Working On…A Half-Hour Animated Epic about a Dragon

Thank you for your interest in this new project of mine, one that I’ve titled “The Dragon of Mar”, the eighth (8 already??) in my Gildedguy online series. Usually I spend hours trying to come up with titles, but I settled on this one rather quickly. It relates deeply with the themes I hope to explore throughout this next 1 year+ of production on the longest animation I’ve ever attempted –

A 25-minute, TV-episode length short film!

► Gildedguy & the Dragon of Mar Project Page ◄

If you’re curious about my inspirations for the project, or seeking answers about Mar, please read on.

Post-Story 7 & Longevity

It has been a great privilege to be able to express my admiration to some of my stick-figure animator heroes in the previous story. I’m glad that veterans in the community enjoyed my rendition of RHG’s past, and I certainly hope to do even more callbacks and references to them in the future.

However great it was to work on, it was great to get that story “off my chest”. Shortly after release, my mind flittered to a variety of new project ideas. I have a massive back log of creations I would love to work on: game prototypes, graphic novels, streaming tools, animated shorts, animated longs…it goes on! I told myself that I would try doing more regular bite-sized content once Story 7 was done, but throughout the years, I’ve noticed that things get better whenever I release animation that I have put my full effort into. Whenever I stray away from fulfilling work, I feel stagnant.

Hence why I’m setting out to produce a full length episode with a good, meaningful story.

The Theory of ETA

Let’s step back from the metaphorical talk and consider how the heck am I supposed to make this, logistically. The previous animation was 12 minutes long, and had a production time of roughly 1 year. The new target is twice the length in the same amount of production time – so…how do?

Back when I worked as a programmer, I had a colleague tell me a theory about estimating project completion. Basically:

We tend to spend as much time on a task as the deadline affords us.

– Raymond the Legend

So true!

If the professor gives you 3 days to finish a paper, you’ll finish it in 3 days.

If the professor gives you a week for a similar paper, you’ll probably take a week.

And if the deadline mandated it, you could probably finish it in an hour too.

I notice that time-pressure forces me to look at production problems in unique, fruitful ways. This was most the case with competitive events. If I set up the requirements aggressively, from the start, I think about the entire process differently. Otherwise, I will just fall back to old habits.

This story lends itself to a grander-scale of set pieces, events, and characters themselves (i.e. the titular Dragon). I’ve watched others fulfill their dream of putting out independent animated pilots. I always pay attention to the drawing techniques employed and how long the credits list is. With the pipeline I have in mind, I think it’s possible to do with a fraction of the team size, budget, and time.

I’d love to give it a shot! The idea of pumping out quality animation excites me, and it gives my team such a larger playground to work in. And the keyword from above is “pipeline” – the power of standardized steps and batching will allow us to move with the momentum of larger studios.

That’s the theory, at least.

Mar & Dragons

The character to be featured in this story is Mar, a draconic warrior-mage whose choice element is fire.

He carries a distinct gothic, dark fantasy vibe that I appreciate as a fellow fan of the medieval age.

According to his bio, Mar has a deep link to the creature of the dragon, one that has been traditionally depicted in myth to be powerful, dark, and dangerous. His style may seem too ooze edgy-ness (that red & black screams Shadow the Hedgehog), but I hope to ground his darkness in an authentic way.

The creator of Mar worked on the Pen-Kite scene in Gildedguy vs Oxob, free of charge, which helped the animation release on time. For a while, he was a community moderator on the Hyun’s Dojo duelist forums. He and I had talked about a potential duel for years, and I even created a concept art of it for patrons back in 2017.

The scene depicted is no longer relevant for the story I have in mind now though, because since then, things have changed.

On Fallenness

Some time ago, Mar’s creator found himself in a whirlwind of controversy and disappeared from the net without explanation, or any attempt to justify himself. I reached out to him, hoping to get some more perspective, and his permission to use Mar:

Barthimo’s Short Explanation

“Back in the beginning of 2020 I made a mistake that ended up with bad publicity and backlash from big parts of the community, reasonably so. Let’s call it a tragic fall from grace, which Michael wished to portray in an animation for a character he genuinely called cool and simply wished to bring to life.”

– Barthimo (9/27/22)

If you want to know more about what happened you can search for it online (it isn’t pretty).

I won’t be promoting him throughout the production like I would normally. He’s been banned from my channels as well.

At this point, I’m just using his character to tell my story. Story #8 is, in a way, how I feel about this whole situation, and what I wish to say to him in animated form.

Why are you going through all this?

Couldn’t you have picked someone else to duel?

It’s my right (and artistic duty) to express myself and create entertaining animations for my patrons, which I am very confident this will be – I would not be investing thousands of dollars producing it otherwise.

Simply put, I believe this is the most compelling story I can be telling right now in my life! That has been the case with all my previous Gildedguy animations (except for that one about the burnt bacon, that one was just for fun).

► Gildedguy & the Dragon of Mar Project Page ◄

The stakes are high for this project, and I do not want to get burnt by dragon fire. I hope you’ll join me for the ride (or at least watch from a safe-distance).

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