Making Christmas

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.

WC03_Animatic_sound from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

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!

Watchcat 2 prowls CTNX 2016

It was an amazing week, beginning with the launch of Watchcat Episode 2 and ending with a visit to the 2016 CTN animation expo  in Burbank over the weekend. This year the convention changed its layout by 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!

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For your consideration, Watchcat 2

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 on our facebook page, like the page and share this with friends, 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?). 

Watch this Watchcat Wednesday!

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 a Watchcat postcard!

Watchcat02 Premieres! from Toondini on Vimeo.

 Wednesday, 11/16/16 for the big online premiere!

Watchcat Episode 2: T-minus and counting

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 our blog 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 next Watchcat 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.