largento

I do miss the contests, but will admit that I hardly ever found the time to participate. I just loved seeing what everyone who did came up with. It was a nice showcase for the software, too. The group projects that have been popping up (Pass the Ball and the Bus Stop) I think are good replacements. They showcase the talent in the community, but remove the winning/losing stigma.

As someone who has used other people's music on videos I've made, my choice has been to post them to YouTube, where the copyright owners can control their content. For instance, the copyright owners block my demo reel in Germany. However, they don't block my Christmas Greeting. If, at anytime, they decided to block them in the USA or any other country, they can do that. Which, in my thinking, gives them control of their copyrighted content, which is what copyright is all about. In addition, YouTube's software recognizes the music used, identifies it and puts up links where the music can be purchased on Amazon and/or iTunes, offering a revenue stream to both the copyright owners and YouTube. I also consciously do not use the songs in their entirety, so nobody could get the full song by ripping it from my videos. To me, I've allowed the copyright owner to choose whether or not they want to allow me to use the content and therefore determine whether or not I am infringing on their rights. Of course, this isn't completely black and white, but I am completely comfortable with my choices. Now, were I to do something that I wanted to charge for, then of course, I wouldn't use materials that I wasn't given permission to use. That's common sense.

Holme's music choice will have no bearing in whether or not he gets a job.

That is GREAT, Holmes! Don't worry about the music. The worst case scenario is that it just so happens to be shown to someone who owns the music (which is highly unlikely) and they send you a cease and desist letter for you to remove it. No doubt this would be long after you had shown it to the local companies you wanted to show it to.

Hey, I dig the banners, Rodney! Very cool way to see a preview of the topic!

Great stuff, Holmes! I can offer some generic suggestions that I've read (and had lectured to me): 1) Always cut on Action. Stopping and starting slows down the pacing. When possible try to match the direction of action, that will help avoid jarring transitions. If the disparity can't be helped, consider a cross-fade or other transition rather than a hard cut. 2) Make a list of skills you want to show off (walk cycles, physical acting, face acting, lip synching, etc.) and then pick your best examples of each. Trim them down to just the essence of what you want the clip to show. 3) One guide I read suggested holding the full-length stuff until the end (after your credits.) That way they can watch your demo reel quickly (satisfying the time constraints), but then they can also continue watching if they are inclined to. 4) Using a single piece of music over the course of it, could also help with bringing it all together. Even in something like this, I think audio is half of the experience. You could always interrupt it for one of the musical sections (or dialogue sections) and then go back to the unifying music. 5) Make sure that your very first segment is the one you think is absolutely your best work. I wouldn't worry at all about continuity or chronology.

Thanks, Robert! I'm trying to break out of perfect square stuff, but it's still baby steps time... Here's a little bit of an update. The roof is just temporary. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet.

Well, it's a start! :-) Here's the exterior front wall. Loosely based on the version McCrary did in 2D. I'm going to start with the walls and use them to define the interior.

Waaaay back at the beginning of this project there was one set that I knew I'd have to build because it would be featured so much. I gathered up tons of reference materials from all sorts of image searches on Google ...and went years without ever modeling it! :-) But today, that changes! As much as I shake in my booties when faced with having to create a set, I am going to knuckle down today and do it! Finally, I'm going to create the Tavern set! I'll update here as I go!

That looks really great, Mark!

That's kind of the point, Jake. It's a "flish" :-) It's not a comic and it's not an animated film. It's a motion comic. It's something new. And the "language" is still being written. It's not a movie, so you don't have to stick to established film conventions. Nor is it a comic book, so you don't have to operate within those conventions, either. It's something that can take elements from both mediums and combine them in different ways and make up your own new ones. Starting with original material and planning for it to be a motion comic would allow for all sorts of new storytelling devices and creativity. The big push now in electronic publishing on devices like smartphones and iPad-like tablets is to have motion and other elements added to books. It's going to continue. Static is going to be something in the past. When ePaper and other technologies become reliable and affordable, printing is going to go away. ...and kids dig 'em. :-)

I wonder Will, have you considered doing something similar to a motion comic? I came across this site the other day: http://www.digitalmotioncomics.com The majority of them start from a source comic and break up the art and use a combination of 3D and AfterEffects to turn them into short films. I'd encountered some of the ones that DC Comics had done earlier. I even have the BluRay of the Watchmen motion comic. Watching some of them, it got me to thinking that using the style of them might make for a more economical way to do an animated series. You basically get to pick and choose what would be animated and would make doing a series in a reasonable amount of time possible. It's almost a kind of mixed media approach where you could combine your sketches, paintings and 3D stuff. Could make for an interesting style and give it a modern, unique look.

Happy Birthday! Hope it's a great one!

Congrats!

Looking good, Kat! I think mostly we champion the short film because few of us have the dedication to tackle the long project. You've proven you do have the patience and dedication! PS-->I like that you have leaves and stuff floating around in the water. Nice touch!

Spectacular, Will!

That's great, Jake! For a little while in college, I worked in a department store and part of my job was putting together entertainment centers. Video made me have flashbacks. :-)

Thanks, Rodney! Hoping a lot of folks will find it there!

Thanks, everyone! As you may remember, I broke up the graphic novel into four parts that were turned into iPhone/iPad applications. Well, there's a new website called The Illustrated Section that features Comics, Picture Books, Art Books, etc. and I've put up the four parts there as PDF files. In my mind, the iPhone/iPad apps are cooler, but if you'd like a digital version of them that works on anything that can read a PDF, here's a way to get them! The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island #1 The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island #2 The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island #3 The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island #4 If you do pick up one or all, please write a review on the site! Thanks! I'm still working on the Print On Demand version. I want to include extra content to add value to it.

Thanks, everybody! Had a good birthday and am hoping that 2011 is a great year for us all!

Looks impressive with either proportions, Paul! Love the quilted look on the tunic!

Very cool, Gene! Cool to stop and look back at how much you've accomplished. You are an animation machine! :-)

Thanks, guys!

Not confusing to folks who remember Buckaroo Banzai. Happy Birthday, Matt!

It definitely is more difficult to build a set in an action. I'll give this a try!