Production Update 185: Post-AnimeFest

It’s been a week since AnimeFest wrapped up and I had an amazing time at the convention. AnimeFest felt like a completely different convention and I mean that in a great way. The con felt like it was an artist based con. I went to panels that ranged from figure photography, digital painting, 3D modeling and indy comics. This was outside of my panel and screening of Cosmic Rage. I met some very talented artists and I feel that AnimeFest is going to be a convention that I hit up every year regardless if I have a screening or not of Cosmic Rage. I really can’t say enough good things about AnimeFest, just an absolute great time. The environment of downtown Dallas was fantastic as well, so much artwork and a great place to go Pokemon hunting too.

There were a couple panels at AnimeFest that had Japanese animators doing some live drawing while answering questions that I found really entertaining. There was a round of “hot potato” drawing in which all of the artists would work on a drawing and a moderator would tell the artists to switch drawings. The results were hilarious. I even got to meet Erica Mendez, the voice actress for Ryuko from Kill La Kill. If you are looking for a new con to hit up in 2017, give AnimeFest a look.

Back into production items! My e-book is still at the editor getting combed through for consistency and type. I had a couple art revisions to make as well. I am aiming for this weekend to go through the process of actually getting it into the iBooks store. That is my fault on the hold up, I noticed some art issues that I was late getting to.

I am also going to be looking into Steam. One of the AnimeFest attendees that came to my Cosmic Rage screening suggested that I look into that and it is something I overlooked since I don’t use Steam. I will have to keep you all posted on this front since I am not sure of their platform and submission process.

This week I didn’t get much done in terms of production. I had to catch up on some work the week I got back from AnimeFest and I have also been working on a couple freelance projects. One freelance project will go to helping cover some of the VO costs for the second episode. The other freelance project will support some new equipment on the technical front. More on this soon 🙂

This week I am aiming to take another look at the second episode script and double check it for consistency and make sure it is looking good before I start diving into storyboards.

Thanks for stopping by! Hoping to have another review up again later this week and getting back on track posting clips to Facebook and Instagram.

Things to come…

Full disclosure, I didn’t have anything really prepared for last week’s blog post. Over the past few weeks I haven’t thought much about the mid-week blog posts I typically do. So, with that in mind, I want to give you an update as to what some of the upcoming posts that I am working on will be, so you can look forward to new mid-week content.

Top 5 things I learned from making Episode 1 of Cosmic Rage.

Top 5 issues/dilemmas going forward on Cosmic Rage.

Reviews of things on my “to watch” and “to read” pile (Kill la Kill, Persona 4, Gurren Lagann, Shirobako, Psycho Pass, Bakuman, Resident Evil, Inuyashiki) and more.

An introduction post to the band (Phoenix Ash) that has music used for the closing credits for the episode, Convergence, of Cosmic Rage.

I have a Photography class this summer, pictures will be shared!

Anything you want to see? Just reach out and let me know!

Convention Recap: Akon 26 in Dallas, TX

First off, let me say “what a con!” I truly had a blast at Akon this year, so let’s recap the madness. It was about a 12 hour drive from Sioux Falls to Dallas. I actually really enjoy long drives, something zen about driving and gives me plenty of time to think about stuff.

I arrived at the con at about noon on Friday. Getting my badge was a painless process and I also met some of the con staff. I spent a bit of time checking out the con and getting reacclimatized to where everything is. I missed Akon last year. I also scored some autographs before my panel.

The time came for my panel on Friday night and it went really well. I got to show off my newly designed slides and the audience had a good time looking at some bad CGI and discussing what we all have and have not seen. (Picture of the attendees below)

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I went to check out another panel, this one on podcasting, before taking off for the night and getting some rest before Saturday.

Saturday was a day full of panels and awesomeness. I met up with one of my friends and we attended a panel on translating manga. Little did we know, the panel head was also a translator who was going to be leading a Q/A session with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the “I” in Production IG. He displayed some unseen materials and promos from some of their works and answered questions about Production IG, the anime industry and anything else we wanted to ask. He was even so gracious to allow us to take a few pictures afterwards.

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(Me on the left, Ishikawa on the right)

Production IG had some influential titles when I was first getting into anime. Ghost in the Shell was one of the first anime that I saw. This really was an amazing experience, and truly an honor to hear his opinions on the industry.

I attended a panel on voice acting, since I am looking for voice over talent. It was very informational since the panel was run by 3 different people and all came from different backgrounds, directorial, voice over for anime and voice over for gaming. Very cool stuff!

My friend and I grabbed a late lunch and checked out some more panels. One of which, was the Vertical panel on manga. They are the company that brought us the Flowers of Evil manga, which I highly suggested on this blog for just about anyone to read.

Sunday I allowed myself to be a little bit of a fan. I waited in line to get some Attack on Titan stuff signed by the voice actors. I went to the vendor room and picked up some merchandise, or should I say a mini library of art books. My love of art books may have to come in another post, but I picked up the following books.

Attack on Titan 1-4
These books contain the storyboards for several of the episodes and even show frame by frame drawings.

Kill La Kill
Admittedly, I haven’t actually finished this series yet but I had to pick up the book regardless. The show has such a unique style that I wanted to dive into behind the scenes content. I also haven’t seen this book anywhere before.

Terror in Resonance
I am excited for this show to be released at some point, but the overall design of this book was fantastic. I love looking at the background elements and seeing the hand painted detail. It even has a cool character flowchart to see how all of the characters are related to one another in the show.

Shinkai Collection
Speaking of sexy art books, the Shinkai book I picked up was fantastic. His artwork is simply stunning and again, the format of the book alone is worth a purchase.

I haven’t had a chance to really dive into all of these books, but as I get going through them I will get some comments or reviews of them up. I am eagerly awaiting Akon next year already.

And to the Akon staff, a big thank you for all of your work and planning!