The Nightly News at Nine

As loyal viewers of the Nightly News at Nine, I assume all of of you are subscribed to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, and frequent visitors of our Facebook page, but for those of you who aren’t, here’s some stuff we’re doing that you might have missed out on in the past 5 months:

Hello loyal viewers! Things here at the Nightly News at Nine have been very busy recently. Here’s what I am working on currently:

1) Animation on “Chapter 2: Robots!” continues moving steadily forward. ROBOphelia has been getting a workout in the Pinchbot mothership.

I hope to have that segment finished mid-March.

2) I was recently interviewed by the AV Club Chicago in my LEGO studio. If you are interested in finding out more about what goes on behind the scenes of NNN, this video is a must-see!

3) In order to fund the production of “Robots!” I started a fund-raising project on Kickstarter. It’s about halfway to the deadline and we’ve already raised 2/3 of the goal! Please check out the project and support NNN. There are some very cool rewards available (like your very own Pinchbot, DVDs, posters and more!) and all donations are greatly appreciated.

4) LEGO fan convention season is nearly upon us and NNN will be making the rounds again. This year we will be traveling to BrickWorld Indianapolis (in just over a week!) BrickWorld Chicago, and BrickFair. Depending on how things go, we might make it to one or two more, but that’s all for now.

5) The April issue of Brickjournal is going to be all about making animations with LEGO bricks. I was asked to write a brief article for the issue explaining the basics of animating. I hope it will be useful for all of you out there who are interested in animating but don’t know where to start.

Phew! I feel busy just reading all of that. Stay tuned!

P.S. Did you see this bonus video last month?

Two weekend ago I exhibited at LEGO KidsFest Chicago. I had a big monitor playing NNN videos, lots of sets and characters from previous animations, and New Block City being invaded by the Pinchbots.

I also had my new animating studio set up and did animation for the next episode while people watched! It was great to be able to directly show people what goes on behind the scenes.

It was also nice to be able to get work done on the next animation while also interacting with with fans. I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning building the conveyor belt, factory wall and random industrial doodads to add some visual interest. Then Saturday afternoon I started animating and continued all day Sunday. Here’s a sneak peak at a clip I made while there.

This was done with a Logitech QuickCam 9000 and the Helium Frog Animator and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I am not 100% satisfied with the pictures quality on the QuickCam, but it will have to do for the time being. I am excited to finally be animating using animation software; It make things much easier. I’m hoping to have this episode released by 11/29, but at the very latest it should be out by 12/5.

I don’t how many of you have heard about Beckett Build magazine, the first issue was just released. It has interviews with famous LEGO builders, cool fan creations, a price guide, and other similar articles. It also has a 2 page spread about LEGO related animations on YouTube and the Nightly News at Nine is one of the six videos featured! My favorite parts of the review are “It has comedy, drama action and adventure all rolled into each chapter” and “after watching for a minutes you’ll be hooked in by their mesmerizing life-like movements and mannerisms.” I’m honored that the series was included and hope it leads to more fans discovering the series. If you recently discovered NNN (at KidsFest, through Beckett Build or otherwise) welcome to the site! We’re glad you’re here.

Hello again loyal viewers! I have lots of news to share and I’m going to try and get through all of it quickly so I can get back to working on the next NNN episode. About two months ago I moved into a new apartment, and consequently I now have an entire room to use as my LEGO studio.

Here’s what my animating desk currently looks like. You can see some of the creations for the next episode and some of my animating supplies. It’s great to have so much space to keep works in progress and not have to worry about clearing them away so I can make dinner (in my previous apartment my animating space was also my kitchen counter).

About a month ago I attended BrickCon for the first time. It had a different vibe from BrickWorld, but it was still fantastic. I entered a few animations in the film festival and won “Best Animation”! My display here was not as large as BrickWorld since I was limited by what I could fit in a suitcase, but it was still a success. On Friday I set up my camera and lights and animated the last few scenes of The Pinchbot Invasion while other attendees watched and asked questions. It was great to be able show people a little glimpse of my process.

We sold another 50-some DVDs which felt really good. I also brought along some of my extra minifigs and sold those off to help defray some of the costs of traveling to Seattle. It was so successful that I now have a whole BrickLink store devoted to selling off extra pieces from my collection (mostly minifigs and accessories). Check it out and remember that all proceeds go to supporting production of NNN.

Which brings me to some not so great news. Unfortunately, my main animation camera was stolen a couple weeks ago. I am getting a temporary replacement webcam and looking into which camera I am going to purchase as a permanent replacement. I will be doing tests with the webcam in the next few days. If it is good enough, I will use it for animating the next episode so that can actually be finished in November. I will keep you up to date.

I will be exhibiting at LEGO KidsFest Chicago this weekend and if all goes according to plan I will be animating parts of the next episode so people can again come and see me at work. If you’re in the area stop by and say hello!

Until next time, keep building!

Hello all you loyal NNN fans! I know we are long past my original estimate for the release of Chapter 2. Fear not! Things are still moving forward. The two robots pictured above are for one of the upcoming episodes. They, along with other sets and characters are under construction as we speak.

This summer has been unexpectedly busy for me and I have not had much time to animate. However, I am moving to a new apartment soon, where I will have a dedicated animation studio! I am also preparing to attend BrickCon at the end of September. In addition to selling Chapter 1 DVDs there, I am going have the first segment of Chapter 2 ready to show there, and hopefully will get back to a normal release schedule after that. Thanks for your patience!

P.S. I am sending out the very first NNN Newsletter today. Sign-up if you want to receive e-mail updates about the series.

Once again Brickworld has come and gone all too quickly. I had a great time at the event this year and wish it had lasted longer. For the very first time, I was registered as a vendor so I was able to sell Chapter 1 DVDs. Over the course of the weekend Bert and I sold 51 DVDs! We also handed out a bunch of fliers and business cards and got a lot of people to sign up for our newsletter. But the best part was getting to meet so many fans of the series:

There was always a good crowd of people around the iMac watching Chapter 1 and many people knew the words so well they were mouthing along with the video. At one point a boy came up to the table and when I introduced myself he said, “You’re the David Pickett?!” and started jumping up and down. Many people commented on their favorite characters (ROBOphelia, Leggsly, and Cornelius Crocogator all rated high) or scenes (the Anti-Green Commercial still takes the cake). During the closing ceremony we were sitting next to a mother who told us, “my kids found your series on iTunes and have it on their ipods. I went to check it out and I said ‘hey, this is actually good!’” It’s moments like this that make me feel like all the hard work I’ve put into the series has been absolutely worth it.

You can see more photos from the event on our FaceBook and flickr pages. We will be traveling to BrickCon in September, so hopefully I’ll get to meet even more of you there. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to animating Chapter 2!