A couple weeks ago, I gave a talk at 3D-Con about how I’m using Smitten 3D as a self-directed masters in filmmaking and animation. If you’re interested in low budget DIY indie animation, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes fun in this presentation.
Here is the 2D version:
If you have red/cyan 3D glasses, here is the 3D version (put the red lens over your right eye):
 Welcome to Day 12 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
Today’s Simple Carnival thing is a giveaway of a prop from the video for “A Geek Like Me”. Yesterday I posted the behind-the-scenes video. “A Geek Like Me” is a track on the upcoming Smitten album, as well as part of the 3D animated music video movie Smitten 3D. In case you haven’t seen this hand-drawn video, here it is:
Note the lyric at 2:22: “You know what Inframan is…”
What is Inframan? It’s a bezerk superhero/action/kung-fu/giant rubber monster movie that is cheesy, hilarious, and thrilling. It’s a fantastic movie to watch with friends.
Anyway, today’s giveaway is the actual Inframan VHS tape that I used as a reference when drawing “A Geek Like Me”:
Now, you might be wondering why I’m not giving away the DVD that I had in my left hand. The answer is, I no longer have it. The VHS tape is still in my possession, though.
What if you don’t have a VHS player? Well, the tape is still a pretty interesting conversation piece to have on a bookshelf. And it’s the actual object that was used in the video, so you’ll be owning a small piece of cult power pop music history!
I’m giving the VHS tape away to some lucky Simple Carnival fan, and I’ll pay for shipping to anywhere in the world. To get a chance to win this tape, however, you must send a message to (deleted) that says “THUNDERBALL FISTS!” The winner’s name will be drawn out of a hat. The name will be announced here on this site as well as on Twitter. Good luck!
UPDATE (February 13, 2017): And the winner is…Thor Klippert! Congrats!
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
| Welcome to Day 11 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
My apologies that today’s Simple Carnival thing is not something new. If you’re a long-time fan, you may have already seen this. But tomorrow’s Simple Carnival thing is connected to this, and I thought it might be a good idea to trot out this behind-the-scenes video out for those who haven’t seen it yet.
“A Geek Like Me” is a track on the upcoming Smitten album, as well as part of the 3D animated music video movie Smitten 3D. First, here’s the finished video.
And here’s the behind-the-scenes video (skip to the 6 min mark):.
Tune in tomorrow — I’m going to be giving away something interesting relating to this video.
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
| Welcome to Day 10 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
Today’s Simple Carnival thing is a new behind-the-scenes video for “Everything that Grownups Know”. “Everything that Grownups Know” is a track on the upcoming Smitten album, as well as part of the 3D animated music video movie Smitten 3D.In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the finished video:
And here’s the behind-the-scenes video (skip to the 20 min mark):
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
| Welcome to Day 9 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
Today’s Simple Carnival thing is a new behind-the-scenes video of the award-winning “The Problem with Friends” music video. “The Problem with Friends” is a track on the upcoming Smitten album, as well as part of the 3D animated music video movie Smitten 3D. First, here’s the finished video.
Here’s the behind-the-scenes video (skip to the 28 min mark):
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
If you’re in the NYC area, I’ll be appearing (via Skype) at next Wednesday’s New York Stereoscopic Society‘s meetup. The Simple Carnival’s videos will be screened. See this link for details.
| Welcome to Day 7 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
Yesterday’s trivia question asked a question about the song “Smitten” — the title track to The Simple Carnival’s upcoming Smitten album. Today’s Simple Carnival thing is a behind-the-scenes video about how the Smitten video was made.
First, here’s the finished video for the song “Smitten”, in case you haven’t seen it:
And here’s the behind-the-scenes video (skip to the 20 min mark):
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
| Welcome to Day 6 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been working on a companion piece for the upcoming Smitten album. It’s a music video movie called Smitten 3D, and yes, it’s in 3D. While the album is being released on the 14th of this month, it will be several more years until the movie is complete. Not exactly the most ideal marketing strategy, but if you’re doing almost everything yourself, what else can you do?
Since I began working on Smitten 3D, I started exploring everything that was 3D-related. Along the way, I acquired this:
This is a ViewMaster reel courtesy of Image3D along with a ViewMaster viewer.
(Technically speaking, this is not a ViewMaster reel or viewer, as Image3D goes out of its way to not use that word. But you can use actual ViewMaster reels in the Image3D viewer, and the Image3D reels can be viewed in a real ViewMaster viewer. From a functional standpoint, what Image3D is providing is basically the same thing as the ViewMaster name brand stuff.)
The ViewMaster is an old toy that has been around since the 1930s and was kind of like an early virtual reality device. When you hold the ViewMaster viewer up to your eyes, you can see the various images on the reel in 3D.
This reel contains seven images from Smitten 3D. It’s a one-of-a-kind reel. I’m not printing up any reels beyond this one. I’m giving it — as well as this viewer — away for free to a Simple Carnival fan. I’ll pay for shipping to anywhere in the world. To get a chance to win this reel and viewer, however, you must tell me the correct answer to the following trivia question before midnight EST tonight:
How many rhymes are there in the song “Smitten”?
Send your response as a message to (deleted) . The winner will be drawn out of a hat. The name will be announced here on this site as well as Twitter.
UPDATE (February 7, 2017): And the winner is…Steven Golden! Congrats!
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
| Welcome to Day 5 of the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival!
Every day until February 14 (Valentine’s Day), I’ll be posting one cool, free Simple Carnival thing. On February 14, The Simple Carnival’s new (and final) album, Smitten, will be released. It’s been nine years since The Simple Carnival has released an album, so I’d like to celebrate the occasion by sharing a bunch of good stuff over these 14 days. |
|
* * * * * * * * * * |
So far, the “Simple Carnival thing” I’ve been sharing during the 14 Days of The Simple Carnival has focused on The Simple Carnival’s past. From here on out, we’re going to focus on the present.
As you may already know, one of the reasons why the Smitten album has taken so long to create is because there has been a good bit of time where I was working on the album’s companion project — Smitten 3D.
Since 2011, I’ve been creating this animated music video movie. As of this writing, half of it is done. Even though the soundtrack is being released on the 14th of this month, it will be several years until the movie will be complete.
Today is an interesting video that came out of working on Smitten 3D. Nobody has seen this video in full. First, though, some context.
When creating animation, it usually makes sense to create what’s called an animatic. An animatic is essentially an animated storyboard. This gives the film’s creators a chance to see an approximation of what the finished product will look like. It’s really important to get a preview of the finished product because ANIMATION IS EXPENSIVE.
Even if you’re working alone with a low budget — as I am — animation is expensive in terms of time and human labor. So an animatic tells the creators if the film is on the right track. It’s much cheaper to alter the animatic and get the visuals right rather than to redo what is supposed to be completed animation.
In large animated productions, there are people whose main job is to create beautiful illustrations that will be used in the animatic. In a low budget one-man-band sort of production — as Smitten 3D is — horribly-drawn stick figures work just fine. In fact, horribly-drawn stick figures are kind of a funny, abstract way to see the work in progress.
So today’s Simple Carnival thing is a stick figure animatic that I created for the video “Tornado”. “Tornado” is a song both on the album Smitten and the music video movie Smitten 3D. Directly below the animatic is the finished version of the video, which was created with construction paper cutouts and painted backgrounds.
If you watch the finished video first and then the animatic, your reaction might be, “Well, *OBVIOUSLY* the animatic is pretty much the same thing as the finished video.” But if you watch the animatic first and then the finished video, your reaction after first seeing the animatic might very well be, “What the heck did I just watch?” I’m curious to hear your comments below.
Here’s the “Tornado” animatic. You’ll notice that it’s an early mix of the song, as some instruments are missing.
And here’s the finished video for “Tornado”:
A special shout-out goes to Jeff and Jess Decuir of Hyperbubble, Rob Gibson of Mister Fusty, and Matt Williams of The Brigadier for lending their fine voices to this track!
* * * * * * * * * *
Get The Simple Carnival’s fantastic final album, Smitten, from Bandcamp or iTunes!
The Simple Carnival’s “The Problem with Friends” will be screened at the the 3D Korea International Film Festival on October 28!