I've just finished up the recording for my next animation, which means I'll start animating the stuff likely next year: you know, as in tomorrow's next year. Though it might not be till either Sunday or Monday as I have some voice over stuff to do today and, likely, tomorrow.
As the title says, there will be some shrinking involved with this animation: not as in some weird fetish that I'm sure is out there. I'm unsure if it'll be as funny as the others, it does have funny moments, but it might involve the most amount of stuff... maybe. Plus, I show off my voice acting even more by adding a new voice to the cast of... three voices.
As well as that, I show a nice little voice altering trick that I can do on Adobe Audition. Okay, it's not really a trick, as I'm sure several users know how to do what I did, but it defiantly helps the animation and is better then just having a normal voice and then a high and squeaky one.
Now, some of you might be wondering about the series thing. I'm thinking about doing it and I was writing to have the trailer up instead of this animation, but one thing stopped me. That is, I didn't have the GoBucks to add on stuff for the character, so I had to reuse some of my old characters.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing either, because I'm sure this animation will be quicker to do then that trailer.
Anyways, expecting the animation within a week if things go well. The only thing that should delay it is laziness, getting busy with some work, or something involving interactions with people causes me to be behind schedule.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
No "New" Christmas Animation & An Animation Series?
I had plans for a while to do another Christmas animation... more or less it was just prior to finishing up It's a Saw Christmas. Unfortunately, right before I was thinking of starting to write a script for my next animation (as well as auditioning for some productions) I got that email about the audiobooks: which have kept me busy. Obviously, I'm not complaining about the time and placement, as I needed the upfront payments for some stuff, but it quickly became something that took more time then I thought.
Now, I was beginning to work on a script... in fact, I have the beginning of it written down. It was going to start off as a parody of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then it would turn into a parody of "The Grinch" including that oh so catchy song. The plan was, "Hey, I'll finish this script in one night somehow. Then I'll record everything the following day. Finally, after two to three days, it'll be up for everyone to enjoy."
Welp, that quickly didn't work out. I think the attempts at rhyming did it in for me. "What rhymes with this and makes sense?"
Now about this animation series... it's not a 100% sure thing right now. The more I think about it, the more and more that I do want to do it. The reason I'm not sure as this series came from a trailer that I was just going to throw out there.
This trailer was initially planned to be fake, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought I could make it into a series, but there are two problems. First, I have issues with finishing series over on Strip Generator also books/stories I start: an animation takes more time and effort then those two.
Second, I'll have to get a female voice actor and, from my experience, I have issues with keeping people onboard for projects. I've had a few productions that needed voice actors and several people either a.) don't ever turn in their lines or b.) they send in poor quality audio. I could easily replace them, but it soon becomes a hassle and I give up on it.
On the other hand though, relying on just one single voice actor won't be so bad. If she doesn't do her lines, recasting will be less of a hassle. The only issue is that the series might end up requiring other voice actors for side-characters and that'll circle back to my original issue, but that's down the road if I do make it a series.
Anyways, back to the actual animation. The whole idea came from both real-life and a, sorta, persona I have created online. I'm single and have issues with women (well, maybe they have issues with me) and I have always made it a joke that they have a violent tendency towards me: trying to kill me, stabbing me, beating me up, etc.
I began to think about that a little more and how several people over on GoAnimate were wanting anime themes. Now, I'm a fan of anime and some of my favorite ones that I've liked watching over and over were some of the wackier, crazier ones: as well as some of those games with anime influences. Somehow, something clicked with that persona deal and having some anime influences in it.
I can't really explain it... mainly as I'm still working out and fleshing out stuff. So I don't want to say "Well this is what the animation will be about!" and then there's a lot of differences. If there's just a few differences, it's defiantly not a biggie.
All I can say is that there'll be romance (or lack thereof), comedy, action, and maybe some other genres: heck, let's just say them all.
Oh, and before I forget... Happy Christmas, belated Hanuka, and belated/early to those other holidays.
Now, I was beginning to work on a script... in fact, I have the beginning of it written down. It was going to start off as a parody of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then it would turn into a parody of "The Grinch" including that oh so catchy song. The plan was, "Hey, I'll finish this script in one night somehow. Then I'll record everything the following day. Finally, after two to three days, it'll be up for everyone to enjoy."
Welp, that quickly didn't work out. I think the attempts at rhyming did it in for me. "What rhymes with this and makes sense?"
Now about this animation series... it's not a 100% sure thing right now. The more I think about it, the more and more that I do want to do it. The reason I'm not sure as this series came from a trailer that I was just going to throw out there.
This trailer was initially planned to be fake, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought I could make it into a series, but there are two problems. First, I have issues with finishing series over on Strip Generator also books/stories I start: an animation takes more time and effort then those two.
Second, I'll have to get a female voice actor and, from my experience, I have issues with keeping people onboard for projects. I've had a few productions that needed voice actors and several people either a.) don't ever turn in their lines or b.) they send in poor quality audio. I could easily replace them, but it soon becomes a hassle and I give up on it.
On the other hand though, relying on just one single voice actor won't be so bad. If she doesn't do her lines, recasting will be less of a hassle. The only issue is that the series might end up requiring other voice actors for side-characters and that'll circle back to my original issue, but that's down the road if I do make it a series.
Anyways, back to the actual animation. The whole idea came from both real-life and a, sorta, persona I have created online. I'm single and have issues with women (well, maybe they have issues with me) and I have always made it a joke that they have a violent tendency towards me: trying to kill me, stabbing me, beating me up, etc.
I began to think about that a little more and how several people over on GoAnimate were wanting anime themes. Now, I'm a fan of anime and some of my favorite ones that I've liked watching over and over were some of the wackier, crazier ones: as well as some of those games with anime influences. Somehow, something clicked with that persona deal and having some anime influences in it.
I can't really explain it... mainly as I'm still working out and fleshing out stuff. So I don't want to say "Well this is what the animation will be about!" and then there's a lot of differences. If there's just a few differences, it's defiantly not a biggie.
All I can say is that there'll be romance (or lack thereof), comedy, action, and maybe some other genres: heck, let's just say them all.
Oh, and before I forget... Happy Christmas, belated Hanuka, and belated/early to those other holidays.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Audio Book Recordathon!
I've been busy for the last four days doing some recordings for an audio book: one of currently ten that I'm to be voicing. I was initially excited about all of this... mainly as I was getting paid and I need some financial help. Now, it's more of a "meh" and boredom... as well as realizing that as this is a larger project I shouldn't have charged my small project rate.
The reason for this simply comes from the fact that I'm usually more of a character actor, I like doing characters, different voices, etc. Reading a book is... reading a book. Sure I could do voices, but keeping the voices consistent and not sounding too out of place would be a little hard. Also, there's female characters and I defiantly can't do those proper. Maybe something Monty Python-ish, but this is a serious espionage story.
Though I believe it's not just that... it's because it's a book. Mostly everything I'm used to doing is a line-by-line ordeal, but I've occasionally had things involving pages, but at most they were 50 pages.
Lines are usually short, just a couple of sentences. If you screw up, you can usually go back and redo it all. As well as that, if you are like me, you will send a couple of takes of a line to your "boss" so they can have a picking of which they liked the most. It saves you and their time.
Anything with long readings, say a chapter in a book, you have to change that up. Redoing the entire recording because of a screw-up is CRAZY. When a chapter can last almost 40 minutes, going back to the beginning of the chapter every time is just a waste of time. Even going back to the start of a page can waste a bit of time; especially if there's a little area that you have issues with constantly and you finally passed it.
I quickly learned that if I got past a paragraph and screwed up in the next, that I needed to start in the second paragraph; unless, that is, that I felt I could have done something better in the previous one. Time is key for me. I have ten days (more or less, it is the holidays) to complete 340 pages and getting my 35 page per day quota and that often takes about 3-4 hours of my time. Not the largest amount of time by any stretch of the imagination, but when you have other things to do or would like to do (e.g. do other voice overs or do an animation) it helps to limit what else you can do.
I would say that this is an experience... and that I defiantly need to figure out what to do about larger projects if they come my way; especially through the site I've been using. Small projects can be completed in a day or two, but when it's something this big, takes days, and lots of hours (not the recording time, but actual labor time): it isn't the same thing nor should be considered so.
The reason for this simply comes from the fact that I'm usually more of a character actor, I like doing characters, different voices, etc. Reading a book is... reading a book. Sure I could do voices, but keeping the voices consistent and not sounding too out of place would be a little hard. Also, there's female characters and I defiantly can't do those proper. Maybe something Monty Python-ish, but this is a serious espionage story.
Though I believe it's not just that... it's because it's a book. Mostly everything I'm used to doing is a line-by-line ordeal, but I've occasionally had things involving pages, but at most they were 50 pages.
Lines are usually short, just a couple of sentences. If you screw up, you can usually go back and redo it all. As well as that, if you are like me, you will send a couple of takes of a line to your "boss" so they can have a picking of which they liked the most. It saves you and their time.
Anything with long readings, say a chapter in a book, you have to change that up. Redoing the entire recording because of a screw-up is CRAZY. When a chapter can last almost 40 minutes, going back to the beginning of the chapter every time is just a waste of time. Even going back to the start of a page can waste a bit of time; especially if there's a little area that you have issues with constantly and you finally passed it.
I quickly learned that if I got past a paragraph and screwed up in the next, that I needed to start in the second paragraph; unless, that is, that I felt I could have done something better in the previous one. Time is key for me. I have ten days (more or less, it is the holidays) to complete 340 pages and getting my 35 page per day quota and that often takes about 3-4 hours of my time. Not the largest amount of time by any stretch of the imagination, but when you have other things to do or would like to do (e.g. do other voice overs or do an animation) it helps to limit what else you can do.
I would say that this is an experience... and that I defiantly need to figure out what to do about larger projects if they come my way; especially through the site I've been using. Small projects can be completed in a day or two, but when it's something this big, takes days, and lots of hours (not the recording time, but actual labor time): it isn't the same thing nor should be considered so.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Animation: It's a Saw Christmas
It's Christmas time and someone isn't in the giving mood. It appears someone needs to learn a lesson and the teacher is someone you would least suspect... or maybe not as the title gives it away.
P.S. It's not a stripper or a ho ho ho (as in a whore.)
There seems to be some issues with the GoAnimate site, so the animation may not work.
Behind the scene info below (Spoilers):
__________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. It's not a stripper or a ho ho ho (as in a whore.)
There seems to be some issues with the GoAnimate site, so the animation may not work.
Behind the scene info below (Spoilers):
__________________________________________________________________________________
- The start of the animation where my character is waking up, that scene was originally planned to be right-side up. Because...
- Originally my character was to be restrained in a chair. Not by ropes, but metal clamps around his wrists. That was scrapped because I couldn't draw those clamps and because I don't quite like the sitting in chairs for Lil' Peepz.
- In the panning shot and some of the wide shots of my room, you'll notice a companion cube on my shelf. I drew it on Stripgenerator, which is where I was told about GoAnimate. Also, over there, my character has an obsession with it.
- The line, "MY ROOM?! How did I get here?" was originally suppose to be "MY HOUSE?! How did I get here?" I just accidentally said room and didn't feel like redoing the line.
- Originally the location was suppose to be the living room, as seen in my first animation, but it obviously had to be moved when I said "MY ROOM?!" instead of "MY HOUSE?!"
- Jigsaw's voice went through several different versions. I'm an awful impersonator, but any time I got close to being similar to Jigsaw's voice, I couldn't keep it up. I just decided to go with a voice that I could easily do over and over again, as well as being deep.
- Jigsaw's speaking and eye movement consists of five images.
- Making Jigsaw speak, at least have the illusion, hearkens back to when I made animations with sprites: only one being finished. I lacked drawing skills, so I had to use sprites.
- Instead of it being called "Street Fighter: GoAnimate Edition", originally it was going to be "Super Street Fighter 2.5".
- The joke about Street Fighter on the line "I want to play a game." was where the idea for a Saw parody came from. Making it Christmas related was an obvious extension because of the holiday.
- I am quite horrible at the Street Fighter games. Cammy is the character I suck the least with.
- The addition of the SNES controller and having it explode was the last things to be added. I felt there was a need to show my character with a controller (SNES) and having it explode is just usual shenanigans.
- The nerd was actually planned to be in the previous animation, but, as it had to be under two minutes, I had to cut his part. He was more or less going to be complaining about my Master Chief voice and how Halo isn't an RPG.
- It is true I haven't given any Christmas gifts these last few years, but it is simply because I'm a student (college) and no one will hire me for a part-time job: so the only money I got is from scholarships and that often disappears quickly.
- Saw mistakes the ugly woman in my first animation as my nonexistant girlfriend.
- Indeed... I am single... ladies. Yeah, that's creepy.
- For those that don't know, Master Chef appeared in the animation prior to this one.
- Master Chef is actually suppose to be teaching people how to make Gingerbread Houses while driving a Hornet, but I couldn't find it in the catalog: perhaps because I started with a Street Fighter theme. So I had to change it to tank.
- First animation with my name credited as Stephen "SnakeYukin" Lindsey... which is how I'm credited in nearly everything else I do.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Spike's Video Game Awards: Night of Many (Teaser) Trailers
Last night was Spike's Video Game Awards and, if you are like me, you really didn't watch it. I have an excuse though... my satellite was out till early this morning. Luckily enough, there are places online to watch and find out all the interesting things that were revealed last night.
Mainly, there were a lot of teaser trailers shown: as in they may tell you something about the game's story, what to expect, or even that the game is being made, but these trailers only have cinematics and lack gameplay. Granted, not all trailers were that way, but a lot of them were.
Enough with the talking though, let's show off the trailers.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Everyone was expecting the next game by Bethesda to be a new one in the Elder Scrolls and it appears they were correct: guessing they would start a new IP seemed out of thought. It's slated to come out on November 11th, next year.
Mass Effect 3
I was excited to see this, though I would have loved to see some gameplay. It was revealed prior, by accident on EA's store, to this teaser that ME3 would be about Earth. It appears the Reapers have arrived on Earth (somehow unnoticed by everyone) and it's up to Sheppard to save the day. Expect it holiday of next year.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Drake is, yet again, in a sticky situation. It's no train hanging from a cliff, but being in a desert with only sand to see isn't good either. Naughty Dog says the trailer was made entirely from the in-game engine. Expect to see it on November 1st.
SSX: Deadly Descents
Never really been a fan of the SSX series: then again, not into a lot of those style of games. No release date and no gameplay.
Resistance 3
This is what I like to see. Some gameplay mixed with nongameplay. Why can't more trailers be like this, minus the live-action actors. Coming out next year on September 6th.
inSane
Guillermo del Toro teams up with THQ and Volition Inc. to create a trailer that says nothing. Well, it's suppose to be scary, we can figure that out, but nothing about the game. This is the type of trailer I hate. Also, it's coming out in 2013... so that's a ways away.
Prototype 2
I couldn't get into the first one, then again, I only played it for two days. The second one appears to be a little of the same ol' thing, but with a different character playable. It's coming in 2012.
Batman: Arkham City
There's been a few teasers for this game, but the previous ones seemed to indicate that Joker would still be the main antagonist, but it appears Dr. Hugo Strange will be it instead... and he knows Batman's secret. Expect to lay your hands on it in the fall of next year.
Forza Motorsport 4
No, that wasn't a trailer for Nascar, but it was for a game. You could clearly see it was a game and not a live-action trailer throughout most of the game... till you go to the end of the trailer where it shows a virtual car being opened, just like at Microsoft's E3 showcase of the Kinect.
Portal 2
We've seen several trailers for Portal 2. Some have gameplay, some don't. This one appears, as someone said over at Kotaku, like a Pixar film. Also, that means no new gameplay. For those that don't know, it will be out this coming April 18th.
Thor: God of Thunder (the game)
Not really excited about this, but it was the one that seemed to show the most gameplay. Coming on May 3rd.
That's all of them. Now you just gotta wait till E3 to actually see any of these games in action.
Mainly, there were a lot of teaser trailers shown: as in they may tell you something about the game's story, what to expect, or even that the game is being made, but these trailers only have cinematics and lack gameplay. Granted, not all trailers were that way, but a lot of them were.
Enough with the talking though, let's show off the trailers.
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Everyone was expecting the next game by Bethesda to be a new one in the Elder Scrolls and it appears they were correct: guessing they would start a new IP seemed out of thought. It's slated to come out on November 11th, next year.
Mass Effect 3
I was excited to see this, though I would have loved to see some gameplay. It was revealed prior, by accident on EA's store, to this teaser that ME3 would be about Earth. It appears the Reapers have arrived on Earth (somehow unnoticed by everyone) and it's up to Sheppard to save the day. Expect it holiday of next year.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Drake is, yet again, in a sticky situation. It's no train hanging from a cliff, but being in a desert with only sand to see isn't good either. Naughty Dog says the trailer was made entirely from the in-game engine. Expect to see it on November 1st.
SSX: Deadly Descents
Never really been a fan of the SSX series: then again, not into a lot of those style of games. No release date and no gameplay.
Resistance 3
This is what I like to see. Some gameplay mixed with nongameplay. Why can't more trailers be like this, minus the live-action actors. Coming out next year on September 6th.
inSane
Guillermo del Toro teams up with THQ and Volition Inc. to create a trailer that says nothing. Well, it's suppose to be scary, we can figure that out, but nothing about the game. This is the type of trailer I hate. Also, it's coming out in 2013... so that's a ways away.
Prototype 2
I couldn't get into the first one, then again, I only played it for two days. The second one appears to be a little of the same ol' thing, but with a different character playable. It's coming in 2012.
Batman: Arkham City
There's been a few teasers for this game, but the previous ones seemed to indicate that Joker would still be the main antagonist, but it appears Dr. Hugo Strange will be it instead... and he knows Batman's secret. Expect to lay your hands on it in the fall of next year.
Forza Motorsport 4
No, that wasn't a trailer for Nascar, but it was for a game. You could clearly see it was a game and not a live-action trailer throughout most of the game... till you go to the end of the trailer where it shows a virtual car being opened, just like at Microsoft's E3 showcase of the Kinect.
Portal 2
We've seen several trailers for Portal 2. Some have gameplay, some don't. This one appears, as someone said over at Kotaku, like a Pixar film. Also, that means no new gameplay. For those that don't know, it will be out this coming April 18th.
Thor: God of Thunder (the game)
Not really excited about this, but it was the one that seemed to show the most gameplay. Coming on May 3rd.
That's all of them. Now you just gotta wait till E3 to actually see any of these games in action.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
A Change in Name and Purpose
This is something I've been thinking of for a bit. This blog hasn't been betting updated as it should. Mainly, this came from the fact that it was focused only on indie games, but as I'm finding myself having issues writing posts about indie games and any posts I do start end up being just rehashed stuff I posted over on Gamerz Station.
As I started doing some animations over at GoAnimate and thought it might be good to have a blog to give updates on those animations, little commentaries, and some other stuff about animating there. Obviously I have twitter and I try to give some updates on that, but a blog can work out better for it than a tweet.
Though just focusing on animations really isn't the best of plans; especially if I have writer's block or something like that. So, as well as my animations, I will probably be occasionally talking about my voice acting or comics, but, in between those or alongside those will likely be stuff involving the gaming (indie and mainstream) world: be it news, videos, etc. I may also add some animations that i like as well... whatever I really feel like.
So if you were following me prior to this, all three of you, I should be able to update this more often now.
If there are any new readers out there... welcome and enjoy. Here's a Portal speedrun by someone and it only takes him about ten minutes. Yes, he uses glitches to get there quickly, but it's what certain speedruns are all about. Also... the cake ISN'T a lie.
As I started doing some animations over at GoAnimate and thought it might be good to have a blog to give updates on those animations, little commentaries, and some other stuff about animating there. Obviously I have twitter and I try to give some updates on that, but a blog can work out better for it than a tweet.
Though just focusing on animations really isn't the best of plans; especially if I have writer's block or something like that. So, as well as my animations, I will probably be occasionally talking about my voice acting or comics, but, in between those or alongside those will likely be stuff involving the gaming (indie and mainstream) world: be it news, videos, etc. I may also add some animations that i like as well... whatever I really feel like.
So if you were following me prior to this, all three of you, I should be able to update this more often now.
If there are any new readers out there... welcome and enjoy. Here's a Portal speedrun by someone and it only takes him about ten minutes. Yes, he uses glitches to get there quickly, but it's what certain speedruns are all about. Also... the cake ISN'T a lie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)