As I'm lighting this last set...as I have been for the past 11 hours or so 0_0... I find that I keep changing it until its "there"... Now where is "there"? I really don't know what "there" is but for this film I don't stop working on things until they are there... a few friends have seen the sets in process and been like "oMG thats beautiful?!" but I'm like "Nah its not THERE yet" So as I tweak on in the 100' degree and my workstation starts beeping nonstop due to overheating?! I keep working till it gets "there"... then once this last one is there... i'll go back and fix the first 6 I did because I dont know where there was yet when I did those ^ ^ Confusing eh?
I show this stuff to meh friend... the composer, Endika... tomorrow for the first time so he can start working on the score... or at least I'm supposed to...hope I can have them all there by then...
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Work faster! Work Slower?!
As I go on and on through lighting these sets... 24 down! 3 to go! ^ ^
Over the years since I did WATS I've learned SO MUCH about everything that I'm not making the same workflow mistakes that I did on WATS AND I now know what I need to do to make the images I want to make....so that gives me extra time to focus on tweaking on little things to make outstanding images BUT with this added knowledge now comes all the time to do all the little things my tweaker brain makes me do....example...
The world of "Heart String Marionette" is lit only with torches, candles and the moon... AND I'm following my own photographically accurate rules so there are no phantom lights... if there is a light in a scene its coming from one of those three lighting devices AND I just HAVE to make them behave like real lights and shadows haha... thats what takes a lot of time... I will NEVER use GI because I believe it takes a lot of the art out of lighting which I enjoy so I'm setting up all the light bounces and all that manually...
A side note on technical thangs: Early on in dis blog I wrote about how excited I was about using Subpolygon displacement when integrating Zbrush and Cinema 4d... NOW its still a great method IF your doing still images... SPD needs to be calculated at render time FOR EVERY FRAME and it adds A LOT of time to renders...looks great yeh and allows you to use low poly geometry in the scene but it KILLS at render time SO what I did was go back into Zbrush and load the high poly versions of the objects and I used the AWESOME decimation master plugin to decimate them... so a 4 million polygon object will be decimated down to 25k polys and still retain the detail I want... NOW this won't work for anything that needs to be skinned because Decimation master makes funky geometry ^ ^ but its great for everything else... So I've swapped out all the SPD for either normal mapped versions or decimated versions.
Over the years since I did WATS I've learned SO MUCH about everything that I'm not making the same workflow mistakes that I did on WATS AND I now know what I need to do to make the images I want to make....so that gives me extra time to focus on tweaking on little things to make outstanding images BUT with this added knowledge now comes all the time to do all the little things my tweaker brain makes me do....example...
The world of "Heart String Marionette" is lit only with torches, candles and the moon... AND I'm following my own photographically accurate rules so there are no phantom lights... if there is a light in a scene its coming from one of those three lighting devices AND I just HAVE to make them behave like real lights and shadows haha... thats what takes a lot of time... I will NEVER use GI because I believe it takes a lot of the art out of lighting which I enjoy so I'm setting up all the light bounces and all that manually...
A side note on technical thangs: Early on in dis blog I wrote about how excited I was about using Subpolygon displacement when integrating Zbrush and Cinema 4d... NOW its still a great method IF your doing still images... SPD needs to be calculated at render time FOR EVERY FRAME and it adds A LOT of time to renders...looks great yeh and allows you to use low poly geometry in the scene but it KILLS at render time SO what I did was go back into Zbrush and load the high poly versions of the objects and I used the AWESOME decimation master plugin to decimate them... so a 4 million polygon object will be decimated down to 25k polys and still retain the detail I want... NOW this won't work for anything that needs to be skinned because Decimation master makes funky geometry ^ ^ but its great for everything else... So I've swapped out all the SPD for either normal mapped versions or decimated versions.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Become ConsumeD
I am a man consumed... consumed by my quest for ultimate expression in the arts... in life...
All the fire related metaphors when speaking about passion... I doNE be understood themS nOW... you become consumed by this fire... and everything you encounter in life and...everyone is swallowed up and burned as fuel for this fire... all your time, all your money, all your energy, all your emotions and experiences are torched...
The Hagakure talked a lot about death smoke...and how you never knew a persons true nature or you never knew truth until seeing the persons death smoke... what a curious thing this fire is... because with it.... by being consumed by the arts and these flames you are able to torch everything and see the smoke WHILE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE... you can look at your own smoke and see the truth....
So in the Hagakure it talked a lot how to conduct your life... to restrain yourself in life and go berserk in battle...
" The way of the Samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man. Common sense will not accomplish great things. Simply become insane and desperate"
Its a great way to live... its terrifying sometimes yes...its painful sometimes also... BUT thats what it is to be ALIVE... its scary and painful... if you want to be totally safe and free of pain then you life is not for you...
I realized I was consumed many years ago... while alone, sobbing in my kitchen studio in Santa Monica... with no friends and no one to relate to and no one that understood my art... I gave up "normal life" and let the flames consume me... it was the best decision I ever made...
You can't turn the flames on and off... once you choose your path there's no going back...
I say BE CONSUMED! SHOW THE WORLD WHO YOU REALLY ARE! STOP HOLDING BACK! GO BERSERK!
If your "playing safe"... ask yourself how long your willing to live in such a way because before you know your time has passed and this life is over... will you have any regrets?
Just some random thoughts I had while lighting this scene.
All the fire related metaphors when speaking about passion... I doNE be understood themS nOW... you become consumed by this fire... and everything you encounter in life and...everyone is swallowed up and burned as fuel for this fire... all your time, all your money, all your energy, all your emotions and experiences are torched...
The Hagakure talked a lot about death smoke...and how you never knew a persons true nature or you never knew truth until seeing the persons death smoke... what a curious thing this fire is... because with it.... by being consumed by the arts and these flames you are able to torch everything and see the smoke WHILE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE... you can look at your own smoke and see the truth....
So in the Hagakure it talked a lot how to conduct your life... to restrain yourself in life and go berserk in battle...
" The way of the Samurai is in desperateness. Ten men or more cannot kill such a man. Common sense will not accomplish great things. Simply become insane and desperate"
Its a great way to live... its terrifying sometimes yes...its painful sometimes also... BUT thats what it is to be ALIVE... its scary and painful... if you want to be totally safe and free of pain then you life is not for you...
I realized I was consumed many years ago... while alone, sobbing in my kitchen studio in Santa Monica... with no friends and no one to relate to and no one that understood my art... I gave up "normal life" and let the flames consume me... it was the best decision I ever made...
You can't turn the flames on and off... once you choose your path there's no going back...
I say BE CONSUMED! SHOW THE WORLD WHO YOU REALLY ARE! STOP HOLDING BACK! GO BERSERK!
If your "playing safe"... ask yourself how long your willing to live in such a way because before you know your time has passed and this life is over... will you have any regrets?
Just some random thoughts I had while lighting this scene.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Presenting: ARCHON DEFENDER!
From the d00d who brought you Rocketmen vs RObots comes an awesome looking new ORIGINAL animated feature film called "Archon Defender"!
Visit the site here
This post is all about the new animated feature film by Dave4096 aka nodelete... This is an animated feature film made by one crazy d00d... see the trailer here
Dave told me he's since replaced the synthesized voices with human ones and I am anxiously awaiting his new trailer ^ ^ Follow along at his blog here where he gives tons of behind the scenes info and even makes tutorials and other useful thangs to us types ^ ^
PleaS go check it out!
Now Dave asked me about how I released WATS DVD and all that stuff and I was going to answer him in a youtube video but it would have been too long and its easier to write it all here wif links and all that... So here's my experience releasing WATS for DAve and anyone else interested but be sure to check out the Archon Defender stuff and let him know what you think! ^ ^
So what I did was contact Filmbaby I started talking to the main d00d Jamie who you can see here at SXSW giving away cookies ^ ^ He's a real straight forward c00L guy. So I could have done the cheapo DVD cases but Jamie and I agreed that it was worth it to do the more expensive digipak's... as they would be more attractive to retailers etc... So filmbaby has a partnership with cravedog they is a dvd replicator... So Jamie and I decided that making 5000 DVD's would be the best way to go... Cravedog would charge me I believe it was around $9,000 or $12,000 I cant remember 0_o for 5000 digipaks... So I borrowed the money 0_o and I did all the design getting the specs from Cravedog and all that..and oh yeh I check with other replicators about pricing and I was getting a good deal at cravedog....
It was a pretty scary time... because I wasn't making any money and I had to put out more money BUT they went ahead and made them and I made a youtube video announcing they were on sale AND with the first check from filmbaby based on online sales ONLY I was able to cover the cost of the replication and made like $4,000... since we had a shiny digipak and animated feature films were kinda rare... Jamie took the DVD's to retail trade shows and was able to make some deals with retailers to sell WATS DVD's... now this is the great part... once I had finished the DVD design and sent them the master disc and art my job was done... Filmbaby took over and did all the sales stuff and I just got checks... I still get checks from them today... not as much as at first but they are still coming in... So I believe the first retail order was for 1000 or 2000 discs can't remember but retail is kinda lame cause they have all these fee's....distribution fee's, they withhold like %15 in case of returns and give you that 6 months later and all this stuff... now this wasn't filmbabys doing its just the policies retail stores have.... I don't know how many discs we have left 0_0 because as enough money came in to fund the new film thats what I have been doing...but I'll be meeting with Jamie in a few weeks and if you have any questions you want me to ask him let me know....
So then maybe 3 or 4 months after the DVD was released I put WATS in its entirety onto youtube... Now I didn't wait for a reason it took that long to get things sorted with youtube to get me in the partner program and extend my time limit and for me to encode the videos properly etc and I was traveling a lot at the time... As a partner I monetized the WATS videos and I think I've made like $2,000 from them at this time... but the pennies keep coming in forever ^ ^
NOW I'm sure I could have sold a lot more IF I made it my #1 priority to be a salesman and like get a booth at comic-con and stuff like that BUT I am an uberector not a distributor nah mean? My goal was to fund HSM and I did that and away I went...
One thing I never did exploit was online downloads of the film... Itunes NEVER did open they doors to TRUE nobodies like me for FEATURE films probably because they are rolling in bed with Hollywood and Hollywood hates competition and doesn't want to share space with people they are not in bed with... Ever wonder how much it costs to get an in store display for your DVD? Well it was so expensive I couldn't do it so my DVD must hide in the back IF its even in the store...most of the time it has to be special ordered... but yeh anyway retail sUX and Itunes won't let us in for digital downloads... Now there are a bunch of places where you can sell downloads of your film BUT no one is really there checking shit out... SO I think thats where the whole twitter thang comes in... Sell your digital download on your own site or some random place then in a perfect scenario the link would be retweeted round the world and you would like sell..hella! ^ ^
NOW this is why I love youtube... there are doing deals with the studios BUT they make room for little guys like me... I posted on her before about Youtube's paid download ability... its still in beta I guess but I've had the feature for a while... I haven't tried any paid downloads yet just free ones but it has REAL potential! BUT I wasn't able to see the download buttons on my videos when I was in iceland so I suspect its a US thing only... that HAS to change for us to be successful... I think more than half of my audience is outside the US...
Nice scenario for the future... Release your film in its entirety for free viewing on youtube and offer paid downloads... let people know they now have the choice to decide what films are made... if they pay and download it they are funding the filmmakers next film... So this would force filmmakers to be in touch with they audience and really make GOOD films as we have no mega budget to get "stars" and plaster the real world and online world with ad's....
So Dave... that's my experience... I could write more but I dont want to rant forever..if you or anyone else has any questions lets start a discussion in the comments...
Visit the site here
This post is all about the new animated feature film by Dave4096 aka nodelete... This is an animated feature film made by one crazy d00d... see the trailer here
Dave told me he's since replaced the synthesized voices with human ones and I am anxiously awaiting his new trailer ^ ^ Follow along at his blog here where he gives tons of behind the scenes info and even makes tutorials and other useful thangs to us types ^ ^
PleaS go check it out!
Now Dave asked me about how I released WATS DVD and all that stuff and I was going to answer him in a youtube video but it would have been too long and its easier to write it all here wif links and all that... So here's my experience releasing WATS for DAve and anyone else interested but be sure to check out the Archon Defender stuff and let him know what you think! ^ ^
So what I did was contact Filmbaby I started talking to the main d00d Jamie who you can see here at SXSW giving away cookies ^ ^ He's a real straight forward c00L guy. So I could have done the cheapo DVD cases but Jamie and I agreed that it was worth it to do the more expensive digipak's... as they would be more attractive to retailers etc... So filmbaby has a partnership with cravedog they is a dvd replicator... So Jamie and I decided that making 5000 DVD's would be the best way to go... Cravedog would charge me I believe it was around $9,000 or $12,000 I cant remember 0_o for 5000 digipaks... So I borrowed the money 0_o and I did all the design getting the specs from Cravedog and all that..and oh yeh I check with other replicators about pricing and I was getting a good deal at cravedog....
It was a pretty scary time... because I wasn't making any money and I had to put out more money BUT they went ahead and made them and I made a youtube video announcing they were on sale AND with the first check from filmbaby based on online sales ONLY I was able to cover the cost of the replication and made like $4,000... since we had a shiny digipak and animated feature films were kinda rare... Jamie took the DVD's to retail trade shows and was able to make some deals with retailers to sell WATS DVD's... now this is the great part... once I had finished the DVD design and sent them the master disc and art my job was done... Filmbaby took over and did all the sales stuff and I just got checks... I still get checks from them today... not as much as at first but they are still coming in... So I believe the first retail order was for 1000 or 2000 discs can't remember but retail is kinda lame cause they have all these fee's....distribution fee's, they withhold like %15 in case of returns and give you that 6 months later and all this stuff... now this wasn't filmbabys doing its just the policies retail stores have.... I don't know how many discs we have left 0_0 because as enough money came in to fund the new film thats what I have been doing...but I'll be meeting with Jamie in a few weeks and if you have any questions you want me to ask him let me know....
So then maybe 3 or 4 months after the DVD was released I put WATS in its entirety onto youtube... Now I didn't wait for a reason it took that long to get things sorted with youtube to get me in the partner program and extend my time limit and for me to encode the videos properly etc and I was traveling a lot at the time... As a partner I monetized the WATS videos and I think I've made like $2,000 from them at this time... but the pennies keep coming in forever ^ ^
NOW I'm sure I could have sold a lot more IF I made it my #1 priority to be a salesman and like get a booth at comic-con and stuff like that BUT I am an uberector not a distributor nah mean? My goal was to fund HSM and I did that and away I went...
One thing I never did exploit was online downloads of the film... Itunes NEVER did open they doors to TRUE nobodies like me for FEATURE films probably because they are rolling in bed with Hollywood and Hollywood hates competition and doesn't want to share space with people they are not in bed with... Ever wonder how much it costs to get an in store display for your DVD? Well it was so expensive I couldn't do it so my DVD must hide in the back IF its even in the store...most of the time it has to be special ordered... but yeh anyway retail sUX and Itunes won't let us in for digital downloads... Now there are a bunch of places where you can sell downloads of your film BUT no one is really there checking shit out... SO I think thats where the whole twitter thang comes in... Sell your digital download on your own site or some random place then in a perfect scenario the link would be retweeted round the world and you would like sell..hella! ^ ^
NOW this is why I love youtube... there are doing deals with the studios BUT they make room for little guys like me... I posted on her before about Youtube's paid download ability... its still in beta I guess but I've had the feature for a while... I haven't tried any paid downloads yet just free ones but it has REAL potential! BUT I wasn't able to see the download buttons on my videos when I was in iceland so I suspect its a US thing only... that HAS to change for us to be successful... I think more than half of my audience is outside the US...
Nice scenario for the future... Release your film in its entirety for free viewing on youtube and offer paid downloads... let people know they now have the choice to decide what films are made... if they pay and download it they are funding the filmmakers next film... So this would force filmmakers to be in touch with they audience and really make GOOD films as we have no mega budget to get "stars" and plaster the real world and online world with ad's....
So Dave... that's my experience... I could write more but I dont want to rant forever..if you or anyone else has any questions lets start a discussion in the comments...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
d00d got like Vue 8 big deal ^ ^
So as I am an animation/comic/film geek amongst other things I try to stay up on new things in those areas... as I was anxious to see some imagery from James Cameron's new film Avatar because of all the like changing everything HYP3... and now that the trailer is out... I feel really let down... I was really expecting something special but its just like I GOT 800 MILLION DOLLARS AND LIKE MY PROFESSIONAL TEAM IS USING VUE 8 BETA AND WERE DOING THIS MOCAP THING SO THEY MOVE LIKE REAL PEOPLE....wow... OH SHET and the story is about a guy driving another body JUST LIKE MOCAP!??! OMG its a VUE 8 MOCAP FANTASY LAND hahahaa.... I don't know about you but this Starcraft II trailer is a lot better than the Avatar one...
BUT of yeh Avatar is in life changing never seen before 3d right... haha... Am I a bastard for making fun of it? Yes I am a bastard but not for ragging on multi million dollar productions...
Just goes to show you that money can't buy you creative innovation...YES it can buy you technical innovation but thats pretty boring... they should keep films like that at Siggraph...
What do you think? I think the tools available to us have gotten so sophisticated we are no longer that impressed by the work of so called "professionals"
besides I already saw the rEAL AVATAR
Found this on the stashmedia blog...
James Cameron is m0 gangsta than I thought?! DAMN ^ ^
Monday, August 17, 2009
film making "experts" with no experience
It seems the world... the internet world especially is full of people who act like, talk like, and posture like "experts" yet they have no experience in the fields they are "experts" in... They believe themselves to be experts because they have researched a certain area a lot... they may have even made a halfhearted attempt at said task and found out they were not up to it....but until you do it, follow through and finish it...whatever the task may be... your still a poseur, a wannabe... and your opinion doesn't mean much at all...
Why do chemists bother to test anything in the lab? I mean shET it works on paper so it will work in the real world right?
Now what am I talking about exactly? Well... even though I am working hard on HSM I constantly have my evil tentacles probing all corners of the internets... and I read a lot of posts by young optimistic people looking to learn and make films and work with other people perhaps... then these supposed experts all rain down on them with the supposed "way it is" and the supposed "rules" and the supposed "limits" and they go on an on about how hard it is to do what they want to do... trying to "bring the person back to reality"...Back to THEIR REALITY... my advice is DONT SUBSCRIBE TO OTHER PEOPLE REALITIES... DONT TAKE ON OTHER PEOPLES LIMITS OR BOUNDARIES...just because they were unable to do something it doesn't mean you can't...
So all you supposed "experts" out there with no experience in DIY 3d animation or whatever who are trying to limit or crush other peoples dreams... pleaS go FORK YOURSELVES in the FACE ^ ^ Accept your fate and don't try to taint anyone else's.
YOU NEVER know how far someone can go... how far someone can fly... so stop trying to put a leash on them...
I know when your a MALE its hard to admit you don't know something or that your answer is not correct or that your not supermachoman#1face in control of everything and everyone... but sometimes you just need to admit that you don't know what your typing about and let people be... WHO ARE YOU to tell them what they limits are?
A world full of "experts" with no experience... There's nothing like practical real world experience... until then your like a sword untested in battle...
Me and my homIE Lance Weiler...we some battle tested filmmaking mofOS
Why do chemists bother to test anything in the lab? I mean shET it works on paper so it will work in the real world right?
Now what am I talking about exactly? Well... even though I am working hard on HSM I constantly have my evil tentacles probing all corners of the internets... and I read a lot of posts by young optimistic people looking to learn and make films and work with other people perhaps... then these supposed experts all rain down on them with the supposed "way it is" and the supposed "rules" and the supposed "limits" and they go on an on about how hard it is to do what they want to do... trying to "bring the person back to reality"...Back to THEIR REALITY... my advice is DONT SUBSCRIBE TO OTHER PEOPLE REALITIES... DONT TAKE ON OTHER PEOPLES LIMITS OR BOUNDARIES...just because they were unable to do something it doesn't mean you can't...
So all you supposed "experts" out there with no experience in DIY 3d animation or whatever who are trying to limit or crush other peoples dreams... pleaS go FORK YOURSELVES in the FACE ^ ^ Accept your fate and don't try to taint anyone else's.
YOU NEVER know how far someone can go... how far someone can fly... so stop trying to put a leash on them...
I know when your a MALE its hard to admit you don't know something or that your answer is not correct or that your not supermachoman#1face in control of everything and everyone... but sometimes you just need to admit that you don't know what your typing about and let people be... WHO ARE YOU to tell them what they limits are?
A world full of "experts" with no experience... There's nothing like practical real world experience... until then your like a sword untested in battle...
Me and my homIE Lance Weiler...we some battle tested filmmaking mofOS
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Alright alright LINEAR is betteR
I think I posted about this Linear color workflow plugin for Cinema 4d called DeGamma I bought it a few weeks ago and have been using it as I light my sets for HSM...
Now until recently I'd read a lot about linear workflows and the like but I never really understood what the advantage was... I mean I saw the advantage of compositing in 32 bit color space in AE for light fx and blending... but I never really understood the whole linear thing when it came to lighting my scenes... after using it for awhile now and reading the manual a few times I know understand and see the advantage...
So in lamE_Mdots terms... all you need to know that when working in linear mode... Its like film vs. miniDV... in linear, you use softer lights so there's no nasty hotspots (clipping) less light goes a long way and when lighting this way more detail in the scenes shows up... The normal non-linear way is like shooting on miniDV... you need hotter lights that cause hotspots (clipping) lights dont have that much of an effect so you have to use more and brighter lights so you lose a lot of the detail in the scenes.
So yeh I can say that by working in Linear my scenes take on a softer, more realistic and subtle look... its really great now like working with film ^ ^
So yeh if your using Cinema 4d I highly recommend this plugin...even if you still dont understand...get it, apply it to your scenes with full linear workflow and work that way... if your 3d package has a linear workflow try it out, your images will sanK yoU.
Since my test images are top secret for now ^ ^ Here's some I took off a site reviewing DeGamma
See the difference?
Now until recently I'd read a lot about linear workflows and the like but I never really understood what the advantage was... I mean I saw the advantage of compositing in 32 bit color space in AE for light fx and blending... but I never really understood the whole linear thing when it came to lighting my scenes... after using it for awhile now and reading the manual a few times I know understand and see the advantage...
So in lamE_Mdots terms... all you need to know that when working in linear mode... Its like film vs. miniDV... in linear, you use softer lights so there's no nasty hotspots (clipping) less light goes a long way and when lighting this way more detail in the scenes shows up... The normal non-linear way is like shooting on miniDV... you need hotter lights that cause hotspots (clipping) lights dont have that much of an effect so you have to use more and brighter lights so you lose a lot of the detail in the scenes.
So yeh I can say that by working in Linear my scenes take on a softer, more realistic and subtle look... its really great now like working with film ^ ^
So yeh if your using Cinema 4d I highly recommend this plugin...even if you still dont understand...get it, apply it to your scenes with full linear workflow and work that way... if your 3d package has a linear workflow try it out, your images will sanK yoU.
Since my test images are top secret for now ^ ^ Here's some I took off a site reviewing DeGamma
See the difference?
Friday, August 14, 2009
If I did mixed media today...
I stumbled across two After Effects plugins this week that allow you to do some AWESOME mixed media integration amongst other thangs...
Normality
Render out a normal pass with your 3d scene and use this plugin in AE to relight the 3d geometry...yeh ya heard me right its pretty suite... Can do some insane 3d/stopmo/2d or 3d/live action with this thang...
Youveelizer
Render out a UV pass with your 3d renders and use this plugin to retexture the 3d objects in After Effects...you can add reflections and other thangs to help compositing of 3d in other media as well...
Pretty win stuff if ya ask meH. Mix that media maynE!
Normality
Render out a normal pass with your 3d scene and use this plugin in AE to relight the 3d geometry...yeh ya heard me right its pretty suite... Can do some insane 3d/stopmo/2d or 3d/live action with this thang...
Youveelizer
Render out a UV pass with your 3d renders and use this plugin to retexture the 3d objects in After Effects...you can add reflections and other thangs to help compositing of 3d in other media as well...
Pretty win stuff if ya ask meH. Mix that media maynE!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sigh... No choice for "safety"
Mo ranting from meh... Ya know all the crap films that are made now are made because they are "safe" pre-sold franchises.... remakes, re-imaginings, adaptations blah blah... they don't take any chances on any new ideas because they are not "safe"... now in the world of film that equals biannual regurgitations of mediocre soulless crap...
Now in real life in the US... when people trade in they choice for "safety" it means that I, a person with no criminal record at ALL can be stopped in the street for nothing at all by 8 police... searched...including taking off my shoes, socks etc for 30 minutes... can be told to my face by judging eyes "You are on drugs" when I don't use any drugs at all.... and I have to stand there and take it unless I want to get tasered, shot and arrested...not necessarily in that order...
The Hollywood system rewards films that plays its game... big money, big stars, fancy things... and it attacks little films that don't have those things...
In real life A_merica the "system" rewards those that plays its game... if I was driving a new BMW and had fancy clothes on those police would not have stopped me... but I was riding a bike wearing messed up old clothes... So I must either be A) drug addict B) Ex-con or C) Drug addict... as there are no artists riding bikes around any more I guess?
Eh it just saddens me everytime I come back to the US from some other country because I know WHAT IT CAN BE and WHAT IT ONCE WAS... it wasn't "current threat level orange" all the time like it is now... that bullshit is there to keep all in fear because when your in fear your in a state of panic and all you want is "Safety" Well "safety" is here now...
Are filmmakers at "current threat level orange" as well? I thinks so.....
Now I don't get harassed that much... but the police bother me more than the "criminals" do... and now I know I can't go to my studio in the middle of the night... well I can if I buy a new car... but then oh I wouldnt be able to make films because I'd have to pay for the car blah blah...
So when HSM is done one of my priorities is leaving the USA...
Too much "safety" suffocates.
Now in real life in the US... when people trade in they choice for "safety" it means that I, a person with no criminal record at ALL can be stopped in the street for nothing at all by 8 police... searched...including taking off my shoes, socks etc for 30 minutes... can be told to my face by judging eyes "You are on drugs" when I don't use any drugs at all.... and I have to stand there and take it unless I want to get tasered, shot and arrested...not necessarily in that order...
The Hollywood system rewards films that plays its game... big money, big stars, fancy things... and it attacks little films that don't have those things...
In real life A_merica the "system" rewards those that plays its game... if I was driving a new BMW and had fancy clothes on those police would not have stopped me... but I was riding a bike wearing messed up old clothes... So I must either be A) drug addict B) Ex-con or C) Drug addict... as there are no artists riding bikes around any more I guess?
Eh it just saddens me everytime I come back to the US from some other country because I know WHAT IT CAN BE and WHAT IT ONCE WAS... it wasn't "current threat level orange" all the time like it is now... that bullshit is there to keep all in fear because when your in fear your in a state of panic and all you want is "Safety" Well "safety" is here now...
Are filmmakers at "current threat level orange" as well? I thinks so.....
Now I don't get harassed that much... but the police bother me more than the "criminals" do... and now I know I can't go to my studio in the middle of the night... well I can if I buy a new car... but then oh I wouldnt be able to make films because I'd have to pay for the car blah blah...
So when HSM is done one of my priorities is leaving the USA...
Too much "safety" suffocates.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Why not you?
I know a lot of things in life that you may want to learn seem intimidating... and a lot of times the so called "professionals" will try to talk you out of learning out of fear that you will take they jobs haha...
But seriousylY... you can learn ANYTHING you want these days IF you know where and how to look... the learning resources are there... text, video...whatever you want!
When I approach something new to learn... I say to myself " X person learned that so why can't I? Yeh why not me? " Then I just jump in and do my best and eventually I do learn it and gain that skill...then I move on to another...
So if there's something that seems currently out of your grasp... and maybe your talking yourself out of learning it for whatever reason... just stop and say "Why not me?" and get all the learning materials you can and jump in and do your best... odds are you will learn something ^ ^
Just recently... REALLY learning and understanding the character setup and rigging process was out of my grasp...I did it before but I didn't know what I was doing.... but thanks mostly to free tutorial videos by Cactus Dan I now know what I'm doing and feel comfortable and confident with the process...
So now I'm on to REALLY learning and understanding 3d character animation...again, I've done it before but it was all in a rush and in a panicked situation...now I have some time to really get in and practice and learn and I will GET THIS too ^ ^ Why not me? So far the best things I have found are these notes from Animation Mentor and the 3 video set by Jeff Lew.
I found a lot of other "3d animation tutorials" but they never go past a bouncing ball and stuff like that.. they might have one character move and thats it... for me the tough thing has always been going from action to action... like having a character jump down, swing a sword then run away... so yeh I r learningS.
But seriousylY... you can learn ANYTHING you want these days IF you know where and how to look... the learning resources are there... text, video...whatever you want!
When I approach something new to learn... I say to myself " X person learned that so why can't I? Yeh why not me? " Then I just jump in and do my best and eventually I do learn it and gain that skill...then I move on to another...
So if there's something that seems currently out of your grasp... and maybe your talking yourself out of learning it for whatever reason... just stop and say "Why not me?" and get all the learning materials you can and jump in and do your best... odds are you will learn something ^ ^
Just recently... REALLY learning and understanding the character setup and rigging process was out of my grasp...I did it before but I didn't know what I was doing.... but thanks mostly to free tutorial videos by Cactus Dan I now know what I'm doing and feel comfortable and confident with the process...
So now I'm on to REALLY learning and understanding 3d character animation...again, I've done it before but it was all in a rush and in a panicked situation...now I have some time to really get in and practice and learn and I will GET THIS too ^ ^ Why not me? So far the best things I have found are these notes from Animation Mentor and the 3 video set by Jeff Lew.
I found a lot of other "3d animation tutorials" but they never go past a bouncing ball and stuff like that.. they might have one character move and thats it... for me the tough thing has always been going from action to action... like having a character jump down, swing a sword then run away... so yeh I r learningS.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
It's about madness
Now that everything is made for Heart String Marionette... looking at it all... what it turned out to be... The story... the setting... the characters... their twisted faces... and... lately I've felt like I've been losing my mind... I've gone so far and so deep into so many things since "We are the Strange" in an attempt to do something better, more sincere, more powerful... I think I've driven myself a little crazy...
Because now that I look at it all together... I'm a little scared... now... I'm not scared myself... I'm scared for you... Because this film... its about madness... it is madness... I finally have the technical skill to create what's really in my head... not a caricature version or some rough proxy... this is the real stuff... and its madness...
Maybe there's a reason film's were made by groups of people? Maybe there's a reason for gatekeepers and decision makers to tell you "No, thats a little too much" Yeh.... well its too late for that...MUAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA
Heart String Marionette is about madness.... it is madness... to me the world is mad... our souls are tortured, twisted, dark and crazy things... swirling with violent imagery and syncopated screams...
Art is a mirror... of one's soul and the world around them...
I don't know if this has happened before? You will be able to look into my mirror... in full motion...
Real madness... I could write something here to sum it all up... but its a line from the film and I don't want to waste the surprise ^ ^
So I am scared... not for me and the STRANGE out there ^ ^ You know who you are... you will love it BUT I'll tell you a secret... This is my plan... To make a film YOU will love and to cause everyone else to die inside... That is why the tagline is "YOU WILL DIE... INSIDE" So YOU the people in the know I hope you will take it as your responsibility to warn all the normal people not to watch it when it is released... I mean we wouldn't want to cause them any psychological or emotional harm right?
MADNESS... I don't know why but it excites me and makes me feel all cold and spiky inside... Have you been waiting for a film with real madness inside? A dangerous film? One in which all decisions were made not based on commercial interests or "practicality" but based on one persons madness? I've been waiting for such a film... thats what I want to see... so I have to go and make it.
Because now that I look at it all together... I'm a little scared... now... I'm not scared myself... I'm scared for you... Because this film... its about madness... it is madness... I finally have the technical skill to create what's really in my head... not a caricature version or some rough proxy... this is the real stuff... and its madness...
Maybe there's a reason film's were made by groups of people? Maybe there's a reason for gatekeepers and decision makers to tell you "No, thats a little too much" Yeh.... well its too late for that...MUAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA
Heart String Marionette is about madness.... it is madness... to me the world is mad... our souls are tortured, twisted, dark and crazy things... swirling with violent imagery and syncopated screams...
Art is a mirror... of one's soul and the world around them...
I don't know if this has happened before? You will be able to look into my mirror... in full motion...
Real madness... I could write something here to sum it all up... but its a line from the film and I don't want to waste the surprise ^ ^
So I am scared... not for me and the STRANGE out there ^ ^ You know who you are... you will love it BUT I'll tell you a secret... This is my plan... To make a film YOU will love and to cause everyone else to die inside... That is why the tagline is "YOU WILL DIE... INSIDE" So YOU the people in the know I hope you will take it as your responsibility to warn all the normal people not to watch it when it is released... I mean we wouldn't want to cause them any psychological or emotional harm right?
MADNESS... I don't know why but it excites me and makes me feel all cold and spiky inside... Have you been waiting for a film with real madness inside? A dangerous film? One in which all decisions were made not based on commercial interests or "practicality" but based on one persons madness? I've been waiting for such a film... thats what I want to see... so I have to go and make it.
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