February 2, 2012 : New Justice League: Doom Clip
A few months ago, I mentioned the new Justice League movie – which is set to come out in just a few weeks (Feb 28). A clip of the movie is now online:
It looks pretty sweet, and it doesn’t even showcase Kevin Conroy even though he and Tim Daly are in the movie. I’m still a little bummed that Hal Jordan will be in it rather than John Stewart, but I’ll live.
posted by Pi Visuals at 12:21 am
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January 28, 2012 : Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The good news: the second short of Ninja Tales was completed yesterday. The bad news: something bothered me after watching it. It has to do with the texturing of the ninjas. It’s not a huge issue, but I know it’s something that will bother me if I don’t correct it. Sadly, the perfectionist in me realizes I need to fix the previously finished short (and Intro Animation) as well.
The end result is I need to re-render every frame with a ninja in it. This includes the Intro Animation, the first short, and the second. This isn’t a huge time drain, but it will take a day or two to get everything taken care of. Fortunately, I can set up a few renders and begin storyboarding the third short in the meantime.
Still, things are moving forward.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:59 pm
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January 25, 2012 : Ninja Tales Headquarters
Animation for the second short of Ninja Tales is wrapping up, and it should be completely finished within the next day or two. This short was one of the longer ones and had several characters in it – so it was much more time consuming than most of the rest of the Ninja Tales. Below is an establishing shot for the short – the building where our ninja do their magic. It was created by Moridin.
It’s tough not to love this shot – unless you hate ninjas. At which point, I’d wonder why you’re on this site at all. Anyway, once a few more shorts are in the can, the release of Ninja Tales will commence.
posted by Pi Visuals at 10:53 pm
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January 20, 2012 : Archer’s Return
Last night was the season 3 premiere of Archer, a show that keeps getting better and better. The next 12 weeks will certainly be brighter because of it. I haven’t had a chance yet to watch the new show following Archer, Unsupervised. While the commercials haven’t been all that impressive, I plan on giving it a shot. In addition to being created by producers from It’s Always Sunny (including Rickety Cricket), the creators of both Archer and Sunny serve as Executive Producers. So it definitely has potential.
As for Ninja Tales, the second short is moving along. If all goes well, it should be complete early next week – then onto the next one. Below is a render from a few days ago.
Plenty more to come.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:57 pm
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January 12, 2012 : FOX Tries Its Own Version Of Adult Swim
Classified under ‘Intriguing News’, FOX has decided to follow in the mold of Adult Swim and form a late night animation block on Saturday night. They even hired on a former development executive from Adult Swim. Many of the details have yet to be divulged, but it is expected to start up in early 2013. The block is also going to have online and user generated content (still not sure exactly what that entails).
FOX has tried to create a formidable late night block on Saturdays for quite some time – particularly since the cancellation of Mad TV. If they have a similar budget for shows as Adult Swim, it will most likely be a financial success – even if it doesn’t pull in the same ratings as Saturday Night Live or other networks for the night. Of course, the quality of the shows will dictate the ratings; but the big question is how risque the material will be for the block. Shows like Archer, The Boondocks, or Venture Bros. might not get past the censors… even late on Saturday night – and that could be a concern to get it off the ground and running.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:07 am
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January 6, 2012 : Second Ninja Tales Short Coming Along… Slowly
The second short for Ninja Tales is moving along, although at a slower than desired pace. The storyboarding has been completed (outside of a few minor tweaks here and there), but animation has only just started. Below is a preliminary render of one of the few completed sequences.
I enjoy the staging of the characters in this shot as well as their expressions. There are also a few nice small props that I like. This short is one of the longer Ninja Tales’ shorts. In fact, it is the second longest out of the 12 that have been written, clocking in around 90 seconds. Therefore, I expect it to take some time to complete this one.
posted by Pi Visuals at 9:16 pm
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December 28, 2011 : Holiday Cheer… Ninja Style
Well the holidays have come and gone; and as usual, things have been pretty hectic. But don’t fret, production of Ninja Tales has moved along quite nicely. In fact, the first short is nearly complete. As previously stated, it won’t be released until a few more of them are also done. In the meantime, below is a screen grab to tide yourselves over:
Normally, I would be content sharing a screen grab with everybody and call it a post; but it’s the holidays, so here’s another present – the title of the first short… Taking Aim. That clears things up completely, doesn’t it? Of course not. You’ll just have to wait a few more weeks to watch it.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:33 pm
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December 19, 2011 : What’s Up, Ninja?
Animation is moving along for the first short of Ninja Tales – albeit, slightly slower than desired. Even still, it only felt right to share a preliminary screen grab to everyone.
The background for this shot hasn’t been rendered out, yet – but I really I liked the staging of the characters. At the risk of jinxing things, there haven’t been any major setbacks thus far. Although, it’s still early on. Even though the first short is expected to be completed within a week or two, it won’t be released until after the New Year. The hope is to have a few shorts in the can prior to putting them up for everyone to ridicule… I mean enjoy.
posted by Pi Visuals at 4:46 pm
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December 13, 2011 : Ninja Tales Audio – Done
Just a quick update: after a round of retakes, the audio has been recorded, approved, and edited. It has also been pieced together to get the rough timing for each of the 12 shorts. The average length for each short is 1:05, ranging from 0:40-1:40.
Storyboarding is underway, and animation is about to begin. It still needs to be seen how much time will be required to complete each short, however the goal will be approximately 2 weeks for each one. Below is a preliminary background poster for one of the sets, created by Moridin:
I love the coloring as well as the font – and you can’t beat a Beastie Boys reference.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:16 pm
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December 4, 2011 : Ninja Tales Intro Animation
Here’s the Intro animation for Ninja Tales… in High Definition, of course.
Overall, I’m pleased with how it came out. We’ll see if that changes after I step away from it for a day or two. In case you’re interested, here is the link to the video on Vimeo.
With respect to the rest of production, audio has been recorded and soon to be edited. Animation is set to begin shortly, and hopefully the shorts will begin getting rolled out in a few weeks. As expected, updates will follow.
posted by Pi Visuals at 7:29 pm
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