I’ve been sick as of late, and (in my free time from watching Arrested Development) have renewed my love for digital design. So I’ve been spending a lot more time in Photoshop and After Effects designing stuff for really any reason at all. I’m still working on effects for our National Treasure spoof.
I’ve started making some pretty cool outer space graphics for our epic travel to the moon in the trailer. That’s right, we go to the moon searching for the next National Treasure. Right now I’m making a street-level zoom-out into space and some clips going towards the moon. All in After Effects, which can be a little hard as AE isn’t a 3D program. However, it’s far better than the alternative for me, which would involve animating in Blender or my not-working 3ds Max. I think I would rather jump off a cliff than bother with the terrible virtual cameras there. Though I should probably learn… Ah well, it’s forcing me to be more creative in AE, which is also helpful. I’ll add some vids of what I’m doing with that soon.
I’m also working on a graduation “gift” thingy in Photoshop. I’ll post it when it’s done as well. However at the moment every attempt I’ve made has failed. When there’s new info, I’ll update. Well those are my thoughts for today, hopefully next time I write I won’t be sick and at 2:14 AM.
Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.
I mentioned a few posts ago that I was going to make a new homepage for chasinglilly.net, mainly because the one right now sucks. I want to make a simple yet elegant single page with large links to the blog, the band page, my twitter, and my facebook. I also want the page to include a feed of my latest tweets as well as a listing/summary of the few latest blog posts. Oh yeah, and I also want the background picture to either change every few seconds, or else change every time the page loads.
For a beginner in web design, a CSS template like that is pretty tricky. So far I’m working on the basic page look in Photoshop. It’s not finished yet, but in the screen shots below you can see the sort of look and feel I’m going for. The multiple shots show examples of different backgrounds the site would have. Obviously I want the backgrounds to look epic, and I’m going to make them all pictures I’ve taken (or else taken of me). (click pics to enlarge)
At the same time, I don’t want to look all cocky and have huge pictures of me show up every time someone loads the page, so I’m really trying to mix them up. Except for the third one, which was too cool-looking to leave out. So that’s it so far, I haven’t even gotten to the coding yet. Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? I’m trying to learn on the fly, and this is really a great way to figure this stuff out. Mo’ stuff ta come.
Happy Trails,
Sam.
P.S. – Keyboard Cat is awesome
There are some other projects happening at the moment here in the [tentatively titled] Super Best Friends group. Personally I am working on a new homepage for chasinglilly.net, which at the moment is disgusting. I am also working on a solo album, which so far has a total of zero finished tracks. As a group we are working on a revamped, more professional version of the McGrimmy’s, as well as a few spoof movie trailers. The movie series’ we’re going to make fun of with the trailers include National Treasure and Twilight. Will and I recently started writing a script for the National Treasure trailer, “National Treasure 3: Book of Secrets 2″.
It’s going to be great! And though the script isn’t finished yet, I got carried away and started making graphics for it. So below is a still frame of what the Nicolas Cage credit may look like. It’s based mainly on what I thought the credits in the past two movies’ trailers looked like, and it was made completely in After Effects. (click to enlarge)
Obviously it’s not done, but it looks much better in motion. Though the font annoys me a bit… Or maybe it’s just what the font says. Either way, the trailer’s gonna be awesome. So get ready…! Well don’t get ready too soon, we’re still in the scripting phase.
Happy Trails,
Sam.
Haven’t posted anything on any of my webspaces much since Lost ended. 
Sorry for the lapse in typing, but Sam the Awesome Blogging Man is back in action, and this time with a new-found fervor and a love for truth and justice.
So let’s talk film.
Don’t say it! No… NO… don’t! Stop it! I know you were about to say it. Don’t even think it! Don’t ask about when Island Wars is coming out. It was a piece of crap test film Will and I started making after ninth grade. It was a terrible idea that we ran with once people accidentally found out about it and loved the car chase. And the school newspaper coverage didn’t help either. Basically Will and I went to go finish the movie yesterday. Yes, that’s right, finish it. So we went into Pinnacle (the worst editing program in history) and began compiling the edited scenes into one huge movie file. But we ran into a problem once we realized whole segments of the movie were missing. In fact entire finished segments of the movie (including the car chase scene) are now missing. In the time it would take to find everything and edit it again we could easily start a better film project, something real. For Will and I, this was the last straw, and the final message from God that this project just isn’t meant to be.
So that’s what we’re going to do. I may look for footage on and off when I’m bored, but we’re not finishing the terribleness that is Island Wars. Don’t be surprised if in a few years I do find all the footage and begin posting segments on YouTube, though.
We are looking forward to producing the new post-apocalyptic drama next Fall. But for now, we are going to start producing the McGrimmy’s as our main thing. Except we are completely restarting and revamping the series to engage a broader audience. Mel Kobran is also gonna help us out with filming, so that should make things work about 2.7 billion times more smoothly. We’ll start releasing them to the internets before Summer ends. In fact, we actually have a mini sort-of production team including more than just me and Will to complete these two projects. Whether we’ll keep the name Umbrellaman Studios remains to be seen.
Happy Trails,
Sam.
