And, being Free Comic Book Day, we have a bunch of goodies in store for you. First, if you haven’t downloaded the Atomic Robo Violent Science game, head over to Second Fiction and nab it…. AND get the Free FCBD levels based on the Atomic Robo FCBD issue! To get the in game download code just pick up a copy of Atomci Robo FCBD and find the Violent Science page.

And if you’re new to the Fictory, be sure and check out Stabb Gunner, one of our own properties. Get the Pinball Games (links on the side), read Issue One for free, and check hot new pages from Issue Two!

Finally, we know it’s hard work getting from shop to shop. So why not lighten that load with some sweet tunes from Virtual Boy? You might recognize them from things such as Atomic Robo Last Stop, and Atomic Robo Violent Science… and being generally awesome. We recommend Symphony No. None for your listening pleasure. But in truth, we celebrate their entire catalog.

Why are you still reading? Get out there and have some fun!

Hey there gang! We have some big announcements coming up in May about the film. Some of you are probably like, “Dang man, when’s this animation coming out? It’s been like a year.”
And I’m all like, “Dude, this summer, and you’ll be glad we took the extra time, brah.”
And then, we look around and realize we’re inexplicably standing in a locker room post high school football game in this dramatization. Weird.

But that’s not why I’m writing this post. I wanted to show you the amount of love that goes into every shot for ARLS. Above is a breakdown of Shot 009 (Get Ready). In this scene, Robo is about to jump out of a plane and parachute into our story. This particular scene was animated by our own H. G. Crawford. He, and the rest of the team, have just been knocking it out of the park.

On a related note. Second Fiction has released a version of Atomic Robo: Violent Science for Windows 8! So now you can play it on your desktop or Surface!

It’s a rainy Tuesday here at the Studio. But nothing ads to the ambiance of animating like grey skies and light rainfall.

We’ve got some lovely new screen shots to share with you all. As we near the end of the film, things start to get a bit more moody. Robo’s tone is always pretty light, but that doesn’t mean we can’t introduce a little tension with some lighting and mist. Our background team has been knocking it out of the park so that our animators  have something pretty to paint on top of. Woohoo! This production art book is shaping up to be wonderful!

We’ve just released our first big Atomic Robo: Last Stop related goodie. Atomic Robo: Violent Science is available now for iOS. Violent Science is a labor of love and many of the people working on the film have been a big part of getting the game to market. Atomic Robo is a character about inclusion. Which is why the producers of the game over at Second Fiction are committed to rolling out versions for platforms outside of iOS (the game is gorgeous on a windows Surface). As we continue to plug away at the film, we think Voilent Science will keep you happy in the mean time.

The game’s plot very, very loosely follows the film, but don’t worry, no major spoilers. Read all about it on it’s PAGE over at second fiction. Or Download and play it now on your iPhone or iPad (Warning iOS 6 only!). You’ll find the game to be very deep, including upgradable abilities and story. We have much more planned for updates including unlocked abilities and much more game content!

Last year the good people of the Robo Community Kickstarted our successful campaign to finish our animated short. When the campaign wrapped, after we’d recovered from the overwhelming support… We had a choice to make: Finish the film we started, or start again and do it right from the ground up. We chose the later option. It’s meant a long development process, but like all things worth the wait it takes time.

We loved everything our team produced on the first version of the short. But we knew that if we were going to do things right, we needed to start on solid, consistent ground. This meant a lot more work, but we knew it was the right call. Below is the first glimpse of the finished product.

A lot of hands went into the short clip above. And a ton more is going into finishing everything else. We’re confident that everyone will appreciate the visual and motion upgrades made. All due out later this year.

Above are a few screens of some work in progress from ARLS. Much of the film centers around this massive military warehouse in the center of the train yard complex. Below is a progression for shot 71. From story board to rough composite. Boards by Jeff McComsey, Background by H. Giles Crawford and Graey Erb, Animation by H. Giles Crawford/Courtland Ellis and Riley Hearn, composite by myself.

Robo spends a lot of ARLS being chased by Helsingard. Not coincidentally, the plot of the Atomic Robo Game uses a similar set up. Which brings us to:

This March, we’re unleashing Robo’s first fully interactive adventure. Atomic Robo Violent Science is a multistage platformer deeply rooted in everything thing we think makes a great game. It’s twitchy play style ranges from casual to very difficult depending on your desired objectives. We’ve come up with a user interface and general experience we think really leverages the strengths of mobile gaming. But you can judge for yourself early march when we unleash the game on the world. The game is being produced by Second Fiction, a game studio comprising of many of the same team that originally began with the Fictory. ARVS loosely follows the plot of the animated short, and will feature other comic based expansions outside of the core campaign.

Rewards:
For those of you beautiful, patient people out there still waiting on the your goodies, we scheduled our rewards in two tiers. Rewards that we could send out immediately and rewards that in some way were dependent on the film’s completion. We’re working as fast as we can to ensure that we can get you what you payed for in the most efficient and speedy way possible. We have loads of stock sitting around, taking up space in our studio and are very excited to unload and reclaim the square footage in the process… as soon as the film is complete.

Release:
You’ve probably noticed that we didn’t mention a specific release date. That was on purpose… With indie development deadlines range from difficult to impossible to nail down. However, we have been in talks with certain industry types about a very special release date in the near future that we can’t mention just yet. There’s still a lot to do but, rest assured, it’s coming. And based on how everything is coming together. It’ll be worth the wait.

(Atomic Helsie Doodle by Courtland Ellis)

We’ve been busy. Atomic Robo: Last Stop production is charging forward and we’re preparing to show the world the first glimpses of animation. We’re excited to start sharing  our hard work with the community that made it possible!

Happy holidays to you and yours from everyone at The Fictory!

Wow, we haven’t been posting very frequently… Probably because we are neck deep in production for Atomic Robo Last Stop… and man is it ever coming along! Check out this image of our partial Background workflow.