WL progress update

I've set a date and created a small preview for Waterlollies. No, not a trailer.. a preview. A sneak-peek. In other words, don't expect to see much. I really want to show a proper trailer but on the other hand I don't want to give anything away. There's a bunch of stuff in this movie that I'd like to be part of the first viewing experience.

Here is the Newgrounds Alpha I created for the movie. Read all about the movie and see the Auld Sage's new design.

Here is the teaser scene, which has been well received so far over at the Brackenwood forum:




Even though I've set a date, some find it difficult to be patient without any kind of progress update. The image below kinda says it all and I'll post the same image (updated of course) each week. So as far as progress goes, here's what I've got:



Yes, even to me it looks like a tight deadline (by July 22? GAH!) but we'll see. Watch this space.

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In other news, it's raining in Sydney. It's bloody fantastic (I've always loved the rain.. more the better).

"Lost" smoke monster: someone else's idea?

oO0oh.. controversial!

Question: is it at all possible that the 'Lost' smoke monster is "inspired" by the Yuyu cloud?
Answer: no.
A pretty common question I get is whether or not my Yuyu cloud design was inspired by (or ripped off) the monster from Lost. The answer is no but the fact is.. the two are identical.
I've always put it down to a bizarre coincidence. Here are the two for you to see together. Thanks to whoever owns the YouTube submission:


'Lost' episodes compilation featuring smoke monster.


'The Yuyu'.


I've always felt terrible that I need to defend myself, so today I did a little research on the dates. Here's what I found:

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• 'The Yuyu'. Created almost entirely during the months of March, April 2006 using Flash 8 on my computer. Movie released on my website May 1st, 2006. Released on Newgrounds.com on May 3rd, 2006 (source)

• Smoke monster first appears in 'Lost', series 1, episode 24 (Exodus 2).. aired in the US on May 25, 2005 (source)
  

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OK so earlier today I was so certain that I had created the Yuyu cloud a whole MONTH before season1, ep24 went to air, that this blog article looked completely different. However, thanks to someone with better eyes than me (coughRATIOcough) , it turns out the difference in date is about 11 months... and it's not in my favour.

The smoke monster from Lost was aired 11 months before the Yuyu was released.. therefore all you've got is my word I guess. I've still never seen an episode of Lost and I did spend days coming up with the design.

After I'd released 'the Yuyu', my workmate Bernard Derriman told me that in Lost, there was a monster identical to the Yuyu cloud. I was devastated at the time, but never thought it could be so similar. It wasn't until today that I actually went to YouTube and sought it out.

A brief look at the dates and I was so elated to be a whole month ahead of Lost, that I posted a triumphant article here and put the story on Digg.com (could Lost be inspired by the Yuyu??).

Uh, no Phillips. The answer is no.

Sorry to anyone who dugg the story.. I buried it as inaccurate.
*shuts up - goes back to work on Waterlollies*

Water of Lollicraft

Just lately my time is split between work and play - Waterlollies during the day and World of Warcraft at night. Here's a fresh image from Waterlollies which incidentally, I must say is coming along very nicely. After a few months of solid freelance work, I was sure it'd be difficult to get back into Brackenwood, but it's been fun.



On the subject of World of Warcraft, was this you?



You happened to send that at a time when I was AFK watching the wild weather outside. I tried replying but you'd gone, so uh.. sorry bout that, and thanks for the support :)
If you're ever in my neck of WoW, drop me a line.. I'm happy to chat.

Realm: Khaz'goroth
Faction: Horde
Name: Fok

I even have a guild called Prowlies, so pst me for an invite if you're a regular.
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ABC TV (Australia), Sunday 5pm

I was recently interviewed by ABC's Sunday Arts programme and it goes to air on Sunday at 5pm. See you there.
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Munch's War

Nathan Viney has been hard at work again, just finishing his mockumentary/interview/sketch comedy Munch's War. Mike Swain (creator of Blockhead) and I did some voice acting for it too and no... well, yes... I'm kinda almost the complete nutter he makes me out to be.
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ColorStudio by artibaj

I'm very impressed with a Flash extension called ColorStudio. I've actually gone and bought the full version ($9.99 USD) because the free Demo was so tantalising.

It was built for Flash 8 and the creator has recently released a Flash CS3 compatible version (thanks!).



To be completely honest, Flash's colour mixing tools are adequate (if a little clunky), but if you're a colour fanatic like me, ColorStudio is a relatively miniscule investment for what it delivers.. not to mention that it's a lot of fun to play with.

One thing it doesn't have (which I'd like to suggest for the next release) is the ability to save your colour mixing progress. When I close and reopen Flash, all of the awesome colours I mixed are gone.

The workaround of course: save colours as swatches using the Flash Swatches palette.

On the ColorStudio page, some of the english is a little broken, but once you've played with it a bit and understand how it works, it's all pretty self-explanatory.

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Thanks once again to all the donors.. I'm forever grateful for this huge show of support!