Production Update 206: Art Show Preparations

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Chris Biewer

May is shaping up to be quite the busy month, both personally and also for Cosmic Rage. Script 2 is still in development, I have received some good feedback from trusted friends and still need to dive back into it and polish it up before jumping into storyboards.

May is also a big month because Cosmic Rage will be showing at it’s first film festival and I will be attending. I spent this week laying out a lot of production art for an art show this month as well.

I have pages prepared and dropped them off at the printer to get ready. I still have a couple more that I want to lay out. Those pieces would show more of the production of a scene, from illustration to inking, coloring and compositing. I look forward to sharing more about this process soon!

Production Update 204: Script Near Completion

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Chris Biewer

Production Update time once again, let’s do this! I spent time this week working on the script and pushing it towards completion. My goal is to wrap it up this week before a local film-maker meet up so I can have a few people give it a look over and poke holes in the story. Since I am so close to the project it is good to have a few more sets of eyes and perspectives on it. I am very excited to meet up with the crew again and for us all to check in on each others progress and talk about each of our projects.

Once the script is being passed around to fellow film-makers to look at, I will be spending some time working on getting things ready for my art show in May, where I will be showing Cosmic Rage.

Outside of the script work, I have been pushing ahead on a freelance project which will go towards paying for voice over work for episode 2. I am very excited to be getting things near completion so I can begin storyboarding and drawing. Thank you all for your support!

Production Update 203: Script Work

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Chris Biewer

Last week there was some work to do on the back end of the site, routine web maintenance, so I didn’t get a chance to update. So let’s get into it!

I started working on polishing up the script for the second episode. It has been a while since I had a chance to look at it so it was a nice time to work with it some more and get familiarized with the contents again. I got about half done with it this past week, so my goal is to finish it up by the weekend so I can get some more eyes on it to look at and see if they can poke some holes in it.

While the script will be with a handful of people to take a look at, I will be spending the time after that to prepare for a local art show, giving Cosmic Rage the chance to get in front of more people but also to help explain the animation process to people who may not know. I am very excited to see my work hanging up in a venue again 😀

With convention season approaching, I’ve been working on getting a few panels submitted to some conventions I have planned out to travel to. Most of my convention season is going to be late summer and into the fall since this is a pretty busy summer but you will get a chance to see me at conventions in 2017!

I am starting another freelance project which is needed. Since my Patreon page hasn’t quite covered my VO costs for the second episode, I needed to pick up a project. This will also help with my convention travel this summer as well so it’s just a small price to pay. But in terms of timing it works out really well since the script will be making the rounds to trusted friends and writers and while some files will be at the print shop for the art show.

Thank you everyone for checking out the blog and as always, thank you to my Patreon supporters for their continued support!

Production Update 202: Animation Test are Done!

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Chris Biewer

Animation tests are done!

I also had the pleasure of being featured on Animation for Adults, which you can read here.

Production Update 201: Back to Work!

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Chris Biewer

Lot’s of things have been going on so I haven’t been on the blog as much as I would have liked to for the month of February. However, things have calmed back down and we’ve got some catching up to do. So much, it required a video update. Take a look!

Production Update 193: Con-Season Recap and the Future

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Chris Biewer

The 2016 con season has reached it’s conclusion for Cosmic Rage. It has been a successful year debuting Cosmic Rage at a variety of conventions. I’ll recap the convention season and discuss what the future holds for Cosmic Rage as well as planning for Episode 2.

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 179: Sketching

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I started working on sketching the e-book cover. I have things roughed out right now so this week I am going to refine it and hopefully get it inked so I can color it in the car on the way to and from SoDak Con! The original plan was to try to finish up the cover, but I picked up a freelance project so I was working on that over the weekend outside of class. My plan is to use the freelance project to help cover the cost of VO for the second episode. I am currently still pushing forward on the script, but it has taken a little bit of a backseat to the e-book cover so I can get that into the iBooks store for people to see.

Outside of that, photography class has been going pretty well, I believe I have about 6 weeks left until I am all done with school. My grant paperwork will be in the mail later this week. Once again, I need to thank the South Dakota Arts Council for their support in Cosmic Rage. This past year has been an amazing ride and the grant has helped me so much with getting the first episode wrapped up.

Finally, I have been spending a bit of time in our garden this week getting caught up on weeding and just unplugging for a bit. Our weeds were getting a little out of control, but we had to let the plants grow so we knew what a weed is and what isn’t. Hopefully we get caught up on weeding this week as well.

Next week I’ll have a recap from SoDak Con!

Production Update 178: Next Stop, E-book

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I know. I know. I have been writing the past few weeks about how my goal was to get the e-book cover or the script to the second episode written but I have a confession. The past couple months I have been creatively burnt out. I didn’t want to admit it and I thought it was just a week long funk but it turned into a good month to 6 week session. The good news, I honestly feel like I am coming out of it.

While I had some traveling this past week and some school work to do, I did start moving the ball on more Cosmic Rage items. First off, I have a rough sketch of what I want the e-book cover to be like. I spent some time in the car working on some rough layouts and working through some of the elements on I wanted. I feel like I have come to a very good solution and I am hoping to get into that this weekend! I have the lofty expectation of getting it wrapped up this weekend. (My Patreon supporters will get to see these sketches, if you are interested in supporting Cosmic Rage, check out my Patreon page)

I also need to get my grant paperwork filled out and sent in as well. I made a lot of notes and I need to flesh out to areas yet and that will be off of my plate as well.

Lastly, I had a rough outline for the second episode completed. I can now say that I have officially started on the script! While it isn’t close to done, I have begun writing out the first few scenes and I am very excited to build onto the world.

I really appreciate your patience, as much as I try to be transparent here, I really underestimated the amount of burn out I had. But I will leave you with one of my pictures from this past week in photography!

Production Update 174: Off Week

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I spent some time this past week unwinding and getting ready for the gardening season. It was an enjoyable week to be out in nature. I even hit a nearby park with one of my friends and we had a pleasant mod morning hike, enjoyed some iced coffee and of course we talked creative endeavors. This week I spent some time reflecting on things that was probably long overdue since it has been a hectic past few months with wrapping up class, finishing up episode 1 and launching the Patreon page and more.

While I did take a break from actual production this week, all was not lost. I have been working on some behind the scenes things. One of them, I am going to keep under wraps for now. The other task was gathering some reference images for some designs for the e-book cover, which will be one of the next items I will be working on.

I will be sharing some of the things I have been reflecting on over the course of the next few weeks. It has been nice return to normalcy since school has wrapped up. Looking forward to sharing some of the content I have in mind for future posts.