I’ve been working on the “special project” most of the week. It was killing me. I was handed some of THE most complicated scenes in the project. They were technical nightmares. To make matters worse, I had to make Quicktime movies of the scenes to show to the director, but the scenes where so complicated that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the program to put all the pieces of the scene together to be able to make movies out of them. On top of that, BECAUSE I couldn’t put all the elements together to test out my scenes, I didn’t even know if the pieces of the scenes where working together as intended. So even after I turned the scenes in, I wasn’t sure how good a job I did. It was nerve racking.
I was stressed and worried most of the week, including the weekend. I haven’t worked so hard on the show since I boarded show 500. I’m a bit wiped out, and a bit brain dead.
BOARD GAMES/FAMILY
My kids like playing board games. I don’t know why…OKAY maybe I do. Anyway, they often ask to play a board game. Sometimes they ask me to play, and I do, but most of the time I don’t. If I don’t, it’s because I’ve got some other thing I need to do at the time they ask.
I enjoy spending time with my kids playing a board game, but I’ve found that I don’t have FUN playing board games with my kids. I enjoy being with them but the playing is often unsatisfying. The reason for this, is because I usually can’t be very competitive playing board games with my kids. I can’t “do my best” in the games we play. I can’t “play to win”. I can only, “play for the sake of playing”. I always have to hold back and help the kids learn and generally, try to help them have fun. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s really not the reason I like playing board games. I like the challenge, the thinking, the back and forth between everyone at the table. None of which I get when playing with my kids. I mean, they’re little kids, what do you expect?
Well, this weekend Elizabeth (5 years old) and Dante (4 years old) asked me to play a board game with them. Since I had the time, I did. We played Sorry! Sliders.
Here’s the official description of the game:
Slide, COLLIDE and SCORE TO WIN!
Grab your roller pawn and take aim – then skillfully slide it down your track onto the target board! A good slide could score big points, but watch out! An opponent’s pawn may slam your pawn onto a Sorry! space – and out of the game!
This is a new twist on the Sorry! franchise with 4 different ways to play:
Race For Home
Instant Home
Instant Sorry!
Danger Dots
I’ve played this game with them before. The first two times I played the game with them, I read the rules and tried to get the kids to play the game by them. It didn’t work out. The kids where too young. Almost two years younger than they are now. Ever since then, when I play this game with them, we just ignore the rules and slide the pawns around the board for no good reason other than to do it. It’s simply an activity.
Well, THIS time, if the kids wanted to play the game, I wanted to actually play the game by the rules. SO I told them I would read the rules and we would follow them. I read them, and explained the rules to the kids. They understood what I was telling them and we began to play. WE HAD A BLAST. The kids followed the rules and it was great. Not only that but I didn’t hold back (much). I was truly trying to win the game. The game is of such a chaotic nature though, that it could be anyone’s game.
The final tally after playing three games was:
Elizabeth won 2 games
Dante won 1 game
I won, no games.
I lost every game. That was awesome. I lost and I was trying to win. I had so much fun. The kids had so much fun. It was great. We cheered and laughed and just had a good time. And the kids understood the rules and played by them. That was great. I hope this is a taste of things to come. I hope we can find another game in the collection that we can do the same with.
VIDEOS
Wanna watch 100 episodes of THE SIMPSONS all at once?
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Week two of three revising episode 21’s Act 1 board. I’m so glad I have another week left to finish this board up. The revisions are pretty heavy. I’ve got everything roughed out, it’s just a matter of cleaning everything up for the layout crew to follow.
Meanwhile, in other news, that special project I was working on last week and the week before has gotten approval by some people high up. It’s one step closer to actually being produced. There’s one more step left to get through so it could get green lit. It would be nice if it happens.
ART/WRITING
After a two week break, I finally got back to working on my film. Here’s what I did:
It was good to get back to it again, but I’m SO tired of working on it. I just want this part of the process to be DONE. I took a look at what I still had to thumbnail, and it was a TON. I had two really big fight scenes to do. Too much, far too much. I’ve been questioning myself from the start if all the fighting is really getting me anything. I’m still not sure but I’m sure as heck cutting some it as of right now.
I took a look at what I had written in my Treatment and simply cut two of the fight scenes right out of the film. They will be replaced by one much smaller fight which will, hopefully, have the same key information in it in much less time.
The info I need to convey will be that the demons that give the Sorcerers their power manifests visually when they tax their power, and that Rob’s hammer, knocks the demon out of Sorcerers. That’s what I need to say. As long as that info is there, the rest of the fight can be intense but short.
IF after I’m done with a rough cut of the film, I discover that it needs a longer fight, I’ll see about incorporating some of the original ideas. Otherwise, I will be happy with doing far less work.
Below is the part of my treatment that is now getting cut, in case you were wondering what it would have been like:
Rob is on his knee exhausted. The Female Sorcerer, though exhausted and bruised, sees this as an opportunity. She takes out her last blade. Sprinkles blood on it and throws it. Rob looks up just as she does it. He moves his hammer in the way to block it. The Sorceress splits her hands apart away from each other and the blade splits into two blades. They go around the hammer and stab Rob sinking into his shoulders. As if they were syringes, the blades suck Rob’s blood glowing red. The Sorceress feels the blades grow powerful with the blood and receives new strength from them. The demon that gives her power, manifest around her visibly.
Rob goes to take out the blades but they pull themselves out. The blades attack again and split into four blades when they do. Rob manages to block some but some get through and stab him taking blood. Those that do, multiply as well. Rob runs toward the Sorceress while hitting blades away. He knows, once she’s knocked out, the blades will stop. As he approaches, she throws Blinding Dust from a small cylinder. The dust hits home and blinds Rob. The blades (which are many now) fly up in the air with a gesture from the sorceress and then, with another gestured, rain down on Rob.
Rob reacts as best he could and spins his hammer as fast as he can. The blades bounce of like an umbrella.
As He does this, the Sorceress uses his temporary distraction to try and stab him in the back.
The Raven sees this and squawks out a warning. Rob quickly turns and strikes at the Sorceress. The hammer hits her square on the chest. The manifestation of the demon inside her gets knocked out of her as if IT, not the Sorceress was hit by the blow. It leaves the Sorceress’ body as the Sorceress cries in pain and passes out. The demon seems to evaporate in a silent scream.
A cry from the Other Male Sorcerer, makes Rob turn.The Other Male Sorcerer had just managed to recover, only to see the Sorceress go down.As far as he’s concerned, Rob has gone too far. He knows what Rob has just done to the woman he loves and he will pay and suffer for it. Exhausted as he is, he takes out a vile, opens it, puts some blood in it with an incantation and throws it on the ground. He then pours power out and a mist begins to raise around Rob and himself. The demon that gives him his power physically manifest around him. His fingers grow into talons.
Rob readies himself. He can’t see where his enemy is going to attack from. Suddenly claws flash out of the mist. Rob dodges and blocks the attack. The claws hit a bush behind Rob. It instantly dries up and rots away. The attacks stop. Rob realizes that if the claws hit him, he’s going to die.Seconds later, the attack begins anew, only this time, it seems like the claws are coming from more directions. It’s all Rob can do to stop the attack. Just as suddenly as it began, the attack stops. Rob doesn’t feel so good.The Sorcerer’s voice comes from the mist and needles Rob if he’s feeling okay. Then he informs Rob the mist is rotting his senses and his mind.Looking into the mist, Rob sees the enormous silhouette of the Sorcerer. As if the mist is giving him power. It slips into the mist and he gets attacked by a barrage of claws. It’s all Rob can do not to get touched by them. He manages to just barely survive the attack when it suddenly stops. He can barely stand. He staggers back, hoping to hit a wall. He does. At least with a wall behind him, he knows there won’t be any attacks from behind.The Sorcerer laughs at him and tells him mocking that it won’t help him. He imparts to Rob that not even his Raven can help him out of this.
Rob’s vision is blurring and he’s having trouble thinking. Still, he begins to spin the hammer before him, faster and faster until the mist begins to rustle and move away.
Realizing what’s going on, the Sorcerer decides he needs to finish things off. The Claws come out in all directions at Rob. Rob won’t last without help. He hopes he managed to clear enough mist for his Raven to be able to see him. The Raven flying overhead had been scanning desperately for Rob. He sees the gap he caused and sees the Sorcerer attacking. He swoops down into the mist and attacks The Sorcerer.
Distracted by the bird, the claws stop for a moment. Rob recovers just long enough to hear his bird squawking. He runs in the direction of the sound. The sorcerer realizes he’s coming and attacks but it’s too late. Rob swing the hammer and hits the Sorcerer in the face. The manifestation of the demon that gave the Sorcerer his power reacts as if IT was hit in the face. The demon flies out of the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer screams in pain. The demon evaporates in a silent scream as the Sorcerer falls to the ground. The mist dissipates and goes away. His body suddenly seems to deflate like a balloon and becomes scrawny and weak. The hair covering his face had been knocked out of the way revealing a shriveled ugly face. The other Male Sorcerer sits up, looks at himself, looks at his hands and cries out that he has lost his powers and then begins to sob.
Do you see what I mean about this being a lot of fighting?
VIDEOS/WRITING
Speaking of story and writing, here’s a TED Talks with Pixar writer/director Andrew Staton who also directed the new movie JOHN CARTER, talking about writing by telling us the story of his career in reverse:
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I finished my work early last week and was put on a special project that may or may not see the light of day. I worked on it all of Friday and all of Monday. I was also put on the new episode I’m going to be working this week. Show 21. I was assigned Act 1 which I began on Tuesday. Then, about midday Tuesday, I had to do a little bit more on the special project before I was able to continue on the Act.
This would really be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that they’re giving us three weeks instead of two to finish our work on this episode, so I’ve still got time to do my work. I hope I can make the most of the time.
It would also be nice to have that special project see the light of day so I can talk about it at some point.
ART/BOOKS
My wife’s book, THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST, has a new cover:
Why the change?
Because the original cover had a swastika on it. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that anything with the image of a swastika is illegal in some countries in Europe. This meant that the book didn’t show up in some European sites, and it would be illegal to buy it. So we changed the cover so it was much more internationally friendly.
How do I feel about this after spending so long on the original? I’m alright with it. Enough time has passed that I’m not really bothered by the change. I got just as into creating this cover, as I did the last one. I also made sure that the symbol on the cover had to do with the themes and plot elements in the book. The symbol is actually three alchemical symbols combined.
The center most symbol, the one the looks like a swirly cross, is one, of many, alchemical symbols for silver. Historically, silver has been used by civilizations for it’s germ fighting properties. I put it on the cover because one of the plots in the story is about fighting off an alchemical disease.
The curved symbol with the circles on the end, is one, of many, alchemical symbols for sublimation. Which Alesha suggested because the main character does it so much. I thought it would be appropriate since it’s so unique to alchemists.
Finally, the big “x” looking symbol, is one, of many, symbols for time. This is there because of something that happens in the story that deals with time. But I can’t say exactly what it is because it would be a big spoiler. So read the book and find out.
To start reading the first five chapter for free, CLICK HERE.
The $2.99 Kindle copy of the book:
or…
The hard copy of the book:
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Slightly less hectic work week this week. I’m trying to finish up both Act 1 and Act 3 this week. I would have been done with Act 1 last week but Tuesday of this week, we got revisions on the revisions. I had to go back and adjust what I’d finished. Turns out this show is too long and there need to be things cut from it.
Act least the rewrites on Act 3 are lite.
MY WEEK
I’m still trying to recover from two weeks ago. It tends to directly effect my creativity outside the work place. I’ve found I need a longer break from my personal project, just to get the energy back to really WANT to get back to it. I’m working on a small project for my wife right now. I hope to get it done fast. I’m already almost done with it.
I think the break will do me good though.
Whenever work gets me stress out, I tend to alleviate the stress with games. My mind just automatically goes there. So here’s the result…
APPS/BOARD GAMES
I love playing board games but I don’t often get to play them. Mostly because I just don’t have the time or the people around to play them with.
Well, the next best thing is actually playing digital versions of board games on my iPod Touch. I can play them on my own time and I don’t have to have anyone around to play them with. It’s not as fun this way but I take what I can get. Although there are plenty of board game apps now, that allow you to play asynchronously against other people. Which greatly increases the social aspect of playing theses games.
That said, I thought I’d write up a list of my top 10 board game apps. ALL of these game have physical board game counter parts. So if you like the app, you might really like the actual board games.
First though, here’s the honorable mention. Game that didn’t make my top ten but they’re worth trying out anyway:
Dominion is THE game that created it’s own genre, the “deck building game”. This is a really fun game.
The object of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game. You do this by buying card from the center, which eventually become part of your deck. In turn these cards will allow you to do more interesting things in your turn that may make your deck better so you can have more points at the end of the game.
Why didn’t it make the list?
The interface and A.I. isn’t all that good and it can be downright confusing. But it’s free so it might still be worth a download if you don’t mind fighting through the lousy interface. Give it a try and find out why Dominion is such an incredible game.
If you’ve seen the second PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie, you’ve seen this game played. It’s one of the funnest games to play with friends and family. That said, if you want to try out how it plays and don’t have any friends around, this is a good place to start.
The object of the game is to be the last player left. You do this by rolling dice hidden from everyone else and betting on how many dice of a certain number is rolled by everyone on the table (which are also hidden) without going over. Everyone takes turns raising the bid until someone thinks the bid is too high by calling out “Liar!”. Everyone reveals the dice they rolled. If the dice show the bid was lower or equal what the dice show, the accuser losses a die from his hand, but if the accused has bid OVER the dice on the table, then THEY lose a die.
Why didn’t it make the list?
This game is no where near as fun to play digitally. You really need to play this with real people. But again, just like Dominion, it’s free, so why not.
COST: $0.99
Hive is an abstract game, similar to Chess, only the pieces move in a way that resembles bugs. The game doesn’t have a board. As you place down pieces a board of sorts is created by the way the pieces are touching each other. The object of the game is to surround you’re opponent’s Queen Bee.
It’s a decent version of the board game. I’d rather play the real deal but this is a good alternative. As you improve, you get more difficult modes.
Unfortunately, as of the time of this writing the game is…well…a bit buggy. As in, the code is buggy…well you know what I mean. It needs a few updates.
I tend to like dice games. This one is a fun one. This game is a “dice dueling game”. The object of the game is to capture you’re opponents dice. You pick a character who has certain types of dice that have different sides and affects. You then roll and depending on the outcome, you decide what dice you want to capture from you opponent. It’s a fast game and it has enough decisions to make it much more than a luckfest.
The best part of the app is that it has a pass and play mode. I found it’s best to play the game this way. That said, the A.I. gives you a good challenge so it’s a fun game played this way as well.
Okay now, with Kingsburg, we’re getting into a much heavier game. This one take about 20 to 30 minutes to play. The point of Kingsburg is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game. A game lasts about 16 turns and what you generally do each turn is roll dice in order to get the help of a specific person which will give you a special benefit. The sum of all or some of the dice will tell you which person you can choose to get help from. The “help” can be in attaining resources to build special buildings for your town, increase your military might, peek to see who will raid the town in winter, or buy special effect that will help you manipulate your dice rolls. The buildings give you special abilities or protection from attack, as well as victory points. Since each round of turns is one year with four seasons, at the end of winter, there is an attack. Everyone rolls a die and adds their defenses to it. If it roll over the raider’s attack number, you fend them off. If you don’t, you lose a building. At the end of 4 rounds of 4 seasons, the person who has gotten the most victory points wins.
This is a fun game. It’s a little difficult to get used to because the actual game board is so big, it couldn’t all be fit in the iPhone/iPod Touch screen. This means you have to switch screens a lot to really be able to decide what to do. Once you get past that, it plays great. It even has a pass and play option but no online option.
The only reason I don’t play this more, is because it takes so long to play.
One of THE best board game strategy games out for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The object of the game is to reduce your opponent’s base to zero points. You do this by placing hexagonal tiles on the board with programmed special abilities. Every turn you may put down, 1, 2 or no tiles down and then your opponents may do the same. At some point, either when the whole board has tiles on it and therefore no one can put a tile down, or when someone puts don’t a “combat” tile down, all the tiles are activated and you see how the battle plays out, based on each tile’s special abilities and turn order.
If the bases are still there after combat ends, you continue putting tiles down as before.
The game can be played with up to 4 people and there are 4 different armies to choose from.
You can play asynchronously online or pass and play.
This is a fantastic game and it’s tough to beat the computer in higher difficulty levels.
Wanna play a Civ game that lasts about 10 minutes? This is your game.
The point of the game is to get the most points by the end of the game. You do this by rolling special dice, “Yahtzee style”. In other words, you roll some dice, and you chose what to keep and what to re-roll. The dice faces have food, workers, money, jars and skulls. Workers can be used to build wonders or build up your town so that you may roll more dice each turn. Food allows you to feed your workers so you don’t lose points each turn. Jars allow you to build up resources that you can use to get special civics. The civics give you victory points and provide you with some sort of special ability or benefit, like protection from famine. Coins supplement your resources when buying civics, but if you don’t use them on the turn you roll them, they go away. Skulls are bad, they do bad things when you roll them (like cause famine) and they can’t be rerolled once you roll them.
For a game that shares a mechanism with Yahtzee, this game manages successfully NOT feel like Yahtzee and totally feels like a Civ game. I really like this game, it’s simple but deep. You can play it solo and try to beat your own score, or better yet, you can play pass and play. But it has no online play.
Now we get to one of the “modern classic” board games. Ticket to Ride Pocket is a very good implementation of it’s board game counter part.
Once again, the object of the game is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game. You do this by connecting cities on the board by placing train pieces, but you can only do so if you have the correct number of matching colored cards. At the start of the game, you chose between getting 1 to 3 destination tickets which you must complete by the end of the game. Doing so gives you the points written on the tickets, failing makes you get negative points written on the ticket.
For a more in depth overview of the Ticket to Ride games, I suggest you read, my Ticket to Ride article HERE.
For an article on Ticket to Ride Pocket, CLICK HERE.
Being aware of who is placing things where is key. Deciding when to place your trains and when to pick cards lends a good tension to the game. I’ve found the AI is really tough to beat, which I think is good.
This version of the game supports, solo games, pass and play, and online games. The interface is simple and the tutorial is very good. Expansions are also available to purchase so you can change the game up a bit. I recommend it.
The people that haven’t heard of Settler of Catan is slowly shrinking. Here’s yet another way people can become aware of this fun little game.
The way I see it, Settler is a “Civ lite” game. The object of the game is to be the first to get 12 points. You do this by building your civilization, or colonies, as best you can with the resources you have on hand, and by trading wisely with those civilizations around you.
For a more in depth view of Settler of Catan, I wrote an article comparing it to Monopoly HERE.
I think the best part of playing this version is the Campaign modes with unique winning conditions. Not only that but you can also buy expansions that change the game up. But even if you don’t get those, the game is different every time because of the nature of the games’ variable board.
The iPhone/iPod Touch version allows you to zoom in and out of the board so you can place things the way you want, and the interface is very intuitive. There’s a hot seat mode, but no online mode. Still, it gives a solo player plenty of options and unique ways to play. Great game.
Why is this game my number 3? Because I play it quite a lot. This is ALMOST a brainless game (ha, ha brainless…I is funny). Seriously though, this is a fun quick game. It’s a dice rolling game where the object is to be the person to collect 13 brains or more. Once someone collects 13 brains, the other players try to get more, if they fail the person with 13 brains wins.
On your turn you roll the dice, and you see what you get. If you roll brains, you keep them. If you roll foot steps, it’s neither positive or negative, they don’t do anything. If you roll the explosion, that means you got shotgunned. You can then decide to continue to roll, or stop and keep your score. If you choose to roll again, you have the opportunity to get more brains, BUT at any point during your rolling, if you accumulate three shotguns, you lose your points for this turn. What makes this game just a tad thinky, is the color of the dice. Green dice have only one shotgun while the red ones have the most and the yellow ones are somewhere in between. Depending on how many brains you have, how many shotguns you have and the probability of the dice you need to roll, you make up your mind as to whether you should continue to roll or not.
It’s a fun little diversion of a game that you can play in minutes. It’s also very silly. Oh, and it’s FREE! Well, it is if you plan to play it solo. If you plan to play it pass and play, then you can spend $.99 for that option. I had so much fun playing the game solo that when given the opportunity to play with my brother, I bought the option. I haven’t regretted it. It’s so fun to play this game with others.
For the same reason I like Zombie Dice above, I like this game too. It’s free. It’s fun. I like it. I play it a TON and this version has a great interface. It let’s you play against computer opponents from the start and it’s not just a “beat your best score”, solo game.
This game is considered, by many, the best iPhone/iPod Touch board game port out there. I bought the game mostly from the hype. I played it and didn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about.
This is a “deck building game” like Dominion above, (I think it was the 3rd game of it’s kind on the market) only much more random. The goal of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game. You do this by buying cards (which give you points) from six random cards that are placed into the center row. These cards give you special abilities once they show up in your deck after they get shuffled into it.
You can also “fight” and destroy monsters that show up in the center row. When you do this, they get banished into the discard pile. Many monster, once you destroy them, give you a special one shot ability.
So I played it and thought it was a bit too random. I didn’t really get it. The game was easy to beat and it didn’t seem like it had many decisions. THEN I played it four player with each AI opponent at it’s highest difficulty setting. I couldn’t win the game. The AI consistently beat me. WHY?!
Turns out the game has all kinds of depth I didn’t realize it had. I started playing this game like crazy. Trying to at least win ONE game. Many many close games later, many many strategies later, and I finally did. That doesn’t really mean I “solved” the game. I still lose more games than I win, but at least now I know ONE way to play the game that can give me victory.
Like Poker, it has that random unpredictability to it that makes it a new experience every game but, like Poker, the game pays off best when you play what cards you have in the best way you can.
This game can be played pass and play as well as asynchronously online.
Alright, that’s it for me. I have nine other board game apps in my iPod Touch I didn’t write about. Perhaps I will some other time. This list was my Top Ten though, and I’m sure as time goes by, it will change.
If you download any of these games or own them already, let me know what you think of them. Or better yet, let me know so we can play together. Bye.
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Onto show 20 this week. Count down to the end of the season for me. There’s only two more show to work on and the season ends. I’m hoping I can get put on a show as a layout artist or a Story reel artist once I’m done with boards. That way, I don’t go on hiatus.
In the meantime, I’ve got Acts 1 and 3 of show 20 to worry about.
ART
I’m taking a break from thumbnailing my script this week. I just haven’t had the time or energy. I’ve been filling a little drained. I think last weeks big work load did it. So instead here are some sketches from my sketchbook of one of my favorite writers ever, G.K. Chesterton, done with a red color pencil under drawing, Pentel brush pen, colored with Copic grey and black markers and a white Prismacolor pencil for the highlights:
“THE Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman. But the Materialist’s world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The Materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.” ~GKC: ‘Orthodoxy.’
“TWICE in my life has an editor told me in so many words that he dared not print what I had written, because it would offend the advertizers in his paper. The presence of such pressure exists everywhere in a more silent and subtle form. But I have a great respect for the honesty of this particular editor; for it was evidently as near to complete honesty as the editor of an important weekly magazine could possibly go. He told the truth about the falsehood he had to tell.” ~GKC: ‘The Outline of Sanity.’
“WHEN learned men begin to use their reason, then I generally discover that they haven’t got any.” ~GKC: ‘Illustrated London News,’ November 7, 1908.
VIDEOS
The video below is this years Oscar winner for the Best Animated Short Category. It’s beautiful. I noticed that the acting on the man is very much in line with the acting you would see Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin do in their silent movies, even down to the sped up looking timing.
It’s also worth noting that there isn’t any dialogue at all in this movie, which really shows how animation is not tide to any voice acting. If you find this film moving, it’s not because of anything a film actor has but rather, it’s all do to how good an actor the ANIMATOR is and how well the story was told. Check it out:
The Simpsons party last week really messed me up for the rest of the week. I spent most of last week recovering from lack of sleep. I end up not finishing my assignment last week but I finished it this Tuesday. This put me behind on starting my next assignment. Also, Monday we got the day off. Which is great, except that my schedule doesn’t change to reflect the day off, so this basically means, I’ve lost a day of work.
Fortunately, the other board revisionist I work with got done with his assignment early and helped me finish mine. Overall, it’s been a pretty stressful week.
MY WEEK
Monday was my birthday. I’m 37. It was also President’s Day and I got the day off work. I spent three days celebrating my birthday. Saturday, my parents took the kids out because Alesha had planned to have her brother come over and play some board games with us but he canceled at the last minute. Alesha and I played a few games of Quarriors anyway. We also watched a few movies and generally relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. It was nice. She made me a cake too, and when my parents brought the kids back, we had some.
On Sunday, my mom had us over to celebrate my birthday over at her house. My cousin’s family came over too and I spent the time relaxing and watching Spider-Man cartoons on Netflix streaming. MY kinda party. We also had stake, that my Compadre, Eduardo, barbequed. It was tasted amazing. Even though he cooked it with an arm in a sling. I was very grateful.
As a present, my mom reserved a copy of the Game of Thrones tv show on DVD for me and my cousin’s family game me a gift certificate to Best Buy. I honestly didn’t expect any presents at all, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Monday, I spent with the kids relaxing. I took them out to play at the playground in the morning and I got caught up on some reading. I also managed to get away for a few hours to go to Best Buy and see what I could get with my certificate. Oddly enough, I’ve conditioned myself to be so conservative with my spending that I didn’t want to spend too much on things that I though I could buy somewhere else cheaper. I left the store with a portable speaker for my iPod so I can listen to it in the car. I found that the devices to plug the iPod to transmit through the car radio where too expensive. I have a bad sound system anyway so it didn’t make a difference where the audio would be coming from. I also left with the DUCKTALES DVD box set. It was a really good deal for 27 episodes of one of my favorite cartoon shows.
When I got home, the kids and I spent the rest of the day watching the shows. They’re SO good and the kids LOVED them.
The best part is I still have plenty of money left over for something else.
I had a good birthday.
VIDEO
This is a fantastic “Filmumentary” of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. It’s the movie BUT it’s also the commentary, film facts, deleted scenes and behind the scenes footage, all at once. It’s fantastic for anyone who is a fan of the film. Check it out:
ART
Started on page 7 of my script. This is the part where Rob has his big dramatic “come back”. To be quite honest, I don’t think I’ve done it justice. I’m not sold on the shots that I’ve come up with. Maybe I’m getting fatigued. I don’t know…well, I can always change it later if I come up with something better.
This is yet another page that has more action than the dialogue on the page shows. Here’s what I got done:
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500th episode party happened this Monday. It was a pain because it was on a Monday. That said, it was fun.
The night started early. The studio became deserted before six o’clock came around. I was here at my desk working. I was waiting for my wife to get to the studio so we could drive to the party. SHE was waiting for my parents to show up to take care of the kids. They were suppose to show up around five but didn’t quite manage to get there till it was nearly six.
She told me she was on her way, and I tried to concentrate on doing work. I did some but I mostly spent the time figuring out the best route to take to the party. Looking in google maps to see how traffic was.
I was a bit anxious because the party started at seven but I knew that by eight o’clock, they would probably start playing the show at the party for all to see. Often there’s a speech before it and I like to hear what is said. On top of that, it was the show I storyboard Act 1 and some of Act 2. I didn’t want to miss my section of the show if we got there late. By the time Alesha would arrive, it would be seven or so.
Well, Alesha got lost on the way over. She knows how to get to the studio but the freeway exit that she’s used to taking to get to the studio, has been closed for months and she doesn’t know an alternative route. I made things worse when she called me for directions, and not knowing exactly where she was, I gave her bad ones. She eventually she found her own way to the studio.
Off we went, taking the route I had chosen. It was a twenty minute drive, and luckily, no traffic. Unfortunately for us, the party took place in the Roosevelt Hotel, in Hollywood Blvd. If you know anything about Hollywood, you know that, that area is a pain in the neck to drive around. We almost immediately began complaining that the party was in Hollywood. Traffic was a mess, we weren’t paying attention to the directions on the invite, and we ended up getting lost. We drove up and down and turned around twice before we finally found the place were where suppose to park.
The clock was ticking. It was almost eight and we where going around in circle in the parking structure, looking for parking. Once we found a spot, we hurried, made our way out and crossed the street by the Mann’s Chinese theater to the Roosevelt were we got our badges to get in and some casino chips. We had missed the first five minutes of the show. We got there almost on time. I was happy enough. I got to see most of my Act. My wife didn’t really see it because she was busy taking pictures of me watching the show.
As soon as my Act was over, we went off to find food. We found it and watched the rest of the episode. It turned out great. I really liked it.
Once the episode was over we walked around and said hi to people.
There were two floors to explore. The first floor had casino tables where people could use their chips to play. The point was to get as many chips as possible, to trade them in for some prizes. Kinda like Chuck E Cheese’s but for adults.
The second floor gave a good view of the first floor, had the food, and had other game rooms. There was a small hall with a bowling alley and booths where you can sit and play Jenga. There was also a place called “The Game Room” where they had a pool table (with clear plastic 500th episode Simpsons balls), a Simpsons pinball machine, a roulette table, Skee ball, pretzels and Cotton Candy. It also had a window with a fantastic view of Hollywood blvd. My wife decided she wanted Cotton Candy and we ate it as we sat at the booth by the window looking down at Hollywood. To be quite honest, sitting there with Alesha relaxing as we watched life on Hollywood Blvd go by, made the hassle of getting to the party worth it.
We talked a for a while. My wife said she was getting tired though and thought we should go. We got up and spoke to some people and I searched for a few people I wanted to talk to but it was much to crowed to really find anyone.
It was around nine thirty around the time we left. We had only really been there a little over an hour and a half. It was a Monday after all. My daughter had school, I had work, my parents needed to go home and we had along drive ahead.
We headed for the door, saying hi to people along the way and we caught a glimpse of Kareem Abdul Jabbar playing poker in one of the tables. My wife took a picture.
We got our door prize on our way out, which was a 500th episode sweatshirt, and headed for the crosswalk to get to our parking lot. As we waited, my wife began to laugh. When I asked her why, she told me she heard someone from the street address the party goers behind us,
“You look like important people, do you have 50 cents?”
Heh…Hollywood.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS Part 2
In other news, many of The Simpsons crew where interviewed for a newpaper article conscerning our favorite contribution to the show. I was among those interviewed.
It starts off like this:
“Behold! The Simpsons‘ 500th episode is upon us! The show, titled “At Long Last Leave,” entails the Simpson family being evicted from Springfield. When Marge and Homer try to sneak back into town, they’re shunned by former neighbors and friends. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stars as himself, and Alison Krauss sings a special theme song for the landmark moment.
With 23 seasons in the making, the show is bound to bring out the super-fan in countless bloggers who will list, dissect, and debate their choices for best episode, greatest musical guest, and most hilarious Homer quotations. Here, artists, writers, and crew (past and present) talked about their favorite personal contributions to our beloved Simpsons (the show, the Movie, even the comics).
The Simpsons airs its 500th episode on Sun., Feb. 19, 8 p.m. on Fox…”
I was listening to an episode of The Break with Fr. Roderick and he mentioned a podcast called THE CATHOLIC LABORATORY. It’s a podcast that episode by episode, breaks down over a 1000 years of Catholic contributions to science. This podcast directly counters the very idea that faith and science don’t mix. Especially since many priest are the “fathers” of many of the sciences we use today. It’s amazing. I’ve been looking for something like this for a while and hadn’t even realized it. I highly recommend it.
One of the things the show made me aware of is this new version of the movie. So I’ve posted it here as well. THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER: RECOBBLED CUT.
Thanks to cutting a major chunk of redundant action, I managed to finish thumbnailing page 6 this week. This leaves me 3 1/2 pages of script to thumbnail. Which is a good feeling.
The big dillemna this week, was trying to figure out how to shoot the enormous monologue Rob has at the end of the page. Not being completely certain, I decided to simply come up with a bunch of random shots. I’ll cut them together in the rough storyboarding stage and see how they play then. There was also the problem of finding the right place to put in the shot where Rob’s Raven wakes up and finds itself next to his hammer. Again, I simply came up with the shots and I’ll edit them in where they fit best:
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I missed a day of work Monday because I had to take my car into the shop. The Check Engine light came on Sunday and there was no way of getting the car checked on that day so I had to wait till Monday. The car was in the shop all day so I missed work. I spent the rest of the week, making up the hours.
I hope to get done with Act 1 by the end of the day. Especially since I’ve also been assigned the Couch Gag.
ART
Sometimes I come into problem as I thumbnail my film which I can’t wait to write about.
Okay so as I was sketching out the thumbnail sketches for page 6 I ran into a choice. I could either continue thumbnailing the fight I had written on my treatment OR I could cut the fight in half and end it quicker. This meant that a whole section of the fight I had written was out. I put a lot of effort into figuring out how the fight would play out. It had a lot of exciting things in it. Also, by reducing the fight, would it be anticlimactic? Would I lose information that I needed to set up for later? I’m not sure.
I thought about it. I reread what I wrote. I decided to cut the fight in half.
Here’s what I thumbnailed:
Below is what I had written in my treatment. This is what I thumbnailed on my script above:
Rob grabs his hot dog, opens his mouth and is about to take a bite. Before he can get to it, he ducks under a Winged Ape’s claw as it tries to snatch his hot dog. He quickly climbs over a bench and hides behind a tree putting it in between him and the Ape. He goes for a bite but finds another Ape behind him who tries to smash him with both it’s fists. Rob moves out of the way and almost drops his hot dog. He then tries dodging a tree that was hurled at his hot dog from an Ape but the plate gets hit off of Robs hand and goes flying through the air. Rob runs after it.
The Viper Creature lunges toward it. Just as it’s about to eat it, Rob snatches it from out of the air and to safety. He lands in front of an ape who hits him hard in the stomach, sending him flying. He lands hard on the ground, almost right back where he started, in between the creatures and the Sorcerers. The plate gets knocked out of his hand when he lands, flies through the air, bounces and lands safely a few yards away, hot dog miraculously still on the plate. Rob sits up.
Here’s what was cut:
Everyone stops to look at the plate. They all turn to look at each other for a beat.
Then chaos.
Rob lunges toward the hod dog. The Female sorcerer throws blades at it only to have them disintegrated by colliding with her companion’s Entropy Orbs. He was also attempting to hit the hot dog. Enough of the blades survived to hit the plate, sending it sliding across the floor. She turns angrily at him. He shrugs apologetically.
The silver ape chases after it. The plate comes to a stop under the legs of the black zombie Ape. It reaches for it. Unable to stop it’s momentum the Silver Ape tackles into the other Ape. The hot dog and plate get knocked into a tree. The Other Male Sorcerer continues throwing orbs.
The Viper creature goes for the hot dog.
Rob runs to the tree and climbs it. the Viper lunges at him. Rob grabs the plated.
The Other Male Sorcerer throws an orb and hits the tree. It begins to disintegrated.
Rob rides the tree down and jumps off as the viper strikes. The viper gets a mouth full of tree.
Rob lands on it’s head and begins sliding down. An Aped comes out of no where and tackles him. from behind. The plate gets knocked out of Robs’s Hand. The Ape reaches for it. Rob pokes it’s eyes and kicks it away from himself. The Ape growls in pain as it lands hard on the ground. Rob goes down hard as well. He stumbles and slides to a halt. The hot dog still on it’s plated only a few feet away.
Why did I cut this second part? Well, because by the time it all ends, he’s in the same place he started. On the floor, hurt, a few feet away from the hot dog. It’s a bit redundant. What I like about the second part is that it shows off some of the Sorcerers’ powers and it make the importance of the hot dog a bit greater. But will that matter in the long run?
I figure, I have four more large fight scenes that need to happen before the end of my film. Reducing one, would speed things up. I really won’t know if my choice was right until I do a rough story reel. I suppose, if it’s needed, I can add it back in.
What do you think? Should I have cut it. Do I gain anything from putting it back?
VIDEOS
Superman is my favorite superhero and there’s a good reason why, but I’m not going into that right now.
That said, I’m not above making fun of him either. Especially since so many people have dropped the ball with him over the years. This little movie makes fun of the Death of Superman storyline that happened in the 90s. It was a pretty lame story so it’s easy to make fun of. At the time, it was difficult to find a well written comic. This parody though, really does a good job a showing HOW bad the story was. The video below, made me laugh SO much. The film stars Elden Henson, Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Morgan Krantz and many more. Check it out (WARNING: THE VIDEO CONTAINS BAD LANGUAGE):
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Back on storyboards this week. I’m working on revising Act 1 of the 18th episode of the season. I watched the storyreel Monday and it really made me laugh. I really like this show. I was really surprised when the director told me there were so many revision in Act one.
Turns out I have a lot work to do. Usually I managed to finish roughing out the fixes on a board in about two days. This one is took me three. The director told me I have this week and next week to finish working on it but I’d rather try to finish as much as I possibly can THIS week. That way I can at least help out with the revisions of Act 3 or 4, even though the director told me they had small rewrites. By tomorrow, I’ll see if I meet my goal tomorrow.
Woo Hoo! I finished thumbnailing page 5! Wow does that feel good. It totally feels like I passed a milestone on my personal project. That was an unexpected amount of work for 1/4 of a page of script. Now I have five more script pages to thumbnail, and I think page 6 is almost as complicated as page 5. Come to think of it, I think every page except the last one is as complicated if not MORE complicated than page 5. I’ve got a LOT of work to do. I hope I feels as good after finishing each one as I did finishing this one:
It’s difficult to tell from my thumbnails but I screwed up some visuals earlier in the script. As written, I had the Lead Sorcerer, take out a sack with a living viper in it and stab it with a knife in order to cast a spell. Well, I accidentally skimmed over that and didn’t draw it. When I realized what I had done I decided to go back and put it in, but as I looked at the shots, I realized it would have slowed things down. I asked myself why it was important to show that. It was simply to show that in order to cast his spells, that Sorcerer had to kill an animal. Well, I wondered if it would be possible to show that same thing more simply somewhere else. The answer was yes. So now, when I thumbnail the camera cutting back to the Lead Sorcerer in the next group of thumbnails, I’ll have the Sorcerer holding a bloody knife in one hand and a bleeding dying viper in the other as he says his dialogue. Hopefully, you can deduce what happened from the visual without having to spell it out. Once I board the shots officially, I’ll see if this plan will work or not. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
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Monday morning of this week I managed to finish my work on the Halloween show. Turns out, I had all of this week to work on it if I didn’t get it all finished. I wish I would have known that to begin with. It would have helped me relax me while I finished my work.
Turns out that there isn’t any revision work to do. Perhaps the holidays got in the way or the show we were going to revise didn’t have as much to do. In any case, I helping out on a show right now, doing story reel work. My section isn’t too difficult and the storyboard artist that boarded the Act drew very clean so there isn’t too much I have to do with my scenes.
I’m glad for the light work load. It will help me recover for my next show.
GHETTOMATION
It’s been a while since I’ve put a Jim Lujan cartoon on here. Well, Jim has come out with a new cartoon though. It’s called PRINCE OF POMONA, check it out:
ART
Wow, is action complicated. I worked this week on trying to finish up the action in page 5 of my script this week but I’m still not done:
I can tell you what the scribbles above represent. The female Sorceress putting blood on an ape heart and throwing it at Rob as he tries to head for an exit. The heart land in front of Rob and turns into a Silver Winged Apes with razor claws that slashes him and then back hands him away. Just as he jumps over to Rob to finish him off, the Raven shows up and attacks the Ape.
Much easier to write than to draw. I really need to keep track of where everyone is, what the environment looks like and where the best place to put the camera is so that everything is clear. I still have to draw another ape attack and the appearance of the human faced Viper.
I can’t wait to get through with this part. Mostly because, once I start roughing out the shot in the actual Storyboard program, it will feel far more like the film is getting finished than this stage.
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Busy work week. My birthday weekend. Started thumbnailing page 7 of my script.
February 23, 2012 in ALESHA'S THOUGHTS, ANSWERING COMMENTS, ART, Storyboarding, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEO GAMES, VIDEOS
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
The Simpsons party last week really messed me up for the rest of the week. I spent most of last week recovering from lack of sleep. I end up not finishing my assignment last week but I finished it this Tuesday. This put me behind on starting my next assignment. Also, Monday we got the day off. Which is great, except that my schedule doesn’t change to reflect the day off, so this basically means, I’ve lost a day of work.
Fortunately, the other board revisionist I work with got done with his assignment early and helped me finish mine. Overall, it’s been a pretty stressful week.
MY WEEK
Monday was my birthday. I’m 37. It was also President’s Day and I got the day off work. I spent three days celebrating my birthday. Saturday, my parents took the kids out because Alesha had planned to have her brother come over and play some board games with us but he canceled at the last minute. Alesha and I played a few games of Quarriors anyway. We also watched a few movies and generally relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. It was nice. She made me a cake too, and when my parents brought the kids back, we had some.
On Sunday, my mom had us over to celebrate my birthday over at her house. My cousin’s family came over too and I spent the time relaxing and watching Spider-Man cartoons on Netflix streaming. MY kinda party. We also had stake, that my Compadre, Eduardo, barbequed. It was tasted amazing. Even though he cooked it with an arm in a sling. I was very grateful.
As a present, my mom reserved a copy of the Game of Thrones tv show on DVD for me and my cousin’s family game me a gift certificate to Best Buy. I honestly didn’t expect any presents at all, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Monday, I spent with the kids relaxing. I took them out to play at the playground in the morning and I got caught up on some reading. I also managed to get away for a few hours to go to Best Buy and see what I could get with my certificate. Oddly enough, I’ve conditioned myself to be so conservative with my spending that I didn’t want to spend too much on things that I though I could buy somewhere else cheaper. I left the store with a portable speaker for my iPod so I can listen to it in the car. I found that the devices to plug the iPod to transmit through the car radio where too expensive. I have a bad sound system anyway so it didn’t make a difference where the audio would be coming from. I also left with the DUCKTALES DVD box set. It was a really good deal for 27 episodes of one of my favorite cartoon shows.
When I got home, the kids and I spent the rest of the day watching the shows. They’re SO good and the kids LOVED them.
The best part is I still have plenty of money left over for something else.
I had a good birthday.
VIDEO
This is a fantastic “Filmumentary” of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. It’s the movie BUT it’s also the commentary, film facts, deleted scenes and behind the scenes footage, all at once. It’s fantastic for anyone who is a fan of the film. Check it out:
ART
Started on page 7 of my script. This is the part where Rob has his big dramatic “come back”. To be quite honest, I don’t think I’ve done it justice. I’m not sold on the shots that I’ve come up with. Maybe I’m getting fatigued. I don’t know…well, I can always change it later if I come up with something better.
This is yet another page that has more action than the dialogue on the page shows. Here’s what I got done:
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