Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Designing Nemo

And now, for my next trick, a movie poster!

About a year ago I ran across this amazing graphic artist named Eric Tan. Eric works for Disney designing the retro-styled movie posters for Pixar movies you all love. Please view his work at his blog: http://erictanart.blogspot.com/ You won't regret it!

At any rate, I checked up on what he was doing recently and was inspired to create a poster my own. I challenged myself to design in the style that Mr. Tan uses in his art, and to attempt to design something to the caliber of his work.

I had no experience with vector art so I downloaded Inkscape, an open-source vector art program, and learned it on the fly. I sat down with some video tutorials and got to work! At the same time, I had to begin the design of the poster. I camped out in a park down the road and cranked out this concept sketch.



I wanted to do something Disney/Pixar and finally decided on Finding Nemo, mostly because it was the first movie I thought of when I sat down to design.

It was time to put digital ink to digital paper! Here is an interim export of the poster:



Notice those underwater mines? Originally, they looked like this:



The look didn't suit what I was going for so I re-shadowed the entire thing. These darn mines took the most time out of all of the elements included in this poster - totaling probably four hours of blood, sweat, and tears. To some more experienced artists, this may seem very steep but I am green in the graphic design world; it's an accomplishment that I even got it done!

Well, with some hard work and a solid vision, I turned out something I'm pleased with and proud to show:



If you'd like to see this even BIGGER, check this link

And if you dare to view the original size click here

*Since I'm not trying to start trouble: Characters and intellectual rights to the movie Finding Nemo, including all characters presented herein, are © Disney/Pixar.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

NLCS Game 1

My friend Gary and I had the opportunity to attend Game 1 of the NLCS between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of course, being a big Dodgers fan, I was excited to start the series the right way with a Dodger victory. Unfortunately, neither the game nor the series went our way but Game 1 was easily the most exciting game I've ever been to.


View me in my original size

We got to the stadium as the gates opened and fully enjoyed every minute of the playoff atmosphere.





Me too!

Our favorite 21-year-old starter Clayton Kershaw got the start on the bump.



This got the crowd fired up.




Manny Ramirez hit a 2-run homerun in the 5th inning to put us within one run. From the crowd's reaction, you'd have thought we won the World Series!



I high-fived about 12 people around me and as I was jumping around and yelling this shot fired off.



Oh, and Billy Ray Cyrus sang the National Anthem and God Bless America



Overall, it was the most fun I've ever had at a Dodger game.



Until next year, Dodgers.