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Rat Bastard Animated Short


Here’s as good’a place as any to post this. Batman director Kevin Altieri did an amazing job on this. Check out John DiMaggio (voice of Bender on Futurama) at the beginning and very end. He was replaced by Greg Proops (not sure why). EG Daily (of zillions of cartoons like Power Puff Girls and Rug Rats, and Pee Wee’s girlfriend Dotty in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) voice’s Roscoe’s ex-girlfriend.

I could go into what I liked and what I wouldn’t have put in, but it’s a short — it was eye-candy to show the suits at UPN back in 2000.

Enjoy.

I Should Be At The Beach

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Here at the Jersey Shore: Water temp: 70 Air temp: 68. The water is 2 degrees warmer than Malibu, CA today ( looked on the magical internetter box ). So what am I doing besides not surfing? Running back and forth to Lowes sprucing up the house before our 3rd annual July 3rd party. Red Bank has the biggest fireworks show in the state, and Judie & I throw a big BBQ / New Brunswick Mafia reunion. But I’m on a roll here and need to keep battin’ out the art. So here’s a color / tightened-up version of the Carmen Monoxide character designs.

Carmen Monoxide

Been working on my web site –so please excuse the lapse in info. Web sites are a drag, so I’m cheating, and drawing some preliminary character designs for the Rat Bastard model sheets. “Did he say model sheets? Does that mean a show deal?” Fact is; there’s always a show deal. There’s always “something in the works.” The old saw ” When all is said and done, more will be said and done.” And sticking with that notion, I’d better get a few things done. So here’s some Carmen Monoxide studies that are pretty close to what I’m leaning towards.

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Carmen is technically a criminal. As such, she’s a cheater, a liar, a con artist, an actress. Here she plays cute to sucker some guard. The juxtaposition of the other image shows a contempt for the way she has to behave for her cause.

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This one is really close to the look. The teenage girl who is just slightly more girl than teenager, but still wise beyond her years. She’s from a rich family — used to only the best. She may be a freedom fighter who lives amongst the the common folk, but when it comes to gear, Roscoe’s outdated quiver is just not acceptable.

Beach Day

It was our first wedding anniversary. We had planned to visit The Water Witch hall where my lovely wife Judie and I were married, and look out over the water to the NY skyline, but instead I went to the afore mentioned animation seminar. So today we went to Ocean City, NJ, laid on the beach, walked the boardwalk, ate pizza and ice cream and had a blast with our friends John and Fran who were also celebrating their first year of marriage.

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Drawing, Animation Bootcamp SIGGRAPH and More…

I had a busy week — I joined ASIFA East (Association Internationale du Film d’ Animation) a fancy french name for the New York metro area animators’ tree fort. The have lots of fun events and a lot of talented and interesting people involved in animation — hurray!

Then I joined a life drawing group right here in Red Bank just a half mile from my house. Lucky I don’t have to schlep all the way into NYC to do that. Here’s my first attempt since studying with the master — Tim Gula in Los Angeles 4 years ago.

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No, those are not Fred Flintstone’s toes at the bottom of the picture– they’re mine.

The new Crucial Animation site is almost done — please be patient.

Then I went to the SIGGRAPH Animation Boot Camp at the Fashion Institute on Saturday. This was a fantastic day of panel discussions featuring a many fascinating people in the animation field in NYC. Among them I met the Frederator himself; Fred Seibert formerly of MTV, Hanna Barbera, and now Next New Network and of course the groundbreaking Frederator podcasts. I also met KAOS Studios’ Luis Cataldi — who makes some really radical video games, and David Levy, the author of Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive an absolutely essential book for anyone looking to get into the animation business.

Luckily I’m a better drawer than photographer. Fred and company at SIGGRAPH panel.

Luckily I’m a better drawer than photographer. Fred and company at SIGGRAPH panel.

Can A Sandwich Make Better Drawings?

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I hit a wall sometime after the last post. I drew all morning, trying to get Mr. Tarantino’s likeness down. Enlisting different styles: simple, stylized, complex, illustrative, cartoonish, Hirshfeld, Drucker, etc. I was getting worse. A slight improvement, and then a huge slide backwards. Then I noticed my dog wanted to go out — it was noon. Might as well let her out and make a sandwich while downstairs. Although not truly hungry, I knew I would be soon enough. One sandwich later, this drawing appeared.

Tarantino explains in great detail everything he does and everything he loves. Here, in one of his patented gestures, he makes points one, two, and three.