Friday Video: Dreamside Animated Pilot

Now here's a cool look at Dreamside's history. Waaaaay back in 2005, I made a short animated pilot video to demonstrate how I thought (at the time) an animated Dreamside film could look. It's pretty rough around the edges now. But I was pretty happy with it back then.

This video is an extra-special thank you to fans for helping my YouTube channel reach 500 subscribers. Of course, that thanks naturally extends to you, my most dedicated of followers. As I mention in the video, Dreamside can only be successful through word-of-mouth since it doesn't have the backing of a large publisher. That means YOU are very important to me as an indie creator. Please do continue your support and keep spreading the word. The bigger Dreamside gets, the more books and animations I can create!

Here's hoping the channel can soon reach 1000 subs! Won't that be something?!

Friday Video: Drawing Elegant Lines with the Curve Tool in Manga Studio

Okay, another video for the digital artists-in-training out there. Do you struggle with drawing lines in digital art software? It can be tricky to get used to the feeling of drawing on the plastic or glass surfaces of art tablets. This week's video will show you a few cool Manga Studio features to help ease the transition into digital art. For you experts out there, this is still pretty useful stuff for creating overly technical or precise images that require perfect curves.

Hope it's useful! Let me know what you'd like to see in future videos in the comments, either below or on the YouTube page. And, as always, I'm only a quick email away.

Have a great, art-filled weekend!

Another week... another video!

Are you a digital artist? A non-digital artist? Maybe you're just a fan of pretty pictures? Regardless, I think you'll find this week's video focusing on digital brushes to be interesting.

Modern art software packages provide a way for artists to have a natural drawing experience while also being able to take advantage of features only possible on a computer (like "undo"). Just as a painter uses a brush, digital artists use digital brushes. But, in the digital world, we don't just have brushes capable of looking like oil or watercolor paint. They can also be made up of entire drawings in themselves. With a little creativity and a curious mind willing to experiment, we can do some pretty neat tricks with them!

People like myself who are trying to piece together a large series of complicated images for a book can take advantage of these digital tools to speed up the process. This week's video will show one I recently discovered called a "ribbon" brush. For all you artists out there, I hope you find this tip as useful as I did. For everyone else, I hope you enjoy this look into Dreamside's development. Have a good weekend and see you next time!

Friday video: Hanging with Lisa Brown!

Hey Dreamers! Happy... Saturday... yeah, looks like this week's Friday video came a bit late. But that's because it's so jam-packed that it spilled over into Saturday! Today's video is an archive of my recent Twitch stream with game designer Lisa Brown (@wertle)

If you've been following my video releases for the past few weeks, you probably noticed I've added two new playlists to my YouTube channel. Both feature Livestream archives, one for my solo streams, the other guest streams. The solo streams focus on my own development work. Guest streams invite creative pros from many different aspects of creative production. Usually, I try and find people who do a different sort of work than my own. So far, I've been joined by animator Jesse Baumgartner and musician Michael McCarthy, software developer and content artist Teyon Alexander from Smith Micro, and now Lisa.

Did you know that I did some artwork for a game called "Slow Down, Bull" in 2013? Well, that game was designed by Lisa! We had such a good time working together. So, I hope you enjoy listening to us chat as I develop an image from Dreamside.

Until next time, keep those dreams flowing <3

Friday Video: 2D Character Turnarounds

Character turnarounds? What are those? Check out this week's Friday video to learn all about this useful animation technique. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. Leave 'em below or on my YouTube page. Until next time, have a special weekend, Dreamers ;)

Friday Video: Watercolor Overlay Magic

Learn more about the watercolor texture overlay paintings I made to give a more organic look to Dreamside's digitally-painted art. You can use a similar technique to get cool graphic effects with all sorts of different textures. Try it with crayons, pencils, even a collage. Digital art gives us a pretty expansive toolset for experimentation. Let's see what you can come up with!

It's 2016! Time for an art print giveaway!

Enter for a chance to WIN!

As a big thanks to my loyal subscribers, I'm hosting an art print giveaway. Click here for the rules page. All you have to do to enter is subscribe to this Blog! And, since lots of you reading this are already subscribers, you'll be automatically entered to win. Easy!

The email you use to subscribe must be valid so that you can receive a winner notification message to which you must respond with a valid shipping address. If you want a really good look at those super colorful prints, check out the video above!

Good luck, Dreamers ;)

Manga Studio Webinar Questions Answered!

Earlier this year, I hosted a Webinar (web-based seminar) with the good people at Smith Micro. The purpose was to demonstrate a few aspects of my working method using Manga Studio, the art software I use to draw the art for Dreamside.

During the Webinar, many questions were asked (60+ in fact!) that we weren't able to address due to time constraints. So, I promised a follow-up video to answer them. The above YouTube post is the result. To people who have waited patiently for it, I'm sorry for the long delay. This format allowed me to take my time, focus directly on the questions, and give substantial answers. If you don't hear your question, I likely merged it with another due to similarity. As always, if you have additional questions, I'm only a few clicks away.

Artists, I hope this properly addresses your questions. Please share this video with anyone who might find it useful.

Twitch LiveStreams

Ever want to learn more about the process behind the day-to-day work of a professional artist? What about taking a peek into Dreamside's development? LiveStreams are a cool way to do just that.

What's a "LiveStream"? Well... it's like a live YouTube video, allowing people to comment and interact while the broadcast is being produced. Since I spend so much time drawing at my computer, it makes sense to share some of that time with Dreamside fans.

Right now, I'm doing two series of streams: one that's Dreamside-focused and one that's more of a group hangout with other professional artists. The dates for these will be a bit erratic for awhile. If you want to ensure you don't miss a session, please make sure to both subscribe to my Twitch channel and also follow me on Twitter. I'll make announcements in advance on Twitter and, for particularly important streams, I'll also post about it right here on the Blog.

Regardless of whether or not you can attend the streams, you will be able to watch them all after the fact on my YouTube channel. I'll be archiving them into two streams: "Group LiveStreams" and "Dreamside LiveStreams".

I hope to see you on Twitch! If you have any questions, feel free to message.

Announcing Weekly Videos!

Hey Dreamers!

As things move closer to the print version of Dreamside and I slowly begin to take on more aspects of the physical production, I've decided to start a weekly video that will release every Friday. The videos will feature a range of topics. I promise to make them as interesting as I can.

Today's video focuses on book bindings and some of the thought that goes into determining the right one. Check it out!

If you enjoy the video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel as there will be plenty more to come!