Painter Classic illustration touched up in Photoshop 6. Wacom Tablet and stylus

Haven't posted because I'm heading into heavy work load during the day and slogging through the last five pages of the book at night. There's a million details I've made a mental note to fix on top of adding gray values to pages that has had to go without. Dialogue pass then word balloon pass, inside front/back illustration, back cover copy, page 2 illustration, cure for the common cold, make cold fusion a reality, find Big Foot.

And for those of you multi-taskers looking down at us mere mortals, how about this famous party pleaser...

Schroedinger's Cat (or Fun with Quantum Mechanics) A cat is placed in a box, together with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger-counter detects an alpha particle, the hammer hits a flask of prussic acid (HCN), killing the cat. The paradox lies in the clever coupling of quantum and classical domains. Before the observer opens the box, the cat's fate is tied to the wave function of the atom, which is itself in a superposition of decayed and undecayed states. Thus, said Schroedinger, the cat must itself be in a superposition of dead and alive states before the observer opens the box, "observes'' the cat, and "collapses'' it's wave function.

I came across it in a fiction piece while waiting for my kids at a bookstore, it was about a man travelling to another parallel universe . It fascinated me maybe because I heard about it before and here it was put to what I can value as a good use for it, in a story. Besides, parallel alternate states sounds cool to those of us who can mangle a fine illustration of science theory by trying to explain it. The best part is that even if I do explain it bad I still get credit for being into it, right? (Or is it that the end results of this is a dead/alive cat = Zombie Cat?! Awright!)

A cobbled summation on Wave Form Equation is: you can not determine what will happen, only the probability of a certain event occurring. And curiously, this event does not actually happen until you observe it, so...it's not important that the cat is both dead and alive BEFORE you open the box but it is important to note that the action of observing this event changes it. Glad that's all cleared up. Make mine Marvel. Excelsior! 'Nuff said.

Photoshop 7 Single espresso, foam only.

Gates and Guages What is wrong with us that we want to have a caste system come about when a group congregates long enough? Freedom to choose? Biological imperatives of natural selection? Value systems for optimal success? The facile and the beautiful get more options and no one argues those facts. Nothing has been crossed that we don't understand in our being. We all get the same twenty-four hours to do what we will. But what value code are we living off of when a superiority of any sort is tied to self esteem--or worse, a justified mode of living? Being picked for basketball should feel good and no apologies. Not being picked will sting, no apologies asked. But when high priests now have to elect themselves and create filters and mark gates for the hopefuls to gauge themselves against--well, now we have a high order of the imperious, those that can make pronouncements of suitability. I hope they find an island of like minded people so I can visit to see how they've stratified themselves to mark their distinction from each other.

...and further more... Why is it that every cycle or so, some grander-than-thou, upwardly mobile, high-octane over self-achiever comes about and suggests ways to toughen up those deemed less evolved because it's "the only way they'll learn"? I swear, you can bet good money on it that this suggestion rears its superior DNA and wags it in everyone's face once a year at least. As if there are those who arrive on the scene without making student tentative steps and that it is their job to guard against their kind who will water down the quality of their presence with these newbie attempts at belonging. Ach! Why not ask for people to be branded while you're at it? And this isn't a job. You're not at work.

Sigh. Okay, on the obverse side. Most social transactions have preferences and bias, no one is spared--on either side. Our communities are known by what we value. Or better yet, we are how we behave. Elitism is a word we know enough not to promote, let alone legislate. It is probably enough to aspire to be better and let that speak about us.

Photoshop 7 quick drawing. An exploration of cute.


Uesugi inspired Oekaki drawing. I blew it up a little too much, eh?

That little orange fish did it! Congratulations to Andrew Stanton and everyone who worked on the movie. I'd especially like to thank the story crew. That crew helped write, pace, gag, plan, test, whittle and create that movie in the most substantial way a story crew can. I'm not even talking about drawing storyboards yet. That's people in the trenches going through that movie over and over and over and over...and over again--to come up with the moments you see on the screen. All done with the liberal helping of backing from a studio who knows not to put layers of executive regard and reams of mindless notes on the process so that the best possible story gold can be mined from it.

A great bunch of storytellers a guy could have the privilege to work alongside.

Bravo and take a bow: Jason Katz, Jim Capobianco, Nate Stanton, Bob Peterson, Bruce M. Morris, Joseph "Rocket" Ekers, Peter Sohn, Jamie Baker, Matt Luhn, Dan Jeup, Rob Gibbs, Courtney Booker, Max Brace, Kevin O' Brien, Rachel Raffael, Blake Tucker, Romney Marino, Adam Bronstein...the list can go on and I'll forget names but we remember--comrades in arms.

To Editorial. You all rock.

To the Art Department. Rockin' as always.

Animation...gods amongst us.

I'm getting verklempt.

Just keep swimming...

...and another thing... Unsung, story crews are easilly overlooked because their work doesn't quite show on the finished film. And it doesn't help that the popular notion of doing story work--though we insist that it's called "STORY DEPARTMENT" for a reason--is that we DRAW what is written (some in the Writer's Guild feeling that we step too close to their dog dish had growled and wanted the title reduced to "Story Enhancers")

This story crew had the huge benefit of having Andrew Stanton. A storyteller. He told us this story and that crew told him his story back. Words, pictures, mime, gags, toy theater and yes, drawing. We don't type our work into Final Draft and call ourselves writers. We pull ideas, notions, phrases, pacing, texture and what not from the ether and bounce if off each other and then we draw it to put it into reels.

So, if the main definition of doing storyboards for features is that one draws what's written then this crew is not that. If the main definition of a screen writer is to type our work into scripts then this crew is not that. We are happy to be called the STORY department (not Story DRAWING department) and know our contribution to be what it is--as storytellers.