WoodenBlog

Hey I just made that word up. Diablogue: one blog talking to another. Spread it!

So anyway (*stretch*), just a quick update to let you know that BiteyCastle has undergone the overhaul it so desperately needed. It’s now powered by Wordpress so it’s highly organised, easier to navigate to the stuff you want and it’ll be updated more frequently. Check it out and feel free to comment on anything!

The trusty old WoodenBlog will remain as a Brackenwood production blog, with all the work-in-progress news. As such, it will require a more Brackenwoody theme, so you can expect a few visual elements to change. I may also be recruiting any of my Brackenwood collaborators (musicians, writers, coders) as guest authors here.

If you want more regular updates, (including - ssshh – a new webcomic) they’ll be on bitey.com. See you there!

Now and then I hear (read) someone say “Prowlies was the best Brackenwood movie”, or “Keep trying Phillips, you’ve yet to top Yuyu“. So I’ve added a poll in the left column to get an idea of what the most popular Brackenwood movie is.  Also I just wanted to get polls working on the blog

(if you’re reading this from Facebook, you won’t see a poll. Check out the WoodenBlog)

I was given some time alone with Animate 2 ahead of its release, so I asked permission from the ToonBoom guys to make a few demo videos. Permission was granted and I’ve posted 17 videos in 3 seperate series (so far). I plan on doing more, but in the meantime, check out the embedded playlist below. Feel free to suggest topics you’d like to see covered. When I run out of money (feels like very soon), I’ll start selling exclusive “masterclass” style lessons from my BCA page. Please post whether or not you’d be interested in that, so I can get an idea of how helpful it’ll be in my losing battle to pay bills.

For now, here’s the ToonBoom Animate 2 series of introductory lessons. And no, I’m not paid to do this.. I really do like the software enough and care about people trying to learn it to do this on my own time. Mostly because when I was learning ToonBoom software, there were no lessons available and it was all RTFM for me.

This is not a “what’s new in Animate 2″. It’s an introduction for people new to the software to get their bearings, particularly for Flash users who want to make the leap to a proper animation program. Enjoy (and be sure to watch in 720p and full screen).

When I was working on a particular scene in LotD, I recorded 3 hours of screen captures, filling it up along the way with unscripted narration. Throughout the entire process I’m describing reasons or excuses for what I’m doing, pretty much thinking aloud the whole time. Part 1 starts at the very beginning of the rough animation process and by Part 33, we’re watching the full colour character and lighting process.

Some day I’ll do a fully narrated background capture but until then, hope you get something out of this. Here’s Part 1 (below). Click HERE if you want to watch the playlist (parts 1-20) on YouTube. I’ll be uploading the remaining videos over the next few days.

Work on The Last of the Dashkin 2 (temporary title) has begun. The story has been in place for a while but it’s now a matter of getting it into screenplay format before moving on to panels and a working visual format.

LotD was a prologue. The plan for part 2 therefore is that it’ll be an on-board view as the story really begins to blossom. It’s not the story that will be told in the feature film, so some of the bigger mysteries will remain.

For the conclusion of the story, I’ve decided against putting myself through hell. In other words, I’m using Animate Pro. I have a plan and a little secret to help me get the movie onto NG at a reasonable filesize. In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted with screenshots and updates!