Production Update 180: SoDak Wrap Up

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Chris Biewer

700 miles logged in a road trip over the weekend and it was worth it! As you may know, SoDak Con was this past weekend, which was actually my first time attending it. Over the course of the weekend I held my History of CGI in Anime panel and also had a screening for Cosmic Rage. I had an awesome time at the con. The staff was incredible and the guests were very friendly. I enjoyed my first SoDak con and the convention had a very friendly vibe to it. I hope it is the first of many more.

My panels went really well. I always love sharing the history of CGI in anime, most people haven’t seen some of the older applications of CGI in anime. It’s a blast seeing the crowds reaction to some of the early uses.

The screening of Cosmic Rage went off really well too. It is always humbling to see people show up to learn about the project and watch it. Especially when there was such a good line up of panels throughout all of SoDak Con.

A huge thank you to all of the SoDak staff and to all of the new friends I made at the con. I hope to see everyone again soon!

Now, it’s dive into the production side. I wrapped up the rest of my art grant paperwork, so that will get sent in and be cleared. While filling out the paperwork, it was sort of nostalgic seeing how far the project has come in the last year. I also spent some time on freelance work.

This week I am getting back into the production side. I am going to be working on something special for my next convention, Tokyo in Tulsa! The e-book cover is still at the top of the list for this week to get wrapped up as well.

Another update will be up Wednesday!

Production Update 172: Finals Week

Posted on May 1, 2016 by admin

I took the most of the week off from doing much work. I have finals the first couple days of the week so it was needed to get some rest in before hand and to just unwind overall. It’s been a super busy year so far with school, wrapping up Cosmic Rage and more. This week I got to experience the wedding of one of my closest friends and I also got outdoors for the first hike of the year considering how busy I was and also the rainy and cold weather we have been having lately. I am excited to get a chance to catch up with everyone now that school is wrapping up.

But enough about that. Let’s dive into what we have going on next week! There are two items I am going to be kicking off next week. The first thing, storyboards for episode 2. The second episode is planned out, but they need to be fleshed out a touch more. I will get the current boards posted up on the Patreon page this week for supporters to check out. The dialogue scenes need to be expanded a bit.

The second item is finishing up the e-book of Episode 1. The e-book is fleshed out, I need to design a few pages yet and the cover. The plan is to have this wrapped up by the end of May, but I will keep everyone posted.

Looking forward to getting back into things this week!

Production Update 160: Back to the Real World!

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Chris Biewer

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!

Production Update 157: Grant Period Week 3

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Week 3 of the grant production cycle is in the books! Wrapped up needed illustrations, worked with the VO cast and more.

Production Update 156: Grant Period Week 2

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Week 2 of the project grant has been a productive one! Making revisions to existing artwork, adding in new scenes and more! Check out this weeks production update below!

Production Update 155: Grant Period Week 1

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Wow, what a week! I have been having a blast working on Cosmic Rage all week. So much to report on a variety of fronts that only a video update seemed to make sense.

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!

BIG Announcement: Debut Screening Announced!

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Remember last week when I said I had some things going on behind-the-scenes? Well here part of it is. A DEBUT screening of Cosmic Rage is going to be held at a debut con, Siouxper Con, in my home state of South Dakota.

I can’t really put into words how excited I am to get to debut Cosmic Rage in South Dakota. Many people here know of the project and have supported it. However, there wasn’t a great avenue to get it debuted to anime and comic minded fans. Enter Siouxper Con and their amazing staff for allowing me to debut my work in South Dakota.

Following the screening, I will being a Q/A with those in attendance about the production of the project and also what the future holds for Cosmic Rage. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Again, a big THANK YOU to the South Dakota Arts Council for supporting Cosmic Rage. An exciting 2016 starts now!

Production Update 151: Behind-the-Scenes Work and Moving On

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Chris Biewer

It’s been a busy week with lots of behind the scenes work, so let me fill you in on everything from this past week. First off, I got all of the inking, coloring and shading that I had missed previously all done. From here on out, should be nothing but animating going forward. Also, as you have previously seen on the site, the closing date for voice auditions has been announced as well, November 13th. More information will be coming out about voice over roles once they are awarded.

I had to get caught up on some homework this week. I am really excited for the way this project is turning out. I would like to post up the final project once it is completed. I might post up my previous project on the site this week since we just got them back from being graded.

I also had a bit of freelance work to keep pushing forward on as well. These projects will be the ones I use to pay for the voice over talent on Cosmic Rage.

Finally, I have been working on getting things laid out for 2016 and setting up screenings for the first episode of Cosmic Rage at conventions. So, if there is a con in particular you would like to see Cosmic Rage at, shoot me an email, message or even tweet at me and I will see if I can fit the con in. 2016 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for Cosmic Rage.

This week, I am back on animation!

Production Update 147: Shots, Shots, Shots

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Back home from AnimeFargo, and it was a blast. I can already say that I am excited for next year! I will have more on AnimeFargo later this week in a recap.

Let’s dive into production update! I was able to wrap up the two short scenes that I mentioned in the last production update. These shots will need to get sent off for audio production this week. Here is a still frame from the recent shots that have been finished.

After completing these scenes, I was able to start working on framing up the next scene. The next scene is composed of 11 shots, so this one will take a little bit more time to wrap up. I have the backgrounds framed for these shots, so the next step is roughing out the timing of the shots and also rendering out the high resolution or beauty versions.

Unfortunately, I discovered I missed a couple scenes in terms of inking and coloring. So over the next week or so that will be my area of focus. To give you all some context, it looks like there are about 5 scenes left including the one I will begin production on.

I am going to get onto inking. Stay tuned for an AnimeFargo recap this week! Thanks for visiting!