#mbfanimationproject

Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, and German.

In early 2021, as talk of a Murderbot Diaries adaptation was underway, fans of the series started asking each other questions like, "What would we want to see from an adaptation of our favorite book series?" and "Wouldn't it be cool if this or that scene was animated?" and "Hey, don't YOU know some things about animation?" and "What if a bunch of fans got together to make a Murderbot fan animation?"

Two years of teamwork later, the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project presents our labor of love: a fully realized animation adapting scenes from the first four novellas into a trailer, dedicated to showcasing everything we love about the story of our favorite rogue SecUnit.

Make sure to leave a like and share the video if you enjoyed our animation! And tell us what you liked about the video on our social media:

Ask the team on Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube

the day we had to figure out how tf that exit strategy fight with CSU worked we finished the meeting I looked out the window and the sun was back up. birds were chirping.

In early 2021, as talk of a Murderbot Diaries adaptation was underway, fans of the series started asking each other questions like, "What would we want to see from an adaptation of our favorite book series?" and "Wouldn't it be cool if this or that scene was animated?" and "Hey, don't YOU know some things about animation?" and "What if a bunch of fans got together to make a Murderbot fan animation?"

Now, two years of teamwork later, the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project is the culmination of our labor of love: a fully realized animation adapting scenes from the first four novellas into a trailer, dedicated to showcasing everything we love about the story of our favorite rogue SecUnit.

A lot of love and thought went into this project that we can't wait to share with our fellow fans. We are expecting to upload to YouTube by the end of July, so keep an eye on this space. As we near completion, we'd like to give you some sneak peeks of what's in store, and invite you to come talk to us and share the hype for Murderbot. Follow us on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes:

Yeah, that's right, the Murderbot Diaries fandom is full of incredible talent and brilliant artists, and we're only dropping cooler and more talented stuff with time.

Can't wait for the Murderbot Diaries Fan Animation to drop this Friday? To tide you over, we're featuring some of the show-stopping animatics that went down in fandom history before us:

I'm Not Your Hero - The Murderbot Diaries Animatic by mar @souldagger

Ganaka Pit // Relax (Take it Easy) by Kes Beacon @kesbeacon

Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy Spoilers by MonnieBiloney[Art] @monniebiloney

murderbot crack by @broken-risk-assessment-module

They Don't Care About Us | Fugitive Telemetry by thymia @alex-van-gore

And finally, bringing together many of the previous incredible artists onto our team, is the Murderbot Diaries Fan Animation Project. Watch this space!

Murderbot Fanimation Project Backgrounds!

(Part 1 of 3) (Jump to parts [2] [3])

They may be the literal background of the finished product, but the backgrounds done for the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project deserve their time in the spotlight!

Part of what makes the Fanimation stand out as much as it does is the love, care, and attention to detail that the artists poured into the backgrounds. The team stuck closely to the source texts when designing the spaces, producing some beautiful pieces of art that deserve appreciation on their own.

You can watch the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project here.

(IDs are in alt text)

Scanners - Initial sketch and layout by Jude, finalised and coloured by @chimaerakitten

"I had to hack an ID-screening system and some weapon-scanning drones on the level above..."

ASR Pit - by Lue

"This assessment zone was a barren stretch of coastal island, with low, flat hills rising and falling and thick greenish-black grass up to my ankles [...] The coast was dotted with big bare craters, one of which Bharadwaj and Volescu were taking samples in. The planet had a ring, which from our current position dominated the horizon when you looked out to sea."

AC Food Court - by Vanessa

"The location for the meeting was a food service place in the main mall area. [...] There were multiple open levels inside, with tables and chairs, and it was 40 percent full of humans and augmented humans."

Deltfall - by @chimaerakitten with bodies by @theash0

"There were eleven messily dead humans in the hub, sprawled on the floor, in chairs, the monitoring stations and projection surfaces behind them showing impact damage from projectile and energy weapon fire."

ASR Hopper - by @broken-risk-assessment-module

"It was a series of rocky hills in a thick tropical jungle, heavily occupied by a large range of fauna."

PresAux Hub - by Cephei

"There were mugs and empty meal packets on some of the consoles. I’m not cleaning that up unless I’m given a direct order."

AC Hotel - Layout and lineart by Vanessa, colour by Cephei

"The lobby was built on various platforms overlooking a holo sculpture of an open chasm filled with a giant crystalline structure growing out of the walls. [...] My clients were on the same platform as the check-in area, near the railing around the sculpture’s artificial chasm, sitting on a round backless couch thing that looked more like a decorative object than furniture."

Medbay - by @sometimesihaveideas

Titlecard by ChimaeraKitten.

Introducing the incredible fans whose work made the Murderbot Fanimation Project possible! Many members of our team contributed to multiple areas of the animation, which will be broken down into more detailed attributions in the final Credits. For now, though, we're giving you a snapshot of how much teamwork went into the project:

Project Leader - the one who kept it all coming together theash0 @theash0

Dr. Mensah's voice by Kebi the Dragon. Mensah design by Mar.

Voice Actors - the voices of the characters TheSteelChimera @thesteelchimera Alex from Mars @imaginariumgeographica Kebi the Dragon @spiralofdragon Verso @grammarpedant Kes @kesbeacon

Murderbot design by brokenRAmodule.

Artists & Animators - backgrounds, character designs, graphics, animation, and much more Alex van Gore @alex-van-gore audzilla brokenRAmodule @broken-risk-assessment-module @contakaidigon Cephei ChimaeraKitten @chimaerakitten Jude Livyatan @groovyleviathan Lue Mar @souldagger Nirelaz @nirelaz (@nirelaz on Twitter) sometimesihaveideas @sometimesihaveideas TechnicalToad uovoc Vanessa

Medical bay background by sometimesihaveideas.

Questions about the process? Wonder what decisions were made, by whom, or why? Our askbox is open on Tumblr.

Want to see high-quality sneak peeks? Check out our Instagram. Our hashtag is #mbfanimationproject.

(Part 3 of 3) (Jump to part [1] [2])

They may be the literal background of the finished product, but the backgrounds done for the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project deserve their time in the spotlight!

Part of what makes the Fanimation stand out as much as it does is the love, care, and attention to detail that the artists poured into the backgrounds. The team stuck closely to the source texts when designing the spaces, producing some beautiful pieces of art that deserve appreciation on their own.

You can watch the Murderbot Diaries Fanimation Project here.

In this final part, we look at some of the backgrounds that we animated to give them that extra wow factor. Some of the shots in the Murderbot Fanimation have backgrounds completely made in 3D - the opening shot and the post-credits scene, for example. But the shots in this post are mostly 2D imagery, with some 3D components and clever editing that bring them to life.

Deltfall Habitat - Background art and motion editing by @broken-risk-assessment-module , habitat model created by TechnicalToad and rendered by @theash0

"I climbed the ladder up to the roof hatch and popped it. The armor’s boots have magnetized climbing clamps, and I used them to cross over the curving roofs to the third habitat and then around to the second."

Milu Storm - 3D model of the corridor by TechnicalToad, storm effect created by @theash0 using, among many other elements, an effect created by @chimaerakitten

"Swirling, towering clouds, filled with electrical discharges, obscured any view of the surface. [...] It was immense, and wrong, and terrible and beautiful all at the same time. I stood there for what I later clocked as twenty-two seconds, just staring."

Docking Bay Door - Background, foreground, and door textures illustrated by Vanessa. 3D door composited and animated by @theash0

"Gurathin knelt beside an open maintenance floor panel next to the gate, tools scattered around, and Ratthi held a light for him. The panel was painted with an emergency feed marker label that in a selection of different languages read 'Manual Release.'"

Docking Bay Corridor - Illustrated by @nirelaz , motion editing by @theash0

"Our shuttle slot was six locks down, glowing emergency lighting showing me Mensah standing beside it holding a small energy weapon."

Bonus higher-quality stills of those last two to appreciate the detail:

(Docking Bay Door by Vanessa)

The images used in our profile and header on social media are taken directly from the animation!

You might be wondering, why not use a clearer shot of Murderbot's face for the icon? That's because no such clearer shot exists! We felt that Murderbot, who works so hard to keep its face scrubbed off of cameras and out of the media, would've liked it better that way.

Murderbot's character design was done by @broken-risk-assessment-module, art by @alex-van-gore, background by Jude and @chimaerakitten, and feed overlay designs by @chimaerakitten.