by Aaron Mystery
The short animation tentatively titled "Chamber of the Zombies" (ugh!) is nearing completion. I have posted a clip of ALL NEW footage below. The next time you see a clip it will be the finished video!
Voice actor credits for this scene (all were volunteers who graciously donated their time and effort):
Dr. Holder......Jennifer Hudock
Worker #1.....Jon from Brethren and the Evil Empire
Mr. Sterling...Aaron Mystery (me)
I hope you enjoy this new sneak preview:
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Chamber of the Zombies Day 2 (Clip 1 of 3)
by Aaron Mystery
I'm very excited to present you the first third of the new Chamber of the Zombies animation (mercifully, that's a working title). Continued thanks to Jennifer Hudock, whose excellent voice acting makes up for my own subpar delivery.
Video is below. After a short break, I start working on the next scene, which requires a trio of zombies. I will post pics as I conjure these beasties up. Stay tuned and thanks for watching!
I'm very excited to present you the first third of the new Chamber of the Zombies animation (mercifully, that's a working title). Continued thanks to Jennifer Hudock, whose excellent voice acting makes up for my own subpar delivery.
Video is below. After a short break, I start working on the next scene, which requires a trio of zombies. I will post pics as I conjure these beasties up. Stay tuned and thanks for watching!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Chamber of the Zombies Day 1
by Aaron Mystery
[Special thanks to Jennifer Hudock (http://jenniferhudock.com) for volunteering her time and effort to the voice of Dr. Holder.]
(Please go to my TwitPic gallery at http://twitpic.com/photos/suckermouth to see still images of the zombie facility and zombies themselves as they were developed.)
Long before I got into animation in late 2004, I've wanted to make a zombie movie. Unfortunately, as popular as zombies are, they're not as popular as "other things", and so I have been restricted in what I could do, both in the time I could dedicate to it, as well as my technical limitations over the years.
By developing a concept that nests a legitimate zombie movie between two Bimbo Vampire episodes, I hope to please both my usual fans and zombie lovers alike.
So you won't see anything sexy in this animated short when it's finished, just some non-gratuitous male zombie ass, but I think the beauty of the scene speaks wonders for why an artist needs to get outside his normal workspace once in a while.
It's going to take the better part of a week to finish this entire animated short, but I'll keep posting new clips for your viewing pleasure. Next clip should be this evening.
Without further ado, here is the first clip of my new animated zombie short:
[Special thanks to Jennifer Hudock (http://jenniferhudock.com) for volunteering her time and effort to the voice of Dr. Holder.]
(Please go to my TwitPic gallery at http://twitpic.com/photos/suckermouth to see still images of the zombie facility and zombies themselves as they were developed.)
Long before I got into animation in late 2004, I've wanted to make a zombie movie. Unfortunately, as popular as zombies are, they're not as popular as "other things", and so I have been restricted in what I could do, both in the time I could dedicate to it, as well as my technical limitations over the years.
By developing a concept that nests a legitimate zombie movie between two Bimbo Vampire episodes, I hope to please both my usual fans and zombie lovers alike.
So you won't see anything sexy in this animated short when it's finished, just some non-gratuitous male zombie ass, but I think the beauty of the scene speaks wonders for why an artist needs to get outside his normal workspace once in a while.
It's going to take the better part of a week to finish this entire animated short, but I'll keep posting new clips for your viewing pleasure. Next clip should be this evening.
Without further ado, here is the first clip of my new animated zombie short:
Monday, June 8, 2009
TFF Origins Episode 3 - Buildings Day 1
by Aaron MysteryTried my hand at basic modeling today and did a mock up for the main location of the upcoming Transformation Fantasy Force episode. Started with a series of meatball objects and capped it off with a couple vertex models (the globes at the top of the towers). The building in the very back is also a vertex mesh.
The first three pics above obviously show the evolution of the texturing (which I'm actually not satisfied with considering my original vision and how slow these textures take to render). The last shot is an alternate angle of the towers with the globes on top.
I hope you enjoy these pics. I would love to continue to create in this way.
Digital Dance Off - An Exclusive Vid and a Brief Tutorial
by Aaron Mystery
Yesterday, in the middle of a bland uncreative spell, I challenged my brother to a digital dance-off - I would make a video of dancing characters on my computer, and he would do the same on his. One hour. May the best man win.
Not everything went exactly as planned.
First, both of us took longer than an hour. I was arrogant enough to use a software plug-in I've never touched (we'll come to that in the tutorial). Second, I went longer than the one-minute video we established in the rules by almost double. Third, when I tried to render the animation in one whole two-minute block (rendering animations over 15-30 seconds is dicey) it of course went corrupt after waiting on it for over an hour.
My brother had his own share of difficulties, but that's for him to blog about - he wouldn't let me post his video, which was live action dancing and some new audio enhanced by some visual effects and backed by the Brethren and the Evil Empire song "The Too Much Fun Club Rides Again" from our third album.
The only objective audience member gave the victory to me, but I didn't deserve it. Watch the video below, and I'll tell you how I took this challenge on like a true hack:
"Thirty" is technically a song (as a rough demo here) from the upcoming Brethren and the Evil Empire album, the band I'm part of. However, I didn't play at all on this track - it's all my brother. Hack points right off the bat - using my brother's own unfinished song against him.
Next, I didn't use one of the animation software programs I paid for - I used a FREE one that anyone can download. It's called DazStudio (2.3), and although I've had some form of DazStudio installed on my computer since before any other, I have always overlooked it. You can download DazStudio when you go to http://www.Daz3D.com and navigate to the software section. I only started playing with it recently because I was beta testing version 3, which promises to integrate better with my other programs. Using FREE software you hardly know: Double hack points.
The characters are part of The Heavies series by 3D Universe (whom I love) - the two bears are Bert and Bertha from Heavies #1 and the elephant is Ernie from Heavies #2. Each set costs $21.95 at Daz3D. (Suckermouth fans with note I use Bert and Bertha as the Doctor and Nurse in a Bastard Piece Theater storyline.) I didn't make any modifications to The Heavies figures for the dance-off video - just scaled Ernie up a bit since, as an elephant, he should be bigger. Definite Hack points for using the figures right "out of the box".
For the characters' dancing animations, I used pre-built ones provided in the DazStudio plug-in AniMate. I bought the AniMate bundle, which included the AniPad plug-in and the Dance animations (or AniBlocks, as they're technically called). The AniMate Bundle is available at Daz3D for $99.95. Using pre-made animations and a plug-in I've never even touched before: Double the hack points.
That's it, folks. Download free program, spend about $150 on extras, find a song your brother made, and you have yourself a digital dance-off entry worthy of the world's greatest hack.
My heroes would be shamed, but luckily I'm not in the dancing cartoon animal business.
Yesterday, in the middle of a bland uncreative spell, I challenged my brother to a digital dance-off - I would make a video of dancing characters on my computer, and he would do the same on his. One hour. May the best man win.
Not everything went exactly as planned.
First, both of us took longer than an hour. I was arrogant enough to use a software plug-in I've never touched (we'll come to that in the tutorial). Second, I went longer than the one-minute video we established in the rules by almost double. Third, when I tried to render the animation in one whole two-minute block (rendering animations over 15-30 seconds is dicey) it of course went corrupt after waiting on it for over an hour.
My brother had his own share of difficulties, but that's for him to blog about - he wouldn't let me post his video, which was live action dancing and some new audio enhanced by some visual effects and backed by the Brethren and the Evil Empire song "The Too Much Fun Club Rides Again" from our third album.
The only objective audience member gave the victory to me, but I didn't deserve it. Watch the video below, and I'll tell you how I took this challenge on like a true hack:
"Thirty" is technically a song (as a rough demo here) from the upcoming Brethren and the Evil Empire album, the band I'm part of. However, I didn't play at all on this track - it's all my brother. Hack points right off the bat - using my brother's own unfinished song against him.
Next, I didn't use one of the animation software programs I paid for - I used a FREE one that anyone can download. It's called DazStudio (2.3), and although I've had some form of DazStudio installed on my computer since before any other, I have always overlooked it. You can download DazStudio when you go to http://www.Daz3D.com and navigate to the software section. I only started playing with it recently because I was beta testing version 3, which promises to integrate better with my other programs. Using FREE software you hardly know: Double hack points.
The characters are part of The Heavies series by 3D Universe (whom I love) - the two bears are Bert and Bertha from Heavies #1 and the elephant is Ernie from Heavies #2. Each set costs $21.95 at Daz3D. (Suckermouth fans with note I use Bert and Bertha as the Doctor and Nurse in a Bastard Piece Theater storyline.) I didn't make any modifications to The Heavies figures for the dance-off video - just scaled Ernie up a bit since, as an elephant, he should be bigger. Definite Hack points for using the figures right "out of the box".
For the characters' dancing animations, I used pre-built ones provided in the DazStudio plug-in AniMate. I bought the AniMate bundle, which included the AniPad plug-in and the Dance animations (or AniBlocks, as they're technically called). The AniMate Bundle is available at Daz3D for $99.95. Using pre-made animations and a plug-in I've never even touched before: Double the hack points.
That's it, folks. Download free program, spend about $150 on extras, find a song your brother made, and you have yourself a digital dance-off entry worthy of the world's greatest hack.
My heroes would be shamed, but luckily I'm not in the dancing cartoon animal business.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Pain and Guilt of Making Art
by Aaron Mystery
There are two types of egocentric people in this world: Those who think they are perfect and at the center of existence, and those who are so obsessed with their own flaws and ineffectiveness that all they can think about is themselves. I am the latter, failed at more things than many will ever attempt, but it is in my most subtle of successes that I find the most guilt.
There are two areas in my life where I have had moderate success: One is a personal matter I don't share with the world as Aaron Mystery, and the other is Suckermouth, that ridiculous little cartoon website dedicated to transformation fantasy. The reward is still small compared to the time invested, but I'm grateful for it. I wonder if I deserve it?
I'm constantly tortured by what I'm not getting done, what's not rendering on my computer, what I'm not writing, or voicing, or playing. A hopeless romantic who surrendered his soul to be successful at something he never wanted to do.
To sell one's soul to the proverbial Devil is just as Hollywood portrays it: It is forever and a bum deal. Thus, where a boy once wrote love letters to a girl that said she loved him back, a man now feels his heart burn with the guilt of not getting enough adult cartoons made for his website this month. To the opposite sex (and much of the male gender, it should be said), my cartoons are filth at best, trash at worst.
And it is true, I have never claimed to be anything but a hack. But I do have a passion for both animation and transformation fantasy. I have more of a passion for money. Good cartoons make happy customers and happy customers continue to subscribe. Sexy cartoons create new customers, and new customers account for half my revenue. Money earned this way - even a little - helps me to forget what I don't want to remember.
Once, all I cared about was making music. All I wanted was to play guitar and sing. Hours a day, year after year, album after album - I was worse than a hack. I was unsuccessful and not very good at it. My lot in life was to be rejected by others, chiefly because I had little to offer that was exceptional or worth taking note of.
There is a period in my life between the band and the website that taught me emotion is forever, that pain can never be forgotten. To this day (last night, for example), I still have terrible nightmares and dreams of false and unwanted hope spawned by my brush with "Love," a despicable tyrant more vindictive and powerful than any god or devil.
I discovered that the depths of the human condition are arrived at in the realm of dreams. I am tortured by them, yet I crave them. Being no creative genius, my dreams give me insight into the real artist that lies within me. Just glimpses of unbound creativity and wonderful stories.
Yet when I pull these phantasms out into the light of day, into the waking hours, they gain too much power, too much influence, and I must retreat to the domain of sleep and hope they come back there instead. If I were lucky, I would dream about nothing at all. Because a dream remembered is an event experienced, our emotions will never sort it out completely.
To overcome this vicious cycle that nearly destroyed my life, I had to accept that I was Ace the Zombie, that I was not human, but in fact a ghoul walking among the living that should never expect to enjoy the things humans do. I would continue to consume art and knowledge, but not love and companionship. I must become a servant. A servant to anything but Love, the tyrant that has shattered a billion hearts, and claimed the lives of almost as many.
At first, Ace was a stage prop, then he was a character in a novella, then a face on an album cover, until finally he became a cartoon icon and the Patron Saint of Breast Expansion: He is Ace the Zombie. Somewhat unwilling and resentful servant to the Devil, Ace is the embodiment of mindless and pointless entertainment, the epitome of control and cheap applause. Ace believes you cater to your followers and spite the world for rejecting you in the first place - no matter what you would have done, these people of the world would have scorned or ignored you to the very end, anyhow. Your followers deserve your dedication - and they like it pure.
But as a jester in the courts of hell, Ace believes he is in control of his emotions. He is a clown, yes, but if the cheers and coinage can simply keep raining down from the audience, he can block everything else out of his mind. He can forget his past. Forget dead pets and missed opportunities and love lost and the joy of being alive.
And since I became Ace the Zombie to survive, I can tell you he is wrong. Yes, success will temporarily forestall the pangs of remembering the past, put eventually, the past pushes back.
Ace now sits in his tomb, miserable, because he can't think of the next joke to tell the Devil. They used to roll off the tongue. Puppet shows, dances, pantomime: Ace could not help himself. However, if Ace were to try to rise above the role of court jester and talk of romance or music, the Devil would cast him out, and then who would watch Ace dance?
So as the guilt of unrealized cartoons and an idle computer eat away at me like horned worms on a tomato plant, I realize that the Devil doesn't play fair. Instead of getting rid of nightmares and regret, I've only added a suffocating layer of guilt brought on by obligations not to others, but to myself. I'm the one that needs the animations coming, the computer whirring away, the pencil scribbling the next script - I'm the Devil Ace dances for! I need the distraction, you simple little fool! Don't stop dancing!
Self-loathing was never so much at home (or so incestuous).
To Ace, I say this: Guilt will never bring you happiness, but happiness will rarely bring you guilt. You are among the walking dead, and all the dancing in the world can't change that.
To the Devil: You chose to be cast down to Hell by behaving like a monster. You are the other guy, and all the control in Hell can't change that.
To myself: Your computer has been idle since 6 this morning and the guilt is giving you a headache. Get to work!
[Update: Almost immediately after I posted this blog, my Twitter thumb - which had been a pic of yours truly - AUTOMATICALLY reverted back to the Satan thumb I used for a day months ago! One of the freakiest coincidences of my life, but this is a weekend when nothing excites or inspires me, so it was all for naught.]
There are two types of egocentric people in this world: Those who think they are perfect and at the center of existence, and those who are so obsessed with their own flaws and ineffectiveness that all they can think about is themselves. I am the latter, failed at more things than many will ever attempt, but it is in my most subtle of successes that I find the most guilt.
There are two areas in my life where I have had moderate success: One is a personal matter I don't share with the world as Aaron Mystery, and the other is Suckermouth, that ridiculous little cartoon website dedicated to transformation fantasy. The reward is still small compared to the time invested, but I'm grateful for it. I wonder if I deserve it?
I'm constantly tortured by what I'm not getting done, what's not rendering on my computer, what I'm not writing, or voicing, or playing. A hopeless romantic who surrendered his soul to be successful at something he never wanted to do.
To sell one's soul to the proverbial Devil is just as Hollywood portrays it: It is forever and a bum deal. Thus, where a boy once wrote love letters to a girl that said she loved him back, a man now feels his heart burn with the guilt of not getting enough adult cartoons made for his website this month. To the opposite sex (and much of the male gender, it should be said), my cartoons are filth at best, trash at worst.
And it is true, I have never claimed to be anything but a hack. But I do have a passion for both animation and transformation fantasy. I have more of a passion for money. Good cartoons make happy customers and happy customers continue to subscribe. Sexy cartoons create new customers, and new customers account for half my revenue. Money earned this way - even a little - helps me to forget what I don't want to remember.
Once, all I cared about was making music. All I wanted was to play guitar and sing. Hours a day, year after year, album after album - I was worse than a hack. I was unsuccessful and not very good at it. My lot in life was to be rejected by others, chiefly because I had little to offer that was exceptional or worth taking note of.
There is a period in my life between the band and the website that taught me emotion is forever, that pain can never be forgotten. To this day (last night, for example), I still have terrible nightmares and dreams of false and unwanted hope spawned by my brush with "Love," a despicable tyrant more vindictive and powerful than any god or devil.
I discovered that the depths of the human condition are arrived at in the realm of dreams. I am tortured by them, yet I crave them. Being no creative genius, my dreams give me insight into the real artist that lies within me. Just glimpses of unbound creativity and wonderful stories.
Yet when I pull these phantasms out into the light of day, into the waking hours, they gain too much power, too much influence, and I must retreat to the domain of sleep and hope they come back there instead. If I were lucky, I would dream about nothing at all. Because a dream remembered is an event experienced, our emotions will never sort it out completely.
To overcome this vicious cycle that nearly destroyed my life, I had to accept that I was Ace the Zombie, that I was not human, but in fact a ghoul walking among the living that should never expect to enjoy the things humans do. I would continue to consume art and knowledge, but not love and companionship. I must become a servant. A servant to anything but Love, the tyrant that has shattered a billion hearts, and claimed the lives of almost as many.
At first, Ace was a stage prop, then he was a character in a novella, then a face on an album cover, until finally he became a cartoon icon and the Patron Saint of Breast Expansion: He is Ace the Zombie. Somewhat unwilling and resentful servant to the Devil, Ace is the embodiment of mindless and pointless entertainment, the epitome of control and cheap applause. Ace believes you cater to your followers and spite the world for rejecting you in the first place - no matter what you would have done, these people of the world would have scorned or ignored you to the very end, anyhow. Your followers deserve your dedication - and they like it pure.
But as a jester in the courts of hell, Ace believes he is in control of his emotions. He is a clown, yes, but if the cheers and coinage can simply keep raining down from the audience, he can block everything else out of his mind. He can forget his past. Forget dead pets and missed opportunities and love lost and the joy of being alive.
And since I became Ace the Zombie to survive, I can tell you he is wrong. Yes, success will temporarily forestall the pangs of remembering the past, put eventually, the past pushes back.
Ace now sits in his tomb, miserable, because he can't think of the next joke to tell the Devil. They used to roll off the tongue. Puppet shows, dances, pantomime: Ace could not help himself. However, if Ace were to try to rise above the role of court jester and talk of romance or music, the Devil would cast him out, and then who would watch Ace dance?
So as the guilt of unrealized cartoons and an idle computer eat away at me like horned worms on a tomato plant, I realize that the Devil doesn't play fair. Instead of getting rid of nightmares and regret, I've only added a suffocating layer of guilt brought on by obligations not to others, but to myself. I'm the one that needs the animations coming, the computer whirring away, the pencil scribbling the next script - I'm the Devil Ace dances for! I need the distraction, you simple little fool! Don't stop dancing!
Self-loathing was never so much at home (or so incestuous).
To Ace, I say this: Guilt will never bring you happiness, but happiness will rarely bring you guilt. You are among the walking dead, and all the dancing in the world can't change that.
To the Devil: You chose to be cast down to Hell by behaving like a monster. You are the other guy, and all the control in Hell can't change that.
To myself: Your computer has been idle since 6 this morning and the guilt is giving you a headache. Get to work!
[Update: Almost immediately after I posted this blog, my Twitter thumb - which had been a pic of yours truly - AUTOMATICALLY reverted back to the Satan thumb I used for a day months ago! One of the freakiest coincidences of my life, but this is a weekend when nothing excites or inspires me, so it was all for naught.]
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Suckermouth Round-Up: April 2009
by Aaron Mystery
April was a great month for Suckermouth in many ways. Best month in terms of sales ever! And here are the animations in April that made it happen:
New Giantess Animations:
Part 1
Part 2 (clothed and nude versions)
Part 3 (clothed and nude versions)
New B.E. Quickies:
B.E. Hive 2
Zap (TFF "Preview")
New Big Brethren:
Hot Vanessa and Geena lesbian scene
New Featurettes (Bimbo Vampires vs. Zombies):
Growing Ratings (B.E.)
Ambush (B.E.)
What's Breast for Women (TFF Origins):
Part 1
Part 2
That's 12 cartoons (counting GTS nude variants) in April! What a month!
As I work on the first true episode of TFF Origins (GTS), something tells me May is going to be even better. Cheers!
April was a great month for Suckermouth in many ways. Best month in terms of sales ever! And here are the animations in April that made it happen:
New Giantess Animations:
Part 1
Part 2 (clothed and nude versions)
Part 3 (clothed and nude versions)
New B.E. Quickies:
B.E. Hive 2
Zap (TFF "Preview")
New Big Brethren:
Hot Vanessa and Geena lesbian scene
New Featurettes (Bimbo Vampires vs. Zombies):
Growing Ratings (B.E.)
Ambush (B.E.)
What's Breast for Women (TFF Origins):
Part 1
Part 2
That's 12 cartoons (counting GTS nude variants) in April! What a month!
As I work on the first true episode of TFF Origins (GTS), something tells me May is going to be even better. Cheers!
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