Zelda Valley

This is our Behind The Scenes page on our videos. Here we will give eager viewers an exclusive first look on upcoming stuff. At least once a month, DstCoyote will update this page, although he may update it quite often if he feels there is more new stuff to be mentioned. To make it easier, there will be postings on the home page that announce the update.

NOTE: This page contains updates usually relating to current projects. For behind the scenes info on past projects, visit our “Video Reviews” section.

Update: February 8, 2008

While Twin Links is over 90% done with the animation portion (only 25 seconds left to do), there will still be more stuff to be done for post production:

• Fixing/editing/polishing some gif files. There are a few gif files that need mucho fixing because of some form of infraction. Most notable are closeup shots, in which the closeups are rather pixelated and do not fit in well with shots that fixed the problem. The {bad} close up gifs of characters talking will be replaced with better resolution gifs to appear less pixelated.
• Extra sound layers. By default, we put in music first then add sound effects, but that is not entirely the case. The last scene I worked on had a hard music choice to be put in, so I added sound effects first instead and decided to worry about it later. Many times, the first song choice will remain until something better can replace it, but nothing has ever been able to replace the first song choices to be played for key scenes. The sound layers will continue to be added to and subtracted from until we feel it’s finished.
• VOICES!!!!!!!! Nuff said

What about Phantom Mascot? I thought Phantom Mascot would be finished long before me, but it turns out the opposite has happened and Twin Links is now way ahead in terms of production. It hasn’t been touched by JMAP in a while due to such reasons as:

• JMAP constantly playing World of Warcraft, then saying his available video time is taken away because of other events like homework and activities away from his house, and the fact that he doesn’t have as much access to a computer as I do. As far as I’m concerned, he can play WoW as long as he wants. I don’t want to crack whips on him because of this relaxed approach we’re doing. But he needs to learn to make time for other things.
• When the subject over the next planned scene comes up involving village backgrounds, he has a hard time deciding what he is looking for in terms of scenery. He can’t describe it, and he told me that just doing cutouts of various houses are not going to do. His scenes are planned to the letter, and will be relatively easy to do, but not until he finds what he is looking for.
• He also works on separate Pivot Animations that have no relation to the video.

Update: January 23, 2008

I am very pleased to tell you that the animation production for Twin Links is 80 % done!

Basically, I’ve roughly gotten the beginning done, and the climax/ending done. So now I need to make everything that builds from the beginning up to the climax, which shouldn’t be that hard because it will be one continuous sequence with a few stops.
I only have two minutes of space left, although it could change. I am thinking of adding even more to the climax fight and the ending, which will help make the credits a bit shorter (which I believe they need to be, I don’t want the end credits overrunning the video). The ending scene will be added to, since it is very simple to do. The climax fight is already very big, but I think adding some stuff (more gifs) will greatly enhance it. However, I will not make the decision for the climax until I have the two minute buildup done and the ending added to.

In the mean time, here is a repeating gif of a black knight running with a spear. It takes 12 frames for the legs.

Update: January 5, 2008

Happy New Year! Happy New Behind The Scenes Update!

Well, here is what I got to say! The production stage in our videos is about 7/10 done. The Twin Links video has about seven minutes of rough material done while Phantom Mascot has about seven minutes also.

TWIN LINKS

I’ve just finished the walking design for the Knights in this film. You’ve probably already seen the .gif I showed of Link walking. Instead of two frames for walking and running, it takes 13 to get just the legs right. Because the legs to me are more importaint, I have separate files saved for just the legs for when I plug them in. This makes it easier so that I can just focus on the upper body movements. I may need to have them run later, but for now, I only need them to walk.

Here is the exterior shot of my design for Hyrule Castle. As you can see, it isn’t the typical light colored design for it; it’s rather dark on the outside (not to mention it’s night time, none of the video will be set during the day time). While Episode Three of the Stick Fantasy Series saw me trying to mimic the Link to the Past design for Hyrule Castle, I figured since every new Zelda game has the castle looking completely different every time, I just decided “why not here too?”

PHANTOM MASCOT

While I tend to make things short at times, JMAP has a tendency to make his planned scenes too long. He originally thought that we were going to make separate parts due to that ten minute youtube allowance. But I told him he should only make one part and keep only the best stuff within that ten minute youtube allowance. This is because when we originally released the first two episodes, we noticed that Episode Two was always being watched way more than One, even though it only had the concluding scenes.

He wants only the funniest scenes in the finished product, and I while I want everything to be the funniest, if it doesn’t progress the story, I don’t think it should be in. We have cut out two scenes that, while still pretty funny, don’t do anything to the storyline. This was also done to make room for the climatic final two scenes planned, which will take up to 3 minutes. Here is a screen shot of one of the scenes that is NOT deleted. It’s up to you to guess what’s going on.

Also, because we will not have room for end credits, we are going to put the first half of them during the opening introduction.

Until next time…..

Update: December 17, 2007

“Hey, you’ve just updated this page again! Are you now doing weekly reports?”

Not really, I’ve just decided to do it again to let eager readers know that we are very close to revealing the titles to our videos. That little teaser poster I’ve just posted hints at what the title of the people video will be, and it may even surprise you. I did promise that you will all know what the titles are before the years end, and I am a man of my word, so the revealing will come soon. In the mean time, we’re both at about six minutes of rough material into our video making. Once they reach around ten minutes, then the polishing, fixing, and voices will be added.

In the meantime, here is a screen shot from the opening sequence. Here we see Link in a standoff against some wizard.

Update: December 10, 2007

Hey, didn’t I just update this page?

Well, I now have some stuff for you to look at!

When I visited Colorado for Thanksgiving, I started to think in the people video “what if stuff happened in a dark snowy forest at night?” I then thought, “Man, this can give it an eerier feel for the stuff happening outside.” So while I was there, I took a few pictures of scenery both during the day and at night of snowy scenery. Some pictures worked well for what I was looking for while others didn’t. Many day shots have a hard time converting into night lighting, so I mainly focused on the pictures I took at night. But I think I got a pretty good selection of backdrops, trees, and ground to work with for my outside scenes, which will take up a lot of the first half of the video. The selection is growing as we speak, as I’ll be able to add more different types of each of the three mentioned.

Here you guys go! Enjoy!

Update: December 8, 2007

Hey, didn’t I just update this page? Well, Now I got something to say.

I am roughly halfway done with the people animation video; and don’t worry, by the end of this very year it will be referred to as a different name. In the mean time, I still have a lot of stuff needed to be done. I’ll now list what I have gotten done and what needs to be done:

What is now roughly done on Legend of Zelda - The (whoops, I almost revealed it ) :

• The big climax scene - This is probably the biggest of the planned segments on the video. It was originally a minute shorter at only 87 seconds long, but since JMAP used his power as the consultant and told me to add more, I added an extra minute. It took a long time to make because it is loaded with .gif animations, some of which are fast enough to make movie maker have a hard time previewing it all. It takes up about 2:30 (two minutes and thirty seconds). When you think it’s done, you’ll be surprised there is more.
• The ending - It’s very brief and to the point. Not much needs to be said about it; but since nearly all Zelda endings are just characters speaking for several minutes, I wanted it to be short and to the point, and try to add a little humor to it.
• The credits - Like all of our videos, the credits are rather long, but these credits are comparatively shorter to some past installments since this time it only credits one video instead of two or three. Still, there are a lot of credits to be given such a production work, soundtrack, and now voices! The credits take about 90 seconds tops, and they may end up shorter.
• The opening title - In this video and the new stick one, the viewer will notice something different about the opening logo, and may end up gluing their eyes to the screen because we think it’s sure to catch the viewers. In other words, it won’t just be “The beginning is a very delicate time” sound effect this time around. Since these videos are being released in a new year, why not give them a new logo effect? Either way, this takes only 30 seconds (why it should take any longer is beyond me, but having any opening title last any longer will ruin the catching effect).

This adds up to about five minutes of rough material done. Now, here is what needs to be done:

• More Character Designs - I have the character designs done for Link, Zelda, and the main villain (and have been using them), but I need to get designs done for good knights, bad nights, and another villain character. Luckily, both the good and bad knights will have the same design, but with different colors (and there will be a reason for that).
• The opening sequence - This takes place after the title. Originally, this was going to be an opening narration to explain the story, but instead we’ve opted to change it into an actual video sequence. This should be about a minute long.
• Three more video parts containing a lot of action and suspense, with each part lasting about a minute to 90 seconds. These will progress the story, of course. One will go right into the other until it reaches the climax scene, which thankfully is already done.

The good thing is, although there are no set deadlines, I actually wanted us to be about halfway done with the videos by the time 2008 rolled around. Well, I’m about halfway there, and so is JMAP on the stick video.

Until next time….

Update: November 27, 2007

Ah, here it is; the November edition of Behind the Scenes!

Well, where do I start?

I have recently been making some REALLY good gifs for this major sequence in the people animation video.

Will I post ‘em up here? Sorry, not now. The reason is because I’m afraid that it will give away some major plot points to the video. The only person who has seen them is JMAP, and he is liking what he sees. This major part I’ve been doing is actually at the end of the new people animation video, and it needs to be as excellent as possible. There are several action sequences planned to be done once I finish the climax and ending sequences. I am merely doing what we’ve done before on prior videos, which is to make the climax before we make the rest. Production usually goes in the order of: climax, after climax/ending, beginning, build up, and before climax. The climax is usually the hardest to make, so my idea is to get it done first and out of the way and make the rest have an easier work plan. I thought I finally had the climatic battle done, but JMAP told me it was too short, so now I’m in the process of adding an extra minute to it. Once it’s done, there will be about five minutes of rough material done.

These two separate videos will greatly reflect our individual styles.

The people animation video that I { dstcoyote } am working on will feel rather dark, wintry, and gloomy as much of it is set either during a cold snowy night or inside the depths of Hyrule Castle. The music will also be dark, epic, and at times heavy, as you may recognize songs by artists such as Iron Maiden and KMFDM. There will be some gags, and there will be plenty of easter eggs and references.

On the flip side, the video done by JMAP, which is the newest episode to the Stick Fantasy Series, will be more light hearted. There will be less battle sequences in favor of more comedy scenes, and will be more of a return to form of our first two Stick Fantasy episodes. From what I’ve seen, JMAP has done some very funny scenes involving the two major characters. One of them is of course Link, and the other is STILL a secret! The music in this video will mainly be from Z.R.E.O. (Zelda REOrchestrated) as JMAP has said that adding the heavy songs may seem out of place for this video.

That’s about it, I guess.

Well, I can’t leave you all empty handed. I hope you’ll love these.

They are the doodle images for Princess Zelda and for the many knights that will be killed in the new video. They will look a tad different once I officially make color photoshop images of them. I thought you may like to see them before they become photoshopped characters.

Until next time….

Update: October 27, 2007

Oh my God! another update on this page in less than 30 days! Run for the hills!!!!!

At JMAP’s request, I’ll do a small update on this page and give some more details.

We currently do have a new People Animation video and a new episode of the Stick Fantasy Series in the works. The People video currently has about a minute and forty seconds done, and much MUCH more will be added. The Stick video is about the same, with about thirty seconds done.

Each video has about a 90/10 split between the two makers, with one being the main worker while one is a special adviser/helper. While I’m making most of the people animation, JMAP usually decides if what I do is good or not. But for the Stick Video, JMAP is working on it more while I’m advising him. JMAP has already done some great things, and he even designed the new villian for the stick video.

Since we want these next two to be the best possible, some stuff that is put in may be redone or taken out, causing some space needing to be filled. One video will be more action oriented, while the other will have more comedy. A huge, MAJOR detail about the new stick video will shock those who have been following the Stick Fantasy Series storyline, while give some new watchers something to see. No, we won’t say who or what it is!

Many ideas are swirling around in our heads, and for many of them it’s like we’re saying to each other (or in our heads), “dude, put that crap down somewhere! whether on paper, on Microsoft Word, or on Photoshop!” We’ve been working on the videos “most of the time.” We mostly work on the videos during the afternoon. Some afternoons produce new .gif animations, other’s don’t due to schedules and what not. We are absolutely okay with that, as we’ve discovered it’s far more relaxing when there isn’t a set deadline. Trust in JMAP Productions, these next two will be worthwhile.