CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I mentioned this in my thread on the who's who when I was new to the forum. I work on a project where we are trying to bring the life of Jesus to anime similar to how the JESUS film brought the life of Jesus to people all over the world in the last 25 years. I wish I could say the film is done, but it is and will be a 'God thing' in how it is done and when it will be done. Right now we have a cool storyboard of the Demoniac story from Luke that we turned into an 'animatic' with a new soundtrack and sound effects. Right now it is in black and white and with limited motion like you would expect of an animatic. This is still early concept stuff, so it it was done here in Orlando by some former Disney guys - so we don't have any Japanese artists involved yet - so don't rag on it too bad for that. All it really demonstrates is a new way of telling the story - you have to imagine the 'done in anime' part. There is also a survey link burned in to the video with 5 early sample images. Take a look and do the survey if you want! The video is in English on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rDrcdz7yE

Blessings!

Irv

Looks good. I don't know if it would help, but I believe Next Manga worked with Japanese artists to make "Manga Messiah." Maybe you could contact them and see if they know of any artists who would be interested in working with you. You might also be able to find some American artists who can draw anime very well.

Why the crap is "hentai" one of the tags for that video?

Looks pretty good. I especially liked the opening of the scene, very creepy in a way.

Also, "hentai" means anime porn, just so you know. Also, putting common anime-related words and titles in the tag box may expand your audience, but they have nothing to do with the product.

irvvan wrote:This is still early concept stuff, so it it was done here in Orlando by some former Disney guys - so we don't have any Japanese artists involved yet - so don't rag on it too bad for that.

I'm honestly not sure why someone would rag on it for that. American animation is wonderful.

I do like your concept. And I appreciate your depiction of the possessed man. He was done tastefully, yet did not fall prey to senseless censorship. Keep up the good work!

I thought it was well done! One thing that actually kind of stuck out to me was the very beginning, transitioning from the water dripping from the oars to the blood dripping from the man's arm. Nice work. I also appreciate how, in the survey, options were given for the "best art style" it could be done in. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

it looks nice, however they need to remove that hentai link.......

Wow, I'll check with the guy that posted that and see if we can get 'hentai' out of there. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Yes, Barry Cook (the co-director of Mulan) directed the work on that animatic and he has been a huge friend to this project. So kudos to Barry if you liked his work on the transitions and how the story was told. We have another one you can see under 'storyboard videos' at http://visualtranslation.org called "Peter's Denial" that Barry also directed. We're planning to do a first short film for use in Eastern Europe so we're nailing down right now exactly what that should be. Your prayers would be much appreciated!

Irv

Look good! Too bad all animated bible stories don't look like that.

Very interesting. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for this one.

Also, some other comments...
Sometimes people put tags on videos that draw other audiences. Like, my brother, for some of his videos, puts tags for unrelated material on them, like this one video he put the tags of "Hillary Clinton Barack Obama John McCain" and whatnot, even those the video had nothing to do with them and was a Teen Titans video. XD Heck, his latest video is under "Non-profits and activism"! XDDD

Also, the guy who posted the video is Hungarian?? Awesome!!!

I tend to be fairly skeptical to most "Jesus media" efforts, however I was impressed by your preliminary progress.

And do you need Japanese artists? Honestly, the art and animation is fine already. Perhaps I am a bit open minded (for a change) since I enjoy animation from Japan to Europe, but what you are working with here is very suitable.

I agree with Fish, the animation style looks just fine. If it's good animation AND good story, it doesn't matter where the artists come from.

It's the choice of camera angles, not the actual character designs etc. that remind me of anime. I'm impressed with your group's efforts, well done!
If this could be made into anime that would be great.
It's nice to see good Christian art for a change - too many sermon cartoons pretending to be cartoons.

Keep up the good work!

Wow...you are all very kind in your comments. Most people get hung up on the fact that it is black and white and that these aren't even really anything near final character designs you are seeing, just designs to the level a storyboard artist would do. This is all very preliminary while we are getting the idea for the film rolling with people that would potentially use it. But I must say, the momentum is building and you all are helping! I just saw we had 137 responses on the survey already in a few days.

When the first film is scripted and the funds are in place, yes, I would anticpate that we would have an artist search for the right talent - Japanese, or perhaps Korean.

I must say the artistry is to Barry's credit - he's an incredible talent. Keeping at a very high level of quality is part of telling the story well. Please keep this project in your prayers.

Oh yes, I'll announce it here first: the visualtranslation.org website has the first podcast interview (part 1 of 2) with Barry now. It is a downloadable mp3 - I keep trying to modify iTunes friendly xml files to make an RSS feed that people can subscribe too, but I'm getting something wrong. I tried FeedForAll.com - but still no good. Any recommendations?

Irv

While animated stories are usually a bore, this looks to be quite different and actually well made, so I don't think you have anything to worry about Kesk.