Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
The next episode in the Home Alone arc will be out in a few days. Saving a kitty was an unexpected time sink this month so I am a bit behind schedule. This post will be updated when the cut is ready!
Stay AWESOME!
2023-03-31 15:01:50 +0000 UTC View Post
T-T-TIME for some T-T-TURBO TIPS!
Ace and Chet have some insider info to impart on the ill informed! Get your hot tips here, fresh from the instruction book!
Production notes:
This part is pretty much complete except that I will be re-animating the TURBO tips segues!
Thank you ALL for your continued support!
2023-02-28 14:26:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Happy New Year Dudes and Dudettes!
The boys are trying to get to grips with their new life as orphans while Dad attempts to communicate from the beyond.
First of all I want to give a huge thank you to all of you who continue to support us through the post production of AVG. We shot so much footage... and there is SO much more to come. I am glad I have a group of people who are passionate about seeing this story come to life.
Production Notes:
Most of my time editing this was dedicated to making the unboxing scene feel right and I am still not completely happy with it. I am going to come back with fresh eyes and try and tighten it up in the future. It is tough editing the footage you wrote and shot yourself because every morsel of it seems too precious to cut. But for the sake of pacing I think I will be discarding some of Chet's reaction shots at the very least. The scene also needs to extra sound effects... I may even get Ben to do some post voice audio recording work (knows as ADR to us film school drop outs) to add some grunts and groans.
I decided to tag on Deacon's ad-libbing as a silly bonus for you guys.
By the way, the boys recently joined us for a couple of sponsored episodes of VGA if you'd like to see our holiday hang out!
2022-12-31 13:28:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Enjoy the double-length conclusion to our uncomfortably dark journey through Ace's deeply disturbing dream state!
Production Notes
I need to re-dub Doc and Lumpy, which I have done a for a few of their lines here. The challenge is making them sound like they are in the room with Ace, which means finding a perfect mix of reverb.
As usual the segues are placeholders until I come up with the signature look for this season's animated intro.
2022-11-30 14:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
Sorry for going dark on you after that last teaser episode. Life stuff, including a stressful SEGA sponsorship, and a sick kitty caused me to miss my editing goals. And, since the next episodes are Christmas themed it was really hard to get motivated and back into the swing of AVG.
But, here we are a year later and parts 7 AND 8 of the SMB2 arc are complete and combined into one update (7 minutes!) for you to enjoy tomorrow!
For December I am going to try my best to get as much of the (AWESOME) Christmas story into your hands as I can. I would say it is 3 episodes but my estimation is always wrong... it is probably about 20 minutes long? Which is like 4-6 old school episodes.
I will only charge for one Christmas episode in December despite the deluge of content. Hopefully you will all still be in the Christmas spirit in January because there will be most likely be some spilling into that month too!
Excited to show you this story!
-Fraser
2022-11-29 06:43:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Dudes and Dudettes!
Lumpy begins to dive deep into the depths of Ace’s disturbingly deep-seated emotional baggage all the while vying to purloin a sup of his sweet sippers.
This is the intro scene to the final part of the Super Mario Bros 2 which will be released in free updates here over the next week or so.
Production notes:
I guess need to do a chiptune redux of a certain 1965 panty-dropper.
Doc‘s lines were recorded quick and dirty as place holders here. Re-recording Doc and Lumpy is definitely a project that looms for me. I am a sad no I was not properly mic’d on set because some of the adlibs along with the stifled laugh delivery seem perfect for this character.
I hope this spookerific saga’s conclusion makes your lead-up Halloween just a little more haunting!
2021-09-30 14:09:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Another little animation preview for ya Dudes and Dudettes!
Animated version on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2r1UHDQlw
More to come!
2021-09-02 12:51:38 +0000 UTC View Post
The Subcutaneous Subcon!
The good news is, Ace has gotten rid of his nasty blemish. But now he has a nasty new new nagging nasty to annoy him!
Production notes will go in the comments so as to not spoil the surprises!
Thanks for your continued support Dudes and Dudettes!
2021-08-31 13:26:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes,
I wanted to make sure you were the first to see some more of my animation tests. Locking down a style I wanted for the cartoon versions of Ace, Chet, and Dad involved a lot of do-overs and artistic skill building on my part. But now that I am happy with the style I am putting a lot more time into animating the models.
This is all still rough stuff as I nail down best practises but I think it gives a good impression of what I am going for! Lemme know what you think!
OOPS
And since I accidently made this public for a short time on our YouTube channel you might as well have access to about 5 minutes of tweaking I did before making this video: https://youtu.be/_p3abDrJ66U
2021-08-29 13:42:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes, patrons of fine art. Here we have another preview of the animated version of AVG that I have been working on. To capture the true Dadness of Dad I knew that I had to nail his two primary signature expressions: joy and rage. Here he blinks between the two in an unsettling way.
I think the moustache needs to be bushier.
Hope you like it!
2021-08-17 10:57:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Ace isn't dreaming anymore! Or is he? He's NOT! But is he REALLY NOT?
I hope this one make you laugh as much as I did while editing it Dudes and Dudettes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30SDtjrcIlg
Production notes:
All the comedic beats are there, but sound effects need some work. I have been thinking of leaning less on the official game SFX and design my own for the series. Something I did just a LITTLE bit in previous seasons.
Doc Louis needs to be re-recorded just as soon as I get the gumption to yell at the top of my lungs in our Tokyo studio for an hour. For now continue to enjoy the actual lines I acted out while filming!
Some of the long shots of the boys need better audio which I will sync up with their lav mics they wore under their shirts. That process is... not fun.
No colour grading on this episode. The grading has been experimental for most of these releases so you can count ungraded toward that experiment! The footage straight out of camera looks remarkably good if a little flat.
Overall I am really happy with the way the season is cutting together. Outside of getting these early cuts to you guys I am spending a lot of time on music. I think some of the best moments in previous seasons were the custom compositions I put together. Because of that I have been trying to get my music skills back up to snuff as I would like to REALLY get into scoring this series to punctuate the comedy and dramatic moments without leaning as heavily on the themed game music.
SIDE NOTE:
We moved off of Vimeo recently and some of you may have noticed the earlier episodes were offline for a while. Sorry about that! Here are the ones that were missing, now unlisted on YouTube:
AVG S04E01 https://youtu.be/iOIgaKCCrOw
AVG S04E02 https://youtu.be/cAUxkdhhZQA
AVG S04E03 https://youtu.be/u6O3BDj8Grw
I will work on getting the old production updates back on here too.
And again thank you ALL for your support during this post-production period. I hope you look forward to the day these go live to the public and your names are proudly emblazoned on the credits and some of you appear as animated cameos!
2021-07-31 01:45:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes! We're back again with another installment in the SMB 2 arc!
OK it's pretty clear what's going on here now, maybe? Is the symbolism too subtle? This one has some great Dad moments and even better behind the scenes Deacon moments that you will see in future updates.
Enjoy!
2021-06-30 13:50:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Take a deep dive into Ace's subconscious in as his dream sequence get's weirder and weirder. Can Doc Louis bail him out in time or will Ace's insolence doom him to an eternity in the nether regions of his own psyche?
Main production note for this episode is that Doc will obviously be animated and his voice lines will be re-recorded and some of them changed. Enjoy listening to the partially ad libbed lines recorded on set as they will not be heard in the publicly released episode!
Thank you all again for the continued support of the production of AVG Season 4!
2021-02-28 12:11:51 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised before we hit the busy season on Video Games AWESOME! the Mario 2 arc is going to go strange places... Look forward to tomorrow’s very unsettling episode!
2021-02-27 05:54:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Happy Halloween Dudes and Dudettes!
So as you can see this is a MEGA episode as I have stitched the two first parts together.
These two parts are supposed to be separated at the TURBO Tip portion, but now that it has been edited it feels awkward to break up the flow. On the other hand AVG episodes have never been more than 6 minutes long!
In the end I am not sure what I will do for YouTube. Maybe you guys will have some thoughts on that.
You will notice that since part one was published I have cut the part where a very smarmy Ace impresses Chet with his newfound loquaciousness. Though I think it is worth a chuckle, it was ultimately dragging the flow of the scene down so it hits the editing room floor! Patron eyes only!
Future plans for this episode include remixing the Mario 2 Overworld Theme for their rock out scene in addition to probably making my own version of SNAP's I Got the Power like I did the Vanilla Ice motif in the past.
Another BIG undertaking for this episode and the coming Part 3 is animating and syncing Doc Louis's custom sprite again!
Stuff is about to get REAL weird for Ace.
Stay tunes and STAY AWESOME!
2020-10-31 14:10:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes! Presenting the first actual gameplay based episode in the fourth season! Something feels a bit... off with the dynamic in this one doesn’t it?
2020-09-30 14:14:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Put this together too! Just a rough sculpt. Maybe I will make these into puppets so they can be animated! Hardest part was getting the patented Chet smirk, which I am still not super happy about. I think it needs more lower lip... and maybe a bicep flex.
2020-09-03 09:32:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey Dudes and Dudettes!
Just thought I would share something special with you that I have been dabbling with. I have been doing a lot of work sculpting and animating in Dreams, and I just whipped this together today to give you a preview. on the PS4.
I am re-doing the AVG intro in Dreams, and while this was not originally the plan, perhaps an animated Ace and Chet might make their way into it!
-Fraser
2020-09-01 08:22:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
Here it is! Enjoy this fifth installment in the new season!
Ace and Chet extol the power and features of the next generation of Nintendo Power as Dad desperately tries to keep up with their onslaught of ad copy and retail box jargon!
The next episode moves on to an actual GAME so get ready for that. But as you know... not much actual playing of video games ever gets accomplished on AVG.
Let us know what ya think of this ridiculous episode!
Production note: Special effects are needed at the end of this episode. Sparks flying and smoke coming off the SNES.
2020-08-31 13:25:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
Ace and Chet continue to kill time while they wait patiently for Dad to make sense of the generally straight forward and user friendly SNES installation process.
Believe it or not the final upcoming part to the home shopping episodes is even more ridiculous than the last two!
Let us know what you think and enjoy the show!
2020-07-31 13:58:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
Just a heads up, especially to people in higher tiers, that we will have a new episode dropping by the end of the month!
Buckle up, this one gets wild!
2020-07-28 07:20:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes!
For your consideration: The third installment in the Super Nintendo plot arc! PLEASE leave your comments because these are still a long way from seeing a public release and All I have is poor Becky to give me feedback (over and over and over again)!
Production notes: This episode is much closer to a final form than the previous early looks I have given you guys. Color grading is almost exactly where I want it, and the sound mix is getting there too. I will be going back and polishing the 1st and 2nd episodes as I move on to the 4th this coming month.
Patreon Tier notes: This episode has a TON of bloopers and behind the scenes footage so I plan to release those a little at a time over the course of March as well. The 4K version are looking incredible and I will get that out to you $10 supporters along with more 360!
Thanks again for your continued support and patience buddies. AVG is now my top priority and I want to make the release of new content more consistent this year. The aim is to start releasing episodes to the public in 2020!
Stay AWESOME!
-Frash
2020-02-28 14:27:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes! Here is the first scene in the next episode of the Super Nintendo Arc! The full 6 minute episode will be released to ya'll in the next couple days so enjoy this bite-sized preview!
2020-02-26 08:14:33 +0000 UTC View Post
For your viewing convenience: all three previously posted scenes from episode 2 with placeholder intro and segues. I will be doing the same for episode 1 soon as well as adding a credit reel for $50+ donors.
Production notes: LOTS, which have been detailed in the previous updates.
Specific to this cut: the animations are going to be QUITE different this season, and it will be an ongoing process as I put together a new look for AVG Man and Croc. Coupled with that, animated cameos for the $100 tier.
Watch/Download on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/376608885/b475a1f256
2019-12-01 07:43:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey ya Dudes and Dudettes! Presenting: the final Super Nintendo unboxing scenes and a TURBO Tips section dedicated to Nintendo’s button-riddled game paddle!
Watch/Download on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/376514837/f5f284bba5
As usual, this is a rough cut with refinements to be made in the future:
1. Colour Grading! This will probably be the LAST thing I do to all of the episodes since I want them to all look similar to each other and the previous seasons as closely as possible.
2. Sound effects. Right now we just have a pretty classic but also tired loop. And as with previous seasons, sfx will be abundent. The Yak and Xylophone diatribe will probably have some Lion-King-esq music to add to the picture Ace and Chet paint for you.
3. Animated seguays. I have finally found the method I want to use for this season’s AVG man and Croc bits: Dreams on the PS4! More on that later and very possibly LIVE on Video Games AWESOME! Dreams Streams.
4. I will put together the full episode with all three scenes connected in one video for your viewing pleasure in a coming post.
Thanks for your continued support buddies. I know updates have not been as frequent as I hade hoped and priomised, but I get excited every time it comes time to show you a new scene. Enjoy another look at season 4 WAY before the public will see the curtain pulled back!
PS: This month I have some extra special Christmassy treats to show you guys from an AVG of yesteryear that even WE have not looked at in a LONG time.
2019-11-30 13:11:21 +0000 UTC View Post
Here you go Dudes and Dudettes! The first three scenes of S04E01! Let me know what ya think!
As you can see this is already over typical AVG episode length (about 4 minutes) but there is quite a bit more to go, including that slam dunk scene you saw earlier, and an unboxing of the system!
PRODUCTION NOTES
This is still in rough form! Lots of color work and sound work yet to be done.
1. Obviously steam coming out of that pipe needs to be added as a special effect. This sound effect there will be replaced (literally me hissing into the microphone!).
2. Seguays and a new season intro needs to be animated (which I have been working on as a side project adding to the slowness of this post work).
3. Lots of sound effects will be added for comedic effect. Especially those 8-bit sounds you heard a lot of in season 3.
4. Still have to add film effects and projector sound effect to Dad’s flashback. Will probably have to bring that over to PC because I have not been able to get a cleaner chroma-key on the iPad.
5. Color grading is still in early stages. Saturation may be too aggressive for some devices. If you view this on an iOS device you will see it close to how I intend the final product to look. However a big part of grading is testing the shots on many screens and finding an overall tone that works across different gamma settings.
6. I am also toying with a custom digital make up filter I have hacked together in Lumafusion. You can see one of those shots on the Dad close-up as he says “Anything’s possible”. I think digital makeup will more likely be used on the boys for their closeups since we are trying to maintain that youthful look in them and the guys, well, they got older since we started this show.
2019-07-26 12:49:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Enjoy this, one of many flashbacks Dad will be having this season. Bonus mini blooper on the end. Before the episode is finalized I will add an old-timey projector sound and tweak the audio so it sounds more tinny. Also some film grain for effect and maybe a background to set the scene, but I am not completely opposed to leaving it as a matt. Green screen could also use some tweaking but I may need to take this to the PC for that.
Sorry this took so long guys. I’ll probabaly give a more detailed explanation soon, but long story short, I have been working ahead on organizing the footage for future episodes. I started to get anxiety worrying that some stuff might be missing (it’s not) and needed to rest my fears with some DEEP file management.
More to come soon!
2019-07-08 06:07:59 +0000 UTC View Post
“Grandpa” having a heart-to-heart with Dad.
From a scene I have had some issues syncing off-board audio with. Will be watchable soon.
2019-04-12 17:39:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Color correcting is a LONG and tiring process, but I love how it iscoming out. Here is a snapshot from the coming episode. Also an exmaple of the 4K quality if you view the source image!
2019-03-01 10:45:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Get ready Dudes and Dudettes! The time has finally arrived to unveil the AWESOME! stories we put together for you in the fourth season of Awesome Video Games!
Important points mentioned in this vlog:
1. This is a paid update but not the first episode. Episode 1 will be released with LOTS of extra content over the course of the next month or so. This paid post allows us to trigger pledges and start working on rewards for the $50 and $100 Patrons to be included in their on screen animated cameos and credit reel.
2. It was important to us that you not be charged until the release of an episode was imminent, and it IS NOW. Every episode in releation to Episode 1 from this point forward will be free. You will only be charged this one time until it is time for content from Episode 2.
3. Episodes will be released scene by scene as they are ready, even in rough cut form! This get’s them off my editing timeline and into your hands quicker, and also allows you to see stuff that will be refined over time and might not even make the final cut! I am thinking of also doing directors commentary and editing vlogs to show my process.
4. THANK you for your support. The stuff we put together this season will be worth the wait. We are so proud of how Ace and Chet’s story has been told and can’t wait for you to come along with them on the ride.
5. One more thing... (mentioned around 5:20)
Buckle up because this is going to be AWESOME!!!
-Fraser
2019-02-28 08:32:43 +0000 UTC View Post