New Post!!!!! Whaaaat!!!

I really have no excuse for not posting more often...and for those you who are still out there who check in from time to time - THANK YOU and I appreciate it!

I promise to do better.

This is a  book cover I recently did for my friend and rising star in the literary art world Norlita Brown. This is either the third or fourth time for me working with her and I'm pretty proud and happy with this latest piece I did for her series. It was a nice change of pace to do some digital painting for a change, since most of what I do these days have been involving motion graphics and 3D. I did this in Painter and Photoshop, I kind of like working between the two because both programs have good things I like about 'em so I try to utilize both of their strengths through my workflow.

Hope you like...

Hey guys-
It's been awhile...but I just wanted to share this model that I recently built based off of Illustrator Guy Allen's 'Resurget Ceneribus' knight character from our Skidmore Studio poster from last June.

This was also for me a 'refresher' in the digital sculpting program Zbrush.  It's currently been upgraded with a whole lotta new cool features....so it's my goal this year to master this program...no excuses!

Character concepts

I got inspired.  Rediscovering Photoshop CS6 as a digital painting tool.

Stills from Alltel Endtag

This is about all I can show for this project...once the commercial airs I'll show the whole piece :-)

Doodle Home Art for motion graphic video

It's been quite awhile since my last post (again)...but I thought that this project I've been working on for Doodle Home warrants some attention and focus.  I'm pretty proud and happy of how this project turned out (I'll show the video in another post in the upcoming days) because it was a real collaborative effort within the studio.  Sometimes when you work on projects it's always good to get a fresh eye from  others to give you feedback.

Concert Trailer

Fresh Music Festival concert trailer from Skidmore Studio on Vimeo.


Hey all-
Here's a concert trailer I worked on for the Fresh Music Festival tour.  This is a tour that has some of the best known acts from the early to late '90's. Everyone still looks pretty damn good!

But never mind the fact that Guy is still minus one Teddy Riley...come on man.

I got to work in Adobe Premiere CS6 more exclusively with this project instead of Final Cut Pro (my usual) and I have to say I'm loving Premiere waaayyy more!  A lot of nice workflows between my other Adobe software (After Effects, Photoshop) definitely makes a huge difference. I was able to cut through a large amount of footage from these shows with no problem.

Doug E. Fresh Concert Video

This is just one of six full CG concert video intros that I made for one of the true pioneers of Hip Hop...Doug E. Fresh.  Much thanks to Ozone for really making this come to life.

Sound design by Ozone Music & Sound

Warrior Home Ice

So here's the final for the Warrior piece I've been working on. This has been one of those projects where it kept evolving into something a little better, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. It's not perfect by any means but a definite accomplishment for what I envisioned.

Hope you like it!

Color grading treatments for Warrior logo intro

Yup, having fun.

Some color grading/Test renders...

So I'm just trying different looks with this thing, playing with depth of field, lens flares and stuff like that. This actually should be figured out beforehand, but sometimes it's just fun to freestyle your ideas...

Test renders of CG hockey rink

Here's some renders from a video I'm working on for Warrior sports. Creating a believable ice rink is proving to be a little more challenging than I thought.

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Hey!

It's been a loooonnng time since I posted anything new and I really appreciate you guys for continuing to check back to my 'lil ole blog here!

A lot has been going on work-wise and I've been continuing to learn and master as much as this 3d stuff as I can...but opportunities have been steadily coming and all the hard work I've been doing seems to be finally paying off.

This is a recent project I did for Alltel, which is just a 5-6 second end tag for one of their promotions. I'm especially happy also that this will be for broadcast and will add to some of the other projects I've done for tv as well. BROADCAST is what it's about baby.

peace.

Screenshots of Weingartz Commercial

I've just completed working on this commercial for Weingartz, a lawn equipment distributer, and I am EXCITED to say that this will be aired during the upcoming Monday night game between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago bears!

I have to say that many people contributed to this spot and without the feedback and collaborations I've had from them this spot wouldn't have come out the way it did!

Stay tuned for video...coming soon!!

Illustration of stage set

Hey all!

here's another quick comp I did for another stage play...and once again I wasn't given the name of the play, I just know that the story revolves around some characters who win the lotto and go thru some changes after that.

CG Renders of Piano Concept

Here's another CG piano I was asked to do. I may do some animation to this as well, I think it turned out pretty well considering I built the whole thing in like 4 and a half hours.

Painted Backdrop

So here's some artwork I just finished that's going to be printed on a backdrop for a stage production. I really can'ttell you more of what it's about because I just don't know...but what I do know is that the final size will be about 32' by 15'.

Painter was the program I did this in.

"The Big Comeback"

I can't remember when was the last time I was asked to do a 'finished illustration'!

I guess the past few years I've had so much of my mind wrapped around CGI and motion graphics I actually reveled at the change of pace to do this piece.

Our studio is moving back to Detroit this fall into the old Madison building in downtown Detroit and my boss asked me to do an illustration that would show this to help get some more buzz going around this. Funny thing about it though is that a lot of our clients are unaware that Skidmore Studio was actually established and started in Detroit back in 1959. Since that time the company has moved to a few different places... we're currently in Royal Oak.

Obviously I'm beyond excited about this move! Especially, since I won't be no more than 5 minutes away when the studio moves down here (did I forget to mention I live in downtown Detroit?).

The city has had many negative things thrown at it in recent years, but to me this is my home and it's mine. I see the good, as well as the bad and have had my own personal drama with the city. But this is where I was born, this is where I was raised and this is where I currently live...and what I have seen recently with my own eyes encourages me that this town is SLOWLY coming back.

I have to give a lot of props and respect to Tim Smith (my boss) for setting this move in motion and having the same believe and vision that I have for this city.

Now playing....'The Big Comeback"

CG concept of piano

Hey Guys-
Been quite awhile since my last post but here are some renders I did a few weeks ago.
Based off a roughly drawn sketch by the client ( who actually is going to build this) I used Maya
for the pre-vis of what this piano would look like. It's being done for a 'hella' vocalist and pianist by the name of Marsha Ambrosius, who used to be one half of the group 'Floetry'. The client thought it would be cool to have the shape of the piano in the shape of an 'M' (for Marsha).

Does The Sun Miss The Flower...? on the Behance Network

Does The Sun Miss The Flower...? on the Behance Network

Exmark Mower Video

Exmark Mower Video from Andre Foster on Vimeo.

Motion graphic for Exmark mowers depicting the 'frenzy' of people mowing lawns all over the region. The first, second, and last shot are all CG which I was responsible for. I was also responsible for the news graphics and final compositing.

Sound design and VO was provided by Ozone Music and Sound.

Concept/Art direction by Shawn McConnell.

Copy by Sara Frey.