AFoxInSpace

Happy Holidays! (*hakk-hukhh-whurrgh*) - Also: MAGFest

Hope everyone had a good one this year and, you know, didn't get super SICK for a whole week... ahem. 

Other than still being a little under the weather, everything's been fine. Got to see my family for the first time in months, open presents, give some, and even work on more of those patron sketches in between. 

I'll be heading back home on the 30th and will be up and running again in time for a New Year's stream.

MAGFest is coming up on January the 3rd, and the e...

The stream gets a face-lift!

Spent the past two days designing my own fully-animated stream overlay from scratch, and signed up for Streamlabs to make it more engaging with follow/sub/etc. alerts I animated and put together, myself. 

Hope you enjoy it!

No streaming for a few days!

Since I tried to log into my twitch on the new work computer, I was required to use my Authy 2FA account for the first time ever...? I've been locked out of my account due to my Authy app being linked to a phone number I no longer have.

I've already got the ball rolling; the number-changing process just requires 2-4 days for security reasons. So, in the meantime, I'm just going to sit here and finish the 50 thank-you pieces until it gets resolved.

I'm also going to try and give the strea...

Welp, I've committed.

 A simple stamped and addressed envelope with one thing inside of it: a 3x5 penciled, inked, and signed original drawing of a random AFIS main character.

I'm going to make 50 of these as a holiday thank-you to my top 50 patrons, or the top 50 that have shipping addresses on their account. 

These will be shipped to anywhere the post office will allow; I don't care what country you're in.

-cracks knuckles-

Alrighty, then! Time to get started.

2018-11-30 23:43:07 +0000 UTC View Post

A Fox in Space - "WHERE IS EPISODE TWO???" Q&A [MASSIVE SPOILERS]

 WARNING: THIS WILL CONTAIN HUGE SPOILERS FOR 90% OF THE UPCOMING EPISODE. BE WARNED.  

Live stream from last night, where I go over episode two of "A Fox in Space," and explain what's taking so long and the work that remains.

If you want to see literally almost everything I've got together on episode 2 (and spoil everything) go ahead and give it a watch.

As I state in the Q&A, you guys are seriously the one reason why I'm not still scrubbing toilets in a supermarket ...

Train Render Test

Exported a frame of the bar car scene with James Pigma and Peppy with a quick animated terrain to see how the train effects are going to look.

On a side note, I'm really enjoying Blender. All the backgrounds of the cartoon are going to be at least this good.

Halloween Wallpapers

 I made some Phantom of the Paradise-themed AFIS wallpapers. You should see that movie; it's one of my favorites of all time.

Have a safe spooky season this year, and thanks again for all your support.

Goals

Just a heads-up: I'm going to be adding another goal to my Patreon, in order to help out with new hardware and equipment like a better editing computer, a better sewing machine for puppets, etc. 

No pressure on this one. This is all equipment I'm eventually going to buy anyway, but this will give people a chance to pitch more if they want to see that process expedited.

Puppet Update

Finally figured out the up/down mechanism that will work in tandem with the left/right using a Playstation analog joystick. 

I drew the pupils before I found the center position for the new setup, so the pupil deadzone center needs to be raised in the future. Still, the mechanism totally works, and way better than I expected. 

I guess at this point, I can finish the rest of the cosmetics for the head/ears and start on the clothes and body!

Another Puppet Update

Finally figured out how to do the up/down mechanism of the eyes, so I spent the day getting all of my Arduino stuff together. I've got the left/right servo in place, and just have to 3d print a special wheel I designed in zbrush for the other up/down servo. 

Once I'm sure that this 4-direction eye setup works and is well-tested, I'm going to finish up the head and start on the body/clothes.

New Maine Workstation

My new, mostly finished workstation, now that I'm settling into my new place in Maine.

Still have to get the sewing machine set up and pegboard for hanging the tools.

 I've really been wanting to get back on finishing the AFIS puppets, but my truck couldn't carry a trailer so I had to get rid of some of my old worktables and furniture. 

Animation has been coming along fine, but in the next day or two my entire workplace for both my cartoon and my puppet stuff will be read...

3 Good Things

I have some wonderful news. 

1. My move to Maine is complete.

2. I've surpassed 100,000 subscribers on the AFIS YouTube channel.

3. The script for episode 2 is 100% finished.

Thanks for 100k subs! It means a lot. Maybe I'll even get one of those newfangled belt buckles that YT is giving away.

Now, about that script...

While more than half of the animation is finished, I've had trouble with the remaining portion of the script for some tim...

Move complete!

Boxes are all indoors and accounted for. Utilities are on, and the internet people should be coming by later this afternoon.

If everything goes smooth, I'll try and begin streaming again this evening.

Thank you for your patience.

Moving to Maine

Anthrocon was a lot of fun, even though I just ended up working on my cartoon in the lobby for most of it. Met a looooot of people there who love the project, and a few new viewers as well. On the way home now, just in time to start packing for my move to Maine. I should be settled in by the 15th, but if the internet isn't on by then, I can still work from my partner's house in New Brunswick. It's gonna be a long drive! Stay tuned.

Train Confrontation Part 1 (rough/wip/spoilers!)

I got Josh (WeekyTubeShow) Gotay's lines for Dess, and am close to finishing up the first part of James's confrontation on the train. This leads up to the second part, which was posted on YouTube last week.

A Fox in Space - [CLIP] - "Standoff"

 Taking place ten years earlier than the events of the first episode, this scene from the upcoming second episode shows a tense standoff between James and two VIA agents aboard a train making its way across the toxic plains of Venom.  (Voices by Matthew Gafford)   There are still some background details and effects to put in, but I figured I'd share my progress on one of the ten or so scenes I'm working on right now. Plenty more to come. 

Thank you all for h...

Wolf argues with his dad [ROUGH]

 Rough animation with audio of Wolf's dad, Cael O'Donnell, arguing with his son.

My lines for Fox before his voice changes at the end for "Sorry about that" are just placeholders for the VA doing young Fox's voice.   

Fox's mid-pubescent screech is missing because I just can't do it. You'll just have to imagine him screeching NOOOO and his voice finally dropping after. 

Original Lineup Wallpapers

I think the Arwings are coming along well enough. Have some wallpapers!

A look at James inside his Arwing

Got the model back from 3d artist Matt Delano of Knuckledown Studios. It translates over to 2d quite well, and will make the upcoming Arwing-oriented scenes with James, Peppy, and Pigma much easier to animate.

"Wolf Ruins Everything" [CLIP]

Here's another clip of some animation I finished this week. Hoooonk.

Thanks

I haven't really made a thank-you post in a long time, so here goes.

I just wanted to thank everyone for the support over the past couple years and let everyone know that I'm working as hard and fast on this second episode as I can. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to continue doing this. Period.

I officially give everyone my word that the the second episode will be miles better than the first, and will definitely be well worth the wait. 

Compared to t...

AFIS Animatronic Puppet Update #3

 First testing of hand-controller and eyeballing of fur/face pattern. Still got a long way to go, but making progress. 

Another Patreon Puppet Update

Just an update for the people on Patreon to show how the A Fox in Space puppets are coming along. 

This is a very prototype-y Wolf O'Donnell I'm showing off, as I get my bearings for the fabric/fur stuff and the rest of the mouth/face animatronics.  

The puppets will be featured in short skits that will be uploaded to this channel in between the 2d animated episodes, in order to keep people interested while they wait for the cartoon.  

Do Lemurs Know VSL

I first thought, "Hey, since this Venomian lemur detective guy is mute, I won't have to worry about animating his mouth moving!" and that surely meant it would be easier to animate and take less time!

I was wrooooong

But anyway, yeah, chugging along, just wanted to share this.

Puppet Update Video

 Just an update for the people on Patreon to show how the A Fox in Space puppets are coming along. This is a very prototype-y Wolf O'Donnell I'm showing off, as I get my bearings for the fabric/fur stuff and the rest of the mouth/face animatronics.  The puppets will be featured in short skits that will be uploaded to this channel in between the 2d animated episodes, in order to keep people interested while they wait for the cartoon. 

Puppet Stuff

Organizing everything, getting the rest of my workstation assembled, finishing up the eye mechanisms and moving on to the lower jaw and fur.

Getting there! Stay tuned for more updates.

The Lemur Police

Venomian bureau agents pursue James McCloud on a train.

"A Dandy Cadet" [CLIP]

Tweeeeeeeeeee-eeew. Tweee-eeeeeeew.

Weekend Puppet Update

Taking on the challenge of designing things from scratch can be fun, but  sometimes you run into some real snags. Fortunately, I had a breakthrough today and have jumped yet another hurdle in my way of finishing this eye mechanism. I guess I'm trying to create something that is super simple but still gives full control of movement.

Here's what I've got so far.