Prepare to meet your marker. #11

I photoed a bee...

BZZZ...

Prepare to meet your marker. #10

And Charm wanted one where he wasn't "scary"...

Prepare to meet your marker. #09

Ratty said he liked my dog from a couple of days ago. So I drew him another one! :)

Blackbird videos

I found a friend on the road while cycling around town.

I heard chicks dug... chicks...

So I was heading out for a bike ride this afternoon and stopped early when I saw this guy sitting on the gravel road leading out of the house. I stopped and thought I'd take a photo but got too close to him (around 10 cm from his face) and he decided to awkwardly run away. He managed to flap his wings a bit and get some air, but it was more like a chicken flight than that of a blackbird. At that point my Dad saw my camera bag and my bike alone in the middle of the driveway and probably thought I had been abducted by aliens. When he found me I explained that yes I had been abducted by aliens but that was a long time ago and that now I had to unhinge my jaw and and feast on the little bird I'd found like any good reptilian would do. My Dad and Mom, who had just joined us, were shocked! "You found a bird?!... Where?!". So I retracted my mandible jaws and pointed to the stack of tiles under which the bird was most likely hiding from me. At that point, birdy decided that he wanted to come out and my Dad gently took him. We took him home. Before you boo me, I have to say: The thing was retarded! I mean, we caught it really easily. The neighbourhood cat/cougar/tiger thing walking around would have turned this guy into easily 2 minutes of entertainment and we would have had him as an offering on our door step the next morning. True, now we have a pretty big responsibility to keep him in good health until he learns to fly, but I'm sure we'll bring him up to be the best damn Ostrich in Lorcy!

Chip, chip, chip...

Working on our routine...

Seriously, aerodynamics fail...

After all this I went for a 13.2 km bike ride. :)


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Prepare to meet your marker. #08

Prepare to meet your marker. #07

Almost didn't get that one in on time. :)

Some old sketches I just inked

Prepare to meet your marker. #06

Prepare to meet your marker. #05

Not so good this time, but it's a try. Lucky I didn't become an architect.

Xmen first class VFX on FXguide.

LINK HERE

Note that they seem to forget that the Banshee's scream in the final showdown was done by moi at Weta and not Luma. But whatever. Most of these articles are usually far from accurate.

Prepare to meet your marker. #04

Prepare to meet your marker. #03

Prepare to meet your marker. #02

Prepare to meet your marker.

Prepare to meet your marker is a new series of a drawing per day done in marker. :)

Some photos from my new thinking zone.

Some concept art for a defunct project.

A computer on a usb stick for less than 25 bucks.

I don't often post news and links on this blog as I try to keep it as related to my work as possible, but I couldn't resist sharing this with the small amount of you guys who are stiff reading this. :)

This guy, David Braben, has built a computer the size of a usb stick which costs even less than a usb stick. Truly amazing. This opens up accessibility to the computing world to people, namely children in 3rd world countries, to the power of the the digital ages. Truly inspiring work. Another reason for posting this is that of course the only sensible thing to run on this baby are Linux and free-BSD distros including Ubuntu and Lubuntu.

Here's the newer trailer for Xmen first class.

Xmen first class trailer.

 This is one of the films that has been keeping me busy amongst others. I like the trailer. :)
I did the effects on the XJET, like the afterburners, heat haze and condensation streamers. Simple stuff but fun.

Welcome to Hollywood...

iPhone and blue pencil.

Cocktail by the pool.

Florida Iguana

Airport

Giving the Cintiq a whirl.

Zbrush and myPaint on Kubuntu 10.04.

This is why FX artists shouldn't be allowed to use fireworks.

The FX department with fireworks - 1 from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.


The FX department with fireworks - 2 from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

The Fishermen's Town.

Badulah train station.

Slow-stick maiden test flight.

Unsuccessful would be an understatement, however it was a fun time and basically I think all I need is more power. The prop is hooked to the engine by quite a large gear lowering the RPM's of the prop compared to the RPM's of the engine. I'm going to try to change that gear ratio and I'm confident this baby will fly. The airframe seemed fairly stable. I may try to increase the V of the wings for more stability and also, somehow shift the electronics so that it's not so tail heavy.

Slow-stick maiden test flight. from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

Quick test sketch with the Cintiq.

I am so ashamed. I have had this Cintiq for a couple of months now and I haven't been able to find the time to do any work with it. This is a very quick sushi chef test sketch that I did tonight with MyPaint.

Scratch built rc plane update.

Scratch built slow stick progress.

The overall beast in all its glory of wood and metal bits.

The elevators and rudder. Showing the control rods connected.

The servos ready to do my biding and control this untamed demon.

The propeller taken from an old gas engine rc plane. Hopefully it will do the trick.

My trusty controller. It's always there for me.

Meccanos! Who doesn't love 'em. 

Rubber bands to hold the wings! Yup, ya gotta do watcha gotta do.