So here’s a commercial I worked on back in April. ย I usually like to wait a while before I consider it “safe” to discuss a project on this blog, because, well, it’s not a good thing to release production artwork before the commercial airs! ย And even though I didn’t see this one air, I know its fair game after so many months if my own clients are posting the finished commercial on their website reel. ย So, here we go.
[slideshow id=20]
Here we see a Caveman, clutching the original hand-held device, a stone wheel. ย He’s amazed with his creation and sets it to roll … ah, the beauty of it. ย As it rolls, we track along with it, until it bumps into a wooden wheel, which takes off in turn. ย And as it goes we see the “evolution” of the wheel, as it were, from stone, to wood, to iron, to rubber, to… what else? ย The digital scroll wheel of the new Superpages app! ย Naturally.
[singlepic id=428 w=320 h=240 float=]
And now I’ll discuss some of my artwork- First off, cavemen are fun to draw, and very forgiving, since they need to look all scraggly and ugly anyway. ย And I loved drawing that brief glimpse of his facial expression- like watching his baby take his first steps. ย But you know what are challenging to draw, and you wouldn’t suspect it necessarily, are wheels! ย Wheels are tricky to draw because they are so regular and round and perfectly geometric. A wheel consists of no less that one perfect circle nestle concentrically within a larger perfect circle- and if there’s a spoke or hubcap involved, you must add even more circles.
[singlepic id=434 w=320 h=240 float=]
Most artists would either just draw a crappy circle, or use a “shape” tool to make an absolutely perfect circle and substitute that for a drawing. ย Using shape or pen tools is useful but I personally feel that they look too computer generated (since they are) and are therefore unsuitable in a otherwise hand-drawn image. ย So that’s no good. ย Luckily Painter (the program I use) has a nifty “align-to-path” stroke feature that allows me to essentially trace the circle shape in a single stroke – kind of like using a compass or protractor to trace circles in geometry class. ย It gives me the perfect roundness and also the variation in line weight and stoke feel that I need in my drawings. ย So that’s how I make my wheels look so good.
[singlepic id=435 w=320 h=240 float=]
You’ll also notice that the spokes of the wooden and iron wheels are blurred when they are spinning. ย That’s super important and a lot of artists make that mistake- if the car is moving, you don’t draw the spokes on the hubcap, nor the tire treads, since they both will blur when the wheel spins! ย If you can see the spokes on a wheel, that makes the wheel look like it’s stationary. ย Anyway you can tell when a storyboard artist just traced a picture of a car when he doesn’t bother to attend to details like that.
[singlepic id=436 w=320 h=240 float=]
It’s a goofy little commercial but my boards on it were great. ย I can say that because they match the final product so well. ย That’s usually the best indicator that I did a good job. ย If you watch the final video you’ll see what I mean. ย Click the link below to view!
For my part, I’m kinda over drawing iPhones, iPads, and Facebook this-n-that. ย They all feel the same to me.
Something New: ย I’ve decided to remove generally commenting on these posts. ย Just getting wayyyyy too much spam and it was discouraging me from even doing this blog. ย Jesus christ, over 4,000 posts advertising Ugg boots of all things. ย Rot in hell you spammers. ย I might bring back commenting someday but for now it’s gone. ย If you would like to contact me, you can email me (if you know my email-its not hard to guess), facebook me, or click the Contact button on the upper right , you can even leave a reply there or contact my agent.
