largento Posted June 29, 2011 Author Posted June 29, 2011 More side-by sides: The wedding shots didn't change too much, just got softer. Same with the bookpan. I didn't save the frames from the original part 2, so both of the second shots are "after." Same with these two shots. Just giving them a soft glow. I decided to completely re-do the starship fly-by. Both of these images are from the new one. I made some pretty big changes to the background on this one and used environment maps to give the metallic stuff more interest. Quote
largento Posted June 30, 2011 Author Posted June 30, 2011 Last batch. :-) I've only got two shots to go. One needs to be animated (I'm putting the punchline back on the exploding chicken gag) and the other is the storm-cloud Final. I feel pretty good about having both of them finished tomorrow. Ready to be done. :-) I skipped ahead to the monkey shots since I was in an assembly line rendering mode. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 30, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted June 30, 2011 Here's my attempt at lower contrast sky such as your sample, but anything less and the identifiable cloud shapes aren't really identifiable any more. overcast.mov Quote
largento Posted July 1, 2011 Author Posted July 1, 2011 It's a valiant attempt, but somehow it still looks like clumps of something rather than clouds. The final effect I went with is pretty subtle. Just some cloud shapes moving in the background, but it feels right to me. But most importantly... I'M FINISHED!! :-) (And there was much rejoicing: "yay!") I'm going to wait until all the music and sound is finished before putting it out to the public, though. Tomorrow I get to work on something else! :-) Quote
Paul Forwood Posted July 1, 2011 Posted July 1, 2011 Congratulations, Mark! I'm looking forward to seeing the results of all of your hard work and dedication soon. Quote
largento Posted July 1, 2011 Author Posted July 1, 2011 Thanks, Paul! I am, too! I don't know how long it will take for all of the sound and music to be completed. Hopefully not very long. Quote
largento Posted July 4, 2011 Author Posted July 4, 2011 Thanks, Mark and Gene! Hopefully it won't be too long. Really no way to tell since it's out of my hands now. I ended up having to do another shot to stick between two shots, so I guess I wasn't finished yet. :-) Final tally now is 45 total shots, 25 featuring character animation with 14 of those having lip synching for a total of 4 minutes and 17 seconds! Quote
largento Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 Why not an early peek? :-) Even though I'm holding off debuting this to the world until it's completely finished, I wanted to be able to show some version of it at the Dallas Webcomics Expo (now called Stripcon) next week. Scott is still working on the music, but sent me an audio file pass with all of the dialogue and sound effects. The absence of music is noticeable, but it does give it that sneak-peak quality to it. :-) There's one shot where Scott seems to have shifted the audio or re-dubbed a line where the lip-sync seems a little off (it's the "or a man who laughs at danger" shot) and I'll need to address that, but for the most part everything really gets a bump from having sound! I didn't take the audio into Premiere, but rather added it to the Quicktime movie with the "Add to Selection & Scale" command, so that could throw the sound off a frame or two in some places. I'll have to work that out before next Saturday. Like I said, I'm still waiting until everything is finished before I put it out for the public, but since I'm going to be showing it to some part of the public next week, I wanted to show it here first! So, here's a sneak-sneak peek at the music-less version! The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island Quote
mouseman Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Wow, it is quite stunning! I can't wait to see it with the music! It ends with the information about getting the comic book, and then the credits come up. Maybe it would be good to have the ordering info come up again last so that is the last thing the viewer sees; if it's a video format that freezes on the last frame, they know just what to do to order the comic book! Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted July 30, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted July 30, 2011 I haven't peeked yet because I want to see the whole thing in it's intended state. It ends with the information about getting the comic book, and then the credits come up. Maybe it would be good to have the ordering info come up again last so that is the last thing the viewer sees; if it's a video format that freezes on the last frame, they know just what to do to order the comic book! Yes, don't be shy about the ordering info. Make sure they catch it. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted July 30, 2011 Admin Posted July 30, 2011 I sneaked a peek. Impressive. I don't recall ever seeing a better advertisement for a comic book. Hopefully you'll start a trend as that'd be sure to put a whole industry to work again. The music should really round it out well. I will say this... there were a lot of great scenes in this but there was one standout. The monkey's with the animated background. I'm not sure why that is but I'll guess... fast paced action! In other news, I just got confirmation that my comics (3 copies of Wannabe Pirates #1!) were shipped yesterday. That's quite an unfortunate delay from when I ordered. I look forward to their arrival! Quote
largento Posted July 31, 2011 Author Posted July 31, 2011 Thanks, guys! That's a good idea, Chris. I do think I may have lost track of the commercial aspect of this. I wonder if I should switch the two end screens around: have the credits first and then the call-to-order screen? Robert, that is probably wise. I had hoped that it might be ready for next Saturday, but I think that was unrealistic. I don't know how long the music will take, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait. It's definitely missed when watching it. Rodney, the monkey sequence was definitely the most challenging. It wasn't in the original script because I was afraid to try it. :-) But breaking it up into easy shots like that took much of the difficulty out of it ...and added some extra humor to it, too. That same advice would work on any project. It's the old "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." joke. What I really hope is that it'll be fun to see for someone who reads the strip on a regular basis. As much as I hope it attracts new readers, I really wanted to make it something that the readers would get a kick out of. Keeping my fingers crossed that they like it. Even after getting away from it for a good bit of time, I've reached the point where I've seen it so many times that I practically have every frame memorized and it's hard to force my brain to pay attention when I watch it. :-) Thanks for the order, Rodney! I know what you mean about how long it takes those guys to print them and send them out. It takes almost a full month for them to fill the first order and after that, I think they take 10 days to do a re-order. I had wanted to get some more for the show next weekend, but was afraid that they wouldn't get here in time. I'm real pleased with the quality, though. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted July 31, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted July 31, 2011 That's a good idea, Chris. I do think I may have lost track of the commercial aspect of this. I wonder if I should switch the two end screens around: have the credits first and then the call-to-order screen? I hate it when TV shows split the screen to run promos while the credits are scrolling, but on the other hand... you got books to sell! If the ordering info is small enough you might put it in a bottom third and run the credits on the top two thirds. Quote
jakerupert Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Outstanding work! You have perfected the overall looks to a very, very beautyfull standard now! I agree about the pacing,though, that that`s a little too slow sometimes.... Its a common occurrance, that when you have invested so much time and effort into your pictures, you tend to have them appear on the screen for too long, something pschychological I guess, that I find doing often myself......;>) Quote
itsjustme Posted July 31, 2011 Posted July 31, 2011 Nice! I want to see it when it's finished too...great work by all involved! Quote
largento Posted August 1, 2011 Author Posted August 1, 2011 Thanks, Steve, Jake David & Gene! @Jake I did struggle with the idea of how fast paced this should be. I tried to trim out as much as I could between shots, but the dialogue isn't fast-dialogue, so that dictated a lot of the pacing. I do think the music will add a quicker pace to it overall as well as act as a unifying agent. I went back and forth over whether it should be a commercial or a sampler and ended up leaning to the latter. Where the former would mean making something leaner and more punchy, the latter gave me the freedom to let it expand. To be sure, part of that was the conceit of showing as much as I could. Quote
Paul Forwood Posted August 1, 2011 Posted August 1, 2011 Excellente, Mark!!! Great voice acting has really nailed those characters now. It's all so good I only have one question...is it blue? Wishing you every success with the comic and hoping that someone offers you the funding to animate a complete story. Bravo! Quote
jakerupert Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 Hi Mark, Have you ever considered kickstarter.com to fund your endeavours? Quote
largento Posted August 7, 2011 Author Posted August 7, 2011 I've given Kickstarter a thought on more than one occasion, Jake. My concern is that I just wouldn't have the fan base and outreach to get it funded. My thinking (and this could be wrong) is that there aren't really that many people who go to Kickstarter looking for projects to give their money to. I think the majority of the successful projects got the word out independently and pointed their large fanbase (network of friends and family) to their Kickstarter. I'm just not sure that I could get the hundreds of donators necessary to fully fund a project. Like I said, I could be wrong. Quote
kwhitaker Posted August 7, 2011 Posted August 7, 2011 i just watched a sneak peek at the music-less version, Mark, that was so enjoyable, the staging is outstanding, The voices match the characters so well. great color. That's a big well done, all around. Quote
largento Posted August 8, 2011 Author Posted August 8, 2011 Thanks, Kat! It seemed to go over pretty well this weekend. I don't think most people could actually hear it over the noise of the con, but it worked to get their attention. Quote
Glob Studios Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 Congratulations! The web comic (which I only started reading recently) is my favorite, and I hope the trailer helps you promote it. You are pioneering what may be the way comics get done in the future. Nice web comic tute a while back in the web comic. -Vance Quote
largento Posted August 11, 2011 Author Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks, Vance! I definitely think there will be 3D comics in the future. They just haven't figured out the secret is that they have to use A:M to do it. :-) Quote
largento Posted April 23, 2012 Author Posted April 23, 2012 Wow, Scott finally finished the music for ! He barely squeaked in on time for it to be included on the Stalled Trek DVD. It's a pity this got waylaid like it did, but after it dragged on for so long on the back end, I lost my enthusiasm for it. I should have pushed for it to be finished earlier, but I was already wanting to do something else. Nevertheless, I still think it came out fun! Here's the book trailer/commercial/"scenes from": ! Quote
Dpendleton77 Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 I think you should consider kickstarter if you have already not done it. I think with your body of work you can drum up money on there to fund your project. Quote
largento Posted April 23, 2012 Author Posted April 23, 2012 I did use Kickstarter to fund the Stalled Trek DVD replication, but I don't think there's an audience for a Wannabe Pirates movie. I'd like to come back to the webcomic at some point and finish up the last storyline, but there's not a good financial incentive. Audience for the comic just never grew to a decent size. It *is* funny reading my old post discounting Kickstarter in light of having used it so successfully later on. :-) Quote
mtpeak2 Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 Looks great Mark! I forgot how well the ocean rig worked. Quote
largento Posted April 23, 2012 Author Posted April 23, 2012 Thanks, Mark! The ocean rig is the star of the commercial. :-) Quote
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