We're starting in an hour! If you want to start posting questions to the queue early, here's a link to the Vevox session.
See you soon!
https://youtube.com/live/95_HwiTV8KY?feature=share
2023-05-21 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt's almost time for our monthly hangout! The stream is planned for Sunday, May 21st at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.
As always, I'll send out a reminder + link to the stream an hour before it starts. See you then!
2023-05-19 18:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHello! I've got an idea I'm curious to try out.
So the current video-in-progress, The Animation of Sonic Frontiers, is proceeding apace (that 4-day workweek is doing wonders), but I also want to start exploring some smaller and/or alternative video format ideas to see how they're received. One of those potential format ideas is to make shorter videos answering folks' questions about game animation! It's always very easy for me to forget what is and isn't common knowledge about my profession, and this seems like it could potentially be a great way to enable you good folks to propose some cool episode topics.
So do you have any questions about game animation you'd like a video to answer? If so, ask them in this form below!
>> ASK YOUR GAME ANIMATION QUESTIONS HERE <<
Feel free to ask as many as you like, and about any game animation topic! It can be broad, or it can be super specific. It can be about a specific game, a specific animation in a game, or about the art of game animation in general. It can be about working in the industry, about animation craft, about common misconceptions or controversies... whatever you're curious to know. And if I end up making a video about the question you proposed, I'll of course credit you in the video itself.
Again, I should stress that this is a test-run of an idea! If it doesn't work out, I'll just move on and try something else. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading what sorts of questions y'all have!
Thanks everyone, and happy Monday!
2023-04-24 15:59:51 +0000 UTC View Post
We're starting in an hour! If you want to start posting questions to the queue early, here's a link to the Vevox session.
See you soon!
https://youtube.com/live/XE37m31Ahk8?feature=share
2023-04-23 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
We're starting in an hour! If you want to start posting questions to the queue early, here's a link to the Vevox session.
See you soon!
https://youtube.com/live/KNFnWKTCkvU?feature=share
2023-03-26 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostI hope you're having a lovely March! There have been some exciting developments around here, so let me catch you up:
We moved to Canada (again).
The reason things have been so quiet around here lately is that I've been juggling an international move for work. We're thrilled at the chance to reside in Canada again, but - as I'm sure some of you know all too well - moving countries is exhausting and takes ten times longer than you'd hope.
Fortunately, we're in the home stretch of that move process now. Our video production setup is (mostly) back up and running, and I'll soon be able to devote time to New Frame Plus videos again. Even more time than before, actually, because...
I found an entire extra day in the week.
For the last two years, I've been increasingly struggling with two problems: slow video output and looming burnout. Obviously (and annoyingly), these problems are directly linked, and - try as I might - I haven't been able to come up with a single clever fix for one that doesn't make the other much worse.
This brings me to one of the many benefits that enticed me to take this new job: the prospect of a 4-day workweek.
I've never had the luxury of a full day I could commit to passion projects that didn't require taking time off work or sacrificing rest over the weekend, and now I get one of those weekly. I'm very excited to see what impact that has over this next year; both for my video output and my mental health.
Monthly Q&A streams resume this Sunday.
In case not everyone knows, I do a monthly chill Q&A hangout stream for folks supporting the Patreon at $5 or more a month. We had to skip last month's stream due to Move Chaos, but I've got enough of my office half-assembled that we can do one this weekend!
I'll send out a stream link to $5+ patrons Sunday morning an hour before it starts. Apologies in advance for how messy the room looks. XD
Any questions?
That's all the things, I think! If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to post them below.
Thank you all for your support and patience. <3
2023-03-25 02:25:50 +0000 UTC View PostHey there! I hope you're having a lovely February.
Mine's been a little chaotic, largely because we're preparing for an international move. As I'm sure some of you are painfully aware, immigrating across a border tends to make moving house 10x more complicated and time-consuming, so I'll be happy if I have everything up and running in our new apartment this time next month.
All that to say: I won't be properly set up to do a Q&A stream this month. Apologies! Fortunately, unless something goes very wrong indeed, we should be able to resume our monthly stream schedule as normal in March.
My room lighting might even be half-decent for the first time! Imagine.
Thanks for everything, and I'll see you all from our new place next month!
Hopefully.
2023-02-15 00:21:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I have looked at so many games.
This is easily the longest end-of-year roundup video I've made to date. That's partly due to there simply being a lot of games worth including, but it's also because I wanted to give these games some extra time in the spotlight. I wasn't able to release a lot of NFP videos this year (for a number of reasons), and I figure I can use this annual list to get in all the observations and compliments I didn't have a chance to put into a video sooner. And the animation in these games deserves it.
I hope you've all had a lovely start to 2023, and I hope you enjoy!
Dan
2023-01-25 23:59:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Got it done! Still needs captions and whatnot, but I'm otherwise 99% sure this video is ready to ship (it will likely go live within the next couple days).
This is easily the longest end-of-year roundup video I've made to date. That's partly due to there simply being a lot of games worth including, but it's also because I wanted to give these games some extra time in the spotlight. I wasn't able to release a lot of NFP videos this year (for a number of reasons), and I figure I can use this annual list to get in all the observations and compliments I didn't have a chance to put into a video sooner. And the animation in these games deserves it.
I hope you've all had a lovely start to 2023, and I hope you enjoy the preview!
Dan
2023-01-24 03:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
We're starting in an hour! If you want to start posting questions to the queue early, here's a link to the Vevox session (which hopefully works this time).
2023-01-15 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt's almost time for our monthly hangout! The stream is planned for Sunday, January 15th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.
As always, I'll send out a reminder + link to the stream an hour before it starts. See you then!
2023-01-13 19:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is over, but you can watch the vod at the link above!
2022-12-18 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is over, but you can watch the vod at this link!
2022-11-27 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks! Here's a little update on the various things I've currently got in the works (or just recently completed).
This beast of a video is finally out and I am very proud of it. Final Fantasy IV represents a critical turning point where the franchise finds its own identity, and the implications for animation are pretty significant, so this was an episode that it felt especially important to get right.
It's also an episode that took a long time to make. And there are a lot of good reasons for that, but it's still a span of time between episodes that I'm not satisfied with. But I might have an idea for that?
I've been wondering for a long time if there's some way to produce shorter videos for the channel in between these big beefy ones in a way that doesn't significantly sacrifice quality, and I think I may have stumbled on an idea.
A month or two ago, I made a video on our other channel, PlayFrame, which took a more analytical angle to the Let's Play format. That video was very well-received, and it struck me that I could absolutely produce videos similar to this for New Frame Plus.
Here's the video, if you're curious.
Now, this video doesn't quite represent what I have in mind for New Frame Plus. It's a little unfocused, and I'd want to polish up the end result a good bit more to more closely match New Frame Plus's aesthetic. But it's like 80% of the way there, and I could make something like this in a fraction of the time your standard NFP video takes to produce.
That's not to say I want to stop making videos like the Final Fantasy or 12 Principles series of course! Those are important to me. But it would be lovely to have a way to release quicker videos in between those big monsters, and this seems like a viable option? So we're going to give it a try!
During the wait for the next big video, I plan to try producing 1 or 2 quicker videos to see how they do. This will also (hopefully) provide some variety for the folks who aren't as interested in the Final Fantasy series. If they're well-received, I'll plan to keep making them in between the bigger projects so releases can happen a little more frequently on the channel.
In addition to those, I've also got a Zelda video idea in mind, largely inspired by that PlayFrame video I linked above. I may tackle that one before Final Fantasy V as well, just for some more of that good variety on that channel.
After all that, though, it will be time for Final Fantasy V. I actually need to record another playthrough of the game to make this video, as the original footage I captured isn't quite up to my current standards.
Fortunately, I have a handy solution for that too!
I've been slowly working on getting a Twitch channel set up over the last couple months, and it finally launched last week. I've got a lot of ideas in mind for the channel: chill streams, streams where we analyze how systems in various games work, etc. But one of my main Twitch plans is to stream footage capture for New Frame Plus videos! I mean, if I've got to play through an entire Final Fantasy game for an upcoming video, might as well stream it, right?
I plan to start recording/streaming a run of Final Fantasy V soon (I'd originally written "this week" here, but next week is looking a little better, schedule-wise). Not sure of the exact date or time yet (I'll make an announcement video with more details soon), but I'm excited to see how this goes.
That's all I've got for now! I hope you're all doing well and staying safe. And, as always, thank you for supporting this thing I do.
2022-09-20 17:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Stream is over, but the vod should be up shortly!
2022-09-18 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
**Update: this video is now released!**
Still needs a better thumbnail (all of them do, frankly), but I'm 99% sure the video itself is finally ready. I'll write up a more detailed update post once the video has captions and goes live (probably in a few days), but I hope you enjoy the preview in the meantime!
Thank you all for your patience and support. <3
The stream is over, but you can still watch the vod here!
2022-08-21 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is over, but you can still watch the vod at this link!
2022-07-17 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHey folks! It's been a bit since I had an episode ready to share, so I figured I'd catch you all up on what's in progress.
Next NFP episode: The Animation of Final Fantasy IV
This episode is coming together and is (I think) one of my best yet! It's taken longer than I hoped, but for a few good reasons.
The first reason is I've been trying to take slightly better care of myself. It's become increasingly apparent how much burnout has become a problem for me in the last couple years, and I've been taking measures both to recover and to build better working habits (therapy, time off, etc). Much as I hate how much it slowed progress on this video, I want to ensure I'm able to keep making videos like these long term.
The second reason is simply that I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt at the video. The quality of the footage I'd captured, the script... I felt I could do a lot better, and FF4 deserves it. So I've been re-recording and re-writing a LOT over the last few weeks. And I'm glad I did, because I noticed a lot of animation details I'd missed the first time. As a result, the completely-overhauled script is much stronger (and lengthier) than it was before.
I do apologize for the longer wait, but I hope the resulting video will be worth it.
What video comes after that?
I'm undecided! I'd originally planned to move right along to Final Fantasy V (and I still may), but I've also got some other ideas we could slot in, just for the sake of variety.
For example, I've decided I eventually want to make a video properly diving into the animation challenges of Pokémon games, because apparently that discourse will never end and there are a lot of interesting complexities to the problem that I don't often hear people discuss.
Alternatively, I could do another 12 Principles episode. Viewer interest in those is usually pretty low, but it's a series I'd still like to finish someday, regardless.
Or we could do some other short episode as a palette cleanser! Maybe looking at some neat element in a recent game or answering a common game animation question? Who knows! We'll see how I feel when the FF4 video is out.
Streaming!
I've decided I want to dip my toe into streaming on Twitch now and then, both for fun and for footage gathering! I mean, if I'm going to do another Pokémon video someday, that's a LOT of games I'm going to need to play for footage, so I might as well stream while I'm doing it.
We aren't fully set up yet, but I'll let you know when I plan to start! I have no idea how regularly I'll be able to stream, but it could be a lot of fun having folks to chat with while I gather footage or study the animation in new releases. I'll keep you posted!
I think that's it! I look forward to a day when I can eventually do this full time and have new episodes ready for you more frequently (without wrecking myself). But until then, thank you all so much for your patience and for supporting this series, because I love making it. And feel free to ask any questions you may have below!
2022-06-20 21:34:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is over, but you can watch the vod at this link!
And also the link below, because technical issues forced us to start a new session halfway through. :P
https://www.crowdcast.io/c/aek59xpe4t29
The stream is over, but you can still watch the vod at this link!
Fair warning, this particular vod may be a lot less watchable than the rest. We experimented with our Q&A format a bit and I'm not sure the experiments were successful. :P
The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!
2022-04-10 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Making these Final Fantasy videos has required a surprising amount of sprite work! Though there are an abundance of fan-made sprite sheets for these games already available on the internet, I found those sheets often contained inconsistencies. Different approaches to outlining, inconsistent color palettes, sometimes even outright inaccurate (or completely missing) poses.
So I've spent quite a few hours assembling and editing these games' player character sprites; getting them isolated and sized for use in the videos, correcting inaccuracies, re-coloring all of them to ensure the palette is consistent... just a bunch of fiddly work. And having all that effort only be for the benefit of a few YouTube videos seems like a waste, so I figure - as thanks for all your support - why not let you folks have them?
Here's a zip file which contains all the player character sprites from Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III.
---> Download the files here! <---
Inside, you'll find a directory with .pngs of all the individual sprites, as well as the .psd files I worked from (in case you want to make your own changes or export them at a different size).
Enjoy! Thanks so much for supporting this series, as well as for your patience as I work on these videos.
2022-03-31 16:21:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Done at last! This one took a bit to pull together (especially with all the custom sprite art work I ended up needing to do), but this will finally conclude the 8-bit era of Final Fantasy's animation. I am already very, very excited to get started on the next one, because the 16-bit era is when things start to really get interesting. :D
I hope you enjoy! The episode will go live in a day or two once subtitles are ready. If you spot any issues or have any questions, let me know!
(Also, I'll be giving y'all access to all the sprite files I made for these last three videos soon! Just gotta get the PSDs organized.)
2022-03-31 00:36:53 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!
2022-03-20 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!
2022-02-20 18:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
What can I say, there were too many 2021 games with good animation.
This one will go live once I can get captions put together (probably in a day or two). I hope you enjoy, and maybe even discover a neat game you hadn't yet heard of!
Dan
2022-02-02 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!
2022-01-16 18:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone! It's been a little bit since my last update, so I figured I'd let you know what I've currently got in the works.
Next Episode(s)
I've actually got TWO videos in progress, but the one I'm currently hardest at work on is My Favorite Game Animation of 2021.
I really wanted to have the Favorites video done before January, but crunching on both it and the FF3 video in the run up to Christmas burned me out bad, so I forced myself to rest for the holiday instead. Of course, I probably wouldn't have finished it in time anyway, because this Favs video is PACKED. Most years I only talk about 12-13 games, but this one mentions nearly 30 (for reasons that will make sense when you see it). Hopefully it will be good enough to make up for the delay!
Once that video is complete, I'll be jumping right back to where I left off on The Animation of Final Fantasy III. The script is done and the footage is all recorded, so things should hopefully move pretty quickly. Which is good, because I am SO EAGER to start talking about the 16-bit era.
Sprites!
I've actually been doing a lot of work preparing NES game sprites for use in these videos!
Though sites like spriters-resource.com have been super valuable, I've found that the sprite sheets available there aren't always 100% reliable... some poses aren't entirely accurate to what appears in the game, other poses are completely missing, and color palettes across different sheets tend to be wildly inconsistent. So I've been working to manually correct these inaccuracies as I prepare the full list of poses to be featured in each video. And FF3's introduction of the Job System means that this particular entry has a LOT of poses to go through, so the process has taken a while!
If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to share the sprite .psd files I've been putting together for these videos later! I won't claim that my edited sprite collection is flawless either, but it's getting darned close. Maybe some of you would find them useful? Let me know if having access to those files interests you!
Fun though this sprite work has been, I will be happy when this series finally reaches the 3D games and cuts down on all this preproduction work. XD
That's mostly it! Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any. And I hope your 2022 is going great so far!
2022-01-13 04:01:11 +0000 UTC View Post