Screen Hype: 10 Reasons to Get Excited About G.I. JOE Retaliation

technoglobal:

Here’s a list of 10 things shown in the latest G.I. Joe: Retaliation Trailer that should get you amped about its release next year.

1) Ninjas - Unlike the last movie, there’s a much heavier emphasis on ninjas like Snake Eyes, Stormshadow, and now- Jinx. It’s about freaking time. Seriously, I know the American hero is all about guns and naming their soldiers catchy codenames that reflect their skills, but anyone who ever watched G.I. Joe watched it for one reason - ninjas.

2) Star Power - Channing Tatum is great! He was awesome in uhh… what was that movie with the eagles? Stepping it up from the former flop of the series, Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis (ever heard of this guy?) also join the cast. Not to mention, Adrianne Palicki, who may be my favorite character in Friday Night Lights (except for Season 5, but that’s for another post) Sure, I know what you’re thinking… JGL was in the first one! What about him? Let’s be honest with ourselves… Joseph Gordon Levitt should’ve gotten best supporting actor… for INCEPTION, not fucking Rise of Cobra. Which brings up another point - just because Willis, Johnson, and Palicki are in this one doesn’t guarantee a win, but it’s definitely a move in the right direction.

3)Story- What? You mean the JOEs AREN’T going to supported by the U.S. Government? You mean they’re going to go all rogue and wreak some havoc all renegade style? Bout’ time! Sure, COBRA taking over the White House is a bit over the edge, but finally the JOES do what they do best - take down COBRA without giving a shit about anyone else. 

4) Dubstep- If you watch this trailer and don’t feel your blood pressure rising even the slightest bit, you must be deaf. Visuals aside, the music behind the trailer should get you amped. It’s obvious who this movie is targeted to, and with Bay-like action, Skrillex-like audio, and Nolan-like blue hues, that audience is in for a treat.

Read More

Keep on Learning

I’ve been drawing a lot lately, particularly on the comic strip blog I make with my co-contributor, Justine Lee- the buddy exclusive.  This has been a great outlet for me to have to get used to illustrating daily and thinking on the fly.  But most importantly, I feel as though it has given me the opportunity to try new techniques and styles in illustration that I might not have taken the time to work out in any other situation.

For our guest writers week, that we recently finished, I played around with a style inspired more by some of the more minimal forms and simple character illustrations of print pieces from the 1950s-1970s or so.  I also wanted to play around more with the use of color and texture in my compositions. 

You can check out the 5 color pieces I finished on the blog, but here’s a little breakdown of my workflow.

This was the initial sketch for the illustration I was sending to my friend Preston to add dialog and a caption.  I like the general feel of the characters relationship and their posing, but I think I can go simpler with their actual design.

I do this second sketch and the characters really pop more.  The tone of the piece over all is more fun and silly than the first sketch.  And working with this simplistic approach, I fill in a few more background details to flesh out the environment a bit more.

Bringing my sketch into Illustrator, I block out the color and tweak the shapes a bit.  This, of course begins to look very vector-ish which isn’t really quite what I want, but doing this in Illustrator is a great way to play with your color pallettes and make quick and easy tweaks to tighten up the overall composition. 

Taking it from Illustrator to Photoshop, I make my fine details to polish out the piece.  I use several different brushes to bring in some good texture and add some extra grit to the overall feel.  You have to be sparing with it, but if you give just the right hint of a little wear it goes a long way.

It was really great getting to do some pieces in this style and I hope to keep developing my technique further as I do more. 

Wedding Photos are better in 2 Frames

Congratulations to my good friend and now ex-roommate Jerod’s marriage to his beautiful bride, Bethany.  Yesterday was an amazing celebration and I’m so happy I got to be a part of it!

Craftwork

I’m a motion graphics designer. 

Often when I tell people this, I find that I usually need to explain myself further .  Sometimes I prefer to say that I’m an animator (which is what most of the projects I work on tend to require).  But even then, I often have to go back and explain that the animation I do is less cartooning and more moving elements. But by the time you’ve said all of this, the position sounds more boring than interesting, and the person I’m talking to is more confused than enlightened.

The honest truth is that motion design is a very broad field, where graphic design, video/film production, crafts and animation intersect.  And though I tend to do more animation than anything, I very much welcome the times where I get to indulge in some of the other disciplines this field envelopes.

And so I’m excited that the latest production we’re working on at work, is less digital animation and more handmade miniatures.

I can’t say too many details yet, but as we’re getting more pre-production together, it feels really good to work with my hands and make things with co-workers.  Here’s a sneak peek.

It’s like your dad’s basement hideout… in a box.