Back in Production. Scary, Scary Production

So what have I been up to? Well, mostly pimping, selling drugs, building nuclear devices and other mundane activities, but I've also been playing this free survival horror game called SCP: Containment Breach. It's based on fictional documents from The SCP Foundation, and basically its an area 51ish facility filled with different monsters and ghoulies and what not. Some of you will already be very familiar with this game as I've been pushing some of my friends to play it. I, personally, find it very unnerving and fun to play. You can download it for free here.

 I'll be doing a flash parody on the game. It's already recorded; it uses audio taken from the game and my voice acting and is exactly three minutes long :D Of course, it won't be very scary. More...goofy. It's pretty much my experience of the game.

It's a solo project I have to do in between school work so I have no idea how long it will take. Also, if I have time I'll release another one of my weird videos on Youtube.

Puppetry

I'm sure you're all wondering how my "detective" flash is coming along.
...Not as well as I hoped.

So far I've got a few small scenes written, and even some recordings done which are mildly amusing. The story I have right now, however, has no ending, is filled with gaps and barely incorporates the side characters. It's just Lance and Skittles running around town getting into trouble. I don't feel it's worth animating as it is, and It's taking me forever to come up with a full story. To make matters worse I still don't have a decent voice actor for the Chief and I don't think I can really pull it off myself. So at least for now, this project is on hold until I finish the story or abandon it altogether.

Of course, I haven't been doing NOTHING. About 2 weeks ago I animated a small scene that I found pretty funny, which was to be shown early in the flash. Lance heads into town to look for a new recruit for the department and arrives at the city park where he finds a puppet stall with, you guessed it, John Skittles inside. I wanted Skittles to formerly have a profession that would in no way qualify him for the job. And so, puppets. :D

Only the puppet show itself is animated, everything else is static. Hopefully it'll be enough.



 

Detectives Update

So yes, this little series will in fact be going ahead, and I'm already underway in writing the script, recording, and doing backgrounds and symbols for the flash.

I've been talking to some people about this project and some things occurred to me. My impression of Alice the receptionist isn't very feminine. I don't think this is really a problem though, I think it just makes it funnier. If you look at Bob's Burgers, which I personally love, you'll find that two of the three female members of the family are voiced by men. (I'd also like to mention that show is made with Flash :D) As for the Chief, I'm not sure I can voice him properly. I'll be voicing Skittles and Lance myself, as they're the main duo of this show, and they'll have the most lines. They already sound alike. If I try to voice everyone it'll all sound the same and that's gonna make it a little repetitive.

As for the animation side of it, I'm trying my best to keep it simple, because this isn't exactly short. I'm using stickmen for the majority of the characters, and I'm skipping shading. It will, of course, be in colour. Yay!
I don't know of those around me also have an interest in Flash, so at the moment I'll be taking this on myself, which I'm okay with, but it will take a while to complete it and make it look smooth.

So if you know me personally and you'd like to try voicing a character, contact me however. I would also like to know who knows their way around flash and animating. It's a lot of fun doing these projects, I promise.

Also, my wacom drawing tablet arrived a few days ago. It's absolutely fantastic. I got the Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch in a medium size, which is about A4. It's very smooth and reliable, and the pen doesn't need batteries. It'll help in making backgrounds and doing more complicated sketches.

Crime Time

I've decided on my next major flash project, GET EXCITED.

I will be doing a flash, or maybe a series of flashes on a detective named Skittles. I've planned out a few characters on this little slideshow I've prepared. Basically, some idiot gets a job as a detective and gets sent on his first case all within a day. Hooray for impulsive actions, right? I haven't got an entire plot line yet, but basically Skittles investigates a guy who was killed by thugs because he ripped off a dealer, and he ends up taking down an entire drug manufacturing and export operation. Or something like that.

I've been mulling over whether I should use stick figures or regular character bodies. I figured, "Why not both?"

There's still a lot of planning to be done before I can begin work on this. I've done a couple of test recordings which turned out pretty good, but I may have to bring in some new voices for variety's sake. The plot is still incomplete, but who cares. There's a good chance I'll break it up into parts, and you can all experience the infuriating magic of cliffhangers.

In other news, I'm considering buying a Wacom Bamboo tablet, probably a medium sized one. I'll be ordering one off eBay, because NOBODY sells them locally. Ugh! Drawing things like hands with a mouse is incredibly hard and time consuming, so this would really help.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one.

Okay, now what?

I'm proud of my latest flash, don't get me wrong, but let's be honest. Despite our efforts, the voice acting was pretty mediocre between Lewis and I, and the movement looked pretty shoddy.So, I'm setting a few goals to help improve on my voice acting and animation. 

Firstly, I want to do simpler characters (probably stick figures) in my next flash so I can focus less on their appearance and more on what they're actually doing. More objects, backgrounds and movement would be good, so something action filled is the target for the next animation. On top of that, I'd like to mess around with sound effects, so I'm going to start building up a library of those.


As for the voice acting, I think dubbing something would really be good practice. If you're not sure what I mean by dubbing, check out some of my favourites on YouTube:

It'd be good to try out some of my other voice styles; I especially want the opportunity to speak with my fake lisp. *giggl* I might even bring in some new people to voice act for me, who knows.


And finally, down the line I'd like to make an interactive flash, or even a flash game. Nothing fancy, maybe a quiz game or a choose-your-own-adventure kind of thing. Should be fun. 

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave them in the comments, or any other way you can contact me.

Student Strangled, Mission Accomplished

Okay, I bit off more than I could chew, but I sat there like a disgruntled child with its vegetables and chewed through the night. 

It may look like a rough copy, but this is as far as I'll go with it. The lip syncing and non-stick figure characters was exhausting, especially with erratic movement here and there. I'm aware that I sound nothing like Mr Symonds. He's one of a kind after all, and about 4 or 5 times my age. This is the second "real" flash I've ever made and the longest one too. Please enjoy this horrifying little tale I share with my friends. Keep in mind there's no preloader, so give it a little time before playing.