Raptorous.net

It's been way too long since I've posted anything artistic here to my blog, so here's a fresh new piece! I've been wanting to do something in the style of Makoto Shinkai, so here's my take on it. I know, I know, it's nothing like it, but this is what I wanted to do. Mr. Shinkai's work has a very strange power to it. The environments that he paints are always beautiful, yet have a sense of nostalgia to the locations. Even if you've never been to the place, it gives you an incredible feeling of, "I know this place! That's the place from a long time ago..." I wanted to invoke that same sort of feeling, but it was extremely difficult. Mr. Shinkai's environments are often times illustrations of actual locations in Japan, and so I decided to choose the salt flats right out side of my work. Driving past it at 7 in the morning, the sun shines a brilliant orange glow on a perfectly flat thin layer of water that is the flats. It's quite beautiful, so I wanted to capture it. I also run along the flats almost every day, so it was natural to have the character running.

This has definitely been the longest illustration I've ever done (two months...on and off...maybe?) and the most complex. There were certainly lots of challenges, and I don't think I've conquered them all, but hopefully I can practice more, and get there.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to write this post, but here it goes. Last post I had, I was working at Electronic Arts as a contract technical artist on MySims Kingdom. The project has come and gone, the game has already shipped, we've sold more than eight hundred thousand units worldwide. I've had such a great time working at Electronic Arts, and I've made many a friend there of which I'll still hang out with on a regular basis here in the Bay Area. It's strange to think that I've left EA, it all happened so fast.

Soon after I left EA, I started working at PDI/Dreamworks Animation, which happens to be just down the street from EA. You could say it's an industry switch, from games to animation, but my general involvement with a project dealing with art and technology hasn't changed, so it hasn't been that drastic of a change. I started working as a Technical Director on Merry Madagascar, a tv short that's going to premiere some time this fall. I've worked on that film for a good nine months, and I've learned the very complex and large pipeline that is the PDI pipeline. It's been a pretty hard year in terms of coming upto speed on everything, and I still feel like I have a long way to go in terms of knowing the pipeline.

Currently, I'm working on a film called Oobermind, due for release next November. As my first feature film, I can't wait to see my name scroll up the big screen. It's been my dream to have that moment since I decided I wanted to work in entertainment. Although I guess I couldn't have pictured it six years ago, when I was still in college.

California has become my daily routine now. Most days, it's rather cool, or maybe it's warm...but it's never freezing or desperately hot. Seasons seem to bleed into each other, and it's always good weather for a bbq. I do miss the East Coast weather, people, and attitude. It's diffcult to say why. It's hard to hate California, but I just can't seem to love it.

Labels: Dreamworks, EA, work