Happy Valentine's Day!

From me and my POD.

Sparks Nevada Fans Part 2

They're the BIGGEST little Sparks Nevada fans this side of the Red Planet!

Yes, its more Thrilling Adventure Hour art.  This time for Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars.

I had some extra time and I NEVER animate my own art so I wanted to give it a little movement.  It's grainier that I'd like but that's the nature of a gif.  And this one is kinda on the big side.

I would have liked to try this out in Flash, but I know just enough Flash to make it really frustrating to work in.  I know what I want to do, I know it can be done, I know the basics of how to do it but I don't know all the small fiddly details that go into doing it so I'd be two steps forward, one step back for days until I give up and do it the way I'm used to doing it.  I just create layers in Illustrator and either redraw the movement or just move the shapes around on each layer.  I was trained in Classic animation so I still think in a "draw frame by frame" kind of way but creating so many animations for slots games has taught me to get the most out of the littlest amount of drawing.  Now that it's the way I want it, I might use it to re-teach myself Flash.

I didn't plan any animation for this so I just rotated and tweaked things here and there.  The only thing I redrew were little Sparks's legs so it looks like he's bending his knees.  Also, a little squash and stretch can go a LONG way.

Fishman

Guess who this is based on?

It's an unused icon for a slots game I'm currently working on.  I just couldn't get it quite right enough for the boss to like so he got left out.

Another Slots Game

I thought I'd post another one of the slots games I've done this past year.  It's called Piggy Wiggy Riches so I'll give you 2 guesses as to what the theme is.  I have distinct memories of coming up with the look of this game, because I got the theme a few days before my braces went on last year.  So while I was laying back getting these suckers glued on my teeth I busied my mind by mentally sketching out what things would look like.

And a few animated symbols:

I was really happy with that fox being petted.

Illustration Friday: Boundaries

As much as I love the results I can get with Illustrator, it can sometimes feel like I'm doing everything with vectors.  I get a little trapped in the thinking I could/should finish everything in colour.  Sometimes a pencil drawing is good enough!  I've been missing the way you can just imply something with pencil or ink, like the roll of a shirt sleeve or the shape of a hairstyle.  In vector, pretty much everything has to be planned out and defined.  At least that's the way I have to produce things for work.  I'm slowly figuring out how to imply, convincingly, the same thing with vectors.

These were my thoughts for the topic of "boundaries".  Get it?  Because he's swinging on the bounding box in Illustrator?