Kung Fu Panda

I saw Kung Fu Panda this last weekend with my whole family, my wife and two boy (10 and 11 years old), and we all loved it. My most pleasant surprise is the was seeing the story co-credit of my friend Cyrus Voris on the big screen. I totally forgot he was doing a "Dreamworks project" a couple of years ago.



Cyrus and I met in the '80 working on his first animation job as story artist and later scriptwriter for the Galaxy Rangers series. He is one of the many great, and talented, friends I made on that project. He's come along way since then. Recently he and his writing partner Ethan Rieff, created and wrote Sleeper Cell, the acclaimed cable series.

Great work, Cyrus.

(On minor note (at least career-wise), Cyrus wrote the dialog for my comic book story "Warrior in the Mist".)


Another added enjoyment in Kung Fu Panda movie was the great the 2D animation in the opening dream sequince and the ending credits. They've both been post on the web. If, Dreamworks does a TV series or direct to DVD, Blu-Ray, follow up, they should use the 2D style with 3D Po wrap-arounds. That would be cool.

Go see Kung Fu Panda. You'll really enjoy.

New Sketch - Doctor Apollo

I just pick up a new sketch book and finally got around to drawing something in it. Doctor Apollo is a original character that's be knocking around my head for a long time. I don't have any great plans for him, but time will tell.

Enjoy.

Warrior in the Mist - Comix Flipz Mirco Flipz book

Here's my Dragonfly Flipz™ Micro Flipz™ book adaptation of my Warrior in the Mist animatic movie. This Dragonfly Comix Flipz™ is the latest version (format) of my Flipz books. The Micro Flipz is about the size of a trading card, 2 1/2 " x 3 1/2", great for custom promotional items. I'm going to do a post, soon, detailing the development of the Dragonfly Flipz™ format. That might help me re-focus on it's core advantage: presenting animators with a book format for their animated shorts and webisodes. Contact me for further info.



In case you missed it here the Warrior in the Mist - Part 1, animatic movie:



This Warrior in the Mist Comix Flipz is available on my Ebay store page (listed at the bottom of this blog page). Buy it now, share it with your friends, and help me keep my Dragonfly Flipz™ project going.

Enjoy.

Top Ten (-2) Dragonfly Flipz Movies

(Click on the Image to enlarge)



Here's my top ten Dragonfly Flipz Movies on youtube as of today. Just a frame grab showing the first eight movies of my "Most Viewed" page, totaling 103,957 views. I didn't included the Star Gladiator Game opening view counts. (You can click on the side bar to check them out.) The Final Fantasy XIII Game Flipz is still holding on to the lead, with Halo 3 close behind. I just want to thank all the people who took the time to view, and make comments, on my Dragonfly Flipz movies. Their interest helps keep me moving forward to this project. Look for more Dragonfly Flipz soon.

Enjoy.

Metropolis Cinema Flipz Mini-Book

I here the Metropolis Cinema Flipz Mini-Book I posted about a while back. It's a extended version of a earlier Metropolis Flipz book. Unfortunately, it seems the German rights owner (not Kino Video) is uninterested in my modest licensing proposal (after a couple of unanswered emails, and letter, I can take a hint). So, here it is for you pleasure, and here it will remain, for now. But, do check out the Kino Video version of the great silent movie classic. Their version is excellent.

Enjoy

The Terror of the Blank Page

As I mentioned in my New Year's post, I want to get back to drawing and working on long dormant projects. To say the least this year has been year of changes for me as my family and I moved from sunny Los Angeles (Glendale, CA, actually) to cold, snowy Rochester, New York (we love the change of seasons, so it feels great to be here). But any move is very destructive to creative flow. It takes a while to get settled. I'm still not there yet, but working on it.

But to help thing along I picked it Scott McCloud's "Making Comic" book. It's a fun read and especially for me as a way to get back to basics of drawing for fun, again. Comic art was my first creative love and I miss not doing it. So, I brought a new drawing table and was shocked to realize it's the first I've had in over ten years. I done a lot of storyboard work on company art desks, or just leaning a drawing board on a desk at home (a computer desk, of course).

But what really, as I finished setting the new table the last image of the McCloud book struck me, as being all most cosmic.


In comparison, here my art desk.


Now, all that left is to start. That blank page can be terrorizing. I know a lot of artists go through this (creative dry patchs). For me, it's like having a fear of holding a pencil, again. I know I can draw, I have old drawing to prove it. In, fairness, my creative energies were channeled to my flip books stuff. But, now, I feel it's time to get back to drawing and take it to the next level. I definitely want to explore the digital medium. But, first things, first. The blank paper and a pencil.

Wish me luck,I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year & New Resolutions

First, I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and here's wishing you a very Happy New Year. It's time for New Year resolutions, again.

I, for one, like to make New York resolutions, if done in a positive way. I see it as just setting new, or revised, goals for yourself after some self reflection. Just, don't beat yourself up if you fall short of your goals. There's always next year. One of the easiest way to gauge yourself is to look at last year's New Year's resolution.

My two resolutions were to revise my blog, and pick up the guitar again. I'm happy to say, I did both pretty well. I've been posting more to this Dragonfly Views blog than my other web sites and really enjoying it. I thank all the people viewing this blog from all over the world. As for the guitar playing, I'm still at it. I play, at least, 10 minutes a day and more when time allows. I've started working on a music project, Warped Sky - Stray Cloud, a combination of songs from old tapes and new renditions of original tunes. Mostly it's for my friends, Richard and Rodney, the old Warped Sky band. But I think I'll post it online at some point.

So, what are this New Year's resolutions? Lets see:

To get back to drawing, for fun, and profit. Generally, put down some of my original ideas in more concrete forms like storyboards, animatics, model sheets, etc. Also, make better use of my website and blog to get the Dragonfly Flipz off the ground. To that end, I'll be offering a download version of some of my Dragonfy Flipz books soon.

I thinks that enough for this year.

Please check in often and I'll keep you posted.