Glue Factory Show Production Update (Dec)
The lessons we learn by running will help us walk tall into the future of Web3 entertainment.
TLDR: Saddle up, this horse is beginning to hit its stride.
Our first episode will bolt out the gates in early Jan, with a special preview for the Glue Gang, before the rest of the pilot series is ready to drop from March.
The NFT space still moves a million miles a minute and while it feels like a lifetime, we are still less than 6 months from the birth of the idea for the Glue Factory Show. We’ve embarked on a mission to bring an animated series to life at a lightening pace but, we’re still creating quality fit for a network. As our Head Writer and Show Runner, Jon Barinholtz, mentioned recently, an animated series that takes in excess of a year is viewed as an impressively expedited process!
Everyone’s heard of a pilot episode but we are creating a pilot series. The beauty of this approach is it allowed our writing team to build an arc instead of trying to punch through concepts in a single episode. It also enabled us to bring the Glue Gang in on the creation process with the Community Writers’ Rooms and Writing Assignments.
REPLAY THE FIRST EPISODE OF OUR TWITTER SPACES SERIES: FRIENDS WITH GLUE featuring JON BARINHOLTZ & ROB BELUSHI
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1gqxvlWPbyeGB?s=20
So, what is the process of creating an animated series and where are we at?
With the view to create the series as a whole we’re working with a waterfall approach. Rather than create Episode 1 from initial idea to final mastered work, our waterfall schedule means many hooves spinning many plates at the same time.
We’re over 50% through the checklist of items and the waterfall effect sees each step being filled and more informed because of the work that came before it. The extra time taken to fine tune Episode 1 streamlines and expedites future decisions around camera work, geography, articulation and music. This will allow us to race through the later stages of episodes 2–6 at a faster pace.
Script Writing
To give the show the best chance of life we knew we had to nail the script writing. This is 99.9% complete, we’d holding back from calling it 100% as there is scope for some tweaking to round out the series when episodes 2–5 are visually locked.
Illustration
Our illustration is broken into a few key areas:
- Character Design
- World Building (backgrounds / settings)
- In Scene Items
The focus thus far, has been on character design and world building, as these are crucial to advance the animation stages, whilst the items can continue to be added in up until the final animation stages.
Vocal Takes
Vocal takes are also almost at 100%. You’ve heard a handful of snippets from Stanley and Byron, voiced by Jon and Rob and yep, you guessed it, they are our main characters. However, we’ve been keeping a whole stable of actors under wraps and when the time is right we will be releasing the full cast that features over ten special guests.
To bring our vocal takes to completion we’re just working to fit in with some schedules of some rather busy individuals 👀.
Animatic
Before we get into the real exciting stuff, it’s time to story board and create the stripped back demos of scenes and episodes called ‘animatics’. These are low-fi renderings of the episode and a chance for our visual team to translate what they’ve seen on paper and in briefing docs, to match the vocal takes.
Direction
You guessed it, cue our Director!
This stage is ongoing from animatic through to mastering to ensure the script, shots and angles all align to best bring the visual story together.
Character Rigging
Each character is broken down into over 80 individual elements — from hooves to nostrils, that require rigging to be brought into the animation suite. Essentially we are bringing our characters to life through movement.
In Scene Redrawing
This often leads to tweaks to the backgrounds, items and more character angles being drawn, so we have a window of time to focus on redrawing what we’re seeing in scenes to fix perspective or to fill the gaps.
Continuity & Reviews
While revision is a constant this is the point where the episode is heavily reviewed by the whole team to not only check the interpretation of things like timing and geography but also serves as a chance to revisit camera angles, shot lists and the need for accessories.
Articulation
The magic really happens close to the finish line with articulation bringing the characters and their environment to life. It is one thing to lipsync a horse’s jaw to a script, it is another to add in the fluttering of ears, blinking of eyes and the tilting of a head to add depth and emotion to a conversation.
Music
And of course you can’t forget the clips and the clops. Have you ever sat in a restaurant with no music?
We know you’re incredibly eager to dive in and binge Series 1 of the Glue Factory Show and we couldn’t be more excited to see it roll out.
We set a lofty goal of rolling out all six episodes starting in January. We are revising this timeline to roll out from March however we are going premiere Episode 1 in a special screening. We’re aiming to wrap the mastering of the first episode before the end of the year to have watch party in January. As soon as the sound is locked we’ll schedule the premiere and let y’all know how to tune in!
