I had a dream with James Hunter in it looking like a total badass, so I drew it. Or tried to. It was one of those instances where the more I drew it the less I could picture how it really was anymore, but this is close enough.


--Sak
Commodore James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

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A faux-poster for my upcoming animation, Honour Amongst Thieves, to be used as a front cover for my project proposal and treatment. It will contain all of my pre-production, sketches, thought processes, and academic research pertaining to my upcoming animation, which I will begin work on this coming January.

I call it "Version 01" because I'll probably make another, better poster for the finalized animation next year. I just wanted an excuse to attempt all the characters in a more detailed, graphic style really.


--Sak
All Characters and Art © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

EDIT: Sorry to constantly spam your inbox with this one. Some of you may have noticed the animation so far has slightly more detail than was on the previous character sheet, and I've finally gotten around to updating this reference to match. Louis's tights are now off-white to differentiate them from his boots, and James has epaulettes this time around. I also took the liberty of adding a point of reference for Louis's height sans heels, since many people have been asking about it; he is shorter than Santiago, but taller than James.
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A compilation of turnarounds for all three main characters from my upcoming animation this semester at LASALLE, College of the Arts, plus a height chart to show their relation to one another. The final animation will be over three minutes long, animated on TV Paint; hopefully adding shine to Santiago's armor will be easier there than using traditional mediums. James's uniform has been altered slightly to be more historically accurate based on this illustration: [link] and Louis is ... Louis.


--Sak
All characters © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

Louis Despatis and James Hunter blast back to the future, and the former discovers a rather lively Christmas Carol that catches his fancy. This madness ensues. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody!

The Video: [link]

The Outtakes: [link]
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Both the characters and all makeup, "acting", etc. are all done by me this time around, since I didn't have "my James" handy. It was also filmed in my (slippery!) living room with the aircon blasted as low as it would go on account of the 30+ degrees Celcius weather outside. Despite that I was still so hot and bothered under those layers of clothes that the inside of Louis's jacket was slick with sweat by the time I was done, just to give you an idea of the amount of uncomfortable suffering I went through to bring you all a snippet of Christmas tomfoolery. It took all afternoon to film and all evening to cut and edit. I apologize for the changing lighting and lack of continuity, but I was also my own camerawoman.

Now, I don't beg often, but after all that trouble I'm going to, so brace yourselves: all your views, comments, and favorites are greatly appreciated so I know my work wasn't in vain!


Thanks all for a lovely past year, and here's to the new one!


--Sak
James and Louis © Myself, Shamine A. King

Hey, look ma, consonance!

Belated Birthday picture for Brendan Julian, voice of Louis for my upcoming animation, Honour Amongst Thieves. His birthday was actually on Sunday, and I've had this silly thing in my head for the past few days, but was swamped with work as usual. Sorry it probably doesn't look like you, either. You can find Brendan's and the other actors' work for my animation here: [link] [link]

Typical Louis, distracting you or keeping your hands occupied while he gets what he wants. Don't fret, Brendan, I'm pretty sure this entire thing is too meta for him to mean seriously. The icing on the cake was entirely his idea ... magenta.


--Sak
Louis Despatis © Myself, Shamine A. King

This is Laz'ab being "punny" ... trollollollollol. _{(He's stabbing him in the lung while saying this ...)}

Illustrated scene from some roleplay that took place a few days ago. You can read the entire log here [link] to find out what warranted such an attack. Nothing ticks me off more than a holier-than-thou roleplayer who thinks their character is "boss", and expects you to go right along with it, instead of making their character "boss" by playing them convincingly. It was a relief to roll two twenties on Laz'ab to put him in his place, at the expense of my face ... but he lost an entire ribcage.

The "cauterizing" effect of lightsabers be damned. There was an awful lot of blood when Obi-Wan severed that guy's arm in Episode IV in the cantina. And bloody-gorey is synonymous with Laz'ab.


--Sak
Laz'ab © Myself, Shamine A. King
Star Wars: The Old Republic © BioWare/LucasArts

The revised, edited, and cleaned-up version of the first draft of the storyboard for my upcoming animation major. This is by no means the finalized storyboard, but it is acceptable for submission for now.

The dialogue in the comment boxes are temporary and will likely be altered to flow better (also if someone can find me a better translation for the French equivalent of "he hell?!" than "de quoi" I would be most grateful, or if you could translate "Oh, hell, I am far too nice for my own good" for me as well that would be fantastic).

The establishing scenes at the beginning where Santiago enters, where we meet Louis, and where James is introduced will all be extended to make their personality and respective philosophies (religion/liberal thinking/government) clearer. The Spanish guard will no longer be begging to be let back in, but cursing at Louis in the name of God for his treachery (ironic, if you consider that Louis is a Catholic, the same as the Spanish). Hopefully Santiago's dialogue will be less stiff and consist of less growling, more actual words.

For those who noticed the changes, the painting sequence now has James correcting the slant on the portrait to drive home his incessant need for law and order in everything he does. The ending may also alter yet again, possibly so that none of them benefit at all from this little venture; the message is not that religion is a negative thing and thus should be overthrown, the message is about overcoming your initial misconceptions about a person in order to work together to achieve a greater goal. But as the representative for tradition and religion, Santiago's mindset is the most difficult to change, and Louis and James get the drop on him. There should also be a change in James and Santiago's perception of Louis from the beginning to the end, which is not yet clear. I'll have to work on that.

TL;DR: This is not yet finalized. Don't get too attached.


--Sak
All characters and art © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

While I don't have a lot of time left for leisure, I do enjoy answering some of these drawing prompts from time-to-time. Since I've already teen'd some of my TOR toons, it seemed only fair to give James and Louis a shot.

Sorry, no zits. Mr. Stick-Up-His-*$# is probably very health-conscious not to eat anything that would make him break out.


--Sak
Louis Despatis/James Hunter © Myself, Shamine A. King

A compilation of dynamic poses for Louis, James, and Santiago respectively, as part of my course requirements for my upcoming animation major. These are (presumably) the absolutely-final-I-am-so-tired-of-reworking-their-color-schemes versions of all three characters as they will appear in the animation next semester. Most of these poses were directly taken from the revised storyboard.

The animation will be around three minutes long in length, drawn frame-by-frame on TVPaint. This semester is entirely devoted to pre-production; production on the actual short will begin in January.


--Sak
Louis Despatis & Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King
For LASALLE, College of the Arts, Singapore

Calling all potential Captains, Commodores, and Conquistadors to rise to the occasion this holiday season, and offer up your voices as possible candidates for my upcoming animation, Honour Amongst Thieves!!!

While the story is still undergoing changes - and thus the script is subject to change - production will be very fast-paced once my semester begins and I need willing voice actors on stand-by to record the finalized lines at short notice. Thus I am opening auditions now, to give me time to find appropriate voice actors for each character.


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THE RULES:
If you're interested in auditioning ...

Read at least the required lines below. You may supplement your audition with additional lines, or various versions of the given lines. In fact, I encourage it.

Make sure the audio file is readable. I use a PC and use Windows Media Player for my audio files, and Adobe Premier Pro to compile my animatics, so no i-tunes files please.

PLLLEEASSEE make sure you have a microphone that can record decent quality. It would be a shame to lose a potentially perfect voice due to a technicality.

You can audition for more than one character, in fact I encourage you to try them all. Who knows, maybe you'd make a better James than Louis?

Only male voices will be considered for the final animation. Sorry to any ladies who'd like to try, unless you can pass as a convincing man.

Non-DA users are welcome to audition, so if you know someone who you think might suit the part then by all means encourage them to try!

All audition recordings should be e-mailed to me at: shamine.king@hotmail.com


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THE PRIZES:
(Oh yes, there are some!)

As thanks for those who will contribute to the final animation, all voice actors will be credited.

I am also offering what equates to a colored pencil sketch commission to the final candidates chosen, of any subject they want.



So what are you waiting for? Let the auditions begin!

IMPORTANT: You have until the BEGINNING OF THE NEW YEAR to sumbit your audition clips! I need to have the voices by the time I begin production next semester!


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THE LINES:
Refer to this storyboard [link] if you require the context of each line.


Louis: ---------------------------------------

- Though a dandy, Louis doesn't talk like a "flaming queer" unless he's hashing it up on purpose (as he does on a few occasions in the animation). Voice example: [link]

- If possible, he has a slight French accent, but nothing too heavy as to distract from his dialogue. He does speak French several times, so it may help to be familiar with pronouncing French words.


"Pardon, señor! I was just wondering, is this gold yours?"

"And may I just say, I love what he's done with the place!"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, monsieur. My allegiance doesn't lie with my king."

"Je suis bien trop gentil, ça me perdra!"

"What have you done?! That. Is going. To take FOREVER! TO GROW! BACK!!"


James: ---------------------------------------

- Stiff, stoic, uptight. He doesn't break the laws, he enforces them. His voice should reflect this, and be lower than Louis's, more "masculine" sounding. However, I don't have a fixed reference for him, so I'm open to all interpretations.

- If possible, he should preferably have an English accent to further enforce his nationality, as if his obnoxiously large flag wasn't enough ...


"I'll be damned if I see that gold fall into the hands of England's enemies! Stay here men, I'm going in after him!"

"So ... you're a pirate, then."

"Oh, you insufferable git!"

"Really? You're concerned with your hair at a time like this?"


Santiago: ---------------------------------------

- As with James, Santiago's voice is open for interpretation, but should reflect the character's dark motivations and heavy-set physical design. Deep, rumbling, possibly grating, and overall very commanding and intimidating.

- The final script will include more cussing and snippets of Spanish, so keep that in mind. He also does a lot of grunting, growling, and hollering, so you're welcome to include yourselves screaming at the microphone for good measure.

- A Spanish accent would be nice, but is not necessary.


"Heathen! How dare you trespass here! This is the House of God!"

"Theft is a crime, you cretin!"

"You desecrate God's church and assume he'd care?!"


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Thank you all for your time, and for all your support thus far in my project with your feedback and your enthusiasm. Good luck to all the contestants, and I look forward to hearing your submissions!


--Sak
Louis and Co. © Myself, Shamine A. King