Sick sketches.

Not like 'whoa, sick sketches dude!' but more, 'Ugh. I'm sick. Wanna'-COUGHHACKCOUGHwheeeeze-sketch.'

I did get to read a book though. It's one the I've been meaning to read forever. It's called The Forever War. It would make a great HBO miniseries. Like two season would be perfect. So there's a few sketches on these pages from that. The rest, just feel good art. By that I mean, it made me feel good to draw or paint.

Nothing so serious. Hope all is going well Neill, have a great Halloween!

Doug

Cargo transport.

Neill! Busy, but good, art day. I guess working on UI elements gets the creative juices flowing...probably out of fear of becoming a UI artist for good (UI is actually fun at times, especially when it clicks, but I wouldn't want to do it forever).

Big and clunky. Expanded on the sketch below. The idea is that it uses a mix of scaffolding and electromagnetism to hold (pull) cargo containers. The more you pay the more secure your cargo. The cheaper you are the less likely to get your cargo, never no if one might hit a stray piece of space junk, or fall out of the mag field.

I always loved that one transport ship in Empire. It was so cool, so loose, like it didn't need anything to hold it together. That ship has influenced about all my big spaceships since. Because in space, why make something all aerodynamic and closed? No need right? Damn straight!

Again congrats on the green light!

Your little cornbread muffin;

Doug

Quick coloring...

...of a sketch from last night. I love playing with shape. Big flat planes Neill. We finally have the tech to make really different aliens, and what do we do...usually the same aliens from the past twenty years of sci-fi. I think that's one reason why I really liked the prawns. They had cool easy to read shape, even though they were very detailed. You could see the overall idea, without seeing everything. Hard to explain, but they were very cool.

Hugs and kisses!

Doug

Congrats dude!

Holy shit Neill! I mean really, wow! Greenlit already? Nice work. Of course, it means the my art isn't needed to help sell it anymore. Still, I'm excited to see what you do next. Man, that rocks.

Well, here's some sketchbookery mainly from last night.

Again, congrats!!!

Doug

Poppin' in.

Sup Neill; told you I'd be back from time to time.

Here's a goofy pencil sketch I colored at lunch. It's quick all around, the sketch was fast, and the color job almost as fast. Dude is pretty top heavy. Especially for those skinny legs.

Hey guess what, I just finished The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It's still as good as I remembered. In some respects even better than I remembered. Is 'remembered' a word? Should I just have said 'remember' instead? Nevermind, doesn't matter.

Oh, and that melodramatic moment in the write up post below-delete. I don't like it anymore. I like the idea of the scene and holding the pups close, but the whole 'burrow in' bit is dumb. Part of the reason I liked your flick is because it wasn't filled with shit like that.

Man I love October, the colors are amazing! Have a great day!

Doug

Super roughs

Neill, I'm not sure how to say this...but I'm not going to be able to post for awhile. I know, I know. I have a few freelance gigs I have got to work on and my day job is keeping me pretty busy, and mentally fatigued at night. Not to mention, I just found out that they have the complete series of The Mysterious Cities of Gold on Hulu. It's a little dated, but much better than most the cartoon trash for kids these days. Later on in the series there is some great design. Seriously, you can take the time that you would have used looking at this blog and watch the show. I will post when I can though, I'm sure I can squeeze something in here.

So these comic pages are for my idea about D 10. They are super loose, and unfinished. For anybody else who doesn't want spoilers to D 9; DO NOT READ. Just for legal reasons let me say again that my ideas are fair game to Neill. If they create some jumping off point, go for it. If you're far less creative than I think you are, then steal it. No worries. Highlight to read:

mc001: MNU troopers storm the D 10 camp. There's a reason for it, but basically human support for the aliens is at an all time low. So in panel 1 they are pushing the aliens back, away from media camera's. It's genocide. Panel 2 is Wikus, who has kept a very low and lonely profile up until this point. Prawns are running and dying all around him, as seen in panels 3 and 4. Close up on sad Wikus eyes.

mc002: Panel 1 Wikus turns his head. In panel two we see what he is looking at ; two small prawns running from an MNU agent. Wikus turns to the kids to scoop them up as the agent bears down on them (Panel 3). In panel four we see Wikus retaliate on the agent, kicking (killing) him.

mc003: In panel 1 we see Wikus heading towards a group of stunned prawns. Panel 2 is the prawns talking over one another asking for Wikus to help them. Their hive like minds grab onto his defiance against the MNU and make him an impromptu leader (There is another who has risen from the Hive mind, but is not featured in these pages). In panel 4 we see Wikus looking around at a lost for what to say. In panel 5 we see Wikus' point of view. Through two tents Wikus sees that there are reporters behind the D 10 fence with cameras.

mc004: Panel 1, Wikus instructs the prawns to run towards the cameras. Panel 2 is a top down shown of the prawns running. Panel 3 is a man holding a news camera. Next is a shot of Wikus running with the kids in news footage (Panel4). Panel 5 is a close up of the scared kids. If you went documentary style with this film, like the last, I would add in a clip of someone talking about how quickly public perception can change. Something about how Mom's and Dad's across the world suddenly saw them as children instead of roaches. More eloquently than that, but you get the idea.

mc005: Panel 1 has the prawns now surrounded by MNU agents. The agents can't fire on the prawns though because of the camera's, deeper inside the camp it could look like a fight, but here right in front of the media, it would be a massacre. Panel 2 is the agents removing the media element. Panel 3 is the agents preparing a firing line. Panel 4 is the agents surrounding the prawns. They can't fire because of the circle they're in (Sort of like Wounded Knee, but the MNU agents are smarter and don't fire at eachother).

mc006: Panel 1 has Wikus looking at the kids and telling them to 'burrow in'. It's a little melodramatic, but I like it. My favorite scene from your film is only a few seconds long. It's when Christopher scoops up little CJ as he runs towards the ship. As a Dad who loves being a Dad, that scene almost brought tears to my eyes. It's fucking perfect. Panel 2 is the kids 'burrowing in' to Wikus' chest. Panel 3 has a shadow passing over them, one of the little prans looks up and begins chirping. Wikus looks up to the the MNU agents running away (Panel 4).

mc007: Wikus and the other Prawns are seen looking up, as a massive ship hovers above them.

I was going to have it make a loud 'VNNNNNNN' noise, but I think it's better if I save that for the end. These pages would be from the first half of the movie.

So there it is. I realize I should have storyboarded them out instead of going for comic pages, but hindsight is always 20/20. I would imagine lots of shaky came and chaos, but didn't want to draw little shake lines all over everything. It's hard, I can see it so clearly in my head, not coming out right on paper.

Moleskin Fun

Sup' Cuz? You know, I have family with the last name Neil. I think I mentioned that before. Just saying, shirt tail cousins and all that. Not sure why you haven't responded, you know, since we're practically family. No worries, probably just busy getting busy.

So, laid back weekend, went home to visit the rents in good old P.A. (Port Angeles, yeah the one in that tween book Twilight). So I didn't bring my laptop and didn't get any Neill work done. Went briefly to the zoo on the way over, drew some animals, and the rest was just goofing around in my free time. I love sketchbooking Neill. I really, really do. There's no hang ups, no expectations. Just let your effing lines lay where they may.

There is one D-9 page in here though, for a painting I'm planning.

Hey if you're ever in Victoria you should hop on the Coho and head over to P.A. My parents would totally put you up. Me Mom makes a mean Tuna Nuda' Casserole.

Hope all is well,

Doug

A work in progress...

We call those a WIP in the game industry Neill. I'm guessing it's the same for film. I have this whole potential story in my head for what D-10 could be. This is a scene from it. I don't want to give anything away in your current film, so I won't mention what's happening in this scene. If you're curious though, shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you.

Aaaahh, see what I did there, trying to trick you. Should have known you'd see that trap.

I have four other pages laid out, but spent like three hours on this last night and this is as far as I got. Yikes, right? Comics are hard. I guess they make up for it for being so fun. I might continue it if your interested, or I could just tell you about the other pages. Just shoot me an e-mail to let me know.

Darn it! Almost.

Well hope things are going well for you.

Your friend;

Doug

PS Prawns are pretty darned fun to draw. Kudo's to the original designer.

PPS If Neill likes any of these ideas, or gets any ideas from them, they're his. I'll never sue, I promise. I don't even think it's possible to sue a film deity, but just in case.

Moldy choral?

Whacha' been up to corndog? Hopefully having fun. Here's another quicky from last night. From an old story idea I had.

It's all about this small group scouting what is believed to be a dead planet covered in a calcified substance. Like life started, or tried to form, but stopped. They are there to help the preparations team to begin digging for metals and other resources. The original two man team had stopped sending transmissions. A team is sent to investigate, but it takes six months to arrive there from the nearest outpost. When the second team finally arrives one man in found dead, of apparently natural causes, and the other is missing. They find lots of his notes though, and eventually find that he started to go mad. It's believed he wandered off into the wilderness to die. Any way, eventually they find out that this planet that was thought to be dead, is actually covered in essentially a massive coral colony. The discovery would be revealed in a dramatic scene at night when the coral is procreating. Tons of little glowing creatures floating through the air. Really pretty stuff. So they end up leaving and the last shot would be the shape of a man sitting in a lotus position overlooking a large valley covered in the coral calcium stuff.

There's more to it, but that's the gist of it. I'm not sure if I'll just write it, maybe with a few spot illustrations, or go all graphic novel on it. It's a small story, fairly quiet, but hopefully intriguing. If it was a movie, I wouldn't imagine a budget over ten million. Small thing.

Anyway, I hope you don't mind, I really like doing these small quick pics. An hour of two at night is easy. I will do some more illustrative pics with narrative, and some more finished enviro's soon.

Have a great day!

Doug

Wooosh.

I don't know what these are. Maybe they help the ...planet... spin...faster? I don't know, but they look cool! Maybe they're like the spoiler on the back of a modded civic, doesn't do much, but it looks cool.

Oh...if you own a modded spoiler civic, it totally helps you go faster.

Doug

Hole

Not the band Neill, no sir. Just some deserty rocks. Did you know that they make IPA in a can? It's true! Comes from Ashland Oregon. Mighty tasty. Don't know if you like hoppy beer, but if you do, it's lip licking good.

Hey here's a funny story. A friend of mine went to see District 9 on opening weekend at one of those fancy pants theaters that serves food while you watch a movie. They ordered duck taco's and calamari while watching your film. Ha ha ha ha! They liked the movie, but left feeling a little green. Ha ha ha ha. Good stuff.

Doug