Coming Oh-So Soon: Purgatory Pizza

The flash version of Purgatory Pizza is coming soon!
Creator Christian Taranto, AKA MC Death Bear, took a twelve-hour bus ride from Virginia up to our studio last Friday, and he’s been working non-stop since he arrived.

Talk about dedication! But what would you expect from a guy who’s almost finished with a concept he started in ninth grade? That’s right, Purgatory Pizza was first conceptualized when Christian was a freshman in high school. Back then, it was a comic strip. It’s gone through many revision since then. At the beginning, it was known as “Outcasts,” and there wasn’t even a pizza place! But over the years, he’s worked at several pizza places, so he eventually decided to put his work experience to good use (or bad, who knows? It’s Purgatory).

Now at 22, Christian’s thrilled to see his teenage doodles come to life in magnificent moving media magic, not to mention that he’s at the helm of it all. But Christian isn’t the only one working. Chris Davidson’s been leading the animation, and he and Jeff Hellman have been hard at work on the sound design.

In fact, it was because of Chris Davidson that Purgatory Pizza got started on the road to cartoon-dom. Back in December 2007, Christian had an art show at Pixel Lounge. During the show, he mentioned how he had an idea for a cartoon and wanted to make it, and he was referred to Moving Box Studios by local DJ Chris Capulet. Christian had always be interested in animation, but he never got the chance until he and Chris teamed up.

Just like The Elephant’s Lullaby, Moving Box will be putting together a “making of” video for Purgatory Pizza. It’ll include commentary from those already mentioned, plus Christian’s cousin Law Tarello, the co-writer of the cartoon. Law will be arriving at the studio this Saturday to share his thoughts.

We're in the final pruduction stage of the final cut, but if you need something to do before Purgatory Pizza is released, head to SickDamage.com where Christian is a staff writer. No kidding, Christian isn’t just an artist and budding animator; he’s a talented writer as well.

Need something else? Get a Purgatory Pizza refresher – watch the teaser for the cartoon on Newgrounds.

Update 2/11

Whatever the weather's like outside, you can be sure that inside Moving Box Studios, everything's coming up roses. (forgive me, please)

The Making of The Elephant's Lullaby has reached it's second cut, and the final cut is expected by the end of the month. Wanna see how the cutest animation you ever saw was put together? This'll be the one to watch.

Don't forget about Java! The pilot has gotten a sound-lock and the picture-lock will be finished next week. Plus, we've gotten some awesome additional art by Emily Benning (see the image above). Java will be out this Spring!

We have a full inventory of everything we need to complete Days of Our Lamps 2 - General Popsicle. We just had a shoot at a local hospital and have a new action sequence planned - it's gonna be epic! Don't let the sequel status fool you...this Summer blockbuster is gonna make you think in a whole new way about lamps and popsicles.

We're working on a cut for a highlight reel of completed Moving Box productions. It'll be featured on our website when it's done, so keep a lookout for that!

Moving Box Studios is launching a new service called Ithaca Tape to Disc. If you have any old home video tapes, you probably know by now that they wear down, and this service is the perfect solution - we'll convert your tapes to digital format! More details to follow.

Pushing Flash Animation (Escape from Nevara)

Check out Escape from Nevara by Zeurel over at Newgrounds. It's an animated continuation of a his online comic book on deviantART. Awesome art direction, animation and sound, this is definitely one to look out for.

Escape from Nevara: Episode 1 on Newgrounds.com

-Chris

Elephant's Lullaby

It’s refreshing to see a bit of childhood in the midst of adult life.

Tom Knight’s children’s music video The Elephant’s Lullaby has culminated its production with Moving Box and can be seen on Newgrounds and Youtube.

The animation was featured on the Newgrounds homepage this weekend. The Elephant’s Lullaby is a children's ballad about a small elephant that won’t go to sleep.

OnlyCORP - Olympus Burger

World-Wide Mega-Company ONLYCORP sells you Olympus Burger on Newgrounds!

Watch and VOTE 5!

Cute Hungry Baby Elephant

This was too cute not to post.

Java Flash Promo

Can you tell what project I've been working on?

Featuring Java!

The last day of September is upon us and we’re working hard on Java. We finished recording the voiceovers this weekend and now we’ve moved on to sound design and mixing. This is very exciting for all of us here at the Box because Java was our first commissioned project, the baby of Danielle Chillemi.

Danielle, a former classmate of Chris, contacted him in the summer of 2007 and asked him about an idea she had. She had been thinking about her pets when she came up with the brilliant concept for Java, an animated TV sitcom based on the life of three playful dogs.

After the planning process was complete and artists and animators were selected, production began. Crafting the personalities of the three dogs Java, Heidi and Maddie was a challenge, but the animators of Moving Box surpassed expectations.

Java, the main character of the series, proves his charm with each loveable phrase he barks. Not only is he a working model, but also a performer at a nightclub on weekends. He is living every man’s nightmare/dream of having a love interest as a roommate.

Maddie is a crazy Golden Retriever pup who loves to cook. She is haunted by a Rastafarian Duck who steals her baked goods, and is such a frantic pup that she can never sit still. Maddie, without thinking about it, provides much of the comic relief for her roommates.

Heidi is a cute mutt, but often is annoyed by her two roommates antics. With Java always trying to dance with her and Maddie always making messes, she plays the role of the homemaker, balancing out the trio. With those two in play, Heidi is a necessity. The three pooches together is a recipe for fun.

A 30 second promo is coming soon, and the first episode is to follow, so be ready. These characters are too much fun for you to miss.

Stay Tuned.

Olympus Burger Pilot (send to your friends!)

We've decided to go to Revver for embedding videos. Send this to your friends! New content coming soon, I promise.

Elephant's Production Still

Ellie and Marika (not yet shaded)

Here's a screen grab from the upcoming "Elephant's Lullaby"

Purgatory Pizza Promo

Serving soon.

Saturday Night and Java promo

So instead of going to a keg party at a lakehouse, I stayed in and drank redbull. Tween and I are at the studio, working on stuff (she's mostly working on meowing). New backgrounds by Nick featured here, and I'm loving that wallpaper texture. 

Epsilon - Killer game by Armor Games

Woah, I just played through Epsilon on Newgrounds, and I am impressed. Challenging but not overly hard, this is a simple portal game with high production value. Great sound, visuals and gameplay, Epsilon is worth checking out. Just another example of how developers are raising the bar on Flash games. xBox Arcade, anyone?

FlashDen

Hey there, Chris here, just wanted to tell you about the sweet new site FlashDen.net. It hosted a plethora of user-created flash components, actionscript code, effects, and plug-ins. And they're cheap! Some files are as low as a dollar, and considering the time saved, FlashDen can really help on projects.
The MP3 player on AyurvedaMusic.com came from a coder on FlashDen, I'm really loving it. All files come with full source code to modify. Maybe I'm just a nerd, but I think it's so cool.

The Story of Khale 2

Kevin Okulolo, a 19 year old animator out of UC Davis has released the second episode of The Story of Khale. The first one was the closest thing I've seen to the work of Adam Phillips, the guy who is probably the best Flash animator out there. So check it out. Kevin has a bright future in animation ahead of him.

The new Flash vCam has Awesome Features

Bryan Heisey has released a friggin' sweet new Flash vCam based on the original created by Sham Bhangal and Dave Dixon. It is compatable with CS3 (the old one wasn't) and has some really awesome new features, including blur and tint. Also looks like it's compatable with different blend modes. I love Flash.

V cam and CS3 - BryanHeisey.com

Be sure to watch the two demo movies, it's quite powerful.

-Chris

Olympus Burger - Best of Week at NG

Thought I'd post this screenshot, both parts of OB in the top 10 of the week!

Olympus Burger #5 of All Time!

It's since changed, but for a day Olympus Burger was #5 of ALL TIME on newgrounds. They cycled Part 2 to the homepage, which brought the scores down (some people saw part 2 before part 1) but I figured I would post this screenshot because it's awesome.

OB kills it on NG!

Olympus Burger is doing very well on NewGrounds this week! Part 1 has been featured on the homepage since Friday, and Part 2 has won WEEKLY USERS CHOICE and REVIEW CREW PICK for this week! It's also ranked #5 of all time for score, with a 4.41/5.00 ! (it peaked last night at a 4.44). Apollo's Webcast is getting less attention, but it hanging steadily atound a 3.5.

If you've got a minute, head over to Newgrounds and VOTE to support us! You can vote once a day and you don't even need an account!