Main Concept
Overall pilot is supposed to be a “put on a pedestal only to be torn from it” sort of story, completed animated in 2D. Ive divided the pilot into 4 Acts, for lack of a better term, that will span about 9-11 minutes. Act 1 will introduce my 3 main characters, Xara, Zoria, and Braum, the 3 members of The Grand Trinity, their nations governing body. Through Act 1, they will be shown defending a smaller neighboring nation against a hostile nation’s army, with an army of their own. I’ve made the Grand Trinity respectably powerful but not “face an army on their own” powerful. This Act is to show each members unique strengths, Zorias unparalleled destructive potential and her control of magic, Xaras superior swordsmanship, speed, and precision, and lastly, Braum raw unyielding strength, his ability to almost literally smash anything to oblivion with his hammer. To emphasize it I’ll have him quite literally destroy a shield bearers “impenetrable” shield. After a minute each or so of these demonstrations I’ll conclude it with either a sight of the hostile armys retreat or a simply victorious shot of the Grand Trinity returning to the nation they defended with a shining sunset.
Then comes Act 2, a brief overview of the Grand Trinitys nation, Shadownia, and how they are known throughout the continent as a protector of small nation’s from those with ill-intent of subjugating them. This is intended to be a short tranistionary Act.
Act 2 immediately cuts to Act 3 with Shadownia under a suprise attack, unbeknownst to the Grand Trinity initially, but when they realize what happened (which won’t take long, 10-15 seconds max), they see their nation burning, scorched by a syndicate, a united front of the hostile nation’s they defended smaller ones against. The Grand Trinity tries to fight off the invading armies, buying as much time for their entourages to evacuate as many citizens as they can. Eventually the Grand Trinity is overwhelmed and are forced to abandoned Shadownia to become smoldering ruins.
This leads to Act 4, a once proud people now reduced to nomads and refugees. I’ll have them specifically walk past their nation’s flagship airship, once a symbol of their nation’s pride and strength, now reduced to a burning heap of metal. After some minor exposition and sad words and such I’ll cut to a closing shot of the Trinity standing tall over it’s citizens vowing to retake it’s home and restore their people’s name.
My animation style is to pick the music first, and then animate to the music. I feel, once I have the music I think fits the story I want to tell, it’s simply a matter of animating the story to reflect my music choice, rather than animate a piece, then create a song from scratch like studios do.
Inspirations and Conceptualization
This project originally started out with a single character going back over a decade years. Xara was my first original character I actively used in what was, my attempts at animation when I was younger.
Back then, I tinkered with Flipnote Studio, a limited-capability animation program for the DSi/3DS by Nintendo. Over the years, his design changed and simplified and became a more solid character.
I knew I wanted to do somthing with him, but I didint know what, nor have the ability to do it even if I had an idea. Halfway though my freshman year of college I finally had an idea. That idea was the create a pilot episode. But to do this, I needed to practice worldbuilding, storytelling, and many other aspects of animation I was still a newbie too.
I pulled inspirations from all over the internet and real life too. From the internet, I obtained a copy of and learned how to use Flash. My expereince was with Flash Macromedia 8, which is a remarkably old version of Flash, but an extremely popular one among fellow amateur animators I’ve found due to its extreme simplicity and user-friendly UI. Some even prefer it over Adobe Animate, but will obviously switch to Animate for more professional work like commissions and jobs, but for passion projects they like to use older programs.
Ironically, despite using a program like flash, I still pulled inspiration for ideas from Flipnotes posted all over YouTube, mainly from Japanese posters. Overtime, I also pulled inspiration from animes and other animators that i began to interact with online, specifically from Hyuns Dojo, one of the largest animation communities on YouTube.
In real life, I actually had several assignments that directly contributed to the creation of this thesis. In my Drawing 101 class, for my final, I took my midterm, which was a top-down map I made of my characters homeland, and turned it into a 3D build in Minecraft. From there, I planned to use that build as a reference point for my pilot episode for Act 3 and possibly 4.
The Steps Going Forward
By the time Finals roll around for this year, I plan to have atleast Act 1 and 2 fully animated and polished. I already have atleast half of Act 1 already animated, however it’s not polished, but the storyboard for the entierty of Act 1 is finished.
I want to have Act 1 fully completed by the middle of November and Act 2 done by the time Finals hit in December
The biggest hurdles I face is consistency and pacing. I have a fast-paced style animation style, so I’m not entirely used to creating something large scale and drawn to length like a full 9-11 minute episode. However, I feel I have the ability to keep my viewer(s) captivated long enough to bear with the story and how it’s told. In a way, this project was a LONG time in the making, I simply want to see it through.
