Littlest Pet Shop Success

Whoever said that my hobby for collecting paper-dolls was a waste of time was wrong! Wa-haa! I've passed onto the second round of the Littlest Pet Shop competition. Special thanks to Alessia Lingesso.

Taryn Caila Herman

My new baby niece was born today!!

Here she is with her happy dad Eric. They live in Australia with her mom Jaqui.

She's super cute and I'm so happy!

Hansel & Gretel

In the modified version of the fable, The children's father does not care about the children's fate and does not debate his wife's suggestion to get rid of the kids. Hansel and Gretel spend the night in the forest as in the first tale but we can see that this experience is changing Hansel dramatically.

He has a violent dream and wakes to Gretel crying by the burning out fire. This is when he explains to her that has left pebbles along the path to signal the way to go home.

The next morning, when the children arrive back at their cottage, their parents are cruel and unsympathetic to them. Hansel and his father have a terrible argument and both refuse to talk. The adults lock the children in the house and so, Hansel does not have the opportunity to collect pebbles for the next trip which he knows will be the next day.

The next morning when the children are led away from home, Hansel crumbles his portion of bread on the path, but the birds eat it and the children are lost.

Hansel and Gretel come upon the house in the woods but it is not made of candy. It is a normal house and as the children get closer to it they see that there is no one home.

Hansel breaks a window and lifts Gretel up to go inside to look for food, but while she is inside the old lady who lives there comes home. The old woman cannot see or hear well and is carrying a bunch of berries as she has been out gathering all day. She is kind looking and happy. Gretel is frightened and looks out the window at Hansel who signals her to run away, but as she does she knocks over a tin can used as a vase for daisies.

To Be Continued...

By the way, the image is the working version of the Gretel Character for this fable. As you can see, she has no hair or hands. That just won't do.

PEPSI Light Done and Dusted

I handed in the PEPSI Light competition today. This is what I submitted along with flat versions of the lables. I hope I win! I'll let you all know when the voting starts.

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS?!?

PEPSI Light -Active Every Season

Here's your friendly PEPSI Light competition preview... full images here tomorrow after submission deadline. Maybe if I win we can all meet up in NYC for a pretzel. I'll keep you posted.

The Pepsi Challenge, and Other Friday Morning Challenges

So here's the deal: it's January 13th. Pepsi is due in a week's time. I have the initial proofs, but I can't post them for fear that someone will steal my idea. Check back on the 21st. I have the ENTIRE second version to start & finish (the one, if one wins I think will win) and there's a list as long as my arm of edits I need to make to the first submission.

Littlest Pet Shop and the line of makeup for pre-teens is out the window. Instead I'm focusing on the paper-doll version of the product which Alessia helped me to draw and I worked on in Illustrator. It's due the 24th. I guess I have about 50% left of that to do as well.

Maya: maya maya maya... still makes me cry every day (in case you don't have a frame of reference, I'm talking about a software here, not a person http://www.learningmaya.com/). I've changed my idea again so that now it's skeletal Tassi Americani (Raccoons) playing poker. I'm basing it on the work of Jessica Joslin (see links).

Max: Chud has his eyes rigged. As Kosta says, that would mean he has a soul. (Max is also not a person in this context... but a software package.)

So, that's my to do list, minus any of the things I think I'm actually capable of completing on time. I might even be able to throw in a meal this weekend.

How Not to Build a Digital Human

Well, borrowing a book doesn't make you anything like a 3D modeller.

I went to Puglia with Fabri for Christmas and my laptop (circa 2000) didn't want to run Maya so I didn't do un caxxo the whole holiday. I ate (ALOT) I slept (at least 2 times a day) and I ate more. It was nice, but there's nothing to report.

New Year's was good this year cause it was super chill. We went to Alfio's house to have the boys cook dinner (spanish chicken, thyme risotto, some massive salad with everything in it), to drink loads of white wine and champagne, to annoy Cheech about staying in Milan, to watch Taranto turn into a likeness of Beirut with all the fireworks and to lose my shoes, and jewelery (which Fabri found and returned to me).

In terms of the digital Human? Forget it... I'm always far too ambitious and I ahven't done a single thing with anything else I said I would do.

Now, what was it I said I would do?

HAPPY 2006 EVERYONE!!!