Shadow Legion Chronicles

[Christopher Reynolds]

Hi everyone! I haven't been here in ages. I've been caught up with many different projects, and I'm back to share one with you....it isn't shot on DV, but I edited it on Premiere Pro 1.5, used After Effects 6.5 pro and Photoshop CS for the special effects, Adobe Audition 1.5 for the sound mastering...and we used the video game "Tribes: Vengeance" for the graphics engine. It will hopefully expand in to a web series with more original content (such as music that we actually have the rights to). The pilot episode affectionately titled "The Sand Box Blues" is almost completed, we fell behind on schedule as you can see in the trailer I am linking to. Check it out here: http://www.shadowlegiongames.com/trailer/

[Dmitry Yun]

Hey that's so nostalgic to watch cuz back in the day we used to make Quake movies like that :)

[Christopher Reynolds]

It has become very popular to use computer games as a medium for "film making". I'm not sure I like the title someone slapped on it though..."machinima" sounds sort of cheesy to me.

On a different note, I just wrapped up one of the final scenes and the pilot episode is about 98% done. I'm rendering a preview right now.

The series will have a mix of humor, drama, suspense, and action. There is a lot to be refined in the coming episodes, and there was a lot of corner cutting due to restrictions with the game we're working with which is mildly bugged (plus Vivendi is in some deep trouble so I'm pretty sure all future patches are cancelled). There are some gaps in information given through the episode, some gaps are intentionally left blank for future episodes, others are there due to time constraints (it needs to be under 15 minutes long, and I've got it down to approximately 14 minutes.)

This is our first project like this, which started out as a simple idea for a web comic until we acquired the resources to turn it in to a web series.

The director of the series, Justin West, is showing quite a bit of talent for this being his first endeavor in the "entertainment" field. For me, it has been a massive learning experience. I've finally got to really play around with Adobe After Effects. Since this is my first large project as well (in regards to the amount and type of work needed to be done) my special effects are lacking. It might have helped for me to take some tutorials, but I was eager to jump right in, and I tihnk I survived...but that is all up to you, the viewer to decide.

I look forward to wrapping this up as soon as possible to get some feedback from the community here. Hopefully it will be complete in a day or two at the latest.

[Brandon Greenlee]

I too find these things interesting.

I have tons and tons of half-life shorts in this style.

Let us know when you have the final complete!

[Christopher Reynolds]

Its been sitting here very very close for the last couple days. I'm only missing a voice actor. So far, I've done two voices (in one scene, for the characters that are talking to each other!) and Justin West, the director, wants me to do one or two more characters. We're trying to keep this believable and I can only change my voice in so many ways...

It will be done very very very soon!

[Joe Carney]

Christopher, what tools did you use to generate the output?
(not editing, but original footage). You mentioned the Tribes:Vengeance engine for creation, composition, but what did you use to control camera, flow, rendering out....

I've seen a few machinima tools that seem very obtuse to use.

[Christopher Reynolds]

To handle the camera and pans, good old fashioned human hands. Justin West did his best (that was unintentionally rhymed) to keep it as smooth as he could while recording footage using Fraps. Fraps likes to kill your frame rates if you aren't running a monster of a machine, so even with the smoothest hands, the "camera" will still jump around a bit. I must say that he did one hell of a job throughout all this.

[Christopher Reynolds]

It's a bit embarrassing to come back and say that I slacked for a while. Almost a year to be exact. Some things came up in my life that I would rather not have dealt with, but, as things go, they passed and I moved on to complete the first episode. In all actuality, it would never pass for a "final" version, due to minor glitches that can be found throughout the piece, but since it is a pilot, and it has been sitting stagnant for so long, we have decided to release it as complete as it will get until we complete more episodes and compile a DVD for the first 5 episodes.

Music was used without credit, or purchasing any rights to use it, I'm not sure of the legalities involving this, but we most certainly plan not to sell this project in any way with any copyrighted material in use. (If someone could fill me in with a link or info about the legisitics of music rights, I would be in their debt.) The end credits need tweaked a bit anyway, and this will be done tomorrow. For instance, KellieAnn Armitage was credited as a voice actor for this episode, but we never actually recorded her lines, but she was indeed a body actor.

Please remember, this entire project was a first time experience for everyone involved, and we were all learning our own niches through this. I hope you enjoy the pilot episode for the Shadow Legion Chronicles.

WARNING: Crude language and humor as well as a fart joke.

http://www.shadowlegiongames.com/chr...d=13&Itemid=40

edit: if the Moderators here feel I should remove the link to the video due to the possible copyright issues or language, I will do so promptly.