The Wannabe Pirates

[largento]

Thanks, homeslice!

[Rodney]

Mark,

What Holmes said!

 

You've got a knack for designing your projects smartly.

That really helps get you through that first intitial 20% quickly.

Just the little things like limiting lipsync through the device of narration... that alone will be a considerable timesaver.

 

I started a post about planning last night for the ABC321 forum area but yours is a living and breathing casestudy of the benefits of developing a plan before getting under way.

 

Props to you.

I'm glad to see your muse has found you again.

 

I don't want to interupt the flow of your creativity by asking too many questions but take good notes along the way.

Record everything. Those notes, sketches, doodles and such will be useful some day.

[largento]

Rodney, there's no chance I won't keep sharing progress reports here on the forums!

 

Like this post, for example! :-)

 

KenH has graciously offered to up the quality of this project by lending a hand! His first contribution is the modeling for a new character being introduced in this story, Lenny the Laughing Gull!

 

 

I love this character and Ken really did an amazing job of bringing him into 3D!

[largento]

Nothing to show for this status update, but work is moving quickly!

 

I finished the design for another one of the new characters last night and this weekend I plan to do nothing but write! I'm fairly comfortable with the plot I've written for the 12 chapters, but now comes the fun part: writing them up as one long narrative poem!

 

I'll be refreshing myself with "The Hunting of the Snark" to get the rhythm going and hope that everything falls into place. I'm also going to use Snark to figure out how much I can fit into the 1 minute timeline.

 

There's no doubt that this is going to be a *very* quickly-paced story. :-)

[Rodney]

Lenny the Laughing Gull

 

A very nice addition to the supporting cast.

 

You've really hit on a winning combination in these supporting characters.

Just in the creation of them alone opens up so many possibilities.

Your implemation of them... is so good it sends chills up my spine.

 

Ken... you've perfectly captured Mark's style!

 

I'm dying to see how you approach the differences between the parrot (Archibald) and Lenny.

[KenH]

Thanks Rodney (and Mark). Of course, Mark is supplying me with great character sketches, so I can't take all the credit. Just wait till you see the next one!

[largento]

Ken has once again made my day! Here's that next character he mentioned: a giant gorilla!

 

I've stuck Flemm in for scale. This is just too cool!

 

Big thanks, Ken! With your help, this story is going to be big-time fun!

 

[Rodney]

Oh Wow!

 

Hehe. They're great! (I assume multiple apes is the goal here)

Just when I think I know where you are going with this you surprise me again.

 

I don't know how they play in the story but do you plan to differentiate the apes?

Via color perhaps? Shades of brown and grey?

Big tooth... little tooth? Personality?

 

I know the answers will all be revealed in time.

Thats half the fun of waiting.

[KenH]

I don't know how they play in the story but do you plan to differentiate the apes?

Via color perhaps? Shades of brown and grey?

Big tooth... little tooth? Personality?

 

I was thinking that too. I've never seen a Gorilla with a Mohawk but I'd like to.

[Rodney]

I was thinking that too. I've never seen a Gorilla with a Mohawk but I'd like to.

 

Mohawk eh? I got a pretty clear image in my head as I read that.

 

Pardon the earlier mistake. Instead of ape I should have said gorilla.

I should know the difference but I don't.

Apes are more docile so... look out Flemm!

 

As always the story will dictate but Mark's got me guessing what's coming up next as it is.

Of course the plot will determine how much screen time they get. I'm not sure how much time that is.

Assuming they may have repeat value somewhere else down the line in another story the differentiation could be more imporant than is readily apparent.

 

I can already think of at least one way they could meet again after this adventure.

Assuming they live through the experience with Captain Errol Flemm that is.

 

Edit: It does occur to me that I'm stating the obvious again.

There is something to be gained by having the gorillas remain the same as well.

They'd definitely seem more sinister and threatening.

[itsjustme]

Love the ape, Mark and Ken!

[mtpeak2]

The gorilla looks pretty good. There is a few things that look odd to me though. The back of the neck usually doesn't curve inward (could be the pose) and gorillas usually have a bigger gut than that.

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

Rodney, gorillas are apes, so I don't think it matters that much. We're referring to them as Gorillas, though.

 

As to how they fit into things, the gorillas are part of the larger "world" of the Wannabe Pirates.

 

Writing is difficult, but it will be worth it. Coming up with the first line was really tough. Lots of false starts. It's still very slow going. I've gotten 8 stanzas of the first chapter done. It is starting to get a little easier,though as I become more familiar with it. After a long session of writing today, I was thinking in rhyme and worried that I wouldn't be able to stop. :-)

 

It really is going to be epic by the time I finish it!

[Rodney]

Rodney, gorillas are apes, so I don't think it matters that much. We're referring to them as Gorillas, though.

 

Thanks for the refresher Mark.

There is no doubt that I knew that a very long time ago.

Probably back when I first read Tarzan of the Apes... um... more than 30 years ago. Ahem.

I really loved Edgar Rice Burroughs. I was captivated and transported into his worlds.

 

I hope you are keeping a nice Journal outside this forum.

It may seem like a bit of exaggeration coming from me here (after all what do I know?) but others will want to see into your creative ways some day.

 

Save all those doodles and scraps of paper... all those failed attempts and animation tests.

Consider sharing those things you'd prefer to throw away.

These are hidden treasures.

 

Disney threw away many of his production gems.

In the realm of computer animation we often do the same.

[largento]

The gorilla looks pretty good. There is a few things that look odd to me though. The back of the neck usually doesn't curve inward (could be the pose) and gorillas usually have a bigger gut than that.

 

Just my take on it, Mark. Character-wise they are giant carnivorous gorillas, so I wouldn't want them to look like they spend their whole days sitting around eating twigs. It's a similar exaggeration to Flemm's lower body being so much smaller than his upper half.

 

Rodney, I'm a terrible pat rack, so I do tend to hold onto things, but most everything is digital now.

[largento]

Just a quick note to say work is progressing!

 

I'm almost through with the design for the villain and am still formulating the particulars of the story.

 

One of the cool parts of doing the story this way is that I can do an epic story in a very short amount of screen time.

 

In a way, it kind of reminds me of old Silver Age comic book stories. Back in the day, they would do a huge story that would only take up half of the story pages of a comic. You would get multiple big stories in a single issue. Then somebody decided that comic books should be more like soap operas and now they take the same size story and spread it over half a dozen issues.

 

Not sure if I've mentioned it here, but it occurred to me at one point, that with the entire story being told in rhyme, it would make an excellent children's book when all is said and done!

 

Anyway, just posting to say the project is still alive and kicking and there should be some more stuff to see soon!

[largento]

Whoo-hoo! This is an update I've been looking forward to!

 

The Evil Spirit of Mordred!

 

 

Designing the villain for this story was something that I really struggled with. I can't even remember how many variations I went through! For a long time, my intention was that he would just be ghostly armor, but I just couldn't come up with a helmet design that had enough personality to carry him. So, I gave in and gave him a face and body!

 

Once again, Ken has done a masterful job on the modeling! I confess I was jealous at first since I thought he would be fun to build, but I doubt I would have done so excellent a job!

[TheSpleen]

I like him! He has an attitude already.

[Rodney]

Wow. He looks awesome!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

I really felt it was important that he be an interesting looking villain, so a lot of thought went into the design. The nature of the narrative will mean he won't get to give "bad guy" monologues, so he needs to be obviously a villain and seem creepy and threatening (as much as possible with the cartoony style of the look of the Wannabe Pirates.)

 

I wanted him to be that ghostly green and have glowing eyes, which probably is inspired by watching so much Scooby-Doo as a child in the 70s. :-)

 

Character-wise, Mordred stole the crown and power while Arthur was away, so I liked the idea that he had a sort of twisted crown. The bat wings were inspired by an old engraving of Mordred from the 1900s that gave Mordred a bat motif. I think it makes his helmet very interesting.

 

He has no beard to make him appear younger, but I sort of liked that the helmet almost suggests a fake beard and jawline as if he's trying to make himself more heroic than he actually is.

 

One of the great things that Ken captured with his face is that he has a regal look, as if he were someone of nobility, but there's a noticeable touch of cruelty, too.

 

The missing right hand is a very important story point.

 

...and the belt is totally a nod to that greatest of great supervillains, Dr. Doom. :-)

[Rodney]

The missing right hand is a very important story point.

 

I resisted the urge to ask about that hand.

After reading that the character was already rigged I couldn't help but wonder about that hand.

I knew you'd have an explanation.

 

Its fascinating how the introduction of one new character can suggest so many things.

You've obviously put a lot of thought into these characters and their design is compelling.

 

Your style has a feeling of familiarity as if we've always known these characters.

And yet with each character's uniqueness a curious sense of the unknown remains.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney!

 

I've been really busy at work for the last few weeks and haven't been able to do much, but I'm slowly crawling out of that.

 

Mostly I've been working on the story, gradually going from the broad general stuff to the specifics.

 

Just to have something to show, I'll cross-post this image I did for the Wannabe Pirates blog of Errol Flemm as a Clone Trooper from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

 

 

Just a quickie, so I tried to get away with having to do as little actual modeling as possible. Mostly just changing the colors of patches, deleting some things and re-shaping others. The only real modeling I had to do with was the helmet.

[KenH]

It should be "Wannabe Clones"! To keep the brand consistent. Nice one for a quickie.

[largento]

Thanks, Ken. You are right, but I blame lack of consciousness at the time. :-)

[Rodney]

Nice one.

 

I've got to ask... 176-167... Hmmm.

Is the number on Flemm's chest plate a reference to the Beagle Boys?

[largento]

One the nose, Rodney.

 

I was going to put numbers on all of them, but it was very late and I was tired.

[Rodney]

One the nose, Rodney.

 

I was going to put numbers on all of them, but it was very late and I was tired.

It may be a pretty obsure reference but it made me smile.

Little touches like that may not mean much in the short term but over time they tend to develop lives of their own. I'd guess the artist who first put those numbers on the Beagle Boys shirts had no idea how deep that referencing would go.

 

I should probably add this to your Blog comments but... Regarding the Clone Wars film: I liked what I saw but it didn't hold my attention long enough to sit through it all in one watch. My mind kept wandering. It seemed a bit too dialogue driven and long. I'll have to watch it again with my adventure-ready-movie-watching glasses on.

 

I didn't see the series as it was released but suspect the shorter/episodic nature of it helped a lot.

The pace of Star Wars has always been... chop.chop.introduce new stuff.chop.

 

Regardless, I really liked your flemming of the clone wars and the interview on your blog.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney.

 

I thought the film was decent, but have liked the series much more. The producers like to point out that they've been getting better as they go, so they think it was kind of unfair to use their first efforts as the feature. The blu-ray of season one is due out in the fall and I'm looking forward to it. My local cable doesn't broadcast the Cartoon Network in HD.

[kwhitaker]

Whoo-hoo! This is an update I've been looking forward to!

 

The Evil Spirit of Mordred!

 

 

Designing the villain for this story was something that I really struggled with. I can't even remember how many variations I went through! For a long time, my intention was that he would just be ghostly armor, but I just couldn't come up with a helmet design that had enough personality to carry him. So, I gave in and gave him a face and body!

 

Once again, Ken has done a masterful job on the modeling! I confess I was jealous at first since I thought he would be fun to build, but I doubt I would have done so excellent a job!

 

Ghostly green Evil Spirit of Mordred! are looking real mean. good job Largento

[largento]

Thanks, Kat!

[largento]

Well, my luck being what it is, I managed to get a sinus infection just as I was reaching my last days of work and I've been pretty shut down for the first couple of days of my new freedom...

 

But I have managed to get a few things done. I've been putting together another PDF book to put up on Kidjutsu.

 

Here's the cover:

 

[HomeSlice]

Awesome. Now that you are on your own, you don't get sick days But since you are doing something you really love doing, you probably won't need them anyway ... once you get over the shock of it all

[mtpeak2]

Looks geat Mark, though it could use a bit of a splash from Flemm's foot.

[Rodney]

Nice one Mark!

 

Sorry to hear you've been under the weather.

Take notes of how miserable you feel so you can apply that to a character later.

Seriously, take time to take care of yourself!

Now that you are sick is a good time to think of how important that is.

 

Regardinging your cover:

I imagine you'll need to add the title of Volume 2 somewhere in there.

My first thought would be to shrink down the Logo a bit but I really like the layout as is.

 

BTW - That water looks pretty real!

 

Edit: As I took another look I saw the black spot on Flemm's chest and was trying to figure out what it was... I didn't realise it was his eye patch! Perhaps it could be flipping up and around instead of down? (Not sure)

[largento]

Thanks, guys.

 

Mark, I may go back and add that splash.

 

Rodney, thanks for the look of the water go to Photoman's tutorial.

 

There's no title for the second volume. It's just Volume 2.

[apprentice]

Hehe that's a funny cover

[largento]

Thanks!

 

Just a quick note about what I've been up to with The Wannabe Pirates!

 

I had one of those Aha!-moments last week and was able to get a new handle on writing the chapters for the movie serial. It basically involved the fact that I had so much backstory to tell that it was bogging down the first chapter. It suddenly occurred to me that I could split the backstory across most of the chapters, not only solving the problem of making it easier to digest, but by creatively withholding certain elements of the backstory, I could keep a greater sense of mystery across the whole story.

 

I also realized that by just giving away a snippet of the backstory at the beginning of each chapter as a sort of before the credits prologue, I could add punchlines to them and more refreshingly, those parts don't have to be part of the rhyme!

 

I've been adjusting to going into writing mode. The movie serial isn't easy to write, but I don't want it to be. I figure it may very well be the only animated version of these characters I get to do, so I want to do the best I can with it.

 

In addition to working on the movie serial's script, I've been working on writing a fill-in story for the webcomic. We're winding down on the Henry Morgan's Treasure storyline and McCrary is wanting to take a break afterward to recharge his battery and build up a buffer for the next storyline. To keep from having a gap, I'm working on what'll probably be around 20 pages of a fill-in story starring the Waldo Morgan character and his group of "nerd pirates." I think this is going to be a lot of fun since it'll give me a chance to draw some strips and it will be a sort of palette cleanser for the reader before getting into the next storyline. To help differentiate it from the main storyline, I'm going to do all of the strips larger. This will also work in our favor when/if we get around to publishing a book collection, since each of these strips will fill an entire page.

 

My new found freedom is making a huge difference, since so much of this story part is having uninterrupted time to sit and daydream and think. Time that was in short supply before.

[TheSpleen]

Sounds promising!

[nino banano]

great cover largento...very nice sea effect

[johnl3d]

All I can say is Aaaaaargh which I think is pirate speak for great job

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

[largento]

Off topic a little, but I put up a nostalgic blog post about the first pirate story McCrary and I ever worked on, a graphic novel we published in 1997 called "Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean."

[Rodney]

Off topic a little, but I put up a nostalgic blog post about the first pirate story McCrary and I ever worked on, a graphic novel we published in 1997 called "Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean."

 

You are certainly full of surprises.

 

Makes me miss the days of Claremont and Cochrum's 'Starjammers' and Mantlo and Guice's 'Swords of the Swashbucklers'. Ah, those space-faring pirate adventures. (I like Disney's Treasure Planet a lot for this reason)

 

You self published your own graphic novel... my admiration for your work grows exponentially.

 

Up until about 1994 I collected self published work more than mainstream comics but my collecting of american comics slowed considerably when I first moved to Japan. As many comics as I was buying I must admit that was probably a good thing.

 

I'd love to know more about your early comic work.

A lot of the self published comics I bought had rather limited distribution. I was fascinated by them.

 

Thanks for sharing this bit of McCrary and Largento history!

 

Did the Starbucklers break out of local distribution?

[largento]

"Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean" was sort of our last hurrah into self-publishing, Rodney.

 

Our first was in '91 (I believe) and it was a local publisher that did a local magazine. McCrary and I had finished a graphic novel we called "Headfirst into Fire" about a group of friends who get zapped through a portal while on a canoeing trip and end up on an alien world in the middle of a war. We were going to split it up into 4 issues and it made it as far as being listed in the distributors' catalogs before the publisher went out of business in the middle of the night and left town! We never even found out how many orders it got.

 

In hindsight, we should have just done it ourselves, but we were pretty green back then.

 

In '94, we self-published a two-issue mini-series called "Mister America." We distributed them nationally and I get a kick out of the fact that they show up in the Comic Book Price Guide. :-)

 

It was a money-loser, though. We had decided to go with color and the printer we used had a 5,000 minimum for color books. We also bought full page ads in both of the big distributor's catalogs. Our numbers were okay, but with us having to print 10,000 comics, they weren't good enough.

 

So, when we finished Greyhawk 3 years later, we decided to start off with a small, local run with the idea of paying off our printing costs *before* we solicited the book through the distributor. We did break even, but that's about it.

 

In the 3 year gap between publishing "Mister America" and "Greyhawk," there had been a nuclear meltdown of the distribution market. It's a long, convoluted story, but basically Marvel decided to buy one of the small distributors and make their books exclusive to it. Most retailers made their money by discounts from bulk orders. This new deal forced retailers to have to deal with at least 2 distributors in order to get all of their books and cut into their discounts. This caused the other comic book companies to panic and sign exclusive deals with other distributors. DC Comics chose Diamond. It turned out to be a disaster. Now having to deal with multiple distributors, many shops ended up having to close and almost all of the distributors ended up folding. Marvel had to close their self-owned distributor and ended up in Chapter 11 for awhile. When the dust cleared, there was now only *one* major distributor, Diamond. With this monopoly, there was no reason for Diamond to compete and since obviously DC and Marvel were their two biggest clients, when those 2 companies complained about all of the "noise" of independent books in the catalog, Diamond acquiesced and started severely limiting what books they would accept for distribution.

 

I had made the decision that a horizontal (landscape) format for a comic made more sense than a vertical (portrait) format. After all, the movie screen is wider than it is tall. Our vision works that way. So Greyhawk was a "sideways" book. Diamond said that our book was the wrong size and rejected it ...even though it was the exact same size as a comic, only turned sideways.

 

(Years later when Frank Miller did that with 300, Diamond did not have a problem with it.) :-)

 

Around that time, life interfered and I ended up moving out to Dallas and McCrary moved out to Kentucky not long afterwards and although we kept talking about doing other books and would start working a bunch of times, nothing really panned out.

 

Still, it was something we always wanted to do and we did it! :-)

 

That's part of the fun of "The Wannabe Pirates." We still get to work on a comics project, but it's not a huge amount of work and we don't have to sink tons of money into it.

 

The movie serial on the other hand... :-)

[Rodney]

Thanks Mark. Great information.

Much of what you say is exactly why I'm a fan of self-published works. Thats where most of the innovation and fun is... or was.

 

I tried to keep up with all that was going on in the comic book industry back in the 90's but mercifully distance and other commitments saved me from crashing and burning. The one factor that more than anything kept me out of self publishing was that I had a really hard time trusting a lot of these fellows. I didn't have to learn this personally as I saw first hand that where business is business and there are those willing to do anything to be in business someone is going to get screwed.

 

I had made the decision that a horizontal (landscape) format for a comic made more sense than a vertical (portrait) format. After all, the movie screen is wider than it is tall. Our vision works that way. So Greyhawk was a "sideways" book. Diamond said that our book was the wrong size and rejected it ...even though it was the exact same size as a comic, only turned sideways.

 

The issue of Fantastic Four by John Byrne that is printed 'sideways' is a favorite of mine. At the time I thought it was perfect.

 

In '94, we self-published a two-issue mini-series called "Mister America." We distributed them nationally and I get a kick out of the fact that they show up in the Comic Book Price Guide. :-)

Still, it was something we always wanted to do and we did it! :-)

 

Oh Yeah!

[kwhitaker]

[graphic novel we published in 1997 called "Greyhawk and the Starbucklers of the Caribbean."

 

 

visited your bog post, Wow very I catching I love the out standing art work.

and I checked out the cartoon pages, lot of them. awesome .

 

at one point when I wrote and illustrate JAWS that I'm now attempting to animated, I had toyed with the idea of creating it into comic book, alas I found AM and was hooked I really enjoyed your work largento'

[largento]

Thanks, Kat!

 

You should still make a comic book version of your story, using frames from your animation as panels!

[kwhitaker]

You should still make a comic book version of your story, using frames from your animation as panels!

 

I appreciate what you've done, cause that's a lot of work, but it does sound like fun, maybe if I ever finish the movie

[largento]

Thought I'd give a sneak peek of this here!

 

I'm working on a 15-page fill-in story for The Wannabe Pirates webcomic that will run after the current storyline to give McCrary a little bit of a breather. I think it's going to be a lot of fun (and, of course, a lot of work!)

 

 

I did make use of Animation: Master for this! Waldo's hat and the amulet were modeled in A:M, so that I could draw them at different angles.

 

We've got about 6 or 7 weeks before these will start going up and I'm hoping to finish them all before then.

[TheSpleen]

good clean art