Return of the Blogger... with graphics specs!

Whew! Good to be back! First the news. Then the graphics info!

For the past many weeks now I've been getting my new site up and running. Sorry for not posting much, hopefully I will more as we move forward studio- and band-wise. For those of you who don't know I've started my own personal website/blog over at Chasinglilly.net. The blog over there has a lot of stuff going on, currently Will and I's Dark Territory LOST Podcast (which is also up on iTunes! Go subscribe!:-) ), a side video series I'm doing, my personal thoughts, and occasionally some homework relating to my Digital Storytelling class. Go check it out!

You may have noticed that I put up a new post over on the Island Wars blog talking about some new graphics I've been working on for the film. The pictures are also reprinted below. Btw nerd question: what type and generation space ship is it? The answer's somewhere below in the post ;-)





I didn't want to put any specs in the Island Wars blog and figured it would be more appropriate here on the studio blog anyways. The two images are part of a short test scene I started making two days ago from scratch. The entire sequence was made using Blender 2.49, particleIllusion 3.0.2, and Adobe After Effects CS4. It took a few good hours to make. Much of that was spent testing, trying to remember the Blender interface, wrongly exporting from pI multiple times, and getting the 3D camera data working in AE. Thankfully it looks even better in motion than the pictures.

Nerd answer: It's a Star Trek Voyager-generation shuttle craft, DUH! Actually the only part of the image I didn't make myself was part of the mesh for the shuttle, which I got from the Star Trek Blender models site.

Of course, the images above are by no way the final product. There's a lot of work still to be done. For instance, the outer space in both images needs more on an atmosphere, the engine should be glowing, etc.

Keep looking forward to Island Wars, FINALLY coming out this summer! :-)

Happy Trails and Namaste,
Sam.

PS - Andrew Kramer, you ROCK! Thank you for giving the world the gift of flares.

The Future is Near

Hey once again, everybody! I told you it'd be a little bit before the next post, so you can't blame me for being late. Now onto business!

Last post we talked about what projects we wanted to do after Island Wars, and where we saw the studio heading in the future. I am here to announce that it has once again changed... sort of. Will and I now have within our cerebral cortices a huge number of ideas for feature films, short films, serials, and even mini-series. It's hard to explain just how complicated (and at times annoying) the process of choosing which stories to put our time into and attempt to flesh-out.

We have a very high bar for a film idea. For instance, one of our many ideas was a film about an Indiana Jones-type character in modern times who finds either Atlantis or Shangri la. But we thew this idea out because it's not original. Just the fact that we described the characters and circumstances using characters from other films made it obvious enough. That's what we love about Island Wars. Even though we didn't portray it very well, and by the time you all see the film it will likely be buried under layers of random comedy, Island Wars has a truly original concept and story. In fact we find it hard comparing it to any other single films.

That said, the idea I said we would likely start filming right after Island Wars has been pushed into the "maybe pile" for future projects. As of this writing, we are pretty sure of three film ideas that we want to work on. One of them we threw out a while ago, but have recycled in a new way. One of them we had discussed for a while, but only after a five hour conversation with Will yesterday did it change dramatically in a way we really liked. And the last one we won't be able to start until next year. Whether any of these are feature films, or if any of them are Island Wars related, I still can't say.

Buuuttt, I have class now, and must go. We'll keep you all updated!

Happy Trails,
Sam.

So What's Next?

We've been working on Island Wars for a year and three months now. It has easily been our biggest project yet, not only in terms of equipment and length, but in terms of scale and cast members. It's also our most popular endeavor yet, as our Facebook fan page can attest to. As a short of little random tidbit, Island Wars is also the first project that we had a script for (though admittedly Will and I didn't start writing it until well into the project).

While the release of Island Wars this winter may still seem like a while away, the group here at Umbrellaman Studios is already pondering the obvious question: "So... uh... what's next?" While Island Wars is our biggest project yet, we don't plan on it being our last big project, and we certainly don't plan on it being the pinnacle of our film-making careers!

Well the truth is we don't know for sure, but we do have a very good idea of what we hope to accomplish after Island Wars. Many possibilities have popped up recently. We've discussed making a short film, diving into another full-length feature (but this time more prepared!), and of course the possibility (and maybe necessity) of an Island Wars sequel.

While I won't reveal too much information on any of these subjects just yet, I can say that we are planning on entering at least one short film competition after Island Wars. Will and I have already narrowed the possibilities of such a film down to a few ideas. Of course for any of our future projects, we will need new equipment (meaning real camera, new computer, and maybe even a boom). This will obviously be a problem (and that is obviously an understatement).

In terms of our next large-scale project, we have three script ideas for three different films we are currently talking over. Me and Will are seriously considering one in particular that we currently want to start working on as soon as Island Wars is finished. Whether that particular idea is Island Wars sequel related... I cannot reveal yet. I will tell you that we have pages of ideas, and that I contacted Will earlier today to discuss writing separate test scenes and then exchanging them. We will see how that works out...

Well I don't know if I should reveal much more than that at this time. There probably won't be many posts (at least by me) on this blog for the next few weeks, since as-of-this-moment I've decided to stop putting it off and just FINISH EDITING THE DARN MOVIE ALREADY!

Happy Trails,
Sam.

And this is the first post!

Well hey guys, this is the first post on the NEW Umbrellaman Studios Blog! As many of you may know, we have been hard at work finishing up Island Wars for a late-winter 2009 release and have a separate blog devoted entirely to Island Wars that we run as well. But that blog is, well, just that: a blog devoted to Island Wars! Umbrellaman Studios has done other projects in the past, and we plan on doing other projects in the future after Island Wars. Thus, rather than simply changing the Island Wars blog after we complete the movie, we have created this "master blog" as a sort of one-stop-shop for all the information on Umbrellaman Studios and our projects.

Currently, Umbrellaman Studios is Sam Rodgers, Will McCarry, and Jimmy McGrath. Of course, we can't fail to mention the invaluable help from outside friends and family as well! (the likes of Josh Carrier, Billy Bacci, Eliseo Perez, etc.) We may expand, though! Only time will tell...

Despite this small group of individuals, we do have multiple projects going on just at the time of this post. Currently (and most obviously) we have Island Wars. We also produce an internet video series named Meet the McGrimmy's. For those of you who haven't heard of either, go check them out!

Meet the McGrimmy's is a random comedy about a dysfunctional family that just can't be explained in text. Picture The Office meets Borat. Though, admittedly the videos up of it already don't do much to prove that, as they are rather old. We have another episode almost finished that is much more polished and much closer to our normal standard of quality. Of course, this was all done as a quick sort of side project while we were still making Island Wars. We do plan on continuing this series, though, even if just for fun!

Of course, our big project at the moment is Island Wars. As mentioned earlier, we have a [semi] regularly updated blog on it as well as a very established fan base on Facebook with over 170 fans. It has been about a year and a half since the idea first came into our minds, and come this winter you all will agree it was well worth the wait (which included a delay of over six months). We have plenty of video updates and specials on our YouTube page for you to view (along with two trailers you can view here and here). For a little preview of a scene, there's a popular part of a car chase scene from our movie up on YouTube as well.

We have also had many projects in the past *cough* IBU Podcasts, Umbrellaman VidCast Chronicles, The Jimmy Show, Hound Dog, and others *cough* We like to think that we have made VAST improvements over these early projects (if you can even call them that, since most were done simply for fun). I suppose it's up to the viewer to decide, though!

But WAIT... that's not all! We also have more projects coming up AFTER Island Wars! What could these projects be? Short films? Internet specials? Full-length films? Well you'll just have to wait and see! I will note that the current rumor is that our next project will be Island Wars 2. Of course, I must also admit that there is reason to doubt this rumor... You all will just have to wait and see! We'll keep you posted!

Happy Trails,
Sam.