Rekira 2025

 I'm about to unveil my latest 3D models of my original kaiju, Rekira! Two variants made with the same model; a dragon variant and a bipedal variant. This is the first time since 2008 that I decided to make a fully bipedal version. These are the best models yet! I'm impressed with both versions. Made in Blender.

 

Rekira V3 Beta Complete!

Despite these difficult times, I still have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving:

-Mom and Sissy being in good health.
-My big brother Peter and his friend Panda had a great and safe two-week trip to Japan, and showed me all sorts of stuff!
-I went to two Galaxy-Cons this year and met wonderful guests.
-This is, to date, the best Godzilla Day I've ever had (the Godzilla Fest livestream, going to see Godzilla Minus One for the 4th time, and watching my Criterion Blu-Ray of the original 1954 film)!
-I'm making very good progress on my original kaiju project, Rekira the Super-Monster! And for Thanksgiving, I'm sharing a bit of it: I'm unveiling the final look for the eponymous monster, as completed in Blender! Assembled in FireAlpaca.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 70th Birthday, Godzilla!

 Today is the 70th Anniversary of my favorite character of all time (tied with Snoopy), Godzilla! This was a super-quick sketch that I did (on tablet in FireAlpaca) while watching Godzilla Fest.

Happy Chinese New Year 2024!

 So yesterday was the Lunar New Year! The Year of the Dragon. :)

So I thought I'd do another New Year's drawing featuring my original kaiju, Rekira, and I started on it yesterday. But because we got Chinese food for dinner (it was delicious!), and I got to spend a bit of time with my family (even watching some of the animated movie Wish Dragon, which was cute!), I was a bit delayed, but it was still worth it. It took several hours, but it's a gorgeous bit of art!

Here, the Dynamic Heralds, the superhero team from Rekira the Super-Monster, perform with a dragon dance pole puppet based on Rekira himself! A concept I thought up in the last few days.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

2024 - The Year of the (Dog) Dragon

 My first work of the year, and a convenient one: 2024 is the Chinese astrological year of the Dragon, and my original kaiju Rekira is, partly, a dragon (combined with a dog)!

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Introducing Rekira V3!

 At last, I unveil my latest CG model of my original kaiju, Rekira! Here is Version 3 (V3), which is the best-looking version to date.

Done on Blender, with the skin/fur texture done on tablet in both Blender and Fire Alpaca. The skin/fur ratio was first attempted on the V1 model, but the result was unsatisfactory. Now, it looks far better, now that I got the hang of using particle fur both conservatively and efficiently for the model! The topology is also much better and more consistent. I also simplified Rekira's antlers (I eschewed the red lines), and the headlamp and Pulsar Plates are also now incorporated into the model itself (as opposed to just pasted on, like the previous two models).

Completion test shots (using stock HDRI sky textures), from when the model was finished on October 12 (when I finally completed the glow features).

WIP test shots

This one is great, the best feral expression, so far.

Glow test:

Emulating the "strong" pose of the 1968-1972 Godzilla:

Shee!

Some new Rekira art.

 A collection of recent artwork for my original kaiju, Rekira! All of these were done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 Done on November 23rd (and finished on the 25th), here's a stylized 1950s-style "stencil" art of Rekira.

 Next is another illustration I did for fun. A pencil/watercolor-style Rekira illustration from earlier, September 29th.

 Finally, an even older illustration. A rough, abstract, silhouette-style ad poster of the Rekira project I have in production. Dated July 27, this one was done while my family and I were vacationing at a relative's home in Tampa, Florida.

November Rekira

 I've always wanted to draw my original kaiju, Rekira, in this style!

Here's Rekira with a "November" color scheme. The eruptive background evoking the feel of both autumn and the Thanksgiving season, and Rekira having an "American" palette (much like Election Day). Very warm colors for a progressively cold month. (And Fall-Winter is my favorite season!)

Inspired by the beautiful, colorful poster for Italian filmmaker Luigi Cozzi's bizarre 1977 re-edit of the 1954 Godzilla (from its 1956 US version), which was also featured on the cover of the first issue of the horror magazine Fangoria in 1979! It does have sort of an autumn November color scheme! Godzilla also has a great red/blue tint or sorts.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca (from the 18th to the 21st).

REKIRA 2022 Teaser Poster!

 Today is the 31st Anniversary of the creation of what would eventually become my original kaiju creation, Rekira! In honor of this, with the project still in production, here's a new teaser poster I assembled over a month ago. Assembled in Flash. Rekira, of course, was done with Blender and FireAlpaca.

Godzilla's 67th Birthday!

New drawing of my own kaiju, Rekira, shaking hands with his main inspiration, and one of my favorite characters of all time, Godzilla, for the monster's 67th Birthday today! Not the first time I've drawn such a moment, but I always have fun doing so.

Drawn on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Introducing Rekira 2021!

Last month, I began work on a new, improved version of my CG figure of Rekira, my original kaiju, on Blender, and after my refined CG character modeling, the result is far more satisfying! Here's Rekira V2, finished tonight on Blender.

GODZILLA - In Theaters Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow's the big day!  I'm pretty anxious about it myself.

But I'll bet you forgot who else lives in San Francisco (where a major part of the movie takes place), so I'll let Bessie Higgenbottom get a word in...  ;)

Done tonight/this morning on tablet in FireAlpaca.

One week before GODZILLA hits theaters!

A week from today (May 9), the new Godzilla hits theaters!  As a lifelong Godzilla fan, I am extremely excited.  It's also very surreal to not only see Godzilla finally getting respect in Hollywood, but a whole new generation of fans getting excited over the new movie (even people you wouldn't expect), as well as rediscovering the character's history.  I am very touched.

I wanted to draw the 2014 Godzilla design before the film hits theaters!  Let's just say, getting this version right was difficult.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great design; it's also very busy!  I can always find a way to simplify the design, but hey, this was the first time I drew it, so this is my way of getting acquainted with drawing it!  :)

Done today on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Happy 22nd, Rekira!

22 years ago this Wednesday was when I began work on Rekira the Super-Monster!  Here are two designs I did this year:

This one was earlier this year, back when I was still getting used to FireAlpaca.  It’s a new variant of the Chinese dragon/dog-style design, which I can do better, like the one below...

The dog variant, which I started on Wednesday and finished in FireAlpaca the next day (by which point my skill improved)!  That’s quite a difference.

Note the simplified "Hydrogen Lamp" on the forehead.  (I like how it blends in with Rekira's stripe, like an "X" formation!)  Expect that on all designs now.  :)

59 Years of Godzilla

Happy 59th Anniversary to my all-time favorite character, Godzilla.  The most versatile movie monster ever created, in the course of 28 Japanese-produced films by Toho Company, Ltd., he has evolved from a poetic avatar of nuclear destruction to a reluctant antihero, an anthropomorphic superhero, a tragic force of nature, and even a specter of war.  This monster has played many roles through the years, and people either appreciate them all or have a favorite.  And this is what made Godzilla a timeless, enduring character.  It is also hoped that the upcoming film by Legendary Pictures (to be released next year) will capture all of his best qualities.

In tribute, I did this quick illustration on tablet in Photoshop this morning.  Enjoy!

CG Rekira - 2013 Version (Quadrupedal)

I've been working really hard for weeks on this new version.

Some of you are familiar with the CGI Rekira short I did back in 2008 as a capstone project for ITT Technical Institute.  (I briefly talk about it in my introduction post.)

Concurrent to the Rekira comic project, I started work on a new CGI Rekira model a couple of months back, and after trial and error, created one such improved model!

This is the quadruped version.  Done on 3DSMax (and adjusted in ZBrush), just like the old 2008 model.  (Rekira is a quadruped by default, with the unlimited ability to stand upright.)  Whereas the old model had a rig for the jaw and two rigs for each ear, this one now uses facial morph targets for mouth movements (it's really tricky), and just one rig for each ear.  Oh, I did the texture on tablet in Photoshop.  (Yeah, drawing in all that fur is really tiring!)  I'll eventually be doing a biped version to go with this one (I definitely want to keep the head, at least, and maybe the body/tail), as you'll notice that my attempts at putting this model in an upright position turned out rather awkward!  (And rigging certain parts was painfully difficult as it was.)

As you can tell, I will be doing more Rekira CG animated shorts in the future!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and Happy 40th Anniversary, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON!

As I'm one third Irish (I'm also German and Puerto Rican, BTW), I've always wanted to do a St. Patrick's Day-themed doodle!  But at the same time, 40 years ago today, one of my all-time favorite films was released in Japan: Godzilla Vs. Megalon (Toho; 1973)!  Besides being my personal favorite Godzilla film, it was also the first film I was ever taken to see in theaters.

So why not do a crossover art?  Here's Lily Merriweather, dressed in green, and wearing a 4-leaf clover brooch in place of her regular flower brooch.  She's riding piggyback on Dengeking, as Rekira watches in interest.  This is basically a reenactment of the closing scene of the aforementioned film.  :)

The line at the right, incidentally, says, "Don't cry, we'll try harder, too!"  (My translation of the closing sentence, "Naku na, bokura mo ganbarou!", in "With Godzilla And Jet Jaguar, Punch, Punch, Punch!" - the closing theme song for Godzilla Vs. Megalon, sung by my all-time favorite Japanese singer, Masato Shimon.)

This makes a good companion piece to the one I did last year!

 

Japan's Avengers - English Version

Using the same resources as last time, I have just assembled (pun intended) an English-language version of my very popular Japan's Avengers poster (originally in Japanese)!  Done in the style of international posters.  I had to do a lot of last-minute changes to make sure there weren't any typos or such!  I hope you will enjoy this one, too (though the Japanese poster is my favorite).  :)

Japan's Avengers - Assemble!

I saw The Avengers in theaters twice in May, and it has become one of my favorite superhero movies ever!  So I was imagining my own version of the film, where Japan's famous superheroes are assembled the same way Nick Fury assembled Marvel Superheroes!  After pondering and pondering over it for about a month or two, I finally decided to realize it!  Using various pics from the Internet (mostly toy pics from the manufacturers' websites, or from online stores like Hobby Search), I put them together into this fake poster.

In Japan's Avengers (Nippon no Abenjaazu), Godzilla, Ultraman, Masked Rider, Mazinger Z, Ultraman Zero, and Sailor Moon (and Tuxedo Mask, though he's off-poster) are assembled to fight legions of monsters and aliens led by Ultraman Belial!  And yes, that is Times Square in the background.  :)

The tagline is: "Earth's Mightiest Heroes Unite!  Defeat Ultraman Belial!"

The "Japan's Avengers" logo is completely original, done in Flash in about an hour.  The source poster was assembled from various photos in Photoshop, and titles were added in Flash.

Imaginary cast/crew credits on the poster are as follows:

CAST:

Susumu Kurobe (Shin Hayata/Ultraman)
Hiroshi Fujioka (Takeshi Hongou/Masked Rider)
Hiroshi Abe (Jirou Gou, Godzilla's human form/disguise)
GACKT (Kouji Kabuto, pilot of Mazinger Z)
Mamoru Miyano (Human form/voice of Ultraman Zero)
Miyuu Sawai (Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon)
Jouji Shibue (Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask)
Sonny Chiba (the Nick Fury character)
Hiroyuki Watanabe (the Agent Coulson character)
Yumiko Shaku (the Maria Hill character)
Shirou Sano (the Dr. Selvig character)
Hiroyuki Miyasako (Voice of Ultraman Belial)

STAFF

Director: Takeshi Yagi
Special Effects Director: Shinji Higuchi
Screenplay: JP Cassidy (obviously), Kei'ichi Hasegawa
(Based upon the Avengers screenplay by Joss Whedon and Zak Penn)
Executive Producers: Shougo Tomiyama (Toho), Tsugumi Kitaura (Tsuburaya), Hideaki Tsukada & Kazuhiro Takahashi (Toei), Dynamic Planning
Based on characters created by Toho Company, Ltd., Tsuburaya Productions, Shoutarou Ishinomori, Gou Nagai, and Naoko Takeuchi
Music by Alan Silvestri
Produced by the Avenger Production Committee
-Toho Eiga
-Tsuburaya Productions
-Toei
-Dynamic Planning
Jointly Distributed by Toho, Shouchiku, and Toei

I know that a movie like this will never be made, but the imagination is up to fans like myself.  :)

ADDENDUM: To justify my position on the two Ultramen (three if you count Belial!), I had both of them in mind.  (I thought of Ultra Seven, but I wanted to give his son Zero a chance to shine!)  Zero's inclusion aside, I wanted to pick out the characters most iconic and recognizable to the Japanese public, rather than just the fans.  Also, Zero plays an important part in Ultraman's surviving for more than three minutes in Earth's atmosphere.  :)

I also wanted Zero, because he parallels to Thor, as Belial does Loki.  As far as other Avengers parallels, Ultraman and Masked Rider share Captain America's role (although Ultraman is the team leader of the above depicted characters), as they're the pioneer archetype heroes of Japan.  Sailor Moon is sort of like Black Widow, Tuxedo Mask is like Hawkeye, Mazinger Z/Kouji is Iron Man, and you can guess Godzilla's role...  :)

I even got comments about not including Super Sentai!  LOL  Actually, I'd love to include them, but they're already a team!  The fun of this team is that they're a team of individual heroes, the kind you wanted to see together.

With Rekira and Dengeking, PUNCH! PUNCH! PUNCH!

Did this for fun yesterday (January 6th).  Yes, you'll be seeing something like this in Rekira at some point!

Drawn on tablet in Photoshop.  Can you guess the reference?  :)