KICKSTARTER - GREEN MEANS GO!

Spread the word. Tell your friends, teachers, siblings, family, whomever!

If you can donate even a $1, it would mean a lot to me.

Thank you in advance for your kind support and generosity.

Holy cow! It's been a long journey...and the journey is only really beginning, but I'd like to take a moment and reflect, and smile, on this moment. I've come a long way as an artist and a human being since I had the tiny seed of an idea that will ultimately become FATHOMS.

This is a big getting-my-shit-together moment for me. I also feel very lucky to have the love and support of my friends and family.

I wish I could have found my discipline 4 years ago, but, I am human, and the best lessons learned in life are learned from living it!


Keep on swimmin'

LAUNCHING SUPER SOON!

A moment from the FATHOMS pitch video

OMG, freaking out! Excitement/Terror!


I've been working on the Kickstarter pitch video and project since the second I finished the preproduction phase.

I think I've got some great (and unique) rewards for you guys, and I'm excited to finally finally finally get the word out.

So, shooting to launch Monday or Tuesday if I can get everything together!!!

WE WHO BLINDLY GO

"I could just be f*cking talking to myself. I mean that’s the thing that you don’t know. Am I just bullshitting? Am I just drinking my own urine and telling myself it’s the finest red wine available? I have no idea. You know what I mean? You don’t know. You just hope that you make stuff that matters, firstly to yourself and secondly to other people."

~Phillip Toledano

SUMMER SICK

Click for larger image

I've come down with some sort of cold and I'm feeling pretty raw...but we're still on track to launch the Kickstarter project next week, and enter full production in July. Stay tuned for more soon!

RUNNIN ON THE EXPRESS LINE

Running late

I did some math while riding the train today and realized that I put in over 400 man-hours over a 6 week period. It's interesting to look back, and realize that despite the long hours, the time flew by, and most days, it was very easy to put in the hard work necessary to get this FATHOMS ship off the ground.

WEEK 7 - THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Bridge to success?

Pre-production time is wrapping up!

I will be back to my freelancing day job come Monday, and time to work on FATHOMS will become limited again.

I've completed 99% of the work I set out to, which is awesome, and proof that a good production schedule is critical. There are over 13 sets in FATHOMS...you would think I'm making a feature film here (that's the next project)!

Now the work begins on Kickstarter, and then actual production!

Keep on swimmin!

WEEK 6 - PRE-PRODUCTION FINALE!!!

???

Week 6 is over.

Week 7 is a shortened week of catchup, and then 2 mandatory days to rest before returning to working (for others) after taking time off of working (for others) to work (for myself). Phew!

So the curtains fall on the brutal (but productive) pre-production phase. If I were to do nothing more from here on on Fathoms, I would be very proud of myself. I've done a lot of things I've never done before and never thought I could do. And I've made a lot of images that even I think could be beautiful.


However! This is just the beginning. This is like base camp at Mt. Everest; The real test begins now that I have to actually climb the mountain known as animation.


To quote a favorite of mine:

Oh snail
climb Mount Fuji
but slowly, slowly!

This is why I will be looking to you for Kickstarter support...which, of course, I will spam everyone with as soon as I have made a video.

This humble one-man-band appreciates all past, present, and future support!

And there will be cool rewards!

THERE'S NO WAY TO GROW THAT DON'T HURT

Sam has pig feet (you'll see)

Soooooooo painful, but...JOB'S DONE!

I have now finished building and rigging all the characters. This is a huge milestone for me as it has been the worst part of Fathoms.

I don't know how people do it. Even using my lo-fidelity models and rigs, it's still a nightmare to get things to work well together. It makes me want to do character that are inanimate objects, like a cube.

My only advice is, get someone else to do it for you (if you can). If you can't, then...a lot of time + infinite patience. It took me 4 days for each of the main characters, that doesn't sound like a long time, but it feels like an eternity, hah.

I've also gotten sick in this painful process. Luckily week 7 is about much more comfortable territory. I've got to build a set for 1 sequence and an epic one-off shot.

Then I will update the boardamatic, including numbering my shots. This way I can keep track of my progress while animating...and make sure I stay on schedule (other job aside).
 
Then we get into actual production...scary!

MILTON GLASER - EMBRACE THE FAILURE

This is what it's all about, literally, and figuratively.

Thanks to my good friend Carl for the link

WEEK 5 - WHERE ARE WE? HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Evan, nearing completion

Some moderate distraction this week colluded with some loss of motivation. So, I would say I'm behind 2-3 days now. That doesn't sound good, but, there's still time...I just have to stay motivated in the home stretch (of preproduction, hah)!

Week 6
I have to finish building Evan, then it's on to finalizing Sam. She should be a bit faster to complete, as she was much further along to start with.

Then we will be very VERY close to....

animating!

and I can put together the video for Kickstarter and get some external support!