RSS • 401 days ago
I updated the RSS feeds today. The old ones were giving me grief… Sorry for any inconvenience.
Welcome to the new Junk Forest site! • 449 days ago
Hey everybody! Its been forever and stuff.
This is a redesign that Ive been sitting on for a while now, and I thought I’d go ahead and make it live tonight. Let me know if you run into any weirdness.
Well, I cant promise this production journal will be humming with activity anytime soon, but I do have some ideas for Junk Forest goodies that I should be rolling out soon-ish. Hows that for vague and uninspiring? heh.
So yeah, Junk Forest rolls on into the future. Its not dead, its just been just sleeping, thats all.
Comments? [4]
The Story • 742 days ago
I thought I’d write out the gist of the story for anyone who is interested. Enjoy!
JunkForest Story:
Sam is a 9-year-old boy who lives alone with his abusive, alcoholic father in a small country home near a vast, sprawling forest. One night Sam sneaks outside into the backyard to avoid another fight with his dad. He is usually able to day-dream alone out in the yard, but tonite hes too tired and weary of his dad’s insults to do more than prop his head up on the fence and stare blankly into the woods.
Sam’s dad works at the area factory, which is run by a mysterious corporation called Natrocorp. It is a bland, dull metal factory on the other side of the forest from Sam’s house. They create “Nature 2.0” (their own term) by recycling unused scraps and junk- and processing/smashing it all into small beige cubes. Then, by draining the life-juices out of the nearby trees and funneling it down into the factory, they can inject it into the beige building blocks and “grow” and process new types of synthetic plants. New, exciting colors nature cannot produce! Perfect for brightening up that dull office hallway! They hardly need any watering! etc. (So reads their marketing attempts…)
Underneath Sam’s feet, deep in the earth, lives a small community of fireflies- who are stirring now that dusk has fallen. They kiss their significant others goodbye and begin their journey through the layers of dirt and tree-roots to the open sky above. They emerge and soar in a large glowing group high in the sky, and Sam gets swept up into following them deep into the woods, which grows darker and more shriveled and frightening at each turn and twist of the fireflies’ flight!
Sam eventually slips and falls down a deep ravine and crashes headlong into a giant pile of junk. His last blurry vision is of floating junk spinning around him, glowing the same yellow-green as the tails of the fireflies. Then it all goes black…
When Sam comes to- the forest is all aglow with activity and sputtering junk-machinery. He meets the gruff but cowardly, self-proclaimed caretaker of the forest – a small Mechanic-bot pieced together from odd tubing, scrap-metal and junk. Suddenly a loud, deep siren bellows from the factory across the woods and its insatiable hunt for fresh junk begins! Sam and the Mechbot have to work together before they accidentally get sucked into the strange nature-skewing machinery of the Natrocorp factory!
Comments? [1]
Whats up? • 742 days ago
Lately Ive been reworking the JunkForest story to be a little less unwieldy – hopefully without sacrificing any of the major themes and ideas I have for the story. About 2 years ago I wrote the “final” version of the script, and I havent really deviated much from it since then, Ive just been trying to constantly enhance the elements that are most important to the story and shorten or cut out the less important stuff.
So the themes remain mostly the same- and hopefully its growing into a leaner, more entertaining and meaningful beast because of it. This process will continue until I finish it I think… which is a luxury that most animations cant afford because of deadlines and meeting production demands set by the “suits” backing it etc. I feel pretty fortunate to be able to take my time with it… I guess I do so at the risk of boring people to tears with my slow process, but whatevs.
Heres a quick progress report: 4 minutes of the film is finished! woo! I still have yet to record any voices for the film and the scoring has not yet begun either, (music will come last most likely…) but the animation itself is going at a decent rate I think – for animation, heh…
JF TV - finished! • 744 days ago
Heres a JunkForest related tidbit for ya – I have recently been tinkering with the shell of an old mini-TV and I inserted layers of JF art inside of it. Click the picture to check it out!
Podcast #4 • 758 days ago
I know, creative title eh? But really, this one gets into a more in-depth look at my animation process. Namely, how I use Adobe ImageReady as the bridge between my paper scans and Flash – and how I prepared a background element (a plant) for animation in After Effects.
ps- the “Podcast” subcribe link to the left should now be compatible w/ iTunes + iPod (w/ video)! Sorry that didnt really work from the get-go, Im kind of figuring this out as I go…
Comments? [4]
Podcast update! • 761 days ago
Hello! I just reworked the podcast so you can view it right here in the Journal in a Flash player! Hopefully this makes it more accessible for more people. I converted the first 3 episodes to this new format and posted them here.
Let me know what you think!
Tech. Difficulties • 804 days ago
Hey all – I just switched servers, so things might be a little wacky for a while. Please bear with me! Thanks.
JF Flickr • 830 days ago
I set up a Photoset on my Flickr account that Im going to keep filled with the latest JunkForest concept art and screenshots etc.
Check it out!Comments? [1]
Check out these robots • 833 days ago
I’m currently inspired by these robots made from junk! Check out Lockwasher’s photos!
I have lots of things I could write about these days, but I need to sit down and decide how much is sharable first. Im a secretive punk with the JF stuff I know. mwa ha ha
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