JOHN CARTER has an awful cover...

... so when I got the blu-ray for a friend this Christmas...

I CHANGED IT.

CINEMATHEQUE!!!

(note: these videos are available in 720p HD, so it would be better to watch them from Youtube)

Some storyboards I did for an ad agency recently.

This last one is a video I put together just for fun.  I used the 60 fps function on the Canon Rebel T2I to capture a bunch of moments at the Puyallup Fair... IN SLOW MOTION.

Soul Sithstas!

So I went to SDCC again this year.  This time, I took my brother's DSLR and took photos of my friends dressed up as a pair of Sith Lords.  I think they turned out pretty well.

My Very Own Website

I threw together a Team Fortress 2 storyreel in order to apply at Valve.  Even had a simple website thrown together in order to present it!

The story is based on an idea by my friend, Patrick Ripoll, who was of great help to me in getting to know the Team Fortress property.  But I also wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the help of my brother and many other friends who offered helpful suggestions to make the work better.

Take a look!

www.joon-kim.com/

Some drawings for Facebook friends...

Apology Accepted...

I went to my second San Diego Comic Con this year. Mostly, I just follow my friends around and take photos constantly. Here are some of my favorites:

Last Summer

Seagull!

Birthday Present

I' m terrible at buying presents for friends. The longer I know people, the more difficult it is to think of something good to give them. For one close friend, I was at a complete loss. So I drew a pitchur.

Tangerine Poof

Bloop

Some Like it Hoth

A friend of mine, a fiend for Star Wars, recently had a birthday. His girlfriend wanted to surprise him by turning their apartment into the Ice Planet Hoth. She requested a representation of a taun taun, a wampa, and Luke hanging upside-down to reproduce larger so that she could hang them on the ceilings. I was happy to oblige.






And here's what the wampa looked like once it was printed and set up on Ice Apartment Hoth.

How Far My Procrastination Will Go

Around October 12th of last year (2009), a close friend of someone I talk to online commissioned a drawing from me. He wanted the next tattoo he got to be of his son and daughter going around his left forearm. His son, a Halo fan, was to be in a mech battle suit. His daughter took martial arts and calisthenics. I took on the job as a request and declined any sort of pay.

And here I am, over a year later, finally having done something that didn't take me all that long to do. It was a combination of "writer's block" and laziness. "Life got in the way." But not really. You might wonder if accepting compensation would've made me more likely to finish it up sooner. I honestly don't think so.

So, here it is. Work done over the course of 2 days (backed up by the foundation of a year of starts and stops and mulling over it in self-loathing guilt), as I batted ideas back and forth constantly with the client.

Her Royal Duchess

A picture I did for a good friend's birthday. She loves her Duchess. Duchess is not sad. It's simply the way she is.

Storyboarding THE BRONSON MANEUVER

Here's a little peek at the rough boards I did for The Bronson Maneuver. Being a lazy bum, I take lots of shortcuts hoping that I simply got the idea across to the rest of the crew. Please excuse the general unsexiness of these images!!! Hahahaha.



If you've already seen The Bronson Maneuver, you'll notice the ending in the storyreel is a little bit different from what was in the final product. Though I'd like to say that we were mature enough to realize that the bloody ending was pure indulgence in the end, it really came down to the fact that the deadline for the CGSociety Challenge loomed a little too close for comfort. In terms of making creative decisions, I admit it felt like a compromise of our 'VISIONARY GENIUS!' We actually told ourselves that we would go back and make our lofty 'uncompromised' version.

We finished our contest entry in time. And perhaps it was due to fatigue or plain laziness, but we no longer felt any need to go back and pull a 'special edition.' The four of us were all very content with what we'd done.

So, no blood.

Probably...

Maximum Grace

A piece I did in Photoshop for a friend who loves her kitty-cat oh-so much. It's currently her background image on her PS3!

"The name is Bronson... Clifford Bronson."

A little more than a year ago, a bunch of friends and I got together to produce an animated short for a yearly CGSociety competition. The theme that year was 'Alien & Human Relations" and we produced Coffee Break for which we received 2nd place in the Team Video category as well as a recognition for animation.

Just last night, our team (compacted to 4 members from the 11 that worked on Coffee reak) put the finishing touches on this year's CGSociety competition entry.

The theme: Secret Agent. A genre that has been mined to death any way you look at it. Only the most foolish of FOOLS would dare think that they could bring anything new to it! ... but maaaaybe WE could be the ones to do it!

I humbly present to you, The Bronson Maneuver.

The Bronson Maneuver - Theatrical Teaser from Mike McCain on Vimeo.

The Bronson Maneuver from Mike McCain on Vimeo.

"I'm gonna show you God does exeeeist!"

(cue righteous guitar solo)

And that is as religious as my blog will ever get.

CON AIR. That is all.

Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good

Here's another in my series of CHUDicatures. CHUD member Greg Clark requested an image of himself as a Ghostbuster (one of his most favorite films) based off a photo he posted in the Chewervision thread. Here is that photo.

And here is the result.

I think the image is funnier the more familiar you are with the film. I tried to make the ladies come across as ghosts, but I've been told that this idea did not come across clearly. In that regard, I failed. Better luck next time!

CHUDicatures

Chances are if you ever see me using a computer, I'll surely have two things open. My Gmail and CHUD.com. CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) is my favorite movie news site. It's not really for the news because that stuff is everywhere. It's the writers and their commentary for each bit of news that keep me coming back there.

Over a year ago, I finally started posting regularly on their message boards. Since it's a movie news site, you'd think that people would mostly discuss... movies? This isn't actually the case. Its membership loves to talk about lots and lots of whatever. The community is also close-knit enough that they have lots of inside jokes and also post images of themselves in a thread called Chewervision 2D.

It's from this thread, I started doing caricatures of several members. I did them to pass the time for fun and posted them in the thread. Unexpectedly, it took off. People really liked seeing themselves represented by my doodles. So I also began taking requests. They are of varying quality. But I'd like to think that I've improved steadily by just drawing constantly. This is the most recent one I posted.

I can't say that I have a definitive style. Sometimes, I do a fairly realistic rendering of a person. And then I'll do a much more cartoony version on a whim. I don't think I've found the ideal balance yet, but it's been fun trying to look for it.

The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

I swore years ago that I'd never be one of those silly people who start blogging. I was also someone who despised cell phones and never thought I'd use something like Facebook or Twitter. I make use of all of those things now. I'd like to think that I'm using them in a very limited to moderate capacity, but I can't deny that I'm no different from anyone else.

As you can plainly see, my so-called ideals and convictions are fluid (read: weak). Nevertheless, I still have to try to put up a front of a guy who thinks he's above it all. That's why I'm not going to use this blog to write about random things. I'm going to use it as a place to compile the rough sketching I've been doing on cigarette carton cardboard along with the short video projects I do with my friends once in a while.



Basically, a portfolio website! Because I simply cannot be bothered to make an actual website (read: dunno how!)!

Thank you for putting up with my snark. Let's begin.