Mike Milo’s Journal

Well after a long year of development SketchBook Pro 2010 has finally been announced and I am released from Non-Disclosure so I am allowed to talk about it! I was lucky enough to be included on the beta team and I have to say it’s an amazing update! There’s quite a few great updates to this iteration and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s with the upgrade!

Pencils, paper, markers, white-out, sharpeners, erasers, rulers, ellipses, I’m not kidding when I say you’d need a backpack to carry all the stuff that comes with Sketchbook Pro 2010 in one elegant and easy-to-use package. And yet, it’s simple layout will have you up and running in less than 10 minutes. I dare you not to fall in love with it’s streamlined interface!

For me the best part of SBP is that it has a pencil that feels and looks like a real pencil, something that no other graphics program is capable of doing out of the box and even then SBP does it better. I’ve seen even grouchy old school artists smile when they begin to draw with it, it’s that good.

But there’s more than meets the eye with this simple tool because with SBP’s new Custom brushes, the simple lowly pencil becomes a 900 lb. gorilla which can create tools that look like feathers, or skin or hair which you can then sketch with! The Custom Brush’s easy-to-use interface makes it simple to capture either specific pen strokes or areas from a texture that you can then paint with. Let me see you do that with a #2 pencil! You can also load and save out the new custom brushes as well as trade them with others which is a great addition to SBP’s already sweet lil’ arsenal. Plus in this new addition, there’s a long awaited Ellipse tool and a Ruler tool as well!

All in all, you’d be crazy not to use Sketchbook Pro for the simple reason that it makes your job as an artist/designer/draftsman easier and who doesn’t want that these days in this hectic world?

Here’s this year’s card to the wife!

My family and I were on our way back from Lake Powell about 9 years ago when we stumbled upon this cool Flintstones park. I believe it’s in AZ but I’m not sure. Anyway I believe these designs are either based on the original Ed Benedict designs or from the newer redesigns done by Craig Kellman in the early 90’s Either way they’re cool!

My daughter Megan ignoring Barney Rubble at a park somewhere in AZ.

Me and my daughter Melissa posing with Fred Flintstone

My daughter Melissa poses with Dino.

Me getting my mojo on with Wilma

My daughter Melissa posing with Wilma

Bamm Bamm posing for the cameraA statue of Sherwood from my short film The Ignoramooses (A What-A-Cartoon short) which the animators from the studio Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines sculpted. Pretty cool huh?

Here’s a few random pics I found yesterday

The crew of The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show-1994

Me posing with animation legend Chuck Jones

Me posing with Animation legends Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna-1997

My wife and I at the Emmy Awards- May 15th, 1998- The year I won for Pinky and The Brain

Me sitting at my desk at Hanna Barbera working on the film Bloo's Gang- 1994

Harry McLaughlin (co-creator of the shorts Bloo's Gang and Ignoramooses) at his desk at H and B-1995

Pitching "Bloo's Gang" (one of the original 48 What-A-Cartoon shorts) at Hanna Barbera-1995

Outside Hanna Barbera-1996

NO RUNNING IN THE HOUSE-GOT IT?
How many times have we been told…and have told our children…
NOT to run in the house? Did we always listen? Do they listen? Not always.
Sometimes our seemingly futile efforts fail, and ‘boo-boo’s’ happen.
Here is a little guy who didn’t listen, and he got his own souvenir scars.
Perhaps he’ll learn from his mistake. Maybe…..

I’m a huge Halo fan and this has got to be one of the coolest geek things I’ve seen in a log time….a real live Halo warthog built from Nissan Patrol 4×4. Amazingly cool! I’d love to have one of these! You can see more pics on OXM!

In a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy, was busily working when a new voice
came over the loud speaker asking for a carry out at register 4. Kurtis was
almost finished, and wanted to get some fresh air, and decided to answer the
call. As he approached the check-out stand a distant smile caught his eye, the
new check-out girl was beautiful. She was an older woman (maybe 26, and he was
only 22) and he fell in love.

Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch clock to find
out her name. She came into the break room, smiled softly at him, took her card
and punched out, then left. He looked at her card, BRENDA. He walked out only
to see her start walking up the road. Next day, he waited outside as she left
the supermarket, and offered her a ride home. He looked harmless enough, and she
accepted. When he dropped her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again,
outside of work. She simply said it wasn’t possible.

He pressed and she explained she had two children and she couldn’t afford a
baby-sitter, so he offered to pay for the baby-sitter. Reluctantly she accepted
his offer for a date for the following Saturday. That Saturday night he arrived
at her door only to have her tell him that she was unable to go with him. The
baby-sitter had called and canceled. To which Kurtis simply said, “Well,
let’s take the kids with us.”

She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option, but again not
taking no for an answer, he pressed. Finally Brenda, brought him inside to meet
her children. She had an older daughter who was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis
thought, then Brenda brought out her son, in a wheelchair. He was born a
paraplegic with Down Syndrome.

Kurtis asked Brenda, “I still don’t understand why the kids can’t
come with us?” Brenda was amazed. Most men would run away from a woman
with two kids, especially if one had disabilities – just like her first husband
and father of her children had done. Kurtis was not ordinary – - – he had a
different mindset.

That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids, went to dinner and the
movies. When her son needed anything Kurtis would take care of him. When he
needed to use the restroom, he picked him up out of his wheelchair, took him and
brought him back. The kids loved Kurtis. At the end of the evening, Brenda
knew this was the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life
with.

A year later, they were married and Kurtis adopted both of her children.
Since then they have added two more kids.

So what happened to Kurtis the stock boy and Brenda the check-out girl? Well,
Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner now live in Arizona , where he is currently employed
as the quarterback of the National Football League Arizona Cardinals and has his
Cardinals in the hunt for a possible win in the 2009 Super Bowl. Is this a
surprise ending or could you have guessed that he was not an ordinary person.