What is your name and your current occupation? Cedric Hohnstadt. I own an illustration studio where I specialize in character design.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I’ve driven school bus, worked in a canning factory, and even done medical studies. Fortunately I’ve been able to make a living as an artist now for about fifteen years.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? I’ve done advertising concept work for brands like Coca-Cola and Walmart; designed toys for Hasbro and Disney; designed characters for VeggieTales; and supervised the animation of Mr. Potato Head for the Hasbro website. I also illustrated a Gospel tract with over five million copies in print. You can read it at www.freecartoontract.com. Â Recently I launched a Kickstarter called the Pose Drawing Sparkbook. It’s a tool to help artists put more life into their drawings and I’m getting a lot of great feedback on it. By the third day of the campaign it was featured in Kickstarter’s “Popular this week” section under the “Publishing” category and it received over 800 “likes” on Tumblr. Your readers can check it out here: http://kck.st/12K2otL
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? I’m a life-long Minnesotan so all of my animation-related work has been done from my home studio. In 2000 I attended Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation? My name is Pedro Astudillo and I am a freelance graphic artist and character designer.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I was a truck driver for almost 5 years. In retrospect, it wasn’t that bad.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I was very young when I started working in the animation field but am still proud of the work I did back then.
When I was living in Spain I worked as a freelance animator for two animation studios simultaneously. I wasn’t really doing great work but I am proud of the fact that my earnings helped support my family for two years.  Many years later I worked in the toy industry as a character designer for entertainment properties, for a few years. It was one of the most prolific periods for me as an artist and am proud of my body of work during that time. Most recently and while I was still working at Disney I worked on a Pinocchio program that consisted of designing and supervising several items of limited edition. That was the last interesting project assigned to me during my last months at Disney and am very proud of the results. The fact that Pinocchio is my favorite animated Disney film only increases that feeling.
How did you become interested in animation?
I Â fell in love with animated cartoons at a very early age, long before I Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
James McDermott, currently I’m the Character Design Lead on a newPrimetime FOX series being produced at Bento Box called “AllenGregory”.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting intoanimation?
My first job, I worked as a kids counselor at a summer camp when I was 14. I was incharge of twenty 6 year old kids every week. Looking back on it I’mnot quite sure how I did that but I did it with joy. I once was asked to dress up as a feltfilm strip character in front of a boardroom full of people, selling itas a brand hallmark for a movie theater chain, I forget which one, for$100 while in art school. Needless to say it was very embarrassing atthe time as a teenager.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been apart of? Well even though it was cancelled, my time on “Neighbors from Hell” was probably one of the better experiences I’ve  had in production. I loved the style of the show, so much fun to draw. I had the opportunity to work with Continue reading
What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Michael Hill. I’m a Lead Artist at Hound Comics, character designer and creator of the new original spy series Operation Spyhard.
What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? I’ve done it all! lol From unloading trucks and stocking dairy to making hams and sacking groceries. The jobs weren’t crazy but a lot of the people were. lol I should write a book. Hmmm…………..
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Since I’m new to the animation industry, I haven’t completed a project as of yet but I’ve met some of the amazing artists who have worked on projects like, Young Justice, Justice League, Batman TAS, The Boondocks, Batman Beyond, DC and Marvel animated features, and more! Incredibly humble guys who have respect and advice for  genuine new talent that are serious about growing in the industry. I’m honored to learn from their years of wisdom and success.
Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m originally from Birmingham, Alabama but I will soon be relocating to Los Angeles to have direct access to Continue reading
I’ve been drooling over the Surfaces since Microsoft first announced them and have been lurking in the shadows quietly studying reviews and feedback and during all of it I NEVER once heard whether Adobe Flash worked with the device. Or Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. Or Harmony for that matter. Even the apparent Go To Site for all things Surface; SurfaceProArtist.com has been oddly silent about this. I figure it’s just simply that animators have just not bought the device yet and that’s the reason.
Sooo… I decided to buy one and find out for myself how well this thing works from an animator’s perspective.
So here we go.
The Hardware First off let me say it’s an AWESOME piece of tech! It’s sturdy, light and feels good in your hand on the way to Starbucks or lunch for some freelance… (something I do with regularity). And MAN is the thing FAST! I don’t know what Microsoft did under the hood here folks, but it’s not like your normal laptop or tablet. Programs open in mere seconds which is startling at first. Installing Toon Boom Storyboard Pro took less than a minute and Adobe Flash which is an absolute pig when it comes to installing (as is really ANYTHING Adobe) installed in under 4 minutes which is quite an achievement in my book. I’m quite sure some of that has to do with the large 256 gb SSD drive I got with it as opposed to the typical 64gb drive the cheaper model comes with. I also have 8gb of memory in there too which helps. So let’s just say it’s FAST.
Also, I don’t know about you but I personally like to draw at more of a flat angle and not so upright as many do. But trying to draw with the tablet completely flat also is too much of an angle for me to be happy either (What can I say, I’m complicated). Anyway, years ago I found this cool laptop wedge called The Allsop Cool Channel platform for my old LE1600 which angled the tablet just perfectly for me to draw.
The Allsop Cool Channel Platform for Laptops
I started using that with my Surface Pro 2 and it works well also but of course I then have to disconnect the keyboard and if you’ve ever used Photoshop, Flash or Storyboard Pro without a keyboard you know it’s much more difficult. Suddenly I realized that I could actually keep the keyboard connected and if I left the kickstand open anyway it sat at the perfect angle with the Allsop Wedge to keep my keyboard AND the tablet connected together which no other tablet has been able to do! Also by the way I don’t think the Surface Pro 3 would be able to do this because the Kickstand has many more angles and it would likely fold over form the weight of my hand. the more limited angles of the Surface Pro 2’s kickstand actually ends up working to my advantage!
My perfect angle for animating!
My one and only pet peeve on the build of the device goes to the complete IDIOT who decided that the charge adapter should be a magnet connecting to the device as opposed to an actual plug that’s inserted. Clearly this fool never actually uses a tablet. I mean COME ON! If you don’t know what I’m referring to the Surface Pro 2 does not have your typical AC jack with the hole in the side of the tablet. Instead, some ‘genius’ and I use that term loosely, decided “Hey that plugging in and out all the time is SO much work, let’s just make it a magnet instead, shall we?” So they did. And it does exactly that, it snaps easily to the side of the tablet. Problem is, that it also PULLS OUT easily as well and quite often unplugs if you’re, oh I don’t know… USING THE DEVICE! I swear, why don’t people test these things out first? Not only that but it’s damn near impossible to attach the cord to the tablet without picking it up, looking at the hole and then connecting it because it’s also at an odd angle and you can’t really connect it while it’s propped up on a table. I know that Apple does this magnet thing as well on their MacBook Pros but they must hold a patent on using a strong enough magnet to stick because my Surface Pro 2 disconnects when I sneeze.
Surface Pro’s charger cord
That five dot hole is where the Surface Pro 2’s cord connects to…
Anyway, other than this flaw the Surface Pro 2 is built quite well as far as I can tell.
Since, I bought the device I also grabbed a better keyboard for it called the Surface Type Cover which has a plastic trackpad instead of the ‘pleather’ trackpad my original keyboard had. What was Microsoft thinking?!?!
Original keyboard
The new keyboard. It may be hard to tell from these pics but the new trackpad is FAR more responsive.
Okay, then moving on…
Performance
I’ve read about people having issues with the high resolution screens and Adobe apps like Photoshop having squiggly jagged lines and Flash only drawing straight lines instead of curvy ones. I have not had that problem and only the largest Photoshop brushes cause it to lag for a heartbeat which in all fairness happens on my desktop sometimes. there is no drawing lag in Flash. Even Storyboard Pro which is usually pretty processor intensive performed very well using both the vector brushes AND the newer bitmap brushes. No lag whatsoever while drawing. I recently finished up a 500 page board using Storyboard Pro (on my desktop) and the file opened very quickly and flipping through panels was every bit as fast as on my desktop.
All in all everything I threw at the Surface Pro 2 performed admirably.  Even Maya, Mudbox and Z-Brush preformed admirably on it. Also, it was fairly easy to animate on it using Sketchbook Pro’s Flipbook timeline as well. I animated the quick pencil test below on my Surface Pro 2.
In fact for pure drawing? The Surface Pro 2 performs more than admirably! It’s perfect. The pen glides nicely on the glass, it has a little pull and there is absolutely zero lag as I sketch. It’s fantastic and if that’s all I judged a tablet on this would be a clear win.
But it’s not…
Hacking the Screen
Coming in at only 10″ the Surface Pro’s screen size is actually smaller than a sheet of Letter size Paper (8.5 x 11) to draw on which isn’t so bad on paper but then when you add all the toolbars and floating palettes there’s not so much room to draw upon!  That’s okay I guess because with collapsing palettes and whatnot, you can work around it. What IS harder is the high DPI screen that makes apps TINY and particularly anything Adobe. The resolution is SO high on *Photoshop and Flash I couldn’t even SEE the menus. And when I say I can’t see them I literally CAN’T see them. I had no idea what frame I’m on and couldn’t even see the Preferences palette to swap out a frame in a symbol. Yes, I know Flash inside and out and so I could pretty much run blind, but it was still REALLY hard to see.  Check out the example.
Adobe Flash on the Surface Pro 2
Tiny huh? Remember this is on only a 10″ screen about the size of your mouse pad, so it’s REALLY hard to see. That said, there is a hack that let’s you uprez the interface on high DPI screens which works flawlessly and makes Flash (and any other app) usable again! All that said, hacking the registry can cause other problems and while this particular hack is really easy to pull off, you could still brick your computer if you do it wrong, so unless you like to tweak software the Surface Pro still isn’t for you. Check out this example of after the screen hack below:
Flash Pro with the High DPI Manifest Hack
Much better if not a little cramped. Storyboard Pro works with this fix as well, but I did find that the new Flash CC 2015 (which has it’s own problems anyway right now) sadly does NOT work with this hack yet. Other programs like Premiere and Illustrator works too. I have an email to my friends at Adobe to see if they can do something similar to what the *Photoshop team did to address the high DPI issue.
A bit of art I did on the Surface Pro 2 using Storyboard Pro.
Software that works
Sketchbook Pro
Photoshop-(works well with Adobe’s zoom preference)
Flash-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Illustrator-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Premiere-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Audition-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Storyboard Pro-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Autodesk Maya-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Mudbox-(requires manifest hack to see well.)
Windows 8.1 But that, dear friends is the good stuff… now comes the bad, because in order to USE the Surface you need Windows 8.1 which is a giant piece of donkey doo. Yes, even though Microsoft has been trying like a little puppy to get you to like them with their happy-singy ads, talking about how you can dance on picnic tables AND use the Surface, Windows 8 is still a giant hunk of shit. It’s a HORRIBLE interface even on their OWN hardware designed FOR their software!
Case in point. You start up Sketchbook Pro and try to draw with it, but when you place your hand on the screen it causes your palm to also draw. Okay, no problem, disable the Touch interface right? Well Microsoft doesn’t WANT you to do that so they make it hard for you and so you have to go into the Device Manager and disable it. Luckily there’s a little app called Touch Toggle which sits in your System Tray and let’s you click it to enable touch and click again to disable touch. And therein lies the reason I use Windows. It’s hackable.
Touch Toggle On
Touch Toggle Off
See Microsoft? That wasn’t SO hard was it? I am left wondering WHY WOULD MICROSOFT BE SO STUPID!?!?!?!? Do they even USE their products before skipping them off to the shelves in a trail of flowers and rainbows? And if you’re not computer advanced like I am, you might not even know what the Device Manager is! Let alone how to make Touch Toggle start up each time with the system. Grandma sure won’t, so forget those commercials about how it’s easier than an iPad. Pffffff. And I don’t even LIKE iPads. Yes, I know here’s where some of you say “Get a Mac!” but see Dead Uncle Steve proselytized the Mac faithful that “No pen shall toucheth thy Macintosheth!” and so there IS no portable device with a Mac interface to draw on except the iPad which is akin to drawing with a crayon on a window pane made by Fisher Price. go ahead tell me about the $4000 Modbooks that use to exist. They don’t anymore so…
To Sum it All Up…
So at the end of the day, will I keep the Surface Pro 2? I’m honestly not sure yet… What I look for in a tablet is the ability to draw (and Sketchbook Pro does that admirably) and to write (and I can easily do that with Word and the surprisingly decent keyboard cover). I can even animate with it using either Flash or Harmony and if I choose to get an adapter, suddenly now I can add an external monitor to it as well making it much more powerful. I might also just get a Surface Pro 3 but I am leery of the N-Trig Digitizer as I have heard that it’s not the best and even messing aorund with it in the store left MUCh to be desirred. you’d think that Microsoft would put a decent drawing app on a tablet with a pen, but noooooooo.
Idiots, truly idiots.
Still they make a 12″ Surface Pro 3 AND you can even get it in an i7 so I may yet go down that road…
Pros -Impressive speed and performance. -Innovative design. -Surprisingly comfortable keyboard. -Literally ran anything I threw at it. -Pressure sensitivity performed well.
Cons -Text too small on all Adobe apps except Photoshop with out hacking. -Screen size too small to do serious video editing or animation. -Windows 8.1 still sucks ass.
*Adobe released Photoshop CC 2015 which automatically uprezzes the app for super high resolution screens but the screen’s menus are then too big for me and you endlessly scroll to get to the bottom of a menu.
The 2015 release of Photoshop CC rolls out exciting new features for designers and digital photographers. Read on for a quick introduction to these features and links to resources offering more information.
Note: For answers to common questions asked about the 2015 release of Photoshop CC, see the FAQ.
For a summary of features introduced in earlier releases of Photoshop CC, see:
Artboards for different devices on the same canvas
If you are a web or UX designer, you increasingly find yourself designing websites or apps for multiple devices. Artboards, new in the 2015 release of Photoshop CC, help streamline your design process by giving you an infinite canvas on which you can lay out designs for different devices and screens. While creating artboards, you can choose from a wide variety of preset sizes or define your own custom artboard size.
Artboards are useful even if you normally design for just one screen size. For example, while designing a website, you can use artboards to view designs for different pages side-by-side and in context.
Creative Cloud Libraries integration in Photoshop is now much-enhanced:
Library-linked assets
When you use a graphic from the Libraries panel, a library-linked asset is created. This asset behaves in much the same way as a locally-linked smart object, but with the benefit of the asset being in the cloud. Also, when you create a new library graphic from a smart object, the corresponding layer is converted to a library-linked asset.
Adobe Stock integration with Libraries
You can now add a watermarked stock image to any of your libraries directly using the Adobe Stock website. You can then use the watermarked image in your Photoshop documents as a library-linked asset. When you choose to license the image—which you can do directly from within the Libraries panel—all instances of the watermarked asset in your open documents are updated to the high-resolution licensed image.
Adobe Stock-Creative Cloud Libraries integration in Photoshop
Performance improvements
Libraries integration with Photoshop now offers reduced disk usage, more efficient bandwidth utilization, and faster propagation of library changes between Creative Cloud applications.
Adobe Stock is a new service that provides designers and businesses with access to 40 million high-quality, curated, royalty-free images, illustrations, and vector graphics for all their creative projects. You can search for Adobe Stock content directly from within Photoshop. Select File > Search Adobe Stock.
Adobe Stock is also deeply integrated with Creative Cloud Libraries. You can now add a watermarked stock image to any of your libraries directly using the Adobe Stock website. You can then use the watermarked image in your Photoshop documents as a library-linked asset. When you choose to license the image—which you can do directly from within the Libraries panel—all instances of the watermarked asset in your open documents are updated to the high-resolution licensed image.
Important:Â Design Space (Preview) requires Mac OS X 10.10 or Windows 8.1 64-bit OS or higher and is currently displayed only in English.
Design Space (Preview) is aimed at becoming a modern design experience inside Photoshop streamlined for the requirements of web, UX and mobile app designers. It’s an HMTL5/CSS/JS layer built on top of Photoshop. We’ve separated out standard Photoshop from the interface so that we can use this layer to create new UI, smarter interactions, and top-requested features. This release is a Technology Preview, which means it’s an early look at this new direction. It’s rough and there is a limited feature set but we want to get this out early so that we can start hearing from you.
To enable Design Space (Preview), select Preferences > Technology Previews and then chooseEnable Design Space (Preview). Help us shape Design Space (Preview) into the experience you want; give us feedback @psdesign.
For more information and a list of known issues in this release, see Design Space (Preview)Â .
Design Space
A. Tools B. Distribute and Align C. Transform D. Style E. LayersÂ
You can now export artboards, layers, layer groups, or Photoshop documents as JPEG, GIF, PNG, PNG-8, or SVG image assets.
Select the artboards, layers, and layer groups in the Layers panel; right-click the selection, and then select one of the following from the context menu:
Quick Export As[image_format]
Export As…
To export the current Photoshop document or all artboards in it, select File > Export As[image_format] or File > Export > Export As…
The Layer Style dialog now lets you apply multiple effects—strokes, inner shadows, color overlays, gradient overlays, drop shadows, etc—to a single layer style. Also, more than one instance of some effects can now be applied to a layer style.
In Photoshop, select an option from the Layer > Layer Style submenu.
Select the effects that you want to add to the layer style. Notice that some effects have a icon, indicating that they can be applied more than once in the layer style.
Adjust the settings for the effects. For example, adjust the size and opacity of a stroke.
Click OK to apply the effects to the layer style.
UI changes to the Layer Style dialog
The left pane of the Layer Style dialog now lets you perform the following operations:
Change the effect stacking order
Delete effects
Through a new flyout menu, accessible by clicking the  icon:
Manage what effects are displayed in the section
Delete hidden effects
Reset any changes you’ve made to the default state of the left pane
Get real-time previews of your Photoshop designs on multiple iOS devices with the new Device Preview feature in Photoshop and the Adobe Preview CC mobile app. Changes you make in Photoshop CC are displayed in Preview CC in real time. You can reliably connect multiple iOS devices to Photoshop using USB or over Wi-Fi.
If you have a document with artboards, Device Preview attempts to show you the correct artboard by matching the size and position of the artboard with the size of the connected device. You can also use the navigation bar to preview a specific artboard on the device or swipe through artboards that have matching widths.
Preview CC supports iOS devices running iOS 8 or above.
For more information, see the following resources:
Restore grain/noise to make blurred areas look more realistic
Sometimes, after applying a Blur Gallery effect, the blurred area of the image looks synthetic or unnatural. You can now restore noise/grain to such a blurred image area to give it a more realistic appearance.
Set the options on the Noise tab in the blur Effects panel.
The 3D menu now has a new command (3D > Simplify Meshes) that lets you reduce the number of triangles in a mesh to a more manageable number. The command algorithmically reduces the number of triangles to the number you specify while attempting to maintain the fidelity of the model. This enhancement is useful for reducing the complexity of a file in preparation for 3D printing.
You can view a live preview of mesh simplification changes before they’re implemented.
Settings in the Simplify 3D Mesh dialog
Preview mesh simplification changes
Improved export UI
The UI for exporting 3D layers as Collada DAE, Flash 3D, Google Earth KMZ, 3D PDF, STL, U3D, VRML, and OBJ formats is now improved.
Select 3D > Export 3D Layer.
The Export Properties dialog
Export a single mesh
A 3D scene typically comprises many elements or meshes. You can now right-click a mesh in the overall scene and export it individually.
Right-click the mesh in the 3D Panel and then choose Export Mesh from the context menu. This functionality currently exports meshes only in Collada or KMZ formats.
Generate better bump maps and normal maps
Photoshop now lets you tweak your bump or normal maps using tools like Blur, Detail Scale, and High/Medium/Low Frequency.
Select Filter > 3D > Generate Bump Map or Filter > 3D > Generate Normal Map.
Generate better bump maps
Generate better normal maps
Create bump maps or normal maps from diffuse textures
You can now create bump maps or normal maps from diffuse textures. The texture attached to the diffuse texture is automatically loaded as filters for the purpose of creating bump maps or normal maps. Once you’re satisfied with the way your map is looking, Photoshop applies the generated bump map or normal map to those textures.
Follow these broad steps:
Open the file containing the diffuse map.
Ensure that the desired texture is selected in the 3D panel.
The desired texture is selected in the 3D panel
Click the folder icon next to Bump or Normal in the Properties panel. Now, from the context menu, select Generate Bumps From Diffuse or Generate Normals From Diffuse.
Generate Bumps/Normals from Diffuse
Specify appropriate settings in the Generate Bump Map or Generate Normal Map dialog.
Click OK. Photoshop generates the map.
Convert a vertex color to a texture color
3D-scanned PLY files typically have vertex colors and no textures. You can convert a vertex color to a texture color. Do the following:
Open the PLY file.
In the Layers panel, under Textures in a 3D layer, double-click the diffuse to open the texture.
Select 3D > Create Painting Overlay > Vertex Colors.
The UI toolkit for building Photoshop plug-ins and scripts has been enhanced to support HiDPI/Retina displays. Also, plug-ins built using the toolkit now look more consistent with the overall Photoshop UI.
In earlier releases of Photoshop, while painting with the Healing Brush, you’d see a semi-transparent gray area and a progress bar before the healed content became visible. In the 2015 release of Photoshop CC, Healing Brush changes render in real time as you paint.
The Content-Aware Move tool now has aTransform On Drop option. When this option is enabled, you can scale the part of the image that you’ve just moved to its new location.
Preference panels have been reworked for better organization.
Reduced energy usage by up to 80% while idling
Reduced loading time for the Welcome screen
New command to release all RAM and scratch disk use; hold down the Option/Alt key and selectAbout Photoshop. Alternatively, select Edit > Purge > All.
The Photomerge dialog now has a Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas option. Use this option to give your panoramas that picture-perfect finish.
Most adjustments (Image > Adjustments) can now be applied as smart filters. Convert the layer to a smart object and then apply an adjustment to it.
Improved syncing performance for Creative Cloud Libraries
Moving a layer to a group now moves it to the top of the Z-order instead of the bottom.
Step backward/forward operations no longer change the layer selection.
New preference to revert Esc behavior while entering text
Experimental Features are now called Technology Previews. For more information, seeTechnology previews.
Scale the UI 200 percent for high-density displays is no longer a technology preview feature. It is now part of standard Photoshop functionality. To enable this feature in Photoshop CC 2015 release, select Preferences > Interface > UI Scaling: 200.
The File > Save For Web option has been moved as File > Export > Save For Web (Legacy).
The following options have now moved to the File > Export submenu:
Export Layers To Files
Export Layer Comps To PDF
Export Layer Comps To Files
Extract assets functionality has been replaced in this release with more intuitive options to export artboards, layers, layer groups, and documents as image assets. See Export artboards, layers, and more for information about these newer export options.
 New in this release of Photoshop CC
For more information, see 
 Enhanced in this release of Photoshop CC
icon, indicating that they can be applied more than once in the layer style.
 icon:
In earlier releases of Photoshop, while painting with the Healing Brush, you’d see a semi-transparent gray area and a progress bar before the healed content became visible. In the 2015 release of Photoshop CC, Healing Brush changes render in real time as you paint.
New command to release all RAM and scratch disk use; hold down the Option/Alt key and select
