Tshirty ideas I wish I had #1

This is the first of what will probably be quite a long list, as I'm often #00FF00 with envy when it comes to the genius of other designers...

This delectable pop mash combines the arcade glory of Space Invaders with the "I BELIEVE" poster, which adorned Mulder's wall in the televised gold that was X-Files.

Find it here at SPLITREASON.

Robot of the Week#2: Bad RoboSanta

This is what happens when you leave light beer out for Santa, rather than the good stuff...

Tshirt by UK artist Hammo.

New tee: Biggie taking a ride

Just a self-aggrandizing portrait of me in a ‘57 Chevy

AFL Mascot tees: Number 3 and 4

Number 3 in my mini challenge to myself – an AFL mascot every week. This time the Dons get a little Big Fat Robot tinkering.

Number 4 in the mini AFL mascot challenge … the Bullies.

Other tees in the series...
#1: Demons…
#2: Hawks…
#3 Bombers…

Week 2 of AFL mascot tee challenge: Hawks

Second week of my little challenge to myself – an AFL mascot every week. This time tis the Hawks...

Week 1: Demons…

Flip book to the max!

My first juicy taste of animation came in the form of turning all my school books into flip books, with crudely drawn creatures crudely doing crude things on multiple pages. They were childish scrawlings in comparison to the recently discovered twisted stop motion/flipbook gem, “VIDEOGIOCO” , by Donato Sansone (milkyeyes) with sound by Enrico Ascoli.

New tee: I'll give you zen!

A request from a chum...

Latest CGS Features

The latest crop of CG goodness, which I have whipped up for the fine fellows at CGSociety...

New tee: Nerd of War

Us nerds are highly trained in the deadly arts, and we have extremely high Charisma points

New tee: Hard Guitar Hero

Based on one of my besties, Damian, lead guitarist from the Order of the Buzzard

Week 1: AFL mascot tee challenge - Melbourne Demons

With around 16 weeks until the 2010 AFL season, I thought I’d give myself a little challenge and whip up a mascot tee every week.

First cab off the rank is a redux of the Melbourne Demon, which I did sometime ago.

Wish me luck!

Robot of the Week#001: ROPID - jumping straight into the future!

A jumping robot has been built by scientists at Kyoto university in Japan.

It uses sensors to balance itself and responds to spoken instructions.

The droid has been named the ROPID, a combination of "rapid" and "robot".

Tomotaka Takahashi, who developed it, said he wanted to build a robot that entertained people rather than one that performed specific tasks.

Press release: Gun-toting Goons Infiltrate the CGCHALLENGE XXIV: Secret Agent

Over a thousand digital artists competed for big prizes in the latest CGChallenge. Their mission was to create characters and stories worthy of a James Bond or Bladerunner spy thriller.

Adelaide, South Australia (PRWEB) October 9, 2009 -- The winners of the CGSociety's CGChallenge XXIV: 'Secret Agent' have been announced. Digital artists, from around the world, used their skills to claim more prizes than an evil henchman could carry on his burly shoulders. Well over $100,000 worth of software and hardware were on offer in many categories, including Video, Animation, Modeling and Illustration. To win, the artists' task was to depict characters and events, which involved espionage, gadgets, guns and evil geniuses, via a still image or video.

The Master Award winners of the three main prize categories - Individual Video, Team Video, and Image - all showed not only outstanding technical ability but were also able to successfully delve into the daring and dangerous world of Secret Agents.
Good lighting and a nice story twist

The Image Master was awarded to Portugal's Jose Alves da Silva (http://zeoyn.cgsociety.org) for his 'Mouse Love', a whimsical tale of lab rat revenge. “Good lighting and a nice story twist,” said judge, Mark Snoswell. “There's a wonderful mood in this piece,” added Jon Rush. “Lots of nice details to look at, but they don't derail the composition.” The excited artist replied that this “eight week journey with my fellow challengers definitely pushed me to the limit … if you are willing to listen to what other people say, your work will rise to a whole new level. Knowledge and a great brotherhood spirit are the prizes that all contestants can be sure to take from these Challenges.”


The Individual Video Master Award went to France's Aurelien Rantet (http://aurel0988.cgsociety.org/) for his 'Run for the Artifact', a futuristic tale of a bumbling spy and his tenacious attempts at securing a curious object. Hal Milton exclaimed ”Wow! Great gags, great designs ... This tells an amazingly satisfying story by brilliantly squeezing meaning into every single second on screen. Once again, you individual contributors scare me with your giant, assumed to be pulsing, brains!" Marc Mordelet added: "Amazing sense of colors. How can a young man do all of this professional work alone? I am feeling old now." The winning artist said "I'm pretty new in the CG world so this award is a real honor for me, especially considering the level of the other participants...Thanks to everyone who offered me encouragement and critiques during my work."

The Video (Team) Master Award went to Germany/Japan's 'Agent Omicron'.The team consisted of Goro Fujita (http://goro.cgsociety.org), Kory Heinzen, Nico Sanghrajka and Ryosuke Fujita. This campy masterpiece features characters from an imaginary 80s TV show, and has a pulsating jazz soundtrack. Alexandra Ciolac judged it as having a “lovely graphic style. I believe this piece is the best expression of the classic secret agent concept. Nicely timed animation consistent with the style, full of life characters. Great eyes and facial animations.” Marc Mordelet thought it was “something between Cobra and Dirty Harry. Great animation and beautiful music. I wish to see this on TV!”

A full list of winners for the Secret Agent CGChallenge and their winning entries can be viewed at The CGSociety website (http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/secret_agent/). Previous CGChallenges can also be viewed at The CGSociety website (http://features.CGSociety.org/challenge/).

Prizes were awarded in Video, Animation, Art Direction, Best Character, Compositing and Editing, Concept Art, Digital Painting, Landscape/Matte Painting, Lighting, Modeling, Sculpture, Texturing, VFX and Illustration categories.

The prizes were sponsored by BOXX, Autodesk, Wacom, NVIDIA, Luxology, e-on Software, stash DVD Magazine, Maxon, Corel, Craft Animations, Side Effects Software, The Gnomon Workshop, Zbrush, ImagineFX, 3dvia, Ballistic Publishing, and CGSociety.

The judges came from the film, game and illustration worlds, past Challenge winners, and leading luminaries within the CGSociety community. Judges were David Wright, Jeff Mottle , Hal Milton, Coro, Brom, Coro, Sasha Ciolac, Marcin Jakubowski , Vasile Brovcenco, Thiago Pires, Arthur Mirzoyam, Tomasz Jedruszek, Marc Mordelet, Martin Köhler, Yap Kun Rong, ru | bonsaininja, David Luong, Don Seegmiller, Jon Rush, Todd Widup, Bryan Silva, Boaz Livny, Roger Cusson, Mark Snoswell, Leigh A. van der Byl, and Anton Fletcher.

About the CG Society:
The CG Society is the most respected and accessible global organization for creative digital artists. The CGSociety supports artists at every level by offering a range of services to connect, inform, educate and promote, by celebrating achievement, excellence and innovation in all aspects of digital art. The CGSociety, along with its sister organisation Ballistic Publishing, is a division of Ballistic Media.

http://www.cgsociety.org
http://www.ballisticpublishing.com

Latest CGS Features

The latest tasty fruits picked from the CGSociety tree of delectable knowledge are a story about a painterly short animation from Germany, URS. A rundown on the creation of an EXPOSE 7 image by Phil McDarby. An interview with the digital matte painters of GI JOE: The Rise of Cobra. And a look under the render engine of Pandemic's World War II FPS The Saboteur.

New products in my Zazzle store

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Bucky walk and jump cycle

Working on the walk and jump cycles for the Mighty, Fighty Cherubs Game.

Hulk the Musical?

Looks like Disney wants to break into the boy's market with their recent $4 billion acquisition of the comic giants, Marvel. Looking forward to seeing Iron Man accidently crushing Cinderalla's glass slipper.

Tarboy

Tarboy is an animated feast with the souls of angry robots and explosions galore. The entire short film was animated using Flash. Do yourself a favour, and watch it...

Famous Singer Impersonator Zombie

This is the pill-poppin', hamburger tossin’ boss from my little Cherub vs Zombie game … The Mighty, fighty Cherubs

Any resemblance to persons alive or undead is purely a coincidence.

Game tweaked a little bit more

The Mighty, Fighty Cherub Game has been tweaked. Needs a lot more TLC. But have to get onto bigger and better things now!!

New characters for game

The mini boss, and big boss zombies will soon be alive (in a walking dead kinda way) and ready for Cherub braiiiiiins in the Mighty Fighty Cherubs game I'm currently developing.

Below is a little silhouetted sneak preview. To see them in all their gory glory, you'll have to 1. wait until I've actually coded them into the game, and 2. fight the zombie minion hordes to get to the boss stages.






Now, all I have to do is pop them in the game and get them munchin'. Stay tuned, they will be in the game real soon - yee-haaaaaw!

Interview with Cult of Pop

The fine folk from Cult of Pop were deluded enough to think that my misssives are worthy of publishing. Here is a transcript....

What’s the easiest way to make a fashion statement?? Simple. Wear a t-shirt…. but not just any t-shirt, we here at the Cult recommend a 100% Australian designed Big Fat Robot t-shirt. Why you ask?? Well, because Mike Hepburn, the man behind the label is one cool guy (and you should always listen to cool guys!) and here’s the interview to prove it….

C.O.P- Tell us the basics- where are you from, where do you live now and what do you do to earn your crust?
I was born in the bustling metropolis of Adelaide, South Australia. My dad was in the Army, so I lived around a goodly portion of this sunburned land of ours. As an adult I spent over 6 years travelling and living abroad, mainly USA, Europe and Japan.

Now I have finally settled in my favourite city in the whole Milky Way, Melbourne (well, it’s on a par with Tokyo, San Francisco, Berlin and, of course, the sexiest Mmm-Class planet of all – Risa… yep, I’m a Star Trek nerd!)

I live with my wonderfully talented partner in a rambling, creaky old weatherboard in the inner northern suburbs. We are surrounded by art, more toys than a spoilt kid could shrilly demand, and curios from all corners of this glimmering blue globe of ours. Robots figure quite prominently (as you can imagine given my moniker) and I have a teak bar from the 60s which I can never seem to keep stocked.

All of this messy, drunky happiness is financed primarily by web design…

C.O.P- So you’re a web designer by day and a big fat robot by night- tell us a little about the two sides of your work??
I’ve been in the web design game for well over a decade now. It certainly is a fine way to pay the bills.

I love tinkering with code, and battling with alignment, but at night I happily shed the monogrammed tie of corporate bondage and pop on my Mexican wrestler’s mask of creative freedom. Whilst so garbed, I head into the vector mill to create my little guys. It’s my happy place. I will hopefully soon have more time to make the Big Fat Robot Empire even bigger and so much fatter.

C.O.P- You’ve been in the design game for a few years now- tell us about your artistic journey (where did it all start) and the highlights along the way…
I started as a scrawny Army brat with a large, Bert Newtonian head, and welfare glasses (the big 80s kind that all the cool kids are wearing in clubs these days – I bled for your ironic fashion!). Therefore, I was a weedy target in every school I went to. My skeletal limbs did not offer a decent upper cut, nor sufficient defence capabilities. The only thing they could do effectively, in my battle with the bullies, was draw delightfully slanderous renderings of their least favourite teachers. These skills, forged from fear, led to a lifelong passion of escaping the real world into my crudely sketched Land of Odd.

As I got older, and my body caught up with my hitherto out of proportioned head, I kept sketching, but got more and more immersed in the world of computers. As a result, I became a web designer.

The biggest highlight in my webby world was when I led a team of Web Wizards for Nike, and together our shiny, 72 dpi little gem won a Bronze Lion at Cannes.


C.O.P- T-Shirt design has become a huge industry now-for you, is it more business or artistic outlet?
To me it’s purely an artistic outlet at the moment. T-shirts are mobile canvases that have given me a forum to get my odd little characters out in the public eye.

The fact that other people dig my designs enough to not only buy, but wear them, makes me burst with delightfully surprised glee.

It was sites like Red Bubble that gave me the confidence to get them out of my many battered notebooks, and into the world. This oasis, in the violent seas of the interwebs, and the wonderful peeps I found there, actually helped me stride out of years of depression. These good folks and my colourful bunch of nuttery tore asunder a dark, passionless time.

C.O.P- What makes a good t-shirt design- because it is a lot different style wise than a canvas artwork, for instance?
To me a good t-shirt design has strong lines, colours that complement the t-shirt colour, and unique, poignant or odd subject matter.

T-shirts are wearable culture. With them you can ally yourself to certain movements or brands. They can be a body hugging, cottony signifier of what you believe in or desire.

C.O.P- What influences the designs you put on your own range of clothing? Who and what are your biggest influences now and why?
Pop Culture, DC and Marvel masters, Kustom Kulture, and Japanese culture, Zombie movies, and Hammer Horror classics. My studio is a bulging museum of pop-culture. Toys (Dunnies, Munnies, Qees, 60/70/80s robots, Star Wars – yep folks, I’m a nerd). Sci-fi, 60s/70s vampire DVDs are buckling my shelves. Old tattoo art (Sailor Jerry, and the more contemporary Angelique Houtkamp) fills me with lowbrow glee. As do pop-surrealists artists such as Mark Ryden, Audrey Kawasaki (soft palette with darker, erotic themes), Tara McPherson (bold colours and strong lines), Mike Giant, Sheppard Fairy (brilliant lines and an unwavering conscience),, Lori Earley, Tokidoki and the old master Osamu Tezuka (because I still study his work, like Astroboy, for his dynamism, proportion and sense of wonder). Romance, horror and sci-fi comics from the 50s and 60s. I’m basically that weird kid, that happily sits by himself in class. I refuse to fully grow up. Life is too short to be normal.

C.O.P- What’s next for you- you’re wanting to get a bit more into animation as well from what I hear??
Animation is definitely on top of the list. Every character illustration I do has a back story, each design is a frozen frame in a larger story. So the natural progression is getting my little guys and gals moving and talking. They have some tales to tell!

There’s a couple of animation examples on the interwebs. I did an ad for a Doritos competition, and an odd little, unfinished piece for a Canadian client. Click here to see both The latter involves a singing Salmon Dion.

I’m also prototyping plushes. And, a big dream is turning some of my characters into urban vinyl toys. Does anyone know anybody in Kid Robot?:)

Plus, kids’ books. I just bought Meomi’s Octonauts, lush design coupled with a rollicking good story for young and old. Awesome stuff!

Lastly, but not leastly, I’m happy to announce an exclusive to my good friends at Cult of Pop a beta Flash game- “The Mighty Fighty Cherubs” This is a rough, and very unfinished, idea of what a level in my “Mighty Fighting Cherubs” Flash game will look like.

On the drawing board is a much more elaborate multilevel/RPG/platform/puzzle-solving extravaganza with a witty story, a little saucy cherub lovin’ and twists aplenty. I will soon be working on it with a friend, who can actually code, so it will be considerably more complex and engaging.

Stay tuned, there will be plenty more button mashing where this came from!

C.O.P- What’s your idea of a perfect day? This should be easy, ‘coz you do now live in one of the best cities in the world (yes, I am bias!!)…
Yep, Melbourne does make a perfect day easy. Let’s see, I’d wake up, have a nice strong coffee, quickly followed by a slightly less strong, coffee. Check my emails and RSS feeds. Squeal with girlish glee at the overnight sales. Put the finishing touches on some work. Start another work. Watch a Star Trek episode. Get another tattoo. Meet my partner and friends at the Robot Bar, where I’ll sup on a few sakes. Go to an opening at one of the many fine Melbourne galleries. Then put on my best threads for a evening of Burlesque.

C.O.P- Lastly, you’re marooned on a desert island- you need to construct an “SOS” message on the sand- what font do you use??
A well kerned, bold, serif font with some extra faux bolding, a heavy stroke, subtle drop shadow, and a fiery glow effect.

C-O-P- here’s a quick artists impression for the non-designers out there… ;P We might add however, that if stuck on a real desert island wingdings is a perfectly valid font option, as is 4 palm trees, 6 coconuts, 3 hermit crabs and a shoelace (you figure it out….)

Anyway, thanks for your time Mike!!!

If you want to check out more of Mike’s ultra cool t-shirt designs then head over to Big Fat Robot…. www.bigfatrobot.com ….do it, do it now!

Latest CGS Features

Whipped up some features for my very good chums at CGSociety. There are walkthroughs for both Alex Popescu's dreamy Sail City and Marta Dahlig's steamy Judith. An expose on the genius that is ILM's Christopher Horvath and a game review of inFamous.

Might Fighty Cherubs Game Beta v0.000000001 ready for a giggle

The Mighty Fighty Cherub game beta v 0.000001 is available for a giggle. It doesn't really do too much yet. You play Bucky Buck Buckington, a cigar smokin', gun totin', whiskey sippin' cherub vigilante who is not fond of brain chuckin' zombie cherubs.

Working on the boss fights now. Also want to improve the scrolling background, add sound fx, and power ups. Should get all of this done soon. Then onto a major big project!

Branding for Boston Taco folk

The good folk at Ivy Restaurants in Boston, MA, got me to modify one of my Lucha Libres for their Taco Cart branding: Taco Libre. Mmmm carts made out of taco.

New Website: Mighty Fighty Cherub Flash Game

I whipped up a holding page for my beta computer game - The Mighty, Fighty Cherubs, starring Bucky Buck Buckington Jnr.

The web site will soon contain a rough, and very unfinished, Flash experiment of what a level will look like.

On the drawing board is a much more elaborate multilevel/RPG/platform/puzzle-solving extravaganza with a witty story, a little saucy cherub lovin' and twists aplenty. I will soon be working on it with a friend, who can actually code, so it will be considerably more complex and engaging.

Stay tuned, there will be plenty more button mashing where this came from!

New illustration: Zombie Cherub

This little guy finds brains the best asset in a potential partner. Mmmmm brains. He is the first minion in my upcoming game, starring Bucky Buck Buckington Jnr the gun toting, cigar-smoking trucker cherub.

Available in all its glorious tshirtiness here...

New illustration: Shotgun Wedding

Meet my little mighty, fighty cherub, Bucky Buck Buckington Jnr. He's the protagonist in a game I’m working on…


You can get him in tshirty form here.

Latest CGS Features