When will HUMAN creativity catch up with technology?

So as you may not know... before I lost all my friends and go into animation I used to make live action films... WEIRD ONES ^ ^

Well I remember back then everyone, including me had this video complex... because if you didn't have the money (like $50,000) to shoot on film you shot on video and for the most part it looked "cheap"

Fast forward to today and with Canon's launch of this new $800 DSLR that shoots BEAUTIFUL "filmic" images IF you know what yer doing and have some tite lenses... there is no more video complex... Pair that with a Zoom H2 and you can do sync sounds in surround ^ ^

I own the Zoom and its great... so yeh for less than $1000 you got awesome looking images and surround sound... well actually we've had some pretty awesome cheap tech for a few years now... BUT WHO IS USING IT TO ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL?! From my perspective the technology has moved light years ahead of human creativity when it comes to art, film, animation etc... MACHINES are getting more creative with they algorithmic animation skills and tha like... but humans are lagging eh? When I search the interwebs for new original, creative stuff pushing the tech I just find a lot of tech demo's where people are complaining about said technology... Some new thing comes out and the humans say "yeh thats ok but its not good enough for me to do X" and I must sayeth NO NO HUMAN! YOU ARE WRONG! YOU are not good enough for the tech!!!

So now I finally reveal my true electronic FACE as I r really an android device YEP me and teh Nexus One go way back yo... I knew him when he was Nexus doT Zero four...

But anyWAR... Think NOT about what yer tech can do for you BUT what you can do for YER TECH!

Cause like ME+  Cinema 4d + Zbrush + some quad core boxes are making some pretty creative innovative ill SHET right here mayne!!! ^ ^

So if you have some crazy idea today the TECH WILL NOT BE IN YOUR WAY... the only thing that stands between you and your dreams is the POWER of your WILL... So stand up and show the world what you GOT!!! What else is there to do in this place eh? Watch TV? Click endlessly on Facebook? Doing let the tech pwn you and make adsense dollars and cents by eating yer precious time! Grab the tech by the throat and make it yer betch today!!! Lest you forever be ITS slave.

The fear of being forgotten

Today in the internetS world of 80 jabillion things to see and 100 jabillion people screaming crazy thangs with they faces painted with pudding vying for a persons attention its like kinda hard to be remembered eh? If your some secret international assassin er something its great... but if your a filmmaker/musician creative person its like teh worst nightmare to be forgotten... you want people to tell other people about your stuff and hopefully come back for more... and if they forgot about you it aint gonna happen!

SO how to be remembered?? Hmmm well the way I look at it is kinda like this... art is a conversation... you can choose to talk about the weather like many people do in life and in art ^ ^ Oscar Wilde said "Talk of the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative" er something like that... So just like many conversations about the weather with people you have forgotten if your art never goes outside the boundaries of "normal, acceptable" material you and your stuff will probably be forgotten... In regard to conversations you've had which ones do you remember? What did the people say? "Did you see x TV show last night?" or "I was abducted by aliens last night" ? As terrifying and it may seem to blurt out strange things in conversation you must take this risk in your art if you dont want to be forgotten... if you aren't brave and just do some normal shit... people WILL listen... but then they'll walk away and forget about you and yer boring normal talk...

So to the conversation of art what are you bringing? What will you do/say that will cause other people to remember/talk about it? I think answering that is one of the keys to surviving as an artist in this new world...

I went to this final cut pro user group thing tonight... I spoke at this event last year... lots of people remembered me ^ ^ and one said "Your presentation is the only one I remember from last year? WHY?! Cause not every geek talking about 3d animation mentions the BONING and SKINNING of models like I do? ^ ^ Yes its risking coming off like a fool BUT you must take these risks in life IF your going to stand out and succeed I believeS.... apply that to ART LIFE and LOVE its all teh sayme mayne.

I like dis guy ScreamerClauz ^ ^

So this d00d messaged me this week about doin teh voices in HSM and attached a new animated short that he did... he did the voice of this dog that eats a fetus out of a pregnant woman then bites the penis off of a man that says "What are you a fag?!?!" hahaha and it was one of the most disturbing fictional WIN things I have seen in a long time ^ ^ I like evil stuff myself... I'm one of those people that WANTS to live in Silent Hill haha...I liek things that you think teh DEVIL could have possibly been executive producer on haha and this d00d's stuff is like that... Here's a trailer he posted recently..


His stuff is super creative, different and creepy as fawK... which is definitely in the minority when it comes to 3d animation.... so I look forward to seeing more madness from you weirdo's out there! ^_^ Props to ScreamerClauz for keepin it craZY AS FAWK!

No studio.. NO PROBLEM ^ ^

Thanks for all yer support in regard to losing the studio space... made me feel good that yall have so much faith in my bedroom studio ^ ^ haha but just to clarify things I never moved the animation production out of the bedroom studio... the warehouse space was for the sound only...

NOW having said that Endika gave me the first bits of music for the film today.... they were only two one minute samples BUT they were beautiful, twisted, dark and amazing! He recorded it by himself in a garage somewhere and it sounded great... So yeh now I guess it helps if you have a "proper" place but in the end its your talent, drive and creativity that make it happen... So it would make sense for a bedroom animated film to have garage produced sound eh?

With the sequence I finished today I am now through %31 of the film... I feel like I'm getting better as it goes on... I'm still doing the best I can on every shot and not relying on cheap tricks just to get a shot done... of course its not going to be perfect and I have to be ok with some imperfections but I think as long as I keep pushing it and not settling for the "easy" shot its going to be great... Did the first decapitation of a monster in the film this past week... I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU

Tech notes: Most of the shots in the last sequence ate up about 7.5gigs of ram during renders 0_o I had to add a 2tb drive to the workstation because the 1tb media drive in there was like %90 full... proB have to add two more 2tb drives as things go on and I'll have to add a few 2tb drives to the server as well when I get to comping...  one of the render nodes kept crashing so I had to disable the OC on it... its a quad 2.5ghz and it was running at 3.4ghz... temps were fine just crashed all the time... the other nodes at 3.4 are fine... thinking about the final comps... I need to get a broadcast CRT to color correct when comping... If money wasn't an issue I'd want to get that new HP Dreamcolor paired up with a Kona card... but money is an issue so I'll probably borrow an old CRT + Blackmagic card to do it... thats what we did last time and it worked fine...

I hope it doesn't come to this....

Well yeh so it seems we have to leave the studio space within the week...  Endika and I decided that the sound stuff will get done no matter what NO MATTER where he be it will be done! So yeh... well at least he learned how to be a carpenter and like build stuff ^ ^

AND ya know on this movie the DVD will also have alternate soundtracks like the last one... I'll be doin one as well... This week has been frustrating... animation inside the computer has been going awesome...but the real world (money, people, places) has gone to shit... Out of my frustration I made this little thing just now that I'll probably expand upon and fix up for the M dot alternate soundtrack to HSM.... ALSO jp from Rabbit Junk wants to do a track for the film as well! How awesome is that!!!!

Beggars can't be...yeh...

 I think that's a monster hiding down there about to eat those two friends?!?!

So after posting the pics of the finished studio space to record the music and do the sound design for HSM... I got a phonecall from Endika at 11pm...

"Well the landlord just told us to GTFO now"

So a friend has been letting me use the space for free all this time which I am totally thankful for... I was lucky to have access to it rent free all this time... but now one of the landlord's family members needs a place to live so we have to go so he can live there...

Now I really felt bad for Endika because he has been the one fixing that place up with the money you donated and now he has to leave before even doing any work... but us beggars can't be choosers... So now producer meh has to figure out what to do... I need to find a place for him to work in for 10 months...

NOW this would have been a major downer BUT since the film is PURE FUCKING AMAZING EPIC WIN so far ^ ^ I'm not worried at all... its got too much momentum to be hindered by such an occurrence... I now have a small team of people working with me on HSM with some amazing voice actors waiting to do they thang... I've got all of you supporting me ^ ^

So yeh it definitely SUX but shit happens... and when yer a beggar you have to accept such things and move on and hope you can find a new place for free or cheap that you can use for a long enough time to get the work done...

The good news is that most of the stuff bought with the money you donated is stuff we can keep... the mic... bass traps etc... the only thing that will be a loss will be the floors, the paint, wood etc... the materials we bought to fix the rooms up... we spent most of the money on equipment we can keep so yeh thats good eh?

I think I have something to sell to make enough money to rent a studio for ten months... its not a kidney ^ ^ I shall keep yall posted... now back to animation for me....

The finished music/audio studio thanks to you!

Thanks to your donations Endika was able to fix up what once was one and a half messy rooms... and turned it into a legit control room and tracking room... check out the pics!

So yeh Endika did all the work on this place... I was really impressed 0_0 He made the most of the money and did a great job... So yes AGAIN this was THANKS TO YOU! So mega thanks to everyone for your donations! This was possible because of YOU! ^_^

NOW back to producer hat me: We spent a few days trying to tweak at his M-Audio Profire 2626 interface because when working with the mic inputs you have to turn the pots all the way to 3 o'clock to get a decent level.... I was reading on the m-audio forums that its normal behavior but having to crank the input close to max to get a decent signal is kind of a crappy solution... SO now we're looking into other preamp solutions as we have $304 left from the donated money... Possibly the Presonus Digimax D8 which is $399... Also the power in that room is really dirty... causing weird pops in the audio, dimming the lights etc... So I have to go to Frys this week to get a cheap APC UPS for it...AND two 1tb hard drives... One for his work drive and one as a backup.... So as you can see the work on your film never stops and there is never enough money.... just the way it is... you have to decide what is absolutely neccessary...and isn't it weird that me the pretentious artist animator d00d is like the audio tech too?! ^_^ AND Endika is a musician/composer YET he became like a carpenter and built all that stuff and fixed up the room.... You gotta learn what ya gotta learn and you gotta do whats needed to make your film a reality so thats what I'm doin... thats what I've always done and there's always MORE to learn....but its fun... I like being an audio geek too ^_^

OK now back to being an animator...

Youtube Rentals/ Sundance

I don't know if you saw where YouTube launched theY new rental program... they debuted by putting four Sundance 2010 films on the front page... They weren't up there on the front page for very long 0_o

Offering no free version and viewing only in the U.S. angered the INTERNETS So the INTERNETS all rated them one star and commenced to carpet BOMB h8te comments...

What do yall think of this? How do you think it should be?


As a poe filmmaker d00d: I think its AWESOME that we will be able to charge for our films with people easily paying through Google Checkout... I've been in the partner program for awhile now and the way Google payment program works is pretty smooth... Now I only make like $50 a month from ads haha  ^ ^ but it doesn't cost me anything and is very simple to setup and monitor... I assume payments from Google Checkout will work the same way...

NOW what was wrong with the Sundance/Rental picture...

Firstly... its the internet ...and I continue to believe the INTERNETS is like some Old Testament gawd you have to sacrifice things to so it doesn't EAT YOU ALIVE... NOW the sacrifice in this case SHOULD have been a standard reZ version to view ANYWHERE in the world in its entirety... throw ads on it whatever as long as its free and people anywhere can watch it... THEN have a HideF version for rental BUT the rental needs to be permanent NOT for a limited time... I mean what if you want to watch it again a week later? Pay again? IF you HAVE to have a limited time rental then 3.99 is way too much...should be like .99...... I have some other ideas and details on dis topic and I'll try to talk to the film peeps at YT about it...

SecondLY and sheT... I know the films were selected by Sundance but I HOPE they didn't get a cut of the sales... the split should be between The Filmmaker and YouTube and no other entity...if so..why? Because they discovered it or curated it or whatever? HUH?! How difficult is that to do? Don't let people step in and become gatekeepers when they aren't needed...

But yeah this is a very interesting development... one that is very exciting for back room filmmakers like me and probably you ^ ^ Upload your film... charge whatever you want... a trusted mega brand Google handles all the payment stuff and you just get checks.... pretty suite eh? I have to always THANK GAWD for YouTube because without them I's M dot Strange would not exist...So yeh thanks YouTube I believe in yall and I think you'll be able to provide a shiny path for filmmakers like meH... I personally thanked Chad Hurley for creating YouTube when I met him in 2007...  So yeh just know YouTube and teh INTERNETS your weirdo stepchild M dot Strange will return with his latest creation at the end of this year BE READY!

Teh behind the scenes photo album lives!

Thanks to Google/Youtube for sending me a free Nexus One for Xmas... I've NEVER had a mobile phone before BUT I'm only using it with wifi cause I don't like frying meh brain AND I don't like teh "providers" It's still kinda useful even though I can't talk to anyone : ( Well, when Google relaunches Gizmo5 I'll be able to use it as a wifi phone with Google Voice ^_^ ANYWAY I started taking behind the scenes photos with it which like I upload to this album...
http://picasaweb.google.com/mdotstrange/Mdotmobilephotos?feat=directlink

So I'll update it all the time if you want to see what I'm doing... ok back to werk!

Excellent traditional Japanese 3d models: 3d Chaya

So for the film I needed some traditional Japanese buildings to add way off in the distance for the matte paintings... and I found this site 3d Chaya...



They offer lots of free models and give you permission to use them in your projects... since I was using them in a film I paid for the site subscription as it is very affordable for a month of access... since the models were made in Japan they are very detailed and of excellent quality ^_^

All you have to do is add your own textures... all the models have all the different parts either in separate pieces or through the use of selection tags so its really easy to add your own textures... the models are in the obj format which is a very common import format...

So if you need some traditional Japanese 3d models go check out 3dchaya.com!

Notes before I jump back in....

So I'm almost finished prepping for the next 3 sequences I need to animate...

- Its tough but you really have to separate the "needs" from "wants" when in production... for example... I "want" a new laptop since mine is dying... it freezes a few times an hour, the U key doesn't work(using ext keyboard now ^_^) and the wifi randomly disconnects... I think I can still edit on it though haha... but I "need" a 2tb hard drive for the workstation... when you only get what you NEED the budget stays pretty low...

- Procrastination attacks even meh! When I'm supposed to be uberector updating storyboards Mr Producer jumps in and starts pricing hard drives online then looking at new CPU benchmarks 0_o.. but I got through it and finished my scheduled work for the day..

- before each new sequence I back up and render out proxy mov's from the last... then look over the storyboards and rework them if I have too... either for storytelling reasons because something has changed or for scheduling purposes if it has too many shots to do in the allotted time...then I record the temp voiceover needed for each separate shot... up till then the temp voices from the animatic are in bigger chunks that span several shots but for lip sync purposes in C4d they need to be isolated...

- Panic turns on Mr. cheap-o animator who takes shortcuts... the tuFF thing is to keep the fear away and keep doing fully developed animations while working fast enough to not fall behind... QUOTAS QUOTAS QUOTAS! I just did my calculations... I has to do 5.5 shots a day for the rest of the month to stay on pace...no proB ^_^

- When the dialogue is information heavy makes the shots longer and less complex so the viewer can focus on the information if it is important...

- Hope for the best BUT prepare for the worst... I work mostly alone as you know... even when others are working with me I am always prepared to handle everything by myself just in case things dont work out for whatever reason... the SHOW must GO ON and when its your show YOU have to make sure it goes on NO MATTER WHAT!

- A good friend of mine from way back wif sum programming skills has offerred to help me with the HSM "interactive" offerings I have planned for you ^_^ They involve Unity3d and Flash...

- Just when you think you know it all.. you realize you only know a little and you have to scramble to learn before teh beast swallows you... colorspaces, full linear workflow, game engines..

- I think the animatic phase is the most exciting phase of film production

- My paL DarkShadow will be doing a 2d animated sequence in the film ^_^ and if your reading this DS8181 I'll send you that package soon homiE!

- I've lived my whole life for this moment so I must not fail!

Producer hat--- Uberector hat

As I work in the now I R Uberector(Writer,Director,Animator, Compositor, Visual Fx artist, Editor etc etc)

When I think about the future and its needs I R Producer

I get back to work animating on Monday... lots of tasks I have to do now to prep for Monday and LOTS MORE tasks to do to prep for the future... Its really tough to switch back and forth...whats important NOW?! What will be important THEN?!!

ON the bright side... Mentally i R back to full power... I'm not the wimp I was when I left for vacation now my mind wants a challenge again... how long before it wimpers? ^_^

First thing I did when I got back was check the renders that finished when I was gone... PRETTY GOOD my error ratio is going down... out of 45 shots only 4 needed fixing NOT like the flickering light FAIL of sequence 2!!! I have to go back and redo like 50 shots for that one hahaha BUT I found a semi automated solution by making an xpresso tag preset and adding it to the FAIL lights and just dragging and dropping the new light object in the xpresso object box...

I'm really lost in life without my films... they are my life and who I am so I must do my best lesT yall think i R FAIL

BUT I have some Xtra special promotional things in store for the film and also a conspiracy you can be a part of... I'll probably launch the HSM site and all that around June...

K better get back to scheduling work for the year...

Thanks again to the people who donated recently! I have all yer names saved and stuff and I'll be sure to send you somethin special when I get a handle on this film ^_^

The gears will be turning again soon...

I get back to A_merica to go back to work this Monday... I tried to work as little as possible while I was here on like vacation and stuff and I must say I did a great job at doing NOTHING ^_^ BUT I was still staying up on c4d stuff so I got C4d Jack's suiTE lil free plugin GearBuilder

So I made some gear inner workings for a pipe organ I built for the film last month... these are untextured and not lit and all that crap but thought I would show you some pipe organ guts.


And thanks to the people who donated recently!

Thoughts at years enD.

A year's end is just a punctuation mark on a sentence you can choose to ignore... but for the sake of clarity and the need to organize, process and drive forward I will totally like write some year end stuff...

- Seems like now more than ever before... most normal people assume that the quality of something is directly related to how much money it makes and vice versa... if it has made a bajillion dollars it must be the best...if it has made 10 dollars it is the worst... the mainstream has always been the mainstream but now social networking allows the stream to build faster and stronger (read... dumb and DUMBER ^_^ )

- Even if a film isn't a pre-sold franchise the visual style, narrative and thematic elements are... its the same thing in a new way (read... gay3(cubed and shet) not in a 1950's way)

- Joseph Campbell said that a culture/society needs to be infused with new mythology periodically to remain healthy, vibrant, alive... most films have been shoveling the same old shiTE down peoples throats in new ways... no new mythos... lame, beaten, tired pathos... What are they telling you? What are you learning? From what perspective? What are you feeling?

- I feel that we are finally at the cusp of a real artistic revolution... now if everyone would realize that and stop chasing around "experts" and "bosses" to tell them what to do they would rawK teh world... if they would stop chasing empty immediate feelings and instead get on the long road toward realizing and living ones dreams the world would be a better place...

- Inside all of us is the power to create and destroy... light and dark... I'm not sure which side I'm on but I know I must not stop.

- When was the last time you said "AMAZING" and really REALLY meant it?

- When hyperbole replaces original thought and educated opinion... numbness will reign supreme and anxieties will be created to fill the void where HEART and GUTS once sat.

- I'm just one d00d... but these days with a bunch of computers one d00d can do a lot.

- I'm thankful that I'll get to do this for another year.

- When my new film comes out... some people might die inside... and with they deaths many more will get lyfe..... but not in prison... and hopefully not me.....ITS JUST A FILM ^_^

BEST to YOU and YOURS in 2010 homies!

Yer Phase Alternating Line,

M doT StranGE 2009

Thanks to my producers! ^_^ You!

So after a little over a week we have raised over %50 of the money thanks to:

Ian
Ricky
Thorgin
Tyson
Bob
Jemilla
Brad (donated 2x yer crazy! ^ ^)
Ed
Zach



So thanks to you awesome generous people for supporting studio strange we got to $1,368.00 or the $2,000.00 BUT thats enough for Endika to get the gear he NEEDS to get working on the score and sound design... the other $600 is planned for some fancy ribbon mic he used once and said was awesome for strings... So I transferred the money to my bank account as you can see in the image and I will write him a check today as I leave for my Xmas break tomorrow... I've been getting dizzy a lot while working so I should prob take it easy for a LITTLE BIT (3 weeks) then come back twice as fast ^ ^

So as YOU are my producers I want to show you something so that you know I'm not wasting the money on whatever less hardcore "filmakers" waste money on...

So far I have finished animating 7 sequences of the films 41 sequences... 5 of those sequences have rendered and I will be editing them on my break... I'm also re-storyboarding ALL of the fight scenes on my break as well.... Sequence 4 is finishing rendering right now and I'll dump that in but when I took this capture its not there... that sequence is only like 2 minutes though... I finished animating seq 7 but its rendering and not ready for edit yet...


SO those are unedited sequences... so I imagine I'll shave a minute or two off of each one... Originally I was worried I'd be able to do 20 minutes of animation before my Xmas break BUT it seems I did over 60 minutes!!! 0_0 Sequence 7 is another 5 minutes.... So i did over an hour over WIN FULL 3d character animation in 3 months... thats like awesome as I'll prob make a 4 hour film now or release 2 films at once... I already have an idea how to do that and make it all suite...I'm really excited about the release concept and it makes total sense with the narrative.... So yeh I did 7 sequences = hour... and there are 41 sequences... AND its not slow at all... The script is 97 pages but as I'm animating I've added a lot more... SO YOU MIGHT GET TWO M DOT STRANGE ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS AT THE END OF NEXT YEAR!

There are 41 sequences but they vary greatly in length.... Seq2 is actually the longest one in the film.... BUT knowing the material and how things are working out... its going to be too long for one film... So I'll probably split it into two....

But yeh I hope that assures how that I am working hard and doing my best for yall... again, MEGA THANKS for all your help and support... and in a year from now EVERYTHING on both these films should be Completed.

Best wishes, dizziness and aching wrists from your pal M dot Strange.

M dot: the producer with no money needs yer help

Hello allS... as you know I have been working away like mad animating the film and I can tell you that it is coming out AMAZING! ^ ^

As you may or may not know my friend the composer d00d Endika is going to be handling ALL of the sound on the film... thats creating, performing, recording, and mixing all the music and sound design.

We have a little work space donated to me by a friend that we are going to use for all the sound stuff... as Endika has begun to start working we noticed that the place is not ready it and we don't have adequate equipment... Producer ME already spent all my money on the things needed for the visual side and I neglected poor lil Endika so we need yer help...

Once again I'll turn to the only place I can for help... the cold and unforgiving internets... ALMOST as cold and unforgiving as the studio as its been freezing lately and there is no insulation 0_o

Now instead of begging for paypal donations like I have in the past I thought I should try to use one of these fancy fundraising sites like kickstarter I joined but someone has to invite you to start a project... so if anyone out there has the power pleaS I beggetH that I and Endika and our film are worthy!

Now to show you this isn't some ploy to get money to buy Xmas presents or somethin... here is the list I was given today by Endika for the stuff I need to raise the money for...
-------------------
Things to do & buy ASAP to get the studio running and ready for sustainable production over the next 12 months.

Necessary Improvements to equipment and space

Structural:
1. Fix door. Must shut and lock easy. ($0/ 30min)
2. Cover walls and ceiling in far room with foam tiles from uline ($75/ 3hours)
3. Purchase and install remnant carpet ($130/ 6hours)
4. Instal shelf above door in front room ($0/ 1hour)
5. purchase window treatment to insulate from cold ($?/ 2hours)
6. small storage unit in far room (shelf or cabinet) to store mics, stands and cables ($0/ 2 hours to organize)
7. Plexiglass in hole & mount interface ($40/ 3 hours)
8. Bass traps for both rooms (8 for $160)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260473201711&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=M*F%3F&GUID=be96b9c911d0a0b58ab3f943ffdbd778&itemid=260473201711&ff4=263602_263622

Equipment:
1. tune piano ($80/ 2hours)
2. 1 more mic pre ($130 new, $50 used)
3. 1 decent studio headphones ($100)
4. deadicated HD & backup HD for score and sound design files ($200 or consolidate)
5. wind screen/pop filter ($13)
6. 2 new tubes for pre amps ($25)
7. standalone compressor

Wish List:
Baby bottle ($500)
Royer ribbon 121($1200) or some other nice ribbon ($400-1000)

I just saw this used Bang Olufsen with a new ribbon modified by Royer on ebay. The royer is a dope ass mic and a nice ribbon will add a lot of earthy depth and character to the soundtrack. I think this would be an absolute steal! ($400)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bang-Olufsen-Fentone-Royer-121-Remod-from-D-Royer_W0QQitemZ330385460660QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4cec820db4
-----------------------------------------

Looks to be about $2000 to me.... Normally I'd be like lets make due but he's getting doPE professional Opera singers to sing for free and the best mic we have is my $150 one I record all my stupid rapping with and the space isn't suited or hospitable enough to have professional musicians come in without us wasting they time or freezing them to death... We'll be using the same mic to record all the voice acting as well...

So this is my responsibility as Uberector-amator-ducer guy... I'll be making a youtube video for this cause real soon as well... It seems like I have 6000 subscribers on youtube but only like 500 watch my videos haha... Cause if like 6000 people gave 50 cents each that would be more than enough without me feeling like a douchebag for taking too much of yer money..

So yeh if anyone can invite me to kickstarter that would be awesome or if yer like rich and just want to drop mad dollarz with a paypal donation you can do with the "Donate to Studio Strange" button below.

Again, thanks to all of you who donated and took care of all the things needed for me to handle the visual side of the film! I'm plowing through the WIN every day thanks to you!

We'll make due in any case... I just want my friend to have the proper tools so he can show the world what he is capable of...and I don't want the voice acting to sound like crap haha.

Update 1: 5% there thanks to the first donator Ian... thanks d00d!
Update 2: Thanks to Ricky and Thorgin its %12 there!
Update 3: Thanks to Tyson its %28 there!
Update 4: Thanks to Bob its %31 there!
Update 5: Thanks to Jemilla its %35 there!
Update 6: %51 there thanks to Bradley!!
Update 7: %70 thanks to over 9000 donations by Brad ^ ^ sanks to Ed and Zach too!
Update 8: %82 Thanks to Jamie, Larry, DAvey and Christoffer!

Hmmm where R I + handmade_ness

Got back from Paris and back to work... got 3 short sequences to animate before I leave for Xmas break to re-storyboard all the fight sequences in the film and edit what is done so far... thats what I r doing over Xmas/New Years away from my computers... as rendering is really backed up... about 117 shots in the queue right now...

So I have 13 more days of work before I leave, its pretty easy stuff so lets count those chicks before they hatch now ^ ^ It seems I will have completed 35+ minutes of the film in the first 3 months... So I will be on pace to complete all animation by the end of the summer... and the entire film by the end of 2010...

To lay out the numbers so far...

3 months
Completed over 350 shots
Completed over 35 minutes of animation

NOTES:

I still don't feel like I'm working as hard/fast as I can... I think I have a few 20 minute months in me so that will be my goal in the New Year... So far I'm happy with everything minus the little glitches I'll have to go back and fix that I have talked about in previous posts... its the first iteration that's the hardest...once its made its easy to fix it... So that will be fun to go back and polish things up once its all done...

Something new I'm doing in this film is integrating like real human painted matte paintings... done by a real human with human hands and paint brushes and all that stuff...



Non HSM Paintings by: Ini

A new member to the HSM team is Ini, a talented young art student from Norway who has already done a lot of production art for the film... she will also be doing the matte paintings... I love 3d BUT for stuff thats REALLY far away you don't need it to be in full 3d and I always liked the matte work in old Samurai films... So I will be giving her foreground plates of the 3d scenes ...then she will hand paint the horizon and sky to match the scenes... I will also layer 3d and video elements on top for added life...

BUT that will be done when all the 3d is done... some time at the end of the summer...

K back to the computers for meH.

Post first swordfight thoughts

So I only have one more shot to do to finish off this first swordfight in the film...

- Motion clips work great for blending together multiple separate actions like... running + jumping + slashing... The only problems I've had with them is when a character is spinning 180 degrees and that motion clips is mixed with others that are not rotated... I tried using a pivot object to rotate the other clips but it ended in chaos... I'm sure theres a correct way to do it but I couldn't spend too much production time trying to get it to work...

- Good sword fight scenes are all about good strong opposing poses... get the poses right and half the work is done... watch J Samurai films from Gosha or Okamoto to learn how to do it right... I also learned a lot about showdown poses from DBZ... DBZ used still poses with minimal animation to GREAT effect... the action in Samurai showdowns really comes from the music because its not like Chinese swordplay with lots of superfluous action to make things interesting... So its strong poses and dramatic complex music... at least thats what I like...

- Fight scenes like many other things in film are all about rhythm... The camerawork is part of the rhythm, type of lenses...static/moving camera? ....as is the posing and the intervals of action/non action....

I have many other thoughts and I will share them as production goes further ^ ^

Grind and move forward

The last couple days of production have been a grind... tough shots that just eat through the hours... I'm still on schedule though... they are all action shots and I could have made them simpler/less awesome and it would have been easier BUT ya know being on schedule is fine and all but if your not making awesome stuff whats the point ya know? So I'm doing my best to do both... To do awesome stuff while not taking 10 years to do it... haha actually I'm trying to finish in less than a year from now ^ ^ We'll see how it goes... BUT I'm thinking if I'm not going to do my best, craziest and most complex work on this film when/where am I going to do it? This is my stage and I have to go all out!

About moving forward.... So I'm animating shots while previous shots render... when a sequence is complete I watch it and take notes on error to fix LATER... in the past I couldn't stop my tweaker self from fixing them NOW but I've changed and its a good thing... I was looking at shots from this interior sequence and I'm pretty sure I'll have to re-render a lot of them because the candle flicker is too strong and gets annoying... Now if I stopped to do that now... it would kill the momentum I have working on this action sequence... fixing isn't as exciting and creating anew... So I just make a note and move on... this seems like a small thing but I must reiterate how big of a deal this has been for me.... and fixing shots and re-rendering is easy any doesn't take much time at all... takes render time yes but perhaps when I'm done with major animation I'll fix everything thats broke and hide away in a cave away from all computers till they done...

THERES ALWAYS little problems that will pop up in scenes... noisy textures, ik pops, missing objects... you just need to decide which ones you can live with and which ones you can't.... time is a good judge of this... As months pass and I have a grasp of the whole film that will be a good time to judge what needs to be fixed etc...... its just funny to me that the light flicker that I find annoying in a lot of shots was something new done by me to simulate real word lighting... BUT as I learn now films are not lit exactly like reality because well... its not always the best environment to expose images in ^ ^ Its easy to fix just turn down the settings on the noise generating the flicker and adding more fill light.

Something! better than nothing ^ ^

Since I do want to show yall some stuff from HSM but I really can't before its done because there isn't anything in the film that isn't totally new and original... I pretty much developed and created my own universe...with its own look, rules and way things work in a way... So as to not blow the whole surprise, or let someone else borrow it and claim it as they own new and unique style 0_o ... here's a tiny somethin... just a skeleton animation of the monster the main character is fighting right now... its a super quick, nothing fancy... just him trying to decapitate the hero


But that is my standard skeleton that ALL of the characters share... his neck and arms are elongated though ... but I used the same skeleton for all the characters because theres only one rig to learn how to animate AND I can share motion clips between ALL the characters... I can't enough about how AWESOME motion clips are in Cinema 4d... without them this film would take me 3 to 4 times as long to make... So yeh I made and rigged the main skeleton and than adjusted it to fit each character... worked perfectly!

So if there's any "under the hood" stuff you want me to show you from the film let me know!

Dave4096 asked a question about poly counts so let me post some of that stuff here...

Characters: From 40,000 to 80,000 polys for they bodies... the heads are separate objects from Zbrush sculpts... low res geometry with high res SPD maps... Low res they are like 3000 polys...at render time they are from 6 million to 12 million polys...

Sets: From 2 million to 20 million polys

%80 of the objects in the film were created in or modified in Zbrush.... You didn't know I could sculpt crazy shit did you! Well neither did I?! 0_o Zbrush and an Intuos4 allowed me to do so....

Most all textures were painted in Bodypaint... normal maps + generated by Crazybump.

The plugins I'm using in EVERY SHOT are Cactus Dan's Suite, SurfaceSpread, Zblur and Degamma.

Gamma: what it is?!

NOtes:

Have been using the AWSOME linear workflow plugin DeGamma for the whole film...it also comes with some great lens distortion filters I've been using a ton... but ANYWAY the plug automatically switches everythang so you can render in linear space BUT what I just noticed that by default it ignores bitmap textures... what does this mean? it means it doesn't adjust the gamma of bitmaps used as textures so they are a lot darker than when you made them in like... nonlinear space... So far I didn't even notice as most everything is looking fine... BUT I've been having a hard time illuminating the ground on some shots... and guess what the ground uses a bitmap texture.... so I opened the bitmap in PShop and shifted the gamma to make it brighter and now the scenes look even better than before ^ ^ The SUCK thing is I already sent about 70 shots to render with the floor texture that I'll have to fix... BUT they haven't rendered yet so its no big deal... it would have been a big deal if I already rendered them with the incorrect gamma cause I would have to re-render...

So after discovering that I checked a few other things and a texture on the main characters sword also needed to be shifted and now it looks a lot better...

So its tough to keep track of all this stuff... just have to try to be aware and keep note of the fixes and the like... I'm glad I discovered this now and not like LATER....another stroke of luck is that all the scenes that have rendered didn't use that floor texture so they are fine.

EXCITING POST I KNOW 0_o I just finished a tough 12 hour shift and I need to empty meh brain somehow.

Teh SECRET of Japanese animation!

THATS the SECRET! GAINAXING!!!

Now I often wondered why all these anime shows I liked had either one or ALL of the female characters sporting huge boobs that bounced all over the place... Like in GunXSword, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Gurren Lagaan, now in the Book of Bantorra I r watching now.....I was like hmmm well it's on in primetime in Japan so I guess to get ratings thats what they have to do? Then I read about fan service and all that... BUT thats not the secret... YOU see... GAINAXING is a mysterious power than can be used by you to cover up all the problems in your shots *for male viewers...

So like say I animated this shot of these two samurai d00ds fighting and I did a crappy job that I'm totally embarrassed about... NO PROBLEM just add a character in the corner of the shot Gainaxing! No one will see the crappy swordfight animation because they will be staring at the hypnotic boobs...

So thats all YOU HAVE TO DO for your animations! And its totally easy! Cinema 4d has a "jiggle deformer" to do just this... So I am happy to say that all the animation Sux in HSM and there's no story..but TONS OF GAINAXING to keep you sidetracked.

Oh yeh I had never seen any "Bleach" until last week... Hmmm I wonder why its so popular? Must be the story 0_o

Pacing yourself...

Well it seems the only problem I'm having so far is working too hard 0_o This week I've been dealing a bit with burnout... but I'm still working... took a day off and have been making sure to sleep enough because as much as I'd like to think so.... I M not a machine that can keep working indefinitely without sleep or food.... So I eased back off the quota for a bit so I dont make my self sick or something before I go to Paris... I left a week open before I leave for my Xmas vacation so now that I'm not working that hard as I recover this week I'll just work then to make up for it....

BUT the shots are coming out awesome ^ ^ Looks amazing n'aLL that... Also my hard drive issues are not so pressing anymore... After the second sequence finished rendering I delete the shot folders off the render server and that free'd up about 500 gigs of space... there was a HUGE texture file sequence used in a bunch of those shots that probably was taking up all that space.... So now the render server drive has about 700 gigs free....

SHET I was going to share some new animation technique/philosophy with you in this post but I r so tired I can't think of it now... better peas ouT... I'll post it when I remember.

A different strategy + notes

So on this film what I'm going to do is edit the film without sound... I mean the shots are already timed for the dialogue and the like as I animated to the dialogue but I gave them all a little extra head and tail... Why r I doing this?

I like building things from the bottom up... like making sure something can stand on its own before I add another level on top of it... So I'm going to make sure the film works visually before adding in music, dialogue and sound design... and well also before the skies and other extra stuff is added in the compositing phase... right now I'm cutting the raw shots that don't have skies, atmospheric fx, post processing etc...

Running my 4 quad render boxes + 8 core render server 24 hours/day for a month adds about $125 to the power bill... So budget that in before you start your cg film...

I started work at 2pm today and finished just now at 2am...

I'm going to posting a like casting call thang here for the voice acting soon... So if you want to do a voice in HSM watch out for that...

Also make sure all your monitors are calibrated and sync'd to the same color space... easy way to do this... set them all to Srgb and download some pluge bars and make sure they all look the same... I'm using crappy LCD's but will borrow an old NTSC CRT monitor to do the grade when its all ready... but as long as they are in the same color space and the pluge look similar you'll be ok for Color correction...

ErrorS keep them LoW+ notes

So the second sequence of the film that I finished animating weeks ago finally finished rendering... here some notes...

It was 117 shots which in a RAW unedited form was 18 minutes and 45 seconds long...

Those shots took up 125gigs of space.... Two EXR sequences for each shot.... the RGBA and the Depth pass from Zblur

Out of those 117 shots there were errors with 14 of the shots... mostly all flickering texture issues probably because I had them set to alias or something... there was only one animation error, some weird ik glitch I didn't notice in the preview...

So when a sequence finished rendering... I backup and organize the renders and the project files... then I import the all into AE making folders for each shot and a folder to keep the error notes so I can come back later and fix them before I composite...

Also some of the "errors" are that I realized a few shots need artificial fill lights... I say "artificial" because all the environments are lit with on set lights... candles, torches or the moon and nothing else... and I made all the fire thangs flicker like real fire... So outdoors I always use the moon as fill... but indoors where there were no windows the candle flicker illumination can get annoying so I'll add an artificial fill so keep the focal point of the shot constantly lit...

It takes a little more than a half day to organize all the files/backup/ render out proxy mov's for the edit...
------

So now rendered I have about 24 minutes of the film.... the amount that is animated waiting to be rendered is probably another 10 minutes I'm guessing...


So i'm ahead of schedule which is good because I just got notified that I'll be speaking in Paris the first week of December so I'll miss about 5 days of work for that and I'll be out of the country for Xmas and New Years as well... BUT don't worry as I'm doing so much work that time off won't affect the release date ^ ^

They can't all be heroeS

The fancy shots you see in trailers for animated films are probably mostly all "hero shots"... not that they have heroes in them... its just an animation term for a fancy or complex shot... They tend to slow things down when working because well... they are more complicated.... So lets say a normal shot is a character looking up and saying a line.... and a hero shot is like a character running at another, slicing his head off which rolls on the floor then jumping through a window....

I've found I can kick out 1-3 hero shots per day... I've done up to 20 normal shots a day... if they were all heroes I would finish in 2020... luckily there's lots of villains so I try to finish before 2011 ^ ^

What film festivals and can do for YOU and ME

Physical film festivals have been dying a slow death of irrelevance as the interweb gains ultimate power but they are still useful to filmmakers for getting some press BUT I still think the way most of them in US work is BULLSHIT

Wanna know why the "indie" filmmaking scene is mostly rich kids who go to expensive film schools?

Here's how it goes...

You pay a fee... $50 - $100 for a feature

A) You get rejected AND they are nice enough to keep your money
B) You get accepted THEN they send you a page of EXACT technical specs you must meet so they can screen your film

Example: "We are the Strange" was HD.... so my cheapest full quality option was HDCAM which cost about $1,500.00 for one copy

When the film screens at the festival... people PAY to see your film yet you get NOTHING and yeah you just had to pay out of your pocket to make a tape for them AND you had to pay for your flight and lodging to attend the festival.

So why would a filmmaker do this? To get exposure you say? Well in the past this was the ONLY way to really get any exposure BUT today NO FILM FESTIVAL can match the exposure you can get for being feature on youtube for just one day...

So you don't "need" film festivals for that...the interweb pwns them badly...

NOW the Hollywood brainwashed amongst you might say "yeah but IMPORTANT people will see it at the film festival" again this is NOT true... YES many Hollywood types go there to schmooze but they are lazy fUX and most of them are at parties all the time anyway... its easier for them to click a link and see your shit online... If you build buzz online THEY will see it regardless of what fest your in...

Now what are film festivals good for these days? Well a lot of old media press still pay attention to the going on's at the big fests like Sundance so if you can get in one of those use them for the press...

NOW I must say with my new film "Heart String Marionette" will PWN hard... so I'm not going to pretend like I'm some lost little indie filmmaker hoping to be accepted by some festival... It's all about what festivals can do for me... And thats the attitude we need to take... stop letting them leech off of us with us getting nothing in return... I mean most big fests are filled with studio/celebrity produced fake ass "indie" films... they NEED the real shit every once in a while so they can pretend they still have street creD nah mean...

So I as a real moPHUCIN filmmaker d00d Sayeth...

Entry fee's are ok... I'll pay and play the game that far BUT if my film is in the fest I AM NOT PAYING TO MAKE A TAPE TO PLAY AT THE FESTIVAL... I will give the festival a digital file and THEY CAN MAKE A TAPE that they can keep in their archive..The bastards ask you for a free copy of your film after for their archive anyway...

If the festival is charging for my screenings then...

A) they pay me a screening fee

or

B) they give me a percentage of the ticket sales like %50

So if any film fest people are reading this you need to get in contact with me ahead of time if you want to screen my new film which will be completed late 2010... and you know ahead of time that I'm a pretentious bastard BUT I can back it up over 9000 times.

The only fest I'll jump through hoops for is Fantasia in Montreal because they really championed my film at the fest...it had great screenings and won a few awards... and also the festival in Waterloo... real animation fans there....

Seeing as this film is going to be FUCKING insane and epic I'd like you all to be able to see it in a theater on a big screen... So that will be my priority...

And I must say after all the fests I attended in all the different countries... the REALIST one was in Waterloo... no "celebrity" bullshit... no parties... no VIP bullshit...just great UNIQUE and CHALLENGING films from all over the world and a crowd of knowledgeable and appreciative peoples.

Knowing what you want....

Since I'm working so fast now I'm wondering why I was so slow in the past.... Most of it had to do with not knowing what I wanted... NOW I am much more prepared and confident so I just make a decision and go because I know I did all the hard time refining and researching so I know what I'm going to do is on the right track... in the past I jumped into doing things before the ideas, concepts and everything else had enough time to marinate.... You have to dig deep to get the good stuff...

What kills you is second guessing... Now when I'm about to final a shot and send it to render... my tweaker self starts to rise up and cast doubts but then I say out loud "I'm down with this" and I click the button to send it off.... What has really helped as well has been my new workflow where if there are any problems after shots are rendered I make a note in the same folder as the shot and I will fix them when everything is done.... In the past it would bore into my brain and I was constantly reworking past shots *going backwards.... instead of making a note and moving on... Its all about MOMENTUM...once its moving forward DONT GO BACKWARDS because you'll have to expend a metric SHIT_TON of energeeZ to get moving at the same speed again...

In the past I would spend a lot of time fixing and reworking shots that probably got edited out anyway 0_0 So now I'm choosing the wait till the end so that I spend the time on the shots that are required instead of having to have everything perfect all the time...

Its kinda weird though because as I was doing wats I kept watching the stuff that was finished and re-editing and thinking about things but now its like the movie was already finished and I just have to print it out...know what I mean? I think that THIS is what your supposed to do... Hitchcock said something about it... like the film is already made he just has to film it.... So yeh I finally got it meh thinks... you gotta BUST on the pre-production and REFINE REFINE REVAMP REVAMP and just grind it all in your mind and keep reworking the script/storyboard/animatic till its at its best.... THEN once youve got THAT go and make the film... You will have so much CONFIDENCE because you know EXACTLY what you want and you will get it.

After one month: Many many terabytes

Finished another sequence today... I'm through 3 of about 40.... I haven't done an exact count yet but I think I could through over 200 shots in the first month... The render's are about 140 shots behind me though 0_0 On average 4-8 shots finish rendering a day....but I add 7-14 new shots per day as well...

All and all I'm pretty happy with the way things are going... one looming problem I can see is storage space... the first 6 minutes that were rendered took 59 gigs of space.... The film will be about 120 minutes so figure that out 0_0 AND thats just for the 3d renders.... then I need to comp all the shots and render them to a 10bit video file etc... So yeh its a good thing drives are relatively cheap...its too bad a 2tb drive is the biggest you can get though... I could use a few 4tb drives... BUT thats not a problem right NOW so I won't let it eat my brain...I just make a note then I'll deal with it when the drives are %80 full.... then I'll probably try to do some "Hard Drive DRIVE" fundraiser or something ^_^ Thanks to yall that have donated... you've helped me get this faR!!!! OR I could get a little craftier and just ask some hard drive companies to donate a few... both Seagate AND Hitachi are nearby... whatever the case it will work out somehow...

I will move on to the next sequence tomorrow.... its going to be fun because it introduces two of the other main characters...both of which are ummm full of character ^ ^ AND I get to animate the first really scary horror type scenes with this monster d00d that I know will freak you the fuck out... seriously...I had my doubts when I was designing him but I decided to go for it and make him as fucked as possible so he and his... ummm... accessories will steal the scenes most likely 0_o

But anywarS... I'm going to push to finish ahead of schedule... To do it in a year I need to do churn out 10 minutes a month.... this month I did 20+ I'll try to keep that up and MORE! ^_^

MUST...Urgghhhh...meet QuotA...

Some times its a grind... it is animation which YES is fun and exciting but after a couple hundred shots you start to get fatigued and lose inspiration and its a struggle just to sit still in front of the computer... this is where all the planning and workflow projections come in handy... if you did your homework you know exactly how many shots you need to do a day to stay on schedule... my minimum is 7 shots a day... BUT I try to double that or do at least 10... but on those GRINDY days I barely make it to 7... and thats good enough....everyday you can't be a super speed world beater... some days you just gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done... The important thing is to NOT stop EVER do your quota even if your crying and bleeding from your FACE.... because all it takes is to give in to procrastination ONCE then it festers and takes over and before you know it..FAIL.

Some times I don't want to have to do everything but I just moan and do everything anyway ^ ^

Its weird how the powers of procrastination work....they are indeed powerful... and if your a creative person doing self motivated personal projects they BE your worst enemy...

NOW saying that.... make sure and come up with a quota that while bustin out shots you still have enough time to refine them and make them good quality... So say I've gone over my quota for the day but I sense myself becoming frustrated, losing focus or wanting to take shortcuts...thats when you call it a day... and as long as you hit your quota you can sleep well that night.

Mistakes make things great

The above photo I took while on a morning bike ride is full of photographic errors..mistakes... chromatic aberration, lens flares, lens glare, grain, circles of confusion...all kinds of crap ^ ^ but I love that stuff...

The thing that SUX about 3d is that the "camera" takes perfect photos every time... so unless you work to add in them errors your going to get perfect plastic pictures...which I don't like... NOW taking the "mistake" thing a ways past photography and into animation itself...Stop motion gives you TONS of mistakes for free haha... things are shaking, grimy, gritty...they can go out of focus easily...the light may flicker... you get all that with no work.... you have to work to make it clean...

Seeing that HSM is all 3d... I guess many would assume that my work will lose its creepy jittery edge or somethin... well it is a lot more refined but I did a TON of work so that it looks handmade...and not just in the construction but in how its animated... you'll see when you SEE it ^ ^

This shit is easy ^ ^ it's all in the pre-pro

I don't mean to be too cocky about my speed of production on this new film so far... but it looks like in the first month I'll be able to do 20 minutes of finished animation... thats full 3d animation with many characters, crazy huge complex sets and it looks amazing like nothing seen before....if people thought WATS looked like a 30 million dollar film this one looks like a 200 million dollar film ^ ^

NOW seeing how fast one d00d can work I'm wondering WHY small no-budget teams all over the world are not kicking out high quality 3d animated features? Cause seriously this shit is easy! The tools are so powerful and flexible and allow you to work really fast and a few decent quad core boxes give you lots of rendering power...

Well the reason I am able to work so fast is because I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT... from each shot, each character....from everything...there is no hesitation because everything was worked out in the LONG pre-production I did... most people dont do enough pre-production, they rush into production... YOU MUST LOVE THE FILM IS ITS RAW pre-production form... don't fall into the trap where you tell yourself "this is ok BUT it'll will be amazing fully animated" If the story and the mood and the suspense and everything isn't there in the script, it wont be in the storyboard, it wont be in the animatic and it WONT be in the movie.... my crappy animatic made me cry when I watched it so it worked then at that rough stage.... So I can be confident and just execute when in production...

The problem is most 3d filmmaker people look at the film as an "animated film" instead of a film that is animated... they rush through or bypass essential pre-production work and start modeling shit cause thats what they know... but in the end they either never finish or produce a really long demo reel that speaks to no one but other 3d geeks... I became a 3d geek but I was a filmmaker first.

So if people aren't doing it now I'm going to make it my thing to go around the world with HSM and help people start making they 3d features ^ ^ Cause I'm tired of seeing all this kid stuff... Pixar is great but the real world is a scary fucked up place and film/art should reflect the world its made in not just the shiny bits... ORIGINAL 3d animation for feature film production has been in the light so far... who else is going to take it onto the darkside? CAUSE trust me these 3d tools were MADE to make disturbing things haha Any of you who are into the Silent hill games know this...

Production notes 10-21-09

Notes on workflow etc..

Copy exr renders from render server folder onto workstation media drive... copy project file from render into archive on render server... import exr sequences from renders into After Effects... organize and rename each shot... save AE project file as Sequence name... render out temp quicktime movies to do offline edit and to give composer/sound designer something to work off of... as I go through the files in After Effects I made notes of problems with shots... I have a folder in the AE project that holds the notes... just folders using the description text to keep notes.... So when the whole film is animated and I reopen these AE projects to do the final comps I will fix/re-render the shots that have notes... I'm not doing that now because I want to move forward... seems like a better way to work for me...

Just finished editing the first sequence...which is a little over 6 minutes... looks good... on one shot the alpha channel was missing for one frame?! and on several others I forgot to turn on transparency render in the z-blur setting... just minor technical stuff... no problems with the animation at all ^ ^

So I hand off this sequence to the composer, Endika... tomorrow so he can get started...