9 -Final Posters-

Movie posters of "9", main one sheet and individual character posters which will be seen at theaters and bus-stops.
BTW, it is funny to realize that there are 3 films named in very similar convention such as "9", "NINE" and "DISTRICT 9", they are all scheduled to be released this year(and all of them seem to be interesting). So please do not get confused when you order tickets on line, look for these images of ragdolls if you are thinking of Shane Acker's unique yet visionary animated film.

The Runner -Exploit yourself-

by Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects(BLR_VFX).
Great design and execution. Thanks to Felix for sharing these clips.

The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

MakingOf -Exploit Yourself- from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

Animerican Show Opening

Held at Royal T on July 2.
Thank you very much for those who gave me kind words about the piece that night.





This is a frame for the piece this time(took an hour to decide at Allan Jeffries Framing, pulling my hairs out). Very happy with the effect it does to the painting. Emphasizing the fantasy, yet a bit barbaric and sasquatchy, doesn't it? Big thank you to Sean at the frame store.

Gentle Sasquatch and Little Fireball

Finished the painting and now it is under custom framing process.
Watercolor painting on paper, approximately 12 x 31 inches(going to be about 17 x 36 inches with frame).
Hopefully I can pick it up and deliver to the gallery sometime tomorrow...

New painting...

I have been working on a new painting for an upcoming little show.
Schedule is kinda tight and I am behind as always...

These are some sketches showing how the idea was developed for the painting. I have been thinking of a story of a gentle Sasquatch(Bigfoot) and a little fire girl, this piece is going to be about them.
Size will be roughly as tall as Totoro painting I did last summer(if I can finish this, though).

Sprite Animation has got a new company site!

Sprite Animation is a little yet extremely creative CG production composed by some of elite ex-Square USA("Final Fantasy","Animatrix") talents in Culver City. Their unique esthetic has been always inspiring me and I was lucky enough to be able to work with them for a couple of years. They now have a little test clip to the public for the first time from their feature film project "GON"! Check it out!



I worked on it as a character design supervisor in 2006.
We tried to establish this pop, almost vinyl toy-like shading with African art-inspired shape to speak an unique language of simplicity of the stylization. It was challenging and insecurely fumbling process to question ourselves whether this was going to work or not until we saw this first rendering test. I also had a great opportunity working closely with Bill Perkins through this(he was the art director for the environment), had learned a lot from him.





These were some of concept designs for characters shown on the clip from the project back then(and they were some of my favorites).
Images and the clip above: Copyright Sprite Animation Studios.

New Trailer for "9"

New trailer for up-coming "9" is out(which was exposed at many theaters in front of "Terminator Salvation" last weekend)!!

It was one of the most exciting project I had a chance to work on as a concept designer. During preproduction I witnessed that everyone regardless their positions was really into the project as if we're almost magnetized with that "green soul energy"(or maybe our souls had been taken away, replaced into these ragdolls already). I have to say it doesn't seem to happen too often. I truly admire and am grateful for the experience working for Shane Acker, the original creator and the director of "9".

More and more Baton Designs

Along the story, androids are able to detach and "swap" their tongues which are sort of like their external hard drive with OS(so that they can scan and even replay memories of others through the mouths, wild, isn't it?).
The chopped off head with weird "tongue" was one of early sketches to explore the idea.

More Baton designs

Yokohama under attack

Giant Spider-like Robots are crawling down streets at the port of Yokohama!




It's actually French performance art group "La Machine" introducing their street theater to Japan for the first time. This is one of the main event for The grand exposition of 150th anniversary of Yokohama(at where the first episode of "Baton" is currently shown as well).
Looks pretty hard core.

Ultraman Soda

Nice.
(Link to the web here)

BATON Design 2

Early concept designs of A.I. Robots for the show. Story-wise these guys are to be technically more evolved than the humanoid robot below on the previous post(which supposed to be more old-school from the past century).

BATON Design 1

Here is a bit of sneak peak of some concept design work I did for this upcoming Anime film, the first episode is to be released today(April 28th in Japan) at the special event theater in Yokohama.

BATON (soon to be released in Japan)

"Baton" is an animated Sci-Fi fantasy film mostly created in rotoscope animation in hybrid of traditional 2D animation and 3D effects as well. Check out the trailer here!
The film is going to be released for the limited time from April 28th to September 27th, 2009 in Yokohama, Japan, to be part of a special event for the 150th anniversary of Yokohama port openning.
I had an opportunity to do a little contribution as a concept designer to it before Gatchaman.

The film is produced by Shunji Iwai, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura in collaboration with Wild Boar Media, Inc. and Studio Titmouse.

Where the Wild Things Are

I was one of many who got speechless in awe last week when saw the trailer. Thought it was at Universal with Lucas Digital for a while to be an CG animated feature(and never really happened), but now comes in live-action(!), will be brought by acclaimed director Spike Jonze on Oct 16... Looks FANTASTIC.
Wow, we do have quite a few strong, visionary films this year...

My boots died of old age at 11

Went to Big Bear, things seemed to be dandy until the moment taking off the boots at a parking lot.




Wow, I had no clue, not even a single crack at all when I put my feet in the morning and now I stepped through the bottom. Soles just gave up on me, completely fallen to pieces.
They were Northwave 'Hurley' boots, bought in San Francisco at Holiday season of 1997(if I remember correctly, Jamie Baker was giving me a tour of the town on that particular day). They were my 2nd boots, shredded so many slopes with them (or fell down like an idiot uncountable number of times with them also) in different countries since then.
I guess nothing lasts, but they had been awesome boots!




02/21/09

I replaced with Burton 'Jeremy Jones' boots. They are pretty neat(and I am shocked how much improvement occurred in last 10 years on snowboard boots, man!).