Aperture Eye Films

The Bad Batch #scribbling series

2021-05-14T16:08:00.001-07:00

Hunter.

This week I'm doodling the clone squad 99. The characters from the new Disney+ show Bad Batch.

I'm really liking the show so far and it inspired me to draw more environments.

Wrecker.

I'm having fun with the series, keeping it loose and using references to make the environments fresh.

Crosshair.

I've been super busy with work, taxes and my kids' flag Football games. I wasn't sure if I would have time to draw, yet alone post videos on YouTube or tiktok. But I've been posting regularly.

More bad batch characters to come soon. Follow me @joel4thewin on Instagram to see the scribbles.

By popular demand. A new series of YouTube shorts. Coming soon.

2021-05-03T12:22:00.002-07:00

Well hello there and hi.

The YouTube algorithm has spoken and a new series of short cartoons will emerge.

After months of throwing stuff at the wall it seems like there's an overwhelming majority of views and likes for the video where I draw the new Captain America.

So I thought, "why not give into the algorithm and make a series of fan-made shorts based on the new Captain America?" Why not? It's worth a try. Let's see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Here's the short video of me drawing the new Captain America.

2021 Announcements

2021-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

Announcements

Welcome to the year that won't suck. (knock on wood) Welcome to 2021.

Are you following me on any of these:

@joel_otero1 on Instagram

@joel4thewin on TikTok

joelotero on Youtube

@ApertureEyeFilm on Twitter

Be part of the community today!

First off let me just say, 2020 was not a terrible year for me production wise, but personally, it was the worst. The pandemic derailed everything for me, as I'm sure for most of us. But we can now close that dark chapter in our lives and open this new chapter with...(OMG IT FEELS THE SAME) jk. Let's try to adapt to these crazy times and keep moving forward. Like the wise sage of old said "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming". With that said here's the line up for the first quarter of 2021.

Drawings, comics and a novel OH MY!

For a couple of years I've been drawing and posting on Instagram for all to see. I'm self-taught so I started rough and now after all this time I can say that I'm really enjoying the results. I'm going to make an endless amount of drawings and further improve my skills as an artist. I'm even considering turning some of the drawings into stickers and selling them as merch in limited amounts.

This practice of drawings will help in the creation of comics for my web comic page. I've loved comics since I was a kid and have wanted to make my own comics for a very long time. So I will continue to do so if the story and characters are right. There are some old ideas that I want to see come to life one day and I believe comics can be a closer step in that direction. Tell me what you think on Twitter.

Some stories work better visually than others, like samurai Toad works great visually. But other stories are just too big for me to make visually at the moment. We all have a finite time in this world and I would hate to leave this plane of existence without leaving something behind for people to remember me by. So I decided to write a novel. Even if I just self publish, accomplishing this has been on my bucket list since my 20s.

I've been writing a story for a novel for a few months now. I've been busy tinkering with time travel and detectives. I can't wait to share it with you. It's no where near finished but I can at least say that it's past the idea stage and I'm committed to writing it and see it through to the end. This is a super long term project but my hope is that it will be done by the end of the year.

Youtube and now TikTok

I spent most of last year looking at my analytics on all the platforms I'm part of and I have to say a big THANK YOU to the people who have stuck by, watching, reading, liking and subscribing to my art and content though limited it had become over the years. It fills my heart with so much joy to see that some people care. So I'm doubling my efforts to make more content on YouTube. Making low quality content has made me more satisfied on TikTok and made me more views. So I'm taking that approach on YouTube as well. I'm also going to expand to more channels. Experimental channels to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Stay tuned for further announcements on that later.

The legend of Cartoon Duck #creepypasta

2020-11-05T11:19:00.001-08:00

A long time ago my daughter kept waking up at night with this recurring nightmare about a cartoon duck. It had very long legs, a creepy smile and glowing yellow eyes. It terrified my kid so much that it stuck with me all these years.

Among Us | Pokefun Halloween Special

2020-10-15T18:33:00.001-07:00

Leave a Like If you switched to #decaf

2020-09-28T18:31:00.003-07:00

Hey! Once again, we're defying all odds and writing another blog post. The world said we couldn't do it, yet here we are. So I might've made a huge mistake. I'm off caffeine.

Before DECAF.

Let me explain, I have been addicted to Coke products for almost half my life, Coke Zero being my absolute favorite daily beverage, but the amount of caffeine I was ingesting was keeping me up night after night. My thoughts would race and I would either be on a crazy high where (for example) I could clean the whole house, watch endless amounts of videos or spend hours doing tedious work on the computer. But it would affect my decision making to the point where I would try to decide an overwhelming amount of decisions about projects (past and current) and never really be able to focus in on a single task, so I would burn out.

Then there were the crazy lows, where I... simply... would.... slow...down...and ....(you get the picture). So I decided to have no caffeine past 2pm.

After DECAF.

So life's been a bit strange lately. I sleep deeply and on command. I wake up and am more reflective about the dreams I'm having which some are fun (like being a salsa singer/songwriter) but some are not so fun, like being trapped in some past argument with family members. It all has gotten me feeling and thinking differently about life in general.

Doing it for the "Likes".

I joined Instagram some years ago to share my art and grow my audience. I though that I could persuade people who liked my art to go see my videos on YouTube, and help build the following that Channels need to survive. (That didn't work BTW) Along the way I noticed that I got really hung up on how many likes I got on any given post. At first I was getting quite a lot of likes for some rubbish drawings and I thought "hey, this might take off".

Let me back track a little. I was having a hard time being a perfectionist. I wouldn't make anything because I knew that it wouldn't be perfect, in fact I knew it would be so far from what I pictured in my mind that it pretty much resembled a completely different project. I was just stuck.

One day I decided to break free from that way of thinking, So I decided that I would draw trash. The most terrible drawings I could make (derpy doodles that a child could do infinitely better; I'm being harsh now) and I would post them everyday to show myself that even those piles of garbage would get some likes. That I had nothing to fear, and that I could make my imperfect projects and let the bloody world decide what to think of them (and nobody cares).

But then the likes were okay. They were good. Then I got obsessed with getting likes. But I noticed that the likes weren't from followers. Followers were completely silent. The "likes" came from random people who go to #doodle and "like" random this or that to get people to maybe look at their posts and like them back or even follow back. (my wife likes to point this out from time to time as if she was the one who noticed this LOL)

But even still I was obsessed. I even found that if I edited the description in each post and changed all the hashtags I would get a bunch of new likes. So I did this for a long time and my likes were growing. More reach = more likes. But in the back of my mind I always thought, why aren't any followers liking my posts. Some of these were my friends.

Then I calculated how many likes I would get if I continued down this path (of self deception) and found that if I post 1 new drawing a day and get about 10 likes per post, by the end of 1 year I would get about (drum roll please) 3,650 likes (with about 1k followers give or take). And if everyday I switch the hashtags on my posts 1-12 times daily I could exponentially increase my likes and followers to a substantially big amount.

But now I'm on DECAF.

See you next week.

Monday (#Mondays) update

2020-09-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Teddy Fresh Rocks!

Monday Monday! Hows it going bros! My name is (Joel). And boy do I have a work-filled week ahead. So crack open a soda, roll up your sleeves and let's jump into it.

Animation Update- (Youtube.com/joelotero)

I'm currently animating two new cartoons for the channel. The Jealous Tree 2: A walk in the Park; and The pilot for Obsolete Now: Where are my files David?

A walk in the Park

I've had a hard time finishing the Jealous tree one last week, (it was supposed to come out last week). My daughter collaborated with me designing some characters. She's getting better at sketching women and she also made a cute puppy that will be in the cartoon as well (hopefully).

Last week I made some comic strips for my Instagram (@joel4thewin) and I ended up making an Obsolete Now! comic in the middle of the week. I made it in Adobe Animate and I thought "why not animate it and post it" so now it's on my to do list.

Where are my files David?

New Game in the works.

I've been playing around with Unity and developing my own indie game. I will blog more on this once I have more info, but it's based on an original idea for a game I had years ago.

Original concept for The Darkest Tower mobile Game

Now I've been designing levels and watching tutorials to make this point-n-click game a reality. It's been super exciting and fun discovering the game and designing levels for it on Photoshop. I haven't had a lot of time spent on it and my newbie anxiety in coding id maxed out at the moment, but I keep it on my to do list for when I get bored and need something more challenging.

(WIP Title screen; level 1; level 2 design)

Once it's more developed I was thinking of making a Kickstarter campaign to really make it happen (and not starve to death).

3D modeling Update (@Joel3Dsculptor on Instagram)

Speaking of challenging, I've been stuck making this 3D model for about a week (last week was very hard to be productive). I drew a cyclist for my Instagram and i thought "I should make a 3D version of this cyclist, maybe competing against another cyclist. Boy did this become a challenge and in all honesty, a drag. (no pun intended)

Bike Rider

I thought I would get more done if I broke down the model into parts (bicycle, arm, leg, etc.) and focused on each part individually and then duplicate it and change a few features. This bogged down the workflow substantially. So far I've all but scraped the project.

Finding Characters from Randomness (Instagram stories)

2020-09-18T13:00:00.004-07:00

I've been doodling a lot on my phone in the middle of the night using Autodesk Sketchbook. It feels like therapy to me sometimes, to turn off my brain and just draw.

This time I drew a bunch of random lines and shapes, I did this in several layers, then I just stared at it. I found a couple of characters in the shapes. (you know like when you look at an object and it kinda looks like a cartoon)

I called this one scarecrow because it reminds me of the old wizard of oz cartoon, the cool anime one from the early 90's. I haven't been able to find a clip of it on the internet yet, but I know it's real (or it's the Mandela effect). So far I have found that most of my childhood nightmares turned out to be memories of old scary movies and cartoons I've track down later in life.

The next night I stared at the random mess again and this octopus type little guy just popped out. The similar hat from the scarecrow was fascinating to me. So I began incorporating the hat into my next drawing (just for fun).

The next day I found out that an old friend of mine had recently moved to Florida and got a job as an art teacher, this guy had been a very close friend in college but more importantly a bit of a rival (in my mind). He began sharing some art on Instagram and I began to feel competitive about it. (it happens) so I began drawing almost daily as a way to burn off the fuel of rivalry. It's such a strange phenomenon that happens to me. I have a handful of rivals and they are very successful in their fields. They inspire me to do better.

I went to this failing bookstore that had a closing sale going on in the nearby town. I always feel a bit sad when I go to a book store, partially because I barely read and also because books are such a reminder that there are so many possible paths for me to take in any aspect of life, from cooking to traveling, to art, etc. I browsed through a book about Van Gogh's paintings and was enamored once again with his tragic story and intensely delightful art style. Later that night I painted this:

I have to admit, I have been pushing the "derp" face a little too much on my audience for some time now, and I over did it this time. The Van Derp might be the last "derp" face for a while (until I stop feeling so self-conscience about it I guess).

What should I blog about?

2020-09-01T17:55:00.002-07:00

Hey guys! it's been a while. A long while. I have to be totally honest with you. I've been posting on other platforms way more than here. The truth is I have no idea what to blog about.

I've thought about it many times and i just don't find my life that interesting. Nothing crazy ever happens to me or my content. So it's extremely hard to make good blog material, well, just about me.

Because of this, I've decided to do one of two things. (A) Write about trends I find interesting; or (B) write short fiction stories.

Let me know which ones you prefer.

Love you all,

Joel.

I started a second Instagram Channel dedicated to 3D modeling #3dblender

2020-07-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time coming but I think I've had enough experience with 3D modeling tell me a little Instagram channel of my own.

Hey guys Joel again with another blog post. This time I wanted to share my second Channel with you guys on Instagram it's very small and only has one post this the windmill above but hopefully I can keep posting every week and you pretty model to sharpen my skills and to share interesting concepts with you guys.

Next week will be a very interesting one I'll see if I can finish in time the clue is Ben solo.

If you're interested in following the Instagram Channel my handle is @joel3Dsculptor

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

Should I start a 2nd YouTube channel? Is it worth it?

2020-07-01T23:50:00.001-07:00

Bo by Joel

Hey (J-sauce), Joel here, and I'm having a wonderful time swimming in hand sanitizer. I have a dilemma, I want to do something different. I want to do more, but many people say DON'T POST IT ON YOUR CHANNEL! (People like my kids)

All cringe aside, should I post my random experimental videos on to a second (stimulus check, I mean) channel and only post PTD videos on my main?

Link by Eva

Time for a pros and cons list:

Pros

I can safely take risks on a channel that I can delete if it fails. 😆

Cons

it's super inconvenient 😔

So, what do you think? (Email me)

Bye

it's hard to be creative when the world is on fire.

2020-06-28T22:51:00.001-07:00

What's up with the kids in the house now and the holograms that are going through this little animation show that you have to pay attention to when you're looking around the world and you are going through the process of making a movie about the future of the wild world of my favorites (I just clicked auto fill for this entire paragraph lol sorry)

So this thing we call the "new normal". No jobs, covid 19, police brutality; how am I supposed to be creative (in this world.)

My kids are worrying me because they spend obscene amounts of time in front of the screen watching the most obnoxious people on YouTube make the stupidest videos I've ever seen, yet they have millions of views and followers.

My videos suck. Go subscribe to my channel Youtube.com/joelotero

Anyways, I keep failing to execute my ideas properly and I also allow myself to post bad ideas to the channel and I think that hurts the channel in the long run. I heard that I should make a second channel just for experimenting new concepts and to just post more of what is already popular on my main channel. So I might do that. Just to see what takes off and what doesn't. I'll keep you posted here, on my Twitter account and on Instagram.

Joel writes a script using voice typing! #technology

2020-06-24T12:36:00.001-07:00

Joel does all the character voices. ALL THE VOICES!

As the film industry begins cranking it's enormous productions, Joel picks up his dusty old headset and begins crafting a new story, the epic of BROMAX! The manliest of all heroes. Gilgamesh? who? MEH! He's ceiling gang! Homer? who? meh! He's the donuts guy from the Simpsons. Small PP.

BROMAX is the best of the best of the best of the worst, and he's chopping heads, taking names and chewing licorice! (the kind that taste bad, that nobody likes). He bench presses 2 Joe Rogans - 3 Joe Exotics. Anyways Joel wrote a script about it. Watch the video above to find out.

Good day!

20 minutes of me animating more Anakin, also racism is BAD!!!

2020-05-29T18:43:00.001-07:00

Imagine I'm animating in this video (more blogs coming soon)

2020-05-18T20:38:00.001-07:00

Big Fish Little Pond is HERE!

2019-06-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

He wanted to be BIG! Then he bumped into his fate.

The premiere was awesome! I had a great time gauging people's reactions. Here is the short film:

You can check out my YouTube channel by clicking the link. www.youtube.com/joelotero

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

CONNECT WITH APERTURE EYE FILMS ONLINE
YOUTUBE► www.youtube.com/joelotero
INSTAGRAM► instagram.com/joel_otero1
BLOGGER► oteropictures.blogspot.com/
Twitter► twitter.com/ApertureEyeFilm
WEBCOMIC► joelsamcomic.blogspot.com/
DEVIANTART►http://bit.ly/2s8JrnE
FACEBOOK►http://bit.ly/2t7voU5

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

Big Fish Little Pond coming soon to YouTube

2019-06-12T21:13:00.000-07:00

My next short film is coming to YouTube!

The premiere is on June 15th in Florida. After that I'll post it on my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my channel to stay tuned. www.youtube.com/joelotero

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

T-SERIES MUST BE STOPPED!

2019-04-01T11:05:00.001-07:00

APRIL FOOLS!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

Watch my new short film right here for free!!!

2019-02-05T17:33:00.001-08:00

Return to Sender (2019)

Here it is!

Recap:

I teamed up with OIF (Orlando Independent Filmmakers) group to make a short film for their Heart Challenge. The short is a 11 minute Sci-fi comedy, where...

In the distant future, a package clerk who is trapped in a space station in orbit around the earth must train his replacement (a robot named Jeff). What could go wrong?

Behind the scenes images:

OIF is having a private screening of all the short films involved on Feb. 23, 2019. After that, I'll post it on my Youtube channel (or iTunes?)

That's it for now. See you next post.

PS- Google+ is going away in March so if you're connected to my content through G+ follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Links bellow.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

Hello

2019-01-11T16:28:00.001-08:00

Hi,will be on break for a while. I'm shooting a short film.

Would a Pokemon Battle Royale work? #pokemon #fortinte

2018-10-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

...as an actual game?

.

Hey Blogger fam, it's been a while. (4 months)

It's that spooky time of the year!

I present to you a thought experiment. Sam (creator of Pokemon Tower Defense) pitched me this idea: "what if you made a video where Pokemon meets Fortnite". My response was "why don't you make a game?" The conversation soon ended and I was left curious. So I made this teaser trailer for a hypothetical game idea. What do you think? Would it actually work as a game or naw?

And as always (V-Sauce here) thanks for reading (and watching).

Hopefully I'll be posting a couple more Halloween videos and blog posts to kick of the Holiday season. (Trick-or-treat)

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

We're going to IGTV!!!!

2018-08-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Aloooooooooooooola!

.

PokeFun GO! Alooola is coming to IGTV!!!!

I'm super excited to announce that I'm going to be bringing Pokefun to my brand new IGTV channel! The channel will have a new "Vlog style" cartoon format that I think you're going to enjoy.

I'll be encorporating live action and cartoon elements to make a unique look to Pokefun, the likes you've never seen before.
I'll keep you posted on this blog. I'll be posting on Thursdays.

To watch the episodes when they come out follow me on Instagram @joel_otero1

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

I was thinking of making a Robot Western, cus that's original. Right?

2018-06-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

Exterminate... varmint.

Howdy partnerz! I hope you're having a fantastic weekend. Giddy up little dogge!

I've spent the last couple of weeks contemplating this journey I'm in. I get to make art and share it with you. So I thought long and hard and I want to make a short animated western.

There's only room for one robot in this reality.

Today's illustrations are Bandolero and Cowboy Roboto. The two main characters starring in my next short titled: (drum roll)

Despacito 2: Bandidos

I'm using my wacom tablet more and more each week and I'm digging the results.

Would you like to see a short western? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

Solo: A #Joel Review?

2018-05-28T11:53:00.003-07:00

I have a m'kay feeling about this

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic Memorial Day. Let's just jump into it!

The Solo movie was good. Go watch it. Enjoy the bromance that is Han and Chewy, and then there's the millennium falcon.

Today's illustration is Han and Chewy. I'm using my wacom tablet more and more each week and I'm digging the results.

What do you think of the Solo movie? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and watching my videos! See you next post!

Featured Video:

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

The Complete Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Saga!!!

Meet Thanos! He likes long walks in outer space. #joel

2018-05-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

The Mad Titan!

I trust you've all seen Avengers: Infinity Wars. (right?!) Don't worry, there are no spoilers in this music video. I've seen the movie 3 times and it get better each time I see it. No thanks to Movie Pass, they won't let me watch the same movie twice. :C

Anyways, Cookie Guy might make a theory video later. If you want one tell me in the comments.

I'm currently animating two videos, one is the next installemtn to Why So Sidious? my Star Wars parody series will hopefully kick-off Star Wars Week the week before Solo starts. (Do subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss it!)

The second video will be a Game Mash-up video. I made a Mario/ Pokemon mashup last year and this year I'm making a ???????/ Fortnite mashup!

Also check out:

Super Bros Level 1-1

Thanks as always. See you next post!

Check out my other page:

Checkout Pokemon Tower Defense 3: Legacy!!!

More fun things from us!!!