Many Maladies

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

from storyboard to video shoot to final composite

Yesterday (Feb. 7th, 2012) was the three year anniversary of that fateful day we shot the greenscreen elements in my living room for The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell. Time really does motor by. It brings me great joy to say the show is mostly done. Ben is currently working on the music. It took me three years to finish all of the visuals so I can’t reasonably expect him to hustle through the audio in record time. He never disappoints so I’m expecting something great as soon as is feasible. In the meantime, I’ve posted an image above showing how a frame of the show progressed from a storyboard to a final image. Enjoy.

That’s right, malady lovers, the new “Light Teaser” is online for your enjoyment. Besides completing this new teaser today, I also finished rendering the last frame of the show. What does that mean? Visuals are done. Ben is chopping away at the audio and when he is done, The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell: Of Maggots and Meat will be complete. We. Are. Almost. Done!

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.

The Fridge Landers warn Marty of the troubles ahead

Whoa. There has been a big gap in updates. Thankfully I had lots of work this summer and could pay my bills. Unfortunately, that meant I took an almost three month hiatus from Marty. Hopefully, I can start working on it regularly again without going broke.

The primary Fridge Landers have all been created. They are now ready to be animated and inserted into their kitchen environments. The image above is a first peek at the primary Fridge Landers—Captain Squash, Avery Apple, and Missy Melon—as they appear in Scene 4, shot 2.

Other good news: Avery Apple will be voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. If you think Avery sounds a little like Ben 10 or Sasuke from Naruto, that’s why. With Tara Platt as narrator and Jon Gormley playing Dr. Enzyme, the pilot episode should sound great.

That’s all for now. I hope to have more to share soon.

Marty speaks with the all-knowing Seers

It would be great if I can keep up this unlikely pace. Scenes 8 and 9 are completed. This means half of the sequences are done and I am roughly at the 50% mark. I’m hoping to jump into Scene 10 tomorrow or within the next few days. I am also hoping to cut a new Work-In-Progress video to put online in the near future. In the meantime, I have more Intergalactic Bathrooms and Earthbound Kitchens to animate. Ciao!

INT. INTERGALACTIC BATHROOM – IRRELEVANT

A rather ordinary bathroom. Dumb Waiter slides up from the floor. Marty exits. He is flanked by a toilet, a shower head and a mirror.

DUMB WAITER
See ya!

Dumb Waiter drops into the floor. Marty addresses the room with outstretched hands.

MARTY
Oh clever Seers of time and space, come visit me in this place!

A Beat.

Three heads appear: one in the toilet, one in the mirror, one in the shower head. As they speak, they alternate phrases.

THE SEERS
Marty Mitchell… our clever friend… what brings you to the Intergalactic Bathroom?

MARTY
There is trouble in Fridge Land. I left out some meat over night.

The Seers gasp.

MARTY
It went bad… really bad. I have to save Fridge Land and King Pickle. I need your help.

Freddy Foodstuff in animated form

character sketch for Freddy Foodstuff, narrator of the Digestive Education Segment

Scene 11: Pancreas Island in the Land of Gastros was completed a couple of days ago. I will need to tweak a few things (much like in every other completed scene), but it is 98% done. If it had to go into the final project as is, I wouldn’t cry (much). This is to say the visuals are complete, the audio for the scene won’t be touched for a while.

The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell Pilot Episode “Of Maggots and Meat” will be composed of 16 scenes/segments. As it stands now, 6 of them are complete (1-3,5,7,11). Scene 8 is very close and I started Scene 9 today. Elements have been built for 4, 6, and 12, but they are still in the very early stages (partly because I haven’t cast or recorded dialogue for a few of the Fridge Landers). Scenes 13-16 haven’t been started. I estimate I am roughly 40% done with the visuals. That leaves me 9 months to finish the other 60%.

The smiling cowboy above is Freddy Foodstuff. He is anthropomorphized masticated food and the star of Scene 9. Jon Gormley was kind enough to perform his voice, as well as Dr. Enzyme. He’ll be teaching us about the process of digestion while he giddy-aps through the digestive tract.

Marty watches as the Enzymes convert food into energy