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!

Con Appearance: SoDak Con

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I will be at SoDak Con on June 24th-26th. On the schedule is my panel on the History of CGI in Anime for Friday at 5PM. We will be looking at the first uses of CGI in anime and how it has progressed over the year from a technical and also a usage standpoint.

On Saturday, I will be screening the first episode, Convergence, of Cosmic Rage at 8PM. I am excited to be screening the first episode on the other side of my home state.

This will be my first year at SoDak Con. I am ready to do this!

Production Update 177: More Submissions and Another Schedule Screening

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Chris Biewer

I made the journey to Texas this past week in anticipation for Akon 27. I was going to go to Akon solely as a fan, I didn’t have any panels this year since I presented the History of CGI last year. However, I actually didn’t make it to Akon this year as I had initially planned.

Friday night I started laying out my itinerary and there wasn’t enough going on that I felt like I had to go. There content was a lot of costly panels, which I don’t do. Plus some of my friends from out of town didn’t make it to Dallas since we are planning on all meeting up at Tokyo in Tulsa, so I decided to bail on Akon at the last minute. I also had another matter to take care of, which I will share with you all very soon. I do regret not going to get some autographs at Akon, but I know I will be back next year and looking forward to checking out the con.

Outside of that, I submitted Cosmic Rage to some more animation festivals this week. I have caught up on the submission front so I shouldn’t have to worry about submitting to a few for a couple weeks, since I submitted to the ones that have deadlines in June, I should have bought some time for a few weeks in terms of applying for animation festivals.

I also got word and panel times for the next convention I will have a panel at and a screening as well, Sodak Con in Rapid City, South Dakota. Friday night I will be sharing the History of CGI in anime and on Saturday I will have a screening for Cosmic Rage!

Finally, I started my photography class this week as well. It is the last class I need to get my graphic design degree! Here is a pic from this past week.

Production Update 175: Birthday Week!

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Chris Biewer

This past week was pretty awesome, mostly in part because it was my birthday 🙂 But not only that, for some strange reason, I have an abnormal percentage of my friends that share the same birthday week as me. I work with person who has the same birthday, and our office is only about 20 people. One of my closest anime friends has the exact same birthday as me. And two of my closer friends have birthdays in the same week. So needless to say this week was a fantastic time to catch up with a lot of people that I have missed while I was finishing up Episode 1, Convergence.

On my birthday, I got some balloons from my parents sent to the office. So we decided to have a little fun with them at work and take some great photos and some video too.

That night, some friends of ours threw a party at a local retro arcade/bar called the Bonus Round. We got to throw down in some Mortal Kombat 2, Rush and some Pinball while having a few drinks. It was one of those places I always talked about going to but never got around to actually getting there.

Later in the week, my friends and I went out for hibachi and ate some great food. Afterwards we met up for some board games and some catching up since I finished school and a couple of them just got back from their honeymoon.

It wasn’t all birthday party fun this week though! I got some images gathered for the e-book cover and laid and I also gathered some images for a thank you card I want to make for Patreon supporters. I also got word that my panels for SoDak con have been approved , so I will be screening Cosmic Rage and also presenting on the history of CGI in anime. It should be a great time. It will be the first time I will be traveling across state to finally get a chance to see SoDak con.

Mid-week I am looking to write up a review of Persona 4!