It's Time for Anarchy! (Strange films from High School)

Hooray for Winter Break! It means I can devote all my time to art and other creative craziness. It also means I have time to update the blog! So without further ado, let's get on with the updating.

Update No. 1


The Yeti book is coming along. We're aiming to be done with the color mockups by the end of the break. If we ever get published, I'll post pictures. Until then, the images will stay locked away in our secret swiss fort--the one with the dying billionaire and snowmobiles.

Update No. 2


Paul Glickman and I made it into the Heartland Film Festival with our short film El Salon Mexico! I got to stay in a fancy hotel--the kind you see on British TV, with all the wallpaper and fancy door handles! We didn't win anything, but it was absolutely worth the trip, if only to see my good friend Paul and meet so many cool people.


Update No. 3

In an effort to get that coveted summer internship with some animation studio, I'm finally uploading my short films to YouTube!

So. Let's watch some short films.

Did you take high school biology? I hated it... but also found it pretty hilarious. Nature is such a free-for-all. Death and life can be explained with very long words. If nothing else, high school biology caused me to make some very strange short-films.

Cells with McGreggor and Montey: Phagocytosis



Another strange one from high school--having nothing to do with biology, but just as anarchic.

Head, Hands and Feet:



Hopefully the next post will make more sense. I make no promises, hah!


Happy Holidays!
T. King

There's A Mouth on my Desk!

Hi guys! Check this out:



That was "Annotated," a short film I made for an animation class, freshman year. Professor John Edmark let us do crazy stuff--whatever we wanted. It was seriously one of the best classes I've ever taken at Stanford.

Here's the process I used to make it:

Step 1: Record yourself talking

Step 2: Import the footage to Final Cut Pro, and apply the Strobe filter (at like 5 fps).

Step 3: Export the movie as a series of JPEGS

Step 4: Find free printing--A LOT of free printing

Step 5: Use free stop motion animation software to capture footage of the pictures in various places. (You lay the stack down, take a frame, remove a page, take a frame, remove a page, take a frame, etc...)

Step 6: Import the new still frames to Final Cut

Step 7: Make each still frame one tenth of a second long.

Step 8: Add the original soundtrack of yourself talking, and tweak the frames so that they synch up with the audio.

Step 9: Write esoteric messages on the leftover mouth printouts and stick them up in the dorm bathroom--muhahahaha!

Frustratingly, I can't remember what free software I used to make this. But the web is teeming with free stop motion programs--so go see what you can find!


Best,
T. King

Desktop Wallpaper!

Last night my brother changed my desktop background to a picture of spiderman pulling Venom-slime off his face. This is what the wallpaper used to be:



I'd like to do more work in this style someday. The pipes are all art brushes constructed in Illustrator--so technically, I only had to draw one pipe! No, no, that's not laziness, it's efficiency.


G'night!
T. King

Vanity Search! (Because I'm too lazy to upload my own videos)

I just googled myself (hey! don't pretend you don't do that too, haha). Surprise! I've got stuff on youtube now.

First, the trailer to El Salon Mexico, posted by my close friend and mentor Paul Glickman. I was on design duty, and Paul was on animation/direction duty:



Second, a a freshman version of me talking about the Intel Computer Clubhouse. The video was shot about a year ago by the very cool clubhouse community liaison, Jeff Arthur:



And finally, one of my first ever animations, drawn as a flipbook on post-it notes. After watching the little cartoon, Paul generously scanned and assembled it in Final Cut. Fine memories. He's been an amazing mentor--I'm really thankful for the years we got to work together.



Wow two posts in two days. I guess I'm covered until November. Haha, just joshin' ya!


Happy 5th of July,
T. King

It's Yeti Time!

Sloth is sin. I haven't posted anything since last school break! Here's an update.

Well, I didn't land a dream job in California, but that's okay! I'm back in my hometown for the summer teaching animation and media at the Intel Computer Clubhouse (a community center that provides free access to computers for kids all over the world). How awesome is that?

Also, I did get to be an illustrator for the Stanford Graphic Novel project last quarter. It was amazing! The novel is called Pika-Don, and it's based on the true story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the few people to survive both atomic bombings at ground zero. Not only did Mr. Yamaguchi survive, he also went on to spend the rest of his life promoting peace, teaching children, and eventually addressing the UN. I really hope that our novel will help forward the cause that he left behind.


(I penciled and inked this picture!) ^

We sent the novel off to the presses in June. I'm supposed to be getting my copy soon (yay! there will be pictures!). Anyway, the post production team has been working hard to get the website up, and they can explain the project far better than I can.

Also...


This summer I got recruited to help illustrate a book by Chris Kientz, the creator of the animated series Raven Tales! The book involves Manhattan, vinyl, and abominable snowmen. That's all I can say for now--stay tuned for more very vague, cloak-and-dagger updates, if you feel so inclined :P


Thanks for reading, and Happy Independence Day!

T. King

New Reel

Okay, it's time to go get an internship. I just spent 6 hours working on my packets to send out to the studios. It's 5 am, and I have a plane (and a bus, and a train) to catch tomorrow. I hope all this pays off with a summer internship in California--that would be great...

Here's my new reel, in all its pixelated, web-ravaged glory! If you're a potential employer, and you'd like a full quality demo, just send me an email: jesterskull59 [at] yahoo [dot] com.



This is where I'll be sending potential employers, so everything on this site is has to be 2% more professional from now on :)

Going to bed now. Will pack in the morning. School starts Monday, argh...

Night,
T. King

Finals Week!

Well hello there!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've got plenty of new work from Drawing II--just not enough time to photograph it. It's finals week, friends. Fortunately, I did grab a quick snapshot of my application to next quarter's Graphic Novel class:



This is the same Graphic Novel class that produced the novel "Shake Girl" in 2008. It got published and everything. Their application process is pretty nifty. Basically you write your name, student info, and a paragraph expressing your reasons for applying on one side of a piece of paper. On the other side you write or draw something creative--whatever you want!

I hope I get in. Who knew they had such neat art classes around here?

Mammoth!

Hello friends. It's time for more art! I'm in a drawing class this quarter in which we have a new project due each week. It's nice to have a steady deadline to work with, because it means that I get things finished rather than just mulling over them forever.

A couple of my favorite projects below:

"Hour by Hour" - Paper shopping bag, book page, permanent marker.



"Summer 2006" - Brown paper and marker.



"Hoff" - Inspired by Night Rider and IKEA assembly manuals. Brown paper and marker.



Next project will be on toilet paper. Not even kidding.


Have a great week!
T. King

Come on. It's not that hard.

Making the world a better place, one poster at a time.




By the way, the unicorns aren't mine. They're from ChildStoryHour.com, an online coloring book page resource.


Happy February!
T. King

Timothy Trailer!

Hey, here's the trailer for "Timothy and the Great Robotic Invaders from Outer Space!" Gosh, I haven't seen this in ages. This was the first project that I had to get a writer and voice actors for. It was such a blast to animate--especially since I was such a 50's sci-fi nerd at the time (and kind of still am).



By unlucky coincidence, Disney's "Meet the Robinsons" came out the same year as Timothy did. See below to witness the tragedy. Haha, oh well.






Okay. Time for bed. Bye for now!


Tam

Old designs from way back...

Hey, it's a new year already! January will be gone before we know it. That means spring is coming--it's almost time to start hunting for a summer job. So you'll be seeing a lot of old portfolio stuff as I rummage through old art and find new stuff to add. Check it out :D

Here's some of the graphic design stuff I worked on last year.



Another poster for the same group. This one modeled after an advertisement for the old film "Soul Patrol." It didn't get used--I mean Soul Patrol was a blaxploitation film, so I kind of see why. Regardless, I thought it was pretty hilarious :D



Some animation stuff:

These are storyboard frames from a shortfilm I animated/directed--"Timothy and The Great Invaders from Outer Space." It's on IMDB! I was glad to see that.



Concepts for the tripods in "Timothy":



And some concepts for a 50's style horror short I wanted to do once--then gave up on. Nobody can get away with making vampire stuff now, haha



And a monkey in a cherry tree. This is from back in '07, when I was applying to art schools. Time flies!



So yes, lots of old stuff. Now it's time to start scanning new stuff. I'll post some of that soon--when I can find a free scanner :)


Happy new year, folks.

Tamarind