Are You Mad at Me?

2011-12-01T06:55:00.001-08:00

December Mood

2011-11-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

New, refreshed reel on its way.

2011-11-27T09:09:00.000-08:00

Styleframe for an animation I have since revisited. You can find the early storyboards in this blog. I have definitely increased my skills enough to where I can complete this story idea.

2011-11-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

I hope you accept my apologies with this 5 minute ape sketch

2011-11-17T03:38:00.001-08:00

Forgive me for a lack of posts lately, I am finishing up my internship, and undergoing a search for employment, and I'm pretty busy with this task. Expect a new reel and a rebrand of myself on my portfolio site www.sibbsabb.com shortly.
And as always, I'm up for collaboration with other artists at anytime. Drop me a line at seth.r.benson@gmail.com if you are interested.
Thanks!

2011-11-09T05:47:00.001-08:00

Today's painting - from a series of boards for a re-imagined idea I had for a pitch.

2011-09-09T09:33:00.001-07:00

Drawing for a friend

2011-09-07T09:04:00.001-07:00

WIP

2011-08-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

WIP
Focused more on the facial features here. I would like a better pose. The Katana is an afterthought.

2011-07-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Color grading exercise making it look all dreamy

2011-07-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Another watercolor-inspired painting in photoshop with custom shapes. My July mood.

2011-07-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

I am experimenting with custom shapes in Photoshop for painting quicker composition thumbnails, especially in landscapes.

Pushing the landscape further:

2011-07-25T02:06:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile. Greetings from Copenhagen.

2011-04-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Coming next week
WIP - character designs and silhouettes

2011-04-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, this blog needs a refresh. I am looking to combine my motion, illustration, and sketches all into one beautiful place, making my tumblr a reference, one-off sketches, and inspiration blog. Thoughts?

2011-02-27T10:04:00.000-08:00

It is official. I am in love with VRay. This is a shitty dress designed using this application (which is so good, give it a try, and read about the technology used) http://www.continuumfashion.com/Ddress/

2011-02-11T16:05:00.001-08:00

2011-02-05T14:18:00.000-08:00

Storyboards from the first concept - Climbing a Giant - for this module's project. I used these images to help tell the story and pitch the idea to my team members. Ultimately, the story proved to be too abstract, but I will explore it further, hopefully as a collaboration.

Note: The CU shot of the hand is drawn from a Hans Bacher reference.

2011-02-04T10:53:00.001-08:00

2011-01-31T12:26:00.001-08:00

Character drawing session

2011-01-25T07:36:00.001-08:00

New Module = character animation

While looking through styles, I am falling in love with illustration all over again, and I need to practice everyday, not just once every other day. Ah I could really love making a living making concept illustrations and character designs too.

2011-01-18T12:10:00.001-08:00

Test for the Title Screen to my upcoming Reel.

2011-01-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

Playing around in Maxwell Render

2011-01-16T11:36:00.001-08:00

5 weeks of Character studies

Week 1 - Start

2010-12-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have had the idea to design a lighting system inspired by Arachnocampa, or larval glow worms, usually found in caves. They sit atop a strand of silk, cascading down from the cave wall, or ceiling, and drops of mucus are secreted down this strand of silk, forming capsules. The worm's glowing abdomen sends light to these globules of mucus, lighting the cave and attracting insects designed so they become stuck within the mucus. Meal time.

With new 3D modeling skills, I aim to visualise an interior lit by a chandelier design of mine. The design is not final yet, but I will share with you some initial sketches. I struggled most with an efficient way of creating the model, including cloned lights within a glass sphere that align themselves a dynamic spline (the strand of silk). For these images, I ended up creating each spline and cloner object for the glass spheres and their lights, manually.

Below are sample renders within a test environment. Next up is the chandelier in a house interior, with more development on the design.

2010-12-28T05:10:00.001-08:00

New videos are being built along a production line and delivered to you in real time.

This is all student work.

2010-12-21T13:36:00.000-08:00

Coming soon: Final student work animations from my Motion Graphics Branding Module at Hyper Island. Client was MTV, our show was New Video Charts. My role was concept developer and concept artist, along with animator and 3D modeler in Maya and Zbrush (first time).

2010-12-17T09:30:00.001-08:00

Optimized!

2010-12-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

Delicious Ice Cream. Delicious greyscale.

2010-12-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

'Final Model' not optimized. I will probably need to UV Map the textures on the wood opposed to using the geometry for fantastic render times. Needed still: 'Video' and 'Charts' in 2.5 D or an alpha brush.

2010-12-11T04:10:00.000-08:00

Modeling Logo - In progress Maya+Zbrush
Also I have no idea what I'm doing

2010-12-11T02:43:00.000-08:00

Timber explosion
modeling for upcoming MTV project - Branding Module

2010-12-08T19:30:00.001-08:00

2010-12-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Cinema 4D modeling and materials test for television-wonder-machine - MTV Branding Module

2010-12-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have no idea if this will end up in my next group project or it will be far simpler than this, but here is a start. We are creating a complex machine that creates music videos as it happens within a television. Imagine a 3D zoetrope and these things poop out maquettes of characters for each pose for each frame of video. They spin by, are projected, then are discarded.

To imagine, design, and choreograph all of these moving parts is a little daunting but I love it.

2010-11-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

Character painting for current module. Presentation on Thursday. Final art for show then!

2010-11-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

Day 7 from seth benson on Vimeo.

2010-10-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

Screen capture from 5 second project for greyscalegorilla.com. Primitive objects is the theme and the only rule - use only primitive objects. I chose to focus on a shit-ton of pyramids, and one in particular who won't conform.

2010-09-25T17:52:00.001-07:00

2010-09-25T17:18:00.000-07:00

Pixel art.

2010-09-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Compilation of a short jumping sequence drawn in Illustrator.
Below is the animation, and is going to be used as an intro for a longer animation where the dots merge into Renourish's Logo

http://vimeo.com/15111320

2010-09-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

Some poses to keep y'all updated

2010-09-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Here is an animation that introduces my group's presentation on trends in manufacturing and motion design. This was the hook that compares the villains below (V for Vendetta was controversial for good reason). The mask enhances the fear factor. Removing the mask, helps to remove that fear enhancement. We made the connection that transparency can reduce the gap between customer and company interaction.

Motion Graphic Trends Intro from seth benson on Vimeo.

Development sketches

2010-08-29T06:29:00.001-07:00

Creating backgrounds for animations

2010-08-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

More work on its way. Consider this downtime to be an intermission where you can get some snacks.

2010-06-07T03:10:00.000-07:00

Hair
To come, a finished product and glorious experiments with texture as hair.

2010-05-02T19:02:00.001-07:00

Oldest work - these prints are my very first

2010-05-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

Older work

2010-05-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

hand-drawn while working a plastic surgery convention

2010-04-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

I am reading about computer-aided design. These drawings I am creating via photoshop and tablet are simulations. I will scan some drawings on paper shortly.

2010-04-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

64/100

2010-04-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

58/100

W/E

2010-03-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

56/100

After a brief time period of heavily concentrating on other matters, I am left with more time to stay up until 5am drawing these.

I'll miss you. <3

2010-03-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

47/100

2010-02-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

2010-02-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

Basis for a logo idea

2010-02-24T04:03:00.000-08:00

More Drawings (40/100)

2010-02-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

Idea:

Inspired by elastic website design, other GUI, creating a stretchable painting or drawing on such a material that would support such. The design/art elements do not distort, they retain their shape, yet the relationships between each other shift once the material is stretched or shrunk to a reasonable size.

2010-02-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

Day 2: 100 drawings (28/100)

2010-02-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

I am making 100 digital drawings, using only black, 1 size photoshop brush.

2010-02-10T01:01:00.000-08:00

Self Portraits, combining some design elements. I'll upload the source drawing as well, since ehhhhh.

2010-02-10T01:00:00.003-08:00

Doodles for a Logo Mascot, just working some cartoon shapes out of my noggin.

2010-01-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

explosion1

explosion2

explosion3

2010-01-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Logo Illustration for a Baby Tracking iPhone application. Too confusing, but I enjoy the colors.

Update:

2009-12-07T03:32:00.001-08:00

I should mention I got accepted into Hyper Island's motion design program, and just thinking about it has me wake at early morning hours thinking about how to prepare. The more I read about other students' experience, the more it sounds like my perfect school where we are taught a more holistic approach to creative work. Even at the interview where I was competing with 5 others to grab one of 100 spots, the atmosphere was so cooperative. I instantly felt connected with these designers and eventually worked together on a group task so well. Compare this to, say, Yale Painting, where your fellow students are not afraid to verbally tear down your work, offering minimal to no constructive advice at seminars. I understand why that atmosphere can result in fantastic work, but that environment is not for me.

However, I am finding no student loan institutions recognize Hyper Island as an eligible school. I will have to find a private loan it seems. I am not sure how but I will do this.

2009-11-21T00:51:00.000-08:00

2009-11-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

More leg structure studies, and anatomy studies of women, in a reclined position.

2009-11-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

A more final design, but loose sketch, of the main character. The snarky terrorist character with a face design is included as well.

Next, after more anatomy studies, I will make a full model sheet of the main character conveying different action poses and emotions.

2009-11-20T15:47:00.000-08:00

Hare Models!

2009-11-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

More refined storyboards for the Del Rey project. Here I am considering camera view with more scrutiny, along with hierarchy of the layout. I need a few more interior shots and the fight scene.

2009-11-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

Torso Anatomy - Watkins

Studies for muscle structure of the idealized male figure. I learned to lay down the foundation of an 'armature' for the pose before attaching the muscles. This way I can be more free and loose with the gesture, then refine the details of the muscle groups. The method felt better.

I discovered there was more potential for miscalculations attempting to draw the muscles forms along with the gesture. Life Drawing 101. Geez.

2009-11-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Leg Anatomy - Boardman

Studies. I realized after attempting to finish the last few boards for the climax of the story, a lot of back-views, my rendering of legs are awful.

2009-11-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

Composition experiments in Photoshop, using only gradients.

2009-09-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Another Attempt

For the layout, I put more thought into roughly laying out the main elements using simple shapes, then building the details on top.

2009-09-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

Oh hey look, taken with a digital camera

A layout exercise, first stab. Multiple stab wounds of the same image upcoming. I didn't approach this exercise with a good handling of hierarchy. I focused too much on details.

More to come, with proper presentation.

2009-09-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

More
Unfortunately, my equipment kinda sucks right now. Everything is desaturated since I'm using a flash. Same character as below, yet in the 'normal' form. Notice she still furrows her brows.

2009-09-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

To whet your appetite

I moved to Brooklyn, NYC, and afterward, I was introduced to the city, then punched in the face, then the balls, and I'm reeling a little after the encounter. What better way to lick my wounds by drawing, obsessing over color, and constantly trying to challenge myself with drawing studies?

I don't have my regular computer yet, or Photoshop, this netbook won't run GIMP, so here are two drawings just as warmups. I will post my layout practices for Spumco to browse with a proper presentation and nicely scanned. I'll continue to add drawings by taking crude photos like this. ENJOY.

2009-06-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Layouts and Concept sketches continued

Here are two quick, dirty sketches of the opening scene for the desert. I haven't quite settled on a style, but I know the previous concepts were not the direction I wanted to go. These are on a better track. I'd like to complete 100 desert shots just to get a feeling for the atmosphere of the setting. I'm also having difficulties trying to get the mood and lighting needed for the opening shot. I have settled on the use of a down-shot.

And here is the truck interior where the first dialogue takes place. My newer sketches are taking lighting and mood into account. Now if only I can land on character designs. Later sketches in this post begin to arrive at a general idea of a character design.

I want a reaction from the driver as he sees her in the road. Now this is a borrowed pose from Watkiss, and no this isn't the character design I would like to have for the driver. I prefer a fatter model. The expression is really where I would like to take this moment in the story.

Here we have two ideas for how to pose Sarah Del Rey after she is hit by the truck. One, we have her form below the shadows of the terrorist characters off frame. The second idea has her sprawled out in the foreground with the terrorist characters in silhouette as the truck's lights shine on her body. I prefer the second pose.

Finally, we have the beginnings of a possible Terrorist #2 character design; the one who is most aggressive and assertive of them. I have more character design sketches to show in a separate post, but I would like to compare them with the yet-to-be-discovered character model sheets.

2009-06-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

A concept for the branding of my pinkheap.com site. It features an illustration of many themes, in this case, a movement of Techtonic Plates on Earth, and points of interested pointed out to spell 'pink heap' in a clear way. The illustration here is crude, but I aim to create pristine illustrations on paper with graphite and charcoal.

2009-06-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

A color test

It is shit, but worth posting just to remind myself to do more coloring on the computer instead. It's also giving me a feel for the desert landscape. I think I don't want to make it cartoony and fun, but hit on more of the desolation, flatness. Evoke a feeling of MIRAGE, perhaps.

1/2 of storyboard done on paper.

Wacom is nice only for details I'm finding.

Here is 10 minutes worth of work
I'm simply trying to find angles to begin this story idea, written by acclaimed writer, Andrew Wallace. Follow this process from sketch (which this blog has turned into, a collection of sketches), to the polished, final outcome. I am thinking a 3-4 color treatment. The first panel is a revised version of the panel next to it. I am looking for an upshot of the truck to introduce a dramatic, scarier tone for the scene. Bad dudes are in that truck!

10 more minutes of work

The first panel shows me struggling trying to find the exact expression I want with the hare reacting to the oncoming truck. I think I'm close with the 2nd panel on the right.

10 more minutes

Two ideas for the between-the-thighs shot. Man such bow-leggedness :(

2009-05-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

I just returned from holiday. Expect updates very soon. Meanwhile look at my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/serth

2009-04-28T03:30:00.000-07:00

Here is something I submitted to a Children's Photobook Illustration submission. Rejected for being too stylized. I'll take it! :)

2009-04-13T21:36:00.001-07:00

Forgive me for lack of posts. I have some work-related projects to get through. Then, behold, you will be rewarded.

2009-03-31T09:36:00.000-07:00

Diatomes
Studies of diatomes with pen and ink to understand the tool better. Experiments with line and shading with line.

Imagine this as a hand-drawn wallpaper. Now imagine me doing that. That is the goal. I plan to do this as an aside project: whenever I am mentally blocked, I can idly create these diatomes until 1000 have been produced. Happy day!

2009-03-25T11:50:00.001-07:00

Pink Heap Baby

2009-03-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Work In Progress

Update: Final. I couldn't get the font right so I just had to hand draw the thing.

Update: I cleaned up the hand and Pluto, then added stylized elements to add a 'Space Feel'. I do not like the text as much and I would like to fix the text on the flag where it says 'Pluto'. OR I would like to make it seem like PLUTO is more obvious. Should I change the text to say 'Pluto: Size Matters' ?

I'm upset with the Planet and the hand. Needs some work and some color.

2009-03-22T08:50:00.003-07:00

I love 2b and above

I want to make this a larger scale drawing. Good thing I happened to draw it on grid paper.

2009-03-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Aroma Bull!

Sketch version

Cleanup Version 2 versions

Update: In Progress Cleaning

2009-03-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

"I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them."

'At the mercy of my emotions', being, I draw the same static, shitty expression, with soul-less eyes, staring off into the distance, and the closed mouth that bog down my work. Here are some general face designs with some diverse expressions. These expressions aren't extremely diverse, but different than what I usually draw. I almost never draw characters that are in mid-speak, for instance. I strive to change that. Practicing drawings heads is also topical in hopes to snag a lil illustration gig.

A note: from where I am now to where I want to be takes a lot of work and constant practice. A year from now I hope to be sketching characters emoting as second-nature. I also want to be creating some more final pieces.

I find great practice by freezing films with characters in mid-conversation, to find the 'key frames' and even 'in-betweens' to find fun expressions with twisted, weird mouths, eyes, and squashing and stretching of the forehead and cheek muscles.

2009-03-03T10:18:00.001-08:00

Going to do a painting from this photo, and create a series of paintings to create a landscape based on this photo (taken by ME).

2009-03-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

One more quick idea before I most likely will wake at 1130 am or noon: Create a 'connect-the-dots' style guide for a unique script font design. The user will download the template and recreate the font themselves within Illustrator. Included will be instructions on how to create the font from the final image. The great thing is, their version of the font is dependent on their skills in Illustrator - mastering that dreaded pen tool, handles, anchors and all. It would be nice to see a font with a standard template, but outcomes with varying results. Therefore Jeff's StyleB Font will be slightly different than Susan's StyleB Font. Perhaps Susan's appears to be just slightly organic than Jeff's. And Jeff's shaky hand within Illustrator provides for a more incorrect version, yet still interesting to the eye. Yoji's version is more stylized. Paloma's version was completed outside of Illustrator in pen, then scanned.

2009-03-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

Quick idea before I go to bed at 6am. Virtual Wii-mote like control that uses gestures for UI selection, scrolling on a webpage. Create later for the sake of making it. Possible use with WACOM tablet for gestures. Possible use of modifier keys (ctrl + gesture creates function, shift + gesture does something else.)

What would the application be? Zooming? Panning/Tracking? Selection along a horizontal guide, rule, scale, thing-thing?

2009-02-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

More compositions are finished. I recently bought some Pentel color brushes: black refills, grey, brown, red, and orange (why the hell did i buy a secondary color?) I love them. Here is what they look like if shot in poor lighting

Sepia where were you when I bought these lil babies?

Meanwhile, work scobbed the living hell out of me to the tune of 75% reduction of work and therefore, income. Watch this space for WAY more work. :)

Furthermore, I've been reading about golden era cartoons, and reasons as to why studios created the short films. The practice was good for honing and building craft, but also to find new talent. I think large video game publishers could utilize this for games as well. Microsoft and Valve have excellent methods to deliver 'homebrew' and smaller games playable on their respective platforms. Perhaps these 'shorts' could be a 'minor league' of sorts for distros and studios. While they're cranking out their AAA title (4 - 5 years in the making), these studios could also crank out 2 or 3 smaller games in that time span with some of the jr. members. Think of the all that FUN!

2009-02-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

I want to make a huge library of compositions, rough, dirty, sketched. Like so:

2009-02-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

In between BG samples I bring you...

Musk Oxen with proportions in check: I am steering away from large head, small body, baby proportions. Next up with Musk Oxen is a model sheet attempt with character design, moods, and emotions.

2009-02-20T04:01:00.000-08:00

Learning New Tools in my Visual Library

Markers.
Some quick composition studies for an interior shot of an illustration project.

2009-02-16T10:20:00.001-08:00

Another Construction Practice

A Dennis the Menace cover. This cover was easier to break down the simple forms, but I lost it on sizes. This practice was faster. I practiced drawing Dennis multiple times to get warmed up with the style. Here are the results.

Coming up soon: BG sketches

2009-02-12T19:15:00.001-08:00

I damn near lost it when I saw these BGs. This is exactly what I have been envisioning for Musk Ox.

Update: I discovered Eyvind Earle by reading Hans Bacher's blog and Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation book.

This is EYVIND EARLE.

2009-02-11T17:31:00.000-08:00

Reminder:

Cleanup below drawings.

Use friskets to create BGs using markers that bleed. Use paper as friskets to capture some of that bleed in the BG to see what happens.

2009-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

Here is my second construction practice of a Bugs Bunny cover. I chose a cover more difficult than the previous one, even though I told myself I would choose something easier. I am pleased overall, but I need to definitely work on getting quicker at these. But patience. One of the things I'm practicing is how to look. It feels good to focus.

Update: Cleanup Drawing compared with original construction

My Drawing

Merged Comparison with Original