I'm working on a series preemptively titled TF: Blitz. I need some tips for: story choosing characters animation (how to show emotions in stop motion, with action figs, not the less) when and when not to kill characters
I'm still stuck with characters. I kind of want to set up the Autobots as a bunch of ragtag punks that shouldn't really get along well, but still do. Who fits this bill? You must still include Optimus.
4 is a good number for a cast. Beyond that, think of the archetypes you want and what characters fit that.
My advice: 1) Pick an aesthetic and stick to it. It would be jarring to see, for example, Animated and Movie figures mixed. 2) Use as many characters as you feel you can handle within the story. 3) Take your time. It is very easy for stop motions to come out sloppily, so be sure to take things slow and take as many pictures as needed, if not more. 4) Determine your location. Are you going to build sets? Green screen the whole thing? If you green screen, you're going to need extra time to quality proof things when you edit in the backgrounds. 5) Quite frankly, you can't show emotion on Transformers toys' faces. You can, however, use gestures and movements to convey emotion alongside the recorded voices. You can also use visual effects such as making the eyes glow.
1. I'm going G1 for the most part, with WOC/FOC thrown in. 2. 20-30 may be too much. Although the series will be very lethal to its characters. But what about generics? Buy as many seekers as possible? 3. I'm hoping to rope in many people as possible as a love letter to TF. 4.Will do a mix of sets and green screen. But I don't have the skills, which again, I need help as many people as possible. 5. Oh well. That's dropped.
Optimus Prime and Megatron always. Never kill them off except for a cliff hanger and then subsequently bring them back. I can help write some of the story, I like doing stuff like that, but you need to tell me more of what you want.
I want to shoot for a pretty serious drama with high death toll, border-line Ideon. There will be five chapters- 1.Frontier- The character establishing chapter for the Autobots 2.Escalation- Humans start getting involved, casualties here and there 3.Ultimatum-highest death toll, Shockwave has taken over 4.Resolution-Pyrrhic victory for Autobots, return to Cybertron 5.Apocolypse- the KILL EM ALL, with Unicron and his cronies. Will be a movie. Do I seriously I have to keep Optimus and Megatron alive?
You really don't, especially if you're hitting for drama. Like, have one or the other be killed off early and then have a new leader who has to deal with the pressure of ruling an entire army. And then maybe they can die too
I have an idea. You start off with a genius plan by Megatron. The Autobots and Decepticons fight furiously in the battle a battle that kills off Megatron and Optimus. Now Ultra Magnus and Starscream take control of their few soldiers. While the Autobots try to rebirth Optimus, Starscream tries to make the 'Cons forget about their former leader. Meanwhile Shockwave is working out of rank as he tries also to bring back his one true master. Eventually both return and Starscream gets almost killed, but instead is just forced out and possibly becomes an Autobot himself, only to betray them too to try to show his affection for Megatron. Now when the two return they come back to the most dangerous threat they have ever had, Unicron. And even though their last meeting was to kill each other, they must come together along with their soldiers and fight Unicron, maybe to even save Cybertron I don't know. Maybe that would even be the end of the war.
The problem is getting toys for some of these guys. I'm still not ready with the Decepticon cast, nor do I know good templates for generics. Also need to make humans not scrappies and useful. I do not want to glorify the US military though. More on characters- how do you establish characters without dragging on plot (primarily for Autobots)? Also, there will be some custom ships that need to be designed... such as the Ark. The Matrix is going work as crazy as the Ide does in Ideon. Free stock music would be helpful, though I intend to have individual song openings.
If you want a good source for "cool" stock music, try the newgrounds audio portal for tracks. All tracks are made by users on the site, and are under a creative commons licence, which means they can be downloaded and used for free, as long as you give credit to the original artist.
Thanks for suggestion, it's in the bookmarks. I have a ton of G1 sound effects and others, so I think I'm covered for sounds. Still, if I find out I'm not, what are other good places for stock sfx that doesn't sound terrible?
Partners in Rhyme is where I used to go for free sound-effects back when I dabbled in stop-motion a few years back. There aren't a huge amount of sound-effects available, but what they do have is pretty good stuff As for character deaths, dramatic deaths are good, but only in small doses. Be sure to have characters fall to quick and sudden deaths as well. I think the best thing I've heard when it comes to killing characters in writing was said by George RR Martin. It was basically along the lines of "If X character finds themselves in a situation where they are unlikely to survive, then it's most likely the wont. Sometimes they will, for whatever reason, but I want an audience to fear for their favourites when they end up in these situations, and not know that the hero is going to make it out alive just because they're the hero" Of course, neither Optimus nor Megatron have to survive the series. Hell, you could kill them both off, at the same time or at different times, just to spice things up a bit For developing characters, the best way is to do it in short scenes, or even lines, just to help flesh out characters. If you have personalities in mind for each member of your main cast, and apply these personality types to their dialogue, then they should develop naturally As for generics, Prime deluxe Vehicons make for pretty good generics, and fit in quite nicely with the Classics figures, assuming that's what you're using. And, as you said, there's also Classics deluxe Seekers. I recommend checking out SirToys.com to see if you can find some cheap knock-offs to use for generics, rather than paying the $20-$30 that official Hasbro ones go for in the after-market I hope some of this is of use to you
Kill Megatron early...have Optimus as the regretful killer/unsure leader...seekers are awesome generics...after Megatrons death the cons should splinter off as no one worthy to lead steps up...
Thanks for the links. I'll use more seekers. Oh so the characters will just grow naturally as I write? That's good news. So something as sudden as Ashura's death in Be Invoked should suffice sometimes, right? The atmosphere is borderline Ideon-depressing, so I think I'm giving a good idea of what the death toll is.
