The NuShift Blog

Robiety.com is Live!

2011-10-06T23:47:00.001-04:00

Yes, it's true. After sitting on the domain for a year, I finally got an idea on what to do with the site and just rolled with it. I'm really happy with the way it came out and it will house the movie upon completion.

For now, I plan to export a new work reel containing new assets created after graduation.

www.robiety.com

NuShift 2.0

2011-07-14T03:22:00.002-04:00

After months of on and off work (mostly off), the new site design is finally complete. Now that it's out of the way, I can continue to focus on Robiety and its site as well as my demo reel.

Final Stretch

2011-04-21T17:31:00.000-04:00

Robiety is in about as good of a shape as it can be at this point. With a couple weeks before graduation, there's still a lot of animation to finalize in the next week. The movie won't be done by any means. Over summer I want to spend time doing some nice backgrounds as I had done over Christmas break; I was really happy with the way those turned out and I can take my time on them with no rushing around.

I do want to put in sound effects before senior reviews on May 2nd, just so the movie engages more than one sense and keeps people interested. Music may be added at a later date but that hasn't been a main concern of mine. Animation and colors is top priority.

Updated Work Reel

2011-04-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

Robiety Work Reel 4-11-11 from Jeff Yandura on Vimeo.

Those daring to dream ideals must dare to share them as realizations, lest they remain so.

Robiety is the story of evolved social systems like our own, and of the ordinary individual encompassed by them. The daily grind takes both literal and figurative meanings for Sector 51's S.I.M.B. (Standard Issue Maintenance Bot) as he struggles to differentiate himself in a unified, rigid society steeped in efficiency and perfection. Working to perpetuate a civilization believing to have achieved its technological apex, he, like his fellow citizens, strives to obtain scant upgrades that enhance his status in the Robiety. With the lofty goal of attaining that one screw or bolt that elevates him to the upper echelons of Sector 51, S.I.M.B. carries out his redundant existence until a freak work accident changes the perception of his reality forever. An errant malfunction leads to dangerous, yet wonderful concepts in stark contrast to those shared as ideals throughout his world. The imperfection in his programming, S.I.M.B decides, may not be such an imperfection after all. An attempt to share this dream with his colleagues and loved ones also held captive by the monotonous existence of Sector 51 proves both daunting and inspiring. Robiety is the tale of an individual's realization, discovery, and struggle, detailing the pertinence of a utopian societal conflict when juxtaposed with our own.

Keeping On Keeping On

2011-04-05T12:56:00.001-04:00

I managed to fix one of two monitors by replacing the capacitors so I'm happy about that. It's been quite a few years since I've worked on a single monitor, so I have to change up my workflow to accommodate between school and home.

Over the weekend I managed to get roughs in for the waterfall shot and began tie-downs and cleanup on the villain's cloak. It took me about a week to get the cloak right, having a bunch of different fully drawn attempts before I scrapped them and began anew. It looks really good now, so I'm just finishing cleanup before I send it off to my assistant, Jake, for coloring.

Speaking of Jake, I got back the work I sent him last week which entailed color and rough inbetweens for a couple shots. At first I thought he didn't do anything because it played and looked fine. Then I remembered I only did keys on these shots! It looked as if I had animated it myself. It blends in so well and I'm really pleased with his work.

My Week in Review

2011-03-29T00:48:00.000-04:00

First up, I'd like to welcome my new assistant, Jake Walter, to the Robiety project. He was one of the lone souls who knows Flash and to that I am very appreciative for his help. Jake has been helping with coloring, which I am very happy with, and he is now jumping head first into animating a couple shots. I'm anxious to see what he comes up with as I'm sure it will be awesome.

I also have my good friend Andrew Jakubowski working on some basic toon shading for the 3D cityscape which will be used for quite a few backgrounds, so I told him to make it look nice.

I've just been animating everyday doing what I can. Only a few more shots need inbetweens/cleanup/colors and then everything should be good as far as main character animation. I still have some backgrounds to paint and the implementation of sound, but I got dissss.

[Begin Rant]

So, last week was a very hellish week for me. Usually I go through my weekly routine with no bothers and have been doing so for the entire semester. I've been having issues with one of my LCD monitors since last fall where it would begin to flicker upon a cold boot.

In the beginning it would only last a few minutes, so it was bearable. Over the weeks and months it got progressively worse. The constant flickering would take an hour or more to cease and recently took 15 straight hours before it decided to stop being a shithead.

At that point I figured to leave it on 24/7, disabling sleep mode, and turn on the screensaver. That worked for a week until I cleaned my room and turned off the PC and monitors for 10 whole minutes. After that, all hell broke loose.

After 72 hours of being on, the flickering wouldn't stop and I deemed the monitor unusable as of early last week. I went back to a single monitor set up from the days of old only to have my other monitor crap out in the exact same way, only it took all of 10 seconds to kill itself. I turned it on, it flickered for a few seconds, and went dim to the point where it looked like it was off.

They're both 3 and 4 year old Samsungs and were quite expensive when they first came out, so I can't afford to go out and buy new ones. I did some research and it's a common problem after the 3 year mark, right after the warranty expires.

I cracked open both monitors to find that the capacitors on both boards have been blown out. A normal cap has a flat top whereas the bad ones have a raised top with some inner goo leaking out.

I had to desolder the bad caps to remove them and of course Radio Shack didn't have the correct capacitance I needed so I had to special order them and am waiting on those to arrive before I can hope to attempt to fix my screens. So for the time being, I've been using an 11 year old 17" HP CRT that takes up 90% of my desk and has a max resolution of 1024x768 at a refresh rate that almost doesn't kill my eyes.

tl;dr
fml

Roh-bi-eh-tee

2011-03-20T02:14:00.002-04:00

The official Robiety logo and title card.

Edgey.

Pretty nighttime shot.

Still working on inbetweens, cleanup, and colors and hope to have that done soon because I'm tired of worrying about them. More and more shots are finding their way to completion with just a few outstanding shots. Maybe it's just me but sometimes there are shots that I just avoid like the plague until I grow a pair and tackle it. I've got a few of those scattered around that are always on my mind. Hope you guys like what I'm doing and if you don't, too bad.

The End of Spring Break

2011-03-14T01:24:00.000-04:00

Spring break is now over and I didn't step foot outside once. I don't have a problem with that because the weather is still crap. There's nothing that says "Spring Break" like waking up to a snow-covered city. Aside from that, I've been finishing up keys with some inbetweens scattered around. Redid some animation from different angles and am playing around with improved ideas.

Enter SIMB

2011-03-03T22:39:00.001-05:00

This is a near-final composite of SIMB's introduction shot. I spent most of this week cleaning up and coloring this shot. It took a long time but I'm very pleased with how it came out. Down the line, I may tweak pixels but for now, I'm happy with it and moving onto finish up some other stuff.

Here's a view of the timeline and all the glorious keyframes I had to draw and manage:

And here's the pretty movie version:

What Have I Been Doing?

2011-02-28T03:41:00.002-05:00

I usually save clean up for school because the Cintiqs are easier and more accurate for nice line quality as opposed to the Intuous. Rethinking a few shots that would be more interesting but haven't gotten any roughs I liked. Probably will shoot some reference or look in the mirror to get the angle I want. I need to start finishing up some quick backgrounds just so the movie looks more complete.

I started reviewing sounds as well but it's not something I can passively do as I previously thought. Narrowing down the batch of files might be brainless, but figuring out where to place sounds and when is what will take an attentive mind.

Hope to post some stuff up later this week with some "new" finished shots.

In the Works

2011-02-21T04:54:00.000-05:00

I took a lot of reference videos earlier this week with help from my sister and over this weekend finished up a couple shots tonight and inbetweened a few others. Trying to complete the first 20 animated shots pretty soon, compositing and adding effects along the way. Hoping to finish the inbetweens this week and color the remaining shots of the first quarter by week's end.

NuShift Redesign Coming Soon

2011-02-14T00:58:00.000-05:00

Slowly I have been working on a redesign of NuShift.net which will be transformed into a better portfolio site than I had before. I've been trying to integrate this blog feed with the site design and have become successful, but the formatting is lost. I'll continue to work on it in my spare time.

As for Robiety, I'm prepping shots for presenting. Minor cleanup and coloring a few extra shots to completion. Looking good so far.

New and Not So New Stuff

2011-02-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything lately because there is nothing worthwhile to post...at least that's in a presentable state. I tend to bounce around a lot in my workflow, not spending too much time on any one thing at a given moment. That could be viewed as bad or ADD and I wouldn't argue it, but if something isn't working after a few attempts, I'll move onto another shot. If I'm doing a shot and it's coming together just fine, I'll move to another shot because I get bored.

The hardest time I have is starting something new, be it a shot or a background. If I get all of the starting points knocked out real fast, I can simply build upon the foundations little by little.

Here is a background painting of the junkyard which plays a pivotal role in the movie.

And here are a couple finalized shots that will give a good indication of how the character animation will look. The green are for keyouts in post; they're not the actual final color.

I Lost Count

2011-01-01T22:46:00.000-05:00

Here's some stuff I've been working on the past few nights.

Oh yeah, and happy new year.

This is the city wall which surrounds the entire sector.

This is the back of an elevator.

Inside rails of the factory.

Propaganda.

Wastelands outside the city.

More to come soon!

Day 7 of New Work

2010-12-27T05:02:00.000-05:00

Here is a background shot of the cliff in the waterfall scene.

I started painting a set of curtains for an office shot. It's too muddy and needs more contrast, but it's a start.

Day 6, The Day That Skipped 5

2010-12-24T01:49:00.000-05:00

I did not do any work yesterday. Sad, I know. I did however finish the waterfall background tonight.

Christmas is upon us so no work will be done for 2 days. Hoping to crank out more backgrounds and finalize more designs come next week.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 4 Continued Work

2010-12-22T01:09:00.000-05:00

Not much to show but I spent the entire evening on working and reworking these rocks, at one point deleting about 45 mins worth of work because I didn't like the result.

Day 3 More WIP Backgrounds

2010-12-21T02:01:00.001-05:00

I took the weekend off to chill but got right back into production this evening.

This is the start of a closeup of the grass and water.

This is a shot of what will be an animated waterfall.

Hope to work on them both more tomorrow.

Day 2 of Work

2010-12-18T01:37:00.000-05:00

I worked on the grassy field background a bit more, adding in more details and got it to a place where it looks pretty good. I'm happy with the result.

Another shot of the grassy field, but will be used for a closeup.

Ideally one background a day would be good, but I'm not setting any goals other than to consistently put work into the project, alleviating the workload come next year. No doubt there will be some exploratory color designs in the coming days which will slow down production, but it must be done to achieve the look I am striving for.

25 Days of Robiety

2010-12-16T23:37:00.000-05:00

Not quite, but sort of. Over Christmas vacation, I plan on getting some major things done for Robiety. In an effort to maintain motivation and keep production going, I will be posting what I have worked on during the day and show any progress that I've made.

I have tried painting a few different backgrounds in different styles, trying to decide upon which fits the movie best. This is what I came up with for today:

It's not complete but it's a step in the right direction. I'm happy with how it's looking right now and if I don't hate it tomorrow, then it's probably a keeper.

The Big Post of Layouts

2010-11-30T20:07:00.000-05:00

These are some of the background layouts I've been working with, used to determine position and spacing for characters. Some are good, some are bad. Most of these are preliminary and will have detail painted in when I get around to that phase of production. As for now, they work for what I need them for and I hope to show more animation tests in the coming weeks.

Robiety Stuff

2010-11-21T21:00:00.000-05:00

I've been long past due for a progress update. This past week I've been designing and modeling the city of where the story takes place. It's not totally complete, but for most of the shots it will suffice.

Welcome to Sector51.

Still playing with render settings, so nothing is set in stone yet, but it will be toon shaded to fit with the movie.

This is the first shot in which we meet our protagonist, SIMB. We learn of his role in the factory workplace, see how he is treated amongst other robots, and much more in this single shot.

Laying the Foundation

2010-11-04T00:42:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks has been background layouts and animation keys. The movie is taking form and shaping up nicely. I've been working on a nushift.net redesign which will lend itself to robiety.com. While that's going on, I plan to do some color tests this weekend to see what style is best suited for the film.

Robiety Animation: Keys

2010-10-20T00:41:00.000-04:00

I was bored in class yesterday and decided to start doing keys of some simple animations. I can only do so many layouts during a period of time until it gets stale. Starting a new production element is always a daunting task for me. As afraid I was to start animating, I jumped right in not worrying about failing because I can always fix it. I'll post when I'm satisfied with the assets.

Robiety.com Coming Soon

2010-10-10T15:18:00.001-04:00

Last week I set up robiety.com as the official site for the film. I hope to have it complete sometime early next year. I don't plan on devoting a whole lot of time to it right now as I am still developing content for the movie. The animatic is done for now; I'll go back another time and tweak some shots most likely, but my main focus at the moment is cranking out background layouts and designs. The final movie will be in 1080p HD, but for now these images are scaled down.

More to come within the next few weeks.

Robiety Pre-Production: Meet SIMB

2010-09-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

Finished the storyboard last week and slapped an animatic together. Currently I'm reworking the animatic's timing and adding and redoing a few shots to make the pacing flow better. For the most part it's looking pretty good.

Here we have the protagonist, SIMB (Standard Issue Maintenance Bot). He's a small bot in comparison to the others at the corporate factory and is a mindless worker drone until he takes matters into his own hands to change the way society works and thinks.

The film relies heavily on real life pre-existing symbols and themes to create a comprehensive story about the inner workings of society.

School Work

2010-08-18T04:10:00.000-04:00

Since the weight of Cosmic Chase has been lifted, I've been focusing on character design and storyboarding my new film. It's something I've never done before as I try to push and challenge myself with each new project. It's been in the works since May and since then a draft of the script has been written. I'm excited about it. It's titled "Robiety".

Robiety is a story driven tale about a robotic society and the struggle of one robot to rebel against the corporation and discover happiness. This is a more mature film geared towards the older crowd, containing various intertwining themes and symbolism which is left up to the viewer to interpret. It's an open-ended story and you can take what you want from it.

I've been studying and looking up different types of robots over the last month to solidify characters. So far I've got the main character and villain along with a few extras. It'll be a heavily stylized film and contain minimal action as it will focus on acting and emotion.

Robiety will be completed in April 2011. I'll be posting more on production as I do it throughout the year.

And now for something different. Here's some stuff I worked on last semester.

Monster O's from Jeff Yandura on Vimeo.

2010 Work Reel from Jeff Yandura on Vimeo.

Hope you guys like!

The Wait is Over

2010-08-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

Sonic X: Cosmic Chase is out now! Never thought this day would come, huh?

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/544726

Go watch it and enjoy!

This is it

2010-08-08T15:56:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow Sonic X: Cosmic Chase will release during the afternoon around 3pm EST.

One more day. I think you guys can handle the wait. I've trained you good.

Cosmic Chase Testing is Complete

2010-08-01T01:34:00.001-04:00

After hours upon hours of beta testing the movie in different browsers, computers, versions, I've come to the conclusion that the latest flash player version, v10.1.53.64, sucks. It has been the constant factor that has given me problems while viewing the movie. When viewing the movie using this version, it will randomly drop or skip frames making the animation appear choppy or slow. Sure, if you have a slow computer to begin with you may not be concerned with this issue, but for those of us with powerful PCs, this abnormality seems out of place.

For the untrained eye it might not be a big deal, but I know every frame of this movie and when I don't see one, I find out why. There are a few fixes for this if you experience issues and you want to watch Cosmic Chase without a problem.

NOTE: These fixes only apply to flash player v10.1.53.64. All other players I've tested turned out just fine. To find out your flash version, click here.

There is a built in navigational system in the movie. Once it begins, hover your cursor over the bottom of the movie to bring it up. Usually clicking on the emerald will readjust the movie and the frame skipping will go away temporarily.

Downgrade your flash player. From what I can see, the next one down, v10.0.45.2, is your best bet. It's the one I'm currently running and the movie works as intended. To do this, simply visit Archived Flash Player Versions and scroll down and download the flash player 10 archive zip. Inside that you'll find all the releases and simply install the /10r45_2/flashplayer10r45_2_win.exe.

Rigorous Beta Testing

So if you follow those directions if you have any problems, you should be fine. I managed to squeeze the file size down to 9.84 MB so we're still on schedule for the release.

If You Listen Close, You Can Hear the Chapter Close

2010-07-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

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

2010-07-25T23:51:00.000-04:00

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

2010-07-20T20:28:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-12T01:12:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-08T00:17:00.000-04:00

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

2010-07-07T17:15:00.000-04:00

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

2010-07-04T21:55:00.000-04:00

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.

No News is Good News

2010-06-28T14:59:00.001-04:00

Today marks the 7 year anniversary of Sonic X Chaotic Battle. Completed in only 3 ½ months, Chaotic Battle was my first real endeavor into traditional animation. Studying other cartoons was the way I taught myself some basics of animation and CB gave me the opportunity to practice drawing preexisting characters and bring them to life.

So, Sega has a little Sonic contest going on (Thanks, Luke). I will definitely be entering this in the next couple weeks. Reading the fine print boils down to a 1-5 minute video, no 3rd party graphics or copyrighted music, and it must be original work. There's a bit of reworking and tweaking I have to do to submit to this and that's what the next couple of weeks will be spent on. We'll see how that goes.

Until my submission is finalized, I won't be spending much time on finishing Act 3. I just have to sit down and do it, but instead I decided to take a break and play Uncharted 2 the entire weekend.

Wish me luck.

I'll See You in My Dreams

2010-06-20T14:59:00.003-04:00

Last night, Ido and I went for a night on the town to see the local video game rap duo, The Adventures of Duane and Brando. They put on an awesome show as they played all of the songs we wanted to hear. Days before the show, I requested a song by posting on their YouTube and sure enough, they tossed it in their setlist and said aloud it was their first time performing that song. I talked to Duane after the show and thanked him for doing that song and he mentioned he did it for the single comment made on his YouTube. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. Here are some vids I took at the show.

Audio is definitely NSFW.

So that was a lot of fun. Hope to see them again soon. As for Cosmic Chase, I put in about 25 hours of work into Act 3 this past week alone. It's been the most productive I've been since last summer and am pretty happy. "Okay, so, what does 25 hours equal in terms of progress?" you're asking. Well let me tell you this: 22 out of 43 shots are complete. Done. Finished. Finalized. Yeah sure there might be some timing I want to tweak when it's all said and done, but the backgrounds, special effects, animation, and coloring are totally done on half of Act 3. I'm estimating if I bust my ass for the next week or two, I can have Act 3 done in that timespan.

Cosmic Chase is extremely close to being complete. I'm still going to go back and fix up the rest of the movie's pacing, cut unnecessary shots, and maybe (though I hope not) redo a shot or two. I'm trying to get this movie out asap, so I've been cutting corners wherever I can, corners that even the human eye can't see the difference. It doesn't affect the movie in any way and you guys won't even notice a difference. Act 3 is chock full of detail as it is and it's got some nifty effects. Some effects I wanted to do Flash didn't like and crashed on me 5 different attempts, so obviously that effect isn't going to make the cut.

Thanks everyone who recently subscribed and if you haven't yet, make sure to do that. Tell everyone you know to subscribe. I'd appreciate it.

Being this close to completion, when will the movie be ready for viewing? That's what everyone wants to know, right? Still reading?

The release date for Sonic X: Cosmic Chase will be announced next month. It's closer than you think.

Time to get pumped.

Be Good to Yourself

2010-06-13T23:12:00.004-04:00

A little bit of a blog redesign. I was bored with the old design and there were some new templates to mess with.

Worked a little bit on CC this week and on my new film. Other accomplishments this week include getting the platinum trophy in Demon's Souls and now I'm going back to hang with my boy Nathan Drake in Uncharted 2.

So as promised, here's the first glimpse of Act 3.

If you're not already following, please subscribe to the blog. I'd like to gauge the loyal fanbase and get a bigger response from you guys. In the future I'll be releasing sneak preview content in one format or another and it would be in your best interest to be on the VIP list.

Maybe it's Not My Weekend, But it's Going to be My Year

2010-06-06T21:09:00.000-04:00

Had a bit of a rough week so-to-speak, so I worked through it. Buried my head inside the depths of Flash and kept crankin' away. Also, I met with Ido about a concept for my college senior film so that needs to get squared away and pre-production will begin on that project. I've got an interview with an IT recruiter tomorrow about possible Flash positions in my area, so we'll see how that goes.

As for CC, I worked on it a lot this past week. Getting tired of straight up coloring, so I might switch it up and do backgrounds because those need to get done too. First ever glimpse of Act 3 coming next week.

So, What's New?

2010-05-29T16:15:00.000-04:00

Nothing and everything. I've been working on CC when I can. Hit a few road bumps in the past couple weeks with life, but I'm continuing where I left off. I won a short story writing contest at school, so that's kinda cool. Cash prize and getting published in the contest's magazine in the fall. So yeah, keeping busy and trying to do what I can to put the kabash on this project.

Top Priority: Cosmic Chase

2010-05-11T16:24:00.002-04:00

Well, that and finishing Demon's Souls. I've been working on getting my computer configured and tweaked and I'm now ready to dive into the remaining workload. I surveyed the remnants of what needs to be done and while there are still a few outstanding shots, 99% of it is colors and backgrounds. I'd like to post at least every week detailing my progress and maybe provide a screenshot of some sort.

So yeah, wish me luck.

Summa Summa Summa Time

2010-05-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

Yes, classes are finally finished. Dreams is probably 70% done and looking good. I bought a 300gb VelociRaptor HDD and 4 more gb of RAM for a total of 8gb and a copy of Win 7 and did all that stuff yesterday, gearing up for the summer. Going to be animating my ass off this summer, so I needed the equipment to do it faster. Cosmic Chase will be going into full production within the next couple of weeks once things settle down. There really isn't a whole lot left to do on CC, so I definitely want to finish that this summer, no excuses. I have the capabilities to do so and hopefully nothing gets in my way.

After CC, which is my highest priority, I want to finish Dreams and release that. After that's done, I want to start on my senior film and get that going for next semester. Now that I'll have ample amounts of time, I'd like to release more screenshots and maybe animation tests of Sonic while the wait continues. Hang on just a little bit more!

Dreams Update

2010-04-07T13:25:00.002-04:00

I've been cleaning up and coloring shots and will be posting some new stuff really soon. The audio mixing has been cleaned up and is complete. Special thanks to my friend Brad Giorio for doing the song for me; I'm extremely pleased with the results.

A couple backgrounds needed some additional elements and I finally got them in and they're looking nice. Thanks for those, Monica! I'll be posting those momentarily as well. Overall, the movie is looking good and will probably be finished over the summer. As for CC, that is a top priority as well and hope to roll that out also over summer.

Compositing

2010-02-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

Nothing new to post just yet, I've been compositing what I have as far as roughs go and have been concentrating on tightening down the timing. Over Spring Break, I plan on finishing the remaining shots so to the point where all that is needed is tie-downs and cleanup. Once all the animated shots are roughed, I'll finish compositing and send it to my composer for him to take a look at and make any adjustments to the musical track as needed.

Posted Roughs

2010-02-12T20:09:00.006-05:00

Here are some rough animations for Dreams. Hope you guys like them!

Nothin New

2010-02-09T00:56:00.001-05:00

I've been in a slump over the weekend and haven't produced any new material. I will be posting some roughs this weekend.

Roughs

2010-01-27T10:32:00.002-05:00

Production for Dreams is going good. Here are a couple roughs for the character, Billy.

EDIT: Blogger video likes to not work so I'll be using a different method for animation videos in the future.

I Deserve a Gold Star

2010-01-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

Not much going on but I've been working practically everyday on Only in Dreams and am starting to devote spare time to Sonic to get that project over and done with. It's not easy juggling projects but the one with a due date takes precedence. I will post some rough animation of Dreams within the next week so you get the feel for how it'll look.

Sonic is still in the coloring phase. Taking time before school or before bed to color a few frames here and there will add up in the long run, so that's the current plan.

Backgrounds

2009-12-30T15:07:00.001-05:00

Between hanging out with family and friends, I've been coloring backgrounds here and there. Here is one of the last few shots of the movie. This background is 99% done, I just need to add one last thing in it but otherwise it looks good.

It's a Bit Nipply Out

2009-12-21T15:06:00.000-05:00

School's out for a few weeks but the work doesn't stop. Besides coloring my backgrounds and possibly getting some animated keys done, I spent 10 hours with my music composer over the weekend recording a song from scratch that would fit. He's got a little studio set up in his house with guitars and keyboards and whatnot. The song is a little over 3 minutes in length and contains recorded guitars, bass, drums, and strings. I'm really happy with what we've done so far just recording rough stuff which doesn't sound rough at all.

Basically, I told him what I was looking for and what should happen where and then we'd play the animatic and he'd just start jamming on his guitar while watching the movie and then we'd chop it up into pieces we liked went on from there, layering each instrument on top of each other; it sounds pretty professional. We used Pro Tools to record and put the track together and I'm really excited about how the final mixed product will sound.

New Stuff On the Way

2009-12-08T00:54:00.000-05:00

I've been working on backgrounds and just started to do some animation for Only In Dreams. I will be posting some finished work soon. Semester is wrapping up so I will finish coloring all of my backgrounds during the Christmas vacation and have lots to show.

Continued Work on Only In Dreams

2009-11-29T14:24:00.002-05:00

I've been working on painting backgrounds and setting up organizing and composting layouts. The movie has 49 shots total so that's really not too bad. I'd like to start putting in some key animation for some shots so hopefully that will happen within the next couple weeks.

Here's Your Monthly CC Post

2009-11-21T22:52:00.000-05:00

The shading outlines are all in for 99% of the shots in Act 3. The other 1% need special attention that will come later. So remaining work that needs to be done is as follows: color > backgrounds > movie overhaul.

I've been working on CC a few hours a week usually while I'm waiting to leave for class or something of that sort. Little by little, the minutes and hours add up to something substantial.

Only In Dreams

2009-11-15T14:55:00.001-05:00

Only In Dreams is the title of my school film project which I have been working on for quite a while now. It is about two boys who interact with each other in the dream world and don't realize whatever happens in the dream world can have consequences in the real world. It's about 3 minutes in length and will be completed in the Spring of 2010. I'll be posting weekly updates for this film (on top of the usual) as a requirement for the class and also to document progress throughout the project.

Here's some bad concept art for you guys to take a look at:

Forget and Not Slow Down

2009-10-18T02:50:00.000-04:00

I finished cleanup on all shots last night. Next up is color. I try to work on it a few hours during the week before bed, but little by little it's getting done.

It's Almost Easy

2009-08-31T23:03:00.001-04:00

August has been a busy month for me. Some work. Some play. Some unfortunate friends and family events. Haven't worked on the project in a couple weeks due to the latter. School starts next week (omfg...) and it's starting to get hectic.

I realize I don't post often; you guys are often lucky to get one once a month at max. There's never anything substantial to write about. I mean, I could tell you about my day and use my twitter account so you can follow everything I do, but that's lame. At any rate, here's the deal: there are 11 shots that still need finished character animation. So Act 3 is 75% complete in terms of char anim which is really good. Trying to finish what I can when I can. Every little bit definitely helps.

Release date is still up in the air. It'll be done when it's done, but you guys will like it...I hope.

Timing Completed

2009-07-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Yep. You heard it right. Timing and pencil tests have been completed for the last 67 seconds of the film. Now on to fleshing out the characters and implementing backgrounds.

Happy Fun Stuff

2009-07-17T04:32:00.003-04:00

Hey gang. Production is going smoothly. From the 91 panels from the storyboard/animatic comes 43 different shots in Act 3. Each shot is approx. 1-2 seconds on average. I've been slaving away on drawing pencil tests for every shot and get the timing completed so when it comes down to it, I can just get right into it and draw the characters without doing much thinking or planning since it's already been done.

Out of the 43 shots, half of them are timed out. There are a few out of that bunch that I want to tweak the timing on but for the most part it's looking really good. Sometimes I end up drawing too many frames and the action gets slowed down e.g. a run sequence. Other times there needs to be more anticipation of movement and a few frames of a hold on a pose. Usually if it looks and feels right, then it is right.

The State of Cosmic Chase

2009-07-06T17:23:00.004-04:00

This past week was a bit busy with the holiday weekend and all, but I managed to scan and organize all of the storyboards for Act 3. Ninety-one panels and some hours later, I managed to put together an animatic and send it off to Ido for review. The timing has been roughed and according to the animatic, Act 3 is about 1:30m +/- a few seconds which is very close to my initial prediction. That's about 60-70 seconds of animation to create. I don't know how long that will take but I'm hoping to rough out all of the animation for the entire act before doing any ink.

Everything's looking really good. We've got some great stuff planned and if the animatic is any indication, Act 3 will be totally amazing. I'm very excited.

Act 3 Storyboard Complete

2009-06-08T15:07:00.003-04:00

Thanks to the help of my beautiful and talented girlfriend, the remaining scenes have been storyboarded out. Soon, I will create an animatic and time out each shot and make any necessary tweaks with Ido.

Right now, I'm constantly studying for spring classes and don't have much time to sit down and animate. In 3 more weeks, classes will be over and I will have 2 whole entire months with a clear schedule. I'd like to pump out some animation and clean it up and see if I can find someone to do colors for me which would save a crapload of time. I've done everything 100% on my own thus far and I figure it's about time to ask for help so this project sees the light of day. Once fall classes start, CC might take a backseat so we'll see how it goes.

New Location

2009-05-17T21:09:00.002-04:00

Not a big issue but I decided to move the blog off of my server back to blogspot because there are more features when hosting with blogspot vs. your own server. Make sure to update your RSS feeds!

I've talked with Ido this past week and he basically rewrote Act 3 and it's even better than before. Storyboarding and pre-production has been started on it and will continue before any animation is done.

Half True

2009-04-02T14:07:00.001-04:00

I hope you guys enjoyed the April Fools pic. It was indeed a joke, but the part about my job is real.

Dark Days

2009-04-01T03:47:00.002-04:00

Hey guys. I'm posting a follow up to last week's post and letting everyone know what's going on. Well, for starters, I got laid off yesterday so I am no longer bound by the 9-5. It's been brewing for 3 months and the bottom of the company fell out temporarily and I happened to fall through. I'm not angry or anything since it is most likely a blessing in disguise. I can go to school full-time in the fall while collecting unemployment, and best of all, I'll have plenty of time to work on CC! And you know what plenty of time = ? Release!

Yes, that's right my friends, now that I am a bum at home with nothing better to do than play video games and drink beer (oh and do occasional homework, pff), I can devote much more time to working on CC. So really, it's not a bad gig, right? I mean, after taking a 30% paycut earlier this year, I'll probably be making close to that money on the unemployment bandwagon. I'm fine, really.

Also, in celebration of completing Act 2, here is a little screenshot of what's to come.

Enjoy!

Relive the Magic

2009-03-23T10:05:00.007-04:00

Yup. It was 3 years ago today that I released the trailer and it is still being enjoyed by many. I wish the movie was out by now but it would not have been as good as it will be when it's been completed.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/303079

Act 2 is going as planned. I had aimed to finish it by the end of this month, and will actually meet that goal. It's very exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and see all the hard work come to fruition. I've been working on the final seconds for Act 2 for quite some time and it's pretty intense as to what came out of it all. Additional pre-production for Act 3 will start soon and work on the final 60 seconds will commence.

Expect a new screenshot sometime next week.

More Character Designs

2009-03-10T13:25:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple more images from a character I designed. We were supposed to make a character and draw it in different styles. Here is a comic book rendition and a style of one of my favorite artist's, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway.

Hope you guys like 'em!

As for Sonic, I've been working on it a little bit every few days. Act 2 should be finalized by the end of the month. I'm excited!

On My Mind

2009-03-05T12:00:00.004-05:00

Do you guys think NuShift.net needs a redesign? Cuz I do. I don't really have any idea what I want to do for it and as much as website design gives me indigestion, I still feel good when it's all said and done.

I rented Killzone 2 and it's amazing. I'm not really into console FPS but this one has changed my tune. Definitely check it out if you get a chance.

I worked on CC last night, just coloring up some frames really quick. Spring break is coming up this week, but I still have to go to work, so it's not much of a break for me. I'm sure I'll be loaded up with plenty of HW to carry me through.

Act 2 is still chugging along. Ideally, the best route is to do the drawing and animation at home, and then in my freetime at work, cleanup and color. The past few weeks at work there hasn't been anything going on, so I just worked on HW and CC for 8 hours a day. Nice, right? This week, not so much. Got some updates and new projects to do so my freetime has come to a temporary end. Hopefully it'll come back soon.

There's some stuff I want to get done in a relatively short amount of time but I usually only have the motivation at work during the day. When I arrive at home, I don't feel like doing anything other than chilling out. This blog post? Yeah, I'd never do this at home, that's for sure. Anyway, CC is looking really good. Everytime I work on it, it seems the new animation looks better and better. I wish Newgrounds enabled either other file formats or even more than 15mb swf files. It would be so awesome if I had the power of After Effects in the CC workflow. Flash is so limiting and I realize this everytime I work on the project. With AE, I could truly achieve the finesse and quality that I strive for. For example, to make glowing explosions look white hot, it takes a few mouseclicks and a couple glow setting adjustments to achieve that look in AE. In Flash, it requires converting every white ember to a movieclip and messing with the individual glow settings to get it right because even if there are multiple embers in one movieclip, the glow effect does not do a good job at maintaining the effect between each individual ember.

I've been reluctant to actually learn ToonBoom. As Adam Phillips has mentioned, it's supposedly really intuitive and a good piece of software. Maybe for a future project I'll take the time to learn it. It's got some nice features like a moveable camera, color palette customization (with names, OMG!), and rotable viewport. I think Flash for animation is becoming outdated. They keep adding features to the development side of things and while CS4 did add some stuff for the animator and designer, it's still nowhere as robust as it needs to be. IK bones? Seriously? I don't see myself ever doing puppet animation again. I could have used that feature like what, 8 years ago?

As far as I'm concerned, Flash can be used in a workflow but shouldn't be the ONLY program. It should be used in conjunction with some sort of post-production application to get the film-like quality if you so choose.

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

2009-03-03T09:55:00.005-05:00

Hey guys. Act 2 is being pushed hard as I want that out of the way before I continue work on Act 3. I've been working on it here and there, quite a few hours logged over the weekend already. All of the animation is done for the last part of Act 2. All that's left is color, cleanup, and backgrounds which makes me happy. The project is still on track for a Christmas 2009 release as everything is looking good.

Here's some stuff I've been working on at school. The assignment was to draw a hero and a villain. More stuff to come soon.

Enjoy!

Total Time for February: 9 hours

Posters and Pies

2009-01-28T10:35:00.003-05:00

School is full swing, I try to do my homework during downtime that pops up often and when homework is complete and downtime still remains, I end up working on CC.

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I made chicken pot pies for dinner. I cut out Sonic on one of them.

On another note, last semester we had a business project to do which involved an animated trailer and promotional ads for the movie and production company. We chose to use CC because...well, the trailer was done. My girlfriend ended up drawing a promotional poster for Cosmic Chase in her own style and I think it turned out really good.

Total Hours for January: 9h 30m

Paralysis of Analysis

2008-12-29T12:15:00.002-05:00

I had to come into work today to finish up a few projects before the new year arrives. We had a lengthy meeting about the year in review and upcoming opportunities and the like. We briefly talked about something that has been a crux of companies and projects. It's called "Paralysis of Analysis" and is self explanatory: something gets analyzed over and over and over so much to where nothing ever comes of it. It goes along the lines of "less talk more work"...I think you all know where I'm going with this. Cosmic Chase has been analyzed over and over by me and I know what needs to get done and how to do it, but I don't put in the hours like I once did.

That's my end of the year analytical rant. Have a Happy New Year and let's hope and pray 2009 is the year of the release.

Everyone Loves Updates

2008-12-04T13:44:00.002-05:00

Hi guys! Nothing new and exciting happened this month in the way of anything whatsoever. Classes end next week so I need to finish final projects. One is a 3d animated short and another is for a business class which ranged in projects to choose from. My girlfriend and I are working together and are going to do a promotional package for Cosmic Chase, so you guys will see some artwork of hers soon.

Other than that, I might have to work over the holidays. Let's shoot for Christmas 2009 release, k?

October in Review

2008-11-03T13:11:00.003-05:00

So October has come and gone and I didn't work on CC all that much. Currently I have no idea when I will get the motivation and time to work on the project, but I do work on it inbetween homework now and then.

Total time: 3 hours 45 minutes

Weekly Update #14

2008-09-29T09:07:00.004-04:00

No progress this week either. I ended up upgrading my computer to the fact that I ended up building one. It's a pretty beefy budget system that's great for gaming and working.

Chassis: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184
Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150314
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

In the near future I want to get another graphics card to run SLI. The new Adobe CS4 suite utilizes GPUs now so running Flash and Photoshop should be much faster. Not to mention rendering in Maya will take less time.

9-21 - 9-27: 0 hours :(

Weekly Update #13

2008-09-22T11:26:00.002-04:00

No progress this week. Computer was down for half the week as my power supply blew out late Sunday night. Had to order a replacement and what not. Been busy with school and other stuff.

Mega Man 9 came out today for Wii. Can't wait to check it out.

I'm selling this Guitar Hero 3 bundle of mine on ebay.

9-14 - 9-20: 0 hours :(

Weekly Update #12

2008-09-15T09:31:00.004-04:00

More cleanup work, just taking it easy for a while. Classes began and I'm just starting to get a new routine going. Homework will eventually get in the way of Cosmic Chase but I'll try not to let it overshadow it completely.

9-7 - 9-13: 2 hours 15 minutes

Weekly Update #11

2008-09-08T13:03:00.003-04:00

More of the same. Tying down frames, doing line work. This week I would like to clean up some line work.

I've been keeping accurate records of the project as time has passed. It's fun to look back and see different incremental saves and seeing the amount of progress that's been made over the years. In the future, I'd like to break down certain shots and go through them in-depth and talk about how it was set up and created and everything that goes along with the workflow at the time. But that won't be until after the movie is released. Stay strong.

8-31 - 9-6: 5 hours

Weekly Update #10

2008-09-02T14:06:00.003-04:00

Not much to report, got some major work accomplished this week in the form of tying down frames.

8-24 - 8-30: 11 hours 30 minutes

Hyper Sonic

2008-08-29T11:07:00.007-04:00

Here is the finalized animation of Hyper Sonic previously showcased last week. It shows all of the steps taken to get a sketch into full color. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Weekly Update #09

2008-08-25T12:24:00.002-04:00

Nothing new to report. Hoping to get some work done this week before class begins next week. We'll see how that goes.

8-17 - 8-23: 4 hours 15 minutes

New Prelim

2008-08-22T11:37:00.002-04:00

Here's a little something for you patient fans of mine:

Here's a preliminary sketch of Hyper Sonic looking badass. Another shot from the final seconds of Act 2. This image is solid proof that progress is being made, albeit a slow pace.

Weekly Update #08

2008-08-18T21:56:00.002-04:00

Not much happened this week. Didn't have much time to work on it as I had hoped. Flash kept on crashing at work so I wasn't able to get anything done.

8-10 - 8-16: 1 hour 30 minutes

Weekly Update #07

2008-08-10T14:21:00.004-04:00

OK, so, here's a screenshot.
You may recognize this image as the prelim was posted 10 months ago. The entire 60 frame animation of this shot has been completed, and this is just one of them. This takes place at the end of Act 2 after Sonic becomes hyper. Hope you guys like it.

8-3 - 8-9: 15 hours 15 minutes

Weekly Update #06

2008-08-04T00:23:00.002-04:00

Lots of progress made this week. The new workflow seems to be very helpful in the development of accurate timing. The Act 2 pencil test has been finished and has received Ido's approval. There were a few things changed in terms of timing and shot composition, but it's good to go. It came to about 13-14 seconds of new animation over the course of 6 shots.

In other news, I'm still finalizing one of the shots with color so I can post a screenshot. Coloring it takes so long because the shot is over 30 hand drawn frames for 2 characters. It may take some time, but giving you guys some eye candy is a high on my to do list.

7-27 - 8-2: 17 hours

Weekly Update #05

2008-07-27T23:05:00.002-04:00

This week I have started my new workflow which aims to tie down animation quicker and more efficiently. I am able to work with Ido more cooperatively in showing accurate visuals of timing and movement. Using this method, changes are easily made as we can add and delete frames in a more timely manner without spending much time tying down poses until they see final color.

Of course, this method doesn't actually speed up the animation process at all. Why? Because I've upped the animation quality yet again. What does that mean for the movie? Basically, now that I'm able to see exactly how a shot is going to look, I can play with the timing and make the characters move more realistically and fluidly, creating a richer viewing experience. More frames = smoother animation and overall raises the bar on production quality which is what I strive to do continually throughout the animation process. It's going to be good.

7-20 - 7-26: 5 hours

Weekly Update #04

2008-07-21T08:38:00.002-04:00

Not much to report this week. Did some cleanup work for Act 2 which finishes the line work for that specific shot. Still needed is flat color and shading and a background, then it's good to go.

7-13 - 7-19: 2 hours

Weekly Update #03

2008-07-13T21:53:00.002-04:00

I worked on finalizing the Act 2 storyboard with Ido and did some cleanup work on the shot I've been working on for a long time now.

Week 7-6 - 7-12: 7 hours

I'm going to change up my workflow in hopes of getting things done quicker, or at least make my time more efficient. In the past, I worked on a shot from pencil test to final color and shading. Now, I'm going to finish out Act 2 with pencil tests, which allows for an accurate visual for timing, and then go back after it's all drawn out and do the cleanup work and then finally coloring.

It will be helpful in the sense that Ido and I can go over the pencil tests together and tighten up timing in a much easier fashion. It will also enable him to play more of a directorial part in the production phase. Not to mention, I'll feel a whole lot better when I see some major progress by doing pencil tests for every shot for the rest of the movie. It'll feel like I'll have more accomplished and then possibly get another hand in on the cleanup/coloring phase to speed this everlasting project along.

I'm excited.

Weekly Update #02

2008-07-06T21:01:00.002-04:00

Production is going well. I finally started cleanup work on the the shot that's been worked on forever, soon to be colored and finished. Not much else going on in the way of CC.

Week 6-29 - 7-5: 8 hours 45 mins

Last night, my sister and her friend and my girlfriend and I went to the Jimmy Eat World concert here in Michigan and it was the most amazing show ever. It was a small venue, about 200-300 people attended and we were front row, right in front of the band. My sister and her friend each got guitar picks personally handed to them by the band. It was so awesome.

Weekly Update #01

2008-06-28T15:34:00.006-04:00

Hokai so, here's the deal. Spring semester ended recently and I have set aside time every night to work on Cosmic Chase. It doesn't have that much more animation left, but act 3 will definitely prove to be the best act in terms of animation quality.

Cosmic Chase was started as a side project back in late 2003, after the success of Chaotic Battle. It later was modified to accommodate a wider audience and Shadow was introduced. Over the years, my self-taught animation skills have improved greatly, and with the addition of going to art school, my skills have improved even further. The quality in timing and animation is quite apparent when viewing acts 1 and 2 and now 3. Some shots will be redrawn and the movie will be retimed to have a faster pace than it already has. In doing so, the movie length may be shorter than originally anticipated, which isn't really a big deal.

I'm thinking about adding in possible extras to the movie such as deleted scenes, concept art, and maybe preliminary animation. Whether or not these features will actually appear, I'm just thinking out loud so it may never come to fruition. Ido and I have some other fun ideas and subtle easter egg-like features that have yet to be developed, but I'm sure you all will enjoy it.

Week 6-22 - 6-28: 6 hours

It's time to get excited again.

On another totally unrelated note, Diablo 3 was announced and it looks insanely amazing and I'm totally geeked about it.

Long Overdue Progress Update

2008-06-24T21:02:00.002-04:00

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Spring classes have ended and I'm working on CC every night. I'm still finishing up the last few shots in act 2 and then it'll be full speed ahead on act 3. Even after act 3 is finished, we're still going to go back to acts 1 and 2 and do some editing.

The project is still alive and kicking.

Cosmic Chase Finished!!

2008-04-01T09:29:00.002-04:00

I haven't updated in a while because I have been slaving away on animation frames over the past few months. It's finally done! I believe my hours of hard work have paid off and made CC into an epic movie that will be exciting to watch for years to come. There will be a closed sneak peek tonight around 8pm EST for forum members. Sonic X Cosmic Chase will be released tomorrow on NuShift and later on Newgrounds.com.

I hope you guys enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Shadows and Regrets

2007-12-21T23:09:00.001-05:00

As a Christmas present to everyone, I have released my semester long project for my 2D Digital Animation class. It's a music video which clocks in at a little over 4 minutes in length. This was over a hundred hours in the making over the span of 15 weeks.

Shadows and Regrets

Check it out; I hope you guys like it.

Class Final Project

2007-12-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

OK so, as I've stated in the past, I've been extremely busy with school projects and next week is the last week of classes. That said, I will be finishing my epic 4 minute long music video over the weekend and into the beginning of next week. I will be posting it on NuShift as it it's a combination of Flash, After Effects, Photoshop, and Maya so the filesize will be quite large. It's around 2.5gb uncompressed right now so it'll be up within the month.

And Now for Something Totally Different

2007-11-11T13:38:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, an animator by the name of Pendleton Ward came to visit my school. You may not have heard of him but he created this awesome short called "Adventure Time". He came to talk about the animation industry and how to get in and showed some finished movies and some animatics. He was a funny and cool guy and drew pictures and autographed them for everyone.

Preliminary Drawing and Ink

2007-10-11T17:45:00.000-04:00

Here's a screenshot of Sonic vs. Shadow from act 2. It's been a while since I've last worked on this shot so it's not finished but this is always how the first steps come out looking.

Even if it Kills Me

2007-09-21T10:44:00.000-04:00

So fall is quickly approaching and the semester is in full force. The leaves will soon begin to change colors and fall to the ground as they eventually begin to die as the weather grows cold. However this is not the case for Cosmic Chase! Granted I have negative amounts of time to work on it these days as I have school projects to focus on. I plan to make an animated music video for my 2D animation class so I will be working on that feverishly until it's completed before the semester ends in December. Depending on filesize and whatnot when it's finished, I'd like to post it on Nushift so you can all check it out. It's going to be drawn in Flash and composited in After Effects and whatever else I decide to use. The backgrounds will be done in Photoshop and I'm working on doing some 3D models to animate and save time on drawing. This is just what I'm thinking so I may or may not end up doing this in the long run.

Since the class is about After Effects, I'm hoping to make it as commercial as possible and really blend the lines between Flash and production quality film. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I'd like to post some screenshots of this video as I begin to work on it as well as showcase some CC shots.

I'll finish CC eventually...even if it kills me.

I Am Tired and Hungry and Totally Useless

2007-06-08T10:18:00.000-04:00

The spring semester has two more weeks left before summer classes begin. I have literally had no time to work on CC in the past month pretty much due to extensive reading, writing, researching, more reading on top of the daily grind. I stayed up last night working on CC for a short while however, just so I don't become lazy again. I seriously hope my summer class is not as intense so I can get some animation done.

At any rate, Act 3 is looking really good so far. I've got about 18 seconds of animation done on it (or whatever the previous post says) and it's top notch animated quality. Not to say the first two acts are poorly animated, but there has been significant improvements between acts; it simply gets more awesome as the movie continues. No doubt my first year at art school has actually taught me some versatile techniques and that is what is making CC look more and more polished every day.

There are still no plans for release but I hope to do some promo work when that time nears. I know everyone is complaining about how long it's taking for me to crank this movie out it will truly be a spectacle to see. Everyone is like "it's 2007 where is it" blah blah and "why did you make the trailer if it's not a real movie" and stuff. To those people I say this: it's worth the wait.

SXCC Progress

2007-05-15T16:52:00.000-04:00

Overall: 85%
Hours Logged: 1149:15
Animation Time: 6:24
Estimated Time: 7:30

SXCC News

2007-05-05T16:03:00.000-04:00

I've been working hard on CC all week and hope to continue working on it. More detail is going into the final act so there is no telling when it will be finished. I'm still working full-time and I'm only taking a couple courses over summer which will hopefully give me some free time to animate.

SXCC Progress

2007-04-09T22:06:00.000-04:00

Overall: 84%
Hours Logged: 1126:15
Animation Time: 6:17
Estimated Time: 7:30