City Pages and AZIA

Remember last year when I advertised my website on the back page of City Pages, the Twin Cities alternative weekly newspaper? Well, I had to stop for economic reasons, but now, I've decided to continue. Hopefully it'll be helpful!
(This one here ties in nicely to LOST-Cram '10!)(Speaking of which, check out my friend Heather's blog for some great DHARMA cakes she made for a LOST party I hosted for the February 2nd premiere.



A bit of freelance came my way in a very serendipitous way, and eventually I'll post it here (I'm waiting for it to have been printed before posting). In the meantime, here's Thom Pham, the owner and chef at AZIA, a terrific pan-Asian cuisine restaurant in Minneapolis. I'm pleased how this looks!



I'm still working on the Linendoll's Beer portfolio piece. Until then, here's another bit to tempt you with!

TTYL!

Animatic #6! And the Standees (again)! And a blast from the past!

Pretty neat, huh? This is the last Hoogie and Stiff animatic for the foreseeable future. I capped myself at 6, to prevent myself from not doing other things Linendoll's and other related. BUT if a really good idea comes up for another one of these, I'm going to hit it... :)



Just this picture again. More in yesterday's post, I'm just fond of my expression in this one. Not too far from being called s**t-eating opened-mouth grin, I'd say...



OH! I was digging through old files, and found this gem from my college days, when I took Introduction to Animation in the Fall of 2005. Cute, eh?

TTYL!

Standees stand up!

So after much trial and error, I've constructed a pair of point-of-purchase (POP) display standees of Hoogie and Stiff. Here's a few more pics:





These bad-boys were made with an illustrator file to be 32" x 40", and then printed out in tiles. Using 3M-brand PMA (position-able mounting adhesive), I assembled it on a 32" x 40" foam-core board, and then cut the shape out. It took a while, and I had to rely on some acrylic and a sharpie to cover-up some smudges, but I feel they came out very well. Getting the idea across with ones sweat and tears, the callouses on ones hands a testament to the true grit of the go-get-em-tiger attitude that won the war and ensured two chickens in every pot, etc.


DRINK LINENDOLL'S BEER! It's good!



Here's a photo of my workspace. It's a little dirty right now, but I've been busy! Observant viewers might notice the Epson Workforce 600 I agonized over over last summer. It's neat.

OH! Before I forget, muchos gracias to Will Dinski, whom borrowed me the tripod I used for the pictures that include me in them. Will has studio space in the same building as me, and does really neat comics. Google this guy!

TTYL!

Hoogie and Stiff Commercial Animatic

I spent a few hours working on this last night. I had recorded the voices and mixed the sounds a few months ago, but last night I composed this animatic. There's a few goofs (Hoogie, the fat one, has some wonky sleeves), and I'm not an animator, but the idea behind this is to show what these characters can do and would be used for.



I've spent a considerable time on the concept behind these characters, and even built a fake beer company around them:



So it's time to step it up a notch on this speculative branding concept!

TTYL!

Linendoll's Beer, Job Hunting, and Billy Mays: Three Aggressive Things

Cool, huh? This beer doesn't exist. I mean, it's real in the sense that I've constructed these labels, and took photographs, and designed a logo to go with them, but this beer doesn't exist as an actual beer you can buy.



I've designed this beer to have Hoogie and Stiff sell it, and I've been learning Flash to make commercials to show off their antics. I'm pretty please how this is looking so far!

I've been job-hunting again, as well.

I want to find a job in character design, product design, comics, storyboarding, and illustration. I'm looking for non-internship entry-level positions.
I offer my ability to quickly absorb the important features of a project, and then use my years of geeky experience and passion for detail to develop and strengthen the finished result.


RIP, Billy Mays. Your loud, direct, husky voice was fun to impersonate, and I've spent many a sleepless night contemplating whether or not to shell out the dough to buy a Quick Chop™- it does look like it would save me time when I need to dice ice... :)
(photo from www.greenfaucet.com)

TTYL!