My First Script

I tried to write a TV pilot, it's probably a bit too short of a script, and I haven't read it over yet, so be warned, I wrote this entirely as a personal project so it may be a bit muddled.
read it here
I'd appreciate comments/criticism.

Fatherly Advice

A new cartoon I made last week but never got around to publishing. Enjoy or something

I'm a Production Assistant! [and other updates]

Wow, so the first post in over a month. I guess I haven't been that motivated to blog, even though I really should. But anyways, the reason I'm finally posting again is I have big news.

I get to be a production assistant on the show Mantracker for 1 day. It's nothing glamorous, but I get to be on the set among the crew, which is really super awesome.

The blog may be getting a new domain soon, so keep watch for that.

Salmon King

1 Year of Blog

Yep. Its been a whole year since I started this blog, with my first post being "I had mac and cheese for lunch" ah, what auspicious beginnings. It started out as a daily blog with a lot of style and opinion and a little substance, and has evolved into a review and production blog that updates a lot less often, but with better quality posts. I think things have slowed down a bit more than I wanted them too, and I'm going to try to pick up the pace a bit in the blogs second year. I think there were a lot of bad posts last year, and a lot of good posts. Some stuff was misguided, some was correct. I'm hoping to perfect my posting style, spelling and grammar, and film critique for next year. Heres what you can look forward to in year two

• A review of the complete Powerpuff Girls DVD set

• Another really late review, this time of  Kung Fu Panda which could be the last redemption for Dreamworks (and possibly the last time I use the Dreamworks label in this blog, I don't even know why they get their own label)

•The Shak Budisen Movie and more production news- the movie is currently still set for release this Summer, I just have to finish it, which I will do eventually. I've done some new animation which I need to score.

• Lots more reviews of movies I will be seeing.

• More random crap to keep the blog active.

• Me being pompous when I get 1000 hits.

• Yet another new name for the blog. I'm thinking of simplifying it to: "Stuff I'm Making and Watching"

• The premier of my new show

• Possibly a music video 

• Possible move to a private server where this will become part of an expanded site

• Stuff

Ok, thats all I got, but hopefully that will keep things interesting and keep this blog going.

~Kieran

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that before the premier of the Shak Budisen Movie, there will be at least one more episode of Shak Budisen. The reason is that I had a killer idea for an episode.

The bad news is that the movie will be pushed back until at least next year. If I'm going to make any more cartoons they need time. But the Shak Budisen movie is nearing completion so it definitely won't be lost to the sands of time.

Slick Cape 4

I made 12 seconds of randomness to cure my boredom. 

Slick Cape 3

This was produced back to back with slick cape 2, but I didn't upload it till today.

Slick Cape 2

My parents had a party today and I showed the original Slick Cape and it went over pretty well so I made a sequel where its an action series thats not at all like the original book. While I work on my real series (SafetyNet and Shak Budisen) expect to see these cranked out whenever I'm bored and lazy. Here it is

Some Lego Stop Motion and Shak Budisen Movie Update

Here's my entry into the overpopulated world of lego stop motion. I mostly just made it for fun. The Shak Budisen movie is really coming along. There's almost 4 minutes of completed voices, animation, sound and music, so Shak is aimed for a winter release instead of summer. The Shak Budisen movie will be one of, if not the last Shak cartoon I make so I'm moving on after this. I may make another trailer. I probably will just revise the old one.

Flash Animation Using the "Model System" and New Shak Budisen Models

With Shak Budisen I use the "model system" which, although simpler than drawing the frames individually, makes the animation look a lot worse. Basically by right clicking or control clicking (for PC and Mac respectively) on a selected drawing and then selecting convert to symbol you can save a drawing in your library. Then, by creating a duplicate and hitting edit using the right click options, you can create a moving version of that model. This is very convenient because instead of drawing the characters and their motions every time you can just drag and drop preset animations from the library and by dragging the frames in the timeline repeat them as many times as you want. The disadvantage is that, although these repetitive models are good for just characters standing still and talking, you cannot create specific action animations, which is why in Shak's Aikido there are a lot of non-model drawings of Danny. Here are some models from the upcoming Shak Budisen MovieShak's eyes are closer together, and his mouth movements are designed to synch better. I especially like his angry animations this time around. Danny has the most radical new model as he is sporting a brand-new goatee. Nilfenburger is also featured as he will become one of the major characters of the film. 

Shak Budisen: The Movie set for next summer.

One of the most spontaneous ideas to spring from a random sketch was this "movie" that I hope will make it to the web at between 10 and 30 minutes, which is long considering that most Shaktoons are only about two minutes. The film was born when I drew the main villain of the film, the alley man, who I sketched absently. I liked the character so I made the drawing into a movie poster, then a movie trailer, and hopefully, a movie. Here it is  I haven't developed the story much beyond what I said in the trailer. Nilfenburger from Slick Capewill be in it but with more lines and a different voice, and although the Alley Man is the featured villain I plan on very little story and a lot of strange guest stars.

Shak Budisen Commentary

Shak's Aikido made the first season of Shak Budisen complete, even though it is only three episodes, now I have compiled them all and recorded a commentary track And here is the complete first season, the second season will begin as soon as I feel like it
Coming soon is a new series of post, the thoughts on series. Sometimes when I see a movie, it's really too late for me to review it, but sometimes viewing a film for the second time or seeing it later than others can still make me think, so these scoreless reviews will begin soon on my favorite older films and the ones that will be remembered as black holes of suckiness and bad filmmaking.

Shak Budisen Episode 3 is Here and Sooner Than Expected

Here it is
I made this one pretty quickly. The Has-Beens was too complex so I made this fairly simple piece with only Shak and Danny. Shak is like evil now. Poor Danny and his misplaced hero worship, but hopefully Shak and his Aikido flaming punch can uphold the American dream.

Shak Returns!...sort of

Ok, Shak Budisen and the Has-Beens was too ambitious and had too many characters so it fell through. The idea I had for the next episode will be a fairly simple episode featuring only Shak and Danny. But I was too lazy to start it so I made this "teaser" short with Shak and Danny. Here it is

Slick Cape: A Cartoon for CHILDREN and Stuff

Slick Cape is based on a fake children's book I made and features some of the worst animation I have ever done. I thought that children's book plots were so simple it would be easy to do one of my own and satire the genre. Of course, it's a bit more cynical than typical child's fare, but it still features one of the key basics: a virtually nonexistent plot-line based on a trivial object or character. Of course, there are great children's books, and there are the ones that keep the kids occupied, and then there are the ones like Slick Cape, you buy them for a dime at a grocery store and then dump them at some kid's birthday party. Anyways, here's slick cape. Enjoy, if you feel like it 

Cat the Movie 2 Production Has Started

I have started shooting for Cat the Movie. When it is finished I will post a film profile and some clips. Well that's it. Yeah, my last couple of posts have been lame.

'Ow To Be Bri'ish

Heres a new 'toon I made while taking a break from Shak Budisen. Its a tutorial/ spoof on how to act like a bad stereotype of a British person. Enjoy if you feel like it.

New flash TP animation and film profiles for Cat the Movie 1&2

I'm taking a break from Shak Budisen to work on real films, however, they will have animated components, let me tell you why. Cat the Movie started out as a slideshow project when I got my first Mac, and was playing around with iPhoto and iDVD, and it featured pictures of my cat. Later, I developed sequel slideshows also featuring my cat, with captions added in to make them like a photo comic book. Than, when I got my camera, Cat the Movie was the first film I made with it. The problem was that it sucked. It was a mash up of 2 of my slideshow stories, but it had horrid shaky camera work, mostly single take shots where the camera didn't cut in time, and crappy voiceovers to be the voice of my cat, who, being a cat, was very hard to film with. After cat the movie, I went on to work on my fake nature series Looking at Nature, and then returned to remake cat the movie, this time with slightly better editing and added special effects, but still with crappy voiceovers. The story of these two versions was mostly the same, with the cat being attacked by Mr. Cage (the cat's former owner in the remake) who was a servant of the evil emperor whose goal was to enslave the cats. However, although I completed the re-make as scripted, I decided to add another scene. However, that scene was never shot, leaving the remake partially uncompleted. I took a break from filmmaking for a while and then shot another remake, this time with the evil emperor removed from the plot, with Mr. Cage as the lead villain, whose brain was damaged in a toxic swamp. The film showed his failed attempts to capture the cat in a cartoon styled structure. The cat did not talk in this film. Also, this film was where I started to develop my style, with the opening credits resembling stop motion. Than I wrote 2 scripts, one for a sequel and one for a spinoff. The sequel was delayed due to the fact that the cat would not stay in the place I meant to shoot, because the grass was dry at that time of year. While the sequel was delayed, I set to work on the spinoff Aardvark man, which is halfway finished. However, since I edited while I shot, I started editing more and shooting less, leading to its incomplete state. After that, I started to work on my next flash series The Dumb Adventures of Billee and Frank, several episodes of which are posted on this blog. Than, after completing the six short episodes of that series, I created Pandybatter, and started work on Noggin' it up in Rutabegese, which failed technically. While I was sorting it out, I did my first drawing of Shak Budisen, and started his series. After doing his stop motion, I became interested in stop motion animation. Then, I started work on South Park Memories, which once again got me into film, and when I used a toilet paper character for a brief segment in the film, I got the idea for toilet paper animation, which I did in stop motion, and today in flash. Now I intend to make a new cat the movie sequel with a toilet paper villain combining stop motion, flash, and live action. Heres a taste of what flash TP will look like:

The Future of Animation: Toilet Paper

Ok, I lied, I have to post one more thing before I leave on my trip, some new stop motion animation I just did as a possible component for my next film.