Maimalai in progress...

Hippo speed paint

2011-03-19T13:26:00.001-07:00

soft: photoshop
time: 1 hr

with reference.

fufoon 2d anim test

2010-11-30T18:05:00.001-08:00

This is a test I did with the free anim software called Pencil.

New value study

2010-11-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

40 mins

volumetric study

2010-11-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

30 mins, w/ photo reference

Koala

2010-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

trying a new brush. Turned out, I could get even rougher texture...i'm loving it. 35mins

Husky (with IP steps)

2010-11-12T17:43:00.001-08:00

Polar Bear the Aeng+

2010-11-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

I got a few request to see how I speedpaint.

So here's the step 1 of 3 of my painting, this is how I sketched out the value first.

step 2: intensify the value, broaden the contrast range and pull out more detail out of the painting. I like to keep it loose so you wont see hard drawing line from me for the speedpaint. (this is a new technique that i just adapted to) And dont forget the highlights...its very important to control the volume of the subject.

step3: adding shadow with temperature and put out more detail. You shouldn't introduce a new color to the palette at this point, if you do..just remember to control it overall. Final, I like to keep it loose..

Coconut series

2010-11-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

monkey: 50 mins
Coconut: 30 mins

New concept for NAS

2010-11-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Blue/white study

2010-11-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

10 mins speed paint

!$!@#$@#

2010-11-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

quick study that turned out to be not-so-quick 60 mins.

Hoj the dog.

2010-11-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

I had a good reference to start with..nice and simple 20 mins

speedpaint study

2010-11-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'm surprise that I could get this done faster than I thought. 35 mins.

Another speedpaint

2010-11-07T20:50:00.001-08:00

about an hour

Mountain goat rough study

2010-11-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

45 mins

Quick study

2010-11-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

speed paint 20 mins

babyface study

2010-11-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Baby color palette is very difficult to get.

Baby dog

2010-10-31T20:10:00.000-07:00

Making of "F.I.S.H." maquette (tutorial) #2

2009-03-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

So to continue what I had talked about the putty, this is what it looks like with the putty to keep the skeleton in place and sturdy enough. At this point, you want to cover all the joints and screws (base). However, make sure the putty arent too thick for the model since you might not have enough rooms to work on your sculpey.

Then I wrapped around with foil. The more foil you use, the less sculpey you use, but then make sure you have enough sculpey to cover all the foil. Keep in mind, if the piece is too thin, it might burn easily when you bake it.

Once I have the foil in place, I put sculpey over it as my first coat. This is just to get the general mass/overall shape of the model, which later you can carve it out using a finer tool.

I'm starting to shape the form more and more. Dont be afraid to push and pull your model if it doesn't get to the shape you want. I'm not saying you should repose your wire, because it'll be impossible at this point with the putty, so plan ahead and check with your drawing often. The push and pull is; however, for the sculpey part. Once you satisfy with the general mass, you can go over with finer tool for detail work and to smooth the surface a bit more.

Making of "F.I.S.H." maquette (tutorial)

2009-03-13T01:41:00.000-07:00

After overwhelming support at the wonderCon, I decided to work on a toy prototype to keep up the hype. . I'd like to thanks all the supports and everyone who bought the books from us. Currently, we are working hard on vol. 2 of the comic, so please look us up in the future. About the toy idea, hopefully there will be enough demand to produce the first batch since it can be very pricey. To keep it short, I'd like to show the process of making my maquette from preparation to finish. Please feel free to leave any comments as usual!

The equipments I started with are a piece of wood from Home Depot, armature wires 2 sizes, drill to fasten the wire to the base, and super sculpey mixed with a few bars of sculpey to get the desired color, because he's a robot and I didn't want to have the base color similar to skin.

I drilled the board with some screws to lock the wire on the base as a foundation.

Once I had the foundation, I made sure I built the wire from the bottom up then added the smaller size to hold the clay in place. Before I could start I'll need to lock those wire together though.

I use household putty, same as the one they use for plumbing/electrity. I just added a small amount to hold the 2 wires in place and wait about an hour or two. the putty dried out very fast, but I just wanted to make sure it did, since usually I am not very careful with the process of sculpting that much.

This is what the putty looks like..just cut a little piece and mix the 2 colors with hand. I recommend using a glove though since they are very stinky and can be poisonous.

Extreme Baby Gymnastics

2008-10-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1033720/

Poor baby...oh wait..did I say its real?

Which wheels!!

2008-10-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ray Lexion

StockSF winning
GT S
GT 7
GT V
GT C

Now that I got a disease called "modding madness" after I bought a new car, I've been thinking about upgrading my wheels to one of these..but still...can't make up my mind. So this is just for me to see them all back to back.

Vodafon beat box

2008-10-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Pretty neat

F.I.S.H. volume 1 is out!!!

2008-09-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, my sweat and tear is paid off when I look at my first self-publish comic book, which is also on sale at www.maimalai.com. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank a lot of people who involved in making this book comes to reality.

First of all, Chuladid, a friend of mine whom took care of most the ordering and shipping the book to me. It was completely new to both of us to ship something oversea and even to go through all the custom paperworks just to get them out safely. Second, Itemstudio forum, where I found my co-artist on the book. Originally, out of simplification, I wanted to do this book by myself as a whole, but after I went to the board and found a lot of talents are being developed there, I decide to hand them over. It would be my first time to hand my baby oversea to get them done at first but after a few testing, I was very comfortable at the artworks that were made for me. So thank you Itemstudio forum for being a nurture land for a lot of new artists.

The forum community over there is very small--I sometimes think they all know each other..lol. I believe in the future more of them will realise that there are bigger markets outside their country and join me to produce more comics for Western/European market. Lastly, the co-artist herself, Paeng Thitaya, I'd say she did at least 95% of all the final works. She has the best attitude to work with and always want to push her own limit, which I believe that's the best quality any artist would want to have.

We worked on this project for over 18 months (the whole process took over 2 years) and she has never complained once...well maybe I wasn't listening to her. Anyway, I can't thank her enough for her contribution and the opportunity to work with her. She is so inspired to push her own limit that she came to San Francisco to pursue further education.

F.I.S.H. is an accronyme for Furtive Intelligent System of Havoc. The story of F.I.S.H. is about a lost robot in a jungle where he encounters other species on a daily basis in order to find out more about himself. The comic has no dialogs at all (well...only on the first page)...thus you dont need to know a written language to understand our story. We have a way of telling its story via actions and camera angles. In fact, you dont even need to know the first page to understand the whole story. We never know if this book will succeed or fail until we try and give out our best. However, we'll continue to make the 2nd book, 3rd, 4th and so on as long as we have enough support to move forward...that's its up to you to continue the story. We are looking forward to get your feedback so please feel free to stop by our forum or leave your comment on the blog. Anything type of feedbacks are appreciated!! Let us know how we can improve!!

Jeep Naarkom
F.I.S.H. creator.

Let go

2008-05-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

I was given a cd a while back and never actually took a look until recently I found the cd in the car (somehow it wasn hidden away from the driver's point of view.) Anyway I really like this song and think it has a good melody/rhythm over all not mentioning the meaning of the song (I looked up..I did!!) Anyway, enjoy M-flo!! sore de wa mata!

The old interview

2008-04-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

I have had an interview for this magazine not so long after we finished the Ice Age: The Meltdown and I took a month off for my Euro trip (back in 2006, it was one of the best trip so far, by the way). So I am still not sure how they know about me. Anyway, I think a lot of stuff on that page is very helpful if anyone want to know what it was like back at BlueSky or any major studios in general. I remembered talking a lot about the animation industry so feel free to check it out. They seem to have more issues now. Dont feel bad when you open up the magazine pages and see a lot of obscene stuff...this was made in Europe, you know :) Austria to be specific.

http://www.c-heads.com/issue03.php

Let me know what you think...

Ciao...

more WIP on the ATR dragon..

2008-04-16T00:07:00.000-07:00

So these are the two steps I manage to squeeze between my crazy schedule. I finally finished with the wing topology and added some more fatty neck rings. I might have to enlarge his head a bit later since his head is quite small when I mirror geometry to see the overall size. The top image is to show how I use lattice along with the duplicate geo (with -1 scale in x, to make it visible on the other half) Its quite useful when you need to tweak model at the very end (or early..whatever makes you happy) instead of tweaking each individual points. I am hoping someone would tell me if there's a faster way but this is seem to be fast enough for me since I have no one to troubleshoot my stuff with (when I modeled at home). Until next time... See ya all....

more WIP on the ATR dragon..

2008-04-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

I'm now spending time cleaning up the original topology of the wing. It helps a lot putting a new geo on a different layer so I could toggle between the two version. This process has been great so far, but there are a lot of areas to clean up (spikes, mouth, eyes, fingers...) Will post more when I have something new.

Getting back on drumming skill..

2008-04-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

After countless playblasts at work, I did spend some time follow my animator friend (who is also a drummer, an awesome one) to a link on youtube. It was about practicing some rudiments and the guy made so many patterns (over 40!). It was awesome to see the whole thing...well listen to most of the part while working. The best thing is, now I want to get back to playing drums even more. I'll start getting a drum practice pad to begin with and we'll see if that'll get me back into buying a set in the future. I used to have a set when I lived in Sunset area, and it made so much noise (real set, not electronic type) I might end up have to get an electronic drum set in the future though since I dont have as much space and I dont want to disturb my neighbors.

Dragon ATR WIP con't

2008-04-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

This one is a bit different than the previous one on the topology layout. I did spend a lot of time on this version. Its quite annoying trying to get them to look and feel right without putting too much or too little in some part. However, I'm still working my way to get it finish and have been happy with the WIP (work in progress) so far. I still can't find someone to model the hi-res and texture, so I can focus more on the animation and the story... Oh well..we'll see..

Dragon ATR WIP con't

2008-04-09T01:41:00.001-07:00

True origin of Hip-Hop music

2008-04-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

Goodness, I love the cow milking pose!!!! yo yo..

Dragon for ATR WIP

2008-04-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

the real SUMO fighting

2008-04-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

It makes me feel like watching someone play Street Fighter with multiple E-honda...lol. I really like how they hold each frame and cut out some frames to make it even more dramatic...

ATR more dragon sketches

2008-04-04T00:02:00.001-07:00

Picasso de Elephanto

2008-04-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today I feel so embarrassed and somewhat proud to see this being passed around from one of my coworkers. I mean the whole think is awesome...who would have thought an elephant would be able to do that?? But Its from Thailand, and I'd never heard of such thing before. (its the voice in the background that I realized its in thailand) so I was stoked to see the video. Now I wonder how much they make from those paintings..hahaha. But seriously, dont use the elephant to reproduced the prints...just sell duplicates. (though they aren't as authentic but you'd be able to promote and more tourist would be able to carry home a version of the painting, which in turn will make more people come to see the show...get it?? Nonetheless, I have to give two thumbs up for training such hugh animals to do something extraordinary such that... Great work!!

F.I.S.H. banner

2008-04-03T23:41:00.001-07:00

This is what the banner will look like when we go open our booth at different conventions. Please look for us in the future comic related conventions!!! By the way, we also have our mailing list (www.maimalai.com/comics.html) if anyone would like to get updated on our upcoming prjects/products. /cheers!

AAU BBQ Extravaganza

2008-04-02T00:22:00.000-07:00

So the first AAU BBQ at Golden Gate went really well. I couldn't wait for all the people to share their photos, so I will just go ahead and share what I have so far... We had roughly 30 people at the event!! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the party!!! We'll definitely have the 2nd one soon....(I'm thinking around end of Spring semester).

Become a Virgil pioneer!!

2008-04-01T03:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

I stumbled upon this link and I think its awesome!! First I couldn't believe Google would do such a thing but hey is Google!! I really like their non-so-techie language to describe their plans, etc. I'd recommend anyone who read this go apply ASAP since they only take 20 people as a initial start up!!! (wink wink)....

Direct-study at AAU

2008-04-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

So i'm teaching direct-study this semester at AAU (Acedemy of Art University.) and its been really fun so far. I just wish we have more students to learn from each others so the learning curve would go higher. That's how I learn most of the time back when I took Pixar class, so I thought I should do the same for my student. The good thing is he can ask me all the questions that he's afraid to ask in a group class..which can be very helpful and can go a lot more in depth. Its also interesting to see new generation of animators at school work so hard on their stuff, reminds me of back in the day when I went to school. A friend of mine is also teaching (a class, dont know how can you manage the time JD!) and it was good to visit his class too. Usually I dont like to interrupt a class room though but its so hard to get a hold of him during the break just to catch up with things.

After the rain, dragon rough sketch (and a girl)

2008-03-29T13:48:00.001-07:00

more ATR stuff

2008-03-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

Doing some silhouette sketches to help me identify the shape and bring the dragon to life more easier...

some sketches for ATR (after the rain) series

2008-03-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

More N.A.S. .....

2008-03-11T03:01:00.000-07:00

from my original post on maimai forums

N.A.S. robot evolution...

2008-03-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

More N.A.S. .....

2008-03-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

N.A.S. robot civilization at work...

2008-03-11T02:53:00.001-07:00

A new comic series that I'm developing.... ETA to bookshelves is end of December 2008

F.I.S.H. animation test...

2008-03-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

So after some talk about making a series of mini-shorts based on the two characters from the main plot, introducing... a rig test..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-PU0QW2sQ

Credit:

Animation : P. Jeep Naarkom
Rigging: Cheng Lor
Model: Theerapol Srisupan

"F.I.S.H." comic is almost out !!

2008-03-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

I promise this one will be quick and painless. After 9 months of working on this comic book with Paeng Hammy, I think its time to wrap it up and move on to the next episode. This book will be done (publish) by the end of April, and we are hoping to get enough support so we continue to make more episodes. There's some talk among friends to do 3D mini-shorts but we'll see. This the link to the site if you would like to subscribe to the F.I.S.H. newsletter.

http://www.maimalai.com/comics.html

Fufoon baby sketches cont...

2008-03-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

Fufoon baby sketches

2008-03-11T01:38:00.001-07:00

More early robot design for "F.I.S.H."

2008-03-09T01:57:00.001-08:00

Early robot design for "F.I.S.H."

2008-03-09T01:53:00.001-08:00

This is one of many many preliminary drawings I had in mind earlier....

"the monkeys of F.I.S.H." series

2008-03-09T01:18:00.000-08:00

Introducing "Fufoon"

As a baby gorilla, he's definitely a super hyper one...not mentioning his curiosity...