The Legend (that never) Ends...

So here's another that's been wafting around my hard drive for a little while! It's another zelda one, but this time it's been mashed up with the famous teaser poster from The Dark Knight Rises.

I've also submitted it redbubble.com, so if you fancy, you can now wear this design, have it on your wall or even strap it to your iPhone (for a price, of course!)

Allow me to LINK (hurrr!) you to the redbubble page:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/mrlunarbeam/works/9764224-the-legend-of-broken-pots

It's a great site for the kind of nerdy Tshirts I love, so have a browse while you're there!

The General Rises...

This one has been a very long time coming. I did the original design way back in 2006 (I think. Really must start putting a date on my artwork! See bottom image), and I've always wanted to give it a bit of colour.

This is yet another character from my own little sci-fi world, and has always been known as 'Snake General', in lieu of a proper moniker. As you may have guessed, he's a leader of an army! I imagined an alien lizard race that had over millennia reduced the need for their back legs as their tail evolved to become more useful, hence the small, vestigial limbs by the waist. As for the feathers? Why the hell not. Some dinosaurs had feathers and couldn't fly, so I envisaged these for display purposes.

 I dug out the original drawing with a view of simply popping it into photoshop and giving it a bit of colour, but I decided I wanted to give it a complete overhaul in illustrator and make a few additions and remove some bits that didn't make sense (see the robotic neck muscles of the original sketch!). I've gone back to it on and off for over a year, and it's finally finished.

I tried may different colour schemes, but I settled on one that's reminiscent of the garish colour schemes found on 90's action figures and toys such as Turtles, Toxic Crusaders and Mighty Max.

Stompy Robots: Noir

More of those pesky robots from LunarBeam. Can't get enough of them. The idea was recently put across to me (by a fellow Bot fan) to do a comic book in a style that you wouldn't necessarily think fitted the world of transforming machines from another world (who have a habit of shooting one another in the face). Specifically, Noir style. Thats right - Dames, Broads, Moider, Smoking, Dark alleyways, internal monologues and a distinct lack of colour. I quickly threw together this moody proof of concept...

I then had a bit more time today to tackle something a bit more complex...

And finally, another little test...

And another little test (though the final will not have the "video" effect).

Little green (Scottish) men...

What you see here is an animation test for a new programme I'd purchased (stop motion pro). I really wanted to try my hand at lip syncing, but I also wanted to imbue the character with a bit of nuance through hand gestures, eyebrow movements etc. So I recorded the voice, then recorded a video of myself doing the hand motions and what not and used them as a reference. The end result is a bit on the choppy side (the webcam I used isn't ideally suited), and the mouth syncing isn't as tight towards the end, but then it did take me an entire Sunday to do and was a bit burnt out towards then end! (*cue tiny violins)

Thanks to my good friend Rob, I was able to recover this video which I thought was lost forever with the death of my PC. Remember kids, always back up your files, ESPECIALLY your stop motion files! Enjoy!

Down, Right, Left, Down, Right, Left...

If you've never played the fantastic 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time', then this post will likely mean little to you! However, those who have will know that this image (that I hope to get onto a T-shirt at some point) was inspired by one of my favourite moments of the game. How does one enlist the help of a stout, tribal leader? By playing him a jaunty tune on your Ocarina, of course! (see video embedded beneath image)

Edit: Updated with new version. With shading! Prints, tees and Iphone/Ipad cases featuring the design can be purchased here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/mrlunarbeam/works/10094393-hot-goron-beats?ref=work_carousel_work_portfolio_1

Version 1...

Hot beats herein!

Full of (Dar)win!

During my stint at university, I proposed a project to construct an interactive installation based on the works of the legendary Charles Darwin. The idea was that it would be an educational tool for children, and would see them pick up objects (such as a model of the HMS Beagle, the ship that ferried Mr Darwin to places such as the Galapagos Islands), move it across a specially designed interactive desktop, and an animated Darwin would pipe up and tell the child all about it. Ultimately, the project never saw fruition, but I did manage to get this short test animatic done, which I had a blast making! Click play, evolutionists!

(Oh, and internet-points to to whoever spots the embarrassing error! That'll teach me to barrel in without doing my research!). 

A Sneaky Peek...

So, I've been trying to get back into drawing lately. I've also been getting into my comic books thanks to some great recommendations from a friend. I have combined these two elements in the hope of creating a series of short graphic tales, penned by my friends, drawn by me. It's a slow process, and finding the time isn't easy. I've also found that drawing the same kind of thing over and over to create a sequence of frames is quite testing on the old patience module.

The upshot of this is I'm getting quicker at drawing and really rediscovering my style. I've not got a huge amount to show you, but please have a look at the first page (which is a work in progress) that has been penned by my friend Jon. It's called Push, and is a tale of of an ever-oppressed young man with a strong imagination and a penchant for wrestling, violence and revenge.