Thursday, January 27, 2011

I gotta Tumblr! + "Kirb Stomp"

This week has been...somethin' else.

Lot of up's and down's, but I'm keeping busy and doing the best I can. First and foremost, "Kirb Stomp" is already finished and up. Thanks to ThisWeekInGeek for hosting the HD and we've also got an upload on YouTube for your convenience.



We also gotta Making Of/Gag Reel video that was finished soonafter, as well as a commentary in the can that will be up later on. Hope it gives y'all a chuckle or two, it was fun to make and we didn't take anything too seriously on it, so hopefully people won't read into it too far.

So I recently met Dan Meth at my class this past Monday, who's a really ol' school Flash Animator known for stuff like "The Meth Minute 39". I just so happened to make a Tumblr that day and he gave a big awesome introduction about how cool it is. That said, I'm gonna try and update my Tumblr at least once every day. If any of you guys reading this have one, follow me and help me get started!

I'm now officially 75% done with my thesis film! I just cut together a new animatic with all the fight scene animation and I've been showcasing it to a few of my colleagues...the reception is pretty damn good! I definitely think this is gonna be THE best piece of...hell, not even just animation, the best piece of ART I've ever produced in my life. I'm really putting everything I have into it and making it the absolute best it can be. I've got about two months left to finish everything. Wish me luck!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Busy Weekend + KirbStomp Trailer

I've not had ten seconds to stop and catch my breath ALL DAY until now.

MAGfest was an absolute blast, as expected. They keep gettin' bigger and better every single year and I love it. Next year they'll most likely be moving out of the Hilton hotel and into an equally bigger and better place to house everything. Notable things of the weekend were seeing friends of mine from the previous years such as Matt Mercer, Jon St. John, Dave Lister and a bunch of the crew from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses and as meeting some new people from the site, as well as the likes of Grant Kirkhope, Eddie LeBron, Wes Johnson and several others. Did a few panels, such as the "Voice-A-Palooza" which consisted of me doing a Woody Allen impression and the massive TGWTG panel even!

The biggest personal highlight of the con though was filming a live-action short film with my friend Marc Swint, my traveling-partner for the weekend, over the last two days of the convention. It is titled..."KirbStomp".



Marc pitched me this idea on the car ride there and I agreed. So we shot the whole thing in two nights and managed to pull it off. The plot? I go to MAGfest and the internet sends an brutal and dangerous assassin to kill me. As I run for my life, others try to stand in the way of this mysterious killer, but nothing can stop him! Will I come out alive? Find out in February when the film is finished.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. I've had little time to rest this past week and won't have much time during the weekend either. I've just recorded two voice roles for a few of my friends' student films to be entered into the Dusty show in May, I've got like four to five more things to record for this weekend as well. Working on a contest entry for the MegaMan Tribute art-book by Udon, of which a few of my friends are doing entries for too and they're lookin' awesome! I've also got plenty of animation left to take care of, with only two more months left to finish everything in time for my thesis.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Year of the Doubleleven!

It's January 11th, 2011...this marks the "Year of the Doubleleven!"

.:11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111:.

Why? Because I'm 22, two elevens. That's why! This is gonna be my year, to prove myself as both an artist and as an individual. I've only got 3 months or so left of college and a LOT to get situated by the time I graduate.

I've just come back from an amazing week in Vancouver as my birthday present, being able to see the ladyfriend and having my "calm before the storm" time until the semester starts...which it has! I've got three classes this semester one, notably of which is "Animation Career Development" with Dave Levy. All the while I'm still toiling away at my thesis film and making good progress. I've got a large amount of animation done and should be able to get everything finished in time. It will be screened at the Dusty film & animation festival on Mother's Day weekend, May 6th-10th in front of a huge audience at SVA's big theatre. Excited? Totally. Nervous? Incredibly. Doin' my best over here. I just cut together the final dialogue mix with my incredible cast of Chris Zito, Marianne Miller and most recently Micah Solusod. Plenty more to do, but seeing this particular film getting ever closer to completion is truly satisfying.

Meanwhile, NiN10Doh! to the 64th Power's on the front page of Newgrounds right now and doing pretty well for itself in the first two weeks or so. For those who might be interested, a guy I knew from The Fallout Shelter years back took a recording of the collab's premiere at AnimeEvolution and has now re-uploaded it for people to see. S'a little haphazardly screened as far as our technical setup went, but if you give it a look you'll see the work-in-progress cuts of the segments, including the unfortunately unfinished Donkey Kong/Punch-Out! segment animated by Michael J. Ruocco.



Gonna be taking a break from Newgrounds and internet projects for an indefinite while, since I've got a ton of bigger stuff to focus on, but hope you got a laugh or two and enjoyed the incredible animation the 64 crew put together.

Also on the subject of elevens, I'm really excited about "Inazuma Eleven" coming out in Europe at the end of this month and I'm totally importing the crap out of it. Earlier-mentioned ladyfriend has gotten me obsessed with it and I'll be happy to play the Soccer RPG game in English. I've not played Professor Layton, but Level-5 I trust is a pretty amazing game developer. If anyone else gets their hands on it at the end of the month, lemme know!

Last but certainly not least, while I'll be pulling back on the convention circuit a tad, I AM looking forward to returning to MAGfest this weekend. Last year it was one of the funnest times at a con I've ever had and should be just as fun this year, even without the same group of friends I went with prior. If you're going, try and find me and say hi!

S'all for now. Happy Year of the Doubleleven people!