Late Night Study

Good times with the buds!! We finally got Google Meet Up working...time to say goodbye to Skype.

-Craig

Oil Color Study

Finally managed to dust off the oil paints. So fun to paint with this stuff. -Craig

Painting Study

Study for an oil painting.

-Craig

Big Rock, Small Waves

About time for a new post. -Craig

Color Study

After work training...saw Laurel Austin give a talk at work yesterday and made me feel incredibly lazy...gotta get unlazy :) -Craig

Oceanside Harbor

Well, I have learned my lesson about trying to get solid blacks for any length of time with the Prismacolor markers. Copics are the best bet but pricey for a larger sketch. Not my most elegant attempt with this stuff. Salvaged this drawing with a Sharpie and a brush armed with some Dr. Martins Pro White. I think harbors are my new favorite place to draw. Having a blast drawing the boats and what not. Big thanks to my buddies Corey and Big T. for coming out to draw as well. More soon! -Craig

New Sketchbook

I have started a second sketchbook. Up til recently I haven't been confident enough to keep one for tonal studies and environments. Now that I am more comfortable with this stuff I am running this sketchbook alongside one that is all line. Both have their challenges and I am trying to keep things more organized these days. Hopefully will have more soon. -Craig

Dana Point

Dana Point is a pretty darned fun place to draw. Will have to head back there again. -Craig

Torrey Pines

Some of my favorite weekends are spent painting with my wife hanging out reading a book. Big thanks to her for weathering the weather on many of these days, she is a trooper and an amazing wife!! -Craig

Warriors

From the Gallery Girls event after Comic Con. Glad my buddy talked me into going. -Craig

Cowabunga

Late night painting after work...good times!! -Craig

Moonlight Beach

-Craig

Helix Gesture

More class notes...happy happy...joy joy!! -Craig

Envelope

I am teaching a class and want to share the notes here, so people taking the class can access them if they miss a night. And anyone else who would like them, enjoy!! -Craig

Nomad Mom

About time for a new post. Back to the Nomad project...about dang time. These are some Mom heads for the Nomad Kid. They are skewing a bit young...but I am happy with the shapes. -Craig

Gene Wells

My best friends dad's funeral is today. I wish I could be there to support their family. He was an amazing guy and so full of life. God just had a place for him above ready and I can only imagine this is the scene. You will be forever loved and remembered!! Eugene Wells (1947 - 2012)

-Craig

Maya Pencil Test

 

Well, I haven't been posting because I have been animating again. In the midst of preparing for a new job I found myself looking all over for Jason Schleifer's grease pencil tool for maya. Alas I couldn't find a working copy and ended up coding my own mess of a pencil test tool for maya. I share it freely with anyone who finds this blog. Just let yer pals know where ya got it from if you like it and find it helpful.

 

Download Pencil Test Tool

 

Tips to get you going:

-Load the script into script editor in Maya and then run it

 

-Don't draw anything till you hit Activate on there.

 

-You can have up to 9 layers, if you want them.

 

-You can draw anywhere on the timeline and then move to the right frame before you set your drawing.

 

-When you hit Assign Frame it will lock that drawing to that frame.

 

-Hold button will set the current frame invisible wherever you want it. That is the only key you will have to manipulate on your own. You can get too many of them rolling around the timeline for a certain frame.

 

-If you hit hold and there is another Keyframe up the timeline from your current keyframe...it will hold to the later frame.

 

-The frame list that pops up you may want to hit the button when you want to know where frames are.

 

-It's pretty good about updating but not perfect, so hit the button to refresh the list. It will list the frames for whatever layer you are on.

 

-Ghosting just shows you all of your drawings at once or whatever range you want if you want to draw between a couple.

 

-The draw tool is set for meters but there is a scrub bar for the size at the bottom of that main window so you can make it larger or smaller.

 

-There is a weird thing that maya highlights any curves when it initializes paint effects, so your animation controllers will get big the first time you hit activate but when you start drawing they go back to normal

 

Enjoy,
-Craig

Zhanna

Sometimes I like to have a small closed drawing session with some friends. Thanks for coming out guys and thank you Zhanna for modeling and bringing half her closet with her. Had a lot of fun trying some new stuff. -Craig

Still Around

Been some busy days here. Just wanted to post something fun and let people know I am still alive and kickin'. -Craig

Distant Waves

Figuring out how to handle the environments. -Craig

Nomads

So these guys bodies vary a bit. Trying to find a sweet spot with the design. As of now the last four on this page are starting to get where I wanted to go. Enjoy! -Craig

Nomad Heads

Some Nomad head designs for a personal project. Give a shout and lemme know which ones you like most. -Craig

Clint

Tryin to keep it under an hour. Drawing went to the birds but I'm happy with the values. Another check off for the mileage. Best, -Craig

Skull Mask

Finally getting around to really designing out this fella and setting some rules for the world. This is my first serious pass at the skull mask designs. Aloha, -Craig