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 165: Recharged

It’s been a little while since I have given a production update so let’s all get caught up to speed! First off, it was spring break week, so I traveled and took some time away from work, school and the computer. I spent some time working on Cosmic Rage, primarily in the regard of making sure I have things lined up and making notes of where the holes are yet.

On the voice over front, I took time to go through the episode and render everything out as it stands and as a whole and the voice over is all good to go with the exception of two lines from side characters. I hope you all have been enjoying reading about the VO cast for Cosmic Rage on the Wednesday posts, they are all very talented and I am so fortunate to have all of them on board with the project.

On more of a behind-the-scenes front, I have been working on applying for some panels and screenings to conventions this summer to get Cosmic Rage in front of more people. I’ll have more information on the Con Appearance page when I have more info since con season is getting underway.

Let’s talk about audio production. Things are going well, I have cuts of all of the scenes sent out for audio work to get done. Audio production is about half finalized at this point. There are two scenes that need backgrounds created but the remaining scenes need to be extended so they can fit the timing of the VO.

Finally, on the animation front I have a quarter of the scenes finalized. The remaining scenes are all timed out and need some final animation and compositing. Many of the scenes have some small edits to them so I haven’t marked them as complete yet. There are two scenes that need to be animated, the same two that need audio work.

Things are starting to come together nicely and I am very excited to have been watching a rough cut of the first episode. Stay tuned for more updates!

Production Update 163: Audio Galore

It’s been a productive week on the homework front. I wrapped up a draft of my art history paper that I am going to let sit for a few days and come back and take a fresh look at it again.

I did sneak in some Cosmic Rage work this week. I am starting to go through all of the audio and finalizing lines and going through areas for revisions. I have a couple audio sections to go through for scenes and I also have to render some out to send in for audio work to get done. I will for sure get more in this week since my classes are starting to settle down a bit. We are getting so close on Cosmic Rage!

Sorry for the short update, but next week’s should be a bit longer. Thanks for stopping by! I will be unveiling another voice actor this week!

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!