Tag Archives: creative process

Introducing James Larabee

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Where are you from: Born in Toledo Ohio, grew up in Danville Illinois and then Grove City Ohio.  Moved to Texas and never looked back!  I love living in Dallas!

Why do you want to be a voice actor: Voiceacting is acting-pretending-and gives me a chance to be people I could never be in real life.  Also, as a voice actor, I can be cast in many more roles than a film or stage production that is looking for someone who has a look or age that I might not fit.
Who is your favorite VO actor: Todd Haberkorn is a great actor, and is amazing!
Who is your favorite anime/game/cartoon character: I gotta go with Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.  Great acting, voice acting, and I identify with being a dad, a husband, and heck…he’s Incredible!
If you could voice any character, who would it be and why: The Joker!   I have a great version of his voice that I think could go toe to toe with Mark Hamill!
What drew you to audition for Cosmic Rage: The art style always pulls me into a project, then it’s the story; both of these hold true with Cosmic Rage!
Where can fans follow you at or find more of your work: Well, you can always follow me by watching my IMDb or check out some of my art and demos at: www.thehomeofhappiness.weebly.com

Production Update 172: Finals Week

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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 168: Finish Line is in Sight!

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Sorry for the late production update this week, but I was really trying to avoid the internet on Monday in case I stumbled across Walking Dead spoilers. You see, the Walking Dead is a show I very much love to watch week to week. Binge watching is ok, but I prefer to consume my media an episode at a time so I can really think about things that went on or why creators chose a certain direction. Basically I want to savor it from week to week, and since this season has been terrible with news sites having spoilers on Monday mornings, I went into full offline mode.

In other news, animation revisions are almost all wrapped up. I have a few changes to make to Fenix’s character this weekend but the rest of the animation is done. I had a productive week finishing up the last of the scenes I needed to finish up.

On the audio front, the audio team is finishing up the last three scenes and then everything will be good to go. We need to finalize a few sound effects and then I need to do the final mix, with the voice over.

So what is on deck for this coming week? This week I will be working on some promotional materials for Siouxper Con and following conventions, tweaking the scenes with Fenix and working on the final audio mix. I also am going to be making the credits later this week as well. 12 days away until the premiere!

Production Update 165: Recharged

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It’s been a little while since I have given a production update so let’s all get caught up to speed! First off, it was spring break week, so I traveled and took some time away from work, school and the computer. I spent some time working on Cosmic Rage, primarily in the regard of making sure I have things lined up and making notes of where the holes are yet.

On the voice over front, I took time to go through the episode and render everything out as it stands and as a whole and the voice over is all good to go with the exception of two lines from side characters. I hope you all have been enjoying reading about the VO cast for Cosmic Rage on the Wednesday posts, they are all very talented and I am so fortunate to have all of them on board with the project.

On more of a behind-the-scenes front, I have been working on applying for some panels and screenings to conventions this summer to get Cosmic Rage in front of more people. I’ll have more information on the Con Appearance page when I have more info since con season is getting underway.

Let’s talk about audio production. Things are going well, I have cuts of all of the scenes sent out for audio work to get done. Audio production is about half finalized at this point. There are two scenes that need backgrounds created but the remaining scenes need to be extended so they can fit the timing of the VO.

Finally, on the animation front I have a quarter of the scenes finalized. The remaining scenes are all timed out and need some final animation and compositing. Many of the scenes have some small edits to them so I haven’t marked them as complete yet. There are two scenes that need to be animated, the same two that need audio work.

Things are starting to come together nicely and I am very excited to have been watching a rough cut of the first episode. Stay tuned for more updates!

Production Update 163: Audio Galore

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It’s been a productive week on the homework front. I wrapped up a draft of my art history paper that I am going to let sit for a few days and come back and take a fresh look at it again.

I did sneak in some Cosmic Rage work this week. I am starting to go through all of the audio and finalizing lines and going through areas for revisions. I have a couple audio sections to go through for scenes and I also have to render some out to send in for audio work to get done. I will for sure get more in this week since my classes are starting to settle down a bit. We are getting so close on Cosmic Rage!

Sorry for the short update, but next week’s should be a bit longer. Thanks for stopping by! I will be unveiling another voice actor this week!

Production Update 162: 3D Renders!

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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!

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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!

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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!