Have a Crappy Summer Album Art!

Crappy Records revealed their new compilation album, Have a Crappy Summer which is my second album cover (Fishin' For Woos by Bowling for Soup was the first), and the third album to feature my artwork somewhere in the packaging (Sorry For Partying by Bowling for Soup had an illustration by me in one of the pages.)

Since Crappy Records revealed the new album cover, I believe its alright for me to post it as well. AND I'm very happy to post it too! I really enjoy making this one, and I really love how it came out!

Please note that I only did the illustrations, and the awesome logo design was done by the professional graphic designers over at Crappy Records. So when I handed off to Crappy Records it looked like this;

The following is the piece regressing during the sketch-up stages;

You can see below that the first draft of the cover was a bit different. I got pretty much free reign on this one, so when I was told "Crappy Summer" I tried to think off all the things that was bad about the summer, sun burns, kiddy pools, the hot air. And I don't know why I included an old man, maybe I wanted to have a character that personified and could be named "Crappy". I dunno really. It just fit.

Though Jaret Reddick wanted the cover to be more fun, so his attitude changed drastically. I think it was for the better. The following can be thought of as "Crappy" off his happy meds.

Covering Facebook Timeline

Facebook updating to the "Facebook Timeline" was very hit or miss change for me. My opinion of it was a more positive when it exclusive to the personal pages, but once it hit the fan-pages I was more than sick of it. Now overall its a really cool concept, you can easily scroll through the years that you've been alive (and/or been on facebook) and add events that are personal too you. That's really cool.

Its the design choices that bother me. You now have a split down the middle and post randomly generated on each side. If there was more of a purpose besides to get more post as possible on the page, I wouldn't mind. Like what if one side was dedicated to status updates and images; and the other could be for links and shares.... But the highlighting feature that takes up both sides is really really neat!

But let's talk about the best new feature, the cover image. Above all pages now is a cover image, a nice horizontal image of your choose. This is how you "brand" yourself. Most people who use Facebook to play Farmville will put pictures of their family or picture they found on the web. But think about what companies, artist, and other people who market themselves on Facebook can do!

Both Sketch-a-Thons I did had images that would fit into the cover image slot, to help advertise. Advertising pages for big companies can also put up really cool images to help bring people to their pages, or put in free advertisements like I did with the Sketch-a-Thon, its a really cool feature.

Now the point of this entry, mine;

Mine is simple, but it works. I also designed it to go with the avatar image of my fan page. Think of the possibilities! Making it rain in the cover image, and a cartoon version of myself getting rained on was only the first idea I came up with. Making it was easy, just design the image knowing the spaces that'll be used.

For your enjoyment, here are the two pieces used to get this cool effect.

As I said, I think this is a really cool feature, and its one I plan on setting down time for each month to come up with something new. I guess making a new image for the facebook is a lame excuse for a blog entry, but I really think its cool.

Also, my actual personal page looks like this;

49 Hour Team

Another year, another MG Collective 49 Hour Animation Competition! If you can't tell I' m really excited. I've got a pretty cool strong team.

Ryan Wing, Vance Vaden, Zeb Wood, Chase Shield, and myself.

The 49 Hour will be taking place this weekend, I'll report more when it develops! I just wanted to show I'm excited and I made a team group pic. (Its my Facebook Coverpic!)

Community Boards

These were the original boards I did for the Community fan video I did earlier this year. These were a rush job and were done in about a day;

For fun, let's compare them to actual shots from the cartoon;

Indiana Uploaded Motion Graphic Viral Video

One of the newest Indiana Uploaded competitions is to make a viral video! So show your support by watching and liking the video below;

Also, donate to Indiana Uploaded on Brackets for Good.org !

Sketch-A-Thon Results!

Sketch-A-Thon was a success! Some technical issues with Justin.tv's chat.. But otherwise a very fun and exciting experience. I was really happy to know that a few of the people who watched did donated! As promised here are all 15 10 Minute sketches made in order!

And remember to go to Bracketsforgood.org and donate to Indiana Uploaded and help them stay in the race and make it to a Round 3!

Sketch-A-Thon

If you've been following me on Facebook or Twitter you then its no surprised that I am been a big supporter of Indiana Uploaded, especially during their campaign on the non for profit funding competition Brackets for Good.

I am happy to announce that I will be doing a live stream tomorrow night at 8pm (Eastern time, -5:00) to help bring in donations to their cause. What is Indiana Uploaded? What are there causes? Well, Indiana Uploaded's founder Zeb Wood explains it best.

They've made it to the second round, but for them to survive this week their going to need all the help we can bring in!

For more information on Indiana Uploaded and their campaign on Brackets for Good, please visit this link; http://indianauploaded.org/bfg/

The live stream will feature me dedicating 15 sketches in 3 hours. That's 10 minutes dedicated to each of the 15 sketches, with 3 10 minute breaks. Zeb Wood will be in the chat to talk about Indiana Uploaded, and I'm hoping to bring in some donations. But don't worry you can still watch without donating.

All 15 sketches will be posted here the following day. Hope to see you all there.

Big Brother is watching: how developers use game analytics

Another week, another illustration for Nightmaremode.net. Check out this week's article about game analytics.