Category Archives: meta

A Few Random Things

What’s Next?

After finishing up my most recent freelance project (watch for an announcement about the launch) I’m once again on the job hunt. I’d really like to get back to full time positions with benefits and tax withholding and all that good stuff. While I seem to have been doing okay as a freelancer for the last year and a half or so, it’s inherently a more stressful way to lead my life. It’s time for a little stability.

Da Blog

I’ve been thinking for a long time that I wanted to post more stuff in this blog. A lot of stuff goes on in my head and I’d definitely like to share it with people. Plus, my impression is that the more a person updates a web site, the higher it’ll rise in the Google results. You can’t argue with that kind of exposure for someone who produces work like I do – animation and small software tools.

Flash Tools

I’ve made a few new Flash tools recently and I hope to post a few of those in the near(ish) future. In particular I’ve been using one I created to delete empty layers (really simple function, but it’s wonderful for cleaning up a timeline), and another to select the current symbol instance’s library item (works fantastically with multiswap).

I’m on the Flash CS7 beta!

I finally got on Adobe’s Flash closed beta program. Actually, I got into it a couple months ago but I didn’t have the time to download and check it out until a couple days ago. It looks good so far, though as always I wish they would address more of the features on my wish list. But they seem to have done a lot of optimization on the Javascript (JSFL) execution. My art brush plugin is blazingly fast! Anyway, hopefully I’ll have some more time to really check out the program. Maybe a small project to put it through its paces?

More to Come

I know it’s been a few days, but I just wanted to assure everyone that there’s more on the way.  I’ve actually been working on a huge blog post that involves a video that’s more than 20 minutes long, as well as 20 or so new (though related) Flash commands that are unlike anything you’ve seen before.  There’ll also be some footage in the video that’ll be of more general interest, showing some of how I work (in case you’re curious), and a few non-Flash-specific animation tips.

What have I encountered in the process of creating this upcoming monstrous blog post?  Well, video is a pain in the butt if you’re trying to make it look as good as possible.  And blogging takes a lot of time.  And I frickin’ love my home-made Flash tools, and I love sharing them with people.  Actually, I knew all of these things already, but this process has reinforced them.

Finally, I have a question for anyone reading this: How do you think I could get people to read this blog?  Specifically, I’d love to get some regular readers who are interested in Flash animation, Flash commands, and/or 2d animation in general.  Please give any suggestions you can think of in the comments or via email.

Re-Hello World!

Moved to a new WordPress blog from my old Myspace one.  I’m repurposing this a little.  I’ll still talk about production on Don’t Fear the Sitter but I’ll also talk about my Flash tools.  I have a huge library of Flash commands, WindowSWF panels, and Actionscript 3 symbols that I plan to showcase here.  Most of them I wrote myself, but there are also some that I’ve gotten from other sources on the web.  I’ll try to give credit where it’s due. but please let me know if I miss something.

The Start of the Blog Current mood: hopeful

Here begins the production blog for Don’t Fear the Sitter, my current animation project.  Just a warning from the start: this blog will contain spoilers.  I’ll try not to reveal fundamental plot elements, but you are bound to learn something about this cartoon if you read this blog.

Duh.

I just wanted to warn you.  You see, my theory is that you’ll enjoy the end product more if you don’t follow the production process.  I’ve come to realize, though, that it’s a long time to wait for my friends and family before they can see any product from this thing I’m putting so much energy into.  I want to share my life with those I care about, so this is a chance to do that.  Through this blog you’ll be able to read about what I’m up to with my film.  David’s life just got a little more transparent.