The Energon Pub

[i_amtrunks]

Seibertron's own Black Bumblebee has alerted us to the fact that "War Within Animated" Episode #1 has been finished and is now available for download from tfcog.com.

For those new to the project, it is an attempt to take a comic book series and "animate" it through use of photoshop and similar programs.

Black Bumblebee also notes that there is no set date for episode #2 as yet:

...and for those wondering when part two will come out, well, you may have to wait a while. These things take a "bit" of time...

To download the first episode of "War Within Animated", please click here.

[Mkall]

I remember seeing a preview for this sometime ago and it looked pretty sweet, downloading now.

[UltraPrimal]

Pretty cool. Some of the voices are spot on too.

[Bouncy X]

it be cool to see a fully animated version of this story. like since DTV animated movies are all the rage now, that be a perfect place. hell maybe they could get whatever G1 actors are still available to come back.

but one question, i never read this comic so is this some
"alternate reality" version of the backstory? like does this ignore the G1 cartoon because if not, how come Grimlock is there when he was created on earth on the show.

[Megatron Wolf]

You know what, that was better than that crap they call Transformers Animated. Defiantly looking forward to the next one. Only thing i dont get, why does Prime always sound like Solid Snake when fans do voice over? Is it really that hard to do a John Wayne type voice?

[Black Bumblebee]

Glad you guys are liking it so far

To answer some questions that I see listed:

G1 continuity is "somewhat" ignored from the cartoon as it's taken from the comic book time line. Specifically, this is Dreamwave's version of G1, which differs from Marvel's version of G1.

The main thing you'll notice that's different from the cartoon is Grimlock: in the comics, he wasn't built on Earth, but instead is just like anyone else; he just has a stilted way of talking. He is not mentally challenged either--comic book Grimlock is more like a lone wolf Wolverine type character.

As you may see though, the artists did try to keep things close to the G1 cartoon by having the Cybertronian modes match what was scene in episode 1 of the cartoon.

The voice actor who does Optimus Prime can actually do a very good imitation of Peter Cullen (he does the Prime Time videos on youtube), but I specifically told him to alter it a bit. I didn't want people to identify with this as Optimus Prime right off the bat. This is an Optimus who is young, untested, and unsure of what he is doing. The Autobots don't quite trust him, and I don't want the audience to trust him either.

So if you're a bit critical of the voice, that's to fall on me, not the voice actor

[UltraPrimal]

The voice actor who does Optimus Prime can actually do a very good imitation of Peter Cullen (he does the Prime Time videos on youtube), but I specifically told him to alter it a bit. I didn't want people to identify with this as Optimus Prime right off the bat. This is an Optimus who is young, untested, and unsure of what he is doing. The Autobots don't quite trust him, and I don't want the audience to trust him either.

So if you're a bit critical of the voice, that's to fall on me, not the voice actor

I think it was a good choice. Some of the others were very well too. Namely Ironhide and Jazz. When I heard them, I almost thought it was the real deal.

I thought the animation was very good too. Especially considering all you had to work with was static images. I didn't even expect the mouths to move.

The music was excellent as well.

Job well done. Can't wait for the next installment. Hopefully we'll see it some time this year.

[Blurrz]

Wow.. what a grand idea.. and such a fantastic job. What can I say.. I'm hooked!

[Creature SH]

I love it ! I'm very impressed by how the entire thing came together, and especially by how greatly the action scenes work. Given the source and methods, this exceeded expectations by far.

I'm also particularly impressed by the whole sound design and some of the voicing, especially on the Autobot side.

The guy who did Skywarp really had a lot of room for improvement, though... Serves him right to have his initials switched around in the credits !

[Black Bumblebee]

Eeek... did I have another error in the credits?

Sorry Creature...

I'll get it fixed for the youtube version, though

[Creature SH]

No worries.

[Stormwolf]

Excellent, War Within would be the best TF show ever if it was fully animated by Hasbro.

Good work, I especially like Grimlock's voice.

[Dead Metal]

I'm angry right now.

I had to download the hig res one 4 times now, cos my father had to use the telephone everytime, now I managed to down it and I can't even enjoy it!
There are 4 really ugly fat lines running from the top of the picture ruining it, I can't watch it, my eyes can't take that effect it just hurts them, I'm not trying to be an ass, I know a lot of hard work and time went into this, the animation is nice from what I can see and the audio is just bad ass, my compliments to every body involved, I hope the youtube version won't have them stripes.

[Black Bumblebee]

Dead Metal--Sounds like you need to update your codecs on your video player, haven't heard of this problem before.

BUT... to help you out, here's the much requested youtube version:

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2w8_37549M

Enjoy!

[Dead Metal]

Dead Metal--Sounds like you need to update your codecs on your video player, haven't heard of this problem before.

BUT... to help you out, here's the much requested youtube version:

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5RkRYsru0

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2w8_37549M

Enjoy!

Dude thanks, can't wait till it's completly loaded, I love this.
And I'll be updating my codecs too.

[Autobot Snake Eyes]

Hmmmm...
Not likin it too much.
the music and sound effects made it somewhat hard to hear the voices. but its not like that matters i already have every line memorized from the comic LOL.

[partholon]

that was the best thing ive seen in ages. seriously guys well done. considerng the effort gone in im sure it'll be ages before we see number 2 but i dont care as long as we get em all eventually.

for the life of me i dont know why hasbro hasnt done this themselves. is there anyone out there that WOULDNT want to see , say, target 2006 animated in geoff seniors style?

theyr sitting on a freekin goldmine here yet all we TF fans get is transformers animated. dear gods one episode and ww grimlock kicks the arse of TF animated.

heres hoping the buzz from this wakes a few people up.

again very very well done.

[Insurgent]

Nuff said.

[skeletal13]

Turned out really well, guys! Probably one of the better fan productions I've seen!

Y'know, Marvel had some DVD's out a few years back that were called "Digital Comic Books" that were done in a similar format, taking several of their "Ultimate" books and mini-series and adding animation and voice-overs.

[imotron]

Very cool!

[MegaWarp]

Superb. Simply superb. Great job by all involved. I have wanted to see War Within turned into an animated series and this is great. I really hope this leads to something big.

Once again great work.

[First Gen]

This thing friggin' ROCKS HARD!!! The animation is amazing, the music is PERFECT and the voices seem dead on.

Im looking foward to this whole series and am hoping you expand on afterwards.

[Pyrostrata]

For some unknown reason, I cannot get this to DL right! I so wanna see it dernit!

[Insurgent]

For some unknown reason, I cannot get this to DL right! I so wanna see it dernit!

There's always teh youtube links someone posted. That's the way I went for it.

[Pyrostrata]

Thank you SO much, Insurgent, for making me look back through some posts and find the blessed soul who posted the YouTube links! I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I thought I would! I have not read the comics of the same name, but methinks I will now!! The animated version was simple fantastic! Thanks again!!