Some misc. tidbits from around the web…
• Former Disney animator Tom Bancroft is following up his terrific how-to book on character design, “Creating Characters with Personality”, with a new book, “Character Mentor”, and it’s coming out very soon. You can pre-order from Amazon. Full disclosure: if you click the links and then buy, Amazon will drop a few coins into my piggy bank – no extra cost to you.
• After hearing other artists rave about them for years I finally broke down and ordered some Blackwing Sketching pencils. Big thumbs up. These little magic sticks make for some silky-smooth drawing.
• If I’m understanding Mark Waid correctly, the comic book industry is in even worse shape than I thought. Sounds like the traditional printed comic book has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.
• I’m still undecided about Pinterest. On the one hand the last thing I need is another social network to keep up with. On the other hand, it’s shaping up to be an amazing place to browse for artistic inspiration. Take this character design gallery, for example.
• Apparently converting movies with IMAX aspect ratios (like “Ghost Protocol”) onto DVD and Blu-Ray is not as simple as you would think.
• Finally, one of my past clients is Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales. (I’ve had the honor of doing some work for him on a DVD series he’s producing called “What’s In The Bible?”). Recently he posted a teaser his latest project on YouTube. Gonna be keeping my eye on this one:
[youtube_sc url=ObUcwdctVIo width=430]