I was pretty much the âcreative leadâ for my group. We couldnât get it done, and lost 1st to a mediocre STICKMAN animation. The problem wasnt even me, it was my group who was the true problem⊠They all were unmotivated and reluctant to draw⊠Except for one friend, whose Iâll show. Other dude did nothing, other dude made a debacle that couldn't even be classified as progress. Meanwhile I was sweating my ass off making the beginning. We started strong and flopped harder than fishies. This weekâs premise was animation, which I was delighted to hear about. First day I couldnât make it, second day I got dropped in the deep end of the pool with no reprieve whatsoever⊠But as you all know me⊠(2 fans in the world) I was persistent as ever⊠We originallyâI originally came up with the idea of; In a medieval setting, a man nocks an arrow, and once he releases it the camera will pan and track the arrow as it makes its mark in an apple sat firmly on a manâs head. A handful, I know. Even the others in my group felt a bit sour-grapes about the concept. So after some short brainstorming, weâI⊠Was hit with an amazing revelation⊠What if I bumped the time period up? It certainly worked, I tell you. Itâs one of the most common tropes of them all!!! You know it all too well, in itâs absolutely amazing glory⊠A good olâ, old-fashioned Cowboy Duel⊠Everyone went with the idea upon hearing it, and I wasnât surprised at all. I started a bit strangely, instead of creating concept art like we were told, I immediately begun on it by creating a storyboard we followed somewhat closely. Cameraâs panned out, two fellas are mean mugging each other, oneâs your average outlaw, the other a rotund, pig-faced zealot in a hat. Sound familiar? I donât know. In the next scene it shows another classic trope called Split-Screen Reactions. You may or may not have seen it before, maybe in Dragon Ball, or more recently, Jujutsu Kaisen. Intense, intense, intense⊠next scenes are done in quick succession, Outlaw draws his colt single action army, the Zealotâs eyes are as wild as his grin as he prepares to release his miniature arbalest. Then a big Onomatopoeia assaults the screen. âBOOM!â In big smoky letters, billowing up and revealing the prone bodies of both men, one given a new, smoking bullet hole, and the other a nice new arrow in the eyeâBet you canât guess whoâs who. Then the words, âFinâ fade in the sky. (Originally, I had it as âMake Love, Not War.â But thankfully my friend suggested something much betterâŠ) And that was the first day!
After that, at about 3:AM I was woken up by the Creative Muses, and of course, I could not deny their calls! I worked for about⊠Wait⊠2 hours, and 36 minutes on three concepts. Itâd be showing the weapons theyâd be wielding, and also what to think of when drawing them⊠Iâll share âem right now. Never quite got the gun, or their looks rightâŠ