(Blog-Off II Entry) Digital Slavery - The Legend of "Big Head"

 

Creating a game for the iPhone or the iPod Touch takes a good idea as well as some software knowledge to pull off your project. Most of it happens for me using the Adobe Creative Suite, that being Illustrator, PhotoShop, Flash and After Effects. Many years ago while completing a fairly intense project for TV, my friend Dave Richmond and I  constantly needed answers to meet our deadline. Our questions were answered by reading the After Effects classroom in a book or experimenting. It seemed like they thought of everything, but how? We concluded Adobe employs a genius with a giant swollen cranium called "Big Head". He is paid to think of everything. When he gets an idea his head swells to gigantic proportion with relief provided only by rapid code writing.

Big Head runs on a concoction made of Red Bull, Mountain Dew and Snickers Bars blended with organic digital information and Clearasil. He sips this hi-tech smoothie through a hollowed out Slim-Jim processed meat silly straw. Dessert is low calorie as not to gain weight or raise cholesterol. Usually he has a Tic-Tac, Pez or piece of diet gum. 

His spine is the shape of a question mark, haircut designed with a teriyaki bowl and hedge clippers. Big Head's only exercise is thumb twiddling in-between renders, playing video games and bending for Twinkies dropped from the employee vending machine. In school he was in Math Club and played tuba in the band. Bullies still take his lunch money even to this day.

The only reason he leaves his desk is to refuel or eliminate dragging the ball and chain that tethers him to his work station. No one has ever seen his face. They say he wears 1" inch thick rimless glasses and a standard issued lab coat. Recently he has developed a tanning program to fake the appearance of having an outside life.

Don't confuse big head with tech support, he is much bigger than that. His side gig is approving knowledge posted on Wikipedia. He speaks multiple languages. Unix, C++, Actionscript 3.0, Java and Linux as well as enough Spanish to order an enchilada at his local Taco Bell. All in all he is a digital version of the most interesting man in the world… minus the interesting.

He wears a bluetooth headset, but he never talks to anyone on his iPhone. His intellect doesn't allow for audio conversations. You could describe him as a digital slave. The key to his ball and chain hangs on the wall in front of him, yet he chooses not to use it.

Thanks to Big Head I have the tools to create my animations resulting in my soon to be released iPhone game. It started in a sketchbook, took shape using Illustrator and PhotoShop, then animated in Flash. From there it was converted to the Apple SDK. Soon Flash will be able to directly output for the iPhone. Big Head is hard at work making my life easier. 

The complete blog of the creation of Beat the Boss is at:

http://mike-browne.blogspot.com/

Animator / Producer Mike Browne is an artist first, Mac geek second.  His work has appeared in numerous venues including newspapers, magazines, TV, big screen, video games and now almost exclusively on the mobile phone and the web.

As an illustration (pardon the pun) of the quality of his work, one of his wallpaper designs had over 100,000 downloads on AT&T 1st quarter 2005. His new animated iPhone App, "Beat the Boss" will hit the App Store early January 2010. 

Comments

[Tali]

Interestingly funny!!!!! Nice picture...but hmmm...I feel I have seen that guy somewhere...he looks very familiar.....

[charles]

Big head kind of looks like you, Mike!

[mike@bigredshoes.com]

Marianne,

Whacked is a compliment to me. Thanks!

[mike@bigredshoes.com]

Robin,

You sound like a digital pro. Glad you like the Big Head.

[Mike Browne]

Thanks Ben,

Peeled eyes gives me an idea for an app.

[Mike Browne]

Mario,

Thanks man, I'm always work'in.

[Mike]

Cotie,

Beware the Big Head! Thanks for the note!

[Mike]

Connie,

It is an adventure to hear my OWN thoughts!

[Connie Tash]

I'm picturing the Jack'in'the'Box bowl cut :-). Your mind is a wonderful adventure!

[Cotie]

Ha Ha, do you have any more things, this is fantastic! My bf and I always joke about what goes on 'behind the scenes!' Genius!

[Mario M Horvath]

You're still # 1 !

[Nancy M.]

Love the Big Head.

[David W]

Sometimes when I get an idea for a clever software solution my head certainly feels like it "swells to gigantic proportion." I know that the Objective C the iPhone uses is tough. I'm looking forward to the game!

[Ben]

Damn, I need to get this guy for some contract work... hahaha

I'll keep my eyes peeled in January!

[Robin]

Love it! The drawing brings to mind many IT and software developer "friends" (quotes to indicate that the friend-status only took place when my hard drive started making that "click click whiirrrr!" sound.

Great stuff.

[Paul]

Big head is amazing and his brother or cousin or whoever writes code for me to do my work is equally thanked for keeping me employed. Can't wait to beat the boss!

[Marianne]

Mike,

Your mind is whacked and your drawings are crazy.

Great stuff!

[Mike]

Thanks Therron,
That is re-draw of a pencil sketch from over 10 years ago.
Big Head knows all.

[Therran Oliphant]

The illustration is one of the funniest things I've seen in months. The Big Head thought is fabulous. I need him to have a usb port in his ear, so I an dowload his knowledge through "digi-mosis." LOL