3Dave's Blog - The Blog of Dave Johnson

Tumblr

2010-02-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if you guys know about Tumblr or not, but I've set up a page there.

From what I can gather, it's like a blog site on steroids that can post to Twitter and Facebook in tandem and has a lot of nice features like following, liking of posts, and other cool stuff. Plus it's really easy to setup and design a custom page.

Swing by and have a look, and if you get a page set up, let me know. I'll have you over to my Tumblr house and serve tea and cookies. Then we'll watch "On Golden Pond."

Dave on Tumblr

Happy (Late) Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T15:28:00.000-08:00

I drew this on Saturday, with every intention of posting it on Sunday, but then... forgot.

So Happy Late Valentine's Day to everyone! After all, why should my wife be the only person I give a Valentine's Day gift to late?

The Crab

2010-02-05T22:41:00.001-08:00

This may or may not wind up in an upcoming iPhone App that a friend of mine is or isn't working on.

I may or may not be an idiot.

Blake Rig

2010-02-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

One question I get asked a lot is if I can share the Animation Mentor rigs. The simple answer is that I cannot, but I can tell you about an awesome one created by Jason Baskin that is available free of charge at CreativeCrash.com

I started playing around with Blake this weekend, and created a simple walk cycle, since I knew it would use the bulk of the rig. Overall I found Blake to be pretty functional, though I did have some issues with his tie. Luckily he is highly customizable, as you can see from the image above, so I just went with a turtleneck instead of the tie.

The rig has actually been around of some time now, and Jason has made some great improvements to it. So if you're looking for a solid (and free) rig to animate with, you really can't go wrong with Blake.

Blake Rig on CreativeCrash.com

While watching the XGames on ESPN tonight...

2010-01-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

I got inspired to sketch this up.

I have come to the sad realization that I will never compete in the XGames, but boy howdy do I enjoy watching them. Such an amazing group of graceful athletes doing things that I couldn't have come close to doing in my late teens/early twenties.

One more day of the Winter XGames, and then it's just a matter of waiting until the Summer ones roll around later this year!

You can't slow down technology.

2010-01-15T23:59:00.000-08:00

I was having a conversation with one of the guys I host my weekly podcast with, and we got on the subject of how rapidly technology seems to be advancing. It seems like within the last 10 years or so, the rate at which new gadgets and widgets are being released, refined and reduced in size has pretty much broken the needle.

I have no idea if that's what inspired the above sketch or not, but I figured I'd share it anyway.

Flower power!

2010-01-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight my son said he wanted to color a flower.

After I drew it, he asked in his best 2 year-old language if I would add a bee. Took me forever to figure out what he was asking for, because what I was hearing was, "AnbeelikeonMeee," which translate to "And a bee, like on the Mickey Mouse show that he watches."

He's still easier to understand than I am on most nights...

Coloring book dino.

2010-01-13T00:53:00.001-08:00

My son is really getting into coloring books, and so I've started drawing things for him to fill in.

Feel free to print this little guy out, and give it to your kids to color. If anyone actually does that, I'd love to see the results!

Take care!

I'm not sure what this is, and I drew it.

2010-01-10T00:02:00.001-08:00

Years ago I drew a comic strip called "Dog Complex." What you see below is a comic strip, but it isn't "Dog Complex."

I'd never have the time to do a weekly strip again, but I would like to find out a bit more about this odd little couple.

Alma

2009-12-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've been driving myself nuts since Siggraph in New Orleans this past year, because I couldn't find the name or any information on what was my favorite short film at the show. Today I just happened to stumble upon a post on another site about it, and to my not-really-that-surprised-because-it's-so-good surprise, the film was created by Rodrigo Blaas, who just happens to be an Animator at Pixar.

The short is called, "Alma," and can be seen below:

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

It's charming, creepy, cute and disturbing all at the same time. What a wonderful little piece, and congrats to Rodrigo!

Prep and Landing

2009-12-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I've got this DVR'd at home right now, but was too busy playing "choo choos" with my kid last night to watch it. So if you missed it like I did, watch it below, or hit up Hulu to watch it in a larger window.

It was on in the background as we played, and seemed really cute and funny. I'm looking forward to watching the entire thing without a train in both hands!

Prep and Landing on Hulu

It's that time of year...

2009-12-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

It seems like the Holiday Season always proves to be pure madness for me. This year my wife and I have decided that we don't have enough craziness in our lives and we are hosting Christmas for both my family and my in-laws!

So between that, Thanksgiving, my Son's 2nd Birthday (and party), and a slew of projects, I'm barely keeping my nose above water.

That being said, I have had time to start learning ZBrush. I've only been using it for about two weeks, but it's downright amazing. I recently got my hands on version 3.5 at work, and the advent of ZSketching is one that I think people will look back on much in the same way we do with regards to the invention of the automobile, microwave, and pizza pockets.

Here is one I'm working on now. I've still got a lot of learning left to do on this program, but I'm already in love.

As far as animation stuff goes, I actually just spent an entire two weeks animating a dog for the upcoming "Alan Wake" game. It was two scenes, and relatively short, but it was a lot of fun working on something with more than two legs.

So I didn't fall off a cliff or get run over by Tiger Woods or anything. I'm just super-busy and really enjoying life right now.

I hope everyone (that celebrates it) had a great Thanksgiving, and that you continue to have a marvelous Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

I love Team Fortress 2.

2009-11-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

I played TF2 back when it was released on the Xbox 360, and thought it was a good game. The character designs and "Meet the..." videos were what really appealed to me though, and I sort of lost interest in the game itself rather quickly.

Cut to last Friday when Valve went nuts and cut the price of the PC version to $2.50 for a couple of hours on Steam. I picked it up (how could I not at that price) and had an absolute blast playing with a buddy over the weekend.

That's me, waddling along as a Heavy, about to get killed by someone much more skilled than me.

If anyone reading this plays, or just wants to add me as their Steam buddy, my screen name is "3Dave." Just let me know who you are, or I'll think you're a robot who has come to kill me.

It's happened before.

All I want for Christmas...

2009-10-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

Are the Bloom County: The Complete Library books.

For anyone who has been following me for any period of time, you know what a massive "Bloom County, "Outland," "Opus," and Berkeley Breathed fan in general I am.

Two weeks ago, I was cleaning out my garage, and I came across the one and only "Bloom County" book in my collection that I just could NOT find. As I stood there staring at it, I thought, "You know it would be really nice of Opus and the gang got the same level of hard-bound, definitive collection, treatment that "Calvin and Hobbes," "The Peanuts," and "The Far Side" received.

When I was done cleaning out my garage, I logged on to the ol' interwebs and wandered over to Mr. Breathed's site. To my shock an amazement, I found an udpate on his site saying the first two books in the collection were available for order on Amazon as of that very same week!

It was nothing short of a comic strip fan's miracle.

I'll pick up the entire collection, and I really hope they have lots of extras in them. When the day came that Opus finally graced the Sunday comics for the last time, it hit me pretty hard, but with any luck this collection will be something I can share with my son on a road trip somewhere down the... uh... road.

So go now... scurry on out and pick them up! While you're at it, grab me a couple of copies too.

I'll be too busy trying ot learn the tuba solo to "U Stink But I Love U."

And now for something a little different...

2009-10-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

I want to pass along the most recent episode of the weekly podcast that I'm a part of. We had a lot of fun on this episode, as we dressed up in costumes and handed out candy to kids. You won't believe what we dressed up as, and you also won't believe what the kids came as!

You can listen to the entire show for free just by clicking the logo above. We had a lot of fun coming up with the gags for this one, so I really do hope you give it a listen!

Course Study - 091019 (animation)

2009-10-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Work has been crazy, so I don't have a ton of progress to show on this one, but I got a bit more done.

Obstacle Course 2 from Dave Johnson on Vimeo.

I've probably put way too much effort into things like the fingers, but I'd eventually like to do some kind of multi-angle shot of this, so I want it all to look decent from any angle.

Course study #01. (animation)

2009-09-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd post a quick animation test, since I haven't done so in a while. This is the first 59 frames (plus 20 dead frames at the start) of a 500+ frame obstacle course animation that I've been working on in my spare time. Don't blink or you'll miss it!

Obstacle Course 1 from Dave Johnson on Vimeo.

I'll be posting more on this very soon.

Have a great weekend!

He doesn't look healthy. (sketch)

2009-09-11T16:18:00.001-07:00

This guy has seen better days for sure.

Hey buddy... why so blue?

HA!

I got nothing.

Log Jam!

2009-08-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

One more in the can for my pulltab game side gig.

They wanted this one to be "extra vibrant," so I used lots of bright colors.

I also used real would in the making of the dam to give it that extra realistic touch. The beavers however are stuffed.

Four heads are better than one.

2009-08-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine and I are working on a new iPhone/iPod App for my weekly podcast that I take part in. Here are the icons for each of the four hosts that will appear in the App.

From left to right: Me, Steve, Tracy, J the Producer

Steve is fighting me over the pimple on his nose, but that just make me want to keep it in there even more! ;)

Thicken your skin!

2009-08-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Today I turned in an animation at work of a run cycle. Simple enough, right? Well the person I handed it off to wasn't happy with the cycle. They said it was too fast and too lite for such a heavy creature.

They were right.

Of course that didn't make it sting less, because I had spent a good deal of time creating it. It's part of the job though, and as Artists we need to make sure our skin is nice and thick. Doing so will ensure that you don't take stuff too personally and in turn will make you better at your craft.

In my first semester at art school, I was brought to the brink of tears on several occasions by critiques. Looking back on it now, those were cake compared to some of the critiques I received in the years since. I just hadn't developed my 2nd, and 3rd and 50th layers of skin, so those early sessions were the toughest. However in almost every single case, the critique was correct, and it not only strengthened my current piece but also helped me to avoid similar issues with future pieces of work.

As long as the person you're working with doesn't have some crazy vendetta against you, trust in what they say, but take it with a grain of salt. In other words, be confident in your work and know when to stand your ground, but if what they're saying makes sense, then don't be afraid to swallow your pride and make the changes.

I slowed down the run cycle, added in some additional weight to the hips and hands, and made a few other adjustments, and the resulting animation was far better than my original.

If you just can't seem to grow thicker skin, then wear a suit of armor. It may not help against critiques, but at least it will look awesome.

The Devil is in the details.

2009-08-10T18:03:00.001-07:00

A week in New Orleans and I'm drawing things like this...

I sketched this in my hotel room one night and splashed some color on it yesterday when I got back.

Cloudy With A Chance of Awesomeness!

2009-08-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Siggraph, and while I'll have a full report a bit later, I did want to mention how well-received "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" was at the show.

When I first saw the teaser for "Cloudy," I was less than impressed. I thought the character designs were kind of bland, and felt that overall it felt more like a straight-to-DVD release.

However with each new trailer and clip I saw, I warmed up more and more to the film. By the time Siggraph rolled around, I was generally enthused, so I gladly attended a talk on "Making Mouth-Watering 3D" for the film.

By the time I left this talk, I was sold. "Cloudy" is going to be awesome.

While the original character designs are the same, seeing them in motion is what really sold me. They can get such wonderful poses out of them, and their facial rigs are top-notch. The special FX in the film are incredible (wait until you see the dam break), and... well... Mr. T is in it!

On the final day of Siggraph, we got to watch around 15-20 minutes of selected clips from the film, and that only added to my excitement. Even a co-worker who attended with me said he had never seen such an enthusiastic response from a crowd screening a film before.

So take it from me, "Cloudy" will be worth your money when it comes out. If it isn't, I'll eat a ratbird raw.

Siggraph 2009!

2009-08-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm down hanging out at Siggraph 2009 this week!

New Orleans is hot and wet, and when you walk out of the nice cool lobby it feels like someone threw a hot sponge at your face. That being said, I'm having a blast, even on this first day when things are a bit more laid back. Met a person working on "John Carter of Mars," and saw a great talk on "Benjamin Buttons." Who knew Brad Pitt's pores could be so interesting?

If you happen to be down here for the convention, drop me an email and we'll meet up for dinner or just a quick chat. I'll also try to post photos and a full report upon my return.

Take care!

Constipated Cowboys and Heatwaves

2009-07-27T16:30:00.001-07:00

Seattle is in the midst of a heatwave. I tell you this because today is also the day that the "Chiller" (their term not mine) that keeps the server room cool here at work decided to crap out. Near 100 degree weather plus no AC in the server room means that we almost had the sprinkler system start spraying due to the heat in that room. They shut it down, and all of the licenses for programs like Maya that were contained on the server went with it.

Why should you care?

You really shouldn't, but since I had some downtime, I started sketching and the result is below.

I like to think of him as a constipated Toby Keith, but then that forces me to think of a constipated Toby Keith, and that's pretty gross.