Tag Archives: akon

Production Update 176: Race Against Time

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Forgive the lack of posting recently I have been in a little bit of a race against time. So last week I was planning on posting up a review of Persona 4. However, we got notification last Monday that we could start planting our community gardens. The forecast the entire week was scheduled for rain but the storm shifted and we spent every night after work in the garden putting the fences up and getting the ground worked and our seeds and seedlings planted. So everything is in the ground now and doing pretty well with the exception of a few plants. Last week we didn’t get home until later and I forgot to get the blog posted, so it will be pushed to next week.

I also am writing the production update today because of the holiday weekend. So time to get you caught up to speed!

I spent some time last week working through some planning for the second episode. I have an outline done and need to flesh out the dialogue next. I am traveling for Akon later this week so I will have some plane time to hopefully start writing. Over the holiday break I spent time uploading new files and submitting Cosmic Rage into animation festivals. I will do my best to share any information on these submissions with you.

This week I am starting my photography class so I will have some homework for the next couple months. I still need to get into some drawing and start roughing out some covers for the e-book. I also have to finish off some end-of-the-year grant paperwork too.

Another update next week, post-Akon!

Production Update 134: Another Scene Wrapped Up

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As you can tell by the title of this post, I wrapped up a scene for Cosmic Rage in the week following Akon. I had two shots to complete and was able to get those knocked out. Here is a glimpse of this shot below.

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After this scene was complete, I started prepping for the next scene. The next scene is made up of 9 shots, and have a nice variety to them. While I was prepping this scene, I discovered that I missed a piece of artwork getting inked, colored and shaded, so I have that to do this week.

I also lost a little time over the weekend. I had to travel back from Dallas and also had a family medical emergency. Everything is good now, but that stuff is kinda scary when it’s going on. Very thankful that things turned out as positive as they could given the situation.

I did get a little time in the garden to catch up on wrangling the weeds and harvesting some lettuce and spinach. Looking forward to getting some hours in on Cosmic Rage this week and start roughing out the new scenes.

 

Convention Recap: Akon 26 in Dallas, TX

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First off, let me say “what a con!” I truly had a blast at Akon this year, so let’s recap the madness. It was about a 12 hour drive from Sioux Falls to Dallas. I actually really enjoy long drives, something zen about driving and gives me plenty of time to think about stuff.

I arrived at the con at about noon on Friday. Getting my badge was a painless process and I also met some of the con staff. I spent a bit of time checking out the con and getting reacclimatized to where everything is. I missed Akon last year. I also scored some autographs before my panel.

The time came for my panel on Friday night and it went really well. I got to show off my newly designed slides and the audience had a good time looking at some bad CGI and discussing what we all have and have not seen. (Picture of the attendees below)

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I went to check out another panel, this one on podcasting, before taking off for the night and getting some rest before Saturday.

Saturday was a day full of panels and awesomeness. I met up with one of my friends and we attended a panel on translating manga. Little did we know, the panel head was also a translator who was going to be leading a Q/A session with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the “I” in Production IG. He displayed some unseen materials and promos from some of their works and answered questions about Production IG, the anime industry and anything else we wanted to ask. He was even so gracious to allow us to take a few pictures afterwards.

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(Me on the left, Ishikawa on the right)

Production IG had some influential titles when I was first getting into anime. Ghost in the Shell was one of the first anime that I saw. This really was an amazing experience, and truly an honor to hear his opinions on the industry.

I attended a panel on voice acting, since I am looking for voice over talent. It was very informational since the panel was run by 3 different people and all came from different backgrounds, directorial, voice over for anime and voice over for gaming. Very cool stuff!

My friend and I grabbed a late lunch and checked out some more panels. One of which, was the Vertical panel on manga. They are the company that brought us the Flowers of Evil manga, which I highly suggested on this blog for just about anyone to read.

Sunday I allowed myself to be a little bit of a fan. I waited in line to get some Attack on Titan stuff signed by the voice actors. I went to the vendor room and picked up some merchandise, or should I say a mini library of art books. My love of art books may have to come in another post, but I picked up the following books.

Attack on Titan 1-4
These books contain the storyboards for several of the episodes and even show frame by frame drawings.

Kill La Kill
Admittedly, I haven’t actually finished this series yet but I had to pick up the book regardless. The show has such a unique style that I wanted to dive into behind the scenes content. I also haven’t seen this book anywhere before.

Terror in Resonance
I am excited for this show to be released at some point, but the overall design of this book was fantastic. I love looking at the background elements and seeing the hand painted detail. It even has a cool character flowchart to see how all of the characters are related to one another in the show.

Shinkai Collection
Speaking of sexy art books, the Shinkai book I picked up was fantastic. His artwork is simply stunning and again, the format of the book alone is worth a purchase.

I haven’t had a chance to really dive into all of these books, but as I get going through them I will get some comments or reviews of them up. I am eagerly awaiting Akon next year already.

And to the Akon staff, a big thank you for all of your work and planning!

 

Production Update 46

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A-kon was a blast this past weekend. I was fortunate enough to see so many cool costumes, meet awesome people and learn from other artists. It was a fun 3 day event and I am already hoping I can make it back next year.

When we left off last week I was finishing up client work and suffering from what seems like semi-annual migraines. I’m not sure if the migraines are brought on by constantly being on a computer combined with contact lenses or what, but I rocked my glasses for a good week and my head feels a lot better. Anyways, I got some 3D work done on the shot I was previously working on. I have a little left before I can get it animated and rendered.

The coolest thing from A-kon was that I actually was able to meet up with the artist creating the audio tracks and sound effects for the prologue. Neither of us knew we were going to be there, but we found out through facebook we were both there and met up for a few hours and talked about our projects. It was a great time and I look forward to seeing what the two of us can create. I will be sharing more from A-kon this Thursday!