The Open is in...

So, you thought I backed down. You thought I gave up.

Think again, sucka!

This is a frame from the top of the open for the toon.
I probably could have picked one that doesn't cover the title as much but there you go.

Now to come clean- I hate it. There's a lot I don't like about this open but I ain't gonna go out blabbin' what I don't like about it because I have resolved- VERY RELUCTANTLY- to move on in the interest of getting it done. Much the same way a writer will finish a first draft.

I will say that I am very happy with how the title graphic came out. It's damn near PERFECT.

When I started this lil' toon the feeling was to be as true to the book as possible. And since this is animation- I can afford to be closer to what the book is, unlike live action things- (Of course there are some people who have proven it can be done like my man Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and whoever did Hellboy knocked it out of the box).
However- I am NOT Klaus Janson!
Add the fact that I am buildning a lot of this stuff in a 3D program and just know there are going to be some sacrafices/changes.

Some of the changes will be (in my opinion) for the better. Like the Title Graphic. On the original book they used a different font which I could most likely find online with a little diligence (and I did do some looking) but in the end I felt it wasn't strong (thick) enough for the screen. So I went with a thicker Swiss font.

Other changes are going to be sacrafices like The Batmobile. Idunno HOW the hell to build that thing Mr. Janson drew but I built something I think keeps the feel of the original. We will soon see.

If you wanna see the all 10 seconds of the open so far use the link or right click here:
http://www.kimmygorden.com/OPEN2Final.mp4

This is a much smaller version and it doesn't have Audio 'cause I haven't figured out the best way to make this visible on the web yet. Trust me though- there is lightening and what not and it sounds really- lightening-y and everything.

Hang in there- I am moving ever closer...

I'm Back baby!!!!

I was sick as a motherfucker last week. You know, the kind of sick were you are sitting and the room is spinning and all of your energy is pouring out of you...THAT kind of sick.
But I'm all good now and back at it. Playing with The Dark Knight a little but trying to finish my presentation for that certain channel...

I also played with my boys and did this little picture of the family South Park style...

More to come

SIDETRACKED!!

That should be my middle name...
Lemme tell you what I'm sidetracked by at the mo.

On top of a RIDICULOUS work schedule (I actually worked 28 hours of overtime two weeks in a row) I got a tip that a contact is looking to do a show for certain channel that will go nameless...

Anyway- I have two ideas that have been floating around forever in the form of a Word Doc- Now I'm trying to throw together a quick Flash presentation.

UGH! So much to do so little time...

Anyway- I would like to take this opportunity to welcome my boy DAVE into the Blog fold. You can check his site in the links section. I can guarantee you that his blog will be funny as hell and brutally honest. He might even have a conspiracy or two thrown in there- Well, at least until the feds crack down on him.

I've got another blog in the works as well- but I really need to get an assistant or clone myself or something.

Wouldn't that be COOL? Like, if you had 4 or 5 of you then you could get all your shit done with some kind of expediency.

I learned a lesson and try to delegate some of the stuff I'm trying to do to an Artist I really dig, but he is a freelancer as well and I gotta cough up some dough if I want his stuff. Which is totally, the responsible and business way to do things, honestly. Now, I gotta get my hands on some cash I guess- This is why I always end up doing things myself. I'm broke.

It would help if Bush got off his ass and was a leader of some sort!

Ha ha ha! I LOVE blaming everything on Bush. It's so easy 'cause it's true.

HAH! You thought I wasn't lookin'!!!

Yes. I am still on the Batman thang.
This past week I did little of nothing but edit for the Maury Show. However just before the editing onlslaught I started working on the open for the piece.

I learned that animating is going to be slightly more difficult than I had bargained for because of mesh complications. I made 3 animations of Bats doing his move into the Cover Pose but I am happy with none of them.

So the forced backing off I had to do thanks to RL was probably good. I shall return to that animation ASAP.

Got inspired by watching a cartoon called NARUTO on CN this weekend. Looks really good. I kinda liked the story too- even though it had your typical- verbate everything that is happening- anime style, I was into it.

I'm going to start using that technique in my everyday life as well.

"I will not sit here and ponder this move any longer! I will render this scene with all my power!" *hits render button*
"Hahahahahahahaha! Watch me animate, FOOL!"

The first 60...

This is a letter I sent to Dave Simmons (my partner in more than a few crimes) about 10 seconds ago titled: "The Dead Have A-Risen"

That's right- I actually have a "clip". Well, not so much a clip as it is 60 frames.
Lemme tell ya 'bout it first.

I got the bones goin' and linked them to a Character Studio skeleton- just like I said I would.

Took me a lil' bit but I did learn how to quickly get my vertices mapped to bones correctly (MAX has a paint feature now where I can paint which points are controled by what) the problem was that being a perfectionist could lead to me spending unecessary hours bouncing between this bone and that bone with a certain set of points.

When I was finally satisfied with the skinning- I made up a punch move that I will have to use later and came up with the animation I've attached here.

I did this in 30 fps. Which is ridiculous really. I know we have talked about this before and I will go with 15 fps that will convert to 30 easily enough.

The final for this project will most likely be an AVI as I will use AVID and After Effects when the time comes to finalize so I'm working with this in mind.

To get the drawn look I used a cartoon filter- with shadows- I then took the frames into FLASH and used Trace Bitmap on each one to make that flat look even sharper-

Then I went through and cleaned up the anomalies that come from my shoddy skinning and poor modeling (remember this is really so that I don't have to out and out draw every panel).
This is also the stage at which I will draw facial expressions and the like (vis-a-vie the Breakfast Monster's eyes on my site).

The technique is tedious but I like the outcome. The animation itself leaves a little to be desired- The punch is supposed to be slow at the top and then fast when the hit comes in and I think that's reflected- BUT it's not supposed to have that camera jerk in there. I don't know how that happened.

I also need to revisit the skinning on the hands because his thumbs won't go down plus his fingers seem a little thin. I will do that but I don't know how much it matters for this little clip here- there will be a LOT of other things going on-

Superman taking the blow. Batman's cape blowing behind him (I'm debating drawing it or having MAX's new Cloth feature do a little something something first- You know I have to at least TRY that :)...) Snow will be falling. AND I have to do something with the background.
I also need to animate a mouth for my man, Bats to give it a little more feeling and not seem as robotic.

Animation-wise I could do some more squashing and stretching too- but I haven't decided how far from reality I want to go- seeing as this IS a cartoon. I should go VERY far but then again I kind of like how this is looking- It's just a TON better than what I had for Stems and Seeds. Which I was VERY limited by how big the final file could be (2mg). It's just great to be able to use so many frames to do a move- still...I should be careful of file size.

I know I want to letterbox the final too. So I need to think on that as well.../sigh.

Next I will work on one of two things:

The open sequence- which I need to replot sorta but it only has Batman, lightning and the title- possibly some building but that remains to be seen.
Using MAX to make that cape work.
I'm leaning towards 1 but 2 would help with 1 considerably... decisions, decisions.
Well. there it is...

Oh yeah, I think this letter just became my latest entry to my blog!

If you wanna see the file that I sent with it go to:
www.kimmygorden.com/batman_punch_Scene_1.swf

Inspiration

Inspiration:

Came on two fronts- My wife and kids got me GLUE by Irvine Welsh- Whenever I get the Welsh in my veins I get to writting.
So maybe some of it will end up here. I HAVE thought about "blogging" a story- and I have one in mind but- well, you all know about me and my "irons" and all that fire. Although I have been pretty good about keeping this site going- So, lay off damnit!

The last time I read a bunch of his books I wrote "These Strange Creatures"- which no one has seen- and a little after that I started "Stems and Seeds"- you can find them on Atomfilms.com

The other inspiration was Sin City. I finally started watching it and Kudos to Robert Rodriquez for having the sack to really stick to the vision. Sin City is like jumping in to a really cool pool of water on a hot summer day: It's shocking at first- but once you get used to it you never wanna get out.

If I can make this Batman animation look THAT fuckin' smooth- then I'll be real happy.
If you haven't seen it, do so. Or better yet- read the books and then see it. Frank Miller comics are in a category all their own.

Tank Treads and the lost art of being a Man

Now,
I got the project swinging by digging into those old files and seeing just how fucked up they were and exactly where I fucked up and am now trying to rectify the situation.

In all actuality- I really like some of what I was doing but can see where I lost interest with so many things not going as imagined from the "giddyup". I would point them all out to you but that would involve pictures and quite a long essay.

In short- I am going to have to lighten up on my "tweens" but at the same time give them life. Meaning: If an appendage seems to bend a little funky- or wrong (unrealistic) it's okay as long as it's a: cartoony (exaggerated) and b: not up long.

If I focus on my close up stuff and pull a Anime/Hanna Barbara technique of animating what needs to be animated and making the still stuff look REALLY good- then I'll be alright.

Add that theory to the simple assed storyboards I cranked on the airplane and I MIGHT just get an animation done...MIGHT.

That would be one thing- I still have the Timothy Greene game/book in the works- did a really nice picture for a Timothy sprite. It's lookin' good.


In other news...

I watched like 5 episodes of "Six Feet Under" last night (god, I love HBO) thanks to on demand- I only got the last two episodes to go. If you ain't seen it- you need to. It's pretty down to earth on a lot of things even though back in the day I had a work peep tell me he didn't want to watch it because he thought it was "more of that anti-family, liberal bullshit- where everyone has a problem and everyone is gay."

Yeah, I know...Whatever!

Watching it lead me to, once again, think about what it is to be a Man and what that means.

First off, it's beginning to strike me odd how people can dictate how a person is supposed to act and feel simply from which set of genitalia they were born with- but a great deal of the generalizations are true.

For example: that wicked, crazy-ass sex drive that we carry around.
For whatever reason- it seems that it's power has been seriously underestimated by society.

I mean, I'm not trying to justify anyone's infidelity or any other kind of sick ass act done in thename of lust BUT if you lock a buncha dudes in a cell eventually, at least one of them will try to fuck the others. Think about that- disturbing, isn't it. Looking that beast in the eye- but it is there. That base demon swirling around only held in check by a man's upbringing, moral background, religion, civility- or whatever you want to call the rusty chains that hold us together in social order.

I know, I know...women get horny too- but we are not talking about getting horny. I'm talking about the male sex drive. This is totally different from getting horny- a great comedian once described it as "the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it". If you think it's the same thing then you don't know what I'm talkin' about.

All in all though this has little to do with being a MAN. Controlling yourself- and being decent is being human. Being a MAN is a much taller order.

When I say "MAN" I mean those guys that sacraficed without fear, that protected unto death their loved ones and were completely humble while doing so BUT I also mean those dudes who worked themselves into an early grave and rarely heard a thank you on the way down.
Those, who were in totally loveless relationships for the sole fact that they were good men who could provide.
Those, who gave and gave but were never recognised for doing so until they were in the ground.

No one has it easy. No matter what genitalia you're weilding when you pop into the world- but after watching a little SFU- I was kinda thinkin'- What has happened to the art of being a MAN.

Dudes that opened doors, gave up seats, championed honor so much they would live and die for it. Why did people lose love for seeing that kind of person?

Some jack-ass *cough*BenShapiro*cough,cough* might say it's due to feminism- but that's not it. Feminism is about the liberation of women- by my definition so far- a woman could be a MAN too! But I'm just speaking about the males 'cause I can relate to what goes on in a males mind better (being one myself and all).

No- we just don't give a motherfucka credit when they come with that decent, upstanding- "I'm going to treat you as I want to be treated"- respect initiative because now, you are just "weak" thinkin' like that, son.

Also, men are taught very early on to seperate themselves from their feelings. A great example of this happened one time when I was on the beach.
There was a little boy of about 4, his older brother of about 9 and an even older sister of about 14.
The 9 yr. old was teasing the hell out of the 4 yr. old and pretty much making his existance hell. Razzing him and slapping him playfully in the head. The younger boy cried until his older sister came over and ran the 9 yr. old off.
THEN she turned to the 4 yr. old and told him to stop crying and being such a baby. AND HE DID IT.

No doubt, this kid will grow up to be able to deal with all kinds of hasslin' with no prob. Of course when he can't articulate his feelings when he's 21 everyone will just toss it up to being a man.

The role of the father in the home has been marginalized as well but on that front I think society is starting to realize how important a father figure is-

In the end- I felt for some of the shit that the guys went through in SFU- some of it brought on themselves- some of it just for being men. I felt like they touched on a lot of reality in that show-
If you haven't checked it, maybe you should.






...oh yeah, they do women pretty well too.

Working and Working...

Well, That book by Dave Sims- "Cerebus and the art of Self Publishing" is proving to be difficult to find. However, I will find it.

About a year ago my hard drive got up and said "Screw you, Dude! I QUIT!" and it stopped working. I FINALLY got to pull a bunch of stuff off of it including a mess of Batman files that I had given up on. (another bonus is I located a CD that I had backed everything up to so the files I had lost are now found).

THEN, I was...slick enough...to install a little 3D program at work so I can use my spare time to crank on that instead of bullshitting in forums.

I just gotta get focused. And when I feel the project coming together again things will snowball.

I think the problem is I've lost touch with where to go next and what to do... I gotta find my damn path again!

Europe, Porn and Cartoons

Well, I am back and ready to dig in... But first a little bit about what I did over the summer (so far).

The past 4 weeks I have been in Germany and Belgium (my regular summer jaunt with the family to see in-laws) and we even squeezed in a couple of days in Paris, which is beautiful and poignant all at once. Such a mix of beauty and history- a deep history that we, as Americans, don't get to appreciate. I mean, buildings that were built in 1113- Choppin's grave yard- and things like that. I saw Seraut's final resting place and yeah, Jim Morrison too.

I read Ben Shapiro's book, Porn Generation And How Social Liberalism is corrupting Our Future and it really started to make me think- but not in the way he would have wished.

It is hard to describe how disturbed I am that someone with any decent amount of education can use the word "tolorance" as a derragatory statement and that "live and let live" is a crime.

Don't get me wrong. The guy did make some valid points and observations but they are so couched in this extremist right wing mentality it's scary.

Both the Right and the Left are out of fucking control, to put it honestly. Someone need s to call them out for it.
America needs to call them out for it.

My trip to Paris, well Europe in general was very enlightening on this- And I need to put that into words, I know, because I keep thinking about this every waking moment.
Some idiot will read this and say- "If you love Europe so much then go live there, Frenchy!" totally missing the point and thus, bringing my observations down into the black vs. white arena where sports styled politics reigns supreme. Score one for the Conservatives!

It's like both sides are pushing and pushing and they will do anything to get their point of view across no matter how much destruction and chaos will come of it.

The world is small and getting smaller; tolerance and "live and let live" may well be our best tools for survival.

I digress...

I also saw Melinda and Melinda on the flight. It's done by Woody Allen and stars Will Ferrell. This movie sucked. I mean, it sucked in that Gilmore Girls kind of way.
You know- where everyone is witty and has a snappy comeback for everybody elses snappy comebacks. The only difference is that they all weren't speaking at a hundred miles an hour.
And the acting. UGH! Will is the best thing in the film.
I normally like Woody Allen's stuff too.

Okay. Back to the project.
I picked up on the Batman animation again. I need to get Ponomo Studios back into the swing and that would be a really good start.

On the plane I drew some story boards for a two good scenes.

I also started a more concrete mapping of a book for The Unbearable Truth. The next step there I think is to start building the characters and buying Dave Sims book on self publishing.

I continue to work people...

The Beginning

SO. Here we are.

I'm an artist. I've done a lot of stuff and I have a lot of ideas. This blog is my first step towards getting these new ideas done. A journal of what is going down and how it's going down.

Odd that I would start this today as tomorrow I will be going to Germany for three weeks- there I will not have access to a single computer- this is a good and a bad thing.

It is my hope that with this blog I will be able to see and focus my efforts.

Until then feel free to check out www.Kimmygorden.com
There you will see that there IS the beginning of something-

I got a lot of ideas, man. Alot.