largento

Better.

First glance, looking at Design 101: • The stylized delta shape you are using in the poster draws the eye down to the lower right, where absolutely nothing is happening. • There's no focal point, no large image for the eye to be drawn to. Given how striking the ships are, I would choose one and make it the focal point and arrange the other elements to support it. • I would try to avoid the tangents of the shape intersecting the bald dude's face. • Negative space is good, but it should be used to balance content. Design is about contrast and compliment. • Not having a natural sense of design, try using the Rule of Thirds: See the grid over the poster and look at this quick rip and relocate: I'm not suggesting you do exactly this. Find your own way.

That was great, Chaz! Very entertaining and fun.

I think Gerry's right about it being easier to parody a drama than a comedy ...but they used to do it all of the time in Mad Magazine and Cracked when I was growing up. I just agreed to do a huge freelance job today that might throw my schedule off whack. I think I'm going to be okay with fitting it in ...but I really have no choice, since I need the dough. I haven't gotten the final tally yet about what's going to be required of me, but it could be substantial ...and due this month.

Robcat is closer, although Indy would be a lot of fun. Gerry, that idea is greatness, you should totally do it! I could see that being very funny. I'm still in the bouncing between ideas phase. I've got to finish this one first. :-)

I finished the animation for part 3 yesterday and it ended up coming up short (2:37) of the three minute mark. I could probably let it go, but since I've cut it down to four parts, I really need to get more story in. I wrote a new "captain's log" transition and plan on moving about a minute and a half from part 4 to the end of part 3. By coincidence, this ends part 3 at the point where the original webcomic version was abandoned. I'm hoping to finish up the new four minute version of part 3 today and then I'll have only one more part to do! And I'm thinking 4 minutes might be enough to encompass all of it, meaning I won't have to cut anything. I'm thinking that with the longer running times, I may cut back on the wraparounds for those two episodes. I won't be able to make that decision until I've written them. My Kickstarter campaign passed the 200% mark last night! My thinking now is to create a run of 500 DVDs. Beyond the convention, I'm thinking about contacting some Star Trek Fan Clubs and offering to come do a showing of the short at one of their meetings and sell copies there. I think I've picked the next show I'm going to parody, too, but I'm not ready to announce (ie commit) yet. :-)

Thanks, Rodney! And no worries! After the convention is over and I come out of my inevitable coma, I plan on looking at a way to sell DVDs online. I'm kind of getting excited about doing another series of episodes. I think it would be possible for me to get the ball rolling again and have another 4 come out in September.

A quick update! One week into my Kickstarter campaign and I've raised nearly twice my goal! It's looking very good for me to be able to make a decent enough number of DVDs that I won't have to worry at all about selling out during the convention! I'm back at work on animating and after a little bit of a rocky start, I'm back to having fun. From here on out, all the shots are set on Vulcanine and I'm so looking forward to getting to the fight sequences. Those were the whole reason I wanted to do this animated all those years ago. I think I'm okay, schedule-wise. I'm giving myself until the 24th to finish the animation, which should be more than enough time. After that, I need to move onto the wraparound stuff. I've got some breathing room with that, since the episodes will be weekly. I won't receive the money from the Kickstarter campaign until about the 20th of April, so that's my deadline for having the DVD finished. Depending on the turn around time needed, I might could cheat that up to the 1st of May if necessary. Thanks again to everyone who donated and/or helped spread the word!

Neat!

I wish I could offer any solid advice, but I was completely taken by surprise. For me, I had a specific need and tried to keep it as low as possible, because I *really* needed it to succeed. :-) An interesting statistic I can offer: about 30% of the funds pledged have come from Kickstarter visitors and that's the area that seems to be growing the most. However, the vast majority of pledges have come from people I know. I don't know if that's typical, but it makes sense. So if you think about it, if you're looking to get $10K, you're basically expecting $7K from your friends, family and acquaintances. If you know 7K people, then that's not too big a deal, but if you're like me and don't know that many people, it's a tough sell.

Thanks, Marcos!

Take a look at the rewards offered and you'll see that I'm doing them one better. All contributers' names appear with ranks in the Thank You section as the crew roster of the USS Secondprize! The Captains appear as 3D puppet versions of themselves. :-) No small type. :-)

Thanks, Paul! I think it's definitely a viable option for a small project. I think the bigger projects require much more networking and/or a large audience base.

Thanks, Walter! I really appreciate it!

Thanks, Gene! I am just amazed to say that I've officially passed the goal amount and my Kickstarter project is funded! It will continue to run for the rest of the month, though, in case anyone else wants to order a DVD. Unless something changes, my plan is to do this run as a special first edition with just the number of DVDs I get made. I'll send them out to the folks who contributed and then use the others to sell at the convention. I'm planning on doing about 200, so my fingers are crossed that I can sell the rest out there. I think this will make it cooler for the people who did support me and then if I order more, I'll change up the packaging for the second "printing". [EDIT] You posted while I was writing, Darkwing. Thanks!

Cool! Thanks!

I'm certainly agreeable to "audience-widening." :-) Right now, I'm just focusing on getting it finished, but once it's finished I'm probably going to launch the web series on Blip.TV. Beyond that, I'm going to set up a website for it (I have purchased the domains for both paunk.com and stalledtrek.com). I would expect that site to be the hub of everything, but that's going to be built *after* I complete the work on the series and the DVD. I still appreciate any support and if you'd like to point people to the Kickstarter page, that would be a great thing. It has images and additional video as well as a link to the YouTube video of the pilot. Thanks!

Excellent, Lt. Cmdr. Mooney! Thanks! I really am thankful for all the support. I'm just flabbergasted. @Darkwing A "making of" video is definitely something I want to include on the DVD. This process was developed with the intended goal of being able to create content quickly and simply. The solutions really came to me while doing all of that work on The Wannabe Pirates. You start looking for shortcuts and realizing what is slowing the process down. I definitely couldn't have done this when I was first starting in 2007 (and looking at that original thread is complete proof of that!) :-)

Much appreciated, Lt. Cmdr. Harris! :-) Thanks to you, I'm at 75% of my goal. I am completely stunned by the support from people. I didn't even consider the possibility that I'd get this far in a single day.

That's a great looking cast! Especially like the frog!

I know! I'm at 65% and pretty amazed by that. It would be great if it went past that!

Thank you, sir!

I'm not a big fan of them, myself. I use a debit card, which is accepted like a credit card, but doesn't allow me to bury myself in debt. :-) You should be able to get one with a checking account. There are those who would encourage you to get a credit card and use it responsibly to start building your credit. I was terrible with mine. I might be better nowadays that you can pay everything online, but back in the day, I found it extremely difficult to mail in my payment on time. Late fees and sudden changes in interest, etc. always put me into a place where I owed much more on the card than I ever used it to buy. I don't know when it's going to drop off, but I've reached 35% of my goal! Feeling a bit like George Bailey. :-)

Thanks, Stian & Will! I really appreciate the support! @Darkwing Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments, so it's basically like buying something through Amazon (Amazon doesn't charge you until your order ships and likewise, doesn't charge you for your pledge until/unless the project is completely funded.) I DO think you have to use a credit card (or debit card) or have your bank account linked. I don't think there's a way to do it with PayPal. I had to sign up for some kind of business account with Amazon in order to do this.

Hey everyone, I just started a Kickstarter campaign to make it possible for me to replicate DVDs of Stalled Trek for the convention in May. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/197552...trek-amutt-time I really need to spread the word as far as possible, so if you could share the link on Facebook or tweet about it or make mention of it on your website and email your friends and ask them to do the same, I'd really appreciate it. Please help! Thanks! Mark