I'm sufficiently teased.

How much more footage do you have ready?
What stage of development/production are you in?
Do you have a release date in mind?

Thanks!

israeliag said:

---

I'm sufficiently teased.

---

For a legitimate, no smart ass comment, this perfectly sums up my reaction. Not only would I watch more, I want to watch more.

israeliag said:

---

How much more footage do you have ready?
What stage of development/production are you in?
Do you have a release date in mind?

Thanks!

---

You bet, happy to share and love giving insight into the process.

So we don't have any more footage ready to go at this point because there's several stages to that. Starts with building the sets and characters, then layout (figuring out the cameras and staging) and texturing (making the surface of things look like more than gray boxes), then animation, lighting, rendering, and effects/post (VFX, sound effects, and score, the score on this was written for the teaser).

The story is written, we have everything designed for the entire short, and we're currently finalizing layout We have the entire first set modeled and textured, and we have large portions of the second and third sets modeled but not yet textured. We've got our main character just about finaled but are in various stages of development on others. We're planning to start animation in a few weeks.

The entire short will be about 6 minutes, and we're currently debating on breaking it up into two chapters to be released when they're done. We'll definitely have Chapter 1 done for this same event next year (CTN Animation Expo) and will show there, and it's possible we'll have the full short done at that point.

Duncan Idaho said:

---

israeliag said:

---

I'm sufficiently teased.

---

For a legitimate, no smart ass comment, this perfectly sums up my reaction. Not only would I watch more, I want to watch more.

---

Appreciate it. Highlight of my weekend was showing it to two senior animators at ILM and having them respond with "Show us more...we want to see more".

My co-director responded with "Now you know how you feel when you show us a Star Wars teaser."

Awesome. Sounds promising. Let me know if you need a focus group.

So awesome!

I know you're making a short, but I want to play the game version.

Looks great!

Thanks! And we have absolutely talked about what a cool game world this would be

So cool man! Love seeing people on this board with interesting projects. Wishing you the best!

Dude, that looks awesome! Super cool. Can't wait to see the whole thing.

Let us know when you get the invite to do Love Death + Robots Season 3

Wow, that's incredible. Sounds like a true passion project for all involved.

It's pretty cool how we started off having to pay people (not much) to work on the project, and we now have people working at well known studios asking to help out.

How'd you learn to animate....school, online...?

I had dabbled in 3D before (my day job is graphic and UX design) and took courses with some online programs to learn character animation. There's a few well know digital schools that have really high quality instructors, and while it's not cheap it's far less expensive than CalArts or the other big art schools.

I did about 2 1/2 years with one program where I took courses in both feature and game animation and had instructors from Dreamworks, Disney, Bungie, Blizzard, and EA among others, and then did another course with a Disney animator after that. On this project I haven't done a ton of animation but I'm writing and directing as well as handling all the motion graphics/UI as well as design of signage and other 2D needs.

My co-writer/director went to the same online program I did as well as taking a few other courses, and he's now a layout/pre vis animator for a big VFX studio. He's worked on WandaVision, Stargirl (DC show), and several other huge projects that have been delayed.

Also, if anyone is curious to see more or follow along, we post primarily on Instagram at http://instagram.com/keedtv/ (same Twitter handle as well).

Man, that's great. Seems like it would be such a fun world to learn and work in.

Once the short is done, you should have a great calling card that will surely open up even more opportunities.

That's the hope, though shorts can be hit or miss so we'll see what happens. The demand for animated content on so many different streaming platforms is promising though.

Thanks, my daughter is really interested in 2D animation and I was curious what course people take to become a pro.

She thinks she can just learn via videos or whatnot...but I think some classes/courses would at least provide some structure to actually have deadlines.

Any recommendations online school wise?

2D is a bit of a different beast, the principles are the same but there aren't many places that teach 2D specifically and there's a lot of nuance. The main program I went to (iAnimate.net) was actually created by an animator who started off as a 2D animator and still does planning for his shots in 2D, I know there were a few people that have done some of the program in 2D rather than 3D but that would be a bit of an uphill battle.

Outside of colleges with traditional animation programs, Animation Mentor has a 2D intro course that I'm not familiar with but their 3D program was the pioneer in the industry (looks like they have an age requirement though). I know that CG Spectrum has a 2D intro course as well as a longer program, I haven't taken any courses with them but they've got some high quality mentors teaching their courses. Aaron Blais, who's an old school Disney guy, also has a ton of drawing and 2D animation courses you can purchase but those I think those are all just go at your own pace (FYI they go on sale a lot).

Feel free to shoot me an email at chrisfig at gmail, happy to help point y'all in the right direction.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

You bet, glad to help!

Any advice on a tablet...I thought her Huion would work with toonboom, but it doesn't, not sure why some YouTube animators claim that it does. A similar quality Wacom is pretty pricey

Yeah, the Wacoms get pricey for sure.

I'm not super familiar with the different options there, but this guy does a ton of reviews of budget tablets that might helpful. You might try looking up some ToonBoom people on Twitter or YouTube and see what they're using as well.