Fire Operation Demo

Been a while since my last post. Moon Diary has been on sabbatical for the last couple weeks as I've been learning how to use Blender so that I can make these educational videos for my job. It's got a near 90 degree learning curve, but once you memorize the capacities for the program it's pretty simple to put something together. I made this video in a little under two weeks, and in this format it wouldn't be too hard to extend it to an hour as proposed (I hope.)

I've also made another short film for submitting to the Olympia Film Festival. I'll put that up sometime this week, and it'll go on the main site, so official vid. It feels really great to get something finished. The current plan for Moon Diary is to record vocals for day 6 sometime this week, and once I have those full production will be back in effect.

NAESA Action Stills

Here's a few action stills I made for a NAESA brochure. Hwat a happy little elevator man.

The First Sign

The results are in!

After being shown at conference in Canada, NAESA board members had this to say about the company profile I made for them:

This is a really nice deal. Very nice job.

-Jonathan Brooks

I LIKE IT !!!

I think Curtis did a good job with this infomercial.

-Bill Snyder

This is a great infomercial. Do we have it on DVD to share at our next Central Region Workshop?

-James Borwey

Well... I'm impressed!!! I think this is the start of something big.

My compliments to Curtis.

-Jim Runyan

Excellent presentation

-Larry Watson

Good Job

I like it

-Jim Brune

That is a very good infomercial and you and the staff should be commended.

-Douglas S. Warne

So there! It's a hit among the elevator industry!

Close to Starting Day 6

Don't get me wrong, when I started Moon Diary, I intended it to be epic, but it keeps increasing in intensity at an accelerating acceleration. Just spent the last month brainstorming the script for day 6, which included reading half of Godel, Escher, Bach, to increase my understanding of what it means to mean something. The team held weekly brainstorming sessions where we would mix the ideas we had come up with since last week. I specifically spent hours researching paradoxes, both visual and literal, and despite everything we're not even really done yet. We've only nailed down the structure, not the details. I guess we'll try to work that out in story boarding to try and streamline a bit.

The one year anniversary of starting this project is vaguely around this month. Originally I intended it to be a short project that would only take a couple months. Woo yeah! All my efforts to reduce my workload just encourage me to get obsessive about other aspects! Moon Diary might not be done this Summer as the trailer suggests. How embarrassing.

NAESA International Company Profile

Just finished the NAESA International company profile earlier today, just uploaded it to YouTube 10 minutes ago. Been working on this thing rather than Moon Diary for a while now, but I just got ahold of "Godel, Escher, Bach" and as soon as I've started making some good progress on that I'll be starting the storyboards for days 6 and 7, meaning the beginning of the end.

Any way, enjoy this informative diversion!

Can you believe I'm being paid to make stuff like this?

1.6 Terabyte CDs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8060082.stm

Huh. It's seeming clearer and clearer to me that the benefit of Flash, that being small file size, is becoming a rapidly diminishing concern. In fact, I don't think any one really cares at all any more. A terabyte?? I wouldn't know what to do with that if I tried. I might as well switch to another program soon since they are generally better in every other way. As far as I understand it.

Cinco De Mayo Update

Day 4 is DONE, as of several weeks ago, which means there's only day 6 and 7 left. I estimate day 6 to be two minutes long and day 7 to be three to four. Moon Diary is currently 12 minutes long, and once you add titles and chapter transitions that means this thing is going to be just under 20 minutes when it's done. It's already the longest thing I've ever made.

I got commissioned to do an infomercial type animation for naesai.org. That means that, for now any way, I am a PROFESSIONAL animator, in the literal sense. There is absolutely no mistaking it for a hobby any more, I'm being reimbursed for work with money. Since I've decided to post fewer screenshots from Moon Diary I might be focusing more on this paid animation on the blog for a while.  

Here's the character design for the narrator.

Wolves

Moon Diary has been progressing well the last couple of weeks. We got a sound guy who has been working on foley art, and we had a company picnic at wolf haven where we all got to observe real wolves in action. They didn't move too much while we were there, no surprise, but I feel like the experience has lead to a sense of authenticity in the wolf movement none the less, they have been turning out really well. Chris Duncan, our sound guy, tried to get some wolf howling while we were there but all we got was a bunch of ravens screeching, and the tour lady talking.

Like I said, work has been progressing nicely. If all goes well, Day 4 might be done by the end of this week.