Office Moving Along = Movie Moving Along!

Hey guys,

Well, the office is moving along and that means soon I'll have the time to start working on the movie again.

I got the walls and ceiling painted, along with the fan (a white fan would have looked awful against that blue ceiling). No, you're not seeing things. The fan doesn't have the blades attached. I still have to paint those. If you look a couple of posts down you'll see the unpainted office. These pics will give you a comparison...





The ceiling is a very rich blue. It looks darker in these photo's because these pics were taken at dusk so there isn't any sunlight coming into the room. I rather like how the blue is lighter in the day and darker at night. That, combined with the yellow walls (yellow to stimulate creativity) helps to give the room a spacious feeling.

I still have to put a second coat of paint on the walls. Then I have to lay down the flooring and add the molding. Once those things are done I will be able to move in!

I can't wait.

As always, I will keep you posted!

Office Moving Along!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a quick update.

Thanks to my wonderful, beautiful, awesome wife my office construction is moving along ahead of schedule. Last weekend was very humid and that made for less than perfect conditions for tapping and bedding the seams in the newly constructed room. Because of this, I couldn't do the tasks needed to advance to the next stage of construction and I was seriously bummed.

My wife is so awesome that while I was sleeping Tuesday (I work nights) she, having the day off, spent her entire day off finishing the walls for me. What can I say? She is truly amazing!

So, this weekend (I only have one day off) I will prime and hopefully start painting! After that I have to put down the floor and then do the finishing work (molding, etc) and then I can finally move in.

Once moved in, I can one again begin working on the movie!

I'm probably a couple weeks away but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is all because of my wife!

Thank you sweetie!

I love you so very, very, very much!

Not Working on Movie, but Haven't Given Up!

Well, what could be harder than working nights and trying to make an animated movie at the same time?

How about building an office and working nights at the same time? Now, when I say “building an office” I don’t mean I’m picking a room in my house and moving a computer and a desk into it. I mean that I am building, literally, a floor, four walls and a roof. I mean really building, and because my new job has me working nights five days a week that means I have very little time to work on my Office of Solitude.

Consequentially, that means I have done absolutely no work on my movie during these last couple of months. That is disappointing to me, especially after my last posting. I really thought I’d be done by now and the truth is that I’m only half way finished.

So, for the foreseeable future, I’m not going to promise that I’ll be working on the movie. Not until I am officially moved in to my new office. So how long will that take? I’m not even going to promise anything on that. You’ll just have to keep an eye on the Xam and Power Blog and see.

In the meantime, I’ll give you some pics of the new office in progress. It doesn’t look like much, but when it is done it will be a thing of beauty.





Now, don't be quick to judge. Like I said, I have a lot of work to do... kinda like the movie!

Keep checking in. Hopefully you'll see more updates soon...

Wow! It Has Been A Long Time!

I can't believe I haven't worked on the movie in over two months. A lot has happened since my last post, but sadly, none of it has been on the movie.

Still, what is it they say? Happiness makes the heart grow fonder? Well, I can say that is true.

This time away from the movie has allowed me to get everything else in my life together and although nothing in life is ever perfect I feel things are under control enough for me to start working on this movie again!

And boy am I ready. Within the next couple of weeks I expect to be working on the models again. I still have the T-Boom model to rig and then I will try a test animation. If that goes well I will rig the Rocky model. That shouldn't take to long since, like Thomas, she is human and I should be able to use the same rigging for Thomas/T-Boom on her. Then its off to rig the animals.

Now, this doesn't mean I'll be "shooting" anytime soon. Everything mentioned above will take some time and I'll have to do several test animations with each character before I'm ready to begin "filming". Also during this time I hope to be putting together a home office that will give me the privacy I have so desperately longed for over this entire project. All in all, I'm expecting all of this to take several more months.

Still, this is several months of me actually working on this movie which is something I haven't been doing these last two months so I am pretty excited.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Struggling to Find Time!

Hey guys,

The good news is that last week I found a new job. I'm really gonna like my new gig and am very excited to be working again.

The bad news is that for the first time in over 3 years I am not working from home. Now, I never worked on the movie while I was working from home but I was able to work on it the second I got off of work. As of last week, I now have a 25 mile commute to the northern part of Dallas and it takes me on average 2 to 3 hours a day to drive back and forth. That said, by the time I get home I have very little energy and just haven't been working on the movie.

I'm not gonna say I'm giving up on making the movie but I just don't know how much time per week I'm gonna have to work on it. It honestly pains me to type this but I just don't know if I'm ever gonna finish this project.

Still, I will not quit. It may take me three times as long to work on the movie but as of today I refuse to throw in the towel. I just want to let you know why you are gonna see less and less updates.

When I have something worth reporting, I will report it.

Later!

Haven't Done Much These Last Few Weeks!

Hey guys,

Well, what can I say? I haven't really worked much on the movie these last couple of weeks. Halloween and Thanksgiving have really taken their toll on my time and energy and December doesn't look to be any different.

Of course, the holidays the last three months of the year probably take just as much of a toll on you so I'm sure you all understand what I'm talking about.

I promise that I will work on the movie some this month. I can't say how much I'll get done but I hope to at least finish up the re-working of the T-Boom model this month.

Of course, I'll keep you posted!

The 100th Post!!!

Hey guys,

Well, I've been putting off posting anything as this post marks the 100 post on the Xam and Power Blog and I really wanted to make is special, but it has been so long since I posted anything I was beginning to feel bad.

As I've mentioned, Halloween is a big holiday in my house and it pretty much took up all my free time on the movie (check out the Hollinger Hollow blog).

Now that Halloween is over I will once again be directing all my free time to making my little movie a reality so begin checking in on a regular basis as updates are going to start coming in on a more regular basis.

Talk to you soon!

Not Much... But It's a Start!

Hey guys,

Well, like I said, October is going to be a slow month for the movie and so far that has been the case.

Still, since I was feeling a little restless, I thought I'd start working on the updates to the T-Boom model.

Late last month I announced I would have to re-work the human models (Thomas, T-Boom and Rocky) in order to fix a rigging problem. If you look at previous posts you will see I'm referring to the rebuilding of the arms and putting them in a "T" shape in order to solve the "shoulder pad" problem as well as fix some other issues with how rigging affected the shape of the sleeves.

Well, since I finished with Thomas I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes and start on T-Boom. Since T-boom is an advanced model of Thomas it is a pretty easy start. I just need to add the vest, glasses and T-Boom logo to Thomas.

The vest will be a beast and adding the logo means I'll have to start over on the UV Texture (color mapping). All of those would require more of an effort on my part and since it's past midnight I'm a little tired.

So, I did the easiest thing and added T-Boom's glasses. That' is a simple matter of importing the glasses model I made months ago and fitting them to his face.

Walla...

I know. It's not much, but it's a start. When I finally get the Halloween decorations in the front yard set up, something I hope to do this weekend, I'll have more free time to work on the movie. Next step, build the vest and add the logo and then it will be on to the Rocky model.

Until then...

Our Love of Halloween!

Alright, I'm breaking my biggest rule with this blog.

The one thing I pledged when I started this blog was that this blog would only discuss the trials and joys of making a Xam and Power Dog movie.

That said, this blog, and the movie, is going to take a bit of a hit this month as my attention turns toward the greatest holiday of all time, Halloween! My family loves Halloween and every year we put up a display that people (people have personally told us this) come specifically down our block to see every year.

So, if you're checking in from time to time to see what's happening in the world of Xam and Power Dog and are disappointed by the lack of updates this month, head on over to www.hollingerhollow.blogspot.com and check out what is causing the hold-up.

Haven't Had Much Time To Work On Movie!

Hey guys,

What can I say? Halloween is taking up most of my free time these days.

That said, I haven't done much on the movie this last week. The only thing I can say I've done is I fixed the length of Thomas' arms.

Since I had to redo his model with his arms out in a "T" position I wasn't able to judge the length of his arms. Since I've rigged him I was able to put his arms down at his sides and I noticed his arms were a little short.

Case in point...



Since then, I've lengthened his arms and now they are right...



All in all, it's a small modification but one I think people would have noticed over time so it was a necessary correction.

I'm still working on Halloween stuff this next week and I am expecting it to take up a lot of my time. Still, I will try harder to work on the movie this week and as always, I will post something when there is something to report.

Until then...