Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February, 2012

DARKSIDED Episode 2: SeXBoX

The second episode of my new series where I get to realize some of my darkest ideas ^_^ This one took a day and a half to make... I always thought that "come on Toshi" video was creepy so I finally got to make something with it....

Forever Alone Filmmaking Podcast #4 w/Emily Youcis

Here is episode 4 On the show this week our your hosts James Id , Jimmy ScreamerClauz and M dot Strange. Our special guest is Emily Youcis... creator of the Alfred's playhouse short films and all around weirdo/awesome person ^ ^

DARKSIDED episode 1: TAPE_WORM REVERSE

A new series imma start doing as its a quick and easy way to express my sick ideas ^ ^ This only took a day to make... using automated lip sync and hardware rendering which is instant so yeh... I've got 4-5 more written for now so expect those.

"Guru's" or procrastination enablers?

If I followed the advice of most all of the "guru's" in the independent filmmaking and animation world I wouldn't be making anything at all... If I wanted to go out and shoot a live action film I mean I couldn't with a $500 DSLR?! NO WAY not with rolling shutter... yep gotta get a RED or something else HELLA EXPENSIVE.. OH and its NOT a full frame sensor YEH can't make a masterpiece without a full frame sensor... H.264 compression?! NOPE no way you can make a good film with that kind of compression... gotta have some 4:4:4 uncompressed raw shit... Because you know when you show people your film devoid of any originality, character, emotion or anything compelling at all EXCEPT for the TECHNICALLY PERFECT images they're going to remember your empty perfect image sequences forever as one of their favorite demo reels ever! OOPS I meant film! Oh wait... these d00ds are PAID by camera/gear manufacturers to pimp the expensive shit to convince wannabe filmma

What do you want the Forever Alone Filmmaking podcast to be?

Since making the new podcast is a fun thing to do AND since there isn't much at all out there for SOLO 3d animators making THEIR OWN films we're going to make more of course... As it goes along further.. we'll make it a legit podcast that shows up in Itunes and all that... and have show notes/related links/files... and guests and all that... Since yall are the ones listening to it and hopefully working on your own projects I'd like to know what you want from it? My homie Josh emailed me and thought that we should make a forum for the show so interested peoples could discuss the topics there and help each other and the like...sounds like a good idea to me... what's the best way/place to do that these days? Since Jimmy, James and I use Cinema 4d and After Effects...maybe we could share and discuss project files on the show? new techniques and tricks etc... then make them available to the listeners? Just an idea I had... So yeh please let me know what yall th

Understanding the SCAM that is the film business

Thanks to my homie Stormko out there for always sending me links to interesting things... now I finally understand how the film business works.... check out these episodes of THE CRITICAL PATH podcast HERE and HERE I know I'm dumb and slow for not figuring it out sooner but what do you expect?  I'm drawing monsters and pushing pixels all day and night ^ ^ So in a nutshell... for tax evasion purposes and to screw people out of royalties... on the books NO FILM EVER MAKES A PROFIT... the more it makes the more they bill production expenses etc... the more the producers pay themselves... So the bigger the budget... the more the schmucks in the suits with no real talent pay themselves... BUT before Kickstarter if you wanted to raise a budget you HAD to work with the talentless schmucks in the suits... and now you don't ^ ^ YES if you want 100 million gotta go to the schmucks...but if you want 100 thousand maybe you can do it on your own with your audience using somethi

Your free digital backlot

I'm working on a few crappy short animated projects right now and by crappy I mean I'm not putting any effort into the "art" of it... Just focusing on the gags and the direction/editing for some short things to throw up on youtube (throw up as in vomit)... So when it comes down to building the sets and props...I really don't want to haha... So what I've been doing is using the  Google 3d Warehouse  for that stuff... there's TONS of set pieces and props to find there... NOW you can only use these in NONCOMMERCIAL projects so I wouldn't try to use them for your big film project you want to sell... but its fine for stuff like this... I used this Bathroom set model from 3d Warehouse but I had to build Toilet Duck myself ^ ^ I'm also experimenting with using the Cinema 4d hardware render...which results in no render time for these cheapo short things... just trying to minimize the time and effort that go from STUPID IDEA----> FINISHED ANIMATED

How/when did "filmmaking" get so fucking boring?!

Most all of the "filmmaking"rss feeds I read that come in from "independent filmmaking" blogs and the like are filled to the brim with mundanity... Ohhh 4k this! And ipad app that! And this camera sensor this! And this camera rig that! AND OF COURSE THE RED! In 3d! Is that what filmmaking is? Its just ALL ABOUT the tools? Yeh? I see tons of this bullshit that is clearly a technical test or demo reel and some fancy fucker with a fedora is passing it off as a "film"... what the fuck is going on? Is that what a "filmmaker" is today? Some nerd with an ipad grading his 4k stereoscopic whatever the fuck on a 64 core workstation? Nobody cares EXCEPT OTHER WANNABE FILMMAKER TECH WHORES what you shot it on ...or whether an ipad or fancy whatever the fuck was involved... so why should you care? Filmmakers should make films... and original and awesome ones at that... once you get too caught up in the tech that is used to make the films you stop

Ever felt like quitting?

We all do sometimes... When chasing your dreams.... trying to realize some crazy thing that might not make sense to the status quo isn't an easy thing to do... And yeh sometimes we feel like quitting.... maybe we feel like quitting all the time? You know like when things go wrong?... because things always go wrong... If you're trying to do something the status quo does not approve of... and it's always failing or lets say... not giving the outcome or results you want... the thought eventually creeps into your head... I'LL JUST QUIT AND DO SOMETHING MORE NORMAL... You can ALWAYS quit and go the normal route... it will ALWAYS be there to accept you with open arms... you can always jump in to that... and what might that give you? Acceptance by the status quo? We can always turn our back on our dreams and appease the status quo and its various human enforcers that are always swarming... BUT if you quit THEY WIN... and that little voice inside of you that makes you

Learn anything in 5 minutes! How bout NO!

If yer a PONY that only wants to learn how to do TRICKS... yes 5 minutes is GREAT... BUT if you actually want to really LEARN how to do something and NOT just COPY someone else to get the EXACT SAME result they got... well then... NO. Pony as in "one trick pony" of course but nowadays we have lots of 20 trick ponies running around... I'm referring to 3d animation/filmmaking/visual fx... and the plethora of COPY THIS "tutorials" out there... Of course this has to do with instant gratification vs. delayed gratification... humans are conditioned to want RESULTS NOW... they demand instant gratification in EVERYTHING (see premature ejaculation haha)... but the results always leaves the trickster feeling empty after the instant gratification wears off... (and you won't be the most sought after sexual partner either haha) You learn a trick from someone else... you do it... instant gratification.... then you run around looking for more tricks... more buttons

Congrats to the IRON SKY team!

Those crazy Finnish d00ds premiered their new film IRON SKY today at the Berlin Film Festival! I'm sure it was awesome! I met the director Timo at SXSW in 2008 and we talked Nazi secret societies and the like.... And in 2012 Timo and his team BUST out this!!!! I think its really great and a big step for independent film... as their previous film STAR WRECK was made in basements, kitchens, and bedrooms in Finland and was released online for free before a successful DVD release... then they partnered up with some peeps and got a 15 million dollar budget to make IRON SKY and now here it is... They really got their stuff together and made it happen... I remember back in 2008 they already had suitE looking postcards and promo stuff for the film... we can learn a lot from the way they handled Iron Sky! Sometimes I wish I had a real budget, a producer and a team of people to help me but I'm such a jerkoff I never made that stuff happen AND I don't want to work with H

Disney goes 8-bit? How INNOVATIVE ^_^

So Disney is releasing an 8-bit themed 3d animated feature this year... It's about a characters life inside of an old arcade game?! OMG Yall are the people who know who threw down the 8-bit themed animated feature film before all the 8-bit and chiptune stuff got trendy... If I was "smart" I would have kept the same 8-bit themed style until this day ...as its now become mainstream...now it's "marketable" 5 years after I did "WE ARE THE STRANGE" .... But alas yer pal M dot is not driven by such desires as I have to do something new to stay interested and happy... I'm sure I'm even confusing a lot of you haha.... as my style used to be STR8NIME and now its STRANOHME... But that is the world of M dot Strange... and I believe some of yall weirdo's appreciate me changing things up eh? ^_^ EVERY film will be different... that's how I'm gonna roll...

Forever Alone Filmmaking Podcast w/M dot Strange and Jimmy ScreamerClauz

Jimmy ScreamerClauz and I talking shop as part of our new Forever Alone Filmmaking Podcast Get episode 1 here We talk about making our films alone, animation and the like... so might be of interest to independent filmmakers/animators and artists... Please feel free to post this or share it where ever you like... Pre-order the Blu-ray to Jimmy ScreamerClauz's WHERE THE DEAD GO TO DIE 

BERSERK FAN-GASM!!!!

The first 10 minutes of the new BERSERK FILM! I own all 35 books and re-read them constantly so I'm beyond excited for the new films!!! ^_^

Seems I'm not alone in my hatred for Hollywood

I'd like to attend this conference in the future as I've known what damage Hollywood has been doing to the world over the years... That's why if YOU have a different perspective than what Hollywood promotes and perpetuates you've got to get YOUR FILMS OUT THERE! If you want to make the same type of crap that Hollywood makes..... go eat a dick! Several in fact ^_^ We need NEW STORIES... NEW PERPECTIVES.... NEW VOICES... who know suP with the game Hollywood has been running WHO DON'T BOW TO THE SAME MASTERS and DO NOT PERPETUATE THEIR BULLSHIT!