One Week Cartooning Workout Day 1

 Hello! 

So I decided to try my hand at this One Week Cartooning Workout Challenge put together by the Center for Cartoon Studies.

My friend Ellie sent it to me, and it was a lot of fun. The challenge is to make a comic everyday for a week or so, with different challenges along the way. I don't know if I'll be able to finish, as I'm about to have carpal tunnel surgery (1 of 2) so I won't be able to use my drawing arm for a while.

Day 1: Create a four panel comic. There's multiple avenues to go about this, so I went with a fairly mundane instance from my own life. It's cute and funny. I decided to forgo color to keep it quick and easy.

Okay, I don't think that bonus panel is cheating, but maybe it is. Lol

Update 7

 I painted a Zelda bg. Can't reveal what it's for just yet, but it was fun. 

The Great Deku tree always made me feel so sad. I can't explain what I feel necessarily, but when I think about the Lost Woods, and Saria, I always feel like I'm missing a part of my childhood. Such a weird feeling.

Update 6

 So I decided to go back to my fundamentals and practice shape language and the like. Eventually, I'd like to make this graphic novel I've had in my head, but I've got to practice first.

So this comic came to me as I was playing Super Mario Wonder, which is a great game. I don't know if you can see the Nintendo-influence on the characters, but I was trying something new with the entire comic. It's silly and dumb, but I was trying to experiment with panel shapes, character expressions, and screen tone. It's a lot tougher than it looks.

Anyhow, the original comic was just going to be 4 panels, but I wanted to try to push it to develop a little more story.

Updates 5

 So remember that Diversity Day video we made in 2014? Apparently it got shared with the State Coordinators of the Maine Civil Rights Team Project, where it was a big hit! They were quickly reaching the anniversary of the project and wanted to commemorate it with a big recruitment video. According to them, they talked and talked about what they wanted to do, and curiously, my name kept popping up again and again.

Eventually, they just decided, 'Why don't we just HIRE him?' And so, here is the culmination of that decision! Months of hard work. I wrote, directed, voice acted, and animated (thankfully with help) the recruitment video for the Maine Civil Rights Team Project. It's shown all across the State of Maine, to schools all over. Apparently it's helped their recruitment numbers up too, so it did its job!

The Recruitment video.

There's a shorter cut for elementary schools, but it's essentially the same video, just with some younger students.

I'm really happy with how it came out, and even happier that I got to return the favor to the Civil Rights Team Project. It really helped me out back in the day. 

For more info: Maine Civil Rights Team Project

Updates 4

 During all of the Covid pandemic, one troubling pattern arose, that felt so consistent, it became impossible to deny, and that was Anti-Asian attacks and hate crimes. I saw headline after headline, and it was scary. Not just for me, but all my loved ones. There was no way of knowing if anyone would be safe,

My old high school homeroom teacher, Jeff Bailey, reached out to me to see how I was doing, as well as if I wouldn't mind contributing as a guest writer for this Anti-discrimination blog. I thought about it, and afterwards said yes. What I wrote was painful and infuriating, as it trudged up old memories that I didn't want to remember.

The blog can be found: Here

Though, I've uploaded it HERE if you don't want to scroll to find it.

Updates 3

 Back when lockdown first started happening, I didn't really know what to make of it. My grandfather had just died, and I was doom-scrolling on a daily basis. It wasn't good for my mental health, and I imagine that nobody was in a good place. The world as a whole should've handle it a lot better, and day in and day out it was incredibly distressing to see the death count climb.

I drew this during the first few days of lockdown, and it's hard to look back on and not think about what's different. My cat's gone, I live in a new place, and I don't work at the same job anymore. Life changes constantly, but the only thing that seems to stay the same is the news. Tragedy after tragedy and some greedy people making a killing.

Colors 1 & 2, as well as line art.

Updates 2

 Next up,

I got hired to work on this movie, Funan (2018) as a voice actor! It was my first paid professional character work on a movie. (Gkids) I got to work directly with Stephanie Sheh, the voice actress for the English Dub of Sailor Moon! She's incredibly talented, and really funny. It was pretty intimidating, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous as hell. But the engineers were super nice, and I really enjoyed working on the movie. I think it came out okay, but I'd really like to try it again. My voice tends to get a lot of good feedback, especially my villain-voice. 

Funan is a beautiful, but tragic film about the Cambodian Genocide. It was incredibly personal for me, and part of the reason I got hired was because of my Khmer heritage. The story is taken nearly directly from the Director (Denis Do) and his mother. He was a graduate of the Gobelins animation school (a really prestigious animation school) and I was really surprised I got chosen, but I honestly have no idea how many Cambodian American actors there are working today. I know of 2, and they don't actually identify as Cambodian. 

I played the role of Sok, the cousin of the main characters. Sok was a complex role. It'd be simple to label him as an extremist villain, willing to subjugate his own people, his own FAMILY for the "revolution." However, I feel like he was more than that. He was someone who desperately wanted things to improve in the world, and his idealist hopes didn't match up with the reality of the situation, and he ended up overlooking abuse and corruption. I feel like part of my challenge was to try to convey this conflicted part of this character without leaning towards either good or bad. He was in morally gray area, one that we could all find ourselves in when confronted by our family with our own ideals.

Anyhow, the film is available online now for purchase. It gets put on and taken off of Netflix from time to time, but I'm sure you can find it fairly easily elsewhere. 

Official Trailer (Gkids)

Scene Sample (Gkids)

Time for Updates

 Hi all, it's been quite some time since I've uploaded anything on this profile, but lots to share.

I'm currently looking for a new job, so I should probably upload some of the art projects that I've worked on in the last handful of years.

As of right now, I'm looking for an art job, mainly because I've been pretty unhappy with the general state of my employment for the last handful of years. It wasn't terrible, but I felt myself pulling away, and looking at my friend's careers, and thinking, "I wanna do that too!"

So, here we are. 35 years old, and embarking on this art journey.

Let's a go!

First up, since my last post, I've worked a couple times as a voice actor! It's not always consistent, but I do enjoy it immensely. It's different being on the voice acting side of the production than it is on the animation side, but I do find the voice acting side to be much easier. Not that voice acting is easy, it's just a completely different skillset.

Anyhow, I got hired to be the voice of Carl Yang [Main Role] in Carl and Doug by Tiny Siren Animation. It was directed by my good friend, Jak Khampadith. It's about a young boy that loses his dog; but soon finds a new pet companion, an alien shapeshifter called Doug! It was a lot of fun, and it's a cute short film. 

Please Support Tiny Siren Animation and other small content creators! 

ChandarithMoeun Diversity Day Presentation 2014

Hey there! Thought I'd share with you a presentation I made for my old high school. I was invited back to speak at the Civil Rights Team's Diversity Day in 2014. I spent about a week and a half working on this on and off. I updated it with music, soundfx, and credits, and at the behest of my old homeroom teacher, I'm sharing it with you now. ^_^

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Dave and Navah's Wedding Card

Hey there! Been a little while, but I've been busy with freelance and other projects. Lately I was working on another wedding card with Corey Valois for our friends, Dave and Navah. They're big Star Wars and Steampunk fans, so we incorporated that into our designs. Corey did the illustrating, and I painted.

Outside cover: Back and front

Inside

Three cheers for the newlyweds!<3

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

FTJ Game Jam Mock Ups

Hey there! Another update of some work I did, which was also another collaborative endeavor. I participated in a game jam called "Fuck This Jam." I got to work on it with Corey Valois, Kyle Kellogg, and Dan Barron. Super fun, can't wait to do more. 

The challenge of the jam was to make a game in one week in a genre we hate. We ALL hate Facebook games so that's what we chose.

"In this game you are a city planner in a place that gets attacked by kaiju (giant monsters) fairly often. You have to strategize how to effectively keep your city running (rebuilding businesses) while simultaneously creating defenses. Businesses give you money for construction and anti-kaiju obstacles."

 Here's some mock-ups that we created.

There's 3 main characters that you interact with: The General (always angry), The Construction Manager (a bit unhinged), and the Secretary (couldn't care less)

The Secretary kind of gives you the brush off. But hey, things are kinda calm.

The kaijus are attacking!

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Hey there! Here's an update of some of the work that I've done recently. My friends Rob and Rhi JUST got married today. The ceremony was very small and sweet, and I was one of the lucky few that were invited. My girlfriend, Corey and I made this card for them. They're big video game and comicbook  fans, so our card reflects that. 

 

Front and Back Cover

Inside of the Card

I wish them all the happiness. ^_^

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad

Grace trailer

Oh, this is a bit overdue. This is a trailer to the short film that I'm directing that will hopefully be out very soon. It's been a slow work in progress, and I can't wait to show you the whole entire thing.

The story is about a young man named Keo (me) who's in love with a girl named Grace (Audrey Claire Johnson) and vents his dilemma to his two roommates, Tim (Kyle Allard) and Emily. (Mina Son)

  

Song Used in the trailer: "Before I knew" by Basia Balut
Rough Trade Records/Hardwood Records

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Power Ranger T-shirt Design

Hey everyone! This is a T-shirt design that I created for the We Love Fine's Power Ranger T-shirt contest. I was a finalist, but didn't end up winning. No big. I based this design off of one of my favorite moments from the first movie.
It was a bit tougher than I thought to make a chibi ranger and make his expression sad. 

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Eyeshine Music Video Contest Entry Waterfall Acoustic

Hey Everyone! It's been a while, and I figured I'd update my blog. This is our entry for the Eyeshine Music Video contest, which I directed, composited, and acted in. We ended up winning! Very exciting, and I'm curious as to what we've actually won. But here it is!

Thanks to everyone involved, it was a very stressful shoot but we pulled through.

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Painting WIP

Hey everyone! Noticed it had been awhile, but I'm working on a few personal projects, while in the market for a new job. 

This will be unusual, as I don't really like posting WIP's, but this one is special. So this is a really rough work in progress on a new piece that's for a story I have. I can't reveal much, only that the girl's name is Cassandra. She's very special, and I based this scene off of someone who was very close to me. Although it DOES bear a similarity to my other painting, this one is very different.

I love the colors so far, and I'm hoping the end result will replicate 'bokeh' which is how lights look all blurry in photographs.

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

1950's B-Movie Title Card From The Choking Siblings

Hey Everyone! This is another title card from animation I'm working on. This is the twins set in an old black and white B-movie. Clearly, Chad's the astronaut and Taylor's the Alien, who's about to shoot him. (AGAIN.)

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

Zombie Title Card From The Choking Siblings

Hey everyone! This is a title card preview of this animation that I'm working on. It doesn't have a name yet, but the working title is  'The Choking Siblings.' I know, it's a bit of an odd title. But it's basically a cartoon version of myself, with a twin sister. It's linked to 'A Boy and His Megalodon.'

The sibling's names are 'Chad' and 'Taylor.' They differ a bit, as Taylor's more serious, and tends to get the better of her younger brother. This is a fun piece, because it's them set in a zombie movie. Chad has already turned. I'll post up more as I finish them.

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

City in the Sky Concept Art

So this is a concept piece for this project that some friends and I are working on. The project itself is fairly secret, but I don't think I'm leaking anything incredibly important. I painted this in Photoshop, and it took me about a night to paint. The drafts I did before and the amount of research I did was fairly extensive, but I'm pleased with the results.

If I spent more time on it, I'd paint the sunrise behind it, with light spilling through the city, but I had other things to start.

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-

My Demo Reel

Since this is going to be my default page for the time being, it makes sense to post this up as well. Here's my demo reel, amassed of things I worked on while in school. I'm in the process of making two more specific ones. 

Anyhow, enjoy!

-Chad-