Bubble Tea! Bubble Tea!

Latest Trion Figure Drawings

2011-08-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches from Trion's latest figure drawing workshops. Our model for July was Devon Jones, a sexy roller derby performer. The August model was Anastacia Armstrong, fashion designer and artist.

Devon Jones

2 -5 minute poses

Anastacia Armstrong

5 - 10 minute poses

Finding good models is really difficult, so I count myself very fortunate to be able to work with these wonderful ladies.

My Bahmi animation

2011-07-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my male Bahmi mage animation being featured on Rift's mage class trailer.

Bahmi Mage animation from Ferd on Vimeo.

Trion Figure Drawing - April 2011

2011-07-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

2 - 5 minute poses

I've just gotten around to posting this. It was from our April session at Trion, modeling of course is my friend Katherine Burness. For this one, I decided to exaggerate her postures a bit.

Trion Figure Drawing - July 6, 2011

2011-07-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to be putting up some new drawings this month (finally). For this 2 hour session our model was Brooke Milos.

2 minute poses.

5 minute poses.

10 minute pose.

I have taken over organizing our studio's bi-weekly figure drawing sessions. It was a bit nerve wracking at first, since I had no experience organizing any kind of event and have never hired art models before.

It's literally been months and months since I last posted anything. With the release of our game and a bunch of other stuff I got going on outside of work, I just got too overwhelmed with all these things happening at once. I guess I'm not as adept at multi-tasking as I thought. But all in all, this has been a great learning experience.

^_^

Rift goes live for headstart 02.24.2011

2011-02-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

RIFT has gone live this thursday! Everyone who preordered the game can now log in and play online! It's a historic day for Trion Worlds, with the release of our first flagship title and already the number of players playing our game is through the roof!

Here's a clip of my Bahmi celebrating our release. ^_^

Rift will be out in stored March 1st, and in Europe March 4th.

Bahmi Tattoo Concepts/Game Screens

2011-01-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

With the lifting of the NDA weeks ago and permission from Trion Worlds, I thought I'd do a little write up on some tattoo designs I recently did for the Bahmi charcters in "Rift."

The Bahmi is one of the playable races in Rift. Aligned with the Defiant faction, they are descended from the half-giant Shalastiri from the plane of Air, whose bodies and especially their faces are adorned with very distinct magical tattoos called sefir.

I've been primarily animating the male Bahmi, but this would be the first time I've contributed some concept art for it... and actually got it in the game (woo!!). Fortunately, one of the character artists working on refining the textures and model of the Bahmi shared my ideas on the character as far as (tattoo) designs were concerned - so after a few discussions I presented him with these sefir concepts;

Bahmi facial "sefir"

(tattoo) designs

Time was short (shocker). I submitted the designs and out of these they were able to create multiple variations of the base patterns, quickly doubling the number of choices for character creation. I'm quite happy with the results, considering the constraints we had;

Male Bahmi "sefir" patterns

applied to game model

Side to side comparison

of the female Bahmi "sefir" in-game

with the sketch

I was only able to design two patterns for the female version... pretty much ran out of time, but it still made it into the game.

The other races in the game also have tattoo options, but I designed the sefir patterns with the Bahmi specifically in mind. Hopefully, the patterns remain unique to this race.

Big thanks to the character artist Shawn Shain and our art director Darren Pattenden for letting me contribute these defining characteristics for the Bahmi race.

Rift will be available for the PC on March 1st, 2011.

Merritt College Drawing Marathon 12.05.2010

2010-12-08T01:19:00.000-08:00

Another set of short poses from this past sunday's Bay Area Models Guild drawing marathon, this time held at The Merritt College in Oakland, CA.

Once again, the models they had were top knotch - there were quite a few that were really challenging to draw. Several stages were set up for particular pose lengths; 1-2 minutes, 5-10 minutes, 20 minutes and 25 minutes. I stayed with the short poses. I got me tons of drawings that took several hours to sift through and pick the ones that I'm quite happy with.

1-2 minute poses of Leah

1-2 minute poses of Carrie

1-2 minute poses of various

male and female models

This was the final drawing marathon held by BAMG (Bay Area Models Guild) for 2010 and so far, the largest crowd of artists I've ever drawn with in a single (full day) session. There were artists of all types ranging from simple sketchers like me, to painters and sculptors. Good energy overall and fun environment.

Next one's in February 27th, 2011... See you there!

Palo Alto Drawing Marathon 11.21.2010

2010-11-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

5-10 minute poses

I'm finally able to attend the Palo Alto Drawing Marathon. Here's a select few from the session. The poses I have here range between 5-10mins I think... I was moving around a lot. Heck of a time to show up for an all day drawing session after months of no practice though. Ugh... can't believe how rusty I got. Still, it was a lot of fun.
The models are members of the Bay Area Models Guild and they are fantastic. My friend Katherine Burness is a member and was posing in the second half of the session (that's her on the top right and the one directly beneath it). I look forward to more sessions like this.

I believe this guild is having another drawing marathon on December 5th at Merritt College in Oakland. Let's see if I can make this one and end 2010 in a good, artistic note!

It's been a while

2010-10-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

(Random warm-up sketches)

(Various "Soldier" poses from Trion's
figure drawing workshop)

July was the last time I posted anything from figure drawing workshops. There simply isn't enough time in a day to do everything. Between my martial arts training and work schedule, drawing kinda took a back seat for the time being.

Our game "Rift: Planes Of Telara" is due for release sometime next year. So everyone including myself are really hammering down to deliver the most kick-ass and polished assets ever seen in an mmorpg. Since everyone is now busier than usual, Trion's figure drawing sessions have also been put on temporary hold until we ship. The "soldier" was the last model I've drawn and the last session I attended.

I still try to make it out to Dr. Sketchy's each month just to keep my drawing muscles in check and I actually attended last month. I'm just bummed that I wasn't able to draw anything worth putting up from the last workshop.

PUMPKINS!!

2010-10-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

I know... this blogspot is supposed to be about artsy sketches, drawings and illustrations. But this time around I figgered I'd post something much more better... Photos of PUMPKINS!!

That's right... Happy autumn y'all! I've been living in the San Francisco Bay for about 2 years now. I don't recall the trees around here changing into the season's spectacular colors. Then one day I decided to go to the local Wholefoods Market for lunch in San Mateo and find these beauties.

I swear, I don't think I've ever seen pumpkins in colors other than orange - I've seen those "splotchy" ones that have a bit of green, light yellow, etc. on them... but grey? Maroon? White? That's just crazy talk!

I sometimes miss good photo-ops like these 'cause I seldom carry my Canon G11 camera - Luckily I had my samsung captivate with me. With really good lighting, this smartphone takes pretty decent looking pics. If I didn't have to hurry, grab some eats and run back to the studio, I would just hang out here snapping pics for the rest of the day. I don't have any pics of it, but there were pumpkins there the size of pilates exercise balls! There were cars parked too closely, so I decided not to take any pics of them. Maybe I'll go back later and snap a few if they're still there.

I dunno why, but when I caught a glimpse of these pumpkins, it was a really heart warming feeling. Autumn here is pretty blah - no leaves changing colors to signal the change of seasons. Not really anyway. Makes me miss Chicago even more, as well as the east coast. Taking pictures of these pumpkins made my day a little more enjoyable.

Dr. Sketchy's 07.20.2010

2010-07-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

3-5 minute poses

Another really fun workshop at Dr. Sketchy's at the Minna Gallery. The models were the burlesque trio called Sister Kate. So far, these ladies have the best costumes I think. The sketching part though was rather disappointing... 'cause I was torn between drawing and taking pictures. They just looked so good on stage! The dance routine they did balancing a sword on their heads was tops! Check out the video below.

Trion Figure Drawing 07.14.2010

2010-07-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

3-5 minute poses

Select short poses of Katherine from our latest drawing session. Our group's favorite model, she's always a lot of fun and a challenge to draw. I'm lucky to get out a couple of decent sketches of her each time she models for us.

Official Game Site: Rift Planes Of Telara

2010-06-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Click "Rift: Planes Of Telara" to visit our game's official homepage. Check out trailers and other media.

Dr. Sketchy's 05.15.2010

2010-06-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Man, it has been a while since I last put up some sketches; these past two and a half months I've been so focused on hitting our milestones for E3. The extra effort paid-off of course, but it left me little or no time for anything else. I'm basically just starting to get back into drawing again this week.

So, first order of business is to hit Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art school Workshop at San Francisco's 111 Minna Gallery. This evening's models were a couple of burlesque performers; a petite Asian woman who calls herself Mynx D'Meanor and a voluptuous blonde named Flame Cynders.

I went ahead and used prismacolor cool gray markers instead of lead or wax pencils.

Rift: Planes Of Telara

2010-04-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

(The playable Bahmi warrior that I'm currently animating for the game)

Trion Worlds has finally unveiled our flagship mmo title to the public, "Rift: Planes Of Telara." Formerly titled "Heroes Of Telara," it's been getting a lot of great press these past few days. We still got plenty of work to do to make it look and play awesome (even though many people already think so). In the meantime, here are some links announcing the game.

Game site - http://www.riftgame.com/en/index.php

massively.com - http://www.massively.com/2010/04/26/massivelys-hands-on-look-at-rift-planes-of-telara/

MMORPG - http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/431/feature/4191/Trion-Worlds-Event-Rift-Planes-of-Telara-Preview.html

Ten Ton Hammer - http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/first_look

It's been an exciting week!

Metamorphica - 02.26.2010

2010-03-01T00:09:00.001-08:00

The first Metamorphica figure drawing workshop this year was great! Led by Anastazia Louise, Bad Unkl Sista yet again delivered fantastic performances to the tunes played by Fkir Elderfae and other musicians, not to mention Nadia Mogilev's efforts in organizing such a workshop for us artists, students and professionals alike.

I'd say one of my biggest struggle during these workshops is not so much the drawing part itself... but trying to juggle the damned camera to get a good shot and then switching to drawing the models after they settle down. The length of the poses varies between 3 minutes to 20 minutes, depending on the model. Since they are butoh performers, they do a bit of "dancing" or some kind of expressive movements before posing for the artists.

As far as drawing medium, this time around I opted to use prismacolor fine liners and grey markers. I recall the last metamorphica I attended was quite crowded and I came with an 11x14 newprint pad and some pencils and had to sit on the floor, which made the experience a tad uncomfortable. Expecting the same, I figured I'm gonna have to draw smaller and with something that didn't require constant sharpening.

Ive recently started experimenting with different mediums, first with pastel sticks. But, It yielded rather disappointing results since I didn't really know how to properly draw with them. Gonna have to practice a few times more before I post something decent in that medium. So for this workshop, fineliners and markers it is.

The format of the workshop had changed - instead of a front and center stage, the entire floor of the studio became the stage, so artists had to get up and move around to get the best angle possible for their sketches. It was a lot of fun and allowed for more interaction with other artists. The preformers also got "in your face" and interacted with the artists as they drew. It was such a cool experience.

I am truly humbled and proud to be in the presence of such talented artists. Their commitment to their craft help fuel my drive to become better at figure drawing. Another workshop is being planned for April, so I expect to be posting up more images from that event. I can hardly wait.

Photos from this workshop can be found in my facebook photo album and flickr pages.

Trion Figure Drawing February 2010

2010-02-11T00:16:00.010-08:00

Well, the figure drawing sessions at work are certainly off to a good start this year - finally got myself a portable easel, so I'll be drawing upright again. This month we're introduced DeCoy Gallerina, a professional dancer and a fantastic costumed model.

DeCoy Gallerina,3-5 min poses

DeCoy Gallerina, 20 min pose

You can check out DeCoy Gallerina's video on Youtube.

I haz returned... with figger drawings!!

2010-02-07T18:27:00.025-08:00

Well, it's been a crazy year 2009. Lots of milestones to hit at Trion (and still no mandatory unpaid overtime, unlike some game development studios). As busy as I was with work, I somehow managed to squeeze in extra curricular activities which include my return to training in martial arts and attending drawing workshops. Tough year, but rewarding.

So, here's a few of those drawings, some from the workshops and others from work. I'll post more later from upcoming drawing workshops.

The Minna Gallery regularly hosts live model drawing workshops once every month. The models range from burlesque dancers, stage performers and in this case, Roller Derby girls. It's a pretty casual setting, with a bar where you can get alcoholic beverages and nice music playing in the background. Though it can be a bit loud with the music and all the chatter going on, it's still a nice venue to mingle with fellow artists and meet new people.

I have to admit, the Roller Derby girls were rather "cute" - they've never posed for a drawing class before and standing still for 3-5 minutes on roller skates is mad hard, but I thought they did a good job in maintaining dynamic poses for us.

Next are from Metamorphica, a drawing workshop hosted by the performance troupe Bad Unkl Sista. These models wear amazing costumes and their movements are pretty out of this world, almost like creatures from another planet. I hope to attend the next one.
These selections are from the after hours drawing class at work. These are drawings from "good" models. This past session,we had a particularly fantastic nude model by the name of Katherine Burness. She became an instant favorite and we hope she'll return for more drawing sessions. Hands down, THE best live model I've gotten to draw since moving out here in the Bay area.But first, we have to try out a few more models and compile a list of favorites, which now includes Katherine and another gentleman we had prior to her.

3-5 minute poses, with Katherin Burness.

3-5 minute poses with various female models.

20 minute pose with Katherine Burness. She really liked this one so I gave her a scanned copy, which she put up on her website.

10 minute pose with a 50 year old male nude.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I hope to post more from upcoming drawing classes in the coming weeks.

- Ciao.

Needlehead

2009-10-11T01:38:00.004-07:00

I decided to enter a design contest recently and submitted this ragdoll with a grin painted on its face and a needle pierced thru its head... why this design? I don't really know what possessed me to create this image to be quite honest.

Voting has begun! You can go to www.equnit.com/equilibrium to vote for your favorite design. If you do choose to vote, I hope you choose this guy. It would bring me much gleeful happiness. Thank you!

Ferd TV

2009-06-20T20:27:00.003-07:00

I've recently added samples of my animation work in Vimeo, now that their compression quality seems to be much better. Plus I'm quite disappointed with YouTube's quality so I figured, why the hell not?

http://vimeo.com/channels/ferd please feel free to check it out and subscribe to the channel.

Heroes Of Telara

2009-06-09T23:55:00.004-07:00

Finally announced at this year's E3 is Heroes Of Telara, the upcoming MMO that I've been animating on. Currently being developed and to be published by Trion World Network Inc.

There's quite a lot of haters out there since our game was unveiled, mainly 'cause the majority who have seen our first trailer don't really understand that this game isn't and does not intend to be like World Of Warcraft.

Heroes Of Telara does offer highly social and dynamic online gaming that is different than the usual mmorpg experience - not many understand what the hell that means or how the gameplay works, resulting in some pretty harsh first impression reviews. However, this reviewer seems to understand better than most of the press that showed up at our private demo - http://vgtribune.com/100-million-question-is-heroes-of-telara-the-world-of-warcraft-killer/ (this guy does exaggerate a bit - our goal is not to be a WoW killer, but rather to put out good game that is drastically different from your usual run-of-the-mill MMO game, which hopefully players will enjoy immensely).

This is the first trailer, so nothing is really polished as of yet.

Ferd pic on Schmap!

2009-04-30T10:31:00.002-07:00

Yay! One of my photos have been selected to be used on Schmap.com
http://www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=chicago&sid=sights_zoos&p=10505&i=10505_85

Warrior Monk Sketch

2009-03-01T17:28:00.010-08:00

It's literally been months since I last posted anything on my blog; just been really busy at work and usually too tired to do anything (creative) after I get home.

Still, it's good to be busy with work - with the economy being the way it is, I count myself fortunate to have a cool job and earning steady income.

Recently I've found the need to start drawing again - I began loosely sketching this warrior monk with a wax pencil. I wanted to re-imagine what a warrior monk might be like if he were to exist in a world of fantasy. His design is an amalgam of several influences, which include Thai/Cambodian monk, Shaolin monk, samurai, and the fictional character Aang from "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (a cartoon show that I'm a HUGE fan of).

What da dealy yo? - Basically I envisioned a warrior monk that is, for lack of a better word "extreme" in every sense. One who has trained since childhood, in a religion of elightment and meditation (I wouldn't call it buddhism since in this world it'll probably be called something else, but very similar) and martial science.

This particular one is a battle-ready Nomad; a traveling warrior monk. His body is tatooed with incantations and holy spells which glow when he harnesses his qi. He wears little or no armor, except for the leather lamellar skirt. His body would also be painted in a manner that would make him appear ghost-like. It is said that 1 nomad is enough to strike terror within the ranks of an opposing army.

At some point I intend to paint this character. I'll post it here when it's done and add more info about The Nomad.

Joker/Batman Face-off

2008-11-28T01:24:00.015-08:00

Here's a scene from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe that I worked on at Midway Games. Joker has some newfound abilities and decides to "call out" the Batman.

I did the facial animation for Joker and Batman. I also had to go in and heavily handkey Joker's motion, exaggerate his timing, poses and add a lot of flourishing movements to his hands and fingers (which were non-existent in the mocap data).

Variety magazine even gave props to Joker's performance. Click here for the article.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is available now for the PS3, X360 and Wii. Do check it out. If anything, it is a fun game to play.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

2008-09-16T16:26:00.005-07:00

I just recently completed cinematics work for Midway's upcoming fighter "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe." I mostly did keyframed facial animation on The Joker, as well as motion editing for several characters. Definitely not my best work, but some of the latest screens I saw showed promise.

The game is definitely fun to play, so hopefully it does well when it comes out for the PS3 and X360. Supposed to be due out in November 2008, but I was told just recently that it's been postponed to be released after christmas... yes, people will be crunching until it ships.

Old Character Design

2008-09-04T15:53:00.004-07:00

I haven't drawn anything new... so here's something I did a long time ago. At the time, I was into cartoony, urban chick designs, that's why I made this one. Was just starting to really get into coloring in photoshop too. I'm thinkin' I might revisit this design... maybe when I finally stop crunching at Midway and have a life again...

Stay tuned!

Animation, Class Of 1998

2008-09-04T15:30:00.003-07:00

Oh my lord... My friend and former roomate had compiled and posted on youtube a collection of stop-motion reels that we did way back in the days of 2nd year animation class at The Joe Kubert School Of Cartoon And Graphic Art. Courtesy of Tony Tabtong. The instructor of the class was Sal Malimo.

Ralp Bakshi: Surviving In Tough Times

2008-08-04T12:16:00.004-07:00

Some profound insight from Ralph Bakshi during an interview at the San Diego ComiCon (Click on title to view).

Ferd Reel 2008

2008-07-26T23:19:00.007-07:00

Here's a compilation of my most current animation work. I generally avoid including motion editing samples in my reel because I prefer to showcase my keyframing skills. However, I may edit it in if I were to apply at a studio that do motion capture work to demonstrate my experience with it.

Although I have worked with motion capture, I've never considered it to be animation - motion capture is a tool where you're given data to manipulate that was provided by another performer or actor, whereas in animation the animator IS the performer and actor.

Me personally, I find doing keyframe character animation provides the most rewarding experience and more often than not, much better results.

Verizon: A Thoughtful

2008-07-26T22:49:00.005-07:00

This the full version of the Gorilla animation I worked on at Charlex for a Verizon commercial spot. The character was set-up by an incredible rigger, Steve Mann. The animation is about 3 seconds long, but only small segments of it were used in the actual spot.

Def Jam X-Video

2008-07-26T22:32:00.007-07:00

This is the first cinematic I worked on (at EA Chicago) involving motion capture editing - A promo video for Def Jam: ICON. The first draft of was started by another animator and when he was pulled away, I took over all animation resposibilities, often with little or no direction... because there was no animation director until halfway in production.

I had to heavily keyframe this mocap data because the actors' performances were awful and "floaty" - ironic, since mocap is supposed to capture the "realism" of motion. Somewhere in the middle of this production, it was decided that these characters will talk and have facial expressions... so a rudimentary facial rig with 25 bones was created. We did what we could given the extreme limitations.

Animation Mentor: Spring Semester 2008, Class 01

2008-06-20T22:08:00.004-07:00

My first semester of Animation Mentor just concluded. I learned more in 12 weeks than 2 years in art school as far as character animation goes. My mentor was Nicole Herr, an animator from Sony Imageworks and have worked on such films as Stuart Little, Surf's Up, and Speed Racer.

I plan to attend in the second semester, but I'll need to take a break from it this summer seeing how we may be in crunch mode at work.

Life Drawing 04-29-2008

2008-04-29T22:55:00.006-07:00

20 minute pose. The only one out of all the drawings from this week's session that I felt turned out ok.

Life Drawing 04-15-2008

2008-04-15T21:48:00.007-07:00

These are from this week's life drawing class. The head study is my first, real attempt at portrait drawing from a live model. Both are 25 minute poses.

Character Sketch

2008-04-14T19:19:00.005-07:00

Just another sketch done while waiting for a long playblast.

Street Sketches 1

2008-04-13T20:42:00.005-07:00

As part of my effort to "return" to my artistic roots, I've started doing sketches on top of life drawing classes. Here's this weekend's sketches from around my neighborhood in Lakeview, Chicago. I'll be doing a series of these and posting them every week.

Suits Of Iron Man

2008-04-13T19:12:00.008-07:00

I totally geeked out on these images of the Iron Man suits for the new movie and videogame. I had to grab them and make a wallpaper. This one is 1280x1024.

Back To Life Drawing

2008-04-09T11:31:00.011-07:00

I'm pretty happy to be doing life drawing again. It's been more than two years since I've drawn from a live model. Unfortunately there's not a lot of walk-in type places in Chicago, where you can just come in, pay your 10 bucks and draw for a couple of hours. Luckily I found Tojo Gallery, which does exactly that.

Here's a couple of 25 min poses I did on my second week there;

I hope I can keep attending. As an animator, I believe it's an essential skill to have for any artist. I'll post more after the next session.

Verizon Gorilla

2008-03-23T15:30:00.008-07:00

(Click on the image to view the spot)

Mean looking, yah? This is that psycho gorilla I animated for a verizon commercial spot. The animation itself was about 3 seconds long, but you barely see it on the actual spot. Oh well. This character was modeled and rigged by the talented artists at Charlex, who is responsible for a lot of the verizon spots currently being aired.

The sequence is basically, he's on top of a mountain peak (I guess after spending a whole day wreaking havoc on the now ablaze village in the background) roaring and blasting his flame throwers in the air... I dunno, he's either really pissed that there's no one left to barbecue... or 'cause he can't get himself down from that mountain.

The peeps at Charlex are some of the most hardcore, talented folks I've ever worked with. A lot of my friends are there and many I've known since I first got into the business, so it was all good times. The Gorilla was conceptualized by Todd Winter.

The Adventure Of Walker And Ping Ping

2008-03-23T14:59:00.015-07:00

I'm proud to announce that The Adventures of Walker & Ping Ping is now available on DVD! I was the character designer on this debut learning series about Walker, a young American boy and his friend Ping Ping, a young Chinese girl, as they embark on adventures learning about the world around them. Exerpt from the website;

The Adventures of Walker & Ping Ping is set in China, one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly growing economies and a significant source of source of cultural and economic exchange with the West. Western interest in Chinese language and culture is growing by leaps and bounds, particularly for the next generation, as the century of China begins to unfold. In the U.S., Chinese language and history is being introduced in an increasing number of secondary schools, Chinese teachers are in short supply, and early learning classes are frequently oversubscribed. The series was developed to give early primary school kids a head start in learning about Chinese culture, language and history.

If you wanna give your kids a fun headstart in learning some basic mandarin chinese, please purchase the DVD at either the website or at amazon.com (a few customers already left very positive reviews).

The series is the first, original concept and creation of Little Emperor LLC.

Bull King

2008-03-20T21:40:00.007-07:00

A character I designed a while back, based on the bull demon character from the Chinese folktale A Journey To The West. Probably the ultimate demon badass in the story. Not even the powerful Monkey King could take him down without finally resorting to trickery.

Best anime series of all times!!

2008-03-18T21:08:00.022-07:00

These are some of my favorite anime series of all time. Not listed in any particular order, 'cause they're all awesome (click on the images to link to websites and trailers);

Samurai Champloo
Hip hop in feudal Japan... Sounds pretty out there, but the show works... and it is pretty out there in concept. Either way, it's really enjoyable to watch. The English voice over is really well done and fit the characters. Lots of kinetic action and funny situations, but it also knows to slow down the pace for more intimate moments.
Last Exile
This one caught me by surprise. The overall visual direction of the show was just stunningly beautiful. It's a story about two air couriers ,who get mixed up with two warring nations and later discover the secret of where their people were really from. The time period looks like an alternate 1920's era, on a planet similar to Earth. Highly recommended.
Cowboy Bebop: Remix
A classic, can't miss sci-fi series. All the characters have interesting backstories that slowly come to light as the show progresses. They always seem unable to make ends meet even after collecting a large bounty. The remix version of this series have been remastered in picture and audio. It's been aired on cartoon network on late nites along with Ghost In the shell: Stand Alone Complex and Samurai Champloo.
Ghost In The Shell:Stand Alone Complex
Another great anime sci-fi series from the movie of the same name. The series focuses on Major Kusanagi and her elite oranization called Section 9, which mainly combats cyber terrorism and other anti-government factions. The English voiceover is pretty decent and the musical score is spectacular. After the success of the 1st series, they released S.A.C. 2nd Gig and a new movie called G.I.T.S: Solid State Society. I can only hope they continue making the series.

Def Jam: ICON

2008-03-18T19:14:00.003-07:00

So... this is totally random. I happen to find one of the screen shots I made when I was working on Def Jam: ICON; I was able to, thru create a player mode, create my own likeness within the game.

The game sucked though... I got friends still pissed at me 'cause they bought the game that yours truly worked on... still, I thought the create a player part was kinda cool... hehe...

Bloggin' like a fiend yo

2008-03-18T13:43:00.003-07:00

...That's what happens when the IT dept. half-asses your machine set-up... You can't move on to your new assignments. Missing software, plug-ins that don't work, etc. I could load up Team fortress 2 and just play all day... no can't do that, when everyone else is busy with tons of work. I could help other animators out with their stuff... no can't do that, 'cause I'm missing the software and plug-ins required to do the work anyway. I could practice on my own animations... no can't do that, I left my sexy laptop at home.

Rant rant rant...Hey! check out this revamped design of a character I created way back when I was attending art school. Click on it and it'll take you to my CG Society portfolio page;

Here's another one I designed for a Chinese animation and fx company;