Monday, March 30, 2009

The Phantom Menace


This illo was done for a Phantom trading card back in the nineties. The Phantom was never something I 'grew up with' so he doesn't hold the same nostalgic charm for me as other comic book characters from my childhood. Still, he's practically a national icon so it was fun making my contribution to the whole thing.

With all the corporate failures around at the moment, I think it's important to recognise the tell-tale signs that it could be your company next.

You know the end is nigh for your company when...

A rock star becomes a member of the board.

A new company strategy is to put someone in a chicken suit and accost members of the general public to engage the services of your company.

and finally...

The fellow previously referred to as 'one of the pillars' of the company decides it's time to leave and start a milk run.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Dinos on DVD


Here are the two versions of the Dinos on Ice documentary on DVD. The one on the left was for the American market, the one on the right for the Australian and European market. I'm not really a big fan of either cover, although I much prefer Ruth Berry's original title than the fairly pedestrian title the yanks gave it.

At least the Australian design has something of the enigmatic about it. It does remind me of the opening scenes from the film 'Blade Runner'. Had I known that image of the eye was going to be used for the cover I probably would have added a lot more detail to it.

It's always a familiar story, there's always too much to do at the end of these projects and little or no time to think about things like the cover to the DVD etc.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Monster


While I was over at Pete Ford's 'Unstable Marzipan' I saw some creature designs for his 'Wynter Dark'. I got all inspired to sketch a monster....so here it is.

medical A from Pete Mullins on Vimeo.

medical B from Pete Mullins on Vimeo.

medical C from Pete Mullins on Vimeo.

This was both a demanding and enjoyable experience creating these medical animations. The look and feel had already been established by someone else using an entirely different array of 3D and compositing packages to the software I use. On top of that he was a really talented fellow who knew how to get the most out of his 3D renders. Trying to match what he had produced was certainly a challenge for me.

I really learnt a lot about how much 'magic' can happen in the post process. I have always cherished the infrequent times I get to work with someone I can learn the 'tricks of the trade' from.