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When I was a kid, I always had big ideas that I could never manage. I came up with the most ambitious pipe dreams as a kid, things that either never happened or happened on a cutesy, miniature scale that my friends helped with. During the early teenage years I decided to try to make a movie of a cartoon show, that required me casting a lot of roles. Back then, I was no good with the computer, didn't understand the concept of editing or post production work, and didn't have the necessary body count to do all the characters required for it. Not to mention anywhere I wanted to shoot had to be a place my mother could take us. Not to mention it was to be filmed on a crappy camcorder which recorded onto miniature VHS tapes, and I had no way of editing those to begin with. But when I finally dropped the whole thing, my understanding of the failure was that nobody I needed to act for me was ever available at the same time, and that directing people to do what I wanted was almost impossible.
Now of course, that's to be expected, as we were pubescent teens, barely into the double digits in years and half of us were bouncing off walls, while I stupidly believed they could even remain on screen long enough to be caught on film. But the lesson I learned from it was, "if you want something done, you do it yourself". Years later, this reasoning is what made me believe I could film an entire CG movie, SIX entire CG movies in point of fact, all by my lonesome. It was this attempt which forged my love for 3D animation, which remains strong to this day. After all, in a computer environment, you give the "actors" orders, and they follow them, they don't muck about, they don't need coaching. Why? Because you took them by the hand so that everything was the way you wanted it.
This project also failed. I realized it was too grandiose for one man to undertake, and the payoff was too small even if I did it.
So I've always been looking for that one, that point where I could whip something together where my skill level could manage it, and where it wasn't too long winded.
I've had a few micro-successes. My first CGI bust was an attempt to wind everything together into a non-canon short that basically tested whether it could fit together. This one was pretty much my first attempt at character animation, as well as tying effects into a sequence instead of a short, generic test. Remembering back to how proud I was of it makes me laugh. There was so much I didn't know, so much I'd yet to learn, but I thought I was the Moon and the Stars.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEG4MlapU84&fmt=18[/ame]
My second try at something big took me six months, including all my own procrastination, naturally. It was a new project, one I'm afraid I'll be dropping. Not because it's beyond my ability, but because the team I had assembled before is quite fractured now, time and life eroding my links to great voice talent and enthusiastic followers. I could do it alone, but until I can get help, it doesn't seem worth it anymore.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC_NwOM12Wo&fmt=18[/ame]
I'm still proud of this, even though there are a number of errors, and a couple bits of half-assery. One point might have been *****in' if I'd not been too lazy to do the extra camera work, but it was meant to be a demonstration as well as a birthday gift to a friend, and it had taken too long, even as imperfect as it was. This was also back when I still bothered with the Biped system for characters, before I learned how to use IK, and thus, dropped the biped system off a cliff for all the hassles it gave me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I digress though, and quite a damn lot. Point is, I'm feeling in my bones that what I'm planning now, is my big hurrah, the production I've always wanted to make, but never could before. After so long in the making, I've finally decided to go back to Live Action, and back to my anime muse Dragonball.
But this time, I have the knowhow, I have the resources. Only recently I've purchased a Kogan HD 1080 camcorder, a modest, but viable device that will suit my shooting needs, able to shoot in 1080p, though I'll keep it at 720 so I can utilize the better motion, the higher 60fps frame rate, the digital image stabilization, etc. My next paycheck will buy a tripod and greenscreen.
But aside from the technical mumbo-jumbo, what the bleeding Hell am I talking about, right?
Well, Dragonball Evolution was a film of inspiration, and a film of utter disappointment. There were things I loved. I loved the ki effects, the music... There were things I hated. Pretty much everything else...
Always, people pointed to the "Youtube fan films that did it better". Always, I'd see them point to this:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KTHAy9L24g&fmt=18[/ame]
Well, it certainly was interesting, but I'd like to point out, having seen the whole thing rather than only this infamous DBZ segment, that the film it was a part of was neither totally DBZ, and neither was it very serious. It was actually a comedy/parody, and it was still pretty cheesy.
One trend I noticed was there were no true fan films for DBZ. They were always mindless fights. The characters were either bad attempts to cast the characters of Dragonball, or else original characters that had no backstory, yet had all of Vegeta and Goku's special moves. Never was there a plot, usually there was no dialogue. When there was, it was recorded on the spot, and not redubbed by the actors afterward for audio clarity. Then there was scenery. Most of these fights took place in backyards and residential areas, parks or other spaces totally implausible to be believed as the site of a Dragonball scale battleground.
And always, they were recorded in resolution and quality that was a right ass. No camera tracking, pitiful green screen attempted with badly animated keyed-out picture-in-picture footage against a blank background. Almost always the effects were done using After Effects, and it was almost always the same two aura and Kamehameha effects that everyone and their dog uses for this ****. And naturally, no use of on-set lights to help with things like, I don't know, producing a flash from an energy blast explosion, which MASSIVELY aids in creating the illusion that the explosion is part of the footage and not just tacked on top of the footage. And then of course, there's either be no music, or that same tired old battle theme used from the Japanese version of DBZ.
Also, if a character was required to shout an attack name or yell to power up, the actors themselves wouldn't make any sound at all, it would always be the same audio clips ripped out of the Japanese dub, with Goku yowling like a cat ("Hlaaaaaaaaaaa!"). Come on people, really, you're brave enough to act all this out, but you're too insecure to yell for the camera? It's really not that difficult.
And of course, they ALWAYS use the sound effects from DBZ. Now, it's good for a CGI piece, or a game or Flash animation, but those sound effects used in live action don't work, they sound blurry and fake, same goes for how hard they try to do a ridiculous costume, or exactly recreate the visual look of the Dragonball Ki, which is massively simplified, and thus looks like laser beams, while the Dragonball Evolution effects are more fractal, and feel a lot more like "spiritual energy".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, sensing this gap, I've decided I want to fill it. I've heard people suggest such an idea before, but I wasn't ready then. I knew nothing about bringing CGI into live action, or editing footage to make people fly, or do battle at absurd rates of speed and power. But now, I'd like to try. And so, I begin "Dragonball: Reawakening".
It will be my attempt at a multi-part fanfilm. I've been writing a script for it based around original characters in the DB Universe nearly 100 years after the end of Dragonball Z. These characters are the Saiyan descendants, who will only realize their potential through trials of self-discovery, as they unlock the secrets of their heritage. One will opt to use his power to control the world, while the other will have to keep up in order to stop him. Of course, there are a number of plot details. The protagonist for one thing, doesn't realize he has Saiyan blood until the antagonist tracks him down and destroys his city in an attempt to eliminate anyone who could threaten him. Our protagonist survives the attempt, unknown by the villain, and being the owner of the Four-Star Dragonball (passed down to him, though he never thought it was much more than a fancy bit of glass art before) decides to see if the Dragonballs really DO have the power to set things right, as he feels responsible for his town's destruction, being the sole reason that the antagonist came there, and is willing to go out on a limb if it means clearing his conscience.
I've done some research on the workings of some of DBE's effects and have worked out that merely having a very reflective like-colored sphere as a prop is all you need to bring a Dragonball to life. I'm currently in the process of making a set of such spheres to be used as the base props.
The Dragonballs:
The Dragonballs inserted into a photograph with props meeting the necessary requirements.
I've also done simple tests to recreate the Ki/aura effects used in DBE. This aura took up too much space, but it's a Hell of a good start, and deeply resembles the smoky, fiery and fluid appearance of DBE's ki effects. It's not very immersive, because the footage was taken with the video mode of a cheap camera (NOT camcorder). The HD camcorder will provide much better results.
I have several of my friends intended to act as characters built around themselves for this film. We have several locations to be used throughout, but we've chosen to make the drive out to Joshua Tree National Park in order to film the final battle of the film in a combination of "Jumbo Rocks", and "Painted Canyon", both areas within reach with exceptional and interesting terrain that would visually click for a truly Dragonball style environment.
I hope to keep anyone interested updated, but I hope this ultra-long post gets my full point across X]
Now of course, that's to be expected, as we were pubescent teens, barely into the double digits in years and half of us were bouncing off walls, while I stupidly believed they could even remain on screen long enough to be caught on film. But the lesson I learned from it was, "if you want something done, you do it yourself". Years later, this reasoning is what made me believe I could film an entire CG movie, SIX entire CG movies in point of fact, all by my lonesome. It was this attempt which forged my love for 3D animation, which remains strong to this day. After all, in a computer environment, you give the "actors" orders, and they follow them, they don't muck about, they don't need coaching. Why? Because you took them by the hand so that everything was the way you wanted it.
This project also failed. I realized it was too grandiose for one man to undertake, and the payoff was too small even if I did it.
So I've always been looking for that one, that point where I could whip something together where my skill level could manage it, and where it wasn't too long winded.
I've had a few micro-successes. My first CGI bust was an attempt to wind everything together into a non-canon short that basically tested whether it could fit together. This one was pretty much my first attempt at character animation, as well as tying effects into a sequence instead of a short, generic test. Remembering back to how proud I was of it makes me laugh. There was so much I didn't know, so much I'd yet to learn, but I thought I was the Moon and the Stars.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEG4MlapU84&fmt=18[/ame]
My second try at something big took me six months, including all my own procrastination, naturally. It was a new project, one I'm afraid I'll be dropping. Not because it's beyond my ability, but because the team I had assembled before is quite fractured now, time and life eroding my links to great voice talent and enthusiastic followers. I could do it alone, but until I can get help, it doesn't seem worth it anymore.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC_NwOM12Wo&fmt=18[/ame]
I'm still proud of this, even though there are a number of errors, and a couple bits of half-assery. One point might have been *****in' if I'd not been too lazy to do the extra camera work, but it was meant to be a demonstration as well as a birthday gift to a friend, and it had taken too long, even as imperfect as it was. This was also back when I still bothered with the Biped system for characters, before I learned how to use IK, and thus, dropped the biped system off a cliff for all the hassles it gave me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I digress though, and quite a damn lot. Point is, I'm feeling in my bones that what I'm planning now, is my big hurrah, the production I've always wanted to make, but never could before. After so long in the making, I've finally decided to go back to Live Action, and back to my anime muse Dragonball.
But this time, I have the knowhow, I have the resources. Only recently I've purchased a Kogan HD 1080 camcorder, a modest, but viable device that will suit my shooting needs, able to shoot in 1080p, though I'll keep it at 720 so I can utilize the better motion, the higher 60fps frame rate, the digital image stabilization, etc. My next paycheck will buy a tripod and greenscreen.
But aside from the technical mumbo-jumbo, what the bleeding Hell am I talking about, right?
Well, Dragonball Evolution was a film of inspiration, and a film of utter disappointment. There were things I loved. I loved the ki effects, the music... There were things I hated. Pretty much everything else...
Always, people pointed to the "Youtube fan films that did it better". Always, I'd see them point to this:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KTHAy9L24g&fmt=18[/ame]
Well, it certainly was interesting, but I'd like to point out, having seen the whole thing rather than only this infamous DBZ segment, that the film it was a part of was neither totally DBZ, and neither was it very serious. It was actually a comedy/parody, and it was still pretty cheesy.
One trend I noticed was there were no true fan films for DBZ. They were always mindless fights. The characters were either bad attempts to cast the characters of Dragonball, or else original characters that had no backstory, yet had all of Vegeta and Goku's special moves. Never was there a plot, usually there was no dialogue. When there was, it was recorded on the spot, and not redubbed by the actors afterward for audio clarity. Then there was scenery. Most of these fights took place in backyards and residential areas, parks or other spaces totally implausible to be believed as the site of a Dragonball scale battleground.
And always, they were recorded in resolution and quality that was a right ass. No camera tracking, pitiful green screen attempted with badly animated keyed-out picture-in-picture footage against a blank background. Almost always the effects were done using After Effects, and it was almost always the same two aura and Kamehameha effects that everyone and their dog uses for this ****. And naturally, no use of on-set lights to help with things like, I don't know, producing a flash from an energy blast explosion, which MASSIVELY aids in creating the illusion that the explosion is part of the footage and not just tacked on top of the footage. And then of course, there's either be no music, or that same tired old battle theme used from the Japanese version of DBZ.
Also, if a character was required to shout an attack name or yell to power up, the actors themselves wouldn't make any sound at all, it would always be the same audio clips ripped out of the Japanese dub, with Goku yowling like a cat ("Hlaaaaaaaaaaa!"). Come on people, really, you're brave enough to act all this out, but you're too insecure to yell for the camera? It's really not that difficult.
And of course, they ALWAYS use the sound effects from DBZ. Now, it's good for a CGI piece, or a game or Flash animation, but those sound effects used in live action don't work, they sound blurry and fake, same goes for how hard they try to do a ridiculous costume, or exactly recreate the visual look of the Dragonball Ki, which is massively simplified, and thus looks like laser beams, while the Dragonball Evolution effects are more fractal, and feel a lot more like "spiritual energy".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, sensing this gap, I've decided I want to fill it. I've heard people suggest such an idea before, but I wasn't ready then. I knew nothing about bringing CGI into live action, or editing footage to make people fly, or do battle at absurd rates of speed and power. But now, I'd like to try. And so, I begin "Dragonball: Reawakening".
It will be my attempt at a multi-part fanfilm. I've been writing a script for it based around original characters in the DB Universe nearly 100 years after the end of Dragonball Z. These characters are the Saiyan descendants, who will only realize their potential through trials of self-discovery, as they unlock the secrets of their heritage. One will opt to use his power to control the world, while the other will have to keep up in order to stop him. Of course, there are a number of plot details. The protagonist for one thing, doesn't realize he has Saiyan blood until the antagonist tracks him down and destroys his city in an attempt to eliminate anyone who could threaten him. Our protagonist survives the attempt, unknown by the villain, and being the owner of the Four-Star Dragonball (passed down to him, though he never thought it was much more than a fancy bit of glass art before) decides to see if the Dragonballs really DO have the power to set things right, as he feels responsible for his town's destruction, being the sole reason that the antagonist came there, and is willing to go out on a limb if it means clearing his conscience.
I've done some research on the workings of some of DBE's effects and have worked out that merely having a very reflective like-colored sphere as a prop is all you need to bring a Dragonball to life. I'm currently in the process of making a set of such spheres to be used as the base props.
The Dragonballs:
The Dragonballs inserted into a photograph with props meeting the necessary requirements.
I've also done simple tests to recreate the Ki/aura effects used in DBE. This aura took up too much space, but it's a Hell of a good start, and deeply resembles the smoky, fiery and fluid appearance of DBE's ki effects. It's not very immersive, because the footage was taken with the video mode of a cheap camera (NOT camcorder). The HD camcorder will provide much better results.
I have several of my friends intended to act as characters built around themselves for this film. We have several locations to be used throughout, but we've chosen to make the drive out to Joshua Tree National Park in order to film the final battle of the film in a combination of "Jumbo Rocks", and "Painted Canyon", both areas within reach with exceptional and interesting terrain that would visually click for a truly Dragonball style environment.
I hope to keep anyone interested updated, but I hope this ultra-long post gets my full point across X]
