The Mike Okamoto Art PagesComics/Fantasy/Sci-fi

JO HAMMY was originally conceived as a b&w, pen and ink graphic novel project. I've been working on her since the late 1970s, on and off, and she was a breeding ground of drawing ideas and writing styles. She grew out of my love for the wise-cracking pulp fiction of Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross MacDonald. Plus a sprinkling of ideas from Sci-fi and, oh yeah, a kind of upside-down pin-up girl vision to keep my attention. She was also my reaction to the popular TV cop shows of the time that featured beautiful, petite females punching out much bigger bad guys, usually with dubious karate chops and judo flips. Ah, those were the days! But times and trends change, and so did I. And Jo changed many times until she is what I've come up with today. And currently in production is an all-singing and dancing 3D animated version, just for fun.   Jo's first story has been scripted. My last plan (which I may still do) was to first work on story-boarding it as an animated movie. When I was fairly satisfied with this, I'd take the story-boards and break them down further until they fit the format of a graphic novel. Then I'd tighten these up and think of self-publishing it. But then I discovered I needed to work out the sets and characters anyways, and I'd might as well do this in 3D. And I'd been adding renderings from these to illustrate the script document, to help me flesh it out and visualize it. And suddenly I'm finding that the visuals are being created and might in themselves be suitable for graphic novel story-telling of some sort. Perhaps even an electronic, limited-animated Flash version. The sky's the limit! I'll see how this works out, and how far I'll take it in these directions. In the end, it's still, at heart, a b&w, pen and ink project. It will be a Mature Audiences title.  But, she shall behave on this site.   Coming Soon!  More Cool Stuff! (JO HAMMY, her character and likeness, is ©Mike & Diana Okamoto. All characters are fictional and any similarity to actual persons is unintended)

Through the Great Hall Carrara 5 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM A second re-working. Playing with light gels, a shadow-casting pattern over one of the virtual "spotlights". The Golden Shaft. (ROBERT, his character and likeness, is ©Mike and Diana Okamoto)

Jo Walks the Mean Streets (a work in progress) Carrara 5 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM Added some layers of detail, such as the little rodents. Plus I darkened the sky which in turn darkened the whole scene. And I pulled the camera back to reveal the top of the street lamp.

Jo Prepares for the day's business (work in progress) Carrara 5 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM Replaced the Nikon camera with a Speed Graphic. Idea for a future version might be to add a taxi hovercraft outside the window. It would be more visible and recognizable as a flying vehicle. Click here or on the image for a panaramic view (242kb) of the office. You'll need Quicktime to view it.

The Client's Humble Digs Carrara 5.1 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM The Rawlins Estate from The Golden Shaft.

The Usual, Hammy? Carrara 5.1 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM This is Mac, Jo's favorite bar-bot. (Shhh...! he's also her best informant.)

The Moll at the Hideaway (v31) Carrara 5.1 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM This is the third spin-off character from the Jo Hammy model. The Jo model turned out to be a pretty good one because not only is it relatively small in the number of polygons that she's built from (a key goal in being able to produce this stuff on one PC all by my lonesome), but she can, so far, do everything I've asked of her. She can pose very well, and I can animate her. And now I've managed to use her as the basis for creating other characters. Her low number of polygons makes it fairly easy to change her face and body type to these other characters without having to start from scratch. A change of wig and clothes, and, voila! From The Golden Shaft

Rendevouz with a Rat Carrara 5.1 Pro, Hexagon 2.1, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM A mutation, a clone gone wrong, or an evolutionary step up. This is a bad dude and our heroine must face him alone. I'm getting quicker in modeling these characters! From The Golden Shaft

The Client, Lady Emily Carrara 5.1 Pro, Dual AMD 1900 (1.6 ghz), 1gb RAM In her diaphanous gown. My first utilization of Carrara's transluscency feature. When I first started playing around with Carrara, I wondered how I was going to pull off Emily's "sheer" robe. But within the latest versions, Carrara became capable of the job. From The Golden Shaft