M dot Strange's blog

This post refers to digital currency like Bitcoin and the collective unconscious from Jungian psychology... So right now you can turn your cpu/gpu cycles (or asic) into currency by mining one of the various digital currencies- the price is paid by you in the cost of the electricity or energy required to do the mining- there's also time involved- ANYONE with access to a computer and the internet could be turning energy and time into digital currency- into something of value that can be traded, sold, shared etc- Most people are not doing this BUT the blockchain is out there waiting for you to utilize it- I'm a cg animator so a lot of the time I'm sitting here waiting on renders- wherein a few pc's are running special software that renders my animation frame by frame- I was watching the render clients render the frames to my new film and I thought- maybe what they are really doing is mining this imagery from my imagination? OR perhaps they are helping me

I'm more than halfway through compositing the new film- so far so good! I'm able to composite 50-100 shots a day- and 100 shots renders in about 24 hours- I hope to be finished with compositing in about a week- then it'll be on to completing the sound design- and then the film will be finished!

If you've followed me for some time you know that I've wanted to get serious about sharing what I've learned about cg filmmaking- I tried to start it a few times but the technology/tools just weren't there yet or cheap enough for me to do it without funding BUT the time might be right in 2014- My wife just started attending Animation Mentor so I've been checking out their curriculum and how they run their school- technically its not an complex as I'd though it would be- NOW I'm NOT A PIXAR animator or someone on that level technically BUT those peeps don't make their own cg feature films alone which takes a much more diverse skill set and very different work experience SO I am the one to teach that- So if you want to learn how to make your own full length cg films than I'm the one to teach you ^_^ If you're not familiar with how it works- they have prerecorded video tutorial/lessons that you download and watch- then you have a "live Q

If you like strange animated films then you have to watch this! We've had the creator of this film on the forever alone filmmaking podcast which you can find here - and be sure to check out his site here If you want this on DVD you can get it here!

So as of now I'm composited 45 minutes of the new film- almost halfway- It's going pretty good so far- I'm really happy with the look of the film- I used really simple low poly models- basic, mostly badly hand painted painted textures ^_^ and simple atmospheric manual lighting setups- the 3d render times were pretty fast- about 20 seconds to 3 minutes per frame- Compositing is going really fast- I can do 35-95 shots a day- speed depends on whether I need to generate After Project files or not to track in my 2d skies- check this video to see my process If I squint most of the shots look like they're stop motion- which I was going for so I'm happy about that ^_^ The simplicity and flaws of the models + the imitation resin shader I made helps sell the stop motion look- I was stoked when I saw this comment on the films teaser trailer "L ooks Like an Awesome Stop Motion Film" The thing I didn't do that w

Since I won't be able to make the Xmas release date there's no point in me rushing now- I should take my time and make sure I have time to fix things in the film that bug me (I wasn't going to) AND most importantly I should take the time to properly introduce and promote the film the right way- as I SUCK at doing that- I'm asking people a lot better than me at all this for advice and I've been advised that I shouldn't release an official trailer until the film is available for sale- BUT for you pre-order peeps you will get the film as a download as soon as its done regardless of whether the trailer/promo stuff is done yet ^_^ I'm going to sell the film through vhx.tv  which I'm really excited about- its going to take some time to design my vhx page and make it look good- don't want to rush through that- The most important thing is the trailer- I'm NOT going to make it because I'm terrible at presenting my own work- so I'm going

The deadline I've been working towards to release my new film I am Nightmare has been December 25th 2013- or just 24 days from now- 228 remaining renders as of Dec 1st When I did my render time calculations a few months ago that deadline seemed within reach- BUT now on December 1st there is still about 230 cinema 4d shots waiting to render- thats 250 left out of 1,420 total- I'm rendering 24/7 on two PC's- the two PC's can do about 200 shots a week- Now thats 3d renders or cinema 4d renders- once those renders are complete I composite the shots in After Effects then I have to render the final shots from there- I did some calculations for that and it will take 24 days to render the shots out of After Effects- So due to render times it will be impossible to release the whole film on December 25th- its looking more like mid January now- BUT I want to release SOMETHING on December 25th So here is my idea- please let me know what you think of it- What if I r

Things have been pretty tough as the film winds down- I'm STILL working on the lighting/sending to render- I now have 100 shots left out of 1,420- The hardcore film work messed up my health again as I had the worst migraine headache of my life 2 weeks ago- the headache lasted for two days and I was puking for like 24 hours in the middle of it- if you get severe migraines you know that it feels like you are in hell- So that screwed me up for awhile as it happened a week after I lost the hearing in my left ear again- which has come back but loud ringing remains- I saw a doctor a few times and they wanted me to get an MRI but it was going to cost $820 up front so I was like ummm no- I think I discovered what is causing my health problems though- about a year ago I made my own pull up bar by tying a steel barbell to a tree branch- I've been using that for about a year BUT the tree branch is crooked so I think it caused my neck/spinal alignment to be off as my neck cracks and

I haven't had the time/energy/focus to write in this blog as I finish the film and try to stay somewhat healthy in doing so... I've gotten through lighting/sending to render 1200 of the films 1400 shots so far- I've been trying to do 50 shots a day and have kept up that quota for most of my time doing it but it started taking a toll on me mentally and physically- it started making me feel a little crazy then my carpal tunnel started acting up making my wrist ache- So I pushed really hard and got to the 1200 shot mark and took a week off as a break to hang out with my wife and sister in Northern Cali- three days into the break I lost the hearing in my left ear again- it happened in Feb of this year as well- the Dr. gave me a medication that makes me feel like I'm insane and makes me feel like general trash but my hearing came back albeit with super loud ringing in that ear- I've had ringing for the whole year actually- just glad the hearing came back- So anyway

I've been so busy the past month or so I haven't had time to write in this blog- I'm now just about halfway through lighting/sending shots to render for I am Nightmare- so about 700 shots lit/sent to render so far- Rendering is moving along- slowly but surely- about 280 shots have rendered so far- I stopped working on that a few days ago to do a music video I got hired to do a video for Mindless Self Indulgence- that will be finished tomorrow- seems I can do a minute+ of animation for a music video type thang a day as thats what I'm doing for this project- so 3 days work for a music vid- Speaking of music- M dot Strange composer/music guy has to finish the music I'm doing for a homie's film called "Welcome to Normality" soon as well- going to have to fire up Ableton and my dusty hardware for that one- On the strange news tip I had a meeting with the enigmatic musical genius Endika last week- we talked about working on a new project together-

I always laugh when I see "filmmakers" debating and complaining about current camera technology- making all these excuses like the technology isn't good enough to capture their grand, epic visions. Acting like they're Kubrick shooting 2001 or some shit ^_^ You have to become a MASTER filmmaker/storyteller before technology becomes a limitation because until then YOU and your filmmaking skills are the weakest link- I say this from personal experience- I am not a master filmmaker and I know that the technical things are NOT the weakest link in my work- I am- so I don't worry so much about the technicalities or use them as an excuse to NOT make my films- I use what I can get my hands on and appreciate its awesomeness and low price compared to what filmmakers before me had- Acting like the technology is their limitation- like the technology is going to make or break their project is just a lie people tell themselves- Today at a time when filmmaking/animation

I literally have ZERO "making of" documentation for I am Nightmare- since I do most everything myself I haven't had the time or ability to document anything since I'm too busy working- There was hours of Heart String Marionette making of stuff that you haven't seen yet but I hope that will change in the future- I guess the only making of that could be created for I am Nightmare would be to fashion something out of interviews of the voice actors, myself and Mad Dashiell? So it would be something like- conducting video interviews over skype or something similar and cutting them together to make some sort of narrative- whatever documentary types do ^_^ So if you have some documentary/interview experience and this is something you'd like to do please contact me at mdotstrange@gmail.com I love making of stuff myself so I'm sort of disappointed that I didn't create any as I went along for the new film- but I'm just one guy and making the act

If you've followed this blog you know that I use quota's in all phases of my filmmaking- So this month I'd like to light and send 1,450 shots to render- That equals out to about 50 shots a day that I need to get through- so I made up and printed out these sheets- So as long as I cross out a block of 50 boxes a day I'll finish on time- So I got through the first day of boxes today- but it wasn't easy 0_0 Having those worksheets seems to quiet my anxiety and nervousness about being able to finish on time- I know that as long as I cross out a bloc of those boxes a day then everything is alright and I don't have to freak out and work 24 hours straight haha- So now my render PC is rendering away- My workstation renders about half the speed as my render node- I optimize my shots so that they render at like 30 seconds to 2 minutes per frame on my workstation- so that means they render from 15 seconds to one minute per frame on my render PC which is rea

(Thanks for all the kind words and good energy for Boo- I stuck a mini katana in the ground where I buried him and burn incense there to honor the little guy) “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” ~Kenji Miyazawa Now today I start the first phase of I am Nightmare post production- I'll be taking the shots that have been animated and edited using hardware renders and I will light and render them- All 1,439 shots have been animated and the offline edit has been locked- the final film with titles and all is 2 hours 6 minutes long as you can see from the master timeline below So my one render server/render node is waiting to start its major work ^_^ So I'm going to try to light and send to render all 1,449 shots this month which would mean I have to get through 50 shots a day- I just have the one render pc so I know its not going to be able to keep up with the number of shots I'll keep adding to it everyday- I'm scheduling 60 da

I had to euthanize my cat Boo today- it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do- I've been giving him subcutaneous fluids everyday via IV for the past year as he's been dying of kidney failure- and he took a turn for the worse yesterday- He's been at my side for my whole filmmaking career- he was my best friend so he will be greatly missed by me. He was like my little secret weapon that comforted me through all my tough times. He was a small cat but never backed down from a fight- he never gave up on living but his quality of life had gotten so bad I had to call it an end as his owner who loves him. Thanks for being my little homie for so long and rest in peace little Boo- I'll miss you.

The request I get the most is "please make video games" I've played around with Unity3d and have a little game project sitting waiting to be worked on- I understand the workflow and how to get all my 3d stuff into Unity I just need to set the time aside to actually create and release something- I've read a few books on game design now and have taken baby steps in learning C- so yeh all thats left is for me to create my first game and start learning through experience- I was just watching a documentary on Walt Disney- We had the Disney channel when I was a kid and I watched it like 24/7 so old Disney films and cartoons were a huge influence on me- in the doc they got to Walt Disney's motivations behind creating Disneyland- one of them was that he wanted to take the films they had made and create a real world experience from them- Now some of the worst games I've played have been games based on films- they usually just seem like throwaway projects- but any

So now there is only 20 shots left in the I AM NIGHTMARE production- I'll do those 20 shots tomorrow- Then I'll animate the opening credits and go through the edit of the entire film and make notes about what shots to fix, adjust, redo and I'll create additional shots- then I'll animate all those too this week- So by September 1st there will be no more animating for I am Nightmare- September will be all lighting and rendering so I'll be able to focus solely on that- I work better when I can focus on a specific process- I was hired to do a new music video for Mindless Self Indulgence about a week ago- so while I'm lighting and rendering shots for I am Nightmare in September I'll also be animating that music video- I have two other side projects to complete in October as well- so BUSY BUSY BUSY ^_^

DPD - (What I'm currently using) Pro They take no cut of sales Allows for pre-orders Manages email lists of customers Easily update products Easy to manage affiliate marketing programs Can sell multiple films + extras as long as you pay for enough space Can sell ANY digital or physical product Con Price for service is $360 to $540 per year No social components so you have to do all the hustlin yourself Have to host/manage your own film sales site No on demand, downloads only Have to wait for downloads to finish and know how to play them Comments: This is the most DIY of all the solutions so it requires the most work. The only reason I would stick with this one is because of the affiliate program potential as I have some new ideas to capitalize on this and I can help the cast/crew make $ by sharing the film which I think is important to the future of independent productions. Vimeo On Demand Pro Allows On Demand +

I'm going to redesign mdotstrange.com this week- I'm going to really simplify it to make it easy to find my films. Everything that is here now will remain the same it will just be in my "blog" To get here from the new homepage just click on the blogger icon on the top of the new site like in the example image. The chat box and everything will stay alive on my blog.

When a live action director wants to make a film he casts actors that he believes best fit the roles- He doesn't build these human beings from scratch- The purpose of an actor is to become a dramatic vehicle to realize your cinematic vision- Like every other part of the production- the actor serves the story- they are vehicles that allow you to tell your story- My character creation process is like playing with dolls- On We Are The Strange- I bought doll eyes and heads from the craft store- I took arms and legs from different toys- I use a little wire, clay, and latex to create other parts and put them all together- In other words I only made as much of the actors as I had to- On Heart String Marionette the character creation process was very much like my mix and match doll part technique I used on We Are The Strange- I modeled one set of male doll parts and one set of female doll parts- then I simply mixed and matched them to create all the characters- I also made so

As soon as you tell someone else that they cannot do something you're telling yourself that you can't do it either- Perhaps that makes people feel more comfortable as then they'll never have to attempt that thing that they're afraid of? As they've told someone else that it is impossible Once someone actually does it- then you have three choices- 1) Go into denial and pretend they do not exist     Simply ignore them or their accomplishment that threatens you and your reality 2) Admire their accomplishment and use it as inspiration for your own     Tell yourself "if they did it so can I!" and you even add "I'll do it better!" 3) Deny their accomplishment as invalid somehow making it not count (another form of denial)     This allows someone to get back into the loop of choice #1 Perhaps there's some sort of creator karma? The more you hate on and doubt on other creators- the weaker your own powers of creation become? The in

The last time I was in Iceland- my wife and I babysat a lil four year boy old a few times- I was drawing stuff with him in my notebook when I asked him to draw some monsters- and this is what he drew- I asked him to describe what he drew- the big round parts were their bodies, the lines were their arms and legs and the other circles or scribbles were eyes, noses and mouths- He was very matter of fact about it ^_^ Since he has a fully working imagination these were monsters- it we adults still have working imaginations we can see these as monsters or creatures of some kind as well- By drawing these monsters he taught me that my characters and other models don't need to be modeled and rendered technically perfect- not even close to it- we know what they are- If you're telling stories with your characters its not about what things look like really- its about telling a story- the look of the things is supposed to support the story not supersede or supplant it- Also

Your film is a message in a bottle to the world. The bottle is the world you create, that your film takes place in. The messengers are your characters. When the audience pays and sits down to watch your film they are pulling the cork out and unrolling the message. What does your message say? Whom is it for? Is it something they've heard before? How does it make people feel? Why? What are you saying and why? Will your message help people? Will it give them hope or despair? Why? This message in a bottle will float through time eternally after its creation- it will be opened by an untold number of humans and other life forms- so you better UNDERSTAND what your message says and WHY- that is unless your just spamming bottles to make a buck or get popular. The world has enough of this spam- say something that matters and that will stand the test of time. I mean wouldn't it feel good to help/entertain a life form in the year 3001?

Film Budgeting The idea: The smaller the better- unlike in Hollywood where the bigger the budget the "better" because producers and hack executives get to pay themselves more- you want to keep it as small as possible so you can actually raise the amount in a reasonable period of time while maintaining your rights. In my experience: I was prepared to make my newest film with no budget- but I was able to raise about $5000 which went to paying voice actors and computer hardware/software. The ideal: You would have enough of a budget to make the film without sacrificing quality or time and be able to pay everyone working on the film a fair amount. Film Funding The idea: Self funded, crowd-funded, or private investing- there's enough sites out there to help you raise money for your film IF people are interested in it AND you have a big enough social network to reach enough people AND you present it properly. In my experience: I launched a kickstarter for my latest f

I sat down to start animating the final sequence for the new film and I started to feel the familiar antsy feelings- an inability to sit still- the desire to do anything else but sit still and start the work- it sort of makes you feel like a lunatic- As Steven Pressfield describes in The War of Art- this is the resistance- its fear- Why are we so afraid to start? To start you need to make decisions- you will have to commit to something- and we feel fear because we're afraid we might make the wrong choice- we feel great pressure to NOT make a mistake- I believe this is why its so hard to start something- because of all the pressure to not fuck up- This causes most people to freeze up and quit- and let one of those distractions become their focus- their excuse to not do the work. Starting IS the hardest part BUT once you commit and start moving forward the pressure starts to fade- it doesn't disappear instantly- it usually takes a day or two of full time working on so

I've come across a lot of filmmakers and wannabe filmmakers in my time and I've seen these traits over and over... First let me define "winner" and "loser" when it comes to indie filmmaking in my opinion- A winner = someone who makes films and continues to A loser = someone who doesn't make their films, a quitter So its that simple- if you proclaim yourself a "filmmaker" and you don't make films then you fail. Now here's the traits I've seen time and time again- --------------- A winner does their best with whatever they have A loser doesn't even try because things aren't ideal A winner encourages other filmmakers A loser tries to tear them down A winner is motivated by passion and possibilities A loser is motivated by fear A winner plans and prepares and is realistic with goals A loser self sabotages and gives up before they even start A winner blames them self for their failures A loser blames ever

If you have a tiny budget today and a tiny crew and want to make a "big" film how are you going to do it? Live action tools have gotten cheaper BUT to make a big, epic film you're going to have to do a lot of this ridiculousness Staring into the future of live action filmmaking for epic films I don't think any of us can do this in our basements or garages Ok this could be a basement but whatever its ridiculous Hollywood will eventually implode and die- so who then will make epic films? If you look at the cost and the workflow for creating epic/fantasy/sci fi/etc cg animated films are the ideal solution- The current vfx heavy Hollywood films rely HEAVILY on green screen compositing/tracking wherein actors become more like data sources than actors- this hurts their performances and you can't blame them- how inspiring can it be to do this? I know that acting/filmmaking requires the use of imagination BUT once your filmmaking technique becomes