Brett Underhill Presents: PorkchopBob: The Blog

Sprocket's

2011-12-28T15:13:00.001-05:00

Here's a logo that I did for Sprocket's mechanics of Montvale, NJ, a while back. The place to go for body or bike work in north Jersey/southern NY.

Sprocket may not be able to catch a gear, but he can twist in the air.

There's a new master in town

2011-12-20T19:10:00.000-05:00

Just days after I finished my Master's degree, my best pal Amy finished her's too.

I got you this Amy:

The Cuddly Finished Thesis, THREADBARE

2011-12-19T11:18:00.001-05:00

After spending most of the year working on it, I have finished my thesis animation, receiving honors from the thesis panel. I pretty happy with it, and after a few nips and tucks based on suggestions from the panel (and my own unforgiving eyes) I plan to submit it to a few festivals. I will post it online after that, but in the mean time here are some final stills and the pre-production and production documentation.

Red Hook, Then & Now (off topic)

2011-11-19T20:43:00.004-05:00

There are blogs, websites and articles that bemoan the changing landscape of beloved cities and landmarks (Lost City being a favorite of mine since it often features my long-time former neighborhood, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn). As people continue to move back into cities and rediscover the convenient joys urbania (beer for sale 24 hours a day, never having to drive yourself, an endless supply of people to call "asshole"), developers continue to put money into raising the old, and enticing home buyers with something new and usually bigger, which largely misses the point of most peoples' rediscovered fondness for brownstones and cozy, accoutrement-less brick apartment buildings.

Over the years the Then & Now book series has documented the changing faces of urban centers by recreating, from the same spot on the street (or closest thing to it, if the street is no longer there), archival photos from one-hundred years prior. The first one I saw was Madison: Now & Then, and even though little has changed to Wisconsin's capital city's modest downtown center, the time capsules on each page told a rich story - one which continues, the book is probably only 10 years old and already the "Now" photos are out of date.

However, Madison, WI, has some great history and charming streets, but its evolution simply can't compare to the kinds of changes that, not just New York City, but a single small neighborhood in Brooklyn has gone through over the past 100 years. The public engineering projects of probably the most polarizing person in NYC's history, Robert Moses, barely fit into one book. Thanks to his great ambition for the city, and incredible hubris, several neighborhoods in the outer boroughs were completely leveled to make way for commuter highways (or "parkways") thanks to families leaving cities for Westchester, Long Island and New Jersey. Today these highways are essential for the city to function, but the neighborhoods that met the wrecking ball continue to feel like half a neighborhood with ghosts around every corner. (Ironically, today many such neighborhoods in Brooklyn are being repopulated by the children of those who fled the city decades ago and helped make those commuter highways necessary that leveled chunks of the outer boroughs.)

One such neighborhood is Red Hook, Brooklyn. Once a self-sustaining appendage of Carroll Gardens, full of dock workers and seamen, it was completely cut off from its surrounding neighborhoods at Hamilton Ave by the Battery Tunnel and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the mid-20th century. After many families were displaced, others moved on due to the difficulty of simply getting to and from the neighborhood (a problem that still exists today). Apartment buildings were torn down (or burned down for the insurance - it wasn't just the Bronx that was burning) and mostly replaced with warehouses and bus garages, likely due to Red Hook's proximity to the Battery Tunnel and the BQE, rather than to any docks. Eventually the massive Red Hook Houses* projects were built, completely changing the face of the neighborhood, which saw a sharp decline with a well-known crack problem (which can still be seen occasionally today - a Methadone Clinic is a popular neighbor to Red Hookers).

* Thanks to its transient population of dock workers, Red Hook was never as prosperous as other neighborhoods in South Brooklyn - The Red Hook Houses sit on the site of the shack city known as "Hooverville".

Walking around the neighborhood today is like walking around Roman ruins - you'll find a beautiful, 100 year old brick 4-family apartment building wedged between an active bus garage on one side, and an empty lot teaming with feral cats on the other. However, every so often you can find evidence of Red Hook's heyday if you look close enough.

Anyways, thanks to the wonderful collection of photos at BrooklynPix.com (as you can see from the water mark, I don't own any of these photos, but you can find more at their website and even buy a couple), and Google Maps, I did some "Then & Now" comparisons myself. Basically, I needed to take a break from my thesis.

NE corner of Van Brunt & Beard
[REVISION, 11/25/2011]
I had this one wrong initially. When I first saw the photo, I thought it was the NE corner of the street, since there are still a few houses that look like these buildings still standing. BrooklynPix.com, however, listed this as the NW corner (3rd image). I figured the corners had similar architecture, but a friend who lives in one of the buildings confirmed it was the NE corner, which makes more sense that the trolley tracks go E towards the former dry dock.

Van Brunt St at Delavan, west side of the street
Much of the commerce on the west side of Red Hook is on Van Brunt St., but every other street seems to have the following scene: an old apartment buildings brushing up against warehouses. It's great that the 3 apartment buildings have survived, and interesting to see that empty lots aren't a new thing.

Hamilton Ave, looking south east
Here's a great view of what changed Red Hook - beyond those trees in today's view lies the Battery Tunnel. While the trolley and the businesses look inviting, it is hard to imagine NYC traffic without the popular commuter artery. Recently Red Hook has looked into reinstating a trolley on Van Brunt or Richards St., however, with the massive amount of bus and trucking traffic, I don't see how that would be possible.

Hamilton Ave, facing west
I really had to make sure I was reading BrooklynPix.com's location label for this pic, it's hard to believe that what is now a container unloading center used to look like this. But, apparently Hamilton's Ferry used to sit at the end of Hamilton Ave (makes sense, you can see its silhouette at the end of the street). Commuters would take the trolley to Hamilton Ferry to get to Manhattan, or visa versa for shoppers venturing to a popular cheap Swedish furniture store. No wait, that's happening today.

Hamilton Ferry

Richards St at Sullivan
That's right, Richards St had a trolley, too. Many cities have fallen in love with trolleys all over again as a cheap and economic (and relatively green) form of transportation, and it's amazing to see them on every block of Brooklyn in photos from the early 20th century. Light rail is great for downtown districts like Denver and Seattle, but I can only imagine they would clutter a quiet street like Richards, pushing parking and car traffic to the sides.

Richards St and Wolcott, looking west

A block from my apartment there was once a bar. Since there is a bar across the street from me now, and the former bar pictured below is now a school, I'm not too broken up about it. Still, the storefronts that once graced Richards St are kind of an interesting "what if" as the neighborhood continues to grow with large warehouse stores like Fairway and Ikea.

Richards & Wolcott, looking east

I get sandwiches (and late-night Doritos) from that bodega these days. Although after dark, it's through a through bullet-proof glass window.

The Night of the Hunter

2011-11-03T14:36:00.003-04:00

In between waiting for files to rendering on the balooning animation I am working on, I decided to catch up on some illustrating. Here's my take on The Night of the Hunter.

Thesis Screen Shots

2011-10-05T16:42:00.001-04:00

So I have been working furiously on my thesis project and each shot keeps getting longer and longer than the neat and tidy animatic I created last spring. This is good, I think. The slow pacing is coming together and hopefully building tension rather than boredom. Hopefully it doesn't get so long that I can't finish it in time. Anyways, here are some screen shots.

There's a Hanger Inside of me...for Nachos!

2011-09-14T00:35:00.000-04:00

Before I return to working on my thesis for the semester, I got one more quick animation in. I've been watching a lot of Beavis & Butthead lately while eating nachos and which brought a quick animation test full circle.

Damn have I missed football

2011-08-23T23:07:00.004-04:00

Lock-out drama aside, it's been a quiet off season for the NFL players since the Green Bay Packers won their 13th NFL title last February. After that amazing season, one of the most satisfying of any I may ever see (nicely chronicled at Little Earthquake), I am looking very much forward to seeing something other than double plays lace espn's plays-of-the-week. Go Pack, Go.

Superman's Best Friend

2011-08-10T17:07:00.004-04:00

After a few summer vacations I figured it was time to get back to work. I decided to play around with Flash and do some 'hand drawn' animations. Here is Superman and his best friend.

Au Revoir!

2011-06-23T12:23:00.001-04:00

I have spent a lot of time behind a desk at the NYU Department of French. Glad to have been a part of the team, but excited for more time to work on my stuff for a little while.

Another test

2011-05-02T15:52:00.000-04:00

Here the latest test. I am achieving the looped, painted texture effect, but I don't know how well it will jive with the angular design of the character - or how messy and noisy I want the texture to be. I don't want this to be Dr Katz. I keep going back to the character design and I like the angularity of it, perhaps the noise will be too distracting from the stillness of the piece?

The background is just a plate taken from Samurai Jack, which kind of what I want the background to look like, but there will be some secondary animation of the clouds and the grass blowing in the wind.

Motion test. This is only a test.

2011-04-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

The puppet tool. So obvious. Now I just need to refine the texture and I should be able to manipulate the character models easily

Speaking of Flash...

2011-04-01T13:31:00.001-04:00

...here's a quick test to see how it might look in Flash if I so choose. Hopefully if I choose to illustrate it in Flash, I will put more care into the actually illustration. This one is pretty chunky, I am not used to the brush in CS4.

More Concept Art for Thesis project

2011-04-01T11:52:00.005-04:00

Here are 2 concept illustrations for my thesis project. I haven't illustrated in photoshop in a long time, so it took me a while to get reacquainted with the brushes - these could be a lot better, but they are just sketches.

The plan at the moment is to create something kind of painterly, something with a little bit of noise to give it a hand-drawn touch, much like what is featured in these great The Giants animations. But I also like the simplicity of solid shapes with painted backgrounds such as those in the highly underrated cartoon Samurai Jack (or this wonderful homage to it). It would be nice to actually do some hand-drawn Flash animation for this project with gouache paintings, rather than all After Effects manipulations, I guess I will have to do some animation tests in the mean time to see how to marry the two styles.

Scarecrow concept art

2011-03-23T14:24:00.000-04:00

I have a new project I am working on involving a scarecrow. Here are some of the character concept art:

(some of) The Olympians

2011-03-23T13:38:00.005-04:00

About 6 months ago I started a brief animation of the 12 Olympians. I don't know if I will ever finish it, but here are some of the illustrated stills, to varying degree of polish:

Zeus with his lightning bolt. I think this is the first one I did and this served as a style frame for the rest of the piece.

Hera was a tough one. I didn't really know what to do with her: Aphrodite has her sexy body, Artemis can hunt, Athena has her owl, but Hera is just a stubborn, jealous queen. She isn't that interesting.

I don't think I did a very interesting take on Apollo. I added sunspots and that was about it.

Athena be all stoic and shit.

Ares looks a little more like he leaped off of a Greek amphora than any of the others.

Aphrodite has been illustrated more than any other greek god, so I didn't do anything revolutionary with her, but I am happy with how she turned out. I wanted to make her sexy yet playful.

The Greek Gods are interesting because they are still archetypes that exist today, often petty and childish. It was easier to give some of them a unique personality over others.

I have a print of Lou Romano's Poseidon hanging on my wall, which is what inspired this project in the first place. I wanted to do something in the spirit of his work, but not necessarily in the style of it.

Demeter is the most recent one I did, and her grains need some work, they are a little too clean.

I never really knew what to do with Hermes. I wanted to animate him running, but to where? and why? and would his penis swing with each stride?

Actually, all of the characters were illustrated sans clothes (see examples below). I wanted to emulate the epic, primitive innocence of the classic statues that they were cast in so long ago. It was also a way to get the whole architecture of the character. However, it just wasn't practical, especially when it came to their iconography, which got more detailed along the way. Like the iconography, the clothes added personality and character to those I felt did not need clothes (Poseidon, Aphrodite) for practical purposes, thereby separating them from those who did (the virgin Artemis). Plus, naked cartoons just looked kind of weird. Originally the depictions were even more simple and flat, like the end credits to The Incredibles. Maybe one day I will finish this, some of it is available in my demo reel.

Hera with some of the pointiest boobs. I think I was going for a queen of diamonds look.

Um, Ares, that's a big shield, but you might need some more protection on the battlefield.

demo reel ii: the sequel

2011-03-21T14:05:00.001-04:00

along with the website redesign is a revised demo reel. check it out at porkchopbob.com or right here:

The Website.

2011-03-08T15:14:00.002-05:00

My previous website was a bit of a mess, was difficult to update, and hadn't gotten an update in about 5 years. It was time to simplify. So check out the new, no frills site.

Tin Man Beer.

2011-01-09T22:13:00.003-05:00

You're Going In.

2011-01-09T22:12:00.004-05:00

Another project. Inspired by a crazy ass in Madison WI

Show Opening

2011-01-09T15:52:00.002-05:00

Am cleaning up some projects from last semester. Here's a show opening assignment I recently did.

Home to Van Brunt St.

2010-12-11T12:40:00.001-05:00

A recent illustration of the view of my apartment I get to see every morning and evening from the bust stop.

It's a little dull, I had a hard time making it interesting, compositionally, but there it is. I had The Night Window by Edward Hopper in mind as I worked on it, which no coincidence since a copy of it is hanging in my living room.

Integrity Health Animation

2010-12-07T15:18:00.078-05:00

I recently finished an animation for Integrity Health in conjunction with the fine folks at Princeton Partners. You can watch here.

Here are a few stills:

Some production art:

storyboard sketch of the above still.

An abandoned concept. I have to admit, wrestling would have been fun to animate.

From Sketch to Final:

The storyboard sketch.

The first pass. I thought all lines and hard blacks would be a stark, simple approach.

I was thinking simple, and got the idea of black figures, like Greek amphoras, but realized the characters needed to be easily identifiable from one another, so I added color to their wardrobe. This made them all look like they were in black face. Terrible idea.

Simple color always is the way to go, but...

...it couldn't be all dudes.

Looking forward to the next one...

Ceiva Animation.

2010-12-07T15:12:00.001-05:00

I had the pleasure of help editing and animating some text for Ceiva with Jim's Journal's Scott Dikkers. Watch it here.

The Conversation - Alternate Ending

2010-12-04T14:30:00.002-05:00

A school editing project. I removed all of the sound and replaced it.

The Conversation - Alternate Ending from Brett Underhill on Vimeo.

Production art & self-indulgent commentary: "Ok, the Allman Brothers"

2010-11-15T11:49:00.122-05:00

Here are a few stills and production art from my recent Allman Brothers animation. Most of the artwork looks best in motion, but some of them stand nicely on their own. Actually, it was a lot of work and I feel like being self-indulgent right now. Isn't that what blogs are for?

A lot of the production art I did is pretty rough, I did most of the illustrating on the computer. Since this was my own project, I didn't have to produce story boards that were in any way legible to any one other than me. (I was also on the beach in Barcelona at the time, having just finished the initial audio edits and listening to it on my ipod while I scribbled down ideas - nothing like working on the beach next to some of Europe's finest). They say good animation begins with a great drawing - hopefully the final product rose above my general blocking and initial staging for the piece, because the first animatic was a lot of this:

After staging and boarding everything, I began to get a little more specific with designs, like figuring out the logistics and look of the opening shot. A lot of what is in this early sketch of the band ended up in the final piece. The color palettes for each era were all very intentional (as you can see detailed in the corner), I made a color script which appears during the credits (and was posted on this blog ). The 1971 era colors are washed out blues and browns, similar to the grainy Fillmore East footage that is in circulation; the 1973 band is yellowish brown, similar to the gatefold of the Wipe the Windows and Brothers & Sisters and that era in general; the 1994 era is bright primary colors, similar to their album art, Where It All Begins in particular; the 2003 era band is a little more jazzy so I used more cool colors.

COLOR STUDIES:

A fiery Duane, similar to this one.

Dickey Betts on fire, apparently.

A Gregg color study.

CHARACTER DESIGN SKETCHES:

A quick study of young Gregg at the keys.

Dickey through the years

a few studies of Warren throughout the years.

and Allen Woody, of course. Unfortunately I couldn't really find places to fit him in to the animation much, but that mirrored his presence in the band since he was often in the background behind Warren and Dickey, in spite of his monstrous bass.

A quick style frame to see how things were shaping up. This is kind of Frank Miller-ish.

I illustrated the players right on top of each other so they would seamlessly change over the course of the song (and the passage of time).

STILLS:

Duane in his peacock shirt (later seen on Gregg)

Dickey, similar to his appearance inside Wipe the Windows. I initially wasn't going to feature the 1973 era of the band (largely because I didn't have a decent recording of "Statesboro Blues" from that era) but I just couldn't leave out Chuck & Lamar and the most commercially successful era of the band. Plus it gave me more chance to feature Dickey.

I have illustrated Derek for his own band's t-shirts, and the problem was always coming up with new ways to stage the same players. That's probably the main reason I began to animate all of the iconography. That, and animating guitars is really, really boring.

I was a little worried that Gregg would be too prominently featured, but then again, he's the one singing the song in each era.

One of four quick passes of Gregg singing in the spotlight.

Instead of animating the action on stage, I decided to have some fun with their iconography, similar to segments from The Beatles' Yellow Submarine (the peach truck zooming around in the background was definitely inspired by the sub) and "Free as a Bird" video. Here's a quick look at some of the first storyboards I did of the sequence.

Initially I had Gregg land at "High Falls", continuing his 'high fall' from the "Dreams" mountain, but scrapped the idea.

Here is "Sister Lucille", a little more fun than her sister. The background is based on the cover to Seven Turns. When trying to find an aesthetic, I went with what was already familiar and provided by the band.

Here is a nod to "Dreams" (and "Mountain Jam" too I suppose). I tried to match the action to the era of the audio, and kept it familiar, so Gregg is decked out in his digs from the first album's photos. This also echoes George Harrison's introduction in Yellow Submarine.

Rose Hill, populated late at night by "Liz Reed", Dickey. After this shot, Duane is leaning on Little Martha (pose references the bathroom shot that appears on the back of Duane Allman Anthology II) and Berry is posed as Jesus as was on The Allman Brothers Band. I was a little worried people would think they were ghosts, but it's a graveyard song-writing frenzy.

The Midnight Rider, flipping his last silver dollar.

Here's an early sketch of Jimmy working at the commerce bank. I eventually hippied him up a little bit, he kept his pony tail for partying, but still jumps into the monkey suit for his legit gig.

The rain and moon glow was added later to this "sleepy southern town" while "the midnight moon burns brightly".

Here's an example of my rough sketching process. Here's the initial staging I did for a woman beckoned into someone's kitchen while it's raining outdoors. I don't think this was very successful, most people thought it was a reference to "One Way Out", which is one of the few major songs I did not reference. (I later thought I could have use a "One Way" sign in a transition or during the credits.)

Here's the more detailed sketch to illustrate over.

and the final illustration before the rain was added.

I took 2 separate covers from 20 years apart and combined them. I think it made a good thematic marriage, not just because they both have a swamp, but because Duane is pretty much "where it all began" for this band.

Another cover re-imagining in the animation's style, Brothers & Sisters. Vaylor Trucks, the tyke pictured on the cover, was one of the first people to let me know the animation wasn't a complete waste of time.

This one seemed obvious, I knew this would end the piece. One of my favorite Allman Brothers' covers and it isn't even in print anymore.

I think altogether I fit in 15 song references, 10 album references, and another 4 or 5 places or items in the piece. Maybe I should hold a contest to see if anyone can find them all.

If you read all of this, I'm amazed - you must have more time on your hands than I do, because this blog has more information on this piece than Coppolla yielded for The Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now combined. Ok, that's enough self-indulging for now.

Adam & Lu

2010-10-24T16:34:00.002-04:00

My brother, Adam, took a bus down the street to the justice of the peace last July and married Luciana. Great day, they are pretty damned happy. Here is the two of them in their public chariot.

Pacer ad

2010-10-15T12:52:00.004-04:00

I recently completed this flash banner for Pacer Intermodal:

Below are three style frames as the style itself was hammered out:

This is a frame the agency gave me from their animatic:

I tried to give the blue ghost some personality, while retaining his blueness but this was deemed too modern:

Take II was on the right track, but still deemed too modern and angular.

Take III was just right, but I still prefer the first one.

The Demo Reel...

2010-09-20T23:17:00.003-04:00

Brett Underhill Demo Reel from Brett Underhill on Vimeo.

Ok, the Allman Brothers Band...

2010-08-16T10:32:00.002-04:00

I've been working feverishly on this off and on for about the last year and it's finally done, which is why not much else has shown up here. I first got the idea at the Allmans' historic 2009 40th anniversary Beacon run, a year and a half later it's done and I'm fairly satisfied with it. Some of the animation is choppy, but I wanted to keep it pretty simple, especially after the scope of the project began to get more ambitious.

Ok, the Allman Brothers Band.... from Brett Underhill on Vimeo.

another box o' red

2010-07-13T22:28:00.003-04:00

box o' red again

2010-06-10T01:04:00.001-04:00

Hand-drawn animatin test.

2010-05-09T13:59:00.002-04:00

Novel-T Animation

2010-05-05T11:41:00.002-04:00

I just finished up an animation for my friends over at Novel-T , shirts to wear your read. They are unveiling their 2nd series of shirts this Friday. Prove to your girlfriend that you can read and buy one.

Introducing the Full Novel-T League from Novel T on Vimeo.

From Board to Screen

2010-04-29T16:57:00.004-04:00

A board I did and the recently posted final promo. More viewable at http://www.bugsruineverything.com/

vinohoho

2010-04-26T09:08:00.003-04:00

Another Box O'Red (now with fewer fart jokes!)

2010-04-09T19:20:00.003-04:00

pest redux

2010-04-06T12:01:00.001-04:00

I had to revise a few of the pest illustrations at the client's request.

vinery

2010-03-26T21:23:00.001-04:00

mo' critters

2010-03-22T22:37:00.003-04:00

the following bugs are fugitives from justice.

2010-03-22T22:35:00.002-04:00

proof for ad campaign

2010-03-10T08:22:00.003-05:00

mo' boards mo' problems

2010-03-10T08:20:00.001-05:00

mo' boards

2010-03-10T08:18:00.001-05:00

Storyboards

2010-03-10T08:16:00.001-05:00

A few recent storyboards I produced.

yup. all i do anymore.

2010-03-02T20:34:00.001-05:00

http://www.supplewine.com/comics/box-o-red/2010-03-02.php

Wine comics are apparently all I do anymore.

2010-02-27T11:43:00.005-05:00

http://www.supplewine.com/comics/box-o-red/2010-02-26.php

mo'vino

2010-02-23T19:24:00.002-05:00

http://www.supplewine.com/comics/box-o-red/

vinohoho

2010-01-30T14:09:00.001-05:00

http://www.supplewine.com/comics/box-o-red/2010-01-29.php

That's supposed to be bacon, not a fruit roll up...

2010-01-26T11:21:00.003-05:00

www.wine.haha

2010-01-19T19:33:00.002-05:00

http://www.supplewine.com/comics/box-o-red/2010-01-15.php

she's skirt suit cute

2010-01-14T01:41:00.003-05:00

A submission for a project that went nowhere...

There's a new flip book in town...

2010-01-14T01:36:00.003-05:00

Wine funny

2010-01-09T12:12:00.003-05:00

Another SuppleWine.com comic.

A tale from my bahama trip in a flipbook

2009-12-31T13:35:00.004-05:00

Another wine joke in pictures.

2009-12-19T12:20:00.005-05:00

eat this up with a spoon at www.supplewine.com

Box O' Red III

2009-12-12T20:51:00.002-05:00

Another strip for the folks over at SuppleWine.com. He sure got trim in the middle, didn't he?

PorkchopBob Stop Motion/Flip Book Tests

2009-12-03T13:21:00.002-05:00

Behold : the appearance of movement! So amazing you may poop yourself (that's a warning, not an invitation)

Box O' Red 2

2009-12-01T20:13:00.003-05:00

at supplewine.

Comic strip for SuppleWine

2009-11-14T16:14:00.004-05:00

I have begun doing a new comic strip for SuppleWine. I always wanted to do one, I guess it took wine's draw to make me, well, draw one.

I never really realized how dumb this rap really is...

2009-11-10T23:19:00.003-05:00

...until I spent 3 days animating it.

new profile avatar

2009-11-07T00:41:00.002-05:00

Wally Backman

2009-10-26T23:06:00.004-04:00

Another 'stache doodle for my 'stache-loving peeps.

DVD Titles

2009-10-17T15:52:00.003-04:00

Title I
Title II
Title III

the home movie discs

2009-10-17T15:06:00.006-04:00

the years were changed during production, but these are the final illustrations.

The dvd insert, front & insert

2009-10-17T15:05:00.003-04:00

DVD graphics

2009-10-17T14:57:00.003-04:00

We recently transferred out home movies from 8mm to dvd. Here is the cover of the dvd.

bond is back

2009-07-10T23:41:00.002-04:00

Another James Bond illustration I've been working on for a while. I think it's done.

Color Scripts for a new project

2009-05-31T14:28:00.006-04:00

PorkchopBob on 6 strings

2009-05-09T17:43:00.005-04:00

I had to record some music for my last short and once I started, I couldn't stop. So, behold my mediocre guitarmanship.

what i've been up to lately

2009-04-22T02:01:00.004-04:00

Here is one of many things, a little motion graphic.

train says

2009-04-02T02:11:00.008-04:00

Illustrations for a new subway short (view the motion test). I think these are turning out well. I am trying to balance as much flat, 2D-ness as I can, but I think the train interior needs something more, without being too distracting. But since it will be present throughout, it will be held up to more scrutiny.

hulk

2009-03-23T02:19:00.003-04:00

Here's an old one that I returned to. I like where it is headed, but feel like it needs something more on that wall, so I am posting it here so I can stare at said wall until I see what should be there.

Licence to Kill

2009-03-20T14:55:00.004-04:00

I got some time to fully render some illustrations this week. Hopefully more to come.

Licence to Kill

2009-03-18T01:03:00.003-04:00

Timothy Dalton is James Bond. Or, he was once...

Chief McGuffin nipped and tucked

2009-03-01T18:06:00.004-05:00

PorkchopBob, cleaned up

2009-03-01T16:33:00.006-05:00

For the last two PorkchopBob shorts I revamped Bob himself. Here is the previous model, which is a little more graphic but not really animate-able; along with the revamped version of Bob, who has grown quite a bit since he was first dreamed up.

another character revamp

2009-03-01T15:08:00.005-05:00

I've been playing around with the high contrast hard shadows I usually use on characters (I previously lightened them to a transparent gray on my revision of the Cranie model). I really like them, but sometimes it's too much. For my revamp of Mara the Squirrel Lady I felt she was much more graphically strong with those black shadows so I only really revamped her pose which was really awful on the old model.

Character design revision

2009-03-01T03:19:00.006-05:00

A couple of years ago I created some character designs in Flash in order to animate them, but they look horribly simple and out of date on their own so I've begun revising them. Here is the first, Cranie.

coloring W4

2009-02-22T23:36:00.003-05:00

and the motion test

more self portraits they made me do

2009-02-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

commuting

2009-02-01T13:19:00.006-05:00

a stab at gouache

2009-01-31T15:22:00.003-05:00

a recent class assignment. Could have turned out better I suppose.

PorkchopBob Agains (again)

2009-01-23T01:12:00.001-05:00

Lanny McDonald

2008-12-20T17:50:00.005-05:00

Don't even really know who Lanny McDonald is, but I think the illustration I did of him recently turned out sort of spiffy.

I think I got better some how...

2008-12-08T02:38:00.007-05:00

I don't mean to sound overly self-satisfied, but I'm really happy with the way some recent illustrations have turned out. It's for a project that started almost a year ago, and while I like a lot of those past illustrations, some of them I am down-right embarrassed by or simply have no relationship with anymore. It's as if some one else did them, and I wonder how the new illustrations will mix with the illustrations from a year ago. But I accept an artist's style morphs and grows over time, I am not one to tinker with illustrations of the past. But I like what I've produced lately, I've changed my approach and have learned to finish (and start) an image more properly. The project isn't finished yet, but since no one ever reads this I feel I can safely post this image.

A month from now I may cringe when I look at it, but today I like it. Ladies and gentlemen, Sammy Davis, jr. and Jim Croce.

More to come hopefully.

i'm ready for summer

2008-10-23T22:43:00.001-04:00

everybody DANCE!

2008-10-23T22:38:00.002-04:00

Got a new dance and it goes like this...

2008-10-12T14:57:00.002-04:00

Another stachioed ill

2008-10-08T22:54:00.003-04:00

Abandoned DTB idea

2008-10-01T15:10:00.002-04:00

Pretty shameless rip off of Justice League New Frontier cover, but I was idea-absent.

Now here's a familiar pose...

2008-09-29T21:05:00.001-04:00

2008-09-28T20:00:00.003-04:00

I started this forever ago. I guess I'll probably never finish it, so at least I can stare at it online now.

Flying Tights Man

2008-09-27T12:07:00.007-04:00

Yep, my new totally original character.

promo

2008-09-27T12:02:00.004-04:00

Check out this bitchin' link.

http://www.porkchopbob.com/thecheappop/pablocruise.html

blockt

2008-09-27T11:58:00.006-04:00

I've had the same sketchbook since July. Since I've been carrying them with me, I usually go through about one a month, so I don't know what's up. Any ways, that's that. Here's something I made out of pen & paper.

republish the book of bert

2008-09-26T23:24:00.001-04:00

meet the new sketch. same as the old sketch

2008-09-26T23:22:00.005-04:00

I decided to start posting sketches as I initially intended to when I began this blog. So here's today's sketch from several yesterdays ago. No idea what to do with it.

Another Adventure for PorkchopBob

2008-07-09T22:48:00.005-04:00

I recently finished the latest PorkchopBob short, which is why I haven't illustrated anything lately. I was much more ambitious with this one than past shorts. Considering the only thing that moved in past shorts was usually a mouth or blood splatter, that's not saying much, but I certainly learned a lot with this one. Hopefully it was not a complete waste of time

The Stilt

2008-04-01T02:12:00.003-04:00