EPISODE 4: ON A RAIL

[Guest]

I loved it. Really, I think your series can easily beat War of the Servers in quality and humor, but the scale would probably be way to much for what your doing.

By the way, I just saw your name on the Shadows of the Dead trailer. Just wondering what that was about, because you and the MC(now Lit Fuse) guys could make some of the best machinima ever.

P.S. I got to feel bad for Mike because he always seems to get beaten in every episode except the 3rd. First kicked in the lower region, then kicked by a strider, and now drops on a train. I don't think I could get payed to do those kind of stunts.

[Guest]

colbertsoldier: I just watched War of The Servers and while the post-production runs circles around mine, I don't think I'm enough of a Gmod nut to really appreciate it. I could definitely write a movie-length feature (and have an idea for one that's not CP), but yeah I would need to figure out some serious shortcuts with production (and get a bigger hard drive).

Oh and here's the story on Shadows of the Dead. Zachariah Scott (no relation) was basically in charge of that and he came to me asking for voice acting help, so I gave him a bunch of samples, revoiced the lines doing different accents he wanted. He had about page's worth of lines for me to do and emphasized getting several in on time since he was doing a time crunch. Lo and behold, on the day that he finishes it he changes his mind and throws out over 90% of my dialogue (not because of my performance, he said it was great), and then just leaves in 2 of my lines. So I'm kind of annoyed about that. I mean I understand not using every line that's recorded, but throwing out over 90% of the lines that you specifically asked for is kind of lame. Anyway, I don't know who does the radio voice, I only do the first 2 lines, the "in a world..." etc.

[Guest]

Yeah, I guess you need to be into Gmod to really get into WotS. The only benifit for you in it is that you can have your player model run around with no weapon. But for what your doing, there's not much there.

[Guest]

I liked it. The 4 months of hype may have had my expectations a bit high (really high). But None the less I was impressed. I guess that was the map you made for a whole month. I noticed the head and hand reactions were much faster.

I am telling you man. You don't have to kill yourself to make this a great machinima. They don't have to train surf every ep. Just make the dialog funny and add a few more recurring characters. Remember south park and the Simpson are still on the air because there are 1000 characters. Eventually mike and dave will have nothing else to say. It is time they met Steve.. the creepy hardcore CP.

Take your break and come back rested and better informed.

[Guest]

Nice job man.

How did you get the scanner to track along at the same rate as the train?

[Guest]

That was hilarious.

[Guest]

You certainly did a lot more in this one...at times it was a bit boring to just watch Dave on the train, but it was still worth it to see all the stuff that happened. Loved the G-man part as well.

Oh yeah, I updated the Source Developer Wiki for you.

[Guest]

You know you've made it when your name appears in the pixilated credits of a machinima.

Great angles and great maps!
Great job as usual Ross.

[Guest]

That was just amazing man, incredible with that stuff you did just mind blowing. Camera angles, animations the whole lot! Incredible work, awesome, hope your ideas work out!! Definitely want to see more in the future.

[Guest]

Fantastic work, I laughed my ass off at the end and the train ride was quit exhilarating, though you may have dwelt on it just tad too long. But only a tad.

As I said just let me know when you need help with Aftereffects or any editing. Oh and AfterEffects is not just for music videos. I added lightsabers to Freddy Vs. Jason with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcxZJxjghhs

[Guest]

Hey, in the future, do you think we'd see a new main character? Perhaps the Shadow Dude (as I named him) joins Civil Protection? I could see a more interesting line of conversation developing from this, three-way instead of the usual two-way. If I were to suggest a name, lol, to go along with the four lettered named duo, John.

It doesn't have to be that, however. It could be some completely new guy off the top of your head. I just think a new main char addition would be neat, it'd provide more length to the episodes.

As for a full-length movie, I hoe you'd wait until you've really gotten into the series. That way we have some depth to cover before then.

[Guest]

OMG that Was amazing


-VandaL

[Guest]

Wow, more stuff (these comments are the poor man's forum, if you haven't noticed)

f12bwth: Yeah, I'm sorry for hyping it. Part of the problem was that this wasn't my original idea for 4, I was going to pull a lot crazier stuff for that one (and still will, but I'm putting it off).

Oh and there are easier ideas I could have done, but they're not THAT much easier. I had multiple mapping offers, so I was ideally hoping I would barely have to do any mapping for this episode, even though that didn't happen at all, so that added a lot of delays to it. Also, since the series has been kind of static so far, so I didn't want people to think every episode was going to be the same. I think I was kind of past due for having an episode like this.

Concerning characters and ideas for the episode, etc: I have PLENTY of ideas, I ALREADY have ideas for different characters. I have ideas for at least 20 different episodes at this point. I appreciate the gesture, but I don't think I'm lacking in the imagination department for this. The problem is you only have these few episodes to judge things by, which goes back yet again, to me getting these out faster so you can see what ideas I already have in mind. And even if I wasn't planning for more primary characters, I point yet again to Aeon Flux (the show), an example of something fresh which has only 2 consistent characters in the episodes.

billius: it's not a real scanner, it's a dynamic prop on a traintrack. I gave up on the real ones, the damn things are like gremlins.

david: thanks again for everything, you've been the most dependable assistance I've had so far

stormtrooper: I'll need aftereffects for one of my episode ideas, but not yet.

calix: I have no plans right now for an additional main character, just possibly reoccuring characters. My plans for episode 5 could have a dialogue exchange with quite a few characters however. And no worries, I'm not starting a movie anytime soon, this short episodes are hard enough as it is.

everybody else: thanks again

[Guest]

Okay, after watching this episode i can tell you what other machinma artist do diffrent to be faster ... they don't go mad at tech and mapping.

Don't get me wrong, it's all hats off for that piece of art you did there, but, well, to give you an honest and critical feedback: it wasn't quite what i was expecting.

I think what i like most about CP are the charakters and the dialog, but that came a little short this time.

The maps and the tech were excellent, but as a viewer i don't really think i need to see 300 new maps in one episode. So maybe you can use some of them again.

But thats just my taste and opinion and really i don't want to pull you down. I love that shit.

[Guest]

This episode is BEST! Civil Protection is SUPER !

[Guest]

This was the only episode that had extensive mapwork. The others had modified maps, but it was a minimal effort. If I didn't have to do the map for 4, it would have been out faster than 2.

[Guest]

that was awesome. The action, effects, and especially the camera work were great. That was fun.

[Guest]

As for maps, I think perhpas you should have a huge collection of City 17 maps and maps for other places, so you can use them again in later episodes. I mean, C17 is big, but it's not infinite, so you don't have to worry about having a new aweomse map to impress everyone with every single episode.

Ask for other mappers. I mean, if you can get five guys working on one map for you, then they're goiong to get it out five times faster than you did for EP. 4(5).

Also, try hiring a lot more programmers, just dictate to them what you want to do. Things can (and will) take forever if youu work alone or with only a few people here and there. I know, I've dealt with it.

I don't think there's any faster way to produce something, as well as extend the length of it, than to have a whole crew of guys there to help you in creating more episodes.

Just a little advice to help you get going is all.

[Guest]

I'm sorry, the Anyonymous post or whoever it called it about hiring people was by me, Silver Calix.

Sorry for the confusion, accidentlaly hit the wrong button...

[Guest]

I couldn't stop laughing this one. Dave is insane but awesome. I loved episode 4 it was fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing the next one.