Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Click the image below to play the animated gif

I Blame Skyrim

I can't believe my last post was when I had LEFT for China

What's happened since then? Oh nothing just traveled allover China, spent a week in Tokyo, worked on more MAD, some small gigs here and there, went to visit Amanda in Tennessee, and oh yeah I got Engaged!

I can't say I ever saw it going down atop a massive epic mountain in the middle of China in front of a bunch of people who don't understand a word i'm saying,

but it did.

As far as that epic journey there are loads of videos and pictures on facebook or you can just watch the 2 short videos that sum up our adventures below

China & Japan

After that I returned to Bunko to work on a few more episodes of MAD and got a gig through FLY working on Flash Banners once again.

Then I traveled to Tennessee to visit Amanda and Roo Roo the lazy Dachshund in her new apartment.

And here I am. I actually leave for Jersey tomorrow.

But While here I was able to get an awesome job rigging the Jack character for the amazing "Zombie Murder Explosion Die" Pilot episode which is currently in production.

Check it out here!

Zombie Murder Explosion Die

I also animated two logos for Flex-O-Lite which is about to debut their first feature film. Hopefully you'll get to see those logo animations popping up on the big screen at festivals very soon. If you're interested in the company check 'em out

Flex-O-Lite

There is another project that is still being put into its final stages, but it's looking very good!

I'll say more as it all comes together.

As far as personal work. I have tried to get myself inspired for a new short film, but I am having a hard time. I've boiled up several ideas over the last few months but nothing has stuck. I'm torn on where I want to go with my next film and I'm also stuck in that place where I want it to be short and sweet but my concepts always get overly complex and seem to go over the 5 minute mark.

But here's to hoping I will just start something and go with it before the year is over. Here is some concept drawings I was messing with but looks like they will be scrapped.

But on the productive side, I updated my website!

Brian and Beard

And I also put together an actual pitchbook for a webseries concept I have,

"Zombie Dad"

Here is the cover for the pitchbook!

And I just finished designing me and Amanda's Wedding Invitation, but I'd like to keep it a surprise so no images until after invites are sent out

So why did it take me this long to post on my blog again?... I blame Skyrim, if your unfamiliar it is a massive role-playing game with a free roaming world.

In other words The Ultimate Time Waster.

It has sucked me away from any life I had prior. I even began hoarding cheese in the game, here is my collection taken a few weeks back.

I think I have a problem...

China

Tommorrow I leave on a 14 hour non-stop flight to Beijing, China

But Otakon, real quick

Was tons of fun, although running the artist table was very time

consuming and a bit stressful. I did not break even, I got about half of what I spent to run the table and print everything. However I learned a lot from the experience and know exactly what to do for the next con I sell at!

The workshop was unorganized and we started late plus ended before covering half of the material unfortunately

In the end though I had an amazing time, I saw the new Trigun movie which rocked, danced my ass off at the rave, got my ass kicked at the Smash Bros tourney, and loved being surrounded by nerds and my great friends!

Now back to China and Japan

Here is the rough plan

DAY 1

Arrive in Beijing, Find Amanda, get to Hotel

DAY 2

Great Wall

DAY 3

I venture around Beijing on my own

DAY 4

Summer Palac

e

DAY 5

Temple of Heaven

DAY 6

Fly to Huangshan, Yellow Mountain

DAY 7

Go up Mountain, check in to Hotel atop the mountain

DAY 8

Watch sunrise, go down the mountain, fly to Shanghai

DAY 9

Jade Buddha Temple, venture around Shanghai

DAY 10

venture around the Bund, check in to super nice hotel!

DAY 11

Fly to Tokyo!

DAY 12

Odaiba, meet up with Yuki and Henry

DAY 13

Ghibli

DAY 14

Hakone, near Mt.Fuji

DAY 15

Tokyo Disney Sea

DAY 16

Akihabara

DAY 1

7

Shinjuku

DAY 18

Harajuku

DAY 19

Extra Day, All-You-Can-Drink cruise around Odaiba

DAY 20

EXTRA DAY, do whatever we missed, Namja Town? Sunshine City?

DAY 21

Fly back to NJ!

I'll be filming everything I can!

And if you need to contact me, email me.

My facebook may not work in China.

See you in 3 weeks!

Otakon 2011! then China

Its off to Otakon tomorrow (technically today)

This year I was able to secure a table at the artist alley

if your at Otakon please stop by, it's table P07

Here's a map

We are also running a Workshop on Saturday at 8pm,

Its called "How To Make Your Own Anime From Home Part2"

Between my last post and now there was a screening held at Warner Quad Cinemas Ridgewood NJ where four independent films and a Klondike commercial were shown of which I had a hand in all of them. From doing the ending credits, to full animation, to special effects, to editing, sound, and I even did the movie posters. It was a sold out screening and I was truly honored to be a part of it! You can see some coverage of the event here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6q-fVK-X6w

I also worked on more Flash Banners for Wild Turkey Bourbon and the NY Jets

And I returned to Bunko, working on Season 2 of MAD! I don't think I can say anything about the episodes I worked on but my body will appear in one of the episodes, my headless body that is!

After my return from Otakon I have one full day and then I am on the plane to Beijing ...

Craazy

Anyway I hope to post again before I leave for China with an outline of my trip

Talk to you then and hope to see you at Otakon! Here is one of the products I'll be selling at Otakon.

Portal 2 shirts and mugs!

I'm very late I know, Sorry

Wow, I owe my millions of followers a big apology (Sarcasm). But not sarcasm in regard to owing an apology.

I said I'd post at least once a month and here I am 4 MONTHS LATER! I have no excuse except that i've been busy... and playing magic the gathering. But mostly busy, honestly.

Lots of little projects amounting to lots of work. I'll try to go through everything I can think of off the top of my head

DVD inserts and movie posters for

Crotchless, Cowboy Cafe, Tonic Clonic, & T.Harou

which are all Indie films by a company i've been working for known as "Flex O Lite". They will be holding an even next Thursday (Flex O Nite) and screening all of these films it is free and open to the public:

Check it out on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194839740561611

For the same company I have done a lot of digital effects here

and there including trippy portals, animation, motion tracking, motion graphics, a little sound design, and even some editing.

I also animated the ending credits to Cowboy Cafe which I tried to go with a modern "Good Bad and Ugly" credits feel.

Wolf Girl is done and after seeing it I was very impressed and honored to be a part of it, look for it at festivals! I don't think it will have an issue getting accepted.

My work on Feed A is complete but it still has some post production to be done with sound design and color correction. But last I saw the film looked very promising and very freaky

I am also now a freelancer for FLY Communications,

an Ad Agency in NYC. I have really enjoyed working with them...

I won't say anything about a specific client we have been working for but let's just say there was some serious mis-communication and horrifcally tight deadlines.

But I have been animating and coding Flash Banners for Prudential Insurance through FLY, it's been a good experience to learn more about coding and working with a huge company like that. I am definitely enjoying working there.

Also myself, Emmanuel Espinal, Tris Waples, Shelley Low, and Giorgio Renna did some illustrations for a Music Video which aired on MTV! My brother also shot the entire music video. Check it out here:

http://t.co/SSink4n

I also animated the logo for Seltzer Licensing,

You can see the logo below.

If you can imagine this logo is actually the overhead view of two people shaking hands,

one blue one green.

So I animated them coming together and shaking hands in profile view and then had the camera go overhead to reveal the logo.

I also don't know if I'm allowed to show any of it so the logo will have to do for the moment.

The love of my life, Amanda, is now off in Beijing China as I speak. She is there

studying Small Mammal bones at the Beijing Museum for her master thesis in Paleontology. Pretty sweet!

I am planning a trip to meet her in Beijing, from there to Huangshan, then Shanghai, and end in Tokyo for a week. It's not definite yet but we are doing our best to make it happen. If everything goes accordingly I will be in Beijing early August.

I've begun creating fanart for Otakon which is in a little over a month. Here is my first completed piece (It currently is watermarked)

Robot Rainicorn

Where to start

So many developments! Where to begin?

Well Wolf Girl is basically done! I just completed the very last shot. Now all that is left is some touching up and the final sound mix. They are shooting the live action segments of the film in just a few days, I am so excited to see it all together! I'll make it known here as the film enters

the film festival circuit.

I will also be creating the artwork for a 22 page comic known as DJ Messiah which will be so much fun and such a great experience! The deadline is tight and I want to make it look crazy awesome so i'll have go a little insane but i'm excited regardless. I don't now how much I can truly say about it but it involves, obviously, DJ Messiahs as well as Heavy Metal Demons and music battles of epic proportions all wrapped into a post apocalyptic story. I am in the process of creating all of the character designs. More on that as it develops!

Another project that I am doing with a collection of friends and colleagues is Jasper & Smiley, an animated short based on a children's book for the iphone. It is coming along and I am loving working alongside friends.

Then there is the 35 seconds of animation I will be doing for another live-action short, this one being a comedy in the spirit of Kevin Smith films. It's called Crotchless and is about to start as my partner on the project completes the rough designs and backgrounds for me.

AND! There is more. I am also doing special effects for a 10 minute live action indie short which looks so awesome. It's called Feed A and is done in the same vein as Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, & Quarantine. It has that shakey camera style and involves me doing some sweet gore & blood effects as well as muzzle flashes and bullet holes and crazy alien monster things!

So a storm of freelance is coming my way and i'm ready and willing to meet it. Excited for all these projects and plan to post updates along the way!

As for Memories, it has been accepted into the Garden State Film Festival!

The festival will run from March 31st to April 3rd at Asbury Park New Jersey

Memories will be shown on Saturday April 2nd at The Synaxis Restaraunt

Here are the details for my screening: http://www.gsff.org/synaxis-at-the-shore.php

And for the festival in general: http://www.gsff.org/index.php

I am not sure if I will be attending yet, but please let me know if you are going and I will make sure I make it! Hope to see you there.

Also recently put together my dad's website

Check it out here: http://tfkinc.com/

Annnd I am off early tomorrow morning to go to Ohio and from Ohio I will be going to Tennessee to stay with my girlfriend Amanda for an unspecified length of time. I may stay there till she finishes her semester in late April. I am bringing my cintiq and all my supplies so I can work my ass off while I am there wiith no distractions 'cept for herself and her stinky rat dog.

Here's the valentine's Day card I did for her:

Next update will be when I'm in Tennessee! :)

A New Year

A new year and a new New Years Resolution, well two actually.

1. Make a new animated short film (not for a client)

2. Move out of my parent's house

The latter may prove to be more difficult until I get the proper funds, but i'm doing what I can.

So Amanda is currently on route back to Tennessee, hopefully I can see her soon but the work that being near NYC brings in cannot be denied right now.

In any case I have some stuff for you to check out!

Deviant Art had a contest for the cover to a comic book which preludes the movie "Inception", here was my submission:

The animated segments i've been doing for the live action short film "Wolf Girl" (title in progress) has been coming along. It went from being 2 minutes of animation to 2 min and 20 sec. I've just hit the 1 minute mark and i've got a little over a month left to finish this thing. I will surely be working my ass off until then. I can't be showing any animation but here's a screenshot for now.

And lastly I give you the masterpiece I created with the help of Amanda and her disgusting dog Roo Roo as well as my brother and sister in law's dog Brundle

I give you

Roo Roo Save Channukah

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Brian and his Beard!

I hope everyone's holidays are super awesome, me and my family have been having a most awesome christmas. I also created personalized christmas cards for my family, you can check 'em out below.

This first one is for my older brother, Will

For my sister-in-law, Rei-Hua

For my Dad

For my Mom

My younger brother, Alex

My girlfriend, Amanda

Hope everyone is having a most excellent holiday season! ^_^

The freelancing has begun!

The freelancing has begun!

I've been hard at work on the pre-production for roughly 2 minutes of animation which are part of a bigger live action short film. I think the script for the film is excellent and I truly am excited to be working on it. Not sure how much i'm allowed to say so that is all I will say but I can show some of the designs I have done, here is the main character and the king wolf.

Also soon to start up is a 41 page comic which I will be undertaking with a colleague. Should be great experience, I am looking forward to being challenged and growing from it!

Lastly I leave you with this cd cover I did for my friend CJ's solo album, "The Krusty Skinners" which will be released soon(TBA)!

Ch. 2 of Kyah & Koh is complete!

Last 5 pages of Kyah & Koh Chapter 02 is up!

Page 11

If you haven't read any of Chapter 02 you can start here,

Chapter 02

Taking a break from Kyah & Koh for a little whiles since some work is cropping up, but I plan to get back to it hopefully in a month or 2. The final goal is to have all 4 chapters of Kyah & Koh completed by this summer.

I also put together an ad for my friend's computer & website building company (which I also help in with flash web design). Check it out below, i'm especially happy with how my little robot dude came out.

There are three different freelance jobs that I should be starting shortly, they are all very exciting and I cannot wait to get started on them! I'll put more details up as they officially start, don't want to jump the gun on anything yet.

Also, Shelley Low started up this awesome collaboration blog where a bunch of us artist people get together and post art every two weeks on a specific subject which we take turns picking.

Should be fun! Check it out at Tonight, We Draw

Smoke Stack Boy + Final Japan Videos

Smoke Stack Boy, my new children's book, is available for purchase!

Check it out here:

Smoke Stack Boy

And the last two Japan videos are up!

Japan Day 11

Japan Final Days

Lastly, here's some rough character design for the new short film I am currently storyboarding

Kyah & Koh Ch.2 + Japan Video 10

First 5 pages for Kyah & Koh Chapter 2 are up!

Check them out here!

Kyah & Koh Chapter 2

Also Japan Video 10 is up!

Japan Video 10

Also my first attempt at a Children's Book is going to finally be on Amazon soon! I finally got all the margins and blah blah blahs right. Now I'm just waiting for physical copy in the mail and make sure everything is right before it is available for purchase.

Still working on Dilworth's short and the clothing store website. Bunko finished up the episode we were working on and now I'm waiting for the next one to start up. ALSO, ramping up for a new short film which I plan to do by the end of next semester. I'm treating it as a second thesis. I'll put up some artwork from that in the next post.

Off to a little halloween partay, later!

Work overflow & Squid Boy Make Love

Alright so I worked at Bunko over the past week and was busy being a professional squatter hopping between people's places in NYC. But it worked out well in the end and now I am going back in again tomorrow and could be there into the weekend.

I've also been working on a flash website for an indie clothing store which is coming along, I'll put it up on here once it is up and running.

And I am doing opening titles for a Parkour video which my brother directed and shot which has been very cool to be a part of.

I'm having so many issues getting Smoke Stack Boy up on Amazon's createspace, ARGH! It is very frustrating. Dealing with margin areas and gutter margins and all these margins that I don't understand!! But i'm not giving up, hopefully it'll be up this century.

Kyah & Koh, well I have the whole thing planned out and chapter 2 is half thumbnailed out, I even started inking the first page but the plentiful amount of work I have gotten lately is gonna put that on hold for now.

I did more figure drawing! Most of them were awful, here's one that is ok.

I got a spark of inspiration to make a flash game the other night and the culmination of that inspiration is Squid Boy Make Love. This game uses advanced nano cell technology and 4D graphics so please prepare your eyes to be destroyed.

You can download the .swf for

Squid Boy Make Love

HERE

Return to Bunko + Japan Day 9 is up

So the work is suddenly pouring back in again, it looks like I will be returning to Bunko. I am very excited to be going back even if it ends up being for just a short while. Between that, Dilworth's short film, and some other small projects that have been cropping up I seem to suddenly be getting very busy again.

I am also in the process of putting my children's book "Smoke Stack Boy" up on Amazon.

Keep an eye out for that.

I visited NYC this past week and did some figure drawing in the George Washington building, I was super rusty since it's been probably half a year since I did figure drawing but I had one drawing I was slightly ok with

Oh and Japan day 9 video is up, check it out below:

Japan Day 9

Titmouse Party + Japan Day 8 + Other updates

Japan Day 8 <--- Click for video

Went to the opening party for Titmouse's new studio in New York City! Was a great time, got to speak and shake hands with the creator of Superjail and Venture Brothers! Even if for only a brief time. The studio itself looked like an amazing place to work, they even have a pool table. Also they had a webcam broadcast of the LA studio, we even got to wave hi to our friend Ben who works at the LA studio. At the end of the night I had the chance to meet with John Dilworth as I was leaving and am now in the process of beginning work once again on his short film!

I also was inspired by the reaction to Kyah and Koh Chapter 1 and will continue the comic. I was uncertain at first but the response made me excited to move on to chapter 2 which I am planning now.

Also working on a children's book, "Smoke Stack Boy". It's a bit dark but I hope it can merit as a children's book. You can see the original sketch for the cover below!

The Comic is done!

It's done!

You can check it out at Drunk Duck here:

Kyah! & Koh!

It's also on Smack Jeeves:

Smack Jeeves

Please rate and give comments. I'm open to feedback and critique, i'm new to this so i'm looking for some insight.

Enjoy!

Japan Day 7 Video + Wisdom Teeth

Japan Day 7 <-- click for video

The song I am creating for the trailer to the Haiti documentary is progressing. I am still trying to adjust it to what the filmmakers want. I would put up what I had here If I knew how to, but blogger doesnt seem to have a way to upload music to it.

My wisdom teeth come out tomorrow! Cant wait to be drugged up ^_^

Oh and I woke up to Halo Reach being at my doorstep :)

Goodbye all the projects I wanted to do, hello ultimate distraction from everything. (If I don't post on here again this week someone needs to come to my house and slap my face. You have permission as I will need to get out of my reach coma)

Creepy Drawing, Progress, and My Insane Parents

First let's get the creepy out of the way...

I was suddenly inspired to draw this in the middle of the night... I can't explain why... it is myself (The Beard) and my girlfriend Amanda. I'll just try to let the image speak for itself.

My comic is coming along and I hope to have the first chapter ready to go and up for all to see by the end of this weekend if all goes well.

I have also begun to do some music for a documentary my brother filmed in Haiti, i'm trying to really push it and make it live up to the uplifting documentary. Hopefully i'll meet everyones expectations.

Halo Reach came out! And I stayed up all night with my good friend swampass to beat the campaign in one sitting on Heroic, which we did! I was a little dissapointed with the campaign's ending but overall was a great experience and am super psyched to waste loads of my life on multiplayer.

Anyway when I got back home I found this note on the front door of my house, more proof that my parents are quickly loosing their sanity:

For Full Size Image of the creepy drawing at the top go here -->

http://squirrelmafia.deviantart.com/art/Beauty-and-The-Beard-179241290

Japan Day 6 Video & Some Fanartsy thing

Japan Day 6!

So, my brother went off to college this past week and asked me to make him artwork to put on his wall, this is what I came up with.


Larger Version Here

Japan Day 5 Video & Other Progress

Japan Day 5

I completed the first draft for the screenplay to "Acirema" which is the 35 minute film which I hope to produce with the help of friends and anyone else interested in the project. If anyone would like to see the screenplay to consider being a part of the film's production please contact me. I can use all the help I could get and will also be open to any and all critique.

I'm finishing up Page 5 of my comic, I'm not sure at the moment whether I should wait till the first full chapter is done or if I should put it up here in pieces... hrmmm... Time will tell.

Later