Get updates by RSS
Update #13: Animation Teaser...
Hola amigos y amigas! Once again we are overdue for an update and we apologize, but to quote True Grit, "Time just gets away from us." Surprise, surprise, we're still plugging away over here! We've completed some promising looking animation in the last few months, and as it should happen we have a little snippet to share with you.
So we recently pulled one of the larger
Werleybob boners to date. There was a shot that was included in the
original animatic, which we cut when we went through and trimmed the
film down. It was a gag we liked, but didn't feel progressed the story
or gave any new insight into our characters. However, we never actually
removed or annotated the storyboards currently adorning our walls to
remind us of those changes. When Bob sets up the camera for a shot, he
goes through the storyboards, and shoots any panel intended for that
angle that is ready to go. So he planned out the shot, gave poor Werley
the information he needed to sculpt nearly 20 individual mouth shapes,
and animated almost the entire thing before he remembered that the whole
gag had been cut. So after a very brief self-pity/shame spiral we
decided that the blunder gave us an opportunity to share some of our
animation, as it is not going to end up in the film anyway, and
therefore was not a complete waste of time. So here it is! Enjoy!
Also, please be advised that this shot is not entirely complete. It would still need sound effects,digital lighting correction, and paint effects before it could be edited into the film. Creases in the clay from the mouths being inserted and removed, and damaged paint in and around the eyes would all be painted out one frame at a time. Possibly by our newest conspirator Sophie Van Ronsele, who is being so kind as to donate her time and computer sorcery to the film.
We have a few additional videos as well. Werley took some footage that provides a bit of insight into his process in creating all the replacement mouths required for a single shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_wSg5UnzBg
Bob took a video diary documenting the entire multiple day process of animating a shot, and is posting a segment which deals with planning a performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYHZHzoLfM0
We threw some stills from the film up here as well, and again these may have metal pins or exposed bits of wire that either have been, or will be digitally painted out.
So that's about it! While we are constantly encountering pitfalls and obstacles we continue a slow but steady march forwards. Bob's leaving tomorrow to take a train with his brother and sister to New Orleans for Jazz fest. He's taking some animation books for the train, but other then that it's all about family, music, beer, and crawfish. In that order too probably. When he comes back he'll start the long awaited phase of production in which he animates talking rolls of toilet paper. Hallelujah.
Take it easy beloved friends, family, acquaintances, and well wishers,
-WerleyBob Pictures
Update #12: Our Voice Over Recording Session...
Hey Friends!
We just wanted to check in and share what's been going on recently. We had an excellent recording session down in L.A. with veteran voice actor Bob Bergen, who is not only a superbly talented man, but literally one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Seriously, if he were any nicer I don't think I could trust him. He was kind enough to lend his bizarre, but amazing gift to our film, and we were blown out of the water by his abilities. The voices he created for our characters were fantastic, and he behaved every bit the professional he is the whole time. We've uploaded a clip from the video Bradly took during the session to give you guys some insight into how a Mack Daddy voice actor throws down, and also as a sneak peak into some of the dialogue from the film.
Since the session we've each enjoyed nice trips back home to spend quality time with friends and family over the holidays, but have returned to our work with a full head of steam. Bradly's been working hard on puppets and props, and I've been busy animating lip sync to our cool new voices. It's great to finally see these characters come alive and speak!
So that's it for now, but as always many thanks to you all for your continued support, and we'll post another update in a couple of months!
Cheers,
-Bob and Bradly
a.k.a. WerleyBob Pictures
P.S. We're putting out a call for people experienced with After Effects, or people experienced with Photoshop who are willing to learn some basic After Effects. There's a lot of digital painting and rig removal that needs to be done after the animation is shot, and it's taking a lot of time away from getting more stop motion done. So if ya'll know any bored nerds with an Adobe package...
Oh yeah. We need a sound designer too. So if you know one who doesn't care about trivial things like getting paid then you should send him/her our way. Adios!
-
-
Bob Blevins on January 27
Thanks John! Congratulations on finishing your film also! It looks too cool and we can't wait to see it. If any one wants to see some cool stuff, check out this mans website...
http://web.mac.com/johndods/John_Dods_Studio/John_Dods_Studio.html -
Lisa McKinzie on January 30
Bob and Bradly, How exciting! Piece by piece and ply by ply, you're getting there. I know you're working so hard. It's very cool to see what Bob is contributing. It's obvious he's adding a new dimension to all you've been imagining and really making your project come alive. Congratulations on getting over this hurdle. Keep up the good work! I can't wait for the belly laughs it will bring when it's done, you rock! Love, Lisa XO
-
Bob Blevins on March 20
I realize this is super late, Lisa, but thank you so much for your kind words.
-Bradly
-
Update #11: Our Big News!
Hey Everyone!
Sorry it's been so long since we last posted an update, but an opportunity arose several months ago that we've been pursuing ever since, and we decided to hold off on further updates until we knew whether or not things would work out in our favor. However, today we're able to announce that after months of pestering and pleading with various representatives from the Screen Actors Guild, we have been cleared to contract the experienced and extremely talented voice actor Bob Bergen to provide the vocal performances for T.P.!
Bob has been a professional voice actor since he was eighteen, and his list of feature film and television credits for animation alone is staggering. He has been providing the voice for Porky Pig since 1990, but if you listen to his animation demo reel(The link to his site is below) you'll recognize several iconic characters including, but not limited to...
Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Marvin the Martian, Droopy Dog, Luke Skywalker, and more! Also, be sure to check out his resume and count how many of your favorite films he's worked on.
Aside from being very accomplished, Bob's also a super nice guy, and to say he's being generous with his time, talent, and expertise is an understatement. We're very grateful, and we're sure that his involvement is going to provide the last key ingredient that up until now our little production was lacking. We've reserved time in a state of the art recording studio that tailors specifically to voice actors, and we're traveling down to LA next week to take this thing to the next level!
So that's the big news, and again we apologize to everyone, especially those of you who have been writing us for updates. We just thought it would be more exciting to include this information in our next update, but had no notion of exactly how long the process was going to take. Things just seem to take a lot longer when you've hardly got any money and no one knows who you are. We think it was worth the wait though.
As far as the other areas of production are concerned we're making lovely progress. We've knocked out several puppets and completed a nice hunk of animation, and we're very happy with how everything's looking. We've had some invaluable assistance from a few fellow artists of course. Mike Barnett has been providing excellent illustrations and background art, Preston Stringer IV has been a tremendous help in applying the wonderful little details to our puppets, and Dorthy Thielsen is doing an excellent job as our miniature costume designer/fabricator. Bob's beautiful and obnoxiously talented sister Grace Blevins has been with us since day one, providing the awesome logo and type for WerleyBob Pictures, as well as helping us out with flyers and other promotional materials.
We've been working with a talented musician Justin Anderson also, and he's putting together some very promising tracks for us. You can check him out through the link below...
There is also a very powerful and famous piece of music that is essential to our storytelling, and we're very happy to say that we've been able to secure the rights to a beautiful recording for use in the film, which is another large weight off our shoulders.
So we're still plugging away over here. We must confess that things are taking longer then we suspected they would, but at the same time it's looking more and more like this film is going to be of a higher quality then we thought reasonable to expect when we posted our proposal on this fantastic website. It's a labor of love, but we're confident that as time goes on more help will come, and the pace of our production will snowball. Of course if it doesn't, ya'll are just gonna have to wait.
I'm posting some screen shots from the film, and we're updating the blog as well for anyone who wants more detailed information on what exactly is going on over here.
http://werleybobpictures.wordpress.com/
So questions and comments are always appreciated, and in the words of a certain pig we recently had the pleasure to leave a voicemail for... "That's All Folks!"
P.S. Seriously, we dialed a phone number and Porky Pig was on the other end encouraging us to Duh-du-bleh-duh-bleh-du-bleh-duh leave a message! How cool is that? Cheers!
-
-
John Dods on December 7
Great news guys! I'm so glad that you completely understand how important sound and music is to an animated film. Have a great recording session with Bob Bergen!
-
Christine Blevins on December 14
Bobby and Bradley! What fantastic news!
Your film is going to be awesome.
Have a blast in LA!
-
Update #10: We're shooting!
Hey everyone,
We apologize for taking so long to post a new update. Our bad. We had some technical difficulties actually getting our hands on the funds you all helped us raise, and then it took some additional time for us to gather all our cool new stuff, and then it took a little longer to learn how to use most of it. There has also been a good deal of puppet and set fabrication we've needed to get done, but we're happy to announce that at long last we have begun shooting actual animation for the film! Hizzah! There's still mountains of work to be done and we'll try to be more Johnny on the spot with the updates as we go. There's a couple pictures here, but for more detailed process photos check out our "Production 4" page on the blog, and to see exactly how we're spending your money check out the "Kickstarter Funds" page as well. The blog is...
http://werleybobpictures.wordpress.com/
As always we wish to express our gratitude to you all. Much love,
Bradly and Bob a.k.a. WerleyBob Pictures
-
-
Christine Blevins on August 4, 2011
The set and puppets look absolutely phenominal -
You guys are really cookin' now! -
Keith McWhorter on September 20, 2011
Any more "Johnny on the spot" updates? :-) Can't wait for the finished product!
-
Update #9: Hey Friends!
For backers only,
Posted on May 28, 2011
If you're a backer of this project, please
log in
to read this post.
133
Backers
$5,650
pledged of $5,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on May 24, 2011.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
For this donation we will close our eyes and radiate our positive energy in your general direction for no less than five seconds. We're actually going to do it too.
Pledge $5 or more Pledge $5 or more
We will mail you an original personalized and signed T.P. thank you card. It may seem like a crappy gift now, but when you're raking it in on E-bay off our world famous signatures you'll be happy you spent the five bucks.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
We'll mail you the card. as well as a signed storyboard panel, and if we run out we'll draw you something nice don't worry about it.
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
We throw in an I.O.U. for one DVD version of the completed film as soon as it's available. You know you want one.
Pledge $30 or more Pledge $30 or more
We throw in a pre-production package that includes the original script, photo copies of original designs, The shot list, and one original thumb nail drawing. Go on. Buy yourself some insight into our process.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
We add five sequential story boards instead of one, and we throw the character profiles into the pre-production package. The character profiles contain the basic life story of each character, and combined are almost equal in length to the script of the film. They're fun.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
We add ten sequential boards instead of five, one piece of original concept art, and we put your name in the "Special Thanks To" section of the film, because you're so special.
Pledge $200 or more Pledge $200 or more
We add an original prop or piece from one of the puppets or set and fifteen sequential boards. This is turning into a pretty nice package I would say.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
We throw in an original puppet from the film, twenty-five sequential boards, and additional concept art. We must indeed be grateful to part with one of our precious puppets.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
For this level of donation you will be credited as a producer at the end of the film. We will include the completed script of our next project, as well as scripts for other short films and works in progress. You will also receive a personalized special edition DVD package that includes a video homage to you personally. We would be happy to grovel before you, oh loaded one.
Pledge $2,000 or more Pledge $2,000 or more
If you descend from the heavens and give us this amount of money you will become the Executive Producer of this project. We will include in your package the piece of artwork from the film we deem to be the most valuable, and we will construct a small shrine around a picture of you in our apartment. We will maintain it daily, and keep it surrounded by fresh flowers and scented candles.
Project By
Has not connected their Facebook account.
WerleyBob Pictures is what happens when Bradly Werley and Bob Blevins set out to make animated films together. We completed films on our own before we met,("Life on the Rocks"-Bob, and "Whisk"-Bradly) and we feel with our combined efforts and a little capital we will be able to create films with compelling stories, lovable characters, excellent craftsmanship, interesting animation, and a lot of heart. Only one way to find out.
