Post by Jeff on Dec 16, 2003 13:50:38 GMT -5
Ep 03: Enter The Fred!
By episode three, creating new episodes was already becoming a ritualized process, and making episode three took far less time than it did to make episodes one or two, as a result. Believe it or not, the hardest part of making a new episode at this point was the word bubbles. Making the boxes and the text were easy, but I was coloring in the lines from the characters to their word bubbles pixel by pixel. This process could take over an hour…just for word bubbles! It would be many episodes before I’d figure out an absurdly easier way to do those.
I’d expected titling each episode to be easy by this point, but titles continued to stump me (and still do, to this day). “Enter The Fred” was chosen as a homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode “Enter The Shredder”, where the turtles first meet Shredder, their arch nemesis. Ironically, that title was a homage to the Bruce Lee film “Enter The Dragon”. While I was aware of this fact in titling episode three, “Enter The Fred” really had nothing at all to do with the Bruce Lee film.
The goal in this episode was really just to make a joke of Fred’s name (as I’d intended even in my original ideas for ACT). This was the first of (thankfully) very few ACT episodes in which the humor depends entirely upon one final punch line, which is always risky, and can make for a boring first five panels. In this case, I think I actually did such a good job shooting Fred in such a dominating, impressive way that it was hard not to take him seriously, thus ruining the punch line. My first unfunny episode.
It was then that fame and success turned me to a life of sex, drugs, and self-destruction.
By episode three, creating new episodes was already becoming a ritualized process, and making episode three took far less time than it did to make episodes one or two, as a result. Believe it or not, the hardest part of making a new episode at this point was the word bubbles. Making the boxes and the text were easy, but I was coloring in the lines from the characters to their word bubbles pixel by pixel. This process could take over an hour…just for word bubbles! It would be many episodes before I’d figure out an absurdly easier way to do those.
I’d expected titling each episode to be easy by this point, but titles continued to stump me (and still do, to this day). “Enter The Fred” was chosen as a homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode “Enter The Shredder”, where the turtles first meet Shredder, their arch nemesis. Ironically, that title was a homage to the Bruce Lee film “Enter The Dragon”. While I was aware of this fact in titling episode three, “Enter The Fred” really had nothing at all to do with the Bruce Lee film.
The goal in this episode was really just to make a joke of Fred’s name (as I’d intended even in my original ideas for ACT). This was the first of (thankfully) very few ACT episodes in which the humor depends entirely upon one final punch line, which is always risky, and can make for a boring first five panels. In this case, I think I actually did such a good job shooting Fred in such a dominating, impressive way that it was hard not to take him seriously, thus ruining the punch line. My first unfunny episode.
It was then that fame and success turned me to a life of sex, drugs, and self-destruction.