Captain's Blog: Moviestorm forums rise, Lazarus like, from the dead!

Surfed in to flick across the MS forums for inspiration (as I often do), then noticed something...

The long missing logo and banner had reappeared (so used to a blank banner and the "logo" text in the top left it took a while for it to click....)

"Hmmm," thinks I, "I wonder if this means posting works again? I may as well try while I'm here...."

And, lo and behold, it does! So the forums look like they are back in business, for a short time at least.

I doubt it means anything in the long-term; I suspect it's a byproduct of the work they're doing on the site for FirstStage, their VR offering that they've been working on for all this time.  

I also highly doubt it means any focus will get turned back towards MS, either now or any time soon, which I believe is a major shame; with iClone now the only "affordable" (for whatever your definition of "affordable" is!) other option in the marketplace for 3d animation these days, there's a massive gap in the market for the ease of use, ease of pick up and ease of production workflow that MS offers (for those of us who don't have a bottomless wallet, a machine capable of challenging Deep Blue for computing capacity and more hours in a day than the 24 we mortals have to operate with!)

While I appreciate iClone (especially the latest version, where the gfx alone are sweeeeet), the majority of people don't have the time and money to pour into a bottomless pit to produce the kind of smooth produce that MS can still come up with.  With a bit of focus and effort on development (moving it to a 64 bit base for starters would be a massive help performance wise!), some clever marketing and a lot of extra content options (covering more than just the bog standard "contemporary" stuff it does, very well it has to be said), and a better modding workflow (especially for those of us who just want to reskin a model without needing a degree in rocket science to do so!), I reckon that MS could be lifted from it's position as the "also ran" of the second generation of home animation software into a real contender. 

Yeah, I know I gripe about MS a lot here, but that's because I am really bummed that it had massive potential and got kicked into the long grass.  I appreciate ShortFuse are a business, and have to look out for their profit margins and their staff, and especially in these volatile, Covid-strewn days that's more important than ever.  But they should at least make the code available if they aren't going to do anything with it, or drop the price to a lower level to try to attract people who haven't had a chance to experience it's little foibles yet.  100 sales at £50 or £75 quid for the product must be better than 10 at £150 (even my terrible maths knows that's a much better turnover than it must currently be doing!)

MS was a trailblazer and the real spiritual successor to the mantle that The Movies originally donned, in my opinion.  It made movie making accessible for everyone, just like TM did, originally for free then for a very reasonably fee (slightly less reasonable these days as it's been languishing for some long with no-one touching it), and there is so much more it could do if it was given a dust-off, a bit of spit and polish, an update here and there and repackaged for a new decade.

How's about giving it a try, ShortFuse? There's life in that old dog yet.  Just don't take it round the back and pop it in the head like they did with Old Yella 😉

Captain's Blog: Privateer Part One and Moviestorm Projects for the future...

As discussed briefly here and elsewhere, Privateer is also a go!

Part One (reminiscent of my writing of old, in that it's 12 mins of mostly dialogue, required to fill in the background and kick start the story) is available in the usual places...

I enjoyed getting back into MS* and reacquainting myself with my projected "replacement" for The Movies; I could never get the hang of iClone (I just never had the time to delve into it's complexities, even back when all my free time was "free" to spend on movie making activities, and I certainly don't have the time (and money, and suitable machine!) these days!).  I'm just sad that Moviestorm appears to have just been dropped wholesale (despite the assurances as recently as 3 years ago that development was "on hold" while they concentrated on their new endeavour); no new posts can be made to their forum since July this year (it looks like the forum was effectively "shut off" around then); no staff contact works, the membership has probably scattered to the four winds and their only method of contact now appears to be through Leakbook (which I refuse to use for a variety of reasons), but it still does the job nicely, with all the extra content that's been added over the years by the talented modding community.

If only I could get to grips with the texturing and additional model content side of the modding workshop; I can bring in Sketchup models fine, but adding new textures to models is currently beyond me, which precludes certain types of movies from being made.

Still, got more plans for MS movies going forward (the resurrected idea for Shadows of Albion, my "between seasons" project vaunted in 2009 that morphed into me joining forces with K4 to create Blackstar Rising, went to my wife to be written then disappeared when her laptop effectively exploded and the WIP script (such of it as she'd managed to get written) bit the dust as she had no backups of anything; this one may be revisited and finally made as MS now has the available content to do a sci-fantasy tale).

Lots of life left in the "old dog" yet, and testament to the incredible community and developers who came up with it to begin with that it's still more than capable of turning out decent flicks even after 5 years of sitting fallow on the shelf, gathering dust...

 

* - as a "bronze subscriber" of old, I have the option to sub for a fiver a month or £25 for a year, so bit the bullet and went for the latter; as mentioned elsewhere on here, I originally thought that  £150 was the only perpetual option available, but there is a £50 "theme bundle" license that, because I own all the other packs I've purchased over the years, might be a better long term option when I've got 50 squid free to chuck at a piece of software; just about to go through the pain of moving home so have other priorities at present!

Captain's Blog: In which I go all "Youtubey"

Well, I've only just gone and done it!

I've finally updated my Youtube channel after years of neglect, and those who have an interest can find the entirety of the completed Odyssey episodes uploaded there if they have any desire to watch or rewatch them.

 The playlist comprises -

• The initial subtitled pilot episodes (in all their "gory glory" 😉), all combined into one long video;
• The 6 part finale (my first endeavour to include voice actors), again combined into one long movie;
• Episodes 1-7 of Season One;
• Episode 1 of Season Two;

I've also included the Interlude Episode that was due to sit between Episode 1 and 2 of Season Two... and which now stands as the last existing Odyssey episode, effectively.

Well, enjoy or not as you desire; once again, even after all this time, honoured and humbled by the experience of working with a stellar voice cast which I was lucky enough to get for this, from the regulars to the guest stars... love yah all, guys, and thank you for allowing me to make my imagination reality with this, even if we never got to finish it!

As an addendum, I'm still toying with the idea of an "Oddyseymentary" to act as an overview of the series and outline what the actual plan and end was supposed to be; an insane, massively ambitious end it would have been, too, and with enough hooks that there could have even been a follow up (mostly planet-based, think more DS9 than S:NG)... but that's potentially a tale for another day... which is edging closer as I went back and reviewed the episodes when I uploaded them and got all nostalgic again...

Captain's Blog: Eldritch Part Three (Rough)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I managed to dig out some old bits and pieces of stuff when I started looking at getting back into movie making; one of these was the unfinished rough of Eldritch Part Three (available on Vimeo (and embedded above), as apparently the TMU movie site is borked these days and I can't upload or embed it there).

It has little to no music, is exceptionally rough round the edges and is definately showing it's age (don't expect a lot if you want to watch it!), but it showcases (I hope) where the story was going to go.  Featuring the acting talents of the esteemed Macwemyss, Norrie, Bezzer and the less esteemed me, I'm uploading for posterity if anyone has a hankering to see the unfinished article.