First update

I've started animating Ancient Astronaut Attack!. About four shots are done; I hope to have quite a bit more done by the end of the day. The script isn't long - barely three pages at size 11 font - but nonetheless I shan't be rushing it.

In complete contrast to The Misfire Mystery, I've slightly overexposed the set on purpose to bring out the whites more and give it a more clinical, sterile feel. The lab belongs to one Dr. Ike, a xenominerologist (it's Scooby-Doo, I'm not too fussed whether that's a real profession or not) who also believes in 'ancient astronaut' theories. Her name, "Ike", is actually a reference to David Icke, who had a bunch of weird theories about the Babylonian gods, the Annunaki, being aliens who came to Earth and helped human society to develop. Though I don't believe them myself I find his work fascinating to read, and it was those that inspired this brickfilm.

I've also nearly finish the as-yet-untitled museum mystery, which will probably be the longest and most difficult of all (despite it being based around the smallest set).

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

Update #2

Progress on Ancient Astronaut Attack! has been slower than I thought it would be. I've had a lot of unexpected flicker issues, and home circumstances have meant i haven't had quite as much time to animate as I would like. However, I'm nearly at the end of the script now.

Normally I edit a project as I go along, since I animate in chunks, but because of my other WIP projects I haven't been able to, so it's all lying ahead of me. I haven't managed to cast two of the characters - two scientists - yet either, but I shall be asking some VAs who I've worked with on MBU animations if they would like to fill these roles.

Because of my non-brickfilming writing projects, I haven't gotten any further writing any of the other Scooby-Doo brickfilms I have planned. Soon, though. Sooooon.

And to make this update actually worth looking at, here's a frame of the Ancient Astronaut itself! But is it a creep in a mask, or is it real?

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

This is very cool!  If you need a Shaggy voice, LMK (or you might have voices already for everything)

Jampot,
Most importantly, don't panic.

You've come so far on it already, that you really ought to go ahead and finish the thing. I know how it feels, not being happy with the work done on a film, and wanting to give up, but please don't. Your last film was great, and I can't wait to see more.

You're a solid animator, and honestly, I didn't notice much flicker in "Vampire Booze." If the story is engaging, you wouldn't believe how many flaws people will overlook or completely miss. (My own films are riddled with technical errors, yet, rarely are they commented on.) Usually, the creator is his own greatest critic, so step back, and see if you can view it from another's eyes.

Also, and this hit me a while back, in this day and age, we look for technical perfection in brickfilms. Perfect lighting, perfect sound, no flicker or bumps, silky smooth animation, we have incredible high standards for films. And yes, overall the process of brickfilming has become so polished that such films are far easier to make nowadays, yet, I think we get too caught up in that technical perfection, and forget that a brickfilm is just a way to tell a story, to share our thoughts and hearts and ideas with others. And honestly, while we should strive for excellent production values, that doesn't mean we should beat ourselves up if we miss them. Especially if we can't help it.

I say all that to say this, it's great to eliminate flicker, but if you can't, don't be discouraged. If you can't help it, how many of us are going to judge you? And how many will really allow a little flicker to ruin an otherwise very well done film?
If you need to take a short break from it, go ahead. But you've come so far, don't let a single camera malfunction keep you from enjoying and taking pride in your work. Both with this, as well as future projects.

I guess you're right, Pritchard. It's just irritating for me, as it's something I've put a lot of time and effort into trying to avoid light flicker, and then there are lots of animators who just naturally seem to have perfect lighting conditions (I honestly know people who just use regular incandescent room lights to animate by and it miraculously comes out without flicker).

Unrelated to flicker, one thing I have been doing today is grading a lot of the footage. Initially I was going to just raise the blues and make sure the brightness roughly matched in each shot, but then I thought of a different tactic, to make everything look slightly softer.
Every shot is now two layers. The bottom layer has increased sharpness (by about 50 points in Premiere), and the second layer has a gaussian blur and is on 20% opacity. The results are subtle, but I quite like how everything has a very slight softer edge to it.

And here's something to hopefully confuse you a bit, as this frame neither confirms nor denies whether the Ancient Astronaut is real or a phony...

EDIT: Also, amazingly, The Misfire Mystery has made over 7,000 views. It's not exactly uncommon for my videos to reach that kind of viewcount, but it's normally over a period of months, and not 14 days. Safe to say I'm pretty happy with how it has been received. Hopefully, the steady increase will continue for a while, enough for me to get my next YouTube payment at least (which isn't far off now), but also it would be nice to have a waiting audience for the second one.

Last edited by jampot (August 14, 2015 (10:04am))

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

Update #5

Ancient Astronaut Attack! is now available to view!

Click here to see it in the BiM directory.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

The next one is out now, too, in the film directory, and I hope you might enjoy that just as much.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

The voice of Daphne definitely isn't, as she is my mother, but I can certainly ask the voice of Dr Ike.

Update #6
It would be a bit false of me to say filming on Partners in Slime has begun in earnest, because it hasn't really, but I've been working on the more complex establishing/landscape shots while I finish the script.

This opening shot isn't final: thanks to some cogent suggestions by AFewGoodFilms, I'm going to try adding fog, more seagulls, and I'm going to move the lighthouse to the left a bit. In general though, I'm roughly pleased with how it looks. What would people think of me adding a boat somewhere out on the water too? I really want this opening shot to stand out.

EDIT: Now that I've updated it, I may as well share it

Last edited by jampot (August 17, 2015 (10:30am))

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

I was wondering about the Moon. I tried matching it to a similarly framed shot from elsewhere but I guess it didn't really work.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein