Let's face it, 2016 sucked When
the year began with Jason Wingreen, the voice of Star Wars' Boba Fett
dying at 95, most would chalk it up to old age. But when Princess Leia,
Carrie Fisher died yesterday on my birthday, it was hard to celebrate it this year.
But we did celebrate finishing Watchcat episode 2 by putting out episode 3 in the form of a "Holiday Special" which is up to 336 views. We also started the year with 15 subscribers and on the last Watchcat Wednesday of 2016 we are up to81 Youtube subscribers. You can subscribe to our Watchcat Films Youtube channel too!
We are planning on making more Watchcats episodes in the new year, in the meantime, please share our episodes with your friends and family. Help us to make more of these little dreams to come.
Thank you for all your support and letting us know you are out there and interesting in we what we are doing. We started 2016 with about 4500 views to the Watchcat files blog and we end this Watchcat Wednesday with:
11,000 all time views!!!
y
Happy NEW 2017!
We still want to hear from you and you can always click on the ads to generate a Google check over $100 to be donated to a local animal shelter. We are still at $25.39, so click those ads and we will post when the check arrives.
"Two episodes in 1 year, why it can't be done?!" They said it was impossible, but who listens to "They" anyway and as we say goodbye to 2016, here is our Watchcat Holiday episode as a present to you. Please share it with your friends, family and other Watchcat owners across the country and the rest of the world.
And a big "Thank You" goes out to two gentlemen who we worked with this year on both Watchcat projects.Alejandro Torres for composting the animation and kicking up the production value and Marcello De Francisci, for his sound recording and mixing expertise. Thanks Guys!
Have a safe and happy holiday season from Watchcat Films!
We will soon post an animated Watchcat Holiday episode which you can send out to all your friends and family to enjoy this holiday season. So check back before Christmas eve!
How will Santa get out of this one? Find out in this special Watchcat Holiday episode!
Things are going well as all the rough animation is finishing up. Its nice to have only 6 scenes to deal with instead of 45 or 50 as in the previous Watchcat episodes. My good friend, Alejandro Torres has created a nice wintery looking house which you will see more of at the end of the short. Here's a photo of the "house in progress".
Last week, we got a really nice email from Lindsey Villagomes, who we met at CTN Animation expo this year. We gave her our Watchcat Episode 2 postcard and she was kind enough to send us this feedback. Hello! I met you both at CTN this year and I just wanted to say that
WatchCat is amazing! I absolutely love the atmosphere it sets up as well
as the sense of humor. There was so many times that I would just burst
out laughing from expressions on the character's faces to certain things
character's would say. It's a great project and I can't wait to see
more in the future! :D And I will for sure be spreading the word of
WatchCat around! Lindsey This came at a time when I was considering saving the Holiday episode for next Christmas. After reading Lindsey's letter it let me know that at least someone took the time to let us know they liked what we are doing. It also helped me keep on track and get this Holiday episode done in time. And so, here's our rough animation for Lindsey and other people who like what we are up to.
My final animation class ended on Friday and yesterday I decided to installed a 21 day trail version of ToonBoom Harmony 14. My goal is to animate a Holiday Watchcat episode to send off to friends and family and end 2016 in a fun way. I will attempt to document this production on my Animateducated blogif you are interested in learning more about the animation process using Harmony.
You can see the animation in previous post entitled "Making Christmas". Here's a good example of the camera move in this rough of Scene 1. This begins with whiteat the beginning, so be patient.
So far, things are going well and I hope to have the rest of the scenes roughed out by the end of the week. If you like what you see or maybe you don't understand something, please let me know.
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Ads clicks @ $25.39: Help us donate to a local Animal Shelter. Google won't send a check until $100 in clicks are reached. So give the ads a click to help a homeless dog or cat.
We were just finishing Watchcat Episode 2, when Greg and I started thinking up shorter ideas for possible future Watchcat episodes. And so, we came up with our first mini motion picture to kick off the holiday season and end 2016 right.
I made a rough storyboard to figure out the story visually and we were able to book Marcello to help us record the dialogue and the world famous Jim Brothers to help record some of the sound effects. Jay and Jim are twins and are well known sound effect recording artists. Luckily, they could make the session to help record the sound effects for our project. Here they are in action...
We appreciate every new view and subscribers we get. And so, here is a special treat, the rough animatic to our next animated Holiday Greeting card. We hope to finish in time, so everyone can send the final version to their friends and family before Christmas.
Let us know what you think of it and watch for the final color version coming soon!
Like this post? Help us collect some money to donate to a local Animal Shelter, click on the ads to make it happen. We only got about .89 cents in clicks this month and we need more. We're at $ 24.54 and need over $100 for Google to take us seriously and write us a check. So click on the ads everytime you check this blog and we'll keep you posted!
It was an amazing week, beginning with the launch ofWatchcat Episode 2 and endingwith a visit to the 2016 CTN animation expo in Burbank over the weekend. This year the convention changed its layoutby setting up a huge air conditioned tent structure which housed the entire exhibit floor.
The main area which use to hold the exhibit area, now held all the lectures or panels. Not sure how many people attended, Saturday was the biggest day and the big tent held everyone quite comfortably.
There were places to sit and talk, surrounded by several lighted trees and even a roller skating creative spirit who dibbled sparkly dust on top of the heads of unsuspecting attendees, like me.
If you attend, you will always run into creative people who's artwork will inspire you and is for sale. You can talk to them because this is a place to meet new people, so don't be shy. You will run into people you have worked with or for and even meet new friends as well. A lot of animation studios were there to review portfolios and meet new talented artists.
Disney was giving away movie posters of "Moana" and I was luckily enough get one of the last. A young lady approached me asking where she could get a poster, but unfortunately they were all gone. I discovered she was from Denmark and was here to see what CTNX was all about with a desire to get into animation. And so, I gave her my Disney poster and a postcard of our Watchcat Episode 2 to take back to her country. The rest of the day, we met lots of artist and attendees by telling them about our project and giving them a postcard of where to watch it online.
Meeting previous students again!
We are finally getting a great response from viewers of this blog. Thanks to your reactions, our all time views grew to over 10,385. Over the past 2 days, Our Youtube channel, Watchcat Films Episode 2 moved up to 130 views to 225. After CTNX, our video views increased to 342 and are continuing to grow hire. We also began with 27 subscribers and now are up to 66!
During last week of all this excitement, we came with a solution of producing shorter videos in order to complete them in a few weeks as oppose to a few years.
We have something that we will share with you in the next post. But for now, we want to thank you again for supporting Watchcat and letting us know you are out there and like what you see. Help us share our Watchcat Film youtube channel and subscribe to it if you haven't done so already.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! From: Greg, Jim and Watchcat!
Click on the ads and give money to a homeless dog or cat.
As I write this, I can't believe we have finally come to the end of this project. What started off as a webseries to introduce Watchcat in episode 1, only hinted at what this cat could do. A Batman in cat form, a mysterious protector of the neighborhood on the watch for crime and criminals alike.
Could we tell a story about a crime fighting cat in animation, with editing and original music? A mini motion picture of a cat hero that people would want to follow in every episode? Would we find an audience, get millions of hits and maybe even fund more episodes using a crowd funding situation? All these questions take time and effort to answer, but hopefully we will find out what you, our audience thinks about all of this.
We made Episode 2 to continue to follow the characters we introduced and and how our cat would deal with them. Both parts equal a whole and if people like it enough, we will do more. Maybe not 3 minutes an episode, but shorter situations could add to this cat's tale.
So if you like what you see, click on the ads. the Google money generated will be donated to our local animal shelter. Click onour facebook page, like the page and share this withfriends, family and other Watchcat owners. Special Offer: Leave us a comment to let us know what you think about WatchCat and Subscribe to this blog. The best comment wins an original Watchcat still frame, (suitable for framing?).
This Watchcat Wednesday, you will finally see Watchcat Episode 2 posted here or if you subscribe to our Watchcat Films Youtube channel. We will be wandering around the Burbank CTNX 2016 this week as well. Stop us, say hello and we will give you aWatchcat postcard!
Its November and over two years ago, we posted our first Watchcat episode and added our Watchcat Films channel on Youtube.
That same year, we attended the CTN Expo in Burbank in our Watchcat T-shirts and handed out Watchcat post cards to people including...
John Musker, one of the directors of the latest Disney film, "Mohana"
After CTNX, we were inspired to finish what we had started and even made this Christmas video card promoting the next WatchCat Episode.
Time flies, we have tried to find an audience by posting this weekly blog to show our production process. We also attempted a few Live "Blogcasts", which might not have turned out as well as we had hoped, but we learned alot. Its hard to make an animated film with limited free time and resources, but I learned a lot from this project and how I can improve on the next.
We tried to educated you about the animation process and keep you entertained every Watchcat Wednesday along the way.
We appreciate all the comments we have received and are amazed that ourblog has reached the following countries all over the world. Besides the United States at 6639 views, we had all time viewers of our cat cartoon reach the following viewing numbers!
Russia
604
France
363
Germany
269
United Kingdom
104
India
67
China
61
Canada
47
Ukraine
46
Israel
39
And so, for this Watchcat Wednesday, I am happy to report that we are about to cross the finish line and release the next Watchcat episode. So let us know you are still with us and want to see Episode 2. We are planning to release it nextWatchcat Wednesday, Nov 16th 2016.
NEXT POST: WatchCat Episode 2
If you like what you see, helps us raise some money for homeless animals by clicking on the ads. We are at $24.54 and Google won't write a check until after $100 amount is reached, so each click helps.
Its Halloween and a few more things to do before the big release of Watchcat episode 2. Thanks for all your patience and support throughout the past few months during the production of this short, which is nearly a year in the making. Thank You, Jimr
Click on the ads to help support your local Watchcat.
For this Watchcat Wednesday! While finishing Watchcat Episode 2, my Alma mater of Columbia College Chicago is having an Alumni screening and Watchcat Episode 1 will debut there on November 1st. I found this out today as I was adjusting the sound tracks and wished I could attend the event.
If you are in the Chicago area and can attend, here's the screening info.
Columbia Alumni Filmmakers Night Tuesday, November 1, 2016 6 – 8:30 p.m.
1104 S. Wabash, Room 310
Chicago, IL 60605
The amazing thing is that this screening was on the same historic day that the Cubs won the World Series! Unfortunately, Greg and I don't live in Chicago anymore, but here is a photo of the other Alumni Filmmakers who did attend.
In the meantime, I'm finishing up Watchcat 2 asap!
Thanks for clicking on the ads, every little click helps and a donation to a local animal shelter will be made as soon as the $100 goal is reached. Google will award a check only after this amount is reached. Right now we are only at $23.96, but that amount is going up with your help!
This blog has just reached 9200 all time views and I'm happy to report that all animation has been completed on Watchcat episode 2. I am currently editing sound effects and adding music and as I am finishing this episode.Take a look at this opening sequence from "A Cat in Paris", which I drew some inspiration from. You can see the rest of the film on Netflix.
I really like the character designs and how they played with the animation of the cat burglar's movements. Watch how his body moves and arms bend in multiple places in some scenes. They could have kept them straight, but this is animation, where you can do anything as long as it adds to the story or scene.
Did you like this post? Want to see more? Click on the ads to help keep a cat off the street and away from criime.
The next posting, you will finally see the finished Watchcat episode,,,
Every year for the past four, I have helped out during Woodbury University's annual 24 hour contest which is organized by Aubry Mintz at Cal State Long Beach. This year's 24 Hour Animation contest 27 schools participating and 124 teams in competition. Woodbury University has 8 teams registered, twice as many as last year.
Instructors are not allowed to help out in any way, since the students must use what they have learn to create and complete their projects. So, I took this opportunity to work on the last few scenes of Watchcat. The 24 HOURS 2016 THEME:"There
are four kinds of people in the world, Those who build walls. Those who
protect walls. Those who breach walls. And those who tear down walls.
Much of life is discovering who you are. When you find out, you also
realize there are places you can no longer go, things you can no longer
do, words you can no longer say." P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe Collins dictionary definition of Wall:
1.
a vertical construction made of stone, brick, wood, etc, with a length
and height much greater than its thickness, used to enclose, divide, or
support b. (as modifier) ⇒ wall hangings - Related adjective: mural
2. (often plural) a structure or rampart built to protect and surround a position or place for defensive purposes
3. anatomy any lining, membrane, or investing part that encloses or bounds a bodily cavity or structure ⇒ abdominal wall.
4. mountaineering a vertical or almost vertical smooth rock face
5. anything that suggests a wall in function or effect ⇒ a wall of fire, ⇒ a wall of prejudice
Keeping in mind that walls can be both metaphorical and physical...
Create a 30 second animated film that includes a wall in one form or another
Discuss this topic , research, explore, find a point of view and make a 30 second animated film…you have 24 HOURS!!!
Here are this year's Woodbury animation teams...
Dream Meme Team
Team Captain: Emily Engel-Fletcher, Alexis Minguez, Juju Snowden, Shaina Carrolland Sean Casey.
Drew Crew
Team Captain: Jada Kurian, Yongkang, Andrew Arcilla and Melissa Chavez .
