I am thankful for my friends and family, for my fellow artists and art lovers.  I am thankful for the blessing that it is to have the opportunity to dream and imagine.   I’m reminded of this blessing as I look through the Star Wars photos that Michael Heilemann has collected on his flickr page.  There has been so much care taken bring imagination and dreams to life.

I saw that the 501st is sponsoring a charity auction to benifit the Make-A-Wish foundation.  Similar to the Vader Project, each artist will recieve a Stormtrooper helmet to decorate or paint however they would like.  50 Helmets have been donated by EFX Collectibles and will be shipped out to the Artists in early March of 2009.  The helmets will be completed in a month or two and then off for display and auction.

Here’s a little background from the 501st website.  Since 1997, the costuming organization known as the 501st Legion has spread the magic of the Star Wars genre worldwide through its authentic-looking costumes, and has become the leading force in fan-based charity events. The 501st, also known as “Vader’s Fist,” is truly dedicated to brightening the lives of those less-fortunate.  They attend charity events, movie premieres, and make hospital visits.  This group of devoted fans do A LOT of good in the world.

Membership in the 501st requires the ownership of a movie quality costume, so I am not currently a member.  I am however very pleased to be one of the Artists that will be contributing a Helmet to this charity auction.  You can see more about the projects including a list of the others that are involved by clicking the banner above to go to their site or clicking here.

I spent some time yesterday putting together a video demo reel made from the animation that I did for a Flash game.  A special thanks goes out to Jon for helping me track down the beat that was in my head, Grandmaster Flash (ironic that I animated it in a program called Flash!).

I uploaded the file to Vimeo twice and the timing was terrible!  So I’m trying out a new video service called Blip.TV

To celebrate YouTube’s transition to WIDESCREEN I present the trailer for Bolt.  The movie just opened and it looks like a winner.

Super Punch had a post highlighting movie posters.  The poster for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies caught my eye.  It looks like an old James Bond Movie that I’d never seen before.  So I started to watch the trailer for the movie and I was thrilled!  I want to share some of my impression before I post the video.  It opens with the title card saying, “Le Caire 1955″, cool, it’s in French and it’s 1955 a great time for spy movies.  This suave suit walks down the stairs.  The color is saturated and I’m thinking, “How did I miss this old movie?”.  THEN, some title graphics come onto the screen that say, “Conflict is Mounting”.  Ok, the way the graphics were animated onto the screen was new, very fresh.  The split second of footage showing the the guy in the old suit with the saturated color didn’t quite fit with this title sequence.  I was confused.  Is it an old movie or a new one?  The mysterious music in building.  We see skeletons underwater, and a creepy guy standing infront of a Nazi Flag and then the title animates on the screen saying, “A countries reputation is a stake”, “Only one man can handle it all”.  THEN it shows the film’s star wearing a Fez and a pencil moustache, holding a mandolin looking very much like Peter Sellers from the Pink Panther movies.  The action starts and it’s great!

The film is billed as a French version of Get Smart, but I feel that it is much more than that.  From what I’ve seen the lead is dashing and has style and it really feels Classic.  The movie was made in 2006 but was intentionally shot to look like the early Bond series right down to the cinematography, art direction and costumes. One interesting thing that they did to give it a classic feel was to have all of the driving scenes filmed with rear projection.  Those older movies have a certain sense of wonderment because you knew that they didn’t have the same access to special effects that we do now.  The stunts seemed to be a bit clumsier and as a result they feel more believable.  The little sound effects added to the punches and the screams.  The swing jazz soundtrack.  This one is going on my Christmas list. 

I had put out the word that I had Marvel Masterpieces Artist Proofs available for commission.  All of the artwork for the sketch cards needed to be in to Upper Deck by November 20th and off to Marvel for approval.  So, I didn’t get to do all the cards as commissions and had to decided for myself which characters to draw.  This is what I came up with.

The women of Marvel Masterpieces II

Marvel Masterpieces III

I really like these HoloNet News clips.  My problem is that I have to listen to them about 10 times before I can catch everything that’s going on.  SO, I decided to make a little animation.  It’s not the best, but I started it this morning and then took a lunch break and finished up this afternoon.  Hope you like it!

HoloNet News Update #2 from Spencer Brinkerhoff III on Vimeo.

You’ve been Rick Barack Rolled!

THIS JUST IN!!!!  The official Holonet News is back with episode (podcast?) number 2.  In the 4th Clone Wars Comic (illustrated by Katie Cook) we are introduced to a Rodian reporter named Yutsen from the Tri-Nebulon News.  Yutsen interviews Senator Amidala and accuses the senate of doing nothing to stop the terrible pirate attacks that have befallen Rodia.  Padme seems moved to assist the Rodians, but Palpatine sends Padme away to serve as his diplomatic Envoy to meet with the Banking Clan.  The hope is that the Banking Clan will terminate their alliance with Dooku and join the Republic.  Padme wishes to bring up the situation of the Rodians but Palpatine says that time is short and they will discuss it later.  Enroute to this meeting Padme runs into General Grevious’ ship the Malevolence and becomes his prisoner.

This new Holonet News update confirms that the pirate attacks ARE in fact taking place.  You can listen to the report here.

This episode introduces us to HNN reporter Rule Davenbay and transport pilot Mowan Mowadon as well as a new protocol droid translating Mowan’s report.

I finished up my 100 sketch cards, the 6 cards I get back and the 10 dual cards.  Here are some of the sketch cards and the dual sketch cards.

Here are the 10 dual sketch cards