Checking in, up and out

 Posted by at 3:35 pm  7 Responses »
May 072013
 

It’s been quiet as a coffin for a while thanks entirely to my workload. Earlier I was holding off writing a new post because I expected to announce a couple of new projects, but those were delayed. Anyway, I can now post a few pics of what I’ve been working on and talk about what’s on my plate at the moment.

DashkinAvDashkin

All the Brackenwood Character sketchbooks have been delivered to the Kickstarter backers which, even though long overdue, is a huge weight off my face. As far as the game itself, it hangs in limbo at around 85% while we desperately claw our way back to a financial position that allows us to finish it. We’re reasonably confident that this will happen in the coming few months.

Most updates are posted to the Dashkin Facebook page first, so check it out if you haven’t already.

 

bobsBob’s Burgers

I’ve been doing the occasional FX scene for the animated US prime time show Bob’s Burgers. It started with the mechanical shark animation, then one or two FX scenes here/there, like fire and electricity. Now it increasingly looks like I’m becoming a regular FX animator for the show. It’s fun work, the people are awesome and the episodes are hilarious. The show is created with Toon Boom Harmony so I can work directly in the scene files and deliver my FX .tpl files (Toon Boom elements) via FTP.

 

Clear Vision 2

Game developer Dan Erhard Olsson has been keeping me busy doing backgrounds for his mobile sniper game called Clear Vision 2 (available on Android and iOS). Here are a few of the backgrounds. I’m creating them entirely in Toon Boom Harmony and delivering to him in .png format, in some cases with layering, so characters can walk behind scene elements.

click images to see larger versions









 FX Course

I’m behind on my writing but BCA FX currently has 49 weeks of content, which pretty much equates to a year. The reason I’m mentioning it again here is that the course now accepts Bitcoin payments. The button below pays for 4 weeks (1 month). It isn’t linked directly to the course, so if you’re interested in paying with Bitcoin, be sure to include your desired username and I’ll manually put you into the course. Please allow up to 24 hrs for me to activate your account after your Bitcoin payment.


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Bottleneck

 Posted by at 6:20 pm  7 Responses »
Oct 092012
 
Bottleneck

Ever get that thing where your finances don’t reflect how busy you are? Like somehow the money doesn’t seem to justify working your eyes to the bone? Yeah me too. Story of the independent professional in the 21st Century huh? It’s a good thing I love what I’m doing, for the most part. Here’s what ►►

Reignition

 Posted by at 11:51 pm  23 Responses »
Jun 252012
 
Reignition

Dashkin was in “development hell” for almost a year. My own excitement and confidence in the game were dissipating. Sean couldn’t even look at it without feeling sick because it had grown larger and messier, far beyond what it was originally designed for, with many new features tacked on. The .fla was unstable, slow and ►►

The Fear

 Posted by at 2:11 pm  15 Responses »
May 012012
 
The Fear

Just lately, in the few hours between going to bed and actually falling asleep, I’ve been reading a series of books by Charlie Higson, a well-known UK writer and comedian (The Fast Show and others). This particular series starts with the first instalment “The Enemy”, the premise for which is basically that everyone on earth ►►

The Buzzing of BiteyCastle Activity

 Posted by at 3:18 am  29 Responses »
Feb 122012
 
The Buzzing of BiteyCastle Activity

Dashkin Progress Last month, Dashkin was put on hold in an effort to continue getting those Kickstarter rewards out. Earlier this week however, we made some more progress on the game itself. I know I’m being too hard on poor old Bitey, but for some time I’ve been concerned that it feels somewhat repetitive. So ►►

Season’s Greetings

 Posted by at 2:42 pm  7 Responses »
Jan 062012
 
Season's Greetings

oh look, here’s 2012! First I wanna say thank you for the outpouring of support and encouragement since my heart surgery. The past couple of months of recovery has not been difficult. Sure there’s been the pain of a split sternum, but I actually feel like I’ve got off very lightly, as if escaping some kind ►►

Mechanical bits

 Posted by at 3:01 pm  93 Responses »
Nov 202011
 
Mechanical bits

My heart surgery’s over. It was just 19 days ago that I was on a table with my chest opened up to the eyes and fingers of surgeons but here I am, back at the computer with a mechanical part ticking away inside. I feel surprisingly normal, though it will take a while for my ►►

Effects and Shirts

 Posted by at 4:07 pm  26 Responses »
Oct 042011
 
Effects and Shirts

The BiteyCastle Academy 2D FX animation course is now open! The place is all warmed up with almost 140 members (update: 300), throwing back tankards of piping hot secret knowledge nectar and churning out their effects assignments. It’s $24/month for a course that animators would elsewhere pay through the nose. In fact, if you’re a passionate animator, you may ►►

Dashkin Credits

 Posted by at 9:59 am  19 Responses »
Sep 192011
 

Dashkin is coming along. When I return from my little adventure we’ll apply some finishing touches and get the beta out there for testing. In the meantime, here are our Kickstarter backer credits. If you’re one of these people, check to see that we’ve spelled you correctly. If there’s any problem, please drop us a ►►

tick tock hack chop

 Posted by at 8:12 pm  94 Responses »
Sep 012011
 

edit – thank you everyone for the wishes! I feel like I’m already in a room up to my neck in flowers and cards. Short version - I was told today that I need to have open-heart surgery as a matter of priority, which means in the next couple of weeks. Yeah I know, it sounds ►►

Overhaul Undergone

 Posted by at 10:51 pm  11 Responses »
Aug 312011
 

It took 3 weeks but BiteyCastle survived its enhancement surgery and is once again fully functional. The changes were entirely under the hood so there’ll be very little, if any noticeable difference for visitors. The main problem was outdated system components and redundant software so there was an increasing number of errors and only a ►►

Coming soon

 Posted by at 5:13 pm  3 Responses »
Aug 142011
 

This site is currently being overhauled so you may see missing bits, some slow loading times, etc. When it’s complete, you’ll see a few changes, but best of all I’ll teach you FX animation! In the works there’s an ongoing 2D FX Animation Course, but for Kickstarter backers, there’s a special deal. There’s only 2 ►►

Maintenance

 Posted by at 12:34 pm  3 Responses »
Aug 042011
 

BiteyCastle will be undergoing some maintenance over the next few days, throughout which the site may be down intermittently or loading slowly. When we’re done, it’ll be extra super fantastic and there’ll be a few new additions that will ripple your face with awespasms. Be assured that in true Bitey style, the Dashkin game has ►►

DnD Webcomic

 Posted by at 6:01 pm  9 Responses »
Jul 302011
 
DnD Webcomic

I was recently given an opportunity by Wizards of the Coast to come up with my own ideas for a DnD-themed webcomic. I’m not sure exactly what their plans are for this new section but it appears they’re simply getting a bunch of artists together and gauging which makes an impact. Here is the full ►►

3 Quarters

 Posted by at 11:29 pm  13 Responses »
Jul 232011
 
3 Quarters

The purpose of the following video was to inform my YouTube subscribers of the Dashkin Kickstarter project and answer some questions. That was 24 hours ago. The funding was sitting on 46%. Now, at the time of this writing, Dashkin is 78% funded on Kickstarter. update July 31: we have reached and exceeded our funding ►►

A Kickstart for Bitey

 Posted by at 3:19 pm  16 Responses »
Jul 152011
 
A Kickstart for Bitey

Since we embarked on this quest in November 2010, our BIGGEST step towards a release was taken today. Sean and I launched a Kickstarter campaign for Dashkin! If you don’t already know, Kickstarter is a site through which ordinary folks like you and I can pledge a few dollars to help fund an artistic project. It’s ►►

Dashkin and Music

 Posted by at 9:23 pm  12 Responses »
May 172011
 
Dashkin and Music

There’s a good reason I haven’t updated in 2 months. Dashkin has now got a sponsor and I’ve been holding off on making the announcement until contracts are finalised. However, as these things go, we’ve been held up and I won’t be making the official announcement just yet. So rather than stay quiet until I can ►►

Cinematics & Marketing

 Posted by at 2:03 am  29 Responses »
Mar 142011
 
Cinematics & Marketing

Work continues on the game and today I released the another sneak peek in the form of a single frame from one in-game cinematic. In this scene Bitey studies a collectable item he picked up in the level. I’m using ToonBoom Animate Pro for the cinematics, then we’ll be embedding them as video into the ►►

Region 2

 Posted by at 4:29 pm  18 Responses »
Mar 022011
 
Region 2

Time for a game update, huh? March 1 was always going to be a slim deadline so the new expected finish date is some time at the end of this month. Bear in mind that we’ve been full timing this game since November 2010, so we have done a LOT of work and the game ►►

SmartMouth

 Posted by at 11:28 am  3 Responses »
Feb 272011
 

I must put in a good word for Ajar Productions who have created a Flash plug-in called SmartMouth. Even though I use Flash less and less these days, I know what a time-consuming pain it can be to manually synchronise dialogue with animation. If you’re a Flash user, you’ll value anything that saves time, alleviates ►►

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