tod or robot . com

December 18, 2011

30 Characters Challenge Accepted. Part 1: 1-11

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Tod @ 9:28 am

I took the 30 Characters in 30 days challenge presented by these guys and drew a new character from scratch every day in November. I usually start these things and trail off by the end but this time I got through the whole thing. Here are my characters in order:

1. El Bib – Red Ballpoint

30 characters #1: El Bib #30characters

Bible backwards, El Bib’s name was already scrawled in my sketchbook. He seems like a good supporting character in a Western RPG.

2. Dr. Sword – Mechanical Pencil

#30characters #2 Dr. Sword

Jonah came up with Dr. Sword when we were playing with his toy stethoscope and a paper towel tube. Dr. Sword can wield his blade with surgical precision. Damn, you can tell I haven’t been drawing much lately in this one.

3. Warrior of the Purple Sands - Illustrator

Jonah, Warrior of the Purple Sands

The warrior of the purple sands was inspired by this photo of Jonah at the Michigan Ren Fest. I liked the way the sifter looked like some weird yellow weapon and how his squire cut bangs reminded me of He-Man.

4. Mr. MunchSharpie and grey marker

Mr. Munch #30characters #4

I stand and stare out our kitchen window that overlooks our apartment complex’s parking lot, often with a bag of snacks in my hands. This is what I picture the neighbor kids calling me if they saw me there too often.

5. King Chicken of Book Mountain - Pencil

#30characters #5 King Chicken of Book Mountain

Inspired by the wire chicken whatever it is that sits on a pile of books near our couch. Jonah and I pretended this chicken was an evil King that required his Duplo people to perform degrading tasks. Seems like good storybook fodder to me.

6. Sparklebeard the Pirate - Illustrator

#30characters #6 Sparklebeard the pirate

Sparklebeard’s fuzzy beard is coated in gold dust, causing it to glitter in the sun.

7. Nobot – Sharpie and grey marker

Nobot, the robot whose only function is to destroy itself. #30characters #7

The other day I envisioned robots that were designed only to destroy themselves upon being turned on. This is the first design. I’d like to do a whole series of these and maybe build a couple of them. Any robot builders out there interested?

8. Hippy Hat Harold – Sharpie

I left my sketchbook out and Jonah graced it with a neat scribble. I turned it into Harold, a slumpy hippy fucker with a sweet hat.

9. Maniac Mike and his Magic Meat Skateboard – Sharpie and hi-liter

Maniac Mike and his magic meat skateboard #30characters #9

This one got a lot of attention when I posted it to Facebook. I’m not sure why Mike is a maniac or where he got his magic meat skateboard, but I’d play his video game.

10 & 11 Long John Creme-filled and Cranky Crueler – ballpoint pen

Long John Creme-filled & Cranky Crueller #30characters #10 #11

More pirate characters. These Donut N’er-do-wells plunder the sweet seas for SPRINKLES! Guess who went to QD for donuts this morning :)

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

December 16, 2011

Friday Five: 12/16/11

Filed under: animation,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , — Tod @ 11:06 am

The least efficient census taking robot

Happy Computer from Yo Gabba Gabba. This mobile counting robot loves to take inventory of neighborhood populations… too bad he has to count through the whole quantity every time he adds another person. four thousand two hundred and eighty six! four thousand two hundred and eighty seven!

Louis CK Outtake

Funny bit about evolution, ide ages and animal rape. you know… standard Louis CK stuff.

Trampoline in a wind storm

This may be the perfect internet video. 1) It’s short. 2) There’s a person yelling trampoline in a Scottish accent. 3) A trampoline gets blown down the street by the wind.

Pokemon if it was on Adult Swim

This is pretty funny, but goes on for a little too long. sNSFW for language.

Timescapes 4K

TimeScapes 4K from Tom Lowe on Vimeo.

Some dramatic and beautiful time lapse shots of the night sky in the deep dark desert, plus some random concert footage.

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

December 3, 2011

45s haul #2

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Tod @ 9:33 am

Yesterday Corey and I went on a date day into Lansing. We did a hard dig through one of our favorite thrift stores and then got burritos at El Oasis (the closest thing you can get to a San Diego burrito up here and better than any of that crap they used to try to pass off in Richmond).

El Oasis for lunch. Yum!

Then we drove to campus to go to Flat Black and Circular, a fantastic little record store with fantastic selection.

FBC

The first thing I saw when I walked in was a box that said: $2 box of 45s. I held one up. “Two dollars a piece?”

Nope. Two dollars for the box. I bought it sight unseen. Here are some highlights from the pick:

$2 box of 45s. Score!

Chicago – Wishing You Were Her
The Troggs – Love is All Around
James Taylor – Fire and Rain
CSNY – Our House
Carpenters – Superstar (covered by Sonic Youth)
Molly Bee – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
The Partridge Family – I Think I Love You
Bread – Everything I Own
The Monkees – I’m A Believer backed with Steppin’ Stone
John Denver – Sunshine on My Shoulder
She’s a Lady – Tom Jones
And a bunch more that I know the band but not the song… and then a shit ton or ones I’ve never heard of that I’m eager to check out. I’ll report on any gems!

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

December 2, 2011

Friday Five: 12/2/11

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — Tod @ 10:48 am

Redneck Pride

A collection of redneck ingenuity and jackassery. I must be missing Virginia slightly to think that some of these look like pretty good ideas.

Time Displacement

This is one of the first internet videos that I found back when I was thinking about collecting videos for a blog. I love the creepy soundtrack and how weird and liquid the lady’s body looks.

60 second thought experiments

Revolutionary thought experiments presented in 60 seconds. Informative!

Dr. Tongues Evil House of Pancakes

This is how i still feel about ALL 3-D technology. Instead of looking for the best shot for a scene in a movie, now it’s all about the best shots to make crappy shit fly at the audience. Bleh.

Beautiful animation in bike spokes

Animation in bike frames. Pretty cool!

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 30, 2011

Work in progress Wednesday: Asimov Eyebrows

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tod @ 7:23 pm

Asimov eyebrows in progress

I aspire to have wild old man eyebrows. Unfortunately I pull at them and twist them until  the most magnificent strands get pulled out. :(

In other news, I’ve been putting the sound effects onto the holiday e-card I’m working on and found a great site for free wav files. Check them out over at freesound.org. Where do you get your sound files?

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 29, 2011

First real snow of the winter

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tod @ 6:39 pm

It rained all day long today and turned to slush when we were on our way to pick Jonah up from preschool.

 

 

Once we were home the weather  turned to real deal snow. In an hour it had accumulated about an inch. This amount of snow would have shut Richmond down for a week. Here it’s been surprising that it’s taken this long to stick. Not looking forward to exhuming the car tomorrow.

The amount of snow we got in an hour would have shut Richmond down for a week!

The first real snow!

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 26, 2011

45 haul for $5

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tod @ 6:37 pm

I got a giant stack of 45s at the World Mission Thrift store on Cedar Ave. Jonah has been listening to records in his room on his little plastic turntable and even though I don’t recognize a lot of these records there were some definite winners including Celebration by Kool in the Gang which was a record I remember having when I was a kid. Other choice picks include:

Phat 45 haul for $5

The Star Spangled Banner
Chariots of Fire
The Streak by Ray Stevens
Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton
(another copy of) Greatest American Hero Theme
Forever in Blue Jeans by Neil Diamond
(You’re) Having My Baby by Paul Anka
Music from “The Sting”
Ramblin’ Man by Hank Williams Jr.
Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton
and Elvira by The Oak Ridge Boys.

I also got Gene Autry’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on LP! Whoot!

The rest seem to be old country albums that I don’t recognize or some artists that I recognize, but don’t know the song.  Still there’s lots to go through and plenty to entertain Jonah with. Yeah!

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 23, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday: Amazon haul

Amazon haul

I was getting jealous of Corey’s big birthday haul from Amazon and then stumbled across an Amazon gift card sitting in my inbox that I’d never cashed in from last year.  I did a little shopping myself:

Bottom to Top:
Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection, Vol. 4
This is the finale to the series that I never got to read because I was too broke to keep collecting comics. It was one of the only comics I consistently missed and I’ve been re-reading the single issues to prepare for what I hope will be a satisfying payoff

Challenges for Game Designers
If I had seen this book in the store I might not have picked it up. It’s very dry looking and textbooky, but I’m excited because it’s NON-computer based game theory design and I’m super excited about trying out the assignments at the end of each chapter. I’m going to treat reading this like a class and highlight notes and complete assignments and shit.

Outwitting Squirrels: 101 Cunning Stratagems to Reduce Dramatically the Egregious Misappropriation of Seed from Your Birdfeeder by Squirrels
This had been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for a while after I heard about it on Boingboing. I got it for a penny plus shipping.

How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method
I popped this open at a Books-A-Million a few years back and got totally sucked in and almost read the whole thing in a sitting. I’m also going to try to the actual exercise and write a script in 21 days. I’ve got a comics project in mind that could totally translate to this.

Everything’s Eventual : 14 Dark Tales
Corey bought me the hard back of this for some gift giving holiday and it got lost in one of the moves. I remember really liking the stories in this one and find a lot of inspiration in King’s short stories. I also liked his most recent collection: Just After Sunset

The Lost Symbol
Here’s another book I got for a penny. I’m a sucker for Dan Brown’s formula. It’s cheesy and shitty and repetitive but I love the history and puzzle elements.  Even if it’s all fake crap, it’s fiction woven into canon and I love that.

Super Paper Mario (Nintendo Selects)
I rewarded myself for landing a big client by picking up a new game for the Wii. I know it seems silly to get excited about a game from 2007 when shit like Skyrim is currently blowing everyone’s minds, but I liked the other games in the Paper Mario series and thought I’d give it a shot. The combat system seems a lot different from the other ones, but switching the view from 2D to 3D looks pretty cool. Corey’s been playing it more than me because I’ve got a big project that needs working on!

I’ve got my work cut out for me.

Also FYI, if you follow those links through Amazon, I get a penny or something.

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 20, 2011

Jonah plays along to Jingle Bells

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Tod @ 1:35 pm

Jonah is getting to the point where he can put records onto his record player all by himself. He’s been playing Jingle Bells a lot recently and has discovered that we’ll let him play his drums a lot more often if he uses chopsticks instead of real drum sticks (much quieter!). I think he’s doing a pretty good job staying on the beat.

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare

November 4, 2011

Friday Five: 11/4/11

Shithead!

The best video on the internet right now. I have no idea if this is new or old, but I can’t stop watching it. I’m Shithead and I MMMMMHHHHRRRRGGGGG!

Murmuration

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

GIANT FLOCK OF BIRDS!!! So creepy and beautiful and cool.

Stopover

Stopover from LeMob on Vimeo.

Nice painterly 3-D animation. Cute story and character design too. A short film directed and animated by Neil Stubbings. Sound design by Gregor Rosenberger.

Time-lapse Dam Removal

It’s neat to see the riverbed empty on the other side.

Conan O’Brien 1 year in 4 minutes

What a fantastic and brilliantly edited montage. Team Coco forever.

FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDeliciousDiggShare
« Newer PostsOlder Posts »

Powered by WordPress