Website 2.0

After around 4 or 5 years of having the same design, I've finally got around to updating my website. I'm still updating the content, but there are a few newer pieces of work. What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Unicornasaurus!

Unicorn by Joe Ledbetter. Animated by me. For Fun.

Monster Walk!

Just for fun.
Monster by Matt Cruikshank.

Aardvark concepts

Some designs I did for an independent feature in Burbank a couple years ago. The feature never went into production.

Walking

For an undisclosed project:)

Fanny for Fortitude

Falco for Fortitude

A couple years ago I did some character designs for a German TV show called Fanny and Falco for Fortitude Studios in Burbank. They have since moved or gone under, I'm not sure what happened, the sign disappeared one day, but anyway here's a few of those character concepts.





More where this came from! Stay tooned!

Caricatures

Tape Art in Spain!

Check this out! The Tape Matters show from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain asked me to do a piece and I found a picture of it online in the gallery. Here's my submission:



And here are some other ones that are better than mine in the same show:











You can take a look at the rest of them in the Pictures section of their myspace here.

Karpa

Detail of an unfinished project.

Persistence of Vision short film

So I was telling somebody the other day about the short film "Persistence of Vision" I worked on in my last year at Edinboro and when they asked if they could view it, I said not yet, maybe it will be posted online someday. And so I thought I'd share. I was able to work with some really talented friends on this. They are the ones that made this film happen.

Part 1


Part2


You may also watch it by right-clicking and "save as" here. (mpeg4-QT - 66mb).

I Never Smile If I Can Help It

"I never smile if I can help it. Showing your teeth is a submission signal in primates. When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life." - Dwight Shrute

I have "the office" desktop calendar and thought I'd share Dwight's thought on smiling.

The Classic Crime "Seattle"

So here's my latest endeavor, my music video directorial debut for Tooth and Nail Records' band The Classic Crime. Also directed by the awesome dudes at Endeavor Media.

It's been getting a lot of hits (almost 18,000 on YouTube as of this posting). It is also on Yahoo! Music!!

Please enjoy!

Best Audition...Ever

This was an audition tape from 1984 for Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket". Probably the best audition ever. That's right, ever.

Too long of time

So it's been a while since I last posted any work. I've been super super busy.

What have I been up to? Well, besides being crammed with animation at Animal, my wife and I moved to a new house last month. It looks sort of like this:



If you've never bought a house, don't. No, I'm kidding (sort of), but be prepared to be overwhelmed with self maintenance the first year or so. One of these days we'll be able to relax on the patio. Nah, who am I kidding.

Other than that, a couple freelance/commission projects and getting to know Pittsburgh. We checked out the Andy Warhol museum



this past weekend and it was quite a trip. The Ron Mueck exhibition was there (ended March 30) and to see his huge human sculptures in person really gives the viewer the sense of how much time and effort went into each piece.









So beautifully done with so much detail it blows the mind. If the exhibition is coming through your town, I highly suggest checking it out. I was never really a big fan of Warhol. After going to his museum, I'm now a bigger non-fan. I mean, his stuff was just OK. I appreciate what he's done for the art community (mixed photography and bright-colored paint/silkscreens) but he was pretty full of himself, didn't create great pieces (just a whole slew of multicolored primary color silkscreens) and even wrote a book of his own philosophy. I'd have to say I believe he was a better businessman than artist because he fooled so many people into buying into his recreation of pop culture icons in fine art galleries. Graphic artists love him because he began to evolve commercial art into "fine" art, yet the general public still doesn't look at commercial package design as "art". That's a whole conversation in itself. Eh, whatever.

Greenhouse Gas - Episode #1

A recently completed Animal original.

I did the art and animation. The short story was written by Gene Collier, a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And created by Michael Killen.

Stay tuned for a few more...

R.I.P. Steve Emmett

I heard the terrible news that Steve Emmett, a painting and drawing professor at Edinboro University of PA (where I studied), passed away Saturday, March 15.

I never personally had him as a professor while there, but I did have a run-in with him last October when I went to Edinboro to give a lecture about Flash animation. We ended up talking for a few hours, about his life up to his then current status, and I told him my short story and where a bunch of Edinboro students are working, some of whom he remembered from his classes.

He told me about how when he was younger he lived in Ventura, CA for a while, Colorado and a few other states before realizing that he didn't need to move around to find happiness. He said he was happy in the small town of Edinboro, able to pass his knowledge of art onto future artists at the school and still able to be a painter at home. He said "Let's be honest with each other, I know where I stand as an artist and I'm just not that great. I'm good, ya know, but not great." He did say he was OK with that, but those thoughts stuck with me for a while. At the time I tried encouraging him by saying many artists create work throughout their lifetime, and may not achieve artistic success in their lifetime, but do afterward. He agreed in part with me, but kept insisting his art was just alright, not memorable. I remembered and sincerely enjoyed his work from the faculty exhibits.

He left a lasting impression with me that I will always remember from that one conversation. He was very proud when I told him what many Edinboro students are working on in LA, NY and around the world. He talked proudly, and briefly, about his artistic sons. I know I'll always remember how full of life he was just a few months ago. My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends. He will be greatly missed.


Here's a few of his paintings to remember him by that I grabbed from the Edinboro University website.

Cornelius on Yo Gabba Gabba

The night before they taped this, Cornelius played at the El Rey in Los Angeles and the crew went to the show. Such an amazing live performance and I think they did an AWESOME job for YGG. Animation on the back screen was based on the original they use from their live performance to a modified kid-friendly version for YGG, done by the very cool Joel Fox.



NOTE: You can see clips of the unaired animation segment I posted on youtube in the background collage.

EDIT:

Since YouTube took down the video because of Viacom restrictions, I found another link to the video. YouTube is awesome like that.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Although I don't have a gaming console (not since Sega Genesis), I might need to buy one for whatever system this game can be played on. It's seriously insane.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!