Back from BrickFair!

So, I'm back. And let me tell you, BrickFair was awesome! It was way better than expected, and there were some pretty awesome Mocs. Let me show you some of the amazing things that were there.

For the other Dr. Who fans out there.

I've never really mentioned, but I love space exploration.

 And they had an amazing model of the Shuttle Enterprise there.

There was also a guy who helped design parts for the Mars rover Curiosity. He build all of the Lego models from the real design plans/pictures that they actually used!

The SteamPunk was definitely impressive.

Overall it was great, and I'm definitely going next year.

Attention Lego Fans!

BrickFair Virginia is (today) and tomorrow!

For those of you who don't know anything about BrickFair, here is their website:
http://www.brickfair.com

I will be going as a visitor, as this is my first year going. But maybe in the future I will have a table...
I am super excited to go, and will blog about it when I come back (with lots of pictures). My Aunt is taking me and my two brothers on Sunday, and we will be getting there right when the doors open.

So stay tuned for a blog post coming in the next couple of days!

P.S. so sorry for not uploading on the first. Lego Minecraft Part 2 is still in production and will be out shortly.

The Results...

If any of you didn't know, I entered the contest about Police Show that David from the NNN channel hosted. I was one of the 5 runners up, winning a $10 Lego gift card. Even though I didn't win the grand prize, it was still a lot of fun entering, and I learned a lot in the process.

One of the hardest things about animating this video was having the voice-over correspond to the animation. I never animated with voices to that degree, and I feel like I got a lot better at it toward the end of the animation.

But the whole animating process wasn't always fun. As a lot of other brickfilmers know, animating in a set time is stressful. But that was also good practice for me, because I never really animated to a schedule before either. And this one was kind of an important schedule/deadline, so it helped keep me on track, too.

But I would just like to say thank you to all of you who have waited these past couple months for the film to come out. I'm sorry it took so long to make, but it was quite long, too. Also, if you haven't seen it, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x174joP_TI0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUJcZ1y0omgpYPG5KI_seoyA

Also, congrats to the grand prize winner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na5tHKfaujM&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL8XefGFsxR32wcx-sQB4eUiaxt4z_toJS


P.S. The next video coming out will be Lego Minecraft Part 2, so stay tuned. It will not be coming out on July 1st, because I took a little break from animating after the contest. So it should be out August 1st, if not sooner:)

How In The Cubed World?...

I am proud to announce that Steve's Great Adventure: Lego Minecraft- Part 1 reached 1,000 video views yesterday! That is almost 1/2 of my total video views!

So, thank you all for watching, liking, sharing, etc. This is a HUGE step forward for the channel, and I just wanted to share it with you!

The Future...

I'm just going to get right to the point on this post, without making excuses. As a lot of you know, I am trying to make two videos a month. (If you read the channel description, you should know that.) And as probably all of you know, I didn't come out with one on the 15th and the 1st. Why? Because of my police sho........... Wait! No excuses!

Anyway, it does get hard to keep up with two videos a month, so it might have to change. The reason I say that is because I looked at it this way:

How many people do I have to disappoint by not uploading a video every two weeks? The channel is small now, but I'm hoping it will grow soon. And if it grows, that means more people being disappointed. So if I change the schedule now, I will end up disappointing less people, which is a good thing. 

Also, I would like to start making longer videos. All my videos so far have been relatively  short. And if I'm cutting back on the videos, I should make them longer. And a month would give me twice as much time; so maybe twice as long videos?

Furthermore, trying to make a video in two weeks is stressful. It just doesn't feel like enough time to complete a video. If I had more time, I would feel less stressed and would get a lot more animation done. I mean nobody likes to be rushed to do a good job, and I'm no exception. So I think I'm going to change the upload schedule:

I will upload a video on the first of every month, each video being about 1-3 minutes long. 

This schedule will probably start after I'm done with my police show entry. My entry will be uploaded no later than June 9th, because that is the deadline for entering. So I think I will start the schedule July 1st.

So that gives me about 3 weeks to finish Steve's Great Adventure: Lego Minecraft- Part 2 (which is about half done), before July 1st. And that is most likely enough time to finish it.

So that is the new schedule, and I will try to keep it as best I can.

Trouble... Malarkey!

Hey, Chuck Malarkey came in the mail! Here are some pictures and an update.

And here are the two vintage firefighter minifigs that came with Malarkey's torso.

Update: The camera is fixed for the most part, so I can start shooting soon. And all the minifigures came, so let's get this show on the road!

Police Show Contest

As most of you know, I am entering the animation contest hosted by NNN. But all is not going well. Why? Well, here are some reasons:

1) I didn't have anything close to the characters from police show.
2) I'm not a very good voice actor, so the characters won't sound exactly the same. (Although I did get somebody very special to play Snaps Harvey. But I'm going to let it be a surprise.)
3) The camera that I use needs fixed/cleaned. So that is delaying the animation.

The first problem is being fixed though. I decided to buy some of the pieces necessary to build Snaps Harvey and Chuck Malarkey. Mostly because they are the main characters. But like I said, I didn't have anything that looks like them. Example:

Before going on eBay:

 After going on eBay:

I know what some of you are thinking. "Why didn't you go on BrickLink?"
Well, to be honest, I don't like Bricklink. The setup of the website is just not user friendly, and a lot of the sellers have a store minimum.  Meaning that you have to spend a certain amount to place an order. And for what I needed, it would cost about $5, but one of the sellers minimums was $20! So, I went on eBay and found the pieces I needed for $15. I know, it is a lot more expensive, but I'm use to eBay and I've got some pretty good deals on it before.

So I did spend more, but it shipped in 5 days! I ordered it on Thursday, and the pieces came on Monday (today). So it only took only 3 business days. I am waiting on the last piece, which is Malarkey's torso. That is also the reason why the eBay order cost more; Malarkey's body came with two firefighter minifigures from the 90's. And that was the only torso that I could find on eBay that was exactly like Malarkey's.

The second problem isn't that bad, because I got someone who is a good voice actor, but he is only playing one character. So me and some family members/friends are doing the other voices. But you will just have to wait until a later post to find out who the "special" person is... muhahahaha!

The third problem is being fixed, and I still have to wait until Malarkey's torso comes anyways, so it's all good.



P.S. Sorry for no blog post last week. I had one written, and it was ready for upload when I realized I rambled in it WAY too much. (But maybe I rambled in this one, too. Did I?) And then it was Sunday, the start of the new week, so sorry.

Also, I will be posting updates like this very frequently while making this video.

YouTube Channel Layouts

Yes, I changed my YouTube channel layout. Yay! Well, depending on your opinion it is either good or bad. I for one don't mind the new "One Channel", but I really don't like it either. The only reason why I switched was because it does offer better design for mobile devices. According to the Analytics page for my account, 41.5% of my video views come from mobile devices!

So I decided it was time...and it's not too bad. Granted, I don't like some things about it. The main one being is that nothing sticks out like the old design. I mean you have all this different stuff that distracts you, and it is not very unique. You have your subscriptions (which isn't too bad), related channels, and no background picture. I think no background picture is the worst. I spent a good amount of time getting my picture to look right, and then BAM! No picture.

But at least now I can reach out to the people with mobile devices better. What do you think?

The Beginning

So, as the first blog post, I would like to tell you what I'm going to be doing on this blog. As the header of the blog says, the posts will be about a wide array of stuff. I will also blog about that "stuff" at least once a week. That could be on any day of the week too, so stay tuned. But for now I'll just tell you what's happening.

The Lego Minecraft video that I made quickly became the most popular video on my channel. So I decided I'm going to make another one. It's going okay, but it probably won't be done by the 1st of April. The only reason being is that as most of you know, Nightly News at Nine came out with a video contest, and I'm entering. It will be my main animation priority until June 9th, the deadline for entering.

I'm putting the most work into my entry then any other video I've made before. And I'm hoping the end result will be about 2-3 minutes long, and have real dialogue in it.  What I mean by real, is that I'm going to record the audio first, and then animate to that. (Like NNN).

As I said, the Minecraft video will be postponed, but I will come out with something on the 1st. To keep you satisfied, here are some pictures from the upcoming Minecraft video.

Do you like the ghast? He is going to be the main mob in part 2.

In the first part, Steve went into the nether and he is hopefully going to be in there for a little while. So the animation might be longer, but it will also take longer to film. So, would you rather have a short film and have it done sooner, or a long one but have it take longer?