My Man Bootsy

March 22, 2013 Interesting Find

Bootsy Collins

Hello,

When I was learning how to play bass, funk became an integral part of my education. The reason is simple: funk is all about the bass. If one wishes to learn how to sit in a pocket, just play along to funk tracks…”live” funk tracks work best, if you can find some good ones. Why live ones? Trying to mimic a good funk bassist’s improv will show you just about everything you need to know about bass playing…from switching grooves at the drop of a penny, sitting in the pocket and tricks and tips along the way.

One funk player that I always practiced alongside (via CD, of course) was Bootsy Collins. Not the Bootsy from the George Clinton years or the solo years, but the Bootsy from the James Brown years. This Bootsy was a very young and wet behind the ears Bootsy AND this was before he started drowning out his awesome bass runs with tons of unnecessary effect pedals. Yes, the James Brown Bootsy is what all funky bass players wish to attain. There would be no Victor Wooten if not for Bootsy.

Victor Wooten is arguably the best bass player on the planet (many will argue in favor of Jaco Pastorius), and Victor sites his first main influence to Bootsy. Check out some VW awesomeness right here. Amazing, I know. He defies logic.

I digress.

I can remember spending practically every night attempting to play along to a young Bootsy to a live CD of James Brown from back in the day. In fact, I seem to recall the liner notes telling me that James Brown had just fired his first band the day before this gig (apparently, JB was notorious for this) and Bootsy and his band were immediately hired by JB to sit in for a few gigs. Ended up, they became JB’s backing band for several tours after that. But, listening to that show blew my mind, especially knowing the backstory and knowing that James Brown was an improvisational artist on stage. Turns out that Bootsy, unknown to him, was instructing the world how to play proper funk bass at that show. I can’t remember the name of the CD, but I’m sure its still out there.

At any rate, I came across a video of Bootsy funking it out and discussing what it was like to work with James Brown. It roared up a whole ton of bass playing memories for me and I figured I would share. Perhaps I’ll scrounge up a Bootsy/JB video for another post. In the meantime, enjoy.

Thanks for visiting.

Till next time…

David (Cali Dingo)

 

 

No comments , , , ,

Animation News

March 13, 2013 Animation, Interesting Find

MICKEY MOUSE

Hello,

I subscribe to an online newsletter from Animation magazine that kind of keeps me up to date on any interesting happenings in the animation world. You see, I’ve never outgrown the cartoon faze of my childhood. I love it just as much now as then, however my infatuation of cartoons has changed from loving the simple slapstick comedy to an appreciation of the art form.

Since I’ve been fortunate enough to plop out some animation at my day job, that appreciation has grown considerably. My use of DVR is exemplary of this statement.  I love DVR for the main fact that I can slow any animation sequence down to frame by frame and figure out how the big boys made a particular sequence work as well as they did. In a sense, I’m a perpetual student of the art of animation. I watch it regularly and anyone watching with me (which is usually just my cat) will get annoyed due to my constant stopping and scrubbing the cartoon to see “how did they do that?”.

Well, Animation magazine announced a wonderful thing, in my opinion, in their latest newsletter. Disney is going to be producing new Mickey Mouse shorts in the vein of the originals. Awesome! See, I told you I’m a cartoon nerd. I’m a fan of the old Mickey shorts because the animation was so fluid and over the top. It took a lot of cells and man-hours to produce those, but I always felt the end product was worth it. Studios since, including Disney, started to shy away from that time consuming process to minimize costs and the result was rigid cartooning.  That sort of animation can work in anime because anime really is more about the story, not so much about animation. Mickey shorts are pure animation, the story is secondary to the animation.

Here is a snippet of what the article had to say about it:

Watch out all you young whippersnapper toons. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’s 85-year-old character, Mickey Mouse, is coming back in a new short-form series of 2D cartoons. This new series of 19 cartoon shorts will begin rolling out on Friday, June 28 on Disney Channel, Disney.com and WATCH Disney Channel. 

You can read more of the article here. It’s quite interesting.

At any rate, they have a sneak-peek on their website and its well-worth watching if you love Mickey shorts. They definitely kept the imagery within the confines of the classic Mickey shorts with just a tad of updating and the animation is just incredible. I especially love the watercolor-esque backdrops and the title card. I wanted to share it here, so please enjoy.

http://video.disney.com/watch/croissant-de-triomphe-4d7b3aae690a98650d776d97

Till next time…

David (Cali Dingo)

 

 

 

 

No comments , , ,

Art Pieces 1

March 7, 2013 Graphics

Hello,

As a requirement for my job as graphic designer extraordinaire at AIMS Education Foundation, I am to participate in continuing education. It’s a great way to sharpen the skills and know-how and also to do something a little different. I am never asked or push myself to do any real art… you know, the kind you can put up in your house. When I get home from work, if I’m not slaving on someone else’s stuff, I’m working on my music or fixing the house that lacks any art on the walls. The latter tends to be the case more often than not. Not because our house sucks, but because I am Type A when it comes to my house. So, these classes are a great opportunity for me to do something I otherwise would probably not do… create some good old fashion artsty fartsy.

There was a particular assignment in which I was quite pleased with my efforts, so much so, that my wife and I decided to put them up on our walls. I have to recreate it to do so (or pay exorbitant amounts of money to have someone print it for me), so as of right now they are not on the walls.

It was a series of 4 pieces that were to tackle particular elements in art. I won’t go into all that uppity uppity with you, but the great thing about it was we were allowed to use any subject matter. I chose a cat and ball. The can be used to create tension with each other and they also go together like … well, a cat and ball. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the series.

At any rate, I wanted to share. So here ya go.

This was to illustrating balance.

This was to illustrate balance.

This was to illustrating proportion.

This was to illustrate proportion.

This was to illustrating rhythm.

This was to illustrate rhythm.

This was to illustrating unity.

This was to illustrate unity.

By the way, I am happy to announce that I did quite well in the class.. A+. So my efforts were well worth it.

Till next time…

David (CaliDingo)

 

 

 

No comments , ,

Cartoon Sample 1

February 8, 2013 Animation

Hello,

It’s been a while. The holiday season and projects galore have been keeping me away from ye old blog. However, I am now finding time to start posting some of my projects for the internet world to view. Lots of great stuff coming down the pike. Keeps me busy, but keeps me creative.

This particular sample is of a cartoon I had the pleasure making for AIMS Educational Foundation. This goes with an educational video regarding Archimedes’ Principle. This video aims to help explain what Archimedes’ Principle is in layman’s terms. So, Archimedes sets to chiseling out the technical words in favor of words that make more sense to the average student… like me. ;)

I used Adobe After Effects to create this and didn’t use any bells or whistles. I did it the old fashioned way…. I drew each frame out and synched them using pencil and paper on a light board. I know, so techie, right? I’ve found for cartooning there is nothing like the tried and true. It turns out more fluid and the artist ends up having much more control over the animation and spends less time fighting the interface of your animation program.

 

Cartoon Sketch Sequence

Here is a section of the walk cycle in sketch form. I put all of these (approximately 40 cells) into After Effects and tweaked in Photoshop to make it as smooth as possible.

 

I then scanned the drawings into Adobe Illustrator to ink and color the frames.

I also created the sound effects using Garageband and Adobe Audition. The chisel sound was the only toughie. I ended up using two variations of a clave sample and effects loop of a chisel breaking ice; blended them together in Audition and came out with a satisfactory chisel sound.

Here is the cartoon sample.

Enjoy!

 

 

I’ll be back with some samplings in the near future.

Till then…

David (Cali Dingo)

 

 

 

No comments , , , , , , ,

DIY Vocal Booth

December 4, 2012 How To, Recording

I’ve always heard and read about making a vocal booth out of moving blankets as an inexpensive and nonintrusive alternative to the real thing. I was skeptical, but there was one word that persuaded me to pursue it: inexpensive. Hmmm. Intriguing.

Granted, I would prefer to have a permanent, professionally-made vocal booth…. heck, I’d prefer a permanent, professionally-made studio. But, alas, I don’t have room to permanently construct a vocal booth in my home studio, so a portable one was going to have to do.  I needed something that I could assemble/disassemble on a whim and store in the garage out of the way. I also needed it to be quite sturdy.

First of all, why moving blankets? Apparently, moving blankets are quite thick and when doubled or tripled up they can really clamp down on any noise floating around them. I’ve seen many people use clips and hang them from their ceiling tiles or something and that just didn’t appeal to me in that form. I wanted it to actually be a booth, just collapsable. So, I set my brain ta’ thinkin’ and I came up with something that, when tested this last weekend, proved to be a winner. I then thought to myself: “I bet there is someone else out there wondering how to get a vocal booth in their small home studio and receive close-to professional results.” So, here is what I did. Maybe it can help you if you’re in need.

I bought 2X4s and constructed 3 frames that are 7 ft X 3 ft like this:

I screwed them together and used brackets to give them extra stability. Then, to make them stand AND to make them collapsable, I hinged 2 of them together using door hinges. I wasn’t able to hinge the 3rd frame and keep the booth collapsable, so I had to make it free standing and hook it to the other frames to form my 3 sided booth using eye-hooks.

I then bought some moving blankets on ye old amazon and put one blanket on each side of each frame using safety pins to bind them together. So, there are 2 blankets for each frame to ensure good dampening. I then topped the booth with 1 blanket so no room reflection comes bouncing off the ceiling.

That’s it. It took me a couple of hours to cut the wood properly and put them together and 30min. to put the blankets on. I put it through a test run and everyone was quite impressed. No room reflection at all. I am going to add my reflection filter to the mic for extra dampening, but even without it we had a great vocal take as you can see from the audio sample below.

At any rate, here is a video of my booth and the singer using it.

NOTE: I kept calling it a gobo because I’ve heard many people call them that, but I am unsure if that is accurate. So, please forgive if I’m misusing that slang… I just want to be cool like all the other Rick Rubins. ;)

 

 

And here is an audio clip from that session using the booth.

 

 

I hope this helps someone in a vocal booth pickle. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions for improvement. I’m always looking for the perfect sound.

Till next time…

David (Cali Dingo)

 

 

 

No comments , ,
« Older Entries