CyberBrig Adventures

Obviously I can’t take credit for CyberBrig. That double-edged honour belongs to the one and only Steven Moffat.

This project started a few days before the broadcast of the Doctor Who series 8 finales, when rumours began flying around the internet about a Brigadier appearance, albeit a Brigadier converted into a Cyberman. As the internet begun moaning and panicking about it, I had a different reaction. It’s probably my love of comic books, of absurd situations and ridiculous adventures, but this rumour started something growing in my mind…

To me CyberBrig sounded like a super hero; a crazy early morning cartoon or Marvel Comic. I instantly began thinking of those old 60’s super hero cartoons, with the stilted, only slightly animated, animation, and for some reason realizing this concept of the CyberBrig as one of those old fashioned animated heroes just seemed to click.

I spent the first few days of development with this style in mind, things like the famous Spider-Man cartoon opening, (CyberBrig, CyberBrig, does whatever a Cyberman does…)

A lot of the shots were created while thinking in this style, like the opening heartbeat, and the “look mummy, it’s CyberBrig!” However at some point K9 and Company got thrown into the mix there… I think I started thinking of the animation in terms of being a Doctor Who Spin-off, and that there might be some potential and angling it more towards being a poke at those. And of course, there is no Spin-off intro to make fun of like K9 and Company.

This new style brought in new concepts, like the wine drinking shot, as well as the very 90’s sheen on the logo. I think it’s true that drawing inspiration from a few different sources helps evolve something, stopping it from becoming a rigid parody of something. It really comes into its own as a video, rather than being a straight take on Spider-Man, or K9 and Company.

Of course there have been many different reactions to CyberBrig, both in this video and in the actual show, ranging from finding him a lovely tribute to the late Nicholas Courtney, to finding it super disrespectful. I myself found it a nice tribute. Don’t get me wrong it’s absolutely ridiculous, and this video is about leaning into the absurdity of that moment. So there’s really no disrespect intended, I love the Brig, and Courtney was absolutely fab in the role and a real legend. Hopefully that answers all the angry comments on YouTube shouting, “AUGH How could you do this to the Brigadier you disrespectful swine!!?”?”

Ideas in place, I moved onto production…

Mercifully the video was short in its concept, only lasting the length of the K9 and Company theme, so I wouldn’t have a pile of animation to do. I decided to do most of the work in After Effects, because I knew I would have more control in that program, with more effects available, and it being more familiar to me. As such my process was pretty much creating elements in Flash, exporting them, and then assembling everything in After Effects. So for example that early shot of CyberBrig flying was an image drawn in Flash, exported as a PNG and then brought into After Effects as a layer which I could scroll the clouds beneath as well as adding the lens flares and smoke trailers off of the thrusters in his feet.

Another example is the “Wine drinking scene” which was animated in Flash, just the normal way one would animate in Flash, but then exported and brought into After Effects in order to add the camera zoom and name credits. There’s probably a way to do most of this is Flash, however I just felt I could get it done faster in After Effects, and with a short video like this that kind of depends on coming out quite fast, I didn’t want to be spending hours figuring out smoke trails and camera zooms in Flash. Maybe next time.

The Flash animation actually had very little planning, no story boards or anything. I took on an almost stream of consciousness like style, just animating scenes as they came to me. I then edited them into the order they appear in the finished thing in After Effects, as well as placing them so they fit with the timing of the music. This is obviously not a highly professional production process, but I found it pretty fun and creative.

One of the best parts of CyberBrig was actually its inclusion in the 100% official and legit Doctor Who Magazine. Doctor Who Magazine?? That’s right! Flippin Doctor Who Magazine! That’s right, no longer am I a simple humble video maker, now I am among the stars. Be the glory radiate from this blog post. Bask in it. All right you right at the back, stop laughing.

But no, truthfully it was the most rewarding part of the process and I shall explain why. The early stage of making a video, coming up with the concept and such, always feels like a gamble. Is the video actually a good idea? Will people like it, can it be fun? Does the idea justify how much work it’s going to need? I’m not a very confident Flash animator, so these thoughts were buzzing around my head even more when I thought up CyberBrig. My main worry was that it was too indulgent, too in-jokey, and too rooted in a very current topic. Would anyone be talking about dear old CyberBrig in a years’ time? Would anyone be searching YouTube for him, let alone remember he existed for less than a minute of screen time. In the end I decided to go for it, not because I had dispelled these doubts, but because the jokes at got too real in my head. I kept chuckling at the very vivid image of CyberBrig drinking his wine as his credit popped up, and knew I just had to slog through a few hours of animating to bring it to life.

My point is to fight through all that doubt to make something you personally find funny, but are not sure anyone else will, and then to have that something recognized in a 100% official and legit magazine is really really cool.

Of course they do say that it’s series “We’ll hopefully never see” And wow. Like, how rude.

So, will there be more CyberBrig? I’ll waits and see. Like this video I have to wait and see if inspiration pops up and starts burning at the back of my mind, forcing me to pick up my drawing tablet. At the moment the Cybernetic Soldier is relegated to a running joke, popping up in videos here and there where a cameo makes sense.  But he’s out there… Waiting… Hiding… Biding his time…. He’ll wait for the forces of evil to make their first move, and when they do… He’ll be there.

A (late) Welcome to 2015

Hello and welcome to a much belated post, greeting the start of 2015 e.g. “The Future”

2014 was a great year for our videos, probably one of the best. There was a nice steady stream of content, I think about 15 videos spaced out over the year, with most receiving pretty damn great views. My videos now typically go into triple figure digest, which is a lovely improvement over last year, when I was lucky to get to 100 on something. I’ve even had two videos go into the 2,000s so… yeh that’s lovely.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some kind of crazy view fiend, It’s just that when you spend a lot of your time and energies making videos, it’s crazy lovely when people see it and enjoy it, which is why I’m a little invested in the views and comments over on YouTube.

Now I usually do a little behind the scenes round-up type post after a video goes up, and I’ve been neglecting that slightly since ‘The Dalek Invasion of Squid’. So I’m going to start trying to update here whenever a new video comes out, as well as going back and writing stuff for last year’s videos. I May even start a diary type thing on here, little updates on what I’m up to and what kinds of videos we’re working on. So yeh… I’m basically fishing for content to beef this blog up a bit. But hopefully, it will turn into something readable, and slightly entertaining.

I’m not going to do a whole 2014 summary like I did for 2013, just because I haven’t really got the energy, instead I will pick my favorite video from 2014 (no offence intended to the other videos, I love you all.)

Dr Who Fanfilm AMAZING

When thinking of my pick of favorite video, I would have to say Fanfilm AMAZING for a few reasons. Firstly in the actually crafting of the video I think it’s one of my funniest, and I really dig the editing on it. I think I managed to nail pretty much every joke, and it’s one of the rare cases where I watch the video back now and can’t see anything I would want to change.

The other big reason is that it feels like the start of something. Originally intended as a one-off sketch it’s sort of captured my imagination, as well as being loved by a lot of its audience.  This positive energy around it has let it naturally turn into a series of sorts, with a sequel released the same year, a third in the works, and a Multi-Doctor story planned with other producers of terrible fanfilms. It also got me talking said producers of terrible fanfilms, who are all lovely crazy people and it’s always a fun time to chat with them.

So anywho, hello 2015! You can expect pretty much more of the same, sketches, Squid, AMAZING fanfilms, and blog-posts. I’m not making too many plans because I’m really excited to see how things develop. What will be the next sketch to evolve into a series? What background characters will spark into their own, warranting a video with them as the focus? What series will die a horrible death in development hell? This is exciting. This is the adventure.

The Dalek Invasion of Squid

Here we have it, the long belated 2^nd Squid adventure (and now the long belated blog post). This one is interesting as it came about almost by accident. Our original idea was to do each Squid video with no continuity to the others, and each one ending on a cliff-hanger with Squid about to die. We would then not resolve that, and just start a new story.

We’ve now abandoned this, as we worked out that would get pretty tedious for everyone. Instead we decided to let the stories come up naturally, a sort of go with the flow writing process rather than relying on a formula. So somehow we started coming up with ideas for Squid roaming a Dalek ship, encountering strange sights and challenges. This went on for a while, a back and forth with me and Aaron each adding more and more sections to the script until it became a weird Disney land ride of a story, the viewer following Squid as he makes stop after stop on his crazy Dalek ride.

Now this video is a prime example of my brain catching up with our ideas.  It was only after we’d written the whole script, giggling at our own jokes all the while, that I realised we had literally nothing to work with. Well we had a Squid, but not a single corridor or Dalek, and not a Davros in sight. So next came a step that is at once both terrifying and exciting, a step known as ‘Work out how the hell we do this’.

The obvious solution to the set problems was green screen, a staple of the Fanfilm genre. I tried to shake it up a little, using model shots as the backgrounds and effectively shrinking down Squid into them, rather than building the sets in a computer modelling program. I hoped this would make it look at least a bit more natural, and have a sort of charm to it.

To bring the Daleks to life I decided to use stop motion animation. For those not in the know, that’s an animation process were you string together still images to create a moving piece of video. It’s what they use in good stuff like Wallace and Gromit, and the wonderful films of Laika.

I decided to again go for this model based solution rather than a computer generated character, mainly because I don’t have access to, or experience of 3D animation software, but also because hand crafted is more my sensibility.  I really think there’s a little switch that goes off in the viewer’s head, telling them what they’re watching is real rather then made all in the computer. And I think this feeling is really cool, the feeling that what you’re watching has tangible weight and existence; it’s something you could pick up and touch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying its way more convincing, High quality CG would have probably been more fluid and convincing on the Daleks, but for me model shots just have a character and charm all of their own. (also I have no way to do high quality CG)

The hard part here was working out how to give the Dalek a character, and make him emote. It’s all well and good sitting at the computer and typing up the character of this bitter and incompetent Dalek, but how do you use this hunk of plastic with very limited movement to convey that?

Here I put my animator hat on, the one only half knitted and covered in dust from being shoved at the back of a draw for years, and have a think about the different positions I can move the Dalek into. It took me a while to get into the swing of it, but I eventually learnt how to get the Dalek to act; the eye stalk lowered for sadness, and then maybe a little head swivel to the left to give a wistful look into the distance.

It was the Daleks in fact that made this video particularly tricksy, because apart from Squid there is no performance, nothing to work with in editing. The “acting” of the Dalek is made up of all these different elements, voice acting, animation, even the music in the scene, that there really isn’t a full performance from the character until all the pieces slot together.

At this point I also have to give a huge shout out to Aaron, who spent hours in an uncomfortable costume reacting to things that weren’t there in front of a green screen, and somehow still managed to do his wonderful Squid character to its full effect. Again, it felt like he wasn’t shooting a video, but just filming little bits and pieces that would slot into a larger, impossible to see, whole. I know it was like some kind of mini hell for him, Hot and tired, and with nothing and no-one to bounce off of in the scene, and I’ve worked out to avoid this scenario in future.

Because of the puzzle piece effect, neither of us could really get a grasp on how the video was going to turn out until very late in the game, leading to many doubts about whether it would be an good at all. However this was also a fascinating thing to learn, and gave me a little insight into the world of an animator. It also taught me how important every little detail in the film is, and how it all works together to create something. Take one thing out and the rest just falls apart.

For example if you remove the foley I added to the Daleks, the little whirs and drones as they move, then suddenly they lose all weight, they stop have existence in the real world. You can still see the animation and hear the voice, but it’s not in the scene with Squid.

I have to draw attention to the Davros effect because something about it makes me laugh every time. I think it’s the fact it almost looks convincing, but doesn’t quite manage it. What did was just take a still image of Davros and cut off his arm and mouth. I then overlaid filmed elements of my own hand and mouth onto the still. Imaging those masks you can buy with cut out holes for the eyes. I really like this very simple solution to incorporating the character, and think it produced and amusing final image.

To summarise this video was a mind bending jigsaw puzzle to put together, and almost more like working on a stop motion film then a live action video. However I’m very happy with the end product and this project has solidified why I love working on the “Squid” series so much. It’s a combination of all my favourite things; silly jokes mixed with Doctor Who, and all against the backdrop of cheap but creative cardboard effects.
See you next time…

Doctor Who and the Squid - Teaser Trailer

As we put the finishing touches on the first Squid adventure, we have released this short teaser to offer a glimpse at the videos ahead.

The teaser is a short scene featuring the Doctor and Squid, and gives a first look at the home-made Tardis console room that will appear in future videos. It’s basically a cardboard console with paper plates stuck to the walls to give the impression of the roundels. While it certainly doesn't look high budget, it evokes the make-shift spirit of classic who, as well as the DIY style of our videos.

The episode titles will be released soon and the finished first episode shortly after. I leave you with a wise quote from Squid; “GLUAGHA!”

Squid will Return!

He's back, and it's about Squid...

That's right, the question marked Doctor and his cephalopodic companion will be back, and not just for one video, but for a short 4 part series.

Currently there are 4 episodes planned, all sticking to the humor and tone of the original sketch. We may end up doing more then these 4, but at the moment we're dedicated to at least that number. We want to try and keep the videos short, simple, and punchy, based around solid jokes. What we don't want is to be churning out Squid videos like zombies. At the moment we have 4 really strong adventures in mind, so we're committed to seeing those through.

Filming has already begun on the first adventure, although it's very early days, and we hope to start getting these adventures out to you guys ASAP.

Squid is back in front of the camera.

The series will start with a direct follow-up to 'Squid and the Daleks' that resolves the jaw-dropping and absolutely stunning cliff-hanger. After that we'll go on to explore more corners of the Whoniverse, as well as the bizarre friendship between the Time lord and the Squid.

More news as it comes, including episode titles and maybe even trailers...