Oddernod

"Reality is good. Interesting is better."

wrsdemo — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:31:21 -0800

“Reality is good. Interesting is better.” - Stanley Kubrick on The Shining

Thanks to Andy Inhatko and Comicraft I got some new fonts to...

wrsdemo — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:44:12 -0800

Thanks to Andy Inhatko and Comicraft I got some new fonts to play with on New Year’s Day. I stayed up all night playing in Cinema 4D and came away with a little endtag for the site’s upcoming videos.

This suitably goofy font is Doohickey; along the way I picked up Spills, Battle Cry, & their signature Comicrazy font on their once-a-year $20 sale. Can’t beat ‘em for solid hand-lettered fonts, especially at that price.

2011 Year End Popcorn Jockey Report

wrsdemo — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:10:00 -0800

2011 Box Office, you were a strange mistress. Or at least the most easily forgettable mistress on...

"Our only responsibility is to our readers. Being able to make business decisions each and every day..."

wrsdemo — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:15:00 -0800

“Our only responsibility is to our readers. Being able to make business decisions each and...

Expression test time! There’s a lot of bulky masses to get...

wrsdemo — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:06:00 -0800

Expression test time! There’s a lot of bulky masses to get moving around in there. Really can’t wait to be able to start pushing and pulling morph targets on her.

On that subject, I’m spending the rest of the year putting together an Evil Business Plan (thanks Jose!). The last two years I’ve been all over the map with my career and creative: editing at the Chicago Board Of Trade, producing at ThisWeekIn, making commercials at Imaginary Forces. In my Bruce Wayne level of desire to be a well-rounded creative samurai, I’ve worked on live TV shows, podcasts, short films - all for other people. And I’ve learned the basics of more tools than I thought I would ever know. Like Neo downloading martial arts to his brain, I’ve been picking up graphic design, typography, photography, editing, and cinematography on top of designing, modeling, and animating.

Now’s the year to start shipping. And shipping my own stuff, to be specific.

Somewhere along the way I’ve picked up this mantra of “real artists ship”. Not sure if it was from watching Chase Jarvis’s live podcasts, Nick Campbell’s constant blogging, or the endless parade of startup entrepreneurs I’ve encountered at ThisWeekIn, but I’m obsessed with the idea of shipping. Planning, making, and showing. Then starting all over again, as fast as possible. I’m not going to make Citizen Kane, I’m not Bill Watterson, and I’ll never be as good as the guys at CreatureBox.

But I can make my own stuff instead of talking about other people’s.

So in 2012, something, anything, is going to ship from me, and it’s going to be a fun journey getting there.

How about you? Got something you’ve been thinking about drawing or writing for years? Want to learn how to use a camera or get your hands dirty building something? This is the year to do it: it’s time to go get a dirt cheap camera, start doodling with Sketchbook Pro for your Mac, or pick up a second-hand guitar and start making some ugly noise.

Do something with it every day. Start a blog and tell the world or maybe just your mom.

Plan, Make, Show.

Rinse and repeat.

Have fun with it, teach others what you learn, and never forget to show your stuff off!

#ship2012

Gesture. Then structure. And only after that, make it look good...

wrsdemo — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:43:00 -0800

Gesture. Then structure. And only after that, make it look good with bumps, stacked overlaps, and good shapes.

Rad Sechrist, you are a saint!

(And if you haven’t heard of Rad yet and you’re learning to draw, you have to check him out!)

"Find your thing and do that thing better than anybody else does that thing, even if you think that..."

wrsdemo — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:54:00 -0800

“Find your thing and do that thing better than anybody else does that thing, even if you think...

Further development on faces - starting to get closer to cute.

wrsdemo — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:43:19 -0800

Further development on faces - starting to get closer to cute.

Proportions are too stereotypical “hero” here but...

wrsdemo — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:29:56 -0800

Proportions are too stereotypical “hero” here but the faces are getting more sympathetic. Doing my best Creaturebox impersonation in the spacesuit - need to get better at design greeble.

Finding the right shape for our hero - I need to watch some...

wrsdemo — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 08:14:48 -0800

Finding the right shape for our hero - I need to watch some Looney Tunes soon!

Hairstyles for Olga the Froglady, AKA Big Bad, AKA the...

wrsdemo — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:10:51 -0800

Hairstyles for Olga the Froglady, AKA Big Bad, AKA the Villainess for Out Of Stock. I need to find more soccer moms to study - now to observe more in the wild.

First attempt at the lead character for the short. Totally...

wrsdemo — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:59:00 -0800

First attempt at the lead character for the short. Totally unsuccessful - he needs to be sympathetic, nervous, and a little twitchy. Spending the day working in more!

Fighting Triangles, or Frog Versus Rabbit?

wrsdemo — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:23:38 -0800

Fighting Triangles, or Frog Versus Rabbit?

"The chief enemy of creativity is safety."

wrsdemo — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:37:00 -0700

“The chief enemy of creativity is safety.” - Director Nicholas Winding Refn, via Jeff...

Sketch Session! An hour in Starbucks with another makeshift...

wrsdemo — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:31:00 -0700

Sketch Session! An hour in Starbucks with another makeshift sketchbook and a goal to fill up the couple of pages hastily stapled together. I don’t know what I’m doing with a brush pen still but it’s starting to become fun, even if I wish I could control the line quality a lot better. Out of all of this I think I only really dig two of the drawings, one of the girl and the other of the old pointy-headed dude.

For better or worse, this is almost everything I drew, seeing as I filled a couple pages full of notes on the webcomic I’m whipping into shape. I think I’m settled on a name finally, after going back and forth on the pros and cons of the word ‘this’ and ‘that’.

Yeah, I’m OCD. I settled on ‘that’ and nailed down the URL. That’s one decision made and some money dropped, so it’s officially a start!

Color correction variations on a theme for a friend’s...

wrsdemo — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:56:00 -0700

Color correction variations on a theme for a friend’s photo shoot. Knob twisting done in Lightroom and Magic Bullet Looks.

What started out as a cute idea for a mascot has morphed into...

wrsdemo — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:14:51 -0700

What started out as a cute idea for a mascot has morphed into little octopod hoodlums! I think Drive is starting to seep into the sketching part of my brain. What a movie!

Well, I was writing a part for some gangster types in my web comic script - maybe these guys just got promoted.

"If everything feels under control, you’re just not driving fast enough."

wrsdemo — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:36:00 -0700

“If everything feels under control, you’re just not driving fast enough.” - Mario...

On a break from staring at a conputer monitor and I’m...

wrsdemo — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:38:57 -0700

On a break from staring at a conputer monitor and I’m working on a mascot design over dinner at Wahoo’s. I couldn’t find a sketchbook at work so assuming my best Macguyver pose I stapled a quick poor man’s book together.

Thankfully the office has some nice heavyweight paper that makes for a suitable cover.

Not sure about a name for this guy but I’ve got a couple options. And yes, he’s only got four little tenties. He’s special that way!

2011 Mid-Year Popcorn Jockey Report

wrsdemo — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:16:00 -0700

Walking out of Rango earlier this year, my friends and I realized we were looking at a poster-filled...