Skynetessa Episode 04 - The Angel of Shadow

[George R Powell]

Back in February, I started writing a fantasy-steampunk audio play called "Skynetessa: Steampunk Audio Adventure". Having been a fan of adventure films (mostly of the 80s and 90s) ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted a chance to make my own. I've been a music composer for over 15 years (and am the music composer for Neomarz1's "Eve of October" animation as well) and, in that time, have worked with a number of directors on their films that I score, but sadly, like most people, I lacked the manpower and resources to actually produce a film, so I opted into writing an audio play instead. But there was always something I never liked about audio plays: you have to just listen while you stare at a boring logo for 10 minutes. I didn't want that at all, so with Skynetessa I attempted to do a mixed-media audio play where audio is still at its core but allows you to feel like you're watching a movie when you really aren't.

We just released Episode 04 yesterday, and in this particular episode, I did more than just the simple animations within my editing software. Because there was a chase scene involved, I employed the use of Anime Studio Pro to create background videos for composite. I also created a few dynamic shots prior to the action scene making use of ASP's 3D-ish ability.

The end product:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsfmyy ... shortfilms

If you wish to watch Episodes 1 - 3, in order to get caught up on the story prior to Episode 4, you can stream the episodes here:
http://skynetessa.georgerpowell.com/media

[ruscular3d]

I assume that you want an honest opinion, and forgive me if I seem brutal. If your still here after that, then I will continue. First off I really like the feel of the atmosphere of the setting and music. The mind can do wonderful thing if you only listen to audio like they did with radio drama or read a book. I also understand that with limited resource of trying to pull off a story.

This is not working for me, but I think it could be pulled off with a slightly different approach. If you ever played a adventure type video game and see all the characters standing in the middle of a background and when you place the mouse over the character you would see a big balloon pop up with dialogue. I think you emulate some of that style by placing the characters into the setting in the background and then have their head pop up enlarge over the character when they are talking. Be even better if the enlarge head could even lip sync with the dialogue!

The background setting is fantastic, the art is great. Getting the story to work in a way that I am drawn into the action is what I like to see change. The Eve of October has its minimalist approach and yet able to pull it off. In that regard I admire the artwork and maintaining a minimal resource.

I have been working on my character on and off that is trying to be like a marvel type vector type drawing with fully animated capabilities. There is that struggle between both style. So I understand the time consumption of making half a dozen character. I think the quality you have in the setting is there to inspire a team to get behind you to produce a fuller robust animated characters.

[George R Powell]

And that is a fair assessment. The whole series (thus far, anyway), from the perspective of an analytical mind, would seem more like "animate storyboarding" with audio. I suppose it could be seen as such.

Concerning your suggestion to make the adventure-game-dialogue approach, I don't think that would make it BETTER, per se, though it would make it DIFFERENT. I could have gone straight audio with the approach, but because I'm a visual person, I opted not to. One of the things I dislike about typical audio plays is that you never know who's talking or where they are at the time of the scene unless the director makes it perfectly distinct. In that, I wanted to address the desire to be able to see who the characters are and who is talking, as well as the setting (the background images are actually stylized stock photographs that I searched for on free stock photo websites).

I originally wasn't going to share this here, since it wasn't really related to Anime Studio, but chose to share this particular episode because I opted to utilize it for a few things (namely the chase scene background). I do have another production, that I am writing now, that I will be fully animating in ASP when it's ready for production.

So far, you are the first person to give critical feedback (though that is not to say it's bad or harsh) concerning the approach, which is something new for audio plays. I do appreciate that you can give an honest assessment.

[ruscular3d]

Thank you! That was my concern as well in regarding to knowing which character is talking. Im 80% deaf so I love captioning in all the movies I watch. I get distracted easy and lose my character dialogue.

I welcome any new approach of using the same software. It may not be the typical use, but I think it open up and broaden the possibility to keep evolving into something new. keep us posted!

[neomarz1]

I assume that you want an honest opinion, and forgive me if I seem brutal. If your still here after that, then I will continue. First off I really like the feel of the atmosphere of the setting and music. The mind can do wonderful thing if you only listen to audio like they did with radio drama or read a book. I also understand that with limited resource of trying to pull off a story.

This is not working for me, but I think it could be pulled off with a slightly different approach. If you ever played a adventure type video game and see all the characters standing in the middle of a background and when you place the mouse over the character you would see a big balloon pop up with dialogue. I think you emulate some of that style by placing the characters into the setting in the background and then have their head pop up enlarge over the character when they are talking. Be even better if the enlarge head could even lip sync with the dialogue! ...

Good points... I have a great suggestion... It would be very easy to rigg these heads for dialoque. Given that doing dialogue is tedious, but not near as taxing as animation can be... Well... Maybe that's not exactly true. Especially since George's screen play is heavily involved with dialogue. It could be easier if the dialogue was kept down to simple open shut animations... Auto dialogue seems to work pretty well for that (with a bit of tweaking).

I have been following Skynetessa, and I think for a Radio Screenplay, it's written very well, and the animations serves well to illustrate whats going on. I think people have become absorbed by todays animation, and forget that animation is only one aspect of story telling. Story telling used to be done purely on the radio, but we have become a society of visual gratification (myself included). I do appreciate the mention of my project... It is very demanding to run a project, when most of the production sits in your lap. Honestly I don't know how George does this... Composing music, and running a full on production. It's one of the many reasons he's working on my project... Just don't burn out on me George! I need you man!

I would gladly work on his project, if I weren't looking at 2 years of film production for the next couple of films. "George" if you should want to do something more on the animation side, you should hire someone to build your riggs, and animate... Keep all your dialoque, this could easlily be something you can come back to, as your networking, and resources grow. I kept "Eve" as a background comic project for many years.

[George R Powell]

I have considered the possibility of returning to Skynetessa on another format.

And I actually HAVE been working on my next project's pre-production. Skynetessa has reached its 4th episode (and Episode 5 is waiting on lines to produce) out of 18 episodes I've written, and I've been writing my next production that I am going to have fully-animated in Anime Studio, titled "Falafel: Redemption". I'm actually in the middle of writing Episode 18 of it today and it is still freshly in Act 3, so this next one looks to be longer than Skynetessa (as far as page count goes, it's already longer than Skynetessa).

Falafel: Redemption on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FalafelRedemption

I haven't decided whether to start production on Falafel parallel to Skynetessa or after Skynetessa is finished, but in either case, I've already begun creating the character models to get all the pre-production assets out of the way.

[neomarz1]

I have considered the possibility of returning to Skynetessa on another format.

And I actually HAVE been working on my next project's pre-production. Skynetessa has reached its 4th episode (and Episode 5 is waiting on lines to produce) out of 18 episodes I've written, and I've been writing my next production that I am going to have fully-animated in Anime Studio, titled "Falafel: Redemption". I'm actually in the middle of writing Episode 18 of it today and it is still freshly in Act 3, so this next one looks to be longer than Skynetessa (as far as page count goes, it's already longer than Skynetessa).

Falafel: Redemption on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FalafelRedemption

I haven't decided whether to start production on Falafel parallel to Skynetessa or after Skynetessa is finished, but in either case, I've already begun creating the character models to get all the pre-production assets out of the way.

Cant wait Bro. It's going to be cool.