40k Lore: The animated series

TDC chat is such a wonderful place to gain inspiration! The other day some chatting around and a nice relaxing shower afterwards led to a very fun project to engage in. First off however, I am unaware if posting the progress on an animated series counts as something that may be posted in the project log forum. If it does however, I see no reason to further procrastinate.

The concept:
Some drawing around and chatting with people in TDC chat had sparked the idea of using cutesy chibi drawings to explain the otherwise grimdark lore of the 40k universe. My natural interest in animation and current practice of it led to the idea of not only drawing these, but putting them in the format of an animated series. Now, I may not be the best artist around (and quite frankly pale in comparison to Eye of Error  ) But I reckon this could work out with some effort.

The reason I'm starting this project log however is because I have a tendency to drop projects midway through. View this like a certain sort of "dedication" I have to update every so often or will be considered a failure in my own and other's eyes. (I won't go easy on myself this time!  )

Anyway, within the series I wish to explore the relationship between a young female farseer and a solitaire that teaches her all about the universe they live in so that the farseer may grow up with a good awareness of her surroundings. Why a Solitaire? Because Black Library, that's why.
Of course, because alot of these visions can be a bit harsh to make a pre-adult Eldar watch, the Solitaire explains all this in a cutesy, non offensive manner (Chibi!) which should make for some cute stories about the Horus Heresy and Chaos Gods dancing with rainbows in the background and... 'Tis still 40k you know.

Pre-development:
Of course, I won't simply post this without showing some early designs... Or rather *an* early design.
 

This is Seer Cregaied (bonus points for people that get the Eldar meaning of that name)
She's a young enthusiastic seer who's clairvoyant abilities and psychic mastery are already quite powerful for her age. She is however still quite childish and easily scared and the seer council of her craftworld tend to lock her in for that reason. (Any suggestions on which craftworld are appreciated.)
Aside from that she is a major fangirl of Eldrad, and any mention of him seems to be enough to get her attention. It may however be the reason she's temporarily banned from connecting with the Infinity Circuit on her own due to some recent... Incidents.

Any suggestions or advice are of course appreciated, and I look forward to posting even more in the near future!

Over n' Out,
Randozart

I would presume for her age she is quite functionally endowed.

Perhaps make her a Seer rather than a Farseer, then, as she is young and inexperienced in the ways of the Universe? :)Just a friendly suggestion as Farseers, having been so long on the Witch Path as to get stuck on it, tend to be a.) old (cynicism levels may vary, but close to 9000 would be fairly common I'd imagine) and b.) most definitely ain't afraid of no ghosts

PS. Li'l Farseer, essentially.

Lady Malys wrote:

Perhaps make her a Seer rather than a Farseer, then, as she is young and inexperienced in the ways of the Universe? :)Just a friendly suggestion as Farseers, having been so long on the Witch Path as to get stuck on it, tend to be a.) old (cynicism levels may vary, but close to 9000 would be fairly common I'd imagine) and b.) most definitely ain't afraid of no ghosts

As suggested you may have noticed I already changed all references of "Farseer" to "Seer" (But I'm sure she will be one one day!) I'll also be renaming her to "Igaied"... A pun with roughly the same intention. I'd love to hear any other suggestions. Please take this as a guide (and just generally fun material to read):
http://tauonline.org/index.php?content=browse&cat=atozs&article=196

Aside from that, as discussed in the chat I've decided she comes from Craftworld Lugganath, and instead of being Eldrad's fangirl, she has a girly crush on Yriel... Which may actually work even better. Of course, any proper preparation for animating would not go without all the characters having been designed. So here's the forementioned Solitaire's design sketches which are still subject to projected changes:

It's a nice design. Is that a Singing Spear? For my money I wouldn't have so much bare boob showing as none of the Harlequin models do (my apologies if it's just the way the fabric goes!). I'm not against boobs, you understand, it's just that they're usually covered in brightly-coloured Lycra [TM] design-wise is all, presumably for the ability to use all the colours.

Also, are super-cute wide-eyed Seer hugs a new form of psychic power?

... Eldritch Cute? I think I already fear it ...

Lady Malys wrote:

It's a nice design. Is that a Singing Spear? For my money I wouldn't have so much bare boob showing as none of the Harlequin models do (my apologies if it's just the way the fabric goes!). I'm not against boobs, you understand, it's just that they're usually covered in brightly-coloured Lycra [TM] design-wise is all, presumably for the ability to use all the colours.

Also, are super-cute wide-eyed Seer hugs a new form of psychic power?

... Eldritch Cute? I think I already fear it ...

Since the spear is of little significance it might as well be, currently it's only on there for design purposes. In regards to the clothing, I looked at the old Solitaire model (This one) but thought it looked a little dull. For that reason I went a bit avant-garde with her clothes and came eventually came to the design on the top left (which of course is still subject to change.) She is, after all, the theatrical incarnation of Slaanesh, so I thought it would be apt to represent that.
...
And yes, super-cute hugs are one of her many early developed super psychic powers.

Aside from that, I've made work on the flowchart I'll use to determine the scenes. I'm afraid however that one sheet of paper was only enough to fill in for 10-30 est. seconds of animation. It may look very sketchy and poorly drawn due to the nature of it.

Well, of course our opinions don't have to coincide :p I just see a difference between "everyday" Solitaire and the same Solitaire when performing a set play (not that every day is not a role, so to speak, for a Harlequin ...)

Don't worry about the storyboard being sketchy, that is the nature of storyboards - to conveys the ideas, which I feel it does very well!

That solitaire model is a fan made piece, not an official one. So I don't think you need to sweat it as far as canon goes.

Lady Malys wrote:

Well, of course our opinions don't have to coincide :p I just see a difference between "everyday" Solitaire and the same Solitaire when performing a set play (not that every day is not a role, so to speak, for a Harlequin ...)

Don't worry about the storyboard being sketchy, that is the nature of storyboards - to conveys the ideas, which I feel it does very well!

Certainly, but in terms of fluff I'm already being lenient. As copied from the 40k Wikia:
"Whenever Solitaires are with a Harlequin troupe, they distance themselves from the others, and one is considered cursed if one exchanges words with a Solitaire. A Solitaire never shows any sign of emotion, either with other Harlequins or on the battlefield. Psykers of every race, even other Eldar, are known to be very depressed in the presence of a Solitaire as the mental landscape of the Solitaire is obviously disturbing to them."
A happy, slightly provocative Solitaire fits the narrative so much better. But yes, I certainly get your point in regards to her clothes.

Thor665 wrote:

That solitaire model is a fan made piece, not an official one. So I don't think you need to sweat it as far as canon goes.

Aye, I found out aswell when I looked the picture up. Still, as the only point of reference it's eay to be led by it. Which I, at some points have (note: The mask)

Having spent some time working in Flash, the first, somewhat messy model for the first panel in the storyboard is now done, time to get animating:




GIF example of progress:
http://makeagif.com/L8ID29
The animation is a bit sloppy, but I hope this gets better with experience.

I wouldn't worry about the Wikia quote either, as I've never seen

Quote :

A Solitaire never shows any sign of emotion, either with other Harlequins or on the battlefield. Psykers of every race, even other Eldar, are known to be very depressed in the presence of a Solitaire as the mental landscape of the Solitaire is obviously disturbing to them."

these notions anywhere official - they are just making it up to suit themselves so far as I know; logically or not is up to you. The idea of someone speaking to a Solitaire resulting in them being cursed is presented in various editions of the Codex in typical yes-and-no fashion by "it is rumoured that", Games Workshop speak for refusing to commit to anything, ever So even that's arguable, and certainly Motley has no trouble talking to anybody Some might say getting him to stop is hard.

Anyway for the purposes of what you're doing, superEmo Solitaire makes as much sense as a chocolate teapot!

As for the animation you're making speedy progress, and did I mention the mood ears? It's ... they're ... well... cute. Damnit. There, all trace of Archon cred, gone forever.

Cute mood ears!

Animation is progressing at a steady pace. Of course I'd desire it to be much faster, but I can't complain considering I've never been doing this before. Today's work has yielded yet another piece of animation. While the quality of the animation is still somewhat sloppy and the complete thing is a biiiit boring to watch at this point, the drawing quality has improved which I'm actually quite glad about.



What this does mean however is that the previous panel and this one have some transition issues due to the sudden change in graphic style.

Making the total animation the following:
http://makeagif.com/OkS2mY

Clearly, it has been far too long since I updated this. Admittedly, I've been far too lazy aswell and also severely disappointed I haven't worked on it in this long a time. Anywho, apologies aside I've managed to make some progress which I will now post.

First off, I animated a new panel. Nothing special of course, I'm supposed to do that if I even intend to finish the thing, but it had been left on shelves for far too long. It was a rather unplanned panel however since I never storyboarded it, but was required to advance the flow of the animation. It's not entirely finished, but I'll smooth things out as I go. Also, it's the first scene I've actually used frame-by-frame animation with.

Link to panel:
http://makeagif.com/towH2f

Aside from that I've done a little tweaking on earlier panels, but it's perhaps a little too minor to show off (AKA, no more stepping forward to press a button next to a door... Pffft.)

And of course, for the next panel, the following was spawned:


Yaaaaay, Solitaireee~ Wooo~!
...
Onto the tedious task of animating her... Woo.

EDIT: At the request of Lady Malys, the Solitaire's perhaps ridiculous chest size has been reduced to make sure somersaults and all sorts of acrobatics Harlquins are famed for are not accomodated by wobbly body parts and hefty back pains:

Prepare for the ugliest animated scene evur!

http://makeagif.com/LGkljg

I clearly need some practice with frame-by-frame animation, but I'd say this works for now. Especially considering all the glitches I'm currently learning to fix, phew! Well, at least I'm halfway the first storyboard... Yay? o3o

Also, more Igaied for the next scene

Progress, it's returning! (And I'm happy it is)

To start off, another panel has been finished up this time around:
http://makeagif.com/M01Vi5
Even though I'm clearly not matching the progress displayed during the first week, at least there's progress nonetheless. I'm also approaching the point where I have to start pushing the voice acting in... Yeah. That might actually be the hardest part to arrange. Nonetheless it's working out again, and I hope to post the next update ASAP.

Good to see more progress on this!

Great start