newframeplus

Q&A stream (Dec 2021)!

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream (Nov 2021)!

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

VIDEO: "The Animation of Final Fantasy II"

UPDATE: The video is now released and viewable by all! I'm going to start making these Early Access posts publicly available once the episodes go live, I think. No reason to keep access limited once the video is out, right? :P

*********************

I think it's done... I'm pretty sure. XD

I'm going to watch it through a couple more times later today on different speakers to double-check the audio mix, and it still needs captions obviously, but otherwise I think part two here is just about good to go!

Enjoy the episode, and let me know if you spot any issues!

Q&A stream! (Oct 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream! (Sept 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

VIDEO: "The Animation of Final Fantasy I"

UPDATE: This episode is complete and now visible to all!

Getting this retrospective series officially started after so much planning and build-up has me equally excited and anxious. Thank you all for your patience, I very much hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Dan

TEASER: "The Animation of Final Fantasy"

The first episode still needs a lot of polish work before I'm ready to call it done, but the first two minutes are 99% there. And you folks have been very patient, so I thought you might enjoy a little teaser!

Once the full episode is ready (which shouldn't be long from now, at this rate), patrons at the $3 level or higher will get early access to it pretty much right away. I'm very excited to finally get this series officially kicked off. See you soon!

Q&A stream SECOND ATTEMPT! (Aug 2021)

So much for OBS! We'll get em next time. :P

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream! (Aug 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

It's time to start the Final Fantasy retrospective

I hope you're doing well! I'd like to share some details about the mega-project I'm currently busy with: The Animation of Final Fantasy.

(Apologies in advance for the length of this post, there's lots to cover!)

WHAT IS THIS PROJECT?

This is going to be a retrospective series of videos examining the animation in the Final Fantasy franchise. I want to draw a detailed line from the early 8-bit games all the way to the most recent AAA releases, showing how Final Fantasy's character animation and story presentation techniques have evolved with time and technology. It'll be kinda like that Sonic the Hedgehog video, but much more in-depth! And split into multiple parts, because I'm here to make new mistakes, not repeat old ones. :P

I started planning this series back before New Frame Plus even existed. I've been chipping away at the footage-gathering work in the background for nearly five years, and now it's finally time to put this monster of a series into production!

THE PLAN

I will be making one video for each numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series, including (most of) the direct sequels. Some of these videos will be longer than others, but I'm aiming for a length between 10-25 minutes each.

Here's the list of games I currently plan to cover:

Final Fantasy 

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy XI Online

Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIV Online

Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy XVI

That is a lot of games to talk about and a lot of videos to make. We will not be finishing this series any time soon, but that's ok! There's no rush, and - though I do plan to focus the majority of my energy on this series in the coming years - we'll likely pause to do videos on other topics from time to time, just to keep things fresh.

Nearly all gameplay footage for this series has already been recorded. Like I mentioned earlier, I've been capturing footage for this series bit by bit over the last 5 years, and I now have a full playthrough recorded of nearly all of the games listed above. There's still a bit more gathering left to do (I want more footage of both MMOs, I was waiting for the PS5 update to record FF7R, and FF16 won't be out for a while), but I've got more than enough to get this retrospective started.

Playing all of these in advance also means I have the benefit of already knowing what I want to say about each game. In fact, I've got rough draft scripts for the first six videos already written. Most of them still need a lot of work, of course, but the foundation is in place, and...

EPISODE 1 IS IN PRODUCTION

The script for the first episode is locked and the narration is recorded! I've still got some organizational prep work to do (and lots of assets to create), but I expect to take things into Premiere and start editing the video next week.

I'm not certain how long this first video will take to complete! I really want to start this series off on the right foot, and I've got some ideas for visual elements I've never attempted before which may take some experimentation to figure out. Additionally, I've had a few life circumstances slowing me down recently. Nothing dire, just some IRL priorities competing for attention and a flare-up of old repetitive stress injuries that has forced me to reduce daily mouse/tablet/gamepad use. Health comes first and all that.

Still, after so many years of slow preparation, I'm beyond eager to finally get this retrospective underway. To my mind, the last three years of New Frame Plus have been building to this project. This Final Fantasy animation retrospective has been living in my head for half a decade, and I hope it proves half as fascinating to the rest of you as it has been for me.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below. Thanks for your patience, and stay safe!

Q&A stream! (July 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream! (June 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

VIDEO: "FOLLOW THROUGH & OVERLAPPING ACTION - The 12 Principles of Animation in Games"

UPDATE: The video is now live and viewable by all!

Oh hey, it's another video finally!

I hope you all enjoy this latest entry in the ongoing 12 Principles series. The episode will go live as soon as captions are ready (probably in a day or two).

Next up, the Final Fantasy animation retrospective begins at long last! I'm so EXCITED.

June update!

Hello! Here's an update on what I'm up to.

Sabbatical over!

My little hiatus is finally wrapped up, and the rest has been lovely. I am actually somewhat recharged and eager to make stuff again, which feels great after months and months of running on fumes. So thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding as I caught up on that rest!

Regular monthly patron billing will resume on July 1st, and I'm already well into production on the next video.

Next Video

The next New Frame Plus episode is about the animation principle of Follow-Through & Overlapping Action. The script is complete, narration is recorded and I'm editing the video itself now, so we'll hopefully have that episode ready in the next couple weeks, IRL schedule permitting.

After that, I plan to make a video about the animation in the original Final Fantasy for the NES, the first part in a new retrospective series about the animation in the Final Fantasy games. I've been planning and gathering footage for this project literally since before the New Frame Plus channel existed, and I'm extremely excited to finally start work producing the series. Please look forward to it. :D

And that's it! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Stay safe out there!

Q&A stream! (May 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

...ok fine, then New Frame Plus patrons won't be billed in JUNE

Apparently, me and Patreon's back-end creator interface did not see eye-to-eye on this whole "don't bill patrons in May" plan, because it looks like you were all charged for this month anyway. COOL. I'll just set it up to skip billing next month instead. Apologies for the confusion! 

In better news, I'm already excited to dive back into production on new videos when this break is done. I hope you're all staying safe, happy and healthy out there!

New Frame Plus patrons will NOT be billed in May!

I'm still on break and don't plan to charge patrons next month! Though I have begun chipping away at the script for the next New Frame Plus video (another 12 Principles entry), the time off has been good for me and I think another month would do me good. Plus I've got some other life responsibilities that need attention, and this seems like an ideal opportunity.

Billing for this Patreon will resume in June, at which point I aim to hit the ground running. After the 12 Principles video, I intend to begin production on a Final Fantasy animation retrospective series. I've been planning this project for years and I'm very excited to finally get  started.

In the meantime, have a great April/May, stay safe, and feel free to ask any questions you might have below!

Q&A stream! (Mar 2021)

The Q&A begins 24 hours from now. I'll see you there!

**NOTE: The daylight savings shift has happened here in the USA, but not everywhere! Be sure to check the start time in the CrowdCast link, because the Q&A may be starting an hour earlier in your time zone!**

Patron update!

At long last, the Sonic video is released! I hope you've all enjoyed it. :D

Now that the monster is put to rest, I thought it might be a good time for a big update post!

Sonic Episode Postmortem

The Sonic video ended up being WAY bigger than I originally planned, as you might have surmised. I'm super proud of how it turned out, but it was exhausting to get it to the finish line, and I don't think releasing feature-length videos twice a year is a great way to build a channel audience, so I don't plan to make more two-hour episodes in the future. XD

That said, series retrospectives are some of my favorite topics to tackle! I just want to be smarter about how I go about them. Perhaps by examining a smaller subset of animations across a franchise's history, or by splitting the broad retrospective analysis into a series of videos rather than one giant one (which is what I plan to do for the Final Fantasy animation retrospective). We'll see...

New Gear

There have been some new equipment acquisitions over the course of this episode's production!

First, I now possess a Dreamcast, which I used to capturing footage from both Sonic Adventure games. I often prefer capturing footage from original hardware when I can, so it's nice having another retro console on hand.

Also, I've finally procured a PlayStation 5, which is a relief! Good to know that I can get footage from this year's Sony exclusives if needed.

And finally, I have a new microphone for recording narration! The old Samson C0-1U has served me well for many years, but I decided it's long past time for an upgrade. All New Frame Plus episodes from here on will be recorded with my new Rode NT1.

These upgrades and additions are largely possible thanks to your support, so thanks for helping me to improve the quality of the show!

Future Episodes

Now that Sonic is finally put to rest, I can start looking to the next project. 

Chances are good that I'll do another 12 Principles video next, just to keep that series inching along. But I'm also eager to get started on the Final Fantasy series! Despite how tiring the Sonic video was to complete, retrospectives are just so fun.

I'm also (eventually) hoping to figure out a shorter episode format for the channel to supplement all these longer series. I'm sure there's SOME way to make short, quick videos to release alongside the rest without sacrificing quality or entertainment value, but I haven't figured it out yet. I'll crack it eventually. :P

Taking a Break

And finally, I've decided I need a break! Finishing the Sonic video really took it out of me, so I'm going to force myself to take a month or two off. Focus on some other projects, play some games, get some rest, etc.

Of course, charging you folks monthly payments while I'm not actually working on anything seems silly, so I'm temporarily pausing monthly payments for this Patreon while the break lasts. Don't worry, you folks shouldn't have to do anything different as a result of this! You simply won't be charged for the next month or so, with regular monthly charges resuming once I'm back to work on the next episode. I'll be sure to let you know before those payments resume, just so the charge doesn't come as a sudden surprise.

(The monthly Q&A streams will continue during this time, though, so if you're supporting for $5 or more, you're welcome to join me for those!)

I think that's everything! If you have any questions at all, feel free to post them below. Thanks so much for supporting this series! I look forward to getting back to new videos once I'm all rested up. :)

VIDEO: "The Animation of Sonic Games"

UPDATE: The video is now live and viewable by all!

IT IS DONE.

At long last, the Sonic video is complete and set for release on Thursday! Once again I want to thank you all for being so patient with me as I tackled this monstrous thing. I bit off WAY more than I could chew, but it was a fun challenge and I hope the result is worth the wait.

Enjoy!

(P.S. If you already watched the WIP Preview and aren't sure you want to spend ANOTHER hour and forty-five minutes watching the updated version, then don't worry! This render is not noticeably different from the version you watched earlier. All I've done is swap out one or two video clips, done lots of audio mix tweaking and made some very slight timing changes.)

SNEAK PREVIEW: "The Animation of Sonic Games"

The feature-length Sonic video is almost done if you want to see it!

NOTE: This is NOT the final version of this New Frame Plus episode, but it is 99% complete! I still have some audio mixing and timing tweaks to make, maybe a few subtle polish edits here and there. Heck, there might be a render error in this upload that I haven't spotted. Even the thumbnail is placeholder. Those final touches shouldn't take more than a week to finish, but you folks have been so patient while I worked on this massive video that I don't want to make you wait a day longer. 

Oh, and maybe get a snack before you sit down to watch this one? IT'S LENGTHY.

The final version of the video should be ready next week. If you have any questions, let me know! Thank you again for your patience, and I hope you enjoy the sneak preview!

Q&A stream! (Feb 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream! (Jan 2021)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

VIDEO: "My Favorite Game Animation of 2020"

UPDATE: The video is now live and viewable by all!

Another video finally! Thanks to that darned Sonic animation monstrosity, it feels like forever since a New Frame Plus episode actually came out. :P

I hope you enjoy this 2020 game animation round-up! Now back to wrapping up the enormous Sonic retrospective...

Q&A stream! (Dec 2020)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Update!

Hey folks! It's been a while since I checked in and this one video has taken forever, so I thought I'd give an update on progress.

The Sonic Video

This thing is a monster, y'all. All footage is recorded, the script is final and much of the preparatory edit work is done. At this point, it's just down to narration recording and editing the video itself.

For reference, the longest episode of New Frame Plus I've made to date (the Pokemon Battle Animations video, which has a runtime of 27:46) had a script that was just under 5,000 words long.

The Sonic script is over 18,200 words.

I think the video edit will actually move relatively fast despite this, as I've already selected most of the clips I want to use (from the 60+ hours of recorded footage), but the sheer size of this thing is the reason you haven't seen any videos in a bit! Even just recording the narration is taking numerous sessions, because my voice keeps wearing out. XD

If I were doing this all over, I'd have probably separated this into multiple videos, but I'm proud of the messy epic it's becoming and I can't wait for you all to see it. I WANTED to get it done before the year ended, but I suspect it's going to drift into January? We'll see!

Favorite Game Animation of 2020 Video

THIS video, however, will DEFINITELY come out before year's end! I've been investigating the animation in tons of recent games, I've got a pretty solid list put together, and I aim to have the episode ready before New Years.

Future Videos

Once the Sonic monster is defeated, my next step is probably a return to the 12 Principles series alongside some smaller videos (thank goodness). I've also made a ton of progress on Final Fantasy footage gathering lately, and I'm excited to finally get that series launched (especially now that this Sonic episode has taught me some tricks for approaching larger videos).

Apologies again for the long production time on this silly hedgehog analysis, but I very much hope the wait will be worth it. Thank you all, and stay safe!

Q&A stream! (Nov 2020)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Q&A stream! (Oct 2020)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!

Patron Update!

Happy October! I thought I'd catch you all up on what I'm currently working on.

My next video is about the animation in Sonic the Hedgehog games, and it's looking to be the biggest I've made yet. I'll be looking at 25 different Sonic games - from the 16-bit original all the way up to Forces - and examining the wild variation in animation quality over that history. It should be fun!

Of course, this requires playing and recording all 25 of those games, which has been somewhat less fun, but still educational. I've even taken this opportunity to finally acquire a Sega Dreamcast and optimize my upscaler setup for that specific hardware. It took a bit of effort (and too much money), but the results are looking good!

I'm about halfway through the recording process and have been taking copious notes. I still haven't figured out exactly how I want to structure the episode itself, but it's almost definitely going to be a LONG video. As such, it will probably end up taking longer than usual to complete, but I hope the results will be worth the wait!

If you're curious, these are the games I'm planning to cover (though the list is subject to change):

1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog

1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)

1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2

1993 - Sonic CD

1993 - Sonic Chaos

1993 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3

1994 - Sonic & Knuckles

1995 - Knuckles' Chaotix

1996 - Sonic 3D Blast

1998 - Sonic Adventure

2001 - Sonic Adventure 2

2003 - Sonic Heroes

2005 - Shadow the Hedgehog

2006 - Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

2007 - Sonic & the Secret Rings

2008 - Sonic Unleashed

2009 - Sonic & the Black Knight

2010 - Sonic the Hedgehog 4

2010 - Sonic Colors

2011 - Sonic Generations

2013 - Sonic Lost World

2014 - Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

2017 - Sonic Mania

2017 - Sonic Forces

So yeah, that's what I'm up to lately. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Stay safe out there!

Q&A stream! (Sept 2020)

The stream is done, but you can still watch it at this link!