Icebreakers

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>This week was chock full of mentor meetings and great advice! </p> <p> </p> <p>We started off strong, with Kim Jung Gi, with whom we talked about weapons and the dangers of overthinking designs, especially when they are not the principal focus. He sent us in the direction of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/">District 9</a> (now this is research we can get behind) to check out their unconventional approach to weaponry (Soundwave guns? Count us in). </p> <p> </p> <p>He was quite enthusiastic about our fighting scenes, and a big fan of the forced perspective that we implemented (it really makes everything pop!). He gave us a few more ideas to try out, and encouraged us to play around by making our own references. So it’s time to film some fight scenes! </p> <p> </p> <p>Next up was our last official meeting with Craig Berry! This insane session had him go over our whole comic and provide feedback on each page, pointing out what we could change and what worked. The key takeaway was to always pay attention to the flow of the panels, and use everything in your arsenal to guide the eye of the viewer through the story. To that end it’s also important to set a compositional expectation, and only break away from it on purpose to throw off expectations. </p> <p> </p> <p>We also quickly realised that many things obvious to us were maybe not clear to the audience (placement of ships for instance) and how necessary it was to sometimes take a step back and slow the action down to really lay out the scene. </p> <p> </p> <p>Our meeting with Scot had him go over the scoring in detail with Chrisna, and talk musical theory! We can’t wait to show him the final product with implemented timing, and ambient sounds by our latest team member, Bartek. Our soundtrack now also sports an ingenious piece by Chrisna where he melded the ship’s alarm (which might have gotten triggered by some pirates…) with the music itself. It’s super rad you guys, and we definitely recommend you give it a listen. We will also stay in contact with Scot regarding the potential addition of voice acting to the comic! </p> <p> </p> <p>Lastly, it was time for some group Pitch Sessions with Vani, joined by Tabi, Lydia and Dilly!</p> <p> </p> <p>We each went through our pitches and gave feedback, and chatted about our mutual experiences of the Sony Talent League. It’s always a joy to talk about this incredible shared adventure, and in those moments we’re reminded that this truly is the most welcoming of communities. </p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/211/content_Dhulga_FacialExpressionsBlender_copy.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/211/content_Dhulga_FacialExpressionsBlender_copy.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/212/content_Captain_FacialExpressions_Blender_copy.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/212/content_Captain_FacialExpressions_Blender_copy.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <h3>Here’s our picks for this week’s recommended pieces of media!</h3> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Stephan:</strong> For some crazy fight choreography, check out Rocketboi and MartialClubOfficial on Instagram!</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Something a little more serious from Alex: </strong><br> This time I wanted to highlight a bit more the environmental aspect of our project, so go check out: </p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Uhfh2NcZg">An Inconvenient Sequel by Al Gore </a></li> <li>Any documentary by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_Arthus-Bertrand">Yann Arthus-Bertrand </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_Our_Planet">A Life on Our Planet</a>, by David Attenborough</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>And to end on a lighter note: </p> <p> </p> <ul> <li> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPw8C1fID80">An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth</a>, by Chris Hadfield <ul> <li>You might know him from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo">his video singing Space Oddity on the International Space Station</a>!</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>Goals for this week are plentiful:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Make the rest of the f***ing game 😅</li> </ul> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/192/content_STL_Icebreakers_059.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/192/content_STL_Icebreakers_059.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>On a more serious note:</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Expressions and their implementation</li> <li>Ship and environment 3d models</li> <li>All panels</li> <li>Line drawing on the panels</li> <li>Implement most of the music and sounds</li> <li>Most sound effects</li> </ul> <p> </p> <p>We do actually mostly have to finish this week, since week 10 is dedicated to trailer and pitch, so the first point is not entirely inaccurate ^^</p> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>Wait? ...We’re still alive? How long have we been out?! Mates and lasses, it has been a wild ride this week. It felt both like a lull as well as a hard-fought emotional week as we’re running out of gas. Having enthusiasm is a good thing, but do think about your mental well-being! Even us icebreakers should look out for that! Having said that, on to the going ons this week!</p> <p> </p> <p>We nailed a couple of big things this week! We finished up a lot of tools, including the line drawing tool that is fully functional WITHIN Unity! We even have simple zoom in and rotation functions in it, just like you’re used to in Photoshop! We still have minor tweaking to do as we move on, but for now a big applause to both Michael and Chris for slaying that dragon of a task! Another bonus: optimization is also finished! That means Icebreakers is going to run as smoothly as possible on an Oculus Quest of all things. Things have been looking good.</p> <p> </p> <p>Focusing on those beastly tasks means some other things, such as modeling objects to inhabit the comics, have been a bit delayed, but we’re confident we’ll find a way to figure it out. Hey, we do have character expressions based on what we needed for our script now! They are being modeled as we speak at lightspeed and we’ll implement them with a simple blending system in Unity as week 9 progresses!</p> <p> </p> <p>On the mentor-side of things, this week was a quiet one. We had Kim Jung-Gi ...for 20 minutes. One of the things we all deal with in this wild pandemic world is scheduling conflicts and that was the case here. We graciously are able to get an extra meeting with him on Tuesday, so it’s all fine and dandy! The kicker still is that he looked at our latest test and was thoroughly impressed! I think that was all we needed to hear!!</p> <p> </p> <p>The other mentorship we had this week was with Sally once again and we talked a bit more in-depth about usability within Icebreakers, especially about page turns. To start off, Sally absolutely loved the demo we put out! It hit all the right notes for her and we couldn’t have been happier to hear that as we got into the meat of the mentorship. We have been discussing how the page turning functionality would work again and how to make this as satisfying for the users to experience as possible without it feeling like a chore to make the movement. We also had this fun bug currently in Icebreakers where you could enter the panel, move around the entrance somehow and see the back of the window. Sally expertly said this was a prime location for Easter eggs and branding! Sally has definitely been THE champion of trying to make us pay attention that we properly market and brand Icebreakers, so as we enter the final leg, we’re thinking on how we want to promote both Icebreakers and the tools we’re making. We segued on talking about the trailer we’re making as promotional material, since again, she was the one championing that we should do so. The biggest question that came out of it was: What made us more immersive and unique than other VR comics? It was something we needed to answer our final Tribe Session!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>A whole pack of Tribe members came out of the woodworks for the final session with us. We pitched our project a couple of times, getting better and better as the session progressed, but also got some scathing, but fully justified feedback at moments. The biggest one again: What makes Icebreakers different from other VR comics? What makes it more immersive than the others who’ve tried to make them? Why would we bother reading comics in VR when you can just read them regularly? To be honest, we don’t have all the answers yet as well. We don’t expect it to fully stick on our first try, but like the mentors that were chosen for us, we see the potential and we will keep working on it until it does. </p> <p> </p> <p>An adventure wouldn’t be fun if it was easily reachable.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/191/content_STL_Icebreakers_057.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/191/content_STL_Icebreakers_057.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Insanely good music from our local wizard Chrisna:<br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-an-entrance">Icebreakers: An Entrance</a><br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-an-entrance-another-version">Icebreakers: An Entrance - Another Version</a><br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-tiberius">Icebreakers: Tiberius</a><br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-the-upper-hand">Icebreakers - The Upper Hand</a><br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-f-your-mercy">Icebreakers: F*** Your Mercy</a></p> <p> </p> <p>So hey, where’s my “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120616/">The Mummy</a>” fans? We all like great adventure movies with amazing characters here, right?</p> <p> </p> <p>This beautiful thing also exists: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiAj9WW1OfQ&amp;t=269s">Sounds of the Mandelbrot Set</a></p> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>Land ho! We are nearing port (the finish line)! It has been a rowdy week with getting our butts into gear, tasks completed, challenges overcome, and making some tough calls! The Captain’s Logs are a pride and joy of us, so let us take you on a journey once again!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/175/content_STL_Icebreakers_053.png"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/175/content_STL_Icebreakers_053.png"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>We got some fun stuff completed this week, such the majority of the props and the models for these! Add the first draft of our <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10Cf6d_dR6iXAWiluzlJ8t-amugYu59Dc?usp=sharing">storyboard</a> and we golden, son! However, the biggest thing is… WE HAVE OUR FIRST TEST PAGE! We’ve been building more and more tools, such as a timeline tool and refining existing ones like the baking and line drawing tools. We’ve done all of that this week to make the test page work as swimmingly as possible. Go check out the video of it <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khr97i64t_uiTIuqepRzeOk09Fwo7nWx/view?usp=sharing">here</a> OR download the APK <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rNueGGPZRr6ilv1KjpKOCDdDKMnUYQlv/view?usp=sharing">here</a> if you own a Quest (A Quest 2 is preferable, but we’re hard at work to improve it for the Quest 1). You’ll be surprised!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/179/content_STL_Icebreakers_049.PNG"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/179/content_STL_Icebreakers_049.PNG"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Craig returned with some amazing words of wisdom and questions for us this week! The mentorship with him centered all around… What is the future of Icebreakers? How will the characters shape going forward? What are their backstories? Can you already show the audience a bit? Can you already worldbuild through environment and shot design? It was a question that made us ponder a bit. We all definitely see a future in Icebreakers, but are we ready yet? Maybe we’ll never be ….until we go for it! There have been enough arguments between us, but all of them essentially came from a place of love for the project. We already have a good picture of the world and its inhabitants. It's just a question when we will breathe a chilly wind of life into them!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/176/content_STL_Icebreakers_052.PNG"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/176/content_STL_Icebreakers_052.PNG"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>With Scot Stafford, and the day after with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, we had an interesting combination of talks and discussions since they both centered around music to an extent. With Scot we looked at how to compose our music in a long form and punctuate it with stingers. As we progressed, Scot suggested again that we could look into sound design, or at least ambient sound design to give the audience a sense of space. This possibly even done through music gave us so many ideas.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/177/content_STL_Icebreakers_050.PNG"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/177/content_STL_Icebreakers_050.PNG"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Mizu followed up the next day with a slightly different approach in music, in that we could compose it in such a way that it guides the audience and appeal to their wow-factor by introducing stark changes that force the audience to pay attention to what is happening. It’s something that is super useful since we don’t want the audience to lose interest! We ended with him saying, as this was our last meeting with him, that what we’re doing could be the future of viewing stories in VR. It’s… A great honor and responsibility. We are not sure if we are able to carry such a responsibility, but this is also something we believe in, so bet we do our damndest to try and do so.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/178/content_STL_Icebreakers_051.PNG"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/178/content_STL_Icebreakers_051.PNG"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>To end on somewhat of a sour note, we have decided to postpone voice acting for Icebreakers to instead focus on polishing the timing and looks, and not spread ourselves too thin. It has been a discussion we didn’t take lightly and we still fought tooth and nail to find a way to put it in within the timeframe, but alas. However! We have committed to adding voice acting as soon as the STL has ended! We run through the script one more time, do minor tweaks, spruce it all up nice and shiny, and make something even more exciting! To answer again what the future of Icebreakers is: An adventure that is NOT going to end in 3 weeks time! ….Oh shoot, we got three weeks left!! Aaahhh!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/174/content_STL_Icebreakers_048.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/174/content_STL_Icebreakers_048.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Before we go! Recommendations!<br> This week’s suggestion is the obscure (and terribly underrated, but still hilarious) Hanna-Barbera show, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101169/">Pirates of Dark Water</a>! It is their 30th anniversary this week!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/173/content_STL_Icebreakers_054.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/173/content_STL_Icebreakers_054.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>The intro is a great summary of what the show is about! The cheese is real!:<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVm2-UTfLks">The Pirates of Dark Water - Intro / Outro Theme Music</a></p> <p> </p> <p>And some of Alex’s personal redesigns because god knows this show deserves a reboot (Get on it Netflix!): <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B1orRr">https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B1orRr</a><br> Come geek out with her about Dark Water!</p> <p> </p> <p>And if you have watched Pirates of Dark Water and want more of that goodness, did you know there is a <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-podcast-of-dark-water-a-pirates-of-dark-water-podcast/id1458917031">podcast</a>?</p> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p><strong>Alex:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Pretty chaotic as things go, but I was lucky to have remodelled it right before the pandemic started.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/148/content_Alex_Workspace.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/148/content_Alex_Workspace.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p><strong>Stephan:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Here’s my workplace as well!</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a simple spot. I use most of the living room table as workplace (having a big mirror cabinet next to me and a book cabinet is just really useful). I kinda dislike sitting in my room. I much rather prefer the hustle and bustle of the living room than the somewhat oppressive silence of my bedroom (although my secondary workplace is there, including my Cintiq 24HD haha). Sometimes when the noise does get to me though, I just point furiously to the David Bowie painting hanging over me to make people see I want some more peace and quiet hahaha</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a pretty simple place, but it does its job excellently!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/149/content_Stephan_Workspace.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/149/content_Stephan_Workspace.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p><strong>Chris:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>This has been my safe-space for the past year. I started to entirely rebuild it, right at the start of the pandemic, and was super lucky to have a business license to be allowed to still get building material from the hardware store during lockdown... </p> <p> </p> <p>Basically a pretty dead sound studio (some of my friends feel it's a little deafening almost? it feels smaller than it is). </p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/147/content_Chris_Workspace01.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/147/content_Chris_Workspace01.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>I built the back wall from some 1500 foam wedges and 80mm thick foam plates, built bass traps in the corners with rockwool inside and added 16cm thick rockwool panels to the ceiling (also self built). </p> <p> </p> <p>The opposite wall is still to receive a DIY jumbotron led screen (as soon as I figure out the power delivery) to display some animated pixel art and weather and to do lists and such. </p> <p> </p> <p>The desk is a self-built sit-stand desk that has my PC mounted below so it's basically invisible. </p> <p> </p> <p>The Light is probably my most ambitious part of the room, it's a 6 by 8 matrix of individual warm white, daylight and cold blue lights ( every line you see in the picture consists of two lights) that I can individually control... via code. so they only light-temperature-change right now, but I can make it do a space elevator if people want to see that^^ </p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"> <div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/150/content_Chris_Workspace03.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/150/content_Chris_Workspace03.jpg"></a></div></div> <p>The drawing board is a last week-addition, basically just a piece of 1m by 1m50 mdf from the hardware store that I added some mounting thingies to to be able to hang it from my bed when I'm working and it's amazing . (it also has the added benefit of blocking me from going back to bed when I don't want to) </p> </div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"> <p>Lastly my guilty pleasure/money sink: my music stuff. I can't play but I don't let that stop me, so I have a nice e-drum set to not kill my neighbors that I regularly hit with sticks (semi in the rhythm hopefully) and my pride and joy, my synths, that I noodle around on every once in a while to calm down. </p> <div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/145/content_Chris_Workspace02.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/145/content_Chris_Workspace02.jpg"></a></div></div> </div> <p> </p> <p>So yeah, I can go on for longer but I think that's plenty detailed 😅. it's basically where about all of my savings of the past 4 years have gone and I do not regret spending a single cent^^</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/151/content_Chris_Workspace04.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/151/content_Chris_Workspace04.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>So we’ve finally passed the halfway point now. No pressure, right? RIGHT?! </p> <p> </p> <p>This week we put our ol’ boneheads together (No, not Togather. That’s the other group and is possibly copyrighted already?) and we looked at our schedule and looked where we needed to pick up the slack. We also had some seriously cool things happen to us this week as we also took a nap in the hammock to restore our energies! Full speed ahead once again!</p> <p> </p> <p>A couple of things happened this week: More characters have been fully rigged as we’re nearing completion on that side! The only thing to be done there still is designing and modeling the expressions to bring those guys to live! We also dove deep into props and set design this week as well as designing these amazing ships we have in mind! We took some of the lessons Kim Jung-Gi taught us in the first mentorship with him to heart and we just catapulted forward (wait until we show what happened during the second meeting with him this week, later in this post)! Props will definitely be an All-Hands-On-Deck situation (see what I did there?) to really give shape to this unique world we’re trying to chisel out.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/141/content_cards1.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/141/content_cards1.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/136/content_cards2.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/136/content_cards2.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/143/content_cards3.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/143/content_cards3.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Tech side! The tools have been coming along swimmingly, with both the page tool being improved and us now having a speech bubble tool! After some tinkering we managed to give ourselves (and you!) the option to change the shape of speech bubbles on the fly and even connect them to each other. Current options are round and square speech bubbles, with a slider to make them everything in between those extremes. Later in development (or once the STL has ended) we’re aiming to add even more shapes for even more variety for all of us to use!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/142/content_bubbles.png"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/142/content_bubbles.png"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Mentorships once again were a big surprise for us! Seriously, every week seems to be so memorable that EVERYTHING is a highlight!</p> <p> </p> <p>To kick it off in week 5 was Sally Slade returning for some wisdom in how we could make Icebreakers as accessible as possible for as many people to experience it. However, the biggest takeaway from her was that we should definitely look deeper into doing more PR for Icebreakers and get the word out to more people and possible investors. That leads into her second point: A trailer. A good bit of people don’t have an Oculus Quest or just want to quickly understand what Icebreakers is, so a trailer is definitely a good idea. It is something we’re heavily considering now.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then we lead into Kim Jung-Gi’s return and sweet Jesus we were blown out of the water right at the beginning when he showed us two pages of storyboards he made based on our script! It is so surreal that we still can’t fully comprehend it. We talked with him extensively once again on worldbuilding and finding the right elements that feel both pirate-y yet also functional in an ice age! Having someone in our corner with such a big visual library is such a massive boon to have. The big kicker however was… He is planning to storyboard most of Icebreakers from his point of view to give us a guiding hand to follow. We’re just absolutely floored.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/138/content_page_1.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/138/content_page_1.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/137/content_page_2.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/137/content_page_2.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>However, to end the mentorships of the week came in Vani, who gave us a WHOOPING 3 SESSIONS IN A SINGLE DAY between her own very busy schedule. She didn’t have to do so, but she wanted to and we just loved it. We focused on distilling our story into quick beats and eventually into a final pitch. We saw our progress in pitching the story grow so fast within these sessions that we feel this week truly has been a big preparation for the eventual final pitch. It gave us such a boost of confidence.</p> <p> </p> <p>But wait! There’s even more! We got auditions in for the voice cast of Icebreakers on Friday/Saturday! We won’t spoil too much, but we noticed some pretty big names and we’re just over the moon on it! Icebreakers is feeling so much bigger than when it was just this tiny spark in our minds. It’s just surreal. It truly is a grand adventure.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s the Captain’s Log for Week 6! </p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/140/content_IMG_9659.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/140/content_IMG_9659.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Links this week:</p> <p> </p> <p>Are you average? You’re actually super special: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbiveCNBOxk">Does The Average Person Exist?</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Some more cool music as an addendum:<br> <a href="https://youtu.be/VW_UHYs3giU">ENNY ft. Jorja Smith - Peng Black Girls Remix | A COLORS SHOW</a><br> <a href="https://youtu.be/2sBqMBEehIs">Fatoumata Diawara - Nterini | A COLORS SHOW</a></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/665ojw8ZPdmGjbSd9dp16w?si=JtaO4cuBTU69CO6BHLn6Rw&amp;nd=1">Stephan’s Icebreakers playlist</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Sunken cities are really cool! Watch <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230011/"><em>Atlantis</em></a>!</p> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <h2><strong><span style="color:#DAA520;">What are your hopes for your 70-year-old self?</span></strong></h2> <p> </p> <p><strong>Chris:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Dunno, that's a half loaded question for me 😅</p> <p> </p> <p>I think I see myself as the chill, content with life, village crazy lady kind of type, with my own studio and workshop in some inspiring location, scotland or iceland or something, going for a run everyday, walking my big fluffy dog and constantly working on creating something? If I were to write myself a letter, I'd probably just ask how it's going^^ congratulating on making it this far and wishing all the best for the future hopefully still to come.</p> <p> </p> <p>I'd probably say I'm happy with the path I'm on, so I have no clue what I should "discuss" with my future self. I just want to see where it's going as it comes 🤔</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/126/content_STL_Icebreakers_044.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/126/content_STL_Icebreakers_044.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p><strong>Alex:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>By the time I'm 70, I hope to have landed my first job in the industry!</p> <p> </p> <p>No but really....<br> I hope to keep creating and experimenting as I do now, just with more experiences under my belt. There's so many stories I want to tell...Though I'd be happy even just telling one good one. I also expect lots of animals, a big ol' garden and a colorful house full of books. I'd want it to be super welcoming, with people coming and going all the time. </p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/127/content_STL_Icebreakers_043.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/127/content_STL_Icebreakers_043.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p><strong>Stephan:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>I see myself ending up still working. Perhaps still as an artist, perhaps as a voice actor, maybe even a director on movies, but definitely as a mentor! Probably in some place that gets snow sometimes, but definitely a stimulating and exciting place, and not boring! Somewhere where I can still do weightlifting and be a martial arts hobbyist haha! I’d probably end up being the fun local grandpa that tries to get the younglings to try a bit harder to follow their dreams (read: threaten to kick their ass if they don’t do so).</p> <p> </p> <p>I’d love to sit down and have a drink with my old self and just listen to the wildest tales they’ve got to tell. I would probably get mad at some point that he’s spoiling all the fun stuff I still need to experience before just bursting out in laughter together. I’d probably leave giving the old man a promise that I won’t stop climbing up the mountain and he just gives a big grin in return, a slap on my back and tell me to get going then already.</p> <p> </p> <p>I can only hope I make future me here proud by doing my best now.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/128/content_STL_Icebreakers_042.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/128/content_STL_Icebreakers_042.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p>Holy smoke mates, we’re running out of gas here! We gotta get a refill!</p> <p> </p> <p>Week 5 has ended and by the time you are reading this we’re already halfway into week 6 almost! The week was an absolute marathon...a marathon of sprints. We accomplished so much, the biggest one being the finalization of the script of the Icebreakers pilot! Raise a glass!</p> <p> </p> <p>We got ourselves a heaping of fun news: All characters are now in 3D! Either as sculpt, retopoed or even fully rigged! We also have the base for the rendering and baking tools and Michael whipped them up at lightspeed! Our mentor Craig Berry already noted that tech is often done earlier than story, but hotdang it really lit a fire underneath us! The other great news is that it means that we can start blocking out the veeeery rough comic itself in a few days once we got our speech bubble tool! This is double nice, because like I said: We got our script finished!</p> <p> </p> <p>At the time of writing this, we just had a massive late night session finalizing the script and the dialogue. This week we wrote close to… 5 drafts? 6 maybe? It was exhausting and sometimes it really felt like we were constantly running in circles, but we made some amazing progress and really built off of each other’s strengths. We hope it really made us stronger storytellers in the end, but we can say for certain that the communication between us is getting to a point we can resolve so much faster than 2 weeks ago. For the story we really want to thank our amazing mentors, Vani and Craig especially for giving us some invaluable feedback that formed such a big part of what the script of Icebreakers has become in just 1,5 week. Leading into that…</p> <p> </p> <p>Mentorships! We started off with our first meeting with Craig Berry on Tuesday. The main takeaway from Craig was… What is more important? Tech or Story? Well, not spoil anything….It’s story! It is such a simple thing to get lost in waves when making a project such as this, but story dictates all. Story is usually the first thing people will look at and judge a project on, no matter how unique your tech is. This also means the tech should serve the story in its best capacity and not the other way around. His feedback made us really look at our script again and say….We’re gonna tell the best story we can, not the easiest story. We’re doing this with a bang!</p> <p> </p> <p>Our second mentorship on Wednesday was with Scot Stafford again! We had Chrisna with us again with this mentorship so both he and Scot could talk shop on music and how to best tackle this. It meant for us as a team that we need to give Chrisna a full blockout of the comic as soon as possible so he has enough time to really unleash his magic on it (Again, check out <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-radio">his music for Icebreakers</a>!!).</p> <p> </p> <p>Another thing we talked about this mentorship: Voice Acting! We have decided to move forward to assemble a cast for Icebreakers and fully voice the comic! It is such an exciting opportunity to get, and while it isn’t for free, we’re getting an invaluable experience for it in return and some big lessons on how to prepare documents casting agencies and voice actors need to do auditions.</p> <p> </p> <p>And that leads us to the end of the week! We had another fun tribe session. This time with Leilah, Caro, Pedro, and our good friend Jasper (The Dungeon Master for our weekly D&amp;D sessions through which we met almost 1,5 years ago!).<br> We guided them through the wonderous world of Icebreakers and we just had a grand ol’ time! Music playing in the background, we told them how the project was exactly structured, how it works (We’re getting more and more confident in pitching it!) and where we were heading. While we felt some doubts in the beginning, it quickly involved everyone pitching in ideas for what kind of comics you could make and how our technology could be used doing so! It was so rewarding and exciting seeing where we’re heading, that it was worth it, even though we’re exhausted from this week. It also got us thinking that once the project is done, we might write a paper on how to place panels, or theories on how to use the tools to give the community an idea and kickstart their imaginations!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/124/content_STL_Icebreakers_041.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/124/content_STL_Icebreakers_041.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>That has been all for the week! We’ll be here again next week, hopefully a bit better rested! But first, cool links!</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Are you average? You’re actually super special:</strong><br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbiveCNBOxk">Does The Average Person Exist?</a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Some more cool music as an addendum:</strong><br> <a href="https://youtu.be/VW_UHYs3giU">ENNY ft. Jorja Smith - Peng Black Girls Remix | A COLORS SHOW</a>Fatoumata <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sBqMBEehIs&amp;feature=youtu.be">Diawara - Nterini | A COLORS SHOW</a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Stephan’s </strong><a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/665ojw8ZPdmGjbSd9dp16w?si=JtaO4cuBTU69CO6BHLn6Rw&amp;nd=1">Icebreakers playlist</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Sunken cities are really cool, especially when they’re so thought out! Watch <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230011/"><em>Atlantis: The Lost Empire</em></a>!</p> <p> </p> </div>

<div class="lexxy-content lightbox-container"> <p><em>You know the drill! A boring predictable adventure is no adventure at all!</em></p> <p> </p> <p>We’re at the end of week 4 already, y’all! Can you believe it? We’ve been working our (pirate) booties off and oh boy, Icebreakers is really starting to take shape!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/120/content_STL_Icebreakers_033.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/120/content_STL_Icebreakers_033.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>We got all our character designs done! We can’t wait to show off some of them, especially since we fully completed another 3 characters and one of them as a sculpt. We wish a warm tribe welcome to The Captain, his First Mate, their Mechanic, and finally their pursuer, the stately and intimidating Commander Tiberius!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/118/content_STL_Icebreakers_034.png"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/118/content_STL_Icebreakers_034.png"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <h5>The Captain</h5> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/114/content_STL_Icebreakers_035.png"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/114/content_STL_Icebreakers_035.png"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <h5>The First Mate</h5> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/115/content_STL_Icebreakers_036.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/115/content_STL_Icebreakers_036.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <h5>The Mechanic</h5> <p> </p> <p>We also settled on a story with Icebreakers after dozens of ideas. It was tricky to figure it out and make it a suitable length so we can show <strong><em>YOU </em></strong>a full narrative and get these loveable misfits a bit better! More on this as we talk about our mentorships this week! This is all fine and dandy, but there’s no Icebreakers without all the mechanics going on behind the scene! With mechanics we mean the tools you will also be able to use at the end of the Icebreakers to make your own VR comics! Our production is running at a high, but we can tell you one thing: The best is yet to come.</p> <p> </p> <p>But hey! There were also mentorships this week and they were AMAZING! The lineup for this week: The amazing Sally Slade, Saraswathi Vani Balgam, and Kim Jung-Gi! A trifecta of tech, story, and art respectively, so we had ample reason to be excited. We started off with Sally Slade giving us a few tips and tricks on making sure the viewers will stay comfortable while experiencing Icebreakers. VR tends to be a bit finicky, so making sure people are enjoying themselves watching these pirates while not getting seasick themselves. A lot of our talk was centered around hammering out the gameplay experience, such as spacing of the comic panels, user controls, the pros and cons of Skeuomorphic design, and accessibility for different types of users. It was something we were already tinkering with, but getting the extra emphasis on it gave us some extra food for thought!</p> <p> </p> <p>The 2nd mentorship, this one with the amazing Vani was an absolute doozy! We came in with our finalized script, which we knew would be the main thing we were tackling this mentorship and we came out with a stronger realization of how well we were on our path to making a great story. We specifically looked at the emotional core of the story, consciously writing dialogue, adding tension, and how to get to the hook of the story, and how we could further emphasize it through some exercises we did together with Vani. It was truly an enriching experience. To top it off, she gave us boatloads of extra resources to examine! (Check them out down at the bottom!)</p> <p> </p> <p>For the final session of the week, an early riser once again, we got to talk and discuss Icebreakers with Kim Jung-Gi himself. He wasn’t too sure what he could add to the table as a traditional artist, but was very excited to see what we were doing. It turned around quick though as we talked about what inspired us and how we were tackling the designs for Icebreakers. Tackling design research, we discussed how to best show how our world functions though minute details in the designs of the ships and the clothing of our characters. Especially once we started talking about technical designs for the ships, something most of us are a bit out of our depth with, we really got going with this mentorship. Having a mentor specializing in comics next to just storyboarding has definitely been an added bonus for us as we’re moving forward!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/116/content_STL_Icebreakers_032.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/116/content_STL_Icebreakers_032.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/117/content_STL_Icebreakers_031.jpg"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/117/content_STL_Icebreakers_031.jpg"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>This week was a fun one! It was a week of learning, getting closer and closer as a team, and really getting in a groove. We accomplished a lot and that definitely deserves a small celebration. There’s still a lot ahead of us, but we’re going full speed ahead across these waves!</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/122/content_STL_Icebreakers_038.JPG"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/122/content_STL_Icebreakers_038.JPG"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Some links aren’t so bad eh?</strong></h3> <p> </p> <p>New music by Chrisna:<br> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-radio">Radio</a><br> <a href="http://soundcloud.com/smallfrystudio/icebreakers-the-chase-is-on">The Chase is On</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Let there be more sailing knowledge:<br> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuiaVpCNYNo">The Rig &amp; Sailplan (Rebuilding Tally Ho / EP90)</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Let us introduce you to the art of “Mona-Lisa-ing”:<br> Scribble all of your feedback everywhere and over everything! The more of the original you cover the better.</p> <p> </p> <div class="lightbox-container"><div class="pswp-gallery lightbox " data-controller="lightbox" data-lightbox-target="container"><div class="lightbox__item"><a target="_blank" data-lightbox-target="item" href="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/119/content_STL_Icebreakers_030.png"><img alt="" loading="lazy" src="https://trojan-unicorn.s3.amazonaws.com/ckeditor_assets/pictures/119/content_STL_Icebreakers_030.png"></a></div></div></div> <p> </p> <p>Jokes aside, as long as you’re respectful, this has actually been a pretty nice technique. You are from here on required, by law, to call this kind of feedback mona-lisa-ing. Don’t forget it! (If you know the originator of this, we tried to find them for about an hour, but our google-fu is weak. We’d like to credit them, so please shoot one of us a message if you know)</p> <p> </p> <p>And now for a wealth of helpful material by Vani! Give her some love while you’re at it, this stuff’s invaluable:<br> <a href="https://www.scoopwhoop.com/movies-that-celebrate-the-never-say-die-spirit-of-an-underdog/">28 Movies That Celebrate The Never-Say-Die Spirit Of Underdogs</a><br> <a href="https://in.pinterest.com/lrjaffe/expression-sheets/">Expression Sheets</a><br> <a href="https://boords.com/blog/16-types-of-camera-shots-and-angles-with-gifs">The 16 Types of Camera Shots &amp; Angles (Video Guide)</a><br> <a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-logline/">What is a Logline</a><a href="http://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-logline/"> [with FREE Logline Formula Template] </a><br> <a href="http://www.katherinecowley.com/blog/writing-powerful-emotion-beats-in-fiction/" title="Permanent Link: Writing Powerful Emotion Beats in Fiction">Writing Powerful Emotion Beats in Fiction</a></p> <p> </p> <p>This week’s recommended Swashbuckling playlist (apart from our own soundtrack of course):<br> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6B3VmYdEmpWbal9Itvg8mL?si=fY0e4U3nQX2sIBT3wy3TFA">Swashbuckling Space Sapphics (and other tales of the gays of our lives)</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Go give “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120746/">The Mask of Zorro</a>” a watch again! He might not be a pirate, but he’s got that swashbuckling spirit!</p> <p> </p> </div>