CaptainDisillusion

Is This Funny/Worthwhile to Post Publicly?

Dear Patrons,

I made a humorous video addressing the outraged reactions to the last episode, but I'm wondering if it makes sense to publish it. What do you think?

On one hand, I want to poke fun at the level of discource happening on the playback page. On the other, I don't feel 100% in the right to retalliate against the core criticism being made by (some of the less rude) viewers.

Whether casual racism plays a role in some examples of the "Mandela effect" is pure speculation, aft...

New Video Early Access

Another 3:30AM rush across the finish line, but I did it! Please enjoy this new episode about the "Mandela effect" before anyone else dares to.

And let me know what ya think!

RIP Mr. Flare Lamp

During yesterday's shoot, I accidentally kicked Mr. Flare into the wall, smashing him into pieces. Ironically, the one part that didn't break is the plain, square piece of glass covering the light. After 9 years, he'll now have to respawn as Flare 2.0

Episode Art - "Family Photo"

Here's my compensation post for the last ep not going up for early access. Normally, this type of thing is vislble to the $8 "Production Art" pledges.

(DEEP DOWN, I LOVE YOU ALL THE SAME)

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To create the joke family photo at the end of the 'Interdimensional UFO Portal Tutorial!' episode, I used a real Kramer famiy photo from Instagram as reference and found a stock image that evokes a similar kind of idillic vibe.

I painted out the dad, replacing the miss...

Episode Art - UFO Copilot Product Boxes

Midway through the 'Interdimensional UFO Portal Tutorial!' I compare the product page of the Video Copilot website to the fictional UFO Copilot page, which consists of joke products.

I made the fake product boxes by comping together some public domain images and text into cover art, then warping each one over a blanked version of the box from the real website.

A quick, but fun detail.

Production Design - The "Mistaque" Bracelet

To depict the overly powerful Mistaque in the Cicret Bracelet Update video, I used a nifty, limited edition Tokyo Flash watch I bought years ago (I was going through a phase) and just stuck a tiny blue sticker on its side to represent the laser emitter. The day before the shoot, I hastily designed the packaging art in Photoshop (the top says "Dangerous Toys" in Chinese), printed it on shipping label paper and stuck it onto a black cardboard box I picked up at Michaels. I regret not spelling it ...

Angry at Self - Early Access Fail

Guys, I can't recall the last time I was this upset with myself. After working for 2 weeks on the main body of the episode, I had a simple plan to film short bookend hosting shots of me in the room, then edit everything together in one day, just in time for early patron posting.

But I made a terrible, inexcusable rookie mistake. Because of the whole tutorial parody thing (explained in a $3 update), this episode runs at 30 frames per second (as opposed to the movie-like 24fps I usually stick to...

Comps All the Way Down

I think I'm actually gonna pull it off and finish a second video for this month. But it will be another weird one. The whole thing is a parody of a well-known After Effects tutorial series. I'll recreate a UFO video from YouTube, step-by-step, in the style of Andrew Kramer from Video Copilot, but I'll also try to have Captain D snark in there... it's walking a weird line and I just hope people will find it watchable.

In order to make it look like a continuous screen capture but still retain th...

Is This Gross?

To do the chrome makeup for the hands in the update video, I shaved my arms. But I only shaved to the level that each arm was going to show. The other other one is shaved to the elbow. This one is already growing back in, but I'm gonna look disturbing for a while.

New Video Early Access

I started out making a minimal update, but it's ended up almost like a full-fledged episode. Anywho, enjoy!

It'll be public tomorrow afternoon.

Camera Upgrade

You may have seen me Instagram the new URSA Mini camera that's now in our arsenal. 2 days ago we broke it in easy by filming the fairly simple Cicret update and it worked really well. We once previously used the giant, super-heavy predecessor of this camera to shoot the Beakman episode, but it was really difficult to move it or rig it up to the teleprompter. No such problems with the Mini. The footage requires a slightly different post process, but the resulting look is worth it. Emily says n...

Current Affairs

Hey everyone! I'm currently working on the massive Pt 3 of the 3D tracking tutorial and gearing up to make an update video about the Cicret bracelet. There's also the matter of sending out the Agent reward packages. I'll keep those of you signed up for that posted. Lots to do! Hope you're all having a pleasant start of the year and accomplishing your resolutions. Personally, I'm doing very well with my resolution to come down with the flu :/ Cheers! (The above image is one of the various no...

New Video Early Access

Boy, this episode... sometimes they just don't come easy. I tried to do a thing where I interweave a debunking topic and a YouTube drama topic, but something about it didn't jive together. So I had to chip away at it, with tons of adjustments to the pacing and the voiceover throughout the whole month, until it sort of, kind of constituted a sensible video.

I'm curious to hear your reactions!

My resolution for next year is to keep things simpler and funnier. More ostriches, less faux rant...

Advanced 3D Tracking Part 2

...in which we transform boring old tracking data into a fresh and spacious Blender 3D scene, opening up a world of VFX possibilities.

(P.S.: Someone just raised their pledge from $15 to $99. I think you're crazy, but I love you and thank you so very much.)

PRODUCTION ART: Rock Hard Magic VHS Sleeve

Here's the full layout of the tape box I made for the joke in the last video. The annoying thing about the traditional VHS sleeve is that it's juuuust big enough not to fit on a standard 8.5x11 sheet. I ended up printing it in 2 parts and gluing them together.

NEW TUTORIAL: Advanced 3D Tracking Pt 1

3D tracking and match-moving of live-action footage is the primary skill needed to create convincing visual effects. It's about time we learned how to do it.

Train Track Rescue MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS TRACK

Another no-dialogue mix of an episode. I sort of enjoyed making the very subtle noises and hiss for the VHS segment.

The music under the introduction of my college film (2:50 - 3:22) is actual score from the movie, composed by me back then, but redone with new tools (in Reason) to sound a bit less shabby.

I use the Propellerhead Figure app to make the loops of music for the outro and sometimes also augment them in Reason.

New Video Early Access

The concept of "Quick D" has lost all meaning at this point, since this episode is over 5 mins long and covers 2 different videos. But you know what? Idunevencare!

Please enjoy and tell me what you think.

Self-Explanatory

Production photo from the upcoming episode.

Small Moves

The professional makeup I've been using for the silver ever since starting on Patreon works well. But the makeup for the black markings has always smudged easily. Today I got some different stuff and am testing it. It stays on very nicely. I could slap myself on the face for a whole day and it would hardly smudge at all. This won't suddenly make a huge difference for the series, but it's a small move toward making things a little better. Sometimes all we can do, and must do, is consistently and ...

NEW TUTORIAL - Post Workflow PART 2

The exciting conclusion!

NEW TUTORIAL - Post Workflow PART 1

Due to once again being naughty and less than punctual with delivering bonus materials, I've decided to make the first part of this new 2-part tutorial available to most patron levels. (Part 2 will be up shortly at the tutorials level.)

If you've ever wanted to learn all about the non-glamorous parts of Captain D-style video post-production (which is normally chock-full of glamour!) this is the tutorial series for you.

New Video Early Access

Here it is, my strange talk in its entirety!

Please enjoy. (And tell me if anything anywhere is misspelled, as I know you will.)

Thank you!

-Alan

Simple

You might think that if a conference generously provided you with footage of your talk, it would a simple matter to assemble the 2 camera angles together and export the video.

But you would, of course, be wrong.

Because nothing is simple in the world of CAPTAIN DISILLUSION.

A world in which I feel compelled to get the timing of every cut just right, to include full-screen inserts of the projection visuals, to mix the audio from the board and the room mics dynamically throughout the...

QED Content

Dear Patronistas,

The QED conference was a blast! I'm currently still travelling in Europe with rather limited internet access. I'll be back home on the 23rd to tell you more about it.

The great news is: it seems like I'll be able to publish the official taping of my presentation at QED on the Captain Disillusion channel! So if nobody minds, this shall be the episode for the month of October. It's 50 minutes long. Yay!

Meanwhile, here's the funny (in a British way) conference intro...

Live Talk

Hello, patrons, old and new!

Since the day I posted the Cicret episode, I've been hard at work developing my QED presentation. They said maybe I could just talk about how I make my videos and take a few questions. Instead I'm gradually ending up with a weird, theatrical, multimedia one-man show.

I'm gonna interact with myself on screen, do a little game show with the audience, go through a comically terrible-looking powerpoint and play the "Debunk Breakdown" music live, among other thing...

Earlier Release

Hope you guys don't mind, but I'll go ahead and make the Cicret episode public today, rather than wait until the 27th, as scheduled. I don't want too much info in the video to get outdated (for instance, the company's website has already changed their timeline to say the bracelets will ship in early 2017 rather than late 2016). Let's do 'dis!

-Alan

DICTATED BUT NOT READ

New Video Early Access

Submitted for your approval. Well, for your review. Well, for a preview. For FUN. It's all just for fun, let's not get hung up on semantics!

Please enjoy.

Well Hello There

Guys, I have been working on a super-sized episode this month - 13 minutes (whoaaaa). It's sort of an investigative report about an electronic gadget. I wanted to try my hand at going a little more in-depth than I usually do but still keeping it funny and engaging. Hope it works.

After a day of filming, 2 days of pickups and over a week of full-time editing/compositing (THANKS FOR ENABLING THAT, BTW), I finally completed all the visuals late last night. Today I'm color-grading and starting on ...

Production Art: File Panels

The completed file graphics used in the hologram scene in this month's episode.