The Mirror World

[AnastiaCrest01]

So I have this idea floating about in my head, and I want to see if people are interested. The only downside, however, is that it may take a while to actually become a thing if enough interest is here, probably a few weeks, due to school and a multitude of research papers and finals, as well as world building and such. But if you want to stick along for the ride, I very much appreciate it! You see, I was watching Tokyo Mew Mew for the second time, when I could understand it a little better due to being older, and I adored the idea of using Endangered Animal spirits to give a person powers that can save the world. I really loved it. No worries, those who aren't into the half animal transformation thing, or the magical girl theme, because neither will happen, at least not fully. Let me continue, see, I got an amazing idea when watching Tokyo Mew Mew, dealing with the idea of what I previously mentioned. I wanted to animate it and create a series on YouTube, however, I am having trouble coming up with the characters, so I had the brilliant idea of turning the story in my head into an RP, and I will use the characters from the RP, as well as use the posts in IC to animate the episodes. This saves me a lot of time, as well as allows other people to be a part of my animation. Credit will be given where it is due. Also, voice actors are welcome, but you do not have to voice the characters (though if you do, please have a good mic and no background noise if possible), but as stated, this whole thing might take a few weeks to officially create, so it'll be a while before I'll be able to animate anything since I need enough to make an episode, animating takes a while, and I will be drawing each frame by hand. That being said, this will hopefully be a long term RP. Anywho, with all of that said, let's bring up the actual plot!

General Plot of the Mirror World:

The main characters of the story (welcomed to make at least two characters, a main one and a side one, but please no more than that ^^') are 6 teens chosen from all over the world to attend a high school in [enter location here (haven't yet thought of it, it's only a WIP)] where they find out that they are not learning typical high school things. They are learning how to kill creatures known as Voids. All students attending the school is split into groups of six, the one that will be focused on is team S.P.I.R.I.T.* and are given a small tiki figure of an Endangered (or used to be Endangered) animal, representing their spirit animal, and gives them abilities in their world as well as the ability to transverse into the mirror world, where all spirit animals exist. Voids are trying to destroy the two worlds, mostly aiming for the weaker of the two, our world. What happens in one world happens in the other, and it could end up being very devastating if one is wiped out. Team S.P.I.R.I.T. are the best in the school, and thus have to handle the majority of the missions. Each member of the team receives one elemental ability, but they must be different from the others due to balance. The elements are Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. The animals I had picked out were* a Kangaroo, an Artic Fox, a Macaw, a Leather-Back Turtle, a Jaguar, and a Panda*.

Things marked with an * means it is subject to change. The name of the team may change and the animals may change. The animals may change because I want people to enjoy what they play. Sorry if it's badly written, it's late and I'm not entirely focused. So yeah! Let me know if you're interested! I'm sorry it might take a bit to get started, and I'm risking people loosing interest, but I wanted to see if people liked the idea before trying to get it started. This also gives me plenty of planning time, as many of my group RPs failed due to a lack of time to plan. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that when in our world, they just have the elemental abilities, no changes physically. When in the mirror world, they will have the elemental abilities and will become their spirit animal. No half humans as promised! And no magical girl theme! I really want to reach as wide an audience as possible ^^

 

[Amber Sky]

Oh gosh.
I really want to do this.
I'm just afraid that I have too many other things going on.

The animation bit sounds interesting as well. Gah. I think I'll just hang around and see what happens with this. *Stalks thread*

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Oh gosh.
I really want to do this.
I'm just afraid that I have too many other things going on.

The animation bit sounds interesting as well. Gah. I think I'll just hang around and see what happens with this. *Stalks thread*

I totally understand ^^ Because of being busy in real, I had to serious cut back on some of my RPs. You are totally welcome to just hang around until it actually becomes a thing ^^

 

[Karakui]

This sounds pretty interesting. I think definitely let people pick their own animals though. I can't imagine anyone would actually want to possess magical powers related to.. a kangaroo. Or a panda. Unless you're going for comic relief characters anyway. Also, can extinct creatures be used? I mean, they used to be endangered, briefly :D *Goes off to find a creature that has significance in mythology to come up with appropriate magical powers* *Off the top of my head, I'm thinking maybe Eikbyrnir, the Stag of the Underworld from Norse mythology but I don't know if there are any endangered deer species. Or perhaps Garmr, the Hound of Ragnarok. Maybe Jormungandr, if I can find an endangered snake species. I know Norse mythology loves to use animals so I'll use that as a starting point.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

This sounds pretty interesting. I think definitely let people pick their own animals though. I can't imagine anyone would actually want to possess magical powers related to.. a kangaroo. Or a panda. Unless you're going for comic relief characters anyway. Also, can extinct creatures be used? I mean, they used to be endangered, briefly :D *Goes off to find a creature that has significance in mythology to come up with appropriate magical powers*

People can choose their own animals ^^ Tis why I said it's subject to change. And no they wouldn't be comic relief ^^ When I originally came up with the idea, I had each one assigned to one of the above elements, but when I got the idea to turn it into an RP, I wanted people to have some freedom of choice. I had Kangaroo: Fire, Jaguar: Lightning, Panda: Earth, Macaw: Wind, Artic Fox: Ice, and Leather-Back Turtle: Water. But yeah, the elements could be switched around and the animals could be changed ^^ I'm not too strict. As for extinct creatures, you know, I thought about it, but then I considered the Mirror World, and I don't want any dinosaurs wandering around next to bison and red squirrels. I mean, I could limit it to certain extinct animals, but that actually means have to research all the extinct animals and choose which I think will be best, which also means a lot of extra work. As for creatures of mythology, it's kinda in the same boat. I don't want dragons and griffins all over the place, both for simplicity sake for animation and for the same reason I don't want dinosaurs included. It could be a real animal with mythological ties, like in Japanese a white fox is considered a messenger of the Gods.

 

[Karakui]

Oh yeah I hadn't thought about the Mirror world's consequences of having extinct creatures :D. I had never intended to use creatures that don't have real life counterparts though, I was just having a hard time visualising a kangaroo breathing fire, or a panda summoning an earthquake so I tried to find animals that have had mythological ties in the past and that also have real-life counterparts.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Oh yeah I hadn't thought about the Mirror world's consequences of having extinct creatures :D. I had never intended to use creatures that don't have real life counterparts though, I was just having a hard time visualising a kangaroo breathing fire, or a panda summoning an earthquake so I tried to find animals that have had mythological ties in the past and that also have real-life counterparts.

I understand. Something easy for me to see might not be for someone else. That's why I wanted people to have freedom of choice, and said the animals are subject to change. The elements can't be, since I'm including them in the Mirror World's lore. As for the mythological creatures, I had misunderstood ^^'

 

[Karakui]

I wasn't suggesting changing the elements :D Now that you mention it though... I feel there ought to be a Purple element. With the ability to colour things purple. Nothing else. I imagine the practical uses of that could be somewhat limited though...
Out of interest, is it going to be a serious-tone thing or more of a light-hearted thing? If you're turning it into an animation it'd be good to know so we don't inadvertently ruin it by having our characters do stupid things or make too many references.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

I wasn't suggesting changing the elements :D Now that you mention it though... I feel there ought to be a Purple element. With the ability to colour things purple. Nothing else. I imagine the practical uses of that could be somewhat limited though...
Out of interest, is it going to be a serious-tone thing or more of a light-hearted thing? If you're turning it into an animation it'd be good to know so we don't inadvertently ruin it by having our characters do stupid things or make too many references.

That's the brilliance of basing it off the RP! It can be whatever we make it to be ^^ The only thing I ask is that it's not too serious or too goofy. Just a mix in between. But if there's any references, I'll have to be aware of what those references are, partially to give credit where it's due, and partially to keep things simplistic. Once things get too complicated, it could be difficult to animate, and being as I'm still an amateur (I've animated before in the past, but my tools were great so they weren't get. I'm planning on taking my time with this one, drawing the frames on paper, transferring it to the computer, using better programs, etc. I may even make puppets to make things easier on myself) simplistic is key. Anything over complicated and I won't be able to animate it very well.
As for the purple thing, it will be difficult to include because of the lore I'm planning ^^' Cool ability though!

 

[Karakui]

Dude.. Frame by frame? That's gonna take a LONG time. I know most animators nowadays if they're working with 2D will draw 1 picture for every 10 or 20 frames, and there are programs available that fill in the gaps.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Dude.. Frame by frame? That's gonna take a LONG time. I know most animators nowadays if they're working with 2D will draw 1 picture for every 10 or 20 frames, and there are programs available that fill in the gaps.

Sadly, I don't have those programs ^^' I want one, and have wanted one for a while, but it's too expensive at the moment, considering some recent events put us in a financial bind. Right now I have a program called CyberLink PowerDirector 13 which allows me to place keyframes, or the main frames of the animation, so I'll do that. Last when I animated, I used Windows Movie Maker, and my animations were choppy. I was also using paint and an unreliable computer, so yeah, not the greatest. But I got a new computer, and though the keyboard is a jerk sometimes (case in point my previous post), it's reliable and has a lot more storage. I also got a better program for videos, as mentioned, and by drawing it by hand, I can actually make the frames consistent because I'll be able to trace over the original frame, which in paint you can't do. You can do it in Gimp, but it takes a lot of frames so the images isn't going to fast, and you have to combine it into a gif. I could delete the previous layer, but that takes quite a bit of time, longer than just drawing it on paper and transferring it to the computer. And also stated, I may make puppets to make things easier. Puppets are like an actual puppet, or models. The models I'll make will most likely be the backgrounds, each character and their poses (walking, running, favorite pose, different angles, etc.), and the spirit animals. After those are made, they'll stay, and all I'll have to do is combine them, and draw the in between frames. It's a lot of work, but it's not all that hard. I just need the time, which is why the RP won't start until school gets out in a few weeks, so I'd have the time to keep up with the RP and to animate. The big bonus of this is that, if I'm successful, I could use this animation in my college portfolio, as I want to go to the Art Institute when out of High School, so it's definitely worth it ^^

 

[Karakui]

Now, you see, you lost me with "Cyberlink". I caught back on with mention of "Paint" but then... Yeah my limit of graphics knowledge is that MS Paint sucks and Paint.net is perfectly adequate for anything I might ever need to do with images. Namely, resizing them or changing the hairstyles of a pre-made character template for a VN I may or may not be making.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Now, you see, you lost me with "Cyberlink". I caught back on with mention of "Paint" but then... Yeah my limit of graphics knowledge is that MS Paint sucks and Paint.net is perfectly adequate for anything I might ever need to do with images. Namely, resizing them or changing the hairstyles of a pre-made character template for a VN I may or may not be making.

Paint.net is awesome ^^ I use it to make images transparent and such. Um, basically CyberLink Power Director is a video editing program where you can layer images, set keyframes, um layer audio, stuff like that. It's a good program, I used it to make some Blind Commentaries on YouTube. And my graphics knowledge is limited too, I only know about this awesome program from a friend. He taught me all I really need to know, so my videos are at the best quality I can possibly make them. As for animating, once I get the general frames done, it shouldn't be that long to get out. For some reason I can actually draw and animate quite fast. I don't know why, I'm not even great, decent but not great, but I can get a realistic picture out, shading and everything, within a few hours on and off. This animation, though, won't be realistic. I may make the characters extremely simplistic (using the appearances given of course ^^) since it'll be the first time I've animated in a few years. But that's another thing that's weird, the longer I'm away from something, the better I am when I come back.

 

[Kingofheart]

I am interested. I might be picking the Artic fox because I have a bias preference for the Ice element which has a very beautifull yet serene thing about it all.

As what regards for animations i have some fair 3-4 years experience with pivot. Pivot is not great for drawing but i did manage to learn alot about motions, accelerations, fades in and fades out and most importantly timing for the frames. I am an aspiring animator, but since my drawing skills are pretty dull right now, i am working to pollish that aspect. I also manage some basic modeling and animation skills in blender.

I think your idea for going with more simplistic designs will work, alot of people do that today and use very simple shading which can work pretty well too.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

I am interested. I might be picking the Artic fox because I have a bias preference for the Ice element which has a very beautifull yet serene thing about it all.

As what regards for animations i have some fair 3-4 years experience with pivot. Pivot is not great for drawing but i did manage to learn alot about motions, accelerations, fades in and fades out and most importantly timing for the frames. I am an aspiring animator, but since my drawing skills are pretty dull right now, i am working to pollish that aspect. I also manage some basic modeling and animation skills in blender.

I think your idea for going with more simplistic designs will work, alot of people do that today and use very simple shading which can work pretty well too.

I'm very welcoming of another animator ^^ It'll make my job a whole lot easier. I'm hoping to do something with animation in the profession, but as of right now I don't really know what I want to do. That being said, if this animation is successful, both of us (if we work together) can use it for a college and maybe even professional portfolio ^^ It'd be nice to work with someone more experienced, and in the process we might learn different things from each other.

 

[Kingofheart]

Mostly it will all depend on how i handle with time seeing i got Univ, a band and some small freelancing works here and there. But yeah, even if it just in a supporting animation role i´d be pretty exited to get into some real animated work experience.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Mostly it will all depend on how i handle with time seeing i got Univ, a band and some small freelancing works here and there. But yeah, even if it just in a supporting animation role i´d be pretty exited to get into some real animated work experience.

I understand life gets in the way ^^ School is in my way at the moment, which is why it's not going to start immediately. Just saying you are definitely welcome if you are capable and willing ^^

 

[Kingofheart]

Then i should put more work into my drawing skills from now on :), this way i´ll be clear and strong for then.

 

[AnastiaCrest01]

Then i should put more work into my drawing skills from now on :), this way i´ll be clear and strong for then.

Little bit of reference pictures and anatomy, and you should be golden ^^ But as long as you have a basic understanding of anatomy and knowledge of circles and lines, you'll be able to draw the style I'm planning on animating in ^^ (Actually, with anatomy knowledge and basic knowledge of lines, circles, and proportion, you can draw anything).

 

[Karakui]

I usually prefer simpler animation styles actually. Those ridiculous 3D things that Disney does nowadays just look over the top to me. Then again I probably would prefer simple given my love of anime. Also I'll be claiming Earth if that's OK.