vulne pro

Now with added WWW action!

2011-10-22T11:43:00.003-04:00

As of today this is now www.vulnepro.com. I finally got the DNS records sussed out with my domain host (Hostway) and we should now be running smooth on Googles servers with the domain name still with Hostway. Took awhile to sort this out because of Hostways limited functionality in the dashboard for editing DNS entries (it only allows one DNS A record and Google requires 4 entries when you transfer a www domain over). So the old site that was terribly neglected on any updates or makeovers is gone and the blog is now the official home of our Vulne Pro domain name. Also the old vulnepro.blogspot.com URL should forward to www.vulnepro.com now so everything should be a smooth transition. It's been a crazy year but expect renewed activity soon.

Cheers!

Five Movies You Should See NOW

2011-09-27T04:05:00.003-04:00

I've been getting typhooned here in Japan... two in September alone that caused floods in my area and cut us off (literally) from civilization for several days when the roads leading out of town either collapsed or were covered by rockslides. Not much else to report, but I wanted to give my list of five movies you should see right now, and some reasons why...

1.) Blade Runner- I doubt there's anyone reading this particular blog that hasn't seen this film, but if you haven't, or haven't seen it in, say, the last 48 hours, by all means do so. There's a reason it's been copied, referenced, paid homage to, served as inspiration, and just plain been ripped off so many times. It's one in a million, a perfect alchemy where everything fell into place and no one who worked on it (even Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott) has ever scaled quite those heights again. It's a world unto itself, beautiful-looking and beautiful-sounding, and it reveals the ugliest and the best of what it means to be human. This is what movies were invented for.

2.) Amadeus- A pitch-perfect period drama with the best single acting performance ever (F. Murray Abraham as Salieri), it's also the single best meditation / exploration of creativity and its ups and downs ever put to film. Great sets, beautiful locations... oh, and the music's pretty good, too.

3.) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Beyond the 8th Dimension- An homage / piss-take on every cliche in comic books and science fiction and adventure serials and the 80s, made during the 80s. It grows on you like a virus and every time you watch it there's another weird background joke that'll hurl itself in your face. Oh, and no one has ever chewed scenery as thoroughly (and joyously) as John Lithgow chews it in this film. Unapologetically clever, this film refuses to slow down for its audience, and is a whole lot of fun.

4.) Spider- One of the (criminally) lesser-known of cult director David Cronenberg's films, Spider is a brutally realistic look at the life (both exterior and interior) of a man living with mental illness, told in an unhurried and strangely beautiful way. Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Richardson anchor a stellar cast.

5.) Tideland- Now we come to Terry Gilliam's most criminally underrated and ignored film, about the imagination and resiliency of children in the face of hell. You have to meet this one head-on, and surrender to it. You'll be glad you did. The less you know, the better, so I'll say no more. Just see it.

Okay, so I liked these films and think you will, too. But you want to know the real reason you should see these films? It's because you'll likely never see anything like them again.

Blade Runner? Yeah, there's been a lot of other stuff based on / inspired by Philip K. Dick since then, but... this is big-budget SF that the director refuses to dumb down, with real solid practical effects over every beautiful square inch of it... no CGI lazinesss here. Amadeus? Sure, it's based on a play, and Hollywood loves its adaptations, but it's too highbrow, and there's too much focus on character and not enough on angst to satisfy the bean counters. Too slow, I guess. Buckaroo Banzai? Come on, an ORIGINAL SF movie? One that's not based on a comic or novel? Mwahahahahahaha. Right. Spider? You mean a film about mental illness that doesn't include action and splattering guts and / or alien conspiracy and... huh. Better get your art friends to fund it. What? They did? Yup... this film nearly bankrupted Cronenberg but he did it anyway. And Tideland? Yeah... weird childhood film... uh-huh... no, it's not like High School Musical. It's... What? No, I won't let the door hit me on the ass on the way out. Thank you.

Enjoy... and I do mean that.

Thundercats ho!

2011-08-23T22:44:00.008-04:00

Between punching polarbears and fending off the yeti here in the southern regions of the norselands, I drew some stuff for WB’s new Thundercats show.

Here’s my concept art for the lizardman mecha that appears in the series. The show version ended up quite a bit chunkier though, as you can see.

I’ll try to post some more stuff as they pop up in the series.

- Karl (genocidalpenguin)

UDON Mega Man Tribute

2011-08-05T12:20:00.005-04:00

In February I submitted this entry for Udon Entertainment's MEGA MAN TRIBUTE book, and it made it in! Now that the book has premiered at Comic Con, I have permission to post the piece online.

The book features over 300 artists paying tribute to one of video-gaming's most cherished characters. I'm proud to have made the cut and am honored to be featured among so many fantastic artists. For my piece, I wanted to focus on a relatively unusual character (i.e. not just draw Mega Man or Zero). I decided to draw Tengu Man, one of my favorite Robot Masters doubly featured in "Mega Man 8" and "Rockman & Forte." The illustration depicts a mecha-styled Tengu Man design in his stage from Mega Man 8, accompanied by a Tencrow and a trio of Metall SVs.

UDON has uploaded a number of the entries to their Deviantart gallery: http://udoncrew.deviantart.com/gallery/

You can also find the piece on my own Deviantart gallery:
http://nidaram.deviantart.com/#/d3n3dgk

Here's how you can get your own copy:

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER

-You can order the limited hardcover edition book at UDONstore.com (http://www.udonstore.com/Mega-Man-Tribute-HC-Udon-Store-Exclusive-p/mega-man-tribute-exclusive-hc.htm)

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE SOFTCOVER

-The standard softcover edition is also available for preorder on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1926778308?tag=udoent-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1926778308&adid=0DS0GBZB0YWZK4H62YZM&)

Badan Song: Nasford District 21-E Bloc cut 2 Background

2011-07-20T17:53:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Genuaä

OK, time to get back to dropping some new TKP posts here. The past month has been busy with some internal studio related freelance but now it's time to get back to work on Theos KE Polemos material.

Continuing from where my last post left off here's another look at some background art for the Theos KE Polemos: Badan Song project. This would be a shot within the Nasford district in the political bloc of Genuaä. Nasford, though located in the relatively populated bloc of Genuaä, is a largely abandoned industrial sector with aging buildings and several outdated wallrider wide tracks (current standardized tracks and vehicles are narrower and wide tracks were outdated and deemed unsafe). The power is still on in many of the buildings but, for the most part, it's a no man's land with occasional squatters, rouge sendai, and criminals.

Nasford is sitting just on the edge of the border with the larger political bloc of Jaämas, which also has rather sizable expanses of abandoned no mans land real-estate and the criminal elements that can be found occasionally in Nasford often are based there, being out of Genuaä's juristiction. The policers of Genuaä and Jaämas often will cooperate regarding the border situation but policing dimensional borders is difficult. Borders are tricky in general, because Indus is more dimensional in laying out political territories, that is to say it accounts for the 360 degree nature of the purely architectural environment. Nasford isn't really overrun with criminal elements, it's mostly a ghost town but any I.P.I.O.s (Inter-Bloc Private Investigations Organization) or Policer's answering a call in this area would be on heightened alert.

Nasford was abandoned some 50 years back when one of Jeindel's FOIL component manufacturing plants (nobody really knew, even many of the workers, what the components they manufactured did) had a catastrophic leak of a deadly airborne toxin. A huge number of workers and civilians perished. Though Nasford is now safe to live in the incident left such a stigma that it was abandoned long ago to be left to the squatters, criminal elements, and nomadic travelers. It will become the stage that sets a chain of events in motion that begins Badan Song.

Below we have two stages of the shot. The final color image and the base pencil illustration with the shadow augmentation layers turned on.

Final paints done in Photoshop CS3 and Painter X

Foundation illustrations have always began as pencil to be augmented/edited digitally.

The color shot is just the background only as there will be a character element to be added in for the final scene. This is the full un-cropped image as the final shots will be in 16:9 widescreen format. Because Indus is a completely enclosed architectural landscape the lighting is artificial. For the Nasford shots I went with a sodium vapor look with the lighting being in amber and green hues. Indus will be lit with a variety of familiar and fictional lights, from the familiar sodium vapor, florescent, neon, and incandescent, to exotic bio-gel and organic bio-luminescent lighting. So, depending on location, Indus will have a rather varied range of hues and lighting styles in the environments though the familiar sodium vapor hues will be one of the most common. The nature of Indus's environment alone really makes it a classic film noir setting thus cementing further Theos's noir trappings.

Although posts had slowed to a trickle to none during the last 6 months (due to my Father's Magical Medical Mystery Tour. Yes he continues to do well) or so it's now time to catch up on a lot of this work and begin to share peeks at things in the works. You'll continue to see TKP concept work (including DA gallery favs the FOILs), work from Badan Song (the nature of the project to be revealed later), and some new TKP stuff developing. It's been a tough year but we're still here, still working, and still excited about creating new worlds.

More to come...

Japanese School Life... the reality, not what the otaku think

2011-07-14T01:21:00.006-04:00

In my travels around the internet I run my nose into a lot of dark and strange corners. Those corners inhabited by fanatical otaku and clueless Japanophiles are interesting in the same way that watching a train wreck is.

Uh-oh, here come the rotten tomatoes. Let me clarify: I don't judge anyone by what they like, mind you. I don't look down on anime and manga fans, since I'm one myself. Even if our tastes differ, what you dig and watch and relate to is your business. Note that my description said fanatical and clueless. Luckily for humanity, fanatacism and cluelessness, while serious conditions, are curable with a good dose of reality. It's just a matter of getting the medicine down.

So what am I on about? Well... in the aforementioned dark Intertube crannies, I sometimes read posts on blogs and on message boards that go something like this:

I will never experience Japanese school life. Woe is me. Bawwwww.

And I shake my head for several minutes. Where in heaven does this come from? I have a pretty good idea. Could it be... anime series that feature multi-hue-haired girls with cute sailor suits battling demons and giant mecha while wielding ancient mystic katanas? Or perhaps groups of giggly kawaii girls who spend their school days chatting with friends, eating cute box lunches and occasionally being instructed by a goofy and eccentric teacher whom they have a crush on?

Who actually buys any of this crap? Do you think life in the USA is accuratly represented by Beverly Hills 90210 (uh-oh, showing my age here) or Jersey Shore (that's modern, right?)
Yes, kiddies, open up. Time for some medicine.

I've lived in Japan on and off for a quarter of my life... nine years all told. I've worked in the Japanese public school system (mostly junior high) for eight of those years and I have a pretty good idea of what Japanese school life is really all about. Ready?

Generally speaking, it's a lot like school life in the USA, except much more regimented and stifling.

How about Japanese students?

Generally speaking, they're pretty much like kids anywhere at that age- balls of hormones, self-doubt, awkwardness, and acne, except they also have the crushing weight of compulsion on their shoulders.

Japanese kids rise at dawn, eat breakfast, and head to school, where they often have pre-school club activities. What's that? Yeah, clubs. Like you see in those shows. They aren't technically compulsory, but if you DON'T join a club you're pretty much marked to be a social outcast by both your fellow students and teachers as well. It's one of those things that everyone in Japan does because society dictates that there's no other true choice. Back to our day. School begins with the morning meeting. Rise. Bow. The teacher tweaks his or her class into a fine-tuned machine. Six classes plus lunch. Cleaning time. End-of-the-day meeting. Then club again, often until five or six o'clock. Then homework, usually lots of it. Weekends? More club, Saturday practices for half the day, Sunday matches for half the day, tournaments, etc. Summer vacation? Only a month long, if that, and not only are there summer projects to do (i.e. enough homework to last every day of the summer) but you are also restricted by rules... my current schools just distributed their summer break guidelines to the students (and we had a special assembly to teach them). They include such goodies as not being outside after 6 pm and knowing that if the teachers (who live in town) catch you riding a bike without your helmet, you're in trouble. The only actual vacation time is the five or so days of Obon. That's it.

If that's not enough, many kids also attend juku or other night schools or are forced into activities (like piano practice) by their parents. All of this is a really good dress rehearsal for Japanese corporate life (7 am to 11 pm) but not so good for anything else.

My students have to (by school rule) greet any teacher each and every time they pass them in the hallways, even if they see them fifty times a day. They have to show similar deference to their upperclasspersons (sempai). When entering the office they have to bow, greet, and state their purpose before being recognized and then granted permission to enter.

Not to mention that in some schools, there are the bullies to deal with.

Oh, and yes, they wear uniforms. Which at most schools are made of cheapass, ugly polyester (that melts if, say, you get too close to a bunsen burner) yet cost hundreds of dollars (the uniform manufacturers have sweetheart deals with the government and collude openly). They're hot and uncomfortable and while you do get lighter uniforms in the summer, everyone has to follow the changeover rules- no summer uniforms before June 20, say, no matter how frigging hot it gets... and remember that Japanese classrooms are rarely air-conditioned. I taught a class last week where, I kid you not, it was 37 celsius (that's 99 farenheit) in the classroom.

Colorful hair! Actually, kids aren't allowed to color their hair. Or wear it over a certain length or in certain styles. Or wear jewelry. Or makeup. Or paint their fingernails or allow them to grow over a certain minuscule length (there are clippers in every teacher's desk if they find violators). Or wear socks other than brands specified in the school codes. Or have pencil cases that are too ostentatious. Or carry any money. Or eat anything other than school lunch (no candy).

Add all this onto the normal pressures and mood swings of adolescence. Still having fun? Still baww-ing that you don't get to experience this wonder?

I'm not saying it's all bad. Japanese schools still recognize the value in music and art classes and these activities are well-funded (though still regimented and creatively not so exciting). I do like the fact that students clean the school, too. I try to have as much fun with my students as I can and try to let them be as casual as they please around me. They're good kids. And yes, I do go and watch the clubs play baseball and volleyball and other sports. They're fun to watch and when finally just allowed to play, they have fun with it.

Some of you out there might be applauding the regimentation and thinking what kids in your country need is a good dose of this. Well, the problem is that the rules in many places are breaking down and, as a result, the teachers and schools have no instructions and no idea of how to discipline the kids, much less a set of procedures. I taught for two years in one school that had kids in self-mutilated uniforms wandering the halls, disrupting classes, and taking swings at teachers that tried to intervene... and the teachers had no recourse to any authority to stop it. Generally, you cannot expel a student in Japan, and everyone graduates whether or not they do the work, so there's no way to get rid of bad apples. If the parents want to ship them to a private school or juvenile academy, great. If they don't, you're stuck with them.

Look, you know Japan doesn't have mystic swords and giant mecha (at least not yet). So don't believe the rest of the BS either. It's different, and it's not necessarily better. It has warts. Big ones. Japanese people are, after all, people. Their systems are run by flawed humans, for flawed humans. To ascribe anything else to them is, I think, ultimately downgrading their humanity.

Childhood's End

2011-07-08T11:19:00.008-04:00

I'll always remember where I was on April 12, 1981. At my grandmother's house in Clinton township, Michigan, sitting on the floor of her living room, watching the TV as the first space shuttle lifted off. I remember it so clearly that I can now recall the fuzziness of the picture (ah, the days before HD everything), the rug burns I got on my hands from running them to and fro in pure excitement, even the texture of the corduroy pants I wore. It's like it was yesterday.

I was nine years old. I was very much into space, and at the time I wanted to be an astronaut (I would soon grow too tall and clumsy and have awful eyesight, all of which kind of put a crimp in those plans.) Young and Crippen, the two men test-flying the shuttle that day, were my heroes. It was the beginning of a new era, one that would open up cheap and easy spaceflight to all. And there I was, witnessing it. Anything was possible.

As I write this, I'm on the cusp of forty. I'm sitting in my apartment, in Kawanehoncho, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, in my living room, on a futon on the floor. I'm watching the very last space shuttle launch ever, my wife at my side.

Thirty years gone by!

I finished elementary school, junior high, high school, college. I worked crappy jobs. I worked cool jobs. I went to Japan, worked, got married, came back to the States, watched the economy crash, went off to Japan again.

In those thirty years, I've seen a lot of wonderful things, and a lot of bad things. I saw the space program fall far short of expectations, saw the promise of cheap spaceflight go by the wayside as the system was still too delicate and balky and complex. I saw far greater advances made in computers than I could have imagined, as I sit here watching TV on my laptop, a device smaller than, and almost as light as, the three-ring binders I carried around as a nine year-old. Here I sit, blogging to the world, with all the information of our world at my fingertips. All of this, all those times, all that progress and heartache, bookended by a pair of fiery launches, a beautiful spacecraft rising in a familiar arc, taking to the sky.

It's gone now, the pad empty, off into orbit and into history. And as I watched it rise for the last time, I reached back across those years, and shook the hand of my nine year-old self, and I shared a moment, and a dream, and the adult that I've become felt, if only for a moment, that anything was possible again.

Nasford Omnisense security cam feed

2011-06-05T01:42:00.000-04:00

Although I do have more and more time of late it's still been a fairly busy time since admitting my Father into extended care. I've visited him every day and he's doing really well. He'll be discharged on the 8th, to stay with his brother for a short time before heading home, and is on track for full recovery. That said I've gradually been getting to a heavy backlog of all kinds of work and will be posting a lot of new stuff soon. Here's a peek at what's to come with some new Theos KE Polemos work.

Living on Indus, Polemos, and within the SOL system one becomes accustomed to the ever present watchful eyes of Omnisense, the SOL wide information and optical monitoring network. To the average citizen it's simply a reality of daily living and, depending on level of access, a handy information system. For criminals and covert operatives Omnisense is a problem many solutions had to be devised circumvent it's watchful presence. In order to navigate Indus covertly one has to contend with the ubiquitous eyes of Omnisense so, often, the Omni-cams are hacked or jammed in order to keep your movements discrete. Sendai, especially high end combat taedus systems, are often responsible for Omni-tapping (hacking) into the system. Here we have an example of an Omni-tap (hack) in it's initial stage before the feed is cut:

This is a test shot (testing filters to get that cam look. The illo is complete) for the black and white "security cam" look. The illustration is a rendered pencil BG with digital gray scale tones in CS3 and the wallrider vehicle is a digitally inked pencil illustration with cell cut tones in CS3. In this image we have a wallrider truck, of some kind, driving along on it's track system though a very dark and dreary industrial Nasford sector of the political bloc of Genuaä. This shot is from the Badan Song project and is one of many images to come. I'll post an unfiltered image, along with the pencils, etc later. For now I wanted to drop in a post with a peek into the neon, bio-gel lamp, and sodium vapor lit architectural caverns of the industrial planet Indus.

Welcome to Genuaä

More to come...

Art Happenings

2011-06-01T11:13:00.005-04:00

Here's a new piece, simple titled "Red Head Taedus." Long, extending limbs give it incredible reach with pole arms, and the segmented joint construction makes each arm a giant spear-thrower.

The markings were inspired by Zulu symbols. I wanted a "tribal chief" look for this one. Elegant and powerful (and a little mysterious).

I have also been fortunate enough to be included in UDON Entertainment's MEGA MAN Tribute artbook, which will be released this summer: http://www.udonstore.com/Mega-Man-Tribute-HC-Udon-Store-Exclusive-p/mega-man-tribute-exclusive-hc.htm

All of the pieces I've seen so far are fantastic and it's an honor to be in such good company. I've be lying if I said I wasn't completely excited about this. However, I've chosen to wait until the book is released to post up my full submission, but I did make a little WIP teaser image awhile back:

I chose to do Tenguman because I'm a big fan of the MM8 and Mega Man & Bass designs.

-Nick

Well, we all still seem to be here...

2011-05-22T08:15:00.002-04:00

What a surprise. Another doomsday has come and gone and we are all still here.
Look, if you want to try and predict doomsday, that's fine. It's especially fine because it really seems to have no consequences. Just once I'd love to see the followers of these doomsday prophets stop and say, "You know... my glorious spiritual leader has been wrong about this stuff time and time again. Perhaps he is full of hot air."
But no.
I was wondering, though... would the time of the apocalypse have been on Eastern Standard Time? Mountain? Hawaii? Here in Japan we're 13 hours ahead. What about us? If it happened at 2:00 pm EST. then it's 3:00 am the next day here. Seeing as how the earth is divided into 24 time zones, it's kind of hard to pin an event on a single day.

New post surgery update regarding my Father...

2011-05-21T13:41:00.001-04:00

It looks like this may be one of the last updates regarding my Father's surgery and recovery for awhile.

Firstly, he's doing really well overall. The bad news, if you want to call it that (really it's not), is I had to put my Father in extended care, on the 19th, directly after his discharge from the Hospital. Unfortunately he unknowingly picked at (and picked out a few) his incision staples a couple of times, while in the hospital, thus making the healing of the wound a little more complicated and delicate. So really it's only bad news in the fact they he would have been home otherwise. Amusingly ironic is the comment the doctor that performed the surgery dropped on me that in his 20 years of doing surgery my Farther is the ONLY patient that picked at his incision like that... just what I wanted to hear 9_9

As grave as this might sound the incision is healing well with no problems of infection, and he's doing well overall, however he needs a more professional hospital environment for extended recovery than being at home. The incision is wrapped in a binder now so he can't get at it (though I don't see why they didn't do that immediately after the fist time he picked... apparently not). There's also the issue of extensive post surgery water retention swelling that has extremely impaired his mobility. I had hoped they would have gotten that swelling down at the hospital but he still has a little ways to go. So he's also in extended care for physical therapy, which is actually rather common for post surgery of this magnitude. All said, he's doing great and I expect him to recover fully. What this means for Vulne Pro is, finally, I have some breathing room and time to get things rolling again. I have had no problem, what so ever, with helping my Father through all this at all but, now, I really do need to get things back on track. The studio is a business after all and we really need to get back to work. Expect activity from Vulne Pro to gradually ramp up once again. My deepest thanks for the support from everyone through all of this.

Cheers!

It's About That Time

2011-05-20T22:38:00.004-04:00

Hatrax here. Time to get back on the blogging horse again. I'm still living in Japan, in a town so small and remote that it's an hour to the nearest large grocery store and 20 minutes to the nearest convenience store (and in Japan, where you normally can't swing a raw squid without hitting one, that's the most amazing stat of all).
I haven't been avoiding blogging. I've just been really busy with all of my own projects, plus holding down my day job as educator of Japan's next generation. School is back in swing and my students (I teach everyone in this town... EVERYONE... between the ages of 3 and 15, preschool to the end of junior high) are as fun as ever. I've also been writing hundreds of pages of fiction.
Since I'm writing this, you can all guess I survived the earthquake and tsunami. The leaky nuke plant is 200 miles away, so while I'm not as far as I want to be it's far enough. Life goes on.
I'm working on a project with Pam Bliss right now, which can best be described as a traveler's notebook for a very strange place. Some of the interior art will be by Mike. More details later. It'll be on sale at Wizard World in Chicago, which is where I'll be in August. Yes, after three and a half years abroad, I'll finally be coming home for a visit. I can't wait to eat real pizza again.
More to come.

My Father's surgery went well...

2011-05-11T18:58:00.000-04:00

UPDATE 5/11/2011 My Father's surgery apparently went really well with no problems to speak of :) To say that was a relief is an after statement but, oddly, I seemed pretty calm today. I just had a good feeling about it going well. he's in ICU under observation but that's expected to go smoothly as well. Just taking it as it comes. Thank you, sincerely, everyone again. I really appreciate the kind words and support. Now... I shall crash (time fer sleep).

Cheers!

My Father's continuing medical adventures

2011-05-07T21:33:00.002-04:00

I have kept posting about the situation with my Father's medical issues to a minimum because it would be draining to do so in any frequency matching the continuous weekly developments. I also imagine it wouldn't be much fun to read on a daily basis as tweets, blog posts, etc. Sure I have noted it in various posts as a factor in delaying or slowing work on some of our projects but details I've tried to keep to a minimum. Naturally it's more fun writing about the work we're doing and sharing it with all of you than posting about endless doctor visit tedium. That said, of course what's been going on is deeply personal and of obvious concern to me so I felt another, more substantial, update was in order.

It's been a Magical Doctor's Fun Club roller coaster ride since my Father fell and broke his arm Thanksgiving eve (which has healed up just fine). That unfortunate event led to future doctor visits discovering an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) which, in turn, led to his admittance into the hospital for just short of a week. All considered the news from the parade of various doctors, during his time in I.C., was continually rather good. Having come through that relatively well the doctor visits continued, along with a truckload of medications including the happy fun-time drug coumadin (blood thinner). Ahh the joys of coumadin with its exciting weekly INR blood tests as part of the package. Blood thinners... making simple cuts potentially more problematic or a fall even more serious than the potential injuries you may incur, 'cause blood takes longer to coagulate being... well, thinn-erd and all.

As these doctor visits continued an ultrasound was scheduled to check my Father's kidneys for possible renal failure. This was scheduled because his blood pressure had dropped to unsafe lows (due to being put on, apparently 3 blood pressure medications which were dropped immediately thankfully). Instead of any problems with his kidneys they discovered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. This led to more exams and a CAT scan. Unfortunately it became apparent surgery was the recommendation so he's scheduled to go under the knife, next week, May 11th. Since the date was set there have been further appointments, exams, and tests including a cardiac stress test in order for him to be cleared for the surgery to occur. The good news is he passed all those exams and tests with flying colors. Prognosis, low risk for surgery so I'm hoping it all goes well.

So it's been a veritable circus of modern medicine excitement (I won't even go into the absurd bills and costs thus far or pending. I imagine anyone familiar with our super awesome health care system knows all too well). The whole thing has been rather exhausting and time consuming for me just simply playing the part of chauffeur and, more or less, care-giver (which is getting off easy as my Father has to endure all the medical issues not me). Now am I complaining? No. I'm glad I'm here to help out my Pop and he's doing better than he would otherwise for it. Sure a situation like this can be disruptive and time consuming but I'd rather my Father be doing well than worry about how much art/freelance I'm getting done. At the end of the day we're just drawing toons and robuts and cool sci stuffs while hoping to spin a good yarn around them and that can wait until time permits. Real life is far less exciting than the fictions we can create but far more important to gracefully face during situations like this.

This blog's focus is the work, ideas, and observations of this little indy studio Vulne Pro, a studio that had, and has, a lot of plans for 2011. At the moment, more important things have been commanding my time but I, and we, do not plan to quit working away on what we love to do, nor will we stop sharing the work with you. We had started some pretty cool stuff last year and much of it has been delayed or slowed due to the events laid out above. It's been difficult, though not impossible, to take on contract work because of the rather unpredictable schedule at the moment and posts have been sporadic from me personally (or more sporadic than was planned) as I can only work on stuff during moments of calm throughout this storm. I know you folks out there are more than understanding so I'm not worried, none the less I wanted to address this. There's a lot of cool stuff on the way, just sit tight. I expect things to hit a more even keel at some point in the future and work will continue to trickle out until then.

As to my Father's pending surgery, I've noted before that any positive vibes, prayers, well wishes, kind words, etc, I imagine can't hurt so if you wish to extend any, by all means please feel free. I appreciate all the support. As much as it sounds like, "holy crap dude that's a lot to deal with!" I'm pretty sure he'll come through this just fine. My outlook has been pretty positive through all this as well (save the disgust at some of the absurdity in medical costs, especially prescription drugs) as I see little point in not doing so. As overwhelming as all this may seem my Father's been coming through all of this remarkably well so my hope is the surgery, though serious, will follow suit.

My thanks for reading.

Mike

Odd Google Chrome malware warning for Vulnepro.com

2011-05-06T19:15:00.001-04:00

Just about 45 minutes, or so ago, I got a malware warning for the Vulne Pro site. I checked the FTP and did see something that might have been recent activity last month (I haven't uploaded in some time) but it didn't look suspicious. Of course I called my host and they checked over the site as well, apparently finding nothing there. The site isn't showing the warning now so it was likely just a false positive.

This incident allows me to note that we'll soon be deleting the site anyway and migrating the domain name to this blog. So, eventually, this will be vulnepro.com.

NEW TKP FOIL line art: Atha Dharma

2011-04-08T20:39:00.003-04:00

This one's been waiting to drop as well due to delays related to my Father's continuing medical situation. He's still doing reasonably well but there are new issues, I won't get into now, that he faces. Hopefully he'll come though this as well but more on that later. Now, on to new work...

The 5th gen Oshen Atha Dharma RES-CM is FOIL design evolution at it's apex. The result of over a century of FOIL development all converging on this bold new direction to meet an even bolder and more dangerous threat than ever before. Once again we have a FOIL with the naming conventions directly influenced by the growing sendai Hindai movement. The Atha Dharma is aptly named wedding the common understanding of the term Dharma, as "duty" with the true meaning of Dharma; natural law. The Faedi face duty with the unyielding honor and Oshen has always expressed design philosophy as "in concert with the natural flow".

Oshen is a company renowned for the finest taedus systems in the SOL system and their highly sought after custom combat FOILs. Any pilot skilled, enough to bond with an Oshen FOIL, as his combat frame, would be confronted with great caution on the battlefield. Oshen had always been a company manufacturing, one of a kind, custom masterworks but the situation that confronted Polemos during the "Siege of the Black Son" changed all that rather dramatically. As the looming threat, that facilitated the evolution of FOILs into the 5th generation, approached Oshen took a proactive leading role in developing the technologies that became synonymous with the 5th gen FOILs. It could be said that Oshen was responsible for the 5th gen evolution. This was the first time Oshen mass produced their products but they did so with no less emphasis on the finest quality and reliability. Although mass produced Oshen's flair for visual design still shines through as mutated deco pastiches are seen subtly throughout.

One of the few mass produced FOILs by Oshen themselves (not including machines made in collaboration with other companies like Dies) the Atha Dharma is an incredibly formidable FOIL. The machine, like the Nal-Farbute (also by Oshen partnered with Dies) is equipped with a powerful RES counter measures sensor array and radome. A common feature of 5th gen FOILs are these new, enigmatic, jamming devices, but jamming what? That's for another time.

Again, a design that began with a small thumbnail illo that I blew up in CS3 to print out for a tighter light box refinement. From there the refined pencil illo goes back to CS3 for digital ink clean up and fine detail work. This guy is another collaboration, of sorts, between myself and Karl (genocidalpenguin) as Karl actually came up with the forward head design (the head apart from the housing cowl. It can pop out and forward). When I sent him an early WIP he asked, "Can I has doodle?" and I was, "Go for it". The result was the head design so I kept it pretty much unchanged. The rest of the FOIL was my madness, again with the legs owing some cues from Karl's aesthetic sense wed with my own. This one has a lot of hex and perforated textures to imply the new materials common to 5th gen designs. A full color version will show up sometime in the future. More works to come...

Cheers!

NEW TKP FOIL line art: Harma Bhatra

2011-03-20T19:26:00.000-04:00

I delayed this post for obvious reasons due to a time of mournful pause in light of the tragic events in Japan. We continue to support Japan in this time of crisis and, again, suggest you donate to the Red Cross tsunami disaster relief fund if you're able to do so. I've also had a busy week taking care of my Father due to his blood pressure being far lower than normal because of medications he's now off (at doctor's suggestion). He's doing OK now. So... onward to new work...

This bad boy has been a long time coming... the epic Faedai Omni Icar Leviathan beast: Harma Bhatra. One of several delayed collaborations between myself and Karl Östlund (genocidalpenguin) this design is, in every way, a true collaboration of both of us even more so than the, now Vulne Pro Deviant gallery favorite, FOILjaeger 3aMF Gottheitzerstorer. This new design is based on one of Karl's orphaned scrap designs simply titled 'modular mech' (also pictured below for comparison). I had always loved it's look, much like the design that became the Gottheitzerstorer, and during many of our conversations about the Theos material I suggested possibly doing something new with it in collaboration. Karl thought it was a cool idea and agreed so off I went with a notion of seeing what might come out of the exploration.

Karl's original design was clearly a rough he planned to evolve further but didn't get around to it, instead moving on to other work. I've been there more times than I can count myself, I suspect most artists have. What was there was defined enough to launch off of with some really cool new ideas. While evolving my thoughts to paper, as to what it would transform into, it became apparent going with a covered limb style of the 5th gen FOILs would look rather striking on this guy. I altered the torso configuration the least and due to the modular nature of Karl's design it felt like it would be a late 4th generation FOIL with clear visual cues of the movement toward the 5th gen machines. Where Karl's original ends and the new work I did begins is what you will see looking at the two designs. Anything different from the original was where I took it. A list of the significant changes in order to evolve into a FOIL are thus:

Adding fin binders on the back, which are both thrust verniers and ECM/sensor equipment.
Additional sensors, on both sides of the head, and one off the left shoulder armor plate.
A new head design.
Right shoulder armor with dual barrel machine shettier. Strobe bombs (kinda like a flash bang for FOILs) attached.
Mortar or smoke grenade, depending on load out, launcher on right shoulder.
Long range heavy rail gun sniping rifle (as I progressed it hit me this thing needed an epic weapon).
covered limb 4th gen arms and legs with much longer legs more akin to the FOILs typical design silhouettes while still maintaining Karl's original overall look.
Some adjustments to the mechanical bits connecting the legs.
New added armor plates in the center torso along with beefing it up a bit at the waist.
Various other bits and bobbles and greebles.

The Harma Bhatra MJ-11a was developed by the Waimanu FOIL Works, the company also responsible for the dreaded Gottheitzerstorer FOILjaeger's of the wildly experimental 3rd generation of FOIL development. There are some clear visual cues that nod back to the Gottheitzerstorer. Though the Harma Bhatra is a very formidable Faedai combat frame it's nowhere near as massive as the Gottheitzerstorer was so the similarities have more to do with the manufacturer's distinct visual design cues than anything. Begining service toward the very end of the 4th gen period the Harma Bhatra might as well have been a 5th gen. Clear design cues point to what was to come in FOIL development; the covered limbs with equipment ports for customization, the appearance of enigmatic sensor equipment, the more streamlined aesthetics. The FOILs were changing before anyone, not in the know, knew why. Change was on the horizon as the sendai moved more, and more toward spiritual and political concerns, more freedoms. As such the Hindai movment (derived obviously from Hinduism in name and some core concepts but also having aspects of Buddhism and Taoism as well) spread and it's influence began to inform the naming conventions of the FOILs.

To say that this was a blast to work on is an understatement. Karl's original design was a fantastic foundation to launch from and I'm grateful and happy he both agreed to give this a go and utterly loved the end result. In discussing the notion of our personal styles having distinct visual cues I suggested he create a FOIL manufacturer name that would define his designs and he came back with Waimanru (look it up, it's rather apt). In naming the FOIL we both threw around some ideas but, I eventually landed on Harma Bhatra MJ-11a, the MJ referring to a specific FOIL artisan that had a hand in this design (me). As with the Kharma Actura the Harma Bhatra's name, within the Theos setting, is due to the growing influence of the Hindai movement on the Sendai community. In later posts I'll dive into the Hindai movement further. More to come...

Cheers!

The unintended connection to Sendai in Theos KE Polemos

2011-03-20T18:53:00.005-04:00

I should take a few moments to comment on the use of the term sendai in the Theos project because it's meaning in the real world now carries some immediately painful associations. I do this more for those who are new to the work we're doing and unfamiliar with the project Theos KE Polemos we've become known for round the infowebs. Most of you following the TKP project are likely familiar with our use of the term sendai but some of the info here might still be interesting.

It's rather strange writing the terms Sendai, for the Theos bio-mechanical population, now for obvious reasons. When I named the bio-mechanical creatures in TKP the sendai, back sometime in the late 90s, I actually wasn't aware at that time there was a city in Japan named Sendai, a city now very much on the world's mind due to the recent disaster that struck Japan. Although I did eventually learn there was a real city named Sendai and continued to use sendai (with unrelated meanings) in the Theos project I would have never imagined anything, like the tsunami, would happen there. Of course nobody could.

How I came to the term and spelling sendai for the TKP bio-mechanicals was from expanding upon an already established Theos term. Co-creator of the foundation material Steve Loveland and I, developed the singular to plural terms for T.D.S. (telepathic defense systems) units called taedus (singular) and taedai (plural), eventually sendai became the term for all the bio-mechanical creatures in the story. Sendai, as the name for the non-human characters in Theos, was never intend to refer to the Japanese city now in such devastation and pain. In TKP history is a very fractured and foggy picture to the populace of the setting so naming conventions can come from any number of places, past and present and meanings that are accurate or outright inaccurate gibberish contextually (to real world terms) are commonplace. Humanity has been recreating itself through a distorted filter of it's past. I suppose not too unlike how we are now but in Theos it's far more an acute phenomenon.

It seemed like a good idea to note why sendai will appear in various place on this blog to describe our bio-mechanical characters. Names having utterly different meanings to their real world counterparts are common in fiction and I'll note one here from my favorite sci-fi novel series; Frank Herbert's 'Dune':

Bakka in Dune: In Fremen legend, the weeper who mourns for all mankind.
Bakka in the real world: Japanese (baka) for idiot or fool.

Bakka in Kvam municipality, Hordaland, Norway
Bakka in Aurland municipality, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Bakka in Kvinnherad municipality, Hordaland, Norway
Bakka-Phoenix, a bookstore in Toronto.

I wasn't aware of the locations in Norway until looking them up. Ahh, Wikipedia. The term "baka" in Japanese was the one that immediately comes to mind for me (simply due to the similarity in spelling) when reading Dune but you get the idea. Herbert created his fictional setting with in service of his story and often parallels, intended or unintended to the real world will occur.

I can't imagine anyone would misunderstand the meaning of sendai in the Theos work once you become familiar with the material, even what has been presented so far online. If anyone wishes to see an association with the real city Sendai (or mistakes our usage of the term as callous, which it is not in any way) I'd prefer it to represent the incredible spirit Japan has always shown in the face of crisis. The city of Sendai has been stricken with a terrible tragedy of unimaginable proportions and if anyone wants to see a connection to our sendai let it be Japan's unyielding spirit and dignity. In that sense it does have a connection to our sendai as the bio-mechanical creatures in the Theos project will indeed faces many hardships and turmoil often with a strong sense of dignity and honor... but just as often not.

Thank you for reading.

Our hearts go out to those in Japan

2011-03-11T13:39:00.005-05:00

Waking up to the news about the tragedy in Japan wasn't the way I, or anybody, would want to start their day. I had to take my Father to a doctor's appointment (he's doing pretty much fantastic) and it was hard to focus on that with this news coming out of Japan. I've heard directly from Jeff Lilly (hatrax on the blog. Jeff lives in Japan and he may weigh in at some point as well) and seen posts and tweets from several other folks I know in Japan hearing they're all OK, however that doesn't diminish the tragedy and loss for those who were not so lucky. There isn't much I can say beyond our hearts go out to those in Japan who have weathered this disaster and those that have been lost. May you be safe over there and best with the road to recovery. Rest in peace to those lost :(

Nature can be an awesomely frightening and cruel thing at times :(

Edit: I found myself at a loss when I posted the initial update earlier... and I'm still, rather at a loss right now. I've been glued to CNN, BBC (web feed), and Twitter, social networking, etc since I got home from my Father's doctor's visit. What strikes me is the surreal, yet devastating, nature of the footage that is all too real. This isn't some stupid Hollywood disaster flick. The weather has been chaotic as the planet has been changing and it can be awe striking in it's cruel raw power. Japan is a country well prepared for such disasters but this one is beyond forecasted estimations. We can only be so prepared and so vigilant. With daylight arriving in Japan the true scope of this disaster will become apparent and I don't expect it will be any less heartbreaking. Again our hearts go out to those in Japan during what will be a terribly rough time.

For those who can, donate here is a direct link to the Red Cross tsunami disaster relief.

TKP FOIL line art: Kharma Actura

2011-03-07T16:04:00.001-05:00

Here's another of the recent Theos combat FOILs in line art presentation, this time the Oshen-Dies Kharma Actura. As with the previous posts this design began as a thumbnail rough and went through the same basic process arrive at a final digitally inked design. The legs on this one owe a bit to Karl's (genocidalpenguin) design cues to a large degree though still my own stylistic approach. Also that little armor plate, right under the arm socket, that's sitting over the torso segments, was from Karl's Giza production model FOIL. They're sometimes little cues but important to imply a sense of cross pollination by the various fictional artisan's, a variety of parts manufacturers, and FOIL companies in the TKP universe. As we continue to explore possible FOIL designs it seemed a good idea to begin mixing some visual cue between all of us in order to express this more. This will likely continue to evolve with various TKP design work, FOILs or otherwise.

This machine is a late 5th generation evolution of the enigmatic bio mechanical combat frames that came to be known as FOILs, an acronym for Faedai Omni Icar Leviathan. The 5th generation FOILs evolved into a more utilitarian stripped down design philosophy. Less emphasis on artisan driven visual flamboyance with pure sculptural expression and more movement toward mass production with solid performance. This new approach to design was in response to a perceived pending change in the combat situation due to a looming new new threat. The threat assessment, by various tacticians and insiders deep in the political intrigue of SOL, was dire and the Faedai could no longer remain steeped in their code of honor driven controlled warfare by point spread. By the time the 5th generation of FOIL development had arrived it marked the end of a long tradition of battle tactics singularly unique to the planet Polemos. A new paradigm would emerge and things would never be the same again.

I'll continue to discuss the ideas behind the visual design cues of various FOIL timelines, naming conventions, and equipment as the blog continues, along with a great deal of other TKP information. Stay tuned as a brand new FOIL collaboration between myself and Karl Östlund will drop here very soon as well ;)

Cheers!

Desert Cloak Foil Step-By-Step

2011-02-28T22:38:00.025-05:00

I have a thing for robots adorned with cloth. Exia Repair. Break Blade Golems. Guymelefs. Anything with a cape or cloak or tattered bits of tapestry hanging about. This piece started with a cape. I want to use this post to chronicle the journey from start to finish in a step-by-step fashion. It's interesting

Here's the first sketch (digital). You can see that he (someone should draw a female Foil) started out with a really foppish pose, with flared wrists and what was originally going to be a knife in his right hand. He's sporting a very Spawn-like cloak with lots of little ribbons.

In this second version I started blocking in the cloak in two layers: one for the top, and one for the darker back/inside layer. I put both layers underneath the lines so I could use them for a painting guide. I then made a third layer, above the lines, onto which I started painting in the details of the cloak.

For the third pass, you can see that work on the cloak has progressed. I even did a rough color/shading test of the arms and legs, to get a feel for the body proportions/shape and overall look. I added some buttons that are used to pin down clumps of cloth at various points.

In the fourth pass, things have changed quite dramatically. I decided to redraw and repose the arms and legs. The Foil is now primarily white in color (I like white mecha). Also, it looks like I was planning on having the left arm be a giant claw-arm, hidden under the cloak. The shading here is a little more crisp, but at this point I was still unsure where the piece would end up.

The fifth version is the only time the image was in landscape mode, in order to accommodate what would have been a large sword. The right and left arms have been reposed and redrawn once again. Major progress has been made on the cloak. The buttons are now white, and I decided to add some tears/bullet holes in the cloth to make it look worn and ragged. Also gone is the "belt" around the waist. The painted legs are of a completely new design, and for awhile I was entertaining the idea of split toes and pointed hips. Elements of the final joint and armor design are starting to become apparent.

Sixth version. Nearing the finish line! Major refinements to arm and legs, with final details becoming apparent. Left shoulder area, where the cloak gathers, has been reworked and pulled outwards a bit for better overall balance and to fill out the upper body. I decided on two simple headband-style ribbons. The pose is very "Robo-Hamlet," no?

Final version. Okay, I decided to roll with the "Robo-Hamlet" idea! Now I'm really interested in what the rest of that "trophy" Foil looks like. Hrmm... I decided to keep the markings simple, with just two orange bands around the "nosecone." The right arm has some added details, and the left arm makes a reappearance. Final touchups + ground shadow and he's ready to show off the spoils of victory!

Thanks for reading!

-Nick (NIDARAM)

TKP FOIL line art: Ileman-Loch Aetarius and Auaris SOMR

2011-02-26T20:03:00.005-05:00

Here we have another pair of line work presentations for Theos KE Polemos combat FOILs. Both of these designs began as a small thumbnail rough. The thumbs would then be blown up in CS3 to, roughly, an 8 1/2 x 11 page size in order to do a quick grayscale print. These would get light boxed for a more detailed and refined version. Once I have a design refined to where I want it, it goes back to CS3 for digital ink cleanups and color. The digital ink clean ups are what we have below (sans the gradient color field added here for a more pleasing presentation then simple black line art on white background).

Most of my concept and design work begins as small thumbs in this manner. Thumbs are often one of the best ways to go as they force you to focus on form and silhouette rather than detail. Although concepts can be done, as large illustrations, right off it's often problematic as it tends to compel one to try to fill in empty space with detail. This can often result in losing form or boxing yourself into a corner so it's, typically, best to design in small thumbnail illos in order to rough out the silhouette before going to a more refined illustration. That said, there really is no best way to do anything, whatever works for you IS the way. This is simply the way I've found to be most effective and it's widely used, pretty much, for that simple reason. At the end of the day if you get the results you want, you must be doing something right so just keep it fun and the work will follow. I'll continue go into more detail as to my approach to designing the Theos material as the blog marched forward.

Ileman-Loch Aetarius:

Ileman-Loch Auaris SOMR:

Also I want to give a shout out and a big thanks to Don Suratos (who runs the rather cool modeling blog DC23) for his feature of the newly relaunched Vulne Pro blog. We really appreciate the kind words and support and, are more than happy, to send some compliments back. If you dig Mecha and sci-fi modeling, by all means drop in on his blog, there's a LOT of great stuff to explore there. Thanks again Don!

I'll have some more FOIL line art soon, along with a first look at the line work of a rather epic Östlund (genocidalpenguin)/Majestic (VulnePro) collab FOIL. More and more we'll be posting new stuff here so stay tuned.

Cheers!

Theos combat FOILs line art and the spirit of old school

2011-02-24T21:41:00.013-05:00

As I had noted in previous posts we intend to publish more and more peeks at art, on the blog, that hasn't gone up in any of our Deviant galleries. We plan to share peeks at process, roughs, and work like those below; classic model sheet line art. With this posting I thought I'd explain, in a bit of detail, why I have approached the presentation of the Theos KE Polemos art in the manner I have.

When I was young there was a comic shop, called Comic Kingdom that used to be on 7 mile and Gratiot Ave. in Detroit. I, actually, don't remember how we found it but my Father would take me there, on weekends, so I could sort through the impressive collection of Macross, Dougram, Orguss, and Gundam kits, at least it was the fact they carried such kits that led me there (my Father bought me a bunch of the Revell Robotech kits the X-mas of 84 and I was hooked). However, it wasn't the kits as much as the discovery that this little Comic shop also carried anime art books and magazines, straight from Japan. Back then it was just really cool animation to my eyes, something new and exciting. They were doing things I had never seen before with the medium of animation and for a young artist the idea of such creative freedom with "moving drawings" was immensely impressionable.

I remember always being excited to see previews in the magazines or getting the actual artbooks of these fantastic films soon to hit theaters in Japan, films like; 'The Wings of Honneamise Royal Space Force', 'Akira', 'Castle in the Sky Laputa', and 'Venus Wars' (this was during the late 80s so that does indeed make me very old school). All films that STILL to this day I find as impressive as when I first saw these previews in Animedia, Animage, or Newtype. It was always seeing those previews of screen caps, background art, or cool peeks at model sheets and such that sparked my imagination. Even more impressionable was the fact that the cool fellow who ran that section of the shop, Bill Sikoro (not sure if I have his last name right but I do wish to extend my thanks for encouraging a young upstart to follow his dream of making his own works) would have showings of these films as they got them on Laser Disc, and, usually, it was within a month or so after release. I saw Akira on LD, like right after it came out in Japan. So all this stuff really inspired me to both strike out on my own creative ventures, but more importantly to pursue my own original creative voice. Seeing all the imagination in those films, back then, ingrained a drive in me to settle for no less than my own original vision and I've had no interest in aping anyone else's work since. I find it FAR more rewarding to strive for something I haven't seen while honoring the works and genres that inspired me in my youth.

Well, many, many years later and I'm producing my own work with that spirit in mind. My approach to presenting much of the Theos art has been designed to evoke those days of seeing all those previews for some anime film, or project, that just grabbed you with wonder, or some cool box art for a plastic/resin kit.. Back then you wanted to see it because it looked wild, imaginative, thoughtful in execution, or just plain cool... impressions I sense less and less in current anime offerings (though there are still some impressive works produced to be sure). The TKP art is presented in a manner to, hopefully, achieve that same sense of wonder, like seeing those previews, back then, before the internet and the tidal wave of media we have today. The FOIL art has especially been tailored toward a sense of seeing some old school box art for a cool resin or plastic mech that would catch your eye. Seeing as how I've had a few people tell me the art gave them that impression it seems I've succeeded in evoking that vibe. Eventually we'll need those FOIL kits in our hands for real, but for now we have the art to inspire that path forward.

Below are the line art works for the Nal-Farbute and the Strumgeist 5th Gen EVO. These line art presentations will go up here first, then later to DA and Pixiv.

Comments are welcome and feel free to stay a spell. More of these to follow soon!

Cheers!

'And the Signal' Process

2011-02-15T21:45:00.005-05:00

More and more we plan to post peeks at work in process or material like this where it's a peek at the process throughout to completion. I planned to post this on Deviant, way back when I completed 'And the Signal', but I got sidetracked by other stuff and simply forgot I made this set of progression images. This isn't a comprehensive tutorial type of piece, simply a peek at some of the stages.

With these image art shots I have always tried to both experiment with new ideas and maintain my own personal style. A good deal of Theos KE Polemos is very much film noir, in the classic sense, so it's always been a blast to work on atmospheric scenes such as this and the previously posted update of 'Blood Wake'. There's more material waiting in the wings, stay tuned.

Return to posting at Pixiv

2011-02-15T20:36:00.005-05:00

I've returned to posting work at Pixiv, which is sort of, Japan's version of Deviant Art. Nick Maradin and I had stated posting there in November of 2008 but hadn't kept up due to other work. I've wanted to get back to posting there again so, in the last few days I've been posting up some of the Theos work that never made it up there. Being a lot of that work never went up on Pixiv I have a lot to post every now and then. I'll also be posting work for Karl Östlund (genocidalpenguin) on his behalf.

Vulne Pro on Pixiv

The reasoning for posting there certainly isn't any Japanophile kind of mentality (my view of the creators over there was always peer respect not a view through fan obsessed goggles) as it's simply to expose the work to an audience obviously far more familiar with the troupes and genre they, more or less, created in the first place. Seeing as how we have a very different take for how we plan to approach the notion of mecha it's of interest to post there.

New TKP FOIL post and updates to old TKP Image art pieces

2011-02-07T21:40:00.003-05:00

It's about time to gradually get this little blog a cookin' again. With things calming down a tad I have bit more time to get to working on art again. I'll be getting to a lot of backlog work and older pieces so there will be a lot pending. I recently uploaded to DA a long delayed collaboration piece with Charles Liu (N'vos Tessai FOIL), and two updated versions of older TKP image art illos; ORO TDS Station and Blood Wake (below).

Updated 2011 version:

Original 2008 version:

There's a lot of work to get to and, over time, we plan to post a lot of work here that's not featured on any of our respective Deviant galleries so stay tuned, there's more to come!

Had to take my Father into emergency.

2011-01-27T08:31:00.005-05:00

I spent the entire day, yesterday, with my Father at the hospital. His routine doctor's exam (unrelated to his exams regarding his broken arm, which has been healing fantastically) turned into discovering an aryhtmia in his heart so he was admitted right away (though it wasn't anything immediately life threatening). So far the news hasn't been mortally grave or horribly alarming , however it's serious enough to warrent observation and a battery of testing. It's still too early to say how it might go but my hope is, what I'm gathering as somewhat on the positive side will be how it goes. They more or less said this is treatable and he should be OK, so we'll see. He was in good spirits overall, though not wanting to be there naturally. I'll be heading back today of course keeping him company. Please, by all means send best wishes, prayers, or whatever positive vibes are your inclination.

Thanks for reading.

Update: Sat Jan 29

I'm happy to report my Father is doing really well and the arrhythmia isn't life threatening or as serious as it was first diagnosed (he wasn't in any pain or discomfort, what so ever, when we admitted him to emergency, nor has he been in any before admitting. Only the arm pain). It was good he was admitted to ensure it doesn't get serious but, overall, he's doing really good and the condition is treatable. The testing is over and he's just in observation likely heading home in the next day or so. Thank you to everyone who expressed kind wishes, we really appreciate it. I have no idea how much that kinda thing helps but it certainly can't hurt.

Update: Mon Jan 31

My Father was discharged from the hospital, yesterday, and is doing very well so far. I expect more doctors visits but the situation doesn't appear life threatening and he's well enough to be home. Gonna have a busy few days though, much to take care of and catch up on.

Thank you all immensely for the kind words, well wishes, and comments. We really do appreciate it.

Best!

2011 and a return to activity...

2011-01-22T22:26:00.001-05:00

Last post here in 2006... DOH!

Well a lot happened since that time and there were some good reasons why the posting dropped off. The primary reason being we got really busy in 2007 working on animation TV series pitches so the blog kinda was an afterthought during those crazy times. Also the migration to Deviant Art, with posting current Vulne Pro works, shifted focus there. Deviant art was a huge success in growing the Theos project so, naturally, posting there continued. Well, it's time now, at the onset of 2011, to revive this little blog as the official hub of Vulne Pro studio. There's a lot of catching up here, a lot of stories to potentially share about the missing blog time, a lot of new things to explore, and some cool things planned. So with this brief update we return to our little home here and invite you all along for the ride.

Cheers!

2006-12-24T23:22:00.000-05:00

Hikeeba them aliens be a kwaaazy!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

As read, we wish everyone a Happy Holiday season. EBEJEEBIES Coast to Coast greeting posted on their front page just in time for Christmas once again with our gratitude. Also posted the 2004 EBEJEEBIES Xmas on Deviant Art. Take care everyone, Merry Christmas!

This Place is ours!

2006-12-17T00:19:00.000-05:00

Ghosts simply don't like it when you plunk a building near their grave site... we never learn, never learn. Also posted in the Vulne Pro Deviant art gallery.

Welcome Coast to Coast fans!

2006-12-17T00:17:00.000-05:00

Shawn La Douceur, one of Coast’s intrepid webmasters, has just posted a paranormal themed illustration I did around Halloween titled, “This Place is Ours”. I had a lot of fun doing this painting, fully digital in Photoshop 7.0. It shows some Willo o’ Wisps who seem to have gotten pretty upset with the inhabitants of the building in frame. They painted a warning, in blood, on the wall. Clearly not something you want to wake up to in the morning… that is if they get the chance to wake up. Who knows what these ghosties have in mind?

Also as you might see, from the post below, EBEJEEBIES is making a return soon. Hopefully Coast will post our new EBE one spot promo gag soon to get the word out. It’s been a busy year for us and we expect to continue to be busy into the New Year with more new things to bring to those of you gracious enough to keep following our work. To keep track of all the most current work Vulne Pro has been doing please, by all means, cheack out our Deviant Gallery.

The site is in stasis at the moment, with some areas under construction or in the middle of style changes, we apologize for that, again the busy. We also took down the forum because it simply broke on us and spammers were killing it so if you wish to drop us a line please do so, anyone can comment here on the blog, you needn't be a member of Blogger to do so. Thank you all for dropping by and my thanks to Shawn and the good crew at Coast to Coast, as always they have our best. Keep watching the skies folks! Cheers!

Those Little Gray Guys Are Coming Back...

2006-12-08T23:58:00.000-05:00

...soon. After a disastrous run-in with an unreliable financier and some earth-borne particle accelerator weapons, our little gray EBEs have been... recovering. But Crell, Zax, and Gleeb will be back soon for some all-new adventures. Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming "second season" of Ebejeebies!

U-Con

2006-11-26T23:45:00.000-05:00

Went to U-con at the University of Michigan last weekend and sold some books! It's held in the Student Union building, and had everything a con-goer could want, and more... easy access to a cornucopia of fast food in the basement, a nice setting with ballroom floor, nice architecture, stained glass windows, dim lighting (well, that could have been better), ans a variety of interesting dealers. Considering the attendance, I can't complain about how slow it was. Still managed to sell some stuff, so I'm happy.

Windycon 33 Report

2006-11-13T08:12:00.000-05:00

Windycon is a great convention- I had last attended one about ten years ago and found on my return that it is better than ever. They are not too small, not too big, and have a great selection of activities and guests.
I did my three panels on Saturday. In the one on designing a realistic spaceship, I was partnered with Stephan Martiniere, the famous visual designer who's worked on lots of films and games, including The Fifth Element, Star Wars Ep. 2 and 3, Titan A.E., the Abyss, Myst, Uru, and many others, not to mention being one of the hottest SF book cover painters working today. He was a very interesting guy to talk to, and very down to earth.
My TTA panel on Sunday went well. It was well-attended, despite the Windycon folks not getting my panel description into the con book (which ultimately was my fault)- there was only the title (the description was up on the website, though). Everything went well and the crowd was very enthusiastic. They were thrilled at the new stuff that I sneak-peeked from Capital Ships. I sold several books in the hallway after the panel as well.
The con activities were fun as well. Several good parties, a great dealers room, and fun entertainment. I also met and got to know Gery L. Deer and Scout, whip artists extraordinaire!
U-Con is next week. More to come!

Upcoming Conventions / Some News

2006-11-05T20:18:00.000-05:00

I (Jeff) will be appearing at Windycon 33 in Chicago the weekend of November 10-12, 2006. I'll be on three panels on Saturday, and then Sunday at 1:00 I will be presenting a panel on the Terran Trade Authority. The following weekend I'll be at U-Con in Ann Arbor (Nov. 17-19, 2006), running the Morrigan Press table with Mike, who of course did quite a bit of excellent artwork for the RPG. At both conventions, I will have the TTA Roleplaying Game for sale, as well as Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD. At U-Con I will have a lot of other Morrigan Press titles for sale as well.
The RPG (the finished print version) will be hitting my doorstep next week and will soon be available at Amazon.com and direct from Morrigan Press. The RPG is currently available from Drivethrurpg.com / RPGNow (they merged) in Adobe PDF format for a special price.
Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your support!

Welcome TTA fans!

2006-10-22T03:01:00.000-04:00

Greetings and salutations good Infobahn surfers. The Terran Trade Authority RPG has finally been released at Drivethrough RPG.com and the print version will be arriving in short order at various retailers. Being the URL for Vulne Pro’s studio site is in the credits I welcome those of you who wander in for a look see. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done for the site so bear with us on that, it’s been a crazy busy year and little time for web work. Currently new art posts are ending up in the Vulne Pro Deviant gallery so take a look there first. The forum we had broke sometime back so we nixed it until a new one can replace it. Any inquiries can be posted here in the blog as you don’t have to be a member of Blogger to post, so please feel free to drop a line. Sales have been good so far, it seems the TTA RPG is #1 on Drivethrough RPG.com so we thank you folks for the interest. If you like what you see support it otherwise you might not get to see more as we have other plans for new projects that will hinge on the success or failure of TTA. Please enjoy the visit. See you round the Infobahn. Cheers!

Terran Trade Authority Roleplaying Game Now Available!

2006-10-17T19:50:00.000-04:00

The Terran Trade Authority Roleplaying Game, based on the seminal million-selling future history series that began with Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD, authored by Stewart Cowley and recently updated and re-issued by Morrigan Press, is now available!

Featuring a cover by, and reprints of, Adrian Mann's art from the updated Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD PLUS extensive interior art by Vulne Pro Studios's Mike Majestic and associated artists Karl Ostlund and Jainai Jeffries and with about half of the interior material written by Vulne Pro's Jeff Lilly, it looks as good as it plays.

The TTA RPG is over 400 pages of new background information, ship stats, and complete RPG rules based on Morrigan’s critically acclaimed Omni System. The TTA RPG gives a solid, fleshed-out stage on which to base your TTA campaigns while retaining the air of mystery and wonder that made the original books into the SF icons that they are. Star system backgrounds, complete lists of skills, quirks, and equipment, rules for spacecraft flight and combat, short vignettes, the first look at the mysterious Alphans and Proximans and their cultures, and much more… all content has been reviewed and approved by Stewart Cowley himself.

The TTA RPG is available now in downloadable PDF format from DriveThruRPG.com and soon in print format exclusively from Amazon.com and direct from Morrigan Press Inc. The PDF sells for $18 and the print version has a cover price of $29.99. The print version should be available in early to mid-November... I'll keep you all posted.

Spacecraft Sales Strong, RPG Coming Soon

2006-10-09T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hi Folks,
We've sold about half the run of Spacecraft: 2100 to 2200 AD and will probably be reprinting around Christmas. The TTA Roleplaying Game is in the final editing stages and will be released electronically in just a few days and in print format in about a month. I'll keep you posted!
Thanks to everyone who's bought a copy so far...

Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD availability and where the Hell Michigan be you guys???

2006-08-26T07:16:00.000-04:00

Well, what’s been going on? Have we dropped off the face of the Earth, finally rubbed off by the Grays who’s feelings we’ve possibly ruffled with EBEJEEBIES? Have we decided to become pirates in a vain effort to fight global warming?

None of the above I can happily report we’re still just incredibly busy and have had little time to post anything. Terran Trade Authority has been consuming much of Jeff’s time and a good deal of mine as well but where the hell is the first book you say??? Well there were unexpected delays that pushed release back as some of you that follow the blog may know but once all that was sorted out something even sillier has ended up delaying things. Being the bloody blog wouldn’t let Jeff post last night I’m posting his press release here for him below, without further delay in his own words…

Begin Transmission--

For everyone who’s been wondering… yes, the first TTA book, Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD, is out and has been out for a month now. But you probably haven’t seen it. Why? Because Barnes & Noble and Borders (more specifically, their corporate buyers) are morons.

Here’s the problem: Despite heavy interest, a huge amount of pre-orders, and promises to order lots in exchange for steering buyers to their websites, the Big Two STILL vastly, vastly, VASTLY under-ordered the title. How badly did they under-order? The Borders distribution center in Indiana, which serves the ENTIRE Midwest, including Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Cleveland… you get the idea… ordered a grand total of fifty-three copies. This amount didn’t even cover their pre-orders, much less leave any stock for the shelves. In short, my book has been out for weeks… and I still haven’t seen a copy anywhere! More importantly, fans haven’t been able to get it!!!

Fortunately, this problem was easy to correct, as the Morrigan Press warehouse in Atlanta still had lots of books. Just order more. Problem! Even though each store orders separately, the distribution center they’re tied to only does an order once a month… meaning a four-week delay, at best!

Don’t get me started on Amazon… which is doing a nice job of promoting and cross-promoting the book… yet still lists it as “not released yet”. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of this one…

I won’t go into the problems associated with a Byzantine, monolithic bookstore chain and their bureaucratic problems… even though I have a lot to say about it… but here’s the low-down…

1.) The big book chains should be re-stocked quite soon. If you already ordered one from them, keep pestering them. Also, please ask your local bookstore to stock it.

2.) The distributor that handles the orders of small, indy stores ordered plenty… so check your independent retailer! This is something we should all encourage, anyway.

3.) Morrigan now has their own stock of books- and you can order from them direct! Here’s the link: http://www.morriganrpg.com/gm-preorder.html I know it says “pre-order”, but it’s not- the books are in stock and ready to go, and shipping for anywhere in North America is a measly five bucks! International customers, just drop Morrigan a line for a good shipping rate.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!

---End Transmission

There you have it; it’s out but not but is. I worked at BOTH Border and Barnes & Noble in the past and I’m well aware of the broken that is their distribution system. I can’t say everything was sloppy but what occurred here wasn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence. Hopefully this will all be sorted out soon, until then, as Jeff pointed out, anyone who wants a copy of the book can order one directly from Morrigan Press. Pleas by al means do as the success of TTA will be crucial to us moving forward with some plans we have for possibly doing some original material with Morrigan of our own.

What have I been up to outside TTA? I’m engaged in a vicious mind war with a rather annoying Gray named Klauzon… no just kidding. I’ve been working rather regularly on various projects and now regularly working with Thunderbean Animation. Currently I’m involved with a follow up gig to the previous one, again doing background work. Once complete I have a rather growing pile of Theos Ke Polemos artwork that is in process and awaiting posting so look forward to a trickle and then flood of new material, keep an eye on the Vulne Pro Deviant gallery as it will go there first. Until then the busy continues.

Cheers!

2006-06-08T00:43:00.000-04:00

Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD electronic version now on sale at DriveThruRPG.com ! Download it as an Adobe PDF for only $15!

The print version should be available from all your favorite sellers in late June. Order your copy today!

Cover Art, Final Version

2006-05-29T22:02:00.000-04:00

Here's the cover... clickie to see a bigger version.
$24.95, softcover. Let Barnes & Noble, Borders, or your favorite local bookseller know you want a copy! Also available here on Amazon.com!
Still no firm release date... coming in a few days...

Breaking News- The Return of Commander Cowley

2006-05-23T13:44:00.000-04:00

Okay, our lack of updates has become ridiculous. We've all been VERY busy. I'll let you all know what's going on with my end, and hopefully Mike will pop on and let you know what's going on with his end.
The TTA project continues. Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD is at the printer's and will be released next month. But, there was a little, teensy glitch...

It was Eleventh Hour at TTA HQ. The new Spacecraft 2100-2200 AD had gone to press. The writing and artistic crews set their sights on finishing up the RPG book while K. Scott Agnew, president of Morrigan, went on a well-deserved family vacation.

On May 9, Scott returned to the office to find a message from Stewart Cowley, original author and compiler of the TTA books, in his inbox.

“Great!” He thought. After all, we at Morrigan had been trying to contact Mr. Cowley for months, hoping to include him or at least get his stamp of approval on the new material.

Then Scott read the message. There was a problem.

When Morrigan originally sought to license the TTA franchise, Scott approached Hamlyn Publishing, which asserted that it owned the rights to the TTA books. A deal was negotiated and advance royalties paid to Hamlyn.

In his message, however, Mr. Cowley asserted that he owned the copyright on the TTA books, and in fact had been the holder of said copyright since 1990.

A flurry of phone calls and e-mails later, it was confirmed that there had indeed been, to put it mildly, a slight oversight. Mr. Cowley did own the rights to the books. Hamlyn had somehow misfiled or otherwise overlooked this fact, and so had licensed a property that they had not owned for sixteen years.

I’ve got a bridge here, by the way. Nice bridge. Real ornate. It’d look good spanning whatever river you choose.

The contract was dead. Hamlyn returned the royalty money. The presses were stopped. And Scott and myself were busy searching our local areas for nice, high cliffs to drive off of. Was six months of work about to go up in smoke?

Well… it’s a wonderful thing in life when one of your childhood heroes turns out to be a jolly good fellow...

Mr. Cowley immediately made it clear that he had no wish to obstruct the project. He let us know that he was certain that everything we had been doing was in the true spirit of the original books. Once he had made sure that we weren’t some wildcatter organization attempting to rip him off, it was clear that there was the matter of a new deal to be forged… which it was.

The bottom line: Stewart Cowley is officially back in the TTA saddle! He’s aboard ship, back on the command deck, and will be contributing to future TTA releases. Best of all, everything from here on out is going to have the official Cowley blessing and seal of approval.

So this heads off any criticisms of expanding the canon... as well as giving me an opportunity to work with one of my childhood idols. All things considered, I think things worked out better than could have possibly been imagined... especially since Cowley could have, at any point, just said "no." He could also have very resonably demanded to have complete oversight, or to put the whole thing on hold until he got some of his people in the mix. He didn't. He trusted us, and he liked what we had done... in a similar situation, I don't think I would have been so understanding. He was, and now the project continues, stronger than before...

More to come!

And with explodie Ninja Pirates with lasers in their eyes… or not!!

2006-04-02T00:23:00.000-05:00

Indeed it’s been wildly insane. More stuff has happened in the last few months all at once seemingly from differing directions yet ultimately leading in the same direction it’s not even funny. To say we’ve been busy is an understatement exceptionalle. Is that a word? Don’t care, it is now and essentially that’s what we’ve been doing, a whole lot of creating. As Jeff said in the post below we have pretty much banged out a full 13 episode animated TV series pitch (no it’s not Theos Ke Polemos) in about 72 hours, probably less. Myself, Mark Dudley, Jeff Lilly, Karl Östlund, and Chuck Walton all worked on materials for this pitch and under a mad time crunch came through the home stretch. In fact the quality of the work was beyond exceptional considering the amount of time we had to creat all the materials. We shall see how it goes indeed. Aside from that I’ve personally also been working with Thunderbean animation on something and have been toiling away on TTA materials. Much of this work can't be revealed so until we can that's the gist of it. I can also report that Karl Östlund and Felix Chinook Z. are officially part of the studio and will be working on various things as projects cross our path. There appears to be others poised to join as well and the only mandate we have is to let creativity flourish and keep working on developing interesting properties for the marketplace. Sorry for the lack of regular updates folks, can’t be helped. What you can expect is a lot of stuff from us in the future as we get a lot of this material out there. Cheers everyone!

Now 1000% Nuttier!

2006-04-02T00:14:00.000-05:00

Things have been... nuts!
A complete pitch for a 13-episode TV series... in less than 72 hours?
Just ask Vulne Pro!
Can I sleep now? Thank you.
I can't say any more right now... but we'll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, work continues on the TTA projects...
More news to come soon. Stay tuned.

...and on...

2006-03-26T10:35:00.000-05:00

I'm writing new ship descriptions, based on ships that were mentioned for a mere sentence or two in the original texts. Very Challenging! Adrian is doing great new designs for them as well.
Mike is doing studies for the Alphans and Proximans.
Scott is putting it all together.
Onward we roll, each day bringing us closer to publication. Ain't it exciting?
Back to work...

TTA Rolls On

2006-03-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
We're still busy with the TTA... I'm editing and rewriting, waiting for the final comments and tough decisions from the boss. I've also been doing some little bits of new writing here and there, including designing a new ship with Adrian Mann based on about two sentences of info in Spacewreck, third of the four books. Challenging, yet fun.
Vulne Pro's HQ (Mike's place) has been hit with a series of natural disasters recently, including a leaky ceiling and a malfunctioning computer fan that makes his machine shut down at critical moments... hopefully not a sign of divine disfavor.
This weekend I'm hoping to finish up the future history, and that should be about it for Spacecraft 2100-2200 AD, not counting edits and rewrites... now to start work on the sourcebooks in earnest!
Can't wait to show you all more material. Hopefully the boss will allow some more stuff to leak out in the coming weeks. We'll keep you posted.
T-minus three months 'till publication... spread the buzz!

Dipping into some nostalgic spaces...

2006-03-03T01:44:00.000-05:00

Yes the cat’s outta the bag for one recent gig, we are working on the old Terran Trade Authority classic space art material with this new re-launch of the work through Morrigan Press (link now added to the sidebar). Both Jeff, myself, and several friends kinda grew up with these books and in many ways they had some impact on things we would do in our future efforts. To some degree they were viewed with a mix of playful amusement at some of the out there illustrations like, “why the hell is that Sentinel ship shooting at a Model T Ford??? Huh?” To a sense of amazement at the strange designs, colors, and compositions of the paintings and the unique flavor much of the art had. So it’s very much a nostalgic blast from the past to be involved in working on this material. So, as Jeff said, he has a massively involved writing gig with this project and Myself and Mark Dudley will be producing artworks for this project as well. I saw the posting for this gig on RPG.Net’s forums and after the surprise someone actually revived and purchased the rights to do this material wore off I sent the link to Jeff and he applied right away. I’m not surprised he got the gig considering the quality of the writing he did for the submission and I can’t imagine there are a ton of folks out there familiar with these books but who really knows for sure? I guess once the books launch we’ll have an idea. In any event now we can talk about it with Morrigan actively beginning promotions but there are actually still other things percolating in the background, other projects, that can’t be discussed yet. There is a lot going on this year. We’ve had some dry spells in posting but we will still drop in as much as we can. Take care folks and expect to see more peeks at this project and various Theos works and collaborations with other artists to come. Cheers!

Terran Trade Authority, back again 100 years later kids!

2006-03-03T01:15:00.000-05:00

And, booyaa! Here we have Morrigan Press’s mockup cover for the new Terran Trade Authority Spacecraft 2100 to 2200 AD (note dates moved a century ahead. Where’s my flying car dammit? 2001 I mock you).

Jiendel Gavil Kunst Fau FOIL

2006-03-03T01:14:00.000-05:00

A full Photoshop paint of a combat FOIL. This guy is a heavy cavalry FOIL with dual swords and a more bulky classel coated ceramic armor (note the dark brown scratches and chips caused by the classel armor coat chipping off). Jiendel's Gavil line of FOILs have fixed heads and rely on sensors hidden all over the machine for additional optic data, that is to say vision isn't hindered by lack of mobility in the head its purely the "personality" and identity of the FOIL.

Theos Walker Tanks

2006-03-03T01:10:00.000-05:00

Although posted at the Deviant gallery time to post these here as well, later than I probably should have. A concept sheet with 2 walker tank designs. The top tank, clearly inspired by German WWII Jagdpanzer style tanks. The little wheels in the legs a bit of a flight of fancy (hell if Patlabor 2 can get away with it why not?) that seemed to make the illo work better with the speed and movement. The second tank below has some floating fire control and ranging drones floating in the air assisting it.

Terran Trade Authority is Reborn!

2006-02-27T20:39:00.000-05:00

Hello. Are you a late-twenty or thirty-something SF fan?
Do you remember these books? Terran Trade Authority Handbooks
The TTA handbooks were an ambitious project started by author Stewart Cowley in the late 1970s. He basically took a whole bunch of unrelated space art, shrewdly grouped it, and wove a future history around it. The first book was more or less a "spacecraft recognition guide", the others expanded on the future history theme.
These books, more than anything else, more than Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica (the OLD series, thank you, because I'm OLD), more than Ultraman or the Thunderbirds, influenced my early love of science fiction. I remember being six, sitting with my dad, staring pop-eyed at the wonderful art, being transported to another time and place. The best thing about these books was the mystery and wonder of them, the late 70s, non-cyberpunk world of bright colors and futures full of promise, even as they were full of strife. Cowley wrote a masterpiece.
Enter Morrigan Press, publisher of excellent RPG supplements and a new system (Omni) that's taking the RPG world by storm. Morrigan purchased the rights to the TTA universe and are re-releasing the TTA books, expanded and with new art by the fabulously talented Adrian Mann that both pays tribute to and deliciously expands the universe. They will then release a roleplaying system, based on the Omni rules, that allows you to play in the TTA universe.
Then Mike sent me a link... they were looking for writers.
I went berzerk. I wrote a ten-page sample in one night and sent it off to them. A few weeks later, I had the job.
It's still sinking in... I get to write and expand the universe that I adored as a child.
I've been given the task of doing the anthropological work- describing the Alphans and Proximans, the two alien races living around Alpha and Proxima Centauri, which Cowley never described, despite the books dealing heavily with them. I'm also doing some work on a future Earth, its government, it's corporations, and its problems. I can't get into details yet, but I will as Morrigan allows me to.
The re-issued Spacecraft (now titled Spacecraft: 2100 to 2200 AD) is due for a June release, with the RPG to follow a month later. Morrigan also wants me to write two sourcebooks, one for the Alphans, one for the Proximans. Mike and Mark Dudley are aboard for at least some of the art duties. More to come soon....
Meanwhile... WOO-HOO!

A busy little studio working away and collaborating with other talented beings

2006-02-06T08:22:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone.

I figure I should drop in a much needed update and posting regarding what we’ve been up to, one word… BUSY. We’ve been working on various things, all pretty much freelance, and it has been eating up a lot of time. I seem to have snagged Jeff a very sizable writing gig with an RPG (pen & paper) company that he’s been having a ball with as it’s sort of a blast from our past, so to speak. I won’t get into details yet other than to say it’s underway and looks to be pretty involved. He’s loving every minute of it and I imagine soon we’ll chime in with more details so stay tuned. It also seems myself and Mark Dudley will be doing art for this project as well. Currently I’m doing some freelance illustration and colors works, including a Children’s book. I’m also squeezing in work on Theos when I can and some collaborations with talented artists on Deviant art so with this posting I want to showcase some work by one of these artists, a talented conceptual artist and brilliant mecha designer, from Sweden, named Karl Östlund, those of you folks on the net might know him by the handle Genocidalpenguin (I have to say I love that). His work has appeared in various places including 4chan so some of you might have run across him, if you haven’t to check out his works just head to his gallery though the handy-dany penguin hyperlinks ;)

When I began the Vulne Pro Deviant gallery I really had no other purpose than to get the work out there in another venue and possibly make some new friends in the world of illustration. As I continued to post I saw fairly quickly that it would be a good place to test response to Theos concepts and possibly work with other artists. Thus far it’s been a fantastic place to post and gauge some feedback for the work. Mark sent me a link to a little gallery by an artist named genocidalpenguin and I was immediately floored by the creativity and unique work he was doing in mecha concepts (don’t let all this mecha talk fool you though, Karl is adept are illustrating all kinds of things believe me) it was both familiar and utterly his own look. I saw hints of Nagano, Kobayashi, etc but regardless the designs he does are all him and they rock.

I knew I wanted to collaborate on something with him and eventually I ended up contacting him, somewhat through another talented artist daemoria (I plan to feature him in a future posting as well. A link to his gallery is on the left side along with Karl's, DO check his work out). I offered to color one of Karl’s impressive mecha the Zidharta (also below) for a comic he has planed and from there we’ve been collaborating since. If schedules are good I offered to do colors for his comic once it reaches that stage.

Within the comments from The Deviant posting of the Anemos FOIL I had mentioned I eventually planned to have other artists doing FOIL and Sendai concepts for Theos Ke Polemos and Karl offered to contribute some work, I certainly couldn’t refuse so below I have also included the first FOIL design he’s created and it’s a beautiful beast. I’ve seen two more designs in progress and what is completed so far is frankly stunning to say the least so with that I say to folks frequenting Vulne Pro.com look forward to more impressive works from him and more works from us in the studio. It’s gonna be another busy year but we wouldn’t have it any other way; we have some wild stuff planned.

Also, note: for higher resolution images of the works posted in this blog just hop on Vulne Pro’s and Karl’s Deviant galleries. The images posted here are low-res and really impair the quality of what the original work looks like. Another point of note is ANYONE can post in this blog in the comments section, you don't have to be a registered blogger to do so so feel more than free.

Till next time take care folks. Cheers!

Germane Klau-Faus JF 5 FOIL

2006-02-06T08:15:00.000-05:00

Germane Klau-Faus JF 5 FOIL: This is Karl's first original FOIL concept for Theos Ke Polemos and it fits like a glove into the already established aesthetics yet still retaining his unmistakable style. The machine was unnamed (though honestly names have been changed when appropriate with some of the designs for Theos, thus tentative. Faus is a mutation for Faust, something again typical in this setting's fragmentary history) but as I continued to look over the design it's quite fitting for a machine made by the fictional political bloc Germane, a futuristic derived Germany with no real connections other than fragmentary to the original Germanic peoples. Original concept, illustration and colors Karl Östlund. The Basilea Project Theos Ke Polemos © 2006 Vulne pro.

Zidharta CG color collab

2006-02-06T08:10:00.001-05:00

Zidharta: Single seat rebel combat mecha. This is the first design of Karl's I offered to color. The machine has a Kobayashi vibe to it, a little tip of the hat to him so to speak but ultimately is still uniquely a genocidalpenguin machine. The wide stance and forward thrust of the torso is a trademark look to his machines. Illustration line work and design Karl Östlund. CG colors by me. © 2006 Karl Östlund

Dashgaw CG color collab

2006-02-06T08:10:00.000-05:00

Dashgaw: Close quarters combat machine. This thing just looks fierce and with the pronounced large claws it looks like something one wouldn't want to tangle with. Illustration line work and design Karl Östlund. CG colors by me. © 2006 Karl Östlund

Dharga-Zatwa CG color collab

2006-02-06T08:09:00.000-05:00

Dharga-Zatwa: 2 seat larger rebel combat machine. Quite a wild looking design, I'm rather fond of the mouth motif sensor array in the forward headcase, very cool stuff. Illustration line work and design Karl Östlund. CG colors by me. © 2006 Karl Östlund

Happy New Year 2006!!

2006-01-01T03:33:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and a Happy New Years to you all, may 2006 be a great year. Overall 2005 was a pretty good year as well, some hiccups aside, so we plan to work hard to make 2006 even better. It's been awfully busy for me working on freelance and also some of our own projects as well. EBEJEEBIES is not dead and will return soon we also will be doing work on many of the other projects so stay tuned. Being the blog hasn't gotten any art in a LONG time I went and posted a pile of concepts for Theos Ke Polemos, all from last year. All these designs have been posted on the Deviant gallery but never here, or the main site. Eventually they will get on Vulne Pro dot com as well. For now here's a peek at some Theos stuff, there will be a lot more to come. Onward to 2006...

Lavess Soso Gallas C-16 FOIL

2006-01-01T03:18:00.001-05:00

Concept, sans cammo. I actualy prefer this one as the cammo is all too effective at doing it's job, breaking up the fluid lines of the machine. The subtle sweeps and curves are the primary design cues to Futurism. No this isn't intended to be pure Futurism, its more derived from ideas of a fractured past in the story setting. Full Wacom paint.

Lavess Soso Gallas C-16 FOIL cammo

2006-01-01T03:15:00.000-05:00

Concept painting of a Futurist inspired combat FOIL for Theos Ke Polemos. Full digital Wacom paint.

Germane Blidhetz J3 Battle Tank

2006-01-01T03:13:00.001-05:00

Rough concept for a battle tank with old German WWII influence in the Theos Ke Polemos story setting. Full digital Wacom illustration

OSHEN Anemos FOIL

2006-01-01T03:13:00.000-05:00

Rough concept for combat FOIL in Theos Ke Polemos. This one is likely going to be one of the "star" machines, named Anemos (no not aneamo) which is Greek for winds. Full digital Wacom illustration.

Dies Isa Gust FOIL

2006-01-01T03:12:00.000-05:00

Rough concept for combat FOIL, Theos Ke Polemos. Full digital Wacom illustration.

Merry X-mas and Happy Holidays!!!

2005-12-24T23:41:00.000-05:00

Doh!

Did I just declare war on Christmas? Ahh how silly we are, we little human creatures. Seriously Merry Christmas/X-mas/Kwanza/Holidays/Hanukkah, etc, etc. We all hope your holidays are peaceful and enjoyable times.

Goings on with the studio.... busy. I have had little time to post... I have been swimming, swimming like a shark, always looking for new freelance which can be tenuous at times but has been gradually gaining steam, so very, very busy. As you have read here, sadly the EBEJEEBIES project is on hold due to a situation that cropped up, no fault of ours, we had no control over. The good thing is we own the property and it will come back again, probably next year. Also, between freelance, a lot of work has been done on Theos, new work, and much of it is ending up on the Deviant site. One final thing before I must depart, the forum, sadly, I must report is malfunctioning and frankly broken. This is why we haven't been posting on it. The damn thing won't even let me on. We're going to kill it soon and put a new one up, once we get it working (crazy PHP). I should have posted about this earlier to fill anyone in that might wish to post there, it's simply messed up in the code somewhere and dead, just plain dead. We hope to have the new one working soon so stay tuned, until then you can post on this blog even if you're not a blogger, anyone can. Once again Happy Holidays Everyone Yes it's last year's but unfortunately I've had no time to make a current one for 2005. Next year, next year).

The Care and Feeding of Your Artist

2005-12-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

This one’s an open letter to all who commission work from an artist, no matter how big or how small (the work, not the artist). It’s a bit of free consultation from someone who’s worked in the industry. It’s a wee bit of wise advice from someone who has suffered and seen friends suffer. Finally, it’s a dose of common sense. Here it is:

Let the artist stand (or fall) on his / her own creativity.

Not too hard a concept, eh? The problem is, if you wield the money, there is the overwhelming (and easy to understand) urge to become an editor, to muck around in the finger paints and put your indelible mark on it.

Don’t.

Just don’t.

Let the artist go.

This is not to say, “Do not give direction” or “Do not provide background”. The more of that there is, the better. But once the parameters have been set, just let go.

Let it go!

It’s kind of like, “If you love something, set it free…” except here it will always come back to you, and it will (90% of the time) be better for it.

Marvel and DC Comics learned this lesson the hard way. For years, they hired talented young artists and writers, and then forced them into a mold. Anyone remember “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way”? And what did they get? Work that looked uniform, exactly the same… which is fine if you’re producing plastic pails or Oreo cookies, but for comics… it got kind of bland. No one could tell any of them apart. Tell me, which Marvel and DC comics sold the best? Remember? The ones by artists whose work looked different than all the other guys’ stuff… McFarlane, Adams, etc. Which stories sold the best? The ones that broke the “Comics Code Authority” mold… Miller’s Dark Knight, Killing Joke, etc.

Which Hollywood movies are best remembered? The blockbusters where every producer has to have a cameo and his own personal script rewrite? Or the focused vision of an unfettered director? Fifty years from now, people will still be watching Blade Runner and Brazil. I doubt I can say the same for Armageddon and Lost in Space.

The key here is to research the artist you wish to hire first. Research him or her thoroughly. Decide if you like their style. Decide if the kind of work they do is what fits your vision. Provide the details of the job, and any background information. Then… let go. If there are corrections needed, consult. But don’t attempt to contort the creative process without reason. It’s like trying to bend a sheet of glass. Pretty soon, everything is in pieces… the vision, and perhaps a pair of sanities.

Granted, there are times when the parameters are pretty tight. I do some freelance writing for projects where there is not a lot of creativity involved. The trick is, I know this going in. And so should any artist for hire.

Mike (and many other freelance artists) have run into situations where the artist is invited to “do whatever” and “have free creative reign” and then… SLAM! Down comes the box. If there is not a lot of room for creativity (like if you want them to copy another’s style exactly), then this must be understood before the start. You won’t scare many artists away, and you will have the respect of those who stay. If the artist refuses a commission, then it’s for the best. Move on. Someone else will do it.

“But I deserve to control the process!” insists the employer. Well… if you don’t trust the artist’s look, sensibilities, and creativity, then why hire them in the first place? Yes, I know. You control the money. But realize this: by trying to micro-manage the artist’s output, by trying to make the image conform to YOUR vision rather than THEIRS, you are getting LESS for your money rather than MORE.

Obviously, there are parameters. If you ask for a color CG rendering of a beautiful girl and get a pencil sketch of a duck wearing bloomers, there is cause for complaint. If you ask for Kate Moss and get Chesty Love, there’s a problem. What I’m trying to say is, don’t sweat the unimportant details. General kinks and small details can be ironed out, and any reasonable artist will make corrections. Just don’t try to make the artist into something they are not.

In summary:

DO be honest about the creative parameters of the job.

DO have an understanding of what you want going in.

DO provide plenty of background details.

DO provide as much reference material as possible.

DO submit any changes as soon as possible.

DO choose the artist based upon their previous work and its suitability to your project.

DO allow the artist to express their own style.

DON’T micromanage.

DON’T think that controlling the money allows you to control the artist.

DON’T make wholesale changes after the work is nearly completed.

DON’T sweat the small stuff.

HUH?

2005-12-03T23:09:00.000-05:00

Immediately deciding to break my vow that there will be less extraneous commentary on this blog, I present... extraneous commentary. No, actually, really, it's related to Detroit, and thus to the Detroit Project. No, really.
By the way, SafeT... keep that drumroll going for a few more days there... that's a good chap.
I found out who's playing the halftime show at Superbowl XL in Detroit! It's the Rolling Stones!
The Rolling Stones?
Normally, I couldn't work up the energy to bother, since the Rolling Stones are about as vanilla and boring a rock act as the world is ever likely to see... and I have no interest in watching the Superbowl... and if I did, I would check out the goofy commercials, then the game... and it would take the threat of forcibly removing my toenails with pliers to get me to watch that steaming pile of offal known as the Superbowl Halftime Show. The only thing that might make it interesting is if Mick Jagger had a wardrobe malfunction and graced 100 million households with the sight of his pastie-covered, withered nipples. On second thought, no. Not even that.
So why, you may ask, are my shorts in a knot?
Because choosing the 'Stones is yet another slap in the face of DETROIT. Yes, that's DETROIT! You know? MOTOWN?????
Does it make any sense at all that a city with as much musical heritage as this one would have ALL OF IT ignored so they could put a bunch of shriveled Brits up there? No offense to any shriveled Brits in the audience, of course...
MOTOWN!!!!!
Instead of Mick n' Keef, how about Stevie Wonder? Diana Ross? The Temptations? What remains of the Four Tops? (I think they just call themselves "The Tops" these days)...
Okay, so Motown isn't what the execs want. How about rock? Alice Cooper? Iggy Pop? What's left of the MC5? Too old school? How about one of the millions of techno artists who started a whole genre? No? How about pop goddess Madonna? Still holding out? How about something real modern, like Kid Rock or Eminem? Actually, seeing as how this is the friggin' Superbowl halftime show and the damn thing goes on for freakin' ever, how about doing a quick complete history of Detroit music? A bit of song from all of the above? WHY NOT?????
Because they're stupid and the whole world hates Detroit. The NFL sucks. Bean counters suck. Marketing people suck.
Because, gee, if you actually honored the MUSIC OF DETROIT the one freaking time you actually hold the damn Superbowl in the CITY OF DETROIT, you might, I don't know, actually have SOMETHING WORTH WATCHING. Then I could keep my toenails and everyone would be happy.
All I can say is, they better let some Detroiter do the national anthem, or I'm getting REALLY mad!

Turkey Week Update

2005-11-25T19:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Turkey Week, everyone!
Mike has suggested that we try to keep the extraneous political commentary to a minumum on the forum, and I generally agree. The reason I delved into Detroit politics the last time (and the reason there have been so few updates) is that there really wasn't much studio news to report. That's changed a little bit.
I don't want to get into many details, but let's just say the work schedule has been shuffled a bit. Mike has some new illustration "day job" opportunities that I'm sure he will fill you in on eventually, while I continue in my standard pattern... scribing away whenever I get a chance, between classes and my own odd jobs.
Observant readers may thus come to wonder: What happened to the EBEJEEBIES animation project?
Um... it was abducted.
Seriously... I don't want to comment just yet, but something...
I'll let you know by next time.
Until then... do a drum roll, please.

Detroit to Suburbia: So There!

2005-11-23T07:51:00.000-05:00

This is a bit old news-wise, but it kind of falls into the "notes" section for the Detroit project, so I'll have a go at explaining this to our readers outside the Detroit metro area...
The mayor's job in the city of Detroit was up for grabs this election season, with the young and brash incumbent, Kwame Kilpatrick, up against the cardboard-bland but competent Freman Hendrix. Kilpatrick has had, shall we say, a bit of controversey following him during his first term. The stripper party at the mayoral mansion that never happened, the firing and hushing of police officers because it never happened, the purchasing of luxury personal items on the taxpayer's tab, going to the national mayor's conference flanked by six armed security guys while no other mayor had even one, the ongoing budget crisis which the mayor has not, shall we say, handled too well, etc... Kilpatrick's reply when asked about this stuff has been a familiar one: because he's a young (mid 30s) black man who wears an earring (a big diamond one), people will believe anything... you fill in the blanks.
Freman Hendrix, a vanilla bureacrat who served with an earlier mayor's administration, played himself up as the voice of reason. And it worked, too. He held double-digit leads all the way up until the final week, when his percentage slipped into the single digits. Still, no problem. He led by 6% going into election day.
So what happened? Kwame won by 10%. Even a controversey over some absentee ballots and screwed-up voter rolls (allowing certain deceased residents of Detroit to vote, in the ultimate show of equality in suffrage) would not make any difference to the large margin. There were no signs of fraud, either... at least, not nearly big enough to cover the margin of vistory. Obviously, something odd had happened...
It was the reason for this oddity that got me to write this entry. It seems that the mainstream Detroit media, which is mostly aimed at the suburbs, had universally endorsed Hendrix and ragged on Kilpatrick. Detroit has, shall we say, a unique relationship with its suburbs. Each one blames the other for its woes (both are wrong). Each one believes it can survive without the other (both are wrong). Detroit is the most racially stratified suburb-city combo in America, and neither side really wants to work with the other. During the administration of Coleman Young, which lasted 20 years (1974-1994), suburb-bashing was made a sport, the refrain from which he built his political agenda. The suburbs hate us. The suburbs are full of racist whites who want to see the city sink. Yeah, yeah. The sad part is, Young was at least partially right...
Now Kilpatrick has picked up the refrain. He insinuated during the campaign that it was the suburbs that were really pulling for Hendrix (even though, of course, they couldn't vote for him). The suburban-controlled media were trying to influence a Detroit election! And we Detroiters all know we can't trust the suburbs. It got pretty ugly, with a few of Kilpatrick's people even suggesting that those Detroiters who didn't vote for their man were either supporting the white elite... or just "not black enough".
It worked. The youth vote turned out in droves. They voted overwhelmingly for Kilpatrick. He's back in power until at least 2010.
And so it was... an election turned into a huge bronx cheer, aimed at the suburbs.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I am not a resident of Detroit myself. I'm not going to judge. But I wonder if the people of the city really looked at how Kilpatrick has managed their wonderful town, or if they indeed felt powerless enough that they would sacrifice the city's financial solvency simply to say "stuff it" to the suburbs. It may have felt satisfying, but with receivership looming for the city and Kilpatrick's track record of budgetary incompetence, it may prove to be a costly "nyah-nyah", indeed.

What Friends Are For...

2005-11-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

One of the best things about friends is that even if you don't agree with them, they can make you think.
I dropped by the studio today to visit Mike and we ended up getting into a debate about a comic series. I absolutely adore the series and had loaned him the reprint volumes, expecting an equally enthusiastic response and a glowing report. I was surprised that he felt it had major shortcomings. Oddly enough, what I felt was its greatest strength (the writing, most notably the pacing) was what he saw as its greatest weakness. We went back and forth, and I left, still thinking about how two fellows who see eye to eye on a lot of stuff could see the same thing so differently. Brain-gears turning, I realized that the dynamics in our conversation related back to both a former blog post AND to some problems that the world faces today.
I wrote a few months back about how writers can create any sort of universe they want to, but to sell their vision to an audience, the logic of that series has to be internally self-consistent. This was the first point where we differed: I felt that the cues in the storyline were not only perfectly adequate to explain the character's reaction, but the characters' reactions themselves were important parts of the information process. Mike disagreed, because he felt that the character reactions did not adequately inform about the universe's background. That's fine; we have differing opinions. It was the realization I had in the car that was most interesting (to me, anyway).
It's not just that the internal logic of the story must be consistent. The audience must have some sort of contextual knowledge of that logic. What do I mean by this? Let's take a controversial comedian... say, Sarah Silverman (who uses a lot of normally taboo racial nomenclature and subjects in her act). If you were given a transcript of one of her stand-up routines without any surrounding context and asked to read it, you would no doubt conclude that she is a racist. However, seeing her live, hearing her delivery, watching her body language, and understanding her intent and purpose… to make fun, in an ultra-dry, tongue-in-cheek way, of the racists themselves… you would come to a totally different conclusion. Her routine is logically consistent within the boundaries she sets, and thus her controversial material can be safely laughed at.
This was the reason (one of them) it took awhile for Japanese comics to catch on in the U.S. The cultural context was totally different, as was the subject matter (which is a different level of cultural context). Once folks here began to understand the cultural cues and embrace the wider range of subjects, it caught on like wildfire. It wasn't that the humor wasn't funny, or the action didn't make sense... the U.S. audience had to learn a new shorthand, a new series of symbols, a new "language" of visual representation in order to accurately decode the foreign art and writing styles.
It's kind of like reading Shakespeare... "Get thee to a nunnery!" sounds like an odd thing for our pal Hamlet to say to Ophelia... even comical. When you know that "nunnery" is Elizabethan slang for "whorehouse", the statement becomes a lot more forceful and insulting. Either way, we know Shakespeare was going for a poke to the audience's ribs... but knowing something of the context (folks in Elizabethan times knew full well what ol' Will was trying to say) gives us a better understanding and a new appreciation.
In our debate, it seems that I’m more familiar with the genre and setting that the author of the comic series is attempting to parody, as well as a bigger fan of the associated movies, folktales, and books. In other words, no one is right or wrong here… I just “get it” on a different level, because I happen to be a fan of the associated culture. In the same way, Mike can enjoy “Kill Bill” a lot more than me because he has a deeper understanding and appreciation of both the associated genres being paid homage to AND of the shorthand of the action / martial arts film, which I am admittedly unfamiliar with.
So, applying this to the world at large… it’s more than just getting the fellow across the negotiation table to agree with you. It’s getting them to understand the underlying logic and context of the deal… as well as making sure that both sides have an equal interest, or at least an equal stake, in the matter under discussion.

In short… one person’s garbage is another’s treasure. Now, hopefully, I’ve explained why.

Vulne Pro: Augmented now with Deviant gallery, tastes like chicken!

2005-10-31T08:08:00.000-05:00

You read that right... hi-keeba!

Anyway, joking aside I started a satellite Vulne Pro gallery (can be found on the sidebar links as well) at Deviant Art.com to bring in some extra exposure to our little haunt on the net and simply because at the moment it's faster to upload works there than to deal with the reworking of the site. There's just been so much going on this seemed like a good alternative and frankly it's one of the best art communities on the net because it deals with ALL forms of art, not just any one discipline, movement, style, technique, or genre of creative arts. I can't help but find that the best place to mingle with other artists and already in my short time there posting (pretty much older works at the moment due to having the short on the plate currently) I've already met a good deal of talented artists. So for those of you who have been following this site and blog, hoping to see new arts this gallery will be getting them first and yes I will still post works here as well.

Also I've added in our friends links Tom Dow's site. He's a professional animation layout illustrator, freelance, and overall artist with an impressive resume and boatloads of talent. Please swing by his site and check him out, you won't be sorry. I'll also be adding links to others soon. Until next time, cheers!

Taking a Stand... By Keeping Her Seat

2005-10-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know, it's been forever. We continue to work hard. But tonight, a short aside:
I just heard on the news that Rosa Parks passed away. Ms. Parks, of course, needs no introduction. As the woman on that Alabama bus half a century ago, she helped ignite a movement that changed our country for the better, for folks of all races. A long-time Detroit resident, Ms. Parks will be terribly missed... but her lesson lives on. Rich or poor, great or small, whatever color you are... standing up for what is right is something all of us must do.
Who knows... you might just change the world.
Rest in peace, Ms. Parks.

Dem aliens, dem aliens!

2005-09-21T00:55:00.000-04:00

Ola folks!

Just wanted to drop in a quick update with the goings on here at the little studio. EBEJEEBIES is pretty much the main thing on our plate, or I should say my plate as it's the artwork that is to be completed. Scene after scene, frame after frame it's moving along. Though only a short film, more a teaser or trailer it still requires a great deal of illustrations and time. I thought now would be a good time to post some peeks at the short and so below are some frame from 3 different cuts. I pretty much just had 2 blackhole days due to an evil cold I got and am just coming out of the worst of it (tip folks BUY these, they work, trust me). So now it's back to work, more aliens to be drawn, more backgrounds to be painted but hell it's plenty of fun so I'm not complaining, not at all :) We'll keep you posted. Till next time, shalom.

2005-09-20T23:39:00.000-04:00

The second frame in the first cut of the short. Here out nutty aliens saucer kicks the speed action in and breaks the sound barrier causing one of those nifty halo discharges of vapor around the saucer.

2005-09-20T23:38:00.001-04:00

Shot of the saucer blasting down from above, the halo from breaking the sound barrier fading away above.

2005-09-20T23:38:00.000-04:00

The saucer as it continues to move off camera.

2005-09-20T23:37:00.001-04:00

A random frame of 25 plus of the saucer flying over the mountains in Utah and a rabbit fleeing the scene. Yes, animation is typicaly 24 frames a second but this is going to be limited yet still get the idea of motion across. Advision will be stringing the images together in Adobe After Effects so this will be more in the vein of Flash animation.

2005-09-20T23:37:00.000-04:00

One of several frames of a rabbit hopping over the hill in fear of the saucer 'o' fools that previously flew over.

2005-09-20T23:36:00.001-04:00

And our wiley bunny hops away to freedom.

2005-09-20T23:36:00.000-04:00

This was a fun shot with all the random lightning and lighting effects. It's only going to be a short cut but it's still important to make those short images look good.

2005-09-20T23:35:00.000-04:00

Crazy 50-ish sci-fi Vander Graf Tesla lightning action.

Like Busy little bees.

2005-08-31T21:51:00.000-04:00

Yes indeedy I'm swimming in a sea of EBEJEEBIES busy, working away on a short for Advision, a short that will likely lead to bigger things once completed. It's a lot of hard work and pretty much the primary and only thing I'll be dealing with until mid-October. Work on the Basilea project, all three separate projects, hasn't utterly halted but is pretty much in the background until the EBEs is done. As Jeff explained we're working on a short Flash style (actually it will be Adobe Aftereffects) animation that will be used for larger opportunities, including television possibilities and advertising on Advision's plasma screen TV screens they run ad content on. So I'm plugging away on some 80 plus cuts of which any number might contain multiples of drawings for animated elements. It's gonna be interesting to say the least and huge if it all works out.

This eve Jeff and Bill Kuehl (a cool guy Jeff met who has done voice acting and is a fine, fine artist in his own right. He will be doing some of the voices for the short) just finished building a soundbooth for recording the voices for the short. We'll be handling as much of the Production on our own as we can, including voices, as time is short. So essentially Bill will handle several characters, Jeff might end up doing one, Gina Stevens will probably doing the voice for Amanda, and we may have another voice to be cast. That should be fun but with all of this not exactly easy. Stay tuned as we will provide info as we can. There will be images from this project when we're ready to show them.

On non EBE fronts (would have posted much sooner but it's been pretty busy of late) we have done several shoots for the Detroit project, one at John King Books on August 5th (A sample of some of the images below). It was the first shoot we did there at night and actually arranged with John King himself to have access to the building after close. The primary purpose of the shoot was ot record the atmosphere and feel the building has at night, both inside and outside. Lighting tends to be quite signifigant in how much it changes and effects the sense of atmosphere a location has, what we got was some interesting results. I very much like the atmosphere the building has in the evening, quite cool and fitting the neo noir feel of much of the work I do. For this shoot, for the first time Tim Philips came along and brought with him his new Canon 3.2 Megapixel Powershot digital camera and he took some amazing images with it. This camera took some of the best night images we have at this point, very impressive photos. Sadly his camera just died this weekend and that's a shame as he was getting very good with it. I just picked up my own Canon, a 5 megapixel powershot during a sale, I love it though I would have been just as happy with the one Tim had (The sale only worked with a certain price point the 5 pixel was just hovering at). I've barely used this camera but I expect I will be putting it through its paces eventually. Our last shoot as August 22n'd, Tim, Gina, and myself, I took my new camera along for that shoot and got some fine images with little practice... still there's a lot to learn.

Lastly I have some sites I wish to tip a nod to with some linkage action (I have added several to the sidebar). Gina just purchased a new computer, a very nice Mac powerbook, and with the new machine has been having fun being able to accomplish basic and complex computer tasks once again (Her previous laptop was suffering from a severe case of memory and power deficiency). She has put up her own online photo gallery which will have some images she selected herself to share of her participation in the Detroit project, feel free to peep it out folks. We feel her efforts to help and contribute have been utterly invaluable as her company on many shoots. Also Mark has informed me his friend Doren, who is a producer of music and hip hop, is re-running on his site Eyeonki an old project I did with Drunkenstyle, Hypertide. It's a blast from the past to see it again. Vulne Pro did conceptual designs for the webcomic that had originally run on the now defunct Fantasticon multimedia site. Speaking of Drunkenstlye, they have launched their own blog which can be found here, go check it out folks. A lot of update but it's been awhile since I could post, back to the busy bee thing for me. Cheers!

2005-08-31T21:40:00.000-04:00

Detroit skyline from the roof of John King. The amber sodium vaper glow is the primary wash of color the city basks in during the evening. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:31:00.000-04:00

John King 4th floor, book hallway at sunset. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:30:00.000-04:00

This is the most beautiful night image of The Guardian we have gotten thus far. Again the blue violet sky is rather striking. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:28:00.000-04:00

Photo of the south east section of John King, 4th floor. This is where the main character of the Detroit 2042 Basilea project lives. This will be Cricket's room. I dig the overexposure the lights have. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:24:00.000-04:00

Detroit ablaze with night lights and a beautifully blue violet sky. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:22:00.000-04:00

This is a wild shot, very neo noir. Again the only light source here is the red glow of the neon sign. The fact that Tim's camera caught this kind of low light high contrast image was pretty impressive. He's gotten fairly comfortable with using it, it's a total pisser it died on him. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:18:00.000-04:00

A shot of one of the westside windows on the 4th floor of John King bathed in the neon red glow of the books sign. It was the only light source in the building for this shot. In the background we can see the MGM Grand Casino. Photo by Tim Philips 8/5/2005

2005-08-31T21:14:00.000-04:00

A gorgeous shot of John King at night. The bluegreen lighting is quite nicely enhanced by the ability of Canon's Powershot series to get great images at night, I love these cameras. Photo by Tim Philips 8\5\2005

EBEJEEBIES Update

2005-08-20T22:29:00.000-04:00

As promised, a little EBEJEEBIES news...
We're in full swing... or rather, Mike is in full swing and I am offering moral support and voice acting talent wrangling. Mike has a little over a month to do lots and lots of drawing... go! go! go! I have to figure out how to record voices, what to do about music, etc.
The goal, in association with Advision media of Arizona, is to produce six to eight minutes of comedy gold which can be sold to a cable network. I penned the script, we bashed it around, we cut the thing into scenes... bringing us to that scary fulcrum point, where you have everything invested in a project, yet it is still at that uncertain and nebulous stage where two thoughts constantly snake their way though your mind... One: Can we really do this? Two: Is it going to be any good?
My answers- Yes, and of course it is. Doing this stuff for fifteen years, you do tend to gain some confidence. Not to mention a furious desperation to finally succeed.
Onward!
More news as it happens...

Anima-l Magic Revisited

2005-08-15T11:33:00.000-04:00

Okay, not really a new installment, but more of an addendum...
Mike pointed out that I may have sounded a bit too didactic, or stuffy, or otherwise unclear in my intentions in the last post... so I aim to clear things up.
Okay... basically, in reference to the Toren Smith / Adam Warren thing in the last post... which I will freely admit is a very old piece of beef that has been stuck in my craw for many years... there is nothing wrong with cheesecake. There is nothing wrong with women wearing sexy outfits. I realize that, yes, the convention scene has changed radically since I was a regular attendee (in the early 90s) from fat, unwashed fanboys to beautiful young women wearing fetish gear and hot anime chick costumes... and what they wear at Daytona Beach and other hot spots speaks for itself... so... yes, I DO realize that women DO wear clothes like this. I DO realize that cheesecake can be fun. My POINT was that cheesecake inserted for the sake of cheesecake- i.e., in a situationt hat makes no sense- like, say, professional women wearing bikinis to the same workplace where the men wear suits... is dumb. Wearing silver bikinis for police work is dumb, unless, like the Dirty Pair (which I won't abbreviate using its initials, which mean something very different these days) it is a work of parody. My issue with Smith and Warren was that they (or whoever responded to the letter) tried to claim that the Dirty Pair were, in some way, justified in a real-world sense in wearing what they wore. Look... Parody is parody. The universe you create only works if it obeys its own internal logic. Not necessarily the logic of the real world, but the logic as defined by the work itself. Let's take Cowboy Bebop... we can accept little spaceships being driven and used much like we use cars, as silly as that might seem, because the show established it. We know that Ein is smarter than any real dog, and we accept it, because the show established that. If, however, halfway through the show, we had a scene where Spike walks out of his spaceship's airlock and swims to the surface of Jupiter, it would be jarring... because everything before that indicates that he is a normal human who is not immune to the various rigors posed by hard vacuum.
Mike also pointed out to me that GitS Stand Alone Complex was attempting to justify Kusanagi's bizarre wordrobe choices by backfilling the story so that the social mores match her clothing. This is good, but obviously rather silly... the mores should have been established first. They weren't because the director thought it would be cool to have his main female character dress like a cheap sex doll, and the fan outcry was so bad that they had to justify it... but not bad enough to justify going back and fixing it. But let's say I can accept it... fine, no problem, the society allows women to dress like this in professional circumstances, and furthermore the women do so willingly (I wonder- if the justification is that Kusanagi is so proud of her body, seeing as how she gets shot at pretty regularly, wouldn't she want to wear some kind of practical armor over it instead of a frilly swimsuit?) , then why don't the guys do it, too? I mean, Batou has a godlike physique... why not show up in a G-string and motorcycle boots? (Urgh...) Not the kind of thing I would love looking at... but fair's fair. Do the creators of GitS think that their potential women audience members are all interested in seeing every crevice of Kusanagi? What? The creators don't care? Because... perhaps... it's still mostly a guy thing?
Enough on this. Anyone out there wish to comment?
Next time, a new subject. We get into some news about the rapidly-progressing EBEJEEBIES animated short project. Until next time...

Anima-l Magic

2005-08-05T10:44:00.000-04:00

The last installment (for now) asks the question...
Why can't fictional women (in film, in comics, in animation) wear functional clothes?
Why, why why?
Part of the reason is, of course, that horny guys dominate the industry. But the women who work in this industry also allow it...
Why, why, why?
I recall clearly, many years ago, a letter written to the makers of the American "Dirty Pair" comic. The comic was produced, if I remember, with the blessings of the Pair's creator, and was basically an expansion of their universe. It was done by the creative team of Toren Smith and Adam Warren, two nice guys that I got to know a little back in the StuRev days (tales for another time). They seemed like intelligent, balanced fellows, and I will say that I deeply admire their work... but they lost me on the occasion of that letter... the letter writer basically said that the DP's uniforms were stupid. Indeed, they are... the writer, I think, missed the point that the DP were basically a parody- a non-serious, cheesecakey bit of fun. What I didn't anticipate was that Smith and Warren would miss the point as well... the response was indignant, letting the letter writer know that the costumes weren't dumb, that women wore stuff like that in real life.
Okay, sure they do... but for police work? Going beyond the fact that the DP's shiny silver bikinis don't offer much in the way of modesty, they also offer nothing in the way of protection... or convenience (one function of clothes is to have pockets and other places to stow equipment). I am pretty confident in saying that (unless the investigation is taking place at a beach and the officer is undercover) no woman would wear a uniform like that in the line of duty.
That always stuck with me... and I have seen the same pattern repeated over and over again (a similar letter, years later, to the creators of the horrible "Shi" comic was similalry rebuffed in the pages of the Comic Journal, up until now, when the competent and otherwise well-written Major Kusanagi gets to wear a French Maid / one piece swimsuit affair instead of real clothes in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex).
Why, why, why?
I hate this sort of thing. It makes me cringe...
So I try to keep the cringe in mind when thinking about what characters will wear. Often, I err too much on the side of conservatism, as Mike (after wanting to stave my head in after yet another debate on the subject, dealing with my neuroses) will be quick to tell you.
One thing I can guarantee... if you see any French Maid outfits in the Detroit Project, I promise they will be in context. Otherwise, the women get to wear normal... and fully functional... and realistic... clothing.
Any comments?

Anima-niac

2005-07-29T23:51:00.000-04:00

Continuing where I left off...
So, what is it that's so hard about writing the opposite gender? On the surface, not much. Women are the moral and intellectual equals of men. They are also human beings, and all human beings have feelings and issues in common. So far, so good.
I guess the first stumbling block is that while I know that I don't harbor any (or many) sexist attitudes, my audience doesn't know that. At least, the audience who doesn't know me, which is pretty much all of them. So when I create a character, there's almost certainly someone out there who's going to scream "stereotype!!!" or some such... You may ask, why do I care? I'm a writer, and having the skin of a rhino is part of the job requirement. It's just something about the label... call me all sorts of names and they bounce off my invincible shield, but label me a sexist (or a racist) and it HURTS. Even if the critic is wrong-headed in doing so... This has happened a couple of times to me already. It will happen again, since women tend to be very sensitive to this sort of thing (and well they should be. It's 2005 and women still aren't officially, socially, governmentally, religiously, etc. on par with the guys... what the hell gives?!) But I digress...
The second problem is my lack of objectivity. I like women. I like women a lot. So when I write them, there is a tendency to idealize the characters too much.
The third problem is that I'm not a woman, and as such I can only make educated guesses about certain aspects of experiencing womanhood. I am similarly handicapped when writing minorities, being a white dude and all... I will say I am a little better off than most of my fellow majority, having experienced real, live racism. While in Japan, I got to be the minority! What fun, being constantly stopped by the fuzz and asked if my bike / car / computer bag was stolen, having folks gawk and stare at me, having folks cross to the other side of the street to avoid me, going to a blood drive and being told they wouldn't take my blood because I was caucasian, etc. etc. etc. What an eye-opener! A nice, solid reality brickbat to the skull. Wakey wakey! That was, quite seriously, probably the most valuable experience of my life, bar none... Talk about connecting to your fellow human in a way you never could before... now when friends tell me of similar experiences, I can do a little more than just nod in uncomfortable sympathy... I can generate a little righteous outrage of my own.
So, being in this kind of unfamiliar position, I got to learn a little bit about discrimination first hand, and learn that aspect... but as far as being able to really, really understand the biological differences... well, that's pretty much impossible, at least with current technology (I don't see a VR sim for PMS or pregnancy becoming available anytime soon- probably not high on the designer's drawing board). So... I'll never be able to fill in the gaps with 100% conviction.
Thank goodness, though, I have a lot of female friends that I can ask questions to who will not laugh at me no matter how pathetic and ignorant I may sound... so I soldier on.
More to come...

Anima Enema

2005-07-25T18:53:00.000-04:00

As the title suggests, this contains my thoughts on trying to write... women.
Hmm, women.
The old joke is,of course, that man and wo-man (or womyn or womyyn or wzbrkrgz or however you'd like to spell it) are different species, perhaps not originating from the same planet.
This, of course, is not true. I think. It is perfectly normal for me to be awakened at 3 am by my lovely wife, who is attempting to suck out my eyeballs with the suction-cup tip of her prehensile tongue while ramming her ovipositor into my belly button... er, no, that was a dream I had.
The fact is, in my writing over the years, I have noticed that a great percentage of the main characters are of the female persuasion. Why is this? Does it matter?
I've written two novels in my lifetime, the second of which may be worth a darn upon editing. In the first, a woman (actually an adolescent girl) is the main character, and in the second, two women (plus a dysfunctional man and a rabbit) are the main characters. I've written women for comics, women for scripts, and the main character in the great upcoming not-yet-titled-because-the-overarching-theme-has-yet-to-be-determined-and-it's-driving-
us-batty Detroit project is a woman, too. It seems that 70% of my main characters are women, most of whom have really f**ked-up pasts. Why is this? Does it matter?
The women I write about are usually younger than me. They are never normal people, being either deeply socially maladjusted or just plain haunted by circumstance ( then again, if they didn't have problems, would they be interesting characters?) Why is this? Does it matter?
I've always been fascinated with women... and no, not just in a physical sense. What I mean is that I like the way women approach their inner lives. I like the way they approach problems. Generally speaking, of course. Though I hate to stereotype, I do think it's true that women are less confrontational, less competetive, more cooperative, more clever in their approach to things. I've always felt I have a "feminine" way of looking at things. (Now I have to grunt and watch a football game to recover my flagging masculinity. Snort. Go Lions!)
So, maybe this is my way of getting in touch with my anima. The relationship is not always pretty, though- I am a logical creature by nature, and overreliance on emotion drives me bonkers. Still, at least I'm attempting to deal with it. Many guys I know refuse to admit such a thing exists and feel they have to do stuff (like grunt and watch football games) to recover their masculinity. Oh, wait...
More on this, along with, perhaps, some actual concrete examples, coming up...

A veritable cornucopia of images today

2005-07-22T06:50:00.000-04:00

Howdy good infobahn surfers. I'm a little later in posting than I planned but that's ok, been quite busy working on EBEJEEBIES material for something pending in the future. Well, as Jeff said I had the photos from our last shoot (didn't post any of the 35mm photos yet though, some of those soon too) and I have indeed posted quite a few below. The shoot was fun, a little different this time in choice of locations. I also fired up my old, but very nice, Sharp HI-8 Viewcam, which has a nifty 16:9 widescreen feature. I haven't used it in some time because the silly battery was pretty much dead and for outdoor shoots you pretty much need a working battery... so I finally bought a new one . It was very nice to add it to the arsenal of equipment. All this craziness for an animated show, all these photos yet no art... no wait, yes some art IS to be seen tonight. With that I wanted to post some more illustrations for the show as this isn't really supposed to be a photo blog about Detroit... not that it's been a bad thing. There are 2 in-process and unfinished and the final image art for a Vox Kali piece. There will be plenty more to come but it might be a little while as EBEJEEBIES is full speed at the moment and will eat up plenty of time.

2005-07-22T06:49:00.000-04:00

Image art shot, in-process, of the spiraling pathway that exits Joe Louis Arena's parking structure. This entire bit o architecture is a bloody retro 60 Logan's Run freakout, very cool. I also loved the orange wash of lighting the real location has. It pretty much looks just like the artwork here. This artwork is actually based on a lightboxed Mavica photo I took. Lightboxing saves time and allows accurate renditions of real world location but don't let that fool you, it's a HELL of a lot of work to draw and paint anyway, still very much a creative process. There will be a lot more graff, dirt, and posters added to this shot. The posters are fun but tedious. I have to go in, by hand, and paint in all the rips (white edges where the paper would be coming off due to the tears) on the tears and it's pretty time consuming but is indeed an enjoyable challenge.

2005-07-22T04:50:00.001-04:00

An image art piece in-process, of the Comerica Tower. Hella lot of billboards there and bloomin windows. This is the first experiment in using our photos directly to lightbox some of the more time-consuming shots of the city. It came to me that, although I can render this stuff by hand, without question, why waste time inefficiently when I can utilize our own photos and compositions to render some parts of the city quickly and accurately (all character illustrations I do by hand though. I'm only utilizing this process with architecture). With this in mind I thought I'd try doing some blow ups of some of the photos and lightboxing the images for the base illustrations. In essence I'm treating these images as filmmakers treat a matt painting in a live action film. The base elements of the image, Comerica Tower, are the real location but then I have to add everything fictional that isn't there, all the 2042 stuff. There will be 3 floating police cars in the final image as well, cell shaded. So as much as this is a time saver it's still tedious and a lot of work either way. It's an enjoyable approach though and in the end this is about selling ideas not technique or process.

2005-07-22T04:43:00.000-04:00

The final image art piece of Vox Kali standing, in defensive posture, on some fictional roof in 2042 Detroit. This piece was all about the atmosphere and evoking that sense of neo-noir neon soaked nights. I had a lot of fun with this one and it sets the look of future night images of the city. The very "directed" color of this image along with the real sodium vapor amber color of Detroit will give this project's art direction a look I just don't really see happening in anime. It's a very real and stylized look. The background here is all imagination. Vox is, of course, based on Gina and I'm happy to post the final piece. There's a posting of this art in an early stage here.

2005-07-22T04:20:00.000-04:00

Mavica shot. The Guardian soaking up the afternoon sun. No matter how many times I see it I'm impressed, quite a piece of architectural genius.

2005-07-22T04:18:00.000-04:00

Mavica shot. It was a very clear day with the sun reflecting on the building sides if you looked up at the right angle. Even with the iffy Mavica it allowed for some nice shots.