Production Update 162: 3D Renders!

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Chris Biewer

Hey everyone! I really appreciate your patience over the last few weeks. There has been a lot of things going on, so let me get you all up to speed!

At work I have been putting in a little bit of extra time in on a few projects. It comes with the territory. Things have settled down recently which has freed me up a little bit.

I’ve also been back in school this semester working towards finishing my graphic design degree. I’m taking two courses this semester versus just one. My branding class is going great so far. The course that has been throwing me a slight curveball is my Art History advanced writing class. I have a big paper that is due by the end of February so I have been putting in white a bit of time on that. I am getting close to getting to the next check point on this paper so this course will have a lighter workload.

One thing I have also started but haven’t mentioned here yet, is I am also doing some assistant teaching/critiquing for an online animation course. My class has been fantastic so far and I have enjoyed every minute of providing feedback to other animators looking to up their game. The course is starting to level out so I am getting some of my free time back.

Slowly but surely I am getting some of my time back to keep plugging away on Cosmic Rage. While it sounds like I haven’t gotten things done, I assure you that isn’t the case. I have been doing some light 3D work and getting some renders set up so that the files can render while I am doing all of these other things. As things start to settle down, I will have my 3D renders ready to go for when I get back into After Effects.

Things have been forming nicely on the voice over cast. I will be updating you more on the VO cast really soon! Thanks again everyone for you patience, I am excited to get back in action!

Production Update 161: Another Scene Complete!

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Chris Biewer

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!

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.

Voice Over Cast Update

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Chris Biewer

I thought I would give an update on the voice over front for Cosmic Rage. My elbow and infection has put me a tad behind schedule, so I have been working to catch up to where I want to be. I have to say THANK YOU! to everyone who auditioned for characters. I had a blast going through and hearing everyone’s take on the characters, giving the their own personality and tones.

If you haven’t heard anything from me by this point, it doesn’t mean you are out of the running for any roles. I am shuffling some auditions around and trying auditions for characters on others, so a lot of mixing and matching right now. I have picked some front runners for roles but I haven’t sent messages to everyone. I had some questions about updates on the VO front this past week so I thought I would address it. Having said that, I do plan on having the cast lined up next week some time.

Again thank you to everyone who auditioned and everyone for their patience in the process. There should be a lot of exciting news up until out premiere date.

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.

Health Update 2

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Things have been a little quiet around here lately, here is what’s going on. First off, I was traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday to spend some time with family and also rest to get healed up. Typically over holidays I go dark in terms of social media and being online. I use them as reasons to unplug and be offline. Plus I had to get in several games of Sushi Go.

But of course things couldn’t go that smoothly over the holiday right? I started developing an allergic reaction to one of the medications I was on. I was pretty nervous for a few days until I got back here to go to the clinic since the rash was pretty localized to the same elbow.

Traveled through a series of storms to get home, rain, ice, snow, the typical midwest travel hazards for this time of the year. Even a massive traffic jam in Oklahoma due to one lane road construction over the holiday. Don’t get me started on how little sense that made.

After all of that, I spent most of yesterday afternoon at the clinic seeing a couple new doctors for my elbow and new-found rash friend. In the end, I got a different diagnosis on my elbow. One that let’s me get off the meds to heal up the rash and my elbow may not have been as bad as originally diagnosed.

Having said all of that, I start my time off to work full-time on Cosmic Rage. YAY! But I wanted to give everyone another update since things have been a little dark here. Aiming to get back up to full speed this week, it will be nice not being on sleep-inducing meds and being able to stay awake for more than 8 hours a day.

Back to kicking ass!

Health Update & News Announcements

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Chris Biewer

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

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!