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Overman's Blog

December 8, 2007

OverByte #4

Filed under: Animation, Film, Machinima, OverByte — Overman @ 9:40 am
  1. Moviestorm Green/Blue Screen Addon (FREE).One of the first user-made addons for Moviestorm, made by yours truly.
  2. Moviestorm User Image Dimension List - What should be a handy reference for those wanting to bring custom images into Moviestorm surfaces that support them. No hacking or Mod Workshop required.
  3. REVIEW: We Are The Strange on DVD by Ricky Grove at Renderosity - A great read, and superb commentary on the film’s director, who is one of my modern day heroes.
  4. Perspective on the $$ Value of Machinima - Geoffrey James (Kephren), producer of the full-length machinima feature Borg War, reveals some very interesting info, and presents a thought-provoking argument that could be made for getting game companies behind machinima… if they’d listen.
  5. REVIEW: The Snow Witch - Robert Jones (Stranger109) is back, this time talking about the Britannica Dreams masterpiece.
  6. The Future of Motion Capture? - Beowulf has everyone talking about mocap suits and whether animators will be made obselete… (the answer is a vehement NO, but that’s probably best saved for its own post)
  7. dotSUB.com - An interesting Web 2.0 approach to the challenge of translations, this is a video sharing site which allows you to basically “open source” the creation of your international subtitles. (Thanks, RonAmok)
  8. Poser 7 Revealed - A fantastic set of tutorials at VFXWorld, to help one learn and make the most of Poser.

See also:

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November 22, 2007

Afterworld: 62 down, 63 to go

Filed under: Animation, Film, Machinima, Story — Overman @ 12:40 am

Russell ShoemakerThe online animated series, Afterworld (which I first wrote about here) has now reached the halfway point in it’s 130-episode post-apocalyptic journey. After what was perceived as a shaky start while distribution issues were sorted out, which had some fans bristling, the creators of Afterworld stated at the end of August that they would be releasing daily (5 days a week) episodes until the series completion. It’s a big commitment, and one which I’d never seen made by an online series of any kind, much less honored. But apart from a few minor hiccups (again related to distribution challenges) they have kept their word, and the only major hiatus in that release schedule came this week - at the fans’ request. People wanted an opportunity to catch up on the story so far, so the producers decided to take one week off to let them do so.

The secret to being able to perform this kind of release schedule? It’s no big secret, actually; it’s something television has been doing for decades. Your production is being completed WAY before it’s time to release. In Afterworld’s case, they were scheduled to finish production on episodes 121-130 yesterday, though the release date for those is months away.

I am happy to report that the strong storytelling I observed in the early episodes has continued throughout the series to-date. We follow the travels of Russell Shoemaker, a man who wakes up one day in New York to find 99% of the human population has disappeared, and all modern technology has been rendered useless by some kind of inexplicable worldwide event. He sets about on a journey from New York to Seattle, Washington - on foot - in hopes of reuniting with his family… if they, too, survived.

(more…)

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