FROSTED

Hey guys, first off I want to thank everybody who's been watching and liking the "Kleeman and Mike in Backyard Jam" animated short. Feel free to share it an like it on the Vimeo page by clicking on the heart and if you haven't seen it, it's located here: http://vimeo.com/53638798

Next I want to talk about a project that I am involved in promoting: my über-talented friend James Parris' "FROSTED". It is a 3D stereoscopic animated short that will also serve as an anti-bullying tool. Very cool (sorry for the pun) & commendable! At the moment they are looking for funding on Kickstarter and we would be forever grateful for your help in spreading the word and contributing if you are able. I know the kind of work that James produces and this will prove to be as great as his other professional work. Here is more info on "FROSTED" and check out the video on the Kickstarter page:



If you or someone you know has been a victim of bullying, we're launching a project that will interest you. Without a doubt, FROSTED will be the coolest piece of anti-bullying entertainment EVER.

Only one catch: It needs YOUR HELP. We have to get this fundraiser viral very quickly. Would you consider helping us by spreading the link to our Kickstarter campaign? (And of course, if you can make a pledge, we will be extremely grateful!)
Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1031476088/frosted-an-anti-bullying-fantasy-in-3d
http://kck.st/X1EQ0f

Follow us on Twitter @Frosted3D
twitter.com/Frosted3D
Like our FB page
www.facebook.com/Frosted3D


Check out the animatic (storyboards set in running time)!
http://vimeo.com/46079195


Enjoy and thank you for your help!

-hugo

Kleeman and Mike in Backyard Jam

So the cartoon I first wrote about here and then here is finally done! Go on over either to kleemanandmike.com or Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/53638798) to watch it. Thank you so much to all who contributed to see this project through, sincerely.

I have to mention that out of all of the Kleeman and Mike shorts (I've worked on 4), this is probably the slickest and most professional one. It looks SO good! The art direction & color of surfer/artist Andy Davis really knocked it out of the park. Cool original music by Spencer Rabin of the San Diego band "Little Deadman". My old theme park friends, Rex Russell and Tony Misiano lending their voices for K&M respectively. As for my animation, I tried to do the best that I could with the limited amount of time I had last summer. My schedule at Full Sail is demanding and so I wish I could have spent more time animating. It all was wonderfully guided by Randy Christopher's direction.

I just dropped it off yesterday as a submission for next year's Florida Film Festival, wish us luck!

Update!!!

Here's a small "behind-the-scenes" clip of my run cycles near the end of the short :

Click here for a bigger view.

The fall / whiteboard

Hi guys, hope everybody is enjoying the fall! Superstorm Sandy didn't affect Central Florida that much aside from bringing cold weather a bit early this year but my heart really goes out to all those affected in the north east coast of the U.S. and Caribbean. If you'd like to help but can't make it up there, make a contribution to The American Red Cross.

Fall means a busy schedule at my day job at Full Sail University so that's why I've been a bit M.I.A. lately. I've been freelancing too but can't really show that work here without permission. I can tell you it's based on concepts in this book. And also had a family visit with my sister and nephew and I believe we have another artist on our hands! Check out Liam's abstract handiwork (looks like a bird in profile to me):

So to continue the whiteboard drawing concept, here is a post on the Dos Illustros sketch blog where I'm demonstrating how to abstract objects for my class' Black & White Abstract Composition assignment:

http://dosillustros.blogspot.com/2012/11/abstract-sketches.html

And here I demo to the class how to draw a human head and then add all kinds of things on top (this one kinda looks like a hipster-moustachioed-mulleted-tattoed Justin Bieber):

http://instagram.com/p/RXmNJiAseK/

Our Design & Art Theory class in the Digital Arts and Design and Graphic Design on-campus programs at Full Sail deal with traditional methods for designers. If you want to visit and check out the campus, make sure you come to their big and impressive monthly event: The Behind The Scenes Tour.

Couple more things: I still have a batch of figure drawings to post from my last Crealdé Sunday session but it'll have to wait until I scan them, my scanner isn't on the fritz but the computer it was hooked up to is so I need to find an adapter. I'm also getting together something for a local show in a new gallery in December and lining up a couple of album covers for a couple of talented local folks.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving (my favorite) is next!

Birthday drawings

Here's a couple of birthday drawings for some of my co-workers. I used the Pentel Tradio and Pocket brush pens for the main parts of the drawings and a Pentel Black Color Brush pen for dry brush effects on Canson BFK Rives cream paper. As always, click on the images for a closer look.

R.E.M.'s bassist Mike Mills for Kim last month, 5"x7" (http://instagr.am/p/PNC55_AsSu/):

A fun/weird drawing of heavy metal vocalist King Diamond and Korean pop star PSY (dancing in Gangnam Style) for my friend Avaryl, 8"x10" (http://instagr.am/p/PNFOVsgsUM/):

(I changed King's eye makeup to look like a fish, put a correct cross on his cheek, and made him smiling as opposed to his usual grimace for fun)

And as a bonus during these election times, here's a fictional ad that one of my former students worked up for fun. I don't think I'd ever run for office but Elias thinks I should! I think the logo is pretty cool although my real beard is whiter in color these days:

'Til next!

Collaboration 3

More progress in the collaboration painting with Tom! He painted a crinkled paper texture on the top right corner in blue while I added flat red violet squares on the bottom left (click on the photos for a closer look):

Detail of Tom's work:

Detail of my work:

Here are pictures of the set up that Tom made to reference for textures:

Keep watching for more progress!

This is a continuation of the collaboration painting between Tom Buzbee and I. To check out the first 2 posts, click here:

http://hugogiraud.blogspot.com/2012/06/collaboration.html

http://hugogiraud.blogspot.com/2012/07/collaboration-2.html

Big Figure Drawing Post

Drawings posted after the break, these are figure drawings from the Sunday morning class at Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park, FL for 4 sessions in the last couple of months. Done with a Pentel Tradio pen and Copic Sketch markers (N2, 5, & 8) on Strathmore 500 Series marker paper 9"x12". My scanner computer broke down and I waited a bit until I could scan a bunch of them from work. 

Warning: if you're offended by artistic nudity, I'd  suggest you not go further and please check out my other work here in the non-figure drawing posts (or clothed ones) and at the Dos Illustros sketchblog instead. If you're not offended then please read on...

Collaboration 2

Tom added green, blue, & bluegreen glazes in oil to the background. Now we have to stick to painting in oils, no more acrylic! He set up an area with paper & fabric textures to look and borrow for the painting. The placement of those textures on this background will be up to us. Keep watching for more progress!

This is a continuation of the collaboration painting between Tom Buzbee and I. To check out the 1st post, click here:

http://hugogiraud.blogspot.com/2012/06/collaboration.html

New Kleeman and Mike cartoon gifs

Hey guys, Randy just posted a couple of animated gifs from the new Kleeman and Mike cartoon- check them out! All done digitally in Adobe Flash by Randy Christopher:


Ruff animation October cat:

http://kleemanandmike.com/octrun02.gif



Final animation of Mike taking a skate run on the vert ramp (pretty awesome if I must say!). Mike has the Christian Hosoi look from the 80's wearing a shirt on the top back of his shorts & riding a hammerhead (reference for 80's skate fans). Check out the wood texture on the ramp:

http://kleemanandmike.com/mikerunloop_320.gif


I'll post a link to the full cartoon once Randy uploads it, from what I've seen already the thing looks pretty RAD! I also want to thank all of the Kickstarter fans that donated for their contribution since it helped pay for my work on the new cartoon. Thank you so much!!!

Figure drawing preview

Posted a figure drawing from last week over at Dos Illustros here: http://dosillustros.blogspot.com/2012/07/figure-drawing.html


I will post the rest from the last 3 sessions here. My home scanner is unavailable due to my G4 breaking down but I'll try to scan at work. Coming soon!

New sketches

I posted a couple of sketches over at Dos Illustros, check them out! Click on the names to go to the post:


Girl Robin & Batman
New Kleeman and Mike

The Act

Back in the mid 2000's, a few animation studios were forming here in Orlando after the closing of Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. One of these studios, Cecropia, set up shop to make a video game with quality 2D animation; not unlike the Don Bluth games of the 80's, "Dragon's Lair" & "Space Ace", except theirs wouldn't be an action game. They ended up hiring a lot of the very talented animation artists in town (many of them my friends) and ended up with "The Act", a hand-drawn animated romantic comedy game. Luckily, I was hired to do some clean-up animation (I worked on Edgar, Sylvia, Wally, and one of the doctors) and animate the game's instructions and comic special effects in Flash ( I also ended up teaching Flash at the studio). Check out some of the original art for it here: http://theactgame.com/Creation/


I'm really glad to finally see this game out in the open and hopefully enjoyed by people. The game was originally being sold to the arcade market but it is now being released to the iPad & iPhone. Check it out and download it in the iTunes app store: http://itun.es/is44qY

Analog Artist Digital World

Gotta mention that my good friend Tom Buzbee and I got a mention on the talented Tom Thorspecken's Analog Artist Digital World blog! It's a great art and local Orlando event blog, highly recommended! Thorspecken is an Orlando event reporter except instead of taking pictures, he sketches the event (or part of it) in watercolor. A different perspective! He was a clean-up artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida and now teaches in the 2D Animation class at Full Sail University's Computer Animation department. I worked at Disney Florida on "Brother Bear" and although we never worked together, I hold Thor in the highest respect for working at the studio. Personally, it's great to see artists from the animation studio make art around Orlando.


Check out Thor's post and sketch here and follow him: http://www.analogartistdigitalworld.com/2012/06/first-thursdays.html

Collaboration

I've started a big painting (5'x7') collaboration with our school's Resident Artist and my friend, the amazingly talented Tom Buzbee! Click on his name to see more of his work and you will see why I am super excited about it! The man is not only a fantastic fine artist who's found his own voice but as an illustrator, I respect him highly for working in places like NASA and Disney's EPCOT. And I always was a bit jealous that my friends McArthur Albert and George Frei got to do painting with him so I'm really glad I finally get to do one!


I will try to post progress photos of the painting here on the blog as we go along. After stretching & double priming the big canvas, here's our 1st step: covering the background in expressive washes of black acrylic paint. The rectangles you might see in it are pieces of paper towels that we threw on it to soak some of the paint out. They left some of the pattern & shapes from the paper towels and we also threw them back at the painting to build more textures. Click on the photo for a closer look:

Updated the masthead here with something, dunno if I like it yet but it'll be there for a while until I get tired of it...

Avengers doodles

Did some Avengers quick sketches (and a Downton Abbey surprise) on a storyboard pad with a Pentel Stylo pen for fun last week after watching the movie. It was fun! Go check them out at the Dos Illustros blog!

http://dosillustros.blogspot.com/2012/05/avengers-doodles.html 

1st thursdays pt. 2

Here is the full Bugs Bunny piece, which along with my Amélie Poulain piece (12"x18" acrylic on canvas) and Audrey figure drawing (9"x12" on marker paper"), were exhibited at the OMA 1st thursdays Full Sail Art Show last May 3rd. Original is 24"x36" painted in acrylic on wood, not for sale at the moment but contact me if interested in prints! Click on the images for a bigger view:

Bugs Bunny, 24"x36" acrylic on wood

Amélie Poulain, 12"x18" acrylic on canvas

Audrey, 9"x12" Copic Markers on marker paper

1st thursdays

Fellow students, staff, and faculty (including myself) of Full Sail will be exhibiting artwork at the Orlando Museum of Art's 1st thursdays event this coming Thursday May 3rd. My Amelie & Bugs Bunny paintings and Audrey figure drawing got in. Come on down and say hi, $10 gets you in the door!

Digital ink

Quick digital ink portrait in Corel Painter IX, hope you like!  -h

McQuarrie & Moebius

A couple of artist have passed away in the last couple of weeks and I felt like I should say something about them because of their influence in both pop culture and myself. 

My favorite ship from Star Wars, the Millenium Falcon.

Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie passed away last week. Although I wasn't a huge fan of his art, it certainly left an impact in popular culture and me with the design of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, C3PO, Stormtroopers, R2D2, and the look of the Star Wars universe. McQuarrie also worked on a barrage of popular movies such as "Close Encounters", "Battlestar Galactica", "Star Trek", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "E.T.".


http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/
http://starwars.com/news/ralph_mcquarrie_remembered.html

My 1st Moebius book

French comic artist Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, has passed away this weekend. He created the famed comic western "Blueberry", was one of the founders of the alternative comic magazine "Metal Hurlant" ("Heavy Metal" in the US), and was a visionary concept artist for film. I was always amazed at his comic work, my introduction to it was Marvel's Epic 3rd Moebius collection ("The Airtight Garage") and the Silver Surfer book he did with Stan Lee. In film his presence was felt in SciFi classics like "Alien", "Tron", "The Abyss" and "The 5th Element". One of his stories became the inspiration for "Blade Runner". Giraud also influenced another hero of mine, Hayao Miyazaki, especially in his "Nausicaä of The Valley of the Wind" manga series and animated movie. I felt a kinship since we shared a last name, love of comics, and being an artist. Secretly, I wished we were related. Heidi MacDonald has a lot of Moebius material over at her blog "The Beat" here.


http://www.moebius.fr/
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/giraud.htm


Rest In Peace both and thank you for your amazing contributions to popular culture and the art world.

Meanwhile at the other blog...

Posted some sketches over at Dos Illustros, check 'em out!


http://dosillustros.blogspot.com/2012/03/dog-ruffs.html

Figure Drawing (clothed) 3/4/12

Here are some figure drawings from last Sunday's Crealde morning class on March 4. I usually attend when one of my friends prods me to go since it's better to be in good company that early on a Sunday!

The model was my close friend Audrey Zindler and she posed with clothing. Audrey is also a great artist who is currently studying graphic design and you can see her work here: http://absoluteaudrey.deviantart.com/

Click on the drawings for bigger versions:

2 minute gestures:

5 min.:

10 min.:

20 minutes:

My favorite of the day:

Detail:

New Kleeman and Mike cartoon!

I'm really glad to be helping Randy Christopher (Kleeman and Mike, Bear and Fox) make another "Kleeman and Mike" cartoon! I worked on the first 2 (after he made his first Flash game with them). A bit of history, Randy and I have been friends since we used to work at the Disney theme parks in the Entertainment department and eventually left to follow our artistic education, funny we also ended up educators as well. He taught me Flash as I would help him out with animation. The 1st one got us to the Florida Film Festival! You can watch the 1st 2 cartoons here at the old site: http://kleemanandmike.com/


He's assembled an AMAZING team for this new cartoon (including Keith Milgaten of Jamuel Saxon, Spencer Rabin of Little Deadman, surfer/artist Andy Davis, and me!) but it needs your help! Please consider donating and spread the word/reblog the link below. Every little bit helps! Thank you in advance if you donate! Go to the Kickstarter page for a video from Randy and more details:


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/695736489/kleeman-and-mike-new-animated-short

Viva Kleeman and Mike!

Bugs Bunny for Redlight

Sorry for the lack of updates! I know it's been month and 1/2 but after X-mas break, I had to go back to work and am getting used to the routine of making art again. Here's a sneak peek at my painting for tomorrow's Redlight Redlight 60's & 70's Art Show. I tried to do it in the flavor of my favorite 60's illustrators such as Al Parker, Bernie Fuchs, & Bob Peak. It's in acrylic and way bigger than my usual pieces at 24"x36" (I tend to work small). I'll post the full painting from the show tomorrow.

ps. if you're looking for retro & vintage illustration art styles from the 20th century Golden Age of Illustration, visit Leif Peng's great blog Todays Inspiration or his excellent image collection on Flickr!

2012 Animation Books

I'm a big fan of books and history and the folks over at Cartoon Brew (my preferred animation blog) are naming next year's animation-themed books. Can't wait to get my hands on some of these like Tom Bancroft's new one, UPA, Amid's Ward Kimball biography, and the "Art of John Carter of Mars" and "Brave"! Click at the address to see their run down:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/2012-animation-book-preview.html

Happy 2012!

I'm back in Florida from Puerto Rico, hope everyone had a great holiday and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! My dog Prissy was celebrating also...