Where's the OotS series?

[PokéTriforce]

This thread was originally created for fans of OotS -- who might have wanted to see it turned into an animated series -- do discuss ways of this being done. It got flooded with too many "you can't do it because..."

Some were even threatening legal action against those even attempting to create their own. Because of this, I have decided to leave this thread. To make it clear, there's nothing wrong with wanting to see an OotS animated series. There's, also, nothing wrong with stating the difficulty in creating one. However, when every other post seems to be "You can't do this because expense", "You can't do this because time/energy", "You can't do this because I'll report you to the FBI", and even repeating those posts to death...

...I stated why I left this thread. It was just easier than reading 50 messages of "can't" with only 20 messages of "here's what I'd like to see from such a series".

[Fyraltari]

I want to see an animated series based on OotS! I don't care if it's on TV or YouTube (the non-pay version)...or Netflix. How do we make this happen?!?

We don't because the Giant doesn't like people fooling around with his intellectual property.

[deuterio12]

Can't the Giant create it? I'm sure many of us would love to see it!

Animation is hard work. Quality animation is harder work. The Giant would pretty much need to stop updating the comic to start producing anything close to regular animation.

[Kyberwulf]

There stick figures... how hard is it to animate them.


Besides there are some ...videos on Youtube that animate them a little. Well, more like the moving comics.. and they can go though most of the series pretty quickly.

[Peelee]

I'm sure every artist loves to hear "how hard could it be" from people with no experience or knowledge about it, not to mention the unsolicited business advice.

[deuterio12]

There stick figures... how hard is it to animate them.


Besides there are some ...videos on Youtube that animate them a little. Well, more like the moving comics.. and they can go though most of the series pretty quickly.

Yeah how hard (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0422.html) could it be? (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0916.html) :smallsigh:

Can't speak for everybody, but one of the highlights of OotS for me are the fight scenes, in particular the set piece battles. Like right now we have a pretty nice battle between vampires and the protagonists. So it's not only a lot of stick figures to animate, but also spell effects like fireball and flamestrike and mass inflict wounds. Then stuff like the Azure battle or the desert battle are just exploding with details that would need to be animated very carefully or come out looking pretty wrong. That's just beyond the scope of a single animator, that's the kind of things you need a full team for.

[Morty]

How do we make this happen?!?

We'd have to start by somehow coming up with a large budget and dedicated team of animators, script-writers et cetera.

[Doorhandle]

There stick figures... how hard is it to animate them.




For context, most animation runs at about 24 frames/second. That means you need 24 drawing for every second of content, 1440 for a minute.

At best, that means hitting control v 24 times for one second of complete stillness. At the absolute worst this means drawing 24 very slightly different seperate pictures.

So how hard and labor-intensive is to animate anything? Very.

[Brother Oni]

There stick figures... how hard is it to animate them.

Further to Doorhandle's answer, while there are some shenanigans you can do to shorten the workflow (Photoshop's puppet warp for example or hand drawing the keyframes yourself and use the computer to do the inbetweening), there are no real shortcuts in traditional animation.

My wife does animation the traditional way (drawing each frame) and it is the most laborious task you can imagine. Bear in mind that the bigger and smoother the movement, the more frames you need else it'll look jerky; 24 frames a second is only a guideline.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Carbot (https://twitter.com/CarBotAnimation?s=17) is probably the closest reference visually, and he releases 3-minute videos weeks apart. All animation is hard work that takes full-time commitment.

[Peelee]

Carbot (https://twitter.com/CarBotAnimation?s=17) is probably the closest reference visually, and he releases 3-minute videos weeks apart. All animation is hard work that takes full-time commitment.

Cyanide and Happiness have a relatively close visual style, and I know they do some animation. I haven't gone there in years, so I don't know how much or how often, but I do know it pales in comparison to their static strip.

[Olinser]

Can't the Giant create it? I'm sure many of us would love to see it!

Given he has trouble keeping up with just the comic, I put the chance of that happening between zero and none.

MAYBE after the comic proper is concluded, but I doubt it.

[Anymage]

Given he has trouble keeping up with just the comic, I put the chance of that happening between zero and none.

I'm sure that if he had a team of animators, being able to offload the drawing would free up a bunch of his time. Of course, things would be very different if he had the money lying around to hire a team of animators.

OP is free to look into how much it would take to hire a team of professional animators, and front the money if he really wants to see it done. And not just some friends he knows, since there's no guarantee that they'll stay in for the long haul. I'd be interested to see his reaction when he sees just what it would cost to make this happen.


If someone creates their own OotS animation -- and uploads it to YouTube, post the link here. I know someone (not me) who would do a good job with voice acting. He was once selected to do the voice for Gollum/Sméagol in an animated series depicting Sméagol's adventures during the Hobbit/Lord of Rings story. The animated series was greenlit & everything! Then, they ran out of money before they could get to the voice actors.

Think for a second what you're saying about the costs to bring an animated project to fruition.

Also, if someone else makes an OotS knockoff project, that's stealing Rich's intellectual property. Let him know so he can have someone appropriate look at it. If you try making your own OotS knockoff project, you're stealing his intellectual property. Unless you have a lawyer handy to explain the fine details of copyright law, this is not something you should do.

[Magic_Hat]

An animated series based on a still ongoing comic? So we're obvious gonna need filler. Can there be an episode or two where Elan and Roy learn to drive cars?

[Jayngfet]

An animated series based on a still ongoing comic? So we're obvious gonna need filler. Can there be an episode or two where Elan and Roy learn to drive cars?

I was wholly against the idea of this until I saw this post. Now I'm wholly on board.

[Saintheart]

Further to Doorhandle's answer, while there are some shenanigans you can do to shorten the workflow (Photoshop's puppet warp for example or hand drawing the keyframes yourself and use the computer to do the inbetweening), there are no real shortcuts in traditional animation.

My wife does animation the traditional way (drawing each frame) and it is the most laborious task you can imagine. Bear in mind that the bigger and smoother the movement, the more frames you need else it'll look jerky; 24 frames a second is only a guideline.

Even keyframing isn't a magic bullet either. Sometimes it looks right, sometimes it doesn't. I've not done animation, but I've done masking and rotoscoping on video footage and at 30 fps it's enough to make you cry after about 2 minutes of footage even if all you're doing is painting lightsabers on dowel rods.

[Magic_Hat]

I was wholly against the idea of this until I saw this post. Now I'm wholly on board.

May I kindly put this in my signature?

[Anonymouswizard]

Also, if someone else makes an OotS knockoff project, that's stealing Rich's intellectual property. Let him know so he can have someone appropriate look at it. If you try making your own OotS knockoff project, you're stealing his intellectual property. Unless you have a lawyer handy to explain the fine details of copyright law, this is not something you should do.

This.

I'm actually fairly certain that Rich would be willing to have somebody make an animation based on OotS if they had the ability to make something high quality and he was certain that they wouldn't just up and run after a handful of episodes. But that means he'd likely be unwilling to let a bunch of amateurs do it, and the people he'd trust to make a series are unlikely to ask him about it.

[Peelee]

An animated series based on a still ongoing comic? So we're obvious gonna need filler. Can there be an episode or two where Elan and Roy learn to drive cars?

Best part of the whole damn series. And I liked that series.

[Jayngfet]

May I kindly put this in my signature?

Go ahead man. Be my guest.

[Magic_Hat]

Go ahead man. Be my guest.

YAY! Thanks!

[Psyren]

If someone creates their own OotS animation -- and uploads it to YouTube, post the link here.

I'm not sure what part of the phrase "fooling around with his intellectual property" is escaping you.

[Vinyadan]

Cyanide and Happiness have a relatively close visual style, and I know they do some animation. I haven't gone there in years, so I don't know how much or how often, but I do know it pales in comparison to their static strip.

C&H animated is amazingly good, compared to the comic. But I am fairly sure that it's not done by the comic authors, and there must be tens working on it.

[Malimar]

I've been following the long, laborious process of getting the Goblins webcomic even to the point where they can start work on the animation for an animated series based on it. It's... it's a big deal.

[BWR]

It seems as though there are quite a few of you objecting to an OotS animated series. Should I just delete this thread, then? They say "there is no such thing as a stupid question"; however, I am being led to wonder if people are saying that my question was a stupid one.

I, for one, am a huge fan of OotS...and would have liked to see an animated series. I guess I'm the only one, though. So much for this being friendly to fans. I'll delete this thread (that seems to be full of negativity), later this month. I thought I had an idea. I guess it was just a terrible one.

{Scrubbed}

There's precious little negativity, unless you take 'negativity' to mean 'point out why my idea doesn't work'. We're pretty much all here because we like the comic, lots of us would not have anything against a well-made animated series but the chances of that, for reasons already mentioned, are vanishingly small. {Scrubbed} Accept that you didn't know something and have learned something new.

[Psyren]

It seems as though there are quite a few of you objecting to an OotS animated series. Should I just delete this thread, then? They say "there is no such thing as a stupid question"; however, I am being led to wonder if people are saying that my question was a stupid one.

I, for one, am a huge fan of OotS...and would have liked to see an animated series. I guess I'm the only one, though. So much for this being friendly to fans. I'll delete this thread (that seems to be full of negativity), later this month. I thought I had an idea. I guess it was just a terrible one.

You can't delete threads actually. You could ask a mod to lock it though.

[Peelee]

I can delete my posts...but not threads I started? Now I know. At least I will no longer have to pay attention to this thread. I give up on it.

I figure there will always be trolls in this thread (or ignorant people -- who keep repeating that the OotS series will never happen -- twenty to fifty times). If they have trouble reading that others already commented on that, and keep putting blockades at anyone attempting them...so be it. Those same people are the ones that get their kicks by telling little kids that there is no tooth fairy, anyway.

Regardless, they can have this thread all they like. I'm done with it. My hopes of someone creating an OotS animation is but a mere dream (that will never happen). At least the other threads I post in haven't gotten this bad.

You can't delete other peoples' posts, which deleting threads would amount to.

Also, dude, there are zero trolls in this post. People have tried to tell you that the legalities, logistics, and author's preference for keeping full control over his intellectual property make it incredibly unlikely that anyone else will make an animated series, and costs and logistics make it incredibly unlikely the author will make it himself. You apparently refuse to accept these answers because.... you don't like those answers, i guess? But how you feel about the answers doesn't change how accurate they are, I'm sorry to tell you. Some people have become rather, vocal let's say, about it due to your refusal to accept the answer, but again, there has been no trolling in this thread, just actual, factual responses to your question.

[Reddish Mage]

There is a certain air of flippancy about the posts. I'm missing the post that describes the detail about why there won't be an OOTS animated series including both a description of the issues involving and the Giant's own words about how protective he is of his IP. I recall the thread where the Giant described in detail how he was burned talking with people to bring the series to TV years ago, and so wasn't planning on going there again.

[Anonymouswizard]

There is a certain air of flippancy about the posts. I'm missing the post that describes the detail about why there won't be an OOTS animated series including both a description of the issues involving and the Giant's own words about how protective he is of his IP. I recall the thread where the Giant described in detail how he was burned talking with people to bring the series to TV years ago, and so wasn't planning on going there again.

Huh, didn't know there was that thread. I remember the one about how he wasn't doing a video game because he never got a decent pitch by a company he trusted to pull it off.

[gooddragon1]

There's also considerations of people saying things like:


James Woods (http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Hades) as Xykon (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0095.html) or we riot.

It's just that there are too many issues. At least I think I've heard people saying things like what I quoted above.

[Olinser]

This thread was originally created for fans of OotS -- who might have wanted to see it turned into an animated series -- do discuss ways of this being done. It got flooded with too many "you can't do it because..."

Some were even threatening legal action against those even attempting to create their own. Because of this, I have decided to leave this thread. To make it clear, there's nothing wrong with wanting to see an OotS animated series. There's, also, nothing wrong with stating the difficulty in creating one. However, when every other post seems to be "You can't do this because expense", "You can't do this because time/energy", "You can't do this because I'll report you to the FBI", and even repeating those posts to death...

...I stated why I left this thread. It was just easier than reading 50 messages of "can't" with only 20 messages of "here's what I'd like to see from such a series".

LUL

Drama queen much?

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Expressing interest in seeing a OotS series seems fine. Getting into how it could/should be done starts to tread a bit into telling Rich how to make his art or run his business, which we frown on. Actually suggesting you'll do it yourself crosses over into using the man's own forum to discuss how you'll infringe his intellectual property rights; that shouldn't happen. People shouldn't be making their own OotS merch, media, translations, etc., which includes an animated tv show.