NYC Toy Fair

On Sunday, Kidlew and I hit Javitz Center for the 2008 NYC Toy Fair. This was my first time attending. Now, i've been going to Siggraph for 20 years and have been to NYCC once, however, this convention is HUGE. Easily occupied both levels of Javitz Center.


The Uglydoll booth was one of the most fun designs on the show floor.


Kidlew looks on as David Horvath tags his sketchbook. Despite having major jet-lag, David was very generous chatting with us at length about his experiences in the toy industry. His main piece of advice - get insurance. If some kid chokes on a piece of your toy, the courts don't acknowledge anything "designer toy" and you could be sued and ruined.


The "Urban Bazaar" downstairs was the place to check out some of the latest offerings in the vinyl world. It was here where I met Matt Doughty of Onell Design and William Vaughan of Tofu the Vegan Zombie fame. Both were great sources of information and really nice guys to talk with.


Near the end of the day we bumped into artist Ron English. Another really nice guy to talk with. I told him I got to see his triptych at the 'Beyond The Cel' show at the Mesa Arts Center over the holiday break, and he told me he and his family just returned from a trip there last week for the end of the exhibit and to be part of a small toy workshop.

Since I'm not really involved with the buying or licensing of toys, I pretty much stuck to the few booths that were of particular interest and gleaned some information into the workings of the toy industry. Got some great feedback on my character designs and will be seeing more of the vinyl manufacturers at New York Comic Con in April.

More pictures up on Flickr.

Additional websites to visit:

MINDstyle
kidlew
Dark Horse Comics

Back in the Land of Equilibrium

Inner ear infections are NOT fun. This is the third time as an adult that I've had vertigo, and this spell had me out of commission for 4 consecutive days.

Anyone remember that Six Million Dollar Man ride at Universal Studios back in the 70's, where the ride goes through a long, rotating snow tunnel? (I think it was a tie-in to the Steve Austin vs. Bigfoot storyline?) That's vertigo in a nutshell.

Super 7 - Ghost Land


Super 7 - Ghost Land, originally uploaded by jonlynw.

Uh oh, I got the HB hooked on vinyl toys! ;) We picked up the first few during our visit to Super 7 when in San Francisco over the holidays, and Jonlyn completed her set after our trip to Toy Qube this past weekend!

Steve T Moneygrip Rooftop-1


Steve T Moneygrip Rooftop-1, originally uploaded by sketchguy.

Ok, this is my first test using the 'blog photo from flickr' feature. Here's a shot of my entry for the Moneygrip show taken up on the roof at my place in Bklyn. I'm going to have to figure out if I can add multiple photos at once (I'm sure you can, I just haven't found that option yet!)

'Get a Grip' Custom Show Opening Night @ MyPlasticHeart

This past Friday, January 25th, saw the opening of KaNO's 'Get A Grip' Moneygrip Custom show at My Plastic Heart NYC. The turnout was great, with a jam-packed crowd braving the cold to view the 46 custom Moneygrip characters on display. In addition to finally meeting KaNO for the first time, I was introduced to Jester and his son Jace (in from Houston, TX), Kelly Denato, Keith Poon (owner of the excellent Toy Qube), Pon, and Kid Lew. My pictures from opening night and all the entries are now up on my Flickr page.










GMC NFL

Chances are, if you watch [American] football (Go Giants!) over the past two seasons, you've seen the following promo for GMC's 'NFL Defensive Player of the Year' that I created last year. Additional support by fellow Guavarians Jay Sienkwicz (screen graphics) and Adrian Graham (particle mage extraordinaire)




Guavaroo

I created the Guavaroo character back in 2006 as a means to promote character design and animation at the company i'm currently working at. We had t-shirts printed up (7 colours no less!) and I thought it would make a great vinyl character, so I began the steps to see this realized in a physical 3d form.


First, I built and rigged the character in Maya. I then sent an .obj file to 3d Art to Part and received a relatively inexpensive and nicely detailed - though rough - prototype.






The prototype model then went thru another stage of refinement, with a new mold made, a wax version cast and then smoothed out by the talented toy sculptor Peter Kelley. A revised mold was created from this cleaned up sculpt (individual pieces now segmented with pin and registered plugs and sockets) and three versions cast in polyurethane.



As evident in this 3d-render, the refined sculpt matches the CG geometry pretty closely.



After this great amount of progress, the project hit the back burner and has been sitting in limbo for the past year 1/2. I'm now in the process of resurrecting it. I'll be painting up two of the copies (keeping one clean for future mold-making) and seeing if we can't move on to the next stage of getting these roto-cast in vinyl.

Pre-holiday Madness

It's been pretty busy since returning from Berlin over Thanksgiving break. I'm finishing up my entry for the My Plastic Heart 'MoneyGrip' show before heading out west (AZ and CA) this Friday for Xmas and New Years. Looking forward to the tour of Hearst Castle at San Simeon and then a few days in San Francisco before returning to the arctic weather conditions in NY.

Here's a quick sketch and final look for the spoon shaped characters i've been working on.



Radio City Christmas Spectacular on NBC, 12/1/07

"For the first time ever, NBC will televise the 75th celebration of the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular" in a one-hour exclusive special from the great stages at Radio City Music Hall."



We worked on four sequences for this at Guava. I was responsible for the 'Ragdoll' sequence, creating original characters and building the interior to Santa's workshop. The animation is pretty basic so as not to distract from the Rockettes in the foreground, however, I was able to infuse some life into them by synchronizing their actions to the music and action taking place on stage.

Check out the broadcast this Saturday night, December 1st, from 8-9pm EST on NBC.








The Berlin Underground

Just had to post about how clean the subway system is here.  I was shocked to hear one of the locals referring to it as "a bit messy." Especially considering how downright filthy the NYC subway system is.  (Of course, he might have been comparing theirs to the opulence of the Russian underground...) We sure could learn a thing or two from our European counterparts.







Berlin Graffiti

Had a chance to walk around a bit this afternoon after the DVD screening.  I'm always intrigued by the local graffiti whenever visiting someplace new.  After wandering around Museum Island there were only a few hours of daylight left so I tried to snap a few examples before it got too dark.







Berlin, Day 4

Ok, so there's no Day 2 or Day 3 post.  The screenings on both days ran very late, and by the time I got back to the hotel (2am-ish) I was simply too wiped out to post.  I would then sleep in as late as possible before jetting back to the venue for another full day. Think Siggraph Electronic Theater + Animation Screening Rooms for 2 days straight and you get the idea.

Overall, the festival was very entertaining, informative, and a great inspiration. All of the presentations were well done.  For me, the speaker highlights were Studio Soi, Tokyo Plastic, and Aaron Stewart.

One interesting tidbit from Anna, Peter and Lars was that there will not be a show next year, as they will be adjusting the schedule for a Springtime conference (that way, they don't exhaust their Summer planning for a late Fall show.)  I feel extra fortunate that I was able to attend this year before the planned hiatus.


A very scruffy and somewhat jet-lagged Steve.

Lars, Peter, and Anna, aka, Pictoplasma.

The crowd ready for the first program to begin.