AWESOME UPDATE!

Hey guys! Long time no talk-er uh, blog?

Well I know that JJ and I have really let the site go and there hasn't really been anything substantial done here in a while. However, JJ and I have been working on the next Hammerfist adventure. It'll be a lot shorter, but a lot sweeter! Rest assured, it'll be way over the top and out of this world. JJ and I have been honing our skills (JJ with Drawing and storytelling and me with the organization and storytelling).

We may both have full time jobs, but I promise you its the type of job that can only help Hammerfist. But enough talk about the NEXT HAMMERFIST, what about the ORIGINAL, AMAZING, 2008 short film HAMMERFISTS OF FURY!?

Well my friends, check out the whole film below.




ENJOY GUYS! A tell us what you liked! (And didn't like)


XOXOFIST

-Matthew

Updates Updates Updates

Hey guys!

It's been a crazy week here at Hammerfist Productions! We've been at Newport Beach Film Festival all weekend and currently trying to finish our commissioned commercial for www.healthinsurance.com! When it rains it pours!

As for Hammerfist stuff, many of you might be visiting the website for the first time (courtesy of our wonderful review from the fine folks at Moving Pictures Magazine) and to you we Welcome you to the world of David Hammerfist. If you are looking for some content of our film Let me direct you to our trailers on Youtube at the bottom of this post. As for additional clips, let me just say that VERY VERY soon there will be all the clips anyone needs from the David Hammerfist: Hammerfists of Fury. So keep your eyes here in the next week for that BIG UPDATE. JJ and I have a few loose ends we need to discuss and then we'll post the results here!

So I bet many of you are asking, "Hey guys, What the F&$%# are you doing with David Hammerfist now?" Well my child that is a great question.

Currently JJ and I are fine tuning our pitch for the David Hammerfist TV series and will soon be attempting to make the rounds in Hollywood. That said, if anyone has any interest or questions, you are always welcome to e-mail us at Hammerfist.productions@gmail.com.

We've got a lot in store for David, Steve, and even a few faces that couldn't make it into Hammerfists of Fury. To put it simply, we hope this to be the beginning of a very long ride for David and Co.

So to those of you new, we welcome you with open arms. And to those of you who have been following for the past year and half, we thank you for your continued support and patience with us.

As for clips, below we have the first trailer to David Hammerfist: Hammerfists of Fury...




And the teaser...




And of course there is always our IMDB page for information about the cast and production. Also, this blog basically has followed the production from beginning to end so go and look at past posts to see how the whole project shaped together.

Remember to tell your friends and be sure to come back in about a week (maybe less) for a BUNCH of new content.

-Matthew

THE REVIEWS ARE IN!!!! PEOPLE LOVE DAIVID & STEVE!!!!

So in case you've been living under a rock the entire month, David Hammerfist recently showed at the Newport Beach film festival. Click below to read the short (but wonderful) review by the fine people at Moving Pictures Magazine!!!!

http://www.movingpicturesmagazine.com/shorts/shortshighlights/david-hammerfist-hammerfists-of-fury

And remember, go to our IMDB page to review the film if you have seen it.

To all of you that made it out today, we love you to death!!!!

-Matthew

We're not dead yet!

Hey all!

It's me. Matthew. Remember me? Yeah Yeah, it's been a while but man do I have a treat for you. First, some good news. Hammerfists of Fury just recently tied for best Animated film at Loyola Marymount's "Film Outside the Frame" Festival. some of you may perhaps be visiting for the first time because that is how you heard about our film and if that is the case we are glad to have you! I'll go into more detail about Film Outside the frame later (and with pictures) but I'm really lacking on sleep.

Why am I lacking on sleep you ask? Or perhaps you're thinking, "Does he even have a job now that he is graduated?".....well, the short answer is "No." But I'd like to think that I am gingerly assisting the post-post-production process of Hammerfists of Fury. As for sleep....well, I was busy creating THIS:



For........

The ASIFA-Hollywood
Student Animation Festival

October 18th, 2008

Admission FREE to the animation community

Woodbury University
School of Business / Fletcher Jones Foundation Theater
7500 Glenoaks Bl
Burbank, CA 91510

visit: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/ for more info.

Key words up there are "admission FREE" so if you've been hoping to see Hammerfists of Fury- NOW IS THE TIME!

HoF will be showing second to last in the 4-5pm time slot, but don't go just for Hammerfist! There are a bunch of other great student films showing at this thing, not to mention lots of great professionals!

Hope to see you guys there!

Oh, and "you're welcome" for the beautiful poster. That thing didn't even exist 24 hours ago. as usual JJ roughed it and I inked it....I'll post the original sketch later. Can't blow my media wad in one update!

-Matthew

Hammerweek= semi sucess

So it was a grueling week, but I got a lot done. I'm not into the stages of coloring just yet but I did get a few people to start prepping for the color jobs. I'm not completely done cleaning up either. I still have half of sequence 3 to do. But I got a lot done. And it will look all the more rad when it is finished (yes, I said "rad").

JJ is hard at work on backgrounds too. Those are looking better and better each day. All in all the project is running semi-smoothly. We don't get outside much, but it is still fun.

On a completely different note, I'd like to take a moment of silence for one of the most manly of men to have ever lived: Mr. Charlton Heston.








I don't think it is a far assumption that the manliness of David was somewhat inspired by Mr. Heston. Everyone loves a character with a "I don't give two shits" attitude.

And David does have that attitude. David is the type of man that will dine with the devil just to find is weakness.



And on that note, I will return to working like hell to finish this movie.

Holy CRAP!

Only 0:59 to go?! Man....I have to catch up. I have plenty to work on this week but I'm hoping to hit a nice 2/3s done mark for our film. All in all things are shaping up.

WHile JJ may have nothing to show, the 0:59 factoid shows that he has clearly been doing something. Me on the other hand, I've been in San Francisco...not doing Hammerfist stuff (Shame on me shame on me)! I'm not happy about it, but that is the way the ball rolls. While I was there, I got to go to that comic shop a top the Sony Metreon. They were having a 35% off sale so I couldn't help myself-I got Young Avengers Hardcover, Madman Vol. 1, and Spyboy Vol. 2. I love Peter David, and I loved the entire first volume of Young Avengers but Madman? Well, it was a shot in the dark for me and I must say it is absolutely FANTASTIC!

Anyway, I thought I'd rant about my weekend a bit to you guys. And hey! You guys got two updates today...Consider yourself lucky.

As for later ths week we should have a solid update as to where we are in Hammerfist. Coloring will be starting this week as well, so we'll be getting finalized images to you guys more and more as time goes on.

Hope you guys have a great week! And feel free to suggest any movies that JJ and I should watch this week. I think I'm going to convince JJ to watch the Robocop movies with me....I have yet to see them.

-Matthew

Bad news for you guys

So you know that thing I keep promising you guys? Well, it's locked away in my hard drive. I can't find the DAMN power cord for my Maxtor hard drive and thus I am unable to deliver it. Rest assured we have all Hammerfists looking into the situation in order to try and get our "SPECIAL PRESENT" for you guys. It's a damn shame, really.

Anyway, production is in full swing and I've begun to do clean-up on JJ's primary animations. Maybe in a future post we'll put up some comparison shots of what JJ give me, and what I put out. And I put out a lot. Of animation. Hopefully.

On the music front we have some very nice options so far, but we are still trying to see if we can get some orchestrated pieces. It's a big task to tackle (not to mention expensive), but we think that it would be worth it and fitting to the Hammerverse. So...if any of you know some discount orchestras that we can commission, feel free to drop us a line!

All that being said, this project is still tons of fun! JJ is really working his ass off and I need to catch up. Unfortunately I have other school obligations that keep me away from the lab more than I would like-not to mention it's nice to sleep in my own bed every once in a while and have a nice hot shower in the morning. Hope you guys are enjoying the updates and once again I apologize that our "SPECIAL SURPRISE" has been delayed so long.

-Matt

Back together again!

Hey guys! I just got back from a meeting with JJ tonight. Yes, that means that we are both officially back from our winter breaks. That means much more content more often for you guys. I know it's been 10 days since the last update, but things are speeding up. I know I always say that, but I really mean it this time. In fact, I think you can all look forward to updates at least once a week, most likely two from now on.


Tomorrow or the day after we will have a special video for all of you to check out. So come back then and bask in the youtube goodness. And yes, it IS Hammerfist related. I think you will all like it.

Well, I know this is a short update but just stay with us.

Here's a small preview to hold you over...

Yeah, it's a bit crude...but you will all find out why in about two days!

Happy Holidays from Hammerfist Productions

Hey all!

Just thought I'd give you guys an update on the production. As of now JJ is still roughing out our sequences, but because of it being Christmas break (and our respective hometowns being 2000 miles apart) we have not been able to do clean up....UNTIL NOW. Santa brought me a wonderful gift this year in the Cintiq 12WX. Short translation: I can do cleanup anywhere at any time.

I am also working out the opening sequence that has consistently given us trouble. I'm exploring a lot of options and I think I might have found a great solution of introducing the Hammerfist gang.

It has also come to my attention that we now have a link at Amazingsuperpowers.com BIG thanks to Tony and Wes for that. We may actually have people reading the site now. Also, if you haven't been there yet, go check out www.amazingsuperpowers.com

Stay tuned to the site for a nice little present after the new year. Hopefully you will all accept it graciously.

Yeah! An update!

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long between updates. JJ and I have peen hard at work finalizing our animatic. And last night we recorded final audio for the main character David. There's a lo of funny stuff that probably won't make it onto the final product, but if DVD is ever an option (maybe if the show gets bought?) we can always put it in the extras.

I wish I could make this post longer, but it's really late and I need some sleep. For the time being though, I'll leave you guys with a teaser poster. It's a bit rough, but I really want to show it to you guys. The final version should be up by the end of the month. Tell us what you think!

See you guys later!


Now THAT'S F*&%$ing sweet!

Another Late Night of Storyboarding

Ah yes...it's amazing how quickly you learn to take all-nighters when you work in animation. I remember these type of days being a chore to get through, but now those 48 hours feel exactly like a good old 24.

I was up all night storyboarding out what we here at Hammerfist Productions call....*drum roll* SEQUENCE 06. It's really nothing special, although it does involve a Panda. Currently I've been doing my storyboards by sketching it out rough on paper first and then scanning those in and cleaning up in Photoshop CS3 using a Cintiq. For those that don't know, a Cintiq is basically a tablet monitor-which means I can draw directly onto the screen. While I do love those Wacom Intuos 3's, I just can't get a good enough control. With the Cintiq I can zoom in and get a lot of detail in the frame, and easily reuse background shots by copying and pasting. I still prefer inking on paper, but this way there is far less cleanup and I don't have to worry about those little ink mess-ups.

As JJ pointed out in the last post, after putting together our first board into an animatic, we realized that there need to be some major retooling-especially in the second and third act. So.....we're hoping to get a first pass animatic by the end of the weekend.

Some more fun news! We recorded new temp audio tracks for two of the characters and are going to record David's tonight! JJ and I are finding that these new voices are adding a lot of life to these characters-far more than the temp tracks that he and I recorded a month ago. Maybe we'll put some of those on the DVD...if there is a DVD *crosses fingers*.

Well, I'd better get back to work. I was offered to be driven out to Arizona today (I'm in Los Angeles mind you) to see the Cubs play, and I am unable to because we scheduled a recording session tonight. Oh David, the things I do for you....

Welcome to my life for the next year

Hello, and welcome to the official blog for David Hammerfist! This is the first post, so I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Matthew M. and this is a blog for my thesis project that I am collaborating with JJ on. Both of us are animation majors at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. This blog will basically be a production diary for both JJ and me. So you can expect pictures and maybe even video to get thrown up here.

A bit of back story on David Hammerfist..... David originated as my sophomore roomate who had dreams of saving planes from terrorists and saving buses full of orphans. Knowing that it was a great concept, I took some of those ideas and compiled them into the first film "David Hammerfist in the Final Countdown." It was my second film here at LMU and while a bit shoddy in the animation itself, it was rendered and colored pretty well, not to mention had a great lead voice actor that gave life to David.

So now it's two years later and JJ and I are revisiting Hammerfist and making a sequel of sorts. David Hammerfist: Hammerfist of Fury (tentative title) is a re-visioning of the chracters, the world and the absurdity that is David Hammerfist. This new film will stand by itself, but for those familiar with the original, they will find some nice easter eggs.

If you haven't seen the first film, perhaps I'll post the original here for everyone to watch. We are literally right in the middle of pre-production and are almost done with the storyboards. Once that is done, we will be animating in Toon Boom Digital Pro. So far JJ has taken the grunt of the storyboards, but once we get into animation/coloring, a lot will fall to my hands and it'll even out. Hopefully JJ will introduce himself soon enough since he has had just as much (even more, perhaps) influence on the David Hammerfist mythos as me! Fun, yes? Well, it will be. Talk to you all later!

Matthew