I occasionally empty my spam folder (I'm glad the auto filters work so well), but as I do so I can't avoid reading several words before my browser loads the next page and empties the bin. I realized that nearly all of the spam we get makes absolutely no sense. No, it goes beyond absolutely no sense. I'm pretty certain it is a script just sending stuff through something like "google translate", but it results in some pretty funny wording. I also get a lot of spam from Germany and poland... I have no idea why. I did read Delura is also the name of a popular German soccer player *shrug*.

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I've been invited to present at a webinar for the San Diego Lightwave User's group on January 26th. I've presented there once before (telecommute, of course). This time around, I'll be covering the topic of keyframe management and other cool 3d animation tricks.

I know... not what most people read the news posts on NG for, but I figured I'd explain the reason for the image created below.

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---WINNER---
Adidaas

16-bit text added for maximum effect.

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I thought this might be fun to do. If it turns out lame I'll figure out something else.

Your mission is to caption the image below. If I like your caption, or other people like your caption, then I will edit the caption into the image itself. Lend me your captioney goodness! Now!

Chugging away at animation... I think I have about 20-30 seconds worth left to do and I can focus on getting images rendered out.

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Meet Speck: a 3 foot tall Brakkian who will eventually appear in the series. The model isn't built/rigged yet, but I'm going to need a template of this character for the Render Comic I'm doing. I know, it is kind of reminiscent of mechwarrior, but it is chibified and therefor cute as hell.

Apologies for the lack of Render Comic this weekend... this is the first week i've missed since I started the comic, I just couldn't get in all the modeling/artwork done in time.

The next few comics require me to do some modeling, and towards the end I'll need to make some new character models (full body+rig, not template-based), so we'll see if I can manage to pull it off over the next few weeks. Its gonna be tough.

Meanwhile, check out some of my "developer image notes", there are a lot of cool tricks you can do with imagery, that is just one of them.

This should give you an idea of just how much work is involved concerning modeling. The image linked is my character template file that I use to help me dress up new characters as needed. In the far background are legacy models that have been archived. This of course doesn't include the backgrounds and hundreds of props i've had to create over the years! This also includes remakes of remade characters, heh.

I am still working hard to wrap up animation on my end. I can't wait to see what the first renders of EP 005.03 will look like... yeah, I haven't even been able to look at everything put together yet... isn't that sad?

Happy dead bird day! For anyone who's REALLY bored, I figured I'd do a news post.

There's a series i've done for a while that revolves around my experiences with 3d production and my journey to become better at it. Here's an embed of the latest one published half a year ago. If you're curious about earlier installments, just check out my YouTube channel.

Maybe this will interest some people... if anyone finds it boring/annoying, or feel there are more interesting things I could be posting be sure to comment below! I want to do updates regularly here just like how I do on the main Delura website, but I want to also tailor the stuff here to the interests of NG viewers.

This video below shows the armature that i've constructed for use with bipedal characters in the Delura series. This was posted a few months ago, but I figure not all NG users care to dig through the poorly organized (and unchangable) YouTube channels.

Aaaaaalmost done... I can't wait to start piecing together the dozen-or-so scene files i've had to save out just to make this episode happen. Once everything is in a single scene file, it'll be pretty smooth sailing to completion for EP 005.03.

Part of me does feel like I'm in way over my head for this installment, as it is at the bleeding edge of my limited capabilities skill-wise in addition to being beyond what my hardware is capable of displaying or rendering... I have to do the renders in many separate layers in addition to working almost blind (backgrounds turned off, tons of "proxy" placeholder objects, countless workarounds, etc).

For those who'd like to stick with Newgrounds for Delura updates, our current plan is as follows:

-When animation for EP 005.03 is complete, I'll be sending un-rendered preview footage over to MetalRenard to complete scoring for the final segment. He has some great work, check him out.

-While MetalRenard is busy with that, I'll be working on putting everything together, final lighting, compositing, sound effects and post production. The voice actors will need to do some final vocals to coincide with the fight scene (in most action sequences, it is easier to have the actor dub than to animate off their clips like normally). At that point, EP 005.03 will get uploaded not too long after 005.02. EP 005.03 features the vocal talents of BenjaminZ and Darkwolf as well as a few other folks not on Newgrounds (as far as I know of).

-Because I cannot reasonably continue the series at this detail level with my current hardware, I will be attempting a crowdfunding campaign to raise at minimum $3000 to purchase a new production system (if we're lucky and get more than that, I can upgrade our software too). I do realize the chance of success is slim here, but I have to try. If we do not succeed, then I will need to dial back the details significantly to avoid the many extra steps required to make content. This is planned for mid January or early Febuary.

-If everything goes well, Delura production will be boosted significantly, and we will begin the long and grueling process of getting this series to turn into a self-sustaining production (my opinion of "self sustaining" is simply to make enough to offset the cost of occasional upgrades and hardware failures). I'd like for Delura to become my full time job, but that's like hoping to win the lottery :)

That's it! There are more Delura installments on their way to Newgrounds so be sure to vote on them!

Just a production screenshot below. Keyframey skeleton action goodness!