Production Update 219: Thumbnails are Done!

Little late with the production update this week, been feeling a little under the weather the past couple days. Anyways, as you can see by the title of this blog post, the thumbnails for the second episode are all done! I’ll be sharing more of this very soon. So what is the next step? Well, I am planning on reaching out to voice actors over the weekend as well as audio production personnel and getting everyone on board again to start production.

I’ll also be working on fleshing out more of the shots for the first scene in episode 2 and preparing an animatic. If you aren’t sure of what that is right now, don’t worry, I’ll get you up to speed with some more behind-the-scenes content. Now that production is starting there will be more content coming. I am very excited to share some new stuff with you all. Video update coming at you next week again! Stay Tuned!

Convention Schedule Update!

With things returning to normal, I wanted to give a quick update on my convention schedule for the summer. I had to cut back on my convention appearances due to the wedding, so I missed a few earlier in the summer. Fear not! I have submitted panels to a few conventions in the latter half of the summer and fall.

This year I am polishing up a couple of my panels that I run at various conventions, the History of CGI in Anime and also my J-Rock panel. I am also revamping my animation panel, giving more insight to the animation process, workflows and more. As of now I don’t have a concrete schedule or any confirmed dates as the conventions I applied to are still in the process of reviewing and choosing their schedules.

I will provide updates as soon as I can and look forward to sharing convention updates with you all!

Production Update 180: SoDak Wrap Up

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 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 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!

Health Update & News Announcements

I wanted to try to get back on the blogging track this week so I wanted to update you quickly on my health and some news. First off, I am recovering from a skin infection that was triggered by some elbow inflammation. I seem to be on the mend now, the skin infection for the most part is gone. The infection required some IVs, steroids and antibiotics. The medicine makes me sleepy from time to time, but I guess that is the process of healing.

This past week I missed a bit of work and all of my classes. This weekend I have been spending time catching up on some work, freelance projects and my schoolwork. Hence why this week’s post isn’t a production update. Which leads to my next update.

I have the entire month of December schedule to work for Cosmic Rage. Meaning I am limiting freelance work, regular work and everything else so I can focus full-time on Cosmic Rage. I am very excited for this! I have one shot to finish up one scene and then I have two more scenes after that to finish up. The infection really derailed me, I had these scheduled to be done this week. Just have to stay adaptable.

The infection also delayed my ability to go through the voice over auditions and award roles for characters. I am hoping to get to this shortly after the holiday, so I appreciate everyones patience.

I should be back on Cosmic Rage this week and over the holidays. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!

Production Update 154: Back from Nebraskon and Major Updates

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. 26_Jani_AimingWith 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!