>>Animation approaches impossibility for many reasons, not least of
>>which is that it essentially involves twenty-four pieces of
>>very-carefully-painted fanart per second. :)
>
>For several years I've been keeping an idle eye out for programs
>that do tweening or even the entire process of animation. (I'm
>looking to eventually do something set in Warriors' World, the
>V&V campaign that inspired both my fanfic series Drunkard's
>Walk and my 1991 book from Steve Jackson Games.) I haven't seen
>anything I like yet, but it's only a matter of time, in my
>opinion. Once something decent comes out, it will just be a
>matter of finding an artist to do key cells -- and, of course,
>casting voice actors.
>

I heartfully agree with that. With a 'couple friends
here in France we started working on a plot that
could basically be declined as a film, a comic book,
a novel, whatever. We have written 120 pages of scenario
so far and countless sketches, half of them bad as sh$*%,
mind you, but who cares?

France is an area where filmmakers have to lick
politicians' boots in order to get descent funding.
Most would-be directors sail toward other horizons.
A recent example was Luc Besson (Fifth element,
the Professionnal), of course, but you could probably
add Christopher Gans (Crying Freeman, Wolfs'pact)
and a couple others to that list.

I personaly think this is about to change.

Reason #1 -
Shooting and cuting movies is not a very expensive
process anymore if, as long as a director
is familiar enough with simple computer-aided
editing tools.

On a brasstacks level, hiring staff and
planing is not very different from planing a
software project (I personaly can't see how it
could be worse, at least you KNOW you resources
before the project starts, and the requirements
CAN be expressed precisely). As for hiring human
material, well... do as Georges Lucas did...
hire the woodsmith.

Digital camcorders are bringing hi-fi quality
back in the streets. It is just a matter of
years before we see the first amateur fics
come out with professionnal looking results.
--

Reason #2 -
I can go further than that. So, Gryphon, you are
uneasy with handdrawing? I bet you're quite apt
with CGI modelers and stuff, and you've proven
to be a quite remarkable scene writer. Know that
Lightwave 3D offers a very intersting plugin
named CelShade with which you can project a 3D
model as if it were a 2D cell drawing. It would
then be a matter of modeling a 3D DJ and
"rock the music". I bet you would be surprised
at the result.

For our own project, we are going to do it the
easy way. We are planing a comic, but are
_believe it or not_ quite lazy when it comes
to complicated architecture. So we did the
exact opposite: we modeled the buildings and
drew the caracters! ;).
--

So, I say, if you want to bring DJ on screen,
there is no real impossibility. It's just a
matter of starting the whole thing. After all,
NXE by itself is quite a HUGH achievement
(both in time and magnitude), so I guess you
guys know how to start something big. If it's
just a matter of being convinced you can do
it...

Well... Believe me. You can.

Alex Betis