The Legend of Zahur

Just had to promote a great new indie animation by another lone guy doing it all himself. Its in an anime style and very good looking is it too. Its 90 second episodes every week or so. Its not a format Id considered, but it really works well.



As he puts it:

"...The official launch of the new Studio ArtFX website and The Legend of Zahur, my new animated series. This is the beginning of a great new journey for me as an independent content creator, but the possibilities are already beyond imagination. The freedom of the web format is unprecedented. A show can go beyond the confines of television and create an entirely new viewing experience. The level of interactivity with viewers is also a bold new field. Viewers can actually begin to participate in the content they watch.

In this arena a show can literally go anywhere, do anything and expand to levels never before seen in modern media. Get ready for a great ride. Words cannot express my excitement over what's going to happen here. Be sure to check back soon, and quite often. The first episode is just around the corner, and things are really going to start flying! "

Go now - get it seen!

Well, to all intents and purposes... its finished! The damned things finished!!

After all that... am I pleased with the results?
YES - Immensely pleased. I must have watched the finished film at least a dozen times and I still love it. Of course there are things in there that I can see need changing or polishing… but they’re inconsequential really. I really like the way that sound effects, music and editing bring all these disparate shots together to create something far, far better than anything I was expecting!

Like Ive said, Ive always been a big fan of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol… So I decided that it might be entertaining to tell a Sick Puppy version, with his uniquely cynical twist. I already had a large cast of supporting characters from the shorts I’d done. And I had a few sets I could redress and use again, so it seemed simple…

When Sick Puppy dies in a bar on Xmas Eve… you’d think it couldn’t get any worse. But when he finds himself confronted by a prawn headed flaming eyed DEATH, he realizes his problems are only just beginning. DEATH takes him on a journey… from Martian suicide bombers to the horrors of VietMars… from the gleaming heights of Pavlov’s bar to a shocking vision of his future. Sick Puppy must visit his past, his present and his future, and maybe… just maybe… discover the true meaning of Xmas.

I think that although I'll probably make 'Merry Xmas Sick Puppy' available on DVD - for those folks who really want to see it at full broadcast resolution... I think.. at this point in time... that I'll actually stick it online on the site.

So, Ive tried a lighter, simpler approach. I prefer it, but its still abit too bare. So... a design somewhere in the middle is needed then...

So... been looking at DVD covers, seeing what works, trying out a few designs...
First stab at it ended up a bit like this. Its got all the elements - the pup, DEATH, a graveyard... but its all a bit dark. I think it needs to be brighter for such an uplifting heartwarming tale...

So, I figured it was time I revamped the website.... and here it is. Its a lot cleaner and simpler, less to worry about. Ive ported all the old diary entries onto this new Bloggystyle approach, what can possibly go wrong?

Video clips in the screening room, a bit of babble, screenshots in the DVD section and a blog. Sorted.

Hey... theyve got a lot to talk about...

So would you if youd just woken up in the afterlife facing a prawn headed harbinger of doom.

So... Death then. He hangs around in a heavenly limbo type space.

Marble columns, bright light, heavenly music... lovely...

oh, and those rows of dots between the columns...?

Bullets.

There are very few animations specifically geared for 'grown ups'. Something with enough cross the board appeal to anyone aged 14 to 35. South Park is the only animation that instantly springs to mind and Sick Puppy isn't that.

Sick Puppy is a cigar chompin', foul mouthed, bad attitude loner of a dog.



With a big gun.

Babes, bullets and bombs

…are essentially what Sick Puppy is about.Its not complicated.

He's a smart ass dog with a foul mouth, bad attitude and a big gun. Its yer basic big budget mindless Hollywood blockbuster, innit? One man (or dog) against the system.

Think Dirty Harry, Mad Max, Snake Plissken. Who? Kurt Russell in Escape from New York, that's who. And Escape from LA (but we don't talk about that) This isn't arthouse cinema - this is movement and white noise and 'splosions.

Got it - and i dont know know why, coz it makes no sense at all.

Death has a giant prawn for a head with flaming eyes.


Of course he does. You know it makes sense.

DEATH ARRIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So... DEATH, then. How should he look?

I was going to have the usual tall guy in a cloak, skeletal hands, skull and scythe. Ya know... traditional. But i tried it and it looked a bit... boring.

Hmmm, will have to think on it...

Theres a whole mid section and the end which occurs in Pavlovs Bar, so this could take awhile.

So that Ive got some more interesting images to post, Im gonna skip to a different section shortly then revisit the bar later in the schedule.

While its not the most efficient way of doing things - it stops me and you getting bored!

At least with the shark I can re-use the one from all my PUP FICTIONs. Just slot a different bar behind him and Bobs-yer-Unkle. Its all good.

Ive populated the bar with the usual suspects – a couple of martians, shark behind the bar (coz that’s what they do) another shark having a drink, a chicken and a bear.

Okay – finished the bar, its very modern and lit for daylight which I find the hardest thing to do.


Nighttime mood lighting, sunset lighting, spooky lighting – all straightforward, but normal daylight…..?



Admittedly it is very stylized daylight.

Think Mad Max or Dirty Harry for the most well known heroic loners. But specifically, I refer the right honourable gentleman to John Carpenters lo budget scifi classic Escape From New York.
Kurt Russel as Snake Plissken. A man who gargles sand for breakfast. The less old out there may automatically think of Carpenters not so classic Escape From LA. Which is crap obviously, but Kurt Russel still performs the job admirably.

Sick Puppy… vigilante, loner, fugitive from justice, framed for a crime HE DID NOT COMMIT. All these things you see in every action film ever made, and so much more.

From sci-fi actioner to moralistic western. From moody psycho thriller to insane splatter classic. From slapstick comedy to obscene manga . This is what Sick Puppy is about.

Big guns, big violence and big explosions.

And don't forget kids… swearing IS big and it IS clever.

No really… why?

Why do I do this to myself?