Post by Jeff on Jan 3, 2004 10:26:11 GMT -5
Ep 08: Close Encounters of the Cybertronian Kind
Though this is the first episode in the second story arc, it might be worthwhile to mention that there were no story arcs when this episode was made. It wasn't until around episode 24 that I introduced story arcs as an easier way of navigating storylines. In retrospect, this became the begining of ACT's shortest story arc to date, and also my personal favorite of all the early arcs.
The first arc was so unsure of itself that, while entertaining, it didn't even come close to meeting its comic potential. The second arc affords us a better chance to get to know many of the characters that made up the early ACT universe and, best of all, truly develops Poseidon into the legacy of a sleeze that he was.
Panel two is probably the worst blurring I ever had in ACT. I'd had some blurry shots in previous episodes but, fortunately, they weren't very noticable. I was shooting with an amateur camera (still am) that I barely knew how to use back then. Blurs didn't really show up in the previews and I had no idea what caused them. When I finally saw this shot at full scale, I had no idea why it was like that, didn't know if reshooting would cause the same results, and just hoped no one would notice. Unfortunately, everyone did, making me far more careful about blurring in the future. One fan who gave me too much credit even asked why I chose to blurr the shot. In retrospect, I always imagine it's showing that same distortion you get when an airplane passes too close and shakes everything. I guess that probe was going pretty fast...
Clearly, what really makes this episode is the final panel, which is still one of my all time favorites. I was still unclear about Poseidon's character, at this point. I'd envisioned him as the overly serious anal retentive type, but he's being a wise ass as early as the second episode. Still, I was trying to get back to that overly serious character in this panel. I thought the humor would be in seeing his logical perception of how humans relate to each other, but his offering a strange human a "brewski" only solidified his wise ass persona. This episode is really the birth of Poseidon.
Poseidon's hat was intended only as a ridiculous human disguise, sort of like how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used to think that wearing a hat and a trenchcoat somehow enabled them to blend in with humans. However, the hat was just too perfect for Poseidon, and really brought out his character even further, so I ended up keeping it.
I had no intention of doing anything further with the human in this last panel until MANY episodes later. He becomes Ned Meadows in episode 76, and allows this "close encounter" to affect him deeply.
Though this is the first episode in the second story arc, it might be worthwhile to mention that there were no story arcs when this episode was made. It wasn't until around episode 24 that I introduced story arcs as an easier way of navigating storylines. In retrospect, this became the begining of ACT's shortest story arc to date, and also my personal favorite of all the early arcs.
The first arc was so unsure of itself that, while entertaining, it didn't even come close to meeting its comic potential. The second arc affords us a better chance to get to know many of the characters that made up the early ACT universe and, best of all, truly develops Poseidon into the legacy of a sleeze that he was.
Panel two is probably the worst blurring I ever had in ACT. I'd had some blurry shots in previous episodes but, fortunately, they weren't very noticable. I was shooting with an amateur camera (still am) that I barely knew how to use back then. Blurs didn't really show up in the previews and I had no idea what caused them. When I finally saw this shot at full scale, I had no idea why it was like that, didn't know if reshooting would cause the same results, and just hoped no one would notice. Unfortunately, everyone did, making me far more careful about blurring in the future. One fan who gave me too much credit even asked why I chose to blurr the shot. In retrospect, I always imagine it's showing that same distortion you get when an airplane passes too close and shakes everything. I guess that probe was going pretty fast...
Clearly, what really makes this episode is the final panel, which is still one of my all time favorites. I was still unclear about Poseidon's character, at this point. I'd envisioned him as the overly serious anal retentive type, but he's being a wise ass as early as the second episode. Still, I was trying to get back to that overly serious character in this panel. I thought the humor would be in seeing his logical perception of how humans relate to each other, but his offering a strange human a "brewski" only solidified his wise ass persona. This episode is really the birth of Poseidon.
Poseidon's hat was intended only as a ridiculous human disguise, sort of like how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used to think that wearing a hat and a trenchcoat somehow enabled them to blend in with humans. However, the hat was just too perfect for Poseidon, and really brought out his character even further, so I ended up keeping it.
I had no intention of doing anything further with the human in this last panel until MANY episodes later. He becomes Ned Meadows in episode 76, and allows this "close encounter" to affect him deeply.