… romance …

Green frogs … blue foxes … yellow time cards … red watermelons … and purple … uh … creatures.

These are all things you will find in the music video for the song “No Escape!”. I’m cruising along with the project and have less than 20 scenes to go. I plan on being done with the rough cut by next Monday. I need something to hand out as Christmas presents right?

No … no … no. I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy.

So, do I detect a little romance in the still shot above?

… Bits update …

It looks like another deadline is aproaching and I won’t be finishing my solo record “Bits” on time. That’s ok … I’m not on a label and I’m doing everything myself so it is taking me as long it will take. Does that make sense?

I guess the good news is that it is that I’m getting to make it the way I want to. This means that I have only been recording when I feel inspired to record. I only sit down and write lyrics or chord progressions and melodies when I feel like it. I’ve been writing the bulk of the material for over a year and I started the primary tracking for the record in my spare time last June. I figure I’ll be done in the next few months.

I have two music videos almost finished (”Combat” and “No Escape!”) and a bunch more in the planning stages. It’s strange to be working on videos before finishing the record, but that’s my style I guess.

I’ve also been contending with an upper respiratory illness for a few weeks and haven’t wanted to immortalize the sqwanky sound of my cracking voice on my first full length album in ten years.

Nevertheless … it will get done.

I plan on finishing up some small pieces of “Night Driver” as soon as my throat clears. Then, it will be on to the final re-tracking of “Combat” and “No Escape!” in order to lock down the music videos.

… death (test shot) …

… into the abyss … disintegration … the hereafter …

Here is a quick mock up of the “death” effect for the “No Escape!” music video. I’m going for a pinch of that morphing effect they used in “Terminator 2″.

… or maybe it’s a little similar to the CG Yoda in “Attack of the Clones”?

… or how about a cross between “Toy Story 2″ and the CG “Garfield” movie?

… or maybe just Yars’ Revenge.

Hmm … still a few little things to work out.

… four square …

Wide shot of a yellow car pulling into a parking lot.
Close-up of frog eyes in the rear view mirror.
A blue creature descends into a Metro station.
Wide shot of the two main characters entering a large office building.

… moving along with the “No Escape!” video. I completed four animations today to keep ahead of the curve and keep myself on track.

I plan on finishing this thing up in less than two weeks!

… 3 a day keeps the deadline away …

… or something like that. If I complete three shots a day for the next ten days, I’ll finish the “No Escape!” music video. I did three complicated shots today including finalizing the first of the two “behind the driver” shots (as seen above). I decided to add a close-up insert shot to this scene, but that shouldn’t take too much time.

Another shot involved a garage door opener. I hope that one translates well. I might have to run this movie by a test audience before I release it …

Some real fancy stuff going on here. I think I might just get this thing done by my deadline.

… No Escape! set geometry …

After working on several shots for the “No Escape!” music video, Liz and I realized that some of the locations didn’t match up from shot to shot. I’m not going for real life accuracy, but I want the windows to be in the same place in relation to the door from shot to shot. I need to fire my architect.

This required me to go back and re-draw six primary sets from the first minute of the video. Ugggg. Oh well … at least it is done and has made me conscious of the possibility of a looming error.

All fixed.

The only real problem is that I promised myself that I would do at least two shots a day until the movie was done (I have 32 shots to go). I only managed to finish one new shot, but had to re-do five others … so I guess I’m good.

… run! jump! ….

In my continuing effort to finish the music video for the song “No Escape!”, I ran some test animations today on a run/jump cycle. This scene takes place in the middle of the movie and takes place when the action gets rolling.

Speaking of rolling …

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