August Update: More animation, Short film application & events

Dear Patrons,

Sorry for the delay in updating you this month! I was already delayed because of the livestream, and then to top that off I was getting errors all weekend when trying to post, ended up losing everything I'd written because my computer decided to restart at an inconvinient time and-- ah well, at least I can add a few extra updated then, so let's just jump right into it!

TALES OF ZALE TV PILOT:

Work on the rough animation for the TV pilot has been progressing really smoothly! We've got around 70% completely done, including some of the most challenging shots of the film. Now I am just looking forward to finally showing it to people...

For now, I have been allowed to show just a couple of out-of-context shots. I screened them during the livestream and will be posting them here without the overlay in the upcoming posts. Meanwhile, we've also picked out a couple of the scenes to send off to the broadcaster. We'll also be going to an aquisitions meeting here towards the end of the month to get a better idea of the current lay of the land.

This shot was animated by Belle Lypps. Above is one of the poses I made for the shot. I'm mainly doing initial posing, and animation supervision notes during this stage.

SHORT FILM APPLICATIONS:

I've been continuing to chip away at the application for the short film, RE:FLECTION. Last month, I finished applying for Open Workshop - although unfortunately the processing time is a tad longer than I'd hoped, so we will likely first know if we got the support sometime during September.

This month, I'm focusing on the application for Vest-Danish Film Fund which is by far the biggest application to put together. At this point, I'm through most of the writing, and just need to finish putting together some of the excel sheets and initial visual material. So it's getting there. Deadline is August 22nd!

The film has also been selected to be pitched at the Viborg Animation Festival, so I will be preparing for that come September. This year I won't be doing the artist alley - it'd be too much work on top of everything else. But I look forward to enjoying it as a bystander!

1 MIL MILESTONE STREAM:

Of course, this past month also marked Flickering Lights passing 1 million views, and as I'd promised, we held a celebration livestream! It was really fun to have everybody joining - and a special thanks to everyone who played along on the Gartic Phone game! We gotta do that again sometime.

NEW EMOJIS:

It was also during this past month that I went on a spree making new emojis for the discord server. It's been a lot of fun, and I feel like I finally cracked the code on how to make them in a quick manner that works well for the smaller format. Though I'm a bit slower now, I'll keep on taking requests, so don't hesitate to come with suggestions!

DISCORD CHALLENGE:

Speaking of Discord, we rounded off the sticker challenge, and have continued onward to an animated walk cycle challenge. I'm keeping the deadline super soft right now, since I wouldn't be able to cut together any compilations during this coming month anyhow. It will be posted to other social media eventually, but for now, head on over to the discord server if you're interested in getting a head start!

CARTOON SPRINGBOARD:

And it's official now, I'll also be heading to Madrid in October for Cartoon Springboard! For those of you who recall, I attended the event way back in 2019 with Tales of Zale, and they've been staying up to date with the project ever since. This time I'll be joining as an alumni since it's the 10 year anniversary of the event. Looking forward to seeing both old and new faces there!

ROUND-UP:

I think those are the main highlights for this past month. We're already so well into August that I may delay next month's update till after the animation festival so that there'll be more to share. But rest assured, after that I will be trying to move things back on track with updates on the first weekend of the month.

In this month's round-off bird-news there is an unfortunate update. Those who joined the stream already know that just the day before my favourite canary bird, Bonsai passed away very unforseen. She was hand-tame, and very special to me because I'd had her since she was an egg. She left a mate, and a chick from last year that has likewise become hand-tame, so fortunately her tricks have survived.

By some twist of fate, just a week after, somebody just down the street had two female canaries that she wanted to let go. I've now taken them in and named them Chia and Chili. Unfortunately they both have either air sac mites or an airway infection, so I'll have to get them to the vet and treat them before they can fly freely with my two others. But I'm happy to have them join the flock. So expect to see more yellow birds in upcoming round-up pics!

Till next time!

-Sif