Force it Luke

Hello world,

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks helping the chaps over at FatPancake with something that could be a big thing for all concerned. The result is that I’ve sadly neglected my little blog a tiny small bit, so to make amends here’s a picture of I’ve drawn of Mr Luke Skywalker from the hit space films: The Original trilogy of Star Wars. I made this an age ago but forgot to put it up on the blog.

I hope it meets your approval.

The end.

Meeting the Beatles

Hello World,

I’m a massive fan of the super British skiffle and rock and roll group The Quarrymen, they later became the slightly better mega global band known as The Amazing Beatles; Starring: Mr John, Mr Paul, Mr George and Ringo Starr.

As a special tribute to the fabulous four of them and because I have a lot of time on my hands, I’ve made this little flash looping video of the group performing one of their numerous super sound songs (maybe She loves you or maybe Maxwell's Silver Hammer or maybe one of their lesser known ones).

For a slightly bigger, slightly less distorted, slightly more downloadable and slightly better quality version go to my deviantArt page here.

Is this animation bigger than Jesus? Possibly not.

The end.

Solo Chewing

Hello world,

After a couple of days off I’m back with a brand spanking new picture of everybody’s favourite scoundrels, Mr Han Solo and his best mate Mr Chewbacca. Hopefully Chewie will be back in “Disney’s” new Star Wars films as he was always my favourite hero character.

I hope you like it.
The end.

The Ugly

Hello world,

The last picture in my the Good, the Bad and the Ugly series of drawings is of course of the mighty Tuco (Eli Wallach); the charismatic cowboy that pushes the film into legendary status.

Something else made by me will be coming soon.

The end.

The Bad

Hello world,

Continuing on with my the Good, the Bad and the Ugly drawings, here's a picture I've made of the very bad cowboy, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef).

Guess who's next?

 The end.

The Good

Hello world,

Today I’ll keep it short and simple, here’s a picture of Empire’s 43rd greatest movie character of all time, the man with no name (Clint Eastwood); from one of my favourite films, The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

Those perceptive fellows might be able to work out who my next picture will be.

The end.

In space no one can hear you Hallowscream

Hello world,

Oooooooooo!!! This is a scary dead ghost typing from beyond a grave Oooooooo! Only joking dear reader, don’t worry, it’s just me and I’m not a ghost…or am I?…No, no I’m not.

Board up your windows and double lock your doors there’s some spooky goings going on; but fear not ladies, naughty man Peter Sutcliffe hasn’t escaped from prison, it’s just the Halloween again.

Yes it’s that time of year again when children of all ages don cheap plastic masks and knock on doors to demand free sugar bars for free, and at least one TV channel shows one of those Halloween films.

Us Brits don’t tend to celebrate the Halloween as we have our own special night on November 5th called the bonfire night. But in celebration of Halloween I’ve decided to post the final picture I’ve made of the Nostromo crew from my favourite alien space film, Alien.

Anyway all this spookiness can only mean one thing; it’s almost Christmas!!! More pictures coming soon.

The end.

It's a Thing?

Hello world,

Through most of my life I’ve found myself scraping by in a mild state of confusion; today is no different as I proudly present to you a thing I’ve made which ties together the Nostromo crew pictures that I’ve been making into the thing you see below. The only trouble is I’m not exactly sure what to call it other than a thing, it’s not an animation per se but then again it’s not just a static, soundless picture. I guess the closest thing you could call it is one of those menu things you get on a DVD that play on a loop only it’s not that.

Anyway I think we can all agree that whatever I’ve made proves once and for all that I have far too much time on my hands. For a flash animation looping version click on this link: http://stephencraner.com/flash_video.html


Nostromo Crew from Stephen Craner on Vimeo.

Keep watching for more blogs on things I've made.

The end.

Two for the Price of One

Hello world,

Just like the loveable characters of gold man C-3PO and his best robot mate the R2D2 but not like them at all; today I’ve drawn the down to earth mechanics of the Nostromo spaceship, Mr Parker and his best bud Brett. With these two last pictures drawn and done this now completes my series of pictures of the Nostromo crew from the amazing alien horror film, Alien…or does it?

Stay tuned for something else made by me coming soon.

The end.

Flight of the Navigator

Hello world,

The next picture in my series of pictures I’ve made of the crew of the Nostromo in pixelated form is hysterical bottler and lady female, Lambert…No not the popular cigarette brand Lambert and Butler, or star of the hit film Highlander 2: The Quickening; Christopher Lambert, or lady song voice Miranda Leigh Lambert, but the navigator of the Nostromo spaceship, from the film Alien.

Even more pictures tomorrow.

The end.

You Have My Sympathies

Hello world,

If the Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that you can never trust a robot. From Hal-9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey to Evil Bill and Ted in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, clearly the message of these masterpieces is that given enough time, all robots will eventually go mad and try to kill you until you’re dead, yes even C-3PO. With that in mind the next picture that I’ve made is of Ash, the mysterious science officer on-board the Nostromo (made even more evil because he was English).

The journey continues tomorrow.

The end.

Hide and Seeker (Now with 100% more sound)

Hello world,

The brilliant people over at indie games developer Fatpancake are working on a fantastic new computerised three dimensional game called The Seeker. The game is an interactive adventure set in a fantasy world where you find yourself in a long abandoned village high in the mountains. Using amazing super lost powers and artefacts, you’re able to switch between two worlds; light and dark, and must use your new found abilities to escape the perils of this mysterious spooky land! And it’s much better than the end of Lost.

I was given the privilege to make them an ident for the game, which I did with much enthusiasm; it’s below these very words so you can watch it at your leisure. Oh and if you’ve got a spare minute please take the time to visit their fantastic Technicolor website over at fatpancake.com, and then follow the twitter thingy at twitter.com/thefatpancake, and look at the game on www.indiedb.com/games/the-seeker, and have a very brief look at the amazing official website at www.seekerthegame.com and then like the Facebook page over at www.facebook.com/TheSeekerGame.


Hope you like it.

The End.

Get Away From This Blog, You Bitch!

Hello world,

Believe it or not, today I’m posting a picture I’ve made of Ripley, yes that Ripley from the fantastically scary alien space film, Alien.

More tomorrow.

The end.

Excuse me sir, but you’ve got something on your face

Hello world,

I’ve got some work to do today so the blog is plopping out relatively early. But what's today's blog about? I hear you cry. Well to quote rap superstar Kano, from Labrinth’s hit musical rhyme and beat tune; Earthquake (All-star remix), “Today I'm doing Kane but not the brother of Undertaker”.  Yes that's right; as a follow up to yesterday’s picture of Dallas, today I’ve got a picture I've made of Kane, no not the biblical son of Adam and Eve, or the guy from the hit computer game series Mr Kane and Mr Lynch, or even the Citizen Kane, but the Executive Officer aboard the Nostromo, from the hit alien space film Alien.

Come back tomorrow to find out which of the Nostromo crew I’ve drawn next.

The End.

Welcome to Dallas

Hello world,

Today I’m posting a picture I’ve made of Dallas, no not the long-running American prime time television soap opera from the 80’s, or the ninth most populated city in the United States of America, or the amazing?...R&B vocalist, producer and writer of the hit song “Get It Girl”...but the laid-back captain of the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo, from the hit space film Alien.

The regular reader of my blog will undoubtedly be aware that I’m a massive fan of Ridley Scott’s unbeatable film, so it was inevitable that I’d end up drawing some pictures from my favourite film. As a change from my normal style I decided to make the picture all pixelated like it’s from the golden days of point and click adventure games. Then, as a bonus treat, I’ve added a mini character profile taken from the Alien 20th anniversary DVD, which is written in a lovely green BBC computer style font.

Check back tomorrow for more drawings of the Nostromo crew.

The end.

The Faces of Foley.

Hello world,

I’ve realised that the last blog might have been too wordy and pointless, so to make up for the time you wasted reading it I’ve decide to put all my drawings of Mick Foley together into one super image. If I ever get the nerve to send the real life Mick Foley a picture I’ve made of him, this is the one I’ll send.

Thanks for looking.

The end.

Back to the MySpace part 1

Hello world,

Strap yourselves into the metaphorical DeLorean blog fans as I’m about to take you on a trip to a lane of memories that I like to call “BACK IN TIME TO MY FUTURE/PAST”. It’s going to be a bit like that film from the 80's but not that film and no actual time travel will take place, or will it??? It won’t.

Picture the scene. Huey Lewis and the news is blaring out of the one working car speaker as we hit 88mph, bish bash bosh time travel has occurred.

It’s a cold grey October day and the year is 2006. Song man Bill Haley has been dead for 25 years, the world is still laughing at TV double act Ant & Dec’s big screen debut; Alien Autopsy, and BBC radio 5 Live has just announced the sad news that Justin Hawkins, lead singer of the band The Darkness is leaving to go solo. Somewhere in a small English town a slightly younger me has just gone back to college to study art after spending ten years fitting blinds and curtains, and all the Kool Katz are banging on about this new mysterious thing called “A MySpace”.

Being the hip dude I am I naturally followed the trend and got myself “A MySpace” account, added a suitably wacky profile picture and set off on the journey of a lifetime. MySpace was great; it was like Facebook before Facebook became Facebook. You could force people to listen to songs that you liked, follow famous people off the Telly and show the world some videos you’d found on the new interweb phenomenon “YouTube”. But the best thing about a MySpace was you could write a blog about anything you wanted. I took to this new blog malarkey like Noel Edmonds took to insincerity and quickly began creating endless blogs about my life and the things I thought about. Wanting to add some colour I began decorating each entry with pictures I’d made; some entries were even read by up to 20 people. Life was great, I thought to myself “MySpace is sure to live forever and soon I’ll be popular”.

Of course good things can’t last. It turned out that nobody ever read my blogs and those 20 views were my own. Even the might of MySpace began to wane, eventually being cruelly stabbed in the back by the “trendy” new kid on the block “Facebook”. I never took to Facebook, I didn’t get it, I didn’t like the change, and what the hell is a poke? “What was wrong with MySpace” I’d ask my classmates to increasing stony silence. “Hey granddad” the hip cats would wheeze. “MySpace is like so 2006 man, it’s 2007 and the Facebook is the thing we like now”. Now these guys were undoubtedly “with it” and as a guy rapidly approaching 30 with the need to appear "cool" I felt these kids must be right. So with a heavy heart I said goodbye to my beloved blogs, deleted my account and put the few happy months I’d spent with MySpace down to a phase I was going through and got on with my new “better” MySpace free life.

Anyway let’s go slink back to the DeLorean and head back into the future of the modern days of now. BANG! Right we’re back.

It’s 16th October 2012 again and I’m desperately searching my hard drive for an important file I need when what do I stumble across? It's only all the old blogs I’d written for the MySpace. With genuine excitement I forgot about the file I needed and spent the next hour rereading all the entries I’d written 6 years ago. If I’m honest most of what I read was unfunny rubbish and at times bordered on being highly offensive. Time is often a cruel mistress and reflection a powerful tool.

The moral of this rambling story (if there is one) is the stuff you liked and did years ago is rubbish so do better!

Below is a genuine vintage real life MySpace blog entry I made dated 12 May 2007. If you find it difficult to read please remember that it’s taken from the olden days when the internet was rubbish (remember my moral message).

Also I’ve rejigged the look of the blog a bit so you can now follow the blog if you want.

The end.

Some Hardcore Action

Hello world,

Yeahhhh ratfans! I’m back with a new picture of a thing I’ve drawn a picture of. I hope your weekend was full of love and laughs and if it wasn’t that tomorrow the baker brings you a lovely loaf of happiness bread. It’s been pointed out to me that what I’ve been doing recently is to draw a series of pictures depicting characters created by tip top wrestler, comedian and author of books, Mick Foley. So in what will turn out to be the final part of my miniseries of pictures I've drawn of Mick Foley, I’ve drawn a picture of Mick Foley. Here it is below.

Stay tuned for more drawings and other things made by me to come soon.

The end.

The History of Mankind

Hello world,

In what’s quickly becoming a daily treat for everybody in the world of the web, here’s another brand new picture I’ve made for you to look at and then forget. This time I decided to draw Mankind, no not the 15th-century morality play, or the album by Detroit noise boom-boom band Factory 81, or the 1998 massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game, or the species of humans, but the WWF/E wrestler who looks remarkably like the previous two pictures that I’ve drawn. Hmm...I wonder who I'll draw next?

Have a nice day.

The end.

A Splash of Dude Love

Hello World,

OWWW Have Mercy! A bit like a bus but not a bus, you wait months and months and months for a blog to emerge and then two plop out at once. As a follow up to yesterday’s post here’s a brand spanking new picture I’ve drawn of Dude Love (it’s not what you think).

He's a hip cat, daddio.

The end.

Back with a Bang! Bang!

Hello world,

A second turns into a minute, then the minute turns into an hour, the hour turns into a day, the day slips into a week, the week melts into another week, then another, then another one, then another week goes by, then another drifts away, followed by another, then another, then...Look what I'm trying to say is it's been a while so here's a picture I've drawn of one of my favourite wrestlers Mr Cactus Jack. Maybe one day I'll get the nerve to send it to him through the Twitter blow hole, then again maybe I won't.

I hope you like it. Bang Bang! Bang Bang!

The end.

It’s not every day you blow up a planet.

Hello world,

It’s been over two months since I first got the idea to do a little project involving a spaceship narrowly escaping an exploding planet. Over that time I’ve designed, modelled, textured and animated two rusty spaceships. Got heavily distracted by making some time consuming, but neither the less nice looking fly-bys, and started to really learn how to use After Effects. Now, at last, I can say that my project is finally finished…I think.

I must add that none of this would have been possible without the fantastic tutorials by Andrew Kramer over on videocopilot; he’s like some kind of crazy After Effects god or something. Anyway watch the video below and witness just what happens when an unemployed animator has far too much time on his hands. My next on-going project will be a series of basic animation exercises to help strengthen my animation skills, it may be less glamorous than blowing up a planet, but hopefully it will help me get an animation job.

Exploding Planet from Stephen Craner on Vimeo.


The end.

Starships were meant to fly!

Hello World,

Oh blimey! I’ve only gone and made two blogs in a week, I’m going to need a lie down. Well here’s my spaceship flyby test video in all its Starship glory. The quality is a little more pixelated than I’d like but it seems this is as good as I can achieve and still have a workable file size. To enhance the film I added what I consider to be the best piece from Marc Streitenfeld’s Prometheus soundtrack and for no extra cost a smattering of Saturn from Gustav Holst’s Planet suite. Hope you like it.

Spaceship Flyby Test from Stephen Craner on Vimeo.

The End.

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Ship

Hello world,

Well once again I’m found guilty of neglecting my little blog but hopefully you’ll understand why. Over the last few weeks I’ve been delightfully distracted with making this rather large space(transport)ship. Keeping with the intent of designing a “used worn look” I free styled (not recommended) the design of the ship which kept getting bigger and bigger.  I’m busy rendering out some spaceship flybys now and once that’s done I’ll hopefully get down to animating my original spaceship scene of the ship(s) escaping the doomed planet.

PS. To enhance your viewing pleasure of the pictures below I've found it helpful to make some super space noises in your head or out loud. The choice is yours.

The end.

The smell of Scott

Hello World!

I can't bloody wait to see Prometheus, it's the first film I've been genuinely excited to see in years. With the film opening in just three short days, I thought I'd make a super cyber link to this fantastic video of Ridley Scott discussing the art of storyboarding. Very interesting for a wannabe film maker like me.

 

The end.

More of the Same Really

Hello World,

So you’ve gone and designed, built and textured a bloody great big space ship, what do you do next? Make a video of it slowly rotating 360 degrees so everybody can see your hard work of course. So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s my ship slowly rotating around in moving picture form with bonus spooky space soundtrack.

 

The end.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Rocket Ship

Hello world,

Well I've been busy bee UV mapping and texturing the fourteenth fastest ship in the galaxy and I'm happy to say that it's finally finished (I think...). With that done I can now move on to the fun part of my little project and start animating the ship escaping an exploding planet.

Style wise I was going for a used worn look as utilized in films like Stars Wars films and Alien, but I thought it would also be fun to produce some extra textures of the ship all new and shiny. So below are a few comparison pictures of the ship looking nice and new and old and decrepit. I think I'm quite happy with how it's looking...I think.

The end.