09.01.03

Storyboard image from File 2

Ah yes, the sense of impending doom -- I know it well. When I originally conceived of the Zero_Sum series back in the spring of 2000, I really had no idea how much work it was going to take to turn my quick little scribbles into a completed piece of animation. So, when I started working on building File 1, it was with a mixture of curiosity and naive optimism. When I finished almost two years later, those notions had been completed crushed, lost in a blur of late nights and weekends spent hunched over my tiny computer screen, cursing Flash's deficiencies to the high heavens.

However, time heals all wounds, and now, another year later, I've decided to roll into production on File 2. If all goes well, it will be completed in time for a spring 2004 release. For posterity (and some easy content), I'll be periodically detailing my progress and thoughts in this journal between now and then.

To start, I'm happy to report that pre-production is finished -- which means that all of the new characters and locales have been designed, and the storyboards are drawn and ready to start animating. Well, almost -- my next step is to make a rough animatic of the whole episode using the storyboards with a scratch dialogue track, to get a sense of the final flow and timing. In File 1, this step literally sent me back to the drawing board, as I found large gaps and flaws in the original boarded sequences when I watched it unfold in rough pencil -- I ended up reboarding about half of that piece before I started animation. This time, I'm pretty sure I've gotten it mostly right. This is, after all, the third storyboard draft I've done for this episode over the last few months, and we all know that the third time is a charm... (By which logic, I should just rush File 2 and put my real effort into File 3, huh?)

For now, check out the teaser, where you'll get your first glimpse at one of the new characters in File 2 (and don't worry, El and Zero are back for the ride, too). Remember to check back here from time to time for the full story, as it unfolds.

[k]