18 replies to this topic

[Tazakk]

Ta-Koronan Guard Arrives in Ko-Koro

Tensions Mount as Danger Threatens

By Takua

 

Today, after a long journey, the Ta-Koronan Guard arrived in the icy village of Ko-Koro. The Guard has rarely left Ta-Wahi in past years, but the arrival of the Bohork swarms has changed everything for the inhabitants of Mata-Nui.

 

"Ta-Koro has always had a courageous defense force," Guard Captain Jala reports, "but not every village is as fortunate. With Ta-Koro secure for the time being, Turaga Vakama has had the foresight to dispatch several able guardsmen to ensure the safety of the less-protected villages."

 

Upon their arrival in Ko-Koro, the Guard was met with a cold reception. It was only after some discussion that it was decided they would remain. Turaga Nuju remains skeptical  towards the situation.

 

"Nuju respects the noble desires of the Ta-Koronans," explains Nuju's interpreter, Matoro, "but he is simultaneously aware that they have placed themselves in grave danger by remaining here."

 

The air in the village remains tense with anticipation of the upcoming threat. Is there any danger that Ko-Koro might be invaded by the terrible Bohrok?

 

 

***

 

"What is this? There was never an animation like this on BIONICLE.com!" you may be saying to yourself. And you are correct, there was not. This is but the beginning of a new series of animations that I have undertaken to create in order to compliment Templar Studios' excellent work from 2002. Templar's work has always been the crowning achievement of BIONICLE to me, and I can only hope that my work is a suitable tribute to their animations. I am eager to hear what you think, and take your feedback into account for the next animation I produce.

 

Of course, since I am only just beginning, and there are a few things that I hope to implement as improvements next time:

 

- Center the animation

- Lower the text size

- Improve the consistency of colors

- Ensure that everything that happens in the plot is perfectly clear. As it is, I feel that the ending of this animation may be confusing. If this is so, please do not hesitate to ask.

 

Beyond that, any and all comments are much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to watch, and I hope the characters and their interactions seem to you to be true to Mata-Nui Online Game!

 

A blog for progress on upcoming episodes can be found here.

Edited by Tazakk, Mar 09 2013 - 11:40 AM.

[Nuparu77]

This is Awesome!
As a fellow, flash animator I admire how much time must have gone into making this.

 

I would suggest three small things though:

1) when Nuju first speaks it might be good to put in "...." or some kind of " *Speaking in unknown Language* " being as this is the first dialog for your first episode, and a new viewer might initially assume that you haven’t added text to the episode yet.

2) You might consider putting in a Next button during dialog (like the ones seen in the Bohrok animations).

The reason for this is; flash tends to greatly change speed based on internet connection, and if someone has a really fast connection it might blow through some of the dialog. Although, you did a great job in timing it so that I had plenty of time to read everything when I watched it.

3) It could be just my internet connection, but some of the terrain scenes seemed to drag on a bit.

 

But all of those suggestions are just little things, overall this is Amazing! Can’t wait to see more!

Edited by Nuparu77, Mar 02 2013 - 09:29 PM.

[snoip lion]

Looks great! I would however suggest that you don't let the "in between" scenes hang for too long. They really do sort of split up the action. Other than that, this is really interesting and quite nostalgic. Please continue making more!

[Tazakk]

This is Awesome!
As a fellow, flash animator I admire how much time must have gone into making this.

 

I would suggest three small things though:

1) when Nuju first speaks it might be good to put in "...." or some kind of " *Speaking in unknown Language* " being as this is the first dialog for your first episode, and a new viewer might initially assume that you haven’t added text to the episode yet.

2) You might consider putting in a Next button during dialog (like the ones seen in the Bohrok animations).

The reason for this is; flash tends to greatly change speed based on internet connection, and if someone has a really fast connection it might blow through some of the dialog. Although, you did a great job in timing it so that I had plenty of time to read everything when I watched it.

3) It could be just my internet connection, but some of the terrain scenes seemed to drag on a bit.

 

But all of those suggestions are just little things, overall this is Amazing! Can’t wait to see more!

Thank you! It did take quite a bit of time to do this, but it was an enjoyable learning process.

 

1) That is a good point, I will be sure to implement it next time. I suppose I assumed that everyone would understand that there is no text as it is Nuju that is speaking, but I had not considered the possibility that it could come across as an error/something I hadn't finished yet.

2) I have thought about doing this, but to be honest I am still on the fence over it. Templar's later animations did not have this feature, and for me this has always increased the ease of viewing them. But then, we have (in part) as a result of the button's removal the terribly paced "Defeat of the Bohrok-Kal." It occurs to me that if people are having difficulties reading the text in time, I might be able to upload a version with a slower frame rate.

3)That was probably a result of my timing, not your connection. I really admire all of the artwork in MNOLG, so I probably focused on it a little too long. I was trying to stay in the ballpark of the length of the opening shot for "Le-Koro Liberated!" with the opening shots of my own animation, but in truth the opening for the other animation was quite lengthy, too.

 

I cannot say for certain when the next animation will be coming along, but it is definitely on its way. Thanks again!

 

Looks great! I would however suggest that you don't let the "in between" scenes hang for too long. They really do sort of split up the action. Other than that, this is really interesting and quite nostalgic. Please continue making more!

Thank you. I will be sure to shorten the length of those scenes in future animations. I am glad you enjoyed the animation!

[Taipu1]

I love you for doing this.  Other than issues already highlighted (Particularly the in-between scenes staying too long), it's really impossible to tell this from the real animations.  I look forward to seeing more. 

[Tazakk]

I love you for doing this.  Other than issues already highlighted (Particularly the in-between scenes staying too long), it's really impossible to tell this from the real animations.  I look forward to seeing more. 

Thank you! I put a lot of thought into making the animation seem like it came from Templar Studios, so I am glad to hear that it turned out that way.

[BrandonB9]

Wow! Rush of nostalgia!  Amazing job, I really enjoyed it!

 For suggestions, I would of liked more of the motor sounds from the Tohunga  when they moved and talked, as sometimes the silence seemed weird. (but that may just be me)  I also agree with Nuparu77  on adding a "..." for when Nuju is speaking, but again great job that was awesome.  

Side questions: 1) How do you do backgrounds? Draw them, Decompile and reassemble in flash, or use screen shots from MNOG?

 2) Do you color the Tohunga by going in and editing each symbol shade by shade?  If so I have a more efficient way to do so that can also help with color consistency. 

[Tazakk]

Wow! Rush of nostalgia!  Amazing job, I really enjoyed it!

 For suggestions, I would of liked more of the motor sounds from the Tohunga  when they moved and talked, as sometimes the silence seemed weird. (but that may just be me)  I also agree with Nuparu77  on adding a "..." for when Nuju is speaking, but again great job that was awesome.  

Side questions: 1) How do you do backgrounds? Draw them, Decompile and reassemble in flash, or use screen shots from MNOG?

 2) Do you color the Tohunga by going in and editing each symbol shade by shade?  If so I have a more efficient way to do so that can also help with color consistency. 

Thanks! There will probably be more mechanical sounds made by the Tohunga (and other characters) in future installations. I was avoiding placing them in when any of the characters were simply speaking, as that is something Templar did later on - I may have to change my methods, though, depending on how the sounds complement the scene. There were a few places that still needed a few sounds, beyond that, like when the Ta-Koronans walk off screen.

1) De-compile and reassemble in Flash. That way, I have the freedom to show new areas of the villages, while ensuring everything looks like it came out of one of the original animations.

2) I went with the first method in my original Kapura test animation, but I realized how inefficient the method was when I looked more closely at how the characters were colored in the original animations (and subsequently adopted that method). With color consistency, I was mostly referring to how Jala's shades were inconsistent with the other Ta-Koronans, because I had taken his colors from a scene with different lighting than the one I based the rest of the colors on. It could actually be that Jala was intended to be a slightly different shade of red, but I would have to check to be certain.

[BrandonB9]

What exactly is the method you use to color out of curiosity? For me I found it is pretty efficient to take the gray colored shapes from decompiled templar animations and then go to properties>color>advanced and mess with the levels of Red Green and Blue to get the desired color. If we do it the same way then sorry for the trouble, if not I'd love to hear how you do it.  

[Tazakk]

What exactly is the method you use to color out of curiosity? For me I found it is pretty efficient to take the gray colored shapes from decompiled templar animations and then go to properties>color>advanced and mess with the levels of Red Green and Blue to get the desired color. If we do it the same way then sorry for the trouble, if not I'd love to hear how you do it.  

It's no trouble! Yes, that is just how I do it. I just copy the color ratios that Templar used rather than creating my own, though.

[TNT-Vezon with an Olmak]

This is amazing! Seriously, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was one the actual ones. Oh, and I actually kinda like not having the arrows, so personally, I don't think you should change that. Great job!

[maxthethrax]

awesome!


I like it.It is so cool!
Please make constructive posts that add to the conversation. Tell us what you think is awesome about it, not just that it's awesome. -B6

Edited by Black Six, Mar 05 2013 - 11:58 AM.

[Tazakk]

This is amazing! Seriously, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought it was one the actual ones. Oh, and I actually kinda like not having the arrows, so personally, I don't think you should change that. Great job!

Thank you! I am fairly certain that I won't be adding in the arrows, as I think I will be able to work around them if need be.

 

awesome!


I like it.It is so cool!

Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed it.

[Keyblade87]

Fantastic work, hats off to you.

The sound and animation were all great and flowed nicely.  The part with Kapura at the end was amusing, too.  I look forward to seeing how your animation skill and the story develops!

[Tazakk]

For those curious, I have begun a blog that will chronicle my work on upcoming episodes. Since the time between episodes will likely be considerable in length, this blog will serve as a way to keep anyone who is interested up-to-date on the project.

Fantastic work, hats off to you.

The sound and animation were all great and flowed nicely.  The part with Kapura at the end was amusing, too.  I look forward to seeing how your animation skill and the story develops!

Thanks! Good to know that the ending with Kapura was not confusing, as I feared it might be, but instead humorous, as I intended.

Edited by Tazakk, Mar 09 2013 - 09:36 AM.

[fishers64]

Nice animation, much like Templar. The one thing that irked me is that the Matoran nodded a bit too much between lines. 

 

Kapura...was that ending music supposed to signify some sort of danger, like him getting frozen? Otherwise, I completely got it.

Edited by fishers64, Mar 13 2013 - 06:25 AM.

[Tazakk]

Nice animation, much like Templar. The one thing that irked me is that the Matoran nodded a bit too much between lines. 

 

Kapura...was that ending music supposed to signify some sort of danger, like him getting frozen? Otherwise, I completely got it.

Thank you. I would appreciate it if you could point out to me when specifically you felt the Tohunga nodded too much. I'm guessing you are referring to the beginning of the scene outside the Sanctum? If so, I was trying to give the impression that the Tohunga were partaking in some discussion unrelated to the plot, with no subtitles since that was how Templar did it in Tahnok Surround Po-Koro, Matoran Lost in Fray. I can see how that wouldn't be clear, though.

 

Yes, at the end Kapura falls over because there was a large amount of shaking - an earthquake that admittedly needed a sound effect to signify it's occurrence.

[The Lonesome Wanderer]

*Sound of jaw hitting floor*

you made that...

W
O

W

.

 

I mean, that looks just like one of the animations by Templar. Wow.

I can't wait to see more of these!

[Black Six]

Revival.
Thread closed.