Art, Plz

But there’s something…

Emma — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:10:00 +0000

Actual stills

Emma — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:01:16 +0000

From the beginning and end of Hitchhiker. Danielle and Austin. Director of photography is Dani; the gorgeous lighting is courtesy of Erick and Stephan, an Arri 300, a Kino Diva 400, and the Sacramento Valley.

What’s amazing about films (short, feature, animated or live action) is that you go in with the seed of an idea and everybody who comes onto it makes it better for having been there. It becomes something you couldn’t have done on your own… a real group effort.

After this weekend we’ll be done shooting and start editing the footage together for Hitchhiker. I’ll start posting drawings again after that… I promise… once I get some sleep…

More film stuff.

Emma — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:28:04 +0000

Click to embiggen.

This is a storyboard-ish inspirational drawing I was working on tonight for our short. I’m really happy with it - I can look at it and say “this is what I want the short to feel like,” nevermind that the colors won’t work on an actual person and the drawing only bears vague resemblance to the actress playing our girl.

It FEELS to me like driving in the country at night, the patches of hot asphalt air mixing in through the car window with the cool breeze off the fields. The smell of alfalfa. Moths hitting the windshield. None of these things are going into the short, but they are what anchors me to it. If I’m thinking of them and how to make the footage we shoot feel like that, I’m on the right track.

Not dead; just making movies

Emma — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:51:03 +0000

This is russian-doll style filmmaking: 8 hours spent on animated movies. After hours, work goes in on making a live-action short. Spare time beyond that gets shunted not to sleep or bathing but to an animated short side project.

I’m coming back to comics and sketching… someday….

Julie, Julie

Emma — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:46:41 +0000

I’m going to be sneaky about this sketch post and point you in the direction of Julie, Julie, a short film directed by my friend Liam Creighton. It’s the story of an architect who, after being hit by a car, can speak only French. It’s actually about much more serious things, too, like being married and communication.

Since she’s an architect, she draws and does architect-y things, and when you see her sketching, those are my prop drawings!

Go check it out…!

Some creatures

Emma — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:08:00 +0000

The thing about monsters is that okay, yeah, sometimes they prowl around slavering and growling and they do strike menacing poses, but they also get itchy, roll on the ground, paw things over, stretch, investigate, and eat. I like seeing monsters doing those things as well as menacing people - it suggests that they’re actually creatures instead of props.

The same thing goes true for characters, too. Okay, yeah, characters do look appealing and play to camera and hit great poses and have dialogue carefully crafted to move the story forward. They take on a whole new dimension when they want things, though, and are the stars of their own story even if they may be only passing through someone else’s story to drop a line or two of dialogue. When they have wants and needs and some show through, it’s like seeing a rancor fussing with some dirt in the corner of his pen.

It’s all about feeding the imagination.

You can translate the behavior of dogs, cats, squirrels, any kind of animal into monster behavior. You’ve got to understand the animal’s motivation in order to give it to your creature, but it’s all there.

Non-gaming related

Emma — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:37:24 +0000

Some just plain wandering drawings. Not for anything in particular, just seeing where the line goes.

Liveaction short film is in the can and having its world premiere at a small local film fest on April 4th. Liveaction short film #2 is written and cast and will be gearing up in April and May to shoot in June. Short comic was supposed to get done in March, but life got in the way; new goal is by the end of April.

“I say the D&D equivalent of ‘Holy crap.’”

Emma — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:49:41 +0000

This is pretty much turning into a repository for gaming art. The movie is finished as of three days ago, so I’m jumping back into the comic… but in the meantime, here’s the horror that soared into view during the weekly lunchtime D&D game I run.

This creature (plus an archer on his back) responded to a cry for help from a pack of scrawny little scout-beasts who the adventuring party were mercilessly pummeling. This bat-thing Free Willy’d the terrified ranger and the less terrified rogue, who scored its belly with his knife. The cleric sapped its strength, the fighter nailed it with an arrow, and the paladin dealt the killing shot with his trusty crossbow. The only problem with killing flying beasts is that they’re bound to tumble to the ground… and the fighter is directly in the way.

Voltz

Emma — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:48:56 +0000

Voltz is a member of the WOE, World Organization of Evil. She’s a supercriminal, but is basically a giant walking battery. Since her power isn’t the type that ever shuts off, she wears a rubber bodysuit to gain some kind of control over what she sends her electrical currents through; because wearing a rubber bodysuit all the time can be seen as odd in some circles, she lives in a three-story fetish club in the Red Light District of WOE’s base city. In this club there are always girls running around in rubber suits, so she never feels out of place.

Austin started the WOE on Friday with Mungo Man, Everett beat me with Landslide, and I’m straggling in with Voltz, aka Lady Volt, aka The Electric Girl.

Feel free to create your own WOE supercriminal. I don’t usually draw superheroes OR supervillains, but it’s going to be fun once I get into it…

The cabinboys undergo an unexpected development

Emma — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 04:25:36 +0000

The Berry boys, Sean and Finn, have been searching the seas for their brother Tom - at least, that’s the story that they’ve been telling their crewmates. Last week Tom found them, arriving as captain of a privateer ship and saving the good ship Gabriele from the grasp of the dread lady pirate and fantastic cook Francoise. Strangely, Tom didn’t seem to recognize his brothers until Sean ran up, embraced him, and gave him a deep, passionate kiss. More disturbing than Sean’s incestuous tendencies was the enthusiasm with which Tom returned the affection.

The crew watched in bafflement and horror as Tom retreated to his ship with the boys in tow and disappeared into his cabin, doubtless for a twisted threesome.

After more than enough time for such evil deeds, the trio emerged, the boys completely changed. Cleaner, for one thing. Strangely buxom, for another. And, in the case of Sean, obviously pregnant. the brothers Sean and Finn Berry are now the sisters Rosie Berry and Coleen O’Shea, wife and sister-in-law, respectively, to Tom Berry.

Tom swore never to let Rosie from his sight again, and swore the same of Coleen, feeling some kind of familial responsibility, or maybe the inclination to take a crack at polygamy. Rosie took to this with enthusiasm - after all, she’s been searching for her husband so that they can be together again - but Coleen, having had a taste of relatively independent, productive, and intoxicating life of a cabinboy, was less thrilled.