THE DAILY MONSTER

WEEKLY MONSTER 133

Good morning. How are you? I hope things are well on your end. Thank you for checking in on the monsters. Today's creature --- No.133 --- will be the last Weekly Monster for a month. Starting on Friday, we'll celebrate the countdown to the Monster Book with a February's worth of Daily Monsters. They'll be Old School --- just one minute of drawing and an invitation for you to submit your stories. I hope we'll have fun!

Today there is still a little bit of animation at the end, but boy... it's a little weird. I'm counting on you to figure out what's going on here. Clarification is clearly needed! Please take a look:

I must leave you now to draw new monsters, but I can't wait
to see what stories you'll come up with! For now, allow me
to remind you once again that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 132

Good afternoon. How are you? I hope you're staying healthy during cold and flu season. (I seem to have caught a little bug this week. Sigh.) I'm also meeting with my fabulous photographer client in a few minutes --- more about that in a few months. It's all hush-hush for now --- but of course, it's Wednesday, so there is a new Monster:

It's an old school monster without too much animation, but with obvious question marks. I hope you'll feel inspired to fill in the blanks!

For now, I hope you're having a great day
and that you know that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 131

Good afternoon. How are you? I hope that the new year has been treating you well these first two weeks of the New Year. (Does it feel like only two weeks to you? Seems like a lot longer to me.) I have for you a new Weekly Monster. It's a little bit different from the rest, but I hope you'll still have fun. Please take a look:

It's an upper crust monster. Are we looking at master or servant? Another performer? Or an inheritor? I'm curious to see what you think is going on here. If you have a minute, won't you please

For now, I hope you're having a lovely day doing something you enjoy!
And, as always, please remember that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 130

Good afternoon. How are you? I hope the skies aren't too gray where you are.
Be it sunny or gloomy on your end, I do hope that the new Weekly Monster
will make you smile:

I realize that the monsters in their current incarnations aren't quite as open ended as they've been in the past. But there are still questions to be answered here. For example: Is this the regularly scheduled performance? Is he the opening act, or the headliner? What made this one such a hit? Is this the beginning of his career? The zenith? The end? Are we watching a Royal command performance? And if so, who's the monarch?

If you've got a few minute to spin a tale, please...

For now, I hope you're having an entirely passable Wednesday!
Do remember please that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 129

Good afternoon. How are you? Are you ready for a new Weekly Monster? I hope you'll enjoy today's creature. What do you think his story is? Where is all this happening? Is he surprised? Or did he know what he was looking for? If you have any thoughts on the matter, please don't hesitate. Please...

More Open Source Monsters are on the way, and there have been some fun additions to the World's Tallest Monster, too. All in all, we're off to a good start into the New Year! Here's to 2008 bringing you lots of love, health, and inspiration! For starters, you can always count on the fact that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 128

Good evening. How are you? If you chose to celebrate yesterday, how was it? I hope you had a good day, either way! I have to say that what I notice most about major holidays now is the disturbing slowdown of information. I usually get about 50 to 100 actual non-spam e-mails a day. Yesterday: Five. That's just wrong. I was happy that some normalcy was restored today.

The sudden silence did give me time to do some extra detailed animation for you, though. I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second, but first,
please enjoy this week's clip:

I'm curious what you think the story is. At the same time, I'm curiouser still what your New Year's Resolutions are. If you're game, maybe you'll post them here to get the rest of us inspired. As always, you can post stories and comments by clicking the big, green block of type:

OK. A few production notes on this particular installment of the Monsters: Usually, each animation is put together out of 10 to 15 layers --- 4 eyelids, upper and lower jaw, movable arms and legs, maybe a little waving hair --- that sort of thing. But since we're dealing with three close-up monsters here --- monsters with tricky party hats, hidden teeth, and big dreams --- the animation has 46 layers. Each eye has three parts, for example --- the pupil, the iris ring, and a background. Plus the aforementioned eyelids.

As it turns out, 46 layers have a tendency to crash my otherwise fabulous anime software. I tried rendering with different settings, but nothing worked. The only thing that did the trick was to render the animation sequence 10 frames at a time. This left me with 138 separate files, which I then reassembled in Quicktime. That last step didn't actually take that long, but the piecemeal render ate up about five hours. But whaddaya gonna do? Simplify? I think not!

I shot a few seconds of the render process for you, because
it's actually oddly soothing to watch in real time. Take a look:

So... just imagine this times 1380. Ha! I do wonder if staring at this kind of thing all day has some sort of effect on me has some sort of effect on me has some sort of effect on me. But what can I do? I'm a slave to love. Because as you well know 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 127

Good afternoon. I hope you're surviving the year end madness
wherever you are. Maybe the new Weekly Monster will offer a two minute respite
for all the jingling. It's a simple one this week, but still a different creature
from weeks past. I do hope you'll like it:

What's the story, do you think? Who's starring in this movie? Who made it? Who watched it? I'm very curious to hear what you think:

For now, I wish you a very merry week ahead, whether you're yulefied, or just taking a few days to relax. Mellow Xmas! Mellow Xmas everybody! A New Year's Monster will be waiting for you next Wednesday. Why? Because 344 LOVES YOU

DUTCH LOUNGE MONSTER 122 REMIX

Good afternoon. Dutch composer Bart van Delft just sent me a version
of Monster 122 that he scored with his own soundtrack. It's very cool!
Very loungy and mellow. I love it, and I have to share it with you:

I think with a little encouragement we could persuade Bart
to score a few more monsters. What do you think?

Even in the gray L.A. rain
you gotta know that 344 LOVES YOU

TWO NEW MONSTERS BY ZEBRA1700

Good afternoon. I just received two new monsters from Zebra1700 in the UK. They're very cool. Check'em out!

It's no wonder that 344 LOVES YOU

WEEKLY MONSTER 126

Good afternoon! How are you? I'm sorry that I'm only posting so sporadically right now, but I'm in overdrive on finalizing a few more product designs for the ECHO PARK TIME TRAVEL MART, which is opening on Sunday. Beyond that, there are a few other things happening that make it hard to write as often as I'd like. That said, it is Wednesday, and neither sleet nor snow (or, in the case of Los Angeles, a vicious 65º cold snap) will keep me from bringing you a new Weekly Monster.

It looks like you had fun with last week's monster, and I hope you'll enjoy this one, too. What do you think explains his (Her? Its?) particular style? Where do you think 126 is headed? And why? Is he coming back? Is he running an errand? Going home? Setting out? Is he alone? Is he but one organism? Or is symbiosis involved? What do you think?

I'm excited to see what you'll come up with.
Who knows if there will be a second book.
Get in on the ground floor!

For now, I hope you'll have a lovely, mellow rest of the week.
If you're in L.A. this Sunday, please drop by the store opening and say Hello.
The address is 1714 Sunset Blvd. and the doors open at noon.
Until then, you surely must know that 344 LOVES YOU