You know how they say animation is usually a slow process?
In my last post, about two-and-a-half weeks ago, I introduced you to a little project called The Murkum Show. At that point, I had finished Episodes 1 to 3, got Episodes 4 to 6 in pre-production, and written Episode 7, and I had no real idea of how long the series would continue.
Well, in the world of The Murkum Show, it seems that two-and-a-half weeks can be quite a long time. I've now finished Episodes 1 to 9 and got Episodes 10 to 15 either written or mostly-written, with various contributions from Tim, Sarah and Sam - and we'd got ahead of ourselves a bit, and started writing material for Series 2 already, so I've decided that it's time to close script submissions and lock down the episode lineup for Series 1.
I admit that I might have cheated a little by having the episodes be so short, but it's rather gratifying to have a series progressing so fast for once, instead of the snail-esque crawl that my animation work usually moves at.
There's a huge amount of Murk Army back-story which would be very hard to publish due to its rambling nature and the disparate formats it's been written in, but there are certain frequently-revisited elements which have found their way into The Murkum Show - one example being Murkum's hopeless attempts at motivational speeches, like the one in Episode 3 Headlong Dash ("War is... um... war!"); various others will be cropping up in later episodes, and although their in-joke nature might not be apparent to the casual viewer, it's rather satisfying for me (and I think for Tim and Sarah as well) to have them in there.
Here are Episodes 2 to 4. Enjoy - and tune back in next Saturday for Episode 5 I Want the Droids!
- The Colclough
Showing posts with label Lego. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lego. Show all posts
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
A Show of His Own
Back in 2011, in the days of Arbitrary Stopframe Series 1, one character emerged as the clear favourite out of the eleven who had appeared in the show. Everybody else got just one appearance, or at best two, but Doctor Murkum (one of the many denizens of Universe XGT) got three episodes to himself - well, two-and-a-half if you take into account that he had to share the last one with an angry DVD copy of a South Korean monster flick. And somebody - I think it was Tim - suggested that perhaps Murkum should get a show of his own.
Well, he's got it. Tim's suggestion rankled away throughout 2012 - if I gave Murkum his own show, what sort of show would it be? I considered making it a chat show, but that one fell by the wayside; I could never come up with a workable answer to the questions of who he would talk to, about what, and why. I briefly considered having a split-timeframe format, intercutting footage that was meant to have come from Murkum's first camcorder back in the 1980s with other footage of him in the present day reviewing his past escapades on tape and trying to deny or explain away the more embarrassing bits; that one floundered due to its technical over-complication.
Eventually, I settled on a less-is-more approach, and decided that each episode should be a short stand-alone sketch, set at Fort Murk in the present day, in which Murkum brings injury and/or embarrassment upon himself. He does that a lot anyway, so it made sense that The Murkum Show should bring it to the screen. The fun thing about writing for Murkum is that he's numb-skulled, arrogant, violent, a kleptomaniac and a pathological liar, so I can write/animate him suffering all sorts of indignities without having to feel even remotely sorry for him - he deserves every indignity that comes his way.
So, with that premise in mind, I built a set out of Lego, scribbled down a trio of short episode scripts (half a side of A4 each, if that), and sent them to Tim for appraisal. It's worth mentioning at this point, for those who don't know already, that I've known Tim for a very long time, and Murkum is almost as much his fault as he is mine. So that's why he gets to read the scripts before anybody else. Basically he agreed with my own assessment, which was that Episodes 2 and 3 worked, but 1 felt unfinished; combined with the fact that I'd decided I wanted the series opener to feature some of Murkum's highest-ranking employees, it seemed like the logical thing to leave Episodes 2 and 3 as Episodes 2 and 3, but push back the previous 'Episode 1' to become Episode 4, pending a rewrite, and pen a new episode to begin the series. Which I did shortly afterwards.
The next step was dialogue recording and processing - it took a lot of faffing about with a constricted throat and a pile of audio filters to make Murkum-on-speakers sound like Murkum-in-my-head. The job was made more complex due to Murkum being a cyborg (with an artificial voicebox, mechanical components in his chest to keep his respiration and circulation going, and all of his limbs at least partially cybernetic), and I needed to try and make his voice sound like it was being electronically generated, but without ending up as a clone of Microsoft Sam. Got there in the end, though, with some more assistance from T.
The actual animation process was relatively short and painless, with the first three episodes (collectively 'Production Block A') shot back-to-back over the course of last Thursday, and I then completed sound editing for the trio and released Episode 1 Elite Class on Saturday. As you can see right here:
Ta-da! The Murkum Show has landed.
I've already finished dialogue recordings for 'Production Block B' (Episodes 4 to 6), and am aiming to film the visual components in the next few days. The plan is to release one episode every Saturday while stocks last, so come back on the 25th for Episode 2 Drinkies...
- The Colclough
Well, he's got it. Tim's suggestion rankled away throughout 2012 - if I gave Murkum his own show, what sort of show would it be? I considered making it a chat show, but that one fell by the wayside; I could never come up with a workable answer to the questions of who he would talk to, about what, and why. I briefly considered having a split-timeframe format, intercutting footage that was meant to have come from Murkum's first camcorder back in the 1980s with other footage of him in the present day reviewing his past escapades on tape and trying to deny or explain away the more embarrassing bits; that one floundered due to its technical over-complication.
Eventually, I settled on a less-is-more approach, and decided that each episode should be a short stand-alone sketch, set at Fort Murk in the present day, in which Murkum brings injury and/or embarrassment upon himself. He does that a lot anyway, so it made sense that The Murkum Show should bring it to the screen. The fun thing about writing for Murkum is that he's numb-skulled, arrogant, violent, a kleptomaniac and a pathological liar, so I can write/animate him suffering all sorts of indignities without having to feel even remotely sorry for him - he deserves every indignity that comes his way.
So, with that premise in mind, I built a set out of Lego, scribbled down a trio of short episode scripts (half a side of A4 each, if that), and sent them to Tim for appraisal. It's worth mentioning at this point, for those who don't know already, that I've known Tim for a very long time, and Murkum is almost as much his fault as he is mine. So that's why he gets to read the scripts before anybody else. Basically he agreed with my own assessment, which was that Episodes 2 and 3 worked, but 1 felt unfinished; combined with the fact that I'd decided I wanted the series opener to feature some of Murkum's highest-ranking employees, it seemed like the logical thing to leave Episodes 2 and 3 as Episodes 2 and 3, but push back the previous 'Episode 1' to become Episode 4, pending a rewrite, and pen a new episode to begin the series. Which I did shortly afterwards.
The next step was dialogue recording and processing - it took a lot of faffing about with a constricted throat and a pile of audio filters to make Murkum-on-speakers sound like Murkum-in-my-head. The job was made more complex due to Murkum being a cyborg (with an artificial voicebox, mechanical components in his chest to keep his respiration and circulation going, and all of his limbs at least partially cybernetic), and I needed to try and make his voice sound like it was being electronically generated, but without ending up as a clone of Microsoft Sam. Got there in the end, though, with some more assistance from T.
The actual animation process was relatively short and painless, with the first three episodes (collectively 'Production Block A') shot back-to-back over the course of last Thursday, and I then completed sound editing for the trio and released Episode 1 Elite Class on Saturday. As you can see right here:
Ta-da! The Murkum Show has landed.
I've already finished dialogue recordings for 'Production Block B' (Episodes 4 to 6), and am aiming to film the visual components in the next few days. The plan is to release one episode every Saturday while stocks last, so come back on the 25th for Episode 2 Drinkies...
- The Colclough
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Videos from March
I've uploaded a couple of videos this month, and forgotten to put them on here at the time, so this post is a little end-of-month roundup of videos that should have been on here earlier...
Made second but posted first: The Fifteen-Minute Fortress, in which I do some rambly bloggy stuff, intercut with footage of me trying to build a Lego castle thing (of sorts) in 15 minutes flat. Watch below, and judge for yourself whether or not it was any kind of success - and what the answer might be to the question about a sequel which I pose at the end...
Made first (shot in October, in fact, and finished in February) but posted second: X-Battles GT5: Exploding, in which some Lego (wait, thematic connection going on here!) characters have a fight with laser weapons. Produced in conjunction with Tim and Sarah, and all rather fun to make.
- The Colclough
Made second but posted first: The Fifteen-Minute Fortress, in which I do some rambly bloggy stuff, intercut with footage of me trying to build a Lego castle thing (of sorts) in 15 minutes flat. Watch below, and judge for yourself whether or not it was any kind of success - and what the answer might be to the question about a sequel which I pose at the end...
Made first (shot in October, in fact, and finished in February) but posted second: X-Battles GT5: Exploding, in which some Lego (wait, thematic connection going on here!) characters have a fight with laser weapons. Produced in conjunction with Tim and Sarah, and all rather fun to make.
- The Colclough
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Happy days...
The last 48 hours or so have been pretty good ones. Barring the ones I spent failing to get to sleep, that is 8p
The artwork is going well. I finished Stained Glass V on Saturday, started SG VI on Monday, and am very pleased with both. River III and untitled variations no. IV are also coming along more or less as planned. Piccies follow:
River III (WIP)
untitled variations no. IV (WIP)
Tim's been writing some music for one of my in-development animation projects, and it's very cool. Not ready to be shown off yet, but it's one more reason I'm chirpy at the moment.
My new Lego arrived last night. Made my evening, needless to say. And before you all start saying "but I thought you were almost 24..." - there's no such thing as "too much Lego" or "too old for Lego"; those are myths invented by boring people. I haven't had any new Lego in years, and I've tended to put Christmas and birthday money in savings, but this time round I decided I'd actually use some of the cash to buy something I wanted, so I ordered a custom-designed Lego set, with new equipment for Doctor Murkum's private militia.
Some of Murkum's men with their new uniforms, blasters and aircraft - the one in the blue fighter craft is Atkun, the chief engineer, and the one with the white top is Gonce, the cook.
The guinea pigs are gone. I always said they were a bad idea, and eventually everyone else (except Sophie, of course) has come round to my view on the topic. This morning, Ben and I were handed the offending rodents in a box and asked to take them for one last trip, in the general direction of an animal shelter on the far side of Wokingham.
I did get there in the end, no thanks to our satnav which spent the whole journey claiming it couldn't find a GPS signal, while I navigated using memory, road signs, and the odd atlas check by Ben. I decided I don't like driving in Wokingham. Too many confusing one-way streets and stuff. But that's not the point - the point is, it might have looked for about four months like I'd lost the debate, but as of today I have absolutely definitely won. No more pets bigger than a hamster in this house, I don't think.
Speaking of rodents: Dusty is quickly turning out to be a much better critter than the guinea pigs ever were. He's followed Scribbles' footsteps, quite literally, taking his first evening stroll around my desk on Monday. He tried nibbling all sorts of things (including the curtain), but fortunately seemed to decide he didn't like the taste of any of them. I did get a bit worried when he started showing an interest in some coins I'd left lying around, and it looked for a moment as if he was about to stuff a 20p in his cheek and never give it back, but then he changed his mind and waddled off to taste the speaker cable instead. He's incredibly similar to his predecessor, including having big tufts of hair growing out of his hips and making him look like some sort of overgrown fluffy earwig, and including a tendency to jump off the side of the desk and perform dusting services on the way down.
Statistics:
- The Colclough
The artwork is going well. I finished Stained Glass V on Saturday, started SG VI on Monday, and am very pleased with both. River III and untitled variations no. IV are also coming along more or less as planned. Piccies follow:
Stained Glass V (complete) & VI (WIP)
Tim's been writing some music for one of my in-development animation projects, and it's very cool. Not ready to be shown off yet, but it's one more reason I'm chirpy at the moment.
My new Lego arrived last night. Made my evening, needless to say. And before you all start saying "but I thought you were almost 24..." - there's no such thing as "too much Lego" or "too old for Lego"; those are myths invented by boring people. I haven't had any new Lego in years, and I've tended to put Christmas and birthday money in savings, but this time round I decided I'd actually use some of the cash to buy something I wanted, so I ordered a custom-designed Lego set, with new equipment for Doctor Murkum's private militia.
The guinea pigs are gone. I always said they were a bad idea, and eventually everyone else (except Sophie, of course) has come round to my view on the topic. This morning, Ben and I were handed the offending rodents in a box and asked to take them for one last trip, in the general direction of an animal shelter on the far side of Wokingham.
I did get there in the end, no thanks to our satnav which spent the whole journey claiming it couldn't find a GPS signal, while I navigated using memory, road signs, and the odd atlas check by Ben. I decided I don't like driving in Wokingham. Too many confusing one-way streets and stuff. But that's not the point - the point is, it might have looked for about four months like I'd lost the debate, but as of today I have absolutely definitely won. No more pets bigger than a hamster in this house, I don't think.
Speaking of rodents: Dusty is quickly turning out to be a much better critter than the guinea pigs ever were. He's followed Scribbles' footsteps, quite literally, taking his first evening stroll around my desk on Monday. He tried nibbling all sorts of things (including the curtain), but fortunately seemed to decide he didn't like the taste of any of them. I did get a bit worried when he started showing an interest in some coins I'd left lying around, and it looked for a moment as if he was about to stuff a 20p in his cheek and never give it back, but then he changed his mind and waddled off to taste the speaker cable instead. He's incredibly similar to his predecessor, including having big tufts of hair growing out of his hips and making him look like some sort of overgrown fluffy earwig, and including a tendency to jump off the side of the desk and perform dusting services on the way down.
Statistics:
- First 12 for '12 status: 10 down, 2 to go
- Latest book read: part of 1 Kings from the KJV
- Latest film/TV watched: Michael Palin's Sahara, part 2
- Latest music listened to: Golden Cube OST (WIP) by Timothy Johnston
- Latest edible item eaten: beefburger
- Predominant colour of clothes: blue and grey on the outside; red t-shirt underneath
- Programs and web pages currently running: Microsoft Office Outlook and Excel 2007, Firefox (tabs: Blogspot Dashboard; Blogspot Create Post; MatNav 6.1), Windows Media Player 11, Skype
- Webcomics posted today: n/a
- The Colclough
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