new PERMANENT blog!!!!

Hello, anyone who still checks this blog, I just wanted to update everyone with my new blog. I started a business with my girlfriend last year and that's kept us completely occupied outside our day jobs. It takes so much work that we're about to hire our first official payrolled employee. You can follow what we're up to over at the following website.

www.dfrntTimes.com

We're in the middle of redesigning our online presence, sites and such, along with a million other things, so follow us on that site if you're interested. Also, I will no longer post any new personal work on this blog, I may even shut it down, or forward from here to the new one, not sure. All new work will be rolled into our company and posted on the other site, just another reason to check back with our new site from time to time.

I hope you're all doing well, sorry for the lack of keeping in touchness, we're finding our true friends understand how busy we are and don't take it personally.

Cheap Trick Cover

So, yeah this is such a badass cover of Cheap Trick's "I want you to love me" song .....

Gael Garcia Bernal cover

NEW SHIRT AVAILABLE NOW!!!

Our new DFRNT shirt, available now at www.beDFRNT.com

Blanka

Blanka ala MIA/DFRNT style for ze reDRAWN blog.

Muppets

For the reDRAWN blog

www.beDFRNT.com

We finally finished the website for the clothing company I started with my girlfriend's help a couple months ago. The design above is now online and you can pay securely over the web, goodbye sidewalk selling. Mia drew all the originals and I inked them. Visit www.beDFRNT.com to check it out. Thanks in advance for your support.

Sahmore Bernini Sketches

I was at the Getty once again, here's some sketches of some great Bernini sculptures.

Thunder Thunder Thunder .....

My submission for the reDRAWN blog, along with the initial sketch so you can see how crappy these things start out.

Bernini sketchez

I checked out the Bernini exhibit at the Getty yesterday and his stuff is awesome, here some sketches of some of his sculptures

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Submission for the reDRAWN blog.

memory sketch

I was watching some FOX show for a bit the other day and noticed this detective guy who stood with his head tilted to the side all the time, I drew him the next day at work, here it is.

Toe Jam & Earl

My latest reDRAWN entry.

Earthworm Jim

For the reDRAWN blog

Hombre Mega !!!

So I started a blog with some friends where we draw a classic character from back in the day every week. This week it's MEGA MAN. Check out the blog at www.redrawn.blogspot.com

It's been a While pt II

Hello everyone, it's been foreeeever since I last posted. As usual I've been incredibly busy, we've been in crunch at work for the last few months finishing up BOLT, which should be a greeeeat movie, trust me. LINK to the trailer.

Aside from work I'm staying extra busy starting up my own clothing company with my girlfriend, we're both collaborating on the designs. Here's a link to a temporary, low budget, working on a real site, blog we set up the night before Comic Con. LINK The brand is dfrnt, as in different/diferente/other latin rooted words for different. The brand is trademarked and we've copyrighted all our characters with the feds for protection.

As far as art that I can post, all I have right now is some sketches from the figure sessions I attend every now and then, they're posted above. We're keeping all t shirt art under wraps. There's some character design work I've done that I'm not sure if I can post, but I'll find out and post that if possible. I've switched to ink lately, so all the work above is done directly in ink or marker during my figure sessions, except for two of the ones at the very top.

Before I go, sorry if I have been outta touch for a few months, I'm still trying to learn how to slow down enough to have time to give friends a call here and there. The good news is that once BOLT wraps up life can go back to 40 hr work weeks and 2 day weekends so I should have plenty of time to relax. I hope you're all doing well, and I do check your blogs out often to continue the inspiration you guys gave me during my Ring a ling days. One more thing, I'll be at Siggraph helping out at the Disney booth on that Wednesday so stop by and say hello. Keep in touch everyone.

El Orfanato / The Orphanage

Forget the Oscar films, see if you're lucky enough to have this movie playing nearby and go watch it. Produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). My favorite movie of the year so far, don't spoil it by watching the trailer.

It's About Time

Yeah, I'm still alive, just super busy at work. I finally added some color to that sketch from way back posted below. It's all over the place, even a bit distracting, but I learned a few things for next time.

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Wish You All The Best! Click here to make your day complete.

I'll end this with the obligatory apology for a lack of posting, I'll start up again once work eases up. Happy Holidays, peace out.

Return of the Thesis?

Strange, I got a phone call from someone today saying they saw my thesis on some website, so I went to take a look. It turns out somebody submitted my thesis to dailymotion.com. Thanks to that mysterious submitter for compressing it and getting it online for me, I've procrastinated forever on that. Its a pretty low quality compression, but hopefully you'll get the idea. Now, if someone could get it on YouTube for me, that would be cool.

I can't tell if that person also entered it in the contest the website is advertising at the top, guess I should look into that, eventually.

VIDEO LINK

While I'm here, heres a link to a dope Julieta Venegas video. Born in Long Beach Cali but then grew up in Tijuana Mexico.

MUSIC VIDEO LINK

Random Figuro Estuff

Just some stuff I liked from the figure workshop at work. Color version of that last post is on its way.

Costume Figure Drawing

Turns out that at work every Monday is costume figure drawing, my new favorite figure drawing day. It's a great opportunity to use a live model for reference in your artwork. Here's the pencil drawing I did during a session in my handy 3 by 5 molie. Her right arm is supposed to be holding a little pistol, but not sure if thats working, I might change that arm's pose or remove it all together. Any suggestions are welcome. I'm gonna start working on a color version as soon as I find the time, so that should be the next thing I post.

Macaco

Just wanted to share a group I've been listening to while I work. I got their CDs last year from Amazon since I can't find them in any U.S. store. Their stuff is mostly in spanish, but theres some english, portugese, and french in there as well. The first clip is 95% in english, the second clip is in good ol Spanish. One of my favorite groups ever, smart lyrics and cool beats, so enjoy.

MACACO "Fast Lane"

MACACO "Mama Tierra/Mother Earth"

MACACO "Somos Luz"

..... I'll figure out how to embed video the next time.

costume figure drawing

Did these at work during a costume figure drawing session. I'm enjoying my switch to ink, it's much quicker, eventually I'll look into pens, just sharpies and pilots for now.

The Gift of Graffiti

I actually did this piece early last month in October for a friend's birthday gift, but never got around to posting it, so here it is.

Its Been Too Long

Wow, Ive been too busy at work to post anything, but I know thats no excuse. I drew one of these again and decided to add some sort of color this time. I'll try to keep posting, although finding time to do any personal work is getting tough, damn, i think thats another excuse, I gotta stop it. I hope everyone is doing well, and feel free to call or email if you wanna catch up on things, good luck with your work everyone.

Bloody Tony !

So, here's that color version of my vampire self portrait I promised. Using color will forever be a slow learning process especially since I rarely used it in the past, but its fun. Theres two versions as you can see, the only difference between the two is the darkness of the blood in the background. I'm trying to decide which version will be the final version so let me know which you prefer. Thanks.

Vampiro

Decided to take a break from a project I'm working on and went to the beach to draw for a bit. Hannah's theme for her blog this week is vampire self portraits, so I drew one while I was there. Not too creative, just a basic self portrait with some bite marks, vampire theme feels tacked on at the moment but hopefully adding color will help ( bite blood dripping into bloody red background, pale skin, etc )

afraid of the dark

????

Been busy with a few things, here's some ish to keep me posting. Next one of these'll be in color.

jigga .... saw

Another one of my random jigsaw sketches, this one is 3" by 5", I need a thinner lead pencil.

sketch for future painting?

I drew this sketch out and thought it could make a cool painting if I stylize it some more, a lot more. It's supposed to be the Aphrodite the love goddess, that naked lady on a seashell. I was mainly trying to see how far I could get without any reference, so theres some anatomy issues but oh well.

Captain Obvious

....... master of disguise

Shark Week ...

... my favorite Discovery Channel week.

Gotta Love Tijuana

It's not the prettiest place, but it sure can be fun. Cheap food, cheap drinks, cheap entertainment, cheap everything. I took a few friends over to Tijuana this weekend who had never been there, lucky for them there was some bullfighting going on. It's a strange tradition imported from Spain, and its much more brutal and one sided than you think. It's definitely not something you'll ever see in the U.S. so check it out at least once in your lifetime and see what you think.

Birds of Prey

For a "Birds of Prey" thread, didnt have much time, not sure why exactly.

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Trying not to get "rusty" with the art over the summer, get it? I know, lame. Anyway, I posted this elsewhere, part a "friendly neighborhood robot" thread, enjoy. Oh, and the chinese is probably way off.

Color Foshso !!

I have a bad habit I'm trying to break of saying I'm going to keep working on something and never getting back to it. I posted this sketch below and mentioned I wanted to add some color eventually. I just threw some color over my original sketch, and added the "ANDRE", thank the lord for photoshop.

1995-2007

Thought I'd post this here because it has a cool backstory. So, one of the things I'm trying to do with my time off is take care of all those "I owe you" drawings. This one is the most overdue, I started it when I was in 8th grade, that's 12 years ago! It's for my friend's dad, I guess back then I didn't realize how much work a 22"x28" piece would be, especially with color pencil. All the work there was done years ago, except for the parts of the tree and leaves in the upper left area, for some reason that's where I stopped back then. It had been in my garage for years, the paper is in really bad shape and I think it was even starting to mold. Well, I stuck it in a frame yesterday and finally gave it to my friend's dad. It's not a portfolio piece, but at least now my friends can finally stop asking me when I'm going to finish their dad's drawing.

Andres el GIGANTE

I posted this on some other blog, part of a Classic Wrestlers thread. If I get around to it, I might do a color version, have some animation and a tattoo design to take care of first.

Life Imitates Art

I was driving down Venice Blvd with a friend and saw some lights in the distance. Turns out the 7-11 on the corner of Venice and Sepulveda was transformed into a Simpson's Kwik-E-Mart. Being a huge fan I had to pick up a Squishee, some Krusty-Os, and that's some Buzz cola I'm drinking. If anyone is in the area go check it out.

Overweight Supervillain

I posted this elsewhere on an Overweight Supervillain thread, might as well post it here too. Peace out.

sketchbook

Luckily I had my lil 3x5 moleskin with me while I was in Mexico, here's some some scans, the usual stuff. Also, for those of you who haven't seen PAPRIKA yet, it should be playing at a few theatres in your area by now. I would check it out if I were you, I saw it a few months ago at a film festival and I'm heading out for another showing tonight.

Back from Mexico

So, I finally graduated, about a month ago, and the first thing I did was go back to Mexico and visit some family. Here's some pics of Jalisco, the state my family is from, also, the home of tequila.

Thesis WIP

Here's a still from my thesis. Theres still so much to get too but time is running out quick. Oh, and sorry but the image quality isnt great, its been compressed twice. I'll post more in a few weeks.

It's alive!

Here's my notes from last week's Literature of Horror class. This week, Frankenstein's monster. I hadn't read the book in a long time, still good.

Must Watch!

Here's some stills from one of my favorite movies ever. I saw it a while back in December and again last night. "El Laberinto del Fauno" also know as "Pan's Labyrinth" in the U.S., finally broke the pattern of watered down and unoriginal films the last few years, in my opinion. Here's some stills to entice those who haven't seen it yet to get to the theatre.

Dracula Doodles

Ahh, liberal arts. I'm taking a course called the Literature of Horror, Science Ficition, and Fantasy. During our first class we watched parts of this old black and white movie called Nosferatu, it had a really cool looking Dracula played by some German guy. Here's my notes, that dracula kind of looked like the one at the bottom left, sort of.

Happy 2007, 2K7, MMVII, Dos Mil Siete

2007 is finally here, maybe I'll finally get a degree after all these years of school. I wish everyone the best, figure out what you really want in the coming months and go get it. I've been back at school for about a week working on my thesis project, all I can say is that there's a few rough weeks ahead. Thankfully I got to go home to L.A. and recuperate after a busy semester. I made a bunch of resolutions, we'll see which ones stick. One of them was to post more regularly, so here you go.

Still Alive

I've been too busy to post lately due to my school work, but I thought some of you might find this helpful. I've seen using a scribble method for the last few months when designing characters. You start off by scribbling on a page with no clear idea of what your final design will be. You then start to find shapes among your scribbles and finalize some sort of image. It's a cool technique inspired by concept artist Carlos Huante that helps me come up with stuff I would otherwise never think of. Here's some progress images for a random character design. At first I was going to go with a superhero, then a spy, but then I saw the long hair and thought a barber. He turned out to be some sort of self procalimed hair dressing superhero.

Thesis Progress

Okay, so I 'm way too busy to be posting, but here is a cool shot I blocked out for my 3D animatic that is due this Friday. Back to work.

some more

Here's some figure work from an anatomy class I'm taking. It does mostly longer poses. Since I am trying to improve my gestures I have started doing a few quick gestures of the pose before I draw the longer one.

And another

Trying to post something at least once a week, busy with thesis. Oh yeah, thesis, gotta run.

Figure Drawings

Finally, some work based on reality. While I was at EA this summer some of my co workers and I attended a figure drawing workshop at UC Berkely. These were done on newsprint with a china marker. The model was awesome.

Here's Another

Haven't posted in a while, so here you go. This is what happens when you sit down with absolutely no idea of what you want to draw, which is the way I usually draw. Thesis is chugging along but it's eating up most of my drawing time. Actually I have to get back to that right now.

Back in Action

Finally, internet access. I started my final year of school yesterday. In class we went over the schedule for our thesis projects and it is going to be a hectic year, as usual. I will continue to post sketches and art related stuff but I might limit my thesis posts just so it's fresh when people first see it. Here's a couple of sketches from my sketchbook, it's a 3" by 5" so the lines aren't as sharp as usual. And yes, this is my final one of these mosaic looking head pages, for now. In case you are wondering why my pages are so dirty... when I sketch in pencil my page ends up really smudged up thanks to Carlos Huante. He's a concept artist who purposely smudges very loose sketches to get a midtone, and then he pulls out his highlights with an eraser as he refines his design, it's a quick way to render. I hope everyone is doing good, and good luck in the coming months.

No Internet in the Hood

Well, I'm back in L.A. My intership ended last Friday and I got back Sunday. Just want to thank everyone at MAXIS for running such a creative studio. EA and San Francisco were cool, but there's no place like home. Unlimited homemade tacos and a day at the beach my first day back, priceless. I haven't posted anything since, and I probably will not post until I get back to school since I don't have any internet access at home. I am updating this using my cell phone at the moment so I'm making it quick. I owe a feww people money so I'm heading out to Vegas tommorrow, wish me luck. I'll see most of you when school starts, to everyone else who graduated, good luck getting your careers started and see you in the real world when I finish in May. Peace out.

Modeling Continues

Here's a few images. I'm throwing in the exploratory bust I made and an expression sheet. I decided to roughly block out the beard to see if the head I was modeling was getting there, I think it's on it's way. My final model will be a combination between the original sketch posted near the very bottom of my blog, the maquette I made, and the expression sheet. Feel free to post some feedback. I'm still very much in progress with this, so ANY would help. Harsh crits are welcomed.

One more

Final one of these for a while, must crank out my model this weekend.

Random Sketch

I got to work early today so I had time to scan a page from my sketchbook, here you go.

Slow Progress

This model is turning out to be a beast of a project. I still have tons to do everywhere, hands, arms, face, beard, and overall style (planes, edges, straights, and curves). I'm expecting the branches and beard to really bring it together. I made a quick scale comparison of how I think the final models will compare. Oh, and the kid doesn't have a square head. Time to sleep.

Introduction

I just realized I haven't introduced myself. My name is Tony Cabrera and I am studying computer animation at the Ringling School of Art and Design. I am originally from a small city in the Los Angeles area called Lennox but I moved to Florida 3 years ago to attend the best school for computer animation in the U.S.

I am currently interning with EA (Electronic Arts), in Emeryville, CA at their MAXIS studio. I am working on an upcoming game by the creator of The Sims, Will Wright. The game is called SPORE and it is revolutionary title coming to gamers sometime next year. I am not sure how much I can say about the game, just click here and watch the demo video for an explanation.

I move back home to L.A. in 2 weeks when my internship is over and move back to Florida 2 weeks later to start my final year of school. I will spend the year producing my senior thesis, a 2 minute computer animated short. At Ringling every student works on their own piece, that means I will be modeling, rigging, texturing, animating, and lighting everything. It is going to be a very busy year, what else is new. Thankfully I will be going through this experience with my fellow classmates who's work inspires me every day and my teachers will be there to guide me when deadlines get tight.

I'll keep updating this site throughout the year with thesis progress and other random sketches and doodles, so check back from time to time if you are interested.

I Lost My Sketchbook !

So, I was sketching in a tiny 3" x 5" Moleskin sketchbook for most of this summer, and now I can't find it anywhere. If anyone finds a tiny black sketch book with strange doodles that looks like these call the number written on the inside cover.

Thesis Character Design

Here is an image of the look I hope to achieve for my model. There are a few changes I have decided to make which will vary slightly from this design but this is the basic idea.

First Post

I finally got a blog. Just throwing up some images of one of my models for my senior thesis. As you can see, it is still very much in progress. The list of things that need to be done to it is too long to type right now. Sorry for the low res picture, I will post larger images next time.