M dot Strange's blog

On the last episode of the Forever Alone Filmmaking Podcast Jimmy and I were discussing render farm options for the solo cg filmmaker... up until this point we've both used our own little in house render setups- we both have four machine setups- Once you've paid for the hardware the main expense for an in house render farm is power- as with everything else controlled by private companies power is getting more expensive- My render nodes are Q9300's which are sort of old and slow compared to newer options as each box only provides a 2.91 on the Cinebench 11.5 CPU benchmark If I run my render nodes 24/7 they'll add $250- $350 to the monthly power bill- so I don't run them 24/7- I have to avoid "peak usage hours" as the power company charges 2-6x the amount for the same power during those times... peak usage is 11am - 6pm in my area... From my perspective we have 4 basic choices... I've only used the first option but I've been researching the

I thought I'd share a few design inspirations from my 2012 animated feature film Heart String Marionette Lord Wor's special life stealing machine Lord Wor's  "system" that he used to steal peoples life force was based on the original Cray computer A Cray Supercomputer When I was a kid someone told me that there was a Cray supercomputer that ran on HUMAN BLOOD?! Later I learned it was cooled with a blood plasma substitute BUT a computer than ran on HUMAN BLOOD was stuck in my head as a kid... The Switch for Lord Wor's machine The switch for Lord Wor's machine was based on the switch for the original electric chair When I was looking for reference images for the electric chair I came across this one- pretty haunting That's a photo from Sing Sing prison in 1900- thats the place that where the saying "up the river" came from- 614 people were killed in that electric chair- a ruthless machine frying flesh... operated by men i

I love me some Todd Solondz! I got to attend a screening of his new film Dark Horse earlier this year and ask him some questions which was awesome BUT you have to watch his first film as he was great from the beginning ^_^

Well it seems now as the Kickstarter campaign for I am Nightmare is halfway over yet its only %19 funded- that it is probably not going to succeed. If it works Kickstarter is a great thing for creative people doing things outside of the mainstream but even if it doesn't work for you- you shouldn't let that stop you. On the contrary I've seen many animated SHORT films funded with budgets far higher than what I'm trying to raise on Kickstarter for my FEATURE yet the creators have lagged on getting the films made- which is hella WACK! Of course they all have great excuses I'm sure ^_^ Remember excuses don't matter- what matters is whether your film is finished or not- ALL that matters is what is on the screen- if its not on the screen it doesn't matter- excuses may help people sleep at night NOW but they will haunt you later.... Recently the LA based studio Blur raised over $400,000 to create an ANIMATIC for an animated feature film- an ANIMATIC that wil

Whenever one discusses or complains about the injustices in the world someone will usually come along and describe it as “The Human Condition” Something that cannot be changed. The Human Condition is described as the inescapable features of being human. As humans merge with technology through the use of various communicative devices and the internet; the definition of “human” shifts. In the not too distant past news traveled very slow around the globe, and now its instantaneous. Human’s have to try hard to be ignorant nowadays. News of the world can be found everywhere although most of it is corporate media propaganda. If you know where to look you can find the truth, you can learn about what is really going on in the world right now. A direct feed into the lives of other nationalities and cultures. A RAW feed not watered down and pasteurized by waxy shills that are so called “experts” or “objective” news people.  No, in the new world we get to see for ourselves a

I've done it twice before... I've got the experience... the tricks... the battle scars of wasted time from inefficient workflows... I bring all this into my third solo animated feature film " I am Nightmare" Perspective shift: It's not a feature length film... its nine twelve minute short films... The script is 101 pages... for workflow purposes I've broken it down into nine pieces... I will NOT storyboard the entire film ahead of time as I have on my past two films as I ended up re-storyboarding each months work anyway... So on this one I'll treat each sequence as a separate film... So at the beginning of each month I'll storyboard that sequence only... then animate it... then move on to the next sequence which I will then storyboard and animate the following month etc... This way I'll be cranking out about ten minutes of finished animation per month which will probably be about 120 shots animated per month which would be a quota of

Download the project file here-it will work with versions 11.5 + http://www.mediafire.com/?llrvfwmbj613bh2 Please consider donating to the kickstarter campaign for my new film here  as the project file I'm sharing is the same one I'm using to do the lip sync for my new film ^_^

Recently on the forever alone filmmaking podcast we talked a bit about health tips for artists. So as a start I wrote up this little article with some health tips from my own experience. I included links to related products from vitacost.com as that’s where I started buying them now as its usually much cheaper than retail stores in my area. The most important thing to your overall health and well being is to make sure you have a strong immune system so most of the things I’m writing about here in this post relate to that. I got my undergraduate degree in Kinesiology with a minor in Nutrition so I’ve always been aware/interested in eating/living healthy. Cayenne pepper- ever since I discovered it trying to get rid of an infection which it NUKED in a few days I’ve been drinking cayenne tea (cayenne powder in hot water) taking cayenne capsules (2 a day) and adding a half a teaspoon to a health drink I have every day- you can google it to read about all the great things it does

This is a NEVER SEEN BEFORE 111 minute cut of Heart String Marionette... this is the ultimate auteur version! The UBERECTOR's cut in which I writer/director/animator/compositor/sound designer et etc also did a complete all original soundtrack! Here's a sample from the soundtrack here... Aim for the heart by M dot Strange I'll be posting a full official preview for this DVD as soon as the original version dvd is ready... I'm just making this available now to the hardcore peeps who visit this blog.. I'm selling them as cheap as I can whilst making $5 on each one so their $14.95 and you can buy them here I'm going to release just barebones dvd's so there's nothing fancy about these... I hope to release "deluxe" versions sometime in 2014 after the next film is released so if you want HSM dvd's now this Uberectors cut and the soon to be released Original Cut are the things to get. I think this version plays out more like a c

I share the way I create little towns and environments in my films. I use the Surfacespread  plugin for some of it which you can get here http://www.c4d-jack.de/site/

Artist and long time strange supporter Joseph Bramlett recently sent me an image of a piece of art he just completed... "Its easier to laugh than it is to cry, isnt it? its easier to hate than it is to love, isnt it?" ( charcoal and chalk)   by Joseph Bramlett The piece is called  "Its easier to laugh than it is to cry, isnt it? its easier to hate than it is to love, isnt it?" which is a line from Heart String Marionette ^_^ Here's Joseph's own words about the piece... So in one of my upper level studio art calsses at my university, we were basically given free reign to do what ever we wanted as long as it progressed us as an artist. Hence why i added the pic. It was the largest project i had ever done before. Standing 4.5x8.5 feet. I think the inspiration form your movie is obvious and i tried hard not to just rip you off or anything...  I just want to say thanks for inspiring me.  ^_^  I think its awesome! So glad HSM could offer some inspirat

My homie and fellow forever alone filmmaker Screamerclauz just released a new SUPER twisted dimensional tearing short film called "Affection" which you can watch here Screamerclauz was recently banned from Vimeo which is total bullshit- Vimeo may see the stuff he does as "porn" or something but its his art... so its lame to be banned/censored for that BUT once companies shift over to the PROFITS PROFITS PROFITS model its inevitable that they will start to suck and march out the PC patrol. IMO more than half the shit on Vimeo is just CAMERA/TECH porn... OMG this was shot with a 9000Q DSLR with a 9000mm zoom lens blah blah...CHECK OUT MY TEST RENDER OF SHINY THINGS GUYS and their falling on the floor! Vimeo comment: THIS WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING I've EVER SEEN! So yeh a real muthafuckin filmmaker is banned from Vimeo but the Camera/cg porn continues.

If the kickstarter for my new animated feature film "I am Nightmare" succeeds the wheels on my micro studio will start spinning full speed! Faster then ever before! With professional voice actors! Click the above image or this link to visit the Kickstarter page Thank you all for your continued support and I hope to be able to bring the best film I can make to you by Xmas 2013. ALSO!

After writing my last post and mentioning some hardware that really doesn't fit in the budget of a forever alone filmmaker I thought I should look over current hardware offering and recommend my picks based on past experience... If you wanted to put together an M dot Strange style one man micro 3d studio today this is what I would get... if you find this post 3 months+ from the date I posted it than its probably already out of date... but here's my picks... For a budget performance workstation I'd go with this (click for larger image) I made We Are The Strange (2007) with a Shuttle and I made Heart String Marionette(2012) with a Shuttle as well... they are not perfect but for a quick barebones build and a solid machine I'd go with a Shuttle- always check the reviews though as some systems are plagued... and the other parts aren't the fastest or "best" these are just the components I chose because I think they provide the best price/performanc

I'll be launching the kickstarter for the film on Monday One of the high priced rewards is that I will make a 3d character based on the person and the character will appear in the film BUT I'll also be launching a free contest where you can win the same thing ^ ^ Since I've gotten a fair number of comments about how people loved HIM as a ranting bad guy, I recently rewrote the end of I am Nightmare to be... how can I say... more epic and e-vile with a climactic rant that HIM would be proud of ^_^ This is the FIRST film of mine that will include DAYTIME scenes, did you notice that We are the Strange and Heart String Marionette take place in eternal night? I'm having a lot of fun with the warmer color palettes and putting my own spin on sunny/sunset looks has created some really beautiful stuff I must say ^_^ I will be making the film with my trusty old Cinema 4d 11.5- its too bad they don't sell this version anymore- I like the layout/menu's so much better

The next step in the creation of my next film "I am Nightmare" is the creation of all the props,  sets and environments as all the characters are ready to go... Before I get started on this stuff I have to know where I'm going... or what my concept for the world is... now since my films are original I have to really think about this stuff and make sure that my concept for the world makes sense with the story of the film... if you're doing parodies/remakes/re-imaginings/spinoff's the creator of the original property has already made many of these decisions for you... So the first thing I must decide is....where is this place? what is everything made of? what does it look like? and WHY? Once I've answered those questions THEN I have a clear idea of how to model and texture everything... Since my focus on this film is the story I'm not going to try to reinvent the style wheel... I'm going to treat my already made 3d assets from HSM and other proje

I show you how I use the free OLX plugin to speed up my workflow- get the plugin for free here http://biomekk.com/index.php?page=1&cat=107&itm=13 I also show you my simple custom gobo light to throw different shadows onto scenes

My next animated feature film will be titled "I am Nightmare" Here's the lil logo for it... Here is the vague synopsis: "When the dream of childhood is stolen... a nightmare is born. I AM NIGHTMARE" If it is approved, the kickstarter campaign will launch soon and on that page you can see images of the characters and a little teaser video. Also my homie Screamerclauz is throwin up a little Facebook page for it as well. I'm targeting XMAS 2013 as the release date. This film is very different from the last as every character does not look terrifying haha- its a story about kids and many of the main characters are kids... there's one in particular that will allow me to play with the Emmm archetype again. So this film is me making a kids film I guess? NOW some of you may be saying OH NO?! M dot's gone normal?! To those of you I ask to just have some faith ^_^ To grow and improve as an artist and storyteller I need to constantly seek out n

When it comes to film festivals I can't say enough about how awesome the Waterloo Festival for Animated film is! My latest film Heart String Marionette will make its REAL WORLD premiere there on the weekend of November 16th 2012 It takes place every November and they showcase animated feature films ONLY! I was lucky enough to be able to attend in 2007 to show WE ARE THE STRANGE- here's a photo from Waterloo 2007 Festival founder and BOSSMAN Joseph Chen third from the left- Author and manga translator Frederik Schodt on the far right. Here's the Heart String Marionette page on the festivals site- they should be announcing the schedule any day not but the whole festival takes place November 15-18th If you're going to attend I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you stay for the entire fest and watch all the films- the year I went it was awesome because like all the attendee's went to every film- so you hung out with the same people and discussed all the films... it was a g