:: smoreel summer 07 ::

:: business ::

ORDERED!!!

bill robinson stand up guy that he is, just saved me about fifty bucks by pointing me to this website:

http://www.overnightprints.com

now lets just hope that these puppies get shipped to my classy hotel in san diego, i'll have to ask the concierge when i get in, but i called ahead so i should be fine!*

*to be read: the front desk at the motel 6...

:: heraldry ::

from:

polish roots.com

[smolenski]



Arms: Azure, a horseshoe, Argent heels to base, pierced of a sword in pale point to chief. For a crest, an eagle's wing debruised of an arrow in fess, all proper.

There should be a horseshoe with the tips downward; through its top a saber passes, point upward and hilt downward, facing the right side of the shield, so that the hilt is to be seen in the center of the horseshoe. The helmet with crown has an eagle's wing, through which an arrow passes.

There were two brothers, whether of Jastrzebiec clan or Pobóg, who carried on a long-standing feud between them, and would not let it be settled, neither by the intervention of friends or the persuasion of relatives. It went so far that the younger brother, seeking vengeance for his injury, did not restrain his temper until he was guilty of the blood and death of his older brother. On account of this crime, in eternal memory of his punishment, his descendants' arms were transformed into the shape you see here and called Zagroba or Zagloba, i.e., za glowe [for his head].

--

[tornatore]

i know not much of this side of the family, and the sicilians didn't operate in a clan system as the poles therefore arms weren't used in battle or for identification. yet one thing i do know about my grandfather [whom i never was able to meet] is that he had a freaking kickass tattoo of a skull with a knife through it when he came over to america in the early 1900s.

--

[thomas sebastian smolenski]

say hello to my new backpatch:

:: roo ::

this girl [that this kinda sorta looks like]:


draws awesome people:



and she has a blog!

http://roodevon.blogspot.com

keep an eye on it and prepare for awesome!

:: anijam ::

working on the back now, i'll clean this up once i get the card done! thanks for all the input! i went with the background, added some spiderwebs, tonight i'll add some manner of monster on the stalactites.

the back is going to be tricky. i'm sure there will be progress posts before i clean the post up!








layout/color help needed!!! what sort of colors hsould i go with? should i draw a bg should i use gradient?





*EDIT*

SWEET! i'll be animating at the ASIFA HOLLYWOOD booth 5434 for the anijam on saturday during comic con 4:30-7! haha chris daly eat yer heart out! anijam!!!

http://asifa-hollywood.org/blog/con2007/table.html

--

not sure if it's too late but i just emailed asifa hollywood about joining the anijam at comic con. we'll see what happens! i'm working up a "business" card right now, i'll post sketches. i'm trying to figure out if i want it to look:

metal

epic

silly

fun

or

...professional

probably not professional.

it's going to be a trading card. let me know if i should be a "bad guy" or a "good guy" input appreciated! as i said sketches soon!

here's a version in my normal clothes:

:: monsters ::

drew these after watching dragon's lair clips. and afterward realized i gave them both the same line of action.

where have we seen that dinosaur before...but..younger?

:: powerhouse ::

i was recently featured on the raymond scott blog with a quote from me about how bad my thesis is! check it out!

http://raymondscott.blogspot.com/

it's pretty exciting! i love raymond scott's music, and i'm sure you do too! even if you don't realize it!

also this last drawing seems to have turned into my "moses"...i'm going to get back on the bandwagon soon! i've actually been excited about work lately so most of my energies have been focused there!

i'll start doodling soon i promise!

:: yarr ::

lately i've felt like this:



we all have our days...

:: shifting gears ::

in order to not clutter this blog with too much talk of air guitar i started a new blog to chronicle my ride to glory:

gettingair.blogspot.com

:: ulfhedair ::

can you discern whats going on in these scribbles? i can't!

planning out air guitar business!

ulfhedair? cerbairus [umulats on the U]?

:: power chord ::

here's the "landing" position of my rock out sketch. i suppose a second key? we shall see! i also have my palm mute "angry/suspicious inspect the audience for dissenters face" sketch to do. now that i figured out what a truss rod is, and adjusted it, and my guitar can actually make noises again, you can bet there's going to be a lot more of this to come!

when this is done i should pop it into kabuki and make it work with a song...



*edit* - i don't like this one.

:: frenchies ::

i did these sketches for a bit in a michael moore film. an american and french family sitting on top of a graph that will compare where tax money goes...americans OBVIOUSLY get totally hosed. but the image is not getting used now. i like it though so i'm posting it. it might be © flickerlab...? who friggin knows, i drew it, don't say you did sucka. BAM!

:: rock ::

i recently saw air guitar nation and it reminded me of how important it is for me to rock out on a regular basis. i decided this warrants a series of drawings or perhaps a short little animation. but in any event here's a cleaned up sketch [yes my guitar looks like that]!



i've been working at flickerlab as of late and have been pretty busy. i've felt guilty about my letting the megabrain fall by the wayside, i got sort of overwhelmed...i'll get back at that SOON!

also if you like to rock, or would like to learn to shred [i'd like to!]...

check out http://www.guitarshredshow.com my friend greg showed me this site and it's one of my favorites! one of the best flash sites ever around!

:: foodswings ::

i promised i'd make a flyer for the foodswings third anniversary party...but getting sick put me way behind schedule! i've got things started though. i decided to turn nutty merlin into a vegan necromancer! here's some progress:



progress: 3/14/07


progress: 3/15/07



flash crash yesterday and i lost a day's worth of work. been savin a lot today, and got it back to where it was. it's always hard for me to get back to something when i know i'm just doing repeat work! is this working?

also my forum is goin! but my getting sick really set me back. it's got me pretty frustrated. i should probably start looking for work too. lame.

:: building a bitter blogger ::

i really appreciate the sudden surge of disgruntled animators. although it's making me far more idealistic than i was two years ago even. but i know my goals now. i don't want to JUST work in animation.

i want to be a skilled cartoon animator.

that sounds stupid. "i'm serious about making funny cartoons." i feel i could make something now, with what i know now. or i could challenge, push myself to learn more AND make something. college didn't push me to learn. it asked me to work within my knowledge base. i got poor grades when i challenged myself, but i was happier and i learned more.

who else out there [i've talked to a few of you] wants to improve yourself? who wants to make "art for art's sake?" who wants to make real cartoon animation?

there's a lot of great resources out there, but if there's one thing i know we need as animators, that's organization, discipline and a schedule. i'm willing to suck it up and make one if people out there are willing to try. leave a comment *and email me* if you'd be interested in a team learning/progress/lesson blog.

*IMPORTANT! - to get into this please email me here: tomsmo@gmail.com, some blogger profiles are disabled and i can't get in touch with you!

:: rude penguin ::

here's my penguin sketches.

:: doin' time at ac ::

i'm eternally grateful to ac for giving me my first job in the city. but that's about as far as it goes. the work was work, nothing too stimulating. at least not in the vein of things i'd like to be working with. when i moved to ellen's i was given a pad to take notes. i'd do at least a page of sketches throughout the day while i was waiting for things to load and whatnot. these are some of them. you can tell what my hair/facial hair looked like any given day by my "self portraits." and at the end i was getting frustrated and really wanted to rock out, those are my faves.

also, i have a collection of post-it notes of the flash logo doing something dangerous, that i drew every time the program crashed. i gave up after a while because it crashed so much. i'll try and find those...i like em...