Many Maladies

If you have ever sat around thinking, “Man, I wish I could watch the short educational segments from Marty Mitchell without scrubbing through the whole movie,” you are in luck! All three bits are now viewable on Vimeo separate from the movie. Yeehaw!

Will you be in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, April 6th? If so, you should stop by the Citrus Cel Animation Festival and watch Marty on the big screen. It is one of the selections in the “Vitamin C” block at noon. Unfortunately I cannot attend, but I hope lots of folks will be introduced to the world of “Many Maladies.”

Also, you can watch Marty online in yet another place: Newgrounds. Feel free to check it out, rate it and review it.

Marty and his family prepare to see the final movie for the first time

After three years of teasing and promising, I was finally able to show people “The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell.” It premiered last night at the Goethe Institute in Los Angeles at a special Butcher Bird Studios Screening. Hopefully I’ll be showing it to more and more people in the very near future. Thank you to everyone who came out last night and anyone who has supported this project at any point in the process.

Reception before the screening began

The folks behind Butcher Bird Studios

All initial animation and compositing is complete. Audio Master Ben Chan is now working on the audio and music. The next thing I need to do is review the footage and make all the necessary adjustments and tweaks to the visuals. We are getting very close to completion. We are currently on schedule for mid to late January. In the meantime, you can watch a new teaser video called “The Dark Teaser.” How sinister! Expect a “Light Teaser” in the near future.

So, get to watching it and send it to everyone you have ever met. Seriously! Stop reading this! Watch the video! Why are you still reading this?!!

Character Sketch for Miley Maggot

As I write this, I am waiting for scene 15 to render. That leaves one scene remaining to be animated, the Educational Maggot Sequence—scene 14. Yes, that’s right, the Educational Maggot Sequence…don’t all kids’ shows have one of those? Maggots are an important part of nature, it’s time folks learned that. And if you squint when you look at them, they are kind of cute (note-you may need to squint really hard).

So, where does this put The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell: Of Maggots and Meat episode on its timeline to completion? Well, I’m glad you asked. Very near the end, but not quite there. My goal is to complete scene 14 this week. That will mean every scene (every second, every frame) will have been animated. But?

There are a few stages left in the process:

• Refinement: I will review every shot and decide what needs to be tweaked and improved. Every scene will have many animation and compositing adjustments to make.

• Audio: Music needs to be created, sound effects need to be added/recorded, and it all has to be mixed together.

• Credits: I need to compile a list of everyone who helped in some fashion and build a credits sequence. I want to add illustrations of characters throughout. I still need to draw them.

• Final Conform: Everything (sound, picture, etc.) needs to be put together and output.

So, yes, the brunt of the work is complete. Yet, there is still a lot to do. My hope is to have a final completed video before the New Year. If life steps in and makes that impossible, I beg it not to push that date back any further than late January.

It has been almost three years since that day a group of us turned my living room into a shoddy greenscreen stage. It is time for Marty Mitchell to be finished and unleashed on the public. If the world must end in 2012, let it at least end with a  smile as Marty and friends defeat the terror of Mr. Meat!

The Fridge Landers congratulate Marty.

Meat tentacles attack Marty!

Last week was a whirlwind of Marty work. I was able to finish four scenes bringing the completion of the visual part of the show to about 80%. This will, hopefully, make it possible for me to finish the episode by the end of the year. Keep your fingers crossed. If you haven’t “fanned”, “liked”, or “followed” (or whatever it’s called when you are reading this) the Facebook page, then you missed out on lots of image updates including a shot of Fridge Land.

I’ve added a Characters Page to the site so everyone can read up on the various folks populating Marty’s world. If you click on their thumbnail images, you’ll be taken to a page with a high resolution version of that character’s image. Feel free to send your favorite image(s) to a friend (or foe). More characters will be added in the future.

Until next time.
Three more scenes to go!

The Eggs chime in with their thoughts about Mr. Meat.

Marty speaks with Mr. Dumb Waiter

Work continues on the Pilot Episode.
Here are two screenshots of Marty meeting with Mr. Dumb Waiter and being transported to the Intergalactic Bathroom.

INT. DUMB WAITER ROOM – DAY
Marty enters the room and approaches a small DUMB WAITER.

MARTY
Open up, Mr. Dumb Waiter. I must
visit the Intergalactic Bathroom.

The Dumb Waiter opens and Marty climbs inside.

DUMB WAITER
(mumbling)
How rude.

The Dumb Waiter launches into outer space with Marty inside.

Mr. Dumb Waiter travels to the Intergalactic Bathroom

So you’ve seen the Marty preview and maybe you are a little curious about the story premise of the pilot episode. Fear not my friends, using the powers of Wordle.net, I have created the above image to give you hints. It is a software-generated piece of art composed of the most-recurring words from the script. The larger the word, the more often it appears in the script. Obviously, the word ‘Marty’ plays a pretty big role. Click the image to see a larger version and let your imagination run wild.