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!
