Production Update 117: 2015 Here I Come!

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Chris Biewer

The first post of 2015, the start of a very exciting year. Big things are on deck to happen and I am so excited to get the year off to a great start. I spent the last week celebrating a late Christmas and enjoying lots of time with my family and my sister who lives almost a thousand miles away. I got some fantastic gifts including some movies, kitchen stuff (since I enjoy cooking) and some desk/office stuff to make 2015 even more productive! One of the items was a new desk chair that was long overdue, and it has been put together already. I also sat down with my dad over the holiday and drew a blueprint for a standing desk. I have been pretty antsy sitting at a desk all day and doing the same when I get home, and in 2015 I also want to put an emphasis on continuing to improve my diet and also my lifestyle. Since I spend so much time in front of a desk, I decided to go the standing desk route to help be a little more active.

I wanted to get an animatic done this week, but with all of the traveling and catching up on things on my to-do list, I didn’t get it done. I know, I said I was going to and I didn’t and that isn’t a good way to start 2015. I came home on Sunday night and spent the night cleaning my apartment, washing my new kitchen stuff and getting my workspace organized in a moment of zen.

I will hit the ground running this week and have the weekend to work on things as well. 2 weeks left in my online crash course, which has been going well and looking into some new exciting things.

One last thing I have, is that if you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see more of on the blog in 2015, please let me know through comments, email, Facebook etc. I would love to help share content that you want to see! Let’s kick some ass in 2015!

Production Update 116 Let’s Get Started!

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Chris Biewer

I hope everyone had a good holiday break, got to spend some time with family and also got all the Christmas goodies you asked for! Personally, I enjoyed some time with some family but we didn’t celebrate Christmas yet, since we are waiting for my sister to travel up here to actually open gifts and such. I did get some good stuff I ordered from RightStuf to tide me over; titles such as Persona 4 and Blast of Tempest. At some point in 2015 I will be able to provide reviews of them. Let’s get down to business though.

I have reached the halfway point of the online animation class I have been taking, it is a 6 week intensive with lots of homework but I can see the course already paying off and I know it will be fine tuned from work and also on the Cosmic Rage project. I did finish up framing the remaining shots for the current scene I am starting. The next step is an animatic, which I aim to get done before next week’s production update. This will depend on the homework assignments through the week and also some travel time, but I feel I should be able to get this completed since I have the compositions laid out and also have the assets pieced together, leaving me with laying some keyframes down this week for timing purposes.

Next time I post it will be 2015!

Production Update 115 Slow and Steady

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Chris Biewer

This week I started working on roughing out a new scene comprised of ten different shots. Currently I am laying out the cameras to get the framing and composition of the shots correct. Admittedly I didn’t get as much as I wanted done this weekend as I intended due to the short online course I am taking. However, the things I am learning in the course will be worth the short term lack of updates. If you want to check out one of the animation assignments from the course, check out the Cosmic Rage Facebook page.

Audio has also been approved for 4 scenes and is all caught up with what I have animated. The goal for the holiday week is to wrap up the framing and composition of the remaining shots and get started piecing things together and getting animation started. With the holiday I won’t be posting up any entries on Thursday this week, so we will see you next week with a new Production Update!

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!

Production Update 112 Test Renders

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Chris Biewer

With all of the late hours and work from Start-Up Weekend here in Sioux Falls, I skipped the production update last night, getting to it tonight. Last week I sent off a scene to get audio done. I also found out I have one of the shots complete for the upcoming scene I am working on. Over the past week I have been doing some test renders on another shot. I have been having some texturing issues that I have been working through, still plugging away on getting the right setting and tags set up. I am hoping to get them resolved tonight so I can get things rendering and work on more shots this weekend, in which I need the 3D backgrounds rendered out. My goal of getting this scene done over the weekend is in jeopardy.

On deck for this week is getting the 3D environment fixed for this scene. I also am going to be taking my test e-book to a local art critique tomorrow night and getting some more feedback from fellow artists.

Production Update 111 Scene Complete!

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Chris Biewer

This week the goal was to finish up the current scene I have been working on. It is comprised of twelve shots and as of tonight, has been sent off to get audio work done. That’s right, I finished up the shot like I intended to and it is sent off.

I learned a lot working on this scene in particular. It had some unexpected challenges, but I enjoyed every bit of it. All of these things I will have in mind for episode 2 and when I start preparing items for that. Just like lots of shows on TV, there will be an increase in production value as the series goes on.

This week I want to start getting some 3D animations set up for the next scene so I can render them over night and over next weekend. I do have an all-weekend event next week, I am participating in a local Start-Up weekend where people go to work on ideas and projects for a potential start up business or product.

As for the next scene, it is 4 shots, which I aim to have done sometime in November yet before the holiday so I can get started on the following.

Overall, a solid and productive week! 🙂

Production Update 110 and a big update

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Production update time is upon us again, here we go! I traveled to Minnesota this weekend and did a little hiking with some friends before it gets too cold. It was good seeing my Minnesota friends again and going out for one of our creative hikes where we discuss our projects and other things we have going on. I unveiled a new plan to my friends, and will share it with you as well.

On that note, I have some big news in terms of Cosmic Rage and what the project will look like and where it is headed. When I was at AnimeFargo earlier this year, I participated in my first artist alley, but part of the reason I was there was to also get some feedback from fans about how I should deploy the project since it has evolved from it’s original vision. The e-book format worked but one thing I noticed from the fans, was that it appeared that they wanted to look at the animated sections. So the plan has changed slightly. Cosmic Rage will be released as an e-book, but we will also be aiming towards recruiting VO talent and making an animated episode. I will have to go in and alter some of the scenes for the animated episode, but it is on the slate. Very excited to share that update with all of you!

I didn’t know for sure if I was going to go to MN last week but decided to late in the week. I was able to complete another shot this week, not the three I wanted to get done, but I was anticipating those three if I didn’t travel. I got some good prep work in for this week. Two 3D renders have been completed and need to be composited. As of now I have 4 shots left and only one of them may require a couple nights for a 3D render. Otherwise, I have 2 of them roughed out and ready to be finalized. I anticipate wrapping up one of them Monday night. The other shots I am going to finish this week.

By next production update I will have all of this scene done since I will be home this weekend and look to make some progress on the next scene, which I will update you on next week.

As promised here is some production art, a shot I finished up this week.

Production Update 109

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Admittedly, I didn’t get the week off to the aggressive start I wanted to. I had some thing I had to prepare for the retreat that took a bit more time than I originally thought. However, I did make some good progress on the retreat and in the car on the way home.

The retreat went well, spent some quality time with co-workers and learned more about our team. In the meantime, I was able to wrap up one shot, and get another prepared on the car ride. That shot will be wrapped up this week. I have three shots this week I am confident I can finish up, and 2 more shots that might take a little bit longer. Now down to 5 shots before finishing up this scene.

I have a 3D render to set up tomorrow night for one of the upcoming shots, that should take about 2 nights to render out.

I might have some travel at the end of the week, I should know more later this week. Next week I will aim to get up some new production art again for you!

Production Update 108

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Recap time for the week, here we go. I revised some of the shots from last week, completing some small edits. I wanted to adjust a couple things that were bothering me, such as some of the animation timing and animation curves which control how smooth things play, happier with the revisions.

I had a shot where I was experimenting with some particles to get a desired effect during a fight scene, wanting to replicate some blood splatters. I decided to use a vector splatter and animate the different layers instead.

It’s been a while since I went to an art critique and since I recently found out about a local group meet-up, I introduced some of the my fellow local artists to the Cosmic Rage universe. I had time for some Q/A to explain my process a bit and touch on some inspiration. For the next critique I am going to be taking my test e-book in and get feedback on that.

I finished up another shot as well. This one had some character animation on Zeth so it was nice getting back into the swing of things and rigging the characters. I continue to learn more about layering and building the characters as I go.

For this upcoming week, it will be a short one. I have a work retreat towards the end of the week so travel will be involved. I am aiming to have an aggressive start of the week to make up for it since I am hoping to get the first episode out at the end of winter. Looks like I have about 6 more shots before I finish this first fight scene.

Production Update 107

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Chris Biewer

Back on schedule with a new production update for the week! I was able to get re-familiarized with the project files and make some edits to a couple shots, it seems like forever since I touched the files while I was prepping for AnimeFargo. After that I worked on a few other shots and made some good progress from my time at artist alley and this week.

On top of that, I also tweaked some artwork for the Cosmic Rage Youtube page, set up a Tumblr page, and also got my deviant art account up to date as well. I am aiming to do a better job at keeping all of these accounts current and posted as well as this blog here. I found a wider range of audiences while at AnimeFargo using different platforms, so I figured I would try to accommodate and see where the viewers are at.

Since it has been a while, I thought I would also share some production art for one of the shots I am working on as well.

I have already learned so much after working on episode one that I want to carry into episode two. I am really excited to get back into the project and with the weather starting to turn here, I would guess I am going to get a lot of time on it 😀 I only have one more week of gardening left before we have to pull everything out. Later this week, I have a new review up! One for a show that just finished streaming 😉