Falling up

 Posted by at 11:22 pm  No Responses »
Nov 292013
 

I look up and it’s November? Alright you lot.. where the hell has the year gone? What have you done with it?

It’s certainly been a busy one. I’ve been animating FX on Bob’s Burgers, making backgrounds for a new game, working on Dashkin, writing a book (it’ll be done this month and published early in 2014), creating packs of game art assets and as always, trying to catch up on developing the FX course materials. I’ve let several personal projects slip away and been forced to decline a number of work offers, due to the unfortunate fact that there’s only one of me.

So when the site began falling to pieces in the second half of November, I lost a lot of sleep. Thankfully* now, the site is beefed, tuned and amped up. We’re out of the ditch and back on the road.

* A shout out to Platinum Server Management, Softlayer Customer Support and WishList customer service; all of whom worked hard to resolve the site issues in a reasonable time for me. All of this support comes at a price, but damn is it worth it when the inevitable happens.

Harmony 10.3

I realised today that I now work in Toon Boom Harmony full time; at least 65 hours a week. I’m using it for every project mentioned above. Partial exception is the book (writing with Microsoft Word), but I’m illustrating it with Harmony. So when Toon Boom asked me to develop some scene files and a demo video for the new effects in Harmony 10.3, I didn’t even have to get out of the pool.

The result is an hour of demonstration videos and downloadable scene files. Needless to say, I love the new noise and turbulence effects, particularly because caustic refraction is something I’ve been trying to master in 2D for many years. HERE is the series with sample files on the Toon Boom website, or you can watch the playlist on YouTube (embedded below)

 

Bottleneck

 Posted by at 6:20 pm  8 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  16 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  94 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 ►►

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