Evil of the Daleks blu-ray & dvd announced

[The Nth Doctor]

If it helps, it's been made clear by one of the key people who does the animations that without this deal, we would not be getting the animations at all as the finances would not stack up. DVD sales alone not being enough was why the earlier animations fizzled out to begin with.

Yeah, that's fair. Still frustrating.

Spot on. North American fans need to take the hit for the greater good. We salute you.

I don't want salutes! I want my DVD!

And Troughton just has "The Highlanders" (tartan is impossible in 2D animation).

I know it's been mentioned plenty of times in the past as to why we can't get The Highlanders as 2D animation, but what exactly about the tartan pattern makes it so impossible in 2D but easy in 3D?

 

[zarkon]

I know it's been mentioned plenty of times in the past as to why we can't get The Highlanders as 2D animation, but what exactly about the tartan pattern makes it so impossible in 2D but easy in 3D?

With 3D computer graphics, you create the model, and can rely on a physics engine to simulate the way the clothes on the model should move when the model moves. And as the tartan would be a texture on the cloth, it would warp properly along with the kilt as it should during movement. So once everything's modeled the correct warping should be automatic.

Obviously with traditional 2D animation, the animator would have to draw every frame by hand, which is long and thus expensive work, as there would be more change per frame then normal.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Ahhhh...okay. Thank you for clarifying that for me.

 

[Tomalak]

The whole tartan thing is a bit of a red herring - Gary Russell, who produced Fury From the Deep, doesn't think it would be a problem and they'd find a way to achieve a good look for The Highlanders.

Honestly if I really was so much of a problem I'd take plan kilts over no animation!

 

[zarkon]

The whole tartan thing is a bit of a red herring - Gary Russell, who produced Fury From the Deep, doesn't think it would be a problem and they'd find a way to achieve a good look for The Highlanders.

Honestly if I really was so much of a problem I'd take plan kilts over no animation!

He should do it instead of Norton then

I think if it was 2D it would have to end up being plain. I have no issue with that myself either.

 

[kirk55555]

I'd definitely take plain kilts over not getting the story at all. Unless tartan is specifically a plot point in the episode, I don't think it would hurt to simplify it just to make the story easier to do.

 

[Mr Awe]

He should do it instead of Norton then

I think if it was 2D it would have to end up being plain. I have no issue with that myself either.

Agreed! I'd very happily take plain kilts. No big deal at all.

 

[StCoop]

There's the more basic fact that the pure historical stories have always sold fewer copies.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The whole tartan thing is a bit of a red herring - Gary Russell, who produced Fury From the Deep, doesn't think it would be a problem and they'd find a way to achieve a good look for The Highlanders.

Honestly if I really was so much of a problem I'd take plan kilts over no animation!

Pixar rendered tartan in Brave without any issues as far as I could see.

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[Tomalak]

Pixar rendered tartan in Brave without any issues as far as I could see.

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Pixar have slightly more money to spend though!

What Charles said is that it wouldn't be a problem with 3D animation because you just use a texture map which does all the movement for you. But for the 2D style used on the recent Who animations it would be problematic. The Doctor's checked trousers were changed to plain when Power of the Daleks was revisited last year.

But the answer may be in the forthcoming Web of Fear release, which uses 3D motion capture animation. Something like that would presumably work for The Highlanders.

 

[worf1965]

Is there any other place to buy these other than Amazon? I try to avoid them if at all possible.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

In the US (not sure if they ship overseas), DeepDiscount.com is a great retailer for shows and films (formerly DeepDiscountDVD before the introduction of blu-Ray).

 

[diankra]

I'd definitely take plain kilts over not getting the story at all. Unless tartan is specifically a plot point in the episode, I don't think it would hurt to simplify it just to make the story easier to do.

Not a plot point in the story, but tartan was banned for 50 years as it was viewed as a Jacobite symbol. That ended when Scott got George IV to wear a kilt.
The modern tartan is pretty much a 19th Century invention, possibly unrelated to the historic one pre-1745.

 

[StCoop]

Oh dear lord. Just watched the animated episode of Web of Fear and it's shockingly bad. It looks like an animatic that never got turned into finished animation. Hope this is a one off and not what we're getting in Evil.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1427223616697950214

 

[Relayer1]

Just when I was having a conversation elsewhere about my not liking animation...

 

[Nightowl1701]

Oh dear lord. Just watched the animated episode of Web of Fear and it's shockingly bad. It looks like an animatic that never got turned into finished animation. Hope this is a one off and not what we're getting in Evil.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1427223616697950214

I hope the first finished copy of that was sent (for free) to that private collector. With a note saying "This is on YOU."

 

[N-121973]

Oh dear lord. Just watched the animated episode of Web of Fear and it's shockingly bad. It looks like an animatic that never got turned into finished animation. Hope this is a one off and not what we're getting in Evil.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1427223616697950214

The animation reminded me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=faceless+ones+reconstruction

Watching the Shapeshifter featurette - yes I did end up buying the Web of Fear DVD in order to support the line - reading between the lines I got the impression that they'll be using this technique to animate Marco Polo, The Crusades, The Highlanders and The Dalek Masterplan. Probably so that they can put out B&W era Blu-Ray season box sets.

To answer your query I got the impression that Evil of the Daleks would be done like the earlier animated reconstructions. Here's a trailer:

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[Tomalak]

Yeah, Evil is the same team that did The Faceless Ones and The Macra Terror.

I don't think it's great, but it's not terrible. I guess I have a pretty high tolerance level for Doctor Who reconstructions because I'm aware they're made on a shoestring, and so many of the people involved go above and beyond to get the best product out there for us, and I'm keen to support the line.

I think this one was a bit of a proof of concept. Basically the recent animations (like Fury from the Deep, The Macra Terror, Evil of the Daleks) are co-funded by BBC America, which makes them affordable, but they only want fully-animated, colour stories. That's why they paid to have Power of the Daleks colourised independently of the original animation team.

Web of Fear is just one episode so they wouldn't be interested in it. So I guess the BBC came up with this cheaper way of animating stories to fill the gaps. I think it's promising but clearly needs to be refined further. It's capable of more natural movement than the Captain Pugwash style the previous animations have had, even if the motion capture actors have clearly overdone the arm waving. I think it was the animators themselves doing the acting so it would probably be better to get some real actors to deliver more subtle performances.

I wouldn't really be keen to watch a six-parter made like this as it stands, but I could watch the two missing episodes of The Crusade or The Underwater Menace. It's still better than a telesnap recon, and if it makes it possible to animate the rest of the missing episodes, I'm all for it.

 

[Relayer1]

I think it's promising

It's still better than a telesnap recon

I'm afraid I'm not with you there...

 

[Tomalak]

I'm afraid I'm not with you there...

That's fine, fortunately there's also a great new recon on the disc so everyone's a winner.