Two times in a row!

Hello everyone! Here I am with yet another exciting blog post!

This thursday me and Isak were invited to Stockholm (the Swedish capital city), because of being finalists in the Vattenfilm Tävling 2009 (Waterfilm Contest 2009). We also invited out good friend Gabriel to join us. We had the opportunity to watch our movie at this huge cinema screen which was amazing. We were also watching all the other finalist movies ofcourse and they were all really awesome. After watching all the movies it was time for the big moment... Yes, it was time to show the lucky winners. After watching the honorable mention winning video, third place video and also second place. We all sat in eager expectation of if we would win, or not. Before the contest I thought I had a chance to win but when we sat there it all felt som unreal and we didn't expect to win at all. But when they said: "Och det vinnande bidraget är..... Ta chansen! Av Adrian Drott och Isak Johansson!" (Yeah, that kinda means that they said our video won). We got pretty god deamn happy since 30 000kr is alot of money (1$ = 7kr). Another thing that was quite cool was that we had the opportunity to meet Musse Hasselvall who is kinda a Swedish celebrtiy. The reason why was because he was the host of the event. So right now i'm quite happy, probably the best x-mas present this year! :D

Me and Isak holding a roll with a check inside that's worth 30 000kr! :D

Long time no update

Guess who's back with a new post?! :D

Greetings ladies and gents! I know I haven't updated my blog in a very, very long time. But I got a good excuse this time (like always *cough*). I've had alot going on in school and such (like always *cough*). But now I finally feel like posting another update!

Now to what's going on... Aaaaand what's not going on.. First of all, let's talk about the projects i've been "working on" for some time now, yeah FI5VE. I must admit that I haven't been working on FI5VE at all since I got my laptop.. Now, I don't blame my laptop since I wouldn't work on FI5VE even if I wouldn't win it. I more like, blame real life, homework and different contests.. Also new games ofcourse. Anyway, I will try to continue working on FI5VE as soon as possible, but i'm afriad it might still take some time. I know I promised alot of different release dates for it a LOONG time ago, but i'm very sorry for that and I will never promise a release date again.

Also, I got to make a music video for Fatty since she won the WoW Idol contest. I know this is something I should have done a long time ago, but I blame the same things that I blamed earlier (Sorry Fatty, I promise to make it up to you. I feel really bad for taking so long :/). Not only Fatty do I have to make a music video for but I promised Jesse one also since he made voices for A Day in the Life, so instead of money, he wanted a music video. I don't know when i'll get time to work on this project though.

Here is a list of things to do!

• Finish the first episode of FI5VE
• Make a music video for Fatty
• Make a music video for Jesse
• Finish my hardcore hero music video
• Make an Allods machinima
• Make a last episode of my horrible pokémon parodies since alot of people has been asking for it.
  

Now let's leave the old stuff behind for a second and let's mention the news aka the things that made me put my old projects on hold. First of all, I forgot to post about my Alienware Laptop that I got the day after my birthday which was awesome! To be honest, the computer is not that special. Sure it has an awesome design and it runs games and such like no other laptop that i've seen. But it's heavy for being a laptop and also big for being a laptop. Sure the design is awesome and that's kinda what makes it so special.

I know you waaaant it!

Also, i've got some other great news! I was recently invited to the beta of a new MMORPG game named Allods Online because of being a machinima artist. The game is awesome for being both free and in beta phase. Sure it got som glitches but it's still a great game. Maybe not as good as wow, but for being free and beta I don't know if WoW will be worth playing when Allods comes to its real release. The only thing that I see ruining Allods is the item shop. You can buy items, gold and xp potions for real money. Else the game is awesome so I really think you should give it a try when it comes out or even get your hands on a beta key if you are eager to try it out early.

Looks interesting dosn't it?

If you are already playing or get your hands on a beta key you could add Zinky on the League side

Except from getting a new computer, getting invited to a new mmorpg game and doing alot of other random things, i'm actually in the final of yet another contest (I know you must hate me for caring more about contests then working on FI5VE). Well, this time it's a Swedish contest about water. Not a machinima contests though, but a film making contest using any kind of technique that you'd like. I myself chose to make a animated movie. Not a 3D one though, but a drawn one that I made using Photoshop and After Effects. This was the first time I tried this technique out but it turned out pretty nice. Aaand, if you wonder what the price is, it's 30000kr which in dollars is 4285$, so yeah, ofcourse I hope we'll win. Anyhow, as I said it's a Swedish contest so ofcourse I made my film in Swedish still you might be able to enjoy it if you come from another country. Anyway, here it is: Ta Chansen (NOTE: There are no sound effects since those had to be removed because of different copyright laws.)

Well, I guess that's all from me. I'll try to update the blog more often from now on.

Real Life WoW (test)

I made a test today with a program called Boujou. It's a 3D tracking program which is quite awesome even though I kinda failed here at my first try. (You can see that the pink gnome slides slightly on the ground). Anyway, i'm still pretty happy with the results.

Real Life WoW (test) from X-Cross on Vimeo.

I have quite alot of things to tell but i'll wait a while with that because I know i'll soon have even more. So prepare for a long, blog post next time :P.

GRAND PRIZE?! o.O W00t?!

Alright here I've got a story to tell yah :D!


It all started with that it was time for Blizzcon. I knew alot of people who were going and I was pretty deamn jealous (It sucks living in Sweden dosn't it?). Anyway, I decided to watch the live stream instead. It was quite cool to hear about the upcoming expansion and I tell yah that i'm soooo gonna make a goblin! Anyway, things went quite boring after that, until the contests came up. The annoying thing was that they showed a machinima between each contest and the comedian made it go ALOT slower. Still I had a great time chatting with RedEye at MSN at the same time. But anyway, when I had seen the third and second machinima winners it was time for the dance contest. It was 6 O'clock in the morning and I just wanned to see the grand prize winner and then go to bed. But NO they cutted the stream in the end of the dance contest and I got pissed and went to bed.

The other day when I woke up I decided to check out the winners but I couldn't find any information about any of them. But then when I went to check my mail I had gotten one from Jesse Cox who had been doing the voice for one of the characters in my entry.

"Jesse: Hahahahaah grats!!! You did a great job!
Proud to be part of it.

Me: What?!?! What?! o.O Did I win something? :O

Jesse: You won the movie grand prize.

Me: wdkajdöbadhka djkö,a omg!!! WTF! o.O Thanks! MAn! OMG! I can tell that you'll also get something for this. Thanks man! OMG, i'm so happy right now. They cutted the live stream in the middle of the dance contest so I couldn't see any more :(... Anyway, /care.. I WON!! xD Thanks man!"

I was so FREAKING happy. I called all my friends and all that jazz and well.. Yeah, I bet you could guess the feeling xD. I THINK I won this awesome alienware laptop. But i'm not really sure. But then also a adobe package filled with different adobe programs.

However, the machinima was based on a comic written by Keydar, the maker of the Dark Legacy Comics. So I wanna say BIG thanks to him. And then also a big thanks to Jesse Cox and Robert Richard for voice acting in it :D. And then the judges ofc xD. Anyway, here it is. Hope you like it :).



Thanks alot for reading!

(DON'T forget to read THIS which is written by RedEye.. Maaan, that guy is just too awesome and too nice. Red, you're the best :). )

How to be a good dad by Odyssey

And so my cousin just released his very first machinima. Well, I myself must say it's awesome for being his first machinima and he improved alot as he was working on it. My first machinima was horrible compared to this one. Anyway, he got a private teacher(me) to learn the basics + he started with AE and not sony vegas. So that's my only excuse xD. Also, I had to voice act as the kid in it xD, I know, It's horrible. Anyway, I can say it's a machinima splitted up in 3 steps on how to become a "good" father. Enjoy!



Oh, and news about FI5VE? Well, it's going well. Hopefully we will release it quite soon :).

Whow, just whow...

Alright, I know it's a bit too early for another post but Surgee, the maker of The Demise just released a unfinished project that is just amazing. I mean to me it's not a machinima anymore since he basicly remade everything in photoshop and 3D.. But that dosn't really matter because it's still epic! Right, what ever, here you go.

Canceled project intro and more(sfx and VA missing!) from Daniel on Vimeo.

It might take a while.. Or, maybe not.

Helluuuuu! Recently i've been working alot on FI5VE, sadly we are having some problems with the first scence but I decided to take a break from that one and work on the other scenes. Hopefully I will get done within some weeks but I won't promise anything >.>. I hope I can get the second episode done faster though. I hope it will all be worth the time though.

Anyway, today I was messing around in AE a bit and made this!

Cursed City test from X-Cross on Vimeo.