Halloween 2016: The Arts

It's the time of year again for the annual Karma Incarnate Halloween trip to California, which means two new shirt designs. Yay. I knew what I wanted to do for the Disney one way back in June, but alas I never got around to it... so at the last minute I had to do a little marathon session to make sure both designs were done in time to get printed.

So for the Disney one, obviously I had to go with something for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror because in a few months it's going to be changed into something much, much more lame.

Disney shirt 2016

This one is alright, the balance is all off, but what can I say? I was on a tight deadline. I do like the way the lightning came out (probably the best I've ever done) and I'll be using the technique again in the future. Sadly, it didn't print out as well. I also like the static effect. There's a couple easter-eggs in there too, if you can spot them.

Honestly my favorite part of it is the 'Fearwell Tour' it made me laugh when I thought of it. Also, all the letters in it are customized from the base font to make it look more Twilight Zone-esque. I think I got the look pretty well.

What's that? You don't know what this is about? Well don't worry, I've got you covered.



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And then the Universal one. This was a fair bit easier, but less satisfying in the end. I think the idea just never quite came together. Still, people seemed to like it okay.

Universal Shirt 2016

If you can't tell (and I wouldn't blame you if you can't) that's Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, Krampus, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface behind the Crew. Those were the main haunts at Halloween Horror Nights this year, so it seemed appropriate. It was also quick, which was good because -again- time crunch.

I don't like this one as much... usually I do one serious one and one silly one. The Disney one invariably being more silly because it's Disney and more cartoony and fun whereas Universal is more serious. Oh well. 

The backs of the shirts (Universal Left, Disney Right)

The backs of the shirts were a little boring compared to last years, but they did their job and that's all that matters in the end.

Both shirts did perform fairly well this year, people were asking about them both because of the design and because of the Tower of Terror reference, at one point I declared Jake to be the Karma Incarnate Sponsored Tower of Terror Portable Information Booth, so that was good. I don't know if people really noticed the Universal ones all that much, a few did for sure, but that day is kind of a blur.

"One last time, relax have a drink with me one last time" 

Little bumper I did for a client

I learned something new this past year, and it's super simple to do in After Effects, but don't judge me cause I don't know the program that well. It's a little bumper I made for some kind of art gallery show... I don't know. The guy paid cash and I don't ask questions! I should, but I don't! Ignorance is bliss.

The top video is the first draft which I thought came out pretty good, but it turns out was too realistic for what he wanted.

(Also the eye and globe are stock images so don't go thinking I painted them or anything.)

The second one is the final version. It's okay, the client was happy with it so that's good enough for me.

"Gazpacho soup!"

A Joke Too Far...

Hey there,

Short post this time because it's late and I actually just remembered I could upload this here.

Console War, transparent background

Console War, black background

So what's this? Well, some of you may have seen this article showcasing an Xbox One with Stark Industries branding and an Arc Reactor embedded in the top. If you haven't, then click that link and you'll be all caught up. So obviously this is a tie-in to the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie and the memes began flying almost immediately. I saw someone had made the Captain America: Console War joke already and I thought it was funny. Then I thought to myself, well, lets throw together that logo in Photoshop to make the joke funnier.

Suffice it to say, the joke was not funnier. In fact, I don't think anyone aside from me found it the least bit amusing... and after about an hour of editing, I saw that outcome coming... but I'd gone too far to quit so I finished it and here it is presented with both a black and transparent background. I'm happy with the result and actually it was pretty simple to build, just a huge pain for absolutely no reason. I guess we all make mistakes.

I'm also tossing up the actual logo for reference.

This is that actual logo I referred to literally seconds ago.

Now I'm the first to admit I didn't nail it exactly. I was working from a lower-rez version than you see above so I improvised somewhat and... again... joke. I was just going to capture the feel of it and got a bit greedy. All in all though, I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

"...you should not pick a fight with this person."