How an animated Kingdom Come movie could work

[Artistsean]

I watched maybe half of Scanner Darkly the other day and it immediatly got me thinking, THIS is how they can make Kingdom Come movie.

Wikipedia:
Rotoscoping, which movies like Scanner Darkly and Renaissance, is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by computers in recent years. In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background.

This is what Scanner Darkly did:

Using this it wouldn't be much of a problem to pull something like what these panels show:

 

[Artistsean]

Rotoscoping,

Spoiler

plus green screen stuff like this:

can allow someone to draw over the actors and create the backgrounds out of scratch. You wouldn't even need to hire big time actors because you could probably just change the actors face anyway, to match the character design from the book like this:

Hiring total unknowns for the film would save money and allow them to spend more money on the rotoscoping and green screen effects.

they could even let Alex Ross' friends and family, like his father, act in it if they can act.

 

[Crook]

Wow, that's actually a terrific idea. I'm a big fan of 'A Scanner Darkly' and I didn't even notice how it's literally how an Alex Ross work would look like, if translated to film. Basically a moving painting.

BTW, where did you get that awesome KC Superman CGI render? Are there any more of those type?

 

[Artistsean]

I don't really know. I was searching Alex Ross, Kingdom Come, and stuff like that on google images and I found them. There is this CG website and someone posted their CG superman. Its awesome right?

Another movie, released in theaters I think, that did this was something called Renaissance:

This process allows the movie to have far out and unrealistic settings and effects. In Scanner Darkly a guy sees his friends turn into bugs, an effect that probably wasn't expensive because of rotoscoping.

Ross' style is already sort of similar, maybe not but go with me,

He uses a model, poses them, and then redraws them to look more like the character and with the background he wants.

And here is my increidibly quick, lame, and rushed, and lame, attempt at

Just using an artistic filter in photoshop I was able to get something almost, but not really, similar to Ros' painter style. I am sure there are programs that could get his style exactly.

 

[Artistsean]

Another film which did the rotoscoping thing, more experimental though, was Waking Life.
It was a film that was very philosofical (spelling?), so it was mostly about the words,
But they did do lots of interesting animation, and not just straight rotoscoping.

I am having trouble remembering all of it, but there was this one scene where a guy goes to open his car door and flies away. And aparently there is a scene where to people talk as clouds.
So its not too far off to take a regular scene and draw over it to be Batman and Superman arguing in the Batcave.

 

[odiin]

As cool as that would be, it would be WAAAAAAY too costly for an animated DTV. I'm not disputing that, hypothetically, that would be an excellent way of capturing the atmosphere of the comic, but i can tell you right now it's not going to happen.

 

[darkseid26]

true

 

[Derrick9592]

Wow, that's actually a terrific idea. I'm a big fan of 'A Scanner Darkly' and I didn't even notice how it's literally how an Alex Ross work would look like, if translated to film. Basically a moving painting. quote]

I agree with that and that's really a great idea. I would love to see that as much as I really enjoyed 'A Scanner Darkly'. The only thing that I can imagine it is that it could look a lot more realistic from comparing to his work.t:

 

[Motown Marvel]

yerah, i;ve had the same idea before, a rotoscoped kingdom come. makes most sense. unless your willing to hire a team of traditional animators with a sick amount of determination and skill.

 

[cerealkiller182]

As cool as that would be, it would be WAAAAAAY too costly for an animated DTV. I'm not disputing that, hypothetically, that would be an excellent way of capturing the atmosphere of the comic, but i can tell you right now it's not going to happen.

Agreed

it also very time consuming to make if i remember correctly. it'll can take up to ayear to plan and produce the live action plus another year (approx) to animate each frame

 

[odiin]

Agreed

it also very time consuming to make if i remember correctly. it'll can take up to ayear to plan and produce the live action plus another year (approx) to animate each frame

To say nothing of the cost of hiring live-action actors, and possibly separate voice actors. The scale of something like this would be so large that it would end up costing as much as a live action film (albeit a small live action film). Sales of DTVs aren't THAT good to justify this, and people are going to be lining up en masse just to buy this one because they used a different technique.

 

[Artistsean]

I never said it would be very cost effective, although I tried to make it cheaper, but this was the only way I could see a Kingdom Come animated movie getting made at all.
Studios, at least not yet, don't make alternate reality movies. The closest you get is on JLU. But that neither here nor there.

It is true this would be a massive undertaking, especially for a direct to DVD. It isn't so unreasonable, perhaps, if it was a theatrical release but that wouldn't happen.
As far as time, I am not sure how long direct to DVDs take, like New Frontier, but most animated films take about four years. And as for the large cast I even thought it could be just like how Alex Ross does it, the actor who plays Superman could also play Magog. Have a very small, low budget cast, and have everyone including production play extras.
Keep all backgrounds green screen, to be made on the computer as will all effects.

But no matter how I try it will, probably, never be a cost effective film idea.


But I still see it as a cool idea, something I would love to see and would totally buy and even be a part of, and the only way I can see a Kingdom Come film being made close ehough to the comic.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I never said it would be very cost effective, although I tried to make it cheaper, but this was the only way I could see a Kingdom Come animated movie getting made at all.
Studios, at least not yet, don't make alternate reality movies. The closest you get is on JLU. But that neither here nor there.

It is true this would be a massive undertaking, especially for a direct to DVD. It isn't so unreasonable, perhaps, if it was a theatrical release but that wouldn't happen.
As far as time, I am not sure how long direct to DVDs take, like New Frontier, but most animated films take about four years. And as for the large cast I even thought it could be just like how Alex Ross does it, the actor who plays Superman could also play Magog. Have a very small, low budget cast, and have everyone including production play extras.
Keep all backgrounds green screen, to be made on the computer as will all effects.

But no matter how I try it will, probably, never be a cost effective film idea.


But I still see it as a cool idea, something I would love to see and would totally buy and even be a part of, and the only way I can see a Kingdom Come film being made close ehough to the comic.

Its definitely the coolest way for Kingdom Come to get produced but i dont know about the only way.

 

[Artistsean]

Yeah, I might have over simplified things. There are other ways.
I think what I meant by only way is that it would be the easiest way to make it as close to the comic style as possible while still being animated. Becuase painting every frame is nearly impossible. I might be over simplifieng again.

Even in Timm style the animated movie would be cool

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I have a feeling Kingdom Come would not translate very well to the screen; it is a very literate comic, with a lot of subtext and metaphor and references, to both the New Testament and the Bible as a whole, and to DC comics history. All of this would be cut back substantially if it were made into a film, and what you'd be left with is a lot of big battle scenes. Also the main theme, the struggle between classic heroes and violent 90's Image-esque heroes, would be completely lost on mainstream audiences.

Though I hope I'm proved wrong, and I would be first in line to see a Kingdom Come movie.

 

[The Guard]

It can be done. The nods to DC History are there for existing fans, and don't need to be explained. The biblical stuff doesn't take up that much time. The basic story really isn't that complex.

You know what else would help make a KINGDOM COME movie good? A decent running time.

 

[Captain Planet!]

It could work, but I don't know if it would be too expensive. But, if that was too expensive, like said before, a Timm style would work. I once saw a. Alex Ross drawing of the KC Batman in Timm style, it worked. And it would have to be longer than 75 minutes, it would be better as a 90+ minute animated movie.

 

[JackBauer]

While it's a great idea to use rotoscoping for a comic book animation, I feel Kingdom Come would benefit a lot more from the Beowulf treatment.

It's a great idea, but one would better fit a series with a more stylized look. I can definitely see it working for Dark Knight Returns.