Production Update 215: Storyboarding Begins!

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Chris Biewer

Hey everyone! I was intending on doing a video blog for the week but my studio has been rearranged for some carpet cleaning and with several other house projects going on, it might be easier to do a written blog post.

This past week I started storyboarding for episode 2. Currently I have the first scene storyboarded, of course this can still change but the concepts and ideas are there. I will get more into this in the future when I dive into some video content about storyboarding and discussing how the process is going.

I also mentioned that I have been reworking Patreon and I have my new structure in mind, which will be launched in a couple weeks. I appreciate everyone’s support and look forward to sharing more about Cosmic Rage with everyone!

Let’s talk conventions now. This past weekend I was in my hometown Watertown for a one day convention. It was a a great turn out and the venue had plenty of space and room for panels, artists, vendors and more, they even held a cosplay competition and had a fantastic turnout. The local conventions are always a blast and it’s great to see everyone and talk animation, gaming and more with them. I also received word that my panels have been accepted into Nebraska so I will be hosting several panels there on animation and even my j-rock panel for some Sunday fun. This will be my third year at Nebraska and I look forward to it every year.

Up for this week, is to continue to making progress on storyboards and getting the studio put back together.

Thanks for visiting! Back to storyboarding I go!

Production Update 154: Back from Nebraskon and Major Updates

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Chris Biewer

What an amazing weekend! I went to my first Anime Nebraskon and had such a wonderful time. I will write more about this con later this week, until then, production update time!

Apologies for the delay on this weeks update, I admittedly was pretty eager to watch the Walking Dead on Monday after recovering Sunday night from the con. There is a lot of updates and I just needed a little time to get them all down.

First off, I wrapped up another scene, below is a screenshot. With this scene completed, I now have 3 scenes left until the e-book animated scenes are all wrapped up. I also sent this scene off for audio work, which is why the production update wasn’t up earlier today.

With only a few scenes left for the e-book, I bet you are wondering how much animating I have been doing. Well, when I was preparing the latest scene for audio, I put all of the existing scenes together to see how long Cosmic Rage is so far. As of today, it is just under 10 minutes! Remember, that is just animated content for the e-book. The final animated version will have new shots for the voice over and may approach the length of an actual TV episode. It wasn’t a mark I was aiming for, I want to make Cosmic Rage tell a story in the time it needs, not just hitting a number to make it long.

I will be starting a new scene tomorrow, this one consists of 6 shots. My goal is to get this scene wrapped up over the weekend. With the holidays approaching at the end of the month, the push is to get a scene done every weekend since I will be traveling for the holiday.

Also, the voice over audition period is closing at the end of the week! I have received some awesome auditions, so if you have been waiting to get yours in, I suggest sending them over asap! I will be going through them over the weekend and making decisions on who will voice what character. Hopefully cast announcements will come soon afterwards.

I also have another announcement waiting in the wing. I can probably share it next week since it isn’t set in stone yet. The announcements and news will be coming more and more over the next couple months as the final push starts.

Thank you all for your support!

Production Update 153: Animation Galore

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Chris Biewer

The week started off a little dicey. I had homework to finish up and some revisions to freelance work to get done. I was really concerned that I wasn’t going to get to log as many hours on Cosmic Rage as I would have liked. However, as the weekend approached, I was able to get almost a full day in over the weekend. I had some shots to finish tweaking and then I was moving on to compositing all of the shots in the new scene I was working on.

Overall I was able to get 12 shots done and completed the scene that I was aiming to get done. Here is a frame from the current scene.

This week I need to go through a scene for audio revisions and also send this scene off for audio.

I am also taking a mini vacation and going to a concert to see a J-Rock band called One OK Rock that is touring in the US since they signed a US record deal. You can check out one of their music videos below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZqcDYbvAE&w=560&h=315]

I will also be at Anime Nebraskon this weekend to present a panel and check out the con! I am very excited to hit up the con and meet all kinds of new people.

For Cosmic Rage, I am starting to work on a new scene that is composed of 7 shots. MY goal is to get it done or very close to done by next weeks production update. I am starting a new project for school this week but feel like I can use Monday and Tuesday to get a strong start on this next scene. Have a fantastic week everyone!

Quick Announcements!

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Been busy with freelance work so far this week and homework but I wanted to take a minute to post up a couple of quick updates!

First off, I will be at Anime Nebraskon in early November! It was suggested to me by a friend a little later in the season so I didn’t get a chance to apply for artist alley, but I am presenting my panel on the History of CGI. I am looking forward to being at a new con and meeting all kinds of new people!

The next thing I wanted to discuss is kind of my lack of reviews lately. There is a reason behind this. In terms of reading, I have been reading Starting Point. The book is a collection of interviews, essays and thoughts by Hayao Miyazaki. It is an absolutely fascinating read so far, even though I am not terribly far into it. It has me thinking that I want to write some of my thoughts down too on some of the topics he discusses. Maybe something I will do in the future.

From an art book perspective, I have been wanting to take some time to look over the art book for Ping Pong I ordered a while back. I have a pretty big backlog of art books currently that I want to do reviews on since I simply love art books and all of the behind the scenes content they have along with educational material.

Anime-wise, I have received the second season of Space Dandy so I would like to watch over the next week or so and finish that series off.

I’ll be back on Monday with another production update!