Well I've been getting a few requests for an update, so here's what's going on. I didn't make the contest deadline, I ran into too many delays. I'm still working every day on getting the next episode out, but it's just much more involving in terms of what I'm doing. Without spoiling anything, here was my original plan for the next two episodes:
-Episode 4: Should completely rock, I won't be able to top this one for a long time
-Episode 5: Still pretty damn cool (I think)
That's changed since then, since I've mainly been developing episode 5, so that will be the new episode 4. As for the original (confused yet?) episode 4 idea, I still plan to do it, but I'm thinking about postponing it, just because it's going to take forever and a day to animate. I have no shortage of episode ideas, so I may work on something I can produce a little faster first. On top of this, I've been approached by a couple people about different projects that sound promising (I won't reveal who, they're all hush-hush), so that may steal more of my time away.
On top of this, I'm going to be moving soon, which means I'll have to start job-hunting again so I can hopefully find something better than flipping burgers. So, I'm going to be pretty busy, but getting the next episode out is still my top priority outside of reality. I have NOT stopped working on it, and will finish it as soon as I can, even if that may be another couple weeks. If you really want these things to come out faster, try and harass somebody you know who really understands Source (the engine for Half-Life 2) so I can get some help with the animating. Again, thanks for watching!
48 comments:
ooh. I'm intrigued by all these goings-on.
Wicked, thanks for the update, I can't wait for the new eps.
hey, to make things faster you could film some scenes with people, and not in that hammer thing, as CP's don't have mouths. or you could go on face punch or PHW and get help.
I could, but unless you know otherwise, all machinima I've seen using that method has a very twitchy style to it. My stuff is far from perfect, but I think doing that would break immersion considerably since I have lots of subtle animations to try and make it seem more natural (head movement without turning, head bobbing to try and match speech, subtle gestures like arm folding occuring and blended at the right time to try and add emphasis). While it would make things go faster, I've kind of dug myself into a hole in that I don't want to reduce the quality of the series.
I am happy to hear that you have not given up your great work and that I have added you in my Netvibes.
Still remember the first time laughing about "I am a Ninja!". Just great!
yay!
Yeah, I love the full scripted movement instead of bobbling around a head with the physics gun. You are an actual animator.
For a filler if it seems it will take forever to release a new ep you could always just release an MST3K style review of other machinima's or youtube vids or anything as long as it is in character. Just a couple of lines of dialog between Mike and Dave with no animation needed.
Keep up the good work i cant wait for the new videos.
Dude, no worry about the wait. I'd rather wait for a good ep than a half ass attempt.
Good luck on the job hunt.
well i have my own website trying my hardest to make it look good and make a good template but i need something that will hook people in if you would like i can make a page for your videos ill understand if you say no i know my website right now doesnt look so good but once i get everything going it will be amazing
if your intrested email me or leave a comment at my blog!
Well no worries, the next episode is going to be top-quality (as much as I can wrangle out of the HL2 engine anyway). Also I think it's going to be much more impressive than the others content-wise as well.
If you're bored, check out what I made! Freddy and Jason fight...with lightsabers for no particular reason whatsoever, Yay!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcxZJxjghhs
moinkman: I'm kind of confused about what you're doing, but both you and I should probably wait until we have something more to show. As some famous Naval dude once said "I have not yet begun to fight", which is my attitude about CP right now, it has the potential to be a LOT better.
Stormtrooper: Man that must have taken a while, the effects looked flawless, very cool. Whether Lucas screws up Star Wars or not, lightsabers rule regardless. All in all though, I have to say I'm still pretty fond of Freddy v. Jason 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPd0IAlo8iI
I can't wait for episode 4! If you need help, I have a pretty good understanding of the hammer editor and I am working on a machinima series myself (although it isn't nearly as complicated). I have messed around with Face Poser, and it doesn't seem too terribly hard to learn.
If you are really desperate for help, drop me an e-mail at andrew@t4mail.com. I can help with anything from script writing to the final render or even file hosting. Anything I don't know I can learn fairly quickly if needed to. Good luck!
good luck with finding new work
Just watched EP1. Very funny stuff, Ross.
Patrick Damian
www.simanticus.com
APOCALYPSE SYNDROME
Freddy vs. Jason 2 was hilarious! Thanks for the link.
Soon? Soon? Soon? Soon?
Episode 4 sauce?
Still here man. Still link to you. Have the banner still up.
I am as loyal to you as a scary boy scout leader is to the boy scouts... minus the pedophile behavior.
Take care man and good luck and all that jazz.
Well I've moved and I have a less-than-minimum-wage job which will buy me some time anyway.
I'm working constantly on Episode 4 now. I know it's not what you want to hear, but all this delaying is only going to translate to a really awesome looking episode. There's a lot more mapwork involved in this one than any of the others, so that's actually slowed me down this time more than the animation for a change.
I have a friend who could mabye help you...he's a Half-life druggie and I think he may be of some use. I'll ask him sometime and see if he can contact you or something.
I dunno. He may have no idea how to help you for all I know. xD Keep up the good work, by the way. I showed my dad the third episode, and it literally made him cry laughing. I'm not kidding. You're a genius.
do u have a date yet on the next episodes im dyin' here lol
shmiko: Thanks for letting me know, I'm more impressed when it entertains an older audience since that's not really the videogame demographic in general
mike: Well, I'm TRYING to get it done for another contest by June 15th, but I need to finish the footage about a week before then so I can kick it back to my composers so they have time to score it, so I'm scrambling right now. It's looking great so far!
it is now may 31, can we please have another update?
im new here... Love your works...
especially Friday...
it has been a month since last update..
Update now please...
The next update will be the movie itself, if you want to know how things are going, just look at my previous comment.
Good to know you're still going! Keep it quality!
keep going. i laughed my ass of. Take the time you need! If you need anything like rendering power or somethin contact me.
Comon, we've been waiting ages, release a new episode!!!!
Believe me man, I'm trying. I'm frustrated more than anyone I can't get these things out faster since I have a ton of ideas. I'm averaging about 4-8 hours a day working on the episode, there's just a lot involved.
While I have had some help on this one, overall it's been very unreliable and in some instances has actually cost me time. I'm still doing over 90% of the work, and I can only make this so fast.
don't let them hurry you.
i know first hand how much work this stuff can be.
i am with you!
Nice machinima, if not the best I've seen in any game so far. My favorite episode so far would have to be Shadow of a Doubt, i still find that negative singing hilarious.
Anyways, the comedy is very good in all of these so far, with sorta making fun of the Half-Life series. Curious, in the future, would we see some Episode One action? Like Mike and Dave charged with hunting down Alyx and Gordon as they plan to escape City 17? Or possibly Ep 2 and Portal?
I also thought about how funny it'd be for the two CPs to encounter Barney, as he is a 'false' Civil Protection officer. Or perhaps they'd sight the G-Man and go on and on about how he disappeared outta thin air and such.
Well, anyways, a question: While we wait for updates between episodes, would it be possible to give little previews or overviews of what to look forward to?
And is it possible to have a full length episode in the future? (I.E., have one last a half hour or twenty minutes like an actual television show?)
Keep the series going, the show is really great!
jacen: Well there's only so much I can do to rush it anyway, it feels like I'm building a dam or something. I just didn't want people to think I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs here since that's not the case at all (I'm waiting on a map to compile even as I type this).
Calix: Hard to say, I haven't played Ep. 1 yet, although I already do have a script in mind for the portal gun that I hope to make eventually. I'll probably keep it mostly in HL2 since there's more for the CP guys to do there. Also, I can jump around in time; just because one episode is numbered after another, it doesn't necessarily means it takes place chronologically after another one. Don't worry, though, I have NO shortage of ideas, I'll try and cover as much of the HL2 world as I can so long as it's entertaining. I could give previews, but I don't like spoiling things for people, that's one reason I don't have particularly revealing title pictures. I could make a long episode, but I don't see much advantage in it at this point. My production rate is terrible and increasing the length would make it even worse. I need to find a more efficient way of producing these, which is my #1 goal after I release Ep. 4.
high five! im doing a script the portal gun too!
Hey Ross. really nice job on these episodes so far. I also showed them to my father and he thought they were pretty funny. I first saw your videos when on Youtube looking for red vs. blue. (flash player is all the wii opera browser will support). Yours are thought to be good enough to be shown related to red vs. blue, and personally I think they are better.
Keep up the good work!!
I would pay to watch this.
You shuld set up a paypal account or something so peopel can pay you
amm no...
swanshoota: Well I'd be very surprised if you have the same idea for the portal gun that I do
Anonymous dude 1: Thanks, I plan to take my series in a different direction from RvB, so there will probably be less points for comparison as time passes. Episode 4 should show a larger departure from it than the others I think.
Anonymous dude 2: Well, my general attitude is that I don't want to sell out unless I sell out big (meaning I can make a living). The problem right now is still my production rate. If people donate money, then a month or two later, there's still no episode out, then they're going to be upset as opposed to just being frustrated the way it is now. If I accept money for something, I should be able to produce something in return, and right now my production rate isn't anywhere good enough to justify that; hopefully I can remedy this in the future. Oh, and if you think they're good enough to pay for now, Ep. 4 should blow you away.
Anonymous dude 3: Yeah, I wouldn't pay money for this either, but then I'm a cheap bastard.
I just have two quick questions: You said something about Ep. 4 becoming Ep. 5, so which one is the extremely awesome one?
Second, you said something about the next episode, be it four or five, arriving sometime around June 15th? Or was that for a contest, meaning we've gotta wait a few more weeks for it?
hey what do you use to lip sync?
calix: the cooler one is the one that got postponed, but don't worry, this one is still leagues above the previous ones.
I'm hoping to get this done in time for a contest, but it may not happen. Regardless, I'm releasing the episode as soon as it's done, it won't be artificially delayed
cokeblak: Faceposer, part of the Source SDK
Somebody else who commented, but I think I accidentely deleted their message: Well, the title kind of says it all.
i know that you don't plan to have a main storyline or plot for this series but do you plan on having characters refer to episodes from before. like that shadow guy come back from episode 3.
dood i love these movies!!!!!!!
they're awesome!!!! i have all of them on my freewebs site!!!!!!!! cant wait for the 4th episode!
here's my site if u wanna go...
www.freewebs.com/thelastgoodwebsite
I have not laughed so hard in a long time. My God I've been in such situations-- but obviously not so extreme. Unlike so many movies today, these guys are dripping with personality and you immediatly understand where they are coming from. Brilliant. Good luck with the move. I hope you figure out a way to make some money for all your hard work.
May 04, 2007
I Hate the face that this blog doesn't get updated but one a damn year! Once a week would be nice. Even if its... "Didn't do jack today. Combed my hair" It would be better then nothing.
I completly agree with f12bwth. I personaly check your blog every day for new posts or even for the new episodes. It's dissapointing to always see the same last post :(
hlfan: I'm undecided, but I can say that the Vortigaunt will return; not only is he fun to voice, but the positive response on that character has been pretty high.
dood: I think you need more exclamation points dude.
mike farr: Ha, thanks man, I like the "dripping with personality" comment especially. I plan to establish their personalities even further as the series goes on, since I don't think of them as typecast characters at all.
The rest of you: Alright already, I put up a new post. However if you wanted something more frequent, you could take a safe guess in that it's something like: "spent yet another 3 hours trying to find a workaround for another bug/shortcoming with the Source engine"
"Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author. "
heh heh, well that explains why it wasnt showing up the first time.. oops, sorry. :-l
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