I finally got the Studio Ten Four website live.  It feels good to have that up.  I’ve been doing freelance work for a while and never got around to making my own website.  It feels more legit to have that up there so I can point people to that.  I need to make the business cards now!

I’m slowly getting back into work mode now.  I still have some work to do for my clients and have some ideas to try and gain some new clients.  I also have a few side projects that are pretty fun to work on, which I will announce if I ever actually complete them.

I’m also having fun learning Drupal.  The Studio Ten Four site is running Drupal.  It’s so much cleaner than Dot Net Nuke.  It is taking a while to learn, but I remember Dot Net Nuke taking a while to learn too.  So far I’m very happy with Drupal and I’m excited about the switch.  The community is awesome too, which is a huge plus.  I didn’t modify the Drupal core framework once in making the site.  However in DotNetNuke, there are some things that you can’t do without modifying the core.  I may take this blog off of WordPress and manage it with Drupal instead, I haven’t decided yet.  I do want to redesign this blog though.  This design is just one of the free templates from WordPress.com.

I bought a sketchbook about two weeks ago.  Being surrounded by other artists and awesome drawings all the time inspired me to learn to draw better.  I am hoping that it will help me visualize things first when designing things.  My sketches look like a kindergardener’s drawings.  But here are a few pictures from the first few pages of my sketch book.  Believe it or not, these are some of the “better” sketches….hey you gotta start somewhere.  =)

So, I finally got around to snapping a few photos of the studio space.  This is where I work along with Amy and Kazu.  Chris and Phil also have workspaces but they are not around much because they’re usually busy at Dreamworks.  There are a few empty spots that we’re looking to fill and a large conference table for visitors, drawing, and eating lunch.

This is my work space in the studio. It’s pretty basic right now. I need to get a new desk and something to put on those blank white walls behind me.

This is the view of my desk from my drumset. Over in the background by the white board is Kazu’s computer desk. To the immediate right of my desk is a drawing table. In the upper right corner of the photo is Kazu’s drawing desk.

This is taken from that drawing table to the right of my desk.  Right across my desk is that white couch which I *never* take naps on.  The computer desk there is for Kazu’s assistant and guests.  Straight ahead way in the back corner, you can see a grey monitor, that’s Chris’s work space.

This view is taken from Chris’s workspace.  The conference table is to the right and that door at the end of the conference table leads to kitchen and bathroom.  To the left, you can see a railing with some steps going down.  That’s the entrance way it looks like…..

…this.

Well, here they are, the final videos.  16 videos in all…whew!  You can watch them on this blog or on my blip.tv channel.  The first video is a compilation of breaking down the booth.  The second video is a compilation of some of the artists at the Flight/Nucleus booth sketching throughout the con.  I wish we could have captured more, maybe next year.  The artists in order of appearance are…

• Steve Hamaker
• Richard Pose
• JP Ahonen
• Rodolphe Guenoden
• Phil Craven
• Johane Matte
• Mari Inukai
• Kazu Kibuishi
• Reagan Lodge

It was nice seeing everyone and meeting some people for the first time.  Thanks for making my first comic con experience an awesome one!

Day 5 - Part 4: Booth Breakdown

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Sketches

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‘ello.  Sunday The Wu Cam did most of the filming for the Wu Cam Clan (nyuk nyuk).  First clip is just a compilation of some the wu-cam footage.

Compilation Video

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The second is Eric interviewing Scott Campbell, Reagan Lodge, and Kazu about cartoons and it starts with a simple question…”Who is your favorite ninja turtle?”.

Favorite Ninja Turtle

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In the final clip, Eric takes us through the science of a transaction at the Gallery Nucleus booth.

A Transaction At Gallery Nucleus

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Only a few more videos to go!  Tomorrow may be the last post for videos.  =/

So, at the end of the night, we went to something called “The Masquerade”.  It’s a bunch of short skits that people put together and perform to show off their costumes and such.

Olympics opening ceramonies is tonight!

Tomorrow I’ll start posting video from the final day.  The last day Eric finally got a hold of the camera and it’s some of the most entertaining footage from the trip.  =)

-Tim

Day 4 - Part 2, Masquerade Costumes

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Hello.  Saturday, day 4 is up.  Part two will be tomorrow.  No music this time, just compilation of clips.

Also, I forgot to mention that at the end of day 2, mom got to meet the Korean pop star Rain. A bunch of us were waiting outside of our hotel after the exhibit hall closed for Mom, Amy, and Kazu.  We were going to go grab a bite to eat somewhere.  Then Ben said to me, “Woah, that’s Rain!”.  I said, what?  Where?  And he pointed to a bunch of sharp dressed people in suits walking out of the hotel with ear pieces on.  They kinda stuck out amongst the Comic Con crowd.

So, I called mom and told her to hurry up and get down to the front of the hotel.  She didn’t believe me at first and I had to convince her some.  About 45 seconds go by and a small Korean woman in a bright red coat comes darting out of the hotel lobby, saying “where?  where”?  I pointed to the end of the block where he was parked and off she went to greet him.  Rain was nice enough to give her his autograph and let us snap a few pictures.  Eric got some good photos and a great video clip of it too.  All of us were cracking up by mom being so star struck.  It was very cute.  And Amy actually gave Rain her one of her Sorcerers and Secretaries books and her signature!  =)

Day 4 - part 1

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The 9th video is complete! Whew! This video actually took quite a while to put together cause of all the little clips and getting them to all line up correctly. So on Friday day 3, I got a chance to step away from the booth and walk around. I only walked around for about 1.5 hours and saw all the costumes in the following video in that time….lot’s of costumes!

Day 3 - Costumes

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Hi. Sorry I didn’t post anything yesterday. Kean, Amy, Kazu, Mom, and I wound up going to Disney Land yesterday…allllll day. So, I didn’t get a chance to edit anything yesterday. Disney Land was okay, it was fun and I’m glad I went. It was my first time visiting there, but I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon. It’s not really my thing. Lots of people, lots of waiting in lines, cafeteria-like food, and I felt like a widget on a giant conveyor belt being moved around in a factory the whole time.  Disney is like one giant machine with tons of moving parts that work seamlessly together.  It’s really a remarkable business.

We also saw Foreigner last Saturday at the Summer Jubilee which was awesome.  Jason Bonham (John Bonham’s son) was the drummer. He did an awesome solo that gave me chills and went into “Kashmir” halfway through his solo.  He’s such a solid, powerhouse drummer.  They also went into “A Whole Lotta Love” in the middle of “Jukebox Hero“. It was cool to see Foreigner rock it.  “Urgent” is my favorite Foreigner song and the saxaphone solo done by Tom Gimbel was the best sax solo I’ve ever witnessed live.  And Jeff Pilson, formally in the band Dokken, was rockin’ out on bass.  It made us all want to play Rock Band, so that’s what we did when we got home.

The first video is a compilation of Day 3.  The next video I’m working on is of all the costumes and booths we filmed on Day 3.  I had a request from one little sister to bring back the music in my video clips.  So, the second video is the rest of the footage from Day 2 mixed with some footage in Day 2 - part 1, put to music.

Enjoy!

Day 3 - Part 1 - Compilation

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Day 2 - Part 3 - Compliation w/music

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Hi Everyone,

The 5th and 6th videos are done.  I’m getting a little lazy and just mashed the clips together for the compilation videos.  Sorry, no hokey music this time.  I think it works better this way anyways.

JP Ahonen and Marjaana Malkamäki of Daily Hero brought some candy from Finland and shared it with everyone who was brave enough to try it.  It’s a very strong licorice flavored candy (”Turkish Pebers”…I think) that changes to a kind of peppery flavor once you make it to the center….if you can last that long.  Two powerful candies in one!  =D

-Tim

Day 2 - Part 1: Compilation Video

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Day 2 - part 2: Turkish Peber tasting

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The third video is complete!  Day one was “preview night”, so it wasn’t as busy as the days after and the day didn’t last as long.  I actually have two videos for you.  The first video is just a compilation of clips from the day.  The second video is Kean Soo and Eric Wu hamming it up doing a mock interview with Eric as the creator of Amulet.  Click the images for regular quality or the links for higher quality (longer loading).

Enjoy!

Compilation Video

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Mock Interview

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