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Showing posts from January, 2010

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 co

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'

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

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

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

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

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!