Looks like we might have another Grockle problem.

As of late in the process of doing a new project for weebl (my own take on his cartoon Scampi) I've found myself very busy. Yet at the same time very bored. Its done now, but to cure the delirium me and my friends Mike and Raphael have been subjecting ourselves to bad horror films as usual to see what new amusing things have come along.

The first was a small extremely independent film called Small Town Folk. Apparently made for like 4,000 bucks.

The good is that it had a really creative cast of villains, each with their own distinct look and personality. Something I cant say I've seen since the Devil's Reject by Mr.Zombie a few years ago. Plus it was intentionally funny at quite a few parts which was nice. It didnt really have much of a plot. The main bad guy, who was played very well by an actor I've not seen before, kidnaps a pregnant woman and then drags her out onto a field with some his buddies and sings some cool nursery rhymes. Then his house explodes and he gets his ass kicked. Odd.

It reminded me alot of Skinned Deep. Senseless but fun to watch. And the people behind it obviously have an imagination.

Oddly both Skinned Deep and Small Town Folk feature really bad green-screen effects akin to an episode of Tim & Eric and both films also feature a very muddy Warwick Davis.


The next film was called A Mexican Werewolf in Texas.
A film about a town in texas called Furlogs or something that inexplicably gets attacked by a werewolf.

The good part of this was there was no CGI used. All puppets. And thanks to that, the werewolf creature in question looks rather cool. However the movie suffers alot from SHAKY CAMERA SYNDROME where the directors thought having the camera get kicked through the air like a hacky-sack during an action scene made it more intriguing. The movie also featured the usual cast of cliche characters found in these:
A.) smart scientist guy
B.) stupid local sheriff + deputies
C.) nutcases who think they are experts
D.) college kids who serve as monster food
E.) stupid blonde ditz who exists only to get naked

The last flick was a film called RAZORTOOTH

Shot in florida, this film is about a large mutant eel that escapes a lab (dont they always?) and proceeds to flop about the everglades throwing random people in trees as opposed to eating them.
This movie had a CGI monster which looked pretty good for the most part. Particularly at the end when the local sheriff wrestles the creature in the water.
In this film the Sheriff is smart but the townsfolk are stupid. WHAT A TWEEST. Also the eel in this film seems to be able to change its size.
At one moment its small enough to come out of a toilet, the next its large enough to swallow a man whole.
The movie also pulls a completely bullshit "THERE IS MORE THAN 1 EEL OMG" thing at the last moment in the most stupid cliffhanger ending imaginable.
The movie also features public domain music you've heard in cartoons before.


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A few days ago a copy of a game I bought came in the mail
What was it?

The wii version of KLONOA DOOR TO PHANTOMILE



The wii version is a bit different. Certain things have been made easier, certain things have been made more difficult.


Klonoa is one of those game series that the company who produce it don't see fit to advertise it that much. Which causes them to not sell well. Sadly Klonoa does not have much of a fanbase. Which is a shame as they are all excellent adventure/puzzle games with brilliant art direction.

I must say what I really like about this remake is how nice the graphics are. Rather than just transferring the animated-gif style are from the Playstation version the game has been completely rebuilt graphically. All the characters now support some very nice bumpmapping and shading. Alot of very pretty shadow, texture, and water effects adorn the game as well.

They added HORRID english voice acting too but luckily I can easily turn that off.
I am reminded also how much more difficult the more restrictive game boy advanced versions of klonoa were. They were basically physics-based puzzle game with a similar control scheme to their console brethren.

Perhaps Namco will one day see fit to port Klonoa 2 to another console. Or make a brand new game. I doubt either will happen. Ah well.

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In other news, my good friend Hans Van Harken finished his new cartoon with a bit of my help. A tiny bit.
I showed a bit of it on this blog before but now its done. You should really watch it. Its an epic western in cartoon form.

Here it is:

The Ballad of Cripple Kane

I love you, ono. Diamond ring, cha cha.

Over the weekend I was at Metrocon in downtown tampa. As per usual there was a theme to the convention and many people dressed up including Erica and Mike.
Last year Mike went to the con dressed as the merchant from Resident Evil 4.
A very difficult costume to make that weighed alot and had alot of detail to it (including all the various fake jewels, fake ammo boxes, fake healing sprays, guns, and other things the in-game merchant carried in his cloak, all of which had to be built, painted, and bought).

From Ye Oldde Blogge

This year's metrocon was very different. Apparently the theme was Steampunk. Of course this meant alot of people in very Victorian outfits with lots of gadgets and robotics attached to them. Some were very simple (oh hey i'm in a vest with goggles lookit me!!!) and some were extremely complex including one girl who had a GIANT ROBOT HAND that functioned. Her friend ate my pizza crusts for some reason.

Mike dressed as the Spy from Team Fortress 2. It took several days but a few good photos of him finally cropped up onto the internet.

Raphael was there with a camera but he spent all his time photographing all the worst costumes he could find. He failed us greatly.

So, all the pictures I have on this blog (besides the painting) are images I stole off of cosplay.com, myspace, flickr, photobucket, and other various places people dumped their image cache.
I take no credit for these images but oh noone reads this blog hardly anyway except a small smattering of people in other states. SUE ME.

Here's some pictures of Mike as the Spy:





Not the best pictures, but still pretty good.
We made quite a few masks for the costume. All from various anime and videogames.
There was also a pyro, two scouts, an engineer, and a sniper there. Sadly none of them ever got together for a group shot.


There was also a really cool professional photographer there (with one of those uber-fancy black and white canon cameras that national geographic peeps use). His name was Ricardo Sevilla and he was a nice chap.
These are pictures he took of Mike in costume.
His website is Here.








During the con one of the people in steampunk costumes was a tall lanky chap with a crazy face and crazy goggles. But most interesting were his crazy leg extensions and stilts he had on his crazy hands which he used to gallop crazily about. Nice guy he and me and mike got to talk to him a few times over the course of the convention.
I never caught his name so I shall call him Stilty McGee
This is him:



Little did we know this guy was actually a madman musician whom he and his friend built two teslacoils in their garage and somehow made them produce music.
What followed shortly was a rave late at night featuring the teslacoils playing famous techno songs by exploding violent bolts of lightning at each other.
Noone has been able to take a decent pic or video of the phenomenal sight. As the music continued, Stilty McGee appeared, and his insane height-defying costume was covered in crazy glowing tubes of light.

I did a quick speed painting to try to capture all the ruckus that was going down at this rave.




Either way it was a pretty great con.



Pros of Metrocon:

1.) the videogame room had smuggled in a copy of Tatsunoko vs Capcom for the wii which was a freaking great fighting game.

2.) GREAT steampunk costumes everywhere.

3.) a delicious fruit smoothie stand at the con that I bought several cups of god from.

4.) free drinks at the hotel bar.

5.) Abney Park, and the Singing Teslacoils at the rave.

6.) cleavage everywhere

7.) bought an original dark crystal poster and a copy of Paprika by Satoshi Kon

8.) got some free Atomic Robo comics. its a really fun comic series all should read.

9.) some really good artists at the artist panel. also some HILARIOUSLY bad ones including some guy who had some blue chick with giant shameless basketball sized boobs on a banner. it was so desperate i chortled each time i saw it.

10.) one of the artists left a drawing of Heifer the Cow at their desk that said "Gone to Chokey Chicken. Out 2 Lunch." I wish I'd stolen it, honestly. It was so cute.

11.) really good obscure costumes. a girl dressed as the shamwow guy. a girl dressed as terry mcguiness from batman beyond. later on she dressed as spock. a girl dressed as a character from Persona 4. I dont think most people knew she was in costume.

12.) there was a guy there wearing a Doctor Steel t-shirt which warmed the cockles of my heart.


Cons of the Con:

1.) for whatever reason the con seems to have embraced the sick community of sexual outcasts known as furries and let them have 3 whole rooms to themselves. many people unfamiliar with them wanted to have their photos taken with these people and their jizz-encrusted animal sports mascot costumes. including small unaware children. i cringed each fucking time.

2.) i hate cover charge. i hate bars with a cover charge. i hate rooms with a cover charge. a cover charge seems like a desperate "we might suck but just in case we'll take your money anyway" thing. which is usually the case. and was here. hence 3

3.) maybe my memory is faulty but i recall the last couple of cons having more rooms devoted to card games and role playing and fun. this year most of the rooms seemed to be about how to do easy-as-pie internet shit. like "how to make an internet blog" and "how to make a webcomic" and "how to breathe with your nose"

4.) there were a couple of douchebags dressed as ganondorf and zelda. and holy christ i wouldnt think people could be arrogant about something like dressing up like a freaking videogame character, but boy did they prove otherwise. this goes double toward the stupid dumb newfag scum dressed as "Anonymous" And triple to the 198 billion people dressed as kingdom hearts characters. and quadruple to the girl who jumped in front of me to sing some horrid song and hand me a business card with a link to her bloody youtube page. sheesh!


Despite all that it was very fun. Just way too expensive overall. Probably wont do it again any time soon.
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In other news me, mike, and raphael all saw Transformers 2 tonight.

The good was that it featured more John Tuturro, Starscream and Megatron getting the most screen time, and Optimus Prime becoming a fucking Gundam by the end. And Jetfire as a crazy scottish old robot. Soundwave scary as hell and lots of gross tiny robots who were badass and wildly inventive.

The bad is that it had two jar-jar-binks-esque twin robots and the decepticons got their asses completely kicked with little to no trouble. on top of that, Devastator who seemed so huge and foreboding in the trailer spends his 5 minutes of fame trying to grapple his shiny metal ass up a pyramid and failing at it miserably.

Also megatron and starscream get away at the end so I assume a 3rd one will have to get made now.
whoop dee doo.
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And speaking of movies based on toys and games since hollywood is creatively bankrupt.

I decided to redo an old fake movie poster for a fake (but very possible in this day and age) movie.

anyone who's seen alot of modern day b-movies should get a kick out of this little thing.

thats lance henriksen and danny trejo, for those wondering. in retrospect i should have put the logo for "the asylum" on there as well. they're the ones pumping out the most shitacular b-movies these days.

I guess the only fists raised in this town are pacifists

Balance. Good with bad. Luck with curse.


Dancing around each other in a never-ending jig while the Safety Dance plays loudly in the backround.


I got paid by the band last night for the music video. :)
here it is again for those who missed it

On top of that I finished a new episode of weebl and bob for Weebl himself, who is expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks. twits.


So it's been a very good good week. I've been working on the large painting all week as well. However that seems to have caused a problem which sent me into a horrified frenzy this morning.

My tablet pc, the thing I cherish more than my own health (sad, I know), ceased operation. Upon turning it on, the load screen for Windows XP Tablet Edition started its process. Then with a wheeze the laptop shut down.

"Perhaps I held the ON button too long" I thought as my eyes grew wide with terror.

I tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. I unplugged the power cord. Nothing. It was dead. After running around in a panic sweating everywhere with the troubleshooting manual I slumped into my chair depressed as hell wondering how on earth I would get anything done after returning to using a mouse now that the ease of drawing on a virtual screen had died.
My only positive thoughts being that at least, for the year and half I have owned this thing, that I had accomplished ALOT with it. So at least I had something to show for it. Still it did cost 800 bucks.

So I started searching the internet and went to toshiba's website and pestered the customer support people.

I have figured out what the problem is.
ART RAGE 2 which is the software I use for my paintings these days is a bulky program. So bulky in fact that it does not allow my pc to go into sleep mode. Couple this with the fact this painting DEVOURS every bit of memory windows has.
The battery has been drained.
It was used anyway.

So now the hunt is on to get a new battery for this thing which fits the regulations.

Unfortunately they are rather expensive. :S
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This week I have to design a masquerade mask for Metrocon. Which is this weekend. Which I'll be going to during saturday and sunday. Apparently the hotel has happy hour. The mask is for my friend Erica.
At the same time this week Mike and I have to put the finishing touches on his Spy costume.
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My father took a photo of a frog.
Near the outside light, there are alot of june bugs and moths. A small squad of various florida and cuban treefrogs hang out in the branches of the bush near the light, lunging out only to grab the occasional junebug (worlds least threatening insect) to eat it down.


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A new episode of the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack premiered last Thursday. It contained probably the most horrifying thing I've seen in a cartoon on television. Flapjack is a rather nightmarish yet cute cartoon all the time anyway. But boy did the nightmares hit a new level in the last episode, where the audience at home got to see a rather spooky mermaid slowly rot into a corpse in intricate detailed animation. Then dying in a thrashing screaming seizure as it hurled itself deep into the ocean.

Incredible.
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A new screenshot from Polypeptide


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The Ed Edd n Eddy movie premiered in Europe. It was freaking FANTASTIC. Right up there with "Ego Trip" and the Powerpuff Girls Movie. A great GREAT finale to a beloved series.

It makes me sad they probably wont bother showing it here in America. I got to see it already, but its definitely the sort of thing I'd want to import on DVD here. I hope it does well in some country. Danny Antonucci and his crew should be proud.
Some of the best 2d animation thats ever been done is in that film.

It also did something I never thought would happen. It made me feel bad for Eddy, world's biggest asshole. It really showed WHY he is the way he is. Kinda heartbreaking, really. His legendary big brother is a DICK.
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I think its time for bed.

they mesmerized....skeletons

The Music Video for the Basics is up. In two places. The first place is youtube. Sadly for some odd reason the animation is missing every other frame or so (i blame youtube compression) so it looks....weird.
However I will embed it anyway.


I think youtube are playing with new compression features. Because full-sized this vid is very sharp. And thats BEFORE hitting that handy "high quality" button. Everything is real sharp and crisp. BUT, its like its on 3's or something.

Either way you can see the full thing there. Inspiration from Joel Trussell, Evangelion, Ultraman, Kikaider, Iron Man, Godzilla, Dead Leaves, B Movies and general pals of me and gerkinman. Theres actually a few little cameos in this of people you dont know.

Also
For those who want to see a version in NICE HD QUALITY in SWF format (aka flash player) which runs entirely uncompressed, me and gerk also put it up on Newgrounds.com where we've been hanging out since like 2002.

Here it is. In uncompressed crystal clear quality! I swear it will grant you immortality.

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This has been a rather important year for me. Two big professional projects. First this music video, and then all those weebl & bob cadbury egg films for the cadbury chocolate company which came out alot earlier.

Its odd. I feel alot older I guess. Like....proud of myself for once. Its creepy.
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I came upon an interesting realization today. Which I already used to annoy all my online gamer buddies who had yet to make the connection.

The Sentry Gun from Team Fortress 2 (a once-formidable weapon) looks an awful lot like Nintendo's b.m. of a console, The Virtual Boy

You be the judge, TONIGHT


Here is the sentry in it's level 1 stage. Surprisingly powerful even before being upgraded. Can take out most anyone but a Heavy/Soldier/Pyro easily. Easy to wreck. Good for being "offensive action engineer" and not "hide behind dispenser engineer"


And here is the virtual boy. Headache inducing virtual reality system Nintendo made in the 90's. Bordering on the cusp of 3d games and polygons. Hard to use. Painful to use. Could only show 1 color. However it also had what is still perhaps the best Wario game ever made. Maybe.



Its as if they were separated at birth. One grew up strong and healthy. One became a gimp.
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I felt like drawing a monster last night. My friend J_Seed wanted me to draw him a fire ant.

So I drew a monster fire ant.


his pinchers are his feelers

freedom is the right of all sentient beings

So E3 just happened. I was very pleased. Nintendo easily made up for last year's incredibad show with a lot of new shit that looks great. New mario galaxy (now with nice 3d grass and prettier graphics and FUCKIN YOSHI HELL YES), a new 2d Mario Bros, which is great since the DS one is probably the best game on the DS. A new Mario and Luigi rpg, and a new Metroid from the Team Ninja people.
There was alot of boring and stupid stuff as well. Like a plastic condom for your finger that plugs into your wii which takes your pulse. And some really bad looking DS games that look like they were financed by Oprah's book club. However a late-announcement of a new Zelda game where your sword turns into some weird fairy person thing made up for that.
Microsoft showed footage of 2 new Halo games with graphics that look much improved over Halo 3. Not that Halo 3 looked bad, but it wasn't quite at Gears of War quality of visuals. Then they had Peter Molyneux come on stage and debut some wii-wannabe thing that causes your X-Box live avatar to have a seizure and twist itself into an ungodly position. By far the highlight of e3.
Sony showed off another wii-wannabe thing. Then a brand new version of the PSP which actually looks very nice and very SLEEK. After that footage of a new God of War and an incredible looking new Final Fantasy MMORPG.

MUCH better than last year. MUCH. Still no kirby though. I think its proper to officially claim that Kirby Adventure is never gonna come out. Considering this trailer for it was released near 3 dang years ago.
I cant imagine WHY though. It looked like it played just like Superstar in 3d. And it looked nearly done, judging by that trailer. And its not like Duke Nukem 3d where they're in danger of running out of funds. Its bloody KIRBY. Thats like Perkin's running out of fucking pies.
Hal Laboratory has managed to pump out 3 other kirby games since this trailer. I think it's safe to assume at this point that it is vaporware.

The saddest kind of ware. ;_;

Also, and somehow I missed this, but Square-Enix bought Taito. I have no idea how long ago this happened but its great. Taito needs more support. They even have a new Adventure Island and Bubble Bobble out already. I know it wont ever happen but I'd like to see a revival of Liquid Kids (the arcade game that time forgot).
But then, there's ALOT of arcade games made by SNK/Neo*GEO/Taito/Playmore/Hudson that everyone's forgotten about. And it makes me sad. Namco puts out a "collection" of their same 5 classic games every freakin year. But everything else is forgotten. Or is mildly referenced to. Like Samurai Showdown characters appearing in other fighting games.

I mean really look at this. You'd think with the sudden rise in popularity of 'cute' games like Kirby, Klonoa, Bubble Bobble, and Starfy that a port or remake of games like this would be all over the place. The New Zealand story too. YOU OWN THE RIGHTS TO TAITO'S HISTORY OF ADORABLE MASCOTS, SQUARE. I hope they do something with them. Ah man, Starfy. TOSE are a friggin great developer who get no respect. Like Treasure. I should get that new Starfy game hmmmm


Blah blah blah blah blee.



Things have been slow. Other than working on Polypeptide, I somehow managed to get myself involved with a MASSIVE painting. A painting of the Zodiac. Which means 12 paintings within a painting. Perhaps my most epic work. Its very nearly done. But it is a slow process. Mainly because simply opening the file makes Windows lose all its virtual memory.

I wish I had some preview art or a screenshot to post but I really don't.

So instead, here is a pelican.




edit:



oh snap update

The Basics EP is out with my art on the album take a look BEHOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have struggled into existence, and are now slipping silently out of it.

tonight I had perhaps the tastiest soda I think has ever been conceived. Which is saying alot as I've had all sorts of weird drinks and sodas. Up until tonight the best soda I'd ever had was a homemade sort of Root Beer that came from a brewery and restaurant that sadly no longer exists here in my part of Tampa. It was closed, replaced with some ritzy place. That place also closed and now it's a Grillmaster's foodplace. The plaza itself has evolved alot. Originally a cheap chinese buffet and several choclatiers dotted it. Now the Grillmaster, Koji's Steak House, Red Elephant Pizza, and some new place called the Tilted Kilt are there.
But thats besides the point.
This place brewed its own root beer. Naturally brewed root beer is always the best. Any and all beer breweries that make their own root beer always make QUALITY and this place was no different. Thick, delicious, and sitting in a frozen glass mug.
I havent had root beer served like that in years. And nowhere around here seems to make their own root beer anymore.

The drink I tried tonight however is the complete opposite of home made. In fact its made by a large soft drink company whom alot of people know, and like many use corn syrup for sweetness instead of cane sugar (despite cane sugar being far superior in terms of flavor).

Its a variation of Sierra Mist. Sierra Mist is yet another lemon-lime soda that lacks the tang of 7-Up and the bite of Sprite. It remains quite drinkable and tasty however. But its pretty average. I'd rather drink a nice SQUIRT citrus soda anyday, which is far better than any other lemony sodas.
This variation of Sierra Mist is called "Ruby Splash" claiming it has grapefruit juice in it (i laugh whenever a soda claims it has any juice in it).

However. It is DELICIOUS. It comes in a funky pastel green can with a gradient to pink near the top. It is tangy and wonderful. Like when one sprinkles sugar on a grapefruit and eats it without the bitter aftertaste of the grapefruit. And carbonated of course.

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I saw a fantastic and incredibly multi-layered film the other day called Syndoche, New York. Its by Charlie Kaufman, whom if you're any lover of film, you should know who that is. I dont think I've seen a film with so much story in it. It was a story within a story with insane sub plots and it had the past present and future of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's character all happening at once in some scenes.
It was quite a trip.


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Transformers had its series finale. Chowder is canceled. And Flapjack is having new episodes every thursday which Cartoon Network has not mentioned or advertised at all due to all their commercials about their new shitty reality shows.

Someone needs to shoot this one-legged horse of a channel already. Or fire whoever is in charge. Why they think kids (who are alot smarter these days) are going to watch watered down kiddie versions of Fear Factor, Survivor, and Cash Cab when they can easily flip the channel to see better programming is beyond my comprehension.

Especially considering their last two abortions of live action failed so miserably. Are there no investors in this channel who dont see how badly its run? No thinktank? How does something so miserable and loathed manage to live this long? Does the fact their most popular shows are cartoons (on a cartoon channel no less) not send up a huge red flag as to why people flip there in the first place?

GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE MADE ZE WORLD'S MOST DELICIOUS SOUP. AND EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE TOSSED IN A FEW BAD INGREDIENTS OVER ZE YEARS, OUR SOUP IS STILL TASTY. I WILL NOW SHIT IN ZE SOUP AND SEE WHAT PEOPLE THINK.


weeks later: NOONE LIKES EET. HOW COULD THIZ HAVE HAPPENED?
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The spy and sniper update came out this week along with a new system Valve put in place for the game. In theory it should work great (aka people receive new and old weapons at random for playing the game. However its TOO random. Which people who dont even PLAY THE GAME and just watch it from the sidelines, earning piles of the new weapons, while people who play the game for hours per day not getting diddly.
On top of that the Spy's new gun was nerfed so hard its literally unusable for killing people. Even when you shoot someone in the face directly point blank you still do less damage than the old gun.

I'm assuming they'll fix it soon. The spy's gun was too strong before, doing like 80 damage with bullets that went through multiple people.
Playing pyro has been great as of late. Shooting crit flares down tunnels and one-shot killing noob spies brings a cruel joy to my heart.

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As usual today's post ends with a screenshot from Polypeptide. I finished animating those birds I was yakking about in the last post. I really cant describe how frustrating it was. But it came out so good I am so putting these birds in my demo reel at some point.
Anywho, here they are.



why do people like cheerios they are so bland and tasteless. like crackers dipped in milk.

yes, some birds are funny when they talk

sometimes a parrot talks.


Speaking of birds, the time came in Polypeptide to animate a couple of crows. Not normal crows, mind you, but hellish hell crows from hell. One that has a skeletal neck and a lizardlike skull and the other with bat wings and lizardlike tail. Both come exploding out of a monk's chest and make their way to something I cant say without spoiling it.

Either way.

It was a rather horrific thing to do.
Earlier this week I animated some bits here and there:

blood splattering on a hand


the monk unzipping his tunic/scapula/cloak thing to let the crows fly free.


however this is different. like alot of animators, when animating a bird in flight I used to take the easy way out and simply animate its wings flapping up and down wildly. and while this looks fine for flocks of little birds (its done in movies all the time) I wanted these birds to sort of lope through the air really showing how their big wings heave them through the air. However something like has to be learned.

So for the last week I have been watching many videos of birds and sketching birds to get myself ready.

Here are some of said sketches. I believe the seagull thing in the middle has some sort of syndrome. Also it appears i got bored and drew a girl, a military guy, and a hideous pickle with a face.


Anyway this was all practice.

I later watched many many videos of birds flying in slow motion so I could understand how their wings work and what exactly is going on as they flap.

Either way it all came to a head today as I animated the first of the two birds taking flight.


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Other than that this week has been spent watching the business I work at slowly morph in a last ditch effort to thwart off bankruptcy by rearranging the entire place and giving us new black uniforms.
It also means alot of the movies we carry are being shipped off.
I have managed to procure some very cheap copies of "BOLT" "KUNG FU PANDA" and "BE KIND, REWIND"

As of late Myself, Mike, and Raphael have been experimenting with various pasta noodles and sauce combinations. Its amazing how cheap pasta is. One dollar of pasta (no matter what shape) is enough food to feed a man for several days.
Normally we take Angel Hair pasta and throw alot of olive oil and diced garlic, basil, and tomatoes all over it and slurp it down.
But we've been a bit more inventive. Which culminated tonight in perhaps the best pasta I have ever feverishly shoved into my mouth. A packet of bow tie pasta and a jar of "4 Cheese Alfredo" with 2 cans of tomatoes made a feast of the best noodles I've ever had.

GOOD SHIT.
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Metrocon and Megacon are coming up soon (again) and Mike decided a while ago that this year he would have a new costume. Last year he and I put together a fantastic rendition of the Merchant from Resident Evil 4. Probably the best thats ever been done (cause I've hunted and have yet to find a better one).

This year however Mike will be going as The Spy from Team Fortress 2. And all the various parts of his costume are here. He looks spot on. A fake collapsible knife, a dark blue ski mask, a blue pinstripe suit, a revolver, black dress shoes, and a blue striped tie all coming together.

Speaking of the spy Valve released (see: leaked)their newest little short film using the games cast. As per usual it was hilarious and incredibly well done especially for a video game cinematic. Meeteth Ye Spye
I don't think the "Medic" has ever looked so badass as he does when the Spy becomes him.
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Speaking of videogames, E3 is coming up in a couple of weeks. One wonders what will happen this year. Especially considered the CLUSTERFUCK OF BULLDICK that was last year's E3. Sony and Nintendo especially have alot to make up for, what with Sony's bragging about their profits using Little Big Planet, and Nintendo's waggling musical cacophony from Dimension X.

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VNV Nation, perhaps my favorite makers of GOOD techno music (i.e. not trance or house) have done the world a great privilege. They have released a 3 disc album of unreleased music, concerts, and remixes AND AND AND have a new album coming out soon.

yesh.

And that's really all I have to say that's of any real importance to anyone other than myself.