Paramedic Robot – Full Episode

Alright I’m tired of sitting on this. This is episode 1 of Paramedic Robot. Cost about a year of my life so enjoy.

another day another release

I’ve had some limited success with my youtube shorts so far, but the results have been encouraging. Most videos published receive about 25 – 50 views, but the last 3 shorts I’ve published have each amassed over 1.5 thousand on on day one.

This my marketing strategy to build an audience prior to the release of 30 minute episode one. I’m enthused that it appears to be working. Of course the only comments I’ve received are negative, but I am indifferent about it. Any person who takes time out of their day to criticize an unknown artist is not someone worth trying to impress.

I’ve decided while creating the shorts to design 2 videos simultaneously- one wide-screen version that’s runs 2-3 minutes and a short vertical video lasting 59 seconds or less.

I feel publishing both videos allows me to see when youtube will start recommending the longer videos, for that is the time episode 1 will be ripe to publish.

It has been fun creating the shorts because I finally have a way to attract an audience through the medium of story. That can be difficult whether you are writing books, screenplays, or directing a film. The cool part about animation is you are not limited by actors or locations. To put it another way, if I try to build an audience for a live action film, I have to put out the same amount of content but am limited with the material I have to work with. I don’t have any desire to build a “how to film” channel, because then my audience will be peers and film enthusiasts. I want to attract consumers of entertainment, so I must put out entertainment in order to reach them.

I am getting more efficient at the entire process and establishing a routine to put together new videos. By limiting myself to creating only assets that will be used in the short I am able to move faster.

Im excited to educate myself further on all things SEO. Though the youtube shorts are growing, my presence is non-existent on platforms such as tik tok, rumble,and instagram. I am certain each platform has a different code for the type of videos they recommend.

I look forward to future developments am grateful to whomever enjoys the journey with me.

CIA Agent Reveals Classified Secrets

Below is the widescreen version.

Gym Gazing

I’ve completed my first animated short. I’m disappointed to learn that youtube requires 1080×1920 aspect ratio for a youtube short but lesson learned for next time.

Endless Toil

I went through a bit of a crises yesterday. Year after year has passed where I’ve worked passionately on a project only to chew on the seeds of my fruit. I’m comforted by the knowledge that I’m not alone in this – spend time on any creative platform or forum and you will discover that there is a surplus of unrecognized talent. It is also why I take issue with artists who are cherry picked by an industry and vaulted toward success because of their marketing potential rather than their skills. I actually take more issue with the idiots that defend them but that’s a whole other subject.

Since Monday I’ve been allotting more time to social media projects – such as the comics I’ve published here and a youtube short I’ve been working on. The youtube short has really bothered me because it requires designing a new character and adding a few elements to two already made characters. This doesn’t require much time, but allow me to break down the process of a scene’s creation for you:

1. Record the audio for the scene. A youtube short must be 60 seconds or less, which actually adds complexity due to the nature of restraints. Because the audio is the foundation for the entire scene, it must be funny and communicated clearly. I think 30 minutes to an hour is a fair estimate per minute of voiceover recording. This would be condensed with a pre-written script, but of course the time would only shift to writing rather than recording.
2. Draw the elements for the scene. The short I am working on requires a barbell, a mustache, a radio with receiver, and a new, rapidly drawn character. This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours depending on the level of detail.
3. Programming the character(s). For this scene I’d imagine that would take an hour or less.
4. Record the character movements for the scene – 1 hour.
5. Render out the characters, place them in the same environment, draw the background. I could imagine this taking 30 minutes for this short.

Altogether I envision I would be able to complete this 1 minute short in about 5-7 hours, or two days time. And that’s with cutting corners and ignoring impactful details.

I am devastated that quality content will always take significantly longer to create.

I can do the comics in a minimal amount of time, but nearly everything else requires multiple steps. I am even considering the idea of having one of my characters host a conspiracy or news type program. But even that, where all I’d have to do is record the audio and plug the character into a basic background, would still require time for the research.

I remain bothered by my realization; however, I place hope in my belief that I am sculpting the rotors of a machine that will eventually perform more work with the same amount of input effort. I have come to one realization, however.

No matter how much effort or time it takes to create something, it only truly “exists” when it is submitted for the world’s judgment. All the thinking, planning, executing – none of that can be consumed. If I drew a stick figure on a napkin, took a picture, posted it on twitter and a few people thought it was funny, I would have done more to grow my audience than I have in the past 6 months.

Clearly the work you do in private is meaningful and significant – worth quite a bit more than drawing stick figures on napkins, regardless of how many “likes” that may receive. With that being said, posting anything for the world to view will move me closer toward my goal than spending additional time sharpening the corners.

Safe and Effective

Let’s Bailout Another One!

Finished – 3-13-23

I completed the sound mixing Saturday night and rendered the video and audio together yesterday. There are a couple of minor sound adjustments I will make but it is completed. I may add a title animation in the beginning and something at the end. I don’t have a credit scroll as I literally did everything but I would like to add something for the outro music.

I plan to make the episode available free for viewing in 2 weeks, and of course will host a link here. Leading up to that I intend to release short clips and some comics to showcase a few of the main characters. This will be low effort but valuable for generating traffic.

With episode 1 completed I am excited for what the future may bring. Having created an entire set of characters and backgrounds I anticipate future projects using these elements will be 10x more efficient. I will enjoy writing, animating, and mixing again, but more importantly I will be able to steer myself in a specific direction.

It does not require money to produce an animated story, only time. I’m going to treat this series as though it is the foundation for my filmmaking future. By recycling assets I have already created I will be able to distribute content more regularly and grow an audience. As my following increases so will my monetary avenues toward financing a live action film.

I should begin putting together the short clips but won’t be animating anything today. Instead I hope to make a song because it has been far too long since I’ve gotten to work with music.

Hope your week has started strong and you remain courageous in your trials.

No More Drawing

Today is sound design day 1 after finally completing animation for Paramedic Robot ep 1. I spent most of yesterday setting up my new surround sound studio monitors. Once they were placed and plugged in, it took a few hours before I could confidently confirmed that the arrangement would even work. I hope to export one scene today that would fulfill the requirements of both a surround and stereo format. By doing this before I am heavy in the trenches I can avoid costly mistakes later on down the road.

I had the joy and fulfillment of watching the entire episode with Kelly last night. It was awesome to watch her laugh at something I created. You can spend an entire lifetime pursuing fame and fortune only to discover the only opinions that truly matter belong to those who already love you.

I am eager to release the episode in full but here is where I must be wise. It is always a thrill to race toward the finish line but I must begin building a platform. Spending more time on social media, short teasers, and weekly comments are a few steps I can take to ensure an audience is present when it debuts. Building a soundscape will enhance the overall experience and is worth the fraction of time it requires (in comparison to drawing and animating each scene from scratch).

When I began this project I naively thought I could complete one episode each week. Of course at its inception I also believed 1 episode would be 10 minutes. Episode 1 is currently 28 minutes (a 3 act story needs more time. It can be done in 15, but a short film of 5 minutes lives and dies by its gimmick).

I have added 18 minutes to the episode since December. I believe I can create a single scene – from voiceover recording to rendered animation – in 3 days. This means I will need some assistance to create future episodes more efficiently. To have assistance requires money, and to earn money you need an audience. I’m not sure what to make of all this but I know this is reality.

Anyways, I’m excited to FINALLY work with sound today. I hope your Wednesday is equally joyful.

Finishing Up – 2-17-23

I’ve got 2 scenes left to animate and have 25 minutes fully animated. The process continues to move along faster each day. I have created my final character for the episode, Nurse Becky, which took the bulk of my week. I have to say that created a new character is by far the most time consuming part of the process.

I have some ideas for how I’m going to promote the episode prior to its release. I believe animating a short 1 minute clip for each main character and releasing them as daily youtube shorts will do much to get the ball rolling. I’m going to limit myself to 1 character and one background angle per short.

My final 2 speakers should be arriving in the next two days. This will enable me to begin editing in surround sound. I believe the sound effects and foley design may move very fast. I will be using sound effects from “splice” in order to avoid spending time recording and editing sounds. The fun part is choosing the reverb, delay, speaker placement, and panning for the sounds. These tasks are simple and quick but allow me to be more creative than simply dragging and dropping the sounds into place.

The final part of the project will be adding music. I imagine at most using 1-3 songs for the entire episode. The more important “music” will be sounds that assist emotional transition. If you watch Southpark, there are several musical cues that indicate a scene transition or emotional moment. I hope to design high quality sounds that I can reuse for each episode.

I am very excited about what is to come and even more excited about watching my hypothesis of repeatability play out. When I begin work on the next episode, I will already have 12 main characters fully drawn and programmed. I will have 3 primary locations with a wide variety of camera angles.

I have chosen to make this comedy about private paramedic workers because the setting is relatively simple – each episode will feature the same 3 principle locations and 12 main characters for 90% of it. That means I may only have to create 1 new background and 1 new character each time I set out to create a new show.

Looking forward to the future and I hope you’re doing the same.