Whoops, I Have a Website...

Well hi!

I know I've been away a while, so I just wanted to drop in and give an update on what's going on. Basically, we've been working on The Guards Themselves every day, all day, for the entire year. I've literally had zero time to work on anything else, which is why A Fable III Experience, the Minecraft server, and any kind of site update have been mysteriously absent. But I'm happy to say that our project is finally drawing to a close! Now, granted, it will still probably be a few months before we really start releasing things again, but in 2014, we will return from our adventure into feature-filmmaking with beautiful, shiny treasure! It's really turning out to be an awesome film, and I can't wait to share it with everyone!

In other news, I'm graduating from college this December! I will finally be done with all school ever. I'll have to have a job and stuff, sure, but it will still be a big shock to go from totally busy all the time to nearly nothing. So starting next year, we will be cranking out everything that's been building up during 2013: animations, videos, a new interactive site, and even a video game!

Thank you all for your patience over this year. I really appreciate you sticking around, and I promise to make sure the wait was worth it!

2012 In Review

Happy 2013, everyone!

We've had an awesome year, and I would like to take a moment to highlight the highlights. 2012 saw the release of No Service, I got to visit the Newgrounds office, we released more podcast episodes than Chaos Pony, we made five other animated and live-action videos, started on A Fable III Experience, and raised $4,000 for our web series on Kickstarter!

So what's next? Well, after failing to meet my one deadline of the entire last year, my promise privileges have officially been revoked by the universe, so I can't give too much detail. What I can say is that they will involve awesome-looking anarchists, Rodriguez and a 3D printer, hipster pirates, people eating shoes, random dancing, major Minecraft server overhauls, a new season of only a few peoples' favorite podcast, and the completed Fable III Experience! I'm looking forward to a productive new year, and I can't wait to get started!

Anarchists on Kickstarter

As some of you know, my crew and I are running a Kickstarter campaign for a live-action web series about real-life super villains and superheroes (in this world known as anarchists and crimefighters) who aren't so much super and really just put on protective gear and beat each other up as each group alternately tries to protect and control the city.

I really think this project has the potential to be something great. Unfortunately, we're currently halfway through the campaign and we only have $460 of the $3,500 that we need. So, I'd like to enlist your preferably though not necessarily willing help. The more people who know about the project, the better. I'm very grateful for the help some of you have given so far, and feel bad asking for more, but if you can take the time to even just post the link on Facebook, it could make all the difference. Especially if you have, say, a super-large internet fan base or something... just sayin.

Oh, also, money. If you could actually donate something, that would be an even bigger help.

In an attempt to shoot web traffic through the roof near the end of the campaign, I swear to God I'm going to release SOMETHING Fable III related next week, even if it's just the opening scene as a second teaser. I cannot believe how long this thing is taking me, and I'm going to try my hardest to release Part 1, but I can't guarantee anything. In case you're disappointed by the idea of splitting A Fable III Experience into two pieces, just know that each piece will still be longer than any of the other videos in the series.

Thanks for your help and support.

FIIIE Progress

UUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I hate animating... animating sucks. Don't ever do it. Know why everyone on Newgrounds is a miserable sociopath? Because animating, that's why.

Anyway, I put up a countdown to the release of A Fable III Experience here, because apparently I just love being wrong. I've already had to extend it one week, but hopefully that'll be the last time. I've caught a few lucky breaks, like the video turning out 6 minutes shorter than I expected and having a friend to animate the mouths for me while I work on other things.

I have all the dialogue in its place, right along side a full animatic. With some help from Jazza, I was able to solve a couple of stupid Flash problems early on, so I don't have those to worry about anymore. I've also been allowed to use the beta of Swivel, Newgrounds's special flash to video converter, so the finished product should even look great on Youtube. Right now, I'm still in the artwork stage, drawing all of the backgrounds and enough of the characters to get started moving them, which is A LOT.

What I'd love to do is have an online "launch party" of sorts, which I can at least say will be a Wednesday at midnight, eastern american time. Basically, I'll just be streaming myself from my site here as I upload the video, but then we can all share in the joyous occasion of me never having to animate Fable-related things again! You can follow my facebook page to get a sufficiently early notice on when I'll be releasing it.

Anyway, that's all for now. The current date is October 10th, so hopefully I'll see you all then!

Videos! Videos Everywhere!

Greetings everyone! Many exciting things are happening, probably RIGHT AS YOU'RE READING THIS SENTENCE!! Actually, probably not, but at some point before or after, they will be! Let's get right to the list, shall we?

Firstly, voice recording for A Fable III Experience is practically done! The final count is TEN cast members, which is far greater than my usual cast list, which is me. Some of the actors are Newgrounds stars and others are just now making their debut, but all of the performances are fantastic, and I can't wait to start animating! Which is a thing that I will indeed be doing soon, because...

Our Kickstarter page is ready to go! The only thing missing is a video, but we still aren't going to launch the project until FIIIE is done. That way we can use the near-guaranteed success of Rodriguez ElCazorro to funnel views into the Kickstarter project. Thankfully, you can still see the page even though you can't donate yet, so click here to read up on it!

In between our bigger projects, we're also putting great effort into releasing short videos much more consistently. Right now, this only includes live-action shorts, but once I have Fable out of the way, I'll try to toss in some more animations as well. We're also setting our podcast aside for a bit so that we can concentrate more on videos and also because I don't think anyone really cares all that much at the moment.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this update, so check back next month for more! The best of days to you all!

Summer Fun

Well, I finished yet another quarter at the Art Institute, which means I've only got about a year left, which also means I've only got a few months until I'll need to start working on my senior project. We still don't have a name for it, but it's going to be our first official film (as opposed to an internet skit or animated short like we usually do). We'll have a fundraising page set up on either Kickstarter or IndieGoGo very soon, so watch for updates!

To make sure I'm funneling in the maximum amount of attention for the project, I'm timing it with the release of A Fable III Experience! The entire 16-page script has been written, and the voices are being recorded now. I've also collected an awesome cast of popular Newgrounds stars, including JAZZA, RicePirate, and DonkeysBazooka!

I'm leaving for a family trip to Washington D.C. in a couple of days, and then I should be able to start animation pretty soon after I get back. I also made a few slight adjustments to the website; most of the changes aren't visible, but it loads way faster.

Off to Philly!

Well, I successfully wrapped up all my school work, and I leave for Philadelphia tomorrow!! How do I manage a spontaneous vacation when I'm still in college worrying about things like school work? My dad is awesome, that's how. I'll be bringing my recently resuscitated Flip video camera (if you own a Flip, you'll know that "recently resuscitated" is a perpetual state), and I'll post up a video of the trip when I get back!

In other news, Ian finishes his... second? Maybe third... year at Baylor, and will be back in Austin, so we can work on more stuff. I actually have a stack of scripts written up (seriously, it's like four complete video ideas), but I just haven't found the time to get started on any of them. I'll be sure to make time after this trip, though, and get started on at least one of 'em (oh, wait, five. Just remembered another one).

Then there's my senior project film that we'll be starting this fall, and we're gonna have a Kickstarter page up soon. It'll be about an hour long, and we need some costumes and things. We'll be posting a lot more about that in a few months, but I want to go ahead and get the word out now. You have been warned.

I still can't believe I actually get to go to Newgrounds. Just last year I was seeing other people's photos on Facebook and thinking, "maybe I'll get to do that someday." I sure didn't think it would be so soon! I get to meet Jazza in real life, which is still a weird sentence no matter how long the internet has been around, and I'll probably have an interesting conversation with RicePirate, since he was my hate target for a few months...

Anyway, thanks to everyone for supporting my videos so much! I try hard, so it's nice to know I'm doing something right!