# Scaremation 2014 (Halloween display animations)



## Laer (Mar 2, 2013)

Hi, guys. Larry here!...

I've been away for quite a while, but am now trying to get back into the whole forum thing again. Hope you're all doing well!

As some of you may know, I'm the animator responsible for the animations of Scaremation (and the recent commercial). I wanted to make myself available here, in case anyone had any questions or anything.

I completely overhauled the site, but it's mostly internal. The menus and page organization have been changed a bit, but it should still be pretty familiar!

There's now a News page which replaces the old blog-based news area of the old site. There, you can get... well, the latest news! I also still have a page on Facebook as well, and generally post on there if there's anything new in the News section of the site.

The biggest change is the new store. I've set up the Laerworks store, where Scaremation products can be purchased. There's still the familiar page on my site with the entire library of animations displayed (with thumbnails, descriptions, and a link to a sample clip for each)... which now serves as a sort of 'showroom'. When you are wanting to purchase something, you just go to the Buy Animations area (go figure!), which will take you to the Laerworks store.

Have a look, if you haven't visited recently!

Okay, so what's new for 2014?... Well, I spend the majority of the year so far doing all kinds of administrative and techy stuff... moving the site, re-coding the site, setting up the store, etc, etc.... and have only really been able to start work on animating in August. So, I'm kind of racing the clock here... more so than ever. I'm also using brand new 3D modelling/animation software, so there's a huge learning/adjusting curve there, too. I've also recently purchased some 3D IK rigging software too (...more 3D animation stuff), so I'm quickly learning (dealing with) that, too!

Bad news... All of this is obviously eating up a lot of time!

Good news... The resulting animations should look wicked. I'm diving into the whole 3D animation thing. I had dabbled in it before, but (as you can see by the product library), I mostly do 2D stuff. The Spectre animation is the only one that is 3D, and that was a relatively simple rig (...although, me never doing anything simple the first time, also includes my first attempts at both cloth and hair simulations!).

The News section of the site shows some work-in-progress pics of the new character I'm building... and I've been holding back on showing some of the more recent images, as ideally I want to show it when it's in a more complete state. I still have to do the 'clothing', finish up the colour paintwork, add the last of the fine sculpt details... and then it's on to setting up the lighting, and then finally animating it! (...but then, it's still not finished, as there's F/X compositing, audio design/editing, rendering... and then the always fun prep of the files, YouTube vids, website updates, product uploads, etc!).... and then, it's Christmas. 

So, I've been battling between racing to get this done vs lingering on details and learning more things.... all while nervously fussing/worrying about the store and stuff. (Ya, I know... cue the violins...)

I'm aiming to have the new animation done sometime by the end of this month... but, honestly, I'm debating if I shouldn't give myself until next Halloween, so I don't completely burn myself out. There's SO much cool stuff I can do with this new software (and the techniques I've been tinkering with).

As usual, I'll keep everyone posted... via the News page, the Facebook page, and maybe some updates here, too.

If you are new to Scaremation, and have been looking for a way to enhance your haunt, please feel free to check out the website and see if there's something you like!

*Also! I've dropped the price of 'Spider Lab', 'Rough Night' and 'Underworld' by $10 recently. So, if you have had your eye on those before, but hesitated, you might want to check them out again!*

Whew... I'm as verbose as usual!

If you have an questions, comments or suggestions about Scaremation (or just feel like chatting), please feel free to get in touch!

Cheers!


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