My New Superhero cartoon!

[JohnJackson]

Hi Folks, my new superhero Cartoon is up on you tube, I'd love to know your thoughts, Its only my fourth attempt at anime studio so go gentle with me
...thanks
John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de3AEw3J6ss

[neeters_guy]

I love the witty banter and DC animated universe feel to it. There's a lot of attention to detail that sell this: retro opening, backgrounds, voice acting, sound f/x, music, plus the fight sequences are pretty good.

Would you care to share some production details, like how many people worked on this, how long it took, etc.?

There are things to improve of course, but overall this is a fantastic start and I hope to see more!

[JohnJackson]

Yes of course...thanks for the lovely comments and interest...
well, on my you tube channel there is this first attempt( and not a very good one) at the character several years ago...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbmqHQ69j70

This was a quick learning curve using the software for the first ever time.. to see if I could get my head round Anime studio...all this pushing and pulling vectors sounded crazy when I first saw it..
There is no story really, the audio quality is poor and the voice acting worse...all me being silly and over dramatic...I didn't think I was ever going to upload it...lol
The one thing it did prove however was I could see potential

Cut to about a year or two later when my second attempt at the superhero saw light of day. I dropped the Batman animated DC universe idea and just did any old style characters and yes the super heroine Impact does have crazy breasts...I can only apologise to every woman on earth.
This time I enlisted a friend, Brian M Clarke. I wanted someone who could help me with my writing. I am fine at writing funny stories but often see structural problems with my serious scripts...one friend once said I though a plot was a piece of land...lol.
Anyway....we talked over what the story should be and Brian wrote that script...I edited it here and there due to me having a better knowledge of what I thought I could achieve...
The voice acting here was...obviously Brian and myself along with help from some people from the local radio station. This is where we found our voices for Mosquito Ghost and Impact....Ranj Nagra and Louise Bowyer.
The recordings took place at Salford radio over two or three recording sessions and this is where we found problems with some of the sound from one session....a guy called Slav zuit did his best with the sound and one year later this cartoon was finished...with Brians friend James mills providing the original theme score.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjtGC0Za6YE

Taking a little break then Brian and I knocked out this funny cartoon ROACH MOTEL over the following six months...this is a two man job.. Brian and I writing, voicing and Me animating....ooh and once again James Mills wrote and produced a fab theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAhM30mkDnQ

SSSSSooooo....
Now we reach the latest of our superhero cartoons....
The power of Atom-Ra is probably 14 months' ish of our free time ...Once again I went back to DC universe Bruce Timm style. We reused James Mills theme music and enlisted Ranj and Louise to come back as our superhero voices.
I provided the voice for the evil professor, Brian had a line as a policeman, our friend Laura had a tiny part on a police radio.
Additional music I found on Freesounds. Both clips I took worked really well.
Brian wrote the script after a joint chat of what we would both like to see...then I edited it here and there to fit in with what I could accomplish.

I output each scene from anime studio in quicktime format best quality 12 frames a second.
I use video pad video editor free version to place my quicktime clips in and assemble the cartoon...I exported the final project as an avi movie.
I use free audio editor to work with my audio clips.
I recorded the audio this time using blue microphone snowball that I just plug into my laptop. (this was amazing and it cant be under estimated how important good sound is.)
everyone was recorded separately ...Ranj lives in Scotland and is an up and coming actor. Louise has done a lot of voice acting on the radio.
We should have recorded everyone together...maybe next time.
So not a lot of people involved in the whole cartoon..in the credits you can see its just a handful of us.
Thanks again for watching.
John

[JohnJackson]

By the way There will be more ...we have several scripts waiting in the wings..so Mosquito Ghost will return...I may story board the next one first.
Am I crazy or when you finish a cartoon all you see when watching it is the mistakes or things that need improving!

John

[strider2000]

Really good John I definitely enjoyed it. The interaction between Mosquito Ghost and Impact was very entertaining. Of the story the only thing that I missed a little was the sound of the arc at the end and a little of the uniqueness of the arc to defeat the foe at the end. Thanks also for sharing your story of your efforts. I've only seen the first link and am looking forward to the others. Thank you very much for sharing. Great job

[jahnocli]

Am I crazy or when you finish a cartoon all you see when watching it is the mistakes or things that need improving!
John

No, this is quite normal... *presses finger ends together and nods understandingly*

[JohnJackson]

thanks guys..im reasonably happy with it until I get to the Stockport pyramid scene, after about 12 months of hard slog my patience was going and things like the fire and other little touches just seemed like far to much effort to refine.
I just wanted to finish it!! lol.
The next one I promise to not let those little things slip me by.
Also I agree about the Arc not having a hum or something...I may add it to my master copy for my dvd collection....John

[JohnJackson]

As aIl I see are the faults ....I think i'll put up a special edition on you tube at some point correcting as many problems as I can..lol.
Not right away of course...I'm about to start work on backgrounds for the next Mosquito Ghost cartoon.
John

[willf]

JohnJackson wrote:

Am I crazy or when you finish a cartoon all you see when watching it is the mistakes or things that need improving!

jahnocli wrote:

No, this is quite normal... *presses finger ends together and nods understandingly*

Heck I'll post something up on the forums in part because I am too close to it, and want to see it with fresh eyes, which usually results in me immediately seeing at least three undetected problems that I need to fix.

[neeters_guy]

I really dig your series so I thought I'd try my version of your Impact character. I'm still getting familiar with the new v10/11 features, but here's a wip so far:




Hope this encourages you to keep on working Mosquito Ghost.

[jahnocli]

I like the way the kicking one narrows her eyes when she kicks.

[JohnJackson]

Oh my God neeters that is so awesome! sorry im only just seeing this as ive been away in London for the film and comic con...just thought id look at the forum and couldn't believe my eyes! im massively chuffed beyond words...thank you.
id love a copy of the files if its at all possible.

[KramerD]

That was a great work John i enjoyed watching your video so much creativity ion it.

[JohnJackson]

Thanks KramerD the next Mosquito Ghost cartoon is about a sea monster in the Manchester ship canal. it's fully written and i'm prepping it now starting with the backgrounds and extra characters.
I'll make a few tweaks to the impact character ...for one thing I think i'll be reducing the eyelashes to be more like the way neeters none them.

[neeters_guy]

Here's turnaround test made up of 8 views: front, front left, side left, back left, back, back right (mirror), side right (mirror), front right (mirror). It's still popping a bit but she almost looks 3 dimensional.


For the front facing views, I decided to try a smart bone head turn, going from side to side. Doing it this way is against my better judgement since it takes so long to set up, but I couldn't resist the challenge. I plan to have the smart bone work with the mouth switches so in theory, the character could talk and turn her head at the same time.