Pittsburgh Strip District Scene

While I love filmmaking, it unfortunately doesn't pay the bills...yet. In the mean time I do freelance graphic design. I'm currently working on the interior design of a new restaurant franchise here in Pittsburgh. The theme of the restaurant is an outdoor city cafe utilizing Pittsburgh landmarks and locations. I've attached a piece of artwork here for your viewing pleasure. This is a rough-mock up of one of the walls. I'll post the finished piece once it's completed.

A Real American Hero

From now on when I hear the word "America" I will think of this clip. If only the movie could capture a fraction of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN034sBeF4c

Ed Piskor

Just discovered Ed Piskor's blog at http://edpiskor.blogspot.com/.

Ed is not only a nationally recognized Pittsburgh comic book artist, having illustrated some of Harvey Pekar's books (the guy Paul Giamatti was playing in American Splendor for those unfamiliar with non DC/Marvel comic books), but he is also a fellow Munhall native and a graduate of Steel Valley High School.

In high school you could always pick our outwork out of the all the stuff hanging on the walls, since we were the ones drawing comics and super-heroes while everyone else was doing portraits of Tupac and Biggie.

I encourage you to peruse his selection of art on the blog or on his website.

100 Movies 100 Numbers

Blasto Poster Pt. 2

On this next pass you can see there's some more detail, primarily light and shadows. (Click to see the larger image.)You'll notice the chest emblem is still just a red circle. I've been working on redesigning the Blasto logo and haven't come up with it yet. While I like the original bomb logo, it doesn't quite work as a chest emblem in the way the Superman "S", Bat symbol, or Flash lighting bolt does. Need something a bit cleaner and more stylized.

Blasto Poster Pt. 1

I'm making a Captain Blasto poster for my brother for Christmas and thought this would be a great opportunity to show you guys the process of making the artwork for the film. Below you see the first step. While most people assume all the artwork is 100% digital, it all starts with a simple pencil drawing. This will eventually be the crimson comet himself soaring through space.After I've scanned in the pencil drawing, I begin to trace over it with colored shapes using the vector draw tool. It starts out very flat with very little depth or detail.

A Star and a Tree

Saw this on Kleiber's blog and had to post it over here. Without a doubt, the single greatest Christmas commercial ever made. It says so much with so little. No matter where you are, at home, a noisy bar, a busy restaurant, when this commercial comes on everybody turns their attention towards it. For you out of towners who have never seen this, you're in for a treat.

Mercury Men Stills Pt. 2

And your first look at one of the Mercury Men themselves...

Mercury Men Stills

Here's a few stills from the upcoming short:

The film should be completed by the end of the month. The effects and contrast correction are coming along very nicely, but take a VERY LONG time, especially when you're not working on a very fast computer. After another wave of corrupted projects and random crashes, I vow that if it's within my power I will never edit another film on a PC again.

I'll have more stills (and possibly some rough footage) soon.