Star Trek: Enterprise - Season Five

[Pheon]

Here's the official announcement for my Star Trek: Enterprise - Season Five on these boards.

The objective of the project is to continue the adventures of Captain Jonathan Archer and his crew onboard the Enterprise NX-01, in an animated cartoon style production.

Below is the first release from the project. The designs are a close rendition of what will appear in the final product, there will probably be a few additional tweaks here and there, and I'd like a shading layer added to create a little depth.

Anyone interesting in joining the project can reach me via PM.

The main recruitment priority at the minute is in those areas where my own skills are serious lacking or non-existent, namely:

Sound Editor
Music Composer
And probably most importantly a Voice Cast

I'll be drawing up a list of audition material at some point at a later date, but if any of you would like to try out for the major character roles now that'd be great.

Just so you're aware, I'm not necessarily looking for a dead one impression of any of the characters, it'd be nice but that's not realistic to drive for. I'm looking for the sense of the character not necessarily the sound of the voice itself in the roles.

In any case here are the roles casting is open for at the minute:

Captain Jonathan Archer
Commander T'Pol
Commander Charles Tucker III
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed
Ensign Hoshi Sato
Ensign Travis Mayweather
Doctor Phlox

Again contact me via PM if you're interested.

Additional animators are also a must have if the project is the reach the scope I hope to achieve.

I'll be utilizing several tricks and techniques to make the animation process as time efficient as possible but all the while preserving quality. So even if you're not an experienced animator but have some computer drawing skills in a vector graphics program, I think it'd be possible for such a person to get to grips with these techniques.

And rest assured if you're worried that committing as any of these positions will immediately over burden you with a mountain full of work that won't be the case. I'll delegate work based on time availability, and usually one at a time so no one will be swamped.

Hopefully I'll have more news soon.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Sweet. I love the retro Filmation vibe.

If I may make a suggestion: I'd finally put T'Pol in a blue flightsuit. This seems to have happened in the Pocket Books Season 5 storyline begun with TGTMD. I appreciate that may upset the applecart, if you've already done much of the character artwork. It's something that bothered me when I put together old clips for a 'wish list' Direct-to-DVD teaser... not being able to show the characters having changed. With creating animation from scratch, you can do small changes to show continuity like hairstyle/uniform changes.

 

[Avilos]

Wow! Great art!

 

[Alyssa]

I see that Trip is there i think it's awsome that you decided to bring him back for your series 5
LOVE TRIP!!!!

 

[RicardoHead]

I just know you people are going to love me for this, but ...

• 

... I think they're related.

 

[MackDaddy]

Hahaha ,maybe its really him

 

[Pheon]

RicardoHead said:
I just know you people are going to love me for this, but ...

• 

... I think they're related.

I think that reference is reason enough to scrap the whole project, destroy my computer, and jump off a cliff.

Joking of course.

Well, half joking.

 

[Michael]

Vvvverrryyyy interesting! As I'm a bit versed in Flash animation (at least I think I am) I'm on the verge of wanting to take part in your production.

A few questions your OP doesn't answer:
It will be a Flash animation, right?
Do you already have script?
How long do you consider it to be (per episode -- IF you'll even finish ONE [as I know how goddamn long it can take])?
Have you any production plan already (first recording the voices, storyboarding etc.)?

As I live in europe, would that be any problem for you?
EDIT: I looked up your profile, your operating from europe, too.

 

[unchienne]

I wish I could audition. I'd love to go for Hoishi, but try as I may, this damn Southern accent keeps coming out. Rats!

 

[galleywest]

I'm moving this to Fan Productions as I think you'll be able to find more advice and information on the production of your project, Pheon. Good luck--it sounds like a great project. I'm tempted to try out for T'Pol's voice.

 

[commodore64]

Nice work!

 

[Pheon]

Belar said:
Vvvverrryyyy interesting! As I'm a bit versed in Flash animation (at least I think I am) I'm on the verge of wanting to take part in your production.

A few questions your OP doesn't answer:
It will be a Flash animation, right?

Erm… it’s hard to say. I think Flash is a drastically deficient program for creating the production, at least to the level I’m shooting for. But I am using it in some capacity; right now I draw the frames in Fireworks, and then assemble them in Flash.

I’m currently in the process of obtaining a newer version of Fireworks which I’m under the impression will allow me to create the animations within the program. They’re both produced by the same company so they both work on similar principles, and I think Fireworks may be compatible with Illustrator as well, but I still need to check that out.

But I’ve got my eye on a freeware program in development, called Synfig, which looks like it’d be a godsend for the animation of this project if it functions how they put it across on the website.

Do you already have script?
How long do you consider it to be (per episode -- IF you'll even finish ONE [as I know how goddamn long it can take])?
Have you any production plan already (first recording the voices, storyboarding etc.)?

I’m plotting the first story right now, the first part/episode is all but done and scripting will commence once I see how the whole story fits together. I’m shooting for a two parter, but there’s a slim chance it could be a three part episode depending on how the story comes together.

I’m aiming for all episodes to be the same or roughly equivalent to a regular TV episode, but I’ve spent the past few months developing tricks to speed up the production process immeasurably. The scope of the project is limited purely by the team I can get onboard; right now my sights are focused just on this particular story, but I honestly think that a decent number of animators (say around ten) I’d be able to produce an episode within the space of a few months utilizing these techniques, coupled with effective management.

But I’ll have a better idea as I begin to work through the test animations.

Yes I do have a production plan. While I write the script, the production side of the project is focused on creating a trailer, somewhere in the range of a minute in length and will comprise mostly of test animations for the project. That’s underway now.

Voice recording will begin as soon as I’ve completed the script for the first episode, and it will be necessary to have this more or less complete by the time animating the episode itself begins. Storyboarding will proceed in conjunction with that.

I’ll most likely assemble the storyboards into an animatic, so work can proceed on the sound track for the episode/scenes including the voicework, and to gauge the flow of the episode. Animation will commence as the scenes are given a thumbs up.

ON VOICE ACTING: Even though auditions for voice actors aren’t officially open at the minute. If anyone would like to try out for any of the main characters that’d be great. Just send me a PM and we’ll discuss how to proceed in that venue, if you don’t think you fit the bill exactly you may be asked to tryout for another character.

But I’ll give you an idea of what’s in store, for the season ahead. I constructed my season plan with a goal of 20-something episodes. I don’t know if it’ll get that far, because I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, so I’m taking it one step at a time.

The first story will revolve around the Klingons, as a follow up to Affliction/Divergence arc of Season Four.

I opted to go with this story first because I think it certainly needs a follow up, and there won’t be much room to do it later because both literally and figuratively Enterprise will be heading off in another direction in future.

So this will likely be the last story featuring the Klingons in significance. It aims to pick up on previous Klingon plot threads and bring them to something of a resolution. These elements will include: the warrior caste dominance of Klingon society, Archer’s outstanding arrest warrant, and of course the core of the story will be the rift developing between the new ‘smooth-headed’ sub-race inhabiting the Empire.

 

[Kanenas]

Just for my enlightenment, what kind of software do people use to do these sort of things?

Is there a "how to" out there?

 

[Pheon]

Kanenas said:
Just for my enlightenment, what kind of software do people use to do these sort of things?

Is there a "how to" out there?

What 2D animation specifically?

 

[ialfan]

Looks great!

 

[batboy853]

what are you planning on doing for the space shots, caue i mean i once thought about doing a flash animation like this, how ever i gave up on flash because of the exterior shots

there is a 3d animation freeware program out there called blender which is actually looking just as good as most professional programs and is more user frinedly that i use...

 

[fleetcaptain]

Looks awesome. About time someone finally have something out on Enterprise besides what Pocket has coming out and the one series that is being made over on trekonline. Are you going to have a site up or just mainly on here?

 

[Pheon]

batboy853 said:
what are you planning on doing for the space shots, caue i mean i once thought about doing a flash animation like this, how ever i gave up on flash because of the exterior shots

there is a 3d animation freeware program out there called blender which is actually looking just as good as most professional programs and is more user frinedly that i use...

Yes I’ve heard of Blender but I already have 3DS MAX for the 3D needs of the production.

And just to make it clear I’m only using Flash to assemble the animation cells right now, so it’s not in the strictest sense a Flash animation, since the final product or any of the tests I’m working on will not be released in Flash format.

Hopefully I’ll have a text animation of an exterior shot to show you soon.

fleetcaptain said:
Looks awesome. About time someone finally have something out on Enterprise besides what Pocket has coming out and the one series that is being made over on trekonline. Are you going to have a site up or just mainly on here?

Well, it’d be nice but I’ve never really had much luck with websites. Eventually I’ll probably get around to doing one but right now it’s low priority since I can’t really afford one. So web presence at the minute is largely restricted to this and other boards.

 

[FalTorPan]

I'd be willing to audition for the voices of...

* Tucker
* Phlox
* Mayweather (basically, I'd say nothing)

PM if interested.

 

[doctorwho 03]

This sounds like a great project and your artwork so far is incredible. I'm definately gonna follow this series once it gets going full force.

One thing though. For voice talent, are you looking for people mainly in the European area or can audio files be emailed from out of the country because I live in America and I'd like to give a shot at the voice of Trip.