MoTR Production Update: Week 12
- 1rregularcharlie
- Jun 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 1
AHOY! THE ANIMATION CONTINUES!
Gods, it always feels like I'm not animating/working hard enough. Yet when the others remind me where we were a year ago compared to now I realise we've actually made a fair amount of process.
I mean a year ago I was dragging my feet hoping that I could somehow get a studio to look at the original Member of The Revelry pitch bible, and having zero success. Now we're actually animating, having already gotten all the characters voiced. We're in the process of animating 3 shorts with these characters within this world. Everyone who has gotten a peek behind the scenes has given nothing but positive feedback.
It's just a fact of this kind of production with such a small team that the beginnings are a bit of drag as you work out the specifics and essentially make the foundations the rest of the production rests upon.
It's good to take a moment and remind yourself that you are making progress. Day by day. Chunk by chunk. Little victories after little victories.
Which I suppose is just a generally good life lesson. :)
Current Status:
General:
So, the rough animation for shot 3 of the 2nd short continues. I VASTLY underestimated the complexity of this shot, but it is teaching me a lot. Particularly about how we're going to have different body parts of a character move between the different layers.
Beyond that we also had a meeting the other day in which we went over the animatic and script for episode 1 and reworked/came up with new shots and sequences to help flesh out the world. Even creating an entirely new mysterious character (who doesn't need to be voiced). I'm very happy with what we came up and am very much looking forward to writing and boarding the new and reworked elements.
Rough Animation:
Animation:
Welp the work continues. The talking segment of this sequence is completed now we're working on the more active part of this shot. I'm focusing on Hawkins for the moment because Carbo generally reacts to what Hawkins is doing for this shot.
Not really too much to say on this.
I am really hoping that the layering I've already prepared will work when added to the Blender scene. As you can see the outline of the character change colour based on what layer they're sitting on.
For example in Hawkins case the yellowy/green outline indicates the layer closest to the camera and as we can see when Hawkins' fishing rod gets yanked forward, Hawkins' head crosses from the Middle layer (The green outline one I call the BASE layer) to the Forward layer and then back as they pull back on the rod.
My hope is that this doesn't cause issues when we take this rough animation into Blender. I can't imagine how it would, but I suppose we'll see.
This is one of those shots in which the animation only works because the camera DOESN'T move.
I will be taking a short break from the rough animation as I work on something else MoTR related which I'll go into later on in this post. Also, I can tell I'm getting a little burnt out on this shot.
Writing:
The Rewrite:
I mentioned earlier on in this post and also last week that we would be going through the script and boards for episode 1 and rewriting/adding shots and sequences to help flesh out the characters and put more emphasis on the narrative hook of the series.
Happy to say we've had a meeting about that and I'm very excited with the new concepts we've come up with.
Lots of new shots for Hawkins. New voice lines for the entire cast but in particular Cpt. Reveller, Carbo, Hawkins, Hyppos and Lamenter.
Also, a whole new mute character Natka is very keen to design. Don't worry they're not just mute because we'd have to cast and pay for a whole new VA to voice them but because it actually plays into their character. I won't reveal much except to tell you they're called: BB.
I'm really, really happy with the new additions and I feel as if we've managed to pace the episode better as well as add new lines and hints to pull upon the audiences' curiosity about where this series is going, and it's central hook.
Also, also am I SO happy... that we hadn't already started animating episode 1. Because that would have been... demoralising.
PRIDE:
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH FOLKS!
From everyone who's been helping in any way with MoTR:
We are queer. We are trans. We are allies. We are all part of the great colourful tapestry of humanity. We will not be shamed, silenced or ignored. We will not live a single day, a single hour, a single minute without PRIDE. May you never live in shame, for being who you are. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!
I've decided that we should really have something to show the world our, gay and trans as all heck, indie animated series.
Thus I'm taking a break from rough animating the 2nd shot of the 3rd short to make SOMETHING, for PRIDE. Not sure if it'd be a short comic, maybe something animated but something. And it will obviously feature the MoTR cast.
After all the core of this series, beyond the pirates and electro swing, is the reality of realising you're trans and how that fact isn't and shouldn't be ALL you are. This whole concept was born out of the thought I had back in 2019 that I wish I had known the signs, the terminology, the repressed/ignored thoughts to look out for and analysis. Maybe, I wouldn't have been in my early 20's when I realised and had my entire life path altered by the revelation. Maybe, I wouldn't have felt so suddenly alone, isolated and depressed. Concerned that my being transgender had become the one thing that would override everything else about me. Maybe, I would have known how to incorporate that fact into my being without all the mistakes and pitfalls. I had wished I'd had a group of friends, who could help me work through it. Thus, The Revelry was born. ;D
My hope is that MoTR will become just another building block upon the colourful brick road that normalises being Transgender. That it helps lead to a future where being Gay or Trans or African or Asian or Muslim or Buddhist or Bi or Pan or Ace or ANYTHING, isn't the one thing that defines you. To define us or shame us, because of one aspect of our identity, is to reduce us.
We're all weird and complicated creatures.
Just trying to live our best lives. Anyway this turned into a bit of a ramble, hope you can forgive me.
The Coming Week:
1rregularCharlie:
Do the PRIDE thing. Continue rough animation. Move onto The Animation Guide, which I will need to detail A LOT. It's slow progress, but it is progress. Natka:
Do some rough concepts for BB.
Katherine:
She's done all of her exams and is back onto the modelling! That's our girl!
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