THE WILL OF MONSTERS

26) Website Ahoy!!

Happy New Year, fam! I hope everyone is sleeping off that hangover. God, I know I am! I wont pretend our old problems are gone just because another day has passed; there's still a lot of work to be done to fix the outside-world. But I can only change what I can directly control. The best I can do is to push forward and be wiser with my projects and my health, to be be kinder to the people who rightly deserve it.... and to be great and terrible to the people who don't.

My goal this y...

25) End of 2020

This has been the worst year for A LOT of people and while I've been blessed to have yall and my wife with me, there's plenty of people who have not been handling this year very well. I've been able to improve my chops a bit more and a lot of the artists working on this are starting to see their labor morph into something... ALIVE. They and I have YOU to thank for that cuz... well, you lot are giving us cash and that little bit keeps us afloat. Not an insignificant number of folks ignored the...

24) Color Scripts

Hey fam! Consider this an early Christmas present for you all. About two years ago I asked Sarah Gavagan to drum up a Color-Script of the entire TWOM film to help me set the mood and range of visual emotion the characters and viewers will go through. This was SUPER important to toss together since it defines alot of the background work and lighting scenarios of each and every scene. This one will remain exclusive t...

23) SQ-C, Shot 2 ALMOST DONE!

This is looking pretty good, I'd say. My background designer, Sarah Gavagan and I went back and forth with a couple of takes to get this looking as solid as it is now. It was a challenge making a background 7000px+ to work in a 3D-space. Its still choppy in some parts so I'll need to add an inbetween or two to Pumpk's character animation but Id say this shot is 90% complete. I will definitely need to fix the lighting too, add the crows in the sky as well as Cham and some prop...

22) Preview

Getting there! Ill have a preview GIF in the next day or so! Lots of After-Effects work on this shot, especially when manipulating the 3D camera and the Lens Flares. 

21) Webcomic Colored!

We've got a high-quality image of the webcomic I wrote with Scott Malin's drawings and colors. I really would like to do more of this little story one day and move this to TIER 3 but for now I may address this NON-canon story as it comes for TIER 2 Patrons as a special bonus for hanging with me.  Im still thinking about how this will look if it gains traction: the comic costs a little cash to cr...

20) The School of Sorcery!

UPDATE: I updated the poll a little and made it public to get more input! You can participate here! 

Hey gang! Happy December. Hope you all are well! I wanna start the month a little differently.  I'm finalizing the script for The Will of Monsters and I'm developing a brand new scene at the end for Patreon, Kickstarter...

19) Webcomic??

Last post of the month so I thought Id offer up a sneak-peek at a little webcomic idea I had! Its nothing huge and the story itself wont be canon but I wrote up a little story between the main three just to have fun. Twitter gets the textless version, but you guys get to see the whole exchange!

Here's the first page as illustrated by the superb Scott Malin! 

18) Making Your Idea/Film a Reality!

About a week ago I was invited by the fine folks at DC in Motion to host a talk about my journey making TWOM. I discussed things like developing a script, the importance of storyboards and how your project can evolve over time!

The recording isnt available quite yet but Im making the slide presentation EXCLUSIVE to you darlings. I hope you all are able to take something from my little presentation here below.

2020-11-28 17:54:27 +0000 UTC View Post

17) Pumpk's Ready for Action!

EDIT: Saw some  jerkiness in the legs so I spent a couple hours smoothing them out more *for you guys only*

I hope and pray everyone has been safe  and comfortable this holiday. I know its hard if you havent been with family this year but I wanna let you all know that Im happy yall are around and stickin with me. I consider every Patron as part of the TWOM family and that means a ton to me.

Things have been quiet on my end since my job has been extremely...

16) Cham and The Corn Storyboards

Newcomer Casey McDonald has joined our ranks in finalizing the animatic and improving on some shots I had done previously! She's super talented and actually has a short film of her own on YouTube called WINGS. Give it a look when you have a chance. She's really good!

TIER 2 Patrons will receive the PSD files that are available now and will receive a link later tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks everyone.

15) Cham vs The Craven-King (animatic)

It's been crazy this week and Im so glad we have a nice bright spot in our world here in the west, finally. As a thank you for stickin with me, Im posting an early-access clip from the TWOM animatic that will also go up on Twitter tomorrow!

Password is here:
s9E36wwqKFsZ!$

14) Happy Anime Pai ~

I genuinely love it when people draw my silly child as a happy go-lucky anime-girl. Melwina17 is busy getting the colors and backgrounds down now but I wanted to share a sketch with yall before the finished piece goes public! Enjoy!

13) "Nacho" and Valencia Wrath!

Twitter got a recycled summary of the Lorefolk, a class of races that populate the world of our film, BUT you guys are getting a sneak peek at two major characters that will not only make short appearances in the movie but also have large roles in a subsequent series if we can get that far!

Ignatius "Nautio"  (pronounced Nacho) and Val (Valencia) belong to a race of Lorefolk called the WereOnes, people who's appearances become more animalistic as they get older. Not every WereOne ...

12) Color Sketches!

Th next phase of my plan for this film is to work on a trailer that encompasses a full fight scene but I wanna also continue onward from the shot I last did of Pai. I typically express my concern of scale and pricing whenever I approach Background Designer, Sarah Gavagan. My previous experiences working in a studio lead me to make some pretty annoying mistakes so I'm trying not to overwhelm my team with assignments they cannot finish under a reasonable budget while also listening to any issue...

11) Pumpk Getttin Ready (PART 2!!)

I finished out the main roughs of this now so Ill move onto inks and inbetweens next week. I love shots like these! Its a good dose of character acting plus some silly anime-posing and camera movement! Its still a bit clunky at the end but tying it down should smoothen out those  jerky bits. I feel like I couldnt do organic actions and gestures like this in Adobe Flash/Animate and its yet another reason TVPaint was the better way to go.

Ill have some cool news coming soon so be on ...

10) Pai and Razz by LadyGValentine!

Its been awhile since I requested a commission but Ive been so impressed by LadyGValentine's fanart of the Hazbin Hotel series that I simply couldn't resist! There's a VERY  charming quality about her design and I dig it loads! I couldn't resist asking her to do a drawing of Pai & Razz together!

Also, thanks to your contributions, gang! Your last payout helped me pay my Adobe bill. I talked Adobe into chopping my bill in half so its a little closer to $30 now. Your continued s...

9) MOOOOOOOD

Thanks for sticking with me for a whole month gang. I truly appreciate the support! Here's a Mood-Board I whipped up since Autumn has arrived! Its my favorite time of year so I wanted to put together the things that inspire me most as well as the cool, soft and vibrant feelings this season gives me! Enjoy!

8) Kuki Krumbles reveal!

Been workin up this witch character for quite some time. Kuki Krumbles will make a blazing appearance in The Will of Monsters film too! Kallie King developed the striking design for this mischief-making tsundere and I cannot wait to show yall what she's capable of! ❤

7) Pumpk Gettin' Ready!

I got a nice boost of followers on Twitter thanks to that process video but I really wanna WOW people and REALLY turn up the heat on the excitement for this project! Thats why Ill be focusing my time making a completely finished action sequence starring our favorite Scarecrow boys, Pumpk and Cham! I spent today laying down some keys for Pumpk as he stands up to huge flock of angry crows headed his way!

As time moves on, Ill be counting on yall to help get the word spread on this new in...

6 - Pai Flyin PROCESS VIDEO!

Pai's on her way to find a new adventure and she's never looked so good!

This took a ton of work to put together and Im really proud of how it came out. Ive been working in Adobe Flash/Animate for so long that I didnt realize how many bad habits I picked up that needed ironing out. This animation was done in TVPaint, a program that downright prioritizes the hand-drawn technique.

Also, WORKFILES for this animation are now available for TIER 2 Patrons! Check your messages for deta...

5) Tobias Earlgrimm

This is a character that will make a small appearance in the film. Tobias is the owner of a highly popular wand-production company, using dubious methods (slave-labour, animal abuse, destruction of nature) to maintain the creation of overpriced yet highly effective Wands.

He comes off as kind and personable but that's usually when he's doing public-relations for his company. Tobias is nothing less than a shitty, one-percenter who values wealth and prestige above all, believing God bless...

4) Pai's Film Reveal!

Since yall are my fabulous patrons, you of course get neat little sneak-peeks before ANYONE else. Ive been working pretty hard the past 4 years trying to find ways to improve my animation and I think Ive gotten good enough to where I can pump out complicated animations like this!

This is Pai's official entrance in the TWoM film. So yes, this is a FINISHED shot from the final film. I'll provide some more info later but Im happy with how my precious imaginary daughter came out in this. Sh...

3) THE BOY!

I love our little Scarecrow boy so much so I decided to compile some storyboards I did of Cham in Adobe Flash/Animate a long time ago in addition to some rough animations. Cham's reaching for a stalk of corn since he hasnt exactly eaten for the day. He is easily scared. Someone help him!

The roughs were done in this really neat software called ANIMATION PAPER and while its not even remotely ready for use on a production, its still a very handy and (hopefully) affordable tool to lear...

2) The Will of Monsters - LookBook

This was one of my favorite things to build for my film, establishing the visual tone of the whole thing. Swiped from Scriptmag.com, "In filmmaking, a LOOKBOOK is a collection of photographs selected as visual references to express the director's vision for the look and feel of the film." 

That last part is where Im mostly focused on; THE FEEL. I love this story greatly so I want The Will of Monsters to feel like its a story that could've come out ...

1) My First Patreon Post!!

Hi everyone! I wanna thank you all once more for supporting my film! This will be a place where you can find EXCLUSIVE ART not seen on social media such as the coveted Look-Book, some WIP's of the film, older designs and ideas for the old PCPAI series on YouTube, information on other races of people that exist in the film's world AND MORE!

As time goes on, Ill be updating the second and third Tiers with actual workfiles of what Im working on too. Until then, enjoy your rewards in the l...