Silverlight Animation

This animated gif is created from the vector art I created for Jeff Paries book on Silverlight2. If you recall, I posted my pencil sketch for this back in July. Here it is again below:


I've already been informed that monkeys do indeed have tails, and I have added a tail in the pencil test, but haven't had time to do so in the vector art version. While this animation is not perfect, Jeff tells me it is the first character animation, and walk cycle done in Silverlight, and that he's already had people asking him about it. To which he replies, "Buy my book! It's all in there."

Silverlight 2 Animation (Foundation) Released

Here's some good news: Silverlight 2 Animation (Foundation) has been released! It is now for sale on Amazon.

I created the vector graphics used in the projects inside the book(No, I did not create the cover image). It was a challenging project, as I don't have as much experience with vector graphics, and hadn't worked in Illustrator that much. But it was also a fun project, and I got to create some cool stuff while learning a whole lot.

Silverlight is a very powerful tool, a useful alternative to Flash for creating digital media for the web.

I don't have cover credit, but my name and url are inside, and I'm hoping it will generate some more freelance work. Especially since I've already spent the money from this job!

Wall Street Lemmings

Wall Street Lemmings have been wreaking havoc again. I had this idea a week or two ago, but didn't sketch it out. I have very little spare time anymore, but I made time to draw this one. They've (WSL) ruined the retirement plans of so many people. Personally, I'm never going to retire. I've known that for years. One of the fringe benefits of being an artist is you never make enough money to retire. 8 )

As for me, I'm going to concentrate on storing up treasures in heaven. Try and lighten up folks, it's only money. Enjoy your life.

Pencil Sketch

This is a cathedral window in Paris, France. No, it is not at Notre Dame. It was a smaller cathederal, on a very narrow side street, and I didn't get the name of it. I had been working on it off and on since my trip in 2000. I don't know that it will ever get finished. I will get back to France, I can guarantee that.

A friend of mine (Kathleen Rietz) recently devoted a whole new blog to sketching in her moleskine book. Kate is at least as busy as I am, if not more so. When I learned of her new blog, this lead to blog posting guilt syndrome, a very real and serious affliction. So I decided to share this sketch with you. Enjoy. Have a great day everyone.

New York City Day 3

Today was a very good day. The Yankees won! Yaaaaay!

We also had a very successful morning trip to Riverside Park. Karen wanted to go see one of the locations from a favorite movie of hers, You've Got Mail. Below is a picture of me in the park, they had a baseball diamond there too.


Then we went to midtown for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in the world, The Blue Smoke:


That's right. Awesome bbq ribs in Manhattan.

Sunset at the Stadium:


Me at the Stadium, the Yanks have won, the night is over. We're saying our goodbyes. I have many fond memories of the Stadium, with friends, and my sister Karen.


I'll post links to the quicktime movies I shot next week, when Karen brings me a cd with the files.

Game one

As promised here are a couple pictures from the game last night. I yelled my voice out in the first inning, when Jeter broke Lou Gherig's all time hit record of 1269. The crowd gave Jeter a long standing ovation, it was terrific. Giambi hit a solo home run his first time up. Unfortunately, the Yankees lost the game. Still, we had a wonderful night at the grand old stadium.


Sitting in front of us was a family of four, one of the little boys new EVERYTHING about baseball, and was lecturing his little brother about the rules of the game. It was very cute, and they provided many laughs throughout the game.

And finally here is a snap of the 4 train ride home. I'll try to post the qt movie Kari took, it does a better job of showing how packed the train was.

NYC Day 2, surviving Central Park

Here is Karen in Central Park!

Okay so we spent 2 hours this morning after breakfast looking for an Aveda Spa, which, if I'm not mistaken, can be found in each and every major city in the world, including the two cities Karen and I live in. We spent most of this 2 hours walking on Broadway, when we should have been walking on WEST Broadway.

Yes. WEST. BROAD. WAY.

Why they felt the need to name two streets the same, I will never know.

We did however FINALLY get to Aveda Spa, only to find out that it was closed until the afternoon due to training courses.

Right. SO... we Gugenhiemed. 8 )


Then we ate lunch, then we went and stood near the Brooklyn Bridge, but didn't get to go on a cruise to see the waterfalls because... wait for it... waaaaait... the cruise times have been cut in half because of complaints from the neighbors. No kidding. Apparently the hordes of tourists were trampling things(small children, flowers, etc). So, we missed one of the main things we wanted to see.

HOWEVER... tonight we will see history made, when Derek Jeter becomes the all time Yankee hits leader, passing none other than Henry "Lou" Gherig. Pics from the game posted tonight, or tomorrow morning.

P.S. I'll post pix and video from the game tonight tomorrow.