Tiny Items
Trying to grapple with the environmental effects of NFT's (not that I'm selling anything), but in the meantime just throwing my tiny items up on tumblr - tinyitems.tumblr.com
I just like seeing them all laid out :)
Posts
Twenny Twenny One
So much has happened!
+ Completely redid my website
+ Finally started an art account on Insta
+ In the midst of a pandemic that allowed me to re-evaluate my life and personal goals, I left my job.
+ Created a Boston Animation Slack channel. Feel free to join. It's quiet. We're trying.
+ Re-learned Blender (what little I knew before) and trying my hand at NFT's. I don't know what I'm doing. Looks kinda neat though.
Lots of things in the works. No idea what will come of it. But for the first time in a long time, I finally have the time, energy, and focus to do creative things I enjoy. So thanks 2021.
Inktober Fail to November News
Fell one week short of doing a full Inktober. Did a few drawings I really liked though, and it kickstarted some of the creativity I've been lacking, so all in all not a total failure.
PBRcade
This little number grabbed third in the PBR digital art contest! A small homage to my love of beer + video games 🍻
Tiny Jar Designs
I made some pins! You can finally buy some here!
Never thought I'd try my hand at designing something that required manufacturing, so this was a fun learning process. Pretty cool to make something that lives on outside of just a digital file. I'll keep using Tiny Jar to experiment with some small scale products and designs when inspiration strikes. This whole thing was just a side project that got too ambitious... and I had to follow through.
Maybe we'll give custom stickers a shot next.
Jibro
This little guy is out in the wild and features some animated emojis that are uh, pretty sweet if I do say so myself /modesty/ Check out some of the spots I animated, he's pretty cute.
More Kid Friendly iOS Stuff
Worked on some character design/animations for a kid's ABC/123 iPad app, made by a talented fellow named Matt Habel. The level of polish on the app is pretty amazing - for the love of God, support developers who have an eye for design.
Some concepts and sneak peeks of animations below.
Character in User Interfaces
Been doing a lot more motion graphic stuff recently... I did a few motion studies for a talk at SXSW this year, exploring how motion in user interfaces can add character to menus and buttons. Character and motion are the next big steps into making technology approachable and liveable - no one has issues building interfaces, but making them enjoyable makes a huge difference.
This particular exercise explored if an interface were a toddler vs an old man. Click a gif to watch the full video.
This particular exercise explored if an interface were a toddler vs an old man. Click a gif to watch the full video.
happy holidays
Took a holiday card to pull me out of a creative hiatus. Maybe next year I'll remember to draw more... or at all.
In case you haven't heard, CloudKid is closing its doors and a few of us will be moving over to Jibo starting in the new year. 2016 is gonna be interesting, folks. But you'll never know about it, judging by the frequency of updates to this blog.
Also in the last five months since I updated, we launched the new website for PBS's Nature Cat series. This project was a huge endeavor and hopefully we did the show proud. The voice talent includes a handful of SNL cast members, so if any of them ever play one of the web games, then it was all worth it.
Dinosaur Day Care!
CloudKid's latest project is now out! We just finished up Ernie's Dinosaur Day Care, which I'm super proud of - it's one of the more unique games we've made for Sesame and I had the privilege of directing this project. Also, dinosaurs jumping rope was something I never knew I needed in my life until this game came along.
In other news, here's a doodle of Crash Bandicoot.
Throwback Piece
Was asked to do a 'throwback' piece about my childhood adventures for a Kickstarter game, The Siblings Trouble. I grew up in Hong Kong and spent a lot of time at Kam Shan Park, where I fondly remember mingling with monkeys. Probably not this peacefully though.
Check out The Siblings Trouble Kickstarter here.
Earth To Allen!
CloudKid's short Earth To Allen has finally landed on Nick.com! So many amazing people with amazing talent worked on this - I had the honor of doing a few designs here and there, but the backgrounds are truly insane and the animation is out of this world, pun shamelessly intended.
Bonus Link: don't miss our other Nickelodeon short, BroDuel!
February
Still going strong with the daily doodles... here're some favorites from February.
In other news, our newest Sesame game is out. I directed this one too; I'm spending a lot of quality time with Sesame Street these days. Still can't tell you how to get there, though.
2015
Remember when I tried to do a doodle a day last year and failed halfway through the year...
Well, there's a 2015 edition of that happening now. Hopefully with less of the failing part.
Lift Off!
Ed Baraf has just launched a Kickstarter for a sweet board game called Lift Off! and I was asked to do a promo piece for the campaign. The art is great and the game sounds like a good time, check out the page here to help make it happen!
Signal Boosts
Spoilers: This post is gonna have a lot of plugs to work I've been involved in! Been pretty busy over at CloudKid these days - we recently launched a new Fizzy game, Fizzy's Food Truck; below are some concepty things I did early on. On top of Fizzy stuff, we also updated Peg+Cat's Big Gig app with a ton of new [adorable] features and launched Astro Blast's Rocket Rush. Lots of great people worked on these projects, kudos!
Also, my buddy Chris has been churning out some great game music covers over on his YouTube channel, and I threw together a little drawing for him for his latest track. Throw him a like or sub if you enjoy what you hear :)
Grover's Winter Games
Olympic season's upon us, and Sesame Street's launch of Grover's Winter Games is probably no coincidence. Incidentally, I also directed this game as my first foray into leadership on an interactive project and in life. Check it out. Tell your kids. You don't have to tell your friends, unless they are small children as well. Or huge fans of Grover in colorful winter attire.