Spring.

Spring is here. Oh, how I'm ready for fields of green.

Sneak Peek - turn-based strategy game

Been having fun contributing to the look and interface of a turn-based strategy game in the making. Working closely with programmers flexes a totally different creative muscle, and some technical ones, too! I realized yesterday it had been a while since the compression mode of an image was of vital importance.

Here's a sneak peek at the first round "look and feel." It needs refinement, but the more game play nuances are developed, so will the direction of the art style. For now, it's a start for first-round play tests with simple comp graphics. The goal of the next round will be to be more telling of a back story and the little world in which players will go forth to battle - can't wait! TO BATTLE! 

Mashup: TBT + Halloween

Halloween fell on a Thursday this year, and I can't think of a more appropriate thing to share throw back to than this friendly looking monster I created back in 2009. 

Back in 2009 during the week of Halloween - before "little monsters" had no association with a meat-dress-wearing pop star- everyone in my art class wrote down a physical feature of a monster on a slip of paper, then we drew three at random: one eye, strange physical balance, and fangs.

We were given ten minutes to create a concept and layout, and the rest of the two hours to polish our little monsters. I'll give Gaga credit, I would have never thought to draw something as strange as a meat dress. But I did create this lil' guy, who I imagined would dwell in foothills, clumsily climbing among the lower branches of dense forest on a cool fall night, enjoying a full moon.

I was so focused on my own project, I hadn't stopped to look around at what everyone else was creating. When I walked around at the end of class, I realized just how different mine was. Everyone else had one-eyed psychos with blood spattered, or one-legged Medusa chicks with chainsaws. 

A classmate commented, "Aww, yours is so cute, if it bit me, I'd start to scream... but then I'd look into that one eye and just be like, awww.... don't tear up...go ahead, eat me."

Exactly. Look how he's just hanging down from that branch, waving innocently. Muahaha.

Koi playing coy

First, note to self: when you become rich, invest in koi pond. It's relaxing.

I came across these pretty fish in San Antonio, TX.... at the alamo, of all places! I spent a good five minutes waiting for a single one to swim by me. They must've warmed up to me eventually, about 10 of them swam back and forth by me after that.

Addendum to note to self: don't give in to the urge to become Crazy Cat Lady. Remember you plan on becoming rich enough to own koi.

Gettin' Married!

Throwback Thursday: Sketches from '03 & '04

Everyone is doing the "throwback Thursday" thing lately, so I'm doing my own sketch book throwback today. I remember being proud of the top one because I drew my niece's face from memory (2004), and the second one (2003) because I made use of the entire page for once. 

Happy tree

This is the tree outside of my balcony. There aren't many trees around here, so it makes me happy when it's nice and green. Hence, happy tree.

Happy Easter!

How great that today is the perfect spring day. Picked these today from right outside my door:

Bun Pun (apologies in advance)

Made this sketch a few weeks ago, but just decided to give it an Easter twist in PhotoHop today. Awful, awful pun....cute sketch?

Sunflowers > Tumbleweeds

Today was the first day it felt like winter was right around the corner, and it was a tumble-weed-a-tumblin' kind of day here in West Texas. Coincidentally, I ran across this photo I snapped on my way to the beach back in July. Ahhh, I feel the warm sunshine and fresh (dust free!) breeze just looking at this.

One last thought: If Plants vs. Zombies were real life, I'd head straight to the town where I took this. Beautiful seas of sunflowers every couple of miles!

Don't Touch: Space-time Continuum

Wow. I've been crazy busy. Perhaps the Back to the Future DeLorean that was at the ExactTarget Connections 2012 conference could have proved useful, but I'm far too wary of abusing the space-time continuum for personal gain. Just doesn't seem right. Oh, well. Expecting time travel out of a business conference might be too high of an expectation, but I did get some pretty useful digital marketing and social media insights out of it.

The Real Deal: Red Dirt

I see all these trendy fashion blogs posting photoshopped images to look "vintage" and to have "grunge." And for a bit I'm tempted to buy into the nostalgia of it all. Then a day like this comes along, and I laugh at the thought of models posing in anything remotely close to this. No warmth or texture added in photoshop. Just pure, red dirt, baby!

Also, notice my wind chime is taped together...

Carnies and Bunnies

Went to the Panhandle Plains Fair today! AKA the Bunny Fair, since I pretty much just go to see the room full of rabbits since I'm not big into foods on a stick, and just the smell of funnel cake is enough to make me feel sick. But I DO love bunnies. Also, I can now say I've officially been swindled by a carney. Given, I was aware of what I was getting myself into when I stepped up to the game booth, I'm just not the kind of person to object over the details a game of darts or ring toss, so maybe it doesn't count. Oh well, I won a prize and saw hundreds of bunnies. 'Twas an indubitably good day.

It is almost fall! I love this - can't you just feel the crisp morning air and the warm morning light? Taken last year, but soon enough I'll have the fall weather and fall light to snap away in.

Will Rodgers statue

Geek Out

So I ran across this post on Not Cot about Hatsune Miku, a Japanese pop music sensation that is ... completely computerized. This is not the first time I've heard of her ... (it?) ... I actually wrote an entire paper analyzing virtual bands for a senior level elective class I took in the College of Mass Communications (I would like to note that the course title, Rock 'N' Roll Media, is completely deceptive in making it sound like an easy class) and was totally weirded out the more I learned of Hatsune Miku. I had originally planned on focusing the paper on one of my favorite bands, The Gorillaz. It took me 8 pages to thoroughly explain and analyze why this fad is important to the media/advertising/interactive landscape. And only about one page to suck all the fun out of the topic. Luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words and these vids are 24 frames per second and over a minute long. So, just watch:

The Japanese pop sensation hologram that sold out an L.A. concert in less than two hours:

A band with cartoon avatars, and the star power to get Bruce Willis to cameo in a car chase:

And while I'm at it, I might as well post a link to footage from the Video Games Live concert I went to in Dallas. (Thanks to whoever is allowing me to re-live the awesomeness via YouTube!) I have seen bands with much cooler reputations, but a concert venue filled with video game nerds psyched to sing a long with the Super Mario theme song? Best. Concert. EVER.

This is awesome footage to begin with, but man am I loving the post production work! Also, how did they get some of these shots?!

Skyliners Paris trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

Don't smile. You'll get dirt in your mouth.

I've lived in Lubbock going on five years, and the past couple of months have resulted in some of the most bland landscape I have yet to see [if you're not familiar with Lubbock - that's a bold statement.] So bland that I, a native Texan who has taken it upon myself to prove my worthiness of said bad ass lineage through the ceremonial sting of cactus needles to the palm [read: accidentally using a cactus to break my fall while hiking... meh, did the trick] actually got excited to see this cactus blooming. Really excited. What's that? You, too, are now SO intrigued by the above cactus that I am using as a thin veil to hide my need to dedicate an ENTIRE blog post about the very same drought that everyone else in Texas is complaining about daily in 140 characters or less that you are compelled to continue reading??! Ok then... more back story on my cute lil' cactus photo.

My friend and I drove to a local winery to take photos for a magazine [shameless plug coming soon] , and all I can say is I've never been surrounded by so many fields of well looked after dirt. Poor West Texas. 108 degree weather, nothing but dirt to the horizon line, surrounded by chilled wine, and I choose to freak out over cactus. Anywho, this winery was smack dab in the middle of these dirt fields, and since it was well landscaped it felt like a little oasis. They don't even grow their own grapes.... no romantic looking vineyards, no rows of lush greenery to allow for any type of fleeting, vicarious Tuscan fantasy. I was just that excited to see cactus.

Unexpectedly Cool Spokesmen

I present to you three unexpectedly cool dudes in ads:

Tom Bodett’s celebrity status (if you could call it that) was created by speaking in a humble sounding voice about a discount hotel chain. So much so that every Motel 6 spot begins with him introducing himself. Until I just googled his name I actually thought he was the CEO of Motel 6. Apparently his voice is just that perfect for their brand. “Hi, I’m Tom Bodett… [insert witty motel-related quips here] … and we’ll leave the light on for you.” If you want more proof: I know you just read that in your head using his voice. Crazy, right?

Hear more on his web site: http://bodett.com/motel6commercials.htm

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2) Ben Stein manages to pull off looking like a total intellectual while sounding like a lame tourist who forgot his allergy meds at home. He's too smart to care about something as menial as eye drops, which is why you should stop wasting his precious time and go get some Clear Eyes already. TAH DAH! Best spokesperson for eye drops ever.

3) Isiah Mustafa actually had his name “out there” well before the Old Spice commercials. But he’s a household name now, all because of deodorant. And if you asked any of the “Man your man could smell like” fans what he did before demonstrating what kind of man men could smell like, very few people would know he was in the NFL. And by now you're actually tired of hearing about him so much. I’m on a horse.

I demand an explanation!

I don't understand why whoever put this sofa off the side of a dirt road, surrounded by a huge field, bothered to position it so nicely. I now wish I had taken a photo from behind the couch to show what it was facing. I was too concentrated on trying to frame the couch with the lines behind it. For some reason this reminds me of a pigeon I saw on the way to work while I was driving on an overpass. The pigeon was on the side of the road, watching traffic speed by and looked like it was contemplating trying to WALK across to the other side. Had it not been on an overpass I might have thought the thing couldn't fly. Don't ask why my brain connected these two situations. My only explanation is that they both have to do with things on the side of roads that have no reasonable explanation for being there. Explain yourself, couch! And as for you, idiotic pigeon, I hope at least your feet are quick.