Posing

Okay, this one is tagged with "tutorials", but it's really more of an art resource.

And what a resource it is! Zillions of *rotatable* human figures for you to draw from, showing musculature and everything! Truly a fabulous site, and well worth bookmarking.

Pose Maniacs

(Oh, and if you didn't guess from the great name, it's Japanese. Go poke around, you'll find the fun.)

YouTube Safari

It's a YouTube wanderin' day.

First, I thought about sharing this Spanish Le Tigre video with you, which amused me because the singer is hot and the dancing is hilarious.

Then somehow I got distracted when I discovered this old video of magician Fred Kaps. I have a Kaps Wallet (which is a great piece of magic apparatus) but had never seen him perform.

Then I thought about telling you about this wacky Bill Plympton animation. Very cool stuff. But I lost interest after a while.

But on the Plympton page, one of the "related" videos offered up was a Brazilian guide to anal sex. Oh, this is definitely the YouTube video to share with my readers, says I. BUT NO! One of the related videos on that page was a REMIX of the Brazil video, set to music. Yes, this is what I offer to you today. When I get home, I'm mp3-in' this baby and slappin' it on the iPod.

CageMatch 4-26-07

Another Thursday, another CageMatch...or was it? This was not just an average everyday show. Both teams put on great performances, and I could've seen the voting going either way. MGP ended up winning. I was amazed at how entertaining Caligula was. I had never seen a monoscene before, and thought I'd be bored, but all three of them gelled together and put on a cohesive performance that rode the rollercoaster from pathos to hilarious comedy. Remi in particular hit some bits that had the audience (and me) laughing and applauding. You know it's brilliant when you hear applause.

Anyway, enough about the lowly performers! On to me, Me, ME! The intro video turned out pretty well. People seemed to like it. The pacing was good, and I was particularly pleased with the angle, which was that Caligula was comprised of members from some of the most powerful teams in the history of CageMatch, now united together as a triple threat. The only part I wasn't pleased with was the framing of the individual turnaround shots of the Caligula members. I really wanted to matte out the brick wall, but difference mattes don't work the way I hoped they would. Also, the shots were too far away--the figures really should've filled the screen, and I didn't realize that until I was half-done with the editing, and I ran out of time to fix it.

I was quite proud of the Caligula identity screen. There are a bunch of tutorials on how to make photos of people into stone, but none of them worked well for these shots, so I did some experimentation and came up with my own method, an amalgam of the tutorials I found with a few special Ted tricks for good measure. I thought the Remi bust turned out particularly well; very haughty.

I also premiered a new CageMatch intro video to go along with the theme that I love so much. I had made an attempt to put together an intro video for DSIF this year, but it was crap and never saw the light of day again. The new video was made with PulpMotion, which I hesitate to mention publically, because it's my new secret weapon that makes me look like a video genius. Now the secret is out. I used it to make animated scrapbooks for Eitan's barmitzvah and the Bubi play, and used it here for the 3D museum effect. I love having the "Hall Of Champions" introduce the show, because it pays homage to the great teams we've had on the show, elevates the history of the CageMatch program, and shows off my identity screens. I'm not going to put the intro up on YouTube, because I don't want people to get tired of it; I want to keep it special for the show itself, so if you want to see it, come to the show!

The new intro video ends with the new CageMatch logo! It's animated, with barbed wire and chainlink fencing zooming by in the background with perspective-slanted text in the background. You got a peek at a draft version on Wednesday; the final version just has a thicker black glow around it to make the text stand out a bit better. I forgot to make a jpeg of it for this report, but should have it up on my Flickr page by tomorrow. Anyway, the animated fencing was purchased off the wonderful stock art site iStockPhoto, and was exactly what I needed to inspire me to create a new CageMatch logo.

After the show, a bunch of us got together and hung out at Milltown, where we made lots of noise, had good conversations, Shane lowered himself in most people's eyes by stating he loved "National Treasure", Joe Jones freaked out over a dead squirrel, and Edwardo beat Jennings in "Don't Break The Ice", two falls to one.

Another Thursday, another CageMatch.

ISIDTA 23 : CageMatch

Okay, it was an odd week for ISIDTA. I didn't hear from Kit, so I wasn't really inspired to draw a comic. Instead, I got all fired up over creating a new logo for my CageMatch show. I bought the rights to a stock photo image, and manipulated some text to make the logo. The final product will premiere tomorrow night at 8:00 pm at the DSI Comedy Theater as part of a new "opening theme" video right after this week's promo video. Come on by and see my handiwork.

Kit's much-more-legitimate ISIDTA entry is here.

Colouring Shazam

Steve Hamaker demonstrates how he colours Captain Marvel. Now I really want a Cintiq.

Yet Another SNL OC Parody

Memes and video? I'm game, even though I've never seen the show in question. This is all inspired by Faber Fabe's post here, so start there if you don't get it. Then Jason did this amazing one, and Lauren did a cute one. Jennings pissed on the parade, but what the hey, Nick and Jason both urged me to do one, so I trudge ever forward. And I did three.

1. Cockaroach
2. Mickey
3. Hunting

Suicide Food

This is the latest blog I've added to my RSS feed through Google Reader. I think this is fabulous.

I've got a great picture I took in college of an Ekleberry's Chicken delivery truck, which has a chicken in a chef's hat with a cleaver in one hand and under his other wing, a book entitled "Chicken Cookbook". Hilarious.

ISIDTA 22 : Tod of War

ISIDTA 22 : Tod of War
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Kit and I decided to do one-panels referencing our favourite videogame of the moment. He did an amazing job, particularly with the logo to Guitar Hero II. I tried to do a preppy Kratos from God of War. My drawing ability is still that of a child.

My picture is here.
Kit's is here.

Soundtrack Meme

As inspired by BeaucoupKevin.com, a blog I read regularly.

You know the deal, standard "hit random play on iTunes and see what songs come up." This one is the soundtrack for your life, and being both a fan of soundtracks and the possessor of an 18,000+ item iTunes library, I thought it might be fun. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Opening Credits:
"Maid Of Constant Sorrow" by Margaret Lyle Gravitt. A slow dirge-like fiddle version of "Man Of Constant Sorrow". Well that's a depressing start.

Waking Up:
"Father's Got His Glasses On" by Cab Calloway. Well, I do have to put my glasses on before leaving the house.

First Day At School:
"Don't Go" by Bypass Unit. Probably good advice. School was traumatic.

Falling In Love:
"Creature Feature" by Stone 588. A song from a horror movie soundtrack. Very slow and mournful. Probably fairly accurate, considering my love history. The funny thing is, I picked the picture for this post by just looking up "soundtrack" on Google; I thought it might be too morose, but it seems to be quite an appropriate picture so far.

Fight Song:
"Cry Cry Cry" by The Staggers (cover of a Johnny Cash song.) I've never gotten into a fight, but I probably would cry if I ever did.

Breaking Up:
"I Can Dream, Can't I?" by The Andrews Sisters. I still have wistful nightmares about my breakup with my One True Love. Miss you still, Leesa.

Prom:
"Just Cut That Out!" a soundclip from Are You Being Served?, spoken by Miss Brahms. I did cut prom out; never went. (Big surprise, huh?)

Life:
"The Show Must Go On" by Luther Wright and the Wrongs (cover of the Pink Floyd song from The Wall.) Unfortunately, so true.

Mental Breakdown:
"I'm Gonna Follow You" by Pat Benatar. Hilarious.

Driving:
"Theme to American Bandstand" Whaaa?

Flashback:
"Uncle Disney" by Patterson Hood. Weird. I was never a big Disney fan, so I don't really have much to flash back to, just the old Robin Hood movie starring a fox and Phil Harris.

Getting Back Together:
"New York, New York" by Francis Albert Sinatra. Does this mean I should move?

Wedding:
"Theme to Electrawoman and Dynagirl". I'd marry Dynagirl. And I have as much of a chance marrying a fictional character as I do a real live breathing human being.

Birth of Child:
"I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue" episode from 28-11-05. Yeah, I have no clue why this meme thinks I'll ever have a child.

Final Battle:
"With A Little Help From My Friends" by The Beatles. God knows I won't ever make it on my own.

Death Scene:
"I'll Tell Me Ma" by The Chieftains with Brak. I hope I don't die before my mother. (See "Life" above.)

Funeral Song:
"Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" Hilarious.

End Credits:
"Fire And Rain" by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes (cover of James Taylor). Oh god, probably the most accurate song choice in this whole experiment. A fast-and-heavy punk version of a classic folksy song by a Chapel Hill hippie. Absolutely perfect. I am dichotomy.

That's the end of the meme, but just for good measure, the next song that came up was "Dr. No's Fantasy" from the Dr. No soundtrack. There's something appropriate in that for something.

Night, kids.

CageMatch 4-12-07

What a week! Very busy making videos, very little sleep. I had a play to do on Wednesday that took a lot more work than I had bargained for, and then CageMatch last night. The play went pretty well, with a few technical glitches since we never had a tech rehearsal. I made eight videos for that little production. Yow.

Then last night we had CageMatch. This was Scott's last show, so he had an idea of how he wanted to go out. It was up to me to make it happen. Go check out the video here, and then we'll discuss.

So obviously, Scott's idea was to kill Biff off the same way Poochie was killed off in The Simpsons. I couldn't find the English language version to study, only this one. Anyway, Scott and I went back to Biff's home away from home, University Massage, and did the pretape. Later on, we got Bill Henderson as CageMatch President Jack Tunney to dub in the voiceover for the freezeframe. I tried to make the video itself a shot-for-shot remake of the original Poochie video, and it was a bear. I drew the tv frame in Illustrator, built the animation pegholes from a screengrab of the original, and carefully formed the word "Biff" from existing letters in the handwritten message at the end (which is a screengrab of the actual message used in Poochie.)

I then produced a tribute video for the fallen Biff Hobgood, which you can view here. The best part about this was that I found a song on iTunes called "It Was Close" (Biff's catchphrase is "it wasn't close!") I bought the song, but then found out they only say "it was close" once in the song, so I had to remix it to get two instances for Biff to respond to. I used a lot of footage we had shot for the Biff entrance video, but never used. I really liked the slow transitions between the stills from the Biff Hobgood entrance video, which everybody was familiar with but which had a much different feel with the slow fades here. I was particularly happy with the look of the slow-motion "shocker" at the end. I was worried that it might be too poignant though, so I threw in the "shut up" to end the whole thing.

Now it's all over and I'm ready to sleep.

Oh, and the screens for this show can be found, as always, here.

ISIDTA 21 - Alphabet

ISIDTA 21 - Alphabet
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday; it's been quite a busy week. One video project is over, and I'm trying to sneak in time at work today to finish the second video project (which has THREE videos) to get ready for tonight's show. Cross your fingers.

Anyway, here we have this week's art experiment. It's based on something I found on Flickr, but don't have the time to find the link to right now; a guy drew an entire alphabet in an hour, one image for each letter. So Kit and I tried that this week, although we went over the hour. I really tried to rush through this thing, so my stuff sucks as usual. And I was really tired and strung out, so somehow I drew two "Y"s and no "X". Ah well. See if you can identify all the items.

My thing here.
Kit's stuff here.

Wrestling Art!

How cool is this? I had read about this guy Len that was drawing custom monsters, and went and checked out his website. He takes a one-word request, and draws a monster inspired by that. He then mails you the art AND puts up a video on YouTube showing your drawing being made! I'm always wanting wrestling art, so I bought a monster and gave the suggestion "luchador". Click here to see a time-lapse video of my requested drawing being made. The final image can be seen here. I also really like this one. I love Len's style, and it's fun and inspirational to see the drawing actually being created. And what a good idea to make a little cash! Anyway, I was ecstatic with the way my drawing turned out, and am looking forward to receiving it soon.

BTW, my ISIDTA entry will be up later tonight. Kit and I drew stuff last night, but I won't have time to scan it until after I finish at the theater tonight.

Nazibot

This is a pretty amazing little thirteen-minute cgi film from Marco Spitoni at Cee-Gee Net. The plot is described thusly: "An epic battle as WWII Nazi Germany unleashes a 100 foot tall robot on the US." Sweet. The attention to details is fabulous, the rendering is supreme, and the storyline is thrilling and entertaining.

It's a 161MB download, but well, well worth it. This sort of thing could be the future of entertainment; I'd rather pay for a dvd of something like this, with notes and storyboards and tales of how it was made, than go to a brick-and-mortar theater to see the crap Hollywood has been throwing out week after week. And an independent producer/director, with the publicity of the internet, could make a much better margin of profit than the bloated movie machine of Hollywood.

A mirrored link is here.

Kid Koala

I've liked Kid Koala for years, ever since I was introduced to the great animated video for his version of "Basin Street Blues", but I had never seen video of him actually creating his music. Now, thanks to WFMU, I have. This is just amazing. So fluid, so smooth, so confident in his moves. There's a lot more KK stuff on YouTube, including what appears to be a multi-part expansion of the WFMU video that starts here..

I've tried my hand at turntablism back in college. I'd include an mp3 example here, but it's far too embarrassing to see the light of day. Let's just say that this art, like most things, is even more impressive when you try your own hand at it and discover how truly accomplished and talented one must be to create works like this.

Chibi Wrestlers

Here is an amusing little Portuguese site featuring chibi versions of WWE wrestlers.

I'll Take A Slice Of That

This is a darn good idea. I might have to do this (although, analysis of how my life has been spent might be suicidally depressing.)

It's from Flip Flop Flyin', a great blog by Craig Robinson, who is also the creator of Minipops, another dang cool idea. I keep meaning to get around to drawing my own little pixelly celebrity portraits. I did that at one time with the old OMEGA wrestlers (well, New Frontier at that time), but really want to do some things like the cast of QI or Never Mind The Buzzcocks, or maybe DSI folks or something.

Oh, and just as a sidenote, the Wikipedia entry on OMEGA contains many little errors. For instance, Jeff had nothing to do with starting or running OMEGA (other than being the #2 star); that was all MAtt. I don't *think* Thomas came in until after we were already running as OMEGA, but I'm not sure about that. In any case, there are errors there, and I should really butt in there and correct them.

Things That I Watch That You Don't, Part 2

I like a lot of lighthearted film from the Thirties and Forties. In general, I don't know a lot about movies. Also in general, I don't watch movies unless they have lasers or superheroes in them, but I make an exception for classics from the Golden Age of Cinema.

It was through the film Stormy Weather that I discovered the amazingness of Harold and Fayard, The Nicholas Brothers. They're everything I wish I was: handsome, talented, physically fit, and entertaining. In this clip from Stormy Weather, you can see what Fred Astaire called "the greatest tap scene ever filmed." I've seen it a dozen times, but keep noticing something new to be entertained by. The most spectacular part is the bit on the stairs (just like...wow.) but upon watching the clip on YouTube, I noticed for the first time they dance amongst the orchestra, they're actually throwing their legs over the musicians.

Plus, you get my favourite big band guy, Cab Calloway, starting the whole thing off.