largento

Thanks, Jake! But you're forgetting that this story takes place over 300 years ago. :-)

I've been cranking away on this! I've got a rough assemblage that I'm using as my framework. One of the things I decided to change was to take the first shot and make it appear to be on a monitor on a spaceship console. Here's the console I made: And here's what it looks like with the video running in it: I've added more shots, so I have even more to do, but I really think it's going to be fun when it's finished.

Very cool!

Those are some great solutions, Bobby! Now I want to find something to use dynamic constraint on. :-)

Very cool! Has a "black light" feel to it!

I never used to notice it that much in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but the Filmation cartoons (Tarzan, Flash Gordon, etc.) were much more blatant about it. Even as a kid I recognized those sequences that were used over and over again. The trick to reusing it in 3D, would be that you'd have to keep your camera setup pretty flat. If the perspective is wrong, it would show up in 3D. Of course, it would save time just to render the characters with an alpha channel and render out the backgrounds as a static image that could be composited. Again, as long as you didn't move the camera. I've definitely re-used frames in the comic strip to save time.

Just voted again!

The set is looking great, Steve!

Okay, a lifetime of Mom guilt trips made me unable to not concede to your comments, Nancy. :-) I tweaked the last shot to try to cover some of the things you mentioned. I kept the hands up, though. they have aliens behind them aiming weapons at them. I might have overdone the bounce in the arms a little (almost looks like they are "raising the roof.") mysterious_shaded3.mp4 Here's the shot I worked on today. Fun to have the monkey reacting to everything. :-) indy_shaded.mp4

I think it works for what I'm doing, Nancy. I suppose if the elbows bounced to the movements that might keep the arms from looking as stiff. Waiting to put all the parts together before I do the final sound. I've been watching video tutorials for After Effects all day trying to think what I'm going to do for all of the title cards. Want something fun that feels like a real movie trailer.

Good man KenH was kind enough to animate one of the scenes for me! Doc Bokor and Mr. Sneeze comment on mysterious islands... mysterious_shaded.mp4

Thanks, Rodney! I gave Scott (the talented fellow doing the voices) a very specific request for Doc Bokor's voice: I wanted Doc Bokor to sound like Geoffrey Holder (the 7-Up "Uncola" guy) who played Baron Samedi in "Live and Let Die." I think he did a fantastic job of capturing it. What's been fun for me is having another person interpreting the characters with their voices. It brings some freshness into it and it's very inspiring. The voice and audio work was always what held me up from getting a Wannabe Pirates animation off of the ground.

Thanks, Ken. You're right. I know I definitely went a little overboard with Doc Bokor's swaying around. I need to make it a little more subtle. I wanted a little more snap on Flemm's fist movement, too. I'll get the chance to tweak the shots a little before the final render. Excited to get this done, though. Think it might get the Wannabe Pirates some attention.

Thanks, guys! (Jake, Flemm is saying "Are you sure he's not just yawning?") Trying to buckle down and get one shot done a day so I can knock this puppy out! Here's today's. This is only a shaded render, but I'm holding off now on doing the renderings until I get everything pieced together and see how it all works! This is the Laugh at Danger bit... lat_shaded.mp4 It wasn't just for the look that I gave Doc Bokor that huge mustache. Makes lip-synching for that character a breeze. :-)

Thanks, Steve! I found moving the camera really helped sell that.

Another shot! This one's the Sea Monster scene. There'll be sound effects added to all of these and the final editing will probably be tighter, but here it is in the raw: playitroughscene_s.mp4

Spent today creating a little logo animation for "Endeavor Comics" to use in this commercial. Endeavor Comics was the label we self-published our books in the '90s and I still have the website, so thought I'd use it for this, too. Simple model, but made cool via matcap shaders and transparency/bump maps on the back! eclogo144.mp4

Can't wait to see how this gets used, Gene! I like the cartoony-ness of it!

Neat, Gerry!

Thanks, Rodney! They were made to be animated, but I don't know that we'll ever get to see a real animated project. It was interesting to me to hear someone else interpret the voices the way they heard them. What I like about the Flemm voice is that it has that kind of puffed-up quality to it and is very comical. The Greyhawk voice was inspired by the actor Stewart Granger. Seeing this movie poster makes the connection pretty clear! [EDIT] Thanks, Ken! They look okay to me on my computer, so it could be a playback issue. Those modulating scanlines do make the frames a bit more complicated.

The first sequence!! I'm probably going to experiment a little more with the opening part to do some more distortion/static type stuff, but this is basically it! First time speaking with their new voices! Sequence_01_2b.mp4

I'll let you know when they start going up, Rodney! I'm going to put in some puzzle pages in the comics and started working on one today with a maze. Never did a maze before, but it was cool that I could do it in Illustrator and then use the AI plug-in to bring it into A:M and make it 3D.

That would be great, Ken! I'll keep you in the loop!

I'd welcome the help, Robert! I'm still waiting on the voice tracks. He started them last week, so I'm not sure how long it will take him. Almost all of the clips are very brief and mostly are lip synching.

Cover for the first issue of the regular comic book! I was going for a very nostalgic feel, but looking modern, as well. I think "dialogue" covers aren't done anymore, but I still dig them. The "movie poster" cover works well for the graphic novel, but for individual issues, I like being able to take a sequence in the comic and do a new gag with it. I think it's more representative of the actual comic, too. Checking on advertising with local comic shops and businesses.