TOMSYLVANIA: An art blog by Tom Lubanovic

Gunderson Residence / Listening Post Seven-Gamma

2010-01-28T19:42:00.003-06:00

Our art shanty is built, and it's survived two weeks on the ice. I'm having a really good time with this, despite the wet and cold. Here's John and Alex tracking down a suspicious creature:

We've got silly things going on here and here.

How to Make Apple Cinnamon Whiskey

2009-11-17T22:34:00.009-06:00

This is one of the easiest and most rewarding projects I've done. Flavoring alcohol, that is. Assuming you're buying your whiskey and not distilling it on your own, it takes about a month to finish.

In order to make, you will need:

1 bottle, whiskey (your favorite)
1 bag, apples (fresh from the orchard)
1 large, empty wine jug (Carlo Rossi)
2 sticks of cinnamon
cutting board and knife

Get all your ingredients and tools together, except for the cinnamon, which you won't need til much later. Clean out the Carlo Rossi jug with boiling water and wash those apples.
Pour the entire bottle of whiskey in the jug and start chopping those apples. Cut them small enough that you'll be able to get them back out of the bottle eventually.
Once the apples pass the whiskey mark, you should be all good. Shake it up and put it in your closet or pantry, out of the way. The next step is to wait. About 4 weeks. It's good to check in on it every now and then, take a taste, so how it's coming along.
After that whiskey is nice and apple-flavored, it's time for the cinnamon.
About 2 days should be plenty for the cinnamon flavor to soak in. And although the apple slices now look like delicious little whiskey snacks, it is a lousy and awful idea to eat them.
Lastly, enjoy your Apple Cinnamon Whiskey in the most Festive of Spirits.

PS - Pumpkin rum is also quite good.

Art Shanty in the Works

2009-10-07T22:25:00.002-05:00

Hoping we get some funding.

UPDATE: Yep, we got it. Get ready for adventure.

How to Make a T-shirt for Yourself and Your Friends

2009-09-23T15:18:00.015-05:00

Saman made this is design as a birthday present for Erica and I turned it into an actual shirt, also as a birthday present for Erica.

The next few steps required:

a blank, navy American Apparel ladies' T
8.5 x 11 freezer paper and a digital printer
x-acto knife
electric iron
scrap paper and cardboard
acrylic paint, brushes and fabric medium

From Saman's design, I created two stencils in photoshop. One for blue and pink, the other for yellow and white. Printed them out on freezer paper (the unwaxed side), along with a color guide.

John and I had some cold-pressed coffee & beer while I spent the next hour or so cutting out the stencils.

With the stencils ready, I prepped the shirt and paint. Stuck a piece of freezer paper inside the shirt to stop any paint from bleeding through, along with some pages from a magazine. All of the paints were acrylics mixed about 1:1 with fabric medium.

I did a couple tests on paper to make sure they looked right and worked together. Ironed the first stencil and put on a new layer of paint every couple hours. I let the whole thing dry overnight before starting the next layer.

I needed to heat set the first layer before doing the next, so I ironed the design while covering it with paper to prevent it from melting. Everything seemed to be going well. It was then that I realized that the second stencil no longer matched up quite perfectly.

John helped stretch the shirt to get it to match up as well as could be. There's a little warble in the final design, but sometimes that handmade aesthetic isn't such a bad thing.

Recognition: Animation and Furniture

2009-09-03T22:29:00.005-05:00

Got part of my short film in Animation Mentor's Summer Showcase:

Pretty exciting. Secondly, somehow, the painted couch from last year got featured on Apartment Therapy. I think it's some of the best trash we Northfielders made.

MN & WI

2009-07-17T00:34:00.003-05:00

Quick little design, might make myself a shirt with this on it.

10 Second Film Festival

2009-07-06T00:39:00.002-05:00

Made a cat video:

and won a trophy! For "Best Metaphor," it was. A futile, sad, giving up metaphor, maybe. Thank you, Chester cat.

Had a terribly good 4th, all around. Good veggie brats, good mojitos, good company and music. Also, here is the winner of the recent 48 Hour Film Festival. Those dudes are very hard-working and fun-loving.

Dr. Sketchy's

2009-06-30T16:46:00.005-05:00

I made a Sharpie drawing:

and won a book!

at Dr. Sketchy's in Northeast Minneapolis. Was super tired and scratchy-voiced, but met some nice folks and was happy to be doing figure drawing. My friend Kate saw it and said, "Oh! Saucy."

Carleton photos

2009-06-28T23:22:00.007-05:00

Went to see Gospel Gossip a couple nights ago, and then found these photos by some students at Carleton.

MPLS is a good town

2009-06-11T22:37:00.004-05:00

I am working as a for real animator at MAKE in Mpls. They are all real good dudes. Northeast is a sweet place to live, Alex is a good roomate. Where is that John fellow? We are having a Borg party this weekend.

I made this dude with a kneaded eraser.

Time for some serious MPLSing

2009-05-12T18:03:00.005-05:00

Moving in with friends at the North East Theater for Jerks. It looks like a sweet neighborhood and I'm excited.

From left to right: John, John (me), John (Alex)

Film finished!

2009-04-26T17:39:00.002-05:00

Call of the Wildman from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Nearly there

2009-03-18T01:47:00.003-05:00

Here's my first pass at smoothing out the short film, from a couple weeks ago.

Call of the Wildman: First Pass Polish from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Animation is now nearly done (!!!) and the finished film will be up as soon as it's rendered and scored and fancy (not too terrible long).

Further Blocking

2009-02-16T18:50:00.001-06:00

About halfway there.

Call of the Wildman: Blocking Plus from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Short Film Blocking

2009-01-27T11:06:00.001-06:00

Call of the Wildman: Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

more cat on internet

2009-01-13T20:20:00.002-06:00

short film WIP

2009-01-01T17:10:00.003-06:00

Oh yeah, I'm working on a short film for school: "Call of the Wildman"

Here's the layout so far:

Call of the Wildman: Layout from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

The poses are just roughed in. I'm gonna be animating for the next three months or until it's done.

cat on the internet

2008-12-31T14:40:00.001-06:00

> look

2008-12-30T23:05:00.011-06:00

you are in a largeish room with a sun hole made of jellyjams. you see a table. on the table is a note made of nimblepaper.

> take nimblepaper

you try to grab the nimblepaper, but it deftly dodges your digits and hops to the other side of the table

> examine jellyjams

they look delicious. hmm, one of the jellyjamjars is ajar!

> open jellyjamjar

you pop the loose lid off of the ajarjar and grab a handful of jellyjams. delicious!

> talk to jellyjams

you draw a crude face into the jellyjams and have an imaginary conversation with it. he compliments your hairdo. it seems sincere.

> show hairdo to nimblepaper

the nimblepaper averts its niblepeepers. it won't be wooed by your hip 'do.

> take distracted nimblepaper

the nimblepaper seems to have nimblepeepers on the back of its nimblenoggin. it jumps away seemingly as soon as you think of grabbing it.

> check inventory

you have: handmade jellyfriend [1]

> use jellyfriend on table

you slop the jellyfriend onto the table. the nimblepaper perks up its nimblenose and tiptoes toward it.

it begins snacking on the jellyfriend!

> save

save file not detected. do you want to start a new save [y/n]?

> y

file "1.sav" saved

> get under table

you hide under the table. you hear above you a faint squish and the sounds of rustling nimblepaper

> flip table over

you upturn the table, screaming like the incredible hulk, trapping the nimblepaper, surely, and crushing your jellyfriend with an audible "splort"

> talk to nimblepaper

you say hello to the nimblepaper, but it does not reply

> examine table

it is upturned. also, you've crushed a jellyfriend and a nimblepaper underneath it.

> peek under table

you spy the nimblepaper, struggling to unstick itself from a puddle of jellyfriend viscera

> grab that nimblepaper

you grab that nimblepaper. it seems to stop resisting capture after you snatch it from its trap

> read nimblenote

the nimblenote reads, in underlined, blue, 10 point System, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEVdca9U9LM

You win! Score: 12 (of 11)

Restart [r] or Quit [q]?

> q

Macaframa

2008-12-02T14:27:00.001-06:00

Dudes on bikes in SF

Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

Macaframa from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

In Class

2008-11-19T22:17:00.004-06:00

Stache-O-Lantern

2008-11-07T04:18:00.003-06:00

Painted a Couch

2008-09-28T13:34:00.007-05:00

Whole bunch of people made this, I mostly worked on the back.

Two Person Shot

2008-09-23T23:59:00.001-05:00

Two Person Shot: Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Critters

2008-08-14T16:48:00.009-05:00

I've seen a bunch of animals this summer, running about all wild-like. Skunks, beavers, groundhogs, red tailed hawks, praying mantises, assassin bugs, black widows, lightning bugs,

,

,

,

,

,

and

.

In the adult books!

2008-07-24T17:21:00.001-05:00

Finally done with this shot.

Dialogue: Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Into the Pixel

2008-07-16T17:36:00.003-05:00

There's a video game art exhibition viewable online right now, and in real-life L.A. this fall. Some great images from Grimm, Fallout 3 and others.

Bricks & Bones

2008-07-15T22:02:00.005-05:00

There used to be lots of these furnaces out in central Pennsylvania. The town we're living in was called "Central Furnace" for a while, and Penn State used to be Farmers' High School. Here's a furnace across the street from the farm I work at.

And here's a deer skeleton. I stole part of the jaw and back bones.

The Death of Pac-Man

2008-07-12T18:55:00.001-05:00

1980-2008

Farm life

2008-07-06T13:30:00.010-05:00

I'm diggin my summer job. You should try some kohlrabi if you like Sputnik-shaped vegetables that taste like apple broccoli.

There are Kids!

2008-06-09T12:58:00.005-05:00

I'm out in State College, Pennsylvania now. It is hot as hell outside (and inside my house). The town itself is pretty sweet. Very hilly with trees and the occasional Austrian bistro.

We've got one more week to polish up the body animation on our shots, then we'll get into facial animation after a short summer break.

Dialogue: First Pass (Body) from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Dialogue: Second Pass (Body) from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

UPDATE:

One more.

Dialogue: Third Pass (body) from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

The gig is up!

2008-05-26T01:20:00.002-05:00

Okay, we're getting into dialogue now. This shot is going to take several weeks and here's how it's looking so far.

Dialogue: First Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Dialogue: Second Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Thursday Drawings

2008-05-22T18:17:00.006-05:00

Saman had this idea of getting together one Thursday to do some sketching together, so we did.

"That was fun," we thought. The next week, we got some more people.

We decided to call it "I Think I Overworked the Planet."

This last week we got a new drawing started, but most people were busy with finals. It's about blood vessels and stuff. We'll finish it in the fall, once everybody's back in Northfield.

Some figure drawings

2008-05-21T18:47:00.006-05:00

I've been drawing naked people maybe once a week or so for the past few months, so here are a couple that I like. Most of them were done pretty quickly, around 20-40 minutes each, with charcoal or conte.

Pantomime Shot

2008-05-13T08:13:00.000-05:00

Finally done with this guy. Now we're getting into dialogue.

Pantomime: Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Lava Manatee

2008-05-07T18:14:00.005-05:00

Played around with this music-video-game that MGMT made for their song "Electric Feel." Such a good song, too.

this is what the world is for
making electricity

Angry Destruction

2008-05-02T09:16:00.001-05:00

Gotta get those beats readin.

Pantomime: Second Pass from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

tiny destruction

2008-04-22T17:31:00.004-05:00

Made a few changes to the story and I'm starting to polish up the animation a little. Still a lot of work to do!

Pantomime: First Pass from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

I am actor

2008-04-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

We're getting into acting now, so check out this shot I've got started.

Pantomime: Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

They are water metaphors

2008-04-12T22:00:00.006-05:00

I got commissioned to make some comics about this little waterdrop character guy. He's doing watery stuff.

"Water on Mars"

"Smokejumper"

One Last Push

2008-03-26T23:11:00.015-05:00

Finally done with this shot! My mentor Steve thought I really improved this quarter, so I'm feeling good about myself.

Heavy Object: Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

I'm gonna make a couple more tweaks before I submit it for the student showcase contest. This next week we're getting into our acting classes, and around this time next year I'll probably be in San Francisco for graduation and the Game Developers Conference.

Just found out that I'm spending this summer in Pennsylvania, which is going to be great. April got an internship at Penn State University doing microbiology. Probably going to take some road trips to check out Centralia and NYC.

Centralia, PA:

NYC:

Contemplative Push

2008-03-18T23:52:00.003-05:00

He sure wants that box.

Heavy Object: Second Pass from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Puuushe

2008-03-10T10:12:00.001-05:00

Mo splinin, mo pushin.

Heavy Object: Blocking Plus from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Push Push

2008-03-04T11:52:00.001-06:00

This is the final shot we're working on this quarter. Pushin a big old treasure chest.

Heavy Object: Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

That's not a drink ... it's a Space Station!

2008-02-29T12:40:00.009-06:00

Happy Birthday, April!

She turned 21 on Wednesday and this is what we made:

Space Station:

2 parts Blue 100 Peppermint Liqueur
1 part Sweetened Lime Juice
4 parts Sprite

It's on the right, if you can't tell by the spacey color.

Done with Pole Jumping

2008-02-25T13:01:00.002-06:00

Another tough assignment, but it's done.

Pole Jump: Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Imminent Death, pt. 2

2008-02-19T15:55:00.002-06:00

Here's last week's assignment! A bit smoother but still a lot of work to do, especially on the legs and head.

Pole Jump: Blocking Plus from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

A New Assignment About Death

2008-02-13T12:47:00.006-06:00

Got another assignment under way!

Pole Jump: Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Outside of school and work, I started replaying Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus the other day. The character animation and art direction are fantastic.

180 Turnaround

2008-02-06T19:32:00.001-06:00

So I've started a new quarter with a new mentor, Steve Cady. This class focuses on body mechanics and we spent the first month on an assignment of our choice. I've got three videos to show my progress from rough blocking to a finished shot.

Blocking (rough timing and posing):

Turnaround: Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Blocking Plus (motion is smoother, but unrefined):

Turnaround: Blocking Plus from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Polished (ready for critique):

Turnaround: Polished from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Class 1 is Wrapped Up

2007-12-21T16:52:00.001-06:00

And it's time for a nice break. Here's everything I did this quarter.

Class 1 Progress Reel from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

I'm going to watch a ton of movies over this next week. Planning on seeing I am Legend, Juno, Walk Hard, Atonement, Sweeney Todd and probably more.

Personality Walk

2007-12-21T16:04:00.000-06:00

I've been told that if you can animate a drunk person, you can animate anything. This was a bit too ambitious, but it didn't turn out as bad as it could have.

Lesson 110: Personality Walk Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

The final version is turned to 3/4 view so you can see all the movement going on in the hips.

Lesson 111: Personality Walk Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Walking!

2007-12-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

So I did these assignments about a month ago, and just got Vimeo to upload them properly. The first video shows the blocking, or main poses, of a basic "vanilla" walk without personality.

Lessons 108: Vanilla Walk Blocking from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

And this is the final, splined, fixed-up version.

Lesson 109: Vanilla Walk Final from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

These are the splines for the hips.

There will be more

2007-12-08T16:57:00.000-06:00

The last couple weeks I've had trouble getting Vimeo to upload my assignments. Anyway, I'll figure that out soon. I've also got a special new art project coming along with ice and churches and dinosaurs.

Happy Ball with Tail

2007-11-20T08:17:00.001-06:00

Lesson 107: Tailor from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Penduluuuuum

2007-11-12T07:45:00.000-06:00

Lesson 106: Overlapping Action from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.
Happy little pendulum.

Obstacle Course

2007-11-04T21:07:00.000-06:00

Lesson 105: Squash and Stretch from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.
We learned about squash and stretch this week, and a bit about anticipation. Our other assignment was a "devastation" pose:

It was a pretty shitty week outside of class. My grandma, Ardis, passed away due to cancer. And like some bizarre trifecta, the owner of Basil's Pizza died in a car crash and my roommate's friend had a cardiac arrest. If anything good happened, at the funeral I got to see most of my cousins and their families, which doesn't happen very often.

Brütal Legend!

2007-10-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

Double Fine's new game got announced last week! The games that Tim Schafer makes are always satisfying because of his awesome characters and offbeat storylines. Brütal Legend takes place in an alternate history where humanity is enslaved by demons, and you play a heavy metal roadie who melts faces with his guitar and rips apart everything else with his axe. The trailer is pretty wicked. It's a lot bloodier than Psychonauts, which suits me fine.

Lesson 104: Timing

2007-10-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

Lesson 104: Timing from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

Another week, another (somewhat challenging) bouncing ball assignment. I'm really digging the classes; it doesn't feel like work at all.

Lesson 103: Excitement!

2007-10-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

I just had my first big week of assignments at Animation Mentor, and I'm really enjoying it. We had to pose Stu (above) to look excited, and to animate a bouncing ball.

Lesson 103: Bouncing Ball from Tom Lubanovic on Vimeo.

It seems like insanity to work on a bouncing ball for several hours, but it really isn't as easy as it looks. Timing and weight are starting to make a lot more sense.

The Orange Box

2007-10-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

Excuse me for geeking out. Valve released their triple threat of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 last week. As usual, the art direction and storytelling in all of the games are exceptional. The character animation in TF2 is likely the best I've ever seen in a game.

Graham Cracker Oreo Soup

2007-10-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

2 graham crackers
3 Double Stuf Oreos
1/2 c. milk

Crush and mix ingredients to taste.

My Mentor is...

2007-09-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

Gini Santos! She works at Pixar and that's really all I know, since I haven't talked to her yet. I really can't wait for classes to start.

Games and Art

2007-09-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

Today, Norwegian game designer Ragnar Tornquist had a guest post on his blog about the question "Can video games be art?" He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the medium and compares our present point in game development to the "talkie" era of movies. It gets a little heady and he argues that inevitably, game developers will reach a point where photo-realistic graphics won't be the most important goal, and that innovative gameplay will have to take its place.

Anyway, I think it's silly to say that games aren't art. To me, anything can be claimed as art, and the only important factor is how good that art is. And Roger Ebert might not believe it, but there is some really great art out there:

Riven

Grim Fandango

Half-Life 2

Beyond Good & Evil

Bioshock

Animation Time!

2007-09-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

I'm starting up classes at AnimationMentor.com next week, and will soon be posting my progress in this blog. Hopefully I won't forget to do drawings and other art-like things. Here's me in San Francisco with two of the AM co-founders Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena.

Notice my half-formed beard. It's much fuller now.

How to Texture a Moustache Man

2007-09-24T21:27:00.000-05:00

So, I've been using Maya for a little while now, and have a pretty good grasp on the basics of everything: modeling, lighting, rigging, all that. The one thing I never learned properly was UV layout. I feel like it's been biting me in the ass, since texturing is a big part of 3D art. Anyway, I made a low-poly model of a sketch I'd done earlier this summer and figured out how to get the UV map working:

Orthographic sketches:

UV color map:

Shitty render! (I painted out the watermark in Maya)

Anyway, it wasn't as difficult as I feared, and I am the proud creator of a moustache man.

What if...

2007-09-12T00:41:00.000-05:00

your fruit had guns?!

Summer sketches

2007-09-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

I did a little bit of drawing this summer, and thought a montage of my favorite sketches would do nicely in an absence of other art-related things.

There's a really good thread on conceptart.org that I found today. It follows the progress of an artist over several years, starting pretty shittily and eventually becoming quite talented.

Rainbow Monster

2007-08-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

This is an idea that my girlfriend, April, thought up as a t-shirt design. It's a rainbow-heaving creature attacking a knight. There's a small animation here.

Tide-pooling

2007-08-03T15:04:00.001-05:00

Two days ago we got up at 3:45 in the morning to go tide-pooling near Santa Cruz. Check here for more photos of anemones, urchins, and crabs.

P1010150.JPG, originally uploaded by tomlubanovic.

Gott mit uns?

2007-07-26T19:20:00.001-05:00

Somebody posted on PZ Myer's blog, Pharyngula, that the Nazis had belt buckles with the phrase "Gott Mit Uns (God With Us)," which looks an awful lot like: