blog is fun to say, isnt it?

Recent freelance job

2011-08-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Finished this last month, for client www.bar1nyc.com
It was originally a radio ad. They decided, along with many of their other ads, that they wanted an animated version to put on their website, and contacted me.

I tried to do a storyboard first to get an idea down, but it wasn't working. I needed to create the characters first. The dialogue in the audio moves the story along, I thought, so I needed to put faces to the voices first before doing anything else. I had to get past many ideas before settling on the final design, and I had to please my client.

The biggest hurdle was getting past myself. At the beginning I was just thinking too hard about it, I was putting too much of my own biases in it. (I just kinda detested the mayor character. I wanted to make him as ugly as possible, or as stupid as possible.) In the end I am pleased with his design. He's not ugly, per se, but he's sumg. And a little dumb. (left vs. right hand). He's looks like a mix between Nixon and a Kennedy. He was certainly fun to animate, I loved drawing his facial expressions.

Early in the design phase, I had a hand-puppet motif going on, which is why it's mostly heads. The animation would have looked pretty much the same except the characters would have arms sticking out of their bums. I decided it was just simpler to have them as people. Again, I was thinking too hard about it.

The female character was a bit easier to design. I figured her purpose (visually) was to make the mayor look bad. The rhino is probably my favorite unused design. I just love the idea of an adorable little rhino reporter with a sawed-off horn. The oxpecker (bird) on her back would have fulfilled the mic's duty in the animation.

Another school project

2011-06-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

THis one in particular was an open ended assignment, so i decided to create a model sheet of sorts for this one charcter I've been kicking around for a year or so. It's not much of a character yet, but I love his/her design. It's a half man, half bird thing which excels in the creepy department. I have some other sketches of him in some sketchbook, I would have to dig it out. Included are also scenes he/she could reside in. I had fun designing those, trying to leave little details like bones and crap. Birds of prey don't just toss their left over bones over the side of the nest, they pretty much just eat them and wait for them to come out, or they just leave them there and it becomes another part of the nest. However, I do feel this creature is more vulture like than anything else, so it may not kill too much prey. But i did create a terrible (It's not that bad, just not enough time was put into it) animated film about it feeding a baby, which was fun to do in less than a month of class time (about twelve to thirteen hours total, i think).

Here is the aforementioned animation. I posted months ago, but I'll repost it again for the sake of the convenience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9CK1j2yOYI

I really need to get back into animating. It's fun and cathartic to do sometimes. I've been just so focused on drawing drawing and painting, lately, I haven't been able to do it. Buth this summer, I will animate!!

It's that time again, is it?

2011-06-01T17:09:00.001-07:00

I've reached and surpassed a school year's end, to find myself a graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Hooray!! I will now post my some of my favorite pieces and sketches. I've always been fond of sketching, and my dream job is to just fill a moleskin sketchbook a day. I would love that more than anything.

Mentor Project

This was a fun project. I had to choose an illustrator as a mentor, and I chose the talented Allan Norico. This semester we helped flesh out this non-existent cartoon featuring space cowboys, desert planets, and other cool nonsense. This particular project I had to design a scene with a bartender, some bottles, and other props.

I truly had the most fun designing everything for it. The characters, the bottles, even other types of props that I did not end up using. I like the final product, but I still feel it's missing something, I just don't know what. Maybe some little extra details to set it into that particular type of universe. I was going for a "wild west" feel, with some sense of hodge-podge technology. I think that comes out better in another project I did for my mentor, which was designing guns for the characters in this universe, but that will be for another post. Enjoy the concept sketches for this illustration below.

Finals from last semester

2010-07-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some finals i finished from last semester. One was supposed to be a surrealist painting, inspired by Fuseli's "The Nightmare" (go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare to find out more). The woman on the bed is not the best she could be, had I reference of any sort for her It would have porbably looked a lot better. I don't think I managed my time very well for this particular piece, I should have at least used some sort of reference for her. But, this was one of my favorite paintings I've done. It took me many sketches to get to it, perhaps I will post those sketches some other time. For this one I did a rudimentary underpainting using oils and liquin; the under-painting was of the basic shapes of the characters and objects. It was finished with a thicker application of oils, but I have too keep in mind that perharps liquin should NOT be used under thicker coatings of oil, it might cause cracking in the future

The other painting was supposed to focus on the play of light and shadow. This particular piece took a long time, as I had to take my own pictures of my references. I did a grisaille for it (a finished b&w under-painting) to help with my values since it tend to lose them when I paint. The second painting pretty much took all semester from conception to completion. Again, I used oils and 3 mediums to complete, two ofwhich were created in class using bought supplies.

newest animation ever

2010-05-21T16:56:00.001-07:00

yeah

2010-05-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Another dan vasquez smash hit! My digital painting class's project. The background definitely needs more work, but this piece is done. I shall touch it no more

2010-03-31T17:06:00.000-07:00

These were some of the distortion projects I did for one of my classes last semester. I really do love distorting the faces of models and fellow students. Ah, but the last one, with the crystals, was my independent project for the same class. It was pretty free in terms of subject and media, but it was based on J.G. Ballard's "The Crystal World", a novel about a jungle in deep Africa slowly crystallizing, turning any object, thing, person, or plant into a beautiful display of jeweled facets and lattices.

2010-03-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

This is the actually Dune desert scene finished. i realize now that I poseted the older version. I like the contrast better in this one, you can really feel the jagged, harshness of the Arrakis landscape.

Which brings me over to the next image, which is the actual project I had to hand in. It was a four-page brochure based arounda theme. My theme was drawing concepts for Frank Herbert's Dune, a great sci-fi novel (I love it, but it can be pretty cheesey at times). I decided to do two illustrations, with two concept sketches. sadly, the latter illustration, while a scene from the story, lacks in style or completion the first illustration has. But it was a defintely fun project, glad i went with it.

2010-03-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite projects from last semester. I see some small errors now, but i was incredibly proud of what i used in this project. I had a basic illustration in Photoshop, imported it, the used the pen tool, gradient mesh, layer opacity, the works. Really loved the end result

2010-03-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

By the time i got to this one, I was rushing to complete it. It's the weakest of the three spreads I feel, but defintely one of my favorites. There's a lof of detalis to the robot I'm not sure show too much in this image. Again, there are problems with the edges of shadows and highlights.

2010-03-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

This was my two page spread. All these illustrations were done using Adobe Illustrator. Not too sure how I feel for the end product, but I'm still pretty proud of it. There are some little problems here and there, mostly with the edges of shadows and higlights

spread 3

2010-03-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

This was a project I did for school last semester, in my Book Illustration class. The story was about a farmer and some pesky rabbits, though I took some liberties with the story. Overall I quite enjoyed this project, and may consider book illustrationas a career option.

New Characters

2008-07-22T14:29:00.001-07:00

I started these guys just as simple shapes, and man, they grew into something I really liked. I dont know if there will be a story revolving around them, but I do have some ideas. All images Copyright 2008 by Daniel Vasquez.

Spongebob (C) viacom, not me.

Mario (C) Nintendo, not me.

oh yeah..

2008-06-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

i had this drawing here i did in school i never finished. Not the best thing in the world, but it was fun to draw.

a little something...

2008-06-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

i had been making for a special someone. It's not finished of course, but it is proof that I'm animating this summer.

new stuff

2008-06-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

some new stuff on my computer i had started working on. the first two are related, one came before the other, the first being a sort of layout/color comp, the latter being a more finalized vision. The last is an idea i had in a sletchbook that i decided to recreate in color

(C) Dan Vasquez 2008

More Photoshop Phun

2008-04-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

Drawn and colored in Photoshop. It's about existentialism or something.

Making a lovecraftian creature with photoshop took a few hours, first to find resources and about 2 hours to make the image. I used an actual octopus picture to make the tentacles underwater, a shark (obviously), a spider's head for the eyes, and an image of an octupus done in cgi. I found all of these using google, and all rights are reserved to the proper owners.

tentacle chick

2008-03-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Another project from Photoshop class, mastering some of the simpler things like layers, clonestamping, and just using the freaking paintbrush. I doubt i'm gonna learn any real new techniques in this class, but we'll see. Still got another half of a semester left.

Photoshop

2008-02-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

So now in FIT i have to take a photoshop class with the biggest tool as the teacher. He gives us one lesson, and then tells us to play around with for 3 hours. Anyways here's some of the work:
(C) Dan Vasquez 2007-2008

Learning how to color in photoshop! How astute! I mean, who would have thought? Anyways, at least it helped me refresh my painting skills. As simple as they are, they get the job done for cartoony things.

The first coloring excercise, coloring a black and white drawing of a mouse. the thumbnail for some reason has strange colors

After I got bored with the project below, i started making this using the cut-out filter and then drawing in the rest. Whee! Still working on it

Oooh! Playing with colors, levels, and the curve tool! Oh, and a filter as well, for effect.

christmas card

2007-12-09T17:27:00.000-08:00

An image i did for my drawing the fashion image. It was a fun class, the teacher defintely knew his stuff. He offered great critiques. It took me a while to realize what the class was about, because im so used to just drawing what i see instead of exaggerating (sp?).

Anyway, here's the final project. It was an xmas card that had a hole in the center, revealing part of the picture, and when you open it, you see the rest.

strangely inspired

2007-10-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

I got a sketchbook for school 3 weeks ago or so; i needed it for two classes, they wanted a sketchbook for some reason. Anyways, I've been drawing in it like crazy. Really weird shit just poring out of my mind. It's been a lot of fun. Maybe it's school, or maybe it's meeting new people, or maybe it's having to do art because you have to (i.e. in school) so i can unwind by just drawing whatever comes to mind. scans to come soon

Also, i've not forgotten my roots. I've decided that i should just animate whatever little thing happens instead of big projects. It'll keep me on my fingers (instead of toes...get it? cuz i draw?) better than trying to make large or even small stories.
in the mean time, here's a little ditty i've whipped up.

new drawing

2007-09-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Suddenly inspired , at 12 am. School has been kinda refreshing. While one class is terrible, despite most of the classes being beginner classes, im still learning new things here and there. And getting new inspirations and such. werd

I'm going ta Skool

2007-08-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

Yay school. Yay buearcacy! FIT i think may be even more beauracratic than sva when it comes to getting stuff done. Oh well, now i need to fight for the 2 years worth of drawing classes Itook at SVA. The weird thing is that both dynamic drawing and anatomical figure drawing are in the first year. And who knows exactly whet those classes mean, and what they entail. perhaps i should research them at FIT's website.

On the more creative side...i havent done much. My life'sd been so busy i havent had too much time to draw. I have drawn, but that was during the hours of boredom i had at work last week, and I'm unable to actually scan those drawings at the moment. ah well. thats life

Oh Shit son!

2007-07-19T21:09:00.001-07:00

This might be a blast from the past for some of my friends who were with me in SVA two thou and five! A storyboard i did for storyboarding, in a sudden fit of inspiriation, that i decided to start animating! Gasp! a Two year old story brought back from the dead!

Unfortunately, this is because I'm at an impasse with my other larger better film. The story was not where i wanted it to go, and i really care about this thing, so im putting on the back burner yet again. I got a big chunk of what i think are the keys, but the ending and some other descisions need to be rethought. Alas, its saddens me a little, but i cant just say "fuck it!" to the story. I'm trying to prove to myself that i can make a decent story that connects with ppl somehow.

anyways, here's the thing. in very rough keys, with some of the audio. The storybaord for the class was supposed to be a PSA.
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=countingisfungk2.swf
copy and paste

something new...

2007-06-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

is gonna be posted, but it has nothing to do with my current project. But it'll make my blogg look that much cooler

sup doods

2007-05-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

I know not many people read this blog, but I still like to write a log of my projects and/or thoughts for my own personal satisfaction. Anywas, im still keying everything up with my film. Still undecided as to whether going into flash to inbetween and color, or to inbetween what i can on paper, then scan it and do it in flash. I know my girl's getting the newest flash in june, I may want to try it out then.

In other news, I was incredibly proud of most of my would be classmates with their thesis films this year. Especially my friends. James, Luis, Patricia, Adam, your films were the best. And I was surprised by other student's films as well. I found a few to be boring. I couldn't believe adam's fil mwas not even nominated. Loads better than Brad's. Ah well, It's SVA, and I'm glad to be out of there. I'll give school one more chance with FIT this fall. Hopefully Illustration will suit my needs.

And there's ASIFA tomorrow at 6. Jeez, could I even make it after work in jersey at 5? We'll see.

I hate scanning

2007-03-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

So now I started scanning all my key drawings, and man, I hate scanning. With a passion. but alas, at least I can do it for free, and doesnt require any incredibly specialized equipment. I just wish the HP scanner i have had a much more intuitive driver program. I wish you could set certain parameters for every scan to be the same. At least the profiles help a little, but iha ve to load it for each and every picture. ugh.

The above paragraph was done more than a week ago, but I feel that a new post wouldn't be necceassary since the posts are related, and since this was already saved as a draft, what's the point of doing 2 posts in one day? Anyways, im posting some animatics ive been working on. Sorry they are split up in parts, but I figured it would be easiest to do it like this for me at least, and what's a couple of more clicks for the reader anyway?

enjoy:
part 1

part1 on Vimeo

part 2

stuff on Vimeo

Part 1 finds the little booger guy waking up alone in a dark void. After talking to a peer of mine, I think I can combine part 1 and 2 so that it reads better. Sorry for the quality, the lines are kinda fudged in the videos.

part 3

Untitled on Vimeo

part 3 finds the booger realzing the powers he has...the powers to create!

part4

dfg on Vimeo

part 4 , the booger finds even though he gves a bit of himself away, he can create friends to keep him company in this dark void

part 5

blargh on Vimeo

more fun

part 6

`12 on Vimeo

Ahh, the creatures start realizing what they dont like about themselves. Some of it may be hard to read, if it is, please comment on why. The bird hates its little dangly bits, the lipped one hates that it doesnt have arms or hands, and the huge arm guys just wonders what the fuck is wrong with him. also, the squid guy just wants a car to drive around in...underwater...in void where water hasnt been created yet. Squid's got big dreams.

more coming soon! Vimeo takes too long to upload.

Also, most of the stuff I posted on this , err, post, was posted on the 15th, not the 1st. Not that it really matters.

new post or someting

2007-02-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

Hello, for the one imaginary person reading this blog, oh boy, you're in for a treat! I'm about to spill some info on the much hyped and much awaited "BOOGER: The Animation."

So keying is still chugging slowly but steadying along. I really gotta stop wasting so much time on the internet when i get home from work. I just gotta get myself motivated to animate some more. So this is a weird production, forI have not done animatics at all. I hate timing things down to the frame, so im gonna key everything in, then scan, and then see how it works out. Hell, I don't even have an ending to mine yet, though there are still ideas floating about.

And there are plenty of time slots I can animate in the week while im not at NY, but i just gotta get motivated to work in them. Since this is not a thesis film, and not a paid work, I feel I can just work at my own pace with this.

As I get a growing fanbase, I will explain what this animation is about, but in the meantime, I think the one friend I have and the few others who read it already know.

Perhaps I'll spill the beans next week if i get my scanner set up. Until then!!

2006-12-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

here is a test of my blogging ability with text and perhaps a funny picture! look at that! its a confused bird with what appears to be ethnic stereotypes peering around him!! Oh how whimsical! I'm sure this goes down in blogging history as the most epic and well thought out first post in a blog...on the blogosphere...