Environments

One of the aspects of producing this series that I particularly enjoy is imagining and designing the environments--the "sets", if you will--in which the action takes place.  Envisioning what the lobby of a motel or the interior of a mall or a church knave (coming in a future episode) might look like when translated into 8-bit graphics can be challenging, especially when I have to also design the layout to accommodate the action that will be taking place there:

• Where, exactly, will major scenes take place?
• Is there room is this area for the fight scene I wrote?
• Have I placed the items that Jacob will encounter in the right chronological places?

Additionally, I have to consider what will be shown on the screen and how I want it to be revealed, how to create a visually interesting design within my color restrictions, how to keep them varied, and how to make sure that there are the kinds of obstacles, secretes, and challenges you would expect to see in an actual game.

So, I thought, for the fun of it, I would share a few of the environments that have already been featured in the series so you can get an overall view of each background in its entirety, as well as zoom in for a more detailed look.

Slowing Down

Dear Watchers,

If anyone doesn't know, let me explain that I am a college professor.  On August 17, we begin a new school year.  This means I will have much less time for animating the series.  However, I do plan to continue, just at a slower pace.  Episodes will be more infrequent, but I will aim to have at one episode a month.  If this becomes too ambitious of a schedule, When I have time off from work (Christmas, summer, fall & spring breaks), the pace will pick up again.  I have a lot of ideas for the series and haven't lost my excitement for the project.  In the meantime, between episodes, I will be posting content that is less time-consuming (behind-the-scenes stuff, commentaries, etc.) in order to make sure there is something here for you to enjoy.

Thank you for your patience,

Jason

Episode 5: A Fine Morning

Anyone who has survived this long has memories haunting them...

Undead City - Episode 5: A Fine Morning by undeadcity

Episode 4: Run!

As Jacob, Rebecca, and Caleb try to wrap up their exploration of the Uptown Mall, they discover a few secrets hidden away.

Undead City - Episode 4: Run! by undeadcity

Episode 3.2: The Mall, Part III

At long last!  Here is Episode 3.2.

Jacob continues to explore the Uptown Mall with his new friends Rebecca and Caleb.

Undead City - Episode 3.2: The Mall, Part III by undeadcity

Episode 3.1: The Mall, Part II

Jacob enters the Outdoor Supply store in the mall to investigate sounds of gunfire and shouts of distress.

**Note: This episode is numbered "3.1" because it is actually the first half of Episode 3 as I wrote it. My progress on this episode was considerably delayed. So, I decided to split the episode in two and release what I have completed thus far to keep the episodes on a semi-timely schedule. It will continue with Episode 3.2 a couple of weeks from now.**

Undead City - Episode 3.1: The Mall, Part II by undeadcity

Episode 2: The Uptown Mall

Episode 2:  Due to a horde of undead on the freeway, Jacob is unable to leave Ennead City to the south as Caleb suggested.  Unfortunately, it seems that Caleb and Rebecca are no longer at the Motel, so Jacob must decide what to do on his own.

Undead City - Episode 2: The Uptown Mall by undeadcity

EPISODE !: THE UPTOWN MOTEL

Episode 1 is finally here!  Enjoy the premier of Undead City, and please let me know what you think.

Undead City - Episode 1: The Uptown Motel by

Trailer #1

The first trailer is here!

EXPLOSION!

Making Progress on Episode 1

Episode 1 is very nearly in the can.  It will be an extra-long episode (almost 15 minutes).  So, a lot of animation has gone into it.  The rest of the episodes will be shorter.

Sneak Peek

Here is a very short sneak-peek at some of the animation from Episode 1...

Color Palette

For this project, I am limiting myself to only these 24 colors:

I selected them out of the full range of colors that the NES could produce, because I really want to hold myself to many of the 8-bit rules.  I am cheating just a bit with this palette, however.  The NES could produce some of these colors only when a translucency of black was applied to the entire screen, darkening all of the on-screen colors.  But to achieve the mood I want this project to have, I wanted most of the colors to be muted, but still have the greens of the zombies and the blue of Jacob's hoodie fairly saturated.  So, I made the decision that, if the NES could produce the color at all, then it was fair game for my palette.

Other 8-bit rules concerning color that I am trying to obey:

1. Sprites can have no more than 4 colors. I have seen a few exceptions to this, like Megaman, which have five.  But in all of the examples I have found, the fifth color was white.  So, I allow white in a sprite if I need a fifth color.
   
    
   
   
2. There can be no more than 16 colors on the screen at one time.  Most games seem to have addressed this by limiting the palette for the game to only 16 colors.  I am not going that far, but I am working hard to keep the number of colors on the screen at any time as close to 16 as I can.  There are times when I go over, but my max is 20 colors.
   
   
   
   
3. Each 16px16p grid square of the background can have no more than four colors.  I have seen exceptions to this rule in my research, but I try to limit the number of times I break this rule.

The result, hopefully, is an animation that looks like a believable 8-bit NES game that you just never actually played.

UNDEAD CITY coming SUMMER 2015!

The People of Undead City

Here are some of the town-folk (and a couple of animals) that Jacob will encounter in Undead City.  Friendships, alliances, and discord are in store.  And, just in case you're wondering, the sprites that are lying down are sleeping, not dead.  I wouldn't give away those kinds of spoilers right away.

Remember: UNDEAD CITY COMING SUMMER 2015!

Promotional Images

Can you call them "theatrical posters" if the advertise a web series?

 "What happened here?"

No need to save the last dance.  It's always the last dance.

Coming Summer 2015!

Coming in Summer 2015, UNDEAD CITY will be an animated web series with the visual style of an 8-bit, NES-era video game.  UNDEAD CITY will be set five years after the entire world was mysteriously afflicted by corpses returning from the dead and a dramatic rise in global temperatures.  In this parched world devoid of most plant life, the living are forced to do whatever they can to survive among cannibalistic zombies with insatiable appetites.  There are those who are on a mission to travel northward (the Northites) following rumors that the northern-most latitudes are still relatively cool and undead-free.  Others see these rumors as fairy tales and choose, instead, to survive day-to-day either by living a nomadic existence or forming and defending communities who pool resources and labor.  The story follows Jacob, a loner young man who counts himself among the Northites.  His travels have brought Jacob to the town of Ennead City (or "Undead City" as the surviving locals have come to call it), where he plans to sleep one night, maybe forage for food and supplies in the morning, and then be on his way.  Fate, it would seem, has other plans, as Jacob finds all exit routes blocked or destroyed, trapping him in a town infested with hungry zombies, populated by distrustful survivors, and dangerously low on water.  In his mission to find a way to escape UNDEAD CITY, Jacob finds himself fighting through zombie hordes, ensnared in the sordid affairs of the living citizens, and unraveling clues that may finally answer the question, "What caused all of this?"

Right now, I am in pre-production and will be working on the animation sporadically here and there when I can over the next few months.  I am currently aiming to premier the series in May, releasing the the first 10-episode sequence in weekly (or as close to weekly as I can manage) 3-to-5-minute installments.  In the meantime, I'll post news, images, etc, so that you can get a least a glimpse of the process leading up to the release.  Below are a few concept images to give you a feel for the tone and design of the series.  Many of the characters and environments have been adapted from sprites in existing 8- and 16-bit games, in an attempt to inject a bit of the familiar into the visuals.

Please join me beginning in May.