Kung Fu Panda = Amazing.

So Kung Fu Panda blew me away. I saw an early screening of it here at the Metreon in San Francisco last Tuesday with a bunch of my animator friends and everyone enjoyed it. The story is very strong, the characters are likable, the design is beautiful, and it's the perfect blend of comedy and drama. The voice acting is great - Jack Black is terrific as Po and Dustin Hoffman pulls off Shifu with ease.

Clip:




I bought the "Art of" book a week ago and it is awesome. Highly recommended. Beautiful art from Nico Marlet, the character designer.

Illustration Friday: Baby

These were done for this room, in Whirled:



Launch the full version of Whirled
Mouse over the paintings to see them in action!

Tim Burton Playing Volleyball

Disney Producers vs Animators volleyball game, circa 1980. Notice Tim Burton's striped black and white undershirt with the "Batman" shirt over it...hilarious. John Musker is the announcer.

Drawing at the Beach

Went to the beach in Alameda a couple weeks ago and did some sketches. That monster dude was not at the beach unfortunately...but everyone else was.

Psychedelic Alice

From Buzzfeed: A strangely compelling electronica song (and video) composed of sounds from the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. Made by a 19-year-old in Australia, “Alice” kind of lulls you into a state of semi-consciousness filled with Cheshire cats and flowers wielding batons.

I love this. Download the MP3 (and 2 other Alice-related songs) here.

Belated Mother's Day

Made this card for my mom. The hen is holding a teacup cause my mom really likes tea. :D

PS, I'm done making stuff with pink backgrounds, for real.

Donald Duck - Donald's Diary

This Donald short takes place in San Francisco! And it's got great background design and color.

Illustration Friday: Wide

Ok, so this was originally done for Wrinkle, but wasn't finished in time. Luckily, elephants are wide as well as wrinkly. Photoshop and Cintiq.

Funny outfit...

Saw this girl on New Montgomery street today on my way to work and decided to sketch her. It was 97 in San Francisco today! That's a new record, up from 91 in 1970. Crazy.

Planet Heroes: Launchway Concept

Here's a painting from early on in the movie when Ace takes off from headquarters.

Planet Heroes: Playground Concept

Thought I would share some concept art images from the first Planet Heroes movie I worked on at Fisher-Price. Apparently they just finished a new one that's up on their site, haven't had a chance to check it out yet. This image is of the playground where the skateboard race takes place. The second image is a "floor plan" of the action that takes place in the scene.

Toy Story: The Musical

Enough said.

I gots me a Cintiq.

For my birthday I bought myself a Cintiq. And I did some doodles. :D

Amiga - Disney Animation Studio (1990)

Ohhhh man how I'd love to play with this. Look at that 'morgue' full of Disney reference!! I think with a little hunting I can find this software and an Amiga emulator...

Illustration Friday: Save

Went to Tilden Park in Berkeley on Easter and did this little sketch...thought it fit the topic of "Save" - Save the Earth! Such a beautiful park, so glad its there for people to enjoy.

Whirled enters public beta!

I'm happy to finally reveal the project I've been working on for the past year at Three Rings. It's called Whirled, and is a Flash-based virtual world/social networking/gaming site. You can wear all sorts of cool avatars, decorate your house, play fun games with friends, chat, and even upload your own creations. When you've created a room you're happy with, you can embed it on your blog or myspace like I've done here. You will show up as a little ghost while logged on as a guest, but if you head over to whirled.com you can sign up for a real account. If you join Whirled, feel free to add me as a friend - my Whirled name is "Billiam" and I'd be happy to see you there! (ps, whirled is free!)

Marina Sketchcrawl

This past Saturday was jam packed full of drawing. It started at 11 with a Sketchcrawl in the Marina. (I stayed mostly in and around Ghirardelli Square.) It was a blast and I ended up with some sketches I liked. After that, Brittney and I headed over to Oakland around 7 pm to do caricatures for a fundraiser for the East Bay Humane Society. It was a singles mixer for animal lovers and there were tons of dogs there, which made it extra interesting. Our little corner turned out to be pretty popular, and left us drawing for four hours straight! (Probably because they were free...) Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pics from the event. In the meantime, enjoy these sketches from the crawl:

Figure Drawing

Here's a few from last week's figure drawing session at UC Berkeley.

IF: Leap, part 2

This is a Christmas gift I made for my girlfriend, but it fit the topic of "Leap" too well not to post. She's a dancer and loves leaping...and also likes pandas. The Chinese characters you see actually say "bear" + "cat"...which is panda. Did you know Pandas weren't discovered until the 1860s?

IF: Leap

I don't think I've ever completed an IF topic in one day, on the first day. But today was Leap Day and I had to do it. This is a little less cartoony than usual for me. TabletPC and Photoshop.