Some excellent developments, folks!

So the animatic for ExoTemporal Excursion 4 is complete! That's like, the hardest part out of the way right there. All that drawing, coloring, filling the library, keyframing, organizing the shots... all done. It's smooth sailing from here on out, all I have to do is tweens, lip-syncing, and audio. I think you guys will REALLY get a kick out of this installment.

I handed the animatic off to Gravey, who will be working on the custom soundtrack.
Ricepirate also put my vocals to shame so it looks like I'll have to step up my game >:/
btw, amazing job Ricepirate, you magnificent human, you.

Maybe if it does well enough I could gather a team of under-appreciated animators to do my dirty work while I perform the writing and art direction? I have big plans for the series, but i have lots of other things to do that get in the way, like college and relationships. This one has taken me almost a year to make, and I am ashamed. At some point I'd like to start releasing episodes once a month, but on my own that's just not possible. Any animators who would be willing to help me out just give me a holler!

Before I preferred to work solo on my flash projects, but more recently I realized that working together is the key to success.

So, after giving it a lot of thought, as of about a week ago I've decided to change the name of my series from "EVolution" to "ExoTemporal Excursion" (E.T. Excursion for short). I did this because the previous name is a single word that already exists; this new title is original.

Reference to time travel? Check. Play on the acronym E.T.? Checkerino. Clever and has a nice ring to it? Hell yes. I'm aware that this series has gone through like 5 name changes, but this is definitely the last; I like this name too much to not use it. Plus I actually brainstormed on it this time.

Also Ricepirate is on the voice cast as of yesterday. Now that's something I'm VERY happy about. I've never had someone do voiceovers for me over the internet so this should be interesting!

Here's a demo of the facial animation.

I'm well aware that it's been at least half a year since I submitted EVolution: episode 3. I wouldn't be surprised if half of my viewers don't remember me, but it's no big deal.

During that time I've made a lot of progress with the story, character designs, backgrounds, writing, and so forth. All that hasn't been worked on yet is the animation itself... the glaring lack of voice overs was the culprit.

SO, as of yesterday, I got a better microphone, me and my bud got AAAAAAAALL the voice acting completed, and I'm finally working on roughly animating. Again, I have no idea when it'll come out. It'll probably be a while still.

Anyway, this is marks a huge step in my progress. I've also been thinking about raising money to fund the production of a pilot episode to pitch to a network, or maybe finding a way to get others to animate these episodes while I write them and perform art direction.

Also, I've been learning how to model 3D! Perhaps there will be some CGI blended in with the flash work eventually. Enjoy this screenshot and stay tuned!

EDIT: Oof, this thing is a monster!

.fla file size so far: 1,106,707,278 bytes
.swf file size so far: 3,866,624 bytes

Damn. And that's only for the completed animatic with audio. I may have to split this thing in two and edit them together. 0____0

EDIT: Going about this one a bit differently... this time I'm saving each piece of lip-syncing to a movie clip. I figure this should make the animation better. How did you last so long out there without getting caught? We've been at this for days.

Haha, yes. YES.

It looks so CONFUSING.

Yes, finally indeed. It's been, what, like 3 weeks since I last touched this project. College, Minecraft, and the job search have gotten in the way.

Anyway, yeah! Progress is good! I spent a lot of last night drawing up this beauty. I'm aware that the city in the background looks pasted and flipped, I'ma do something about that. As for progress, I have like 1/5 of the flash as an animatic. It's been 7 months since I posted my last flash, get your shit together Evan.

Thing is, whenever I finish a flash I can never seem to pick myself up by the bootstraps and start on the next one immediately. It has to be this slow, ponderous process where I'll start on it, draw a few backgrounds, animate the first scene, and suddenly realize the end of the project is so far away that I just kind of want to stop for a few weeks and sort it out. Then I get distracted for a few months. Then by the time I get back to working on the project the vision has faded a bit and I'm a little rusty, so I need to pick up the momentum again, which takes even more time. I'm a mess, I tell ya.

At least the momentum is coming back but I don't know if these coming 2 weeks I'll be able to keep it going (finals week followed by break week, GRRRR)

My 5th quarter is ending, which indicates that it's been 1 full year since my 1st quarter ended. That was actually a really important time for me. Time really flies. Still no job or internship yet, though.

Minecraft is a harmless time-waster at best and a life-ruining obsession at worst but GOOD GOO IT'S SO MUCH FUN. My gf and I have set up a server. We originally planned to use it to have other people on so I could communicate with my fans (seriously I love you guys so much), but I can't run a server from my laptop, and her computer struggles to hold 2 people. At least we're building a computer when we get the money, so that should be a better server.

My job/internship search has been kind of on/off. I haven't had any success, and despite being surrounded by places to work at Center City Philly, none of them seem to be hiring. On top of that, I can't get a job because I don't have experience because I can't get a job because I don't have experience... ugh. 2012 college student problems.

In other news, they recently used cybernetic brain implants to boost the intelligence of primates! Could we be next??

Here, enjoy this magnificent background.

You know how they say that a space elevator will be built 10 years after everyone stops laughing?

Well, many people have stopped laughing. So say these guys!

Basically, what they're trying to do is prototype a space elevator. Their company has had many financial troubles since 2007, but thanks to Kickstarter they're back on their feet!

It's great that somebody's actually trying to do this. If somebody doesn't try it, nobody will. It's a sign that people have stopped laughing. These guys are trailblazers.

I'm well aware of the fact that these guys could never hope to build a full-fledged $multi-billion space elevator project before the decade is out on their own, but they'll prove that it's doable with today's technology. If they do prove that it's doable, hopefully a handful of world's leaders will bite and contract an enormous project that will hopefully create a lot of jobs and bring prosperity in the long-term.

This project will be dinky and unsafe, but it'll be the first. It's like the Sputnik to Apollo 11.

Over time these things will become much easier to build as carbon nanotubes become cheaper and easier to make. Basically, the solution is not so much to build up from the ground, as it is to build down. We would have to send a satellite "spool" containing 60,000km of nanotube cable, and shoot the loose end towards the ground. The loose end would be guided by sensors and rockets to avoid obstacles, and upon descent into earth's atmosphere it would slow down. Then we would send a UAV to meet it, and safely guide the loose end to a place where we can hook it.

Voila! From there on it's just a matter of establishing a proper base at the bottom and a heavy counterweight at the top! Later on the more expensive elevators will likely have pinnacles with spaceports, hangars, and assembly halls for building more spaceships.

Any questions? :)

Show these guys your support! If they make it past $100,000 in the next 11 days, they'll have the funds to become a full-fledged company with a serious, coherent plan! Just to give you an idea of how fast they've grown, they made $20,000 in 3 days and they've already gotten $50,000!

Again, read up on it here.

What do you guys think? I think it's the beginning of something great.

On a completely unrelated note, this new "instant favorite" feature sure is something! *wink wink*

...like a funny hat.

I love designing characters.

I posted a WIP of the guy on the left several months ago, but now he's got a cape and a cigar. Classy.

Also, before anyone says anything about the other guy's utility belt, it's not a fanny pack. Ha.

For this era, the dominant civilization is kind of a totalitarian police state mixed with feudalism. The gist of a non-elite life is essentially "devote your life to the betterment of the City in exchange for a place to live and nothing more."

Needless to say, this is a pretty crapsack era of the future.

So. As some of my fans may know, I got a new laptop for x-mas, but with a dilemma: my dad lost all the Adobe software we had before. Because of this, in the following half-year, I've had to scramble for help around the internet for a free copy. After a lot of unsuccessful help, I've managed to get a hold of the Adobe CS6 Creative Suite from one of my roommates!

I must say, ADOBE CS6 IS SO COOL. SO, SO, SO COOL. It has 6 in the name instead of 5! 6 IN THE NAME!!!

Anyway, because I now have the Adobe Suite permanently established on my trusty laptop, I can now continue my personal projects as normal, unhindered by the time restraints placed on trials.

I'll still be slightly hindered by schoolwork here at the good ol' Ai Philly, and hopefully I can get a real job sometime soon so I can get a source of steady income and be an adult. Finding a job in this city is a bitch... been at it all quarter.

Speaking of, the quarter is ending tomorrow, wrapping up my first bumpy year at the Art Institute of Philadelphia! I'm very happy about this and the upcoming three-week break that follows. Hopefully I'll get a lot of stuff done this month.

Here's what I worked on last night as well as what Flash CS6 looks like. Getting started on a new flash project is always a bit hard, but it gets easier the more you get done.

He's kind of a dick. A DICK-TATOR! Heh. Heh.

Drew him last night. I like the way this guy turned out. He looks rather badass. He's the Big Bad in the coming episode of EVolution and just may turn out to be a recurring villain, because I like him and he's awesome.

For those of you who saw my last post, my art block is obviously gone, but my Flash trial is expiring in a week as of today. If anyone can help me crack it (or find a way so that the trial loops) that would be amazing. Thank you.

btw I never got a chance to mention Edd Gould's death, so I wanted to take this time to do so. I want to offer my condolences to his friends and family. He was one of the most popular entities on the web and he will be missed by me and all his fans. I have a hunch that future episodes of Eddsworld won't be the same without his help, and the internet may never be the same in his absence. R.I.P. Edd.

So, we've been working on the EVolution game for, like, 2 years now. My part is done, which was to draw and animate the sprites and characters. The very talented Gravey designed the music for the game a long time ago, and Tanat0s has been working on the programming for pretty much the last year, and is (so I'm told) almost finished a custom level designer, expected to be out sometime this week.

What I want to do is use the new Project Management Preview feature to my advantage, so that I can select individuals to design a whole bunch of sample levels for me. We can also discuss additional level features and junk, if enough people think they're needed. So! Who wants in?

My Skype is EVanimations, so is my OoVoO.

People who are interested MUST comment on this post or PM me, otherwise I won't know who you are and I won't be able to give you a link to the preview.

Pictured: the level designers for Eras 6, 12, and 1, top-down.