Squirting the Dirt!

It's been at least 7 or 8 years since 2011 when I last updated, so in honor of this, the 11th anniversary of me updating 40 years ago, I am writing a blog about what's going on in the stuff I am fucking.

First of all, I've got a lot of rad content on the way, and arriving soon.  Lets start with F.A.R.T.S., the first project I've put out on YouTube in 4 years.  What started as a night with bros and a microphone soon evolved into the best thing to come out of Hip-Hop since Missy Elliot.  If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend you do.  Or don't.  Either would be great.

Coming up this month I'll be farting out a new cartoon or two, trying to live the dream between working 50-60 hours a week at an actual job, and not completely ignoring my girlfriend.  There are also a few more live action films I have planned, so get ready for content.  Content, content, content.

Basically the goal here is to build up my YouTube channel into something worthwhile.  As it stands, there are few reasons for anyone to subscribe to what I have uploaded.  I want to change that.  I want people to watch me while they're taking a poop.  I want people to click on my video when they're in the middle of class, or on the subway.  Basically, I want to spread as much of my video AIDS as possible.

Well that was a fantastic blog, I think, you guys.  One for the ages.

Todays super interesting animation production blog is about? Motivation.

One integral part of any independent animator is motivation, or inspiration, as I refer to it in order to not appear lazy (tee hee). It takes a LOT of motivation to animate, especially when you aren't getting paid, and you have no idea how many/few people will see your work.

I'm talking dozens, possibly hundreds of unpaid, work-filled hours. Sure it's what I love doing, and that's a part of where my motivation comes from, but sometimes it's very difficult to continue on. There is an overhead to these things, too. There's no such thing as a project costing $0. For my current project (read last post) I need to buy a new microphone and pop filter, new pens, and more "animation paper" (read: paper that's been hole punched in a certain design on the bottom for maximum stay-in-one-spotability.) It's not a huge amount of money, but it adds up.

Sometimes the best form of inspiration is to just walk away from the project for a moment. Get a clear view, maybe refine some old ideas. Lunchbox Duck episode 3 has been mulling for almost 3 years! Thats a bit on the extreme side, but it was very easy to come back into it with a million new ideas, and better versions of older ones.

Sometimes the motivation comes from just yelling at yourself to stop being such a fuck and just get some drawing done. Thats some good motivation, right there. I find also, that starting a new animation session is hard, but stopping can be even harder. It sucks leaving an animation sequence unfinished. You come back the next day and aren't in the same flow and it just doesn't work.

Right now, I'm in a strange place with my motivation because I know what work I have to do, I'm excited to start it, but I just need a few more items in order to start; such as the aforementioned paper. So far the script is 100% done, the storyboard is a little less than half-way finished, and there are 0 voice tracks and like, the 30 seconds of animation I did for the project 2.5 years ago. Today I was planning on moving on to backgrounds. Well, experimenting with backgrounds, anyway. Like, with actual paint. we'll see.

Lunchbox Duck Does it... Again.

After my fujitsu art tablet shit the bed, I've had to put both projects I was working on, on hold. Of course, one of those projects being my webcomic, Berries and Poop, and the other, a short that was being made in hopes of entering a film festival. Alas, for the time being, both these projects have come crashing to a halt.

After some choice words (i.e: fuck, shit, fuckityshit, shitfuckers), I came to a realization; If I do anything for now, it's going to have to be the old fashioned way: with paper and pencils and inks and scanners and shit. I'm not unfamiliar with this method, in fact, it's all I've ever used to animate. The tablet was going to be a fresh and time-saving way of doing it better with better visuals, but as far as anything I have on youtube, that's all real drawings, inked and scanned and colored.

I immediately got re-excited because I came to the best, most obvious conclusion... Do another episode of Lunchbox Duck Does it Right! Back in 2008, I had actually already started the next installment of the "series," but got left behind during the years of more exciting prospects. Luckily, all of the work I had done was right where I left it. There's even a test video for episode 3 in my youtube channel , that now sits refined, better-looking, and more complete since re-opening the project.

Episode 1 was my first ever animated short. I learned to animate basic shapes and objects, and attempted some storytelling, although it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. I was experimenting with cameras, zooms, and even little things like audio sound effects and voice-editing hadn't even really occurred to me until post-production, so it all looks/sounds pretty rough. Episode 2 was a nightmare. Halfway through the production, my computer crashed, and I lost a considerable amount of my work. The final product has strange cuts and missing parts to scenes, and a lot of odd technical glitches. It was, however, a great learning experience.

I think Episode 3 will be great because it not only gives me a chance to go back and apply what I've learned to earlier projects, but it's great in that I am able to use a lot of unused plot ideas and characters that could never fit anywhere other than in a LBDDIR episode.

Now all I need is a new mic/pop filter and more animation paper. Then we can really get cracking. Until then, enjoy thinking about me storyboarding the best Lunchbox Duck to date.

Somewhere in the Woods, there is this Production Blog

Well, another obscene amount of time has passed between posts. I'd like to reiterate that as this is a "Production Blog," I really only update it when I am... well, producing. Which I am taking a short break from for now, in order to write this post. What excitement, eh?

First off, let me say that this project is very important to me. It's almost a "re-branding" of sorts, in both style and presentation of my work. In the past, I've relied heavily on weird character designs and nonsense storytelling to create a kind of mash-up of comedy. Although elements of this will of course stay true, I'm moving on to more advanced technical outings, such as actual musical scoring, a true color-pallet and theme, and more professional-sounding audio quality for voice-overs. The overall goal to be achieved is different here, as well. Instead of a "doing this for my own edification" motif that I've led my self along for the past 4 years I've been animating, the goal here is to create a short that is high enough quality to be entered into, and receive attention from, one or many film festivals. So far the vision is clear and moving along smoothly, albeit slowly... as animation production tends to do.

I'm currently in the storyboarding phase of the project, which is always a fun time because I get to see the first (although very sloppy and color-less) images of what the final product will be. I can set up shots, direct future editing, and write dialog. It's also a great time to get acquainted with the characters that I'll be drawing hundreds of little pictures of; not so much their personality (although that too, to an extent) but more like getting that "muscle memory" of the hand that is required for animating. I can add, subtract, change, anything goes in the storyboarding phase. I'm not sure how everyone else works, but this is basically the second step in my production theory, just one after what I call the "percolating" phase.

The next phase will be to transcribe all the dialog to screenplay format, so that it's easier to read and follow when my actors and I go and record it all. This is the most boring of phases and if I had an assistant or secretary I would totally pawn this shit off on them. Sadly, I do not and am forced to endure it myself.

The actual recording phase is where I get nit-picky. If you've worked with me before (which you most likely have not) then you know I do at least 5 takes per line, often times more... but sometimes less. I like to have options and it's one of those "I'll know it when I hear it" things. This upcoming project has plenty of openings, so if you're interested and somehow reading this, let me know. Obviously, I will not pay you... but it's a great addition to an acting portfolio if you're into that sort of thing.

Then, of course, the actual art of it all. In the past I have done all my own layouts for the backgrounds, but I would love to not do that this time around. I'm a focused character artist, and although my backdrops are functional, they are often wonky as I will cut corners with my overall lack of skill of drawing varied environments.

The animation will be a little more groundbreaking this time around for me. The characters will be much less static, with more frames of animation and in-betweens and the whole gambit of shit I generally just don't do because of time constraints. (Keep in mind, all of this will take place over the next year or so). Of course moving lips will return, which... for some reason independent animators avoid at all costs. I never got that because syncing animation is the easiest thing in the world. "At 1:23:44 he says 'often,' so I will make his lips start with an o." I basically break down the frames to how many drawings a second (for me it's generally 12) and BAM... it's really that simple, and in the many animated shorts I've seen either people do it poorly, or avoid it all together.

Well, thats all I really feel like writing on the subject. Back to work! I've got a long road ahead...

It's Been Raining for Two Days

I somehow remembered that I have this thing here. Thank god it's connected to my Google account otherwise.... whoo boy. Things would have gotten a little confusing.

Heres the interesting part

NEW Production blog #1600074B/88

I haven't written a production blog in awhile, mainly because I haven't been producing anything. My last project wrapped in August, and since then I've been too distracted with class and life and shit to develop anything else. But now it's 2010, and it's time to start something new.

The first thing I do when starting a new project is decide how I want it to look. In the animation field, it seems as though most mainstream studios feel like they have to stick to the standard "heres a thousand drawings, ink and color them" practice that's been around, and thats just fucking boring. I like meshing colors, playing with different thickness and types of lines, and combining everything to create a unique visual experience. This is a lot more complicated than it sounds.

It's going to be a busy semester, but I'm really excited about many things on the table.

Production Blog: for people who enjoy production blogs.

I would just like to start this post off on that note there about anal destruction. Alright now, good. Moving the fuck on.

Work is almost complete on the FOX project. A couple more recording sessions, a little bit of audio re-tooling, and just one more character animation (theres the biggest time-consumer) and we've got another one in the hat. I'll post the link to it as soon as I can, and then you guys have to go vote on it, because 1 of the 5 finalists are chosen by the people.

Alright yeah, I suppose that's about it.