Hello All,
First and foremost thank you again for supporting Tonyteach’s project, Beaver Cola.
Our initial estimated time of delivery on ALL digital files was today, April 9th. However, due to some unforeseen issues, some of them **technical, all digital files will be emailed out on Monday, April 16th 2012. Physical files will be mailed out April 16th as well.

We do apologize for the delay.

Thanks Tony

**technical issues: we inadvertently recorded a section of the tutorials, only to notice later half the sound was missing. The error has since been corrected, and re-recorded. Ironically, the section of the tutorials that had errors with sound… was the Sound portion of the DVD

The fix we did to make our tutorial recording work will not be on the DVD, as this problem was one with screencasting a tutorial, and not one dealing with animation.

Why Beaver Cola?,

Okay, we’ve had a couple of questions about the subject of our commercial, Beaver Cola, for the DVD, “Anatomy of a 30-second Short.”

Some people look at the name and assume we’re doing it as a double-entendre gag. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since the software I am using Toon Boom Animate is marketed for professionals, IMHO I felt we could go a little more risque with subject and script, aka “You bet my sweet ass it’s good”. If we were using Toon Boom Studio, which sometimes has a much younger audience, I would have gone more age appropriate.

The original idea for our 30-second short was to develop a commercial about two guys in a bar arguing that Sean Connery could easily replace Samuel L. Jackson in any of Jackson’s movies. We would then cut to parody movie scenes inspired by “Pulp Fiction,” “Snakes on a Plane”, etc., with our satirical versions . . . “Connery Fiction,” “Connery on a Plane,” and so on.

So, why Beaver Cola?

When we came across an article in Men’s Health Magazine (Rodale Publishing), “The 15 Grossest Things You’re Eating,” #7 immediately caught our attention and changed the entire direction of our campaign. It was castoreum, the juice from a male beaver’s anal gland. For the past 80 years it’s been used as an additive in cigarettes, perfumes and, yes, food and beverage items. In a good many vanilla and raspberry flavored products, it’s hidden under the catch-all category commonly referred to as “natural flavoring.”

In conducting further research to identify a more comprehensive listing of food items in which it is used, over and over we found companies saying pretty much the same thing: “We don’t use it, but it is safe for consumption.” So we thought about how funny it would it be if we created a pseudo company that bragged about its use of castoreum! The search was on for available domain names, and much to our surprise and joy BeaverCola.com was available!

We bought the domain and moved forward with script writing, logo design, etc. At the same time, we were looking to create a mock company that our future tonyteach.com students could use for their projects. As a college instructor, I often would assign projects to my students that one might say were “less than desirable.” For example: Create a logo for “Bubba’s Bait & Rib Shack, ” or create a logo and CD cover for the country rap star Cowboy Troy (BTW, he’s real). So the Beaver Cola project was perfect.

So there you have it – Beaver Cola, it’s not what you think, it’s actually worse.

OK, BEFORE I get any hate mail, this tutorial is NOT how to draw the eyes from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender – More specifically, it is simply a tutorial on one way to COLOR eyes as they did in the series.

This simple technique really pushes a believable wet, glared, eye feel. I hope you enjoy this, please share, post, retweet, and leave comments.

click here, or below, to order & download
an HD version of this tutorial, ONLY $1!

Beaver Cola UPDATE: So one part of the creative process that few people talk about – What to do when ALL of your like-minded, creative, individuals cancel on you hours before helping you work on a project. Bottom line, don’t expect the worst, but you do need to plan for it. Remember, the one person that HAS TO show up to your events, is you – so be there, mind, body, and spirit.

That being said, one of my favorite musicians is Prince – but very few people know why. One of the first albums (yes albums) I saw of his was “1999“. In the credits was written “All songs written, arranged, produced, and performed by Prince.”

Creative people are often busy, creative volunteers are even busier – Ship happens, but always be prepared to pilot your boat with, or without a crew.

So in closing, this has added another chapter to our DVD, depending on my mood, and graphic designer, it will be called “Do it Your Damn Self”, or “Animation Army of One.”

OK, I’m off of my soapbox now, got work to do.

I will be posting storyboard pics later today. www.beavercola.com

Hey this is Tony Ross for tonyteach.com, and first and foremost I want to thank everyone for helping support our project Anatomy of a 30second short, aka Beaver Cola. We’ve been getting a lot of good feedback, and we do appreciate it.

We only have a few days left on the campaign, and currently we are just shy of making $300 towards our initial goal of $1000.
That being said, we have decided to add a $5 perk. Now don’t panic, anyone who has pledged $5 or above will automatically get this perk.

So what’s the perk?

Well we’ve been working on a membership level at tonyteach.com

At tonyteach, we show all of our FREE tutorials at a low resolution of 640×360, but we also give you the option of downloading the 1280×720 HD version for as low as $1.

Our new membership level will allow users to download the HD versions of our FREE tutorials for just $2.95 per month. We try and release at least 6 tutorials per month, so that’s about a 50% savings.

Now, back to the perk

If you donate just $5 or above, we will give you tonyteach’s HD membership access for a full year! Now the regular $2.95 per month rounds out to about $35 – so at $5 for a year?? That’s over an 80% discount!!

We are limiting this perk to the first 150 people that sign up for it, as that will give us enough funds to meet our $1000 goal

CLICK HERE to get our HD Downloads for a year for $5 !

So this is Tony Ross, I again thank you for your support, and remember:
Keep it simple, Make it perfect – If you don’t have time to make it perfect, rethink the idea.

Tonyteach is Migrating to a Membership Site?

Yes, we just used the “membership” word, but don’t panic, this is a good thing. Our new membership plan will not affect our free viewers one bit!
Well, actually it will, but in the best possible way.

Let me explain – The tonyteach site will continue to offer FREE tutorials every week. Actually, the number of FREE tutorials will be increased to nearly 6 to 8 videos each month. Our FREE tutorials are shown on tonyteach via our YouTube channel, and shown only in a standard resolution definition size, 640×360. The current tonyteach package now offers you the option of purchasing the HD version of each tutorial, 1280×720, for $2. With the new membership package, without having to sign up for anything, the HD versions of our FREE low res tutorials will be just $1 – a 50% savings! As an added bonus, non-members also will have the option to purchase any of our Premium tutorials** for just $3. Occasionally, these will be priced on sale at just $1 for non-members.

What do tonyteach members get? Once you sign up and log on to the tonyteach site, you’ll have access to download all of the HD versions of any of our FREE tutorials at no additional cost. And, as an additional membership benefit, you’ll also pay only $1 for Premium tutorials** instead of the regular cost of $3. Tonyteach members also will receive advance notifications of any DVD releases and “guest tutorials*.”

So, how much is a tonyteach membership going to cost you? Just $2.95 per month (yes, that’s about 9¢ a day). Of course, our low cost membership plan depends on the increasing level of support we get from our members, fans, students and guest visitors– the more people that know about tonyteach, the better able we are to keep our prices this low. So, come on campers, spread the word!

*The cost of “guest tutorials” in HD is $2 for members and non-members, as 100% of these monies go toward compensating our guest instructors.

**Our premium tutorials are tutorials that cover a lot of ground with their topic, and usually have more than 15 min of instruction.