| Donkey and Elephant- December 5th, 2008 |
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Appologies for the lag, folks. While my original plan was to have the first episode out last month, I just couldn't bring myself to finish
it. My goal was to start a series
that was brief and to the point. The first episode (prior to this first one) was not that. So this first Episode is actually the second episode and the previous is actually the first, which will never, ever be seen. Ever.
Seriously. But here is a screenshot from the second episode which, as far as you are concerned, is the first episode.
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| Concept Sketches for Donkey and Elephant- November 6th, 2008 |
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These latest sketches are concept designs for my upcoming miniseries, Donkey and Elephant. As you can see it has both an Elephant and a Donkey in it. In fact that is pretty much all it has.
The series launches this Monday or Tuesday.
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| A New Sketch- November 5th, 2008 |
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For the last 2 weeks I have been formulating a new polirical cartoon series to reflect not only the post-election change in guard, but also the change in political atmosphere, which as of last night was far reaching. The resulting animated series is going to be more conversational and less personality oriented than the former. The goal is to make short, simple animations that can be produced on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. Eventually this website should become one that updates more regularly, focused on news cycles and a quick turnaround. Eventually I may revisit these more complicated productions, though not nearly at the pace I have recently. Long and short, get ready for something that looks completely different, comes at you more often and is hopefully more fun! I'll update you all tomorrow with some sketches and hopefully by friday (assuming all is right in the world), have a new animation to show. |
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Concept, Concept, Concept...and More Concept!!!
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From A Sketch
This is a concept drawing from my friend, Jorge Lacera (check out his blogspot here), which ended up being used towards the end of the animation. I asked Jorge for a "McCain Bot" and was impressed with the result. I especially enjoyed how much it resembles McCain in that chiseled, out to murder anyone in his path kind of manner. Now on to the next step!
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To Something Slightly More Realistic
Originally I was going to take Jorge's sketch and turn it into something that looked like a traditional cell cartoon. However I didn't want to add too many different elements to the animation. The hardest part in creating this particular composite was finding all the random metallic elements through online image searches that would fit very specific parts. In all I was lucky to find what I did, although there were a few compromises that took a step away from the McCain identity.
Trivia: His forearms are made from a tea kettle, the tire tread isfrom a wrist watch band.
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The Setup
This was one of the set concept designs, preceeded by scores of sketchbook doodles. As it is here, something of an amalgomation between clipped Las Vegas reference photography and pure chaos. But sure enough, fun. I wanted a reminiscent tie to the desert gambling culture being a haven for high risk and sin. This I think are themes also relevent to politics. |
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Finally a Reality!
I am not certain if John McCain's high political aspirations will get off the ground. But at least this cartoon did! Although it's been a 6 month hiatus since the last cartoon, I don't think this one will dissapoint.
To the left is an example of how these things always start. It is a simple caricature of the target of lampoon (It's John McCain...can't you tell?). This is a perfect point to get started around as when I feel acquainted with the character in 2 dimensions, the third and fourth are much easier to find. |
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The Short Spot
During the Primary debates there was a lot of internet friendly media hooked up with the networks. One of the trends was what is now referred to a "YouTube Style Debate". I was kind of bummed since I missed out on the actual CNN YouTube debate (although it was good to see another animator got selected to feed a question to Fred Thompson). Several weeks later I was alerted to a similar styled, Myspace/MTV debate which had most of the leading candidates involved. With 36 hours advanced notice, I got to work. A couple hours into the job I flushed out a rough concept and a script.
Figuring I was a shoe in, I submitted it with a couple of hours to spare, to rest alongside mostly anti-authoritarian videos. After waiting for the debate to air the next day, I saw nothing. No videos at all! It should have been no suprise that the debate had cancelled its video portion and instead, pushed an extremely dull interaction with 20-somethings. It was a far cry from the |
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Somedays you wake up wondering why things turned out all screwy, despite your best assumptions. Yes, the world is a very strange place and the Republican party was acting like it had something to do with that during the 2008 primary season. For a brief period in time, a man was in the front of the pack who stood for absolutely nothing (withstanding the terrorist thing) his party was structured around. His past was filled with corruption, questionable judgement, divorce, divorce, cross dressing and Catholicism! Once a fervent Democrat, he was ready to lead his other party forward in a new and interesting directions. I am still not certain how well his supporters understood the quagmire. How interesting it would have been to have Mr Giuliani as President...somedays you wake up wondering why things turned out so wonderfully! |
Pictured Top: Rudy Giuliani, Judy Giuliani, Judith Nathan.
Pictured Center: Bernie Kerik. Alan Placa, Hank Asher, Regina Peruggi.
Pictured Left: Osama Ferret, Lady Giuliani, and the campaign. |
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And Thats Sumthin' Worth Thinkin' 'Bout
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When I first started thinking about covering some of the candidates during Primary season, one candidate struck me as urresistibly to start with. Fred Thompson is one of those characters with a will of iron, a man of great charisma, but unfortunately for him, also a man with ill practiced talking points. More than anything he was a shoe in for the cartoon because he is just plain ugly. And I like that.
This cartoon summed up everything I thought was representative of the Thompson campaign. The setting used is from a video reply to Michael Moore's challenge on Health Care. How could I resist?
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