Production Update 175: Birthday Week!

This past week was pretty awesome, mostly in part because it was my birthday 🙂 But not only that, for some strange reason, I have an abnormal percentage of my friends that share the same birthday week as me. I work with person who has the same birthday, and our office is only about 20 people. One of my closest anime friends has the exact same birthday as me. And two of my closer friends have birthdays in the same week. So needless to say this week was a fantastic time to catch up with a lot of people that I have missed while I was finishing up Episode 1, Convergence.

On my birthday, I got some balloons from my parents sent to the office. So we decided to have a little fun with them at work and take some great photos and some video too.

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That night, some friends of ours threw a party at a local retro arcade/bar called the Bonus Round. We got to throw down in some Mortal Kombat 2, Rush and some Pinball while having a few drinks. It was one of those places I always talked about going to but never got around to actually getting there.

Later in the week, my friends and I went out for hibachi and ate some great food. Afterwards we met up for some board games and some catching up since I finished school and a couple of them just got back from their honeymoon.

It wasn’t all birthday party fun this week though! I got some images gathered for the e-book cover and laid and I also gathered some images for a thank you card I want to make for Patreon supporters. I also got word that my panels for SoDak con have been approved , so I will be screening Cosmic Rage and also presenting on the history of CGI in anime. It should be a great time. It will be the first time I will be traveling across state to finally get a chance to see SoDak con.

Mid-week I am looking to write up a review of Persona 4!

Things to come…

Full disclosure, I didn’t have anything really prepared for last week’s blog post. Over the past few weeks I haven’t thought much about the mid-week blog posts I typically do. So, with that in mind, I want to give you an update as to what some of the upcoming posts that I am working on will be, so you can look forward to new mid-week content.

Top 5 things I learned from making Episode 1 of Cosmic Rage.

Top 5 issues/dilemmas going forward on Cosmic Rage.

Reviews of things on my “to watch” and “to read” pile (Kill la Kill, Persona 4, Gurren Lagann, Shirobako, Psycho Pass, Bakuman, Resident Evil, Inuyashiki) and more.

An introduction post to the band (Phoenix Ash) that has music used for the closing credits for the episode, Convergence, of Cosmic Rage.

I have a Photography class this summer, pictures will be shared!

Anything you want to see? Just reach out and let me know!

Production Update 174: Off Week

I spent some time this past week unwinding and getting ready for the gardening season. It was an enjoyable week to be out in nature. I even hit a nearby park with one of my friends and we had a pleasant mod morning hike, enjoyed some iced coffee and of course we talked creative endeavors. This week I spent some time reflecting on things that was probably long overdue since it has been a hectic past few months with wrapping up class, finishing up episode 1 and launching the Patreon page and more.

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While I did take a break from actual production this week, all was not lost. I have been working on some behind the scenes things. One of them, I am going to keep under wraps for now. The other task was gathering some reference images for some designs for the e-book cover, which will be one of the next items I will be working on.

I will be sharing some of the things I have been reflecting on over the course of the next few weeks. It has been nice return to normalcy since school has wrapped up. Looking forward to sharing some of the content I have in mind for future posts.

Production Update 173: Art Show Scheduled!

It was one of those weeks where a lot of the work I did was behind-the-scenes type stuff and catching up on some loose ends. I have started submitting The first episode, which has been named Convergence, to some animation festivals. This requires some filling out of paper work and other details that once I get things done, I can hopefully submit with not a lot of work. This is actually the first project I have submitted to animation festivals which is a little new to me.

I have also been gathering some materials that I find inspiring for the e-book cover that I am going to be working on this month. I will have these materials posted up for Patreon supporters to check out. Speaking of Patreon supporters, I also got the storyboards for episode 2 posted up as well. The boards are pretty rough since they are more reflective of the e-book format. So part of May will be fleshing these out more and refining the script.

I also have organized an art showing for some production art and more at a local coffee shop for 2017! I love Dunn Bros coffee, ever since I had them when I lived in Minneapolis. I am extremely excited to have plenty of time to prepare assets and get things printed for the show. There will be lots of artwork to share and some new pieces will be created just for the show too.

I’ll be rendering out some clips for the second scene of Convergence to get posted on Instagram this week as well.

More animation coming your way soon!

Introducing James Larabee

Where are you from: Born in Toledo Ohio, grew up in Danville Illinois and then Grove City Ohio.  Moved to Texas and never looked back!  I love living in Dallas!

Why do you want to be a voice actor: Voiceacting is acting-pretending-and gives me a chance to be people I could never be in real life.  Also, as a voice actor, I can be cast in many more roles than a film or stage production that is looking for someone who has a look or age that I might not fit.
Who is your favorite VO actor: Todd Haberkorn is a great actor, and is amazing!
Who is your favorite anime/game/cartoon character: I gotta go with Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.  Great acting, voice acting, and I identify with being a dad, a husband, and heck…he’s Incredible!
If you could voice any character, who would it be and why: The Joker!   I have a great version of his voice that I think could go toe to toe with Mark Hamill!
What drew you to audition for Cosmic Rage: The art style always pulls me into a project, then it’s the story; both of these hold true with Cosmic Rage!
Where can fans follow you at or find more of your work: Well, you can always follow me by watching my IMDb or check out some of my art and demos at: www.thehomeofhappiness.weebly.com

Production Update 172: Finals Week

I took the most of the week off from doing much work. I have finals the first couple days of the week so it was needed to get some rest in before hand and to just unwind overall. It’s been a super busy year so far with school, wrapping up Cosmic Rage and more. This week I got to experience the wedding of one of my closest friends and I also got outdoors for the first hike of the year considering how busy I was and also the rainy and cold weather we have been having lately. I am excited to get a chance to catch up with everyone now that school is wrapping up.

But enough about that. Let’s dive into what we have going on next week! There are two items I am going to be kicking off next week. The first thing, storyboards for episode 2. The second episode is planned out, but they need to be fleshed out a touch more. I will get the current boards posted up on the Patreon page this week for supporters to check out. The dialogue scenes need to be expanded a bit.

The second item is finishing up the e-book of Episode 1. The e-book is fleshed out, I need to design a few pages yet and the cover. The plan is to have this wrapped up by the end of May, but I will keep everyone posted.

Looking forward to getting back into things this week!