In a little bit, probably in the next month or so, the 4Flights journal and all previous nonsense written here will be placed in a form of an archive to make way for branding of 4Flights and a kind of restructuring of FanC3D’s purpose. Suddenly, it all became so much easier than the years of struggling to get somewhere.
Suddenly, the pursuit of animation has become an arthouse trajectory.
What I mean is, up until now, it’s been getting the animation principles down and doing cute little character animations of a single character in what I call ‘industry standard’ silhouette, squash, and stretch, etc. The kind of animation where it either looks like “this” (Pixar, Disney, etc) or people don’t qualify it as animation. That has always bothered me. So much animation, in style and form, looks the same.
But keep in mind, I grew up as a storyteller ‘first’, and animation is just a medium I’ve enjoyed in order to tell a story. I actually would rather do a film but it’s too expensive. Too many working parts.
In itself, to get better at animation, the short little clips of people talking (11secondclub) or the crap I threw on TikTok are nice to improve but it’s a total waste of time. It says nothing to tell a full-bodied story.
So, the more I work on 4Flights, I’m finding it’s less about animation after all. I’m getting my wish and desire to tell a story and how I deliver that per shot is where the art is coming in. Now, I see why Hayao Miyazaki spends days working on one shot before handing it off to the next part of his chain of production. Because I set the release dates practically a year from now, I’m not rushing. I’m carefully ‘painting’ every frame. Adjusting and perfecting every line of dialogue. Taking my time.
If this process stays as enjoyable as it feels right now, I can see FanC3D less a corporate studio as an arthouse animation studio, somewhere in a country ranch, with a handful of talented draftsmen, producing a quality series regularly. Like Madhouse, but in America. And a lot fewer people.
Do I have anything to show? Not yet. Not till May 1st. I’ve updated the schedule to do a little pre-marketing that starts in May. A short clip of the main character, based on the same story, eventually leads to November’s release. A super-early teaser, if you will.
With that in mind, the site will take on a whole new look; all focused on the 4Flight release. To express how serious this is, the marketing plan also includes the usual ads for Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. But also digital highway displays locally to me and high traffic areas of Atlanta. Twice. Once in July for the teaser trailer, and a few times in November at the date(s) of release.
I’m cleansing everything and starting FanC3D from scratch to start with 4Flights. Again, I wish I could properly post something here, but it’s not time yet.
