#i am literally having So Many Thoughts about animatics lately

[sea-jello]

let me make you proud from the tangled series,,but it’s morro when he first left the monastery up to the caves of despair,,, about making wu proud,,,

[heatwa-ves]

please explain your izuleo playlist with as much detail as you want im interestedddd

MIKIIII THANK YOU. okay here's my playlist and im gonna do a song by song breakdown... I'll try and keep it decently brief so this doesn't become one million words but we'll see. my playlist is vaguely chronological so it starts pre-checkmate!

astroboy- suggi

okay so this one is just straight up a leo song. you just have to listen to it it's literally about him "I raised my hands up real high, they called me stupid when I asked why we couldn't fly. am I too far ahead of my friends, or I am late?" hellooooo hello. hi. leo tsukinaga everyone!!!! right down to the moon/space theming

"oh, the rain, you're losing your flame, where'd the burn, the passion go? you run through the pain, you're losing your aim, and you feel like you alone missed the grow" LITERALLY about his breakdown post checkmate. uagh.

cheerleader- ashnikko

an izumi song!!! I don't have to explain anything here you get the vibes

brand new city- mitski

having to preface this by saying I do not listen to mitski this is the only song of hers I listen to and only because it makes me think of izumi so much I feel like throwing up.

"If I gave up on being pretty I wouldn't know how to be alive, I should move to a brand new city and teach myself how to die." yeah. izumi sena.

yoru ni kakeru- yoasobi

well I'm sure you know this song and the story behind it "the seduction of thanatos" I think it works very well about the izuleo dynamic around this time when they're very codependent and leo is so severely depressed and suicidal. they're fucked up 👍

it's all so incredibly loud- glass animals

so this one makes me think of izumi going to see leo in a similar vein to lionheart but probably before that and he sees leo so broken and neither of them can bring themselves to say anything. "I tried, for you and I, for too hard, for too long" makes me think of the ending scene of lionheart and so on

softcore- the neighborhood

"you've been my muse for a long time, you get me through every dark night. I'm always gone, out on the go, I'm on the run and you're home alone"

"every time I kiss you, baby, I can hear the sound of breaking down"

you get it. you see the vision. more depression era stuff.

less of you- keshi

depression era leo... there's so many lines in this song that correlate to them but a fav is "too much time in the limelight, gimme your all on the land line, want it so bad but I won't lie and it just gets worse in the night time."

are you happy? - shy martin

"and I know I thought that pain's part of love, but I think I broke you, though I didn't mean to. but are you happy, looking back at us when you met me? would you go back and tell yourself to leave it, knowing what we know?" UARFGHBHBB izumi.... who killed cock robin ass song.

from now on we are enemies - fall out boy

I've talked about this one EXTENSIVELY before but it really is just a song about leo tsukinaga. what else can I say.

always- keshi

well yk.

bad thoughts- half alive

i love when they hate eachother. they don't actually truly hate eachother but man sometimes it feels like it. everything hurts. "like a time you gave your all but just got hurt, like a crack in the mirror bringing out your worst"

to everyone who wants to die- takayan

read the translation oh my goddddd. leo. leo

sing to me- missio

this is a song I DREAM of making an animatic to its just so deeply fundamentally leo

never ending song- conan gray

okay this one is a bit more specific but I like to think of leo while he's out of school seeing izumi in a magazine or an ad or something.. and that brings with it a whole ton of complicated feelings

"but we've grown too close, now it can't amount to nothing. I can hear your voice in the music on the radio, and it goes on and on and on, like a never-ending song" you get ittttt

bodybag- chloe moriondo

more of the vibes more of the complicated feelings . this one is mostly here bc I love it and was thinking about izlo while listening icl. unrelated but chloe moriondo is cool as hell they have some awesome music videos especially the one for this song

love or the lack thereof - isaac dunbar

the epitome of pre/early ! izlo love. to meeee also I just love love loveeee it as a song

last minute - kitty

"you're the loop of rope I hung up in my stupid closet" "you're all poised and im made of poison" do you get it do you GET it. it's leo about izumi frfrfrrr

"could you wrap your hands all the way around my neck, and tell me where I stand, tell me everything I'm wrecking when I spin. take over my breath, in out in, I am missing you to death"

android girl- deco*27

I love this song and while I love the original im partial to rachies english cover especially the lines

"we restart and fall apart together, what we have will drag on in this way forever"

"make it stop, make it stop there's so much guilt and regret, I don't get how I can forget and start to hope again, we haven't even come to the end, so much for promising together forever, we aren't even friends"

the girl in my memories- jeebanoff

"in place of your fleeing love, only my sad solitude remains, even though that time won't come again, the memories that are gone, are forever" more depression yaaay

achilles come down- gang of youths

SORRY it's just such a compelling look at depression and being suicidal... so many of these songs are about Leo's depression but I swear this part of the playlist is over soon and moves further in the timeline. I really love this song it's just... everything about it... leo is achilles here of course and the voices talking him down and telling him to go through with it are his family/izumi and his own mind/the students from school respectively.

calender girl- stars

"all of the things that I thought were so easy just got harder and harder each day. december is darkest, in june there's the light, but this empty bedroom won't make anything right, while out on the landing a friend I forgot to send home, who waits up for me all through the night- calendar girl who's in love with the world, stay alive"

HEALING!!!!! GROWING AS A PERSON!!!!!! OVERCOMING DEPRESSION!!!! DO YOU GET IT

"I dreamed I was dying, as I so often do, and when I awoke I was sure it was true. I ran to the window, threw my head to the sky, and said "whoever is up there, please don't let me die," but I can't live forever, I can't always be, one day I'll be sand on a beach by a sea"

crush of judgement- knights killers

i don't need to explain this one

move me- half alive

THE izuleo song THE reason I made this playlist. won't you be my song when I cant dance WON'T YOU BE MY SONG WHEN I CANT DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!! LIGHT MY FIRE BURN THE TREES!!!!!!!!! also watch the music video it's gorgeous

the third heart- harumaki gohan

first of all go play genei ap rn it's a short mobile game created by this artist featuring lots of their songs about a reserved girl who loves music and her more extroverted friend who asks her for song recs. it's a very izuleo vibes game and just a beautiful game in general I think you'll love it sm mikiii

second of all.... just. this song. play the game and watch the music video for the full impact frfr 🫶 anyway back to izuleo

back around- half alive

depression never truly leaves but you get better!! it gets better!!! there are bad days but there are so so many good days!!! this whole album is kinda izlo vibes

you get me so high- the neighborhood

"you're my best friend I'll love you forever" 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 makes me think of them... kind of talking about their past .... not very well because they have no emotional maturity but still.

silent oath- knights

for obvious reasons

reunion- harumaki gohan

I imagine this is after the end of ! era .. they've both grown and matured immensely as people.. it'd probably have more impact if I read requiem but um..... I'll get to it... (I've been saying this for a year and a half) to me it's a goodbye to their teenage years and the ups and downs and them moving forward into adulthood and a more stable relationship

don't be so hard on your own beauty- yeule

they help eachother heal 🥹. this one is a bitttt more reliant on some of my takes on izumi that I don't really wanna get into rn but yk. it's here. it's vibey. things were bad and now they are better. there's sunlight streaming though their apartment window. they don't have anywhere else to be this morning. yk.

work of art- downer Inc, kellin quinn

ueeeghhvhb they love eachother.... izumi brings leo inspiration.... these descriptions are getting less and less coherent

I swear ill never leave again - keshi

ueeeeueueueuehhhehhehhehuuueueue

infinitely ordinary- the wrecks

I like the romance of mundanity.. I think they could be happy.. it's very hopeful and a good ending to the playlist

[go-learn-esperanto]

I would like to have finished writing the well thought out post I was gonna do initially but I've been extremely busy today, so I'm just gonna say.

I am so distraught by what this situation has done to my community.

Right now I'm in constant anxiety and terror because I don't know which of the blogs I followed and loved, and even possible friends, are just gonna leave forever.

It hurts seeing something that was mostly build by the fandom - let's be real, the last year of Dream SMP popularity has mainly remained because we are so many and we created fics and art, and videos and everything. It wasn't the the Minecraft server. Definitely not just that.

And more than that the Minecraft server isn't just Dream. There are so many CCs who poured all their art in it, and to see the story gone? The community gone? Just like that? That would destroy me.

I spent the last 2 years dedicating so much of my time, love and happiness to it. I made so many friends in this community.

I really don't want to say I left a fandom not because I lost interest but because the fandom sinked all around me.

The last Reblogs aren't done with lightness in my heart they're made of desperation, of simultaneously trying to maybe make my followers happier with fun posts and trying to convince them to maybe not leave, or even the worst of them all, scattering trying to reblog a posts of a blog that has said they won't be here anymore.

To me the Dream SMP was ours. We all got together when there was a new Sad-ist or Late August animatic, a lot of my music library is Dream SMP fan songs, Passerine was a fanfic with fics, music and animations made out of it. A lot of us talk about the Super Hero au like it's canon sometimes, we fought to get that Ao3 tag!!! We made content in the Dream SMP canon (the white streak, YCGMA limbo).

I am inclined to say that the fandom as a whole is as much of a Content Creator as the the Dream SMP's content creators, if not more (we are a lot of people).

And now some are leaving for very valid reasons, and us that are staying know that we'll have to find way to make this work in a sensible way - that we'll also suffer consequences of having extra hate thrown at us, even if we really haven't supported Dream directly in a long time (I for example never really liked manhunts that much so outside that really small lore video of Dream I haven't touched a Dream video or stream for more than a year).

And to think of the community that bonded around an Ode to L'Manburg and still knows how to sing it today. To think of a community that is such a safe space for LGBTQI+ people. To think of the inside jokes about salmon. To think about the zines. To think about the fact that I could live of fan content!!! Because we had almost all art forms! From embroidery to book binding, to composing to drawing, animatics/animation, sculpting, cosplaying, writing, programming, etc... I have seen it all.

And to think it can all be threatened by a single person? When we are literally millions? It's a feeling I can't really describe.

I can only wish that on the best case scenario something happens like what happened to Hermitcraft - the server goes to another person. But part of me thinks we might end up like Yandere Highschool, although worse because everyone knows about the Dream SMP. I'm starting to wonder if that even is wishful thinking. Because at least people leave Yandere Highschool fans alone because almost nobody knows about it.

All of this to say - more than the lore I am worried about the people and friends I might lose because of this situation, and what I wish is for we all to come out of this the least scratched as possible, so that maybe we can still play a little melody.

[flashlights-coming-down-the-way]

i’ve had this thought rotting in my brain ever since mitski dropped The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We so im gonna dump it onto tumblr but first of all

SPOILER WARNING FOR LAND OF THE LUSTROUS / HOUSEKI NO KUNI !!!! PLEASE READ THE MANGA <3

also i would like to add a second warning that this post may not make a lot of sense grammatically :3 currently am not lucid enough to make a lot of sense :3

i think that the song When Memories Snow can describe a lot of phos’ character arcs and their progression eerily well like if you were to make a phos animatic to this song it would line up so perfectly

okay first of all i would like to point out the general connection between this song and the gems. i have not analysed mitski’s song by itself, and so i dont know what she intended behind When Memories Snow, so maybe the “memories” could straight up be a metaphor for something and not actual memories but thats not what we’re gonna talk about rn !! we know that the gem’s memories are stored in the physical gem pieces themselves, so if they lose a body part they lose parts of their memories. phos has their whole thing with losing their body parts (and effectively their memories) and becoming a completely different person and all that good stuff

oki now the lyrics :3

“when memories snow // and cover up the driveway // i shovel all those memories // clear the path to drive to the store”

this gives me the vibes of post-winter phos after theyve lost antarc. the first two lines really remind me of whenever phos would just have random hallucinations of antarc’s death over and over again in the anime and the other two lines remind me of how they would basically have to just ignore the hallucinations and keep going on with their life. i would also like to add that while i do think that HNK is an amazing story and that the anime adaptation is honestly so perfect, i also think that there isnt a lot of focus on the fact that phos should not be able to remember jackshit ??? yknow ??? the way that canonical phos just keeps going on with life just kind of fits well with how nonchalant the line “clear the path to drive to the store” feels to me

“and when memories melt // i hear them in the drainpipe // drippin through the downspout // as i lie awake in the dark”

okay so i originally sent a bunch of my interpretations to a friend and i said that this part really fits with phos’ trauma with losing antarc. the way that these lines are phrased gives the vibes of when its late at night and youre tired but the clock is ticking too loudly and you just cant sleep. but now reading these lines again, i feel like it resonates more with how, once again, phos has lost like so many memories they cannot remember jackshit anymore. their memories have melted, but theyre still lingering and they still cling onto phos. a good example of this would be when phos wakes all the other gems up at the end of their hibernation and phos forgets who cinnabar is for a moment, the same cinnabar that was phos’ whole motivation for the first half of season 1. also the “as i lie awake in the dark” basically describes how phos refused to sleep during the second half of the season

ok verse 2 !!

“and if i break // could i go on break?

THIS IS THE MOST PHOSPHOPHYLLITE CODED LINE OF THE ENTIRE SONG !!! to me at least :3 not only does this line apply to them in a literal sense, with phos being the second weakest gem and them breaking a crazy amount of times throughout the whole series, “breaking” also applies to them in a mental sense. i get two different images when i think of this line, the first one being that one scene in the anime (and manga too? maybe? idk its been a while :() where phos is thinking about kongo and the lunarians and everything and they start cracking and their alloy just explodes out of them. i think thats the closest to a mental breakdown a gem has ever experienced at that point. the second image i get is when,,, phos becomes like,,, yk phos’ shattered / monster form whatever you call it,,, thats what i think of

“be back in my room // writing speeches in my head”

i think this goes back all the way to pre-trauma phos. “writing speeches in my head” could represent their encyclopaedia job?? but i think its a better metaphor for their want to join in with the other gems in fighting the lunarians. part of them knows it’ll never happen, so they resort to daydreaming about what it would be like

“listenin’ to the thousand hands // that clap for me in the dark”

connecting with my last point, they want the feeling of accomplishment and the general coolness of being able to fight and they want the praise from kongo and the other gems.

also this image doesnt connect very well, but i think of the god-like phos form when i think of these last two lines. this is the only time in the series where everyone finally has to depend on phos for once, and phos isnt deemed as ‘useless’ or a problem. of course the context is super tragic but idk just a thought

okay phos and mitski rant over !!!

[riacte]

as the no 1 blue bats stan, how similar in vibes are purple penguins and blue bats???? because to me they are so darn similar,,,,, - ghastly-ghostie

😳😳 no 1 blue bats stan? Nah not me lmao, we have the animatic peeps and Frostbyte Freeman and Fruit himself—

But yes!! They may resemble Orange Ocelots in terms of the game order, but I think they had Blue Bats vibes!!

(Disclaimer: I did not fully watch Purple’s POV. I saw HITW, Terra Swoop Force, Rocket Spleef, SoT, Build Mart and ofc Dodgebolt.)

1) The Encouraging Leader (H and Pete)

Both didn’t win in their last MCC, and they’re given a chance this time. Both are charismatic and charming leaders in their own ways with a heavy respect for the hermits/Kara that many other competitive players don’t show.

2) The Chill Sensei (Fruit and False, kind of)

Both have proven their worth in past MCCs, but still sorta underestimate themselves while at the same time knowing they’re pretty damn decent players. Both are comparatively quiet and don’t like to interrupt others, but their ideas are often well thought out.

3) The Dodgebolt Prophecy/ The One Who Has Potential But Is Insecure (False and Grian)

Both are noted to be quite competitive and have pop off potential. They just need someone/something to make them go feral.

4) The Also Insecure Hype Support That Also Pops Off (Ren and Kara)

Both are extremely friendly and supportive people who never hesitate to offer an encouraging word. They keep on underestimating themselves and apologising for “performing badly” but everyone else, especially the leaders (H and Pete), are Having None of It.

Now onto the similarities:

Circumstances, maybe? Pete didn’t get into Dodgebolt last time so he probably wants to (like how H didn’t win in MCC8?). Grian has never been to Dodgebolt and desperately wants to step foot in the arena exactly like pre-MCC9 RenFalse. Kara and pre-MCC9 False were both loyal participants who got bottom half. Fruit and Kara both won once before.

Established duos: hermit duo (RenFalse and GrianFalse) and the non-hermit but we’re friends duo (Cherrybomb and PeteKara).

The structure. Two hermits and one S tier/ beloved leader. H and Pete are Known for getting into Dodgebolt. For the hermit half, Grian has never won, like RenFalse. (Also one HEP member and one MR member but that’s kinda irrelevant lmao)

Training arc. Both built up trust, affection, and there was a lot of chill bantering without ignoring strategy.

H and Pete wholly believed in their insecure teammates

Enter the Dodgebolt Prophecy: H screamed about False carry, Grian got an ace in practice Dodgebolt. Note: both are hermits who had never been into Dodgebolt before.

Slept on (kinda). Blue was almost completely slept on, while Purple was generally ranked 4th to 8th. Purple was not really slept on though because some people (like me haha) know their potential

MCC Day. Cherrybomb (H and Fruit) wanted to win, while RenFalse didn’t believe they could even come close. However, False is more confident now. On a whole, Purple wanted to win.

First half. Blue did average, while Purple... got kinda low to average tbh.

The First Game Changer: Ace Race and HITW. Fruityloops popped off in Ace Race while False magically glitched through the walls with the power of Protagonist Armour (yes she’s the protag no you can’t argue with me /lh). This boosted their morale after a rather depressing start. They all start screaming for the Chill Sensei (Fruit/False) and their amazing performance.

The Hype Support!! Ren and Kara were both ecstatic for the teammates despite thinking they did badly and “dragged the team down”. These two were literally like “Y’ALL AMAZING!! i just suck lmao”. They trusted their team more than they trusted themselves. H and Pete were quick to encourage Ren and Kara. (Of course the other teammates also did, it’s just that the Encouraging Leaders were a bit more significant.)

Then the TRUE GAME CHANGER. If Blue had SG, Purple had Rocket Spleef. Although Purple’s victory was predictable compared to Blue Stab Domination. Either way, this cheered them up immensely. Suddenly, the hermitteam was a threat! Wow! Reddit! Who could’ve known! Much surprise. I am so so surprised that the S tier with hermits (that have been playing for ten years)and amazing support is doing well. Wow. It’s almost like a very specific community totally didn’t believe in Blue and Purple from the very beginning. Underdogs RISE UP! :DDD

Sands of Time. Blue did okay and made smart moves, Purple was scuffed but they were also smart even though Pete died and Grian couldn’t get out. Either way, SoT allowed them to keep/improve their current ranking.

I’ll omit Build Mart, since that was almost exactly like MCC11 Orange Ocelots. However, one similarity: one very important late game. Blue got their least wanted game but did amazing anyway. Purple got their most wanted game and did amazing. They also upset everyone, which I will say again, is very sexy of them. Nothing is better than teams raising the middle finger to Reddit predictions. I’ll say Build Mart could be an extension of Rocket Spleef aka. Purple’s SG since both games brought the teams to Dodgebolt.

Dodgebolt. Oh man. Similarity: Reverse Sweep. Difference: ... on different sides of the reverse sweep

Dodgebolt Prophecy comes true: False almost managed a 1v3, Grian was a fucking beast with his quick fire. Audience started screaming/simping about False and Grian.

KARA CLUTCHED NOT UNLIKE FALSE SUPREMACY!! We have underestimated women on the arena with their boizz (and False for Purple) cheering for them!!

Let us talk about Fruity B and Grian. One takes his time to shoot and gets killed because of it. One does NOT take his time to shoot. Both strategies were successful to some degree. I just think this is funny.

One thing I’ll always remember is that how H screamed “LET’S MAKE THIS INTERESTING!!” This to me, boosted his team because it sort of implies even if they lost Dodgebolt, they already won because they gave Green a victory they had to fight for. Purple certainly made the Dodgebolt interesting with the initial domination and Grian’s quick fire. This is why I think they were happy with second— they popped off and had no regrets.

In conclusion: both teams completely fucking upset Reddit with SG and Build Mart. And they’re so (deservedly) smug about it because they KNOW their worth, it’s just that A Lot of People Didn’t. They had similar structures with similar dynamics and cheeky bantering/supportive/wholesome vibes. We have no choice but to stan.

[carmenxjulia]

Another Duane interview transcript, coming at you! This one was from a smaller Carmen Sandiego chatroom. There were several interviewers, so that’s why the name of the question asker changes. Get the details below the break! Stay tuned, more interview transcripts coming soon.

Duane Capizzi:

HI EVERYONE! I'M IN!

Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way haha. Then got lost trying to change my PFP

Thanks for gathering! Shall we get started? Let's do some Q&A!

(as long as they are not geography questions haha)

Fuel:

What characters or plot points were cut from the final product?

Duane Capizzi:

Ooo, starting with a right hook to the jaw!

Let me think about that for a moment: I'm hesitant to give too much away because I'm really hoping we can tell more stories in this world at some point

Which is to say, we tend not to waste anything: if we don't use it when we originally planned, we usually find a way to use something later - and there's usually a "karmic" reason that we waited.

I'll also preface by saying this: I know season 3 was more of a mini-drop and some felt season 4 was rushed. But I wish EVERY season were longer. Season 1: ideally, i wanted the Pilot to be its own event and 10 more episodes after that (but we had to tell the post-Pilot story in 7. At the end of the day, that had its benefits: we got to the Shadowsan turn earlier and I think that's when a lot of viewers realized the ride they were truly in for). Season 2: we initially figured we'd need 5 episodes to have Carmen doing the ACME dance with Chief, and wound up doing it in 3 - mostly because it quickly became clear that Rio needed to be a 2 parter, and the Zack and Ivy backstory a rough 2 parter. So we squeezed 3 episodes worth of plot into 209. It was exhilarating!

So, we had hoped to have more episodes for Season 4 of course. We had a ton of ideas and had to compress things a bit. But honestly in many ways it was for the better. I know we all wanted to live in this world longer, but I think sometimes the flip side is true - when you have big ongoing storylines, it can get frustrating when some things drag out too long. But, we got all the "story" we wanted to tell in Season 4 - we just lost some "incident" if that makes sense. We would have taken longer to get there.

So, all that preface to answer the question: we wanted to do more musical numbers! We had a Bollywood dance sequence in a return to India caper with Paperstar. We wanted to do a famous Elvis suit theft in Las Vegas during an Elvis impersonator convention (Shadowsan's an early elvis guy; Brunt likes the Vegas "jumpsuit" era). We also wanted to do a thread where Gunnar gets captured by ACME so that Julia could interrogate him and he could play mind games with her a la Hannibal Lector and Clarice. CAVEAT TO ALL THIS: these were some ideas that were bouncing around, that may not have seen the light of day if we couldn't get them to work. But they were on our wish list.

re: "other stories" - I could live with these characters for another 32 episodes easily and there have of course been discussions. But alas, that is up to the powers that be. Let's keep fingers crossed - and keep the Carmen love alive online so that someone up there takes note

There is more of course, but those are some things that spring to mind.

Fuel:

Were there any scenes cut for time that were your favorite?

Duane Capizzi:

Not much springs to mind: our directors were amazing at getting everything in the scripts to fit naturally (and in fact, I was the one who was usually suggesting trims to let other things breathe, etc). We were limited to 22 minutes of episode time, NOT counting front and end credits so a little longer than the average show. We have a pretty good idea when the SCRIPT is too long, so the cutting usually happens at script stage before it gets to the board crew so that they don't waste efforts over-boarding material that won't be used.

We had hoped to build out Chase and Carmen teaming up for the first time, meeting at Carmen's hotel lobby etc for more scenes of them together; but had to reduce that to get that all to fit in the VERY packed episode 406. But again, tighter was fine considering. That's one area that leaps to mind. (note that when I say packed, I don't mean that in a bad way: we spend a lot of time pouring over details in editing to make sure everything gets its due).

If I think of anything, I'll circle back at a later point. But the simple answer is that scenes were usually trimmed or compressed at script rather than board or animatic. So nothing comes to mind. I know it's hard to believe, but "shorter is usually better."

except for my answers to fan questions of course

Fuel:

We saw that in s4 episode 6 that Julia's mother(?) is wearing a necklace remarkably similar to the one Julia wears all the time. Is this the same necklace and if so, why was it given to Julia?

Duane Capizzi:

Just when I thought I was detail oriented! Wow! You guys blow me away

I can't take credit for that: it was either the board artist or director who added that. They do slip things in! As I've said before, EVERYONE on the crew really brought their A-game and were as deep thinking and as passionate as I was/am about the show.

It's a nice detail and I would say your interpretation works!

It took me three or four reviews before noticing that the team had slipped in baby Carmen near the play set in Mom's front yard at the end of 408. When I caught it, I was like: bravo!

Fuel:

When they first met, Zack and Ivy said to Carmen that they were the only family they had, do you know what happened to the rest of Zack and Ivy's family?

Duane Capizzi:

I don't. At least, I don't yet until such a time that I might have the opportunity to explore that. It was important to their relationship with Carmen that they be orphans, so they had that common bond (aside from being "thieves who steal from bad guys" - even if it was only gonna be one time for Zack and Ivy).

I know there are writers out there who like to do entire bio's for characters up front but i'm not one of them. It could be a trap in many ways. I like to have a general idea but be open to the demands of the ongoing storyline. You discover things along the way - it's like you're taking a journey with the characters by writing them, and the longer you spend, the better you get to know them (that was not a prepared statement by the way - I just made that up but I'll have to use it again :). So in Z/I's case it wasn't important to the story or Carmen's relationship, we felt. Conversely, we STARTED with Shadowsan's family backstory with 203, but more important to me was that we use it as a platform to explain why he stays with Carmen and crew. He really has no home at that point, so it was relevant to the present ongoing story. Which is what made that especially powerful to me.

Also, there's always a push-pull between telling character back stories while balancing them with ongoing episodic plots. You have to service both. If you just tell back story, then you're writing a biography

Arden:

What was the biggest challenge when designing these characters, especially the pre-existing characters from the series in the 90's?

Duane Capizzi:

This is probably more of a question for Chromosphere, re: challenges. But from my standpoint overseeing that process, the first thing I'll say is that we weren't necessarily trying to be "true" to those characters since we reinvented nearly every one from the ground up. (with the exception of Carmen of course - her trademark red hat/coat weren't going anywhere! But mostly the update with Carmen was in the styling of her "outerwear"

ALTHOUGH: I will admit that I was pushing for Carmen to have shorter hair as Carmen. I thought it would be a cool update. Chromosphere were really passionate about giving her long full hair and I have to see that they were right. The short tomboy cut worked so well for Black Sheep anyway. We had a different hair style for each of her ages.

So about the reinventions: Gunnar is in spirit a similar character to the original (old colleague in Vile and an early mentor if I remember), but his presentation completely different. We weren't trying to be "in canon" with the original. The beauty of CSD is that every incarnation has been its own entity so that freed us to reimagine the characters. THE CLEANERS, for instance: gimme some Cleaner love! There were a pair of janitors from the original game named RICK AND NICK ICK. They were literally janitors, it was too silly for our purposes. But, it's one small step to make them "Cleaners" (in the sinister hit men sense) - and lo, our reinvention.

So to summarize the answer to your question, they weren't really challenges to me so much as FUN to creatively reinvent the original characters (many of which were from the game, so not really "characters" per se with dialogue and inner lives). Whenever we could, we tried to use character names from the originals and update their looks and personalities. Where we couldn't find an equivalent for what we needed, we created characters from whole cloth. For instance, it seemed a miss to do a heist show without a tunnel guy and a high rise climber guy. Hence, LC & ET, everyone's favorite taco truck vendors!

(yes, i've seen some short hair carmen fan art on Twitter - someone did a great one recently!)

Arden:

Are there plans to give us more of the characters in, say, novel/graphic novel form?

Duane Capizzi:

I know HMH has done a bunch and no doubt have more in works. There's currently a novelization of the Pilot with some additional material if anyone's interested. I consulted on the second one, Clue for Clue, because it falls in the timeline while Chase was still Interpol/pre-Acme so was tricky.

And depending on whether another series in this canon makes it to air, I may just approach them about writing one or two myself to get some "further adventures" our there. Anything is possible!

Arden:

If you could go back and change anything about the series, what would it be?

Duane Capizzi:

File under anecdote, but there was what I felt was an important expression on Gray that kept me awake at nights, from his graduation ceremony at Vile. When we revisited those flashbacks in the Gray arc in Season 4, I had them change his expression there (to be more evil less innocent). We had it corrected in 404 so was able to get permission to have Netflix "fix" the Pilot by adding that shot in. I am tenacious!

We really poured over everything, it's the series that I have virtually zero complaints with the end product to be honest. But the simple answer is: I would have gone back to 106 and "un-greek'd" Gray's nametag. It's sort of a rule for international that we scramble signage (which is weird for a show that takes place in many countries/languages, I know I know). It's mostly for localization/translation reasons. And I'm sure there are some countries where Gray's name might be spoken differently. But as a proper name, I think we could have made an exception and seen "Gray" on his name tag. See? Details! But that's about the worst of it

there's also like one small line from Chief in 208 where she indicates she knows Carmen is a good guy (something to that effect) which I felt was too absolute and would have tweaked the line to temper it a bit. It's tiny, but looking back it sort of bugs me and I kick myself for not catching it. But this is absolutely the series I wanted and couldn't be happier.

Carmen:

How did Carmen know she could trust Julia? As far as we know, she has not seen or heard Julia defending her, and in the Fashionista Caper, Julia even held up her gas gun to her, saying she was under arrest. Do you have any opinions on this? Was it just intuition?

Duane Capizzi:

I'm gonna go with intuition

Carmen was raised on an island with some hardened criminal types. I think she's a pretty good judge of character. Poor Julia, trying to be tough with Carmen didn't suit her.

But, great observation! I'd have to mentally step through everything to see if Carmen had any earlier indication but i think you're right there.

Yes, sometimes you just gotta follow your heart

Carmen:

Are there any characters that didn't actually interact that you think would get along well?

Duane Capizzi:

Amazing question! First, I'd have to think more about who DIDN'T meet - you're asking the hard questions haha. But "get along well" is very specific! Hmmm, care to volley anyone?

I'll also add that so many smaller moments get lost in the "binge" of it all, but I am surprised how few fans have noted the first meeting between Player and Julia. THAT was a good one IMO! Very sweet!

Before getting back to your question, I also want to add that we were originally going to find a way for Carmen to lose her earring in Stockholm so that Julia could pick it up and be communicating with Player. BUT, I cut it at treatment stage because I knew we didn't have room in that episode to service it. Circling back to questions 1 & 2, another case where it turned out better saved for later IMO (saving Player meeting Julia, not to mention the earring business in 402 with Ivy).

Oh of course, Julia and any of the other Vile members. It would have been Gunnar for my vote, as mentioned earlier. We probably would not have had Julia meet anyone else and mixed it up more. I like that Cleo sort of became J's personal nemesis.

YES, SONIA & XIFENG (and LUPE PELIGRO, if I can add). The intent was (and is, if we ever get to revisit) to see them again in Carmen's travels. We started to expand Carmen's world but when we finally learned the finite number of episodes we had to finish the story, we drilled back down into the essentials. Would love to see them some day!

I'm hesitant to share too many things I have in mind in this forum for hope that they will see the light of day one day. You know, "spoilers"

Julia:

Do you have any opinions on Zari? Just in general? Some thoughts on her backstory would be nice if possible

Duane Capizzi:

I love Zari! I really don't have any back story on her at this point. She was originally just "Agent B" but when the need arose to give story points to another agent, we chose her because she looked so awesome! And Sharon Muthu gave voice to her so wonderfully.

I love when we finally teamed her with Chase. Hopefully the anticipation was that she would give him a hard time. I love that we defied expectation (organically, of course) and had her respect him by the end of that episode (for believing that he foiled Carmen!)

Julia:

Do you have any thoughts on small facts about any character, major or minor, that you think are fun/interesting to think about, but don't necessarily add to the plot itself?

Duane Capizzi:

Bellum, like myself, likes cats. But you knew that!

I try to put everything pertinent on screen, doing double duty to service any given episode's story but also the overarching story. That "journey" thing I mentioned earlier - we had no idea Chase falling on his own car would be a thing when I first came up with it. But as other characters refer to the incident, it took on a life of its own and made the characters feel more real.

Sorta kinda related to this question and some earlier ones, I will say that I DO think there's more to learn about Shadowsan's past vis a vis Lady Dokuso: it's clear to me that they have a history together, and it's something I hope to explore someday soon (maybe in a book if not another series

Julia:

Are the Carmen Sandiego books a part of canon?

Duane Capizzi:

I only consulted on the first two or three (too busy with series!) and have not read them, so hard for me to answer in a definite way. They are definitely in the universe we've created, but not in the timeline that I know of (which would have been too hard to pull off with our script development running concurrently). But do know that the book team at HMH pays close attention to the series and world so they should be perfectly compatible. Look no further to their clever social media on the series for example.

Kenz:

We saw in season 4 that Julia and Carmen helped each other mid to long term; would there ever be a possibility that Julia would permanently or semi-permanently join team Red?

Duane Capizzi:

Of course there's a possibility. But in a sense, with ACME now finally on Carmen's side, in a sense if Carmen were back in the game Julia, Chase, Zack and Ivy would ALL be an extension of Carmen's crew. But, would J remain with ACME or literally come to Carmen's team at her HQ? As they said in an old radio show: "Only The Duane Capizzi knows ..."

Kenz:

Where do you see Carmen in her retirement (if she retires)? Do you think she would still travel the world or settle down somewhere? Similarly, do you have any thoughts on what some other characters could be doing years down the line?

Duane Capizzi:

That is a big question, and one difficult to answer without some potential future spoilers (and yes, I really want to tell more Carmen stories if you can't tell But I'll answer by giving you one "read" on our open-ended ending as seen in 408 (read no further if you haven't seen it - yeah, right haha). The ending suggests to me that Carmen settled down for a spell to forge that relationship with her mother, to make up for lost time. But, if that is indeed Carmen that we see on the rooftop, I think the ending suggests that Carmen doesn't stay still for very long. If Vile is back, there is work to be done! Carmen has a life mission - she's one determined lady.

But of course, it's deliberately ambiguous: "anyone with your heart, wisdom and courage can be Carmen Sandiego." Is it Carmen? Sonia? Someone we haven't met? I think both endings resonate: Caroline and I always said "Carmen is bigger than a person, Carmen is a movement" would be a great message to end the series on. And I think our ending resolves this chapter of Carmen's journey as a person, but also elevates her to mythic status. Which is why I love it!

And, that seems to me a pretty perfect question and answer to end our chat on. Thanks everyone! Again, I cannot tell you how moved I am to see that we have such a passionate, intelligent and talented fan base. THANK YOU.

Take care guys, thanks again for having me! 'night!

[firehananas]

Chapter 159th to the end

Hmm ‘got much more mixed feelings about the end

I wonder if the mangaka is a huge gamer because the characters tend to always compare the situation with video games. I honestly find it a bit annoying - like, I don’t mind the gamer character to think like that, but almost everyone have a thought like this at one point. 

I have the feeling the whole Rika’s brainwashing was forced. Of course I wanted the two brothers to fight (Cain/Abel drama + Yuri setting as Seth yumyum) but it would had been better if Rika was the big villain the whole time/was really corrupted by Aikawa’s ideology.

That being said, I appreciated a little more Rika in the last half. I admit, he manages to do cool tricks.

Lowkey ship Sniper/White Feather for drama reason

Kuon’s death made me tear a bit - it was really heartbreaking </3

Too bad she doesn’t stay dead tho. It minimized the whole intensity of that scene and it feels too easy for the party afterward. Paradoxically, I liked the interactions she had with Yuri and Yuka.

Knowing there is a sequel, will they try to created a new body for her? Could be interesting. But I heard it was with new characters, so I don’t think I’ll read it. I was already reading it only mostly for Sniper Mask, so if I can’t get a shot of his riffle’s cannon, I’m not interested anymore.

I was honestly a bit nervous at the idea Kuon stayed in the head of Yuka - Ordinary quickly questioned this and pointed out very well my thoughts. It seems she doesn’t have to stay in his head and somehow body surfed with other God Candidates, but it still upset me for them all.

I thought Kuon was baby. She is. But she isn’t. Yet she is. However she isn’t. Actually- 

(She is definitely less innocent she appears to be, as I expected, but much darker than I visualized it)

Disappointed Aikawa was just sitting there while Yuka and Rika fight. Like, I was excepting he asked Volleyball Mask to bring him some popcorns at one point.

I really need someone to make an animatic of the brothers fight with “the plagues” from The Prince of Egypt. It matchs it so well 😔

Oh look, Yukio becomes super strong! Is he a Closer to God now? Oh no wait, it’s a literal deus ex-machina!

If High Rise Invasion gets a second season, it means we will be able to admire the divine butt of Yuka at the very least twice.

The codes were interesting on paper, but I wished they foreshadowed it sooner. Making Kuon said “oh yeah, I just remember it now” every times is a bit cheap.

Makoto brothers really shined in this part. It was really refreshing to see them working together.

Does anyone have an idea of what Tenma means? I couldn’t found anything about this...

I don’t think it was a good idea to introduced Juo for the last arc. He was out of place. Aikawa was to the point to succeeded to become a god, was much more threatening and it was less thrilling to follow Rika&co fighting him. If the whole scenario happened before, it would have been more smooth in my opinion.

Tbh, I didn’t even get why Yuri wanted to save Juo at the end...  

Administrator was f*cked up, but I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. His fate is just too awful and I understand he became so mad and drunk of power.

Praise Yuka for speaking the truth to the Supervisor. Wish he go further, calling him out that they succeeded thanks to their teamwork and not because they act in a "man is a wolf to man” way. Please, even bacterias understand the concept of helping the less strong to survive.

I need to pin up in my bedroom the page where Yuka said “you’re amazing” as a motivation quote.

Broke: Yuka is daddy. Woke: Yuka is a dad. Heck, he even lampshades it himself.

Did Prophet die?? He wasn’t show to be dead but he isn’t in the epilogue either...

My boy Yoshida didn’t deserved to die, especially not this way. That was dirty.

The whole betrayal of the dad is never addressed??? Where is the drama??? And the reunion of the Kusakabe didn’t move me at all. Do I am really suppose to care for a woman who tortured people with an obvious pleasure and turned my man Yuka and other countless people into puppets? Sorry but no.

Saito never becomes strong, halas. I’m not even sure if she showed up in the epilogue. It seems the author didn’t know what to do with her. She isn’t the only one in that case...

I understand why people complained the ending to be rushed. While it’s good to see Yuri alive, the whole family complete and angels stopping killing people, no god has been created (since somehow Yuri isn’t a complete god for now?), dimensions will maybe fused and insured chaos... yet the last thing the protagonist is seen doing is going to eat with her girlfriend. For a survival game genre, it’s hard to swallow — pun no intended. It’s way too cheesy after all the horrors they lived AND the threats incoming.

CONCLUSION

Yuka is definitely the best. What a husbando material.

Concept is very interesting but messy in execution at the end

Rarely boring, gorgeous art

Wished Yuka/Yuri/Rika worked more together and tried to bond as a family. It’s one of the most prominent theme of the manga, it’s too bad it mostly works as Yuri > Rika < Yuka and not all the three. (I don’t count when Yuka worked as Sniper Mask under Yuri since they didn’t know they were related.)

WISHED YURI/MAYUKO TO BE MORE OFFICIAL ARGHHHHH

Aikawa was a good villain, so was the administrator. Too bad they died so quickly. Juo could have been interesting too if he didn’t showed this late.

Wasted opportunity with Yayoi, she could have been an amazing villain.

It’s really too bad Yoshida didn’t manage to “really” meet one of the Makoto. I really think they could have influenced him positively. 

...Maybe too many characters...? It’s hard to judge since there is a need to have so much (otherwise nothing would happen) but it’s difficult to find them all flesh out. And if the reader don’t care, the whole drama and horror are much less impactful. 

I’m not sure how I feel towards Kuon now. I still like her, but I need to zoom off to understand better her character.

I’ll say it again: Yoshida didn’t deserved this fate :c

Ending rushed up, probably to prepare for the sequel but it’s still very brutal and cheesy, leaving a bitter taste as a farewell.

[lildevyl]

Pick Me Up Playlist

@jellymadebutler  I know you said you’re not feeling your best so here’s a “Pick Me up Playlist” for ya or for anyone needs it!

(Markiplier)

Try Not To Laugh Challenge:  This is actually backwards! It goes from 23-1 but it’s still a nice Playlist to watch!

Markiplier Makes:  This is the whole Playlist of the infamous Markiplier Makes Videos!  It’s really funny!

Among Us:  Among Us is a new game that’s out there on Steam.  You’re either a Crewmate going trying to do tasks to keep the ship going until you reach your destination or the you’re the Imposter! What happens when you get a bunch of YouTubers together for a classic Whodunnit?  Chaos and hilarity in sue!

Minecraft:  I’m not big into Minecraft but it is very funny seeing Mark and Sean play this and see what they come up with!

I Am Bread:  This is a rage game just letting you know ahead of time!  But it is funny seeing Mark rage out of the game!  But like I said this is a rage game so there is some yelling/screaming in it!

Getting Over It:  This another rage game!  It is quite funny but like I said it is a Rage Game so there is screaming and yelling involved!

Pogo Stuck:  This is a somewhat kind of rage game!  It first starts out with Bob, Wade, and Mark playing it.  But then Mark starts playing it by himself and yes there is some yelling and screaming in the videos so fair warning!

Uno:  This is quite a hilarious game series!  It’s Mark and his friends playing the online game of Uno!

Monopoly:  This a goo game series and is quite hilarious!  It’s Mark, Bob and Wade and there is one where Lixian joins!  It really funny and think you might enjoy it!

(JackSepticeye)

Undertale:  The best way to start you off with JackSepticeye is one of his most famous series of all time, Undertale!  Undertale is about a human that falls in the Monster World and go about it learning the Monster World while trying to get home! It’s a text based game and Jack does the voices for the characters!

Deltarune:  The Sequel to Undertale!  Or that’s what everyone seems to be calling it!  I haven’t had the chance to watch the series but I’ve heard it’s really good!

Slime Rancher:  Literally you are a Rancher raising all kinds of different slimes!  It’s really cute and funny!

Cuphead:  This is a very old school cartoon like style game.  There is some violence in it but it’s mild and no more then what actual cartoons, like Tom and Jerry and the Animatics.

Bendy and the Inc Machine:  This is a horror game but it’s not the scary!  There are some jump scares but it’s more like FNAF kind of jump scare.  So, it will be scare ya but not that much.  It’s like a cartoon horror game.  Again some violence in the game but it’s mild.  This also kinda of spawn the idea of the JSE Fan Made Ego Shawn Flynn!  Jack has a cameo in the game!

Animal Crossing:  Nice little story driven game that Jack plays on his switch.  It’s very cute and it’s a nice little game to series to watch!

Spiderman:  Jack finally gets to play as his all time favorite Super Hero from his childhood!  Spiderman!

Spiderman Miles Morales:  The next gen starts now!  With the new Spiderman!  This game is based of the movie Spiderman into the Spider verse and I can’t wait to watch it and watch this series of Jack’s!

Spyro 3: Remake:  This is a cute series of the game Spyro 3 redone for the PS3!  It’s super cute and a lot of fun!  I think you might enjoy this one!

Minecraft:  Like I said, I’m not into Minecraft but this is a nice and cute series that Jack has!  Filled with a lot of Adventure and some scary events!

Meme Time!:  A cute series that Jack started where he goes on his Subreddit and looks at some of our Memes that we did!

Luigi’s Mason 3:  I can’t make a playlist for someone to watch and not include this!  This is so cute and wholesome!  It’s all from Luigi’s point of view and how he’s going to try and stop the Ghost King and save his brother and friends!

Among Us:  I have to include Jack’s!  This is so funny with Jack and his friends!  I think you might enjoy this!

(CrankGamePlays)

Pokémon: I haven’t watched this series yet, but I’ve heard great things about it!

 Papers Please:  This is very hilarious!  I’ve seen a couple of episodes and I think you might like it!

Animal Crossing:  I did enjoy watching Ethan play this!  It’s really funny and wholesome and I think you might enjoy it!

Slime Rancher:  I have to include this!  I watched this when I was feeling a little down during Quarantine.  It’s really funny!

(DolphinTreasureArt)

This a YouTuber that I found when I went browsing for Markiplier and JackSepticeye fan-made games!  DolphinTreasureArt plays fan-made games and indie games on her channel.  Along with some Cosplays and Artwork that she has done.  Some of her Fanart has gotten in a couple of fan games!

Septiscape:  First off, this series is near and dear to my heart!  This is the first ever series that watched back in 2k18 when I first found Erin’s Channel!  This helped me get over my writers block and led to me to writing my first fanfic that I wrote in over a year!  This one is an older version but I still love it!

Jack finds himself trapped in his own mind, the Mindscape and is trying to find his way home!  Along the way he finds out the Egos that he created are more then just Egos!  But at the same time, some sort of Corruption and happening with Jack’s mind and many of the Ego’s Worlds is collapsing!

Septiscape: Livestream #HopeFromHome:  This is the livestream of the updated version of the game!  It’s about 8 hours long but you can skip some parts, especially since some of the fights can be a bit repetive but I wanted to include this one!  

Soulscape:  I can’t put in Septiscape and not give you the sequel as well!  This is the well awaited sequel to Septiscape!  After the adventures of the first game, the Egos go and try to enjoy a nice little R&R only for someone to stalking Anti and trying to take his soul pieces back!  Join Anti and the Egos as they try to figure out what it going on and help save Anti before it’s too late!  And there is really cool plot twist!

Hearts and Heroes:  This is another one that is near and dear to my heart! I will also link Mark’s playthrough as well!  Hearts and Heroes and about you the fans of Markiplier and the journey that the fans go through trying to help save people from the Monsters the haunt their dreams and to help save Mark from his worst Nightmare.  Markiplier’s Playthrough here.

Septiclands: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  This is very funny series that DolphinTreasureArt has done!  It’s silly and goofy and it has a very weird plot but it’s absolutely one of my favorites!  It’s also on her longest series as well!

The Boss: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  Just like Heats and Heroes is near and dear to me heart so is this game!  I’ll leave a link to Jack’s Playthrough as well!  This is near and dear to my heart b/c it’s the first JackSepticeye Fan Game that I came across.  It was on Jack’s Channel that first saw it and then I watched Erin’s.  This is nice little RPG Game, but it’s about Jack being sucked into his computer and has to try and find his way home! On the way he finds out that there is two subscribers that lost in his computer and there is a major twist at the end!

The Boss Is Nothing: His Side of the Story:  I don’t want to give away what happens in the Boss!  So, this the other side of the story of The Boss!  In the Boss, Jack comes across someone he never thought he would, so now we’re getting his side of the story and why did what he did to Jack!

Glitch in the System: Chapter 1:  This is a very special game!  It’s the sequel to The Boss!  The developers over at Sarcastic Pasta Games is working hard to get chapter two out!  Chapter one is really good and you get see Erin do some Cosplay along with some voice acting for the characters/Egos!

Septic Storm:  This is a cute little fan game that’s a bit old, but it’s a very cute RPG Game!  Join, Jack, Mark and Felix as they battle Billy to end this battle once and for all!  Only to find out that Billy isn’t the one that truly is behind this, but someone else entirely!

CrankGamePlays Fan Game: The Crank Chronicles:  This is a RPG Fan Game of one Ethan Nester CrankGamePlays!  Ethan has find himself in a distant land thanks to the help of a powerful Sorceress!  But an evil threatens the land!  With help of his two best friends Mark and Tyler, Ethan goes on a quest to help save this land and find his way home!  I don’t if the developer ever did the sequel to the this game or not but it’s not a bad game!

[michaelchapmanba3b]

Chalk filming

Over the last four and a half days, Maddy and I have been using stop motion to animate various segments in our film. The film will obviously be a mix of stop motion with 2D characters which provided a unique experience for us filming as it is something we haven’t done before. Most of the shots were pick up shots, so the background is visibly clear to allow to edit on top of the layer however the stop motion models interact with the 2D characters and required various multiple takes so we can use it doesn’t break the characters height and reduce stretching as we discovered in the test segments we filmed a few weeks ago with the snail

Since Maddy fabricated the snail and the pigeon, it was clear she knew the puppets limitations and pose ability. Whilst she animated a significant proportion of this section I tried stop motion using the snail and the pigeon. The Pigeon was a joint effort animation from Maddy and I as she animated segments such as the pigeon landing while I animated the segment that is an extreme close up on the pigeons face as it bends down to see the character. Whilst we did try to animate the extreme close up of the pigeon bending down as we did in our animatic, due to the puppets foam body we couldn’t quite achieve that effect. Instead I chose to replicate a pigeons sudden head movements as I bent the head down as far as I possibly could. The final shot of the pigeon with it bending down and picking up what will be the 2d character in its mouth before spitting him out and flying away. This was a combined effort with me instructing Maddy with the movements and seemingly helping her with the movements while she was animating that section. I think the Pigeon scenes came out better then I had hoped. Whilst its hard to see what the pigeon will look like with the rigs cut out I know we made it the best way we possibly could. If there is one thing I would change it would be for the movement of the pigeon as it lifts up is a bit wobley is some places, perhaps in the edit we can potentially shift the pigeon up higher so it really gives the viewer the feeling that it was a strong down gust that lifted the pigeon off.

Maddy animated the snail segment. We tried a few moving patterns on the snail however none seemed to stick, both Maddy and I attempted the snails movements a few times however when I was experimenting with holding the key frames I was able to make the movement of the snail seemingly more what we expected it to look like. We were shooting in two’s and the movement required 2 frames of the snail going up, hold for 6 frames, 3 frames after the middle point, 2 frames on the ground, hold 6 frames to allow for the slide. This worked as the snails movement and provided a good stylised look at the snail. Once we had the rhythm we were working well as a team with Maddy animating and me instructing her how and where the movement the puppet keeping an eye for any mistakes in the animation whilst editing it to keep the sense of continuity. The diagram below shows how we animated the snail. 

Since I made the Hornet the animating duty fell onto me. It was a bit of a tricky puppet to use at first seeing as there are many articulation points in the puppet, trying to keep track of them all was troublesome, that and coupled with the puppets late fabrication due to problems meant I hadn’t really tested it with animation. Never the less I animates all the segments. Whilst filming we used 3 rigs to keep it up in the air as the K&S tubing didn’t support its all weight. After talking to Barry Lieth about placing the K&s tubing in the end of the puppet I now realise it should of been in the middle. Another problem while filming happened when one of the Hornets wings fell off mid animation with a good take. We patched it up with sellotape which naturally sounds bad but since the wings were see through it didn’t really make any difference. Since the hornet flying lies with me not only will I edit out the rigs but also clone stamp the sellotape out just encase. Finally I animated the hornet up on a fixed rig with its wings flapping. There was some discussions as to how to film it but I thought it would be the best way to film the scene where our main characters look up to see the hornet on a fixed stationary rig against a blue screen only to edit out the rig in post and add the movement in after effects. I animated several takes thanks to Maddy and we finished just in time, quite literally. The Tail of the hornet almost broke of after being held up with the rigs and the k&s tubing. A simple repair job but had no tools to fix it with me.

Finally the tracking shots was a lot of fun to do. It took a while to get used to the equipment at first however once Maddy and I understood the tracking we used a few shots for it which will be at the start of the film and the very end. We don’t want to use the tracking to much as the somewhat ruins the asthetic, instead we are using it sparingly. 

Overall I am happy with the footage that was captured. the next step is for Maddy and I to edit out the rigs and for Eddie to start the 2D animation process. Once we have cut out the rigs Maddy and I can start the 2D segments with Eddie’s personalised rig. 

[de1002williambrighouse]

Production Analysis

Before I started coming up with the idea, I already knew I wanted to create a short cartoon capable of teaching children an important life lesson that even adults could stand to learn from. I’m very drawn to shows such as Steven Universe and Gravity Falls, as I have a huge appreciation for stories that can deliver deep and meaningful messages in simple, enjoyable ways.

I settled on OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as the focus. It is a condition I personally struggle with, and I felt I was in a position to capture the feelings associated with it. I initially pitched several ideas based on this concept to a group, and the story about a woman running a store was received very positively amongst them, so I stuck with this concept.

The production of the final animation was a very enjoyable and fulfilling experience for me, as I had never previously created an animation of this scale. I initially began creating each shot using a three stage process; blocking, sketching, and colouring. I would first create the keyframes using simple circles and crosses, and then go over each of these drawings to create a more complete line drawing. I would then fill out the inbetween frames, and finally go over each frame using the line and fill tools to create solid block colours, matching the planned storybook aesthetic.

However, as production continued, I found that I could simplify this to a two stage process. I would still create the keyframes for the more complex shots, but otherwise I would simply progress frame by frame. Because of this, I was able to increase my pace of work without sacrificing quality. The consistency of on/off model character drawings remained the same after switching to this method, though they were produced more efficiently.

There were several small setbacks. I originally drew the character with short hair as a personal challenge to myself to create a bouncy/expressive character without having to fall back on emphasising the movement of the hair. Despite this, I still gave the character bouncy hair unintentionally once I started animating, and it came out more emphasized than I planned. I was still happy with the results and decided to animate the main character in this style regardless, but it did eliminate the opportunity for me to grow in an area I felt slightly weak in.

I also made the mistake of starting the animation before the storyboard was fully complete. I originally created a full storyboard and accompanying animatic, but after seeking feedback I was told there were too many flat shots and that the ending didn’t portray the message clearly enough. In the original ending, Fabra (the main character) places the block back on the shelf herself and notices that it is still uneven, but then sees the child having fun in the store and decides to forget about the problem, as people are more important. This wasn’t communicated clearly, as it essentially shows her coming to terms with the problem for no reason. I received a helpful suggestion to change the ending; the child is now the one who picks up the block, and Fabra notices it is placed back completely straight. I felt this better communicated that people are more important than obsessive thoughts, as this makes her problem meaningless by literally showing that there is no longer a problem.

However, by the time I planned to update the ending, the animatic was already complete based on the original storyboard and production on the animation itself needed to begin. I was still able to use the original storyboard and animatic to get the timing down. I also had the chance to make several shots more three dimensional, as it required less time to be taken away from working on the animation.

My original plan was to produce the animation up until the point where the original ending began, and then adjust the storyboard accordingly. However, by this point I had a clear enough vision of the new ending that I felt I could create the new shots from memory. While I was able to achieve this, in hindsight it was an unwise decision made hastily in fear of losing momentum on the project, and I know it would never be accepted in a professional environment. While the pacing of the original animatic ending was a good enough reference to proceed, I feel unsatisfied knowing that I didn’t stick to a consistent structure throughout the project, as I had attempted to avoid this scenario.

I also found myself deviating from the original animatic and storyboard slightly as production was underway. Many shots ended up being longer, as the original animatic didn’t always accomodate the pacing of the animations I created. I also removed a shot in which the main character hunches down with their head in their arms, as it felt too dramatic for the light hearted tone established up until that point.

More notably among these changes, I removed the parent’s child and changed the design of the child itself. The parent felt unnecessary as they did not add anything to the story (in every storyboard frame, they were only standing still). I also changed the design of the child as I felt the original design did not match the art style closely enough, and making the child a girl meant I could make her stand out more with her hair, which made it easier to keep her design consistent as her head proportions were less specific.

While I’m ultimately happy with the finished animation, I feel the pre production aspect was very chaotic and less consistent than I had planned, particularly in regards to the storyboard and animatic. I became so afraid of time constraints that I chose to skip over some steps and return to them later, and that is something I regret. In hindsight I could have avoided this by seeking out feedback from a variety of people earlier in the creative process, as it would have brought the required changes to my attention much sooner.

Creating the animation itself was extremely enjoyable, and it went even better than I had planned. Shots I had storyboarded to be establishing/unimportant actually looked a lot more interesting than I anticipated, particularly the scenes in which the main character is sweeping the floors and dusting the shelves.

I struggled slightly with two shots, but I was able to adjust them in post and make them work. The first of these shots involved the character walking towards the storage room. Originally there was an entire walk cycle leading to the door, but it looked both slow and unconvincing as I struggled with the angle and perspective. While compiling the footage, I decided to cut this segment and had her simply already appear at the door when the shot began. I found this looked a lot better, and it complimented her walk speed as she left the storage room more as she stormed out hastily (the unused “walking to the door” animation was very slow and rigid).

The second shot that caused  complications was the final shot of the animation. In the original version of the shot, the character smiled after seeing the child having fun and then walked off screen. While going over the footage the following day, the walk cycle seemed too fast and also showed a drop in quality compared to other walk cycles (likely due to being created at the end of a long day). I considered redoing it completely, but decided instead to cut the footage after she smiled, as the walking animation felt like it would break the pacing even if it matched my best walk cycle work. While the new pacing felt appropriate, re watching the animation later made me realise that her facial expression as she smiled looked a little too peaceful given both the context, and the fact that the walk cycle was cut. It felt out of character, but I found that simply changing it to a confident, slightly angled smile contrasted better with her frustration from earlier.

While I do regret the mistakes I made in regards to the storyboard and animatic, I feel this  experience has helped me identify many pitfalls in producing animation, and therefore I feel I am equipped to avoid such problems in future endeavours. For my next animation project, I would like to use a different art style and method of colouring, as I feel I can make my art style look appealing in other ways if I explore and experiment. I would also like to dedicate more production time to creating sounds and music, as the audio for this animation was added very late into production and thus only two simple custom made sound effects were used, (hastily made using objects on my desk), the rest being taken from YouTube videos and video games.

In summary, the pre-production stage did not go as planned, but the production itself went very smoothly and surpassed my expectations. I am happy with this project.

[kickstarter-promotion]

Another Amazing Kickstarter (TREJUR – a Stop Motion Animated Short Film by Thomas Kim —Kickstarter) has been published on http://crowdmonsters.com/new-kickstarters/trejur-a-stop-motion-animated-short-film-by-thomas-kim-kickstarter/

A NEW KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED:

                                                        1 SENTENCE OVERVIEW:

  This crowdfunding campaign will let me finish my film until it can be seen by you. Thank you.

THE FILM: Trejur (pronounced “treasure”) is a hand-made, fantasy, stop motion animated short film by the filmmaker, Thomas Kim. The story questions how desperation can transform us into something we never thought ourselves to be. We see this though a real life woman mourning the death of her grandmother. Transitioning through the medium of stop motion, she shows us the time when her grandmother gave her a toy in hopes of making her happier after their loved grandfather had passed. Her grandmother, with no means of support for her grandchild, had begun to leave the house every day and return with more and more toys to make her happy. Of course, this “over-accretion” made her resent what her grandmother brought, but it was too late; her grandmother had fallen into obsession. She now collected lost toys because it made herself happy, and soon their house was quite literally buried under a mountain of toys… 

SO… Backing me on Kickstarter will provide for costly things like a 3D printer to quickly mass produce miniature toys, an amazing film composer to accompany the emotional performance of the puppets, festival fees to launch my career, and MANY MANY MORE. (The full budget outline can be found later in the page.)

HISTORY: The medium of Stop Motion is incredibly labor intensive. Every prop, every color, every decision needs to be made by my hand. Everything in the visuals need to reinforce and drive the story because nothing is “free” as it is in live action. The puppets are moved frame by frame, 15-30 frames a second. For around ten minutes of footage, you’re looking at a few thousand hours. And all of this I have done myself so far. 2 hours a school day, 8 hours a weekend, for over 400 days now. 

WHY: This life-consuming project was initiated well over a year ago when I decided to take out $2000 from my pockets to tell this story. I do what I do because to me, storytelling is an instrument I use to explore the human condition. Film is my canvas, and a story is my paintbrush. Yes it might sound somewhat cliche, but this idea is something we all have wrestled with no matter the kind of career. It is universal. And so, your pledges will provide me with the opportunity to continue that exploration of psychology of emotions and the different perspectives of truth. (that, and it’ll help kickstart my career) 🙂

Below are SOME of the behind-the-scene documentations over the past year.

The blanket has wires inside so that it can hold its position and be animatable.

I had to get creative! Those colored pencils are actually cut toothpicks, and the wooden plank floor are popsicle sticks with their ends sawed off. Due to the lack of money, I am held back by what I can’t do. I even made my slider out of Ikea door handles and a few dishwasher cart wheels! 

1/6th scale miniature toys

The story calls for thousands of these toys. I’ve made about a hundred so far, but due to time constrains I’ve decided to 3D print the rest. HOWEVER, they’ll be hand-painted to match closer to the raw aesthetic of the film. Part of the budget is for a 3D printer + supplies to mass produce these miniature props.

Above is the progression from concept designs to wood-carved stop motion puppets.

THE EYES: THE EYES ARE JUST TRACKING POINTS. You may have seen in the video above freaky, Coraline-esque eyes and mouths. They’re just tracking points to be REPLACED INTO REAL HUMAN eyes and mouths. Eyes are the windows to the soul! Not only will this add a more “emotional” quality to the puppets, it’ll allow for a coherent transition from live action real actors to stop motion puppets since they are supposed to be the same individual. The other short film, “Madame Tutli-Putli” is a fantastic example of what it’ll look like (Go on, I’ll give you permission you to leave this page and look up “Madame Tutli-Putli images” if you promise to come back). The eyes will be pinpoint seamless. All the while, they’ll have that slightly unsettling eerie feeling from being so cussing realistic!

THE RIGS: All the little metal arms holding the puppets in the video will be cleaned up and removed. They are used to support the puppets when they cannot support their weight such as when they jump.

All the walls and floors can be broken down by quadrants so I can pop up inside and animate.

STORY STYLE: The film is combination of some live action but mostly stop motion animation in a ~12 minute runtime. Imagine a combination of Miyazaki’s elements of mysterious fantasy blended with the more dark, heavy, and human themes of modern live action films. Interesting!

Most of the film takes place inside this old house. The walls are built from insulation foam, the staircase from foam board, and the door hinges from hot wheel toy car axles. Everything will be shot in camera to achieve the most realistic and “texturized” environment.

These few set pieces are ready to be primed, painted, and weathered!

   TIME VS MONEY (AN EXPLANATION): In the film industry, there is a direct correlation between time and money. Time IS money. The more money, the less time it’ll take to complete a film and vice versa. That’s why huge blockbuster movies are able to finish within a year; their budget is insurmountable. However on the other hand, the more time you have, the less money you need. I’ve been spending the past year working to make this film look expensive, but with almost no budget. At this rate, without funding, I expect to finish by the time I graduate school in 3 years. But if this campaign is successful, if the level of money increases, then the level of time needed will decrease exponentially.

WHERE THE MONEY WILL GO:

 You might’ve noticed in the video that my lights are on top of stacked boxes… I have only one borrowed light stand so I have to carefully balance things like lights, reflectors, or bounce cards on boxes, chairs, and books. All the “sliding” shots in the video were made by ikea door handles and dishwasher cart wheels. Having the budget to acquire “luxuries” like light stands or sliders would save massive amounts of time.

I’m asking for $4000 to finish the film with a bang, and every dollar will have its purpose. The money will be specifically dedicated to this film only; none of it will fund my morning coffee. The completion of this project is my sole objective, and whatever you can give will be appreciatively used to breathe life into that ambition.

  Final storyboards and set layouts and designs

STORYBOARDS: Last Summer, I spent 8 hours a day everyday for a month at a storyboarding class. (Storyboarding is pre-visualizing a film by drawing out every shot) It’s impossible to “master” the craft of storyboarding in that little time, but those classes did help me “free up” my hand. They taught me how to swiftly transfer my thoughts to paper without the barrier of a “slow” hand. From there, I locked myself up in my room for another month. I storyboarded and sto-RE-boarded over 30 times until I landed on my final boards as you see in the first picture above. Because there is no dialogue in the short film, I opted to build the story without a script and only a set of storyboards on flashcards. Each flashcard on my wall has a description on the back explaining the emotional performance needed in the puppet characters so that I can bring that into my animation.

Second takes are rare in stop motion because each second of footage takes days if you account pre-production. Therefore, all the shots need to be timed and locked down through storyboards before production begins.

PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE SCHEDULE:

Above is the proposed schedule. There’s one common mistake in filmmaking; we always seem to underestimate the time it’ll take to produce something. With so many possibilities for accidents, reaching a perfect deadline is madness. Despite the risks, I’m willing to put in the extra hours and the extra money from my own pocket if it means finishing this project by the projected schedule. Have no fear!

The film will be complete nearing the end of this year IF this campaign is successful from YOUR help. I can’t wait to share this film with you: check out the rewards, ask any questions, and back the project on Kickstarter!

  INFORMATION PROVIDED BY Kickstarter.com and Kicktraq.com VISIT PAGE SOURCE