Ep1 Pt4 Bat Storm: Financial Crisis on GoAnimate

It was a long time coming and a whole lot of thinking time too but Episode 1, Part 4 of Bat Storm: Financial Crisis is finally here. This is the exciting conclusion.

Of course, if you haven't seen Episode 1, Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3, clicking those links will take you to their respective blog posts where you'll find that episode.

In this final part, Bat Storm and Bat Flash follow the clues and close in on their man. With the reward money for the safe return of the missing girls back in their sights it seems financial prosperity will soon be theirs... or will it?

Ep 1 / Pt 4 Bat Storm: Financial Crisis by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Part of the reason it took so long for me to make this fourth installment was finding a 'family friendly' motivation for James (a.k.a. the Jokester's employee Jokester). I didn't want this episode to go down that dark path where the two girls got hurt in any way so I came up with this idea that the Jokester i.e. James had, at some point, met each girl and convinced them to go on a 'fun adventure holiday'.

Knowing how precious parents can be with their kids James anticipates a reward will be offered which he will then collect when he shows up with the girls at the police station in his regular street clothes. Hence all the time the girls have been missing they've been having a lot of fun in order to stay co-operative.

Don't analyse James' plan too closely. I know it's riddled with plot holes and not thought through particularly well. I'll put it down to James not being a master criminal. I mean, he panics when he sees Bat Storm instead of holding his ground and feeding Bat Storm the story he was going to tell the Police.

The other difficulty I had was laying down a trail of clues for Bat Storm to follow in order to find James. In the end they get lucky but at least it's 'believable lucky' as they were already in James' neighborhood.

Back in my post on part 2 I eluded to some proof that I made up this script as I went along. If you look at the Jokester in the hospital scenes in Part 4. Take a close look at his face - and compare it with the Jokester in the hospital in part 2 you'll see that in part 2, it is actually the real Jokester at the hospital and not the James Jokester.

Back in Part 2 I had no idea of the events in part 3 and especially not in part 4. If I had the Jokester at the hospital in part 2 would have been the James Jokester. I didn't make the James Jokester until I started work on Part 4.

Again there's not too much custom flash work in this apart from James' mini van, which I also used in Pimp My Ride, and a new version of the bat grappling hook so Bat Storm could spin it around and then throw it.

I'm surprised no one so far has picked me up and wondered how Bat Storm suddenly is holding a grappling hook? I'm hoping most people just assume he pulled it out of his utility belt - as Batman would.

Over all I like how this part came together. With so many characters it could easily turned into a confusing mess but everyone's story seems to wrap up nicely. I particularly like how I was able to bring Super Charge and Charge Girl back into the action in a way that made sense - due to having already established that Super Charge is not only watching Bat Storm's movements but actively interfering in his ability to fight crime.

Although I haven't really met my original goal of writing a long episode quickly (the whole episode was meant to conclude in January!) I do think I've shown I can write a good, funny story for a sitcom length cartoon. However, I don't think I'll really have proven this until I have a few more episodes complete.

I had a great time making this and I do intend to write a second episode. After all, I bet you're itching to find out if Bat Storm buys that truck!

Comments

Featured Animator: Christian Haynes - 'Zack In Time' An Original, Independent, Animated Series on the Rise

Christian Haynes - Zack In Time. If you've ever wanted to create an animated TV series staring your own original characters and stories then Los Angeles based writer, director, and animator, Christian Haynes is taking those next steps of putting together a team, developing a pitch/trailer for their series, Zack In Time. Featuring professional studio quality animation, they hope the show will get picked up by an animation studio for an official series. The path he and his team are taking is one you could easily follow as they deal with real life commitments, and building a following on Instagram and Tik-Tok showcasing their work behind the scenes. TET: Tell me a little about yourself. Who you are, and why you started animating? My name is Christian Haynes and I've loved animation ever since I was a kid. I would constantly be drawing cartoon characters from TV shows and movies and making my own little homemade comic strips. As I got older, I became a lot more interested in st

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder. As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu

Shotcut - Free Open Source Video Editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Shotcut Open Source Video Editor. I've been on the hunt for a while now for the best, free, open source, video editing application out there. In Shotcut , by Meltytech , which has versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux, I think I may have found a real front runner. This won't be a feature filled review, rather it will be my first impressions after having used Shotcut on a few of my YouTube videos so far. One of my key criteria for a video editor is the ability to import any video format directly into the project. This may seem like an odd focus initially but having convert video to something your video editor can use is annoyingly time consuming, and it creates a new generation of footage, potentially with a loss in quality if you don't really know much about video format specs (that's this guy right here!). Shotcut will happily work with my OBS recordings (.FLV), and .MOV, .MP4 files that I get from two different cameras. Not only that but Shotcut doesn't hold me up

How to Use Plask and Reallusion's 3DXchange to Create Full Body 3D Motion Capture Animation for Cartoon Animator

Last month I reviewed Plask , a free, browser based app that allows you to create 3D motion capture files for animation from a webcam or prerecorded video footage. At the time my hope was that Plask could be used to create 3D motion capture files for Cartoon Animator 4. Unfortunately my knowledge of how to export 3D animation motion files between applications is fairly basic and I wasn't able to figure it out. However, thanks to 3D animation enthusiast and game developer, Freedom (of the YouTube Channel Freedom Arts ), who published a tutorial on how to use Plask with iClone7 characters (in my review I wasn't able to work that out either) there is now a workflow from Plask, via Reallusion's 3DXchange , to Cartoon Animator that is relatively easy to follow and works well. Note: If you want to try this out, 3DXchange is available as a free 30 day trial download if you don't have it. Creating Your 3D Motion Capture File in Plask I'm not going to do a detailed run

Create 2D Animated Characters with 3D Character Creator Tools and Artistic Filters

3D CC3 TET Character, based on my Oppa Doll Avatar, used as the base for a 2D CA4 character. One of my favorite things to do is to create characters with any type of Avatar/Character creator app. In fact the first test I usually try with these tools is, can I make an avatar of me (or at least my The Extraordinary Tourist persona). Previously I've used 2D character creators like Oppa Doll as a source of artwork for some characters I've made for Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 4 animation studio but 2D character creators are limited to... well 2D. 3D Character Creators While you may think 3D character creators have no place in creating characters for 2D animation there are quite a number of advantages including: No drawing skills required. Render characters in any style. Use an art filter or even hand trace into line art. Need to animate the character in a specific pose or angle? Render out an image of the character in the required angle and animate it in 2D. Quicker to crea

KIT Scenarist - Free, Open Source, Screenwriting Software that Helps Research Your Ideas Too

KIT Scenarist Script Writing Software's Mascot, Alexander Cat. While you can write a script in any word processing app, if you're writing stories (screenplays) that feature characters and dialogue, a dedicated script writing app can save a lot of time formatting, letting you focus more on the actual story. Script writing apps are also very useful if you plan to send your screenplays out to production companies, or if you're collaborating with actors and other production people, who are used to scripts being in a particular standard format. [Note: In case you're wondering there are reasons scripts follow a standard format and are always written in Courier (typewriter) font, including but not limited to; being easy to read by actors, plenty of space for notes, and the general rule that one page of a script (in this format) equals approximately one minute of screen time.] KIT Scenarist , in my opinion, is one of the best script writing apps out there for ease of use, simp

Creating a G3-360 Head From a Single Photo in Reallusion's Cartoon Animator

Source Photo from Generated Photos . Ever since Reallusion introduced the G3-360 Character Head into Cartoon Animator 4 I've wanted to see if their 360 Head Creator tool could be used to create an animated head using a photo. Part of the reason I've never given this a shot, until now, is that I just assumed it would be difficult, and require a lot of photo editing to blend out the sprite edges. It turns out, creating a photographic G3-360 head is not that much more difficult than creating a cartoon head, and can be done using a single photographic image using my own G3-360 head rigging system . While this article isn't intended to be a full tutorial, I'll run through the basic steps of how I achieved my photographic G3-360 head, shown in the comparison below, of a Cartoon Animator Morph-based head on the left, and my G3-360 head on the right. Pros and Cons Cartoon Animator's morph-based head system is ideal for animating photographic faces. It uses a semi 3D wire me

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog