What You Might Wanna Know About Me

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All artwork and animation in this blog unless otherwise stated is Copyright © 2015 Eric R. Watson 'AKA' Cyber Six (Cyber Six is not intended to be a play on words. It is in fact a comic book and animation. You may read about them if you'd like by following this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Six) All Rights Reserved. All artwork and content on this blog are property of the artist unless otherwise indicated. Do not use, reproduce, post, copy, or distribute any image or media without permission. I'm an artist and flash animator. Recently, I've begun learning Maya 8.5. Okay, my avatar is not a picture of me. In fact, it is a picture of a famous Japanese singer who sang in an all girl pop group named SPEED during the mid to late 90s. Her name is Hiroko Shimabukuro. Hiro for short. Unfortunately, they disbanded several years ago. I recently found out they are back together and singing as SPEED. Freelance Union Article: 5 Tips for Preventing Procrastination. "Prolific people don’t wait to be moved, they begin the work, and the work moves them to create more." ~ Jonathon Kastner

My Archival Space.. No, It's NOT The Final Frontier

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Jet Grind Radio Logo



Recently, I've been using Adobe Illustrator to create some vector art. And, I've been a very big fan of Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future for some years now. In my humble opinion, JGR was the best game created for the Sega Dreamcast. It took me several months to beat the game. Then I met a five year old who told me he beat it over night. I felt kinda embarrassed to say the least. That was when I went to play the JSRF demo. Unfortunately, I've only played a demo of JSRF and not the actual game but, from what I've seen of a walkthrough on YouTube I'm impressed. That's because I don't own an Xbox system. I'm a Nintendo fan because of the home-brew painting app for the Nintendo DS Lite and it's successor that was totally overhauled to run on the Nintendo 3DS gaming system. I told a close friend of mine I would start painting about one hundred and twenty paintings on my DS in a month's time. That didn't happen but, I've started the ball rolling in that I've started using it to create some art with it again. Hopefully, I'll get an Xbox during Black Friday or for Christmas. I just finished this little hommage to Jet Grind Radio using Adobe Illustrator to trace it and Adobe Photoshop to decrease the resolution to 72ppi. Later, I may create some desktop backgrounds for my desktop and post low rez versions of them here. Looking and listening to those walkthroughs have brought back a lot of really great memories. : )

[DISCLAIMER: I've not listened to all the commentary of the videos I've embedded in this post. So, be advised there could be some bad language in them. I apologize in advance. I do not own any rights to Jet Grind Radio, Jet Set Radio Future or any of graphical designs created by their respective creators. Smilebit created both games for Sega. I'm not sure who owns these two intellectual properties now.]

Long Play Walk-throughs of Jet Grind Radio.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jet+grind+radio+walkthrough&lclk=long&filters=long





Long Play Walk-throughs of Jet Set Raio Future
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jet+set+radiofuture+walkthrough&lclk=long&filters=long


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwrXOTj8Tpw

Monday, September 22, 2014

I Plan to Post Something Tomorrow

I meant to post something before now but, I've been busy with work and other things. So, I plan to post something tomorrow. Last week, I painted digitally using my Nintendo 3DS during the life drawing session. Those paintings didn't come out so well. I may post them on my tumblr account but, not on the Colorlive website. I may take my digital video camera with me tomorrow to shoot some video outside and animate over it using Adobe Flash. Just a thought.

I posed a question to the group I draw with. (Pun intended.) My query was, "Would they like to make a book of our art and sell it online somewhere?" So far, I'm the only one enthusiastic about it. No one other than me thinks it would make money. This is a group of really great and talented artists I draw with. So, why wouldn't it sell? I think it will if we market it right.

Anywho, I've got to get something to eat and sketch. Ttyl. : )
 
http://colorslive.com/

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Two of My Biggest Inspirations... Movies and Comics




When I was very young I remember going to the movies with my older brother and sister. We went to see a movie called Jaws. From the opening sequence to the point at which I fell asleep I was riveted to my seat with my eyes glued to the screen. As young as I was then I didn't really understand anything but, how terrifying the shark was in this movie. After the film my siblings woke me up and I couldn't get that scary shark out of my imagination. A child my age then should never have been allowed to see this movie. That was in 1975. Two years later, I saw what would be the best movie of my young life. The movie was Star Wars. And, it changed everything about how I see the world. My imagination was at once ablaze with sci-fi stories. During this time I voraciously read Marvel and DC comics daily. A few years later my best friend let me read his modest collection of Heavy Metal the Adult Fantasy Magazine and Epic Illustrated. I was introduced to a host of European comics artists and American underground comix artists who I've admired for years. Cool movies and cooler comics have inspired me to be a filmmaker. My chosen field of endeavor is animation.

A couple of months ago my manger called me to come into his office before going home. I thought I was in trouble so, instead of doing so I started a conversation with one of my regular customers and forgot all about my managers request. The next time he and I worked together he gave me a black package. The contents of which are a plague and a booklet detailing what I could order for free for my dedication of service for five years at this company. I wanted one thing above all the other cool stuff that was offered. And, that one thing is a digital video camera.


I've always wanted to create something with video and now is my chance to do so. Of course, this hardware is not top of the line stuff neither is the video editing software that comes with it. You can't beat free! Later, I may get a better camera but, for now this is it. I am planning a trip to the zoo and the botanical gardens. I may upload the video online. I'm not sure if I will or not. Enough of the tangent, back to the gist!

I've been thinking about creating a stop motion short film but, didn't have a camera. Now I do. So, I'll try my hand at it.  Unfortunately, it was not designed for creating frame by frame animation. Where there's a will, there's a way.

OKAY! 
THE PLAN!

  • Write a cool script.
  • Storyboard sequences.
  • Shoot video. Lots of video.
  • Edit said video.
  • Post cool short film online for the world to see!
  • Rinse and repeat.
Although on a more serious note, I do plan to shoot some 720p HD video with this little inexpensive video camera. Yeah, I know. That's as high as the resolution gets. Not the best but, it's still pretty good.