Brave Lectures

Yesterday, I gave animation lectures at San Jose State and Cal. A note to anyone giving a lecture at Cal: don't open with, "Hello Stanford!" I thought I was going to be drawn and quartered for that one.

At San Jose State, I was greeted by members of the Shrunken Head Man Club, the campus's animation collaborative. The group is named after a fortuitous paint spill on one of the department stools.

The students at both campuses were fantastic, and I was more than happy to hang around afterward for questions and drawings. I even signed a few sketchbooks, Pixar postcards, and the odd sweatshirt or two.

These are actual notes for my lecture. How the students gleaned any information from my talk is a mystery.

0 days...AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

8-bit Cubism

Last weekend was a huge gaming marathon at my buddy Jay's house for his birthday. After about seven board games, I was getting a bit distracted. 

Luckily, Space Alert came with these little wooden counters which I quickly discovered could be made into 8-bit characters, like Devo here.

Or kicking Devo.

When our Space Alert battle station was attacked by an Interstellar Octopus, my solution was to send Boba Fett after the beast (though he hasn't fared particularly well against tentacled monsters in the past).

I quickly progressed to Frolicking Fidel Castro...

...The Grinch...

...Lorne...

...More abstract depictions of Santa Claus/Pokeball, Yoda, and The Creeper...

 ...And, of course, Jurassic Park.

We didn't win the game, but the 8-bit characters were a fun exercise and well worth the distraction. I heartily recommend Space Alert, if only for the 8-bit art potential!

1 day...

Scribblings

Yesterday I issued the Twitterverse the following challenge: What can you make of this scribble without erasing anything?

It's an age-old trick to get a fun, quirky design when your drawings start to look similar or contrived. The Twitterverse rose to the challenge beautifully, and the result is a bunch of fun (and very unique!) scribblings.

@liebestrauma

@jpidgeon

@jann_tastic

@JarettMiracle

@Matti_Mayhem

@munchanka (yours truly)

I'll have to do this more often! Or maybe I'll just write an app.

2 days...

Jtop Levels Up

While I'm on the subject of birthday cards, here's another that I did for my friend and fellow gamer Jtop.

Jay was gracious enough to pose with his new portrait. A stunning likeness, if I don't say so myself!

For Jay's birthday, we had a massive gaming marathon. 48 hours of Space Alert, Drakon, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Marvel v Capcom, Left 4 Dead, Robo Rally, Resistance, Aye Dark Overlord, Star Wars Kinect, and Smallworld. Basically, the ideal weekend.

3 days...

Happy Birthday, You Old Relic

For my buddy Eric, on his 29th birthday. This is a guy who played the Indiana Jones theme at his wedding. 29 years old...he belongs in a museum!

4 days...

Nerd of the Rings

Pixar's improv team, The Improvibles, is delving into the land of trolls, hobbits, and level eight gelatinous cubes tonight with our first Dungeons & Dragons show (the first of many, this bard hopes). What makes this show particularly special is our guest star, Brave director Mark Andrews!

One show to rule them all!

7 days...

Yo.

Every now and then, working at Pixar gets a little surreal. Standing in front of a giant lamp and fictional vehicle, with a mini stone henge looming in the distance is one of those moments.

We also have the Brave wrap party coming up, so naturally everyone's getting fitted for kilts, provided by St Kilda USA.

As always, accessories make the man. And no kilt is complete without a quality sporran. The selection on the left is dire wolf fur, I believe.

And, finally, the formal jacket. Brah brecht, moonlit necht tonecht!!

8 days...

Flashkick

More X-Men sketches. This is my buddy Tim's character, Flashkick, who has the ability to open rifts in space time through which she can teleport, or just reach out and slap someone from across the room. (Sketch by Everett Downing)

The original concept was a bit too Jubilee-ish. So we traded in the 90's jacket for the traditional unitard. (Sketch by Ev)

She's an ESL student from Korea. Her lack of communication skills have made it difficult to correct the constant mangling of her callsign. (Sketch by Emma Coats)

9 days...

Meatbag

Last week, my friends and I played an X-Men RPG. Rather than play classic characters, we decided to create our own team! This is Meatbag, who's mutation is prehensile flesh. Yeah, gross. (Sketch by Ev Downing)

The character went through several interpretations including the gumdrop-like ginger above. We figured if Meatbag could control his skin, he would have whatever body type he wanted. (Sketch by me)

So, while he may usually look like Russell from Up, he might be able to shift into Brandon Lee mode should any ladies appear. (Sketch by Mach Kobayashi)

10 days...

The Not-So-Dark Knight

Experimenting with every-color pencils. I was aaaalmost able to control which color was coming out.

11 days...