I've been futzing with my website in prep for this weekend's CTN Expo in Burbank (the event is s'posed to be some kind of networking/skills-building/job-finding bonanza for animation industry types). In lieu of something more original, here is my "portrait" image for the CONTACT ME page.
Another thing I've been working on is finishing these "How To Draw The Head" videos for Carlo's CG Circuit website. There are lots of similar videos out there, so I'm putting a twist on mine: I'm doing them in color, via felt-tip marker (same way Ive been doing all these illustrations the last few years).
I know my previous exhortations at y'all to take a look at creating some classes for this site have been met with a collective yawn...BUT, you guys should check it out. Especially those of us with (*ahem*) some extra time on our hands.... One of us might unlock a profitable sideline in making useful instruction videos (my drawing lessons aren't the sort that make much $$, but they do help add content to the site, which I'm happy to do for my good pal "Carls").
One of the guys using the site made some very good Maya API (I think?) videos--and over the course of last year he earned $35,000 from downloads of his lesson! (I know, my little rant is veering into click-bait spam territory, apologies).
But if you have a minute, maybe
check out his site. I KNOW everyone here could do a fun, interesting video teaching the world SOMETHING useful/amusing (Ellis on thumbnailing and executing a comic book story, or video game storyboarding; Tom Moon on Maya S/FX, or his process in creating a page from one of his gorgeous graphic novels, or Jimmy on technical PhoSho stuff, or making his marbleized backdrops, or creating game assets, etc.).
Carlo's even got me to agree to do a class on sculpting a portrait bust. I'll keep you updated....
11 comments:
I think I will put every atom of my being into creating the ultimate figure invention tutorial.
Thus creating a so bad it's good sensation that gets one million downloads.
The sculpture tutorial sounds great Marty. I hope that happens.
Great idea. I've known about CGCurcuit for a long time. I should do something Ken Burns style. Don't worry about extra tech sophistication. Do what I can do.
The challenge is to realize this is as much storytelling as a good bit of fiction or comic book.
Don't start with stuff like. "Hi, I'm so and so, what's an asshole like me doing here anyway?"
Make it lean mean, with hooks that draw you through.
Until it ends with a twist "Your download, it's coming from inside your house!"
Good luck at CTN Marty. I hope you do well with networking and get a gig or gigs.
As far as your contact image page is concerned...it's great. It's all that great Marty art.
What's lacking. Marty doing a Billy Zane caricature and realizing it's actually you after you're done.
Tentative title
Ellis Goodson : Invent figures with appeal
Very nice on the lips.
"ELLIS GOODSON presents: GET GOOD WITH YER FIGURES!"
Love it. And why the heck not?? Elz, I'm telling you, with yr personality, you are a YouTube/Podcasting sensation waiting to happen!
FYI: I just bought a proper microphone to enable my own home recording...went the cheap route and chose a condenser-style mic, a scant $50 on Scamazon, called the CAD u37, looks like an old-timey radio mic and seems to work OK. We get you one of these, Goodson, and we can do a dbl podcast from our respective homes.
It'd be brilliant!!
...and thanks for the good wishes re:CTN, but I'm not really looking to find any work there--too humiliating to be turned down for my out-of-date portfolio!
Marty- what do you use when you do markers. I bought some sharpies and some crayon colors. Trying to go cheap on that pink supergirl commission. May have to buy a couple of good markers yet.
Elz, I mainly lean on the old Prismacolor dbl-ended felt tips. Chisel-end and a smallish point--not brushes. Available most everywhere. I waited until Micheal's offered an online coupon for 50% off of one full-priced item, and bought the 48 marker set. Saved over $120 bucks I think--and now I see they are cheaper at Dick Blick online--just $108 bucks!...I needed to replenish my stock. But you don't need 48--go with a 24 pack.They offer a few varieties--the Manga is a nice option, but there's a new "Portrait" set that would be great if you're planning to focus on flesh...tho' I figure you'll want some more exciting colors than that.
But I think the best deal is this one
http://www.dickblick.com/items/21342-2249/
You get 24 of the best colors PLUS six extra colors in brushpen form. $52 bucks, but a lotta value in that.
On top of that set (and really, the 12 piece primary/secondary set is good, too--but you can really do almost everything you'd ever want with the 24 + 6), you might get one or two (or three) of the really saturatingly wet AD Design markers...these will work wonders pulling your colors together, making things harmonize AND get tighter in value...I lean A LOT on the PALE FLESH and SUNSET(?) for flesh tones (I just lay a sheet of solid color over the whole face after I've done all the rendering--makes all the separate colors bleed together), and a color called PALE IVY which is green/yellow....but then most of your color work goes that way, so you might want a cooler tone like PALE INDIGO (?) or AZURE to tamp things down...but yr 24 pack will come with LIGHT CERULEAN and CLOUD BLUE which is really like a pale purple that I use all over the place for shading....You might pick up a GREYED VIOLET or GREYED LAVENEDER, too--those purples are good to work in if they don't come in yr set.
Don't bother with a full set of those graduated grays. At most you'd need just one or two from the further ends of the spectrum--I'd look at a warm grey and a cool grey--Prismacolor also used to do a French gray that's a real nice brownish tone, but they're hard to find. Useful only if you really want to refine yr values. But a lot of that toning you can do when you digitize the piece...
Don't use Sharpies if you want to do color. They don't blend. Even with something as simple and monotonous as a big fill-in area of black, I won't use a Sharpie or Magic Marker 'cuz I don't like the surface texture they leave--both dead and waxy at the same time, and kills that section of paper so you can never rework it. They reflect differently when you scan them, too.
And never use black cuz that's fer suckas!!
FOR BLACK OUTLINES:
Get a few purple and a few red Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, do your outline work, and then go over the lines with your DARK GREEN, DEEP PURPLE and/or DEEP CRIMSON...makes a wonderfully rich black. And if your lines are thick enough to use the chisel end of the marker, you can really get some nice line weight variation.
More than you ever wanted to know!
Great info Marty. That's something I know from painting, about dead blacks, never thought about it being the case with markers.
I'll see what I can scrounge up with a trip to Michaels tomorrow.
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