AyEsArt

[Mikero]

I meant to but didn't watch it all, to be honest.

[ASR]

Don't bother, I probably wouldn't if I hadn't made it.

Posted on: 26 April 2009, 07:58:19

Hey, guys.

I know a lot of you probably aren't aware... but I'm making a cartoon of THE SIMPLE COMPLEX, WHOOOOOO.

Okay, yeah.

I'm making Alan's character model now, and he's been slightly redesigned.

As in, maybe he's going to have a nose. He's probably going to have a nose.

Please help me decide which nose.

Pick Alan's nose.

[Vinchenz Rock]

Personally, 0 looks best. It's... simple.

[ASR]

I know his name is Alan Simple, but let's get COMPLEX, people!

I think he looks 23 times classier with a nose.

[preventerWIND]

Like I said before, 2 looks best.

[ASR]

Went with 2 for now.

Here's the tentative final ALAN SIMPLE... SUITLESS!

[Johncarllos]

2 is best.

[Mikero]

If he has to have a nose (I like him better without, it's just so him) then I like #1 the best. #2 looks like he's a complainy guy and #3 is ugly. Furthermore #1 is the most unique nose there, the rest have been done to death.

[ASR]

I'm getting used to him with a nose.

I really can't decide.

Like, I really can't. He kind of looks awkward without a nose. I don't know.

[preventerWIND]

It's good. But the noseless head from the first comic was amazing.

It kind of needs a nose now. But if you are gonna use the no-nose, do what I suggested and use that as the "No sense of smell" bit.

[ASR]

Alan is basically me already. He's short and skinny, wears green. Even the name is based off of how people usually mistake my name for Alan when I introduce myself. So, yeah, originally, him not having a nose was supposed to be an almost-joke about how I have no sense of smell.

Only the blonde hair is different from me, and when I was younger my hair was even blonder than that so whatever.

I just really can't decide between nose or not. If I do use a nose, I'm using #2. That's my favorite. I like #1 a lot, too, but I don't know.

[Mikero]

Blonder than that?

I imagine white and/or transparent hair.

Standing in his underpants with no human horn makes it look like he has no lower horn.

[preventerWIND]

I was never even that blond.. I'm having the same thing go on with my hair though, my hair's getting darker, and I really don't like that.

I may consider bleaching it a bit..

[ASR]

Just blonde, I was exaggerating. A little darker than Alan, really. Just regular kid-blonde. It got darker as I got older.

And ha, Alan has no lower horn. That particular facet is not based on me.

[Johncarllos]

He needs a nose.
Nose #2.

[Mikero]

Nose #1.

Actually, don't quote me on that until I see a full body with nose #1. It makes a difference.

[ASR]

Okay, here's Alan Simple in his suit, with Nose 2.

Followed by the other two nose variations.

[preventerWIND]

The boots were a good idea, yeah.

[AlexThePenguin]

I was never even that blond..

I was.


Nose #1.

Best look. The rest remind me of pig noses.

It has better flow, too; it isn't as distracting or disruptive.

[Johncarllos]

I still like number 2, but #1 is a'ight I suppose.

He looks good in his suit too.

[ASR]

I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with Nose 2. Nose 1 feels off.

Anyway, to celebrate actually getting this done, here's the original, very first drawing of Alan Simple... also a little whatever I whipped up.

[Johncarllos]

I just noticed the "a" in the ear.

[preventerWIND]

I likes it.

NEEDS THE BOOTS THOUGH. And the arms should have a tint of green, like in the original.

[ASR]

I like the grey arms better. Otherwise, too much green... yes, there is such a thing.

As for boots... I was considering it, but I really like the footy-pajama feel once I got it to work. It's a onesie!

Oh, and for those who didn't get to see, this is the now-lame Alan Simple re-design that almost was:

[Mikero]

Mmmyeah I'm never gonna agree about noses 2 or 3. They're very cliché noses in the first place, and then they're just... Well nose 1 is subtle enough that it didn't change the whole character to me to give him a nose, and it's unique enough that he doesn't look like every other character. The other two are like; "HEY HE'S GOT A NOSE NOW, LOOK!" and they don't really fit his body type at all.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything with the nose stuff, it's just how we approach designing characters in school/animation/my career.

Anyway I think you should do boots in grey, similar to The Bravest Warrior boots or something, i.e. big (but not huge) boots.

I said "boots".

[ChaosVortex]

I prefer #0, but if not that, then I like #1.

Annie is rebellious over here and she likes #3.

[Mikero]

Yeah well maybe that's 'cause Annie's a fucsajdsfdssfaffsfjknr...

[Johncarllos]

Yeah well maybe that's 'cause Annie's a fucsajdsfdssfaffsfjknr...

fucsajdsfdssfaffsfjknr?!?!?

YOU FIEND.

[ASR]

...another random crappy quickly-tossed-together promo.

Seriously, you can even see the jagged pixel edges of both ovals! How classy!

I just wanted to show off Orbille and give an idea of how the backgrounds MIGHT look. For this one I just used Trace Bitmap on a photo in Flash. I'm going to be trying out a lot of different things for the backgrounds - all I know for sure is that I WILL be taking photos of things and editing the photos to make appropriate backgrounds.

Or I'll use open-domain photos if I can't get my own.

[Slugkid]

The NOSE. It's WRONG. WRONG.

Wrong

[MOX]

The backrounds work well.

[ASR]

Yeah, I think so as well. When I get some more characters drawn, I'll whip up some more examples with different backgrounds.

I'm setting aside a day in the near future to take photos for the first episode. I wish I had done it earlier since there was just a carnival in town and I totally needed pictures for a carnival and I didn't think of this background method yet so that hadn't even occurred to me.

Actually, the carnival is at the cemetery so I should be fine if I can just grab some photos of Ferris wheels and Merry-Go-Rounds and cotton candy booths from open-domain sites. I'll have to frankenstein those tidbits with the cemetery pics I'll be taking.

Oh, and I added a bowtie to Orbille! Because he totally needed a bowtie and it makes perfect sense now that he has one.

[Mikero]

I think the background's still looking to realistic and it bothers me.

I think Orbille's secret last name that you don't reveal for a very long time should be Reddenvacker.

[ASR]

I still have to tweak the backgrounds quite a bit. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Anything will be appreciated.

I think Orbille's secret last name that you don't reveal for a very long time should be Reddenvacker.

Adurrrrr.
From the very first concept art page:

[Johncarllos]

Mike can see into the past.

[Mikero]

That's beside the point.

It should be Redenvacher.

[ASR]

I see what you're getting at now, and I like it.

Posted on: 29 May 2009, 21:15:55

http://alecrobbins.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/five-men/

I spent a lot of time on this blog entry and I'm really proud of how funny and well-written it is.

Posted on: 28 July 2009, 02:03:41

Hey, guys, thanks for never commenting on my stuff.

Here is a test video I made for the movie I'm going to make once I get back to school.

It is in this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e2Gk9_mwG0

Click the link to see it.

It is only four minutes. Less than four minutes, even.

[Johncarllos]

I commented on the blog itself you jerkface.

Also, it's worth a watch everybody.

[ASR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngaJxjo_CNw

And here is the new, revised, longer version with the full opening credits sequence, tentative as it may be.

[Majikn]

You pour your milk out of a what now?

Haha I'm sorry. I like the dog scene the most.

[ASR]

She is the best doggy actor in the whole wide world!

I didn't even know she did the run-out-of-the-room-and-back-in thing until much later when I was editing.

Posted on: 31 July 2009, 20:42:53

I made a new blog-comic-reviews sort of thing called Blinking Picture Box where I review TV show episodes and make comics about them and stuff.

I plan on keeping this up for a while since it's relatively easy to do. The comics are made with screencaps and take about 15 minutes each, and the reviews take about twice that long to write. I watch a #####load of TV so this is a fun way to give back a little.

[Mikero]

Lemme know when it's a show I care about.

[ASR]

SMART ALEC: The True Memoirs of Alec Robbins

It's an on-going highly-fictionalized autobiography. The first two chapters are up, and I assure you they are hilarious and I am quite proud of them.

[Mikero]

OK.

[Majikn]

Hey Alec.

I WAS BORN ON A FRIDAY.

[ASR]

I was walking into my English class today and then I accidentally slammed my left index and middle fingers REALLY hard in the door. The pain was killing me and they were bleeding, so to wear it off I just started drawing. I haven't sat down and drawn anything since I put another hold on The Simple Complex.

It actually came out pretty great.

I also found a song by NaS in my Literature book, which is a huge collection of poems and short stories and plays and it cost entirely too much but I actually find myself leafing through it a lot. So, even though the NaS song has absolutely nothing to do with the drawing of myself, my fingers were still hurting so I wrote it out behind my character.

My fingers are still hurting, by the way.

[Mikero]

I posted those lyrics here like two years ago, haha.

[ASR]

what's this?!

Not 100% happy with New Alan yet - it looks like I've been watching too much Venture Bros. (I have) and its invaded my creative drive.

It's better than the huge head he had before (see the eraser marks?) but I need to make it more... Alan.

I know it looks a lot different now, but it's intentional. The Simple Complex has come a long way since that first green doodle. My only problem right now is that the style I'm leaning towards right now is a little too much like Venture Bros, but I stand by the idea that I can and will differentiate enough, especially when I start drawing the aliens. Also, this is the most actual progress I've gotten done on the project since it began years ago, so whatever I'm doing must be right.

My old drawing style used to heavily borrow from Jhonen Vasquez's style with Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, which I later made fun of myself for doing and moved on from. Maybe that'll happen again when I look back on these drawings five years from now, but I'm okay with it because I'm actually getting ##### done right now.

I took a long break from drawing seriously and I'm embracing this new direction because it feels right. I've also never learned anatomy or real taught drawing skills aside from one high school class, and I've put this off for a long time until I could make it look right.

Also, that first page you see of Lincoln walking down a hallway - that's not a final version at all. It's a quick sketch to see what the first page is going to look like. I'm doing that with all the pages to block them out and see how they're going to work. Once again, I don't know the real way professionals do any of this and I'm trying to find a system that really works and allows me to get stuff done.

I have most of the first story written and a heavy outline for the main plot done and revamped. This is going to be a slow process but I'm really hoping I don't sputter out this time.

[Johncarllos]

It really is effecting your style.

[preventerWIND]

HankfromVentureBros