100,000

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Two months ago an animated piece I did for Living Waters went live on YouTube. As I write this it has had 99,990 views, just ten short of the 100k mark. YouTube does not update their view counts in real time so its very possible that by now the actual number has already passed that landmark. I’ll know for sure when YouTube posts the updated view count in a couple of hours. [EDIT: Yup, we are now over 100,000 views.]

The animation is about five minutes followed by a one-minute promo that was tacked on by the client. An alternate version of the animation was also posted on YouTube, identical except with a shorter promo. That version has received considerably less views (18,312 at last count) but if you put the two together we passed the 100,000 mark a few days back.

I am totally blown away by these numbers and by the overall positive feedback I’ve received. This project was personal for me and I poured a lot of myself into it. I also hired two excellent animators to help me out (Michael Foster from SaltyGraphics and Chance Dodd from Little Wolf Pictures) and they also worked extremely hard. It’s very rewarding to see that it has gone this far and I’m grateful to everyone who has taken the time out of their busy lives to watch my little cartoon.

If you like the message and want to share it with friends, or if you or your church want to embed it in a website, please feel free to do so.

Animation for “What’s In The Bible?”

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Recently Phil Vischer, the guy who created VeggieTales, partnered with Focus on the Family to launch a new DVD series called What’s In The Bible? In it he uses a combination of live action, puppetry, and animation mixed with some humorous-but-reverent writing to educate both kids and adults about the content of the entire Bible, book by book and story by story. It’s an ambitious project but one with a lot of potential. Volumes 1-3 are currently available on DVD. Volume 4 is on its way with several more volumes yet to come.

I was hired to animate three segments for Volume 2 (“Let My People Go!”). The client has graciously given me permission to post one of those clips on my website and blog. It’s a short bit designed to explain one of those big church-y sounding words, “Redemption”. They provided me with some scratch audio and a rough stick-figure animatic. I animated over the top of that using Flash, and then the What’s In The Bible? editorial team laid in the final audio.

Unfortunately I’m not able to embed this particular clip directly into my blog. The closest thing I could rig up is this: if you click on the image below a Quicktime version of the animation should (hopefully) play in a new window. Or, you can go to the “Animation” page of my website to view this as well as other samples of my animation work.

You can order DVDs of What’s In The Bible? or purchase selected clips for download here. Or just check your local Christian bookstore.

DC Comics Documentary Coming To DVD Nov. 9

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On November 9 Warner Brothers will release Secret Origin, a DVD documentary about the history of DC Comics, the comic book publishing giant that introduced the world to Superman, Batman, The Flash, Aquaman, and countless other costumed heroes.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with Superman and comic books played a huge role in my early development as an artist. I wouldn’t just read them, I would study them and try to copy the drawings. For some reason I always gravitated towards DC Comics as opposed to Marvel so I’m excited about this documentary. Here’s the official trailer:

I gotta say I’m a little disappointed in the trailer, though. It feels very fluffy and without much substance. I hope that’s not indicative of the film. I’d really like to learn the gritty behind-the-scenes details about the various challenges, struggles, bright ideas, and difficult decisions that the DC Comics editors and creators have grappled with over the years. I’m not an expert on DC Comics but I know that as the comics biz has evolved over the decades DC has faced their fair share of creative challenges and controversies. Walking us through them would be both entertaining and instructive.

Of course you can cut a trailer a thousand different ways to give almost any impression you desire (YouTube mashup trailers, like the one that presents “The Shining” as a romantic comedy, are great examples of this). So here’s hoping the DVD has some real meat and isn’t just a giant smiling commercial from the Warner Brothers PR department (Warner Bros. owns DC Comics).

You can pre-order Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics from Amazon.com.

New Animation: “Are You A Good Person?”

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I’m proud to announce the completion of a new animated short film that I produced and co-animated for the ministry of Living Waters. They are perhaps best known as the producers of The Way of the Master, a Christian reality series hosted by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron:

The cartoon is loosely based on a Gospel tract I illustrated for Living Waters back in 2006, and both are adapted from Ray Comfort’s best-selling book Hell’s Best Kept Secret. I was also inspired by many of the UPA and Disney educational cartoons from the 1950’s. The goal was to communicate a very serious and important message in a fun and entertaining way yet without watering down the content. It was a tough line to walk but I think we pulled it off.

I wrote, designed, produced, and edited the cartoon. The character of Mr. Nice Guy was animated by two very talented and hard-working animators: Michael Foster from Salty Graphics and Chance Dodd via Little Wolf Pictures. They also animated a couple of misc. shots. The rest of the artwork and animation was done by me. Mr. Nice Guy was voiced by Kirk Cameron and the Narrator was voiced by radio pastor David Jeremiah.

This was a giant project that took many months to complete. We ran into a few hurdles and setbacks along the way but the team at Living Waters couldn’t have been more gracious and helpful. They were absolutely a dream client to work with!

Of all the hundreds of projects I’ve worked on to date, this one was the most personal for me and also one of which I am most proud. But then, I’m so closely attached to it that its very hard for me to look at it objectively anymore. Besides, it doesn’t really matter what i think, it’s what the viewer thinks that’s important. So I value your input. I’d be very grateful if you could watch the cartoon (it takes 5 minutes plus a one minute promo at the end). Then, if you are so inclined please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Why I Haven’t Bought An iPad…Yet.

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I’m a big fan of Apple products and, like many digital artists, I see a lot of potential in the iPad. It’s sleek, fun, stylish, practical, and best of all you can draw and paint with it. Quite a few digital artists have already posted work online that was created with the iPad and some of it is amazing. So what’s not to love?

Unfortunately, there are a few things:

Low Image Resolution. The iPad’s screen makes images look amazing but the resolution is currently capped at 768×1024. For me as an illustrator that’s a concern. To create a quality image for print you need at least 300dpi. That means that on an iPad you won’t be able to create a truly professional print-ready image that is much bigger than a baseball card.

Sure, you can create some terrific low-res sketches and then bump them up on your desktop computer. But for me as a professional illustrator it means the iPad can really only be a fancy sketchbook, not a true art-making machine. I certainly wouldn’t be able to create much client work with it.

Lack of Pressure Sensitivity. When you draw on a Wacom tablet or a Cintiq the pen responds to the pressure of your hand. Push down hard and you get a thicker, darker line. Sketch lightly and your lines will stay thin and light. It makes for a very natural way of drawing but unfortunately the iPad currently lacks this feature. When you draw a line on the iPad it stays the same thickness no matter how hard you press. For some artists that might be fine but for my particular drawing style that would be frustrating and problematic.

Lack of a Good Stylus. The beauty of the iPhone and iPad is that all the power is concentrated in the tip of your finger. For most apps that’s terrific but when it comes to sketching I find it awkward. I’ve done some finger sketching on my iPhone and my hand always feels clumsy. Also, my finger tip is too blunt making it hard to be very precise when putting down a line.

There are a couple of companies that make styluses for the iPad but so far the ones I’ve seen are too wide and blunt. It’s like drawing with lipstick. I want something that tapers to a point so I can see exactly where I’m putting down my line.

Also, when I draw I tend to rest my hand on the page. I imagine that the side of my palm pressing all over the screen like that would wreck havoc on an iPad. I suppose I could wear a fingerless glove but that feels to me like more trouble than its worth.

The folks at Ten One Design have written some impressive-looking software to get around some of these issues. Unfortunately the software uses something called private frameworks which is against Apple’s policy. That means you won’t be seeing this in the App store any time soon:

It’s a 1st Gen Apple Product. There’s no question that Apple makes amazing products. When they’ve introduced new products in the past (iPod, iPhone, etc.) the 2nd generation model has usually been vastly superior to the original version. To a point that just makes sense. Technology is always advancing and improvements are to be expected. But with Apple I always have the nagging feeling that they are purposefully “dumbing down” their 1st gen models so that when the 2nd generation model is released it will look so much more amazing that all the early adopters will immediately want to replace their now-clunky hardware. More money in Apple’s pocket.

Of course if the product is amazing enough then even the 1st gen version is worth the cost. I bought a 1st gen iPhone only a week after they went on sale and it was worth every penny. But for me the current iPad isn’t quite in the same league. In this economy I’m choosing to hold onto my cash a little longer until I can get a better value with the next version of iPad. I’m also hoping the next model will address at least some of the issues I’ve raised here. If it doesn’t, I may wait even longer.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not knocking the iPad. Far from it! In a lot of ways its an amazing device and I’d certainly love to have one. But for me the current model isn’t quite awesome enough to justify the cost, especially when I’m sure the next model will be that much better. For now my iPhone does the job just fine.

What Do You Think? Since I don’t own an iPad (though I do own an iPhone) much of what I’ve written in this post is gleaned from other articles I’ve read online. If you have a different opinion, or if I’m flat out wrong on anything, please leave a comment and let me know. Likewise, if you’ve had success drawing on the iPad and want to extol its virtues by all means go right ahead. I’d welcome your input.

Website Updates + New “Comp Art” Portfolio

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Last night I made several updates to my website, www.cedricstudio.com.  My website is over five years old now (which equals about fifty internet years) and badly needs a face lift to optimize it for the web 2.0 world. Until I can tackle that mammoth project I’m continuing to turn the crank on this trusty-rusty version.

The latest changes include:

  • Added a new section called “Comp Art” to showcase advertising marker comps I’ve done recently for end clients such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Chef Boyardee.
  • Added 1 new sample to my “Illustration” page (bottom row center).
  • Added 1 new sample to my “Toy Design” page (bottom row, left corner).
  • Added 3 new samples to my “Courtroom Sketching” page (top row) from a court hearing I recently drew for ABC News out of New York.
  • The Facebook link on my Contact page now connects to my business Fan Page instead of my personal Facebook page. From now on I’ll be posting all of my freelancing update on the Fan Page and using the personal page mainly for the non-work related areas of my life. You are welcome to follow me on both, or if you’d rather unfriend me on my personal page and just follow the fan page that’s fine too.

Stay tuned for more updates, including newly updated PDF portfolios to download, updates to my mobile site, and more.