Mickey...Epic?

Epic Mickey comes out today, here's some OLD art that was inspired by the project that was going on back in my Disney Interactive days.  I'd say these sketches were done in the middle of 2004.

Even if the game turns out to be not so epic, getting it made sure took forever...

Who watched Transformers : Prime on Friday!?!

Good times.

OK, Transfans.  I know I teased that I would post concepts that Hasbro, Inc. hired me to come up with the provide inspiration for the show.  And a couple weeks ago, knowing the premiere was coming up, I submitted a list of characters for release; the ones that I did work on, and that I had seen final images released either on Hub World or in the teasers, from Hasbro Studios; the actual production team, with character designer Jose Lopez.

All denied release.

Sorry folks.   None sorrier than myself, I've been waiting to add those images to my portfolio for over a year, but I guess for now they remain in the archives.  It was framed to me that those images may be possibly used for additional inspiration for other/future projects, and need to be remain unpublished, or if they ever decide to do a 'Making of', or another bitchin' Ark type book from Forster/Sorenson, based around Transformers : Prime - any way they want to do it, Hasbro, Inc. wants to be the one to first release those images, or not at all.  Hopefully some of that work will come out sooner than later, though I have NO IDEA how or when...

Disappointment, cont'd...

...and I'll take the opportunity to let everyone know I was not invited back to work on any Transformers games from Activision.  Daniel Suarez, who hired me in the first place for TF1, and brought me back for RotF, had moved on to run the Call of Duty franchise - the Transformers franchise changed hands internally, and I got lost in the shuffle, I guess.  And despite the awesome Mr. Suarez (buy his new game!) continuing the advocate for me over the spring and summer to land a booking on any upcoming Transformers games over the summer, I wasn't able to make any headway.

Of course, business is business, but I hoped all the efforts I had put into the first two games+ would leverage me into a least some consideration for a position, but it didn't work out that way this time.  So who knows when I'll get the chance to create more Transformers video game characters, but I thought I'd leave you with an image I have been wanting to do for some time, kind of a character lineup:

 That's 19 unique characters, 1 movie-ized G1 character in Shockwave, and 3 G1 DLC characters.  Six characters made it out of Game Canon and got action figures and appeared in IDW Comics!  I hope I get to add to it one day...

She-Wolves! Look Out!

Here's a preview of the painting I'm contributing the Eat Your Art Out IV show held at Meltdown Comics, 02/26/11 in Hollywood, CA.  It will be a part of an auction to raise money for the Angel City Derby Girls, who, and I quote;

'(We) are a group of dedicated women athletes who have come together in a grass-roots effort to organize a democratic, DIY, member-driven and operated Los Angeles Flat Track Roller Derby League that abides by WFTDA rules and regulations in regards to the game of Roller Derby. We are building a strong league of highly skilled athletes who are prepared to compete in interleague/interstate WFTDA competitions.'

They, and the national league they are a part of, are complete and total badasses.  Who wouldn't want to help them out?  It's either that, or a skate over your foot and a knock to the nuts.

Anyways, back to the drawing above - the theme this year is Dark and Mysterious Origins of Nursery Rhymes, and after doing some research, all the best ones resulted in a king or queen getting their heads chopped off, which wasn't really inspiring me.  So I went to other way, and picked the wimpiest and most common rhyme, with the origin story literally being the content of the words - no mysterious origin here, for Mary Had a Little Lamb.

I decided to do the little known, (and oft told in hushed tones) story of the after school walk home, and how a pack of wolves came upon Mary and her Lamb, and tore them apart and ate them.  And because it's for ACDG, I wanted to incorporate a Derby theme...

I wanted to throw this up now, to plant the seeds of awareness of the event across the internets, but I probably won't get to the painting until Christmas break, and then I'll start posting about it again, when the event gets nearer.

Derby Girl! Look Out!

Rolling Thunder!

Wampas! Look out!

Not especially great drawings, but kind of fun...

The Wizard of Oz - Render 03

It's getting there!  I have the initial pencil pass with the bricks done, and I also re-sprayed the ruby slippers, and finally got the color I was looking for.  Still looks like I barely did anything since the last update, but hours were spent on this over the weekend!

TFA Ironhide 06

Bam!  Indestructible!

TFA Ironhide 05

Boom!  Final!

TFA Ironhide 04

Here's the flats for ol' Ironhide...onto the finish, with color and line balancing, shading, highlights, and f/x!

TFA Ironhide 03

Line art for TFA Ironhide.  One person made a comment in response to TFA or Rendered.  That person wins, TFA it is!  Plus a bonus, I'll do an alt color with that silver indestructible color as well...

TFA Ironhide 02

Here's a couple angles for Ironhides alt mode, plus a couple of false starts!

And now here is the composition I've had in my head for quite awhile, I just couldn't find it with the G1 version...hopefully this one will help me go back to that, but for now, I'll continue on with this one...

TFA Ironhide 01

I'm still kind of struggling with that Ironhide image that's been laying around now for months.  A friend of mine sent me an Animated Ironhide toy, and I play with it all the time, make him fight other toys - it's great!  So that kind of reinvigorated the idea, but I wanted to try my hand at an TFAnimated version of the scene.

And even then I'm not sure where to go with it, finish it in my animated style, colored line art, shading etc., or do the TFA style, but finish it in the fully rendered style I use for my work?

Any opinions from TF fans?  I'm checking into the idea of getting a table at BotCon 2011, and if I land one, it would be a print for sale - Animated?  Rendered?  Both?

Hmmmmm....

Anyways, tomorrow the Alt mode, plus the rough composition.

The Wizard of Oz - Render 02

A loooooooong overdue update to the Oz painting - the first pass pencils almost done, still working on the bricks and the slippers...I'm hoping to have this thing finished by the weekend, at last!

Halloween 2010 Punkinface.