the synthesized sounds of the bands releasing through the label.

The label's first release, Teeel's awesome album, Amulet, is now available for pre-order and limited to just 100 copies, so act fast!

And be sure to follow Otherworldly Mystics on Tumblr and Facebook ;)

Be-ith Ye Men?

2011-08-11T03:39:00.002-04:00

Probably one of the dumber things I’ve thought of…

Hand inked, and scanned. Edited in Photoshop.

If anything I really like that first panel... I might use it as a profile picture at some point.

Spera: Fetch Quest

2011-08-03T12:45:00.010-04:00

I did a pin-up painting of Pira for the latest online issue of Josh Tierney's Spera, "Fetch Quest," illustrated by Mike Dialynas.

As you can see by the date, I did this last month. It took a couple of days to paint it with acrylic on 9" x 12" canvas, though I ran into trouble with the trees and ended up having to redo them entirely with ink.

If anything, the biggest trouble was photographing the piece because of the poor lighting in my house. I had to do some extensive Photoshop color adjusting to make it match the original as best as possible.

Also, Spera is being published in hardcover by Archaia next month, and it's available for an awesome price on Amazon, so you should definitely go pre-order it.

Pac-Man 400/800

2011-07-30T22:31:00.003-04:00

Been meaning to make this for awhile, it's my tribute to one of my most favorite, weird box arts: Pac-Man for Atari 400/800.

There needs to be more of this version of Pac-Man.

Mr. Fishman

2011-07-05T21:50:00.010-04:00

For LoopDeLoop's July Theme: Monsters. Go score it!

Quite honestly this is first thing I've animated all summer, which isn't a good thing hahaha. I started and finished this today, which took around 5 hours. At least it got me back in the groove of drawing with a tablet and ready to start digitally boarding my thesis. But I still have a couple other projects in the pipeline that needs finishing soon.

UPDATE 7/27/11: You can see the MONSTERS wrap-up post at LoopdeLoop, which my work is visible in the top photo (or just look below).

Another Tattoo

2011-06-24T00:53:00.005-04:00

(while this frame is my drawing, it's just a traceback...)

Glad I can finally post this, the music video for Weird Al's "Another Tattoo," from his new ALbum, Alpocalypse, which had I worked on in the fall during my internship at Augenblick Studios:

I only did two shots, the zoom in on Ronald Reagan (pictured is one of my frames) and the zoom in on the goat skull/laser removal; which, while they go by in split seconds actually took a whole work day because they're so detailed and I had to work zoomed in at like 800%. Regardless, working on this was a weird dream fulfillment for my inner child, as I was a big Weird Al fan in my single digit years. And in a way, I enjoyed working on those two shots more than I did working on Ugly Americans... Hope you enjoy it!

Speaking of which, Ugly Americans Season 2 starts next week! I didn't animate much like I did last season, but I did clean up on quite a few backgrounds. So, look for that! Otherwise, I have a couple little projects in the pipeline, which I'll let you see as they come... but my day job has had me swamped, I think I'm going to ask for less hours so I can actually do art things/thesis boards.

Beeper.

2011-06-13T22:25:00.003-04:00

This is my 3rd year final film from SVA. It's about a neglectful hospital staff. I waited a couple months before posting this online so that I could hear back from a couple festivals; I didn't make the cut, so now here it is:

The film assignment called for at most, a 1.5 minute short. I couldn't think of anything short (as I've had thesis on the mind for some time now) so I asked Matt if I could use an absurd idea we had come up with last year during class; hence why he received a writer's credit.

Along with the animatic, the film took about a month to make, with my other classes/finals added into that work time. It was done from start to finish completely in Flash, and I reused some parts of the animatic to save time.

My only gripe about the film is that a few sound effects repeat, which was a strange After Effects error that kept occurring, even when I redid the entire voice track twice, and lost patience come the 3rd time. But it's behind me now and is what it is, I've been too enveloped in my thesis film for this film to bother me. I can just say I've learned from the experience, and I'll make sure not to have the errors occur when it comes to compositing my thesis.

Enjoy the film, and share it with your friends!

Loop de Loop Update

2011-06-01T18:58:00.005-04:00

(Update 6/4/11: Neil Sanders was nice enough to send a couple extra photos my way of my animation from the show! First, another grid of work, this time with the character visible. And second, Neil himself next to a gargantuan version of my animation; which still astonishes me!)

No, I still haven't gotten around to updating all my graphics yet... but anyways... The first ever Loop de Loop screening was last night (or maybe two night ago, as Australia time is like... a full day ahead of here), and my work was screened alongside 49 other great animators' work. I'd of loved to have been there, but... other side of the planet and all.

Mine's the white one in the middle with the chair, previously seen here.

Over at the Loop de Loop website, there's a post about the screening, the attendance, and the winners, with a few more photos as well; you should totally check it out. I'm very glad to hear that they had a great turnout for an event that only started early last month, and I'm honored that my work was played right next to some really awesome animations from people on the other side of Earth.

I'm looking forward to making something entirely new for next month's theme, I just have to fit it into my thesis' pre-production schedule, as I've been working on that all summer.

Changes and Possible Changes

2011-05-28T04:17:00.004-04:00

I already posted this on my Tumblr (which I've been using a lot lately, mainly to post dumb Photoshop-makings though, go look!), but it made sense to post it here too:

So, I finally upgraded from my 3 year old Macbook Pro to a new one, with a hi-res matte screen. And while the colors/brightness are way better on this one, I’m quickly seeing all the inconsistencies with all my personal pages (Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, my blog, etc), not to mention that I'm adjusting to the higher resolution of the screen (more space on web pages, in Flash, etc). I knew the problems existed, but I only ever saw them on Cintiqs, which I don't get to use often so I let it slide.

Because of all this, I might to a complete overhaul of all my stuff soon to ensure it’s all uniform, and just to have a fresh change in general as I gear up for thesis production, as I know I won't want to update it all once I'm in production.

Just a forewarning ;)

Loop de Loop

2011-05-11T15:16:00.004-04:00

I've forgotten to post this for a couple weeks now, I've just been so busy with all the end of year stuff going on at SVA, finishing my final film (which you can see the animatic for now) and moving back to New Jersey.

Last month, awesome Australian based animator Neil Sanders, contacted me about a new animation event he was putting together in Melbourne, and asked if I could submit my "Trip Nip, Sit." animation.

The event's long form title is Loop de Loop @ Loop, it's a new monthly animation challenge/screening, with a big long description if you're into history. But basically, each month has a theme, animators submit their work, people vote on them, and at the end of the month everything gets screened at Loop Bar in Melbourne, where the animator with the highest votes gets put in their Hall of Fame.

This month's theme is LAUNCH, as the program is launching, and mine was the first to go up since it was requested and already made; but I'd really appreciate some 5-star votes! If this new event has a good outcome, I might consider doing something each month, as a fun break from all the work I plan on doing for my thesis film. We'll see!

I need to draw more

2011-04-21T04:42:00.002-04:00

True facts. I'm just really busy with assorted school work right now: a short film, sound design projects and a movie poster that needs to be drawn and completed by next week.... point is I'm busy, and I hate that I haven't had the chance to do as much free drawing as I'd like to....

That is all.

Spoilers!: Blaster

2011-04-10T02:00:00.003-04:00

The Spoilers! show at Fête Coffee the other night was a surprise success; I didn't end up selling my piece, but there was a decent sized crowd which was great. So now that it's over, here he is:

A portrait of Blaster, from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Acrylic on 11"x14" canvas, in a gold wooden frame.

It's been years since I got the chance to paint traditionally, let alone on canvas. So when I finally put my name in for the show, I figured it was time to make something different than my usual. And even when I did paint, I never painted people, so getting back into it after all these years was a challenge, but I managed to do this in 8 straight hours.

And for those curious of my process, here's this:

There's a few photos missing in the painting process because I didn't take any when I hated how it was looking (his skin was solid green at one point, thanks payne's gray). Also, the canvas I actually found sometime last year, with a crappy unfinished painting of Converse on it, which I gessoed over for this piece. And yes, because my easel is at home, I held the canvas up on my wall via a newspaper that was stapled to the canvas then taped onto the wall. It held for a few weeks.

Spoilers!

2011-04-02T22:58:00.006-04:00

Nothing to show, but I started and finished a painting today for a show this upcoming Friday at Fête Coffee in Manhattan. The show, "Spoilers!", is just that: over 15 artists, with work that focuses on movie spoilers. It'll be in the back room of Fête Coffee on 3rd Ave from 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM this Friday, April 8, 2011!

For more information, including a complete list of artists, head on over to the show's official Event Page on Facebook. And make sure to RSVP.

I won't be posting the piece until after the show, where I may or may not be selling it. But I can tell you this much, it's the first painting I've done on canvas since high school... was actually kind of therapeutic.

However, the new profile photo I made in the wee hours of getting the piece done this morning might say otherwise...

UPDATE: Added a poster made by Polly Guo, so now you can see the derpness that is my piece. But, the point is, all those other awesome artists will also have new pieces and you should totally go see them!

Demo Reel!

2011-03-20T03:00:00.007-04:00

I finally made myself a Demo Reel!

Demo Reel Breakdown:

0:03 - "Building Toss" - Nov. 2010 - Exchange Exercise - Flash

0:08 - "Weight Walk" - Oct. 2010 - Walk Exercise - Flash

0:12 - "The Imposter" - Feb. 2011 - Lip Sync Exercise - Flash

0:22 - "Rotoscope Blues" - March 2010 - Rotoscope Exercise - Flash

0:27 - "Ugly Americans" Season 1 - Sept. - Nov. 2010 - Augenblick Studios Internship - Flash

0:38 - "Far Out: Bugman" - April 2010 - Sophomore Film - Flash/After Effects

1:10 - "Unnatural History" - Dec. 2009 - Digital Compositing Final - Flash/Digital Film

1:21 - "Trip-Nip, Sit" - Oct. 2010 - Sitting Exercise - Flash

1:29 - "Sewper Mutant vs. Black Dynamite" - Dec. 2010 - Emotion Exercise - Flash

1:38 - "Fly Fishing" - Dec. 2010 - Fishing Exercise - Flash

1:47 - "Hard Dog Life" - March 2011 - Lip Sync Exercise - Flash

Audio: Yūzō Kayama - "Black Sand Beach"

Note that this is the first time I've uploaded anything from my FAR OUT project, let alone the film, online. Despite this, I still will not be posting any more from the protect at the moment. Also, this is the first time I've gotten to post some of my scenes from Ugly Americans Season 1! I'm still at Augenblick, but I can't post the unaired stuff for obvious reasons.

Hard Dog Life

2011-03-17T14:56:00.003-04:00

This is what I've been up to the last few weeks. I attempted to do something dramatic for a change, and even tried a different color pallet for once. Oh, and it's full body as well(granted the bottom doesn't move), but yeah that's a change too.

The audio is from a failed 1990's pilot called, Poochinski:

Sooooo gooooooood.

Now on Tumblr.

2011-03-01T01:47:00.004-05:00

First Vimeo, now Tumblr. I did it, I've completed the ultrafecta of the internet. You're welcome.

The Works & Derps of Jared D. Weiss ... on Tumblr.

I'll be using it to re-post my work, find old work of mine that had been posted on Tumblr by other people and re-blog it. And I'll probably post nonsensical items as well... At least this gives me reason to finally make two more button for my side bar on the right there.

The Imposter

2011-02-17T15:47:00.004-05:00

I finished this a couple days ago, but as said, I waited till after the in-class critique to post it:

This was supposed to just be a ten word dialogue assignment... but we were given way too much time for it, so I put it on 1s and basically just made a thirteen second short film.

To be honest though, in the nearly five week period we were given, I really only worked for about a week's time... just spread over four weeks...

The voice audio is from RedLetterMedia's Star Wars Episode II review. The rest of the audio I did.

You can also watch this on my YouTube or in .swf form on deviantART.

Thursday

2011-02-15T13:15:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't posted anything really in the past month. But this Thursday, I'll have something to show. I finished a 12 second animation, and it's ready to post. But I'm waiting for the in-class critique before I post it.

Plus, in general, I hate when I post my stuff online days before it's due in class, and when it comes to the in-class critique everyone's seen it already and I don't get feedback... So, I'm trying this out for a change...

Thursday.

Now on Vimeo

2011-01-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

Nothing new to show yet, sorry! But I've just spent this afternoon making myself a Vimeo account!

Jared D. Weiss on Vimeo

To differentiate between my YouTube and Vimeo channels, I decided not to upload everything from my YouTube page to my Vimeo. Instead I'm using Vimeo to host higher quality versions of my final films (though I still am not posting my 2nd year film online yet) and my more polished short exercises.

As to what I'll use to post stuff on here now, I'm not sure, I still have to wait to upload a couple more older videos to Vimeo because unlike YouTube, they have weekly limits; and I'm not sure how adjustable their embed code is (I have to change the YouTube ones from their presets to fit on here). Eventually I'll stick a Vimeo button the the side of the site here as well, but I'd either have to make a new, larger VFH button, or wait till I join something else to keep it all even...

One Last Pat

2011-01-09T01:00:00.002-05:00

If my From the Vault post about him didn't make it clear, I don't really like Pat. And to be quite honest with you, while drawing this piece to commemorate the posting of the film I found myself getting fed up...

But, I did try something new! The background was my first attempt at lineless in Flash, using a method my friends Matt Marblo and Polly Guo have used on a few animations and illustrations recently. But yeah, I have no intention of ever drawing Pat again after this... see you later old friend!

UPDATE FROM A COUPLE MONTHS LATER: I REALLY HATE THIS...

From the Vault: Pat E. Puss the Platypus

2011-01-09T00:40:00.003-05:00

Last day of vacation, so as promised like before, here's my final film from spring semester of my first year at SVA: Pat E. Puss the Platypus in "T.V. Time"

This film, in all honesty, is the result of laziness. It wasn't storyboarded like OctoCop (which makes an appearance), and quite frankly I grew tired of the character even before I started the film, I can't even explain how I feel now.

But, the film itself, is basically a clip show, the main two of which have some explaining to do. "Dear Journal" is a parody of Brad Neely's Baby Cakes, starring myself, and basically is me venting about my first year. During the making of the film, I managed to get in contact with Brad via e-mail and discussed his process and he was very helpful, hence the Special Thanks credit at the end.

The longest segment is a special little short called, "Doctor vs. Doctor," and it's special because it's actually a re-shoot of the first animation I ever did. It was also made shortly after Matt Smith was announced as the 11th Doctor, hence him appearing in his promo shot outfit; I assume this would be his first stint as a Doctor then, since this is from 2009, haha! And yes, I still have all these cutouts.

And now for some history, Pat E. Puss was and is so far my only character created to appeal to other people, as it was an assignment specifically made for me by my high school art teacher.

Some early drawings of Pat from 2007; the ones on the left are the first ones, when I first settled on making a platypus character.

The final assignment I handed in, 18"x24" painted in gouache.

But yeah, I think the whole aspect of the character being made for other people's appeal and not my own is probably the main reason why I have no connection to the character anymore. Unlike Derek Goldfish or the character in my 2nd year film, I have no personal connection to Pat, and I think the time spent not thinking about him has made me stop liking him even more...

OctoCop Returns

2011-01-02T17:36:00.004-05:00

This, is Derek Goldfish, the star of an unfinished comic (started in 2007) and my first first year film: OctoCop - "Night Off" (which I made in 2008). Full story here.

This is the first finished OctoCop thing I've finished since that film, and I have to say, it was a bit weird drawing the character again.

As stated in the From the Vault post, there were a lot of flaws to OctoCop, particularly the story. Originally about a land-dwelling octopus cop whose split personality was a mob boss, I eventually developed OctoCop into being an homage to film noir, with the whole split personality thrown out. I figured, if it's always raining in film noirs, what happens when you collect all that rain, and just set it in the ocean...

I never managed to really capture that idea when I was making the comic, or the film (maybe with the narration aspect), but I think this drawing finally does the concept justice. As to where I go with it now really depends on you; this is the first project I've ever posted online with more than 2 years worth of development, so I'd really love to hear what you have to say!

From the Vault: OctoCop

2011-01-02T17:25:00.001-05:00

As promised, here it is, my first year, first semester film OctoCop - "Night Off". Originally created in June 2007, OctoCop was actually made by accident while trying to doodle something else in my Math class, and I just kind of went with it. Since its original creation, and subsequent comic and short film, I've been very much against posting anything online, but it's a new year, and quite frankly, it needs work:

Unlike everything I post nowadays, this was animated on paper, with just pencil, and unfortunately the method used to capture and edit all of it wasn't that great. But it was my first short film, so it is what it is.

The original OctoCop drawing, where he was apparently land-dwelling...

Some drawings and a comic created shortly after the initial drawing in 2007.

And lastly, pages from the started, but never finished, OctoCop comic. This was to be about 20 pages. It was all roughly laid out, around 10 pages were finished in pencil, and just a few were inked. I never finished it due to a busy schedule from portfolio reviews, and by the time I wanted to get back into it, the titular character's, Derek Goldfish (there's a lot of explaining to do), design changed too much.

OctoCop was a really big deal to me back in 2007 and 2008, at the time, it was the most intricate story/design I had done, and really changed how I looked at storytelling and character creation. Of course, looking back now, there were a lot of flaws, but that's the learning process I suppose.

Opening the Vault

2010-12-29T23:36:00.000-05:00

Happy almost new year everyone! I've got some exciting news! Starting next year (i.e. in a few days) I'll be doing something very special. I've decided to finally put some of my original characters online! It won't be everything, I've been creating characters/stories since I was 10 afterall, but it'll be something.

I'm going to start by posting both of my first year films from SVA, both of which have never been put publicly online, and I'll also been posting some background stuff on them too, such as the original drawings of the characters from 3+ years ago, and other supplemental materials. And I may even post new drawings of the characters as well, as a way of commemorating such an event. It might not seem like that big of a deal to you, but it is to me, as I've always been adamant about posting my original characters/stories online; but the Sewper Mutant project has definitely helped with me being a bit more comfortable about the whole thing.

And, if this all goes well, I'll possibly consider posting my second year film and its supplemental material; though that project I still like to think is a work in progress and is a lot more dear to me than these other two that I'll be posting. As in, yes the film aspect is done, but the real heart of the project is unfinished and I hope to complete it before I share it, however long that may take. Regardless, stay tuned!

Advanced Life Drawing - Fall Gallery

2010-12-26T23:22:00.001-05:00

I've been working on this all day, its a gallery of almost everything I did in Stephen Gaffney's Advanced Figure Drawing this semester. Thankfully, it gets better as you go down... Click a thumbnail to see a full page of drawings.

I know it's hard to make comments on a particular image because of the way this is organized... so lets go with a grid system: 11 rows, 4 columns (A, B, C, D). So for example C8 would be that page I featured a month ago inspired by Chris Samnee, etc etc. Enjoy! Tell me what you think.

Sewper Mutant the Usurper

2010-12-19T01:23:00.005-05:00

My final for Advanced Life Drawing, in which we had to take an existing image [in my case, Frank Frazetta's "Conan the Usurper"(1967)] and do a shape study and make the image our own... unfortunately I may have made mine a bit too close instead of going with what I had initially intended to do; but I'll credit that change to not understanding the project exactly.

I felt like making an epic Sewper Mutant image, and 'the Usurper' has long been of my favorites of Frazetta's Conan pieces, so that's where I went with the project. The actual image is 11"x17" and done completely in Photoshop. I'll update this after I get a photo of the print out.

...and yes, that's a poopsnake.

Update: Made the prints this afternoon, here's a photo:

I think this print out came out better than the Black Dynamite poster... it fits the page better for some reason...

Fly Fishing

2010-12-16T04:02:00.005-05:00

This is my final assignment for animation this semester: a character fishing. I went with fly fishing... literally.

While I wasn't excited about this assignment when we first got it, I'm glad I got to do this instead of say... making an animatic for another short film, especially when I have to worry about thesis next year. I'd much rather work on animation technique, and take the extra year to think over a good film, as I feel my animation skill much weaker than my storytelling abilities.

Per usual, you can also see this as a .swf, and zoom in the upper left for a little secret:

Also, I don't feel the need to make a post for them, but I uploaded two videos that were assignments for Layout & Design.

Black Dynamite

2010-12-06T14:29:00.004-05:00

As hinted at in a previous post, I've been working on a Black Dynamite poster. Well, here it is, the first graphic design piece I've done in a long long time:

This is my final project for History of Comedy in Film, where we could have either written an 8-10 page paper, or be reasonable and do an art project of our choosing such as short film/animation, or in my case, a film poster. And not to toot my own horn... but I kind of like this more than the actual posters made for the film ;)

Bonus facts: while I did use a screenshot from the film, it was actually cut off, so the afro had to be hand-drawn. And the credits on the bottom I typed up while deciphering the letters on the low-res, super-pixelated actual poster, while cross checking with IMDb...

Sym-Bionic Tintin

2010-12-05T02:26:00.003-05:00

If I haven't said it here before, I'll say it now, I really love Genndy Tartakovsky's latest animated series, Sym-Bionic Titan. And growing up, I was quite fond of the Tintin cartoon (and I'd like to read the comics eventually). So go figure that before Titan airs.. this really stupid pun comes into my head:

Of course, it took me until the show's season finale to finally draw it, but the point is, it's here.

This is the first image I've done that was more or less exclusively made in Photoshop (the preliminary white lines were done in Flash). I'm still adjusting to the lack of any smoothing, and having to see big gross pixels when I draw zoomed in. But I think the end result is nice. Glad I just finally got this one out there ;)

Sewper Mutant vs. Black Dynamite

2010-12-01T19:17:00.002-05:00

Another class assignment, because that's all I have time for nowadays. The assignment was to animate an emotion change... but I went and made it a lip-sync assignment as well because I've never done that before...

Also, I have a .swf version, for those that like seeing this stuff on loop in ∞p resolution:

It was fun to finally get to draw Sewper Mutant again, since I haven't had the chance to do any new comic pages since school started... and his naturally dumb but lovable face worked well for the assignment. But fret not, I have two big final pieces due soon, one of which will be of Black Dynamite and the other of Sewper Mutant ... so let's just call this a teaser? Yeah, let's go with that.

Giraff't Punk

2010-11-16T02:43:00.001-05:00

Well, Sunday I made a promise to get a piece of artwork done... turns out that artwork could also be an incredibly stupid pun that I'd slap on a t-shirt and submit to Threadless. So here you go:

Drawn in Flash, with reference for the body shape (and the helmets), but the spots were all from the ol' brain. The half-tone erasing was done in Photoshop.

But seriously, please vote the full $5 and check off "As a tee" or even "As a print". I'd really appreciate it because I think I finally have a winner here... maybe. Also, please watch Wednesday's episode of Ugly Americans, "The Manbirds," because of all the episodes this season, this one has the most of my work in it... I think.

Infinity Toss

2010-11-11T16:08:00.001-05:00

After two weeks of heavy work, and regret for working on 1s, I finally finished this at the wee hours of the morning...

I finished the 'main loop' (the actual tosses) first, as the assignment was to 'have an exchange between two characters'... clearly I decided to be ambitious, and lost a lot of sleep because of it. But if you want to see it loop forever I have two versions; one of the main toss, and one with the entrances and exits:

Yeah, next time I decide to do a crazy loop, I'm going to think twice about working on ones. I tried this one twos, but it just wasn't working...

UPDATE 11/16/10: I don't know how, but I got featured on Cartoon Brew! Totally caught me by surprise because I was visiting there for something else, and bam, there was my animation.

Going Full-Samnee

2010-11-09T21:30:00.003-05:00

I did figure drawing this past Monday, using a brush pen for the first time, and attempted to work in Chris Samnee's style; not at first, where I was doing style-less line drawings, but it eventually went that way. No pencils, just straight value studies.

I later tweeted the photo of my work to him, telling him I went "Full-Samnee". I don't know if he got the joke, but he replied back with; "Nice! Keep it up, Jared! :)" so either way, still awesome!

Forgive me for the quality of the photo though; it was taken with my cellphone. Also I'm sure inking on a vertical surface with a low-ink brush pen probably doesn't help. Eventually I'll try to get a better photo, like when I actually have my pad here and not the classroom.

Sit and Loop

2010-10-26T12:25:00.001-04:00

Another assignment for class, 'fat person sitting in a chair,' I wanted to have a bit more fun with squash/stretch and smears, both of which I don't use... ever. So, once again, it may look different than my usual work, but change is good.

The video loops 6 times, but if you want an infinite loop, there's a .swf on my deviantART.

And yeah, had to go with the trip-nip again.

Weight Walk

2010-10-15T11:00:00.005-04:00

FINALLY! Some new animation that I can post! This was a weighted walk cycle for class, where the objective was to show a character walking, while hold some sort of heavy object.

Initially I was going to add sound to this (I finished it this past weekend), but I had other work to do and I just don't have a program on my own computer to do sound effects in (doing sound in Flash is terrible), so I managed to just make the video file on a friend's computer and that was that. I didn't feel the need to wait for sound was necessary, if you're just going to see the same video in the end. Also, you can see the .swf on my deviantART.

And, if this happens to look any different from my past work, that's good, because I only used techniques I learned from my current internship at Augenblick. Sure it took about 3 times as long as it should have, but I'm sure in time it will get better.

Updated Navigation

2010-10-07T21:08:00.005-04:00

I've just been on a role with posts these last few days! This one's a small one though, but I just wanted to mention that I've updated my right-side navigation menu.

(over there ->)
Main points, I made a LinkedIn account at 4:30AM today, still trying to figure it out, but if your a professional in the art field, and want to connect, feel free to add me on that, it'd be greatly appreciated. I also made a button for my IMDb page; I've had the page since the summer when my film was 'in consideration' for Animation Block Party, but there wasn't too much on there aside from the credits from said film. But with my credits from Ugly Americans coming in, I figured I would finally make a link for that as well. Plus, it keeps the navigation even.

And, aside from the two new buttons, I updated the deviantART button with their new logo and I also rearranged all of them, because the difference in logo size between LinkedIn and IMDb was just throwing off my graphic design feng shui... derp.

Credit!

2010-10-06T23:57:00.006-04:00

The second half premiere of Ugly Americans aired tonight! I was at some shindig for Augenblick and the aired it, and the credits went by damn fast. Thankfully I asked brother to record the episode on the DVR back home, and he was able to rewind, pause, and snap this photo for me:

I guess because of premiere time advertising and what not, they had to go with 'fast credits' which I've seen on a lot of networks where time overlap is an issue. When I skimmed the episode the other day at the studio, the credits looked like the traditional Comedy Central style credits, and you could actually read everything. But alas, here it is, my first ever televised credit. Time to update my IMDb page!

Ugly Americans

2010-10-05T20:51:00.003-04:00

Since the beginning of last month I've been interning at Augenblick Studios, in-betweening and coloring on the 2nd half episodes of Ugly Americans' first season. So yeah, make sure you watch it tomorrow night at 10:30 PM EST on Comedy Central, and look for my name in the credits! I'm credited as "Jared Weiss" (no D.) and am at the bottom of the Interns list (it's alphabetical, I'm used to it). I can't post anything that I've worked on until after the episodes have aired, so it may be a few weeks until I can show you any of my actual work from the show. I'm not alone either, my friend Matt Marblo also interned at Augenblick since the summer.

Fun Fact: I was actually offered to work on the first half of the season last summer, but couldn't because of scheduling conflicts and the fact that I didn't know Flash at all. And then I screwed up in trying to get the summer internship this year. But I'm there now, so all is well finally.

Also, in other news, last week the creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog (truly my favorite show when I was in middle school), John R. Dilworth, was actually in my room and watched my final film from this past year. This makes him the second person, to my knowledge at least, with a show on Cartoon Network to have seen my film and complimented on it; the first being Joe Murray (Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo). And having always been a Cartoon Network fan, ever since I was a wee lad, it's really a dream come true.

Remember kids, if you try hard enough, and always push yourself, you can actually accomplish your goals!

P.S. I know I still haven't put my film publicly online. Things didn't work out as hoped over the summer in terms of getting it screened somewhere, so it's kind of left the status of the film's online viewing in limbo. I'm sure I'll put it up someday, but the character and story are still too close to me to just let it go freely.

Applying the Knowledge

2010-10-05T20:35:00.000-04:00

Catching up with myself here, here's a couple things I've made in the past week or so. As I pointed out in the last mini-post, I've been interning at Augenblick Studios, and I made a little game on my deviantART, He-Man Roulette.

The design was heavy influenced by some of the drawing/animating techniques I've learned since I started, with the faces of known characters or in the styles of friends' and other artists' work. It started because of something in animation class, that's all I'll explain. Anyways, now that a week or so has passed, here's all the faces:

This is just the first run, of 30 faces in all. When I feel like it, I'll probably add more into the mix. But that's not all! Whilst re-watching Genndy Tartakovsky's new show, Sym-Bionic Titan, my recent animation layout assignment went with that style and ran with it, more so than I'd of hoped, but I like it for a change:

[Warning: This is 1080p!]

Despite looking like Sym-Bionic Titan or the good Star Wars: Clone Wars, this too was also done using the techniques I've learned at Augenblick; so without saying much I really can't wait to see how all the knowledge I've obtained will transfer into my more person animated works.

Oh, and I also made this... but you shouldn't think much of it, and make sure your speakers are low...

Working

2010-09-27T20:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy with school and my internship at Augenblick Studios. I did post a little "game" up at my deviantART recently, I'll make a bigger post about it at another time.

Later!

Once In A Lifetime

2010-09-06T17:02:00.005-04:00

Based on the video for Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime," which despite liking the song for years, never saw the video until about a month or so ago, and loved it.

The image came into my head around that time, but I never got around to drawing it until now... the day before I start my internship at Augenblick Studios, and I'm nervous as hell... so the imagery is quite fitting...

Here's the original video:

Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was...

TMNT

2010-08-27T21:30:00.001-04:00

I only recently found out about an animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film called Turtles Forever, despite it actually airing sometime last year. I finally got around to watching it and it was surprisingly good a really fun, and I loved how they connected the 1980's cartoon series, the newer cartoon series, and the original comic books, as well as little inclusions of past films or localized series. So, to take a break from Sewper Mutant, I took a shot at drawing the famous turtles:

I was originally going to make a scene, but sketched out a general character layout and ended up liking it, and went with a sort of pop-art feel instead. Each character uses a bulk of the original layout, but little details and the obvious weapon variations are all unique on each turtle.

Lou Ferrigno's Disease

2010-08-24T01:27:00.001-04:00

Finally! Another Sewper Mutant comic! I'm trying out different coloring/inking styles until I settle on something I like, hence why this looks different from the first comic.

It's a play on Lou Gehrig's Disease because my humor is apparently tasteless. Enjoy.

On a side note, these are my most favorite Sewper Mutant faces yet, and drawing the first panel while listening to Elton John's "Your Song" made it look far more sadder than it really should be...

Mutato

2010-08-23T17:32:00.004-04:00

Yet another Sewper Mutant villain.

Mutant + Potato = Mutato

Just another one of those awful puns that comes into my head at the wee hours of the day, and must therefor be turned into a creature. I do like my font design though, it's very Misfits, but I did it without any sort of reference.

I've got a comic book cover of sorts in mind with Sewper Mutant and Mutato, we'll see about getting it posted.

Hair-py Birthday

2010-08-21T23:44:00.001-04:00

Today was my birthday, so thank goodness I'm just making this post before midnight. If you haven't noticed, my profile picture and the top banner have both changed because... aside from doing new things like text design, or coloring... I tried my hands at being a barber, with the first victim being myself:

So, to coincide with my new look, I made a new banner using the techniques I taught myself when making "Paper Who," and yes, there's more of that style in the works; in fact I laid out something over a month ago, but haven't gotten the chance to finish it. If the bannerat top of the isn't suitable enough for you, here's a bigger more detailed version:

If you're curious, I donated my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths hair donation program, which makes wigs for women undergoing chemotherapy.

Also, updated my Twitter and YouTube pages; though the latter is less noticeable.

Foodius Snaximus, the t-shirt!

2010-08-17T23:59:00.003-04:00

I liked it enough to put it on Threadless and try my luck yet again:

Please vote, and score high!

Foodius Snaximus

2010-08-16T15:51:00.004-04:00

It's Sewper Mutant's arch enemy, ¡FOODIUS SNAXIMUS!

I went for something completely different this time, using a set of Photoshop brushes I've had for who knows how long and a color palette that Evan Bryce gave me permission to use. Though in the end it isn't overly noticeable cause of the texture and opacity changes.

The puntastic name for Foodius Snaximus just popped into my head one night awhile ago, I even tweeted it. But I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, and then I watched Nacho Libre recently, and it hit me. As evidenced by the first concept, both Foodius and Sewper Mutant can morph their limbs, making them formidable foes... except no one should look at them that seriously.

UPDATE: I'm noticing the larger version I posted to Blogger is a bit desaturated, so here's a link to the deviantART version which is a bit closer to true color.

It begins, oddly.

2010-08-07T00:30:00.004-04:00

Here's the first Sewper Mutant one-page comic, which uses the second half of joke I wrote in a project I never finished... so I used it here.

To those taking the extra effort to visit the blog, I'll let you in on a secret: there's no first part to the joke, it's just a punch-line I wrote for a comic that took place underwater... sewers are the next best thing, so I figured I'd just use it here to start things out.

Not sure if I like this coloring style just yet, so it may even change by the next comic as I get accustomed to a look that I really like.

Sewper Mutant

2010-08-04T23:32:00.000-04:00

Here it is, the start of my first ever made-for-web comic/character. While I've been creating characters and stories for as long as I could draw, I've always had a fear of theft when it comes to posting original character stuff online. Which is why, as you may have noticed, I mostly ever post fan art. With Sewper Mutant, I'm creating the character for the specific purpose of seeing how things go with my internet fears. Granted this project will be a lot less personal than the story-based work I usually do, and will be a comedy as opposed to a narrative, but it's a start regardless.

I basically spent the day working out concepts of this guy, which is one part Killer Croc, one part Hulk, and most parts retarded Kermit the Frog... before the design you see above was made, I almost settled on this one below... but it was a little too Johnny Quest.

Hopefully I can get one or two of the Sewper Mutant comics I have in my head done sometime before the end of the month, if they end up piling up, I'll create a tab on the side for it specifically. Hope you come back to see more!

Ulises Farinas' Batman

2010-08-03T01:54:00.002-04:00

Just finished coloring this a couple hours ago; it's the first page in a 14-page Batman comic by Ulises Farinas for his to-be DC Anthology, which will feature the art of numerous artists (including Polly Guo and Nick Edwards, who I had previously featured with his entry to the anthology).

The one on the left was my first go at it, and the one the right was made after Ulises gave me some pointers on his preferred vision for the comic. Ultimately, however, I decided that the back and forth critiquing and the hours of work I dedicated to this page alone just wouldn't work with my current schedule and a September deadline for 14 pages in total, especially if we weren't exactly seeing eye to eye with the final vision. However, I definitely learned a lot from my time spent on this page and I thank Ulises for at least giving me a shot and hope everything works out for him and this anthology.

This last shot is just a detail look, because I happen to really like how this came out, and the small size doesn't do it justice. Do I wish I could have done more for this project? Of course, and had I had more time than just one month to do all this, I think things could have worked out in the end. But for what it's worth, I like what I've done and will use what I've learned on future projects.

Houdini & Holmes PRE-ORDER

2010-07-28T23:34:00.005-04:00

A little update on Polly Guo's Houdini & Holmes [which I did logo design/layout for]; it sadly never ended up arriving at San Diego Comic-Con, however instead you can now pre-order the first issue from Polly herself, with full details at her blog.

From her blog:
Houdini & Holmes
written and drawn by Polly Guo
25 pages, 50 copies (I'll order more if there are more people that want it, but it might take longer)
$4.00 USD + shipping

* Shipping is $2.00 to the US and $4.90 to ship anywhere else
* For $1 more I'll include a sketch with your order!

ORDER NOW

Let The Right One In

2010-07-27T00:20:00.002-04:00

Go figure, more fan art, but at least this one's completely different, visually. I finally got around to watching Let The Right One In last night and really enjoyed it, and then this image came into my head. Unlike previous works, I only did the line art in Flash this time, and then colored it completely in Photoshop, therefore there's both a Ink and Color version to show you:

Stylistically, this is unlike anything I've done before, but I kind of like it. It was definitely subconsciously inspired by the guys over at Comic Twart, particularly Chris Samnee, Mitch Gerads, Doc Shaner, and Francesco Francavilla, but it's clearly no wheres near as good as them. But hey, that's why there's something called "practice" and why I generally use fan art as a way of trying new styles.

TRON

2010-07-26T15:10:00.005-04:00

Decided to finally make a new 'press photo' (a.k.a. photo that I use everywhere for about a year) for myself, because the old Scott Pilgrim t-shirt one was from last October, and my hair and beard have grown significantly since then. Not that I have anything against Scott Pilgrim now, I did just buy and read Volume 6 and enjoyed it quite a bit. Anyways, nerdy Jesus...

I took a bunch of photos this morning of myself wearing both the hoody and t-shirt of this rad design from Threadless based on the even radder movie Tron, which is getting an even more radder sequel this December. Then selected the one that worked best, and did some Photoshop magic on it. I even added a texture to make it looked aged, but if that's a bother to anyone I have a version w/o the texture if you feel the need to compare:

In non-self-indulgent photo news, I'm planning doing a made-for web comic or something. I've always been leery of posting my original characters online, and therefore haven't, so I'm going to text the waters with something completely new. So, yeah, keep an eye out for that!

Update: Nice, I got on the Threadless product page, sort of!

... and I do coloring.

2010-07-19T18:49:00.007-04:00

Forget logo design, now I'm doing coloring! This isn't anything that's going to be published, but the artist who drew and inked this, Nick Edwards, was recently published in Popgun, Volume 4.

When Mr. Edwards submitted his original line art last month, I commented on how rad it would look in color, and he responded with "you do it". So one month later, I finally decided to do it, asked for the .psd, and here is the result. The actual size I colored at was about 13" x 16", so if you want to see a bigger version than the 1000 x 1254 version below, just ask me.

I actually finished this on the 16th, but waited for Nick's approval via e-mail, which I finally received this morning before heading to work. I blame these five-hour time zone differences; not cool Earth, not cool.

I just really liked this piece and I'm glad Nick gave me the chance to do this, because I've never really done much Photoshop coloring with my tablet aside from edits for pieces I've drawn already in Flash. But at least I now know it's much better than the days last year and before where I colored my own work in Photoshop just using a mouse...

But yeah, if anyone out there that needs coloring done, and has a .psd file with line art, feel free to ask me. Amateur or commercial, no preference really, as long as I'm credited for coloring.

I even do logo design...

2010-07-09T19:32:00.004-04:00

Before you comment saying "oh wow, you can actually draw people!" I should note, I DID NOT DRAW THIS. But thanks for thinking anyways. This is the cover to my friend, Polly Guo's new comic book, Houdini & Holmes, the first part of which will be available at this year's San Diego Comic-Con!

Update: The comic will be available for purchase in the Small Press Area, table number P-11. Make sure you buy it!

I'm really pleased with Polly's finalization of this cover, having seen it prior to the rad coloring job she did; and overall the text is very fitting for the style and mood. However, I made some flat-color mock-ups myself when I was testing out the logo design:

The left image has the original black/white mock-up, with three test color palettes. The right image was my final mock-up, after some discussing with Polly, which included the issue numbering and adjusted ampersand (the "&").

There's parts I like about both my mock-ups and Polly's final version, but regardless, the cover alone was awesome enough whether it was colored or not. I'm just glad I was able to help out in some way. But yeah, this is me throwing my hat into the logo design ring, contact me if you ever need assistance in that domain, or coloring for that matter.

Paper Who

2010-06-26T23:37:00.007-04:00

And now for something completely different, in honor of the season finale of Doctor Who. It's a puppet version of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor, inspired by the opening sequence from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Parts were drawn in Flash, then placed in layers in Photoshop, with textures added. I originally wanted to do something like this for that Snake and Yoshi picture, but couldn't figure out how to tackle it at the time; and going by what I did with this, would have never fit it into my work schedule.

I really like how this came out, despite the hours of work that went into making sure everything pieced together well, and hand-cleaning the textures to match the parts. But, I suppose all that hard work shows, and if enough people like this, I may try more pieces in this style... we'll see.

But about that finale, so. damn. good.

UPDATE: In other Doctor Who news, I (along with Matt Marblo and THE DOCTOR!!) can be seen in the latest episode of Doctor Who Confidential, or at the 2:50 mark of this clip from the episode uploaded by the great Doctor Who fan site, Blogtor Who.

DOCTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRR!!!!!

Thanks Hipsters

2010-06-25T01:18:00.005-04:00

I finally think of something that hipsters would love, and draw it in their hipstery style, and they still can't appreciate it. "N'Where's Narwhaldo?" scored 2.39 out of 5, with 631 votes in all; that's better than my first Threadless attempt at least.

And considering there's a couple front page, printed designs on Threadless right now that were scored at around 2.40, I'd say that's not too bad at all. Hell, they may even decide to print the design some day! But not... tonight.

Now I just have to hear back from Ottawa International Animation Festival and Animation Block Party, and then I can find out if I everything I do gets rejected.

UPDATE (6/25/10 7:15 PM): I wasn't selected for Animation Block Party, sadly, though I was at least 'in consideration' and therefore have an IMDb page for my film now. So, at least you get to see the title until I decide what I'm going to do with it. I'm looking into other film festivals, but everything either asks for too much money for entry, 35mm film (which is honestly just stupid in this age), or has some odd fine-print that allows them to use your film for other things, which I'm not cool with.

So, yeah, I guess I'm just going to have to wait to hear from Ottawa for now, but at this point I'm a bit doubtful. I really don't want to just put my film online; call it pretentious, but I put too much love into my film work to just unleash it out onto the internet...

N'Where's Narwhaldo?

2010-06-17T23:41:00.005-04:00

I waited a couple day to post this because I wanted it to get approved on Threadless first. After one failed attempt at trying to get a design printed, I'm trying again:

And yes, here's the link to the design on Threadless:

PLEASE VOTE!!!

How Do They Work?

2010-06-11T16:34:00.002-04:00

"Water, Fire, Air and Dirt. F*ckin Magnets, How Do They Work?"

Perhaps the catchiest song with the worst lyrics ever, "Miracles" by the Insane Clown Posse. I just had to make something. But I can't embed swf files on Blogger, so check my deviantART upload of it, which is laggy for some reason (but I'll blame that on dA's new interface).

I suggest watching the video once, and then play it again while looking at the swf. Good times...

And then it was over.

2010-06-03T03:36:00.000-04:00

Finally! After months of delay, I finally finished all 10 of the requests I was given on deviantART. This last request was:

"A robot, wrestling a tree zombie which is sprouting flowers everywhere." I mean, there may as well be a show hosted by Bill Cosby called DeviantArtists Say The Darndest Things, because I certainly can't make these things up myself...

Flash/Photoshop again, although I played a lot more with texture erasing this time, more so than I did on "Cole's Law". Also, the Ghostshrimp-y trees were totally a subconscious thing, the only reference I used on this was how to draw a proper choke hold...

I'm pretty happy with how these requests turned out, because if you look at the first one and compare it to this, there's so much development going on it's ridiculous. Now I can finally get onto other things on my drawing to-do list, and never take deviantART requests again!

Cole's Law

2010-05-31T02:08:00.005-04:00

Had a barbeque today, and this awful pun came into my head, and I just had to draw it...

Meet Cole, a head of cabbage who fights other side dishes with full-on Western justice. Common foes include French Fries, Red Skin Potato Salad, and any other mildly offensive food names that can be associated with stereotypes...

These are the things that come through my head.

Made in Flash and Photoshop, and even did a full perspective layout before starting. If I still like this after a week I might do some short comics with the character, because it's absurd.

Mermen vs Cyclopses

2010-05-17T21:17:00.001-04:00

Because sometimes people on deviantART requested the strangest things...

"Two brightly-colored cyclopses fighting two dull-colored mermen with radical adventure weapons made out of the elements!"

I honestly haven't drawn since my computer had failed on me, so doing this felt really nice. Flash and Photoshop as usual, but I did something differently this time around. such as the new texture I got. And I learned that I prefer black outlines on my characters, because the other requests I've done I've tried colored outlines, and I find that I really don't like those pieces.

In film news, I went through the grueling WithoutABox submission form and am currently looking into submitting to a few festivals. Other than that, more drawings, that's my goal for the summer...

UPDATE 6/3: Now posted on SVA's Visual Arts Briefs blog.

Watch These Films.

2010-05-06T03:16:00.005-04:00

Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch these films, because even though they're second year films, they're infinitely better than all the things I saw at SVA's thesis screening this year ... and I'm not just saying that because I'm in the special thanks for the second one.

First off is "Deep Sea Aquarium" by Polly Guo, which I tried to make better titles for.., but regardless, it's a pretty awesome film and freaks the hell out of me every time I watch it. Which is good, cause that doesn't happen often.

Deep Sea Aquarium from Polly Guo on Vimeo.

This next one is "A Tale of Honor and Glory" by Matt Marblo, which despite the suggested two minute assignment length, he did a whopping 4:13 film, and it's radtastic.

A Tale of Honor and Glory from Matt Marblo on Vimeo.

As to why I'm in the special thanks... uh, logo consultant, let's call it that.

Keep in mind, these were made in ONE semester, and are in full color/sound. The thesis films I saw had a whole year to work on them, and yet 80% were either unfinished or just awful.

And as for MY final film, I won't post it publicly online just yet, I'm looking into the film festival route first, and then I'll consider it. The main issue is that the film is based on a much larger project of mine, and if I post the film it's going to force me to post the other pieces which takes a lot of explaining... for the concept at least.

Not to offend other classmates whose work was also good, but these two I know are online, and definitely require viewing. I just hope I can promote my own film just as well when I eventually get it online.

UPDATE: My other friend, Deena Beck, just put her film, "Don't Follow Strange Things," online and on her brand new blog, which I've linked on the side:

Don't Follow Strange Things from Deena Beck on Vimeo.

And I have to give an extra special thanks to Deena, because had she not kindly let me borrow her computer in the last few days of production, I would have never finished because of my recent computer failure.

Film is done. Computer repairs aren't...

2010-04-28T10:00:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm still waiting on my computer to get fixed. Typing from my iPod isnt too practical....

But despite all this, I managed to finish my final semester film, but I wont be posting it online until I hear back from places. I have no intention of just placing it on YouTube, and instead I'm looking into the online and traditional film festival circuit.

When I finally get my computer back hopefully I can get back to regular updates and not type on my iPod....

Captain Video

2010-04-19T17:20:00.003-04:00

Not too many updates lately as I'm really weighed down by my final film for Animation right now, as well as my other final projects. But here's one final that's done already, for Digital Compositing:

It's an intro to the classic television program, Captain Video. I didn't like the idea of the project at first, but I had some fun with it. All footage used (minus the shocked maid) is from archive.org, title cards were draw in Flash, and everything way put together in After Effects.

PUBLISHED AGAIN

2010-04-07T16:27:00.001-04:00

I was published in SVA's Visual Opinion Magazine in last month's Calendar Issue, and now I've been published again in this month's Food Issue. Unlike the last time though, this is a piece you've seen, Consume, although they mislabeled it in the issue as "Consumed."

The mislabeling is not a big deal; my name, photo, artwork, description and bio are all as they should be, but the mis-titling is just a silly mistake that shouldn't have happened. But hey, I'm getting payed for this, and at least it's published somewhere despite what Threadless thinks.

Adventure Time

2010-04-03T02:32:00.009-04:00

Yeaaaaaah! Adventure Time premieres this Monday on Cartoon Network! I've already watched the three preview episodes and I'm craving more; best thing CN has put on television in years.

So, because some of the stuff I post is Pendleton Ward-esque, I figured what the hell, it's not like I have more important work to do ... oh wait.

Flash/Photoshop. I didn't realize how big it was, it's 1920 x 1024, that big ol' widescreen monitor size. So, who knows, I might use this as a wallpaper eventually...

Update: Aww yee, now on Frederator's Adventure Time Art tumblr!
Update 2: Now on Frederator's Flickr!

Rotoscope Blues

2010-03-29T21:39:00.003-04:00

Rotoscoping assignment from class, doesn't teach shit other than: "rotoscoping is a waste of time and gives you hand cramps..."

At least I got to do it of John Lee Hooker, one of my favorite blues musicians:

Yeah, I never I never, get out of this animation aliiive....

I'm Here

2010-03-26T21:02:00.003-04:00

Just a little fan-piece. Based on the new short film of the same name from Spike Jonze, which can be watched here granted you can deal with Absolut's unnecessary viewing limitations.

I really enjoyed the movie, despite its cliched love story, because visually it was different, and unlike a lot of movies these days, it felt real, without the use of special glasses; and it was even free to watch repeatedly. But if you'd like to read my full review, head over to VFH.

Office Place

2010-03-15T21:43:00.004-04:00

Was given another pointless 3D After Effects assignment. So I edited some corporate headshots in Photoshop and made a retarded Tim and Eric short. Enjoy. [If it won't play, click here]

Mike's Judges presents Office Place is releasing this solstice on the Cinco Video Cube, and stars Billy Crystals, Tom Cruises, Woopsi Goldberg, and John Depp as Tom Burtz.

Self... Self.. self...

2010-03-14T17:27:00.005-04:00

What doth life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life? life?

I don't know why, but I kept thinking of Xavier: Renegade Angel when I drew this...

Achievement Unlocked

2010-03-06T00:19:00.002-05:00

Kind of a late update, since this happened earlier today (technically yesterday). But, I figured, this a blog about my work, my influences, and anything I do art related... I think this applies: Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo creator, Joe Murray, has been a serious influence on my cartooning work ever since I was a kid, even if it was never something I consciously thought about, I really can see his influence in my personal stories/character designs (aka, stuff I don't post here)...

So, imagine my surprise when I found out that Joe Murray not only subscribed to my YouTube channel today, but also commented with "Great work Jared." on my channel. Sure, it's just three words, but I when I saw that (to put it in no better way) I came, shat myself, and then my brain exploded; see here [1:00]. Like, it's hard to describe the feeling when one of the people that inspired you to be where you are today tells you 'great work' but it's simply awesome. Now Ashley Wood just needs to tell me I can paint well and I think most of my life goals will be complete.

And just to be sure, I checked Joe's other subscriptions, and doesn't look like he left comments on anyone else's channels, so I feel kind of special... just saying.

Weekly Weirdness

2010-03-04T17:43:00.005-05:00

Got a lot done today, have a full 12 seconds of my film done, with audio, and it looks decent [though as of typing this I realized I forgot to do something... but that's why it's a test version anyways]. But as for things I will show you:

Was given an image sequence, and then I used After Effect/Flash to animate in it and added sound. If it looks like crap, visually, it's because I added noise/compression to the animation to fit with the compression/interlacing on the video.

And then the one part of the video made me make this (in Photoshop):

Yup. It's better not to ask.

Awesome Tablet, Great Job!

2010-03-01T14:27:00.004-05:00

Finally purchased a tablet of my own today, a medium Intuos4. So, finally, after.... eight years of using a mouse to do digital work, and then using the studio's Cintiqs this past year, I can finally draw digitally in the comfort of my own room.

And here's the first thing I made with it....

Whatever comes next will certainly be better.

So much for that...

2010-02-28T16:10:00.003-05:00

After just two days, voting on my Consume t-shirt design has been halted. Why? I have no clue whatsoever, as I have never seen this happen to anyone else on Threadless. I can't imagine I did anything wrong, the design is 100% my own, and there can't be anything against using my own work in another format...

I've already contacted Threadless demanding a proper answer for this, but I've yet to hear anything. Hopefully the reasoning is "this shirt was too awesome for us to let the users decide, and we're gonna print it without their consent and give you double the money because of it." But I highly doubt that's the case.

When I get an answer, so will you. Until then, I'm not submitting to them anymore because this is bullshit. At least give me a full week of eligibility like everyone else before you stop voting, not two days...

Vote For It!

2010-02-25T18:02:00.004-05:00

Just submitted a design to Threadless! ~~Be sure to vote on it when it's ready for that.~~ It's now ready for your votes!!!

The design is a recolor of my piece, Consume, now suited for eight-color printing.

Hairball Redux

2010-02-22T21:56:00.003-05:00

Remember when I basically said I didn't really like that "Hairball" animation? Well, I went and redid it, completely:

Not only is the look/premise different. But I even went ahead and added sound and special effects in After Effects. I like this much much more.

Cough, Cough... Hairball.

2010-02-19T18:21:00.007-05:00

Just quick little "smear animation," something I rarely do. And, I think it moves way to0 quick, even though I messed around with it for a while.

Probably better off watching it loop on my deviantART.

Still not too sure about this one...

Great Job!

2010-02-11T12:37:00.004-05:00

Introducing the latest product from Cinco:

Created by Matt Marblo and myself for Tim and Eric's Season Cinco promo contest.

Hopefully we win.

Consume

2010-02-08T22:25:00.005-05:00

Here's a new one, and not a request, we'll sort of. It's an entry for a 'Food Issue' of a certain publication. So, maybe it will be printed sometime next month, who knows.

Flash/Photoshop as usual. Actually file is huge .tiff though, might even consider posting it on Threadless, seems like it might appeal to hipsters... sigh.

OH SHIIIIIT! The pic has been Ghostshrimp Approved! ... on Facebook.

PUBLISHED

2010-02-03T18:33:00.001-05:00

Hot damn! I've actually gotten some work published! Sure, it's just for SVA's Visual Opinion Magazine, specifically the 2010 Calendar Issue, but it's still awesome to see my work in print!

Why Space? Because I have an infatuation with space, I've always loved science fiction, and I'm currently working on a personal project set in space, with a similar visual style. Why July? While most people would choose their birth month (I was born in August), space seemed much more relevant for July, as that was the month in which man first landed on the Moon (if you believe that). So really the choice and imagery was based on that; also note that the "4" asteroid is in a star-shape.

This was actually completed in one sitting back in... November. But not published until now. I had gotten a reply that my submission was "in contention" back in December, but I was never given a concrete, yes or no answer until I saw the issue was available today. And yes, I'm getting payed for this.

First mocked-up in Photoshop, then drawn in Flash, re-sized in Illustrator, and then brought back into Photoshop for color, texture, and shading. So, this was actually the real first time I did Flash/Photoshop texture/shading, even though I've already posted similar and, more or less, better works recently. Hope you like it.

If you want one, but can't get one because you don't go to SVA or whatever other reason, send me a message and I'll see what I can do.

Dharma Drawing

2010-02-03T02:31:00.008-05:00

A big page of awful life drawings. Model decided to wear a tan jumpsuit that looked a lot like those worn by the Dharma Initiative on Lost... and considering the season premiere was last night it was oddly amusing/strange/coincidental. Regardless, most of these are shit.

Some are 30 second drawings, some are 5 minute, I think it shows... First time doing life drawing with a tablet, interesting experience.

Cubed.

2010-02-01T21:40:00.001-05:00

A short After Effects/Flash animation. Enjoy?

Been awhile since I've properly animated, I'm quite shit.

Apple. Butterfly. Gator. Overcoat.

2010-01-29T17:01:00.003-05:00

Here's some unrelated panels from a Storyboarding assignment in which we were to draw silhouette scenes that involved an apple, butterfly, alligator, and an overcoat.

There's no real story here, as the panels were clipped from two pages of drawings, and rearranged here in no particular order. All done in Sharpie.

Dragons, Snakes, and Conspicuous Reptiles

2010-01-25T22:03:00.003-05:00

Two more deviantART requests fulfilled. Both are further into my experimentation with Flash/Photoshop color combination. Enjoy.

"any dragon will do ... well a green one with dark green wings and a darker green tail then."

"cute Old Snake with noodly arms and legs and little beady eyes (well, eye) riding on a jungle camouflage painted Yoshi."

I had fun, and these were finished much faster that previous requests... perhaps I'm getting better?

Mindforks and Surprise Barbarians

2010-01-22T18:17:00.002-05:00

First off, new After Effects video, experimenting with 3D plane cameras... it's... interesting?

Looking back, "T.V. Casualty" may have been a better song choice, but "Spinal Remains" has just been stuck in my head lately...

Also, my friend Matt Marblo informed me that some random Tumblr page posted our Conan O'Barian collab picture that we made over the summer. Granted the post was from November, and we just found it now, but regardless, it's kind of neat that someone random person posted our work, and even gave us credit.

Franken-Stein

2010-01-21T15:17:00.004-05:00

Not sure why no one ever did this before, but it came to my head for some reason, I looked it up, but no one had it. So here's my gift to the world, Franken-Stein:

I should be doing more worthwhile things, but, I had to make this.

If you don't know, that's Al Franken and Ben Stein. Totally ruining the joke, but just in case you didn't get it... (I'm talking to you, Google)

Kingdom Blarts

2010-01-14T15:11:00.003-05:00

Another deviantART request, this time of characters from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days.

I'm not digging my final character designs, though these are actually much better than the first ones I crapped out. If anything, I like the Flash/Photoshop combo I did on the background; that's custom gradient/texture usage there.

Back, with a dog and fetus.

2010-01-11T21:29:00.005-05:00

What can I say, my followers on deviantART have weird requests...

"A baby fetus riding a dog. They are in the middle of a giant field. Tall electrical towers can be seen in the background against the dark sunset. It looks like it is about to rain. The baby seems concerned." [I simplified the final result]

Flash and Photoshop; drew this during the break but couldn't digitally color this till tonight.

Still here, tech-less.

2010-01-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

I know it's been nearly a month since I've updated this, but I just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and I've been drawing. It's just that I've gone back home for break, and I'm without my scanner or any sort of tablet. So anything I could show you ... I can't. Not until next week at least.

Stay tuned!