The Rabmlings of a Man Fresh off the High of Having Completed a Goal!

Back in May of 2009 I decided to film a little movie about a group of animals, based on my dogs and cats, who have super powers bestowed upon them. It stared off as a live action film. That idea is hilarious to me now. I made costumes and even filmed some scenes before I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make that work.

Then I had the idea to animate my little movie. Mind you, I had never once tried to animate anything. I didn’t even know how or if I could, but I set out to learn and I honestly have never stopped learning.

That said, you’d think I’d be a freaking animating genius by now. Sadly, that is not the case. I’m not a kid and my tales of youth keep reaching further and further back in time. Heck, I have a son who is a sophomore in high school and a daughter who is a freshman in college. When was I going to find the time to learn how to animate a movie?

Three and a half years and 200 blog entries later and, in a lot of ways, I’m still at the starting point of making my movie. Pre-production as they call it in the biz.

Four months ago, I was ready to throw in the towel. The effort proving more herculean then I could have imagined and I was ready to post my last entry on the Xam and Power Blog. But I hate succumbing to defeat. In fact, I loath it and before I gave up completely I decided instead of clawing my way forward to go the other way and take a few steps back.

That is when I thought I’d take one of the many ideas floating around in my head and make a simple, animated short film. The film would be simple because I wouldn’t have as much invested as I do Xam and Power Dog. Simple, because the film would only be 5 (although originally I thought I’d make it 10) minutes long. Simple, because I would do all the voices and not need to schedule around other actors. Simple, because the characters would be less complicate in design and rigging. Simple, because if I couldn’t make this 5 minute short then I had no business trying to make a 90 minute film.

And that is what I did. I made my 5 minute short. And with the films completion I am renewed in my desire to tell the story of Xam and Power Dog.

So sit back and prepare to check back on this blog as often as you can for the foreseeable future. I have a feeling there are at least 200 more blog entries to come!