HOWIE! SEASON ONE! IS COMPLETE! 🟣
Hello. My name is Jordan, and I’m re-emerging into society to tell my story for the first time in months.
When the blog last left off, I had shared a few minor updates like the UPDATED WLDWLF FILMS DEMO REEL, and some work I was doing on my live-streaming channel, THE MIDNIGHT RANGOON. But, in the background of all of that, I was taming a much bigger beast.
Today- I can finally present the massive release that the world has been hounding me for day after day: The HOWIE! Finale.
HOWIE! could only begin when the rest of the world stopped...
FROM THE BEGINNING
Four years ago, the world shut down, and nobody knew what to do. Well, mostly nobody. I found myself facing the very thing I had been subconsciously yearning for, an impossible solution to my problematic tendencies of being a tiny bit over-ambitious. This new development, of course, was an abundance of uninterrupted time.
You can read a little more about the show’s origin from this old blog post, or keep reading here to learn where you can listen to Mitch and I reminisce on it more recently. Either way, the Pilot, while rough around the edges, somehow released to really great acclaim. Probably the best acclaim I’ve ever gotten on any personal project. But that was only episode 1 out of our planned 5. My point is, we built ourselves a sweet locomotive 1,000+ days ago, but also created an extreme amount of labor required to keep it running and eventually bring it home into the station. A “real” animated show requires teams of hundreds of people across multiple departments to pull off the ultimate vision. All we had was myself (with no animation knowledge whatsoever), an underpowered laptop, and a dream.
So… I started chipping away at the tracks, trying new methods of greasing them for efficiency, swapping out materials for robustness, and of course, giving everything an updated coat of paint when I could. If the metaphor isn’t clear, (did I forget how to write while I spent so long “animating”?), I never wanted each episode to be a copy of the last. If it was going to take a long time between releases anyway, then stylistically, technically, and artistically, I wanted each one to be a leap forward.
This was a chance for me to dive into a medium I had barely explored, and learn a new skill or two. But I didn’t have time to actually study, so I jumped in head first and observed from the field. That’s why episode 1 is quite primitive- but as the season went on I introduced perspective, moving backgrounds, insert shots, 3D models, and eventually even more traditional animation. These experimental additions helped make the story more immersive, and also helped me feel a little more confident in promoting a show that began with me having no idea what I was doing.
This system of constant evolution worked well for maintaining viewer interest, but canceled out any time that was saved by utilizing assets made from previous episodes. We weren’t getting paid to do this, so it was always happening in the background, or on the side. I worked on HOWIE! at the same time as my Junior Thesis Film at USC, all the way through graduating college, actually. It helped that for once I received tons of external motivation from people who enjoyed what I was making: friends, family, even strangers on Reddit. (By the way, you should go join our HOWIE! Subreddit!)
This is why it was so tough on me when there was a year where I had to put HOWIE! on a full hiatus and focus on my “regular” job. I knew the epic ending to our story the whole time, I could visualize the final leap forward in our animation style, and I could hear the sweet original music that Mitch had already delivered to me in 2022. I knew these things were going to be awesome, but until all the work could be done to share it properly, nobody else knew they even existed.
Upon completing my job for Apple TV+, I knew a HOWIE! Renaissance was in order. I was going to attack this final episode every day until it was ready, no matter what other opportunities came my way. I simply couldn’t leave this book- and part of my life- unfinished without its final chapter. I cleared my calendar, said a prayer for my bank account, and started constructing the finale, scene by scene.
I don’t remember much about the actual production, because I tend to disassociate when I have to think that hard by myself. The amount of repetitious work ahead of me at the start was truly daunting. It was many hours, days, weeks, and months of searching for the perfect stock images, re-rigging every character, swapping out mouth sprites, and keyframing tedious little details pixel after pixel. Additionally, there were major re-writes, re-records, notes sessions, and even a day of musical sock puppet performances.
After all of this insanity, on October 6th, 2024, I’m happy to say that our beloved train reached its final destination. HOWIE! #5 is out now, on this website, and on YouTube. It’s worth a quick rewatch of the first 4 episodes, just to make sure you’re up-to-date and refreshed on all the plot threads at play.
When your time comes to watch the finale, feel free to do it through our WORLD PREMIERE LIVESTREAM / LAUNCH PARTY! This was a live event hosted by The Midnight Rangoon with Mitch as a featured Co-Host, where we looked back at the journey of making the show and debuted the finale to an audience for the first time. The Pre-Show conversation and the Post-Show Breakdown / Q&A are hopefully fun and informative, it was a great time for everyone who was there to chat along. In fact, this stream pretty much shattered all my previous records from concurrent live viewers to Super Chat donation amounts. Thanks to all who came, the stream and important timestamps are below!
Pre-Show: 00:05:53
FINALE DEBUT: 00:46:46
Post-Show Q&A / Breakdown: 01:09:24
Regular Midnight Rangoon Stream Begins: 01:58:24
This event was followed by two “behind-the-scenes” type streams, where I dove very in-depth into the process of things like our sound design, original music compositions, complicated shots, episode assembly, and character animation. Feel free to watch or skim around these streams if you want to learn more about how the project file actually works and what methods we used!
(These behind the scenes attempts were a bit less organized than my Sleight Disturbance Breakdown Stream, so I apologize if you’re looking for something that’s more concise, educational, and not so disjointed. If you skim around, you may still catch an interesting tidbit or two. I realized there was simply too much going on under the hood to show it practically in a couple streams, even if they were each six hours long!)
(The relevant portion is 01:13:00-06:34:21.)
Besides these livestreams, there’s a few other fun extras to go over. To celebrate the momentous release of the finale, we accomplished another HUGE long-term goal I’ve had: DROPPING MERCH!
THE WLDWLF MARKET
Despite inherent logistical challenges, I’ve always wanted to dip my toes into fashion and give people the chance to look cool while representing my work in a physical way. Luckily, Mitch is my partner on this, and he’s very experienced at selling T-Shirts thanks to the success of his band, Post Sex Nachos.
My initial design ideas had too many colors, we had to dial it back a bit. Mitch sketched some more ideas after I pushed for this shirt to be really eye-catching, relevant to the show’s aesthetic, and capable of starting conversations. We landed on a cheeky reference to the show within our show, but perhaps the slogan also applies to our project itself 🤔🤷
This test run is ideally the first of multiple designs that will hit THE WLDWLF MARKET. I’d love to represent more HOWIE!, WLDWLF FILMS itself, and The Midnight Rangoon with increasingly fashionable drops. We’ve already been designing fun stickers to throw in every order, and will probably sell a variety pack of those when they’re ready!
By the way, I called this expansion “the market” because “shop” or “store” didn’t feel original or meaningful enough. I’m really not trying to simply profit off my viewers, I want it to be a place for mutual support. I give you epic clothing, you help me afford to be able to keep producing more enjoyable content.
A market is “a regular gathering of people for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other commodities.” I want people to have a reason to check back here often, see what’s new, explore the website, meet each other, etc. I’m happy with the initial launch, and there may even be ways for people to win free giveaways or get discount codes if you really pay attention to all the WLDWLF and Midnight Rangoon platforms over time…
THAT’S A WRAP
Thanks to everyone who gave this show a chance and/or hyped us up to cross the finish line. If you want something in return, all I can offer are these random 4k wallpapers.
A lovely clay piece by @mixed-media-2.0 on YouTube!
If you’re a viewer who actually made some art for us, we can’t believe that’s even a real thing, and we thank you. Please DM any-and-all HOWIE! inspired works to our new Instagram account, @howietheshow ! You might end up in a post on that account, or perhaps our other new TikTok, @howie.the.show !
There may be a few more HOWIE! Surprises, but I am excited to look to the future at what I’ll make next. I’m going to transition now to working on my writing portfolio, which is sadly something you guys won’t really get to see. But once we complete our main pilot script, I do intend to shoot a proof of concept short version of it to use to actually pitch the show.
My next slate of projects will certainly be more polished, more professional, and probably less profane. But the raw energy of this epic web-series, its semi-amateur execution, and its “underground gem” cult status is something I will be proud of forever! We’re trying hard to give HOWIE! a second life out there on the interwebs, but feel free to help us by watching, liking, and sharing. Thanks! :)
That’s just HOWIE do it.
-Jordan
