Animation and voice overs

Here's were things get complicated. The animation process from scratch is always the most difficult thing to pull off. One cannot utilize BVH if one cannot afford the technolgy, and using free BVH's is more like rehashing something someoen is already familiar with, so the trick is to make something look more than it is. Trick the mind into seeing something that is 3D animated by hand, but not looking like it is. DAZ-Studio is not the easiest of tools to work with in regards to that, and Mimic shoudl make voe acting more easier, but there are still those tweaks one has to make to improve the overall feel of the series. Take a look below for example. There are a lot of tweaks one has to make to an animation as simple as this. Whilst it may look okay to the untrained eye, okay is not what I am trying to achieve. So back to computer for a mor fluid piece. No rest for the wicked eh?

character design, Promotion and Casting

Seriously, you try making sure that every character you make is unique when all you have to work with is morphs and deformers. Most times you have to see the end result in your head and hope your visuals are correct. There's no complaint from me, espescially when the end result is what you want, but still the work involved is not for the impatient. Ariel has undergone so many changes since her time in the small press underground comics of Great Britain and Canada. But this is a near mainstream attempt to update something old school. There has been a lot of re-invention about these days. Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica to name a couple, and I'd harldy put Ariel in their league, but as always with these things, it's important to understad that stagnation improves nothing and creates nothng new.

For a start, I have appriciate that whislt Ariel will have it's old school fans (perhaps a strong word for such an underground relic of a comic), I am aiming to attract a whole new mainstream and young audience who perhaps wont appriciate the old school humour. At the same time it's important not ignore your roots. Comprimise is always hard. Hopefully I am getting to happy medium.

Lets look at promotion shall we? Long gone are the days where I can excuse myself for shoddy workmanship (Whilst Ariel had it's fair share of praise, I would be the first to criticise it's shoddy artwork, shortcuts and even bad over cliched scripting). Image is important, and I found it important to emphaises that Ariel is more than a Devil-Girl waring an idealistic school girl's outfit. She is a personality, half human and as a direct result, ultimately flawed character in an equally flawed Universe. Whilst the opening premise of Ariel is comedic, even parody, it is ultimately a dark series that covers life and death situations, even long term consquences. It is and always intended to be a story with a beggining, middle and an end. Whch is why the pilot, stragngle enough, is titled "The End". It is a story that takes full circle and only by watching the series will you begin to understand to contrived web that ties us to the beggining. Anyway, I digress. Promotion is an important tool to attract attention, and my intent is to subtly reveal elements of the Ariel series as work continues without giving away the over all plot. even the cast wont know what to expect until the end.

Speaking of which, lets move onto the casting process. I have long been an admirer of Azure's dedication to the voice acting profession and I dopn't envy her har work over at:

http://www.voiceactingalliance.com/

It has long since been a valuable resource to me and I hope to take advantage of it again. I have noticed a plephoria of improving talent over at the forums there since I have been there recently, and have no doubt that the cast I eventually choose for the roles will provide a more than professional job. All I can say is that it wont be easy to make the final descions. But it's an expierence I am very much looking forward to. Thanks to all contributing to this project, I look forward to hearing your voices soon.

And so it begins

Much talked about. Much promised, far too long awaited (at least by me) my first official comic fianlly makes it to animated form in the Ariel: Highschool Devil-Girl anime series. One of the problems with animating somethng that is close to your heart is not only pulling off, but pulling it off in such a way that people can appriciate the value you put into it. Not just any old style will do. I have swtiched from 2D to 3D so very often with this project for 10 years but have never been wholly satisfied with anything. That was until yesterday when I finally found the perfect shaders to work with on a, Gods be dammned, of all things a free 3D progamme. They are perfect to style I have been working on for ages, and finally my dreams can be realised. As you can see I have already set up the shaders for two of the main Characters, Ariel and Arrissa. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.