If you are familiar with comic books you’re familiar with Jim Lee. Currently the Co-Publisher of DC Comics, and arguably the greatest comic book artist in the industry. I’ve messaged him a few times on Twitter, and per the MO of the most well known, I never got a response from the guy. Understandable. He’s a busy fella.

Last night I was working on a project ’til 2:30am or so – usual time to work, not a normal project. I was workin’ with the ol’ pencil and paper and struggling with how much I’ve lost over the years.

Any artist knows that clothing is tricky, and making it look real is quite a challenge unless you’re well practiced (which I am not). I abandoned tradition art about 10 years ago or more in favor of digital media; Photoshop became my best friend, and my biggest crutch.

So in the middle of the night last night I reached out to Jim Lee over twitter for some help, and he reached back like a true scholar. He shot a quick video on his iPhone (I knew I liked that guy), and posted in on YouTube for myself or anyone else who might benefit from some guidance.

The dude rocks! Took him a minute thirty to pull that sketch out and it’s better than what I get after slaving for half an hour. There are plenty of talented “celebrities” out there, but the mark of a true master artisan is one who gives back to the artistic collective. Thanks, Jim, for taking the time to help a novice like myself, and it’s nice to know that even the pros work at 3am in the morning to get stuff done.

For a good look at Jim Lee’s work checkout Batman: Hush, Superman: For Tomorrow, or All-Star Batman & Robin.

This weekend we’re going to Independent Media Expo called “STAPLE!” hoping to meet up with some local talent and printers. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll post more on this project I’m sure.

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I’m listening to the Oscar winning score from the Social Network this morning. Pretty amazing music, and seemingly a pretty different style than what has won in the past. It’s incredibly diverse in style, pensive, yet energetic. It’s good. It’s different, and that’s probably why it won.

Danny Baranowsky could have done this easily, and I hope to one day give him that chance. The man is Oscar worthy no doubt.

It’s when you actually have things going on, and so many genuinely interesting things to share that you can scarcely find the time to to write/tweet/post about them! I find this to be true for myself at least.

I suppose that means right now I don’t have much going on – that’s not entirely true. I am, however,finding myself at the end of a long string of chaotic happenings, and I suppose that why now I’m able to sit and write.

I won’t make in promises on the frequency of my posts, but I have decided to do a regular “AM Post” which will simply be my first thoughts for the day. Perhaps a few will be significant, but most will probably just be short and random.

I do have more things I’d like to share, but I am genuinely a little to busy to wrap my brain around them just yet.

More later.

You can read the case study here: http://is.gd/cLsRm

Thanks for the support! Until next time!

So since I can’t provide much info on our future, let me distract you with something else completely unrelated – but awesome!

This is for sure one of my favorite videos on YouTube. It’s a PSA called “Embrace Life”, and it is so well produced, and so powerful that every time I watch this I’m moved. I get chills. This is art. And it’s a freakin’ PSA.

Pretty powerful stuff, hu? Nothing is said. No words. Every gesture we recognize even without the car, and we completely understand what’s happening. They’re not trying to shock you into wearing your seat belt. They’re trying to move you to action. So good.

This piece was shot on a Phantom HD camera at frame rates up to 1000fps at some point. A fantastic example of modern technology and art being beautiful fused together to invoke a response.

What do you think? Am I making a bigger deal out of this than it is? I’ve watched this over and over, and it just doesn’t seem to get old. What say you?

I’m sure most of you saw the twitters and Facebook posts about us moving to Texas in April. This was our exit strategy, and we were looking forward to a change in scenery and being around old friends and our families.

About a month or so ago one of the companies I do work for gave me an offer that would keep me here, but allow for some freedom and the chance to pursue what I really want to do. As much as we were looking forward to a change in pace, Rachel and I both decided that this was an opportunity we needed to take a chance with.

So here we are. If you’re in Arizona, you’ll be seeing us around. If you’re in Texas… sorry.

Check it out! It will probably be the best thing you’ve seen/heard all day! (Unless, of course you’ve already seen it.)

The setup was a little tricky, but only because I’d never set this rig up before. Getting everything to align perfectly was a small chore, but if I owned the rig I’d have to do this once, and then I’m done.

The first thing I noticed right out of the gate is the construction of this bad boy is solid, and once the mount was on the EX1’s lens, and the adapter was attached there wasn’t anything precarious about this setup. Of course one of the best parts about the Letus rig is it flips the image, so I didn’t have to have an external monitor to flip upside down in order to see a properly orientated image. I did hook up a small 10” HD monitor just so I’d have a larger viewing screen, but it was a commodity more than a necessity.  I could have serviced just fine using the EX1’s 3” display.

The footage I got was great! The only issue I ran into was a few shots had some streaking-grain. I’m assuming this was my error in shooting with a shutter that was too slow, and caught the movement of the ground glass. Perhaps? I have yet to completely figure that one out.  I also lost my back focus often, but again I believe this to be a user error. Anytime I felt like I couldn’t get critical focus, it took maybe 20 seconds to stop the ground glass, double check my focus is sharp, start it back up, and on we went!

I did some POV shots that I didn’t/couldn’t do with the Letus. They were from the perspective of the person in the HazMAT suite, so I actually had to put the suite on, and shoot through the plastic face cover.  It was a little awkward with the suite, but the shots turned out great so of course it was all worth it in the end!

The final piece turned out pretty good, and the over all experience working with the rig was fantastic! If I had to purchase a cinema lens adapter again, I would certainly go with a Letus!

I’ll post the finished project when it’s online!

- Tim

You can read the article posted at StudioDaily.com.

I’m still a huge fan of Avid Media Composer, so I’m glad to see they’re making some moves in the right direction.

There’s still some debate out there as to weather or not moving away from the dongle is a good move on Avid’s part, but it personally doesn’t effect me either way. Honestly I think I’d rather have the extra USB port.

For all the Final Cut users out there: How much more likely are you to switch to Avid aftering hearing of these added features? If not at all, what would Avid have to do to win your loyalty?

- Tim Allen