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.

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 168: Finish Line is in Sight!

Sorry for the late production update this week, but I was really trying to avoid the internet on Monday in case I stumbled across Walking Dead spoilers. You see, the Walking Dead is a show I very much love to watch week to week. Binge watching is ok, but I prefer to consume my media an episode at a time so I can really think about things that went on or why creators chose a certain direction. Basically I want to savor it from week to week, and since this season has been terrible with news sites having spoilers on Monday mornings, I went into full offline mode.

In other news, animation revisions are almost all wrapped up. I have a few changes to make to Fenix’s character this weekend but the rest of the animation is done. I had a productive week finishing up the last of the scenes I needed to finish up.

On the audio front, the audio team is finishing up the last three scenes and then everything will be good to go. We need to finalize a few sound effects and then I need to do the final mix, with the voice over.

So what is on deck for this coming week? This week I will be working on some promotional materials for Siouxper Con and following conventions, tweaking the scenes with Fenix and working on the final audio mix. I also am going to be making the credits later this week as well. 12 days away until the premiere!

Production Update 167: Screening Information

Episode one is getting closer and closer to reaching our premiere date. I thought I would take a quick moment to share confirmed appearances and screenings of the first episode at conventions this year. I am still working out what an online release looks like so don’t worry if you can’t make it to a convention to see it. I will share more on this front when things are a little clearer.

Anyways, the premiere will be in my home-state South Dakota at Siouxper Con. I am very excited to be able to share the first episode here. The following week, I will be at Anime Detour for a screening on Friday. No better way to kick Detour off than seeing some original animation in my opinion. Cosmic Rage has also been confirmed for Tokyo in Tulsa in Oklahoma as well in July.

There are a few more I am working on and still looking at more conventions in the midwest and south to get to, so if you know of any, feel free to send some info my way!

On to the production update! It has been a very good week in terms of production. I received more audio files for scenes and we are only a few scenes away from having the audio work all wrapped up. There is some fine tuning going on for a couple scenes that had more animation and artwork added to them during the process.

In terms of animation, I wrapped up a few scenes that I had some edits to and also wrapped up a new scene that required more extensive artwork and compositing than the other scenes that needed extensions. I have one scene remaining that has more extensive work on it, the other scenes are more minor tweaks and edits.

More updates and news coming soon!

Production Update 166: Audio Work

The premiere of Cosmic Rage is getting closer! Production is going through some final edits and audio work. All of the voice over work is wrapped up. I really have been fortunate enough to work with such a great cast, and I still haven’t revealed all of them to you yet. The cast has been super amazing in bringing the characters to life and handling revisions.

Audio production is entering the final stages. There are a few shots that need some minor edits and three scenes that need some additional sound effects added in. Audio production is very close to being wrapped up.

From an animation standpoint, I am closing in on wrapping up the first episode. There are some minor edits to a handful of scenes. I do have two scenes that I need to finish fleshing out the animation for. My goal is to get those two scenes wrapped up this week so I can get them sent out for final audio polishing.

Thank you all for stopping by. I have many more announcements coming in soon. Very exciting time and news upcoming. Thank you for all of your support!

Production Update 162: 3D Renders!

Hey everyone! I really appreciate your patience over the last few weeks. There has been a lot of things going on, so let me get you all up to speed!

At work I have been putting in a little bit of extra time in on a few projects. It comes with the territory. Things have settled down recently which has freed me up a little bit.

I’ve also been back in school this semester working towards finishing my graphic design degree. I’m taking two courses this semester versus just one. My branding class is going great so far. The course that has been throwing me a slight curveball is my Art History advanced writing class. I have a big paper that is due by the end of February so I have been putting in white a bit of time on that. I am getting close to getting to the next check point on this paper so this course will have a lighter workload.

One thing I have also started but haven’t mentioned here yet, is I am also doing some assistant teaching/critiquing for an online animation course. My class has been fantastic so far and I have enjoyed every minute of providing feedback to other animators looking to up their game. The course is starting to level out so I am getting some of my free time back.

Slowly but surely I am getting some of my time back to keep plugging away on Cosmic Rage. While it sounds like I haven’t gotten things done, I assure you that isn’t the case. I have been doing some light 3D work and getting some renders set up so that the files can render while I am doing all of these other things. As things start to settle down, I will have my 3D renders ready to go for when I get back into After Effects.

Things have been forming nicely on the voice over cast. I will be updating you more on the VO cast really soon! Thanks again everyone for you patience, I am excited to get back in action!

Production Update 161: Another Scene Complete!

Production Update time! It’s been a pretty hectic week. I had to play catch up on a lot of real life stuff and school is getting started for the semester too so I a lot of “adulating” to do. Having said that, I found a bit of time over the weekend to get some work on Cosmic Rage in. Let’s get into it.

I have recently been working on the first scene of the episode. After I received the VO and shuffled some things around, I decided I needed a couple new pieces of art that I didn’t anticipate. So I was able to get those pieces of art drawn, inked and colored. With the new artwork in hand, I started working on animating the new scenes.

As I sit here typing out the production update for the week, I am also uploading the new scene 1 to send off for audio production. So far, the first 3 scenes are completed animation wise. While this doesn’t sound like a lot, there is one thing to understand, the opening scenes needed a little more fleshing out in terms of new artwork to handle the voice over capacity. When I start getting into the meat of the episode, there isn’t much for artwork that will be needed and production will go by quickly. I believe right now, there are 4 or 5 more scenes that need to be fleshed out a bit and the rest don’t require as much work.

I am still working on finalizing the VO cast. I’ve run into a couple hiccups in regards to a couple roles, but nothing that is hindering production at this point.

As things start to settle in again, I aim to be back on for blogs in the middle of the week(s) again and looking forward to revealing the voice cast as well!

Production Update 160: Back to the Real World!

Well my grant period has come to an end. Once again, I need to say thank you to the South Dakota Arts Council for awarding me the project grant. I was able to take the entire month of December off from my full-time job so I could work exclusively on Cosmic Rage. December was a whirlwind month and I am really amazed at how fast it went. Production has been amazing and I am in a good place now. But what does that mean?

Well, I have the majority of things prepped right now, I am awaiting some of the final voice overs to come in to begin plugging away at the remaining scenes that need to be done. I am hoping that by the end of this week the VO cast is pretty much done with outside of some revisions.

I spent some time this last week finishing up mocking up some 3D backgrounds and getting things framed up. I have one drawing I want to complete for a scene, but outside of that, I think the artwork is all wrapped up.

After that is done, I will start roughing out some of the animations so when the VO comes in I can work on editing them or fine tuning them. I will be sharing more on the VO cast in the future!

Thanks for checking in, 2016 is going to be an amazing year and I promise I will keep doing some Youtube updates as well!