justdalek

[justdalek]

Hello animation community! I am in need of guidance and areas to research for possibly building a team for an indie animated pilot (looking at like 2 years down the road for starting pre-production since I am currently dealing with a lot of personal irl things that should stable out in the next couple years).

I have experience in terms of creating a team for live action television production and executing the projects successfully, but in terms of an animation team I have very little knowledge on the matter. I'm not 100% sure of where to look in terms of researching seeing everything going on in the animation world from budget and job cuts to the hell that is AI, and I would like to have resources that give me the full scope of what exactly goes into the animation team in terms of pre, during, and post production.

I was initially thinking of pitching my project idea to corporate studios, but seeing their treatment of animation as a whole alongside the teams and creators, I would rather stay far away from that until corporate can get their shit together (this project of mine is around 7 years old creation wise, and currently is sitting with a final episode count of 100 across 6 seasons). I would like to see my project from being to end without the fear of it getting canceled part way through on top of letting artists, editors, designers, VAs, and other team members flourish and try new things with their craft under a chill and relaxed atmosphere.

Websites, books, and experiences/stories (both cooperate and indie) are more than welcome on this post! I want to make sure I'm treating the team right in terms of workload and timelines, and not creating a stressful or frustrating work environment if and when I bring this project to life.

[justdalek]

South Park: Infinity War

[justdalek]

[justdalek]

Alright, discussion for the night: we should have more big classy interpretations of the sin of gluttony

[justdalek]

why does emiko like masquerade partties? does kaiya's parents force him to train? why does sana have white hair? how did yuka discover he talent?

1. Emiko has a ton of fun designing masquerade parties since there’s an “air of mystery about them” (largely referring to everyone in masks). She’s all about having people meet by fate (“I don’t read romance novels,” she says, “I make them come alive!”). Of course, it’s not like she doesn’t like designing other parties, but she gets more of a trill outta mask parties (if her dad, Teruteru, is the chef at the party, the two place bets on who’s gonna leave the party with who, a fun pastime of theirs)

2. Kaiyo’s parents don’t necessarily force him to train, but they do push him towards at least having a regiment roughly 3 days a week. Both are worried that Kaiyo might find himself in a nasty situation (seeing his talent of being the Ultimate Spy) and need to defend himself, but they don’t realize that Kaiyo’s way of spying mostly involves him just sitting in a room reading and gathering intel. He also has more of a passive attitude than a confrontational attitude

3. Sana was just born with it. Both Nekomaru and Akane thought it was cool that he has dual colored hair (Emiko’s strand of light brown hair is also something she was born with, not dyed)

4. It was mainly Yuka’s ability to listen to people and quickly assess how to address their problems in a healthy manner that got her scouted as the Ultimate Counselor. Her main focuses are cognitive, acupuncture, and music therapies

[justdalek]

Going on a mini Danganronpa kick (I finally finished Trigger Happy Havoc after I finished DR2 a year ago lol), so some DR2 next gen content!

Rambles of the kids beloooow

Emiko Hanamura: The Ultimate Party Planner

Parents: Teruteru Hanamura and the Ultimate Imposter

Age: 16

Story: The daughter of the Ultimate Cook and the Ultimate Imposter, Emiko knows how to plan any party that you can think of! From birthdays to surprise random parties, Emiko's got you covered! Though, if we're being honest, masquerade balls are her favorite parties to plan.

Kaiyo Kuzuryu: The Ultimate Spy

Parents: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu and Peko Pekoyama

Age: 16

Story: The heir to the Kuzuryu Clan, Kaiyo would rather spend his days reading in the backyard than train to hone in on his weapons skills to better sharpen his talent. While his parents are understanding of his growing dislike towards his ultimate, they are both hoping that sending Kaiyo to Hopes Peak Academy can give him a fresh new insight towards the potential of his talent.

Sana Nidai: The Ultimate Motivational Speaker

Parents: Nekomaru Nidai and Akane Owari

Age: 17

Story: The loudest student of his class, Sana has a reason for his large bravado: motivation! He loves giving speeches that inspire hope and wellbeing among his peers and colleagues, as well as hanging out with new people everyday. Of course, he inherited one major thing from his parents, and that's their love for meat.

Yuka Hinata: The Ultimate Counselor

Parents: Hajime Hinata and Chiaki Nanami

Age: 15

Story: Being the counselor of the group tends to wear Yuka down, but she has yet to give up the hope that people will get better in time. Alongside her father and Makoto Naegi, Yuka and her class are the start towards a new era of hope from Hope's Peak Academy.

If you guys want to, you can pop in questions about the kids or their parents in the ask box

[justdalek]

This links to a wheel with nearly a hundred fic tropes for plots, settings, and more. Spin it twice.

This could also work with art inspiration, but the buttons only allow for so many characters on them. And please do ramble in the tags! I'm going to have no idea what most of you are talking about, and it's going to be great.

[justdalek]

Mario and Luigi: Brothership Review

I just finished M&L: Brothership and hoooooly cow that was a crazy game (in a very good way)

tldr: 8/10, definitely 3rd out of the 8 M&L games (yes I'm including the remakes)

Long review under cut (spoilers ahoy!)

Okay, so let me say that I have been with M&L for over a decade now. I was introduced to the series via SullyPWNZ's let's play of M&L: Partners in Time and then eventually getting my first M&L game that is Dream Team and falling in love with the series as a whole (I've played every game except the original Superstar Saga).

That being said, there's a lot to unpack with Brothership, so let's get the cons out of the way first bc there isn't a lot.

Luigi being controlled with A in battles: UUUUUUUGH Nintendo if you do one patch to the game, please let it be either Luigi is solely B or you can toggle which button to use for him in the settings. My muscle memory screwed me over in so many battles bc I'd default to pressing A with Luigi instead of B bc in battle A = Mario and B = Luigi. Lowkey felt like Luigi's commands were made more complicated instead of simplified.

More with Arc and Arc's Father: This is a weird one, but it very much felt like Arc was just tossed to the wayside after Lushgreen Sea. I was waiting for more development with him or his dad, but we don't see his dad until the end credits. Very much felt like a wasted character and (pun not intended) character arc.

Receiving Bros Attacks: I do miss the puzzle aspect from BIS and DT and it very much feels like it takes forever to receive all the Bros Attacks (like you don't receive the shells until after Gorumbla's defeat)

Yeah, that's it. Let's get to the pros.

Quality of Life Improvements: Skippable cutscenes, fast forwarding, optional or very quick tutorials wonderful to see again!

Pacing: While slow at first, the ending does go by very quickly, so I'm not complaining about it.

Bite-Sized Exploration: With the islands being on the smaller side, there's still a lot to do and a lot to come back to!

References Galore!: Every one of the M&L games are referenced and it's so cool to see it!

Burnedette and Chilliam: Oh my god I love these two so freakn much. This is very much what I've missed in media in general is to have a happy couple with little issues and that stick together through thick and thin. Their bond mission was so heartwarming and cute.

Extension Corps: Okay, I love the pun names, but also their arc was something I kinda wish M&L would do more. If I recall correctly, this is the first time that an antagonist in M&L has been first of all redeemed and second of all still relevant to the plot post redemption. The ECs did good deeds after Zokket's defeat and were even willing to help the bros when Reclusa went bonkers. They're also just dorks and I love them.

Cable puns: This may be my inner mass comm geeking out, but I love every single one of the cable puns and enemy designs that incorporated said cables. It was very much a genius move.

Bowser is largely neutral: So Bowser not being the final boss and not going after Peach is??? Amazing??? Don't get me wrong, Bowser being Bowser in M&L is always funny, but this time it was very refreshing to have the main villains be villains without Bowser sweeping in and making it all about himself.

Starlow: I very much am not a fan of Starlow (I tolerate her), and while the cameo was nice, I'm more glad that she let Snoutlet do his own thing with the bros rather than using her as a crutch when she shows up to the ship.

Peach: She isn't kidnapped?! Whaaat?! Jokes aside, like with Bowser, I'm glad that Brothership took a much different route with her by having her join IDLE and be more proactive in helping the bros find out information. It's nice that we don't have to worry about "saving the princess" and can focus on Concordia.

Mushroom Kingdom denizens as a whole: I'm going to slightly compare Brothership to Superstar Saga and Dream Team in that the MK and Bowser's minions are really used a lot here, letting the player focus more on the new world. Very much enjoy being able to explore without crazy interferences from Toad shenanigans (looking at you, Paper Jam).

Cozette as Zokket: I'm not gonna lie: I did not see that twist coming. Looking back at Cozette and how Reclusa got his mitts on her, it's such a good twist in that even the best of people can get brainwashed under the right circumstances to do evil things.

Reclusa: He's such an asshole, but I love him as a villain. Even though he's physically there towards the end of the game, his character isn't rushed and we get to see him be so unapologetically evil the entire time.

Connie and Snoutlet: These two were so much fun to have on this journey. I like their energy and banter more than Starlow and Prince Dreambert, and I hope there's more of this kind of energy in future M&L games.

Vibes: I feel like M&L has down spiraled in terms of having a lot of negative humor since Bowser's Inside Story, with it really being ugly in Paper Jam. However, Brothership literally turns the ship around and has a much more positive atmosphere about it, and it's so refreashing.

Music: While this game doesn't have the most memorable soundtrack, when it does have bangers they are super good. Standouts for me include the battle and boss themes and Twistee Island.

The Message: I usually see this more in the Paper Mario series, but the overall message that while being alone, having bonds with people is important is such a good message that needs to be told more. The fact that this game displays that there are multiple kinds of bonds (family, friends, romantic, rivals, etc) is so cool and validating to see.

Mario and Luigi: Easily one of their best performances alongside Dream Team. They bounce off of each other and truly show the power of brothership. Also having Luigi cook so much in this game was so freakn funny but also, "he has an idea! Let him cook!"

There's so much more I could say, but I really love this game overall and can ramble about all day

[justdalek]

I finally watched the Wicked movie, and something about this portion of “No One Mourns The Wicked” kept getting looped in my head, so I thought I’d make something of it.

… It would be something the Sins of Gluttony, Lust, and Greed would sing, wouldn’t it?

[justdalek]

YES THATS THE FRAMES!!!

I don’t have time to find the exact frame rn, but istg that at one point in Sinsmas, Andrealphus looked like Berdly

[justdalek]

I don’t have time to find the exact frame rn, but istg that at one point in Sinsmas, Andrealphus looked like Berdly

[justdalek]

Also if anybody has questions about Seven (literally any question lol), feel free to ask!

[justdalek]

Wooo time to present my college senior project!

For several years now I’ve made some concept art here and there about the Seven Deadly Sins, but now I actually got to bring them to life in this pilot! So please go check it out, the cast, crew, and I had such a blast making this, and aside from a few more episodes that’ll be releasing in the following months, we hope that it’ll get off the ground and become a full blown tv show!

[justdalek]

Oof, it’s been so long since I’ve last drawn these two dorks-

Anyhoo, the idea had been circulating in my head for a while about mashing batb with my sins world, but these two have three different characters they could be, so I’m drawing them all starting off with Sin of Envy Cogsworth and Virtue of Kindness Lumiére! Envy and Kindness are both huge nerds and almost always a package pair, thus them picking Cogs and Lumi as their humans to walk among mortals.

The other two pairs are coming soonish, that being:

Virtue of Chastity Cogsworth and Virtue of Abstinence Lumiére

Sin of Gluttony Cogsworth and Sin of Lust Lumiére

Feel free to ask any version questions btw, all 6 are very hilarious in their own rights

[justdalek]

Me: Man, I haven’t drawn Lumiworth in forever

Me, 2 hours into line art and coloring: Wait a minute… Lumiére’s hair is supposed to curl downward, not upward-

The page of line art: Whatcha gonna do bout it?

Me, sobbing: Guess I gotta redo his hair-

[justdalek]

OMG. Somebody said it out loud.

Disney is absolutely not the only studio doing this though.

It seems to have become standard practice across movies and series everywhere.

Anything that doesn't do it is like a breath of sunlight and fresh air inside a dank musty cave.

It's part of the 'fix it in post-production' epidemic sweeping through the studios. Fix it in post is often used as a time/money-saving measure - and is absolutely part of the same mess that the WGA is fighting against currently.

Rather than fixing things on-set - audio, lighting, something in-frame that shouldn't be, etc. (which is all handled by unionized crew) - they leave it for the CG folks (not unionized) to edit later.

(on ridiculously tight schedules that leave them scrambling, cutting corners, and working inhumane hours)

See also: that part where scripts aren't finished, because the studio won't fully staff the writers room, and won't pay to have writers on-set for day-of-filming script questions and fixes (which could resolve issues such as 'what kind of lighting do we need here?')

Anyway, all this shit we, as audiences, keep complaining about - bad lighting, bad sound, wonky visual effects, over-usage of not-great CGI, stilted acting on green-screen sets, scripts that seem not-quite-finished, costumes that look like they're cheap and flimsy, terrible hair and makeup, films and series that aren't as polished as they could be...

Plus the complaints we have about streaming services and their shenanigans...

All of that is enmeshed in the extreme capitalism that has taken over everything, including entertainment, to the point that studios are abusing their workforce and churning out material that - at best just doesn't live up to its potential - at worst, is just unwatchable shit.

[justdalek]

my copy of brothership arrived yesterday and now i can safely say this