Mark & Brian's Christmas Show!

For my dad's birthday yesterday, we went to see a show hosted by some radio comics on 95.5 KLOS.  My parents sat in row 4 and my mom's friend Kellie and I sat in row 5.  We were about 15 feet from the stage so that was really cool. :P  PICTURES!!!

 

Kellie, dad, and me.  I cosplayed as Gio!!!  Haha, I totally wasn't ready...

 

My mom has curlers in her hair... XD as for me, this one's not much better :P

 

Mark and Brian!

 

Sammy Hagar.  He was a lot of fun.

 

Edgar Winter.  He stole the show when they played "Frankenstein."

 

 

Sammy again.

 

Morgan Freeman read "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  How awesome! 8D (too bad our camera hates us)

 

Steve Miller was the headliner!!!  I love him!

 

Those lights were really pretty, especially during "Abracadabra." My parents had the camera and didn't take a picture during that though.

 

My dad took these pictures and he had front & center so that's why the mic is in front of him in every shot.

 

I thought this was a neat one of my dad. XD

 

Hey look, it's a blurry picture of Kellie and I! (Excuse my messy hair; we got rained on pretty hard) 

Yep...that was fun.  My ears were ringing as I tried to get to sleep, haha.  Anyways see you guys later!  More cartoon progress coming soon...

New Characters? ...Maybe?

So there's this series of stories I've been working on for a long time.  The earliest concepts for it started in 2003. O_O  I can't even put into words the amount of work I dedicated to that project.  Gio and Ghosteh used to be a part of it until Gio got his own show :P  But, with GtM having far more progress in only two years (not to mention this old series is beginning to look kind of silly), I'm seriously considering scrapping that series, except for a story or two out of the original five.  I am saving my favorite characters for other projects and three of them might be introduced as minor characters in GtM.

These new characters consist of a girl (finally! :P) whom I need to draw an updated look for, and a set of male identical twins who need name changes.  I won't reveal them to the general public until an episode with them is about to be released...which won't be for a while...x_x As for the rest of the characters from that old story... that'll be for another blog once their stories are redone. :D

Latest Updates

I haven't been doing a lot of animation lately.  Instead, I've been finishing up everything else and getting a head start on the second episode so there won't be such a long break in between the first two episodes' releases.  The second script has been giving me a lot of trouble for many months now, but I think what I have so far meets my high expectations.  I've just got to write in the missing parts of dialogue where I changed or cut scenes out.  It'll be finished soon! :D

Here's something I've been working on for so long I can't even remember and no one knows about: a seamless design for a background, wallpaper, fabric, etc. with the trio in various drawings, almost like a collage.  Hardly anything is inked yet and it definitely won't be finished for a while, but the sketches are looking pretty good and I can't wait to have it as a background here.

I've got a bunch of other awesome things planned so stay tuned...

End of October Progress

OH MY GOSH IT'S GOING TO BE NOVEMBER ALREADY. O_O At this point, I really wish people would stop asking me how the animation is going (particularly "what percentage" is finished) because I never know how to respond.  IT'S GREAT, OKAY?  IT'S REALLY REALLY GREAT. >:I  What's bothering me is how much I have done.  I'm way behind schedule here.  ...Weeell, now that I think about it, the length of the first episode ended up being about a minute longer than I expected so I guess it's okay... but I still should've had more finished by now. D:

Let me try to make this post interesting by showing you some horrible background sketches.

How Long Does One Scene Take?

Thought I'd post a little something you may or may not find interesting. ;)  This'll give you an idea as to how time-consuming animation can be.

The average scene is 6 seconds long, so I'll use that as an example.  Action scenes take more or less time depending on the complexity so I'll just talk about a simple dialogue scene.  Remember, a 6-second-long scene has about 80 frames because we need 5-7 frames of padding after the dialogue so the next scene doesn't jump in too fast.

FIRST STEP: guidelines, aka stick figures.  Positioning them so that the head tilts and movement go along with the dialogue takes about 45 minutes.  This is usually the most tedious step because this is how the scene is put together.  Once this step is done, it gets easier.

When that is done, next I animate the eyes.  The eyes are the focal point and lead the way for expressions and whatever the character is thinking.  They have to be perfect because the eyes are what people watch.  This step can take from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

Next, lipsync!  This is probably my favorite thing about a dialogue scene.  Lipsync is about as important as the eyes, and we don't want any big mistakes here or they'll show.  Hmm...you know, I'm not sure how long this step takes, probably because I actually have FUN with it XD, but my guess is from an hour to an hour and a half.

When I'm positive everything looks good so far, I begin drawing the outline of the face and any other details like Gio's hairline or Strider's goatee.  This step can take a while because I tend to have the most problems with it, but at about 30 seconds of work per scene, that all adds up to 40 minutes for this step.

Next is hair.  Gio's hair is very complex and has three parts to it, which all move separately from each other.  I like to do the part that sticks up over his face, then the white part, then the black part.  This step takes around 4-5 hours.

Finally, his body, arms, and props.  This depends on what's happening in the scene.  If there's a lot going on, I can spend up to 5 hours on this part because these movements are sometimes the hardest to do.  I often need to act out the scene and watch myself in the mirror to be able to animate them.

There you have it: somewhere around 14 hours of work for 6 seconds of animation.  That doesn't even include the time spent on the background, outlines, and coloring; man, you don't even wanna KNOW how long that takes.  Holy moly, I have a lot of work to do...

Time for a Speech

Since I don't have any news yet, I think I'll talk about how awesome this whole cartoon process is.  Yeah...that's what I'll do...

I have tried many different fields of art: realism, cartooning, painting, pastel, clay sculpting, 3D modeling: pretty much (almost) everything.  Out of all the art-related things I've tried, 2D animation is the hardest, most tedious, most irritating art form to me, but it is also the most rewarding.  The best part is watching the results after hours and hours of hard work and seeing your characters actually performing.  Conveying emotions and believable acting in animation -- without the voices, mind you -- is the hardest thing I've ever done but it is by FAR the best art form there is, hands down.

...but I still hate doing backgrounds.

Right now I just have to mention two of my favorite quotes from the animator Art Babbitt: "Every rule in animation is there to be broken -- if you have the inventiveness and creativity to look beyond what exists." "The animation medium is very unusual.  We can accomplish actions no human could possibly do.  And make it look convincing!"

And of course, I can't forget the complete AWESOMENESS that is the voice actors, Neil and Jack (Giovanni and Strider respectively).  Seriously guys, this show wouldn't be possible without your talents.  Ever since I started creating my own characters (what...8 years ago??), I've always wanted them to talk and thought about what kinds of voices they'd have, and this is the first time I get to really hear it, all thanks to you two.  I LOVE YOU GUYS <3

Soooo YEP, that is all for now.  Back to animating!

Stuffs

Not much to report but I thought I'd post something anyway since I won't be getting any interesting news for a while.

Animation stuff: Everything seems to be going pretty slowly but only because I'm starting out with all of the long dialogue scenes.  The rest of the scenes, for the most part, are shorter and have more action in them so those will be fun to do at least. ;) AND I can see my work improving as I go so that's nice.

Other stuff: Wanna hear a preview of the ambient music in the first episode?  Click here!!! ((Created by ERH on freesound.org.  I love his work.))

Hmm...I guess that's it. :P Sorry that all of my posts lately have been kinda boring.  Hopefully I can find something exciting to show soon!

Slowly but Surely...

Not a lot of progress yet.  I'm currently working on the rough animation, which is obviously the hardest stage because you're planning out all of the motion and have to get expressions and everything exactly the way you want it.  It's all downhill from there.  I am NOT looking forward to doing the outlines though. :/

I'm also finishing up backgrounds, but procrastinating a lot on those.  I can easily say that backgrounds are my least favorite thing to do. :P  My background minion Roy has helped me out a lot with most of the backgrounds but now I gotta take it from here.

What I'm working on at this very moment: MORE LIPSYNC.  This scene I'm doing right now is about 12 seconds long, and at 12 frames per second, it adds up to 145 frames...which means I gotta draw Gio 145 times in a row... Gee, isn't animation great? :D

Cartoon Progress

Haven't been posting much lately!  Here's some news to keep people updated.  Right now I'm working on rough animation of several of Gio's dialogue scenes, which can be pretty boring to animate. u_u  Once I get all of the lines in, I can complete the soundtrack as well.

PROOF that I'm working:

Edit 8-19: Another screenshot:

Shirt Designs

AWW YEAH.  T-SHIRTS.  Check 'em out...

Now all I gotta do is find a place that will make em for me. x_X

Updates of Everything

Haven't updated in a while, so here's what's happening now.  I'm a bit behind on everything because life keeps getting in the way.  I can't really work in the morning or daytime cause my mom's always home and I'm too tired at night to do anything either.  BACKGROUNDS AREN'T EVEN DONE YET.  Man, I have SO much work to do. XD

I've been wanting to bring back the idea of Basilisk Radio, which will be a series of recordings related to my projects, such as voice acting samples, bloopers/outtakes from script readings, audio-only episodes (like film noir/radio dramas), original music, and other stuff. ;P  IT'S GONNA ROCK.

One thing I want to do now is collect some classical music to which the copyrights have expired so I can use it in the show.  For those who don't know, I will be uploading this to deviantart in the film category, and music that you don't have a license to use or didn't compose yourself isn't allowed.

Before I get even more distracted, I'll go continue to work now. XD Until next time!

I made my own peg bar.

I've always wanted a peg bar, but the only place I could find one was online, and I'm not paying 7 bucks for shipping when it doesn't even weigh anything.  Since I have some extra clay and decent sculpting skills, I decided to make my own. XD  Yay for frugality!

I started off with a punched paper for reference, a flat surface, and an X-Acto knife.

I kneaded some clay, stretched it out, flattened it with a rolling pin, and then used a ruler to guide the knife along the edge.


Now it looks somewhat straighter. XD  I shaped the registration pegs at this point and smoothed them out with my clay tool.  I kept them separate for now because it will be easier to sand them if needed and glue them on.  Time to bake this sucker!


It's out of the oven now (as you can see, I burned it slightly XD), and I sanded it a good amount.  I marked where the pegs will go by placing the paper on top and aligning the holes on the bar.  Then I glued it with super glue, cause any other glue I've used on clay dried up and broke the sculpture. :<


There she is... And working like a charm!  For something homemade, I guess. XD

GtM Cast List Up

I am pleased to announce that I've chosen voice actors to play as Giovanni and Strider.  Drumroll please...

Playing as Giovanni will be Neil Alexander! (Redd on VAA)

Playing as Strider will be Jack Mace! (PwnageSniper on VAA)

Thank you very much to everyone who auditioned: HeadlessChicken, Mr. Jay, GEXROX, Stephan, Blueman39, Klemens, HaggisPasty, Jevaque60, BOWIEtheHERO, and Newrikey!  I'm glad you all had interest in my project, and good luck to everyone in future projects!

Universal Studios!!! 8D

Hey everybody!  This isn't GtM related, but... I need to post it somewhere.  Yesterday, I went to Universal Studios with my mom and aunt.  I didn't get pictures of the whole trip but I took some near the end.  The really fun stuff was the Studio Tour: I've been on it a zillion times but they keep adding new stuff to see.  Like the new King Kong thing - MAN that was cool!  It was also really awesome seeing the original Bates Motel and the spooky house on the hill in person.  Oh, and I went on the Simpsons ride for the first time. XD That was the single greatest moment of my life. O.O  It was AMAZING.  Go ride it first chance you get.  Now: PHOTOS!  Click to make them bigger!

Hey look it's Bart.  Hi Bart!

I got to take a picture of the Warner Brothers and ABC studios!

And WB's famous water tower! XD Look look, there it is!

Me and my aunt.  I look like such a dork...

 Me and my aunt again.  Yes, I do have an Angry Beavers shirt on. XD

Citywalk in the evening!  Ate at Wolfgang Puck's too.  LOVED it!

And now, Citywalk at night.  This is what Sonnet City (where Gio & co. live) looks like in my head.

Down towards the bottom center, you can see my mom waving ;p

The sign over Gamestop!

Hard Rock Cafe's chandelier! O.O

That's the floor directly beneath the chandelier.

Hard Rock Cafe's giant guitar, all lit up.

 So yep, that was our trip.  See you guys later!

Planning Drawings! O.O

The first episode's backgrounds should be all done by the time casting is over.  In the meantime, I'm working on planning drawings, which are thumbnails of the key poses, extremes, and in-betweens that are used to plan a scene instead of that pose-to-pose technique (which is NOT fun).  After that, I do several straight-ahead runs of rough animation.

I've decided to nix the storyboards from now on since I'm the only person planning scenes and movement; it's not like I have a whole animation team to send a storyboard off to.  It'll save me a lot of time and money (I'm looking at YOU, Kinko's).

MUSIC!

Happy Birthday to me!

I level up today at 11:45 PM.  I'll be 20!
Anyways, GtM news.  The backgrounds aren't finished, but I want to hire voice actors already!!!  I need to ink and color the official pictures of the characters for a visual reference (they're just sketches now).  I think I'll still have to wait until all of the backgrounds for the first two episodes are done.

Edit (5-21): Official character art was finished several days ago, and the backgrounds for the first episode are about halfway done.  A few are completely finished, but many of them are line drawings almost ready to be colored.

Quick Update

I had Lasik exactly one month ago.  And I STILL haven't drawn a comic about it.  If I can still remember what it was like, I'll do so!

Because it took a while to recover from the surgery, I'm behind on my cartoon.  Roy's still working on backgrounds, and I'm still practicing Ghosteh's voice and doing some sound editing.  I have a lot of new ideas for more episodes though. =D  Time to go buy coffee and get started on the animation...

Back From Vacation

Hey all!  I've been on vacation in Hawaii for the last 6 days, so I couldn't work on GtM while I was away.  I've gotten better at drawing Strider's new hairstyle, decided to tweak Ghosteh's colors (but haven't figured out what color scheme to give him yet), and started a new sketching style: highlighter drawings! 8D Basically I draw full-body sketches (from now on), ink them, and color the green, blue, and purple parts with some cool new highlighters I got.  So keep an eye out for those! ;)

Oh yeah, and I've gotten better at speaking in a Cockney dialect. XD

Backgrounds Have Started

This is the first major step of the cartoon to have begun.  I am in the process of sketching the backgrounds so that my lovely assistant, Roy, can paint them.  I may post up a few samples when we finish enough, so keep an eye out!

In other news...I'm leaving for Hawaii on the 27th!!!  My parents have decided to go there to watch the Pro Bowl in Waikiki.  This will be my 7th time visiting Hawaii for a vacation!  WOO!  I'll be working on GtM during the 5-hour plane ride (or I may just end up playing Pokemon, who knows).