Vision Riders Entertainment Blog - Procyon

The Blog Smells Funny

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 10:25:29 -0700

Q: Is Swordmaster Odyssey dead?

Heavens no! It will probably be a few more weeks before I get back to it, though. Right now my focus is on getting the initial in-game art for AetherFall together, which is no small feat. Once I get a hold on the style I want, and get into the groove of producing it, things should lighten up quite a bit on that end.

Q: Is Sketchbook Monday dead?

No, I just keep putting it off.

Q: Is My Brother dead?

No, my brother is still alive and well ~~unfortunately~~, and so is My Brother. However, there likely won't be any work on it until next year. The project has not been canceled, just delayed in favor of AetherFall.

Q: Is Procyon dead.

Yes. As explained before, the project was axed due to major story problems, made even worse by a horde of technical problems.

Where is Procyon?

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:12:48 -0700

'Tis an excellent question. After it was announced, I'd been giving regular updates on our animated series Procyon's progress.

Unfortunantly, the project hit a tag-team of technical problems and story problems. Technical problems are bad enough, but story problems are deadly. They can kill a project like you wouldn't believe! We're currently looking at our options concerning the project and will post an update when/if anything develops.

Please wish us luck! We need it.

Procyon: First Screens

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:26:40 -0700

At last! Some screenshots to show you about what the final products will look like.

As you may notice, Ian has a motocycle-like contraption that he uses to travel about the Procyon flatlands in search of scrap. You may remember that I showed the working sketch for this yesterday. Personally, I kind of like the sketch better. :/

The animation is not coming about as quickly as I had really hoped, but progress is being made. I'm doing my best to make sure that, even with the limited time and budget I have to work with, the animation still looks decent and is fun to watch.

The story is divided into "chapters", and I hope to release the first part of Chapter 1 by the end of this Summer. Each "part" of a chapter is reffered to (at least for now) as a "transmission" and each transmission will have about two to three minutes of video. I'm looking forward to having something to show, so keep an eye on the blog for more previews and announcements. Next time, I might just show off a short animated clip! :3

The Characters of Procyon

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:10:23 -0700

Awakening from cold sleep some time after the disaster that struck the Procyon Expedition, these two have found themselves stranded eleven and a half light years away from the Solar System with little hope of resuce.

The story begins with Ian, an engineer. He has survived alone on the surface of the planet for nearly a year, searching out scrap and building things in order to keep himself sane. Although he has come across countless life pods containing other members of the expedition, they had all failed during the disaster, leaving their occupants dead.

But this all changes one day when he comes across a life pod housing a young boy named Jordan. Although Ian doesn't particularly care for the company of children, he decides to look after Jordan, if for no other reason than the company of another human being.

Are they the only ones who survived the disaster? And just how did everything go so wrong in the first place? Both of these questions demand an answer...

Procyon: First Preview

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:29:27 -0700

For those who haven't heard yet, Procyon is our upcoming animated project. The first part of the series is still on track for release this summer.

This is a background from the very beginning of the story, our first glimpse from ground level of Procyon 5, the fifth planet rotating Procyon A, primary star of the Procyon system. It's not nearly as detailed or "painterly" as I originally hoped for, but I still think it looks pretty good, especially compared to most internet animation.

As you might notice, we're doing the series in 16x9 widescreen, because widescreen is awesome, but more importantly because that's really what everything is moving to now days. The actual video is being done in 720p HD (1280x720) at 30fps. For low-budget animation like Procyon, the increased resolution doesn't add as much as it would to, say, Disney or Dreamwork's stuff, but the video is still going to be much crisper for those who download the high resolution version.

I hope to have some actual screen grabs here soon so that you can see what the characters look like against the background. (If you follow my weekly Sketchbook Monday feature, you should already know what the characters look like.)

Pulling Back the Veil

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:50:51 -0700

I've talked for a long time about how Vision Riders has wanted to produce an animated series. In fact, really, animation is why I put Vision Riders together in the first place. Well, at long last, things have been set in motion and a new series is in full production.

Our new animated series is called "Procyon". The series is being animated in "traditional" 2-D and you'll be able to watch it right here on the Vision Riders site. The story is broken up into chapters that will range from 5-10 minutes in length. However, you won't have to wait for the whole chapter to be animated before you can watch it. Each chapter is further divided into sections that will be uploaded from time-to-time (probably every few weeks). You can view each section as it's completed, or you can just wait and watch the whole chapter when it's done. (Unlike Swordmaster Odyssey, there will be no set time for updates.)

The story centers around the adventures of a young man who's found himself stranded nearly twelve lightyears away from Earth, the survivor of an expedition to colonize the Procyon system. Although he is alone and rescue is virtually impossible, he has kept his hopes high, remaining sane by building and repairing machinery. Eventually he discovers another survivor: a boy, still in frozen sleep within a life pod.

Procyon sets itself apart from most animation on the web in that it's not purely comedy-driven. The series combines humor, drama, and action in an adventure meant to be enjoyed by a wide audience. Since Procyon is such a small-scale production, I want to make sure that you won't get too bored waiting for the next section: expect to find news and updates on the production here on the blog. I'll probably even include a few storyboards and pencil tests from time-to-time.

I've been looking forward to being able to do this for a long time! I hope that you'll enjoy the series when it premieres this summer. I also hope to have some screenshots to share with you in the near future, so please look forward to it.