Author Archives: Neil

Doing nothing is expensive

By Neil | Published: April 29, 2012

I am struggling with the question of how to break free of a deeply flawed society.  In my childish imagination, I picture a quiet home in the woods where my food grows around me as I sit on the porch watching the clouds float by and think of stories to write. In my brief moments [...]

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Create a short animated film by yourself – Part4

By Neil | Published: March 23, 2012

Creating the environments and lighting Now that your film is planned out to the last detail and you have a consistent and intriguing design, it is time to actually make…everything.  If you had thought that planning your film was taking a long time, the fact is that you have still just begun.  Animation takes patience, [...]

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Desperation, theft, and the need to remove complexity

By Neil | Published: March 16, 2012

It is difficult to fully appreciate the phrase ‘love your enemies’ until you have been mistreated by someone to the extent that they could rightfully deserve to be called an enemy.  There is certainly not a shortage of thieving scam artists in the world, without mercy in their manipulative schemes to drain what little life [...]

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Finish your novel

By Neil | Published: March 9, 2012

I have been always been writing one story or another ever since I learned how to write, though I fully admit that none of them have been published.  Publishing stories is not the point of this post, however.  Finishing them is.  They may all be complete junk, but I have written numerous short stories, several [...]

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Stress about today

By Neil | Published: February 24, 2012

Why do I worry so much about today?  Yesterday feels far less stressful than today, and by tomorrow, today will have become yesterday.  A year from now, today will be a whole year away, and a year ago does not stress me out at all.  I may have completely lost my train of thought, but [...]

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Create a short animated film by yourself – Part 3

By Neil | Published: February 20, 2012

Design After you have gone through the storyboarding phase of your film and have each shot sketched out, you will probably already have some ideas as to what visual style you want your animated film to have.  Now is the time to nail the details of this down. Environments Personally, I find the design of [...]

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Gaming for cheap

By Neil | Published: February 18, 2012

A video game habit can become a burden on a tight monthly budget. A few hundred dollars for the new game system and 50 to 60 dollars for each game are simply out of reach when there is hardly any money available for entertainment. On top of this, gaming consoles have such a short lifespan [...]

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A life without cars…someday

By Neil | Published: February 16, 2012

Cars are stupid.  They undoubtedly provide a level of convenience to transportation, but the overwhelming cost of car ownership is astounding me more and more. Owning a car is a financial black hole.  Every 10 years or so I have to shell out thousands of dollars for a newer car once my previous car has [...]

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Create a short animated film by yourself – Part 2

By Neil | Published: February 12, 2012

Once you have your story in mind and at least a vague idea as to what the environments and characters will look like, it is time to move on to the storyboarding phase. What is it? Storyboarding is basically drawing a quick sketch of each shot and action in your film.  If the thought of [...]

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Escapism: Dream up the life you want

By Neil | Published: February 10, 2012

I am not going to go into whether or not engaging in escapist behavior has merit.  As with anything in life, escapism can be taken too far and distorted in an unhealthy way, but the need for it is real due to the unending list of imperfections in our world. I am also not going [...]

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