Why Hello

So no new cartoon for April. No new cartoon for May. Will there be a new cartoon for June...? June was the original goal for my latest project but it seems unlikely I'll complete it by then considering the amount of detail that needs to go into it. I may do a short stick figure animation but I don't want to make it just to have a new release in June, I want to make it because I want to make it. Technically I have been releasing a new cartoon each month, they have just been commercials which I don't put on my youtube.

On a side note, Directionless has been going strong ever since I started writing it again back in August so I'll ramble about that for a bit. The comic is almost 3 years old now. During the past 3 years there have been numerous changes made to Directionless in terms of substance and style. The biggest change that people informed me of is that back when I first started the comic it followed Jeff's day to day adventures and felt like a single story while now it's more individual jokes.

Each drawing style came with a shift in tone. 2010 was when I first started the comic and majority of the story was about Jeff searching for his direction. In 2011 I switched to black and white and did a whole series of comics about Dean and Jeff interacting. There was very little plot although there were individual comics which showed changes happen with the characters lives. The change in color was simply because I was having waning interest in writing Directionless. I spent less and less time on it until it finally halted on the year anniversary where I wrote this summary of the series. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the pilot but couldn't get it to feel right. I was very sad when I decided to cancel it.

August 2012 rolled around. I hadn't touched anything Directionless related for a few months and decided to write a comic for fun. I haven't stopped. It started off in with the same tone as the first black and whites, just Jeff and Dean interacting. But I slowly started to throw in plots and finally did a series of comics that talked about some of the changes that happened in Jeff's universe over the past year that the comic didn't cover. That series of comics also covers a little bit of the pilot's plot. This series also covers a big chunk of what the pilot was about. On a random sidenote, this series of comics was actually the first plot line I wrote for Directionless. It couldn't make it funny when I first wrote it but I eventually used it for my Halloween series in 2012. Many of the characters from the original comic don't appear in the modern comic. There are a variety of reasons for that.

I personally like where Directionless is right now. I see it as a mix of the first two years. There are plot based comics and there are solo joke based comics. What are my favorite comics? I'm glad you asked! I have a few actually. This was the favorite from 2010, it always makes me laugh because it's so stupid. I also like this one because is so ridiculous. My brother actually said this to me while we were shoveling. Many of Deans one liners are actually my brothers. As for the more recent ones, I really like this one and I like some of the ones coming out next week. Anyways, that's that.

The current project is grand in scope. A lot of lighting and atmospheric effects which I have never done before. The storyboard is all done and I've done primary animation for about half of it. My original goal was to finish it by late June but that seems unlikely at this point but one never knows.

Bill Burr

After finishing Running I decided I wanted to do a short video. I listen to Bill Burr's Podcast and thought it could work as an animation. I listened to a few older episodes and picked a bunch of snippets I thought were funny or intriguing. I refrained from picking stuff over 2 minutes long. There was a lot to choose from and I decided to go with this segment because it's something I think we all do. It pretty much took me 2 weeks to animate the video, I did it very quickly.

I only did a few preliminary sketches for Bill.

I enjoyed making the animation, I may select another segment in the next few weeks to animate. My personal goal is for Bill to see the animation and mention it on his podcast and then to have me animate him talking about it. I haven't really gone out of my way to send it to him but I will later this week.

Aside from the Bill Burr short what is coming next? Well, I have a few Directionless animations that I'm working on but I do not have a time frame for their releases. I think because my last two longer shorts were Directionless I want to spend time animating something else. The comic is still being posted 3 days a week!

I am working on a video but it's it's going to be quite awhile until I finish it. I am going for a much more detailed look and a very intense story. I finished the storyboard and at the moment I am just fine tuning all the details. This one is going to be in production for a long time so I don't think I'll finish it until June or even July. Then again, by this point last year I was working on Way West which didn't get finished until August. It's possible I'll figure out a way to produce the movie very quickly and finish it before I realize it.

You'll recognize the character on the bottom right from a previous post. I sometimes take characters and swap them into different projects. I don't feel her art style suits the story

So I don't really know what will be my next release. I personally want to make another stick figure animation but not a music video type one. We'll see. I also have 4(maybe 5) freelance commercials I'll be doing so organizing my time well will be very important!

I will say that I want to release another video in April nomatter what. Even though I missed January of this year I think it'd be good to release a new animation each month!

A Directionless Guide to Running

I started this cartoon shortly before I finished Roach. For a long time I've wanted to do animation about running. As a warm up to this, I did a few running jokes in the Directionless comic strip. Episode 6 of the pilot Directionless series was all about Jeff getting into running and this cartoon is a very condensed version of that episode. I also storyboarded a music video about Jeff and running but it more focused on Jeff and his friends rather than the act of running. So this video took about 2 and a half months to make(it also helps that my freelance project ended giving me time to work on this cartoon), not bad considering my last few videos have been taking much longer.

What's next? Well, I started another "Directionless Guide" and hope to release that in a timely manner but I do not want to release 3 Directionless shorts in a row so I plan on making something random. My wacom tablet broke last week and I had to send it in for repairs but earliest I'll get it back is next week. I won't start my next animation until I get it back. All the current Directionless comics are a pain to make right now BUT I'M TRUCKING FORWARD.

Oh and here is that live action video I directed,



Recognize Giorgio's voice? He is also the narrator in A Directionless Guide to Running!

I haven't forgotten about this blog, I swear!

My last post was in mid-November, ouch. And I didn't reach my goal for releasing a new animation by the end of the year. I keep making my animations more complex which makes them take more time. The Directionless comic recently has a cross-over with Faceless Neil which was fun. I directed a live action video in January that should be posted online any day(it's out of my control).

The next animation I'll be releasing will be "A Directionless Guide to Running". It's about 85% complete. I still have to animate the final scene(rough animation has been complete) and add some backgrounds. I've started doing sound design and am about 1/3 of the way through. Hopefully it will be done within the next 2 weeks. I'm aiming for a mid-February release.

I'm hoping to make "A Directionless Guide to..." a series of shorts. I've already started another one(recorded voices) and I am writing a few more. I hope people react positively to Running, it will make me feel more confident about releasing more but I may release them regardless of the audience reaction(I will try to make each one different so even if somebody dislikes Running they may one about a different subject). 

As for other cartoons....I've started writing out another black and white Directionless short(classical music driven). I may have mentioned it long time ago on this blog, the orignal concept had nothing to do with Directionless. I started to animate it but realized it was going nowhere and dropped it. Then unrelated to that movie I heard a classical song and thought of doing another black and white Directionless movie. I merged the two concepts together and thought I had a solid idea but I still couldn't finish the story. I recently got the inspiration that fills it in nicely. As for non-Directionless material those are harder to come by, my freelance projects filled that void for myself. I still want to do another Way West-esque movie among the many shorts I've mentioned in this blog. 

I do plan on making another Brandon short come summertime(that is a part of a feature film plot line). It's more like a re-imagining rather than a remake or a sequel to my orignal short. I'm redesigning everything from the ground up and so far I'm really enjoying it.

Go see Django

Go see Django Unchained.

Directionless - Roach

The movie was inspired by a true event where the roach did not survive. After luring it out, I chased it around and eventually used a butcher knife to stop it in it's tracks. Then I flushed it's remains down the toilet. 

I started the short almost immediately finishing Way West and tried to get as much done in-between freelance projects as I could. I was actually on track to complete the movie around the early October but, as I suspected when I started the project, in September freelance picked up and the I had to put the movie on hold for a bit.

As I said in an earlier post, sound design was a huge part of this movie. Majority of the sounds were homemade and you can probably guess the ones that weren't. A lot of the time in post production was spent doing the sound design. I had some difficult selecting music for this movie. I pictured the movie without sound at the beginning because I thought the sound effects alone would create some sort of rhythm. I found when I started to do sounds the rhythms I thought would be there weren't so music was used to fill in the gaps. I settled for ragtime music because it matched the mood(in my opinion) and the previous Directionless animation had piano music so why not keep the tradition up?

It's the first voice acting project I've done where I don't say a single word but my voice is throughout the entire movie. It also reveals Jeff's voice even though he still remained a relatively silent character.

This shot was actually edited out of the final movie!

So now the question, what's next? Well for one, the comic strip continues Monday-Fridays. Roach was actually the reason the comic started up again!

As for cartoons while I was working on Roach I did a lot of concept art for various animations. I also did voice recordings for the next Directionless short. My goal is to try to work on two completely different cartoons simultaneously and try to release them BOTH by the end of the year. I also am in the planning stages of an animated music video but I am not sure what the timeframe for it will be. Way West 2 is also in the back of my mind, I may begin storyboarding it soon. It has a much more detailed and intense story than the first one.

The next Directionless short is about running. Voice acting plays a much more prominent role in this one but Jeff will still remain relatively silent. 

I am storyboarding a new music video in this style. The goal is to try to finish it by the end of December.

This is the main character of another video I am planning. 

Oh and I also will be directing some live action music videos in the very near future. It borders on what I consider freelance because I won't have full creative control(but something very close to it). I know my animation crowd has generally disliked my attempts at live action but maybe I'll be able to change their minds with the upcoming videos! 

Even though I don't update this blog as often as I should, remember Directionless the comic runs 5 days a week! 

Directionless becoming Directioned?

So I've started doing the Directionless comic strip again. I've been working on the next animated installment of Directionless I couldn't help but want to start up the comic again. I took a look at some old comics and I found them funny and realized I could start them up again. I am opting to continue the black and white style simply because I like how it looks more. I used to draw comics during school so it's more natural for me to do comics like this in black and white. But I repeat, the next animation will be in full color and will have cleaner drawings.

One thing I plan on doing is taking some of the plot lines and jokes from the unreleased animated series and putting them in the comic. My goal right now is to release around 5 comics a week but we'll see if I keep that up. Right now I am writing a bunch of comics before I start to get into the plot. I'm hoping that when I released Roaches Directionless will pick up some fans again and more people will enjoy the comic.

Here is a sneak peak at the dilema that will unfold next week....

And for a minor update on the animation, I completed the rough animation stage and now I am cleaning up the drawings, adding inbetweens, coloring, and adding backgrounds. Sound effects play a huge roll in this animation (I think it will be most comparable to Ballin') and I am still undecided about music. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of September, but will all the freelance projects I am not sure that is going to happen.