CutmanMike put together a DOOM mod that uses the sprites from the original 8Bit Megaman games and fuses them with FPS awesomeness. That effort is, aptly titled, Megaman 8Bit Deathmatch.

One item on my wishlist of personal projects was to sprite for a 2D asset populated 3D FPS with slow projectiles, platformer style, using the DOOM engine. Mike’s beaten me to the punch.

I used to be a 2D games artist, making and animating sprites, and I love the original cadre of sprite based FPSes. I want to A) kick myself in the ass for not pursuing that idea further and B) be glad the work is already done and I just get to play it.

If Parallels doesn’t want to run it, I’m installing Windows in Bootcamp for the express purpose of playing this game.

Burlesque, art, booze, music! Indulge some of your best vices for a good cause.

Sat. the 20th a lot of really talented artists are going to be drawing at Wildclaw Theatre’s Dance of the Demented. It’s a benefit for the Theatre’s upcoming production of Willam Peter Blatty’s Legion. You’re invited to come have drinks, draw with us, and raise money for the arts! So, bring your sketchbooks, dancing shoes, or iron gut to the Viaduct Theatre in Chicago.

9:00 PM to 2:30 AM
The Viaduct Theatre
3111 N. Western Avenue, Chicago

Google Map

Music by DJ White Russian, DJ Vapor Eyes, The Ordeal, DJ Miles Beyond, and DJ Chas Vrba.

Artsy fartsy assholes, such as myself, in attendance include: Jessica Joy (smART Show), Alex Wald (Ultraman/Shaolin Cowboy), J Anthony Kosar (Avatar/Buckaroo Bonzai), Tony Akins (Jack of Fables/House of Mystery), Dave Dorman (Aliens/Star Wars), and, hopefully, you.

I don’t come down a lot and I’d really dig seeing y’all at the event. I’m going to be nervous as shit and I suspect I’ll be very drunk and drawing giant penises for a live audience before the night is out. Should be a good time.

In case you didn’t catch my twatting on Twitter, the Cintiq 20WSX’s display goes googly-moogly after upgrading to Snow Leopard. It’s not like Wacom had months of anticipatory development time to ensure it’s compatibility or anything!

Apple support forum discussion on the topic.

Me lamenting Wacom’s monopoly of pen-based input devices and their lack of customer support on Twitter.

I sure do love my $2400 brick!

I’ve said before that it’s become increasingly difficult to make an honest living as an illustrator. Print is dead, taking a large swath of possible clients with it. The tubes move too quickly making custom illustration for articles an unlikely occurrence. Prices have been driven into the ground by a sea of amateurs gleefully accepting spec work and companies eager to exploit them. It’s on that latter point that I want to provide a new example to back-up my statements.

I get a lot of emails from large companies looking for spec work. Most of the time, there is an implied confidentiality. A smattering of text on the bottom of the email indicates that it’s for my, and the 300 other recipients’, eyes only. Posting the contents of the email to my blog would only get me sued. Billabong’s Art Director, Aaron Hennings, included no such text.

Large companies are exploiting illustrators. They use the lure of working with an established brand to engage in unethical business practices. But don’t take my word for it, take Aaron’s:

Billabong is looking to supplement the Men’s T shirt collection with fresh freelance art by new designers. You have been selected and invited to be part of the freelance submission process.

Take a look at the attached .PDF and let me know if I can answer any
questions. Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing some great work.

We review new submissions every week, so the deadline is on going. However, we do have a limited number of designs we can include each season, so sooner rather than later is better.

Regards,

Aaron

Aaron Hennings
————————
Art Director
Billabong USA
117 Waterworks Way
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 753 7222 tel. x3292

Here’s the attached PDF. I’d suggest you take a look at it. They even provide a nice tee template for forking over your multitude of Billabong branded, spec generated designs.

I know a half dozen or so other illustrators who got this email. Luckily, most agree that doing spec is bad. Some don’t. Please, don’t be one of those illustrators. Your decision affects us all.

Google launches Creative Commons filtering for it’s image search service.

I worry Google will give people a false sense of entitlement depending on the level of accuracy of the service.

On a quick test search, my first using the service, the word “illustration” returns the following “commercially usable, modifiable” images.

Take this result. It’s a “Creative Commons” image embedded in a Flickr set featuring an illustrator’s copyrighted work. The user has it labeled for both modification and commercial reuse, but I’m guessing the illustrator’s estate (as marked in the Flickr photo’s comments) wouldn’t want others to take his image and slap it on the side of a product. Confusing to searchers.

It supports my theory that improperly marked, “found” images from third parties could cause a headache for illustrators, photographers – any content creators really.

That, and might it give unscrupulous designers an excuse to rip off work for reuse? Maybe?

I’m not anti-Creative-Commons, I just have concerns with this particular service. Playing devil’s advocate here. Yahoo has been doing this for a while and the sky hasn’t fallen…