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CE-Rap
Illustrator, Comic Writer, Storyboard artist. Don't forget to visit my deviant art page using the link below!

Age 40, Male

Illustrator

Pratt Institute in Brooklyn

New York, New York

Joined on 7/2/11

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From GENESIS to EXODUS

Posted by CE-Rap - October 2nd, 2011


My co-captain, Riggie, lays it ALL out beautifully
HERE

We had talked about everything he pointed out and were BOTH of the opinion that we needed to set the record straight. It was definitely a nice surprise coming home and seeing that updated journal. Now-I'm just gonna add a bit more meat to what he wrote, because aside from a few things, he NAILED every point I wanted to make.

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Firstly, YES, you have waited 2 years---NO, this did not take 2 years to actually make. I've stated a few times that from my POV, it's been a 5 month grind to get this done. That needs to be understood. I wasn't concerned with everything prior because it was finished and done. Script was done(mostly). Voice acting samples were done (except one), so I had to focus on the art. And for me, the art scenes NEEDED to have the quality that I believed they deserved. That ante continued getting upped when my musical scoring was a factor. Then backgrounds-then Charlie's ambush scene. Then things for production-adding a small bit to the script and getting the last voice actor situated. By then, the stride was hit with R1 and I, and we started picking up speed. And as he stated, the most time consuming scene was Charlie's ambush.

That and the first scene took close to 65% of those 5 months-seriously. We spent that chunk of time finding our feet. When all the delays on both our ends were finally squared away, we went into overdrive. The Panoptichron scene (Cage and Talbain), took us exactly 6 days. Yes, that's right-6 days! To this day, R1 and I laugh ourselves silly at how the LONGEST scene, the scene with the MOST point-to-point stillmatic transitioning, took the quickest amount of time. The shower scene was second fastest (took us 8 and a half days), and by THEN, we had discovered new methods, tricks and techniques that will make FUTURE episodes FAR more intricate while still preserving file size. You can actually see this, because each scene gradually grows in complexity from start to finish, with file size limitations preventing us from adding some of the stillmatic transitions in the earlier scenes that started becoming more frequent in the later scenes.

And let me tell you-file size was raping us at the end there. Importing my artwork and musical tracks for the art scenes towards the end was making R1's machine shit bricks. He ended up tossing 16 gigs of RAM into his new machine by the end of this project and STILL, we were running into virtual lags and hiccups. Each time we exported our movie, to test how it played, we had to get off Skype and he had to beef up his RAM, just so that he had the memory to get it exported.

A propos-our Skype sessions deserve an hourly rate. From about May to early July, we met up about 3-4 times a week for about 4 hours each session. From mid July until release, we were meeting EVERY-SINGLE-DAY for 5-6 hours. The only exception was a couple weeks in the summer when R1 needed brand new hardware, and then later, more RAM. THIS is keeping in mind that we BOTH have fulltime jobs, and with me being an illustrator, that's already 10-14 hours of my day. Now add in 5-6 hours of Exiles work. You guys catching on yet?

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Secondly-yes- the fight was a dated fight. I've said ANY times that the fight posters I did for the first 3 episodes were DATED as hell to me, yet they were complete and done, so it's time to move on. I'm the type who considers my work outdated once it hits 6 or so months. So I can relate to R1's POV with the Stryker fight, which was a 1 year and change old. It seems fresh because he added a spit shine to it with the X-Ray move/Fatality-but no, it's an old fight. And it's a DAMN GOOD FIGHT, nonetheless. But honestly, it's not a true testament of his current skills. You guys have no idea how good the next one looks so far, and we've talked about how it will end, so I am going to go ahead and tell you that Episode 4's fight-which , again, will be indicative of R1's current prowess-will be the best fight of the series thus far. Hands down, no question, no doubt. I will second that by saying that the VERY FIRST art scene of episode 4 will be the most memorable scene of the series thus far. Although, that might be presumptuous, 'cause that Shower Scene is OBVIOUSLY a fan favorite thus far, heh.

...I ** WONDER ** WHY...

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Thirdly, I'm just as pleased with this episode as R1-possibly more so-because this was the first small step into this storming juggernaut of a series. The response from fans was just about what I expected and I'm pleased as punch. Shaking things up is always unnerving for viewers at first, but that's what I'm known for in my world-"shaking things up"- and that was my goal from the word go. Considering just how much we've learned, I am honestly tingling with how much forward progress we can bring to this series. I had caught someone's comment on the episode page that called me out for saying this was "The genesis of what we believe will be one of the best Flash series on Newgrounds." Reading that response, it was clear he/she believed I meant that episode 3 would be one of the best flash movies on the site.

....uhm....NO....

What I said is EXACTLY what I meant. The BEGINNING-the FIRST-the START-the GENESIS. I meant every word, I stand by it, and so does R1.

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Last little tidbit-to quote someone's note to me on Deviantart-"What the hell is Episode 3.5 and when the hell is it coming out?!" Well, Episode 3.5 is the first of what can be dubbed "Point 5 Episodes." They are shorter episodic flash movies that will be placed in between every new episode, starting with this first one. These will be uploaded under my page, but still be brought to you by R1 and me. The reason for this is that these are transitional episodes that'll run about half the length of an episode. They are fully story-driven, comprised of only one to two art scenes, and will often set up the plot for the next episode in some way. No spriting will be done in these movies, hence the shorter length.

They will not, however, be overdrawn or longwinded. Again, they are transitions to the next episode that will also give character insight, add more character development, and sometimes give a peek into Exiles history-from showing earlier missions, to showing the incarnations of earlier teams. They will ALSO have an EXTRAS menu that will include original artwork and some detailed expository to some of the technology and weapons of the series.

Episode 3.5 is slated for a winter release. At what point in winter? I'll just say WINTER for now.

Stay frosty, people, the genesis is complete. Now we begin our exodus into the promised land of epic flashdom!

From GENESIS to EXODUS


Comments

as long as someone gets shot in the .5 eps ill be fine! Keep up the good work

Someone SHOT in 3.5?

No----THIS .5 features no blood, no bullets, no "BANG-BANG-FUCK YOU."

They'll get more elaborate later in the series to feature more action, but this first go around will center on a faster paced dialog, character interactions and lead into Episode 4.

I would say, if bullets flying is ALL you want from it---then Oh well, you're in for a let down.

If you want a complete series, then see ya in a few months and enjoy the ride, homie

Hey, just wanted to stop by and leave a comment. I simply admire your artwork and glad that you are working in VGE. As always your art-work is amazing, and well i can't wait to see it in 3.5. - SULREAVER123

Welcome to NEWGROUNDS, mate.

3.5 is shaping up nicely-- good to see you're excited for that.

I didn't want bullets flying the whole .5 I just want someone to get shot. For a personal comical preference. Im interested in the story so I'll definitely be keepin up with it. But I see nothing wrong with people spontaneously getting shot mid-sentence lolz.

No but seriously I hope the .5s map out most expository, I don't mind reading but sometimes I be tired, and dont want to lean up on my screen to read, I just wanna plug the HDMI into the flatscreen and lean back with a soda or beer and watch, and not be confused about the previous happenings till the end lolz.

And I dunno why this crossed my mind, but please don't include sentinel in this series......ever lolz, it may be unlikely that he'd be included but im sure its a very real possibility lolz

look for an update on the 3.5 later this week

Frosty? BUT ITS COLD!!!! and Looking forward to the ep

Love your art man and love your work on VG, I have been following R1's work sense EP.0 and he has come a long way from being another wana-be to being the one who is going to be setting the new standards for all that is sprite fight anime and with you as the co-pilot on this flight I can only imagine how far it will all go, 1 thing I do know for sure is that a seat in history is being saved with a plaque engraved R1-RAP PRODUCTIONS inc.(TM)