14
02
Gennaro Morra:
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Col-Erase Pencil and Adobe Photoshop
Gennaro Morra Interview
Jason Sadler Interview
23
01
Jason Sadler: Character Designer at Blue Sky
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Col-erase pencils and Adobe Photoshop
Update on Stephen Silver
07
01
Stephen what have you been up to in the last 5 years?
Since the last time we spoke, I had been working over at Sony Feature Animation and then I went back to Nickelodeon to work on Danny Phantom and then The Penguins of Madagascar, I even did a 3 month stint over at Fox on the Cleveland show. My main goal was to start working from home as a freelancer which I have been doing now for the last 3 years, as well as creating my own properties and teaching and lecturing in the states and around the world full time. I am now doing exactly what it is I want to do, creating new books and teaching.
Over at Schoolism.com not only do you have your Character Design class, but you have these wonderful Master Series of Mort Drucker, and Stan Goldberg. Could you tell us how and why you decided to do these?
Mort and Stan have become very close friends of mine, and the knowledge they have, I felt needs to be captured and told outside of book form. I always wanted to learn and know about their process of drawing and what better way than to go to their studios, set up a camera and film the masters at work in their own environment and voice. I felt as these great artists are getting older, it was important to document their process for generations to come. Their understanding of the art fundamentals I feel are no longer being taught, yet it is essential for any artist that wishes to break into the field of art.
How did you get in contact with these living legends?
I met them through a terrific organization that i am a member of called the National Cartoonists Society. The organization hosts a yearly event that takes place in all different parts of the country called the Rueben awards. It was through this that i finally had the chance to meet them and so many other living legends.
Were the artists both excited to do the videos with you, or did you have to kindly persuade them at first?
It did not take much at all, they loved the idea and felt very comfortable with me doing it, This was the first time they had ever been filmed in this way, which is what made the experience even better. I was so honored and privileged to spend two full days with each one of them, going to lunches and dinners and even spending the night at Stan’s house.
Tell us about your new Iphone and Ipad PoseBook Applications?
This is a concept that I have had in my mind for a really long time; it was just a matter of time before I could get it done. I feel there is a real necessity for all artists to have a fundamental understanding of drawing the clothed human figure, and I have never found a pose book that showed real character or life. I wanted to create a format that was easy and simple so that you didn’t have to spend hours Google searching images and reference you may need to better your skills. This app makes it easy to learn how to draw attitudes, expressions and hands. My intention was also to create a portable, mobile book that artists can carry with them everywhere. I also included videos to show how to approach various elements of design and drawing. Here is the site to tell you a little more and show you a video. www.posebook.com
Stephen also has a interactive e-book Jolly and roger’s misguided adventures. Here’s some more information about that here. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jolly-rogers-misguided-adventures/id481102919
So Stephen what kinds of things can we expect to see from you in the future?
What you can expect from me now, are tools and courses and workshops to help in artist development, my purpose in life I have found is to teach and share with others the knowledge that I have acquired in order to help other artists succeed in their journey. I have so much fun with this and it gives me so much joy to see the growth of artists that I work with. I feel my true give is the art of motivating and inspiring others.
Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice Artwork
07
12
I have really enjoyed Disney’s Prep & Landing Christmas Specials. They have a new one called “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” which premieres tonight December 5, here in the USA on ABC. So I asked Disney if they could send me some pre-production artwork from the show. They have done such a magnificent job on these specials, I knew they would have a lot of wonderful artwork, and I was right. So below is some of the artwork Disney was incredibly generous to share. Enjoy, and make sure to watch the Christmas Special tonight. , Thank you again to everyone at Disney that helped out!
Brave
24
11
The brand new trailer for Pixar’s Brave came out today… I am interested in what everyone thinks. Are you excited for it, or does it fall flat? Do you like the designs. Do you like the art direction? Do all of the characters feel like they are in the same design world?
Please leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
Dungeon Raid
19
11
I thought I’d finally kicked this thing, I really did. I’d been clean for a couple months. The other day, though, I happened to see someone playing it on the Commuter Rail- “Hey,” I foolishly thought to myself, “it’s been a while since I played that- I should give it another try!” Three days later, I was trying to figure out whether a Changeling Raider with Enchant would be better than a Halfling and trying to break 700 turns on Normal.
Dungeon Raid for the iDevices, like its cousins in the Puzzle Quest series, is a combination match-three game and RPG. Where most of the variants of Puzzle Quest are centered on a story, however, Dungeon Raid is simply a run for high score.
The puzzle portion of Dungeon Raid is fairly standard- you’re looking at a grid of tiles of five basic types: swords, skulls, potions, shields, and coins. Tracing a path through a series of three or more adjacent tiles collects them; the types have different effects. Skulls represent monsters; these have life totals and hurt you every turn that they’re on the board. Tracing a path through skulls damages them; tracing a path through both skulls and swords damages them a lot more. Collecting potions restores your life; shields repair and upgrade your armor; coins are used to buy better equipment. You’ll occasionally see much tougher ‘special’ skulls as well- these typically have some sort of special effect and are also much hardier and stronger than normal skulls.
The RPG portion is where the game gets interesting- as you defeat monsters and collect gold and shields, you’ll level up and earn upgrades to your weapons and armor, given in the form of a random selection of three or four potential upgrades. Defeating monsters gives you experience, which makes your character earn levels- in addition to increasing your statistics, this gives you the opportunity to learn ‘skills’, which can be used to trigger special effects. There’s a pretty wide variety of skills with a decent range of effects- each time your character gains enough experience to level up, you’ll get two of these at random. At the beginning of the game, you’re prompted to pick a race and class- each race has a unique ability, and each class has a unique skill (which is very likely to be offered to you at level-up).
Although it probably sounds pretty basic from the description, I’ve found that the resource-management aspect of the game is tremendous fun, and it’s what keeps me coming back for more- what skills do I want to focus on first? Is gaining levels to earn skills more important, or should I focus on the often-unique abilities that equipment upgrades grant me? Which race-and-class combination is the best?
My only real complaint about the game is that the method for unlocking and leveling up classes is atrociously slow- I hate to say it, but it feels a bit like it was tacked on to encourage people to play longer. Older versions didn’t have a race/class selection; honestly, I think it may have been better that way.
All that being said, it’s great fun and hazardously addictive- last I checked, it was only on the app store, and it’s well worth your time.
- HC
Dan Seddon Interview
05
11
Dan Seddon: Designer
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW AND SEE HIS GALLERY
Media: Prismacolor Pencils, Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq.
