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Wildsided

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Hi everyone,

 

As you may have noticed Ace.Co Entertainment has been given its own special topic section. To even be considered for one of these would have been a great honor in itself, so to actually be given one is amazing.

 

So I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who was involved with the decision and promise that I'll work my ass off to keep this area maintained and interesting.

 

Thanks again

 

Dan

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  • 2 months later...

Hey guys,

 

If any of you that like what I do on here have facebook, do me a favor and like the Ace.co Entertainment page. I need at least 19 more likes before I can view stats for the page and seeing them would be really useful for me.

 

the address is www.facebook.com/acecoentertainment

 

You can also follow the show on twitter @epic_gamin

 

Thanks for your support!

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

How do all,

 

Another update post for anyone following what I'm up to. If you've ever visited the Ace.Co Entertainment page at www.Blip.tv/aceco . You'll have seen that I've started posting daily game play videos complete with commentary. These are easy and fun to do and crucially require very little in the way of editing (Literally syncing up the commentary with the game play and setting the volume of each clip).

 

The idea being that I'm not only putting out regular content which means more views per month and the potential for higher revenue. But also that it gives me time to work on other projects without feeling like I'm not posting anything new. These projects include launching two Audio Book style shows. Parallel Worlds Episode 1 is already up and I'm currently working on 'Breckridge', a ghost story set in and around a school that may or may not be based on my old high school....

 

I intend to use A:M to enhance the listening experience with stills and brief animations, which is why right now I'm building Breckridge High School, classrooms and all. Only ever made one building before (the cabin for Epic Gamin') and one kitchen for the abandoned E.G fully animated series. So this should prove to be an experience.

 

Dan

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  • 7 months later...

Well guys and gals the dream it would seem is over.

 

I got an e-mail today from Blip.tv stating that due to restructuring in their business (i.e getting bought by Maker Studios, who then got bought by Disney). They're taking the site in a direction that as of September 1st will not be including me.

 

I have until then to back up my videos if I want to, after which they will be deleted from their servers. They encouraged me to post my videos to Youtube, but I've tried going that route before and got nowhere. So I guess that's it. Ace.Co Entertainment is done.

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Ace.Co Entertainment is done.

They're taking the site in a direction that as of September 1st will not be including me.

 

Heck, you made them as far as I'm concerned.

I'd never even heard of Bliptv before watching an episode of Epic Gamin'.

Stand tall and proud.

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What about posting them to YouTube and then embedding them on your own blog?

 

I haven't been following the whole webseries scene in awhile. I guess I need to go read up on what's happening.

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I tried that mark (right up until January of this year) and it made no difference to my viewing figures. For whatever reason the Internet just doesn't seem to want to buy into what I'm selling. Be it a review show, let's plays, animations or audio dramas, nobody's boat is sufficiently floated.

 

Like Robert said though I gave it a shot. Nobody can ever say I didn't try.

 

Thanks for all your kind words guys.

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Trust me, Dan, I know what you mean! And you did, so you don't have to regret not trying.

 

I honestly believe that marketing is the key. Somehow you've got to get it in front of people's faces and without lots of capital or a super go-getter-people-person persona, it's really hard to do. That or be doing something they are already searching for.

 

There was mention in one of the threads about an animator that was doing short little 2D animations of a cat doing cute stuff. That was smart on his part, because there are people looking for cats doing cute stuff videos already.

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That's the one!

 

Not sure what he makes from the YouTube advertising, but here's a quote from that story I was talking about where he notes that he has books, apps and other merchandising on the way:

 

"It puts you in control, if it's your vision and it's your channel than whatever you do is yours," says Simon Tofield, creator of Simon's Cat. "You don't have a team to impress or get in the way — if you make something and it does well, it's good." "You don't have a team to impress or get in the way — if you make something and it does well, it's good."

 

Tofield himself is the perfect example of that statement. An in-house animator working on advertisements in 2008, his short animated film about a cat blew up online, leading him to create what has become the second largest animation channel on YouTube, with over 2.9 million subscribers and 500 million views. In tow are four books, two apps and loads of merchandise. The success of Simon's Cat is surprising, given that the episodes are in black and white, without dialogue and don't follow a strict airing schedule.

 

"That's the beauty of YouTube," Tofield tells Mashable. "On paper, if I had gone to someone with my idea of very simple line drawings, simple sounds, no color, it would've been turned down. But YouTube allows you to test these things."

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I don't know how old that interview is but Simon Tofield has been successful enough that he's got a small staff of animators now; two in studio at last count but I see at least three animators and one cleanup artist in the various video credits. One of his videos outlines the history of 'Simon's Cat' and suggests he's largely the idea man these days who directs the (two) animators in his studio to animate his drawings. This small studio aspect is worthy of note because once success does arrive a one-artist studio isn't likely going to be able to maintain the desired level of quality and volume to meet demand.

 

Two of the primary reasons for the success of 'Simon's Cat' is the episodic nature of each story that is both 1) short and 2) very entertaining.

Both of these are major factors in succeeding with an audience with lots of time to kill and yet highly limited attention spans.

And it doesn't hurt that Simon has obviously studied the elements of humor... and captured it in animation.

The recurring elements that are most pronounced being repetition and exaggeration (with slight variations on the same theme in each iteration).

 

In my view 'Simon's Cat' is the modern day equivalent of the old newspaper strips such as 'Peanuts' (and it succeeds very well with this!) A difference being that five or more gags/strips are captured in each animated episode. What amazes me is how much mileage they get from such very limited animation and it's this limited animation (as well as the black and white aspect which means they can forego color) that makes the strip viable even as it adds yet another level to the humor.

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  • 3 months later...

Went out today and bought an Xbox 360 Kinect for a whopping $35 used at EBgames. Brought it home, downloaded a bunch of drivers and free software called Brekel Kinect and boosh, $35 dollar markerless motion capture. Haven't made any BVH files with it yet but tested it and it all seems to work so hopefully at some point in the near future I'll be able to animate something that moves totally naturally.

  • ____ 1
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Went out today and bought an Xbox 360 Kinect for a whopping $35 used at EBgames. Brought it home, downloaded a bunch of drivers and free software called Brekel Kinect and boosh, $35 dollar markerless motion capture

 

I shall be curious to see whatyou get with that. I don't think anyone on the forum has shown any Kinect motion capture yet.

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I would like to see that too! I have acted out my shots and used it as a rotoscope to get the timing right, going frame-by-frame to match my performance/reference. But if I could just act it out and have the character repeat it, that would be pretty great! Maybe the debate about performance capture versus animation would be moot if it was the animators capturing themselves :)

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