halfmoth flits

Basic SEO

2011-06-11T13:56:00.003-04:00

Added "basic SEO" to my resume, as I'm learning about Search Engine Optimization techniques -- what Google's latest search algorithm might quantify, or, rather, what others think the algorithm might quantify (since Google doesn't say). SEO vs. marketing seems to boil down to 1 thing: However you strive to refine the presentation of your company & products (whether to an algorithm or to human eyeballs), it's all still a gamble! Spreading resources to perform a combo approach seems wisest.

Doing it wrong gets you chucked in Google's ranking basement or family groups petitioning and PETA throwing red paint on your bus ad. At least with SEO, there's guidelines Google's posted for favorable results... Reactions to TV or print ads can be subjective. (However, counter to an algorithm's response, there's the old advertising shrug "There's no such thing as bad publicity", haha.)

It's a dance. Gotta stay limber!

2011-04-21T01:14:00.001-04:00

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-frey/2/347/bb1

Updated Thursday April 21, 2011.

Miscellany

2011-01-03T13:48:00.007-05:00

Posted my Miscellaneous Photoshopping, After Effectsing, Inspire3Ding ("Ding"?)—3D-ing—work. An elementary school's broadcast news open, a contest-winning costume-building group, a contest-winning short film featuring 1:6 scale action figures... Video and music editing! FX! Art! Logo design! Hot glue!

Next up, the other comics projects: Terminus Media and Platinum Studios. (I "auditioned" to color the Platinum Studios comic Cowboys & Aliens, but didn't nail the style they wanted. Sad, because the book went on to be adapted into a movie starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, directed by Iron Man's John Favreau! I'll put my panels into my gallery...)

A Thanksgiving cornucopia!

2010-11-29T15:16:00.005-05:00

Just noticed in my Usage Stats that my Portfolio-at-a-Glance was still getting some hits, so I put those graphics back online. Thanks to whomever's still looking! :)

Updated a lot more elsewhere! I still have a couple of comic book albums to add, and then the "Miscellaneous" section... http://halfmoth.com

Cartoonistry!

2010-11-23T01:56:00.002-05:00

Added the Freelance sections today: Hasbro, ad agencies and Cartoonistry. All their graphical content is uploaded -- including clips! -- tho only Cartoonistry's text components are finished. Write-ups next, plus Cotswold in the Corporate section! (By this point, we've gone beyond simple freelance together...)

Try it!

2010-11-22T04:52:00.004-05:00

Well I've all but ditched the old site, tho there's still lots left to do. I kept the homepage basically as-is but dropped it into iWeb for unity. Each section now has a new page, however at the moment only "Corporate" has Galleries. But they're full galleries, especially WeatherPlus', which has content I've never put online before! Lots of clips!

[Note: I've noticed if you click on an album and then click on a item in that album, taking you to the full page display/slideshow page, if you click 'Next' to flip thru it, any clips appear fine. If, however, you click on a clip straight from the album page (where it displays large thumbnails of the contents), when it takes you to that slideshow page, the clip's controls don't always appear! How do you PLAY the clip? Well, one way is to click on its tiny thumbnail above it, in the line of tiny thumbnails.]

I have a couple more companies to add to "Corporate", and then I do the other 3 sections. I've pulled together a large amount of materials and have been prepping the pieces for their galleries. I'm still learning how to handle iWeb -- I've got it FTP-ing the content to my halfmoth.com server instead of my MobileMe space, and this has been a tad confusing. It seems OK for the moment!

Résumé section is, I believe, finished! Clickable cover letter, and here's also where I've placed my demo reels. Plus a breakdown of the elements of the WeatherPlus reel. I can't get my chosen poster frames to display on the clips, perhaps because there's more than 1 clip on the page? iWeb says they're set up, but apparently it's incorrect. Code's such a mishmash at this point I'm no longer sure where to look. Anyway. There's also a link to my QuickTime quicklinks page, where just about every clip associated with my résufolio resides.

Stay tuned! Feedback's welcome!

Sweeping changes to the site!

2010-11-09T01:33:00.002-05:00

With the computer upgrade, out went my old OS9 website software, GoLive. Now for résufolio updates, I'll have to rely on ImageReady and iWeb. I've already begun to learn iWeb, and my new Resume page is the result!

I'm exploring building my 4 "hubs" in ImageReady (it's where I built the homepage a while ago), and then in iWeb creating basic galleries for each company I've worked for. Similar to what's there now, but more modern and unified.

Plus, this way updating the galleries will be as simple as adding-to and publishing-changes! Hey, I don't have coding or technical web work listed in my skillset for a reason... :)

Befores & Afters

2010-09-14T02:52:00.002-04:00

Started a new portfolio blog/gallery thing. New post a day, showing elements that went into a particular piece of artwork. Plus the final piece.

Updating... Updating...

2010-03-24T16:48:00.003-04:00

Been busy! But gotta get busier... Looking for more work. Tweaked the resume a little. Will continue the updates and posting about them here!

Meantime, Cotswold Collectibles has added a Facebook page. They've posted 3 albums of my work for them, Ads for Lee's Toy Review, Ads for Sci Fi Magazine, and Catalog Covers... So go check 'em out!

New Magazine Ads

2009-10-23T18:42:00.002-04:00

Lee's Toy Review #204, and the February 2010 Sci-Fi...

MySpace

2009-06-30T09:51:00.003-04:00

After I shoo these kids off my lawn I'll get my Facebook page established. Meantime, I keep my MySpace site updated with the latest Cotswold Catalog covers, and so does the official Cotswold MySpace (which I started up for them)...

Magazine Ads

2009-06-30T09:33:00.005-04:00

More for the Cotswold Collectibles section! Currently we consistently advertise in Lee's Toy Review and Sci Fi Magazine. And I created 1 ad for WWII History (the Twisting Toyz ad -- other Cots ads you might see in there aren't done by me).

As mentioned earlier in this blog, many ads are re-purposed catalog covers. Some, however, are originals, sometimes imagined as Generic ads that could be sent off, if time's crunchy, A.S.A.P. with little to no customization.

I've found Lee's at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, and Sci Fi in most any shop/newsstand...

New Painting

2009-04-01T01:26:00.003-04:00

Just added her to my Oil Paintings section. Not sure I got the mouth right...

Miscellany

2009-03-23T10:20:00.008-04:00

My DJ alter-ego DJ Boffo's album Beefy dropped today... into the Miscellaneous section of my résufolio. (I can't decide whether beefy droppings sound tasty or hideous, so I'm leaving it as worded for now. Please feel free to chime in!)

It's 16-tracks of, some would say, predominantly J-Pop drag queen music, tho I insist there's a variety of sounds. It's all done with Apple's free Garageband software, using dozens of different musical loops and beats. For more insight, please see its Liner Notes.

(The burnt CD album cover artwork was an experiment of mine, involving a microwave and a fire extinguisher.)

CotColCat

2009-02-09T04:23:00.004-05:00

Cotswold Collectibles catalogs! 32 pages each, lotsa cool stuff. My FREELANCE home has been updated with the new CC icon. Hasbro's pages are still online tho have not been updated, and Cartoonistry is still active, too. Cartoonistry might actually end up living in 2 areas, since some of my cartooning was published in the Southern Fried Comics comic book a couple years ago...

20 new images from the past year of catalogs -- most are covers and the bits that went into creating them. Then there's random sample pages. When putting the catalogs together I don't have much time to spend being artsy, but we do try to make them look nice. All 20 images have footnotes, so scroll down! I just finished the "Predator" catalog last week and should receive it in the mail later today, actually. Looking forward to it!

Still 2 sections to build for Cotswold... "Magazine Ads" and "Other". Those will follow close behind! (Magazine ads are, for the most part, adaptations of the catalog covers. You'll see. And part of "Other" is the TV spot pitch, which can already be seen on the QTQL page.) If all goes according to plan, "Package Design" will also be added, perhaps later this year... hmmm

More About Me

2009-01-14T07:52:00.007-05:00

If you count the cartoons I drew for a local paper when in high school, I've been in/around the creative business for 20mumble years.

Experience is of course valuable, but it doesn't entitle me to much more than some extra consideration. Entitlement really should come with Good Work and Good Results. It's earned. A portfolio, or a degree, or both, shows persistence and discipline and passion, but good work and good results -- whatever impresses clients and employers -- is what should net you the steady job and moneymoneymoney. I've sung all my life, probably starting with Sunday school and cartoon or advertising themesongs (mmm, O-S-C-A-R and I made some tuneful and tasty sammiches together)... Does that 30mumble years of singing experience warrant me a record deal? God no. Hooo, god, no.

If one has a history of half-assery or jackassery, one shouldn't expect to gain more of an employer's consideration. (Of course if one were such a juvenile, they'd probably wail "Why me?" when chastised instead of gleaning anything from introspection.) Sure, lots of other variables figure into an employee review, some one can control, some beyond one's direct influence. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. But the bottom line is, well, the Bottom Line -- it's a business, and is Horatio benefitting the business? Is he earning this entitlement? Or is he wasting time(=money), poisoning morale, never chipping in on birthday cakes?

I have a brief cover letter on my resume page. Expanding:

I left UGA after 4 years and co-founded a production/post-production company in Middle Georgia. We began as convention videographers, eventually partnering with a Macon production company, Storey Communications, providing them with graphics and FX for their TV commercials and concerts. [clip here] My work was already getting on-air! From there I moved to Atlanta to continue freelance graphics, writing, and silly video bits that may yet land on YouTube...

To paraphrase Tim Miller's article "Variety Is The Spice of (Artistic) Life", Creativity thrives on variety. Each project has unique rewards -- and unique problems -- that keep it all interesting. Everything I did honed problem-solving skills. And taught me. Boredom is for the unimaginative.

I've worked for small companies and large... One had a basic office-y front, but behind was a great warehouse space with low cubicle walls, cables snaking all over the dark concrete floor, and a disco ball hanging from the girders. (When they were acquired they offered to move me to Virginia, but I decided to stay in Atlanta.) Another small-yet-international company began in a drafty trailer parked on Crawford Communications' property,

and ended (abruptly) in a nice high-rise in offices we designed. It even had its own breakroom!

The Weather Channel was still in its old tiny studio when I joined them, and I got to follow its move into huge, swank new digs, too. A couple years later I was hired at Endeavor just as it was angioplasty ballooning into WebMD.

Some jobs paid cash, some I filled out invoices or timesheets for checks. They've all supplied valuable experience, and instilled equally-valuable appreciation.

And helped keep me in belt-onions, which were the style at the time.

Capsules

2009-01-09T12:19:00.004-05:00

Got the résufolio homepage's 4 "capsule" rollovers edited together! Tricky balancing their filesizes as I bounced between Photoshop, AfterEffects and ImageReady... But they're not over-large and still look good.

The capsules are a glimpse at what'll be on display in each of those 4 sections -- in Corporate, f'rinstance, the huge and detailed SuperImage maps for The Weather Channel, homepage designs for WebMD, and some of my animated weather event segments for WeatherPlus.

Placeholder samples are already online in each section, and I'll gradually be fleshing them out. ("Comic Books" and "Miscellaneous" are already pretty fleshed out, tho like I mentioned earlier in this blog there's more to add to them, too!)

Cotswold TV

2009-01-03T14:08:00.005-05:00

While I'm constructing the Cotswold Collectibles section of my résufolio, one Cotswold-related update I can make is to my QuickTime Quicklinks page: A sort of animated 30-second TV commercial pitch featuring their 1:6 scale action figures.

Whether they nibbled or not [at this moment, "or not"], I always see these sorts of projects as two-fold -- the obvious intent, plus it's good practice.* This one is lots of 3-D, Photoshoppery and After Effects compositing tricks, and features another DJ Boffo original tune!

Attached to this blog post are images from the ad, Befores & Afters. (I'll include bigger samples in the résufolio.) F'rinstance, I created a matte for the pilot figure and placed a 2-D "card" inside the cockpit of the plane model to map him onto. There's lots of stuff going on in front of and behind objects and figures... explosions stock footage, lasers, etc. The Star Wars Republic Gunship was a test to see how quickly/effectively I could garbage matte over video and doctor it up for the Utapau trooper's scene... It's just me picking up my toy like it's taking off!

*I've heard plenty of jokes about doctors and lawyers calling their business a "practice", but they do that because they [ideally] never stop learning craft, technique, method... Same thing for artists! Should be the case whoever you are, really.

My Résufolio Website

2009-01-01T01:41:00.005-05:00

This blog will be where I mention the latest additions to my "résufolio" website, halfmoth.com. Today I have updated my homepage with this and other buttons, and over the course of 2009 I'll be adding more. I'm scrubbing it clean as I go, so some links may be temporarily broken... The center animations on my homepage, f'rinstance -- those are next!

Upcoming: I've been working with Cotswold Collectibles for over a year now, and 2008 saw a lot of print (catalogs & magazine ads). I also noticed my old STARMAN webpages vanished, and I need to bring all that content back online! (They were hosted on AOL back before I had halfmoth.com, and I'd left them there, silly me.) Especially with the STARMAN Omnibus vol.1 out last June, and vol.2 due this March! And another related project soon after that, I hear...

And while the 2007 box art for the G.I.Joe action figure collection "Tanks for the Memories" appears in my related 2008 presentation clip on my QuickTime Quicklinks page, I need to add its basic page to my Freelance section...

Lots to do! Read about it here!

Doh Blooboo Moogoo

2008-12-30T00:09:00.006-05:00

The below script snippet still tickles me. Yes I wrote it, but I can also say I enjoy it! I get that some actors can't watch themselves and other creative types are as over-critical of their own work, but I've never understood those who outright can't enjoy their creativity. I mean, it kinda defeats the stimulation of creativity, doesn't it? There's plenty of stuff I've done, stuff that's gotten published or on the air, that, tho I'm proud of where it went, I look at and cringe and think "I could do better now", and that should be a reaction we have. It's a very healthy reaction, to want to improve yourself and what you put out there in the world. Otherwise, again, what's the point of creating? We've got a Limited Time Offer that expires in less than 100 years, so Act Now! Do what you do, do it as well as you can at the time, move on happy. You're allowed to look back, but don't dwell back. Learn from your efforts, recycle, learn some more. Appreciate that you get to do this!

Huh? ...Oh! The snippet. From a post-interview writing test for Cartoon Network. A dinner scene between "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" [Mac, essentially] and Bloo.

"My Dinner With Bloo" [:60]

Bloo, c'mon, please quit it. Quit it!

BLOO

But I thought we were gonna shaaare!

YOU thought that; I never said that. That's not how

you use chopsticks.

BLOO

But I don't liiiiike Goomoo Gai Pan! Pleeease let me try

some of your Sad Pee-Ew?

First, it's MOOgoo Gai Pan; second, that's fine you

don't like Moogoo Gai Pan 'cause you didn't even order

Moogoo Gai Pan you ordered Panang Curry. And third,

mine is PAD SEE YOU not Sad Pee-Ew. Ew, I said

don't do that with your chopsticks.

BLOO

This is making my nose tingle.

Well, take the chopsticks out of there.

BLOO

I meant the Goomoo--

--Moogoo. And it's Curry.

BLOO

WhatEVER. My nose tingles, I'm hungry, you won't share,

and chopsticks are stupid. I mean, you can't even CHOP

with them! See? LOOK!

BLOOoooOO you splashed curry on me. Just put the

chopsticks down? Whoa, it DOES make your nose tingle!

ugh... How gum you aggsed for Paddayg Curry iddyway,

iv you dode liyg it?

BLOO

I thought it was that Goo--

--Boo--

BLOO

--Boo--

--Doh, Bloo: Boo--

BLOO

--Doh Blooboo Moogoo?

--Doh, Boogoo Gai Padd.

BLOO

What?

ugh... Moogoo Gai Pan.

BLOO

Right. I thought it was that, but we'd share because

it's Chinese food.

Actually, Bloo, it's Thai.

BLOO

Fine! Moogoo THAIII Pan. sheesh, Make up your mind.

This fortune cookie tastes like paper.

Best of 1988

2008-12-27T01:23:00.000-05:00

Celebrating 20 years of blogging! By the late-90s, I more than anyone else was suffering from doubts this blog would make it to the New Millennium. But make it we did, and then some! I see no evidence this internet thing is gonna dissipate, so sporks at the ready, kids, for I will continue to feed you the warmest words, the tastiest text I'm culinarily capable of serving. You have earned nothing less!

halfmoth flits

Basic SEO

LinkedIn

Miscellany

A Thanksgiving cornucopia!

Cartoonistry!

Try it!

Sweeping changes to the site!

Befores & Afters

Updating... Updating...

New Magazine Ads

MySpace

Magazine Ads

New Painting

Miscellany

CotColCat

More About Me

Capsules

Cotswold TV

My Résufolio Website

Doh Blooboo Moogoo

Best of 1988