New Arms & Ether!

There's a new Arms and Ether strip out today. My god, that makes a grand total of two strips. . . and they're linked together (gasp!). Check it out here: armsandether.com. Tell your friends. Also, I'd appreciate ANY feedback folks have on the early stages of the design of the site, things you'd like to see, busted links, etc. As I said, I'm aiming for a "hard" launch by Feb 1. Though. . . I may be reconsidering that date. I think I might just CTFO and get some momentum going with the strips--focus on the actual creative process for a while and find that groove.

Also, click the image to take an idiotic stroll past the French Folke factory. It was a class demo, okay? So don't get so huffy.

Finally thanks to the 8Bit Ghost for his web help. If you haven't been by lately, he's got Hugo, Big Jim and a post about his wonderful/horrible "dotcom-mobile."

Makin' Lists and Makin' Love (I loves me some Brad Neely)

As I write this post title, I think fondly of Brad Neely's life-changing animations and comics. I think in particular of his music video, Kenny Winker sings "Making Love" in which tri-corner hat-clad Kenny sings "There's a ton of shit we've got to do before we can make love." Admire. Gush. But alas, when I went to post the video for your viewing pleasure, I find it has vanished from the internets as a result of the economic downturn. Super Deluxe.com, the hosting site, is no more. Apparently, Neely is putting the videos up on his own site which will take some doing. Sigh. In the meantime, go check out his stuff, it will make you happier than you are now. I assure you. Soldier on, Brad Neely. Keep the tri-corner hat squarely in the public eye.

To tide us over, here's one of Neely's first animations that got all viral a while ago--Washington.

My list for the weekend:
1. Finish sixth Arms and Ether strip --starring Megaleos and Ginger Childe!
2. Fix Arms and Ether url issues.
3. Apply for promotion to "full" professor (college teaching guy who has eaten too many tacos in his time).
4. Make further allusions to "Taco Time," one of the planet's great restaurants.
5. Insulate The Shack.
6. Prepare Monday DMF lecture.
7. Prepare for other classes and review student blogz.
8. Keep fiddling with my online stuff. Cleaning up post labels--that kind of thing
9. Put together SOU Art Dept. Web material.

And then. . . only then. . .

Jeff File for Animation Class-- lip synch with phonemes and flash symbols

Animation students, click here to download the Jeff.FLA file (if you dare). It's a 9 mb zip file, so it might take a bit to download. Patience and all that. Anyhow, you can analyze to see how I worked with nested symbols and "swapping" for the phonemes. Quality. Regular folk, can click the picture to see the swf file.

Phonemes

For the animation class--here are some cruddy phonemes (with a beautiful model)

Been a bit

And a good summer. Building a shack in the back yard, riding bikes with Sam, all-night Battlestar Galactica and Spore jags, working on an animation with Casey and Jennifer, on-going mid-life crisis--sorting through death and personal-cultural responses to it. Good times. School looms, but bring it on. Also, I haven't checked blog or email for about a month. My apologies. This is a background in progress from the in-progress animation. Silky. Me want draw more landscape outside, but me too afraid to tremblingly confront me inadequacy before pulsating expansive nature.

Non-Solipsistic Stuff

Daemon Skull, by Matt Lawrence, 2008

1. SOU alum Steve Hammond's MFA thesis, Negative Capability, has some inspiring insights into the creative process. Well-researched, thought-out, written, and illustrated. An excellent resource for all of us fighting the creative fight. I recommend it as an antidote to writer's/drawer's/animator's/designer's block. Here's a temporary link to it. Steve, let me know when you get it posted on your blog, and I'll link to it there.

2. SOU alum Matt Lawrence has a new blog with some of his goodness. He's been busy animatin' and drawin.' Keep an eye on it. His stuff's been really developing lately. Coolio.

University scene

Exterior: The University. CU on Fetal Advisor, pull back to show Shankton, Shaman Chet, and Fetal Advisor walking through woods to Warren's car. We see Warren asleep in the car. CU Warren asleep and waking up suddenly. CU Fetal Advisor blurry, coming into focus. Warren freaks out. Drives off. The trio remain. Say something?

It's Jeff!

Here's a character design for The Sky High Achievers' latest hit--The Jeff Song.