Greasy Pig Studios :: Arvin Bautista

Greasy Pig Motion Graphics in ESPN’S 30 for 30 Doc: One Night in Vegas -9/7/10

Arvin Bautista — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:35:27 +0000

Last fall I had the extreme pleasure to work with writer/director Reggie Rock Bythewood (who wrote the excellent Notorious, which I got to see in its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival) on the motion graphics for the ESPN Films 30 for 30 Documentary One Night in Vegas, about the tragic night following a Mike Tyson comeback match that ended with the shooting of Tupac Shakur.

The documentary will premiere this Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 14 years exactly from that fateful night (technically Tupac died a few days later), and I couldn’t be more excited. While Gree-Morr was my first major cable TV debut (showcased on G4TV’s Attack of the Show), and a few weeks ago was my cable TV premiere with some short map graphics in The Great Food Truck Race (there are four more episodes where you can see my work!), One Night in Vegas is special not only because it’s by far the most work I’ve yet done on a TV appearance, it should (as far as I know) be my first on-screen credit!

I did about 10 minutes’ worth of motion graphics for the documentary, focusing mainly on animating existing graphic novel footage (so unfortunately I did not actually draw the graphic novel images), as well as some graphic overlays of rap lyrics, as well as some subtle but standard documentary motion graphics effects.

I also designed the titles for the documentary, as well as, if they show it, the graphic spots for Nomad Entertainment and Undisputed Films, who produced the documentary.

It was a pleasure working with Reggie who was both strong in his direction but also allowed me a lot of freedom to make these sequences come alive as I saw fit.

You can check show times and channels here, and hope you check it out!

Gree-Morr: The Inbred Jedi cartoon

Arvin Bautista — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:25:41 +0000

Don’t forget to rate, comment, favorite, and subscribe on YouTube!

There might’ve been a point earlier in my professional life where I resigned to the notion that I may never get paid to draw Star Wars images, the kind of illustrations I slaved over as a kid, devouring vehicle blueprints and lightsaber schematics just so I could get the little details right, and committed to memory.

I don’t know what’s more surprising: that I was wrong, or the context in which I’d be drawing my favorite characters and settings: namely, in service of depicting the hypothetical consequences of hypothetical Luke and hypothetical Leia having hypothetical incestual sex, and birthing a hypothetical inbred baby.

Animated by yours truly, Gree-Morr: The Inbred Jedi is the first of what hopefully will be a cartoon webseries written and directed by Mike and Mike, two of the funniest, nicest, most lowest-paying writers/producers at G4TV, for whom I’d worked as a PA on three different occasions (twice for X-Play, and once for Attack of the Show; coincidentally, the two shows that Mike and Mike work on, though we’d never worked together in a G4-professional capacity).

Introduced in May of 2009 to Mike (no, not that Mike, the other one) by good friend and then-G4-production-coordinator Rachel Hadisurjo (who had written and directed All-Moles Perfect), Mike attended the Newport Beach Film Festival screening of My Suicide, after which we spent the evening talking about how much of a manipulative asshole Obi-Wan Kenobi seemed when viewing all six Star Wars movies in context.

Afterwards I met up with him and the other Mike and we discussed their own little malformed baby, this time in the form of a script. They showed me an even more malformed Flash animatic, from an original, then aborted attempt at tackling the subject matter (the puns are just writing themselves at this point).

Working with a meager budget, I told the Mikes that they would have no choice but to accomodate my haphazard schedule, to which they agreed. Little did they know I would not turn in a final draft until May of 2010, a full year after we first discussed the project! Gree-Morr would’ve been conceived and born in such a time (though from the looks of it he probably could’ve stayed in a little longer).

A labor of love by all counts, I was thrilled to be able to finally draw my favorite subject matter; as much as I wanted to be accurate to the saga’s visuals, I also dared myself to draw everything from memory… the X-Wings and the Falcon were the easiest to hit, as was Han Solo’s trademark smirk. I got about 95% of the Nebulon-B Frigate before I became to anxious and looked up reference. I loved every hundred hours of it.

Post-Mortem note: While Gree-Morr lost out to being the first time I’d ever had my work featured on cable-or-better TV by a few weeks (a few months if you counted a few seconds’ worth of promo graphics for the Gameshow Network), when Morgan Webb introduced a clip of it on Attack of The Show, it WAS the first time something I did on an almost strictly creative level was shown on TV.

Video Games – E3 2011 – Comedy

Interview with Vic Dunlop: Veteran Comic and Dirty Joke Master

Arvin Bautista — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:28:29 +0000

Warning: there are images further down this post that may not be suitable for workplaces and younger viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

Embarrassingly, this, the fifth edition of our ongoing “get to know my client” interview series, was actually one of the first interviews I conducted, all the way back in October of 2009. Well, better late than never.

So without further ado, here’s my interview with Vic Dunlop, veteran comic/comedian, one of the writers/directors of Dirty Jokes: The Movie, for which I did several animated sequences, and who also had a small cameo role in the project that won’t die, My Suicide.

Please describe yourself and/or your business.

Vic Dunlop, comedian, producer, director, writer, creator, father, grandfather, entrepreneur, I’m a legend in my own pants. I’ve been in the comedy industry for the past 34 years in one capacity or another.

Describe how you came upon using Greasy Pig Studios’ services, and what we ended up doing together.

Greasy Pig Studios was brought to my attention by David Lee Miller, writer, director and producer of the Berlin Film Festival, award winning film, “My Suicide”. Upon seeing the film and the great and innovative use of the animation in it, I asked, “who was the animator” because I was looking for one for a comedy film I was producing at the time, called “Dirty Jokes, The Movie”. David passed on the info to this day, that I am eternally grateful for, Greasy Pig Studios, talk to Arvin Bautista. Arvin, or Mr. Greasy Pig as I refer to him, and I met and it was love at first sight. I immediately tied him up for the animation in our feature film. He captured the humor in an animated state that we required. Soon later we worked on another project, again animating some children’s jokes on a project called “Jokes 4 Kids”. He was so easy to work with, allowing me to feel part of the process that I asked him to help design a website for children that I was about to launch called, “Dexter The Texter”.

Any interesting trivia/anecdotes about our working relationship?

Arvin was so quiet and polite and introspective that I was concerned that he would find working with a couple of loud, obnoxious, rude, vulgar comic writer/producers would make him feel evil and unclean but soon realized that he was open minded and had a great sense of humor. In other words he was truly a Greasy Pig.

If you can, describe what makes for a good client/contractor relationship. How can the freelancer make sure to satisfy the client, and how can the client get the most bang for their buck from the contractor?

I look for creativity in anyone I work with and hire. Sometimes I am bogged down with a million thoughts and situations and problems when I am producing a film and don’t have the mindset to make or feel creative so I want my freelance contractor to come to me with creative ideas and solutions but not get hurt or angry when the final decision is not always what you expect.

As a small businessperson yourself, what are your tips for someone in your field, just starting out?

Stay the course. Don’t give up on your ideas or concepts. Take all suggestions but make the final decision on your own. The old saying is true, “If at first you don’t succeed, give up”. I mean, “try again”. As I tell young comics who I see for the first time on stage, “keep the day job”.

What are your preferred methods of communication when it comes to your business? How actively do you advertise yourself, and via what methods?

Your work speaks for itself. I network constantly. I am always in the trenches. I listen to all that’s going on. I am constantly in a creative state of mind. I believe that as a producer I must have at least a half dozen projects in development at all times. It’s like watering plants. You’ve got a bunch of them growing because you water them everyday. When one starts to sprout up, you nurture that a bit more to get it to the next stage of its
development.

Is there anything you’ve been up to recently that you’d like the readers to know about?

I am working feverishly on my kids book called, “Dexter The Texter”, a comedy book for tweenagers. Along with that book I am preparing to launch a website of the same title, which is a kids version of youtube. Where kids can go view comedy videos that parents will support and not have to worry about the content being inappropriate.
and finally, for the “accolades section” of my site, if you wouldn’t mind giving a short testimonial.

I can only say that I had a great experience working with Arvin at Greasy Pig Studios. He was a true professional. Never late for appointments, which is very important to me, as it is one of my pet peeves. He was quick in his response to questions and solutions concerning his work and any tweeks that we had to make to the creative process. And best of all, as a producer, he was fair and reasonable with his salary, and worked within my budget, so as to not compromise the art. I plan on working with Arvin and Greasy Pig Studios on anything I have. If he’ll let me.

Jokes 4 Kids is currently a live comedy show running from July to September, 2010 at the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club in Universal City, CA. Come check it out!

Updated reels delayed

Arvin Bautista — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:02:07 +0000

Well, I was going to debut a new reel sometime this week, but all of a sudden I got a bunch of gigs, the final products of which are too cool to leave out of this latest reel.

Of course, if I was getting all these gigs with a super outdated reel, do I really need an updated reel at all?

YES. Just gonna have to wait a while longer.

Lou Anders on Art Directors/Editors and Illustrators

Arvin Bautista — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:22:37 +0000

Lou Anders, editorial director for Pyr, Prometheus Books’ sci-fi/fantasy imprint, also serves as art director when it comes to the books’ covers. In an interview with Redstone Science Fiction, Lou Anders, who also, to my delight, rightfully proclaims Ender’s Game to be the Harry Potter of science fiction, had this to say about the process of working with illustrators for book covers:

I… tend to believe that whenever an illustrator shows you a choice of compositions, they always have a favorite, and that if you can figure out which that is and go with it, the work will be that much better. Not that any of these guys aren’t professionals who would execute any of your choices to the best of their ability, but if there is that extra spark of excitement it will make the piece “go to eleven.”

The importance of leadership heirarchy in the design business can never be overstated, but it’s so gratifying and inspiring to hear an editor/art director recognize the importance of encouraging designers to remain excited about their work. In exchange I hope illustrators will recognize the important place art directors/editors have in the design industry.

Lock Transparent Pixels in Photoshop

Arvin Bautista — Sun, 30 May 2010 02:13:24 +0000

I never knew about this trick until comic book creator/blogger Tony Cliff wrote about it. Works great for “flatting,” aka the first step in comic book art coloring. Just check out the link below:

Flatting! Plus, a Photoshop Pro-Tip!

I’m not gonna post the tip here because he deserves all the credit. But you (and I) should know!

Interview with Kameelperd founder Jon Hoenig

Arvin Bautista — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:01:57 +0000

This is the fourth in our ongoing series of interviews with past and present GPS collaborators. The first three were interviews with Renee Cascia, Tony Randel, and Ben Epstein (with a 2nd part). All these interviews focus on each party’s professional relationship with Greasy Pig Studios, their own careers, and most importantly, on the relationship between clients and freelancers.

This time we interview Jon Hoenig, entrepreneur and creator of two projects GPS worked on: Kameelperd (motion graphic as well as website) and Grandma’s “House” Dressing. This interview actually took place months ago, so I apologize to everyone especially Jon for only putting it up now.

Greasy Pig Studios: Please describe yourself and your business.

Jon Hoenig: I am a 28 year old serial entrepreneur, writer & designer having successfully designed and launched multiple brands including Obastid Apparel (2003), Bastid Beer Co (2004), Kameelperd (2009), Grandma’s House Dressing (2009) and the screenplay “Six Buoys” (in progress). University of Connecticut, BS Architecture and Planning 2005, Pepperdine University MBA Entrepreneurial Management candidate 2010.

Describe how you came upon using Greasy Pig Studios’ services, and what we ended up doing for you.

While working on a marketing plan project for Cisco Systems through the Pepperdine MBA program I had the idea of a cartoon advertisement to be used for a web marketing campaign. I posted an ad on craigslist and within a few minute I had over 50 respondents to choose from. I responded to Arvin’s reply and we hit it off right away. He created my cartoon within my student budget and helped me achieve a first class presentation with his cartoon as the culmination. After this Arvin helped me develop a number of my entrepreneurial ideas and graphics for my clothing label “Kameelperd” and my salad dressing label “Grandma’s House Dressing” which are in the in the late development stages now getting ready to launch this winter and spring 2012 respectively.

Any interesting trivia/anecdotes about our working relationship?

Arvin and I hit it off from the very beginning being able to communicate very efficiently. He always turned my vision into a reality beyond what I could describe.

I made the mistake of having another artist attempt to create my dressing label because I did not know that GPStudios did this type of work. After receiving a very sub par piece of artwork I contacted Arvin who turned my project around 180 degrees.

Please describe what, to you, makes for a good client/contractor relationship. How can the freelancer make sure to satisfy the client, and how can the client get the most bang for their buck?

Communication is key! Entrepreneurs are very needy and want to see fast results and have all the little “quick” email questions and ideas responded to in real time. The freelancer, in this case GPStudios, is very accommodating to idea changes and revisions. There were no surprises in the end cost since all revision schedules and costs were worked out in the original contract.

What are your tips for someone in your field, just starting out?

Build a good relationship with contractors from the beginning and try to use them throughout all of your projects. It will pay off for both parties in the long run.

What are your preferred methods of communication when it comes to your work? How actively do you market and advertise your services, and via what methods?

Email and to me phone calls are a must since many emotions get skewed through text.

Is there anything you’ve been up to recently that you’d like the readers to know about?

I recently finished my first screenplay. (Six Buoys) “I figured hey if I’m living in Hollywood for three years of my life then I might as well act the part and write something right? When in Romania….”

Jon and I have been working together for over a year now and we’ve got more projects in the pipeline. As always, you know where to go to see the latest and greatest (if/when I remember to update!) In the meantime, don’t forget to check out the GPS-designed (and independently awesome) site for Kameelperd.

Another “vintage” portfolio update: Painted Bird Films Website

Arvin Bautista — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:39:18 +0000

This had been alluded to in our recent interview with frequent GPS collaborator and client, Painted Bird Films, but I’m only getting around to posting it now, so please check out our project page for the Painted Bird Films Website Design!

Just to clarify: These portfolio entries are dated and ordered by when they were officially completed/launched, which is why in this case (and many others) the project does not appear at the top of the front page (because technically this site launched back in February). These blog posts, as such, serves to announce the update.

scottlukowski.com Now in Portfolio

Arvin Bautista — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:51:14 +0000

http://www.scottlukowski.com , the online portfolio of renowned film concept artist Scott Lukowski (Watchmen, Alice in Wonderland), was designed by Scott himself and developed by Greasy Pig Studios by heavily modifying a WordPress installation.

You can check out the project here.

New Illustration: You Have Died of Dysentery!

Arvin Bautista — Sat, 22 May 2010 03:52:56 +0000

Alright, I gotta start putting more recent work in my portfolio before I completely forget what I’ve worked on since (this is a legitimate danger!). So here’s the most recent work, the header and favicon illustrations for “Factual Gaming News” site You Have Died of Dysentery.

Click above for the project page, as well as the link to the actual hilarious site!

Greasy Pig Studios :: Arvin Bautista

Greasy Pig Motion Graphics in ESPN’S 30 for 30 Doc: One Night in Vegas -9/7/10

Related Posts

Gree-Morr: The Inbred Jedi cartoon

Related Posts

Interview with Vic Dunlop: Veteran Comic and Dirty Joke Master

Warning: there are images further down this post that may not be suitable for workplaces and younger viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

Please describe yourself and/or your business.

Describe how you came upon using Greasy Pig Studios’ services, and what we ended up doing together.

Any interesting trivia/anecdotes about our working relationship?

If you can, describe what makes for a good client/contractor relationship. How can the freelancer make sure to satisfy the client, and how can the client get the most bang for their buck from the contractor?

As a small businessperson yourself, what are your tips for someone in your field, just starting out?

What are your preferred methods of communication when it comes to your business? How actively do you advertise yourself, and via what methods?

Is there anything you’ve been up to recently that you’d like the readers to know about?

Related Posts

Updated reels delayed

Related Posts

Lou Anders on Art Directors/Editors and Illustrators

Lock Transparent Pixels in Photoshop

Flatting! Plus, a Photoshop Pro-Tip!

Related Posts

Interview with Kameelperd founder Jon Hoenig

Greasy Pig Studios: Please describe yourself and your business.

Describe how you came upon using Greasy Pig Studios’ services, and what we ended up doing for you.

Any interesting trivia/anecdotes about our working relationship?

Please describe what, to you, makes for a good client/contractor relationship. How can the freelancer make sure to satisfy the client, and how can the client get the most bang for their buck?

What are your tips for someone in your field, just starting out?

What are your preferred methods of communication when it comes to your work? How actively do you market and advertise your services, and via what methods?

Is there anything you’ve been up to recently that you’d like the readers to know about?

Related Posts

Another “vintage” portfolio update: Painted Bird Films Website

Related Posts

scottlukowski.com Now in Portfolio

Related Posts

New Illustration: You Have Died of Dysentery!

Related Posts