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!
Day 35. I’m nearing the summit of this huge mountain. The world is watching and failure is not an option. Why did I choose an old friend as my climbing partner? True to his nickname, Ed “Halfs” Boa is barely competent and I find myself doing twice the work just to ensure we both get to the summit alive, sane and on time.
Now and then his talent shines through and I’m reminded of our successful early years together. And yet in the back of my mind, I’m dreading the next time he stuffs up and almost kills us both.
Most of the time Boa coasts along with an agenda compl
I’m not going to apologise for being inactive because that’s how I’ve opened so many blog posts, it’s getting old. The fact is that with micro-blogging (Twitter) sucking all my best thoughts out as they happen, there’s not much left for a full blog article. Besides, there’s only so many times you can say “still overloaded with freelance stuff but have big plans for Brackenwood”, before it sounds like lies.. especially with nothing to show for these big Brackenwood plans.
Flash or ToonBoom?
So what have I been up to all this time? I mean, it’s been almost two years since the release of Waterlollies. Soon after that, besotted with ToonBoom, some may recall that I announced that I may not do another Flash Brackenwood.
I admit now that’s something I didn’t really think about before saying. If I had thought about it, I’d have realised that Flash is where the Brackenwood audience is, particularly thanks to Newgrounds. If I completely abandoned Flash in favour of ToonBoom, I’d be alienating my biggest audience, the .swf audience. My YouTube channel just doesn’t give Brackenwood the same exposure as Newgrounds. Here are the figures at last count:
Having said that, if the Brackenwood feature film is 2D and I have any control over how it’s done, it’ll be ToonBoom all the way. As you can see with the D&D shorts, ToonBoom gives me so much freedom to do the stuff I’ve always wanted to do, whereas Flash is very limiting.
New Brackenwood started
OK here’s the announcement then. I’m currently working on a new Brackenwood movie for Newgrounds, which means I’m using Flash. Unfortunately Flash CS4 refuses to co-operate so I’m using Flash CS3. Without giving anything away about the story, let’s just say that it’ll answer a lot of questions. Questions about what? You’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime I’ll be posting screenshots and timelapse screen captures, thanks to Camtasia Studio (techsmith.com).
The reason I’m making all these promises now is to force myself to get the job finished. I always work better to a deadline that I’ve announced, because the pressure of audience anticipation lights a fire under me. For the release, I’ve set a tentative date for the first week of November (2 year anniversary of Waterlollies). It absolutely must get done by then.. so email me your encouragement and impatience
Screenshots next week! Promise. For now though, here’s something I found while going through some old backup hard drives. It’s a scene test from the Yuyu, containing rough animation. Enjoy!
I’ve been working with ToonBoom Digital Pro on my current assignment so I thought it’d be nice to show a couple of my favourite images here. Bernard Derriman is doing character animation and I’m doing backgrounds and special effects.
While I never signed an NDA, it would be unprofessional of me to reveal any details of the project. I therefore won’t be releasing higher res images or answering questions, plus I’ve removed Bernard’s characters from the shots.. suffice to say the episodes look amazing, I love working in ToonBoom and I’ll reveal more about the show when I can. Until then, enjoy a couple of the shots I’m particularly happy with:
Guess what! No need for a Waterlollies graph this week because I’ve finished all of the animation. The final scene was difficult, time-consuming and complicated.. but heaps of fun (you’ll see why sooner or later).
When the music is finished I’ll announce the release here and on the forum. There’s also a little matter of the actionscripted effects that are still being worked on, but I anticipate it to be finished before the music. I hope to release on or before September 20, but as it’s now in the hands of other people, I can’t say for sure.
The movie is generously sponsored by Newgrounds so I’ll also be submitting it there a day or two after it’s live on biteycastle.com.
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Next project! Bernard Derriman and I are working together on a freelance job (for television) using ToonBoom Digital Pro – the latest and most awesomest version of ToonBoom Solo. Bernard has been using Solo for a few months now and will be helping me learn the ropes, trying to get me up to speed quickly enough to be useful on this project. Who knows..? Maybe the next Brackenwood will be my first non-Flash movie :O
More Brackenwood I have a few ideas for my next Brackenwood project, which will break away from the “random scenario” pattern of stories and focus more on the bigger Brackenwood picture. Bitey had to come from somewhere right? Why is Brackenwood so sparsely populated? Where did everyone go so suddenly and without warning? Why has Bitey grown up wild and completely alone?
These questions will be answered if I’m forced to continue making internet episodes. I say “forced” because ideally the Brackenwood feature film is next on the agenda. Therefore (and it’s a sad, yet exciting thought) it’s possible that there won’t be another web episode of Brackenwood.
If that worries you, I hope you take comfort knowing that a Brackenwood feature film is what I’ve been leading up to all these years and will be better, more complete and more satisfying than all the internet episodes put together.
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Launch It! Challenge Today was probably the first Sunday in months that actually felt like a Sunday to me. As a nice break from animation, I made a video showing how to make a small slingshot with piano-wire. It’s my entry into the Launch It! Challenge on instructables.com so drop by and take a look at my instructable. Don’t hurt yourself!
Here’s the video.. the audio is by French band ‘The Hush Puppies’. I bought their CD after hearing them play live at Annecy, France in 2006.
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Speaking of slingshots I’ve posted a human slingshot in the past, but when you watch my YouTube how-to video, this other video comes up in the ‘Related’ column. The term “crazy bastards” comes to mind.
who said?