If You Listen Close, You Can Hear the Chapter Close

I'm sitting here typing this with a 100% completed version of Sonic X: Cosmic Chase on my desktop. The final stats clock in at 1600 hours of working on the project, 10.3MB file size with a running time of 8 minutes 20 seconds. Don't worry, it's a fast 8 minutes.

For the rest of the time being, I'm working on optimizing the movie to make it run properly. I've encountered some slowdown issues that were not prevalent before and must be fixed. One of my goals this summer has been met and I'm very proud of that fact. The other 2 are still pending and will take the rest of August to complete, but they will be done in the next 30 days.

Nine days to go. Who's excited?

The Sun is Still Alive Even Though it's Hard to Tell

In just 2 short weeks, Cosmic Chase will be making its long awaited and well-overdue premiere. I am very excited to be able to release this movie as it serves as a visual journal documenting the past 7 years of my life regarding the journey of learning, practicing, and improving my skills.

The project was originally started to give me something to practice with in my spare time. The more I drew and animated, the better I became. I started in Flash MX2004 (v7) and will be ending with Flash CS4 (v10). My skills have greatly improved because of this project which has shown up in my schoolwork and the stuff I learned in school has been applied to CC.

I won't deny it: there is a quality difference stemming from the beginning of the movie and lasts until the very end. This is not a bad thing. It was already light years ahead of Chaotic Battle when I started the first shot. Each shot improves upon the last, adding new elements and techniques to make it even better. It'd be kinda hard not to improve upon the formula over a span of 7 years.

I've got 2 weeks left before showtime, where's CC at right now? I've been putting in 8-12 hour days tying up loose ends, making tweaks, compositing, editing, and even putting on my old developer's hat and doing some coding for movie functionality. I'm retiming Act 1 right now to speed up the pacing, Act 2 and 3 are pretty much complete, but I make changes as I see fit. I just need to finish timing and a single outstanding shot that I might actually redo from scratch *gasp*, do the credits and call it a wrap. No final file size or running time as of yet. It's a little over 10MB right now so I'll have to send my buddy Tom Fulp a little email over at Newgrounds.

That's basically all the ranting I've got for now. Post production will likely wrap up by the end of this week and I'll have a finished product by this time next week.

Life Shouldn't Hurt, Doesn't Hurt, So Badly

CC production on Act 3 is starting to wrap up. Just 4 more shots that need to be completed at this point. Most of the assets for those shots have been put in and colored and all that's left are some animated effects I have to draw in.

In other words, Cosmic Chase production will be finished this week. In the remaining time between now and the release, I'll be doing tweaks to Act 1 to fix the pacing and overall flow to match it with the rest of the movie.

Sonic X: Cosmic Chase will premiere August 9, 2010. Mark your calendars. The 7 year long epic journey will finally come to an end. I've learned a lot during this period and I'm glad it's almost over. Not having CC hanging over my head will be a wonderful feeling. There were times where I loved working on it and other times where I loathed it. It's been a long ride and I thank all of my fans for sticking by me.

It feels real.

8.9.10

Every Day Starts and Ends in Sunlight

I spent the last 6 hours working on Act 3, completing 5 shots bringing the total to 29/43. I'm gonna keep working on it a little bit more tonight, but the goal is to finish Act 3 by this time next week so I can announce a release date and start hardcore work on my newest project. And yes, there is a very good and obvious reason I've been referring to them as "acts".

Hopefully many of you have had a chance to check out the Act 2 teaser. There is still plenty of action that wasn't showcased, so don't think you've seen it all!

Release date announcement next week maybe?

Cosmic Chase Sneak Peek Released

The Sonic X Cosmic Chase sneak peak is now live. Watch it here.

You guys enjoy that while I get back to work on Act 3. Comment here or on the video itself, I read it all. We'll see how it fares in the Sonic's 19th Birthday contest. I'll be updating more on that as it unfolds.

Hope you guys enjoy it.

Cosmic Chase Sneak Peek Tomorrow

Cosmic Chase will be making its debut on YouTube July 8th in glorious HD. You might be able to see it before you go to sleep for the night.

It feels good to finally showcase some of my work which has been under wraps for so long. I'm looking forward to getting the whole thing pushed out so I can concentrate on finishing up school.

Let's do it.

Fireworks and Pyrotechnics

Happy 4th of July everyone! I had my fun for the weekend and now it's back to work. Some of you may have been upset at the fact that the contest has put things on a temporary hold, but that is not the case. I put in all of the special effects (glows, blurs, etc.) in all of Act 2 which took some time, but it had to be done. SFX was last week's agenda and this week is cutting it up and prepping for its YouTube sneak peek release. I don't want to specify a date at this point, but it will be coming out this week.

Despite it being an edit, the shots in the preview will more than likely stay that way in the final version.

I hope you guys are as excited as I am. It's gonna be sick.