One of those nights...

Hey Neill. What? Yeah, I'm a little down. You ever have one of those moments were you feel really creative, but when you get to it you can only seem to produce awful shit? That was my night last night. For the most part.

Things have been going well artistically. Work has been fun. Making some things I'm fairly proud of. So I figured, that would carry to home. Instead I spent three hours frustratingly trying to produce anything that wasn't complete garbage.

Anyway. Maybe it's the home set up. Getting used to the work setup, and not having a setup at home. I work at the dining room table. It's really our only table. It's a fairly nice table. Solid wood.

Well, hopefully, it was a one night deal, I got shits to do!

So above are the few ok things. The building is supposed to be a hide out. Old, cold and dilapidated. I only spent a few minutes on it, and instead of the concrete looking like it's buckling, it sort of comes off as bad perceptive. Next, some goofy cartoony heads. Finally, Pooh. Pooh is not so great, but I like peoples horrified reaction to him. Well, this version at least.

Have a good one man, hopefully your creating better than I am right now.

Doug

How to train your moleskin

Dude, just saw How to Train Your Dragon. Wow . I mean, Neill, it's really great. This blog has become pretty popular. Just in case some of the HtTYD people are reading; let me say something to you that no other review will for your kids movie:

THAT WAS TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME!!! NICE WORK!

Man, wow, just wow. I loved it. Go check it out Neill. It's about as fun as it gets. Like crawling into a barrel of live sardines while covered in marmalade. You know what I'm talking about.

Below are some sketchbook sketches.






I think I'm too paranoid that your looking, and the pieces have become more about just getting something up, than doing something fun, or correctly. I'll probably turn one or two of these sketches into something later.

Man have a good one, and go check out How to Train Your Dragon. Is 'your' capitalized in a title? Doesn't matter, the film should be called: HOLY FUCK! HOW TO TRAIN YOUR FUCKING COOL ASS DRAGON!

Diggle Doug

Chop Chop

Hey there Neill. How's it been going? Hopefully good man. Movie moving along well? You see Moon? Finally watched it. Awesome.

I can't believe that they pulled off such a nice and cohesive look for under 5 million. All I want to do right now is rip off those harvester designs. So cool. Beautiful shots of debris falling around the rover. Man. You and Duncan Jones have made other sci-fi films look like trash, and you did it for half, or less, of their budget. Crazy good times for sci-fi.

Super quick photo-chop today. Still reveling in When Gravity Fails. It's such a fun accessible book. Like your film, it's different. It's cyberpunk, but nothing like what I've read. Not too heady, doesn't forget story in place of tech ideas. Violent, odd, smart, funny; just damned good. Next two in the series are on their way from Amazon. Along with 25 pounds of Crayola air-dry clay. I love helping out in my kids kindergarten class with a monthly project. Any way; that explains the future middle eastern photo manip in under thirty today.

Hey speaking of art, you ever use Sketchup? ZBrush? Fuck I need to learn zBrush and Sketchup. I really dislike drawing perspective. Sketchup can give a great base for design. If you hire me full time for 1 million dollars, I'll totally learn those programs. I'll also be at your beck and call. I give great neck rubs. Just; nothing below the belt. You're on your own with that.

Sincerely;

Million Dollar Baby

Mini Cops

Bleep Bloop Blip Neill! That's robo talk for 'whas up?'. No t. Robot's hate t's.

So these are cop bots. I figure why go all Ed -209 for daily police work when you can for for miniature, maneuverable, fast, dart shooting, flying copbots. They have facial recognition, not lethal stun darts, a very complex AI that can make split second decisions and can hover or cruise in any direction. You could fly them into a city, hunt for criminals, dart them , then wait for a pick up crew for interrogation. Easy peasy. You'd have to have terminal cops with minibot kill switches for political reasons, but they'd be more for show than anything else.

I was hoping for a front and back view as well, but I ran out of lunch time. Lunch time is the shortest hour of the day. I swear. Well, maybe the sleep hours...those are short too.

I finished a book you should check out. When Gravity Fails. Pretty awesome whodunnit, set in a futuristic middle east. The thing is, it was written in 1986. So a lot of the 'future' looks relatively close, and some has even come to pass. Fun read. Would make a great movie. Ahem.

Also, I made it into Spectrum again this year! With over 6000 entries, I'm feeling pretty jazzed. List is here. Hellz yeah I'm bragging.

Lastly, my friends Ada and Dan sent this to me.



So close Neill. We've almost caught up to Please Look After this Bear. That fucking bear.

Have a good one.

Mini Dougbot

Your Truest Fan

Neill! Another lunch quicky. Little girl's birthday this weekend. Lot's to do, so this might be it for a couple of days.

It's modeled after an idea I got while watching your Tetra Vaal short. See, you have all these D9 fans, but they're all Johnny come lately's. Not me. Hell, I probably believed in you before you're friends did. Even Mr. Copley. Sorry to hear he was robbed by the way.

So, I came up with this whole AI cop buddy story in my head, from watching your short. I think it's still pretty good. The sad part is, one day I realized it was just a grown up Robo Cop. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Robo Cop, but it can be pretty juvenile. The worse part, I think my story was more Robo Cop 2.

Sigh.

Have a great weekend man.

Bitches Leave;

Doug Williams

Captain Kapow

Neill, you know what I'm not a fan of? Big bulky space armor. I don't hate or despise it, just, not my cup pf tea. Which is why this image is perplexing me. I have no idea where it came from, why it went this route.

Speed painting does that. Moving quick enough to ignore a thought process and let it become organic. It's like autopilot, but with no destination in mind. This feller was originally a cop lifting a sheet....ended here; at an offworld privatized soldier. heavy armor MERC. Decent lunch art day. I like it when things go well.

Hope all is well. Look out for the lizard people. They're everywhere. EVERYWHERE!

Doug

PS-The arms are extensions, his are not really that long. The real arms fit almost underneath the extended arms. Just saying.

Enter the Ninja

Neill, making up missed time. I had this started awhile ago. It really is funny that you're directing a Die Antwoord video. I went through a week were I listened to Enter the Ninja at least once a day. That and the These New Puritans song We Want War. Over...and over...and over. I started this doodle way back then. Ninja fighting robots. I know, been done to death, but poopers if it isn't fun to draw.

I listened to Enter the Ninja over and over while painting it. Best part of the song for me; Golden Child reference. Brilliant.

Definitely click this pic. It's pretty tiny on the blog.

Hope all's well man.

Doug 'Scha-winng (ninja sword noise, not a Wayne's World boner)' Williams

No Art Today

Yo MTVNeill! I heard you're making a Die Antwoord video. That's fucking...uh sorry; fooking awesome. I'd be lying if I said I had heard of them before they showed up on Boing Boing. Their music, that I've heard, is a riot. It sits in that magical place called unique, or different. It's almost like they're enjoying themselves. Weird, especially in this day and age. Some fun shit, for serious.

Soooo, from that to this. No art, no time today. Check this out though.

Mars Link.

"This is an animation flying over southwest Candor Chasma on Mars. It was created from NASA's HiRISE DTM and image data.

The spatial resolution is 1 meter for the altimetry data and 0.25 meters for the image data.

There is no vertical exageration.

The animation was created using Mars Explorer and was captured in realtime."

So awesome. I'm thinking you dig this shit. Well at least in my fantasies you do. We wax poetic about theoretical physics and Mars and colonizing the solar system and privatization of everything and nano tech and beer and living in the northwest and why it rocks. Then things get weird. I won't tell you how, but it involves a duck. If we ever meet, I have to make sure to bring a duck. And a Dracula. Shhhhhhh.

Shit...well I did scribble this arsehole earlier today. Just effing around. Man, Greg created the most fun character to draw ever. Look at that chop-stache! Look at it! Bastard. Greg steals all the fun.



Have a good one.

Doug Quackers Williams

The Red Chair

Neillada, sup mi amigo? Not much here.

Dude, did you read the comment on my WG2:XZ&OZ post? Matthew (whom I'm guessing is Matthew Broderick) told me that there already is a WarGames 2! It's called WarGames 2: The Deadcode. Wow. I sort of like mine more. For reals.

So this image took a couple of hours, mainly because I changed a lot right at the end. I didn't need to is the frustrating part. It's really all about that chair. Doesn't it look comfy? Ah, a red chair....so relaxing. the rest is meant to just show off the chair.

Actually this picture pissed me off. SCREW YOU PICTURE!!! Man I need a better working space at home.

Oh wellz.

Doug

Zombie Post

MmmeeEEemm Nieeeelllllllllmn? Me. Meeahhhahe. Brainnnnns, mehe meeeeeeeaaaahhhhhhh.

Meh, meh, MEh, Arghurggle. Meeah. Meeeaaaahahhahahhhhfmpf. Maaamem.

Huehhhhheh.

Meehhhug.

OFFICEouterSPACE

Neill! Have not heard if you liked WG2:XZOZ yet, but maybe you're off and running with the script. Remember, it's needs lots of robot fights. It might be cool to make the killbots look like an X, or an O. Maybe both?

Super quicky at lunch. I love seeing aliens and humans interact in mundane ways. maybe that was part of why I liked District 9. Of course, we could go even farther. D9 was still exciting. Let go totally mundane. Have you seen Office Space? Well, how about Office Space, IN SPACE!!!

I have a million of these ideas Neill. A million.

Doug TPS Williams

WAR GAMES

Neill, back from sunny LA? I've heard rumors the sun shines there for days on end. the clouds sometimes don't even show up on some days. Are the rumors true? It sounds magical. Like a Magical Kingdom (tm) down there.

Anyway, I debated sending this, since I wasn't really happy with it in the end. But if I didn't, I would have no post. These might become a bit more infrequent. Not because I don't lov---uh....still want to work together, just a little busy at the moment.

So this guys story? Well, how about summer mega blockbuster? Sound nice? yeah, for fuck it does! So here's the deal, you go mainstream. Mainstream equals sequel or reboot. I say sequel. What sequel? WarGames mutherfucker!

Yeah see, we get Matthew Broderick and Olivia Wilde (because she's hot). See Matthew has not really gone anywhere since saving us from a nuclear war in the eighties. He's sort of burnt out. Divorced, addicted to pills and shit. Well suddenly people involved in the war room tic tac toe game start getting bumped off. Broderick's character notices this while reading the paper, and this strikes Matt as a little odd. What's really odd is that he still reads the paper, but see he's old school. Stay with me, we're thinking Hollywood storyline here.

So old school Matthew starts trying to solve these murders, and he meets new school Olivia Wilde. She's all cutting edge iPad and shit. So they start solving these murders together through code, she knows all the new code, and he knows all the old code. What? Fuck I don't know what makes the code different, it's old and new; maybe you're missing the concept here. This is why you don't have awards on your mantel right now (that was too soon wasn't it, I really do believe you deserved awards). Concept = Old school and New school + Old guy + hot chick * combine all =WarGames 2 : Exes and Ohz.

Well fine, you come up with a better title. Christ. Why do I try anymore.

So, the machine didn't freeze up in the eighties, it was just...thinking. That's right. Crunching numbers, making plans. Actually making robots to kill people. So you know the rest, chases and fights, Olivia and Matthew fall in love (Yes, they can. Age doesn't matter, we are talking Hollywood here), yadda, yadda, yadda. Eventually they stop the evil program like before, only this time, using a chess game utilizing the latest in 3-D chess tech. Like virtual reality chess. And yes, this will be shot in digital 3-D.

So. This is yours. I give it too you. Enjoy.

Doug XXXOOO Williams

Fuck Em'.

You and yours deserved more. Seriously. I guess we all knew the academy usually bypasses anything sci-fi for the big award, but District 9 deserved editing at the very least. Two major nomination snubs in my opinion, Clinton Shorter and Sharlto Copley. I mean what the shit, c'mon.

Clinton Shorter's score should have had a nomination. It's a great score, and it's sounds like it was a bitch to get right. I listened to an interview with him. Some podcast I subscribe to. The mixing of elements and cultures to get that score right; tough work. well done, he pulled that shit off masterfully.

Copley, well that boggles the fucking mind. I know people who didn't like District 9 ( I know, I know) and even they loved Copley's performance. "So real" is usually what is attached to it. Maybe it's the fact that Sharlto has admitted to never really planning on being an actor. Or maybe it was because it was improv, and he made it look easy. At anty rate, a fooking crime.

Well, at least The Dude won it. I tend to route for anyone who still uses the word groovy.

I guess it's still awesome that you were nominated. That shit is fucking champion. I mean, a summer sci-fi film with tons of first timers and for under fifty million. What was it? Thirty? Thirty five? Fuck, amybe that's the problem. Maybe District 9 stepped on a lot of toes. maybe certain academy members who make some serious cha-ching per film don't like people knowing you can make something that popular without their name and their fifteen million dollar price tag. Maybe all of Hollywood is a little freaked. Maybe you are, maybe you are a gawdamned prawn! You are Wikus! You scare the others!

Anyways, congrats on the nominations. Still amazing for a first time film, and a sci-fi one to boot.

Oh, the art. Yeah I made it quick so I could post something on the blog. It's part of the District 10 idea I have. Wikus helping to fix/make things. Long story. Ever want to hear it let me know. No mass invasion in it.

Doug

I'm a fan of recycling.

Do you recycle Neill? Of course you do. You're from the Northwest. I think they castrate you if you don't, then recycle your balls to fill bean bags with. Or use them as trout bait.

Well, here's some news for you. You can recycle art as well. I know! I know! Well, it's easy. Say you block in some shapes for a piece of art (scroll down), and that piece sort of gets away from you (scroll down). Well, all you have to do is take those blocked in shapes and quickly edit some colors, a bit of glow brush, and add a pure black figure into the pic (scroll up), and-POOF-new art. It's that easy.

It is not cheating! Well maybe you cheated! You just stretched out Alive in Joburg and added more sixty percent more grasshopper to your primarily octo-faced-aliens! I thought you would understand. I thought you would be proud.

It's ok, I'm sorry too. Let's put this behind us. We both know there's one thing we can always agree on.

Admiral Ackbar is the shit.

Amen.

Doug "It's a Trap!" Williams

Buggers and Refinery cities

Neill, howzat going? Oh yeah? Right on.

Couple of quickies. Landscape for some shits and giggles and a Bugger from the Ender series. It sort of is like what I pictured them looking like. Sort of.

I've only read Enders Game and Speaker of the Dead. I liked both books a lot. Like a lot, a lot. I still think they're great books, even though I can't express how much I disagree with Mr. Card on a certain issue. Free country I suppose. Well, unless you're gay and want to marry. That being said, the stories are still great.

I must, must, must, sit down and really work on something more substantial. Something that will make you go 'Wow, I want that art inside me'.

I have a few other things I'm working on right now, and they're taking up a fair amount of my free time. They're really cool though. Realllly cool. Too bad I can't share them.

Anyways, have a good one.

Doug 'shouldn't go political on this blog' Williams

Syd Mead?

Who's that? Naw, just joking Neill, I know who Syd Mead is. He works at the bowling alley.

Anyway, just a quick lunch image of a red light district (9?) somewhere. That's not a giant lady in the background (although that might be fucking awesome!) , but a holo-bubble thing. Like an animated sign.

Reading When Gravity Fails, so might be a bit of this stuff for a while.

Well, that's it for today, lunch is over. Missed you at Great Wolf.

Doug