NEW TRAILER!

Attending Lone Star Film Festival

Come join me for a screening of Heard AMC Palace 9 - Theater 5 220 E 3rd St Thursday (tomorrow) @ 5PM! I will be in a Q&A after the films as well as the rest of the weekend so come say hi!

Heard has been officially selected for the Lone Star Film Festival!

This is a big festival! November 10-13.

Named one of MovieMaker Magazines "Top 50 Film Festival's Worth The Entry Fee" in 2015, for the 3rd consecutive year.

I reeeaaallllly wanna make it out to Texas for this one and I'm gonna pull out all the stops to make it happen. More info on that front to follow!

HEARD Got a Write-Up in "The Beat"

You can read the entire article,

"Dragon Con 2016: The Best of the Independent Film Festival" by Kyle Pinion

HERE but here's the part about Heard:

"This short, which doubles as both a pseudo Euro-style sci-fi odyssey and a metaphor for artistic growth, was the first of the animated shorts to really grab me. I was taken with its confidence in vision, its clear purpose, and how – as the protagonist continues his journey – the visual stylings continue to evolve from simple line art to full fledged colored action."

It's a fantastic write-up and pretty well encapsulates my awesome experience at the DragonCon Film Festival.

Semi-Finalist in Los Angeles Cinefest

A little late getting this news out but it's been a crazy month for Heard.

THANK YOU, DRAGONCON!!!

Thanks very much to the fantastic hard-working people who put DragonCon together and especially Festival Director Matt Foster. It was a blast and a really well put-together festival.

I got several people come up to me and say how much they liked the film which is crucial to keeping an artist such as myself going. Knowing that your work affected people is the height of honors.

I greatly hope to be back next year!

Screening Update at DragonCon Film Festival

 I will be handing out poster cards throughout the event!

Accepted to DragonCon Independent Film Festival

 Sept. 2-5
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Accepted to IndieEarth Animation Film Festival

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Festival Catch-up

So far the film has been accepted and screened at the following festivals:

 

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Heard premiered at the showcase of animation from SCAD-Atlanta April 5th at the:

2016 ATLANTAMATION

IndieGogo Campaign Then and Now

So, thanks to the big support of awesome people, we were successful in raising $428 to aid entering Heard in festivals.

All rewards have been sent out and so far we have been able to submit the film to OVER 50 FESTIVALS!

I've been pretty lax on updates but I'm gonna start posting each acceptance and screening as they come along.

Thank You again to everyone who visits this blog and supports the project in any way.

Shoutout for the Shoutout and FESTIVAL ACCEPTANCE!

Quick shoutout to the shoutout on the Rubber Onion Animation Podcast.

Big thanks for the mention-LISTEN HERE!

Also, WE'VE GOT OUR FIRST FESTIVAL ACCEPTANCE!

Heard will be screening in Athens, Greece at the 11th ATHENS ANIMFEST!!!

Digital Animation Cels

Here's a first look at at the Animation Cels which are the main perk from my Indiegogo campaign HERE!

Each cel is from a different frame and a great deal at the $20 perk level. It's a great chance to get a one-of-a-kind piece of the film!

HEARD FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSION FUND IS LIVE!!!

(click image)

30 days with a goal of $500 on Indiegogo through flexible funding so no matter how much we raise the campaign is still funded!

Click the image to go to the page and learn all about the campaign including perks such as:

ONE-OF-A-KIND ANIMATION CELS

and...

YOUR NAME IN THE FILM!!!

 So, check out our Indiegogo and stay tuned here for upcoming behind the scenes!

HEARD on INDIEGOGO!!!

More info will be coming on the release date but this will be a small campaign focused on affordable, one-of-a-kind perks straight from the film to be delivered as early as May!

Our goal is to screen the film at great venues before a global audience and among the perks will be exclusive access to the online screener of the film so that you can see it before anyone else!

STAY TUNED!

In Memorium: The Cutting Room Floor

Thought I'd take a moment to share all the great shots that just didn't make it into the final cut of the film. Certainly there were many shots an ideas that were cut or changed and you can see at least most of them in various posts on this blog but these 4 shots made it to rough animation and were the last shots cut.

All of these shots were cut to help slow down the final fight sequence as the consensus of my thesis committee was that everything was simply moving too fast for an audience to follow. I generally agreed. Working so long you lose perspective as you're eyes are already so used to following the action over and over again.

Shots 85 and 88 would have shown more swinging around the giant as well as given a good sense of depth. I particularly like these shots with him swinging from the background to the foreground because I really think it places the camera and audience right there with the action.

Both of these shots were more or less insert shots animated by Jasmine Lewis and myself. I like to think he's just rocking out in that last one

THE FILM IS COMPLETE!!!

It's done.

It's finished.

I am ecstatic.

Actually, of all the feelings I could be feeling there's really just an overall sense of relief. It has been a LOOONNGG time coming and like any project this lengthy in the making I'm not overwhelmingly happy at the end. I'm very proud of the work done on the film and everyone's contributions to the final product. There's parts I'm extremely pleased with and there are parts that are the sum of compromise. I think at the end of a long production the best you can really hope for is knowing that you did as well as you could on every aspect of the piece.

Particularly with something like a thesis film or senior film you should always strive to challenge yourself and learn as much as you possibly can. That's one aspect of this project that I am extremely happy with. I challenged the hell out of myself with a tall order on all counts.

I learned A LOT.

I got MUCH BETTER.

I completed the film.

That, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment.

AND THANK ALL OF YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME THROUGH THIS ROLLER COASTER!

The Bad News: I can't show you the film right now.

Most festivals require that the film is not available to view online so the current version up in the "Story Reel" section is the last version I will be uploading for public consumption for the near future.

HOWEVER, I WILL BE FILM FESTIVALING LIKE NO ONE HAS EVER FILM FESTIVALED!!! More on that soon BUT I did just submit to 10 festivals today!

ALSO just because work on the film is complete DOES NOT mean I will not be updating on this blog. There's still many parts of the process I am going to go into so STAY TUNED FOR MORE BEHIND THE SCENES!

LAST SHOTS ANIMATED!!!

THAT'S IT!

ANIMATION IS IN THE CAN!!!

It has been a hell of a last couple weeks but the polished animation is completely finished and all 100+ shots are accounted for!

These last few have been really tough and I'll be posting them pretty soon but there's no time to rest now. I've got one last environment compliments of Diego as well as sound and rendering on my end ALL IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!

I've got a couple festival deadlines on the last day of February so CRUNCH TIME IS ON!

Enjoy this title GIF and stay tuned for a whole host of updates coming soon!

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL INTERNET PEOPLE!

Sorry about the bit radio silence, I've been sick the past few weeks and also absolutely swamped because THE FILM IS NEARLY FINISHED!!!

You HEARD right (see what I did there??!?!) I am finishing THE LAST SHOT of the film and if you come to me from Twitter I've been throwing the occasional gif up there BECAUSE IT LOOKS SO COOL!

On top of the last shot I am digging deep into the sound this week and so I'm marathoning THE COMPLETE WORKS OF DON HERTZFELDT to really get into that sound head space because I love his minimal vibrant scoring and immersive, if not subversive, ambiance of his films. I'm already brimming with ideas and I plan to get all kinds of inspiration by his work so fun times will be had by all.

Even tho me doing the sound wasn't my first choice I do love just getting completely wrapped up in the sound design of a piece and this film is perfect for entrenched sound creation. I'm keeping Alan's work on the climax music because he already did a fine job mastering that bit. Gonna try and add some bass kicks to it but that's really it.

I'm HOPING I can get this sound done in the next couple days, render the film out, and get an online screener up by the end of February because there's a couple festival deadlines I need to hit (more on that later).

We will see.

It's a tall order.

I'm gonna do my damndest.

Shot 110 Progress!

Thought you'd enjoy a quick progress gif for this insert shot. Here ya go:

Sneek Peek: Digital Cel Print Test

This is the first print test for digital animation cels from the film. More on that coming later but it's exciting to start test printing.

Shots 91-97 In-Sequence

Been working really hard to clean-up and color the last shots. Finally put these shots in-sequence and with a slight bit of retooling this is pretty final.

I gotta be honest: I've been working on this so long that I can't really judge the timing. My thesis committee liked the timing and it looks only okay to me.

That and shot 94 looks a little staggered. The 360 movement was a right pain and it's animated on twos but I think a lot of it is probably just in my head.

Anyway, YAY PROGRESS!

SO CLOSE!

Shots 83-84 PART 2: The Second One!

So, here we are back on this shot and I gotta say animating this giant has been agonizing.

He's a big bulky statue of metal brought to life and he moves slow and stilted. This hurts as an animator because ideally you aim for organic and natural movement to help the illusion of life. I am aiming for something which should not move but does. Begin content with his animation is really all I can shoot for now.

Not my best but it'll work.

Here's a little background effect to help the overall look.

And the final piece:

I've thought about adding a camera shake but I don't know.for now I'm leaving it as is and see how it looks in the overall sequence.