Elect Psychoboy: Why Take Chances?

Above is the final campaign video for Psychoboy.  Basically putting every fear-based, punch-in-the-gut ad together in a blender while sprinkling in some girls in bikinis, zombies and an orgasm.

The last graphic for the campaign went live today, on Election Day. Psycho will continue sharing his thoughts on social media for the rest of the week. It's been fun but I'm glad to be winding the mock campaign down. I hope folks continue find and enjoy Psycho's posts, videos and, of course, the comic itself.

Elect Psychoboy: Are You Tired of Politicians Who Do Things?

Alright, so here's another ad for Psychoboy's campaign in College Follies #4. This time turning the camera on myself, imitating those annoying commercials where voters talk how perfect and wonderful a candidate is or how horrible and evil their opponents are. This is one continuous take in my kitchen. I shot it about 30 times and picked the best of the ones were I actually made it all the way through the script.



I think I got one more of these videos in me and then I'm done.

Elect Psychoboy: He Likes Cute Kittens!

So above is my all-time favorite video I've done. Heck, one of my favorite things I've done, period. This ad actually appears for one panel in  College Follies #4, so it's really awesome to have the advertisement exist in it's entirety for real. Again, I love being able to flesh out the story in the issue with Psychoboy's virtual online campaign.

So this ad is inspired by a longstanding joke I've had that politics often becomes the art of liking the most generic universally, loved thing you can find, basically running on a platform of liking fuzzy animals. The kitten specifically was chosen because of the incident in the New York mayoral race where there was a minor controversy over if the subway system should've shut down to get some kittens off the track. Yes, there were literally candidates trying to outdo each other over their love of kittens. You can't make this stuff up.

More videos to come!

Elect Psychoboy: Anything You Want YouTube Ad

So above is my most epic video to date.

I'll be posting at least once a day for the next two weeks on Psychoboy's social media campaign. Having Psychoboy run for Congress during the midterm election season was always been my goal. This has been an awesome experience, creating his posts and telling the tale online alongside the story in College Follies #4 which is out now (click here to get it). The only thing that's missing is more people to interact with and share his posts.

The thing is, it's the internet. so his posts will be up forever. Check out his website, www.electpsychoboy.com at any point and you can still check out everything he's posted  on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Psychoboy still needs to hear from you. What do you want him to stand for? It can be serious or silly. Reasonable or ridiculous.

So follow Psycho, comment, like and share his stuff. And remember...Nuke Ebola!

It's Talking Time! Here's a Video On Issue Three!

Been trying to get this video out for a couple weeks. I decided to not put random movements on the panels to make them easier to look at and read. Let me know what you guys think.



I'm currently wrapping up issue three. I'm still proofing, making corrections and working on the letter column. Normally this is a fast process but I have a) unfinished stuff to promote issue one I need to do b) I have to get issue two ready for early release c) I have a con on Saturday and d) I've got to get ready to work on issue four. I'm doing all this at the same time. It's kinda crazy but I should knock all of it out in the next week or so.

Getting College Follies #1, Episode III: Comixology!

So this is the last video in my series on getting and using the comic on the different sites it’s available on. Comixology is obviously the biggest and hardest to get on, so it felt really good seeing my comic on my smart phone finally. I was using Google Chrome while reading the comic on my computer because Internet Explorer wouldn’t let me move around in single page mode. This is a glitch that seems new to their revamped digital comic format, so if you run into problems on your PC, try a different browser.

I used Microsoft Expressions to do screen captures for the part that’s on my computer. And you’ll notice I got a clean recording of my voice with no buzzing. The buzzing on the last one was my CAD USB U1 microphone. After trying many different online remedies I think I found the causes: one was the close proximity to my laptop screen and the other was the light coming from florescent light bulbs in my apartment. So I hooked my laptop to my TV screen (which doubles as a monitor) and used the ridiculously long microphone cord to sit on my loveseat and do the voice over from there with my lamps off. And it worked perfectly.

So just to summarize, my microphone, for no apparent reason developed a weakness to particular types of light. So now it’s a vampire microphone. Hey, whatever works.

For the part where I shot my smart phone and I originally wanted to shoot it with the window open but my camera ended up focusing on the bush outside my window instead of my phone. So I reshot it with the blinds closed.
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I’m currently taking time off from work. I’ve got a lot of other video ideas but I’m not sure which ones I’ll have time to do. I definitely want to knock out at least one page out on issue three since issue one’s sudden release has prevented me from working on it for the last week and I still want to get it done by early July. Tomorrow I’m heading to Heroes Con with newly printed flyers on the comic’s release. Stay tuned!

Getting College Follies #1...The Sequel! Amusedom Strikes Back!

I hope this video will encourage people to check out Amusedom. It's a great little site.

So this was kind of fun to record. I had a good laugh in some earlier takes with the nude women popping up on the front page. But I also had some severe problems recording the video, My camera just didn't like the site. The sides of the screen became wavy after I downloaded the video onto my computer. I did two separate recordings (each requiring a dozen takes) and neither worked. 

So I found a program called Microsoft Expressions that lets you record what's happening on your computer screen while recording your voice through whatever microphone you have. This worked perfectly. I actually did this video in one take on the first try.

But then I got it to YouTube and noticed a slight buzzing and other noises in the background. I think the problem is my microphone, since I've tested it on another program I now have same the problem. I haven't figured out what it is or why it didn't happen with the other voice overs I recorded with it a few months ago. 

So I put some background music in the video with YouTube's Video Editor to cover it up. I hope the music isn't not too loud, that's literally as low as it would go.  I still think turned out okay. The music is kind of interesting, maybe I'll try it on other videos.

And so tomorrow the comic is finally released on Comixiology! 

Getting College Follies #1 on DriveThruComics...the movie!

This is my latest video showing how to get College Follies #1 on DriveThruComics and what it's like once you get it. It gives the viewer a chance to see what a comic is like as a PDF. 

For this I  just pointed the camera at my screen and shot it while talking. The PDF part of it had to be reshot since parts of the image would get wavy once I downloaded the video onto my computer. Not sure why that is. The second take wasn't as bad, there's just a few moment my camera's automatic focus readjusts itself. 

And my desktop background is Hadya the Guide from The 99 comics series, in case you were wondering. A video for Amusedom is also on Youtube now and I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Me Announcing College Follies #1's Release In My Kitchen!

So this is a video on the release of College Follies #1 on Amusedom and DriveThruComics and coming this Wednesday to ComiXology. The goofy looking guy in the video goes over all the details, so no need to rehash them here. Please check out the comic and share the video or any links to the comic that can be found here.

This was shot in a corner of my kitchen, one of the few spots in my apartment where there's enough light for it not to be grainy. But I'm not crazy about the lighting and acoustics. I'll try another spot next. Maybe I'll start shooting this stuff outside, I'll just stick the oversized covers to the nearest tree or something.

One thing I am happy with on this video is my ability to walk you guys through the options for what comic is like on the different sites in a visual manner. Turning the camera on my TV (which can act as a monitor for my laptop) and talking as I showed the comic worked well. The transitions on YouTube's Video Editor made it look super slick.

This is what is hopefully the first of several videos promoting the comic's release, so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel to see more videos of me awkwardly talking about stuff!

It's Talkin Time! My YouTube Video On Issue Three!

This video was made in the exact same way as the one I made a week ago to announce that issue two was done. The only difference is that I basically just sat there and talked into the microphone. I wasn't matching my voiceover to the images for the most part. Just me talking off the top of my head with very few edits or do-overs.

I was originally thinking of doing this as just me talking into a camera but the pain of setting it up combined with any art I put on the wall behind me being too small to see made me decide to go with this format instead. Then I ended up with the problem of having too little artwork to show since I've only done the preliminary design work for the issue, so forgive me for reusing the same images over and over (it is like an old episode of Power Rangers!).

I probably will be turning the camera on myself for some more editorial style videos on the franchise if I can get time.

Look what's on the Tube, it's a video for issue two!

Alright so another video down. This is the first one I did at home using the movie software that came on my computer and a CAD U1 USB Recording Microphone I got recently. The sound quality is different with the mic. Not sure if it's better or worse. Let me know what you guys think of the sound quality and volume.

I tried speaking unscripted into the mic for this video, hoping it would sound more natural. Not sure if that worked, but it's okay. Since I didn't script it, I forgot to mention that this was the first comic I inked digitally in the video, but I'll probably be devoting some later videos to process, so it's alright.

Unsurprisingly, it's a lot more difficult to do it with free software than the type you pay for. I used Windows Live Movie Maker to create the slideshow since it can export HD video but doesn't have the ability to record a voice over. So I used Cyberlink Director (which can record voice overs but can't output HD video) to record little snip-its of sound, which I then brought into Movie Maker. Trimming the sound clips and slides in Movie Maker isn't as easy as I'm used to, but it gets the job done. The only real restriction is it will only let me determine the general direction of a slide's movement and gives me no control over anything else (now fast it moves, how much it moves, exactly where it moves, ect) so I don't think the slide movements are quite as nice. The Intro clip is taken from previous videos and put in there using YouTube's video editor since videos with sound already in them won't work when I drag them into Windows Live Movie Maker. It's a longer, more convoluted process, but it gets the job done.

And with that, I'm off to issue three!

Look Ma, I'm On Camera! It's My Latest YouTube Video!

This video was done on the fly. I saw James Rolfe's end of the year video on Cinemassacre on New Year's Eve and was like "Cool, I should try doing that." I've been thinking about trying to turn the camera on myself ever since getting the new digital recorder and this seemed like a good opportunity.

It took longer than one would think. I had to find someplace where the shadows weren't too harsh. And I had to place the covers in the background  just right so they didn't look crooked. I only have a little tripod so it took a ridiculous looking tower of boxes and books on an end table to get the height needed to shoot. It took awhile to get the camera positioned just the right way to frame the video correctly. And once recorded, it literally took the rest of the night (4 hours) just to upload and for YouTube to process the edits (2+ hours) because of the massive size, since it's a lengthy HD video.

I'm just talking off the top of my head here. I was hoping to be able to cut it to make it a little shorter and tighter, but unfortunately YouTube's video editor was the only choice I had, and I couldn't figure out how to make cuts to the middle of a video last night (hopefully there's a tutorial or something I can look up for future reference). I could cut from the end okay and chopped out a bit on social media I want to redo for it's own video later.

My camera split the recoding into a separate video (skipping a few seconds) at 16 minutes and screwed up the ending so I had to rerecord that (which is why there's a skip at the end).

The video quality isn't as nice I'd like, but I'll check around my apartment to see if there's a place well lit enough to get better video.

 So what do you guys think? Would you rather see videos like this, or ones I've been doing with  the slideshows using voiceover?

The "It's Done!" Video!

 First off, definitely watch the video before you read the commentary below...



So this video is basically me summarizing  my recent blog posts on submitting the comic. It's a continuing effort to show my progress on the series across all the different social media sites. I used the same techniques to make it as I did in my other videos.

Well, until you get to the after-credits scene, that is. This is me eating Shawarma at Mooney's Mediterian Café, which I blogged about yesterday. And obviously this is a homage to the Shawarma scene from Avengers.

I had to go out and buy a camera for it. I'll occasionally have use for motion video and it's always good to a camera handy. So I got a Samsung HMX-W300 for $100. It shoots quality 1080p with great sound and doubles as a high resolution digital camera, so I felt like it's a good investment.

I've only shot one other short video in my life so I'm pretty new at this. So what did I learn from the whole 11 seconds of video footage here? Well, preparation is important if you're shooting yourself. It's easy when you can just move around the subject and look through the view finder or screen on the camera to see what you're capturing. But in my case I had to put the camera in one place and didn't know what I'm shooting until I stopped recording and played it back.

So I did test shoots in my kitchen and discovered I needed to get the camera really damn high. If I just laid it on the table it would cut my head off. So I went out and bought a tiny, cheap 8 inch tripod on the way to Mooney's. It turned out to still be too short for this particular shot, but I came prepared with a box to put it on and finally got just enough height to pull it off.

It also took several tries and a several minutes of footage to get those 11 seconds. Even though I'm sitting there really eating it, my chewing didn't look right. I was moving my mouth too much. But after a few takes I got it right.

The raw footage has sound, which was "Don't Worry Baby" from the Beach Boys playing in the background because that's what was playing over Mooney's sound system.  I'm unsure if I could have used it without dispute from YouTube, but the scene really didn't work unless it was silent (like in the movie) so I guess it worked out.

Adding this ending to the rest of the video was a bit different since I didn't have access to imovies at home. The software that came with the camera wasn't fully compatible with my computer so it made putting it together with the existing slideshow video (which was already in MP4 format) difficult. I ended up using YouTube's video editor. It glitched out the first time and so I had to redo it (thank God, it was just putting two videos together!) but I'm super happy with the results!

Hey, I made another talkie! It's a YouTube update!

Fans of moving pictures with sound, rejoice! At long last I've done my second YouTube video! This one features completed images from the comic with commentary about my progress and pace in putting it out thus far. It's nothing new for those who've been following my blog, but it lets people know in a different way how it's been going and will hopefully reach a few people who haven't been on the blog.

I can't say I'm any better at speaking into my computer's built-in microphone than I was in the first video, but the sound is louder and better quality, at least. Once again it's HD and closed captioned. And I've tried to monetize it. I did get ten second commercials in front of it a couple times I watched it. Let me know if the commercials are an issue or a deterrent for any of you.

It is very short and put together relatively quickly. Squeezing it in on top of work, doing the comic, blogging and social media has been very challenging. I planned to do more videos by now but it's hard to find the time. At the moment, I'm planning to do another update when I'm done with the comic  and, if all goes well, they'll be a video announcing something special before then. Videos on how I make the comic and other extras are still planned but have been pushed back until after I finish issue one. Once I get this first story done, I plan to slacken the pace a little on putting out pages and hopefully that'll give me some time to do more outside of just the comic itself.

It moves..it speaks...it's my first YouTube video!

Yes, kids, it's sound and motion! Amazing!

I had to teach myself  iMovie as I was making this. I won't say this is the first video I've ever made, because I made a couple short animated videos in a college class, but that was a zillion years ago. I will say it's definitely the most complex video I've ever made.

Making a video is a lot like making a comic, you have to think visually about the best image to put with the dialog. Except with videos you actually have to...speak.

I'm not an actor, a poet or a comedian. Hell, I barely speak out loud most of the time. So doing my first voiceover was a very different experience for me. I kind of wish I could hire an actor to play my voice (College Follies Comic Creator Blog...starring Morgan Freeman as the voice of Todd Luck!).

The audio was recorded using the built-in microphone on an iMac and I upped the volume greatly in iMovie. The quality of the recording seems to vary between recording sessions but, like I said, I'm learning this as I go along.

The pictures are all still images (jpegs) that have what's called the Ken Burns effect on them to make the camera move. They're a combination of scans, photos, screen captures and some artwork I created in Photoshop.

The movie was exported out of iMovie using its Quicktime options as a 1280p HD movie. And YouTube actually lets you enter a transcript of the video, which it automatically syncs up with the movie and turns into closed captioning. I can't describe to you how awesome that is!

It was a blast putting the video together, going through all my old art to find images that would tell my story. Brownie points for whoever can name the franchise that my five year-old self was drawing a story of in 1984 (now there was a young man who was going places!).

I'll probably do a video every month or two. I plan on doing... not necessarily "how to" videos because I don't feel like I'm really qualified to tell anyone how to do something... but rather "how I do it" videos, showing how I create the comics. They'll also be the occasional video announcements and probably a commercial for the comic once I get an issue completed. I'd also like to do a commentary on each issue of the comic after they're released.

And heck, the sky's the limit. Maybe for the sake of variety I'll do a review of a bad video game, I'm sure no one on YouTube has ever done that, right?