Tag: filmstock

Imitation and expansion

In the last couple of months i’ve got into the work of Scott C., particularly his Great Showdowns series.

This is Akira vs Tetsuo.
This is Akira vs Tetsuo.

Also, a friend got married last weekend – the same one that received the social butterfly, if you’re keeping track of such things.

The card I handed to the groom at their reception sports a cheery watercolour of the newlyweds in Scott’s style. I haven’t used watercolours in a long time, so it worked out nicely for a “first go”!

Groom, if you have lost the card, I will tell Liam Neeson that you took his daughter.
Groom, if you have lost the card, I will tell Liam Neeson that you took his daughter.

Scott’s gonna have a table at the Thought Bubble comics convention next week: I’ll get him to sign my copy of his new Great Showdowns book, and maybe get to show him the above!

So, “expansion”? Regular client and friend Final Boss Fight – The video game news site has grown into a whole network! I didn’t brand A to Play (playthrough videos), and Pixel Gaiden (editorials) was straight-foward, but AutoFire (news feed) had a little journey. Observe:

The joypad buttons say "FBFN", as in "Final Boss Fight Network".
The joypad buttons say “FBFN”, as in “Final Boss Fight Network”.

The top one was pretty unintelligible at small sizes, while the second one (originally with a red backing) looked like it should be hung outside a fire station. To give each site different colours, blue and purple came into play. Then it moved into the same frame-size as the main site and editorial logos, and finally, by request, pixelated to match the existing hub logo.

A bunch of other assets were cooked up too – a couple of CRT TVs, favicons, and a few pics to replace the stock ones on the network hub, including a quick shot of my games shelf and a Store image.

New FBF assets, October 2012
Pixel Gaiden is a Phoenix Down quill and Minecraft paper, by the way.

There’s one more logo, but the site’s not live yet so it’s still under wraps. It’s not pixular, I promise.

Random ending: I updated the mobile phone icon on my Contact page, because I haven’t used a phone with those things called “buttons” since 2010. The old one was a Nokia 3110c – It’s now an Orange San Francisco II.

icon-mobile

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icon-phone

An older face, an odd mascot

This month, the time rolled around again to get my eyes tested, find out how short-sighted I am now, and consequently purchase a new pair of glasses. There were a few days of mis-judging distances and staring at the rims, but now they’re being cool. This was a big enough change to do an update of my self-portrait, which was last altered in 2010 (when I previously bought new eyewear). Behold!

My 2012 self-portrait

One of the places this guy lives is up in my site header, giving you a bit of a DreamWorks Face every time you come here. Here’s a comparison with the previous version:

Sadly, I had to delete some hair. Still being a little generous here.
Sadly, I had to delete some hair. Still being a little generous here.

I’ll have to update the photo on my Contact page too, as it’s showing it’s age (ironically by not showing mine).

So, around confronting my own mortality (well, inching closer to 30), more contributions are underway for friend and regular subject Final Boss Fight. In their 48th podcast, they discussed how Super Mario Bros. has such a bonkers premise. They started throwing words together to highlight this: What about a monobrowed pig with laser eye powers, saving his friends (magically transformed into Bonsai trees) from an evil Architect?
Hey look, it’s come to life as boxart!

I had a Master System myself. Pro Wrestling, Olympic Gold, Rampage... ah, memories.
I had a Master System myself. Pro Wrestling, Olympic Gold, Rampage… ah, memories.

Try as I might, it still looks better than the official cover Alex Kidd in Miracle World had. If you click the above image it’ll take you to the DeviantArt page, where you can download it in various wallpaper sizes (with an FBF logo replacing Sega’s).

To keep to the rule of three, I have one or two sketches that could expand into a project. Tease!

Frog Spirit colour test

Final thought: I live in the UK, and it’s a Bank Holiday (3-day) weekend. Of course, after a working week of clear skies, it’s rained every day.

An animal and Animus

The second part of the “Cliffe the Caterpillar” project has been pushed back towards Halloween, but the first half has already gone to print. I’ve been invited to the opening of Cliffe Castle’s nature trail next weekend, where the finished boards will be! I’ve seen a preview sheet, but I must get some pictures of the real thing in the wild.

Aside from that, Filmstock has been continuing his web-series based on Animus (a superhero role-playing game), and asked me to help him replace an abandoned shoot with a quick ‘animatic’ episode. Two of the eight panels below:

Penny helps Scott into the garden.
Penny helps Scott into the garden.
Shadow Man heals Scott while Penny & Peter watch
Shadow Man heals Scott while Penny & Peter watch.

Finally, a few tiny tweaks to the site. Cliffe has joined the portfolio, i’ve re-jigged the social network icons, changed the Featured Works, and updated the union logos on Jailbreak poster 2011.

Update: The Animus video is now live – My drawings are around 1min 25secs in.