Out in the wild, free to roam at last! “Gildedguy Gets Up” can now be viewed freely on YouTube, after its bombastic debut in Epic Games’ Fortnite Party Royale.
This was a very unique production that gradually, and then exponentially, exploded in scale, commercially and artistically. At the beginning, I distinctly wanted to make this animation a solid little personal story, not quite “ZOMG AWESOME” like how Vs. Oxob turned out. But big opportunities presented themselves, and I continue to learn that despite extensive planning, I can never predict exactly how an animation will come out.
Animation Process/Pandemic
About a year ago, serious production work on Gildedguy Gets Up started, and the world was without a COVID vaccine and still under pandemic lockdown.
This had little to no effect on the pre-existing self-isolation that animation imposes on artists. At least, for people that work on the internet exclusively. While everyone was paying over double for new webcams to Zoom, Gildedguy & Co. was already well-versed in collaborating via Discord and Google Docs.
We really hit our stride a few months in, toward the end of 2020, as background art and cleaned-up animation was being pumped out a lot faster than 1 Gildedguy could ever do alone. It takes money to do, but it also opens me up to produce auxiliary projects alongside the actual animation.
GildedGala Crunch
On January 9th, 2021, I was minding my own business, until a random YouTube video was recommended me. At the time, I was watching game dev-logs as a source of relaxation, away from all the artsy-fartsy animation stuff. Usually, in the weeds of a big project, you’ll start fantasizing about doing other creative things aside from your current work. For me, it’s almost always game development.
For a long time, I’ve dreamt of showcasing animations in a pseudo black-tie event. Some sort of big premiere party that other people can attend and feel fancy, and mingle in anticipation of the newest masterpiece from the animation community.
It would be a natural progression from my big stream premieres, particularly the Gildedguy vs. Oxob premiere (>2700 viewers). But instead of everyone experiencing it through a broadcasters’ window, people would be able to virtually attend, and interact with others freely. And I would somehow code this and sell food/drink items on the side, like any self-respecting venue would.
The recommended video that caught my eye was “HOW TO MAKE AN ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME – UNITY EASY TUTORIAL”. It’s 8 minutes long and published only 2 months prior to when I saw it – both very good signs for a coding tutorial.
I learned that the girl making the tutorial was using a multiplayer framework called “Photon Network”.
The code looked way simpler than I expected. Exciting.
I quickly searched their pricing plans – it costs ~$100/month to host 500 concurrent players. Was my dream possible?
Extreme Crunch
Thus began an ambitious effort to develop a mini-MMORPG alongside finishing Gildedguy Gets Up, dubbed GildedGala.
I set an incredibly aggressive coding & animation schedule so that my premiere would be unique and special once March came around.
After two months of CORS errors, coding chat filters, debugging and live testing with Patrons, the GildedGala application was in good shape. The animation was coming together too, and I was on track to finish by the March 31st deadline. Woohoo!
Time to put out a release trailer and get everyone hyped up for this unique premiere!
-Michael, March 1st, 2021
The Fan from Epic Games
Some time after the trailer went out, Epic Games contacted me. One of the higher-ups said his son was a big fan of my animations, and after some Zooms, the ShortNite2 collab happened.
Battle Royales
Before I get into how I felt about “Gildedguy in Fortnite”, I want to mention how much of a gamer I used to be. I was an early adopter of open-world/emergent gameplay, even back in college, where I played DayZ early access with the Slush guys (college buds).
Open-world multiplayer shooters were in really rough shape in those days. It was plagued with bugs and lag, but it was ridiculously engrossing to try to survive in a large game-world, where 1 random encounter with another squad would make the 2 hours of looting worth it.
Eventually, Fortnite, the market’s first free-to-play, polished battle royale game came out, and it soon became our game of choice. This was back in 2018.
Back to 2021
So hearing the idea of premiering my passion project in Fortnite, and getting Gildedguy in as a skin was really surreal. It was like watching a TV series with your friends, and finding out the show wanted to dedicate an episode to you.
I must admit I did some happy dances and paced my hallway after hearing the deal details.
Floating Hiatus
It was a little nerve-wracking to announce a big delay like this, especially right after juicing up the hype train weeks before. The biggest thing going for the delay was – it was merely that – a delay. There was no change to the ownership or availability of the animation. A straight 4-month wait.
Fortunately the Gildedguy audience is very patient, and even with virtually zero details, graciously accepted the delay without much protest.
It was a great relief, and allowed me to confidently wrap up my side projects (overlay updates, finishing GildedGala, and getting a head-start on Story #7).
My own production team was also in the dark about the Fortnite premiere, so it was exciting all around when summer did roll by…
Big Leaky Premiere
Leak Culture
During the many months of wait, Epic and I did a bunch of secret collaboration type stuff to prepare. All I can say is it was a real honor and experience to work with them. Along the way, I discovered that there are groups on the internet dedicated to Fortnite’s latest build assets, and leaking the details before official announcements can.
These leaks generate tons of hype, and are actually quite exciting to see on Twitter. It was ridiculously fun to see in real time the “hackers’ ” reactions to my big bright yellow outfit appearing in the game files.
Front & Center
Epic really went all out on headlining Gildedguy for the Shortnite2 event! It was shocking to see my guy on so many gaming article thumbnails and videos. To see myself on a full page spread on Fortnite’s homepage was surreal.
Same with seeing Gildedguy in-game!
A while ago I wrote a blogpost about not being seen, and wondering when it would be “my time to shine”. This certainly felt like a slice of fame, with all the glitz & glamour included.
Animation Reception
From what I can tell, this story resonated with viewers. And a lot of people are understanding the story much quicker than previous ones. Something surprising is how deeply viewers caught onto the parent-to-son family dynamics, particularly during the “coin paint in eye” and “thanks for watching” scenes.
Next Up
Past Dealt with, The Future is Now
I mentioned in my previous animation post, I wanted to do 1 animation about the unchanging past (now done), and another about the always changing future (which I will attempt now).
After a job well done, there’s a tendency to merely repeat what you did. To just maintain, and replicate the previous success.
This time, I want to purposely challenge myself, and shake it up. I want to go all-in on loose and rough. Depth over cleanliness. Improve on aspects of solid drawing that I’ve ignored in favor of spit shine & polish. I’ll be throwing some radical new line-work styles to see what sticks. And “what sticks” will be what’s worth keeping, a central theme to Story #7.
So bear with me while I embark on a new style expedition. Upon first glance it’ll feel like a step back, but it’s all in hope for a big jump forward (& upward)!
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The new animation’s project page has a collection of screenshots and GIF’s that you may download. Please share as you wish.
