Archive for June 2012

Ever wonder what you would look like as an anime or game character? I can help you with that. I created this while playing around with an old image in Photoshop. Move your mouse over the image to see the before:

I have found there is a very fine line when trying to change the shape or size of someone's eyes. While a less realistic,"big eyed" look is possible, experiments have proven that making the eyes significantly larger only works well on images that have been shot with this effect in mind. With this image, I made changes to the shape of the mouth and nose to give the effect rather than mess with the integrity of the eyes, and I definitely prefer the result.

Of course the work done to this image was not just on the overall face shape. I put a lot of work into producing a more "CG" feel to the image. I call it the "Final Fantasy" effect as the idea was to create something that felt more like anime or video game art.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to meet some wonderful people while recruiting for my charity photo book project (more details on this below) at the Saskatoon Anime Blitz.

I want to say thank you to Laura, the mastermind behind this brilliant event and of course and all the other fantastic people of the SLLAG who made this a reality.

Among the highlights of the day were an impromptu photo shoot with Beth, the fantastic organizer for the artist's alley and vendor room.

This series always makes me nostalgic, and it's always refreshing to see someone who has put thought into mastering the quirks and mannerisms of the character in addition to the costume itself.

As a big Futurama Fan, of course I made sure to have someone along to help with recruiting so I that I could sneak away for a little while and catch some of Billy West's panel. Hard to believe that from this face comes the voices of Fry, Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth and Zap Branigan.

Overall I felt the event was a huge success, it was wonderful to meet so many kindred spirits who are sick of the horrible "geek" stereotypes that are out there and believe in the power of this community to give back.

Ever since Penny Arcade started their Child's Play charity, I have wanted to do a "geek" themed photo book to benefit local charities and finally seeing this begin to come together feels just fantastic.

Currently I am seeking a good publisher for the project and speaking with representatives from a few local charities about logistics. I will be releasing more details on this project as they are available and those of you who have already signed up to volunteer should be getting a link to our official facebook page in your email sometime this week.

Big thanks again to my assistant, to the guests, the volunteers, and of course to the pretty ladies (and gents) who promoted this event at Free Comic Book Day who can now check out some of their photos in the Event Gallery.