The Wannabe Way
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As you know, I'm running my Kickstarter to fund my The Wobbling Dead movie. I'm nearly halfway there, but that means I have over half to go! As an incentive to try to persuade you to pledge, I'm offering these bonuses: $15--Free Model! So, in addition to a free Wobbling Dead desktop picture and a downloadable version of the film, you get the above model. He's got a basic rig in him and some basic poses for eyebrows, eyes and the mouth. You can use the existing rig, or pull it out and put in one of the available rigs. $25--Free Model & Extra Stuff! With this, you get the desktop picture, the downloadable version of the movie, the movie on…
Last reply by largento, -
Wannabe Tutorials 1 2 3
by largento- 2 followers
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Continuity explained! Note: You can find all of the Wannabe Way Tutorials collected in the Modeling Tutorials section.
Last reply by rekh, -
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Hopefully this won't be too painful! :-) I'm going to use this thread to dig through all of the remains of the animated Christmas Greeting I did for Christmas '08. My hope is that by doing some self analyzing, I'll be able to learn some more about the process and make the next project (The 12-Chapter Wannabe Pirates Serial) the better for it... or at least not make some of the same mistakes again! I. The Backstory Less than a week away from Christmas in 2007, I came up with the idea of doing a quick animated greeting card with the one character I had completed from The Wannabe Pirates (Captain Errol Flemm) that I could share online with my friends. My me…
Last reply by largento, -
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I had to give this one a lot of thought, but I've decided to work on a second project while still working on "Stalled Trek." I realize that this will put some more stall into Stalled Trek, but I think it's the right thing to do. The reality is that Stalled Trek is pretty ambitious and I want to get it right. As such, it's going to be a long time before I can finish it. Also, I'd like to have some more experience with the other aspects of the process (namely animating) so that my skills will (hopefully) match my ambition. I'd rather not have to go back and reanimate everything, like I'm having to go back and re-model the characters right now. So, while I con…
Last reply by largento, -
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I've been keeping hush about this one for the last month waiting to see if I was really going to jump on the wagon again, but am happy to announce that I'm well-in on doing my next Stalled Trek parody!
Last reply by KingVidiot, -
- 5 replies
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With the animation for Stalled Trek: The City on the Edge of Foreclosure finally completed (only took two and a half years!), I went back and made a new HD version of Amutt Time for the blu-ray! Going back to a project that's almost a decade old was definitely a challenge! For one thing, it was my first real attempt at doing a film. Although I would eventually develop some organization, the beginnings were a mess! I didn't have production notes, so I had to do a lot of digging to find things. In the first sequences, files were scattered around in different places and there was some of that "final_revised_2b_final_b" kind of naming going on. I wa…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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On the side, I've been playing with the idea of making a 3D printed Flemm action figure. This was my first test head. The challenge was to try to keep it as a single, closed model. It will mean some details will be added with paint, but to give an idea of the difference, this head is 353 patches and the original was 1273. I exported it out as an OBJ file, but Shapeways wasn't too keen on that or the STL I exported. I ended up opening the OBJ in a 3rd party app and converting it to a DAE file, which Shapeways was perfectly happy with. I ordered one just to see what the quality will be and it should be here soon. It was processed and printed fairly quickly, but t…
Last reply by largento, -
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With 2018 starting, it's time for me to make another short and it looks like I'm doing a parody of the Lone Ranger. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time now. I've reached the point that I'm really just making these for myself, so I'm not worried about trying to find an audience anymore. :-) I've got an enormous amount of work ahead of me, but I think it's going to be fun creating stuff for the Old West. Here's some of the progress so far...
Last reply by Rodney, -
A guy who does Star Trek fan films (and I mean a LOT of them) caught me at the right time about doing a poster for one of his movies. I expected it to have Star Trek stuff on it, but no such luck. :-) I wanted to make something that looked decent, but not require too much work. I'm not sure how much I succeeded on either aspect, but I think it came out pretty cool. Since it was an evil-twin scenario, I only had to model one figure and I actually just used the same model and changed the jacket and hat color in the Cho. I ended up doing two poses and liked the heads in the first one and the bodies in the second, so I rendered out just the heads with an alph…
Last reply by largento, -
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I've completed the first assemblage of the new Stalled Trek I'm doing! There's still stuff missing and not all of it is animated, but I'm hoping to rectify that by Friday. The assemblage is being used to score the movie, which I'm so happy to have this time out. The composer is volunteering his service, which is tremendous. I'm also not going to make a DVD this time, so no Kickstarter funding was necessary. Just me spending lots of my time. :-) I'd love to tease this, but I think anything I showed would give it away. I'll upload a ton of stuff here once it's done, though. So, consider this a place-holder.
Last reply by itsjustme, -
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I meant to make mention of this on the 1st. That's when I started the thread for The Wannabe Pirates. Who knew I'd spend so much time on it and even though it didn't really go anywhere, I did self-publish a 200+ page graphic novel and several comics and even made a sort of animated commercial for it. I doubt the last storyline will ever be finished, but you can still read all the strips on the website. http://thewannabepirates.com
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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In v. 17, we got a new feature: Retopology. Something like six years later, I finally got around to using it! :-) Here's a quick bit of niftiness. I needed a cartoon brain for the image I'm working on and it seemed a daunting modeling challenge. Seeing how someone else was able to do it with another piece of software, I realized I could do the same in A:M. I started off with a fairly dense sphere model I created with the Primitive wizard and cut it in half and worked it into a reasonable "lobe" shape. I created a new Cho and placed an empty model for the brain and the dense model and set to work. Once in model mode (with snap to surface clicked), I be…
Last reply by largento, -
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Star Trek's 50th anniversary is coming up next year and my pal McCrary and I were discussing doing a fan comic in celebration of it. We can't publish it, obviously, but we can put it up on the web for other Star Trek fans to read. We went back and forth on some story ideas and ended up resurrecting a project we wrote and pencilled back in 1992. It's been so long ago that I don't remember why it wasn't lettered and inked, but I suspect that we sent it into DC Comics (who was publishing Star Trek comics at the time) as a sample and when we didn't hear anything, just set it aside. One of the things that contributed to it staying dormant was that Star Trek continuity …
Last reply by detbear, -
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Started working on my next puppet parody. I'm going to explore doing this as a shorter form (3-5 minutes.) It doesn't wear me out as much and theoretically, I could do three parodies in the time it took to do one. The plan right now is to try to do 8 this year, each of them taking on what I consider a classic film. I chose this one to be first.
Last reply by detbear, -
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I thought I'd share this here. A friend contracted me to do an illustration for her daughter's 5th birthday party. The daughter really loves the new Nick Jr. show Paw Patrol. She originally wanted me to draw it, but I asked her if she was game for me going the 3D route so that it would look like the TV show. I created models of the daughter and the number 5 and used images as layers for the rest. It came out surprisingly well. I watched an episode of the show while prepping to do this and I gotta say it's really pretty to look at. Very appealing characters and a simple, cartoon style that makes everything look like a toy.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Ah, how the wheel turns! :-) My initial reason for buying A:M back in 2004 was to do an animated Star Trek parody called "Stalled Trek: Amutt Time." I'm finally doing it! :-) I won't be posting very much here since I am rapidly approaching the deadline for when it needs to be completed, but I'll try to stick up a few images now and then and I'll announce here when/where the actual things can be seen! But here's an image of some of the cast: The fun has begun! :-)
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
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I've already shared this on Facebook, but thought I'd add it here. My nephews (ages 7 and 9) have asked me to help them make a movie over the summer break. It's called "Cow Wars" because I guess to 7 and 9 year olds, cows are funny. :-) I've no doubt it's going to be a struggle to get them to focus on doing anything on their side, so I decided to be pro-active and modeled this Cowtrooper. If I can wrangle them and their expectations, I think it'll be fun to shoot the kids and their friends on green screen and insert them into the movie.
Last reply by Dpendleton77, -
- 12 replies
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Another old 2D cartoon character modeled in 3D. This is one I've wanted to do for years. The old Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons were a revelation the first time I saw them.
Last reply by Fuchur, -
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I'm needing to create a vector image of the 10th Doctor's TARDIS and used that as an excuse to do a model. It came out fairly well for being a quickie. I know there are a few TARDIS models available, but I'd always wanted to try my hand at making one.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I'm working on an online portfolio and the advice I'm getting is to eschew the normal structure and not have regular menus, so I've decided to have a street with a row of buildings that represent different areas of my portfolio. Obviously, a theatre would be the best place to have animation stuff for my portfolio, so it's the first building. I see some places where the AI filter didn't do a good job with filling in some letters, so I'll have to go back and rework those. I'm going to wait until I have everything done before I start putting textures on the models. Next building is a comics shop.
Last reply by Wildsided, -
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Well, I don't know what to really expect, but got invited by Channel Frederator to join and decided to give it a go. It's a little weird that when you do it, you basically are telling YouTube to take your channel away from you and give it to someone else. Still, they give you access to some info on how to improve your channel's performance and will promote your work. (It will be nice to have that happen.) I'll report back here if I see that it makes a difference in my stats.
Last reply by Wildsided, -
- 2 followers
- 167 replies
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About time I started a thread for this project. I'm hoping to go into heavy production on the 1st of January (like with Stalled Trek last year.) It's a parody of the zombie television show "The Walking Dead." It's going to break away from the format a little in that this will be a parody of the first season of the show rather than just a single episode. Most of what I've been doing is gag writing so far, but I should start having lots of stuff to see starting next month. Here's a test I was playing around with tonight. Experimenting with hair this time around. zomb.mov
Last reply by Shelton, -
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I've been thinking for awhile about doing some sample 3D illustrations for my portfolio and realized that doing existing characters would probably have more impact, since they would be more familiar to clients. For my first one, I've decided to do a 3D illustration of The Jetsons (complete with flying car and backgrounds.) I have no idea how long it will take, since it's going to be a back-back burner project, but I worked on George's head today:
Last reply by largento, -
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I downloaded and 'The Wobbling Dead' and have now watched it... twice! Fun aplenty! I had only seen a few episodes and I recognized those sequences immediately. You have a way with gags too! Congratulations on the roll out. That's another fine arrow in your quiver of productions. And thanks for the entertainment!
Last reply by largento, -
- 4 replies
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Hey everybody! I've had to run a quick Kickstarter in order to get more funds to do the DVDs. I found a deal on them last year, that was going to get me 250 of them for just under $200 and now that I'm getting close to doing it, I've found that it's going to be more like $400! Anyway, I've reached my $200 goal to make up for it and have added a stretch goal of $300. As I write this, I'm $19 away from getting it, but if it reaches $300, everyone who gives $1 a more will get a free PDF of the 32-page Wobbling Dead comic book! So here's a chance to support the project for very little money and still get something cool as a thanks! Just go here.
Last reply by Dpendleton77, -
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Both Greyhawk graphic novels are now available via ComiXology! They are priced significantly cheaper ($2.99 and $4.99) than the print versions and are set up as individual pages, making them easier to read on your tablet or phone. They are 93 and 104 pages respectively, so that's a whole lot of starbuckling fun for very little cash. The second volume does include a new six page epilogue that isn't available online. And the first has the original last page that was left out of the online version. Greyhawk and the Starbucklers, Vol 1: Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean Greyhawk and the Starbucklers, Vol 2: Universe on Fire The Wannabe Pirates…
Last reply by largento, -
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Every once in awhile, I just have to work on something different to keep my sanity (or my particular level of insanity.) :-) Started work on an illustrations of Boris & Natasha...
Last reply by largento, -
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I haven't done a Christmas animation since 2008 partly because I never think of it until too late in the game and it always seems to be a nightmare to finish in time. This year, I didn't let that stop me. :-) This one was really rushed. I came up with the idea on Saturday, worked up the audio and started putting it together. Animated it Sunday morning and then waited 21 hours for it to render and finished it up this afternoon. My original plan was to do it like an old Christmas special and have fade-ins from other camera views, but the initial pass took so long to render, there just wasn't the time left to me. Oh well. :-) qJ6im6A4dDU Happy Ho…
Last reply by largento, -
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Since voting for the mascot contest is over, I thought I'd do up a quick post about my Laurel & Hardy entry. When I decided to do an illustration for the contest, I went looking for inspiration and came across a post on one of the cartoonist blogs I go to, Patrick Owsley's Cartoon Art, that featured this old comic book cover of Laurel and Hardy. I liked the simplicity of it and I think the animated character designs for Stan and Ollie are great. Compositionally, I also liked them in the boat. I wasn't entirely sure if it needed to landscape or portrait and knew the boat would let me easily make it either. I thought about a straight recreation of the co…
Last reply by thefreshestever, -
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Hey-yo, I've updated my Storenvy store with digital versions of The Wannabe Pirates comics! Issues #1-3 are available in PDF format and you can even get the Curse of Greyhawk Island graphic novel for waaay cheaper than the print version! The print version of issue #3 will be available soon (just sent the files to the printer tonight.) Also, both of the Greyhawk graphic novels will be available soon! They are almost ready to go to the printers. Just some last minute decisions about the back covers and they'll be out of there! We're hoping to bring the digital versions to the Comixology app through their Submit initiative, but that takes time …
Last reply by largento, -
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Nothing big, but I needed a teddy bear for The Wobbling Dead and put together a very quick one. I thought it came out pretty cool, though.
Last reply by johnl3d, -
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This is kind of experimental. I found out about this site, Gumroad that lets you sell digital media and I want to give it a shot and see how well it works. It's set up so that all you have to do is give them your email address and payment info and you get an email with the link to download it. You don't have to sign up for anything. Starting now, you can purchase a digital download of Stalled Trek: Amutt time for only $3.99! Significantly cheaper than the DVD and no shipping! The file is an mp4 and should work on mobile devices. The price may go up if I decide to make this permanent, so get yours now if you want one ...and let me know how well the proc…
Last reply by largento, -
- 20 replies
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I often see cartoon characters and am seized by the urge to model them in A:M, but never seem to have the time (or a good reason.) I've thrown out reason and decided I'll make the time every once in awhile. :-) One of the ones that I've always wanted to do was Huckleberry Hound...
Last reply by largento, -
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Time to put it to the test! Will people go for The Wobbling Dead? Boy, I hope so! Check out the Kickstarter Project page and help me spread the word! Thanks, everyone!
Last reply by Vong, -
- 3 replies
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Trying out amplitude on a model with teeth. It really is serviceable to do the lip synch with Amplitude. It's not full animation to be sure, but for simple things, it can definitely work. It could also be used as a starting place, I think. Go in and edit the mouth shapes in some place (O's, MPB, etc.) and it would look pretty good. jimmytest_s.mov
Last reply by largento, -
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I've been getting a bunch of emails with Pre-Black Friday Sales and thought, "Hey! I should do a sale on the DVD!" So, from now until December 1st, you can get a copy of the Stalled Trek: Amutt Time DVD for only $5! Just run out to the Storenvy site right here! These make great gifts for the Star Trek fans you know! Forum members say: And these from other folks!
Last reply by largento, -
- 33 replies
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After having rested and had some time to recover from the marathon of doing the "Stalled Trek" part, I am finally ready to get this webseries finished and up! Having had considerable time to think about it, I've opted for making this first "season" three episodes instead of five. This based mostly on the fact that I think the audience will better appreciate waiting through three episodes than five. The only real reasons to do it in five episodes are: 1) I get more episodes for my buck; 2) Episodes are shorter. To be honest, I don't think the two minutes will be make or break. Having looked at both alternatives, the segments end in much better spots wit…
Last reply by largento, -
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I see today's Google logo is celebrating Star Trek by changing the Google letters to Trek characters. Clicking on the hotspots takes you through a short (but humorous) adventure. It make me think of Stalled Trek and our own famous Mark Largento. https://www.google.com/ (Looked for the link to the permanent logo area but couldn't find it)
Last reply by largento, -
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- 16 replies
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Man oh man, I've had post project blues before, but never for this prolonged a time. It's a weird thing. You work on this project that takes up all of your time and it's the reason you get up in the morning and the reason you are so late going to bed. Then in the last stretch, it's exhausting and it's tough sticking with it to the end. And then it's over ...and that's it. Suddenly you don't have to get out of bed in the morning, your reason for being seems to have just checked out. I've been trying to jump back into another project, but I can't seem to break out of this funk. Part of me just thinks that it was such a prolonged marathon of work t…
Last reply by largento, -
- 5 replies
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Came across this cool blog Al Bigley does with all kinds of comics and stuff from my generation and thought I'd contribute to it. I took the cut-out table-top diorama from this post and put it together in A:M. I made a YouTube video of it and it's now included in the post. Like I said, nothing fancy, but a fun little project that was basically done with cookie-cut decals (after I clipped the images out in Photoshop.) Despite my mentioning that I did it in 3D, he originally thought it was the real thing filmed with a camera. :-) If you'd like to do one, there were a bunch of them printed on the backs of the old over-sized Treasury comics and if you go throug…
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
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As promised, with the Dallas Comic-Con over, I am making the DVDs available for sale online! You can order one here.
Last reply by Darkwing, -
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So, the TNG parody wasn't getting me excited, so I started thinking of other projects I could do and this one just appeals to me like crazy. It's an animated puppet parody of the classic "Giant-Size X-Men #1," the first appearance of the "new" X-Men. As a longtime comic book fan, this one just feels like so much fun and I love the idea of bringing the comic book to life with 3D puppets. Have started work on the characters... Here's hoping I can get this puppy done and on DVD by mid-October in time for the next local con!
Last reply by Vong, -
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Okay, I'm going for it! There's a Fan Days convention here in October. Allowing time for DVDs to be made, that gives me 119 days to create another 15-minute film. And somehow do the web series, too. I've decided to do a parody of the TNG episode, "The Best of Both Worlds". It's probably one of their best-known episodes. It's the two-parter when Picard is captured by the Borg and turned into Locutus. This is going to be a big one, but it should be a lot of fun and appeal to a whole other generation. Pun intended.
Last reply by TheSpleen, -
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Well, it may be a decision I eventually regret, but I put in my two weeks notice at work today! In the worst recession in a couple of decades, with a super-huge unemployment rate, I'm walking away from my job. And I *think* I'm still sane. :-) Money can't buy happiness and I'm ready for a change. Luckily, being single, I don't have anybody but me to put through the lean times. Going to work on getting freelance jobs to get me by so that I can put The Wannabe Pirates as my main focus. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Last reply by largento, -
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I thought I'd make a separate thread for this so that I could chronicle it (and hopefully force me to move forward with this!) What I'm working on is a movie trailer style commercial for the graphic novel version of The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island! The first copies of the book are currently being printed. Once I've seen them and confirmed the quality, I'm going to make them for sale and I want to make this commercial to generate interest. I've written it and started to work on the audio, but I think my idea of doing all of the voices myself isn't going to work out. The voice of Flemm is one that I don't think I'm every going to be able to do…
Last reply by TheSpleen, -
- 37 replies
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Hey everyone, I just started a Kickstarter campaign to make it possible for me to replicate DVDs of Stalled Trek for the convention in May. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/197552...trek-amutt-time I really need to spread the word as far as possible, so if you could share the link on Facebook or tweet about it or make mention of it on your website and email your friends and ask them to do the same, I'd really appreciate it. Please help! Thanks! Mark
Last reply by Dpendleton77, -
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Having trouble getting any Wannabe Pirates work done, so I figured I'd try working on something different to see if I can get myself back in the groove. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile. Started working on the first of two character models for it:
Last reply by jason1025, -
- 22 replies
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I am having so much fun with this! The Wannabe Pirates comic book! Issue #1 is already available here. I'm working on issue #2 which will come out in August. Here's the cover: I love doing these old-style comic book covers with dialogue on them.
Last reply by largento, -
Stalled Trek 1 2 3
by largento- 120 replies
- 15k views
My first time around with Animation: Master in 2004, I had wanted to do an animated version of a Star Trek parody I'd done as a comic. I only got as far as creating one model and it looked pretty terrible. :-) I eventually reached a point of frustration and abandoned it. This year, I decided to give A:M another go and this time, I've been making a real effort to learn it. So, I'm giving my Stalled Trek (now the name's even more appropriate!) another go. Here's the scary head I made of the captain back in 2004: It's even scarier than I remembered it being! :-) Here's where I'm at with the new version: It's like night and day! I'm n…
Last reply by largento, -
- 14 replies
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Hey Everybody, Just got in the copies I ordered of the print version of The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island and they look amazing! SOOO cool to see this in print! 208 pages (full color)! (That doesn't include the outside and inside covers which includes a full-page ad for Animation:Master!) I had my doubts about the quality of Print On Demand, but happily they were unfounded! The colors look great and the high resolution art lets you see more detail! Very happy with how it turned out! Here's the link to it! Go buy copies for everyone you know! :-) PS-->I can't see anywhere on the site if sales are limited to the US. They p…
Last reply by NancyGormezano,
