Rite of Passage

Move to the music!

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Received the rough mix of the music for "Episode 3".

The reason for the quotation is because it will not be released as Episode 3, but as the whole movie. The music sounds good, and I definitely feel it is some of the devil best.:)

Status: Rite of Passage

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:15:00 +0000

Tomorrow I should be getting the music for Rite of Passage (episode 3) in my box, and the vocals will be done soon that is left. Once that is wrapped up, Rite of Passage will be published.

Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Well, I have decided to redo a few scenes, but I am not going to publish these to Youtube. Some of the restrictions would probably frown on the witch burning scene, due to it would physically harm someone despite the context of the story.

Either they wrote their terms a little TOO vague, or I am being paranoid. I seriously think they should concentrate on how they state their terms. Sites like Openfilms and Youtube like to list in their terms about adult content, but they don't give concrete examples. This is the problem with legalese: It is never really to the point and it is a pile of crap to keep the liability off them.

Yes, I realize blogger belongs to Google who owns Youtube, but I can say what I want;)

Rite of Passage Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:50:00 +0000

It's finally coming!!

Alternate Clips

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:21:00 +0000

Recently, I re-examined the Youtube policy on clips that have..not appropriate for children material. Ever from the time I last looked to today they changed it or I am going crazy. Right now, they have added in the terms "Sexually Suggestive". Illicit sex scenes are still a no-no, and I am not sure what they would consider my sex scenes.

However, the amount of time my scenes last, it is easy to manipulate.:) So far, I changed an active take on Scene 47 to exclude a blowjob. It is being replaced for the Youtube version with something similiar to this picture in this post.

Someone told me it would be too much work, but I am an animator and it is only at most 30 seconds to a minute worth of alternate takes.:)

Where it is at right now..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Like I said, I played it on Wednesday (I know I said Tuesday, but the rendering didn't get done until late Tuesday evening). I did some edits, and it is only a hare bit shorter. The video portion by all stretch of the imagination is done.
I have sent the third portion of the movie to the devil to have it scored. Now, I know I have been calling it Episode 3, but with the whole thing being released: Is it honestly an episode?
With the video being done, I have been doing some compiling the footage with post effects. This would make putting the whole movie together a little quicker if I do it piece by piece then waiting for the entire 34-36 minutes to render out.
With that said, I came to the conclusion that I can make the DVD with the video portion. Well, to be more clear I get the video in there to get that solved.:) Once the audio is all set, I will render the AC3 and put it on.

It's a wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:11:00 +0000

While technically the animation in the Render Farm is at 10%, I am considering the project to be done as far as Production. All the animation has been completed and the rendering is now done.

Also tonight I went through the 3rd portion of Rite of Passage vocal and sfx to hammer that out of the way. I will play through it tomorrow or Tuesday as it may take awhile to render all that information (note to self: STOP WITH THE 1215 frames!!). In theory, higher then 800-900 frames tends to put more work load on the system so guess what I did. Ooops.

Once this is done, I will send it to the devil to score, and that will take care of that. I will also get the vocals fully complete and taken care of.

At the time of this blog, total runtime is 36 minutes and 22 seconds.

Animation a Wrap..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:17:00 +0000

I have completed the animation for the movie as far as figures. Now it is a matter of rendering.;)

The fight..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:20:00 +0000

I just completed part one of the final fight. It was ..very interesting to pace, and I think the next section of it (which will not be long) shall end it. Some might accuse me of it being short and sweet..but when you've been solely animating this for 8 years..well you get the picture,.

Food for Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:44:00 +0000

In between working on the final fight and sleeping, I managed to watch an interesting series on the Independent Channel.

http://www.ifc.com/static/sections/indiesex/

Anybody offended by Dita Von Teese's brief nudity has to wonder what they are doing reading a blog for a movie that the webpage advertises for mature audience. I have only watched 3 out of the 4 (Censored, Teen, and Extreme) and it has given me more of a perspective on the matters of sex in films.

When I originally wrote Rite of Passage in late 2001 and early 2002, I wrote quite a few sex scenes in it (all which made it to the footage). When I wrote the closest to the final draft of Signs of God, I implied more sex then actually showed. I was going "Ok..what's going on here?"

Anybody who thinks I care about commerical success in the terms of major studios don't really know me at all. Am I worried about how many children will view this and go "This is what sex is"?

Believe it or not, I am an Uncle and far more stringant then anybody would honestly believe once they came across my views. Someone under the age of 18 has no business watching my movies or playing Rated M games that I own. However, do I have the resources to be obnoxious about putting into place a fool proof plan to ensure that people are over the age of 18?

The first page you will see when you open up Rite of Passage is the disclaimer, and that right there should tell kids "My mommy will kill me, let me leave this site." There is absolutely no nudity, drug use, or anything that would require vivid usage of access control on that front page. If you click on Episodes (which will be replaced soon since I am about to release the whole thing since I am almost done with it), then you are secretly consenting you are an adult that can view these matters.

To be perfectly frank, it is not my responsibility to protect children from my works. It is my responsibility to be honest about my works and for the parents to be monitor this.

When it comes to Veoh, I like the fact that it didn't say "You can't post this this and this..(to an extent)", whereas it gives you the option of having your work be labelled as Mature Works. I dont object to that it is perfectly honest.

Now to swing this subject around to Rite of Passage, Signs of God, and sex...I would like to say that over the years I have gotten a bit better as a writer. Thanks to the help of a few friends, I have explored deep dark topics that otherwise would of came out wrong. In some respects, I dont think I could create a Mickey Mouse film because that is not an area where I explore very well. At the same time, I dont do shocking content for shock value alone (or anymore I should say). I did edit Rite of Passage either how I animated or how I portrayed a scene. For example, I had Avin crucified to the wall. A lot of people would go "Is that necessary?"

I can give credit to those who might find it a bit much, but as I will argue that this is in the favor of demons. Demons are inhuman so torture and death is a topic that I can't ignore. Initially, I was going to have him pummelled to death and speaking very weakly to Sarah. However, when it came to animating it..I looked at the scene in my mind and I felt it was too ..sappy. I could go "Well isn't that swell" with the way I originally wrote it, but at the same time when I was animating I didn't want to get into too much shocking material.

If people want to protest my movies, then I say "All right, you disagree with it." I am a defender of the US Constitution and that includes to the Freedom of Speech, Thought, and Expression. One time, someone on Renderosity.com posted a decent Egyptian Column with the terms that it cannot be used in digusting sex acts if I remember the terms right. While I can appreciate his view, but he did shoot himself in the foot by telling fellow artists how they can use the prop. I can understand "Commericial" and "Non-commericial" limitations, but to restrict how the prop was used artistically was the strangest form of censorship anybody has witness.

The common theme during that debatical was the explicit history lesson about the Ancient Egypt lifestyle, and I found that hysterical. It is kind of like saying do not use this wooden cross to depict a gruesome horrible death when that was what it was used for in the terms of crucifixion. It would be completely absurd.

A friend of mine, Kat, once told me that someone violated a rule so foul. They once tried to tell me once how to do something artistically. I think it was someone in a writing group where this guy did the CGI character work for. Of course, I told them flat out that I will do my own character, and was very strong about it. They then told me what I need to do with the lighting, and I strongly disagreed with them. Never in my career have I ever used the same set of lights nor have I have follow one set of rule for lighting. 3 Point Lighting is a guideline, but it is not an absolute rule since there are points when two will work much better artistically. I finally did do it their way, but if I recall I did it in such a fashion that it still turned out nice. So in that respect, telling me what I can do artistically is a bad mistake because I will tell you my personal view of it. In the most professional way possible, but still my opinion of that.

Although I deeply believe I should stop writing blogs when I am sleep deprived, it was a topic I needed to write and since Rite of Passage was a good topic for this..it is where I ended up with it.

Chase scene

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:32:00 +0000

There were a couple of scenes in this movie I always had difficulty getting through. The molesting in the Graveyard was one, Stoody and Avin was another, and here is one more. I have done several tries of this scenes throughout the years, and finally got through it.

It wont be a technical wonder, but the movie will be complete.:) I still stand on my convictions that some people don't even go this far into making something.

The Chase scene

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:18:00 +0000

Right now, I am working on getting this complete. Once this is done, I will only have the final fight.

Once I am done and have edited it (already chopped up one scene and editted another with a sequence that will work better) it will be handed over to the devil for music. Once all the pieces fall into place, I will put the whole movie together and send it as one complete. 7 years..and it will finally be done.:)

In the mist of..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:49:00 +0000

Today I am very close to capping off another scene. This leaves the incomplete chase scene (I will get it done) and the Final Fight. After that, seven years of work finally comes together animation wise.

One thing I consider as I complete this is...I did it. There are the dreamers and then there are the do'ers. I will accomplish an animation narrative..which is cool.:)

TENTACLES!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:39:00 +0000

A friend once told me that tentacles could not be used in animation if they are not being used for the purpose of sex. Of course, since he has seen examples of them being used otherwise, he was somewhat joking.

Now, on the more serious side: This was made using Tentacles made by BeyondBent a LONG time ago. To give you an idea, it was available when I started animated the scenes in 2002-2003. You might wonder "Why use a Tentacle?"

The answer is simple: It is the only thing that I could find within Poser that I could import to somewhere else that had that kind of flexibility. :)

Coming close..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:28:00 +0000

This scene represents the tail end of the animate/rendering work that needs to be done for Rite of Passage. This project started late 2001, and it is finally coming to an end late 2008 early 2009.

How do I feel? Relieved.

Some people might go: Why did it take so long?

One of the main problems was I didn't know how to animate, and continiously learned different programs and ran into road blocks. Then had a computer crash that didn't help.

The truth is with Cinema4d, I have found one program that provided little roadblocks and crashes like others did, and it helping me finish the project off. Once this is done, I can start worrying about how I will do Signs of God.:)

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Right now, I am in the middle of concluding a scene that when tied into the others will give me 9 minutes of consective footage. Right now, I just need to put some finishing touches to the scene.

After this, I will need to finish two scenes and then I will have nearly beginning to end. Do the pre-final and then the final fight. Then edit the movie a little bit before sending to the musician, get the vocals cleaned up..I might publish this as the full short.

Right now, the run-time is 34 minutes.

In other news, I have thought about doing some "TV" edits for Openfilms, but that all depends how I feel about it. Personally, I like Veoh that tells you to put a warning for adult content, but allows it.

State of the Heresy

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:48:00 +0000

Episode 2: Music is done, just need to get some work on the vocals done as well other fine tuning and we are set.

Episode 3: I have finally completed the first chapter of that. There are 11 chapters total, and only 5 left to animate.

The Music

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:41:00 +0000

the devil let me listen to the score (rough mix), and so far it sounds good.;) We are itching closer to release.

Final Fight Set

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:54:00 +0000

Originally, I had planned on a wharf, but this scene fits so perfectly, and I got it to my dark and creepy specs. Right now, I am animating the three characters.

In other news, the devil spoken to me and said he is currently still working on the score for episode 2, but he has been very busy. I am not worried since I am patient (I work for Dell computers, you have to be patient to deal with those systems). However, I also know what I will get will be awesome.;)

Vocals should be done shortly, and then I can really get through this animation. Once vocals are done for 2, I will unleash a trailer (maybe)...and once I am done with 3, I will combine the other two and make it one hell of a show hopefully.

Morningafter

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:21:00 +0000

WARNING: While no thumbnail is avail, CONTAINS NUDITY

Morningafter
Video sent by danac78

A little fun with Cinema4d and particles..:)

Hmm..on a roll?

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:43:00 +0000

I finished this scene up two days ago, and got it light up as best as I could. Threw this into the net render, and it was done in 2 or so hours. 1065 frames.

That many frames would take about a day with bucket rendering, so I think I may go towards cinema..not sure though.:)

Still chuggin

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Again, from the third episode which I am currently working on.

Now you may ask what's going on with the second episode? I am still awaiting material, however unforeseen delays have occurred.:)

I was almost tempted to do this scene in Cinema4d, but don't have net rendering yet, and it would be difficult to get this scene in at this present time. Regardless, it is shaping up.

Some updates..

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:56:00 +0000

Thanks to a new prescription, animating is far by more comfortable then it has been in the last few weeks. To put it subtly, somewhere in my back and neck area, I have a pinched nerve which I got an MRI to find out. Burning was going up and down my arms, my arms went numb, my back was in total spastic pain, and it was just really uncomfortable.

But wasn't I on muscle relaxers? If you only knew how many times I have refilled that shit for partial relief (hence why I went to a specialist). Since then, the tension and nerve-wrecking pain has gone down to levels where sitting in this chair isn't bad, and animating is pleasurable again. Ok, now that my gripe is now out of the way.

Last I heard from the musician known as the devil, he has five minutes of music composed, and he still has 6 more minutes of footage to go through before he is done. He says he is doing it linearly, which if it works for him, that is fricken awesome.;)

Yea yea dana, what does that have to do with the picture? That picture is a scene from the 3rd and last episode. So like I said, I am currently working on it, and as you can tell from the status, I got a good portion of it done. I altered my Calc (what openoffice calls it) sheet a little to look a little better. I did a very complex formula that got fucked up if I didn't do something right, which I could of simply used average.;) Yes, I learned excel in college, and I just started using average.;)

You may notice that something new and some not there on the status bar. I have hidden Episode 1 because we all know it is done if you look at the Movie page. >:) I also added the DVD, and you might be going "22% done?" I made the main menu a long time ago, and I have been working on subtitles for quite awhile. Tonight, I got caught up with the subtitles, so I only have to add them.

If you are wondering "Why?"...let me put it in one very non-subtle fashion: I am deaf. If it weren't for subtitles on mainstream movies when closed caption failed to work, you would be surprise how lost I would be. So I got my heart out for those like me or worse. Once the WHOLE movie is done, I will produce the DVD and put it up for sale.

I will make an honest confession, I cannot wait for Rite of Passage to be done. Not that I am sick of it or anything like that, but I've been working on it so long, I just want to work on another story. Thankfully (hopefully), Signs of God (signsofgod.heresystudios.com) will be a little better written. Now, the writer is still me, but I rewrote that script like 10-20 times. 5 times from scratch. I have had 7 different endings..3 different beginnings.

If you read my comics, I am sorry to disappoint you that this is no way based on any of those stories. This is a story that I wrote that is wholly separate..actually, that should be better. One of the flaws that someone noted was a problem with the story in Rite of Passage, and I think part of that was because I kind of based it on Awake without filling blanks. So this one has a new evil no one has seen, and Kayla dealing with issues you would think of.;)

Also..I am working on improving my animation even more..so..:)

Back in the game..I think

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:26:00 +0000

Well, things went a little better then planned. With the help of a Spine Specialist, they have given me a game plan, and new medication which seems to be helping a lot more. I manage to animate a scene today.

You might be looking at this, and thinking "Didn't I already see this one?"

Well, yes you did. However, I was having problems with high heels, that dress, and corrupted save files for Carrara. Plus, she is inside a Japanese man's home who might prefer no shoes.

It also gave me the opportunity to redo the lights, and I feel they came out better then the original set.

taking a small break

noreply@blogger.com (Dana) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:12:00 +0000

I did something to my back that makes sitting down a little bit much (and I work for tech support? Oi..). Well, right now, I have made a decision until the pain or the cause it goes down (since it breaks my concentration), I am going to be doing limited or no animation. Does this mean the release date endanger? Hopefully not, but..you never know.