Not quite related to CGI or special effects, but as I've been exploring the filmmaking process between creating ABYDOS and doing pre-production for the sequel, I think it'd be good to share what I've learned from it, both in terms of crimes against filmmaking mistakes I've made and things I've happened to learn along the way.  Best to keep in mind that I'm far from a professional, so these suggestions are more from my experience as a no-budget science-fiction pseudo-horror indie-film writer than a professional screenwriter/director, but if you're in such a position as well, perhaps some of these may prove useful to you.  Without further ado, here we go: Keep the script open to your cast     This suggestion is probably obvious to many, but it was one of the things I'd seriously messed up on while filming ABYDOS.  I'd kept the script fairly closed and would only reveal brief portions of the script at a time, thinking the relative lack ...

And, despite being on a blog based entirely around computer animation and special effects, the video doesn't have anything to do with either of them!  So yeah, this mostly talks about story/concept/different things that happened during filming.  Anyway, a new semester has started and I'm really hoping my modern philosophy-ridden Art Theory class comes with brain bleach!  In the meantime, though, I hope you enjoy the Making Of! 

    Ta-da!  I ripped some models from a game and made an animation with them to convince myself that ripping them was useful! (Also, I made my first video done completely in Blender since 2015!)      Again, neither Samus nor her gunship's models/rigging were made by me; both were ripped from the first Metroid Prime using the fantastic HECL.  For some reason I actually like the model from Metroid Prime 1 better than the one from Prime 2/3 (I think it may be the relatively minimalistic use of lights combined with less feminine-looking armor).  I was around halfway through this tribute to the underrated franchise when Prime 4/Samus Returns were announced, so I guess I'll call it a celebration of the franchise's return instead.  Also, for what it's worth, I'm calling it an "animation test" because there's not enough to the video to do the word "fanimation" justice ',:^|.      As the title implies, this is a jump fo...

    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!