64 replies to this topic

[Kilroy]

Periphery is going to be a three episode miniseries on youtube. Fully animated with a small voice cast.

On the edge of space past the borders of the Federated Commonwealth a mercenary company with more than a dozen 'mechs has been stationed for several months, mopping up a group of periphery bandits. Nearing the end of their contract, they begin to move to eliminate the last of the bandits when sightings of strange 'mechs occur and scouts vanish without a trace. The mercenaries must deal with a bizarre and vastly advanced new foe that descends upon them.




I'll go into depth with this soon but I'm writing this up at 6am after an all nighter to get a trailer pushed out. There's a flaw I didn't notice until after uploading, I'll get that fixed after some sleep.


Alright, so after nearly three years I'm attempting another miniseries.

The first miniseries, Operation Ragnarok, was a relative success for what it was at the time. I was just learning how to animate and had minimal support. The entire series lasted for six episodes at approximately five minutes each before reaching its end. While that was all fun and stuff I think it's time to do it better.

The original plot of that previous series was post clan invasion in the 3060s and made no real effort to even look canon. This one will be a bit closer to canon in 3049/3050 and I've researched a whole list of vehicles and 'mechs for it. The only ones I'm having to make from scratch are ones where there is simply no clear reference in this time period.

The invading clan that is the mysterious force is currently planned to be the Jade Falcons, though I was considering Smoke Jaguars for a while.

The mercenary unit will most likely be Hansen's Roughriders.

The name of the planet the main events take place on hasn't been chosen yet. The environment is mainly a dusty arid canyons with pools of water that run in a tunnel system under the surface of the land. No real animal life except aquatic.


Only three mercenary 'mechs have been confirmed, though there is a list of nearly 30 innersphere 'mechs to pull from. All models created before hand and rigged for animation.

Pilot voices may be contributed by anyone but I make no promises to use all of them due to the fact that most amateur voice acting can be a bit shoddy. Preferred format is mp3. Wave works as well. Download links can be sent via private message or included in the thread. Scripts will be posted later but will be minimal to keep it flexible.

Pilots themselves will almost never been seen because I can't work with human faces very well. Mostly because of my stereo-blindness . I do have a handful of human models to work with but you won't be seeing much of them unless they have full helmets on.

Considering letting users who contribute voices pick their 'mechs, the only reason I may not do this this time is because it has generated issues in the past. All audio files will need to be delivered before any customizations to models or scenes are made to avoid issues I have had with users not finishing their lines.

Clan mechs will be vastly more powerful than the innersphere ones, so the mercs will tend to outnumber the clanners most of the time when the battles are on relatively even terms.


Below is a list of all current vehicles, mechs, infantry, and aerotech though more may be added later. Currently missing from the list are the submarines present in the underwater combat portion.



http://www.deviantar...4&ts=1382361785

Edited by Kilroy, 21 October 2013 - 06:35 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

looks really cool man, I'll be watching!

(One nitpicky design note, the forearm vambraces on your elemental, particularly the laser, should be longer, as the Pilots arm is in there, and the manipulator and laser start after where the hands would end. More pronounced shoulder pauldrons would finish them very sexy))

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 21 October 2013 - 06:06 AM.

[Kilroy]

Bishop Steiner, on 21 October 2013 - 06:06 AM, said:

looks really cool man, I'll be watching!

(One nitpicky design note, the forearm vambraces on your elemental, particularly the laser, should be longer, as the Pilots arm is in there, and the manipulator and laser start after where the hands would end. More pronounced shoulder pauldrons would finish them very sexy))

I'll take a look at that. The elemental was one of the few older models I didn't tweak yet so I'll definitely be adjusting it before it appears on screen.


Oh, and I just remembered I have a Battlemaster and Vulcan based on your drawings to work with. Don't know why I didn't think to include them. I think the Vulcan is still missing its feet and a few other details but I can at least fit the Battlemaster in since it's done and already appeared in one of my older animations.

Edited by Kilroy, 21 October 2013 - 06:21 AM.

[Nathan Foxbane]

Gonna really nitpick here. Why do you have a Gossamer VTOL in there? It is not produced until 3123. Bushwacker, Linebacker and Phantom also do not fit the timeline you set. Just might consider before putting them in. You could probably replace the Gossamer with a Warrior. It's ammo dependent, but fills a similar role at longer range.

Edited by Nathan Foxbane, 21 October 2013 - 08:24 AM.

[Kilroy]

Nathan Foxbane, on 21 October 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

Gonna really nitpick here. Why do you have a Gossamer VTOL in there? It is not produced until 3123. Bushwacker, Linebacker and Phantom also do not fit the timeline you set. Just might consider before putting them in. You could probably replace the Gossamer with a Warrior. It's ammo dependent, but fills a similar role at longer range.

Partly because I was considering have it take place over the entire clan invasion.

A few Bushwackers existed in the 3045+ time period but didn't work well until they added clan tech to it.

Linebacker and Phantom were around towards the end of the original time period planned.

And the gossamer is there because Sarna is {Scrap} for looking up VTOLs and I couldn't find any in the time period and no one will really mind it.


I'll consider the warrior but I may just tweak the shape of the Gossamer so it looks like an archaic prototype.

Edited by Kilroy, 21 October 2013 - 05:06 PM.

[Kilroy]

Tweaked the gunship to look like another aircraft. I'm struggling to find my sourcebook that had it in it so I don't know the exact name. It's mostly just going to be a prototype or an older clan design that isn't seen much elsewhere.

[Fury9er]

Very good work I love seeing this kind of stuff, I will be keeping an eye on it in future

[Nathan Foxbane]

Kilroy, on 21 October 2013 - 07:48 PM, said:

Tweaked the gunship to look like another aircraft. I'm struggling to find my sourcebook that had it in it so I don't know the exact name. It's mostly just going to be a prototype or an older clan design that isn't seen much elsewhere.

I like it. BT is really sparse when it comes to VTOLs. There are multiple tanks, battle armor, aerospace fighters, dropships, warships, and Battlemechs for every conceivable battlefield role. But because VTOLs get screwed by the construction and combat rules for them, they are rare. Maybe change the twin vertical stabilizers to a single vertical stabilizer for a "T" tail and it could be different enough to call a new craft, all depending on how easy the changes are. Not too many people should recognize the Gossamer anyway unless they play'd Dark Age or have the latest TROs/recordsheets.

I recognize it because it was my favorite VTOL design out of Dark Age.

Edited by Nathan Foxbane, 22 October 2013 - 10:36 AM.

[Kilroy]

Nathan Foxbane, on 22 October 2013 - 10:35 AM, said:

I like it. BT is really sparse when it comes to VTOLs. There are multiple tanks, battle armor, aerospace fighters, dropships, warships, and Battlemechs for every conceivable battlefield role. But because VTOLs get screwed by the construction and combat rules for them, they are rare. Maybe change the twin vertical stabilizers to a single vertical stabilizer for a "T" tail and it could be different enough to call a new craft, all depending on how easy the changes are. Not too many people should recognize the Gossamer anyway unless they play'd Dark Age or have the latest TROs/recordsheets.

I recognize it because it was my favorite VTOL design out of Dark Age.

Sounds about right. The only other type of vehicle that is even more sparse seems to be submarines. I did a lot of research for a while and could only find a total of 3. One looks like a blocky version of modern subs and the other two look nearly identical to one another. I believe they were the Manta and Stingray or something. Sarna's search seems to be a bit finicky when I want to go back and double check things.

In short I'll have to do what I did with the VTOL to make news subs, the one in the trailer was loosely based on the Manta.



For some reason my video editor is on the fritz but baring any major issues the visuals for the first episode will be done within the week.

Edited by Kilroy, 22 October 2013 - 07:15 PM.

[Kilroy]

Problem solved. The issue turned out to be that the grain was so much on the surveillance footage that most programs couldn't handle the rapidly changing pixels so I had to tone it down.








Tweaked the elemental a bit based on Bishop's advice. I'll probably add more detail to it if it ends up getting used a lot.

Edited by Kilroy, 23 October 2013 - 05:01 AM.

[Kilroy]

Made a few more mechs while waiting for some renders to finish.

The Jagermech, Mongoose, and Mauler/Daboku





Tweaked some models I based on Bishop Steiner's work.

Edited by Kilroy, 24 October 2013 - 02:46 AM.

[Kilroy]

Wasp, Stinger, and Valkyrie. Pretty simple to make as they basically all share the same body.

[Davoke]

Awesome looking mechs and the like. Waiting.

[Tank]

Why this is not on the front page?!

You guys are awesome!

[Davoke]

Oh and if you need an extra voice actor, I would gladly help.

[Kilroy]

Davoke, on 24 October 2013 - 05:42 PM, said:

Oh and if you need an extra voice actor, I would gladly help.

I'd appreciate it. I'll put up a simple script soon for people to use. That or you can read off lines like when you would command units in MW3/4 to perform certain tasks.

All voices will need to be submitted at once. I have had major issues with people not turning in all of it and making me mash up the plot on other projects.

[Bishop Steiner]

Kilroy, on 24 October 2013 - 02:19 AM, said:

Made a few more mechs while waiting for some renders to finish.

The Jagermech, Mongoose, and Mauler/Daboku





Tweaked some models I based on Bishop Steiner's work.

oh dude.... loving what you did with the Vulcan bro (If you could dynamic pose and screen shot that for me, I'd be totally in your debt). I still have to give that one a finish pass. Also, did Kiriage contact you with the KGC yet?

[Kilroy]

Bishop Steiner, on 24 October 2013 - 07:48 PM, said:

oh dude.... loving what you did with the Vulcan bro (If you could dynamic pose and screen shot that for me, I'd be totally in your debt). I still have to give that one a finish pass. Also, did Kiriage contact you with the KGC yet?

He sent me a message describing it but I'm still waiting on the file itself. I'm planning on using it as the main mech in the second episode. One of the main mechs at least.

[Bishop Steiner]

dude.. LOVING it. The vulcan is one of my proudest redesigns

[Kilroy]

Insomnia strikes again. Two tanks, the Manticore and Bulldog. Might be an artillery vehicle or something else added in later, but this is just a little extra I managed to work on while rendering.