Hey everyone! I got back safely from Dallas and AnimeFest. I had a fantastic time and I just wanted to say a quick note that I was home and that I will be back for a production update next week to recap the event. Stay tuned!
Wow, it’s been a busy week (which is why I didn’t get a chance to post). I had to put in some extra hours on some work projects and then headed off to A-kon for my second convention of the season. A-kon was a fantastic time, from staff to the fans to the layout, but more on A-kon later this week!
First off, I did a little work this week but nothing noteworthy to show off yet. However, there are some major announcements that I wanted to share at Akon first.
1) Going Back to School
When I was a student at SDSU, it was my 3rd college in 3 years. I started off studying graphic design before moving into animation once that program was starting. Due to my internship at the time, I couldn’t keep my job unless I was going to school full-time, so I elected to not finish my graphic design degree and venture into the industry instead.
I was recently talking to one of my old professors and he mentioned the graphic design requirements were changing and the courses would no longer be offered in the city I live in. So this was my last chance to get my degree without having to start all over, so I elected to go back and finish it up. Your never to late to learn! Plus, motion design and graphic design are surely blending together more and more everyday. Keep that in mind aspiring students!
In terms of how this effects Cosmic Rage, I need a handful of classes but really looking at about one a semester.
2) Need for Voice Actors and Actresses
That’s right, I am looking for voice over talent for Cosmic Rage! If you don’t recall, I made the decision to make a full animated motion comic upon completion of the e-book. Look forward to more announcements on this front. I need to create some character materials specifically for voice over talent in the near future. Very exciting stuff, so help me spread the word to aspiring talent!
3) Art Grant Awarded
Earlier this year, I applied for an art grant for Cosmic Rage. The plan with the grant was to work full-time on the project for a month. I found out just before A-kon that I have been awarded the grant. The month of work will hopefully focus on the animated version, which is why I am putting out the call for voice over talent. Final word on the grant should occur sometime over the summer.
Mark your calendars everyone, I’ll be at Akon in Dallas presenting my panel, “The history of CGI in anime”. Here are the full details below…
Akon, Dallas, TX
The history of CGI in Anime
June 5th
6PM – 7PM
Sapphire Room
I hope everyone had a great weekend. I have been indoors all weekend since I am currently in the Dallas area and the snowstorm here has been pretty epic. The majority of the metroplex has been shutdown and travel has been a severe challenge. A simple google search will bring up all kinds of pictures and videos from the storm. Things should start to thaw out today.
Anyways, I made a good amount of progress this week on Cosmic Rage. I was able to get a test render complete, this involved a textureless render with passes so I could make sure everything was set up correctly. Since the textures weren’t rendered, it rendered over night and I was able to do some test compositing and layering to see if the scene was going to work. By doing this, I found a few areas I needed to correct.
I was also able to take care of the above mentioned corrections and get a final render set up to render. The render should finish up at some point Monday which means I can get back to working on some things this week. For the longer renders I hope to get some drawing done since any computer work slows down the longer renders, however, I have been working remotely the last couple weeks and don’t have some of my drawing materials with me.
With this environment now complete, I can use this for the environment for the rest of the shots in the scene. I am hoping I can get into pattern of rendering other shots out at night while getting more work done at nights. I’ll keep you posted as usual!
I haven’t been to a con since Gen-Con 2004. Gen-Con 2004 was the last Dragonball GT card game tournament and the last con I went to. At the time I was about to transfer colleges and was finally ready to get back to school and pursue my B.S. and the end of the card game was all but imminent.
Fast forward to 2013 and I have already been thinking of taking Cosmic Rage to cons to promote the project. However, I had no idea what to expect at cons or Artist Alley for that matter. So after I discovered that Anime Detour in Minneapolis limits their tickets, I set my sights on the Lone Star state and what A-kon had to offer.
I visited some family at the time and also met up with one of my friends I traveled to Japan with. Thursday night we were planning on registering and watching the live action Rourouni Kenshin movie. However, the line for registration was long and we waited in line for 2.5 hours to get registered and get our badges. With badges in hand and the night getting late, we grabbed some pizza and prepared for the next day.
Friday rolled around, and the con was pretty busy. There was a fairly long line of people waiting to register and we heard rumors of people waiting in line for up to 5 hours. I went to a few panels on web comics, artist alley 101, digital coloring, and even kickstart campaigns. I met some really cool artists and got contact info from them as well. Here are a few links to their sites to check out.
ErfWorld
Cyanide and Happiness
Star Cross’d Destiny
I enjoyed each of the panels and learned from some talented web comic artists. I might have some more exciting news regarding this topic but I will have to keep it on the downlow for now.
In between all of the panels and checking out the artist alley and dealers rooms, I was able to take some pictures of some awesome cosplay outfits too. I will see if I can post them up to the facebook page. I even got Sonny Strait’s autograph on one of my old Krillin DBZ cards and Todd Haberkorn’s autograph on some DVDs of mine.
Friday night Exist Trace was performing live at the con, so I checked them out and it was quite the show. They quickly became one of my favorite bands just from the show they put on. I helped a friend out after the show get some autographs from the band at the booth. It was a pretty late night by the time we got back to the hotel.
Saturday morning we woke up and checked out the screening for Wolf Children, a new title from FUNImation.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8PWyfEz60&w=560&h=315]
I went to a few more panels on scriptwriting, storytelling and digital art. Later on Saturday I actually met up with the composer on the Cosmic Rage project. We met online on a previous project and now we have become pretty good friends. We actually never thought we would meet up due to where we lived, but through the powers of Facebook, we discovered we were both at the con and met up.
We had a good conversation about our projects and the future of Cosmic Rage that lasted a couple of hours. I met up with my friend and we went to a comedy panel that night and returned to the hotel.
Sunday was a shorter day, we started off the day by attending the Aniplex panel. At the panel they played a trailer for Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack which is suppose to be a horror film they recently picked up.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZugt3fiBe0&w=560&h=315]
I personally am a little excited for this title because it looks fun and I am interested to see the use of CGI in the film also. After the Aniplex panel I roamed around the dealers room for a bit more picking up some goodies and art books (Samurai Champloo and Redline).
Overall the con was a great time. I am really hoping I am able to pick up production on Cosmic Rage a bit more and be able to have content in an Artist Alley next year. I met some new friends while waiting in lines for autographs from voice actors and Exist Trace and also met up with some acquaintances as well. The con was jam packed on Saturday and rumor has it they sold out badges, but I can’t confirm that. Looking forward to making it to A-kon next year if I am available.
Check out the Cosmic Rage facebook page for a photo gallery.