Here is my final, if it loads properly, for my 2D Production class. I can't really say that I'm too in love with it though. I like the colors and characters and how they pop off the screen. But there are too many technical mistakes made, lack of knowledge, and too much limited animation for me to really feel satisfied. I have to note that I was going through a very rough time in my personal life and because of that, this piece defiantly suffered.

If I go back in, I'd like the multiplane shot in the beginning to be a little more exciting and thrilling. also I think I'd like to change some transition better and add animation to help with them. Its a learning experience, like anything else, and next time I'll do better. I can't really say that I'm too happy at the moment and hope things get better. I am disappointed that my work suffered but it happens I guess. In any event, enjoy.

Below is a screen cap from a short I am currently making in my 2D Production class. The story is about a clown who is trying to stop a girl from crying. Despite pulling out every trick in the book, the girl continues to cry and needless to say the clown is pretty fed up with her. I don't want to give away the ending...be on the look out for it. The piece is animated in Flash with Photoshop filters added to background elements and will be composited in After Effects.

*NOTE: I am more than aware that I have "promised" showing some works on my blog, "First Bite" for example, and haven't posted it. I will be creating a Vimeo page where I'll post not only FB, but this clown piece and others too. I will make an official announcement when this happens so be on the lookout!*

In the meantime, keep stopping by! Almost at 3,000 view posts which is super exciting!! I am so appreciative and grateful for you all stopping by and for your support!!! THANK YOU :)

Here's a quick look at a character design I'm working on for my thesis film. The film takes place in a disco and needless to say the above character has a few hurdles to overcome. Nothing set in stone thus far but wanted to show you all my process.

The blue is my rough line work, and black is final. The red lines were me adding and correcting mistakes, like in the hands. I always like showing the "behind the scenes" of my drawing process. I hope you get a kick out of it!

Here's a great picture of my cat Ben. I'm not sure if I want to admit aloud, but I may have become a cat person...I mean, how could you not think a face like that isn't cute?!

I drew a facial expression sheet for my clown character. This was my favorite face on the sheet. I pretty much feel this way all the time!

Just want to say HELLO! to all my followers! Appreciate your support and interest!! Keep on watching!! :)

Below is a pre-viz painting I did for my 2D-Production class here at SCAD. I am very pleased with the outcome. I worked really hard on it and I feel as though it has paid off! Its pretty rare that I get excited about my own work but I have to say this piece is pretty sweet. Its an old concept I had for an illustration that I wanted to do post undergrad. I guess the moral is hang on to those ideas! They may come in handy later down the road!

Made in Flash 6 with a Photoshop overlay (to create that speckled look).



copyright Zak Shapiro 2012

I'm not really sure where the clown obsession has come from. I think I drew a clown once and liked how he came out and started drawing variations of him. In any event, I wanted to share this clown, I think I like this version better, with you guys. 

This is just a work in progress. As you can see, I am using Flash 6 and have a whole bunch of layers indicating pretty much everything you see in this scene. I am really happy with the color selection thus far. I like the Easter colors against bolder, flat colors in a heavy outline. It makes the characters pop off the page and feel like a traditional cel painting. This piece is actually a pre-viz painting for a 15sec. short I am making in my 2D Production class. Its going to be a lot of work, but I'm very excited to get cracking on it!

Stay tuned for more clowns and all things animated!

I was able to go home for a short while and got to see my three boxers. I miss them all so much. here is a picture of me getting some sweet, much needed loving from Paige aka The Princess, Queen Bee, Dog #1, you get the idea....

A quick clown turn-a-round for an up and coming short. Its good to be drawing again!!!

Here is my final assignment for my character one class. I am very happy with the end result, in particular the ending. I really enjoyed the class and felt like I was able to pick up on 3D animation rather quickly. I cannot thank my professor, Scott Wright, enough as well as friends who helped and supported along the way. I am defiantly not "afraid" of 3D animation anymore and thinking about taking character two with the same professor. Until then, I'm going to enjoy a much needed week off break until fall quarter starts up!

Here's a screen cap from my final assignment in my character one class. I wanted to show this mainly because of how much I had to break the character's rig to achieve the desired effect. The small box is my camera, or what you see in camera view, and the rest is the MAYA perspective space. You can see how his arms and head are completely detached and how stretched out his body is. I also added a smear in the head, hence the shape. 

This is why I love animation. For little things like this. As an animator, I live for moments like these and whenever I can incorporate them into my work, I then realize that this truly isn't work but playtime!

In other news my blog has reached over 2,000 page views! I can't thank all those who check out my blog enough for all of your support and interest. I truly appreciate it. This post is for YOU!

Here's the video I mentioned in a previous post. For whatever reason the video from the original post isn't working. Hope it does this time.

Another picture of Ben. As you can see he looks like he's made himself comfy. i must say he's a cute little thing!

In non-animation related news....

I came home from work the other night and found this little guy abandoned on my street corner. He was left with two food dishes, a box of food, and a crate. It was night when I found him and he stunk of his own filth. I went up to him and surprisingly he was super friendly. He even jumped in my lap and gave me a few kisses. 

I got my roommate Colin to help me wrangle him up and took him inside and gave him a bath or two. I later then drove to a gas station and picked up a toy, some dry food, and kitty litter. The next day I brought him to Pet Smart, got him checked out, got him some shots and cleaned out his ears. Needless to say I now own a 4 month old kitten! I named him Ben.

I can't believe someone would just leave an unwanted animal/pet on the side of the road like that. I had always heard instances where this happened and it always disgusted me. Its funny because I never thought I would be one of those people to discover an abandoned animal, and although I don't necessary believe in fate, I feel like this was meant to be.

Above is video reference for my final assignment in my character one class. The assignment had to include a character wanting something but can't having it. I was also given the phrase "drilling for oil" to be somehow  included in the assignment. My buddies Sean and Kintan went to work shooting reference and Sean came up with the idea you see above. It was of a tin man who reaches for an oil can but he leg is too stiff to move resulting in pure hilarity. Or so I hope...

The first part where I'm shaking my leg has been removed and I'll be starting around the 5 second marker. So far its coming along slowly buy surely. This quarter has been such a positive learning experience and I can't wait for the Fall to begin.

Here's the video reference I did for the below video. I think I missed my calling. Should've been a dancer....

Hello, hello! Its been quite a while since I've uploaded/posted anything here lately. To be honest I have some work, but I just don't think its all that good and want to show off my better, or what I feel is better, work to you all! Its also summer quarter here at SCAD and Savannah GA during summer, its hot, humid and un-motivational.Plus there's the beach. In any event, here's my fifth assignment for my 3D Character 1 class. One more to go before the quarter ends!!

In this particular assignment we had to focus on "contrast" in our character animation. To be specific, if a character is all scrunched together then he should be pulling out of that and be very spread open later on. Kind of  like an opposite. It can also be done with emotion, like from joy to grief or anger. In my case above, I wanted the character to be hunched over and stealthy. Its only when his cell phone goes off that he open up wide, (the contrast), and frantically dives for his phone. There are, as always, a few technical issues in this, but I feel as though the character animation overall is pretty successful. I had fun animating this and shooting reference too. Maybe I'll post the reference video for a laugh at my expense :) Anyway enjoy and thanks for checking it out!

In my 3D Character One Class we had to pose our rig (character) based off of pictures our professor showed us. There were about five to six pictures, each different, showing girls jumping, men running, an old man walking, etc. The exercise was to look at the gesture and pose of the people in the photographs and apply them, in a more "animated" kind of way. We were to focus more on pushing the pose and creating an overall interesting gesture.

I had some difficulty with this particular assignment, which is funny because on my own I feel as though I have a good sense of posing my characters, and have been told the same. I think I worried too much about maintaining the initial pose and in turn, that made me over-think the new poses I was trying to create. All in all I think I could have done better but not everything I post is gonna be my best work and its all part of the learning experience.

Here is my first assignment in my 3D Character One Animation class. The assignment criteria was that the character had to jump. I was also given the phrase "take off your shoes" as well as  a "bug" to incorporate. It also had to be animated in 40 frames which is why it abruptly ends. I am extremely happy with this overall. As I've stated before, I'm more of a 2D animator and usually have trouble with 3D. I have to say that my professor, Scott Wright (former Dreamworks Animator), is incredible and showed our class a few tricks on how to treat 3D like 2D. I think it helped big time!

The very end with his legs bothers me and upon watching it a few more times, I realize that his right leg (screen left), gets a little wonky with his knee. I need to go back in and adjust that knee controller! In any event, not too shabby for like my second piece of 3D animation!

More to come as I get more assignments!!

Hello All,

I haven't forgotten about my blog. I know its been a while since I've posted anything. This is mainly due to the fact that my Spring Quarter here at SCAD has ended and I'm left with a three week downtime period until Summer classes start up. Looking back on the Spring quarter, I got to say that it was defiantly my best quarter and my best work. First Bite came out and was a huge success! Also my Flash animation class was also successful and taught me a great deal about animation and balancing limited with traditional. The summer should be a little more low key with a Contemporary Art Class and a possible 3D Character 1 animation class.
I will also be getting my thesis off the ground and the possibility of creating another First Bite, whether a sequel or such, is being considered! More to come on that later. In the meantime keep checking and I'll be updating soon. I promise!

Here is the official First Bite promotional poster my team and I made for the film! Its also going to be featured in Animation Magazine in their July/August issue! I am so lucky and grateful to my team for all their hard work. The film is completed and has been submitted into a student film festival sponsored by cartoonbrew.com. I cannot post the film online just yet, I have to wait for the festival announcements. Until then know its done and will be shown very soon!!

This is why I love animation. You can get away with doing crazy things like this. These are called "smears" and they appear often in traditional animation. I first noticed them as a kid while watching the Looney Tunes, especially in the Roadrunner cartoons. Chuck Jones was notorious for using them (just check out his "Dover Boys" short. Chalk full of em'!)

I try to use smears as much as possible in my animation. I love the technique and the ability to incorporate them in my work is a tip of the hat towards all my animation heroes. The image above is a single frame from my last animation in my Digital Cel class in which a clown entertains the audience with a balloon trick. This is the part when he whips into frame quickly. Smears are usually shot on one's, or shown as a single frame in the sequence. Mine is no exception.

In other news, my film First Bite is nearly completed and will be screened this upcoming Thursday. More to come on that later. I wont be able to post a cut until after it gets entered and judged in a film festival hosted at cartoonbrew.com. Wish me luck!

Here is the lip sync I did in regards to my previous post. Again the character is not my own, (belongs to Joe Murray), and the voice acting is by Tom Kenny. The animation is done by Jantze Studios. I was solely responsible for the LIP SYNC!!!

In any event, I'm pretty happy with it. For whatever reason it looks better when I play it locally in Flash but I'm happy with the end result. Probably needs a few tweaks here and there. In any event, enjoy!!



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM! xo




character © Joe Murray
voice talent © Tom Kenny
animation © Jantze Studios

I am currently working on a lip sync assignment in my digital cel Flash class. Above is a screen cap of the Flash interface. It's a bit tricky but I feel as though I am picking it up slowly but surely. I hope to feel more comfortable with it by the end of the month (also the end of the quarter).

The character I am animating belongs to the great Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life. The audio track is voiced by Tom Kenny, from Spongebob Squarepants. The original animation was done by Murray and Michael Jantze, my professor, and his team at Jantze Studios. Needless to say it is beyond AWESOME to be able to have this file that's been passed through so many talented hands.

The character is called Sgt. Spittle and is from Murray's Kaboing series, Frog in a Suit. I suggest you look it up on youtube...funny stuff! Anyway what I did was create the mouth shapes and animate them accordingly. They were a lot of fun to make I might add. I really enjoy lip sync and its so cool to see the character come to life and talk! Very rewarding. I am using a technique called Symbol Swapping (think South Park lip sync) and Symbol Nesting. Two different ways to do the same job. I think this one I'll post once done even though the character doesn't belong to me.I'll run it by my professor...be on the lookout for more!!






"Sgt. Spittle" character and "Frog in a Suit" belong to Joe Murray and Joe Murray Studio.

Thought this was an appropriate post. Been super busy juggling my Flash class and film First Bite. The film has come such a long way and is looking amazing. My team has been kicking butt and we've all been putting our all in it. I'll have to post a playblast of my shot once its finished. Still animating it...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I feel my blog has been neglected due to my classes. I miss updating it daily but know I'll be back on track once this quarter is over. 23 more days left.....




image copyright Matt Groening

So here is a still from my third project in Flash. The assignment was to do a walk cycle and use motion tweens as a way to save time. At this point in the game, I'm liking the aesthetic that Flash has to offer, however I'm not really understand how to animate in it to my advantage. I can do traditional hand drawn animation fine, but seem to get confused with having animation within a symbol, within another symbol. Its frustrating because I really want to get good and comfortable with this program. Guess I'll have to meet with my professor yet again....

In any event, the character is my ode to a lot of dog looking characters I've grown up with. There's the obvious Pluto, a bit of Odie, and the coloring style from cartoons like Ren and Stimpy, mixed UPA styles and approaches to layout. I'd like to think that there's just simply a bit of me in there too! I think not having ears and a tail proves that point. Not sold on the coloring. I wanted him to be yellow or an ocher. I never saw the character as being a demented dalmatian.

Also, if anyone is wondering (mom and dad), the reason why there are just stills rather than the actual videos on here is because they're still works in progress and until I can get the fixed with some more help and time, the stills are better than nothing. A tease if you will....I do intend to get the SWF's up and going asap.

First Bite is being animated! Its beyond exciting to see this guy in 3D!! Our rigger, Ayan Akbar, did an outstanding job and was able to get everything I was looking for in this guy. Many thanks to him.

Here is a screen shot of what I am currently animating. As you can see, the MAYA interface is extremely intimidating, especially to a 2D animator like myself. I feel like I'm getting the hand of it though and with the help of my animation supervisor, Sean Carrow, I know it'll all work out just fine.

More First Bite stuff coming soon!!!

I haven't drawn this guy in a while. He doesn't have a name despite the fact that I've been drawing him for about 22years. I just did this after looking at the time and seeing it was 6:20 in the morning. Yeah...one of those night again.

I hate the coloring in the eyes. It needs to be a bit more subtle. Lighter, if you will. Too tired to fix it though....Goodnight. I mean Good Morning......#!%$@

Another still from the frog Flash cartoon. Be forewarned....frog on right isn't as dumb as he appears :)

Hello All!

Here is a still from a Flash animation I am currently working on. The piece is about a frog who is later joined by another fellow frog and is not amused. The two end up duking it out over a fly. Pretty exciting, eh?.... It's my first Flash animation piece I've done completely on my own, so needless to say its a little messed up and needs many tweaks. I do, however, like the character design and the "Maurice Noble" approach I imitated in the background. Attempted I should say. Anyway I'll hopefully post the video once its all fixed. Enjoy some still in the meantime!

For whatever reason I made this. I titled it "Jesus Frog" to boot. I honestly have no idea why. Long live art school, right?

Here is a page from my sketchbook. My next assignment in my Digital Cel class is creating a  very limited piece of animation accompanied by a soundtrack. I was deciding between the "Spanish Flea" by Herb Alpert, or "The Popcorn Song." I think I'm going to go with the popcorn song, seeing as I've used the Spanish flea in previous animations.

Anyway my idea features frog(s) and here's a doodle I'm pretty pleased with. I may explore the shape more for different frog body types but I'm really digging this guy!

Here's the same assignment with my clown character added in. I think he helps!!

Here is my clown layout, complete with field guide. A field guide plots out porportions, layout, and movement of a character. I usually don't do this kind of work. I'm much more into character design and animation. This assignment was quite hard at first but thankfully I have a good professor who helped me out here and there as well as show me Maurice Noble's wonderful backgrounds. I've been loving the mans work for years and never knew who he was until now. I suggest you look him up....you may recognize his stuff!!

Overall I'm pretty happy with the end result. I added a blur effect to the tent opening which I like, and I'm pretty happy with the color choices for the most part. It really reads as a Flash background, something I kind of wish I would've avoided, but hopefully with time that"ll change and I'll get better. I may do another color version without outlines and with a limited color palette. For now, not too shabby I'd say.

Here's another version!!!! Super excited!!!!!

Created by Sean Carrow.

Here is the official poster for my short film entitled FIRST BITE!! It's a short project myself and a talented bunch of classmates are working on for our 3D collaborative class. Click to enlarge to see my talented crew and fun details.

Poster created by Sean Carrow.

So here are a few facial expressions that are going to be used in my film. I had to go through my entire animatic and make frontal expression sheets so that the rigger on the project, Ayan Akbar, can create blend shapes for the 3D version of this guy. Blend shapes are deformers that let you change the shape of one object into the shapes of other objects. In this case, facial expressions. This is one of five pages!

I am currently taking a collaborative class this quarter and part of the class is pitching an idea  in hopes of making a short animation. I pitched an idea I had about a vampire who went to claim his first victim, only to bite the guys dog instead. I had a previous post showing an image pertaining to said idea.

Needless to say my pitch got picked up and my short is currently in production. I have an amazing, talented team behind me and its beyond amazing to see this come to life. Above is the vampire model sheet I made. From here, my producer, and extremely talented modeler Danesh Taraporevala, will be bringing this guy into the third dimension!

I will post more along the way, but this is the official post for my directorial debut!

I have a feeling this is going to be small....

...For my Digital Cel Class, in which we use Adobe Flash, we have a layout assignment. Layout is not a strength of mine to say the least. However I am attempting to create a background for a clown character I did (see previous posts). They always say stepping out of your comfort zone only makes you better, so with a little luck, this assignment will improve my background/layout skills.

Here is a very rough version. The clown character is difficult to see, I know. My professor said to stay away from horizontal lines and try more diagonal line work. Horizontal lines tend to lead off the page, where diagonals are more dynamic. I will be posted more as the class progresses.

Another St. Patrick's Day madness picture!

I know that it has already came and went, but here is what St. Patrick's day looks like in Savannah Ga. I think this year it was reported that Savannah had the largest celebration in the country. There were an estimated one million people in the city that weekend. Crazy to say the least!

Hello All! I apologize for not posting in a while. Between spring break in Savannah, GA and St. Patrick's Day, I've been a little busy and preoccupied. Nevertheless, here is my final animation assignment for my character animation class.

The dialogue is from a show called "Stella." I am quite pleased with the end result, seeing as this is like the sixth thing I've every animated. I intended to go back and make tweaks here and there. I had a lot of fun with this. I really like the over-the-top performance and drawing the keys were good fun. All in all, I am excited for the future and my progress!

For my final in my animation class, we have to do another dialogue excerise. I had a difficult time trying to find the "perfect quote" to use. I was going to do the Adam Sandler quote from Happy Gilmore, "You're gonna die, Clown!" but kept coming back to this one. Originally I wanted to have a duck be saying this but decided instead on using an easier character to draw.

I'm pretty happy with it thus far. There's still more to the animation and quote. I'm going to update soon once the piece is finished. This is just the first half......enjoy!!

Hello All,

I apologize for the lack of posts and updates lately. I have been quite busy with finals and haven't had anytime to post new work. I am currently working on another dialogue piece of animation that will hopefully be posted in due time. I have also completed the "Sleep Fight" storyboard and perhaps I'll post a few of those stills.

In the meantime, one more week till SPRING BREAK!!

I'm currently storyboarding a friend's thesis film. Its called "Sleep Fight." The film is about this guy who has this epic fight in his sleep and gets his butt kicked. Here is one of my favorite drawings from it thus far.

These all nighters are going to make me better, right?



Storyboarding for a friends Thesis Film. Its called "Sleep Fight." Sounds appropriate.....

So here is the finished piece! Its not really finished completely. There are a few things to tweak like the overlapping action in his hair. Also he could blink on "begin" and his eyebrows aren't very strong, but forget all that now! I did my first dialogue animation and I think it came out freakin sweet! Feeling very good I must say.

The character is the giant from that old Mickey and the Giant Disney cartoon.

So here is a VERY rough pass at the dialogue assignment. The previous video wasn't just to make me look stupid. I was going somewhere with it. Anyway ,as you can see, there are a few places where I can hold and quite a few more frames to add. Plus the mouth shapes. But I think its no too shabby for my first ever dialogue piece. More to come!

I also just wanted to say thanks to Sean Carrow. He sat with me and did a very basic but effective "crash course" type of demonstration for overall animation. The above result is essentially the result of his help. Check him out at www.seancarrow.com

Video reference is silly. Helpful but silly. For my first dialogue piece I decided to record myself to watch things like opposing action and overall movement. My buddy Sean filmed me, and suggested I record myself in the first place. I'll post the video of my animation to give you context once I finish it. In the meantime try not to laugh...

Here is the final illustration/doodle. I'm pretty happy with the final result. There are a few things I'm going to button, such as tighten up the triangle in the background. I think I'm also going to put playing cards somewhere in there. I think they would look cool flying out of his cuffs. Who knows. Eventually I will submit it to my schools magazine and hope for publication.

Hello All,

As six in the morning approaches, I have finally completed my cover letter, resume, and business card tweaks for the LAIKA submission here at SCAD. For those who don't know who LAIKA are, they're responsible for the stop-motion film "Coraline." Amazing stuff to say the least. Needless to say, however, its been a long and stressful week and I cannot wait for it to be over.

Here's to hoping for an interview!!

I finished the line art. Now it needs color. I wanted to do a retro-esque color scheme but I'm not sure. I'll have to go online and check out UPA cartoon color swatches. In the mean time, its 5:00 am and I'm beat.

Hi mom and dad!

So I have abandoned my previous magician doodle and replaced it with this one. I'm not even sure if he's a magician or a waiter. He doesn't have and defining characteristics thus far. I based the pose off of a storyboard drawing I did for an assignment at school. You can find the storyboard at www.zakshapiro.com under storyboards!

As an animation grad student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, we are required to create a thesis film. I came up with a story/idea last year and think I am going to pursue it. It would be traditionally hand drawn, no more than a minute and a half long. Short and sweet.

Here is a sneek peak look!

Here is a very rough look at an illustration I am currently working on. I'm honestly not even sure where I'm going with it. It's supposed to be, or going to be I should say, a magician and a rabbit. I'm attempting a different style in my character design. It's proven to be quite tricky. I suppose that's what happens when you leave your comfort zone though....more to come soon!

Hey All!

My website is currently online! It's a work in progress, but I am very happy with the current result. Many thanks to Doug Horak, (http://dougisprettycool.blogspot.com/) , for the help.

www.zakshapiro.com

check it out!!

here is the new version. as you can see, things like color and design have changed slightly, but its pretty close to the original. also, you can now see how i "shade" my characters. its very subtle but present. i think when you have simplified characters like these, less is more. i also threw shadows under where the ducks overlap each other which helps them pop off the page. i also darkened the ducks that appear to be behind the foreground ones. i think this gives the piece a sense of depth.

i'm glad i went back into this one. i think it helps sometimes to re-visit old work and apply new things that you've learned to make pieces stronger. this piece is called, "Duck, Duck, Goose!" by the way :)

so when it came time to re-do this illustration, I had to change a few things. one of which was the character design. the old duck is a bit boxy and squared off in the bill. some angles don't work either. they were minor changes but i feel that they greatly improved the overall aesthetic of the character.

you can see a few notes i wrote here. i also toyed with the idea of changing the color palette, but decided that the original colors worked fine. 

here is an old illustration i did back in undergrad. the assignment was called "break the pattern." i really enjoyed this assignment, mainly because i was able to go super cartoony with it.

there are a few things i don't like about it though. for one, the rendering on it is a bit weak. i was trying to render and shade the characters but it just didn't work. I usually simplify the shadows and highlights, but here i went a little too far. also there is no black "line art" outlining the characters. i think this makes it hard to see them and as a result they don't pop off the page.

i post this because i re-drew it lately. i changed a few things on it however that really make the piece stronger

I was looking through some old artwork and found a whole bunch of work from my undergrad days. needless to say it was most entertaining! (I got my B.F.A. in illustration at the University of Hartford in Hartford Connecticut.) here is a piece I had done for our thesis illustration showcase before graduation. I'll post some more older work here and there....

more thumbnails.

in my character animation class, we're diving into our first,(and my first ever), dialogue piece. We're using the giant from the old Disney short where Mickey stars in a "jack and the beanstalk" paradoy. It's just a face-on view of the character, concentrating more on mouth shapes than him bouncing all over the screen. here are a few sketchbook thumbnails i did relating to it.

more inspiration. (All images belong to those who own them. duh.)

like every artist, and every creative mind for that matter, I have several influences and styles that have shaped and molded me into the animator/cartoonist I am today. I grew up watching The Looney Tunes and all the Disney animated features. With Looney Tunes, I fell in love with the "Roadrunner and Coyote" shorts. "Aladdin" for Disney features. I also grew up with Nickelodeon and shows like "Rocko's Modern Life" and "Ren and Stimpy," are two that really made an impression. As I got older, "South Park," "Family Guy," and "The Simpsons" played a part as well. There are also many more, too many to name.

I made these inspiration sheets as a quick visual guide to show individuals how I became what I am today.

I was looking at some old work I did back in my undergrad days and stumbled across this old aquatint etching piece.I vaguely remember the process. What I do remember was that you'd have to burn certain parts for so long to create value. You can see an early first appearance of my vampire character on the couch!

here's another drawing relating to the previous posts. after the quick doodle,(the drawing with the kid holding the ice cream cone), I redrew it and liked this version better. the rest is as follows...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WApcUBcVMos&noredirect=1

my good friend Sean Carrow, to see his work visit www.seancarrow.blogspot.com, sent this to me and I have been passing it along ever since. Its a video of legendary cartoonist and animator Ralph Bakshi explaining current animation issues, how to overcome them, the repetitive Hollywood trend of pumping out sequels and how easy it is for a few friends to sit down and make a short film of their own. Needless to say he hits the nail on the head more than once and it's worth watching.

I'm hoping the video will appear, but if not, please copy/paste the url!

...and here is the finished piece!

here is the finished line art....