Meow.

If you can't tell what's going on, don't worry, you will one day...

Don't hold your breath...

DUN DUN DUN...

... NOT DONE.

PS: This might be the hardest thing I've ever animated ever. Ever. This shit will fucking kill me.

Holy mother of cunt...

... looks like I've hit a snag. When uploading the current videos, I was always curious as to why they so quickly went over the Vimeo upload limit. Today I went back and edited some old shots, exported them the exact same way that I exported them originally, only now the file size will end up at about 4GBs instead of around 10MBs like it used to. I have no idea what in the blue blazing fuck is going on. I've tried to figure out the solution, only to realize there is no solution; because I'm not doing anything differently to what I've always been doing.

This is going to change things. I know there's only 2 of you that even know this page exists so it may not matter a whole lot, however I might stop uploading new footage to Vimeo. If I can't figure this fucking problem out I may remove what footage is on Vimeo entirely. The next time you'll see anything new is once it's complete. I'll probably still post screen shots and progress pictures, but that'll be about it. Oh, and probably a rant or something about me bitching and being pessimistic.

Yup.

New footage...

... at the end of the video.

The rate of the goggled Soldiers movements irk me so much, yet I can't be fucked fixing it because it'd mean I'd have to add more to the female Soldier's reaction - meaning that I'd have to stay working on that scene which I've worked on since February/March. Ah well, the shot after that will be the tail end of the goggled Soldiers death, and the introduction of the T-800, so hopefully that'd flesh out the scene a little.

Blam?

I think I may need more ram, because my computer is grunting and moaning as I abuse it's memory trying to work on this thing. Bloody hell.


/sexualfanficwithmycomputer

Woikin' on it...

This'll give you somewhat of an idea of how I draw every single frame. Every single one.

UGH...

First time ever drawing and animating explosions, but I'm getting there...

50%

Here's about a year and one month of work. Not sure if it really shows. I've split it in two parts because Vimeo has an upload limit of 500 MBs. The first part is pretty much complete (sans audio), whereas the second part has a ways to go.

Not much...

... Just started the Aerial HK (Hunter Killer). Needs more shine me thinks...

... and redrew the lightning bolt from an earlier scene.

Click to Enlarge

... So...

It's been a year since I started this project. I've had a few people ask me when this is going to get finished, which I'm flattered by, but it's not the point of what I'm doing here.

A few years back when I was in Graphic Design School I never felt like I really fit in. To be dead honest, I found no interest in the subjects that were given. I was there for a student loan, so I could spend it on video games, movies and action figures (the girls love me). Due to the meticulous and tediousness of the medium, when Animation came along during my second year I wasn't going to take it seriously. Lo and behold, animating was actually easier than I thought. I was use to sitting in front of a computer and moving my hands, so spending a lot of time smoothening out fluid movement and anticipation made several hours feel like a breeze.

By the time I had graduated I wasn't ready to move onto a job like everybody else who seems to thrust themselves into immediately. I still had a lot to learn in terms of animating. My degree project was not good enough. Sure, I could go get a job designing layouts for web pages and business reports... but who would want to compensate for that...

I tried going for another school year after being told that doing post-graduate meant no classes other than for thesis writing and our thesis project. They were wrong. We had a bunch of classes. Fast forward to six months and we still hadn't started either one, we had spent it all just sitting around talking about this shit. You know what they say, 'show don't tell', and I had nothing to convince anybody that my animation needed the utmost initiative and attention above anyone and anything else.

So I left.

Realizing that Batman versus The Terminator was just some geekboy fantasy, I dropped it. I thought maybe instead I should just make a portfolio of illustrations, and work a job on the side. So I went to Work & Income and got a job stuffing pillows with humus (the kind that soaks up petrol, ala the gulf of mexico). Each night I'd come home with my mind and body immobile. I didn't give a fuck about reaching my goals. You can't when creativity is a bullshit, petty concept in comparison to manual labor. The people there scared me. Deadbeat elders who were god damned miserable and boring as hell. The people who were my age could only talk about 'pussy', call women 'sluts', and feel insecure enough to continuously talk about all the times they got drunk and laid. All high self image and low achievement with nothing to prove. I'm not impressed.

I left after two days, and was frightened into resurrecting Batman versus The Terminator. My father told me that somebody at his work was offering me a job to lift shit somewhere or something (I'm extraordinarily flattered by people who think I'm Muscle Man 5000... but I'm as thin and weak as a twig - so stop fucking offering me jobs where I'm yelled at to lift heavy solid objects!), but I declined and mentioned this project. He scowled, "... well, it's your decision".

Aaaand it's been my decision ever since.

So to sum up;

- I've never left home.

- Have talked to hardly anybody anymore.

- Am making no money.

- Don't go out.

- Two dogs dead.

- Two new dogs.

- Haven't shaved or had a haircut.

- Only halfway through this.

The more I get better at animating the more ambitious I become and in-turn - more work. So those who bitch and cry about how there needs to be a faster way to animate, I'll say this; Stop using animating programs that work on a timeline (Flash). Learn to animate with frames, that way your animation won't look so adequate. Try to draw an entire environment, and animate that environment frame-by-frame. Do what I'm doing, and then try and conduct how I should go about things. I dare you. I'm not taking shortcuts because I want to actually teach myself the fundamentals. How I'm animating is essentially traditional animation but drawn entirely with a mouse and keyboard. Complain to me once it's actually finished, how about that?

If stuff like this and this (which actually have budgets, a studio and manpower) can get attention, then I don't see why mine can't.

I'll be brutally honest, though. I don't think mine will get much, if any. I've uploaded stuff in the past before, and nobody gave a shit about them so I don't see why they're all of a sudden going to with this.

*sigh*

Here I go again, talking to myself.

PS: A buddy I've known online for a few years, whom I had no idea was a musician, has made the soundtrack for the project. Check'em out via the playlist to the left of this page, tracks 4 through 12.

May as well give an update... UPDATED: May 14, 2011

The shot is still incomplete; there's no soldiers, no terminators, no falling debris - just animating walls. Still needs fixing, too. A few of the walls kinda float toward us instead of smoothly coming closer. Everything is animating individually, piece by piece, wall by wall. I could have just had everything on different plains, but I wanted to give a subtle third-dimensionality to the environment. Like I said, still needs fixing.

The idea for the scene is that the camera is actually going to follow the three soldiers as they make their way to where this (currently incomplete, there's more to go) shot finishes; against the walls. One of the soldiers (the one wearing the goggles) will take a peak around the corner and gets his head blown off from a plasma blast. Spot light moves against the building across from us, and then a T-800 Terminator walks into shot, looks around for a second them keeps moving to the left, with an HK-Tank following behind with turrets turning.

I'll leave the description at that for now. Can't ruin the fun.

In Progress...

Click to enlarge.

A Little Extra...

... meh.

It's an old drawing and the scan came out looking rather rough, so I'm a tad self conscious putting it up. Because I don't think I'll be uploading any video work (read previous post), I thought maybe I'll put scans up of process work over time.

The idea behind this design is that it's more of a cannibalization of the Batsuit. With Wayne Manor being a front for his true residence, the Bat Cave; Bruce was sheltered by the nuclear strike, but the roof of the cave collapsed and destroyed the majority of his work and equipment. An incomplete vest, which was originally created for bomb blast protection, as well as a refitted Batmobile built to act more as a propulsion device rather than a vehicle, were all that remained.

Tearing scrap iron like skin from the hide of the ashen wasteland, and scavenging dead soldiers for their tools and fatigues, not only does Bruce rebuild his sword and shield, but he rebuilds a dead memory.

A legend is naught without man to tell it. He has no enemies, nor friends. His landscape belongs to the iron demons who roam the earth without a mental state, but an agenda. No criminals to strike fear into, to put in their place. Humanity is a dying specie, it has met it's match. The next evolution of man is machine.

But there is static on a frequency over the radio. Flesh and blood is rising up, to the west; they too have an agenda.

Get the engine ready, it's time to suit up.

Looks like there's problems...

I've been using Vimeo thus far to showcase my work, but the upload limit is 500mbs, and now my video has gone over that (515mb) and it's only going to go beyond.

I tried uploading what I've done thus far to Youtube, but quickly removed once doing so because, for whatever reason, my 3200 x 1600 pixel video is taken down to a mere 640 x 304.

So... yup. Not sure if I'm going to put this thing online when (if) it's finished; when you've spent all your time since june/july working on some project nobody could give a shit about, it doesn't exactly help that the details aren't accentuated on the first impression.

Ohwell, here's a new screencap.