Read the ful post here. Excerpt: “Well folks, its been 2 years since we started on this journey together. Sorry I’ve been so quiet, but I honestly ran out of ideas on how to update you and keep it interesting for so long! Progress has been slow, but it is still very much actively happening and taking up all my free time. I am still energized by Lake Beast, and although the story has evolved over time, there have been surprisingly very few rewrites. A difficulty in projects that drag on this long is that you end up reshaping it to suit whatever your changing tastes of the moment are and it becomes a jumbled mess. Or you try to turn it into the end-all-be-all greatest thing ever and keep changing and/or adding to it. I can thankfully report that has not happened. Its still the same film I pitched to you 2 years ago.”

Read the rest!

Tile choice: Lake Beast

Sometimes the first idea is the better idea! Thanks for giving your input and help with this. I think for simplicity's sake this title is better, and as a friend pointed out it leaves more room for your imagination to breathe.

I've been using a site called dribbble to post small art updates as I work on the film, and you can check that out here!

Also, I recently painted some concept art and recorded it. You may or may not have already seen this but here ya go! Take Care!

Hello! Yes yes I'm not dead and all is well. I hope you've had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here's whats happening. The Beast of Black Lake delays of late are due to much new freelance work taking nearly all my time and energy, plus we recently moved to the fine city of Portland, Oregon and I’m just now getting my bearings. The delays in production will probably continue until the end of the year, and then the plan is to coast on earned money for a month or so in January and work like a dog on the film. We shall see! Thats the plan.

Please don't forget about or give up on this little monster! He is alive and hungry and the day of his emergence from the murky depths looms on the horizon.

MEANWHILE here are some animated gifs taken from the film to tide you over.

I wrote a quick update on the Tumblr - but the even shorter version is that I'm going to take about a month off Beast of Black Lake to make some money. Once thats done I hope to focus on the film as much as is humanly possible! Thanks for your patience.

In case you missed it yesterday the excerpt that played at the Kickstarter Film Fest is now LIVE on the project site!

Check. It. OUT.

I just published a long post about the Kickstarter Film Fest trip I recently got back from. You can read it over at the project Tumblr. Here is a snippet:

« Every big project goes through emotional phases. Theres the initial excitement and rush of ideas and jotting down of concepts, then the middle lulllll… then the final blast to finish. And depending on the length of the project, a few smaller ups and downs throughout. When I left for NYC, I was in kind of a middle-ish lull with Black Lake. I was enjoying working on it, but I wasn’t feeling connected to it emotionally or artistically really. I was just connecting Scene A to Scene B and making sure everything was working. Dont get me wrong, I WAS realizing the vision I had for it, I just wasn’t super inspired in the process. »

(Yes, I just quoted myself - gross!) Read the whole post here!

Big news today folks! Lake Beast aka Beast of Black Lake will be playing at the Kickstarter Film Festival July 9th on a rooftop in Brooklyn, NY! The film is not yet complete, so I put together a special excerpt just for Kickstarter.
Get your tickets as soon as you can, its selling out fast!

Hey, just for fun I'm going to do a live broadcast today of me painting a background. I will start it up in about 30-40 minutes (after I eat lunch) so watch this space: LIVE BROADCAST PAGE

Hey friends! I wanted to link you to a site I'm using to post quick work-in-progress "shots" - many of which are from Beast of Black Lake. Check out all my dribbbles here!

Here are a few examples of stuff I'm posting.

Hey folks, I thought I'd catch you up on whats happening on the project blog! I am doing a series of posts called “Build-A-Scene” where I go through the making of one scene in detail and talk about my thought process and show video of how I build things. Here are links to the first 3 posts!

Post #1 - Intro

Post #2 - Context

Post #3 - Layouts w/ VIDEO

Thanks for reading!

Hey there. I just made it possible for anyone to continue to back Beast of Black Lake - this time thru paypal! Check it out: Be a Backer (cont'd)!
Its not quite as slick as Kickstarter (of course!) but it should hopefully be a good way for new people to back the film and get in on the fun. Let your indie-film/animation-loving friends know all about it!

Thanks!

I wrote up a new entry on the production blog thats about the role a system or production plan can have in making an animated short by yourself.

Read A System vs Creative Flexibility.

There is a new post over at the production blog where I talk about my thoughts on camerawork in the film and in animation in general. Also, the blog now displays tweets from my Twitter feed that have to do with the film, plus it has a fresh new look.
Check it out!