Black Belt

I got my black-belt this weekend. Got a few bruises and a fatlip in the process... But it was a pretty proud moment for me.

UFC and black belt test

Sorry for the lack of Captain Capitalism posts recently. Things have been very busy.

I found out last week that I have my first black belt test this coming Saturday, so I have had to work a lot of training into my mornings and nights this week.

Over the holiday weekend, while visiting family in Houston, Mandy and I went to the UFC event. We went with our good friends Brandon and Becky Bollom. Brandon is an amazing photographer, we used to work at the newspaper together. He is currently getting his Ph.d at UT here in Austin. Check out some of his work here.

While at the event Brandon took some photos:
I got a photo with world famous "cut man," Jacob "Stitch" Duran.
And Mandy and Becky got their photo with Jiu-Jitsu master, and after this weekend; new UFC light-heavyweight champion of the world, Matt Serra.
In other news, I finally bit the bullet and bought a Wacom Cintiq. Since I have not gotten very far on the next cartoon I am going to go back and try to make this next Captain Capitalism completely paperless.

But first I have to catch up on some other work, I am helping Steve Silver with some web work on a project of his, helping my wife with a website, working on that black-belt, and various other things.

One thing I have been exploring recently is getting a "designer vinyl" toy made of Captain Capitalism. I have been doing a turnaround of CC, on the Cintiq to get used to using it. As this progresses I will post images.

Until then...

Cintiq

Powerhouse bought a Cintiq last week. It is a thing of beauty. I borrowed it for the weekend and spent most of my time "test driving" it at home.(Here is a shot with John McLaughlin watching over my desk, as I play with Captain Capitalism on the Cintiq.)

I believe this tool will revolutionize things. I know this is not news to anyone in our industry, and I am probably behind the curve on this, but I am looking forward to catching up.

We tested the a Cintiq in 2002 or 2003. Unfortunately, at the time we were a much smaller studio and we were working on Disney's Proud Family at the time. Our contractor wanted pencil on paper drawings, not digital images...so none of us really had a chance to play with the Cintiq, and we had to ship it back before really using it too much.

Currently, several of us use 9x12" Intuos tablets both at home and at the studio. I probably have used them less than most, and get frustrated when trying to work on them paperless at home. The simple fact that the Cintiq can rotate, and you can see where your curves are going, makes a major difference.

It was a bit awkward at first, but by the end of the weekend, there were times that I forgot I was drawing on a monitor, and felt like I was at my animation table inking.

One thing I wish the folks at Flash and Wacom would get together for a pow-wow. I would love to see a plug-in Flash where the amount of pressure you used on the Cintiq corresponded to opacity when doing rough animation. I would also like some more options in Flash for drawing and line smoothing...but I understand the new version might address some of this.

I think I am going to bite the bullet and order one for home and Captain Capitalism use.

Powerhouse turns 6

Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. turned 6 years old the other day. So we went to Buca di Beppo to sit around the "pope table" and celebrate. I passed my camera around the table for some photos: One of my partners, Bruce Tinnin(L) and animator Sam Deats. My other partner, Frank Gabriel and his lovely wife, Leslie.Jennifer Anderson and Jessica Cuellar. Jennifer is, apparently, using her heat-vision.

The rest of the Powerhouse Crew.

Afterwards, some of us headed over to Dave & Busters. My wife kicked a bit butt on the trivia machine:

And Mr. Deats, hit a jack-pot, allowing us to take a Playstation 2 game as our prize.
I think a good time was had by all. Looking forward to next year.