TAZ Animatic: You Hear It Too
| Animatic | |
|---|---|
| Title: | TAZ Animatic: You Hear It Too {spoilers} |
| Creator: | EmptyFeet |
| Date: | Jan 6, 2018 |
| Length: | 4:00 |
| Audio: | The Adventure Zone, episode 68 Voidfish (Plural) [1] by Rachel Rose Mitchell |
| Fandom: | The Adventure Zone: Balance |
| URL: | on YouTube on Tumblr (via Wayback) |
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TAZ Animatic: You Hear It Too {spoilers} is a TAZ: Balance animatic by EmptyFeet that portrays a section of episode 68, the second to last episode of the Balance arc. The animatic covers the end of the episode, starting with Lup giving her speech at the gates of Neverwinter. The animatic was created in Photoshop CS6 and EmptyFeet worked on it for 5 hours a day for 4–5 days.
Animator's summary:
I don't think anything in fiction has affected me quite the way this sequence did; at the crescendo, I just started crying. I was sad, I was happy, I was inspired and encouraged... I'm sure there are other animatic versions of this scene but I just had to give it my own shot because it's so Wonderful!!
Anyway, this was a spontaneous passion project that has devoured my life for the past four days so...back to business. uOu[1]
As of May 1, 2019, the video has 339,664 views and 1,155 comments on YouTube as well as 13,752 notes on tumblr. The recent YouTube comments are full of people asking what "TAZ" is or saying that they're unfamiliar with the podcast and TAZ fans saying that this animatic is what introduced them to The Adventure Zone.
Reactions/Reviews
From the McElroys
From TAZ Fans
[Eryn]
I loved the whole thing and it made me cry (again) but some things that really stood out to me:
1: how expressive Lup is without even having a proper face? Amazing and I love it
2: the young woman's hand emerging from the crowd to snag her spear
3: Everyone on the Star Blaster smiling except for Magnus, who starts crying!!! Because his promise to Johann has been more than fulfilled and no one could ever forget him!!!! Beautiful and made me cry harder
4: I can feel the power and emotion and strength in that pull of Johann's bow as he says "you're gonna win!" It's perfect
Conclusion: I just watched this 5 times in a row and am sending a link to all my TAZ friends thank you for this masterpiece[4]
[EmptyFeet]
YES TO POINT THREE!! I wondered if that would click with anyone but YES, I thought "Magnus is fired up for a fight but also...it's Johann's music, which Magnus promised no one would forget??" good on yer and thank you so much for all your other wonderful comments!! ^O^[5]
[kimikaami]
this might sound weird but I have to brace myself to watch this every time because I get goosebumps and smile like an idiot. Its so good its almost unbearable to watch. idk if that would make sense to anyone but me lol[7]
[Haley Bezeredi]
This is what convinced me to start Adventure Zone. Holy fuck, I can’t explain how I felt halfway through the animatic. It was joy, rejuvenation, yet held the sadness of the ending of a fantastic book. I cried.[8]
[Ben Scribner]
This was freaking DOPE. I love how you used the music at the end to incorporate some amazing visuals, from the starblaster moving through the hunger, to all of our favorite NPCs fighting, to Johann taking his final bow. This is wonderful![9]
[Alex Mason]
This is absolutely the most stunning piece of work I've seen for taz in a long time. I don't know if the split-second glitch right at the end of the video where the voidfish flashes purple and blue, and you can see a little bit of the marching hunger in the background is intentional but holy shit did it give me an intense shiver! This was phenomenal, I sobbed my EYES out.[10]
[Hoozelfitz Brown]
My god, this is it! This is the animatic that introduced me to TAZ and watching again after finishing Balance just gives me whiplash by how amazing this truly is. I went from confused and intrigued to in awe and wonder![11]
[Ella Capella]
I've been subscribed to you for a while so I watched this when you first made it but I had no idea what it was about, I just knew it made me feel inspired (as your animations usually do). This was the video that got me into the adventure zone. When I started listening to it, I started off iffy but I was determined to get to this moment and I got hooked fast during the summer. After I finished it, I had vague memories of this video and spend at least an hour sorting through all the animators I'm subscribed to find this video. Now that I finally understand it, it just makes it all the more epic and amazing and emotional.[13]
[Percy Ross]
I've watched this so many times. And this is actually the reason I started listening to taz roughly a month ago. And boy has it been a journey so far, and I'm only halfway done. I've probably spoiled myself beyond belief but watching this video knowing all the characters means... so much more to me now. Even before I listened to taz, this animatic stirred emotions in me. And that's why you're so amazing EmptyFeet! You make some incredible art, that even without context it was enough to make an impact. I can't wait to get to this part in the podcast. <3[14]
[Taupine]
All right, it's about 3:00 AM in my time zone, so I might just be emotionally fragile right now but
Lord have mercy on my soul, this is the most beautiful - masterful - animatic of The Adventure Zone I've seen yet. God. The quality of the art on this one. I am shaking. the angles, the lighting, expressions, everything, it's
I'm breathless, this is incredible. It. Looks professionally done, compared to some of the just-getting-the-hang-of-drawing sorts of animatics out there. Holy. God. I love the characters designs, too!!
This is my favorite depiction of this moment to date.
Every once in awhile, a fanwork will come along that makes you feel the impact of the source material anew. This animatic, for this beautiful part of The Adventure Zone, is one of those fanworks.
It needs to be seen by all.[15]
[dont_mind_the_matter]
I agree. There's only a couple I've watched more than once, and this is definitely going to be one of them!
Additionally, this one has, by far, the best character designs for all characters that I've seen. Very, very close to my own head canon.[16]
References
- ^ EmptyFeet in the animatic's description. Published on Jan 6, 2018
- ^ @griffinmcelroy on twitter, 6 Jan 2018.
- ^ @justinmcelroy on twitter, 7 Jan 2018.
- ^ Eryn, sometime in 2018.
- ^ EmptyFeet, sometime in 2018.
- ^ Extemporized Life, sometime in 2018.
- ^ kimikaami, sometime in 2018.
- ^ Haley Bezeredi, sometime in 2018.
- ^ Ben Scribner, sometime in 2018.
- ^ Alex Mason, sometime in 2018.
- ^ Hoozelfitz Brown, April 30th, 2019.
- ^ teako north, April-ish, 2019.
- ^ Ella Capella, early 2019.
- ^ Percy Ross, late 2019.
- ^ Taupine, here, January 7th, 2018.
- ^ dont_mind_the_matter, here, January 7th, 2018.