I'll tell you a story... » About this site

Code really is Poetry

Renato Vargas — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:15:23 +0000

I know, I know. This is supposed to be a blog about animation and illustration, but I would not be able to bring these words to your browser if it wasn’t for the collective work of 218 contributors who just released the latest version of one of the best blogging and CMS platforms out there. Today, WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” became available and it just looks beautiful. I would like to take a moment to say:

Thank you guys, you did a superb job.

To celebrate their efforts, I activated the shiny new default Twenty Ten Theme in place of my usual Frugal Theme, and I intend to keep it that way until I make a few adjustments to how I run this little corner of the internet. Who knows, it might stay that way even after that. The header image is part of the first background I painted with Toon Boom products. Toon Boom Studio to be exact. I leave you with a video of the new features of WordPress. Cool stuff! Oh and it’s all open source. So, even cooler!

I’ll see you in a couple of days with new illustration things to share. Been working on some cool things besides that Pulp Fiction clip. Now go install WP in your own site.

I was in a creative accident!

Renato Vargas — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:31:31 +0000

Post by Renato Vargas. Follow me on Twitter.

I’m fine though, don’t worry. I hope you are doing great too. I just wanted to let you know that Sbass and Monica from The Inkwell Alley were kind enough to let me share some thoughts with their readers on Feature Friday. They are creating an awesome community of artists that want to make their creative dreams come true under the motto Is not who you are, it’s who you can become. A writer and an artist, these two great women have been very busy promoting their relatively new iniciative, that I know will be a great success. Make sure to check out their blog at http://inkwellalley.blogspot.com.

If you are coming from The Inkwell Alley, welcome to I’ll tell you a story…. In this blog I share the things I learn while trying to figure out how to make drawings come to life through 2D animation. Since blogs tend to be a bit difficult to navigate, I thought I’d show you around. You might enjoy these posts:

Creativity development

How I’m fighting the animator’s block

The Importance of Staying Creative

The production process

Building Character is not the Same as Character Development

From A Forgotten Piece Of Paper To Life

Illustration tips and tricks

Creating Stunning Backgrounds with TBS!!!

Animating Effects: The Best Form of Procrastination

Backgrounds: Getting your perspective right with Google Sketchup

Backgrounds: From Google SketchUp to Toon Boom Animate

I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I love writing it, but above all, I really want you to find it useful. Any thoughts? Make sure you let me know in the comments. Have a great day!

What about a real site?

Renato Vargas — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:02:15 +0000

I have been considering turning this blog into a standalone website, and now that installing (and maintaining) WordPress has become easier, well I went for it. Guess what domain I bought? Yes, you got that right. For the moment I’m fiddling with the overall look and feel of things so it’s not operational, but WordPress is up and the theme and theme manager are working. I’ll move this blog there and I’ll add a new feature, that I hope you (and some more peolple outside the current reach of this weblog) will like. I can’t wait to show you some new cool things. Hopefully, you’ll have a nicer visual experience, coupled with the high quality posts you’ve come to expect from “I’ll tell you a story…”. Keep checking for updates here.

In the mean time, take a look at this background I did some time ago, when I started this project. It was done in Flash, and I like it a lot, although the original .fla file was lost in a very very stupid way.

Background done with Adobe Flash.

P.S. A lot of you keep contacting me on my e-mail address. Not that I don’t appreciate your input, but I would rather see it in the comment section of every post, so that everyone can join in on those nice conversations about animation as a hobby. Have a great day!