dontmesswithdinosaurs.com

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM!!

Will is one of the few other people I like to make things with. He just put an album of his youtube songs on iTunes. You better get it. It’s pretty much bonkers and all over the place as far a subject matter, style, and tone. You can Download it HERE.

If you like “Lightening Bolts” stay tuned. Will and I will be collaborating on another album in 2010.
Because its the future.
And it’s time to make some music that sounds like it.

For the same reason, I’m also working on some stuff with this guy, G. Ghostboy.
Check out our track “Floats Ghostly”. There will be a video for it. No guarantees on when, because it will be elaborate, but there will definitely be a video.

And I’m making some other music videos. Some of them are Earth Beasts Awaken ones.

Watch out.

-Historian

This is one of the dudes I called out on the last cypher I did on YouTube:

He goes by the name of Nomad and he solves DNA sequences. He then applies his biochemicals to the rhythm to completely re-sequence the beat. The resulting verbal synthesis is capable of rapid mutation and adaptation to a wide variety of sonic environments.

I put this together last night when I should’ve been doing real work…

I decided to do another spooky rap video for halloween. Hopefully I can do one every year for a while, they’re really fun to make. Just like last year I made this in just over one day.

Download Spooky Spiders (Halloween Spider Cypher Remix).mp3

ALSO you can download the instrumental if you want:
Download Spooky Spiders (Halloween Spider Cypher Remix).mp3

Anyway, I started to write spooky spider rhymes and then I remembered that this dude on youtube had a cypher going called the “Spider Cypher”, so I remixed the beat from the cypher and posted my video to that. Sort of double dipping… Or killing two birds with three stones, as I like to say.

Hope you have a spooky Halloween!

Hey great news! I’ve been hired to direct my first music video! Here’s a (really) quick rough animatic I threw together.

The final animation will be done partially stop motion, partially hand-drawn and composited onto water colored backgrounds (in other words it will look way better than this animatic…)

Anyway, I’d love any feedback anyone might have, especially with regards to the clarity of the storytelling. It would be great if you could point out any specific points where it gets confusing.

The guy who hired me is named Blake Pullen and he is the lead man for a group he calls “Sonic Impulse.” If you like the song in the above video, you should definitely check out their website, and consider buying their album:
http://www.hearsonicimpulse.com/

Thanks to everyone who made this movie possible. For those who I haven’t excitedly told, “Children of Stone” and “Moss: A Tribute” are going to be on TV. I was contacted by a TV station called Mhz Worldview. One of their programmers saw the animated intro to “Children of Stone” on YouTube and apparently liked it enough to want to put the entire film in their block of programming for children and teens.

Since I no longer have to waste my time and money with film festivals, I can also put “Children of Stone” up online. Here on dontmesswithdinosaurs.com I’ve put up a really high quality version, and I have also put it up on YouTube for your convenience and ease of sharing.

Whaaaaa!?!?!

This is the other dude I called out in the summer cypher. He goes by the name Trey Peepers.

Sometimes it’s nice to get your expectations blasted by a lazerbeam strait to the face, especially when those expectations are already pretty high. I hope some of you like this as much as I do.

Oh, and he’s letting me share his mp3 with you! So nice!
Download Trey Peepers’ Track ‘Hallucinations’.mp3

BTW, that electric guitar you hear was played by him.

If you read the post just prior to this one then you know all about ‘cyphers’ and ‘hip-hop’ and ‘getting called out.’ You may also know that I called out my friend Will Hyler (willhyler.com). This is why:

Oh, and you can download the mp3 here:
Open Your Eyes.mp3

Haha, I heard the beat this dude made for his Youtube “cypher” and I thought the synth line was really catchy and cool and I was initially totally impressed. Then I found out that its a sample from some ‘Lady Gaga’ song that apparently everyone except for me and my grandma has heard a bajillion times. Gah. Oh well. This video attempts to articulate the kind of imagery that comes to my mind when I hear a synth line like this… Mmm… brain flavors.

By the way, I was called out in ‘The Summer Cypher’ by an MC named Knoxie Ty. For those that don’t know, getting ‘called out’ in a ‘cypher’ is a good thing. Like getting an ‘invitation’ to a ‘rap party.’ Check her out, she is good:

Yeahyeahyeah that vid ^ is from a different cypher (with an obnoxious intro on the beat, ugh), but I chose that one because the audio quality is really good and I really like the line, “I rap for freedom, listen to the message fool. You rap for what? I still question you.” If you want more lines like that, check out her free mixtape “Respect My Opinion in the Shade”, here:
Respect My Opinion in the Shade

How did I do that veiny effect, you ask? Black lights and yellow highlighter.
Easy.

This doodle makes me happy.

I’m not typically happy with my quick sketches of dinosaurs for both aesthetic and scientific reasons, which is why most of what I am willing to share on the web are detailed pencil renders drawn with careful attention to whatever images of skeletal material I can get my hands on. ^This is an exception. I was just doodling, and this came out, which is satisfying because it’s a pretty good sign that I’m finally developing an instinctive sense of reasonably accurate proportion and posture for ornithopod dinosaurs.

Speaking of proportion and posture, this Maiasaura just spotted a predator and is falling into a bipedal run from an upright “lookout” posture. The funny horn on it’s head is my own interpretation of some small bony extensions on the skull of Maiasaura. Typically this projection is not enlarged in reconstructions, but I think it is entirely plausible, if not likely, that small (presumably) ornamental structures seen in the skeletons of dinosaurs supported much more elaborate soft tissue or horn structures when the animal was alive. If you take a look at the skulls of birds or reptiles with casques or horns or crests, there is a pretty substantial amount of horn and soft tissue attached to the bone. Also, I think it looks cool!