Other Blog

Hello! I do a lot of jumping back and forth between this blog and my blog on Tumblr.

Link to my other blog here.

The Early Bird Who Caught The Night Owl

     It's very difficult for me to keep surprises from my wife. Try as I might, she always sees right through me. And that made creating this design all the more fun!

     Because she tends to give me general suggestions, types of things rather than pointing out specific gifts she would like, there are usually few genuine surprises waiting for her under the tree. But not this year! This year I was determined to come up with something that would catch her by surprise. So with that in mind, I made this design for her and had it printed on a shirt.

     This design plays into the old saying that "the early bird catches the worm", except that she, being the early bird she is, caught me, the night owl instead.

     

Onyx: Book One Complete!

My manuscript for the first book is complete as of the 8th of January. I've read it through and edited the draft, and now have a small group of people doing a test read of the story. Once I get their feedback I'm going to implement any necessary changes to the draft while I search for a literary agent. I felt really nervous about how to go about looking, but after reading Diana Gabaldon's story in her book The Outlandish Companion I feel more optimistic and eager to begin.

Onyx Posters in Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown

I'm very excited to announce that Onyx and Spade got some exposure in the latest installment of the Never Back Down series! If you happen to check out the Michael Jai White (Spawn!) directed MMA film, you'll be able to catch a few glimpses of the poster in the comics shop.

LULZ OF WAR

After many weeks of development, Lulz of War is finally complete!

Creating it took a lot of work, but it was very fun and turned out well.

Mega Man Art Buster Fanbook

This has already been out for a little while, but I thought it would be fun to highlight it. So, earlier this year UDON released the Mega Man Tribute book. Many artists submitted their work, but only a select few made it in. But what about all of the other entries?

Enter Soul-Rokkuman! She, along with a few other friends, gathered all of the remaining entries to create the [Mega Man] Art Buster Fanbook. The link to the download is at the bottom of the list.

It was a wonderful idea, and a great opportunity to display the works of those who didn't make it into the Mega Man Tribute book, myself included. My submission is on page 20 of the Art Buster Fanbook, and I'm grateful to have been a part of it.

New Onyx Pic

Just finished an Onyx sketch for fun. It was a nice break from all the wedding prep.

Bridging Worlds: Mega Man Classic and X

This has been a very tough year for the blue bomber. Capcom has shut down two of his latest adventures and excluded him from the Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 roster. The future seems to promise more toys, comics, and apparel from the franchise, but what about the most important question we, the fans, are asking ourselves: Where are the games?

Like millions of other gamers in the world, I grew up with Mega Man and I'm never going to give up hope on him or the franchise. I'm not going to waste time justifying myself, so let me get straight to the point. Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man X9 are the most requested titles by fans, but for many years I've wanted a game that bridges the gap between the Classic and X series. A game that tells us what happened in the Classic series's final days, and how the forces of good and evil concluded their battle, for a time. Here's my vision of what could be one of the most unique Mega Man games to date.

It starts with Dr. Wily causing trouble as usual. Mega Man is sent in to deal with this latest threat, only to come face to face with a prototype Zero. This battle is handled similarly to the first time X encounters Vile. Mega man is nearly defeated by Zero, until Proto Man comes to rescue him. Together, the pair manages to force Zero to retreat.

Back at the lab, Dr. Light reveals that he removed Mega Man's charge and slide abilities in order to upgrade them. He then explains that they're still incomplete. After Mega Man collects components found in the robot master levels of the game, Dr. Light will equip him with a stronger, chargeable Mega Buster, the ability to dash, armor upgrades, and prototype Sub-Tanks.

As always, Mega Man will have to fight a new set of eight robot masters. This game would feature a combination of traditional human-element hybrids, as well as some of the animal-element hybrids from the X series. Wily has infected each of them with the Zero virus, and thus created the world's first Mavericks.

Wily's plan is to release a global Zero virus strain that will turn every machine maverick. Bass will appear throughout the game to warn Mega Man of Wily's latest intentions, and join up with him.

After the eight main bosses are defeated, Bass, Proto Man, and Mega Man will venture to different parts of the world and destroy six stations to stop the virus from spreading. Dr. Light continues to provide upgrades to Bass, Proto Man, and Mega Man as the game progresses. We also see that Dr. Light is working on a new robot (X), and we see his progress unfolding throughout the game.

Once every station is destroyed, Bass, Proto Man, and Mega Man head to Wily's castle to stop him once and for all. During one of the castle levels Bass gets corrupted by the Zero virus. Mega Man and Proto Man have no choice but to nearly destroy him in order to continue. Once Bass is shut down, Dr. Light teleports him back to his lab.

On the last level, in a battle against an even stronger version of prototype Zero, Proto Man sacrifices himself to save Mega Man and is destroyed. Mega Man almost defeats prototype Zero, but Wily interferes and saves him. Wily locks Zero away in a capsule, which buries itself underground. Mega Man and Wily have a final battle, in which Mega Man defeats and kills him. As Wily's castle explodes around him, Mega Man is unable to escape in time. This unleashes the only strain of the Perfect Zero virus on Mega Man.

Bass, now cured of the Zero virus and repaired, returns to the rubble and finds the corrupted version of Mega Man. Bass fights and defeats Mega Man, and then takes him back to Dr. Light's lab. Dr. Light cannot find a way to cure Mega Man of the Perfect Zero virus, and is forced to reset his mind, which erases all of his memories.

Dr. Light then places Mega Man's blank mind into a new body, that of the first ever Reploid: X. In his last weeks on earth, Dr. Light completes his greatest work, X, and buries him.

And that's that. There's my dream Mega Man game. It's full of sacrifice, and I think it would touch many fans of the series in a meaningful way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please feel free to leave any comments or opinions.

Onyx Book One Update

I'm very excited to say that I've made a great deal of progress on typing up nearly everything I have written so far. I'm doing my best to balance my time between projects, and have been putting in entire afternoons typing up chapters. In addition to writing the rest of Onyx's first adventures, I'm also working on something my brother and I wrote over a year ago. So there's quite a bit going on right now, and I'll be revealing more information about that over the next few weeks.

Review: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (XBOX 360)

Recently I decided to pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood after a friend of my brother's went on a twenty minute rant about how much fun it was. I was always curious about the series as a whole but never really got into it, until now.

I just beat it about two days ago, then went back to finish off more of the side missions and explore a bit. Honestly, I enjoyed every minute of the game. It loves to mess with your mind. The ''Truth'' puzzles are a bit disturbing and the ending is a major cliffhanger, but I haven't enjoyed a game this much in a while. As a huge game music fan I loved the range of scores, from the lonely brooding countryside overtures to the unsettling choirs that accompany you on tense stealth missions. Each tune really carries you through the experience. There's also a lot at play beneath the surface of the story, and quite a few unanswered questions. I'm only mad that I didn't play it sooner!

E3 2011

This year's E3 is shaping up to be quite an exciting event. The web is buzzing about all the possibilities and it's just getting better as we get closer. Nintendo is set to unveil its newest console, codenamed Project Cafe, via a live broadcast on the web. Hopefully Nintendo has learned from their recent lackluster launch of the 3DS that in order to sell this new piece of gaming hardware it needs a solid list of interesting first and third-party launch titles, not promises of what will happen in the far off future.
The same concept is relevant to the 3DS. If Nintendo wants to have a shot at keeping their grasp of the handheld world they better bring a long list of soon-to-launch 3DS titles to the show. As tantalizing as the upcoming remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is, we as gamers need completely new titles to keep us from dwelling on shelling out $250 for a handheld. I can't speak for anyone else, but I still feel that Nintendo killed off the DS early. Considering their launch list for the 3DS, I would have been more than content to wait for a more diverse selection at launch.
I'm also curious about what Microsoft's strategy will be this year. Obviously Gears of War 3 will be a major title at the show, but there are also rumors of a new Halo title, Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 are competing against each other for dominance, and what about the future of the Kinect? I have never been a fan of it, and last year Microsoft pimped the heck out of it. So what will they have on hand for those who did invest in it?
And then there's Sony. They've had a lot to deal with, and I commend every effort and incentive everyone in the industry has put out in the world to soften the blow of the damage caused by the hackers. It's really woken up the industry as a whole and forced game companies to learn how to handle an awful situation. Rumors of Sony's next console are trickling out, so perhaps we'll hear more about it at this year's show. It's coming up fast, and I'm very eager to see how it all plays out.

Short Films and Weddings

Today marked the end of a month long collaboration between a few friends and I. The writer/director and I just put the final adjustments on a short film I had a small role in and edited. It was a lot of fun, and as always I learned a lot from the experience. It should be posted up on Youtube soon.

I don't know what it is with this year, but there's certainly been a lot of talk about weddings lately. The fact that I'm taking notice could very well be attributed to the fact that my own is ever-approaching, but everyone from my sister to several of my childhood friends are engaged and in the midst of planning their own.

Speaking of which, today was Arturo and Jazmin's wedding, so Congratulations!

Concept X Headphones

The second entry in my series, X's headphones would feature LED lights that make the outside of the ear cups and the center gem glow. They come with a helmet attachment that slips on beneath the main headband. The interior of the ear cups feature X's main blue color.

You can view a high-res version on my DeviantArt account.

Onyx Animatic

I just posted my original Onyx animatic from 2008, which you can view here. The original name of the island he lives on was tokidoki, but it has since changed. Actually, nearly everything has changed or evolved in some way. Onyx was originally blue! And his initial arm cannon design has always reminded me of a trash can.

Kira Buckland was Onyx's original voice actor. Tuck's design (and gender) has changed drastically since, and her original voice came from Alynne, my fiancée and co-conspirator. Magus's original voice actor was my good buddy Luke Martinez. Both Alynne and Luke were also involved in our Twilight spoofs, and the Army of Gamers short.

Connecting the Dots

This past month has been incredible! I've been doing a lot of research for my first Onyx book, creating concept sprites and levels for Onyx and Scruffy games, caught up with family and friends, shot a short film (currently editing it), had the great fortune of visiting Treyarch studios, went camping, have been playing way too much Call of the Dead and the Gears of War 3 Beta, and now I'm more determined than ever to bring Onyx's story home.
I've been writing like a mad man these last several weeks and have put nearly every other project on hold as I put pen to paper and let the rest of Onyx's first adventure flow. I've been writing this book for almost a year now, between working full-time and developing everything else, so I'm very eager to see it complete and give it to the world.

CROSSOVER COMBINATION 2: Onyx x tokidoki

 

The second entry in my new series, "Crossover Combination". This is my character Onyx in the tokidoki style created by Simone Legno. I would consider it fan art above anything else.

CROSSOVER COMBINATION 1: Toki x Calvin and Hobbes

Our Shih Tzu Toki as he would appear in Calvin and Hobbes. This was a drawing I made for my fiancee for her birthday last year. Toki was actually one of the inspirations for Scruffy! My nephew was another.

Onyx "O" Pendants: Part 1

Here's a work in progress that has taken me quite some time to get off the ground. This is a pendant based on my design for the Onyx "O" logo that can be seen here.
Several weeks after I came up with it, I decided to try making it into a pendant-type object and began modeling it in Maya. I didn't want the final piece to be too fragile, so I modified it by thickening the edges of the piece as a whole.

The next step was to take the model and make it into a real object. Using a CNC machine and with the assistance of one of my friends, the object was cut out of a block of material. When it was free I sanded down the rough edges and gave it to to yet another friend of mine, who blasted it with a layer of primer to smooth it out. From there I passed it on to yet another friend of mine who created a single piece mold of it for me by using the original.

Once the mold was completed we began to experiment with different kinds of material and colors to cast. So far we have made some grey O's, and some light green. The final result may likely be a translucent green, but I'm still experimenting.

When all is said and done and we have a decent stock of them, I intend to start selling them at this shop.

 

This small project has taken me through some interesting paths and enabled me to utilize a variety of resources and very talented people. It's been a lot of fun! I hope you found this an interesting read and enjoyed checking this process out. Please feel free to send me some feedback, suggestions and opinions! They're always appreciated.

Scruffy, Aerial Strike

Here's Scruffy in Aerial Strike mode. This is a special lightweight stealth suit Gramps made for Scruffy that increases his defenses, lets him run faster, and helps him traverse difficult terrain with ease. When he's in danger, Scruffy outfits himself with this suit in order to deal with the threat. He also uses it when he reaches higher altitudes.

Feel free to click the above image to view it at a higher resolution.

Meet Scruffy!

This is my Shih Tzu character Scruffy. He's very goofy, easygoing, and completely reckless. I have several short stories I'm writing for him that all add up to a bigger narrative. I'm also developing a few games for the iPhone that I intend to put him in. He's an awesome character to base content around, and I love placing him into all sorts of shenanigans.