Last Thursday we decided to live stream ourselves making new emojis for our Discord community, we wanted the community to join along and tell us what emojis they wanted to see as well; it was a great event that brought us all together. For context, the TeamWnJ Official Discord server (https://discord.gg/Zt2xdWw) is a basic non paid server and can support up to 50 custom emojis. The server was made to bring fans of the TeamWnJ YouTube channel together with the creators, it also serves as a community hub for Levaslier, the animated Minecraft styled original web series. Our custom emojis are created using Cinema 4D and Adobe Photoshop, but a free alternative for these applications are Blender and Gimp. Cinema 4D and Blender are 3D programs that allow us to import a custom model (Not just Minecraft), customize their poses and expressions (or make animations), and export them as an image (or movie sequence). Photoshop and Gimp are photo manipulating programs which allow us to customize our images exported from Cinema or Blender. This is useful if we want to further add details to our emojis or make some minor changes. For those using Cinema4D, you can download the FMR Animate custom rig by TeamWnJ for free, as well as watch an entire free tutorial course on YouTube linked right here: Once you have followed the tutorials to set up your rig and get used to using your respective 3D program, you can begin experimenting with the face of your characters. For the TeamWnJ Official Discord Server, our emojis use a custom rig for the main character of Levaslier, Arkdoc Levaslier.
Once you have your rig set up with the correct face, just like in our live streams, switch your camera perspective to "Front" to ensure you get a perfect perpendicular perspective on your character. Discord displays emojis at a 32x32 pixel level, but supports images up to 128x128 pixel size. (Source) The higher the pixel count, the better the quality of the image. Once you have the camera set up and the pixel size set, all you have to do is render the image out as a transparent .png (or .jpg if you have no transparent parts in your emoji). From this point onward, all that's left is to set it up with Discord. Go to your discord server, select the name on the top left and hit the drop down arrow- select "server settings". Once the settings open, go into the Emoji tab and hit "Upload Emoji". Find your emoji and select it. It should automatically be added to your server, but make sure to change the Alias to something easy to type and remember that it IS case sensitive. Live demo in the livestream linked above! Enjoy!
1 Comment
Director's Commentary (LPD Ep.18)The Prologue (Episode 0) of Levaslier premiered during the TeamWnJ panel at PAX Australia 2018 on October 26th 2018. This marked the first time the series has ever been shown outside of YouTube! For those who weren't at PAX, you would've likely missed out on the synopsis: Arkosh Levaslier, the ex-warlord of Hemrage City, is sent by Lord Ulfriind of Hemrage to take back Direshield Fortress- a key location in the Lazurian/Sacrasahran war. Arkosh must once again dawn the warlord's helmet and gamble his life in the dance of death, all to protect the ones he holds dear And for those who haven't watched Episode 0 yet and don't want to be spoiled: Levaslier - Episode 0 | Prologue1. Why was the prologue made?To summarize the entirety of the Director's Commentary, let's start with why it was made in the first place. The prologue was made primarily as a proof of concept to: 1. See if we could actually make what we set out to achieve 2. Test our animation skills, see if we can accurately animate and choreograph fights 3. Test and demo certain simulations (fire, smoke, etc) 4. Start building reach for Levaslier, gain a fanbase that would begin to speculate at the lore 5. Start delivering on the lore without a spinoff series We believe all these tests were successful, thought not as much as we would like it to be as PAX was a disaster. 2. InspirationIn the actual prologue itself, heavy inspiration was taken from Dillon Gu's "God's Don't Die". Dillon himself is heavily inspired by another animator we look up to- Monty Oum. The references to "God's Don't Die" can be seen in the immediate first scene of the bible text, quoting John 15:18- "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you." as well as the scene after Arkosh is arrested and is being convinced to join The Empire of Sacrasahra. These references weren't done for the sole purpose of being references- they had actual meaning to the lore and story of Levaslier. For instance, the entire prologue is played out from the perspective of Arkosh Levaslier- this episode is about Arkosh; the song being sang and the quote in the beginning is all about Arkosh, from Arkosh's perspective. The window in the throne room may seem to depict Herobrine at first glance, just like what Dillon Gu has- but this is wrong. "Herobrine" in Levaslier does not exist, we simply know him as "The Great Hero". What that means is up to you to find out. 3. Lore ClarificationArkosh Levaslier is the EX-Warlord of Hemrage City- a Warlord being the royal protector of the kings of every city. Hemrage's king, Lord Ulfriind, calls upon the only available warrior he knows to take back a key location in the Lazurian/Sacrasahran war. Lazuria and Sacrasahra are neighboring nations with drastically different cultures, the reason for their war is up to you to find out. The location Arkosh is requested to assault is Direshield Fortress. This fortress plays a key part in the war as it over watches the only way Sacrasahra can invade Lazuria, as well as important trade routes with Hemrage, the city that's known best for supplying the rest of Lazuria with food and resources. The fortress was named Direshield after it's creator "Warlord Direshield". 4. SymbolismIt's impossible to explain every single little bit of detail that went into the symbolism of the prologue; much thought was put into every decision, whether that be camera angle, action, or set design. a key piece of symbolism (pointed out by Joziah12) is the location, Direshield Fortress. Direshield is named Direshield because it's location makes it an extremely dire place to be- yet it also acts as a shield for the rest of Lazuria. The entire prologue, as mentioned in the beginning, is also being told from the perspective of Arkosh. By breaking down the lyrics of the song, we start to understand Arkosh's motives as well. A big overarching theme of Levaslier is that of embracing fear- not to fight it or hide from it, but to embrace it, welcome it- for in fear, lies strength. Arkosh expresses this as the first line of the song states clearly that he is afraid, but of what we do not know. He later describes fear as dark clouds and how he wishes to see the sun- this is in reference to Ying Yang- how in good there is always evil, and in evil there is always good. But the question still stands- what does Arkosh fear? Who is Arkosh addressing all of this to? The epilogue answers that question. After a long and grueling fight to take back a fortress single handedly, Arkosh sneaks back home to make sure his clan is alright. He sits quietly next to his sleeping son- his fear. Arkdoc Levaslier is the one Arkosh fears for, the reason he fights is to make sure Arkdoc doesn't have to. He knows that if he dies, Arkdoc will too, and he makes it a priority to ensure Arkdoc is safe at all times. 5. The Elephant in The RoomAnyone who knows anything about Levaslier, and we're guessing you do if you've read this far, knows that The Ender are supposed to be the bad guys- Yet we see Arkosh with an Ender Arm! To explain, we do not like ripping assets from things we don't own just for the sake of referencing them, we want to make sure they fit into Levaslier lore and have a place in it. The Ender in Levaslier are heavily influenced by The Flood of the Halo series- for all who don't know, The Flood are hyper intelligent zombie parasites that have wiped out galaxies. The origins of The Ender are up to you to find out, but all the Lazurians do know about The Ender, are that the slimes brought them in several years ago, causing a catastrophy that ended in millions of deaths. The Ender themselves posses various abilities- corruption being one of them. This will be further explored in the future but feel free to speculate as to why Arkosh isn't fully corrupted- yes, his left arm armor is custom built to stop the corruption, but we can guarantee you there's more to that story.
|
ArchivesFeatured |