Production Update 181: Tokyo in Tulsa… Here I come!

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday break! My break was filled with some gardening and catching up on some odds and ends to free myself up to work on Cosmic Rage. I also hit the midterms for the summer session, which means I have about 4 or 5 weeks of school left! I even found some time to work on my freelance project too.

This week I am preparing for Tokyo in Tulsa, my first time going to the convention. I will be running an art table, as well as a couple panels so I am looking forward to all of the events going on. I have been working on a secret item for my artist table that I will share next week once i get it wrapped up.

I am going to keep things short this week since I will do another update on Monday!

Production Update 121

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Chris Biewer

It was a good week getting back to Cosmic Rage and not having to worry about final projects and being able to focus in on my artwork. I had a couple events at the end of the week to attend that did hinder production a touch, coupled with the nice weather we had, I needed to get outdoors. Thursday I hosted a monthly animation meet up and on Friday I checked out a local art gallery reception. It was a good time to reconnect with a few people and artists I haven’t seen for a while.

The cool thing about the art gallery, is that it has some art spaces for rent. I have really been on the fence about getting a space, maybe this summer sometime. Speaking of new spaces, I got approved to move into a new apartment, so the end of the month will mark the beginning of a new apartment. I will be sure to get some photos up of the new space and my desk when I get things organized.

This week I was able to get 3 more shots done. I am sitting at about 40% for this current scene getting it wrapped up. The goal is to have it done by next week for the production update. I will be back in 3D this week and will need to get some background renders done for some of the upcoming shots. The good news is my laptop will be able to render all day since I won’t need it for work. I would also like to get some new production art up for next week since it has been a while.

Other than that, I have been submitting a few things for panels, artist alleys and more for con season. Once I hear back on those I will get notifications and such posted up on the site and maybe we will meet up at a con!

Production Update 114 Preparing for 2015

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Production update time is upon us again, let’s get down to business. As you can tell by the title of this post, 2015 is right around the corner and preparations need to be made for the con season! I put in a couple applications for panels at a couple cons so far and have a list of others on my radar. Of course I will keep you all posted on the news of getting into cons and what appearances I will be making. Just wanted to let everyone know, preparations have begun.

The second item of business is the work for the week. I was able to get another scene wrapped up and sent off for audio work. The scene was only 3 shots but it is a good feeling to get it sent off for audio. The previous scenes that were sent for audio work have been sent back and we are working on revisions to the audio.

With another scene wrapped up, I will be starting on a new scene this week. The new scene is comprised of ten shots. This week I am aiming to get a rough animatic done of the scene. That consists of me getting the cameras moved around in the environment and roughing out the timing of each shot.

More updates to come!

Planning for 2015

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Chris Biewer

With the big announcement earlier this week, I wanted to share a little bit of what the future holds for 2015 and Cosmic Rage. I mentioned about aiming to have the e-book version out by the end of winter and then hope to flesh it out to a full animated episode.

I have been working on recruiting potential people to help the Cosmic Rage project in a variety of ways, mostly in an effort to speed up production on episode 2.

I have also been looking into the con schedule for 2015 and have several picked out. Of the cons I have picked out, I plan on doing a couple artist alleys and applying for panel presentations at all of them as well. Most of the cons I have picked out are in the midwest area, so if you know of any or have any suggestions, feel free to contact me. Looking forward to seeing you all in 2015!

AnimeFargo Rewind!

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Chris Biewer

I finally had a chance to sit down and recap AnimeFargo, their first year and also my first artist alley. First off, the con staff was pretty amazing. They were friendly and super helpful in getting me where I needed to be and working with me at my first artist alley and also during my 3 panels. I had a couple minor glitches in my presentations and the projector, but nothing that hindered my panels at all. I would suggest AnimeFargo to anyone who is on the fence about going next year.

Artist alley went well. I was able to get some great feedback on the Cosmic Rage project and I was able to show it off to many curious attendees. I had some character pin-ups and cards made that I sold to people as well. I feel like the project had a good reception with the fans and several people were curious when I was going to have more of it done. I have no concrete date yet, but I am aiming for the end of winter at this point. Clearly I will announce changes and updates as the season progresses. I hope to have more announcements in the near future regarding this.

My panels had a good reception. My favorite panel on the history of CGI in Anime was fun to present and look forward to tweaking it over the winter for next year. The storytelling Q/A panel was a lot of fun. I hope I was able to help some of the attendees find ways to tell their stories and inspire them as storytellers.

I met some new friends at AnimeFargo and look forward to hopefully making it back next year in some capacity. Again, I can not say enough good thins about the weekend, the staff and of course the attendees. They made my first artist alley appearance a memorable one.

Production Update 104

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Chris Biewer

I hope everyone had a great extended weekend! I enjoyed some time in the garden and visited some family to relax as a very busy month is just around the corner. I wrapped up the 4th and final pin up for my artist alley table at Anime Fargo at the end of September. I am aiming to get them dropped off at the printer for a test print this week. Just need to run the text on the posters by an editor/writing friend for some feedback before taking them in. I am very excited to see them in the final form 🙂 The purpose of running a test print/run is to make sure the colors all look good and there aren’t areas that are too dark or too light, etc.

While those are at the printer, I am going to be working on getting my presentations into Keynote, a program similar to Powerpoint. I have to do a few updates to one of the presentations and the other one needs an overhaul.

So what else needs to get done in September? Well, I also need to get back on my 3D tutorials, I have been slacking on that front this past couple weeks. I also did some preserving of some fruit since winter is around the corner and it really got me thinking about doing a presentation at some point at a con about dieting and nutrition. I am not an expert on the topic at all, but it is something I enjoy learning about and trying to eat and live a healthier lifestyle. Would maybe need to partner with someone on that topic. I also have animation group this week and we are talking about expressions. I enjoy learning about those and seeing ways that those can help in my workflow as well. I also have a few freelance projects coming in so I can get the Cosmic Rage balance built up again for future needs and maybe a vacation 😉

Production Update 102

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Last week I set the goal of finishing up 2 pin ups. I didn’t get them completely finished but I made a great amount of progress. The hold up came on the render front. I have both of the pin ups completed, however the renders are taking a little longer than I anticipated. So I haven’t been able to composite the backgrounds with the characters and add in the finishing touches. I blame myself for not setting up one of the files to render over Saturday night, but I decided to set it up Sunday and to run some errands in the mean time. I have another set up for Sunday night so compositing this week should be wrapped up over the first part of this week.

After that, I am down to one more pin up and have a few other loose ends to get wrapped up in preparations for artist alley. More updates on the artist alley front coming soon!

Production Update 94

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Chris Biewer

It’s good to be back blogging. I took some time off over Memorial day and unplugged for a bit and enjoyed the nice weather. Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on a variety of things. As of today I finished up my javascript lessons on the coding front, which was something that I wanted to do since the start of the year. I am really looking forward to dabbling more into it and seeing what kinds of things I can work on and create.

iBooks Author was another program I was working in. I started piecing together the story and getting it ready for AnimeFargo later this fall. I also felt it was important to get into a useable format to show other people to get some feedback on it as well. I stumbled across a few quirks to the program that I thought were a little bizarre but found a way around them. Most notably, the inability to rearrange pages once you create them or the inability to add a page between two already existing pages. I had success with being able to move around sections, so that allows me the flexibility that I need now.

Currently, I have all of the scenes sent in for audio and since I am going on a mini vacation later this month, I decided that I would spend the next 10 days or so working on some shots that require 3D renders. The plan behind this, is that I can let everything render while I do a bit of hiking. I am closing in on finishing up the first of three shots I want to have done.

Finally, I also started working on my artwork that I will be displaying at AnimeFargo in the artist alley. There are several pieces I have planned out and began some preliminary work on them. Speaking of AnimeFargo, I am also awaiting news if my panels will be approved as well.

On a random side note, I also got my garden planted and was awarded a little sunburn as a battle scar. It has been a very exciting summer so far and looking forward to sharing more with you!

Production Update 90

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Chris Biewer

It has been a couple weeks since I posted to the site. I took some time off to wrap up a quick turnaround freelance project and then I spent some time with family that traveled to South Dakota to visit and also started to show my girlfriend around the city since she recently moved across the country to South Dakota this past week as well. So all in all a pretty exciting last couple weeks.

In the previous post I mentioned that I applied for an artist alley table at a convention. Well, I heard back and I have been accepted 😉 you can check out the new page to the site, Con Appearances, for more information, but later this fall I will be making my artist alley debut at AnimeFargo. I am really excited for the opportunity to talk to other artists and share my artwork and get feedback from fans.

As for production this last week, I wrapped up a new shot. Check it out below.

I also imported more artwork into the animation program I use, After Effects, so there are a few other shots that have been lightly started.

As for this week’s agenda, I want to get several more shots done. Towards next weekend, I would like to start 3D modeling another environment. I also have a few side projects I want to get done this week as well, such as recording another animation tutorial for my other website and also our first animation group meet up in Sioux Falls is Thursday! Very exciting week ahead of me.

Production Update 85

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Another week is in the books. It’s been a busy week with some freelance work, but things should be calming down in the next few days so I can get back to work on Cosmic Rage. While I haven’t gotten any animation work done this past week, I was able to get a lot of things set up for the future.

I have found an audio effects artist to do the audio work on the project, freeing me up for more artwork. I was able to finally start filling up some of the large marker boards I picked up as I start to work forward in the story. My notebook of plot lines and arcs is now filling up a marker board, the reason for this is it allows me to move things around and see how events will unfold and characters will develop over time and what triggers them.

The second large marker board is filled up with items for a new project in the works that ties in with the Cosmic Rage Universe. I will share more about this project in the future. Just a little teaser for you all for now.

With summer coming up, it is also time to start looking at cons and planning out a strategy as well. While I am still working on this plan and itinerary, the process has begun. We will see if any artist alleys are in the works or panel discussions!