=================My Birthday==========================

Had to wake up at six in the morning to take my kitty, Wally, to the vet to get his nuts chopped off...poor thing, the decision wasn't up to me.

So, Wally the Cat will stay overnight at the vet. Meanwhile, my 69 year old Dad actually undergoes a heart bypass surgery today. (Sometime around the time I type this, actually) Last Saturday morning he had a light heart attack, and rushed to a nearby hospital. After checking him out, they discovered he had 70-100% blockages in a few of his arteries, which debunks the idea that his diabetes were causing the lack of circulation in his feet. (Quite frankly, I thought that theory was a little odd in the first place, but what do I know, right?)

Had he chose not to undergo the bypass surgery, his chances of death were high. Had he not gone to the hospital at all, he would've already been dead. Knowing that he's undergoing this surgery gives me the peace of mind that he'll come out on top, and even though he can't actively celebrate my birthday with me, that's one of the greatest presents ever.

I'm going to visit him tonight waaaay afterschool, so I have no plans whatsoever to get trashed. A free bowl at Genghis Grill and a Shiner Bock, and I'll be just fine. :D

=================SCHOOL===============

Monday Classes / Basic Graphic Design - Final has yet to be completed. (All I need is to throw everything onto a presentation board which I have yet to buy)

Tuesday Classes / Storyboarding - Final is far from being completed. (Gotta write the split-script to a scene in Terminator 2; initially I was going to do the Swat Van / Helicopter chase scene, but not only is that scene visually repetitive, it's long as hell, and I can only fit 8 frames on the front of each presentation board, which costs money. I decided to change it up to a more diverse, shorter scene, where Arnold fucks around with the Cops outside of Cyberdyne with a minigun. SO...gotta write the split script, which means a description of the video and audio for every shot, AND draw them out, AND adhese the final product to their presentation boards...and as I learned from my mid-term, I can't do them front and back. They all gotta be on one side.)

Thursday Classes / Maya 3D Rendering - Final is about halfway done. (Rendered all of the pieces of furniture, and began texturing the simpler pieces (base and wheels of the chair, desk, CDs, etc...) but I still have to texture the more complex items, add lighting, and obtain textures I can't find online with a digital camera. Since next Thursday is Thanksgiving, I have even fewer days to work on it, so I may go in next Wednesday during open lab to throw a little more work onto the project.)

Friday Classes / Intro to Computer Graphics - Oddly enough, he hasn't even assigned us the final yet...though that may change; I go in for that class today at 2, so we'll see. It can't be that difficult.

==============FLASH PROJECTS/NEWGROUNDS================

-RedHarvest still wants me involved in the Lady Noir collaboration. Referencing my small working time-frame to partake in the WH40K Collab, it could be possible to make his deadline for late December if I work right away after finals. It's all a matter of time-management and motivation. Me personally, I was hyped to work on the story I had layed out for Lady, but the stress of the finals backed me down. Now that I've become less stressed about them, it seems more like an achievable goal than a daunting challenge.

-The Starfox Parody Hogabeast and I have been working on has been sludging around, but I still want to get it done. If I were to actually participate in Lady Noir, I'd have to work on this thing afterwards.

-Dick Neck: Awakening has been put on hold until further notice. Be advised, though, this isn't an empty fantasy project; expect it early next year.

-It's come to my attention that, as much as I boast originality, I have few original flash projects out here. Yeah, pretty much nobody acknowledged Zone of the Enders until I Awesomized it, and yeah, Dick Neck is strange, but most of it was written by Rumerio if not already making fun of the legendary thread. I have decided to bring two new things to the table.

One of which was actually from my storyboard mid-term; an original storyboard that had a caveman I had designed trying to get with this super hot amazonian cave-woman, and failing miserably. It was a huge hit with my storyboard class, and the more I worked on it, the more I wanted to animate it.

Another was my final from my English 1301 class early this year. (like, March '09 or something. WAY BACK.) It's a paper that was supposed to dive into something that happened to me as a kid that changed me forever, so it'll shed a little light on me for fans and friends...and I think it's actually pretty funny, so I hope you guys will enjoy it. It would also provide a great opportunity to demonstrate my voice acting ability, as well as tightening up what my own visual style may look like, so I'm excited to get to work on them as soon as possible!

The ultimate goal is to present these original flash projects to one of the animation studios here in the Dallas Metroplex, and land a job as an intern...just getting started in the actual animation industry would be amazing, but there's so much I need to learn. The best I can do is demonstrate my ability at least...in my own, honest opinion, I'm far from ready, but I gotta try for it.

.
/* */
No fate but what we make...and Film at Eleven!

-G-

I just got done watching every episode of Robotech: Macross Saga on Google Video...I kept it to about 2 or 5 episodes a day.

But I really love that show. I loved it as a kid, and now that I've rewatched it as an adult, I can appreciate all of the little nuances and details. (and now that I've begun animating, I've noticed mistakes as well as impressive feats of animation.)

I just really, honest-to-God hope they don't fuck up the Robotech movie coming out.

.
/* */
In other news; I'm beginning to have doubts in my involvement in the Noir Collab by RedHarvest. Although the Warhammer 40,000 collab did VERY well(My animation was the very first short) school's finals are starting to require more and more of my attention...and I'd be a fool to pass up school for any collab NG has going on.

I may get out of it soon, providing some other aspiring animator a chance to shine.

Looking forward to finals being over...
Looking forward to my twenty second birthday on the 20th...
Looking forward to Thanksgiving...
Looking forward to knocking out at least ONE more animation before 2009 is over...

....Straight ahead!

(Film at Eleven)

EDIT: Today I just found out that 100 NG users have added me as one of their favorite flash authors! Thanks Newgrounds, for continuously providing me the inspiration to press on! You guys rock!

-The Starfox parody has been postponed; my involvement in the "Lady Noir" collab comes first, since RedHarvest, the collab organizer, set a deadline for our animated segments on December 27th.

I have it thought up, just have to type it all out, and get to recording...I have yet to know what the uniform frame-rate is going to be, so I can't really work on animating the animation just yet.

-The Warhammer 40,000 collab has hit a few snags, but nonetheless, it's expected to release any day now.

-After my "Lady Noir" short is produced, I'm getting right back to work on finishing up that Starfox parody.

- From there, it's a debate on whether I'm going to begin work on an original solo project, or begin work on the Dick Neck sequel trailer. By the time that I have finished the Starfox parody, the deciding factor on that debate will rely on a fellow collaborator gaining a new microphone. If he has it, I begin work on the trailer. If he doesn't, I begin work on the solo project.

Either way, though, if I don't do the one first, it'll be done immediately afterwards. (i.e. if Dick Neck's trailer is done first, after that I'm working on the solo project...and visa-versa.)

-I'm typing from my Maya 3D rendering class at the moment. I had been stressing about the final project (rendering a room with items in it) but as I begun work on it, it turned out to be a lot easier than I had thought...I even managed to extrude a crude, little Armored Core model to busy up the place on top of my computer...below is a half-finished chair (you can't see the base from the angle) ...and I may have to redo that shitty keyboard, but other than that, this is the first day working on it...and so far, so good!

Film at Eleven.

I had a fuckin' BLAST.

My costume only cost me under ten bucks this month, as the bulk of it was stuff I already had.
-Biker boots
-Black jeans
-Black shirt
-Leather Jacket
-and a silver bandana that was way too tacky to wear any other time of year.

All I bought were
-Big squeeky red clown nose
-Black face paint
-Blue face paint
-and silver face paint.

I also bought this bullshit spray-on blue hair dye from Wal-Mart, but that shit sucked so bad, combing the blue face paint into my beard worked waaaay better.

After strolling along for a ride to the mall with a few friends, we came back to the McKinney place, and I applied the final touches of the face-painting...I am honest-to-God PROUD of this one, as it really unsettled some people. I hopped on the bike, revved it up, full clown-decked out, and rode into the night, kicking in the air as I rode by, sometimes standing up while I revved and screamed. I loved the looks on the parents faces as I tore ass from around the corner, stood up, laughed evilly as loud as I could, before punching the throttle into the distance. (It's a loud bike)

I rode around terrorizing kids, the parents, and the neighborhood that just wanted peace and quite for a good thirty minutes. Came back to the McKinney place, cracked open a few beers, and headed off to a party with hogabeast.

Stole a few more beers, and bounced to the next joint! Got some tequila...a little more beer... among other things. Great times!

I had so much fun, that every Halloween from here on out will never be the same. I must strive to outdo myself next year, traumatize a few more children, and get crunk.

Film at Eleven. HONK HONK

So everyone loved my storyboard presentation! Although I stressed myself out a little more by waiting until the last minute to color and ink the bastard, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a lot of fun working on it.

So much fun, actually, that I really want to animate it early-early 2010...most likely after the trailer for the Dick Neck sequel is released near the end of this year.

But with finals coming up, these next few months are truly going to become a trial in how I manage my time; my Storyboarding class's final is half the difficulty of my mid-term (I have to storyboard a scene with a lot of movement from an existing movie. I'm choosing to do a scene from Terminator 2, though I haven't decided which scene yet.) but to balance out, my Maya 3D rendering class's final is twice the difficulty of my mid-term (my mid-term was pictured in the last post. The final is I have to render a room with some furniture in it and different lighting.)

I can work on the Storyboard final any time I'm free at home...and unlike the mid-term, I'm not going to wait 'till the last minute. But I don't have Maya 2010 at home, so I gotta work on that final at the labs here at Quad C.

This gives me a great opportunity, though, that once I have the storyboard final out of the way, I can hustle on knocking out the Starfox flash (written and 'boarded a few months back) and the Dick Neck sequel spoiler/trailer before the year is out. Naturally, I'll have even more time to do this once the finals are over with.

Through my participation in the Warhammer 40K collab, the collaborator that ultimately talked me into participating is starting a "Noir" collab...and my imagination went so balls to the wall, that I'm becoming incredibly active in that project. Since there seems to be no due date on any one detail of the collab, (and seeing as how, even without unforseen circumstances, Warhammer 40K collab's deadline was almost a year after it had first started) I'm not concerned with prioritizing the Noir collab over any of my other projects that are already farther along.

.....yet.

The year is not out yet, and there's still a lot of work to be done. But I've been so stressed lately, it's time to vent that out by scaring the shit out of some kids for Halloween. With the help of my loud-ass motorcycle, I'm going as a crazy biker clown for Halloween. Think Black Label Society mixed with the clowns from Akira.

I'll post pics after the greatness. Film at Eleven!

In my Storyboard class on Tuesday, we ran out of time presenting everybody's presentations, and seeing as how I was still making adjustments and writing on my presentation boards, five other students and I are presenting next Tuesday.

...And holy shit, what a relief; that gives me an opportunity to really throw some craftsmanship in there and make it stand out! Although I don't doubt it'll have any trouble standing out...the longest Storyboard the class saw yesterday was 27 frames long....mine has 48...Fuck my life for getting off on a tangent.

Originally it was all done in pencil, so now I can ink and color it. I'm excited to act it out for people, as it follows a caveman trying to make a pass at a super hot jungle babe and everything backfires, without a single word spoken...lot's of grunts and screaming.

Meanwhile, today I just got done with my Maya 3D mid-term...the project was to render and texture items that could be found on your desk. Originally I was going to do a beer can, but I couldn't find a GOOD picture of Shiner Bock in can form, so I just went with DP. Personally, I don't think it's too terrible for my first 3D thing ever, but I'm hoping that I'm able to render and animate the mech's that I doodle in my free-time in the near-future.

Now that a great deal of stress is off my shoulders, it's time to finish that flash!

Also, keep an eye out for the Warhammer 40K Collab coming out soon! When you see it, five it like a palm-slap on the rear.

Film at Eleven

Also, dumping this link here for future use.

Well, looks like I'm shelfing the Halloween project for next year...just like I did for the Madness Day project recently.

I'm focusing instead on my Storyboard mid-term and Maya 3D rendering mid-term. (I'm not concerned with Basic Graphic Design and Intro to Computer Graphic's projects...those are much simpler.)

When I'm done with these projects next week, I'm going to devote my attention to the Starfox flash and Dick Neck sequel...I haven't actually ANIMATED something in so long, I fear I'll get worse rather than better...

I'm just way too stressed right now...I need to celebrate Halloween this year, for real.

...and I love this Photoshop I made in my Friday classes...I swear, next news post I'll post something different.

Film at Eleven.

Here's the low-down.

My Storyboard class just issued a FUCK-TON of homework to do, and I'm not even done with the audio track for The Three's Starfox short.

Although, I have to say most of this homework is actually pretty fun, and is a pretty good artistic exercise, actually. One of the assignments is he just gave us a sheet of paper that tells us how to make a Chicken Enchilada, and we have to write out the split script for and animate our own cooking show on how to make it.

I made mine so off-the-wall, it's becoming funny enough to make into a solo project for an animation on Newgrounds...but first thing's first;

Gotta knock out the homework for that class, and Intro to Graphic Design. The other two classes I'm taking doesn't have any homework, so that's a relief.

Meanwhile, my work on Starfox is moving along so sluggish, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to push it back and work on my Halloween short as soon as possible...and in case you're wondering, yes, most* of the two Dick Neck sequels have been written. *(keyword, "most")

Also, I'm going to attempt to take my first steps in incorporating 3D into flash within the next few months...ideally, I'd love to start off by doing something incredible for the Dick Neck saga, but there's a strong possibility that won't happen.

*sigh*...on top of everything, I'm starting to get sick. It was hot for months here in Dallas, and all of a sudden the cold-front came, and I went out riding up to school dressed in short-sleeves and a vest (It was WARM on the way up! Night hit, and BAM...frigid highways.) Got an irritated throat, and I've begun to cough...this kinda blows.

Oh well. Film at Eleven...

- On a Jager night, Adam (the guy responsible for "Rorschach's End"), Thomas, and I came up with another skit...this time longer, more fleshed out comedy, and original voice work about Starfox's Dad. This will be the first animation I've done with a full-blown storyboard drawn for it, to better set up what the animation will look like. (Origins had the audio recorded, and I sort-of winged it as I went along...however, that got me stuck in several areas throughout the process of animating, because I couldn't think of what to make the scene look like. The point is, I'm learning from my mistakes.)

- After that, I'm hauling ass working on my contribution for Halloween! I bailed on Madness Day this year, but I'd definitely like to participate in a holiday event...and what better than my favorite holiday anyway...so I'll be sure to make it extra spooky for you guys.

- Then it's off to working on the standalone trailer for Dick Neck: Awakening, which will also supply a quick glimpse into Prime Turnip's transformation, setting us up for the ultimate fight between Beast and Machine in the full Dick Neck: Awakening....Now with YoinK!

Film @ 11

P.S. Btw, 9 was incredible for what it was...amazingly dark, and beautiful. The soundtrack was pretty amazing too, (Danny Elfman!? Seriously!? Bravo...)

My heart's just not into the Madness series as I had once thought. Although I'm enticed by the cash-prizes, I got two weeks to work on this thing, and I haven't even drawn a single frame.

Moreover, my brother, who's an audio engineer, agreed to help me out with the audio file as much as he could by next friday. I just feel like I should've been preparing for longer if I was serious about entering Madness Day.

All I can think about is refining the story on Dick Neck; balancing the ratio of epicness, with good storytelling, structure, character development, action, and comedy.... I want to do all of those things to the Saga...

Yet, here comes Madness Day, here comes Halloween, I agreed to make an Awesome short, and Adam (hogabeast) and I have a great idea for a Star Fox short to knock out before I work on all that.

...By rushing in these two weeks for Madness Day...am I overloading myself? If I can make the Dick Neck sequel as good as I envision, it very well may be an easy Month winner....or even Month runner-up.

I want to make a Madness short...at least one. I need the cash to buy new tires on the bike so I don't skid on a wet-surface and die. But I'm just...tired, I guess.

Got Storyboarding homework...rendering with Maya tomorrow morning. I need to stop fucking around on the internet and get to work on this flash. If I could knock out that Warhammer 40,000 short in less than 48 hours, why can't I structure a simple Madness music video in two weeks?

...or thirteen days...

...twelve...

Fuck....No Film at Eleven yet, until I know I'm doin' it.