Anybody got thoughts on me animating the warriors books?

[Mistyreed]

Yes, I know there won't be any official warriors animations out there. But maybe I could give it a try.




yEs yeS I probably WON'T do that well, im still figuring out a style for cats, but in the meantime I just wanted to see if anyone would be interested, and see if I can get a few willing voice actors (I can't pay cos, well, y'know...) but I would definantly appreciate the help. So if you would like me to give it a go just tell me, im still trying to read all the warriors books atm, since I only discovered them a few years ago, and I wasn't a big reader back then.

[Aaiknn]

You have my support, but know that it’s a terribly heavy workload and don’t push yourself too hard.

[Mistyreed]

Yeah yeah, I won't. Im just super bored and I have nothing to do, and thought it would be interesting! I do know it will be a lot to work on but I've been interested in animating recently.

[Crescent/Ardenna]

I would do it with you! I've thought a lot about doing an animated series for Tigerstar and Sasha since the cannon book's art, is.... a bit lacking? I'm still a beginner to animation, so you would have to take that into account and I think doing it in a pmv type style would be best.

[Shadowstartheleader]

I mean, its been a starved field in terms of the job being done. I think back to SSSwarriorcats videos and those were nice but there were so few unfortunately...i think you'll find a lot of support for it and a forum like this i think is great to tap many people for voice lines, many of us are likely not-rich younger folks who understand the money struggle so *shrug* i say go for it and see how much you can do. I echo Aaiknn, its a ginormous task.

[Phoebe]

Woah!! :0 This is actually something I've always wanted to do, but since I lack the skills needed to animate a series I've never tried. I would 100% support any animations that recreate the Warrior Cats Cinematic Universe, for sure! Speaking of which, a Youtuber named Pinkbunnygirl43 did something similar to an animated series, but it was with custom toys(LPS) she made, it was pretty cool.
(also I love voice acting, I'm not the greatest, but hey, if you need any help feel free to ask!!💕)

[Mistyreed]

Thanks for the support! Currently got a new Wacom drawing tablet and im getting used to a new 'animation' drawing style, which will be primarily used for animating. Im still deciding on a program to install to my computer to animate with, since animating on my ipad is just... painful... i also have troubles with lip syncing, so for the character speech it'll probably just be open mouthed, or otherwise in the meantime ill practice it :/ I have no complete promises on this, but still hope that i'll be able to produce it. If anyone has important tips or hints for me i'd be glad to hear them!

Edit: Oh, MY god. I just thought, what if i learn how to animate in 3D, I could take this stuff to a whole new level o:

[Crescent/Ardenna]

Ooh yeah that would be great! Would you do a team of animators or just you? I would love to help! Mistyreed

[Mistyreed]

Im not sure yet. As I said, I'm not willing to pay, so it would have to be volenteers, and i'd be perfectly fine with nobody asking. But if you want to help, ill consider it and maybe we could do something together idk. I only just discovered Blender, so im not good with animating in 3d since i've had NO experience with it.

[Crescent/Ardenna]

I don't need payment. If you want it to be mostly you, I could help color because that tends to be something that takes a lot of time and could save you some.
And yeah, I've been wanted to try out blender but I'm a bit intimidate.! I've watched a few tutorials so, I'm a bit better off, but like you, I have no experience.
A think a good strategy would be to start the series where SSS Warrior cats left off. You could be like the next generation!

[Mistyreed]

I kinda wanted to start from scratch, and thanks for the support! My thought is not to dive straight into the project but to practice small parts of it to get the right idea on what to do. Currently im already making a cat mesh, and ill figure out how to rig it later n stuff but im just working on cat bodies. And yes, that means this is official, no promises on it actually coming out, but I am working on making this series. Ill try to make it as realistic as possible, and it may take months and months of practice for it to actually look good. I appreciate all your support and really hope that this works out! I don't expect any revenue on it and have low expectations on the final product, but at least it will appeal to some of your eyes!

ok gotta sleep now im draining my energy...

Ill also post progress of my learning on here, once the holidays are over that is.

[Catsquid]

This is an interesting idea. While I'm not so sure about how realistic animating it all is, you could give it a try nonetheless. With 3D, however...
I have a tiiiny bit of experience in 3D things. I've used a program called MMD before, and while I haven't actually created any finished or close to finished projects in it, I know for sure that it's a million times simpler than Blender. Well, you can't actually make models in MMD, but you can import them. There are already some cat models out there for MMD that I'm sure you could edit into warrior cats (I know how to do that, so I could help. Really, I'm willing to help with any of this. I've got time on my hands and want to see where this could go). Or, you could make your own. There's just one problem with making your own: rigging.

I don't know if this only applies to MMD or what, but to make a movable model you have to rig it. That basically means that you map all the little points of the mesh onto some bones. Bones are lines that you can select and move in MMD (and maybe other programs, again not sure). To make them work properly, though, you have to connect the right vertices to the right bones. For example, if I'm trying to move a leg, but some of the vertices (well, even just one) of the tail are mapped to a bone in the leg, that little tiny piece of the tail will move too. I have some pictures of what happens if you want an example. The biggest problem is that it is so incredibly easy to select the wrong vertices. And you'd have to repeat the process on each mesh you make: adult, kit, probably for long haired adults and kits too, not to mention things you'd make that aren't cats... Maybe you already knew all this, lol. But a bit of advice: you said above that you could just take months to perfect your model. I mean, you could, but I doubt you'll stay inspired for that long, honestly. Most people would take at least one, if not a couple breaks, which would stretch the time from months to years.
TL;DR rigging is essential in making your own 3D models but it takes a long time and is not fun or easy, and I know that from experience. You could try and do it and accept that it's going to take a while, but I doubt anyone could stay inspired that long.

A much simpler (yet maybe less visually appealing if not done properly) method would be to get a program that already has movable 3D cats, such as The Sims 3/4 pets (both of which I have and am willing to help with). Although, this creates the obstacle of needing good recording and editing software. Or you could do the less simple but more 'original' method (compared to sims, anyway), in a sense: getting someone else's cat model and turning it into all the warrior cats.

If you're actually gonna give this project a shot and would like my help, I'm much more active on Discord than here. If you- or anyone else I know, for that matter- has it, I could give you my user and we could talk about this there. Or we could stay here lol, but no guarantee I'll be that active if I do end up getting involved. Hope my advice helped you guys.
Oh, and I might be able to help with voice acting. My mic quality is okay, a lot of times I'll mumble or talk too fast, and my room is noisy, but my bf has a good-quality mic and a quiet room I might be able to use if you ran out of people.

[Mistyreed]

Thanks for the hints! Yes, I do know about rigging and things but im not highly experienced in it. I probably won't use MMD because I've already started work and I have watched the animation 'Spring' which was completely done in Blender and looks like a Pixar level film. The Sims pets is a bit hard to work with since you can only have limited amounts of cats and eve in the sims 4 you can't control the cats. I'm fully aware this could take years and that i'll probably give up by then, but as I said, no promises.

[Mistyreed]

Ill make a new thread in Creative Corner for progress, I HAVE decided to resort to 2d though because the cat model is a bit tricky.

[Mistyreed]

actually ill probs move it to the untold tales