IndieGoGo.com - Fundraising

What a big surprise, right?

It takes time and money to create something even as ambitious as a 5-7 minute animated film short.

Alas, career, family and life always seem to take priority over the things that really matter: Making cool stuff.

So, if you'd like to donate to the cause, just click on Morty right there, below.

Anyway, this is a project that has been dear to myself and my friend Joe Lalich when we originally brainstormed the idea back in '05. It just sits there in the attic of our atrophied brains, hoping to one day see the light of day. Every now and then, we'd peek into this dusty box, and let out a sigh of "if only we didn't have to sleep, we could finish this". Later, when I got to know Lee Ehlers, a screenwriter and comedian who can cut through BS like butter, he took a stab at writing a screenplay which added some new crucial elements, gags and characters that vaulted it to the next level. Like a ninja, he showed me how important this step is in developing even a non-verbal, gag-based animation by silently re-crafting the story, and chucking it into my frontal-lobe like a throwing-star.

That said, the silver-lining is that all of our collective talents, abilities and resources (software / hardware) at our disposal has grown exponentially over the last 5 years, and will only go into making this short much more feasible and better looking. All we need is a few bucks to buy some time for ourselves to finally put the lid on this thing, and let the world see what's been rattling around in our heads for so long. We really can't wait for everyone to see. We love this stuff, and only have bigger, more impossible ideas to haunt us afterwords.

If you'd like to give anything, your help would be invaluable.

Thank you,

-Kevin Capizzi

Who needs Viagra?

Good news baby birds, Morty's back! After a brief three year hiatus, your favorite faux geriatric protagonist is ready for his time in the lime light. And he's brought a fresh face with him.

Award-winning screenwriter (and handsome lothario) Lee Ehlers, is joining "The End" team. Lee noticed a few holes in the script and has replaced them with hilarious action, whitty banter, and all around eye-popping gags. Believe me when I say that Lee is easily the most talented human being I have ever met. If I was a hot chick with giant cans I would want to bed wrestle him IMMEDIATELY.

More news later, but I just thought that our legion of fans would be excited to hear the new haps.

Do You Smell Urine?

Yup. We're back. No more promises on progress, but I can tell you that I am no longer tethered to a day job, and have a good thing going working from home. I'm still as busy as hell, but maybe this will allow me to more easily find areas to work on The End.

What we have here is more progress on Morty's hospital room. I still need to model several props to fill his room up with, play with the somber lighting a little more, texture a little more and then I should be ready for some REAL animation. This clip is rendered at half resolution, and I've compromised some render quality for speed, so you'll see some flickering and all that, but rest assured, the final render will be lovely.

More to come soon, as I'm going to work some more right now.

I've Got Good News and Bad News...

Which do you want first? The bad news? Good call.

Well, the bad news is that right now, at this very instant, the Sun is peeling off about a quazillion little nuclei known as cosmic radiation. Eight minutes later, after barreling at the speed-of-light through the inky depths of space, these so-called "cosmic rays" blow right through your body, like so much buckshot blowing through Harry Whittington's face from Dick Cheney's gun. So what, you say? I'll tell you so what: Right now these particles are trying to break free the nucleotides in your DNA and give you cancer, or turn you into the next evolutionary step. Go ahead, eat all the anti-oxidants you can... but these free-radicles are here, they're queer, so we better get used to them. Sure, it's OLD news... but it's still BAD news.

What's the good news you ask?
I'm gonna start production up on The End next week.

Have a nice day.

Welcome 3D Attack readers!

Hey all, just wanted to thank you for stopping by. Of course you're free to look around, this IS the internet, after all... but I promise the best is yet to come. Ahhh, can you smell that? That's the winds of productivity, my friends, and they're a'blowin! It's either that, or I'm downwind from the water treatment plant, but I'm a wishful thinker. Anyway, stay tuned kids, cuz we're going to start production again, and we're gonna kick it into double-time.

Also, My very special thanks to Thomas over at 3D Attack, for the interview in THE premier Cinema4D magazine. Check it out, if you haven't already, cuz there's a little talk about the short in there, and it's a great issue otherwise... so GEEET!

Workin' on a Movie!

Have to hang up the short film, yet again, for a few months to work on some visual effects for a movie. I'll stop by here every so often to let you know how it's going, but it will pretty much consume my time for the summer. The End is a very important project for Me and Joe, so it will always be here until we finish it or one of us, like Morty, buys the farm, so to speak.

I truly want to (visually) share what it is that will be taking up so much of my time, but that will have to wait just a bit. I am, however, bringing to life a talking goldfish. It's a great opportunity for a guy like me, and hopefully it'll only lead to some very cool things in the near future.

Drop me a line, if anyone has any questions, or anything really... and I hope to start this back up as soon as humanly possible.

Lie in the Bed I Made

Okay, here's what I got so far. Just a bed. But soon it will become a full room. It's a process, but that's why you're here anyway, right? I fiddled with the lighting too, because we're going for a somber feel for this scene. I'm sure it will evolve greatly from this point, but this is where it stands now. I'm kinda feeling the greenish cast to it, but I think it needs to be dimmer. Anyway, we'll see... it depends on what it will look like once all the other props are in place.

Opening Sketch

Here's a quick sketch Joe did while we were stuck in a lame meeting at work. Which should be a lesson to all you kids: Don't let the "man" keep ya down. Whether it be school, work, church, a funeral, you gotta make time for YOU. You think Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in his laboratory? Well, he did, but that's an exception to the rule. Most people of obsession find ways to work their passion when they should be doing something else, like paying attention in a meeting. We may never know what it is we were supposed to learn in that meeting, but who cares? We're all going to die of the bird flu anyway. Moot.

Where was I? Ahh yes. The opening shot sketch. This is now taking the place of the birthday scene we were going to do in his apartment. We've come up with what we think is a far more efficient introduction to the movie and bookends the short in a wonderfully symmetrical manner... Hey?! Are you listening to me? Pay attention dammit!

Dancing Shoes

What is the sound of no hands clapping? I'm still working on that. In the mean time, enjoy Morty from all sides. I know, I know, from the back it looks like he's relieving himself. And for all we know, he is. I wouldn't put it past his senility or his incontinence. At least he can get around now, if he needs. I still need to stress that he is mostly un-textured, that's why he looks a little flat at this point.

Out With The Old...

We've been busy, but we're back. It's been almost a year since any real work's been done, and now we are able to resume. The time we took off from the project, gave us a little time to reflect on the movie itself. While we are confident in our abilities, we realized some of the assets we had created thus far, have been found wanting. What does this mean? We're practically starting from scratch. In fact, we re-imagined the opening scene (our introduction to Morty). But this is a good thing. We both want what's best for the movie, and are willing to scrap any hard work we've already put in, and start over with a fresh outlook and an invigorated vibe.

When I use words like "we" and "us" and "our", I really mean "me". Because virtually all of Joe's work still stands. It's really my model work that was lacking (as opposed to Joe's illustrative work). To see what I mean, click on the first thumbnail image below. It'll show you a side-by-side comparison of the old mesh I've been using for Morty, and the fresh, new & improved, maximum strength Morty I built just this last weekend. See the difference? So do we. And now that my modeling skills have improved to a satisfactory degree, we both think it's time to move on. There is also a new rendering of the new Morty head below. He's still virtually un-textured at this point, but I'll be doing all the model building first, then move on to texturing later. Anyway, this new model will allow me more control over his expressions when the time comes to animate him. I also have most of his body built, but I'll save that for another posting. Expect to see some real progress from this point on...

Guess What?

We're ramping up again. Expect to see some new stuff within a week. Is there an echo in here?

A Morty Poem, By Lexi Capizzi

I like Morty.
I wish he was sporty.
His glasses are square, not round.
And he eats chocolate by the pound.
His clothes are cool.
But he goes with them on in the swimming pool!

-"The End," my friend.

(The above poem was written entirely by my incredibly smart, gifted and beautiful 7 year old daughter. Just thought I'd share her insight as to who this mysterious "Morty" is. If anything, it offers me inspiration to get MOVING again. So maybe expect something new before August is through. Heh. it rhymes.)

Wow.

It's been over a month. And a lot has happened in between, unfortunately not on the short. I don't like sounding appologetic, but it has been an unusual time for both Joe and I, and we're both doing our best just to keep up, and in doing so, some things need to take a back seat. This project is one of those things that mean everything to me, and we hope to get back on track shortly, but we might need just a wee bit more time to set all our ducks up in a row. Please believe me when I say we WILL be back... you shouldn't have to wait too much longer either.

peace!

-kev

No, We're Still Here.

Just wanted to duck in and say "Yo".

Joe and I still exist and are still planning on making regular updates. Unfortunately the last half of May got a little sticky for the both of us, thereby having to put the movie on that burner in the back, behind the big pot of simmering spaghetti sauce. Read into that what you will. The point being, there will be at least one update this week. Maybe we'll see some more detail on the fish. Who knows.

Anyway, thanks for checking back, you. We'll see ya in a bit.