Edoropolis Emporium

Animation/Art Team - If you think you can help in one or more areas, sign up!

Lead Animator:  Dasai

Background Artwork: ?
Character Artwork: ?
Actual Animation Process: ?

The animation team will need to decide whether to animate the Princess Vi's Present (http://www.edoropolis.org/violet/manga_pvb/index.html)  comic by Fuhred, or work on something completely original which will require more storyboarding.

Audio Team

Soundtrack/Mixing:  Polly SPC, Andy, Threaux
Voice Direction:  D-Mac Double
Voice Actors:  Casting call still pending...

Expect usage of some awesome KNT tracks from the CDs. Though using some original music is still a possibility.

Writing Team - To Be Determined

We'll either be using Fuhred's comic, or an original sciript, likely to be written by BurkeWorld.

I think it's a great idea. We just need an SPC fan or anyone who is into anime in general who works with flash cartoons to help us. You know that I would love to write some sort of a script. But, I could also like to do some voice acting. I can do voices pretty well. I think I can do a mean Speedy. Anyway, keep looking. I'm sure someone would want to help.

I can write, but I know nothing of drawing in flash... -_-

Burkey

Sounds like a good idea, but I've no knowledge of Flash or will be able to offer much till later in the year.

I have 3d Max and a limited understanding of that.  The thougt of doing something with that had crossed my mind...

I'm up for it! I can help with the writing and lend my voice as well. Always been told it'd make a great voice for a cartoon character. ;D

i'd love to do some voice acting, but i'm not sure if i can for now because my mic's broken :( but, once i get a new one, i'll volunteer for the voice acting part.

Well um... I HAVE Flash...and I understand it for the most part because I used a program very similar to it for an animation a couple years ago. I have a Flash manual that I can read up on for the things I don't understand. But for some reason I have never bothered with making a flash animation until recently. I just finished storyboarding for a flash cartoon, but that's as far as I have gotten. I haven't even used Flash before except to mess around. If you all are really serious about this and can get it all organized, I'll try to learn it if no one else can or will be willing to animate it. *nods thoughtfully*

I've got somewhat of a broad voice talent.... if you're looking for specific impersonations, I can't pull that off, but I can certainly put forth a good voice.

Well, Astercrow. If what you said it's true, then you're our person for the flash cartoon.

*shy smile* Well..I better start reading up on my material ^^; Unless there's someone else out there with actual Flash experience who would want to do it instead.

I can help in the art AND animation department. I have Flash at home...perhaps not the latest version, but I have easy acess to the lastest version of flash. :) I just recently graduated with my associates in Animation... =] I'd love to lend a hand if I can.

What else do we need for this? The prospect of new SPC episodes intrigues me.

Hmm. Looks like we got two animators to this. Astercrow and SonikkuKitten. I'm guessing that things are getting set here.

Yes they are. We got writers, animators, and voice actors... lol. This could actually be pulled off =D

You'll need audio cleanup and synchronization too. I'll do my part with that, though I can't do it alone.

Soundtracks are important too. That, maybe, I can help with. Are we looking at just continuing the original series, or branching off in our own direction?

It'd probably be best if we tried to recreate the show's original style, so I think the storyline used here should be "Pre-Comet Caper".

The only issue with that is legality.. if anyone wanted to show it on air, we'd have to obtain rights to the series, either the KNT rights or the SPC rights.

Meh... counting chickens, I'd better stop that.

Yeah, if this project gets under way (if it ever does) there is no need to worry about the legality of any fan-works.

If this were true, all fan-fiction and fan-art could be considered illegal because no one has the rights to it.

So just let the project continue on it's own, and give credit where credit is due.

Burkey

Wow, I'll never sit in a bus stop again. O_O

Burkey

I don't mean to downplay any specific part of this project, but animation is a very long and arduous process. The more animators in the mix, the easier the work will be, and the sooner it can be finished. Hopefully everyone with flash experience will be able to pitch in, because asking one person to do all the animation could cause a lot of frustration.

I would  downplay everything else, as the animation process is by far the most important and time consuming. Which is why I wanna make sure we have reliable and finalized animation/art team before this project really starts to go anywhere.

I'm a Multimedia Technology and Design graduate, and my final-year project was a combination of Flash, ASP.net and XML. Unfortunately, my animation skills are pretty bad, but I'm your man if you're looking for Flash-database integration...  :D

I also own a legit copy of Flash MX 2004 if that helps. :)

I'm ready when you guys are.

A couple things I'd like to make sure are clearified here.

1. Though I will serve as one of the lead organizers in this project as well as the voice director, I won't be able to serve as the lead director because I don't have flash and know so little about the actual animation process. As a result, I can't be the one to give this project the official "green light".

2. Yes, this project will be needing voice actors to voice the recurring SPC characters, in addition to a few extras, but everyone's going to have to go through the standard screening process (yup, even me).
Landing a major role might be tough because I'll likely asking the Voice Acting Alliance and Newgrounds Voice Acting Club for auditions. However, I will try to give Edo Emporium members the benefit of the doubt as often as I can.  ;)


Sure if you'd like to e-mail me auditions you can go ahead, but recording for the actual flash cartoon is a long way off. Casting roles to voice actors is not my my biggest concern right now, simply because there are soooo many potential VAs out there.

Currently I'm focusing on finding more flash artists/animators (and one who's willing to be lead director) because without them, this project can't go anywhere.

I'd be glad to contribute my voice to portray a villain or two. 8)

I'm thinking maybe we could try animating the Princess Vi's Present (http://www.edoropolis.org/violet/manga_pvb/index.html) comic by Fuhred.
(Of course, I'd need to ask his permission...)

The humor is very much like that of the show, and using it would cut down time on storyboarding.

im pretty good at drawing and colouring in flash, i draw all my pics in it. i just dont know how to animate. ?:|

Okay.. I'll share what little information I have on animation in Flash.

There are two main techniques, the rest are combinations, variants, etc.

Technique A is the traditional Frame by Frame, wherein each frame is redrawn, or at least placed and set, by hand. This produces a more accurate-to-the-storyboard movement in scenes, but it is extremely time consuming.

Technique B is Tween Abuse, where tweens are used for everything. The upside is that it keeps the work quick, but a tween is extremely.... it eliminates the possibility that the cartoon won't look like a flash cartoon.

Your best bet is to use a good mix of both. Time can be saved by redrawing expressions on existing pictures if need be, but for the most part, everything is going to have to be new.

I know enough about flash to do these things, I just need a clear idea if what it is I'm doing, but I will not work alone. Are there any other animators who want to step up to the plate?

Aster, SonikkuKitten, SCerviche and PkerUNO all offered to help in one way or another.
That just might be our flash team.  =)

I can write up a great script for you guys ^__^

Toss up any ideas you want, and I'll see what I can hammer out.

Whee!

Burkey

I could also help ya out with the scirpt Burke if ya want it. Just incase my voice isn't high pitched and squeaky enough to do a voice over ^^

i might lend a helping hand with the script editting. hopefully, i can get a mic soon so that i can do some voice acting.

Count me in for script work and voice acting. If I can be able to get a mic installed on my computer.

Guys, don't worry about the script stuff, D-Mac and I will get that organized. YOU people have to worry about voicing, which is way harder than writing. Trust me.

Burkey

VAing isn't that hard once you've got a bit of experience. Can it still be time-comsuming? Definitely.

I'll be serving as Voice Director, so anyone who wants to e-mail me an audition for an SPC character may do so, but keep in mind I'm not even close to being ready to officially cast anyone yet. So you can hold off on trying out until I actually announce the casting call.

Remember, I'll be asking the Newgrounds Voice Acting Club and the Voice Acting Alliance for auditions as well, so we'll have no shortage of potential VAs.


The first step right now is to have a finalized art/animation team. We can't go anywhere until then.
Someone also needs to state that they would be willing to serve as Lead Animator. (Dasai? Aster? SonikkuKitten?)

This person will need to be in contact with the other artists and animators on a regular basis, and they'll likely be determining who does what.

Step two is to determine whether we'll be using Fuhred's fan comic as this cartoon's storyline to save storyboarding time, or have something completely new written.

Step three will be holding auditions, and eventually casting the roles.

Don't look at me.. I wouldn't make a good lead animator.

Question though, if we do not make the auditions... what other areas are needed? I want to partake in this project one way or another, there has to be something else I could help with.... in case I don't make it, right?

I just thought of something important.

Backgrounds. To perfectly mimic the SPC style, or even just to half-heartedly emulate it, we'll have to make the backgrounds look different.. they were always softer, more textured, than the characters themselves.

Also, Audio. Audio is going to be important. Not just the theme, but in-episode background music and sound effects.

Don't let me handle the soundtracking, because all I listen to is techno, and I'm sure nobody wants to watch Speedy fight to the 800th remix of Twilight Zone. :D

Now soundtacking I can do. I am pretty darn good at that, it's fun, and not all that time consuming. I have quite the wide arrange of tastes in music... as long as I have someone willing to help me out, perhaps I can do that part of this...? Just in case I don't get cast... and don't worry about be not having time to work on VA... by the time soundtracking is needed, I'm sure the cast will be complete. So think I can handle the sound department? ^^ Please..?

Well, since I don't think I will be able to get casted as a voice actor because of D-Mac's auditions of professionals. I think I'll be able to help with soundtracking. I'm pretty good at getting which part of the scene should have this piece of music and which kind of music is good for a film or a TV series. I'll help you with that. I have a wide variety of different kinds of musics and many different tastes. So, I'll help you out with that. I've kinda always wanted to make music for films and shows. it's just that I didn't put in much thought into it. Maybe it's now the time to see if I can make good soundtracks. Count me in for that.

Heh heh... some of the people in VAA and VAC are pretty good, but they're not professionals.
Like myself, they're just amateurs who've made a hobby out of online voice acting.

In case they do happen to get most or all of the major roles, I'll ensure that all the additional voices needed (Ninja Crows, extras) are done by Edo Emporium members.

Just so it's known, the lead animator doesn't necessarily have to be the best or most experienced, they just need to be able to keep in contact with the other animators/artists, to be sure everything's running smoothly.

----

I'm also thinking we could try and include some really short comedy skits involving the SPC characters as "Bonus content". These skits would be completely seperate from the main story, and each written by a different person. This is just an idea for now though, we can further into it later.

I don't know if this is important or not, but I specialize in frame by frame animation more than I do anything else. I have no problem with tweening and all that, but I have a problem letting go of traditional methods. I might even find myself doing many animations by hand before I even start anything in flash.  :O

Provided I'm not required to call countries other than Canada, I think I can take the role of Lead Animator.

EDIT: This is to say that I'm not required to be a deity of animating, I think I can handle it.

So, D-Mac, do we have a list of who wants to do what?

Ah, and @SonikkuKitten:
   Frame by Frame's going to be vitally important for complicated scenes. I only suggest using limited animation/autotween techniques for scenes where we can get away with it, really.

E-Mail and Instant Messaging is really all you need. =P 
I highly recommend AIM if you don't have it already.

I'll be updating the first post in this thread on a regular basis, with a list of who's doing what.  ;)

So does that mean that Andy and I can handle the soundtrack stuff then? You have yet to gvie us a yes or a no.

You guys are listed as the soundtrack and audio guys. Let me know if you need help.

I'm going to cast my vote for something original. The reason being is that even with the comic, we're going to have to do a LOT of storyboarding, and given that it'll be a lot of work anyway, I'd like to keep it unique to the boards should we have to change anything. (It'd be easier for me to e-mail BurkeWorld and say "Can we change this bit here, it's kinda not working right." without offending people.)

I'm with Dasai on this one. I'd love to write up somethin' for you guys to work on. ^__^

Burkey

please no fan characters. If were goning to make an SPC flash, lets do it the right way and have only the original cast of characters.

Yeah, the story being "Pre-Comet Caper" has already been decided upon, so there's obviously no need for any fan characters.

Sweet, keepin' it real.

Burkey

agreed. there are some places for fan chars. and yet, there are others that are...not for fan chars. and, the SPC flash certainly is not for any newer chars.

Okay.... I've set up an AIM account...

I am Dasai no Keito. Add me if you feel like.

My AIM is Deviant Ozzie. Anyone can get in touch with me there. If I'm not signed in I have it set to receive messages on my cell, so don't be afraid to text me. I'll do my best to get online and chat.

I'd rather start figuring this out (more specifically with the animation team) over AIM than leave a lengthy and confusing message on the board, so if I don't see any of you first then just pester me a bit. Don't worry, I won't bite. I'll peck you instead ;)

I've not heard anything.. is this still a-go?

I think it is, but until D-Mac says so and he's the one who's in charge of it. He's been taking auditions right now and he hasn't said a thing yet so he's still planning.

No, no, I have not yet begun taking auditions, and I probably won't be asking for any for quite a while.
When the audition period begins, everyone will know.  ;)

Now I've been doing a bit of thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that it'll be best to start with something small. Being able to say we've actually finished something, would be a big morale booster before we dive into the more difficult task of making an entire episode.
It should be something that shouldn't take too long, and could probably still serve as a "stand-alone" short animation.

So without further ado...

Our current goal is to animate this page from Fred Edwards' comic, Princess Vi's present.
http://www.edoropolis.org/violet/manga_pvb/6.html

Regardless of whether or not we end up using the rest of his comic for the main animation later on, for now, animating this page will give team members a chance to get a feel for things, and to see what we're capable of doing.

(Now here's why I don't really wanna be called "In charge of everything", as I can't help here in any way.  :-\)

Our potential artists/animators (Dasai, Aster, SCerviche, SonikkuKitten I suppose)  will need to talk amongst each other, and decide on who's going to be doing what. Once the artwork is started on, we can begin planning on the audio side of things.

That's actually a pretty good idea. The accomplishment will serve to boost our spirits and give us a chance to demo ourselves.

Thinking about it... won't this clip be, like, three seconds long? There's very little dialogue, and the backgrounds will be mostly vector randomness.

I think this scene will end up being somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds long when fully animated.

Let me know if you guys need any audio or music help.  I have a recording studio in my basement and have software to mix and master anything you want. I can also import the audio into flash.  Below is Sonar, its a good choice for multi-tracking voice acting and music.  I'll be happy to lend you any music for the sound track as well. ;)

Wow. I'm impressed on that. I guess me and some other is no longer the ones who are in charge of the soundtrack stuff.

No, the more help on audio the better, I can't do it all. Plus I have no voice acting talents to speak of.  ;-)

Haha.. I can see my name in there!

Where'd you get that, bud?

Burkey

Found it Burke
http://tstudios.edoropolis.org/multimania.html   <---- Thats where I got the song at

It was connected to Vi's page via a link to tstudios

Rock on.

Burkey ^_^

Awesome! Well, I look forward to working with yas on the soundtrack and audio then! The three of us should get together on AIM when it's time to start working on the sounds and stuff so we can be on the same page and everything.

Yeah, I'm getting Sonar as we speak, plus I've been doing music for well over 16 years. I'm good to go then.

AIM it is.

Burkey ^_^

I think a short "warmup" animation should be done first as to iron out some bugs. It would give everyone a chance to see what we can actually do. I suggest something along the lines of the animation type they use in "Foamy" (SCerviche probably watches more than I do so...) and then add voice acting

A Warm up animation is a good idea, maybe something like an intro. 

The "warmup animation" is what I proposed on the bottom of the last page. :P

I'm scratching out a rough storyboard now... I don't think this will be that long.. there's no real action to speak of, and the dialogue is brief. But if we do it right, we shouldn't have any problems.

Animators, we need to converse at one point to figure out how we shall produce this animation. I'm working on a whiteboard solution as we speak.

That's great to hear that Me and SPCPolly are not out of the soundtrack picture. Although I wouldn't mind about the IMing thing, but I do have a problem with the actual kind. I have YIM and don't have AIM. And I don't exactly turst AOL. So that could be a problem with me. But I would still love to help in any way I can.

yea just message me when im online, all my contact info is in my profile. but you will have an easier time talking to me on MSN because i dont use aim to much.

Like i said i only know very basic animation ( like tweening one image across the screen and so on ) but i am a very good drawer and can draw any SPC character in flash. so yea..... i'll do what i can.

You're right not to trust AIM. Thats why I use PeerGuardian to block the ad servers.  Just PM me if you want to talk.
I'm also going to start working on an intro and outro to the flash" just with text for now" with music just to get something started on the soundtrack side of things.  Ideas and are welcome. ;)

Have we decided on official music for this thing? Are we using the original, or do we have another song we're using?

Ah, and the storyboard is ugly, but almost done....

I think one of the light-hearted KNT background songs would be cool, but that'll be for our soundtrack people to decide.  ;-)

Right. I'll just PM you on my thinkings for the soundtrack. Send me of your stuff on the intros and outros and I'll tell you on what to do with them and how do with them. Once you get started on the musics.

Do we even have those in CD or MP3 quality?

We can have both, all we have to do is change the settings and such.

Burkey

I was thinking, we could do an intro with the names of everyone who worked on to the project to start complete with a rockin' song of some sort and then the KNT stuff for the actual flash or whathaveyou. As far as quality of sound I can re-master the KNT songs or anything you want in any format up to Dolby Digital 5.1 ;-)

Don't the credits usually go at the end?  :P

Not in all cases, but most of time, yeah they do. But who says we have to conform to society? We're the freakin' SPC fandom!

Whoo!

Burkey

Yeah, maybe we could do something special with the credits when we get to work on a whole episode of animation. (Ooh... 8-Bit Theatre 4 Opening. Now that... was cool.)

But what we're doing now is going to be a 30 second short. We shouldn't have more a than a 5 second intro preceding that short an animation. Which is why a credits display at the end would be ideal for now.

It is said that our very existance defies all sorts of social standards.. and some nerd standards....

Ok well, PM it is then. Just PM with your two ideas and yea... I'll respond. Might be easier through email though since you can send that to more then one person.

D-Mac is right, We should put credits at the end but we still should have some kind of intro.  It could say, "this flash was made by the freakin' SPC fandom".  :D  In that case we  only need a few seconds of music or sound effects. Feel free to AIM  or PM me with ideas.

"Freakin' SPC Fandom"

Oh man, I love it.. That's going in.

Burkey

There hows that. ;)   

*LOL*

Oh man, that's so good, if that title gets changed, I will leave the forum forever!

So funny, yet perfect.

Burkey

Hahahaha awesome, Threaux!!!

Very nicely done, I like it. ^^

Incessant Storyboard Update:

After a brief argument with my art supplies about their existance, and some sacking and rehiring, the storyboard is underway. I think we can pad this out. I'll scan what I've done at the end of my work day and share.

And I have... it's pretty loose, but I'm running out of art juice (read: caffienated beverage) and I cannot push more out of my arm...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/20122596/

Feel free to mock it, it only really makes sense if you have the comic open to compare it. If the rest of the animation crew would like to maybe improve or suggest, that'd be cool.... my info is in my profile.

And the dancing Commie says "FINITO!"

As far as sound effects go, we can do either sample existing stuff or record new stuff.  I dont care either way, just let us soundtrack  people know what you want. ;) 

Really? The SPC fandom "breaks rules" in its very existence? I didn't know hehe... ?:| sorry for the late post.



(SPC Fans - Defying the social standards since 1991 or so...)

Well, yeah.. we're fanatically devoted to a show that will probably never see the light of day again. Which makes us hardcore. :D

i'll lend a hand where i can, i have 4 sets of the show nearly complete, (french, english, japanese, russian) and am good at sampling/editing, remastering etc. also i can make the final flash an avi so people can get it as a video. but if you need me just hit me with a pm

thanks.

Gheez, I cant believe I didnt notice this sooner, talk about keeping up aperances. Well Ive got 2 weeks of school holidays next week, and I wouldnt mind doing either concept art or story boards. But it looks like you probably wont need me this time round, but as I understand this might lead into some larger and longer animations and if so count Me in  :D.

Did this project die?! :O Lets go people.  I was looking forward to working on this and then everyone stopped posting.

Maybe you should ask my brother
He's a pro on flash
check out his work
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/618573/ (http://www.sheezyart.com/view/618573/)
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/435475/ (http://www.sheezyart.com/view/435475/)
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/153171/ (http://www.sheezyart.com/view/153171/)
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/18809/ (http://www.sheezyart.com/view/18809/)
http://www.sheezyart.com/view/18721/ (http://www.sheezyart.com/view/18721/)

You like?
e-mail him
TeamKazuya@cs.com

Animation wasn't bad, voice acting could use a little work.

D-Mac! Get in here!

Show 'em how it's done.

Burkey

Hmm. It looks like we got some pros here in this forum. I think D-Mac should look into this. And I thought this thing died too. I guess this idea is still buzzing around. Huh.

Though I'd certainly like for one to be made, and he looks to be more than capable, I really don't feel that I'm in the right place to ask him to animate an SPC flash animation for this community.

Creating a good  full-length flash cartoon can be a long and arduous process, which asks for hours upon hours of art and programming work from the animator(s), and months of dedication.
Sadly, I'm unsure of how I could properly go about asking someone who doesn't even know me to take on this huge amount of work. Especially considering that I'm not even sure of whether or not he likes SPC, and the fact that I can't offer him any compensation.  :-\