ToonLifeOnline Blog

Exciting news! 3d Stickman Fight has over 100,000 views on youtube! It is our first video to pass that mark.

I am currently working on a new 3d Stickman Fight. It will be uploaded as soon as it’s done.

-Wes

Christmas is in a few weeks so we would like to give a few 3d Christmas models away. Models included are a santa hat, stocking and present.

These are very basic models with standard materials applied. No textures. You can download them here.

You can also check out some of our premium 3d Christmas models here.

Enjoy!

-Wes

Finally something new! Well sort of. The animation is the same for the most part but I have totally revamped the 3d Stickman fight. I added a whole new environment and changed a few other things up like the ending.

You can watch the previous version here to see the differences.

This film was created using the free 3D animation program blender 3d which you can download here http://www.blender.org

I got my sound effects and music from soundsnap.com and used Magix Movie edit pro 15 for the video editing.

There haven’t been many updates in the past month here on TLO because of my recent relocation back to Florida. I am all settled in now so I will be adding new content soon. I am currently working on a new 3d Stickman animation and more free stuff like 3d models. Stay tuned for more updates!

-Wes

This is my entry to the Blender Guru Slums competition. You can find the details of the contest here.

My entry made entirely with blender.

-Wes

So you may have noticed the new AdESIGN link on TLO. This is Abrams Design. This is the new part of the site. Here we will be adding free textures, 3d models, business card templates and more. Check it out. We will be adding new content here often. Hope everyone enjoys the new free content.

-Wes

Toonlife Online users are very creative. Our community depends and thrives on our users who are constantly showing off their work-in-progress and their finished products. I find it fascinating being able to be included in the process of peer-review and being able to help someone else out who has helped me out. So when i saw that one of our users, jppi_Stu, was trying to create something to help out, I had to show you guys what he was working on. So I asked him a few questions to get a better understanding of his project, the Video Liberty Project. Here goes:

What is the video liberty project?

The Video Liberty project is a Web-based meeting ground for videographers. The core of the site is a database of open-licensed video content. Features also exist for videographers to communicate and potentially collaborate with each other, to show off their completed works, and possibly to find new video-related gigs.

What are your goals for the site?

The main goal for the site is to build a large database of a wide range of open-licensed video content, so that videographers can use the power of open licensing to help them meet their creative goals. For example, if somebody is working on a video project and they need a certain shot but can’t get it themselves, ideally they would be able to find something in the database that can be used at no cost other than giving proper credit to the original videographer. Or, if somebody wanted to test the compatibility of a software package with video files created by a certain camera, ideally they would be able to find a clip from that camera that they could download at no cost and try to use in the software in question.
Since the focus is on serving videographers rather than the video viewing habits of the general public, the intent is that the “liberated videos” will be raw material rather than edited works. However, that is not a specific policy or requirement, and edited works would not be rejected from the database.
A broad secondary goal is to support the community of creative people whose talents are related, in some fashion, to video production. In doing so, this also supports various goals of my video production company.

How can people use the site most effectively?

I think becoming familiar with the various aspects of the site is the first step to using the site effectively. Members will find there are parts of the site that are more applicable to them, and parts that are not as interesting. For example, somebody who is not interested in releasing any of their own video content under an open license may be interested in the crew book, while somebody who is just creating videos as a hobby may be less interested in the crew book than they are in exchanging open-licensed videos. On the other hand, there may be “perfect fit” members who find value in all of the features on the site. (Naturally, that describes me!)

When did you start working on it?

Since the development of the site has been a bit haphazard until recently, I don’t really know when I started working on it. I would guess it was in 2005, but it may have been a bit later than that. I consider the current site the “2.0″ version. The first iteration of it was mostly just a forum, but eventually I realized it would not provide enough value that way, so I put the site on hold until I could build a better overall structure for it. I then focused for awhile on a different site that was also based on a forum, but with quite a few custom enhancements to take advantage of the API provided by a certain video sharing site. When that site essentially died (and became a zombie, but that’s another story), I realized it was time to take the Video Liberty project off the shelf, dust it off, and get it up and running.

How did you get the idea for the video liberty project?

In 2001, I launched an open-licensed music site called the Open Music Registry, initially focused on the then-new Open Audio License published by the EFF. (That license was later superseded by the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.) Like the Video Liberty project, that site did not actually host media files. It served as a registry of links added by artists to help guide people to the Open Audio licensed music. I made a number of mistakes with the Open Music Registry which left the door open to abuse of the site and which eventually led to me shutting it down after a couple years, but it was a good learning experience, and it helped distribute tens of thousands of copies of open-licensed music files that otherwise might not have reached a significant audience.
The Video Liberty project is, in many ways, a “video version” of the Open Music Registry. I’ve been interested in film and video production since I bought my first movie camera in the late 1970s, and when I launched a video production company in 2004, I saw an opportunity to do something like the Open Music Registry again, but applying the lessons I learned and also having some corporate backing.

What is next for the site?

Many of the features that are on the site now are in pretty rough form, so I plan to shift my focus from adding features to smoothing out those that are there now. Eventually I want to open up the offsite links section of the site so that members can submit links, and I also want to add a video-oriented classified ads feature. Those are upgrades that I think would add value to the videographer community, but they are a lower priority than things like making the “liberated videos” database easier to use.

Click here to find more information about the Video Liberty Project and please support Stu in his endeavor to assist artists everywhere.

-Gary

Comic 13 (Flea Bomb)

The original Gary gave me.

Click on the comics to see them larger.

-Wes

So things have been a little busy at TLO lately. I have been working on a new part of the site. I will have more details on it soon. There will be free useful stuff for all on there. This has caused me to get a little behind on other things. A new comic will be released within the next day or so. We also have been working on a new Judson Boys episode. So stay tuned! Lots of updates coming soon!

-Wes