Final Verdict: cartoons it is! (part 2 of 2)

the major thing i've been working on during the break is this: a major rework of "nothing for nothing" episode 1! for reference, "nothing for nothing" is the animated miniseries i've been actively working on for most of this year, episode 1 in specific, which will be released as soon as it's finished! i've basically started over on the episode from near-scratch, retaining the same story and major moments but with lots of differences in terms of writing, shots, animation, and pacing (among other things). what you'll see in the video above is what i have so far of the episode, being a nearly-complete rough animatic! there's no placeholder voice acting or sound effects, and i imagine the hand-drawn subtitles are hard to read, so it's not much to watch, but take it moreso as proof of what i've been working on! everything you'll see in it from the drawings to the dialogue is heavily subject to change as the animatic is later finished, reviewed, and revised!

so, why start over? plain and simple, i wasn't very happy with how episode 1 was turning out, mostly due to the way i worked on it at the start. i was doing that small cycle thing of doing some planning then doing some animating over and over (without sketching the animatic), which like i mentioned in the last post, just didn't work out for the kind of cartoon i was making. i was putting little thought into how shots and scenes fit into the episode as a whole and was working somewhat improvisationally, which didn't pan out in my case for a story-based cartoon where i want to consider how watchable/enjoyable it is as a whole and be very intentional about what information is given when, and how characters and events are portrayed. it ultimately left me with cartoon that didn't feel very eventful, was a bit boring, and wasn't very well written. that, and doing the animation as i went meant i was mostly stuck with it that way! so, i started over!

you might think this is a major setback as far as progress goes, and while starting over does still sting a bit, it's always easier the second time! the animation i had done so far on episode 1 previously hasn't been too much special, nor anything that would be too hard to replace with my modern animation mindset, given the way i worked earlier this year was also much slower. i like to weigh "how much time i'm willing to spend on a project" against "how polished a project is", with there definitely being a plateau where i could sink as much time as i want into a project, only to have it never release. with that considered as well as what i had so far, i think starting over is worth it for a much better cartoon!

thankfully, there should be no more setbacks like this as "nothing for nothing" continues as a series, it's just been a turbulent matter of transitioning from "animating music videos" to "animating a full cartoon"! "nothing for nothing" in its entirety is actually pretty planned out already as far as the characters, theme, environment, overarching story, and major events go! i'm just leaving the specifics like most of the shots, writing, and pacing up in the air until it's time to actually work on a given episode, which is most of what got re-worked in this second attempt at episode 1.

i'm not sure how the immediate coming weeks are going to go since a few events this december left me in a pretty rough mental state, but i don't have any more concern about what i want to do next! i'm on my road to getting better and i'm gonna do my best! making a proper cartoon is hard, but it's a challenge i'm still very determined to overcome and get used to! i don't think i'm completely done with making fan animations for music i like, but i would overall like to shift focus towards original works now that i have the experience to do so!