RetroActivities

Book Trailer

2011-03-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

A Double Life Book Trailer from Kory Heinzen on Vimeo.

Here is the official book trailer for a wonderful book written by a wonderful woman...my wife.

http://lisacatherineharper.com/

the book A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood

is available now.

MEGA MEGA MIND

2011-02-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

The DVD/Blu-ray is now out!!!
I Art Directed the short.
Check out the trailer.

Later I will post some art. I did lots of fun stuff for this one. It sort of morphed out of the comic and was almost 2d stereo which would have been super cool. It still turned out great. Everyone I worked with was tremendous and Simon Smith is a big ball of kick ass director energy.

MEGA comic

2011-01-24T10:52:00.001-08:00

So here are some the explorations I did for the Megamind Comic Book.
I had great fun taking the style of the 3D film and translating it in to 2D through my patent pending "Kory Filter" You can see I did push the characters a bit edgier at first and then settled on something a bit more kid friendly. While I didn't get a chance to work the final product, I had a blast doing these I hope you like them and be sure to check out the comic on line!...HERE

MEGA post

2011-01-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

So hold on to your hats and glasses....
Here is a pretty fun sampling of the work I did on the movie Megamind.
When I started the project more than 3 years ago it was called Mastermind and it went through many name changes and looks of film.
It's all part of the process and makes for some fun opportunities to flex ones art muscles. A lot of my work can be found in the ART OF book but there is more and I would like to share some of that with you here.

Someone wrote a Book!

2011-01-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

If I were to write a book, the cover would look like this...
Here is the Plot...
Surrounded by Automatrons that cator to his every whim and ensure his safety from unknown dangers the Tomorrow Child longs to know what are beyond his city's walls. He is a boy who has everything except something to live for, until one morning a simple discovery changes everything.
The image was inspired by a Hugh Ferris drawing that I saw once.
The story, well I just made it up while i did the image. It helps to have a hook when doing an illustration. I always come up with epic tales when drawing stuff.
Now, of course, I didn't really write a book, but I do know someone who has, and it is a pretty epic tale and even has science in it.
Check out the real book here...
A Double Life by Lisa Catherine Harper.
BTW she's my wife ans she is pretty awesome check out here site
www.lisacatherineharper.com

Robots from Space

2010-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun thing that is related to this...
THIS ONE
He is part of a story that I just finished. I hope to convince some of my friends to help me get him moving. It seems to have some momentum so I don't want to stop. I will try and keep you updated on this.
See Ya..

2010-11-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Check it out!!!

Megamind in the New York Times! click here

also go here for the ART of BOOK... I have tons of stuff in it.

It's looking like MEGAMIND is going to be a MEGA hit!
yikes. Did I just say that.
Yes Yes, I did.

Another Rainy Day

2010-09-23T08:49:00.001-07:00

Another fun assignment over at... travistysbeard

Stomping in puddles. Splashing her little brother.
Getting soaked from head to toe. Ella loves rainy days.
Maybe today is not quite as rainy as she hoped.

Blast from the Pop Gun and the past

2010-09-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

A while back I was asked to participate in an amazing comic anthology called PopGun!
Of course I said yes, and of course I immediately realized I had way too much to do with family and work and life in general. Those of you who know me know that I keep working on these thing even when no one is looking and then surprise them with something new when they least expect it. Like an Art Ninja. A really slow ninja who likes to draw instead of throw spiky stars and kill people.
Anyway, here is a page from a 14 page story I worked up based on my Delivery Boy Retro-active world.
Enjoy the bar brawl...

Paintings from the Pacific

2010-07-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

OK
The family went to Kauai this summer and on one of the last days my amazing wife suggested that
my daughter and I do some paintings. REAL paintings! we had already done some sketches and I did a few simple water colors, but these are a bit more serious. So while the kids frolicked and the wife sunned I did these. They are pretty quick and the light was changing faster that I could paint and the paint was drying quicker than I could mix it. Even through all the sand and heat I felt like a traditional artist again, you know like when I was in art school. Though this time my parents weren't helping me with the rent and I didn't need a government loan to pay for supplies.
Mahalo and Aloha!

Happy Val Day

2010-02-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here is my annual Valentine's Day illustration for the kids.
Not much to say about it, other than It's really cute and the kids liked it.

lighting experiments

2010-02-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by some things I have seen on the innerwebs a while back.
I decided to do some lighting tests of my own. These were done in order to get some of my lighting skills up to where I want them to be for my short film.
anyway here are the renders.

STILL old and MAD

2010-01-17T21:28:00.001-08:00

well it seems as if I only uploaded 5 images last a time so here area few more...

Old and Mad

2010-01-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

Old and Mad is not just a way to describe me but a good name for this post.
Here are some never before seen (by you) artwork I did for the Madagascar Films!
Our fearless art leaders Kendal and Shannon really pushed us to do some fun stuff. They were fun films to work on because of those two.
After you check out these images be sure to head on over to Travisties Beard for a look at some more fun PDI artists work at our new blog!

Swamp Walk

2010-01-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

Here a quickie image experimenting with a story idea in my swamp monster world.
Hopefully there will be more to come from this.

And for those of you who care. I will have some more Retro stuff up soon as well!

thanks.

Alien Visitor

2010-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick shot from my camera from the other night.
I kept hearing noises from the cat bowl AFTER I had let the cat out.
I decided to investigate and this is what I saw.
Next time I will try to talk to it!
The kids should get a kick out of this.
Sometimes I tell them stories and I need to show them PROOF.

ALIEN visitor from Kory Heinzen on Vimeo.

Pirates vs Dragons

2010-01-03T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here we go again...the kids and I made a movie one gloomy Saturday afternoon.

It was a way to explain to my youngest how Star Wars was made. we used models, live action actors, stop motion and special effects. We ended up having a great time and made a pretty fun little film full of heart and action and a bit of humor. Everything you could hope for in a pirate and dragon movie

When my wife asked my daughter what she learned about making a movie her answer was." It takes a long time and the director yells a lot." My wife gave me a look and I of course was beaming with pride.

That was exactly right.

Pirates vs Dragons from Kory Heinzen on Vimeo.

2009-12-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

Our 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Short Film.
Sit back grab a tissue and enjoy this epic and educational short film all about the first Thanksgiving!

Story.....Lisa and Ella
Character Design.....Ella
Backgrounds, motion....Kory
Additional art.....Finn

Narrator....Ella
additional voices....Kory

Heinzen Family Thanksgiving 2009 from Kory Heinzen on Vimeo.

CON-tastic

2009-10-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

I forgot to upload these a while ago and I just found them.
so here you go. A second wave of funny folks from Wondercon and San Diego.
The idea is that any two can be paired to create ironic conversations.

enjoy and please don't take too seriously if you resemble any of the characters.
the satire is done with love and quite a bit of personal reflection.

AGENT OMICRON

2009-09-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is the fruit of a fantastic colaboration between me and a few people from work.
Goro, Nico, and Ryo and I created this cool Spy show intro for a contest over at CGTALK.
Now sit back, click the link and enjoy!

Agent Omicron from Goro Fujita on Vimeo.

and the making of...

Agent Omicron - Making Of from Goro Fujita on Vimeo.

Let it snow!

2009-05-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

Well summer is just around the corner and I was burning up this weekend, so naturally I am posting this!
This is another Swamp Monster themed illustration. This time my younger self can be seen with the big guy in Canada. Whistler BC to be exact. I know it's hard to tell, but if you look close, there is a beaver attacking a hockey player in the background.

see ya soon!

Wonder KHAAAAANNNNN!

2009-03-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

Well, last week was wonderCon. That means I was my true nerd glory for three straight days. I picked up a book or to, got some autographs and sketches from artists that I admire and saw lots of great characters. I started a series of character drawings based on some sketches and picture from the Con it's self. These were made with only love and respect for the people I saw and spoke to. The illustrations are design to be paired randomly for maximum irony. Here are the first two in the collection...

Valentines '09

2009-02-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

These have be come a tradition.
this year's is a study in self control, or lack of it.
The Kids and I love candy and all things sugar...
especially chocolate!

Thanksgiving movie

2008-11-30T00:54:00.000-08:00

Here is our Thanksgiving movie for this year. Ella and I worked hard on this one. She even wrote the screenplay while Lisa was the executive producer. I was the pixel monkey again and Finn was a great focus tester.

Dudes in the Back

2008-05-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

OK. I know I haven't posted in a while, so here it goes...

This is a little taste of some of the background characters from Retro-Active.
I have had some great help with the modeling recently with characters and cars and this is some of the fruits. I did the clean up and texturing and rigging. The designs for these guys can be seen in an earlier post.
This render was done a month or so ago. I was going to keep it to myself, but that would be greedy.

OK. There, I posted.

2007-12-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

I got a special treat in the mail today.
My copy of a book I contributed too this last summer.
It was finally published and I think it turned out great. There are some great images in it.

see the book here

Mine stands out a bit because of it's stylized nature, but over all I think it holds up.
Normally I am not in to armor clad vixens but every once in a while they work.

Now that it is published I will share with you what I did.

more goodbyes

2007-12-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

here are a few more of those good bye pages.
These will be the last for a while because we are pretty stable at the moment.
I just hope I don't have to do a self portrait any time soon!

Thanks

the other side of the spectrum

2007-11-13T22:52:00.000-08:00

I did some character designs for a game that is about to be released.
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune check it out here.
This is pretty much the other end of the spectrum as far as my character design style goes.
Still a fun challenge. Check out the main characters.
I will be sure to post some more when the game comes out. Mostly early environment stuff.
Until then... I give you Nathan Drake and friends.

Been a while...

2007-11-13T22:46:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while but that doesn't mean I stopped working!
I have still been hard at work at, well, work. But on my free time I still manage to get some stuff done on Retro-Active.
Here is a line up for the background players and city denizens.
I think they turned out well. The only ones missing are a grumpy old man and a kung fu robot.
but they have there own pages.

Harry Potter Day

2007-07-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know if there is an International Harry Potter Day or not, but here is my little contribution to the cause. I am about to sit down and read The first few chapters. I hope everything work out for the lad. I am rooting for him.

This is a portrait of the young Harry before he started getting all angst-y and hormonal.
Ahh, the good old days. They grow up so fast.

SURF'S UP!

2007-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

Well we just got back from a GREAT family vacation to Kaua'i. We were there for two weeks.
It was a blast playing at the beach, building sand castles, snorkeling and other fun island activities. A luau was one of many highlights for the kids. I managed to get a tan and some sketches in my sketch book. ( look out for some of those when I scan them.)

Being there for a full two weeks allowed us to really relax and of course it gave me time to teach the kids to surf.
Check out some snap shots below.

See Ya Suckers!

2007-06-17T20:30:00.001-07:00

Hey Y'all,

At the studio where I work it has become a tradition to make a book of charactures for the departing. If someone leaves we have a party or lunch, we get a little tipsy (or more) and give them this great notebook of drawings done by everyone in the department. It's great fun and I can't wait to leave so I can get some cool art work.

Anyway some artists have recently rolled off some current projects and have relocated or headed toward greener pastures. These represent the last four of our dear fellow artists who have left the nest or flown the coup, which ever the case may be. They were all done with love and good humor and are now posted here for your enjoyment. Some of you may know some of the fellows depicted in the following images, if not, I hope you still get a kick out of the funny pictures I dun drew.

The Princess and the Tiger

2007-06-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

This was done as a warm up for a completely unrelated project.
I thought it would be fun to loosen up while creating some art for my daughter.
It is based on a story we wrote together while selling lemonade on our front lawn. Both of which were her ideas. This is just a character study for now, but I am sure my daughter will have some art direction notes and requests for more art in the next few days. I think she is taking after me a bit, but with her mom's brain power. So needless to say I am looking at the next decade or so of being the in house art monkey. It could be worse.
I hope you dig it. Maybe I will post the story some day. It's pretty good. It made me laugh as I was being dictated too by a five year old.
until next time.

Retro-Active still active

2007-06-03T23:06:00.001-07:00

OK here is another Location study for my short film. It's a run down industrial area where my main character gets in to a fight with a rather large robot. In this scene he is trying to get away. The camera will track with him as he jumps some rubble and junk. ( that is some cinematography speak for y'all.)
I have also started this in 3D to use as a test scene. Wish me luck. I am really trying to get some style in to this silly computer of mine.

Swamp Monster

2007-04-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

OK Here is a Portrait of a Swamp Monster. He is from a series of stories I tell my daughter at be time. Kind of like Gnomes, they live all over the world, but don't have much human contact. I, however, have had numerous encounters with them over the past several decades. The stories start scary but end up funny do to the fact that swamp monsters aren't so bright and can be talked into doing pretty much anything with the promise of pancakes.
Anyway I hope you enjoy this guy. I have drawing of other swamp monsters that I still need to scan. Like one of the Hawaiian guys who, oddly enough, looks an awful lot like a giant coconut.

And stay tuned, more Retro-Active stuff is just around the corner.

nothing yet...

2007-04-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Nothing to post just yet. But, I have a few things to share in a day or so.
maybe later in the week I'll add a couple of cool things. well, cool to me anyway.
thanks for stopping in.

K

2007-04-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun illo I did for A good friend of mine. Check out his site based on the Character.
TOFU the Vegan Zombie.

Happy Heart Day

2007-02-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

My wife asked me to do a "quick" drawing for the kids.
well...needless to say I am incapable to do a quick drawing.
I liked how they turned out so I am sharing them here.

Kiss some one you love today.

2007-01-31T22:34:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, I finally got those links fixed. Thanks to all who previously clicked furiously on tiny thumbnails just to be thwarted by spotty HTML.
And to further justify a post, here is another viz dev piece for my RetroActive project.

Title Sequence

2007-01-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a sneak preview of the animatic that I mentioned earlier. Some people asked to see it, but I think its a little too early for that. However I decided to put up the title sequence from the animatic just to be nice.
You may notice that it's pretty short. I figured that with only one name on there it would be silly to have some thing drag on. Although I might add just one more beat and there is a small quite opening scene right before the titles. It provides a hint at some back story and establishes the "world" I recently just finished boarding it and should have it in the animatic soon
Anyway, I hope you enjoy some moving pictures.

CLICK the IMAGE or here

a year in Retro

2007-01-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

Here are some images that I did this past year for the short film I am working on. Kinda random I know, but hey, it's something, right? Any way I know there are one or two people who are hoping I finish this thing. Hi Granny! And for the other guy, YES, I am still working on it. I actually have an animatic done. I am still fixing some timing and action stuff, but it's a great feeling to be able to watch the whole thing now.

Anyway, enjoy the pics...

Lost St.Nick

2006-12-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a little Christmas comic. Based on my NY adventures this week.

Baby, it's cold out side...

2006-12-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

More form So. Orange. Here is a quick sketch of the view from the kitchen window. Now it's really not that cold for the north east, but for a guy raised in SoCal it's down right Artic.

Grand Central

2006-12-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hi From So. Orange NJ. I went up to Blue Sky Studios the other day to visit an old work buddy Robert Mckenzie(check out his blog and work) and I had some time while waiting for a train at Grand Central. So...the nerd that I am...I whipped out the ol notebook and did a couple of on location digital paintings. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Here are the results...

facing downtown, I think

information booth

Well ya gotta stert somewhere

2006-01-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

This is my first post. Nothing to say. I'll think of something later