Nautilus Nimwit Progression

This is a pictorial progression of a painting I did for a co-worker's cartoon that he is going to pitch. I think they have some pretty creative, interesting and well planned out ideas/stories and I was excited by the chance to make one of my favorite kinds of images: the colorful yet monochromatic glowing light source with plenty of darkness and atmosphere.

I'm pretty proud of this one and I think the importance of tinkering and finessing can be seen in the differences between images 3 and 4. Image 3 is basically there in terms of gross detail, shape and lighting, but I don't think everything really begins to become cohesive and easy on the eyes until the final version in image 4.

Tell me what you think!

Ridiculous but fun

This is essentially a 3D doodle gone horribly wrong. I couldn't help putting it up though because let's face it, things jutting out at you makes for some compelling 3D.

Finished Hellboy Statue

Here's the final paint job. Hope you like it. (Total time to completetion 5.5 hours)

Hellboy Mini-Bust

Here are photos and a turntable movie of the Hellboy Mini-Bust that I am creating.

Technical info: This bust was constructed out of Super Sculpey and aluminum foil. It took about 4-5 hours to sculpt (it's been a while) and roughly 1 hour to bake. Right now it's fresh out of the oven and hardening as it dries (you were right Chad). Next I will sand and paint it with acrylics.

A side note: I found Super Sculpey to be almost unbearably soft after working with it for while. I want to try Super Sculpey Firm after this.

Now it's a Tomato Explosion!

Oh what the heck, I think these tomatoes are exciting to look at both because of their shape and color. I hope you enjoy.

Tuesday in a Moment

Here is my Junior film. It's one part silent movie, one part music video, one part unrequited love story, one part short film. Mix that all together and what do you get? Let me know.

The Garage

This is a music-documentary that we did for class. The assignment was to depict an everyday process happening in real life. We decided to chronicle food getting ordered, made and eaten at a local diner named the Garage. I co-directed, co-shot and co-edited this short with a team of five other people.

Instead of...

Finally, my blog fulfills it's destiny and becomes a place where I can post my movies. The best part? I need to make more movies now!

Here is my favorite movie from college. It's very short and sweet and it's about me not ever doing my school work. Also, it is an "experimental" genre film and therefore indecipherable as a narrative.

Enjoy.

Flickr Badge

Naturally, I did not create this flickr badge but I want to include it as a link for anyone interested in viewing stereo pictures in the future. I will keep making stereograms but I have decided that I will use flickr to display them. This frees me up to focus my blog more on art and films. The exception would be if I come across a particularly outstanding Stereo Photo.

Get your own flickr badge

New Stereo Photo

Well the hard part, (the explanation and instructions), are in the last post. So now I can just say, 'Here's another Stereophoto, have fun!"

Both of these photos are intended to show that depth and shape are sometimes what make a scene truly interesting to look at in person, where as in a traditional photograph, the exact same angle can seem very boring.

The first of the two (and my favorite because it worked!) is a 3D photo of a reflection in a door in the frozen food isle in my local Ralph's. Look at the photo in 3D and you can see "through the reflection" into the store beyond.

The second is meant to convey depth by having an object that flows from the viewer into the space in front of the camera along a vanish point.

Hope you like them!

3D Photos!

I just found a way to breathe new life into photography (for me personally): Stereophotos! After doing a bit if research online and then applying my own knowledge that I've learned in school and at In-Three I've started playing with poor man's 3D photography.

At this point I'm creating the parallax by taking a left eye photo and moving 2-10 inches to the right depending on my subject. I've been able to create some pretty stunning stereo pairs this way. As time progresses I should buy a tripod head that allows me to mount a camera on a horizontal rail. This would allow me to move the camera on a precise axis at a precise distance and make cleaner photos that don't strain the eyes as much.

So far I've found closer subjects create a more pleasing picture and that moving the camera more that three inches can really strain the eyes.

Next step: find a way to display them that doesn't require the viewer to cross their eyes.

For now: You have to cross your eyes. Pretend like it's a magic eye book since they work on the same principal. You need to cross your eyes until the two images overlap (without focusing on them). Once the two blurry out of focus images line up, one on top of another, let your eyes relax and a third image should appear. With practice you will find they can find and then focus on the third image (the combined 3-D image) that will appear to float in front of or inside of the screen. It takes practice but once you try it several times and figure it out, you can learn to easily repeat it and view the images for several seconds at a time. From there it's easy like riding a bike.

If you're having problems getting it to work and my directions aren't helping then run a search on google for: "how to view cross eye stereo pairs". These are 'cross-eye' stereo pairs that require you to focus in front of the screen not behind it as in "wall-eye stereo pairs." Here is an example of a site I found: http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase/ihelp.html

Also notice that some of the photos have a more realistic subdued 3D effect that is a little easier on the eye muscles: "Muppets3D" and "Bob Hope" are good examples. Other photos were taken with an unnaturally large distance in between the 'left-eye' photo and the 'right-eye' photo. This produces and exaggerated sense of 3D depth and shape which is also fun to look at: "Lacie Closeup"(look at those bangs),"Peppers!" and "Syrup" are good examples.

Be sure to click on the thumbnails for larger versions to see all of the 3D detail that was captured in some of these images.

Stylus Holder

Another old painting not previously published on this blog. This was done in Painter 9 and that's why there are visible strokes and a more paint-like image at work here. Click for a much bigger version.

Work in progress - Alien in a tube

Just as the name implies, the painting is still in the sketch stage and I intend to bring it to a more finished state later on. I still like it how it is now and I'm enjoying this regular posting thing. I'm also realizing that I seem to be in some sort of misty-chiaroscuro lighting phase of my life right now.

As always click on the image for a bigger picture, and leave any thoughts or criticisms.

Sort of a Pinocchio story...

This is one of my older paintings that remains one of my favorites in spite of it's age. The picture is from a sort of Pinocchio story that I thought up for a short film idea. I'd still like to revisit the idea further.

As I was getting ready to post the painting I thought it would be fun to revisit it and try and apply the new painting techniques I've learned without completely repainting it and therefore overshadowing what I connected with in the original image.

I feel that I was indeed able to transmit something more from my original daydream into this new version of the painting that I didn't capture in my first attempt.

Remember to click on the images to see the full size versions.

Which do you like best? Please leave your ideas...

An old favorite...

This is a painting sketch of Haystack rock on Canon Beach Oregon. This is one of my favorite paintings because it harkens back to one of my favorite places in my childhood and since it is from memory it helps to capture how I feel about it rather than a photographically accurate representation.

Colossus

Here's another of my most recent paintings. Combination of photoshop CS2&7. This scene is from my memory of playing the game Shadows of the Colossus. It combines my favorite game elements: vast beautiful countryside, a lonely atmosphere and beautiful art and design.

Gorilla

Here is one of my more recent paintings. This was done in Photoshop 7 & CS2. Please leave any comments or constructive criticism.

Speed painting...sort of

Here's what started as a speed painting using the random topic generator found on http://viaggg.free.fr/3CH/3ch_web.php It ended up taking over an hour so it's become more of a sketch.

I decided that this is one of those unlucky grave robbers Indiana Jones finds a thousand years later in the bottom of an abandoned tomb.

New 3D canoodling!

I call it a clownpire. Yes, what you see before you is indeed the product of an unholy union of vampire and clown - a truly horrible sight to behold. My intention was to make a sculptural sketch designed to get me reacquainted with Zbrush. I'm realizing that it's easier to paint and texture models in ZB than I originally thought.

I found this to be so refreshing that I might consider letting my blog take more of sculptural slant. All I have to do now is regularly update !

My roommate the zombie!

Here is a photo-painting combination I did (almost like a matte painting but of a person) of my roommate Lacie. She wanted to be a zombie. Here are the results.

NEW PUPPY!

We got a brand new puppy last week! He's a French bulldog and his name is Hugo. He technically belongs to Lacie my roommate but I am helping to raise him. He sleeps as I type (thank god). Hugo is just over two months old as of this writing and he's just beginning to learn all of the basic dog behaviors (pee outside (usually) eat and drink from doggy bowls, fetch, tug-o-war, walk (for short distances), pee inside (bad dog!) and chew on socks). So far he's been quite the handful but he's a very sweet puppy who is affectionate and loves to be around us. Pictures included. The 'napping' picture is included to show scale.