Man-o-man.

So this aniboom competition just kicked-my-ass. Working on it pretty much every morning/night/weekend. (With a few exceptions.)

But yeah its done.

kind of.

There's only thirty second finished, and brother, there's only going to BE 30 seconds finished. I've got a boatload of excuses to lay on you, but right now I'm going to go with... lets see... AH!

The competition ends April 30th, and the sooner you post your (very) short the more votes your likely to garner. My spy network revealed that some of the other shorts have in excess of 500 "views" on me at this point, So I figured I'd get on that.

So it looks good I think, and one night after the post it's already had close to 50 views and is holding at a respectable four out of five bomb symbols. (?)

Oh "ani-BOOM" I get it.

Anyway, here's some screen caps and a link to the actual film.

~Steve

http://www.aniboom.com/Player.aspx?v=8158

.

Satan wears a dicky.

Guess what folks?
Episode 2 if finally on the air... on the net... in the net?

We managed to find a little time in our schedule to upload the movie, play around with the html thingy's and prime the warp core. So go...

enjoy.

This episode sees the start of our meteoric decline into offensive humor. It's going to get worse before it gets better kids, so strap in.

As always, if you like the show please drop me a line.

stephen@uponanimation.com

And please do tell your friends. The more feedback we receive (Good and bad.) the more likely, and quickly, it is there'll be new episodes.
~Steve.

My Valentines update.

Hey kids.
Quick update time, there's been a pause in the production of episode 3. I'm taking part in Ani-boom's "Animation Eye-doll" contest.

http://www.aniboom.com/Competition.aspx?ref=mgeneral

I was originally going to do a 60 second piece, but because the longer you take to upload the movie the fewer votes you get I'm probably only going to do a 30 second piece.

Here's who I'll be animating.
It's a parody contest or whatever, so it's a beatnik girl to sing a song called "Beatnik" which is a parody of a Brittany spears song "Toxic" or something. I'll throw a couple of gags in I'm sure, but it's more or less going to be a pretty girl shaking her bum at the camera.

As far as animation goes, it's a little more in depth than the stuff I'm doing on "The Show of Job". The character is broken up a hell of a lot more, and I almost make an entire new model for every major new pose, tough and time consuming, but the second or so I have completed thus-far looks hawt.

Hopefully I'll be done this in the next week or so, (I plan on living off of four hours sleep until it's done.) and then I'll get back on the Micro-series wagon. Matt and Mike dropped by a couple of days ago and we banged out a pretty rounded and funny script for episode 4. And Matt was a champ and did some voice re-takes for me, So I'm itching to get onto those.

Matt S. Is talking about Chicago again, This scares the crap out of me. It's been half a year and episode three ain't done yet! Well, if anything gets my ass into gear it's a con. I love having rock solid deadlines that I can't do anything about, puts a match under my butt.

Hmm... Two rear-end references in one post, an omen of things to come? Lets just say that episode 4 is butt-centric.

New process.

So a new process? Sort of, well sort of... For me at least. There's all kinds of steps that your supposed to take when your creating an animated series. But with "The Show of Job" I'm really more interested in getting things done and online.

I really enjoy the whole pre-production process. And I'm slowly adding bits and pieces of it to my own production. For example. The top image is a layout for a scene with Job and Rachel.

I sketched it on top of one of an already completed background to test out some sitting poses, and work out what new pieces I'd have to make. (no real sitting has gone on in the series yet.) When It was finished and I took a look at the scene I could see a major improvement over the usual "Straight ahead" approach I've taken with this series.

This is super super basic stuff. Anyone in animation who's reading this right now is going: "Well Duuuuhhhhhh." And yeah, fair enough. I see this process at work all the time and obviously their productions blow mine out of the water. But they also have time, manpower and oh.. A budget.

I'm still going to be skipping a lot of steps during the production of this first series. The longer I take before doing actual animation increases the window where I get bored and shelve the project. But I'm glad to see elements like this start to trickle in, in an unobtrusive manner.

~Steve.

This websites gonna get me paid and laid.

Just a quick little update to let everyone know that uponanimation.com just made $0.14.

I'll give you all a minute to digest that.

Seriously though, it's pretty cool. I threw the Google Ad's up there just to take up some space instead of having a fairly ugly placeholder. But lo-and behold, some soul took the time and effort to click on an ad and pay me with someone else's money.

I'm pretty sure that "Pay me with someone else's money." is going to be the corner stone of Upon animation's marketing blitz, It kind of rolls off the tongue.

Regardless, bagels feature prominatly in episode 3.

Episode 2 will be airing the first week of February.

Two reports in such a short span? Thing's must be picking up.

I can assure you that we'll be quite safe here, inside this fully operational web-page.

Yessir Andrea has delivered on her promise and we've got this show on the road. There's a few things to check out on the site, namely the first episode and a synopsis of episode 2. And a link to this here production blog.

I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty stoaked. Right now I'm working on some stuff from my Day-animation-job. And it's killing me to not be working on Episode three of "The show of Job." I didn't realize that the scene I just finished is the second longest one in the episode. Once I figured that out it gave me a little hope.

Episode three is turning out to be a monster. I may have to cut and slice some gags to get it down to size. I know that "5 minutes" is totally arbitrary but I've got to set boundaries and keep to them (roughly) or else this thing is going to spiral out of control.

~Steve.

Quick update

I really REALLY have to start posting more.

Website status: Pretty Frakin' awesome.

Andrea is officially blowing me out of the water when it comes to computer stuff. She's doing things with "DIV Containers"? Java script and what not. She's Ironing out the bugs as we speak and the site is looking good to launch on Monday.

I hate updating without a pic of some sort. So here's Job's drink of choice: "Baggermister" liquid panty remover. (Not that it's ever helped Job.)

I put the opening/end credits on the two finished episodes. Re-watching them again is pretty damn painful. I can see all the mistakes and errors most of which I'm sure will get overlooked by the audience in general. I have to remember that this is all a learning process. And force myself to not go back and fix all the little mistakes.

If I did that the show would never air, and I figure it'll be nice to look back on the first few episodes when it's all said and done and feel good about how far we've come.

Heck I feel that way about episode 3 and we're only 2 scene's in. The jump in maturity (Filmmaking wise, not content wise.) is obvious from ep01 to ep02. And strikingly apparent with episode 03. Which calms me some considering the friggin hoops I've had to jump through for number 3.

It's been 5 months since the Chicago con but things are finally rolling along on their own momentum again.

Hope to see everyone at the new webpage next week!

~Steve.

The struggle has been hard fought, but an end is in sight.

So what's a really smart thing to do? Well, changing software versions mid production for one.
I got all hot and bothered reading about the changes made to ToonBoom 3.5, assuming that it couldn't be anything but an improvement of the current version. I was, it seems... Incorrect.

It's a whole new world, which is good in theory. However in practice it turns out to be a whole new world of bugs and glitches. Toonboom has basically been reset and everyone who got the new version is playing "Hunt the bug" for a patch that will be out by the end of the year.

Long story short, it's made production on the new episode very, very frustrating. I've finally wrestled some decent results out of it however, so I'm finally into the meat of the animation.

Okay, couple of notes.

1) Production is still going on. Albeit at a lessened pace, work/school for folks on the team has really been a pain in the backside. (As far as getting stuff done.)

2) because of point 1, the website isn't going to be up until late December. This really disappoints me, but I don't want to do any of this half assed. Andrea has done a great job so-far on the design and development of the site.

3) The focus for the first little while is going to be on content development. While I'm going to try my hardest to stick to the "New episode every 2 weeks" ideal, I'm really more concerned about generating content for the website while there's little to no audience. Once a good number of people start complaining about the lack of regular updates (I.E. We actually HAVE an audience.) I'll take it as a sign to start really getting stuff together on time.

4) Once the ball is rolling we're looking at another project that'll be less involved than the web-series, but will help there to be content every week as opposed to every other week.

5) Here is a trailer I did for the first series a while back. Uh, beware some foul language. And I guess ignore the whole november 2006 thing.
http://uponanimation.com/movies/heymel.html

Whoa, almost a month since the last post eh?

So we got everything done in time for Chicago, though I was literally working until 2 hours before our flight left... Hell I was burning DVD's at the booth.

There was much drama on the first day. When Andrea and I arrived there was NO booth for us, that is to say that we were supposed to have booth 2039, but no such booth existed. A quick check of the program revealed that "MaverikAnim" The name that all four of us (Matt H. Matt S. Andrea P. And Steve S.) were going by was located in booth 1237. So we find booth 1237 and it's occupied by "Cool Customs" or some shit. We locate a harried Wizard world employee and he manages to find us an empty corner booth. We requisition the table and chairs, then we steal 2 more (They were supposed to be $15 each, screw that.) and Maverik anim is good to go. EXCEPT that both Matt's are MIA. This sucks cause they're missing the show, and also Matt S is the only one who knows where we're staying. So until 5 minutes before the show closes Andrea and Steve figure that they'll be sleeping on the streets, until we see the Matt's making their way across the show floor.

Saved.

So af far as production goes, the last 10 episodes are in production as we speak. And we're hoping for a backlog of six or more episodes for the premier in November.

There'll be a meatier post some time next week I wager.

Episode 2. Wrapping soon.

The light is there at the end of the tunnel for Episode 2. This weekend will see the end of Primary animation and hopefully the completion of effects and sound.

I realize now that I haven't really talked that much about the show itself, who the characters are and other stuff. I haven't got too much info like that, because this show is really just an experiment to see where the limitation lie and figuring out the process of producing a series like this. (FYI The limitaions are many, the process is epic.)

Anyway, here's what we've got scribbled on the back of the DVD cover, this about sums it up.

"It's a story as old as time. A young man just starting to make his way in the world- no ambition, no prospects and in no hurry to get any. Job is stuck in a dead end career that a half retarded monkey could perform. And he's happy as a clam about it.

Joining Job on his voyage of mediocrity is Mel; the crass, foul-mouthed tech guy and Rachel the bubbly, cute, oh-so-phony intern. Their lack of respect for the workplace is matched only by their poorly camouflaged disdain for one another.

So join us wont you? On a journey into the center of unimpressiveness as we view people just like you - lying cheating and scraping their way through the life of a button down slave wage, just to make it to another $2.00 margarita night.

This is the Show of Job...
...And these are terrible people."

Work continues at a pretty good pace.
With regular type work started up again the amount of free time that can be devoted to the project clocks in around 9 hours a day. So basically ALL free time goes into the animation of Webisode 2.

On the plus side, episode 2 is ramping up to be pretty damn funny.

Got a couple of good idea's for future episodes kicking around. The writing team is going to have to have a tet a tet sometime soon. (Soon after the convention I suppose.)

Work on episode two is well under way. This weekend will be a busy one for all of us here at Upon Animation intl, ltd, worldwide.

Scene 1 is almost complete. Thanks to the brave directorial decision to remove all the talking. A glance to your right will give you a hint as to why.

In other news, the role of musical director will NOT be played by James Hanson of "Evil Josh and Billy" fame. But rather by Darren Bird, of "Captain Placeholder" fame. The change in staff comes a little late in the game for my liking. Unfortunately Mr. Hanson and the Studio had conflicting schedule's. Mr. Bird (Or Birdman as he shall henceforth be called.) is a multi-talented musician who will doubtless bring honor to the production and himself. (If he knows what's good for him.)

Andrea received all the printed material from the uh... Printers today. It looks great, DVD cover slips inserts and the whole she-bang. And a very nice 2x 2.5 foot poster to hang on the back curtain at Wizard world Chicago.

Anyway, enough loafing... Back at it.

~Steve.

Episode one is DONE sort of.

Okay, all animation is done on episode one of the web-series. A couple of day's later than I thought, If I was to offer an excuse it'd be that both Andrea and myself began full time work back at Mercury.

Episode two is underway. I have two or three secondary characters to design, and a couple of BG's. But most of the design work was done for episode one along with bit's and pieces of re-use animation. (Thank you digital medium.)

The deadline is going to be tight tight tight, but it'll get done for the simple reason that it HAS to get done.

Andrea finished the cover, label and insert for the DVD. As well as three business cards for each of us, They look quite keen.

Tick tick tick...

So very, very close to being able to wrap episode 1.

Animation for the last part is about begin, when that's finished it'll be time to slot in the music.
unfortunately I'm still waiting for word on the music. If worse comes to worse I'll tap someone I know to throw in some sweet slow acoustic jams.

This leaves less than a month to start and finish the second episode, Close... But not impossible. It'll be nice to take a little time on the other episodes. (We have until November for the web premier.)

In other news ToonBoom is helping to host an animation compition that Upon Animation will be taking part in, check it out here: http://www.toonboom.com/afca/index.php

~Steve.

What's been Happening.

Okay, to recap.

-My computer went tit's up.
I had been backing things up just in case, but not very often. I lost ALL of my A-project stuff since I'd been focusing on The Show of Job. I lost a little bit of that, ALL my scripts and ALL my sketches. THAT is what pisses me off the most... Oh also all my life-drawing.

-A web page.
If your reading this you probably got here from there. But just in case, it's over at:

http://www.uponanimation.com

-Re-write and read through of the first two scripts.
Based on random physical notes, rough audio tracks and what my sleep addled brain could remember I pieced together some REALLY rough drafts of the first two episodes. Then I got some cool cat's by the names of: Mike Fillion, Matt MacKenzie and Andrea Peters. To sit down with me and massage the crap out of them.

This read through accomplished two things: First, my dialogue is stilted and mechanical, I need to work on it. And second that Mike could do a darn good job of voicing Job. A task that I didn't quite feel up to myself.

-Audio record.
A few days after, we gathered around again this time with my new USB mike in tow, and managed to pound out the first episode's vocal tracks. It was a harrowing experience, silly me had booked the record for the same day that the new World of Warcraft patch was released. And all three of my actors are very very into the game.

We were supposed to do two episodes, but I suppose some people are more interested in gaining their +5 reaving cod-piece than becoming internationally re-known stars of the world wide web.

- I animate
and animate and animate... The first scene is done, It clocks in at around 45 seconds. The audio tracks are about 3 min 24 sec long. So I'm not at all worried about falling short of my totally arbitrary 5 minute mark.

-Sweet Jams.
James Hanson is the cat who's laying down the tracks for this project. He sent me the first draft of one of the theme's. It's quite re-assuring to get some feedback from that end. The music is the only part of thr project that I'm completely un-involved with.

James work on Evil josh and Billy over at KeenToons sold me on him. And it also serves to quiet my steadily poundign nerve's as augusts Black shadow slowly creeps forward.

Okay enough out of me for now, final word is that we're looking at two episodes FOR SURE on the DVD for the con. One done by the end of ths month and the other done... Before august I guess. I've ordered the DVD labels, and the printing for inserts has to happen in the next two weeks... OH SWEET LORD!

Joeb Test

Joeb Test
Originally uploaded by sloan_man69.

rachel test

rachel test
Originally uploaded by sloan_man69.

Okay, so this is the inaugural post for my little side project "Upon Animation" (www.uponanimation,com) , henceforth known as UA.

A little about UA first I suppose. It stems from a hundred thousand ideas that flow through my head and the heads of my friends and co-workers. It gets supplemented every time I see a flash cartoon on TV and wonder why the heck something like that isn't being delivered via the web. And finally UA was conceived during my time working in the trenches of the animation industry. Seeing the shows that get bought up and the ones that are left to the wayside. Really cool and fun concepts that get left behind because the folks with the money don't wanna take a risk.

Macromedia supplied us with "Flash" and the deluge of quirky funny animation began. Unprofessional and far from polished, these works regardless found their way into as many homes as their televised counterparts. Animation studio's started using flash as an inexpensive tool to create content for TV, quality suffers however because Flash is a web design tool and NOT animation software, certainly not developed for animators. Ask any classically trained animator who's had to work on a flash show and he turn the air blue with artfully worded comments on it's shortcomings.

Enter ToonBoom. (www.toonboom.com) They've been developing animation software for years. Mostly for post production and compositing. Then came USOPUS and CONCERTO. I worked with early versions of these at Mercury Filmworks Ottawa. (www.mercuryfilmworks.com), they were buggy but dynamic. Each animator was producing around 40 seconds of animation a week, and soon we were popping out a full 11 minute show every 3-4 weeks. Mischief City, Gerald McBoing Boing and to a lesser extent 6teen (good because of the writing, our hands were a little tied by design when it came to animation.) are great shows and don't have that "FLASH" feel to them.

Anyway, inspired by the work we were doing I dropped the bones for a home copy of ToonBoom Studio. (A slightly neutered version of the software, the commercial version clocking in at 18 grand.) And after a trial by fire doing one of the animated segments for the "Final destination 3" DVD features. I decided to take a crack at developing a series of 5 minute shorts, to air for free on the web and to inject some of the professionalism acquired so far in my career.

It's tough going so far, I'm shooting for a general release of the website this summer with the help of Ms. Andrea Peters. And to start premiering the first 12 episode series in October/November 2006. ( I want to have a nice backlog of shows.) And to have a new show premier every two weeks. This summer I'll be at wizard world Chicago with a DVD containing three episodes and some supplementary material to spread the good word.

So that's that. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep this as updated as my crazy assed schedule allows.

Here's some of the character designs completed thus far.