Continuing my splash work for TV-Nihon, I decided to do one in Blender instead of using Photoshop.     I feel like this represents the start of a turn into more advanced 3D modeling for me.  I hadn't done much with Blender in quite a while--mostly animating the Walking Death in ABYDOS and making fan work with 3D models from games--but here, I feel like I stepped into a newer era of 3D modeling by constructing more complete background scenes with image textures and objects created from the ground up.      Made near the end of 2016, this still uses Blender's internal rendering engine, which is basically obsolete, so the picture's lighting isn't nearly photorealistic, but it does use image textures to a far greater degree than it'd been done in much of my earlier work, which helps add more realism and distract from other things like the number of commas I put into this sentence. 

    Finally, my work on the first draft on the ABYDOS sequel is done!  The only problem is that it's over twice the length of the original's script, and I'm not hoping for a 40+ minute long movie, so there may be a bit of work yet to be done.  However, I'm hoping to involve input from the rest of the creative team--an advantage that, while I'd also used it for the first film, I hadn't been using to nearly the same degree.  That said, I've also done some more work with Blender, which I'd love to share soon! Ignore the Lights.  

    I'm happy to announce that I'm currently scripting ABYDOS II!  I'm seeing several possibilities and am connecting several dots on how the movie will work.  So far, one struggle seems to be balancing a more massive story and scale while keeping it around the length of the original ABYDOS.  That said, so far the script's looking quite promising so far; I'm definitely looking forward to filming it!     Ignore the Lights.

The entire ABYDOS crew (all four) have begun to collaborate and talk about work on ABYDOS II!  The project's planned to be a lot more collaborative than the first one, and it's also planned to not only explain the numerous questions in the original (some planned, some plotholes), but also to have a lot more in the way of character-driven moments and a stronger story itself.  As well, I've figured out several ways to up the ante on the effects, including a primitive alternative to motion tracking.  I'm definitely looking forward to making it, as well as getting some making-of videos up!

The college semester rages on, but I'm still not dead!  (Actually, it's not going all too badly.)  Anyway, I've been doing more PhotoShop work for TV-Nihon, the fansubbing group I mentioned earlier! So a new Rider series is coming out, and even though I personally think the main character looks really considerably garish, I decided to see what I could do anyway!   The first, pixelated one was based on the idea that (a) the series is partially based on video games (yes, I know) and (b) stylizing the image could distract the eye from the messiness of the suit in general.  Unfortunately, the reviewer noted, the pixelation made it look a bit less pleasant than it could otherwise be, so I updated it with a less pixelated version!  In case anyone's wondering how I pixelated the image, I just scaled the image to a really small size in PhotoShop, then scaled it back up with the upscale set to "Hard Edges." The background itself is from a preset from After Ef...

After over a year of work, I'm finally done--and just in time, too, as my new college semester starts soon! This is by far my most ambitious video project to date, with both my After Effects and my Blender skills used to a much farther extent than anything I'd done before.  Aside from its technical aspects, there was a lot of acting, scripting, and even voiceover dialogue to an extent that my family's never tried before.  This took quite a bit of doing, and I can't wait to post about how it was made!  For now, let it be said that there was a lot of masking.  That said, there will be making of videos, and I'm hoping for a sequel!  I already have several ideas for new technical improvements... Ignore the Lights.  

As of now, all the special effects and video editing is finished on ABYDOS!  All that's left are some voiceovers, which are more than halfway done, but after that the project is essentially finished!  I should be able to have a trailer out by the end of the month.  In the meantime, here's an official poster!