Scratch Demo & Teasers (July 2023 Update #2)

Hello Gilded Patrons,

Thanks for checking in on this update post! I have a few things to report to you all. It's been a lot of video editing, video judging, videotaping, video converting...just a bunch of video work really.

Scratch Demo

The animation community of Hyun's Dojo recently opened the doors to their "animator skill-level ranking system", and peeps have been poking me to make a portfolio to submit. So I spent an evening going through all my old scratch work, Work-in-Progress scenes, and animation tests to scramble together the above Scratch Demo. While meant to show off my draftsmanship, it doubles as a neat look into my art process. I hope you enjoy it!

Teaser Trailer Complete!

I'm happy to say that I'll be releasing a "first look" video for Gildedguy & the Dragon of Mar in about a week. The sub-minute long teaser is just meant to break the ice for the wider YouTube audience who have been patiently waiting (as you all have been!) for news on the next story.

The wonders of compositing!

I have cobbled together a more full-blown, 90 second, trailer in the process, but it will be released closer to premiere time.

Animator Guild Short Film Festival

A few months ago I was invited by my animation friend, Howard, to be one of his two guest judges for his annual short film contest. For years I've kept a close eye on his film festivals, hoping to successfully make a submission, but my production timelines were always, ahem, "out of sync" (aka I couldn't make the deadlines).

That's why I'm glad I got the opportunity to participate as a judge, especially considering the early look I got at all the great submissions from his community. Several dozens of fully finished short films were entered, and I got to look at the top ~20 of them. It was interesting being in the position of critiquing power, since I've often been on the other end, offering my animations up for judgement. 

One of my favorite submissions - "Run it Back" animated by Mochirune 

It was an interesting experience: At first it was difficult to keep an objective, yet open, eye to the quality of the pieces, but it became more enjoyable as I inspected more films.

After hours of filling out scorecards and notes, I hopped on call with Howard to verbally express my thoughts on the films. I don't use my camera often, but I'm quite comfortable when I get to discuss animation deeply with a colleague!

I look so gleeful considering the dramatic scene on screen.

Watch our reactions and the finalists' films here! If you're interested in creative contests, the video might be useful to scope out the competition and get into a judge's mind.

Dancing Avatars Return!

Last night (and morning) I went on a coding binge to bring back all the old dancing gifs from the 2D overlay to the 3D one. They animate and work just like new! Complete with the BPM (beats-per-minute) changing feature, so you guys can sync the loops to the music.

As an animator and internet user, I've collected many funny gifs of characters from our community, so I'm very glad to show off all of them (and future ones too)!

Read more about my Overlay Porting adventures in this post ► https://gildedguy.com/finished-dynamic-overlay/ 

Story 8 Progress (Got a few scenes done)

Alongside all the above, it's been quite busy for me personally, as I was also out of town for a portion of it. I haven't had much time to work on Story 8 in particular these past 2 weeks. We've finished the ink and cleaning for about 10 scenes, but other than that, production has slowed down a bit. 

Hopefully more progress can be made in the remainder of the month while I stream with the new overlay features!

Concept Art Spoiler ^ (See attached)

Thanks for reading my update post! See you next time.