Raiden News

Remaining Cast Openings

Posted by: Mark @ Mon Feb 01, 2010 1 am

With Episode Two well on the way, there are still remaining characters who have yet to be cast. The characters still in need of a voice are:

Sarah Carson
Heather Fisk
Mairie Malah

Philip Tagart

Of these, filling the role of HEATHER is the most urgent as she has lines in Episode Two, whereas the others don't show up until Episode Three. Visit the VAA thread for details and audition instructions (as always).

As for Episode Two, I'm still waiting on lines for the three characters(excluding Heather) that I haven't had lines turned in for yet. Ironically, these lines are spread over most of the scenes resulting in only one of the episode's eight scenes having a complete set of lines, currently.

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The First Episode

Posted by: Mark @ Wed Jan 13, 2010 11 am

It, at long last, is done. That's right, folks, the first episode is done!

I'm still playing with the settings for the final encoding, but Episode One should be up no later than tomorrow.

For now, the download code is not functional, so I'll be releasing the stream concurrently. Once I get Episode One out, finishing that code, and wrangling in the VAs for Episode Two, will be the top items on my to-do list.

Now if you'll excuse me, I haven't slept since Monday.

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Some Good News, Some Bad News

Posted by: Mark @ Sat Dec 26, 2009 11 am

The good news is, all the lines for Episode One are in, except for Trevor's. The VA playing Trevor had to withdraw from the project due to circumstances in their own life, but every other scene in Episode One is now in production! Finally.

I'm considering voicing Trevor myself, and am prepared to do so if it comes to that. I'm going to finish as much of the rest of the episode as I can before I resort to that, in the hope that a new VA will audition in the meantime.

Now, the bad news is that several VAs who didn't have lines in the first episode, have seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. I've given them ample time to reconfirm their roles, one of which is a title character, but unfortunately they seem to be gone.

As such, the following roles are once more open to auditions.

Zya Raiden
Heather Fisk
Sarah Carson
Mairie Malah

Trevor Reynolds
Phillip Tagart

For further information and instruction, visit the VAA thread.

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Back up and Running... Mostly

Posted by: Mark @ Sat Nov 21, 2009 7 am

So I'm back, and I've got Windows 7 running (seemingly) smoothly. Moviestorm's all installed and (again seemingly) working great. Still have to get my hands on the latest version of Sony Vegas Pro, and install a myriad of other lesser programs, but I'm diving into production right away, and am just waiting on lines and the last few roles to be filled. Everything is in place for the first episode to get made.

As you may know, I've been trying to average each VA getting one important part and one background part. In good news, JILL has been cast. In bad news the SARAH / ALEX pair remains bereft of a voice. Head to the VAA thread to audition for the part(s)!

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Taking the Plunge

Posted by: Mark @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 4 am

Unfortunately, the problems I've been having with my computer have reached a breaking point and I've decided to go all in and rebuild my system with Windows 7 before doing anything else. I'm currently in the process of backing things up on my external hard drives and once that's done, I'll be somewhat incommunicado for a short while.

Wish me luck.

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Player Fixed, Production Started, Actresses Needed

Posted by: Mark @ Tue Nov 03, 2009 4 pm

The flash player has been fixed and now plays properly. I've fixed up the code and that part of the site is now officially working as intended.

So, with the website ready and the new Moviestorm release out, we're going ahead despite not having a full Roster. Nobody says scenes have to be made in the order they end up having in the final cut. In fact, that's how the pro's do it, after all.

The following roles in the Season One Roster are currently available.

Dr. Sarah Carson
Heather Fisk
Jillian Chaen
Alexandria Pearson

Head over to the VAA for specifics and audition instructions.

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The Trailer is Out! Kinda

Posted by: Mark @ Fri Oct 30, 2009 1 am

As you can see, the teaser is now up!

There are still a few kinks to work out with the flash player, and the download script, so for now you'll have to watch it on youtube, unfortunately. I have some debugging to do and some more code to write, as I was expecting. Actually, getting a file up this first time went more smoothly than I thought it would.

Other than implementing the download script, there are two problems I need to solve. The first, is an SQL error with an "UPDATE" query that has me stumped. The second, is the flash player itself misbehaving, which I'm going to look into first.

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Update on the Trailer

Posted by: Mark @ Sun Oct 25, 2009 12 pm

As you may know, there was to be a teaser trailer released recently. This trailer has actually been mostly done for some time now, but due to problems with my editing program's stability, I simply haven't been able to get it into a watchable format yet.

I use Sony Vegas Pro, which is a wonderful program, but it really doesn't play nice with 64-bit Windows XP, which is the operating system I'm currently running. The good news is, Windows 7 came out a few days ago, and I've been making preparations to scrap my current installation and rebuild my system from the ground up with Windows 7. I have a checklist of everything that I need to make sure of before I make the leap. I will give warning before embarking on this, in case it takes longer to get my system back on its feet than predicted.

The trailer still needs a few tweaks, as having to save after literally every click to make sure I don't lose the project, and having had to start over several times anyway, has slowed things down significantly, but I should have the trailer out within the week.

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Season One Casting Progress

Posted by: Mark @ Thu Oct 22, 2009 10 am

Twenty-one down, four to go. After months of auditions, the roster for Season One is nearly filled.

The four remaining characters in the Season One roster are Heather, Sarah, Jill, and Alex. Head on over to the VAA thread for more information.

In my estimation, only two more actresses are needed to fill these roles. Jill and Alex would have voices similar enough to Sarah, that a VA cast in the prime role of Sarah could easily fill the lesser roles of Jill and Alex also. Heather would of course need a distinctive voice, being the only elderly woman in the cast.

We're getting close, folks. All that has to happen is the filling of those roles, and production on the Raiden saga can begin in earnest.

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Set Design

Posted by: Mark @ Fri Oct 09, 2009 6 am

Sets! Over the passed several days I've begun building sets for the show. I started with a few of the less important, or rather, less frequently seen locations so that by the time I get to the more important sets, I've already learned from any mistakes I may make.

Building sets is one of the most time-consuming elements of machinimation. Once built, however, they rarely have to be rebuilt and their reuse saves loads of time. I've pretty much settled on what shots I'm going to put into the trailer, striking a balance between impact and not spoiling the best to come. As such, I've made the sets necessary for those shots, the priority.

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