The Big News Update.

All right. Bunch of stuff to mention so here I go!

INDIEGOGO FUNDING CAMPAIGN


Firstly thanks to Lucas Collins for his contribution. You made my day.

Also, though it took some time, I finally finished making the pitch video for IndieGoGo. You'll find it on the page HERE. Man, was that video hard to do....


I OPENED A ZAZZLE STORE


Ya, as the title says. Been trying to get that thing up for a while now. Kinda hard deciding what to put up. Of course I am open to ideas if anyone has any, be it images that might be cool or even ideas of different products matched with said images. Love to here your thoughts! STORE IS HERE!


CHAPTER 5 PERKS


Sorry for taking so long with this. I'm almost done! I should be shipping all the perks out either Monday or Tuesday of next week. I'm also hoping to put up some pictures of the stuff this weekend.


CHAPTER 6 UPDATE


I have to admit that Chapter 5 was rough on me. I think I over did it, overworked myself. Must try and be more reasonable. And my baby blues for this one was pretty brutal (happens every episode). So i took a couple week break, I even started working on non-Faux stuff. But dammit, I keep getting pulled back into it. Oh well :D

I won't complain. I'm starting to feel excited about it again... This should be the best episode yet. Shits going down! I'll expand on some of that maybe next week. wee!


NON-FAUX STUFF
I got some other stuff I will be posting online. I'll have to dust off my other blog or something. It's a cartoon (I lurv cartoons.) it's animated. It's in outer space. more to come.

(On a strange side note. Blogger is telling me that online, Blogger and blog are spelt incorrectly. ironic?)


AUDITIONS

Will be opening up auditions for Tet soon. Will post the information regarding the lines and other particulars on Monday. So be sure to check back.

IN CLOSING

Oh and thanks for the continued support moral and otherwise. Your kind words and support means a lot to me, I couldn't continue without it.

END TRANSMISSION!

Hey.

Here's a first screen shot to show you for Chapter 6. Will have more stuff for tomorrow, big post likely.

DVD cover.

Here is the cover of the Chapter 1-5 DVD that I'll be sending out as part of the perks for the IndieGogo campaign. 

An Octember Update.

Hello!

Two things to talk about.

Firstly. The Faux5 Indiegogo perks.

I'm working on getting the Chapter 5 IndieGogo perks out to the contributors ASAP. I'm still in the process of making the DVD, having a really hard time settling on a cover. I might post up the roughs and hopefully you can help me decide. Also I'll put up a list of the stuff that's on the disk when it's ready.

Secondly. Chapter 6 news. Weeeee!

I've been secretly working on it inside my bunker for a while now, that's the good news I guess. Bad news?The device that delivers intermittent  food pellets necessary to sustain my presence on this mortal coil, has ceased functioning.

In between my attempts to tunnel out of here using nothing but an old copy of Consumer report McGuyvered into a shovel, I will finish the Chapter no.6.

Animation will be starting, this week. (VERY EXCITED!)

Seondly and a half. 

Gonna need a couple OR more man voices. So if you got a man voice stay tuned here this week for more informacione por favor. 

It's online.

http://youtu.be/h9Zd6fxS1NE

I've started an IndieGoGo funding campaign for episodes 6,7,8 (it can be found on the right) much appreciated if you can help out and/or spread the word.

Cheers!

FAUX Chapter 5 - Release date

October 5th, 2011

 There ya go!

Drawing.

unrelated note, 60% done.

A couple of Chapter 5 scenes.

Chapter 5 is 40% complete. wee! A few scenes.

Faux Chapter 2 and 3 - deleted scenes and misc.

So following up on the previous post about deleted scenes, here's another for Chapter 2 and 3. I found less stuff for the second so they'll be fused together. Bear in mind I'm posting stuff that's not been seen, therefore scenes removed that were in the 2009 version of Faux don't count.

So this was what was going to be the opening shot. Was meant to pan from the sky down to Armand. I kept reworking it. It's kind of bare and boring and didn't do much to start things off. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted but never got close to getting it down on screen.

This is just a close-up of the advert on the wall. That was fun to do.

FAUX Chapter 1 - deleted scenes

It's time for a weekly backup of the project, it's getting a little large (120gigs!), I will need a new hard disk soon, Especially with Episode 5 in 720p, it's getting mighty heavy already. So while I've been waiting for the backup to finish I've been going through the labyrinth of folders and finding long forgotten drawings and things of the sort, specifically I've been looking at deleted scenes, of which there are more than I remembered. Thought I might post them for the hell of it.

So here's what I've found for Chapter 1 (2009 version), I'll likely follow up with the others as well.

These drawings are from 2008, originally Chapter 1 started with a flashback. It never got much farther than an animatic and these 3 unfinished scenes. It didn't really add anything, so was rightly cut. This version was very short lived. I thought it would be best to start with some action, but ultimately felt it ruined the feel of the sequence that followed it.

This was meant to be an establishing shot for the 2nd sequence. I was never happy with it. There's way too many problems with this drawing to get into. It's sloppy and symmetrical among other things, oh the lighting is bad. Oh wait, i'm getting into it aren't I? It wasn't needed once the flashback sequence was axed.

The girl awakens from a dream. I slap myself for this one. It's a bit of a cliche someone sitting up in a huff from a nightmare. This was one the first scenes done. I think it was actually partially animated. (it's someone in the folder labyrinth). I was yet unsure how far to go between animation and motion comics at this point.

There was a scene where Armand and Tet get chewed out by their boss. You may recognize this guy from a couple scenes in the trailer. He's important further on in the story but at one point he was meant to appear earlier, but this was deemed unnecessary.

As hard as it is sometimes you have to cut stuff sometimes. The biggest mistake would be to fall in love with your work and be blinded to the necessity of  making those tough choices. 

Well I must say I quite enjoyed that rummaging session. I hope it was interesting for you too. I think I'll dig some more!

Facebook comments

I recently added the option to comment via Facebook to the blog, but it has not worked properly. Comments were posting to ALL posts instead of the post to which it belonged.

SO, until I can figure out how to fix that I'll be going back to the default comments from before.

cheers.

FAUX5: work in progress, a bit of animation.

It's not finished by any means. But you get the idea.

FAUX5: Lhasa casting update.

Once again thanks to everyone for their auditions for the role of Lhasa. The role has been filled by Karen Kahler. 


Be sure to stay tuned for casting in future episodes!


Also I will be posting some finished scenes from Episode 5 sometime either this weekend or early in the week.
cheers!

FAUX5: screen grab

First screen grab from the first completed scene (effects, animation, compositing).

The ball is rolling now. More to come.

FAUX5 casting reminder.

Midnight tonight (August 20th, 2011) is the deadline for auditions for Lhasa. 

Just a reminder. Cheers and have a good weekend!

Jan Fatale

Hmm. Maybe I'll go the other way....

FAUX poster give-away!

I've ordered the posters that I made up for the IndieGoGo campaign for Faux5. I thought I'd give a few away. All you need to do is "like" FAUX on facebook to be eligible. If you haven't liked FAUX yet, you can do that. (There's the box below for your clicking convenience.)





There will be 5 posters available. The winners will be drawn  randomly from a giant sombrero on September 1st, 2011. Good luck!

Ren and Stimpy are 20!

Hey! It's Ren and Stimpy's Birthday. 20 years old they are. Easily one of the most influencing cartoons of our age. I still remember the first time I seen R&S, it was at a camp belonging to my parent's friends. They had a satellite dish which was pretty rare at the time. I fell upon an american TV station that showed only cartoons! All day long! It was called Nickelodeon, and on this channel I first caught a glimpse of that stupid cat and deranged chewawa. It was so twisted and weird I didn't know what to think of it, suffice to say I was hooked and I think it's probably to blame for my becoming an animator as well as my collection of magical nose goblins (it's sitting here on my desk in front of me.)

cheers to you Ren Hoek and Stimpson J. Cat.

I made this in their honour.

Testing a new animation build of Jan.

Here's a test of the latest animation build for Jan. I'm also testing out different shadow and lighting techniques. 

FAUX5: further casting. (Lhasa)

Have another role to fill for Episode 5.

Here are the details.

Lhasa
Age: 32
female

info: she is confident, determined and has a single-mindedness in her duty. She isn't afraid to make tough choices even at the expense of others. She is calm under pressure.

There will be two lines for the audition there are below:

1st line:
"Don't be foolish. You know very well you are here because I allow it. And you leave here by the same grace."


2nd line:
"Not at all. This is dead serious. Perhaps i'm just nervous."
(This line is said mockingly.)

OTHER INFO:

-Deadline is: 20th August 2011
-please send the files in mp3 format unzipped to marsoupskin AT gmail DOT com

Thanks and good luck to everyone who auditions!

Jan and Armand Audition update

The decision has been made, it took a while and that owes to the large amount of talented people who auditioned. So without further ado.

JAN - Caxx
ARMAND - Neo Skywalker

There is another role open for Chapter 5, I will try to put together the info for that this week.

cheers.

Reflections

So, I'm back from New York, feeling refreshed, lightly toasted.

As I plow forward on Episode 5 I've been thinking about FAUX up till now and how things will change, as well as the experience with motion comics as a storytelling medium.

I'm sort of taking stock of things since finishing Chapter 4 is sort of a milestone personally in that it's the end of the beginning and I still remember when it seemed quite a distant goal to reach.

Motion comics was always sort of a compromise. I preferred animation as a way of telling the story but it just didn't seem feasible in the sense of releasing episodes in a timely manner. For example the original 3 chapters that appeared on Newgrounds in 2009 where released 3-4 months apart. Though at the time I was incredibly busy with work. In the end I found that the end products were rushed messes, too many corners cut, I set myself impossible deadlines, would often be drawing till 4am in the morning. The result is often uneven quality and lack of proper reflection. 

I recognize that ones work won't stand the test of personal scrutiny over time. As we get better we can not help but cringe looking back at work we did. But that's part of the learning process. But I think if you feel you did the best you could at the time then there shouldn't be too any reason for auto-flagellation. 

So after I finished the 3rd Chapter in 2009 I got pretty bummed out. I was not happy with it at all. I thought it was horrible and could not understand what I was thinking while making it (I was thinking get'r done). I started to question my choices. Work on Chapter 4 ground to a halt, I lost my confidence.

FAUX was shelved until I found myself between animation contracts, I decided I was going to crawl out of my funk and get back on Chapter 4, but first I'd do some small fixes to the first 3, especially the 3rd one while I did the 4th. In the end the small fixes ended up being big fixes and Chapter 3 was completely redone. I'm much happier with them now. Are there things I'd change? For sure. But I did the best I could at the time. And that's what's important.

I don't think I'm gonna get too much into motion comics in this post. (I think that was the original plan, but went off track) but maybe in a follow-up post. It's an interesting and strange medium, And I would like to talk about it a little, also talk a bit about the  motion comic to animation transition.

Also, this week news on the casting front. Stay tuned!

P.S. and I made a drawing!

FAUX Chapter 04 ONLINE!

It's done. If you want to view it you can check it out at Vimeo or Youtube.

I'm working on a Newgrounds version, should be online by the end of the day.

In case you didn't know I've got a indiegogo funding campaign for Episode 5. If you can contribute or spread the word I'd be very grateful, there's little under 2 weeks left. Be sure to check it out too.

http://www.indiegogo.com/FAUX5/

Woof, i'm exhausted. I'm going to take a break from FAUX till next week. I'll be going to New York for the first time this weekend, pretty excited about that.

FAUX 4 just around the bend.

As the title suggests Episode 4 is just about finished. It should be online next week. I'd also like to thank everyone who sent an audition for Jan and Armand. I was pleasantly surprised by the response (over 100 auditions in total), still have lots of them to go through. Once I'm done with episode 4 I can fully turn my attention on 5 and will be looking for people for other roles, probably beginning of august.

I'm on Google+

Hey I've joined Google+, be sure to add me. Also if you're not on Google+ plus yet, I could give you an invite. Just put your email addy in the comments.

Here's my profile:
http://www.gplus.to/marsoups/

Also use this site if you want a personalized address (like mine) instead of a string of a billion numbers.
http://gplus.to/

cheers,

Faux, and perogies! (no idea what to call this post)

Oh boy! Cut my finger, this band-aid sure makes it hard to type. Only a couple dozen drawings to go for chapter 4 (still seems like a lot). Thanks again to all the auditions I've received and am receiving, it's gonna keep me busy awhile. Finishing up work on the animation builds for chapter 5. Hopefully will have something to show on that front soon. Excited!

Now I've got to go eat some perogies!

Couple drawings

From chapter 4.

FAUX 4 and 5 UPDATE: Busy busy!

Thanks for all the auditions so far. I will hopefully have a chance to start listening to them beginning of the week. Hopefully I can post some stuff from chapter 4 soon, but having trouble finding stuff that's spoiler free. Also, trying to finish up the script for chapter 5, stay tuned for news on other castings.

cheers.

oh and here's some Weakerthans for the hell of it!
http://youtu.be/lhBdyL2Py-s

Casting for Voice Actors

Hello Everyone,

As work continues on Chapter 4, pre-production for the 5th chapter has begun. The reason I'm working on the two concurrently is because Chapter 5 will be adding animation and voices, so there's tons of setup work involved so I'm trying to get a head start. For the moment I'm looking for the leads (Jan and Armand) other roles will follow.



ABOUT
FAUX is an epic adventure, mystery set in alternate universe. The story follows a police officer named Armand who after investigating a murder meets up with a girl who bears a striking resemblance to the victim. His curiosity peeked he investigates further. But soon finds himself thrust between two powerful factions in conflict, with Jan in the center, but what is her true role in all of this?

It started off as an episodic motion comic series. There are 3 episodes completed to date with the 4th in the works. FAUX will now move into the realm of animation and voice acting.

FOR MORE INFO: check the links on the right------>
There's the trailer as well as the first 3 episodes.



CASTING
Since this is a series that will hopefully be around for a while, I prefer respondants who are interested in being with the series for the long haul. In terms of payment, it's to be determined based on the final budget, right now I'm trying to raise funding for Chp.5 over at IndieGoGo, more news to come on that front.



If you're interested in the role there will be directions for each role, and lines to use (The directions will be along the lines of the intention of the line/scene, I'd rather leave things open for you to explore how you prefer to get there. I'm looking for people who can act (obviously), who can take direction as well as have their opinion. You might see the line differently and have a better suggestion, in the end what's important is the intention gets across.



This audition is open to pretty much anyone who's interested, though if you are working at a distance you will need a decent quality mic. Also we'd meet up on skype in either voice or chat to discuss the lines/direction, voice is probably preferable due to ease of communication.

You may send multiple takes if you wish within reason. A good method is the "series of three", you do take A then B and when you do C it's a mix of the two.
There's an interesting article about it at voices.com if you're interested.




Okay! I think that's done. I'm going to try and avoid burdening you with too much backstory and things of that nature, concentrate on the scene and bring you're own interpretation.




NB: Sometimes dialogue on paper doesn't come off quite right when it's spoken. Feel free to change the wording around if neccessary. As long as the essence of the information that needs to come across stays intact.

NB2: Although the dialogues are pulled from existing scenes don't feel bound by their lengths, if you need to change the timing, do so. Work within the space you feel works.





QUESTIONS
If you have any questions you can email me at marsoupskin at gmail dot com or post it in the comments section of the post.




IN CONCLUSION
Thanks for your time and interest in the project and i'm looking forward to seeing your work. please send all recordings to marsoupskin at gmail dot com, with the subject:
*character name*audition.

Deadline for auditions is 2 weeks hence:
july 20th, 2011

Without further ado:

The lines are taken from chapter 3, though slightly altered.

JAN
Age:20

Jan is one of the two main protagonists. She's nonchalant, she has a calm, thoughtful demeanor for her age.


The Lines:

(JAN is in a state of shock after almost being killed at the police station just minutes before, she's feeling quite vulnerable and is increasingly suspicious of Armand since all this trouble started since she met him.)
DIALOGUE IN RED

"Armand. What the hell just happened?" "I mean, first those Reuger (pronounced: roy-guhr) guys show up. Now this?" "This all started with you." "And when you look at me. I dunno, there's something. Something you're not telling me."


Any questions you can ask them in the comment section, or fire off an email :) marsoupskin at gmail dot com

ARMAND
age: 28

The other protagonist. I don't have a specific voice in mind for Armand, so I'm open to your interpretation.

The Lines:


1. (JAN has asked ARMAND to level with him about what he knows concerning why she was being held by REUGER and the nature of the attack. ARMAND is forced to admit that he kept this information from her.)
DIALOGUE IN RED

"Reuger (pronounced: roy-guhr) did tell me some things." "I'm sorry. I didn't want to alarm you."


2.(The following dialogue comes after JAN berates ARMAND for lying to her before. After calming down she pleads with him to be open with her. And she needs to know she can trust him. ARMAND feels terrible for misleading JAN, even if his intentions were good.)

"Listen, I realize that was stupid of me. I had no right to keep that from you. There's no excuse." "I promise, from here on out. You can trust me. I'll hold nothing back."


Any questions you can ask them in the comment section, or fire off an email :) marsoupskin at gmail dot com



Thank you!