Friday, August 27, 2010

Summer comes to a close...

Less than two weeks 'til I go back to school...

I move back to NYC the weekend of the 4th and have my first class on the 8th of September. I've only got a few classes for the Fall semester, so 2 days during the week of classes and the rest of the time off...of which will be spent doing thesis work. I've just finished going through a re-write of the script, re-did the storyboard and am recording some new dialogue with my actors, Corey Holland and Chris Zito (as well as myself) for the animatic. My next deadline to turn material in is September 10th and I've got plenty to get done within that time frame...

Good news and bad news about NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power. Certain segments and new job opportunities for many of the artists on board the project are making the animation process a bit longer than I had hoped. We're in the middle of doing compiling regardless though, since Richie Zirbes and the crew at the Newgrounds office have come up with a brilliant scheme to have the entire collab be one submission for the site instead of having to slice it up into two parts. The overwhelmingly good response from the people who were at the preview screening let me hope that you guys will hang on for a bit longer.

I'm really hoping to put a cap on the new collab soon because it looks like I'm gonna have one the busiest years of my life as far as work goes. I've cleared my plate with side projects for a good while, but there's a good chance my thesis won't be my only workload. I'm happy to say I've gotten more job offerings in a row in this last month than I ever have, so I may be doing some freelance stuff in conjunction with what I'm already doing. It'll be a doozy, but if it's any help to pay for next semester's tuition, I'll take what I can get. There may be some other BIG opportunities waiting for me next year if I can stay on top, so here's hopin' for that too.

I also wanna start using my blog for discussion on different aspects of making cartoons. I just had an interesting discussion with a few friends regarding the use of backstories in animation and I wanted to try making a post about it, but wanted to gather more info. Stuff like that. Maybe if I can come up with some neat topics I'll try and do some of that in the future.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Oh Canadaaaa...

So, I freaking love Canada so much. Seriously.

First off, AnimeEvolution was one of the best conventions I've ever been to. It had absolutely everything I love about these things in surplus, there was no negativity in the air whatsoever. Good friends, really nice fans, talented artists, hilarious actors and other guests, incredibly fun panels. My god. I had some great moments on the panels I went to and was a part of as well. Did a dramatic reading with LittleKuriboh and the gang from TeamFourStar early on Saturday and the +18 panel we did late that same night was also a blast...and I was delightfully surprised that I was actually kinda funny during it, from what I was told (I thought I was gonna be the most boring). There's probably videos of the panels on YouTube if ya look for 'em.

The highlight of the weekend however, was the preview screening for NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power. I could NOT believe my eyes seeing such a gigantic line of people waiting to be let into the panel room where we would be screening it. Despite the fact that we had to re-set up all of the chairs in the room (due to a dance happening prior to the screening in that room), we had to wait for the video projector to be given to us all the way from another building AND we had difficulties setting the damn thing up to work with my laptop...we had a room filled with probably two to three HUNDRED people. I managed to talk for 20 years (finally, that use came in handy) and kept the audience entertained until we were in business. On top of that, it wasn't even full-screen, let alone FINISHED since the animation is still being worked on for several segments of the project...they loved it. They were dyin' and I had a bunch'a people rushing up to myself and Audrey talking about how much they enjoyed it (and my other works)...even signed a couple autographs in the process!

So yeah, I'm really excited for the final version to be released, hopefully by the end of this month. I'm glad everyone who showed up enjoyed it and laughed so hard at our stupid jokes about how funny it is that mushrooms don't make people grow taller in real life. Hurr hurr hurr. There's a distinct possibility of the project having to be split up into two Parts that will be on the front page both at once, since apparently the Newgrounds office's most powerful computer doesn't have the power to withstand all of the drawings in these segments in one Flash file. Props to Richie and the crew for tryin' to pull it off the day before I left. We'll see what happens.

ANYWAY, been spending a couple days after, still in Canada. Got toured around a million places in beautiful Vancouver city, took a billion pictures of said million places. This entire city is so incredibly inspiring. No joke, I've suddenly come up with so many concepts for my animation and game ideas, it feels great. I think I definitely needed this break to get myself prepped up for thesis year. Re-writing my script a bit and shortening the length of my film after some not-so-great feedback on the animatic. Watched some positively influential stuff to help me out, including the Scott Pilgrim Movie, which I totally enjoyed (not more than the comic, but enjoyed incredibly anyhow), also I really liked the animated short...and stuff. Feelin' better than I have all Summer...and this Summer's been pretty damn good.

Still plenty to come. Stay with me, folks.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Return to Otakon.

Last weekend was QUITE a ride.

I haven't been to Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland in about 3 years. It was the first convention I ever went to back in 2005 and I've gone to TONS more ever since then. It was blissful trip down memory lane for me to be back on the Baltimore city streets and trekking around the convention center when I was still in High School. So much has happened since then, the con itself felt both like it had changed and grown, but still held the same sentimental value I always liked about it. Wasn't without its fair share of bullcrap, but ANY convention experience comes packaged with it unless you go completely on your own...and that's no fun! I was in good company, between my friends from SVA who made a killing at Artist Alley, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged gang who made a killing at the Dealer's Room, the crew behind the One Piece Podcast and some of my actor friends, I thought it might be a task to divide up so much time to so many groups of people. But, it ended up being a glorious experience. I laughed my ass off every night with my roommates, had some tasty chow, picked up some free swag, even networked a bit with the three measly business cards I had left. Safe to say it kicked ass.

Con season's almost over, all's left is AnimeEvolution up in Vancouver. I think it's okay to mention here, so I'll announce that the screening for NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power! at AE will be on Saturday night at 8:30 in Panel Room 2. There might be time for a brief Q&A but most of the time will be dedicated to the screening itself. I'll also be at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Panel, same day and same room, at 11 in the morning. I'm beginning to get back completed segments from the animation team and they're lookin' fantastic, not to mention hilarious. Downside, I'm pretty sure some of the segments will be WIP; at the very least in animatic form with the complete audio, or possible uncolored/yet to be cleaned-up. Either way, we should have the full-length collab to show even if it's not 100% finished. The final version should be put on Newgrounds before August is up.

My time for vacationing is nearly up, with only about a month left before I head back to school. This upcoming Friday, I'll be heading to NYC to hand in the first bits of material for my thesis. My storyboard's done, the character voices are recorded and cut together for timing, the designs have been set and I'm currently working on the rough animatic. Tryin' to stay ahead of the game, since this baby'll end up probably running about 7-8 minutes. It'll take a LOT of hard work, so I'll do my absolute best.

Stay tuned for more!