News
Typesetting Pre-Production Materials
This week I'm starting to typeset the "Pre-Production Art Book and Writer's Guide" that was promised in our Pre-Production Kickstart.
More about music, and about this Lib-Ray thing...
This week I got most of the open questions about the soundtrack music settled. The only problem is that I opened a new question too. I also started a (mostly separate) Kickstarter project for the "Lib-Ray" video format, and I probably need to explain a little how that connects to Lunatics.
Website clean-up and music licensing
I took a little time to spiff up the website, which was looking a little neglected. I also sent out queries to some of the musicians whose work I am hoping to relicense under By-SA for use in our soundtrack. So far I've gotten one positive response, and one slightly unclear one. But I'm optimistic.
Yuri's Night 2012
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." -- Douglas Adams
Style Issues: Freestyle or Not?
Today I came across a news report about the status of "Freestyle" in Blender, which reminds me of the animation style issues I've been contemplating for Lunatics since the beginning: just how realistic will we want the graphic style of the series to be?
Colonist Modelsheets Finished
We've crossed a pre-production milestone -- the modelsheets for the eight colonists (our main characters) are completed. Daniel is now moving on to the artwork for secondary characters. This puts us on schedule for our (recently slipped) delivery goal of early May.
Good News and Bad...
Well this is one of those "good news/bad news" posts. The good news is that Daniel is producing some truly awesome model sheets, and I want to share some previews of them. The bad news is that they aren't going to be done on time. So, I'm slipping the pre-production schedule by one month to accomodate (i.e. Kickstart rewards should go out in May, now).
Python scripting, model sheets, and some writing
This last week, I mostly spent getting up to speed with Blender's scripting interface for Python. I have to admit to being a little anxious about this, but it's really pretty simple stuff once you get started (that's always the hard part!). Daniel's working on the model sheets. And I'm starting to write the structural parts of the book we're creating as part of the production process.
Subversion Repository Started (Finally)
So after much procrastination, some reconfiguration, and a lot of re-organizing, I have finally got a source tree into our subversion repository.
And we're back!
Well that was an interesting experience. Yesterday, we joined thousands of sites in what was apparently the largest Web blackout protest in history to oppose two very dangerous bills in the US Congress: the "PROTECT-IP Act" (PIPA) in the Senate and "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) in the House of Representatives. This seems to have had a useful effect, as a dozen or so people in Congress have reversed their position, and Obama's administration released a statement in opposition to the bills. So now we're back to the business of making new media content work!
We'll be joining the SOPA blackout tomorrow
Just quick note today: We'll be joining the blackout protest against the SOPA / PIPA legislation tomorrow (Jan 18th), along with Reddit, Wikipedia, and many other sites. Even Google will be doing something about it, as I understand it. This legislation could be extremely devastating to us, as it targets many of the people who we rely on as distributors, and of course, on viewers. Furthermore, it is unnecessary to create legislation like this as the threat of so-called "piracy" is vastly overblown.
Mailed first batch of concept art posters out
Today, I finally got the concept art posters mailed out to the Kickstarter supporters who are getting just the posters.
Starting 2012 with pre-production work
Well, the holidays went well, and now it's back to work. This week, I've spent on defining the spec for the model and design sheets to get Daniel started, and also working on some additional reference research on Soyuz to support modeling the Soyuz re-entry (and ascent) module which we're going to need for an early animation test.
Our Kickstart was a Success!
Thanks to the support of some very generous backers, we are now able to commission Daniel Fu for the character design artwork. Work will start in January!
Check Our Kickstarter Updates!
Since we've started our Kickstarter campaign, I have been posting updates there.
Pre-Production Kickstarter Launched!
As you can see from the widget on our front page, we have just launched our Kickstarter campaign to fund pre-production artwork development for the series. This includes the character design and model sheets, the set plans, and plans of the vehicles that appear in the pilot episode, "No Children in Space". It will also support Rosalyn Hunter in making final revisions to the script.
Pre-Production Kickstart
We're getting everything ready to start our first Kickstarter campaign. This will cover pre-production artwork, some 3D modeling necessary for the pre-production phase, and an animatic of the pilot episode with a temporary soundtrack.
The Lunar Transportation System Shuttle
This week I learned a lot of new things about modeling in Blender -- basic stuff like how to properly use edge loops and how to set up path-based animations. And I created a nice fly-around video of my LTS Shuttle model.
Concept Art Sheets and Modeling
This week we've started get character design concepts from Daniel Fu. I've also been working on modeling the Soyuz "Transporter-Erector", which will appear early in the pilot episode.
Welcome to character artist Daniel Fu!
This week we've started working on initial character designs with character designer, Daniel Fu, of "Daystorm Productions". Daniel is the author of a webcomic series, "The Retriever" and has an excellent portfolio. Daniel was my first choice on this project, because I've worked with him before, because he has a lot of artistic range, and because his designs have a good sense of volume and 3D form, which will be essential for our designs which will be modeled in 3D.
