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That seems to be caused by static in the recording. If you cleaned up the audio and removed the noise, you would lose a lot of that. Where I see it being a big plus is for newbies who just want to make their cartoon character talk. This is much quicker than setting up phenomes and typing words into the dopesheet. With this method, a simple open/close mouth pose and an audio file and they're ready to go.

Trying out amplitude on a model with teeth. It really is serviceable to do the lip synch with Amplitude. It's not full animation to be sure, but for simple things, it can definitely work. It could also be used as a starting place, I think. Go in and edit the mouth shapes in some place (O's, MPB, etc.) and it would look pretty good. jimmytest_s.mov

Thanks, Gene! This comes under the category of grasping at straws. :-)

I guess, what I'm saying is that with all the freedom the internet gives us a distribution method, the gatekeepers still have a lot of influence and power. If I'm Stephen King, I can sell a book online without a publisher and do well *because* I had a publisher before that spent lots and lots of money on making my name famous and publishing my books. If I'm me, I've got a higher mountain to climb. :-) The "trick" seems to be that you have to come up with something that a person reading or viewing immediately feels the need to share with everyone else they know. And those people are also so motivated to share it to everyone they know. How do you accomplish that trick, I don't know.

As you know, I'm running my Kickstarter to fund my The Wobbling Dead movie. I'm nearly halfway there, but that means I have over half to go! As an incentive to try to persuade you to pledge, I'm offering these bonuses: $15--Free Model! So, in addition to a free Wobbling Dead desktop picture and a downloadable version of the film, you get the above model. He's got a basic rig in him and some basic poses for eyebrows, eyes and the mouth. You can use the existing rig, or pull it out and put in one of the available rigs. $25--Free Model & Extra Stuff! With this, you get the desktop picture, the downloadable version of the movie, the movie on DVD, the free model and an extras pack with things like different hairpieces, facial hair, hats, a couple of shirts and pants, etc. $50--Free Model, Extra Stuff, & Video Tutorials! This is the biggie! You get all the above stuff, plus your DVD will be signed, your name will appear in the credits and you'll get a series of video tutorials by me, showing how I model a character like the above! Remember, the way Kickstarter works, you only get charged if the campaign is successful. If it fails, you won't be charged and won't receive the rewards. Click on this link or in my sig file below to visit the Kickstarter page!

I posted a link to the first story to my Facebook page last week. Basically pointing out that we now live in a society that tosses aside our older employees. Not just in comics. People get let go because they are older and their salary/benefits are too expensive. It's a reality I didn't factor into my decision to quit my job four years ago. :-) The support the artists you like pre-supposes you've heard of the artist in the first place.

Heck, if I could get a booth babe, I wouldn't even bother making the cartoons, more or less going out and trying to sell them. :-)

That was the thinking behind doing The Wobbling Dead. I thought even doing TNG would be too narrow. Although there are folks who like Star Trek AND The Walking Dead, the two have mostly separate audiences. That, and The Walking Dead is extremely popular these days. I don't doubt that one of my biggest weaknesses is that I'm simply not a salesman. Heck, I hate even attracting attention to myself, more or less talking to hundreds of strangers trying to get them to take a chance on this thing that I poured my heart and soul into. I can't help but think if I were the outgoing type and had thousands of friends, this would be a lot easier. 'Course, then I probably wouldn't be the type who could spend days on end in front of a computer never seeing the sun. :-) I've heard that argument against the business side from many artists. But, to be successful, you have to have that instinct and knowledge. I've been trying to set up a regular meeting of some of the local cartoonists here in Dallas, and so far have only managed to organize one get together, but one of the cartoonists there had been a newspaper cartoonist since the early '80s. When his paper went out of business, he literally had no idea what to do. He's still doing about six cartoons a week, but they barely pay anymore. On the web, there's opportunities, but they still require capital and who-you-know and luck. I can tweet about making this movie I made by myself, but it's not going to get anywhere as much attention as a Kardashian tweeting about what kind of shoes they like. The problem is that the internet is still like standing in the basement holding up index cards that say "Buy my stuff."

Thanks, Rodney! I'd like to think that they would have done something similar with a real puppet show. Just have someone stick it in its hand as soon as it went out of sight. As to the legs, there's no way to get around that. I thought I could on Stalled Trek until I started building sets and realizing there wasn't going to be an easy way to shoot them from the waist up all the time. My thinking was that if you believe the puppet's a character, then you believe it has a lower body, even if you can't see it.

I put the YouTube link to the Hospital Sequence in the Kickstarter thread, but I wanted to make sure it was here in the main thread. For me, these threads are kinda' like a journal that I can go back to. Anyway, here's the . This one was definitely a rush job! One simple bit I'll share was this little Texas Switch I did to get the comment card in the puppet's hand: 1) I made an action that was just the card positioned in the puppet's hand and constrained to translate to and orient like the hand bone. 2) I positioned the cards so that I could have the character's hand go out of view (presumably with the card) 3) I had the action set so that it didn't become active until the puppet's hand was out of sight. 4) The hand comes back into view holding it. For being quick and easy, I think it worked pretty well.

Never say die, Rodney ...until they kill it. :-) I haven't given up at all (and thanks for your pledge, btw!), just being more realistic this go around. I read somewhere that the danger of having a great imagination is that you can imagine something being successful. :-) I've thought all of these projects had potential to go over big and imagined them all taking off, but the reality is that at the end of next month, it'll be four years since I quit my job and with the exception of Stalled Trek, everything has been a loss financially. That's not to say they were unsuccessful in that there were actually 2 or 3 fans of The Wannabe Pirates who enjoyed it and I certainly learned a heckuva' lot in the process, but I think this gives me a gauge to say how far should I go with this. Using Stalled Trek as my only other example. I originally did the Kickstarter to make 200 DVDs, thinking that would be about what I'd expect to sell at local cons. (A conservative number as actual sales bore out.) However, when it went over the goal, I opted to get 1K DVDs made. If I'd looked at the numbers of backers and saw that it was more on the small side, I could have stuck to a lower number and used that extra money to travel to a larger Star Trek show, where I probably would have had an easier time selling it. This time, I'm trying to make use of the info. If it makes it's goal, then I'll consider that in the number of DVDs I order and the way I go about selling it. If it had been a runaway success, then I could have planned for that, as well. As it is, though. If it doesn't go, then that's a pretty good sign there aren't that many people interested in buying them and I wouldn't have the money to make them for them, either. Better to have that info *before* I've spent six or seven months working on a project, rather than after the fact when I can't get that time back. So, not being a defeatist and haven't given up yet (in fact, I'm working on another one of the character models today), just allowing reality to interfere this time, rather than foolishly not letting it into the room. :-)

I wish I could, Gene, but I can't. There's only so much time I can live off of my family and I'm nearing the end of that. My hope was that the reaction to this would be positive enough that I could point to the Kickstarter and justify keeping on the path. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. If it couldn't even generate the costs needed to produce it, how can I convince my family I'll be able make a living doing this? What's annoying is the Catch 22 I find myself in. If I had stayed at my job, I'd have plenty of money to fund something like this, but I wouldn't have had the energy and time to actually do it. It would be different if I hadn't just spent years doing The Wannabe Pirates and coming up empty.

Thanks alot, Tony! I really appreciate it! Thanks, Gene. My fingers are crossed that it gets the project the needed attention.

Whoo-hoo! I finished the Hospital Sequence and have uploaded it to YouTube! Go see it ! And please don't forget to pass it around and spread the word. I'm halfway through my Kickstarter, but only 1/3rd funded. It's looking more and more like I may not make it to the finish line, which will scuttle this project (and my hopes and dreams!) If you can support, please do! Thanks!

NICE one, Jesse!

Will, there's no question that you have enormous talent and your work stands far and above most people. I hope you go for it (even if that mostly is because *I* want to see it!) I'm honestly not sure what you should do, but reading your comments, I wonder if your Kickstarter could go towards creating the infrastructure for a community Tar web series? In other words, a central hub where those who are interested in some aspect of it, could jump on board and be part of it ...plus a render farm for the community and maybe even A:M licenses for those who qualify. I was just reading about what was said at a panel on web series at SXSW, and they said that people like anthologies, but don't want to watch episode 6 of a 152-part series. They did say, though, on the internet, comedy is king. They also said that they had all tried to go the film festival route, but described it as trying to get your film approved by a panel of five so that it can be shown to 200. They preferred the immediacy of the web and the potential to reach millions of viewers. Of course, they also gave a statistic that every MINUTE, 72 HOURS of video is uploaded to YouTube! Talk about signal-to-noise ratio! If you could find some like-minded people, you could conceivably set up a system to have several episodes being produced over-lapping to allow for an actual series release schedule. The Kickstarter would be a step forward in that direction. I gotta' think people will be blown away by what you can show them. We all are!

Not a lot to show today. Modeled and rigged the hospital version of Recch yesterday and today. Complete with hospital gown and socks. I've got most of the pieces done for this sequence and re-wrote the script today to allow for this being a longer sequence. Going to try to record the dialogue tonight so that I can begin animating tomorrow. My rough storyboards show about 15 shots, but it might be slightly more. It might be two or three minutes long, but probably on the lesser side of that. With luck, I can knock them all out this weekend. Rendering is likely going to take awhile, though. I really want to have this sequence finished and up on Wednesday, which will mark the halfway point of my Kickstarter.

Thanks, David! Did a test shot of the animated flowers. I went ahead and did a full render thinking I might use a couple of seconds as an insert shot. You can see it .

Thanks so much, Kat! I really appreciate it! @Robert, Thanks. That *is* A:M DoF. Photoshop was used to add some glow and film grain and tweak the colors some. @Rodney, Thanks. The flower is really just a one-off gag. In the original the main character's first clue that time has passed is that he wakes up to see the flowers on the nightstand have died. I thought it would be funny to make them little zombies. I was just going to do one flower, but I think I'll make it a bunch of flowers (same model, of course) and have them all moving around, biting at the air.

Because, I'm not afraid to go for a cheap joke, I present: Dead Flower. :-) This was something I just added because I thought it would be a fun background gag, but I may do a cartoon face modeling tutorial with it in the future. It's such a simple and quick character to do. Look at how simple the splines are:

Thanks, Gene! Some more progress on the set. This is actually a larger set that goes out into a hallway, around a corner to a stairwell. Basically all the elements I need for the sequence. So most of my progress has been in putting in all the molding along the floors and doors and that kind of stuff. I feel like I can pack a lot of stuff into this, so I'm going to have fun with it. I'm not worrying too much about matching the TV show. The sets aren't nearly as iconic as something like Star Trek and I wouldn't be able to match them even if I tried. [EDIT] Here's an overview of the hospital set in progress...

Hospital Room is coming along. Still more props to build, plus hospital version of Rick.

Quick & easy hospital bed for puppets. Not sure why, but I like the idea of puppets never having any leg room in these things. (Did the same thing with the Sickbay bed in Stalled Trek.)

Thanks, Curtis! I'm operating right now as if it will succeed. If it doesn't, I'll have to take stock of things and decide. One of the goals this week is to create the hospital sequence and animate it. It's relatively simple in that it's all indoors and just revolves around the main character. Hopefully, it will help give folks an idea of what to expect.

Gerald, I do have a PayPal account and I'd really appreciate the support, but my concern is that there's still a strong chance I won't reach my goal. For that reason, I'd say wait. If it is successful and you'd still like to donate, I'd happily give you the same reward as if it were Kickstarter. The Amazon payment is basically the same thing. You aren't charged until the campaign is completed and the goal met. I'm with you. I haven't used a credit card in over 10 years. A debit card has worked fine for me and kept me from spending money I don't have. :-)