Here is the link to Poliostasis's RUclips (Music man who made the music): / @poliostasis If you wanna check out my social media, here is my twitter. / monlenz
This may not be the advice you want to hear, but honestly- I think patience might be the best thing for this stuff. What I know for sure is that this was sick, it really elevates the storytelling, that being said the single drawings were also really fun and entertaining. As viewers we really appreciate the time and effort you put into these, and there’s no pressure from us to be efficient:)
@@monlenz create whatever you create and some people will like it and some won't. But you are creating something beutiful that noone else will ever create and that's amazing. I love your stuff personally and don't really care for either formats as long as you are creating and enjoying creation.
@@monlenz The scenes leading up to or between the main topic (The Witch Hunter) are just that (leads or stop-gaps), its not necessary for them to be detailed especially when they're on screen for a few seconds. For example the scene 27 seconds in with the witch burnings. Attention is drawn straight to the fire, everything else is cool and helps set the mood but is extra. A nice halfway measure would be ironically less detail-but more content, or atleast more time to spend on the main draw (Witch Hunter) that interests you. Also it serves to starkly contrast the main draw in much the same manner as you already did by going from the barn door to the fully drawn Witch Hunter. Either way great work man.
To add an example to what Dakar said, the Loading Screen Art of Guild wars 2 often uses that. The focal point is detailed, but everything else can fall off down to rough sketch level.
@@monlenz I agree with the OP, but I understand how you feel cuz I also work with similar tendency lol Maybe try do what you can in the motivation timeframe you have and see how much/ how long you can make, then use it as framework The conclusion maybe shorten the length (?)
The harsh truth is that an animatic like this will take a long ass time. The fact that some shows can come out weekly and still look great is honestly a miracle
@@Luekirt2insane how some people actually think that studios can make the whole episode in a week (not saying that original comment said that, just talking about some people)
I'm sorry this was so hard to make, but I think the choice to use animatics really improves the storytelling. We're not just being told about this world, we're being shown a snippet of the world playing out. I really like this and I hope you do more of it.
@@guilldeaI agree, the style where he takes us “on the journey” of writing to be great, though this animatic is amazing. But they _are_ tine consuming, and what he’s done in the past is awesome already. Whatever this dude finds to be his flow is whatever I will watch, so as long as he finds himself happy, I’m happy.
for some reason "did the rats learnm to knock" was an incredibly hard hitting line that really set the tone for the witch hunters. And it made the reveal even more intense
That stinger at the end was simply chilling. Yet the personality of the hunter seems to be quite normal. I know you said this animatic was time consuming and stressful, but it was also brilliantly crafted and suspenful. Amazing work all around.
I love this more animatic style for these lore subject videos. Personally I don't want to see the speed draw style go away completely either. Your talent for world building and illustration deserves to be recognized.
It turned out really well, I think you could cut down production time by focusing less on color detail, other animatics just use a solid color for a whole object or character, and it gets the point across, especially here where to focus is more on the narration, and the images are just a tool to help the viewer imagine the world
@@edentheascended4952 just today he said on the stream he did on youtube to not think about him like that and that he is just a guy winging it. I think all suggestions that are well intended are welcome.
Just a thought he could draw a set of buildings, people, scenery, and tech that he could add instead of drawing from scratch. The problem is he will still have to shade it and size it
We subscribed because of the care and personal touch you put into your art and your world building. The animatic was fantastic, but don’t burn yourself out.
This animatic style was really cool! I don't think you have to make every single video like this, your previous ones where you've told stories over top the painting process work perfectly well, but it'd be awesome to have animatics like this every now and then like a special little dessert for the stories that need it!
Animation takes so so long but honestly you did incredibly good making this animatic. I also joined early on the boom of your channel but I see huge improvement on your content itself while learning about your fascinating world building. I find this style of video great but that absolutely does not mean you should only do videos like this which are time consuming. You can make them on special occasions/milestones, on when you have free time or when you feel the content of your world itself needs to be represented this way. So basically you don't have to stop making videos the way you used to make them just to continue having animatics. Peace upon your soul!✌️
This was excellent! I think having fewer panels and really focusing on the most important 4-5 images might be one way to cut down on time without compromising quality. For example, the soldiers at 0:20, the witch burning at 0:25, the panel of getting off the coach at 1:15 (LOVE this one btw, such a good image!), and the sequence from 2:26-3:05 feel like the most critical frames (maybe the trees at the start and the shot inside the coach too, but both of these could be tweaked and reused across multiple videos). Obviously all the art is great, but I think the story would still be excellent and effective with only these select images.
The time has certainly paid off!! All the work you’ve obviously put in is showing off both your spine-tingling goosebump-provoking world building skills, as well as your gorgeously dark and gritty art style. Understandable if you choose not to continue with animatics, but all of us viewers are hoping you do!
I don't think there's a way to cut down on production time without lowering the quality. At the end of the day you are doing a painting for almost every shot. That's animation brother, it takes time. Great work as always!!!
IMHO this would work better with emphasis on "painting" rather than "animation". You can cut down the number of pictures without losing anything significant, especially those just depicting village(rs).
1st of all, well done. Excellent job in using visual cues to set tone and add depth to the world building, love it. In terms of improving efficiency, personally id be more happy with a few key images over a full on animatic. Your strength is in your detailed designs and creative world, let that shine through rather than chasing animation. However, if you do want to pursue animatics, have you considered building a library of assets over time, so its still your art but you can just drag and drop the trees rather than drawing them every time. Whatever you decide, we're here for it. ❤
I second this. Monstergarden's work has so far proved to be best in portraying intricately detailed characters and landscapes, and I think the priority should ultimately be on that, and let our imaginations fill in the spaces between.
Even if it was a product of the circumstances, I actually loved the fact how the sketch style of all the previous images stood in contrast to the last one, which thus almost functioned as a kind of jumpscare.
I honestly liked how the animatic looked everywhere isnt too detailed the other people its like the traveler recalled a memory and the most striking things are detailed because that would be remembered the most out of everything
This was outstanding. Doing this style of narrative/perspective based story telling to show off your world is genius. The sound design was fantastic Maybe focus less on trying to make it an animatic and more on 2-3 high quality pieces of art that you put the audio over top of. As other people said I would be totally happy with less detailed black and white sketches as well. Maybe you could have one really important end frame that is more detailed and in color.
I think this sort of thing could work well as an inbetween thing, totally agree! I know animatics takes a long time, try to use as few images as you can, if what you prefer is to spend more time per image. Honestly, your writing (voiceover) and world is already enough to keep me watching, and your design style and choices are why i started watching! The POV story fit really well and are super entertaining, and i would not mind less drawings at all, especially if it makes it more fun to make!
Man, I don't know what I was expecting to open the door, but it wasn't _that_ . I love them! Also, as everyone else has said, please take your time and don't burn yourself out. You're crafting a story you obviously care deeply about, and we want to learn more about it. Don't worry yourself about deadlines that only exist in your head, and don't let shame, guilt, or perfectionism fool you into thinking you need to kill yourself with your work, or rush it to completion. Everyone has their own workflow. As far as animatics go, I love this one, and I'd like to see more. It's great at telling the story and getting you invested in the atmosphere of the world. That bit where the music cuts out after the Stranger knocks on the door is _beautiful_ ! I've no experience with animatics, so I can't offer fantastic advice, but you could maybe try a library of re-useable base/stock images? Like the Stranger from multiple angles, a few Ram houses, some sky lines, etc. Things that could be dragged and dropped into a scene and quickly tweaked to fit in instead of drawn over and over again to save you time and energy. You could even use custom gradients or filters or something to more easily match colours and tones to different scenes. Aside from that, it's just time, patience, and work
this whole universe is so badass I've gone back and forth watching all your videos multiple times. In my opinion your style is so central to the identity of the world that I'd rather see fewer / shorter animatic videos of higher quality than a downgrade in the visuals. If a stylistic compromise is unavoidable however, I'd sacrifice a good amount of details long before I'd change the colouring. Your choices in light and shadows in particular are incredibly intriguing, especially in the witch burning scene. The process might be tedious, but god damn if it doesn't bring life to the work as a whole.
Gods… it’s hideous- but awesome! Honestly, I think all the rumours really downplayed them- absolutely incredible artwork and storytelling- but damn you, you’ve left me with more questions at the end than I had in the beginning! 😂
I just discovered your stuff literally an hour or so ago, and I'm blown away. The distinct UNIQUENESS of it all, the true originality, the joy and love of creating that sips thorugh every line, every word... I savour every second like a once-in-a-lifetime fine meal. Thank you so much for your amazing work and talent! It reminds me of my neglected love for fantasy, inspires me to draw more myself, and helps me distract myself from a shitty mental health episode - thank you!! - I personally think that the story plus Animatics is AMAZING, but you do you, I totally understand if it's too frustrating to make. Either way, I hope you keep creating your marvellous art! I am hungry for more & wish you all the best!
great storytelling, the mood was one point. Advise: you don't need to use color everywhere, just color the focal point one every panels. For exepte just color the fire and the burning witch. Also creat a small library of simple building and people to make quick copy/past
I hope this animatic style sticks around, but don't overwork yourself. If you do not keep it moving forward, nobody will blame you for it. Just do whatever you decide is best, excellent work as always, good job.
I do understand that animatcs take a long while, especially as an animator who takes hours just to make some proper boat, sails and wave movements, but god do I love the way you've done this. It sets a vibe which hits just the right spot of creepy, sad and enigmatic, which pulls me into the world and I love it. I hope to see more of this stuff, but if not possible, then I'll gladly watch what's next
I really appreciate the fact that you ask your audience for advice. Personally, I loved the whole thing. I know very little about drawing and the process you went through, but you can always decrease the amount of images that you make. This would still easily get the point across. I can't wait to see more!
I'm enjoying both formats but if it's easier for you then I enjoy animation as much as time lapse of you drawing witch hunter while explaining their lore or narrating other things about them
Something I’ve seen and done with animatics is do simple monochrome colour palettes with a colour that matches the mood of what your drawing, most colours will probably be diluted to make it easier on the eyes; sometimes though if your drawing fire or lighting in a house you might want to add a second colour usually opposite or at least different to the main colour (ex: dark mucky green as the main and a orange for a flame). Of course if you still want to do full colour I won’t stop you, especially since your colouring is so gorgeous. If you do like this idea I would suggest looking at Szin’s old Hamilton animatics or any musical animatics in general. (Also I love what you do and you make world building look like so much fun! :) )
Genuinely, I think you could save a lot of time for your animatics by limiting the shading to the more important scenes. Like when the door opened revealing the "witch" the shading would allow you to emphasize the frame, and give a much more impactful display. As well as doing single cuts for parts like the rats scurrying across the ground. A single frame held for the narration of that scene gets the same note across with less effort. And I'm sure I'm about to butcher this as I'm no artist, But I remember years ago when I went to my state history museum on a field trip in Elementary and looked at the paintings showing settling the frontier our tour guide talked about a concept of a visual triangle. From what I remember, which isn't much I'm afraid, was that many of these old painting had three areas that drew the eye directly them and and each area kind of pointed towards the others. Like a battle painting might have a commander raising a sword and the sword is pointed to a banner which is pointing towards a guy falling off his horse which has his foot pointing back to the commander. Having the same approach to each panel, where you have 3 points of interest all kind of guiding the eye to the other, and minimizing the detail outside of these points, reducing the shading to the most important animatics, should help cut the production time without compromising the quality. At least to my mind anyway!
I really like the animation but I also really enjoy watching the process of you drawing figures!! Dont burn yourself out and remember to take care of yourself!
I think the idea of animatics to convey this world is almost perfect, I personally loved this one already and was on the edge of my seat waiting for the door to open.
Custom brushes is my answer. Make custom brushes of each kind of tree you use a lot, groups of trees, crowds of people, mountains, et cetera. Anything can fit in multiple perspectives without skew. I speed paint a lot of comics, for my own amusement, and this is how I balance the flow of ideas and actually putting down in digital ink. I use Fire Alpaca and Krita. Krita is great at allowing you to bundle your brushes so you can quickly switch between sets. I have a tree set, a person set, mountain set, cloud set, blah blah blah. Once you have a rough in its pretty easy to customize the piece afterward toward your final goal.
This format really helps with the immersion. The last frame surprised me, and in a pleasant way. (I felt like I started imagining the look of the Witch Hunter in the same way the Narrator did, and that we were both surprised when we saw what he really looked like, but at the same time anticipating something horrifying.) A slideshow format with narration in the background would also have a similar effect, but I think that this method was even more immersive, fun and interesting Your excellent storytelling skills are also responsible for how interesting the Monster Garden is, but I think this animatic format just adds to the experience.
It looks amazing I would love to learn more about witches and the hunters and if the animatic is too much work I think it’s fine, we’re in it for the lore.
This is awesome I love the concept of the story seeking traveler because he’s exactly like us here looking to know more about this amazing world. This delivery system is incredible. Your other style of content where you explain details of the world while you show the process of drawing is also amazing to watch and listen to. I’m gonna hang on for the ride regardless.
The jumpscare is REAL man XD that was not who i expected to open that door. Video was super cool tho and the storytelling made it literally seem like you were - really - following a guy around to look for some mystery witch hunters. But i can imagine that its sooo much more work than what you usually do. The youtuber zee bashew had a series once, where he animated the journey of a few dnd characters who uncovered some sort of cult. Extreeeeemly cool story, beautiful art style, but he spend weeeks on these episodes (just for us to binge them in an hour or so). So yea, it really is a ton of work - but if you do it, its so so so worth it.
Please never stop making content, you're literally the biggest inspiration for the DnD world I'm building and running. Regardless of how hard it was to create, the atmosphere is beautiful and dramatic and I have a personal weakness for the eerie, almost lovecraftian mystery and the grotesque appearance of that character
time consuming as it may be, this is an amazing way to introduce things into the world you are building, like the witchhunters or maybe shorter videos about the different cities and how their history plays out. Having stuff like this to reference when for example making DND content for a campaign is such an incredible resource and really lets you into the world and how it all works. For inspiration this really is fantastic, i sincerely hope you find a different way to keep making similar content like this, its really damn good.
For me your unique ideas, the style of your world and your storytelling are the most inspiring. Your drawing skills are just the cherry on top that puts everything together! To me it feels like you think you have to change things up since suddenly so many more people are looking at your stuff. If you ask me you should only do what feels right and natural to you and not what you think is expected from the channel. You skyrocketed because the stuff you already did is awesome. No exhausting changes needed. Period. ;)
I did the animatic because I wanted to try it, it's beauce I wanted to explore more ways of expressing the stories. It has nothing to do with the pressure or anything i do the things I do because I want to. So don't worry, I'm not pressured
Wow, what a reveal! I loved the story. Well written and with building tension. I can definitely see how the art (equally amazing!) would take a very long time to get through. You don't have to do this amount of work for every video. It will probably just burn you out again. Better to save it for special occasions. Your art is fantastically well imagined and executed; that's why your channel has exploded recently. That's certainly what drew my attention. What I think works best about it is that you ground your work in detailed world-building so that every part of your art seems purposeful. That takes a crazy amount of work to accomplish, and I think that the hardest part in seeing through the project that you've set for yourself will be to manage the balance between the high standards you set and the amount of work that entails. Of course, it's also important not to get bored or discouraged, which brings the urge to drop it all like a hot rock and move on to something else. Do I detect a fellow ADHD soul? In any case, keep doing what makes you happy and don't feel the need to try to "live up" to the success that your channel has found. Your natural state is the reason for your success.
My man out here writing Lovecraft style horror. It even has the surprise abomination. Real killer. As for improving speed, most animators I've watched always talk about how long it takes to animate things. It just takes time.
Incredibly good storytelling. I love how deep your world feels and how many questions I want to ask and see answered through your work. I think that with practice you can definitely speed up the animatic process, finding shortcuts along the way. The amount of time and effort that is clearly put into this animatic and all of your other content demonstrates your passion for the Monstergarden as a whole and I think that your passion can take this project to insane levels. Your magic system video got me so invested and seeing something like this out of you now makes me so excited for future content, whatever it may be. Take your time with making more animatics. It seems like this one was a lot of stress, (even though it turned out so damn good) so maybe take some time to rest or do something different. That's all I can say really, I hope you continue to have fun making this insane world :)
Wow I'm loving this journey! the animatics option is a great way to go for the story telling but I also still love your normal approach, so I would say you should do a mix of your normal videos and sometimes videos like this one with animatics!
I really love this, but I also really love your video about how the magic system works, even though it is just one image being drawn. I feel like this style fits this particular story really well, but I feel that the style for the magic system video fit that really well too, so maybe a mix of a bunch of different styles depending on the video. I definitely feel as others have pointed out that putting less effort in the coloring might be good to save time. Many animatics might not even use color, or only use color during important scenes like the last image in this. The visuals are only really there to help the viewer better visualize what is going on.
Honestly, even tho it was time consuming I absolutely loved it, it makes you immersed in the world. Now, maybe drawing just the few key scenes and keeping the voice over together with some ambient sounds over a static backdrop could work. Obviously I much prefer the animated feel of this video but I think that the narrated entty gives it an radio feel, and I would love to see more of it. Keep up the great work man!
I forgot that this one had so many illustrations and was just listening. I only looked at the visuals when you started talking about how much work went into them. I will now rewatch.
Personally I like this style. Maybe have the traveler carry a log of his own, and make field-sketches from the travelers point of view, simple scratches in black and white when possible. Or as top comment stated: go simpler on the colouring on "transition" slides, and save detail for bigger setpieces (like the Hunter). Love this setting taking form!
I absolutely adore this type of storytelling. People always say when making stories, show not tell, and just dropping us in did an amazing job at that. But yes, things like this are VERY time consuming and difficult. As an animator I can relate to that issue A LOT, I can only imagine the pain of using your complex style instead of my simple one. Love your works
I think you uninteionally stumbled onto the best way to do it. Have less detailed sketches with a majority of the scenes and give a more detailed render to the parts of the story that hold more weight. The last frame is the most powerful here and having the general idea up until that part does the job, even if less effort is put into those. Love the switch to the journal entries along with the commentary at the end!
I dont know why on earth this is in my feed. HOWEVER im absolutely happy it is! This video was fantastic and i thoroughly enjoyed it! I hope you make more, despite the struggles and time required. Hopefully these will be slimmed down in some way.
I’d say to start building an asset library. That way, each successive video will get easier and easier. You can have backgrounds, skys, random crowds, characters, buildings etc that you can drag and drop to build a shot more quickly and then only add the necessary changes. This will obviously limit the style and complexity available to you, but it could be much quicker. Also, stylizing it a bit like a stage show or play would help immensely if you only need one perspective and you can reuse assets easily. It’s still a ton of work early on as you build the world and keep adding to it, but you can always go back and add story and fill in the world easily without having to draw everything by hand again.
Animatics are a *lot* of work, and it's no surprise that your first was more work than you expected. But like anything else, repetition leads to mastery. This was incredible for a first go, I'd love to see what your fifth, tenth, twentieth attempt looks like as you learn the craft. If you want to, of course. The learning curve is quite steep. But great work nonetheless!
I really like this! Maybe you could use some custom brushes to detail the pictures quicker, and color everything in grey and then use filters to add the complex-colored shading
I find it really interesting how transparent your voice is when it comes to emotion. Like you weren't even voice acting when talking about you're frustrations with how long everything took, yet I can perfectly tell how you felt just by listening to tone and the variations in your voice. I mean at some points it sounds like someone voicing a character thats on his way to madness, yet its just you talking about how something went.
E isso, eu amo esse canal demais!!!! Cada vídeo que se passa o conteúdo fica cada vez mais interessante e bem produzido. Pra mim é muito claro o futuro brilhante que isso vai ter independente do que ele venha ser. Mais um fã pra conta.
I just love how this style gives so much substance to the world. I think that you could cut down on the time it takes to make these by doing few keystone images (like the one at the end of this one) and then filling out the rest with more rough cut images. That way you can still show of your suberb style and if you get bored or pressed for time the keystones can still carry the story.
The mood and sound design was just perfect for this video. Just one suggestion would probably be to place the design / speed paint section at the start, kind of like the rat catcher video. It helps build up to the animatic and highlight parts worth noting.
I loved it. But if you need to make it quicker, you will have to Hire a team. Unless there is a way to get an AI to do it, you're going to need to hire someone to help out. I hope you're channel grows large enough that becomes possible. Your stuff is wonderfully engrossing.
I like this style of vid for storytelling, but i also really enjoy the other ones. There you really explain why the characters look like they do, as you are drawing them. If i could only have one type of video, i would pick your original style, but both are great 😊
The reveal at the end was so jaw dropping the build up and rumors of the witch hunters is so cool. You may think that the process is too time consuming, but like all great things time is a efficient resource for building great naratives. For mysteries like this its important to build up to a reveal to catch the viewer off guard. I feel if this was a normal concept art video it wouldn't be nearly as impactful or interesting as a gut punching reveal.
This animatic made it feel like The Stranger was telling me about the world from within the world. Your other lore videos feel more like you telling about all your cool ideas (which I also love).
I really love how the lore of this world comes across that a traveller has come to a far away land and is looking to learn and write down as much as possible in his time here, be it a sort of self-insert or not I really like this way of story telling. and with animatics, I think it's one of those things that you have to keep at and experiment with to get a better work flow with. Keep up the great work :)
If I'm honest I know how far off it seems but I genuinely think your best bet is to not necessarily scale back, but prepare to scale up. A Patreon could be great for letting you expand, taking the pressure off having to upload reliably, hire other artists who can colour storyboards perhaps, do some editing, get some other voice acting. This video was near perfect. I'd love to see more in the same style if you could find the strength. This quality of video once every month or two beats 3 videos a week of compromises.
This was exactly the bedtime story I needed after a long night of editing. I really hope we'll see more of the story of this nice horrific hunter. Fantastic video, I honestly think both your regular drawing+lore narration videos and this animatic style are great ways to expand the world. Maybe one animatic every once in a while inbetween the chill regular videos, as a special semi rare treat?
Развлечения
"Did the rats learn to knock?" spoken softly through a barn door was a great way to introduce a character.
Genuinely professional grade writing.
I'm now eager to hear why the witch hunters look so gnarly, and perhaps even more foul than the witches.
who knows, maybe the witches look even worse
maybe the platoon wasn’t actually wiped out, but they were cursed by witches to look like that
He who fights monsters...?
@@5ynthet1c I was thinking of that as well
Presumably mana-morphasis, and since I assume they live longer than the witches they hunt (or this one any way) they've had more time to change.
This may not be the advice you want to hear, but honestly- I think patience might be the best thing for this stuff. What I know for sure is that this was sick, it really elevates the storytelling, that being said the single drawings were also really fun and entertaining. As viewers we really appreciate the time and effort you put into these, and there’s no pressure from us to be efficient:)
the being efficient isn't for you guys. I know the limit of my patients for each project and I try to work with in that window of motivation I have.
@@monlenz create whatever you create and some people will like it and some won't. But you are creating something beutiful that noone else will ever create and that's amazing. I love your stuff personally and don't really care for either formats as long as you are creating and enjoying creation.
@@monlenz The scenes leading up to or between the main topic (The Witch Hunter) are just that (leads or stop-gaps), its not necessary for them to be detailed especially when they're on screen for a few seconds. For example the scene 27 seconds in with the witch burnings. Attention is drawn straight to the fire, everything else is cool and helps set the mood but is extra. A nice halfway measure would be ironically less detail-but more content, or atleast more time to spend on the main draw (Witch Hunter) that interests you. Also it serves to starkly contrast the main draw in much the same manner as you already did by going from the barn door to the fully drawn Witch Hunter. Either way great work man.
To add an example to what Dakar said, the Loading Screen Art of Guild wars 2 often uses that. The focal point is detailed, but everything else can fall off down to rough sketch level.
@@monlenz I agree with the OP, but I understand how you feel cuz I also work with similar tendency lol
Maybe try do what you can in the motivation timeframe you have and see how much/ how long you can make, then use it as framework
The conclusion maybe shorten the length (?)
The harsh truth is that an animatic like this will take a long ass time. The fact that some shows can come out weekly and still look great is honestly a miracle
Animated episodes of shows take more than a week to make, the episodes are just released weekly
@@Luekirt2insane how some people actually think that studios can make the whole episode in a week (not saying that original comment said that, just talking about some people)
@@Luekirt2 one piece?
@@gordon13344 there are still some of that do
@pukesquirt Southpark does that, they even made two alternative episodes for the 2016 US election
Babe wake up, new monster garden video
Yes dear....
Already here🫡
Basically.
I was awake before you dear, I was awake before the first dawn, before the stars, before you all…
Banger alert
I'm sorry this was so hard to make, but I think the choice to use animatics really improves the storytelling. We're not just being told about this world, we're being shown a snippet of the world playing out.
I really like this and I hope you do more of it.
Also the sound was so imersive
I personaly would be ok with the effort being allocated to less images. Something like the town and a carriage, barn and final shot
@@guilldea Absolutely! Good narration can carry stuff like this super far, especially if it's well written.
@@guilldea Longer still shots or and sliding shots (as in you zoom the image and slide through it) would be a lot less time-consuming.
@@guilldeaI agree, the style where he takes us “on the journey” of writing to be great, though this animatic is amazing. But they _are_ tine consuming, and what he’s done in the past is awesome already.
Whatever this dude finds to be his flow is whatever I will watch, so as long as he finds himself happy, I’m happy.
Damn "Did the rats learn how to knock?" line really sent shivers down my spine. Great job man!
for some reason "did the rats learnm to knock" was an incredibly hard hitting line that really set the tone for the witch hunters. And it made the reveal even more intense
That stinger at the end was simply chilling. Yet the personality of the hunter seems to be quite normal. I know you said this animatic was time consuming and stressful, but it was also brilliantly crafted and suspenful.
Amazing work all around.
I love this more animatic style for these lore subject videos. Personally I don't want to see the speed draw style go away completely either. Your talent for world building and illustration deserves to be recognized.
same I think he should do both, his normal speed drawing ones where he explains the designs and lore etc. and also sometimes the animatic ones
I think it would be nice to have one channel do animatic style and then a vods channel for Livestream and speed drawing videos.
3:04 that one frame in spongebob where animators would pour a quarter of their yearly budget to scare the ever living shit out of us
Just the line and delivery of " heh. Have the rats learned to knock? Who is it?" Is just so good.
The muffled, almost spine chilling voice of the Hunter behind the door was amazing. The music cuts out and all you hear is the rain.
It turned out really well, I think you could cut down production time by focusing less on color detail, other animatics just use a solid color for a whole object or character, and it gets the point across, especially here where to focus is more on the narration, and the images are just a tool to help the viewer imagine the world
@@edentheascended4952 just today he said on the stream he did on youtube to not think about him like that and that he is just a guy winging it. I think all suggestions that are well intended are welcome.
@@edentheascended4952 he literally asked for advice in this video
Just a thought he could draw a set of buildings, people, scenery, and tech that he could add instead of drawing from scratch. The problem is he will still have to shade it and size it
@@adolphinnamedinfernicus6520 yeah lmfao I was still in the middle of the story section when I wrote that. My bad bro.
@@qixip7276 yeah lmfao I was still in the middle of the story section when I wrote that. My bad
We subscribed because of the care and personal touch you put into your art and your world building. The animatic was fantastic, but don’t burn yourself out.
I agree. Your other videos are very good, and the world you're building is super cool
This animatic style was really cool! I don't think you have to make every single video like this, your previous ones where you've told stories over top the painting process work perfectly well, but it'd be awesome to have animatics like this every now and then like a special little dessert for the stories that need it!
That was so moody and immersive, testament of your great storytelling.
I really like the new animatic style, but obviously your convenience for this long project comes first!
The animation and the change in perspective just made this so much more interesting
Animation takes so so long but honestly you did incredibly good making this animatic. I also joined early on the boom of your channel but I see huge improvement on your content itself while learning about your fascinating world building. I find this style of video great but that absolutely does not mean you should only do videos like this which are time consuming. You can make them on special occasions/milestones, on when you have free time or when you feel the content of your world itself needs to be represented this way. So basically you don't have to stop making videos the way you used to make them just to continue having animatics. Peace upon your soul!✌️
This was excellent! I think having fewer panels and really focusing on the most important 4-5 images might be one way to cut down on time without compromising quality. For example, the soldiers at 0:20, the witch burning at 0:25, the panel of getting off the coach at 1:15 (LOVE this one btw, such a good image!), and the sequence from 2:26-3:05 feel like the most critical frames (maybe the trees at the start and the shot inside the coach too, but both of these could be tweaked and reused across multiple videos).
Obviously all the art is great, but I think the story would still be excellent and effective with only these select images.
Uuu... I thought I knew what would welcome them. Never thought of a witch hunter looking like that! Pure inspiration!
That contrast of the rather calm voice behind the door to the visual... well done!
The time has certainly paid off!! All the work you’ve obviously put in is showing off both your spine-tingling goosebump-provoking world building skills, as well as your gorgeously dark and gritty art style.
Understandable if you choose not to continue with animatics, but all of us viewers are hoping you do!
I don't think there's a way to cut down on production time without lowering the quality. At the end of the day you are doing a painting for almost every shot. That's animation brother, it takes time. Great work as always!!!
IMHO this would work better with emphasis on "painting" rather than "animation". You can cut down the number of pictures without losing anything significant, especially those just depicting village(rs).
1st of all, well done. Excellent job in using visual cues to set tone and add depth to the world building, love it.
In terms of improving efficiency, personally id be more happy with a few key images over a full on animatic. Your strength is in your detailed designs and creative world, let that shine through rather than chasing animation. However, if you do want to pursue animatics, have you considered building a library of assets over time, so its still your art but you can just drag and drop the trees rather than drawing them every time. Whatever you decide, we're here for it. ❤
I second this. Monstergarden's work has so far proved to be best in portraying intricately detailed characters and landscapes, and I think the priority should ultimately be on that, and let our imaginations fill in the spaces between.
this is a great suggestion!
just wrote a hamfisted (and kind of rude sounding) comment saying this but a lot less eloquently, haha! +1
@@mattcreighton2352 wordz b hard XD x
Even if it was a product of the circumstances, I actually loved the fact how the sketch style of all the previous images stood in contrast to the last one, which thus almost functioned as a kind of jumpscare.
I honestly liked how the animatic looked everywhere isnt too detailed the other people its like the traveler recalled a memory and the most striking things are detailed because that would be remembered the most out of everything
This was outstanding. Doing this style of narrative/perspective based story telling to show off your world is genius. The sound design was fantastic
Maybe focus less on trying to make it an animatic and more on 2-3 high quality pieces of art that you put the audio over top of.
As other people said I would be totally happy with less detailed black and white sketches as well. Maybe you could have one really important end frame that is more detailed and in color.
I think this sort of thing could work well as an inbetween thing, totally agree! I know animatics takes a long time, try to use as few images as you can, if what you prefer is to spend more time per image. Honestly, your writing (voiceover) and world is already enough to keep me watching, and your design style and choices are why i started watching! The POV story fit really well and are super entertaining, and i would not mind less drawings at all, especially if it makes it more fun to make!
I think you should put more SFXs on low volume whenever you show a scene that has like a fire burning or leaves rustling, it’ll add to the scene
Man, I don't know what I was expecting to open the door, but it wasn't _that_ . I love them!
Also, as everyone else has said, please take your time and don't burn yourself out. You're crafting a story you obviously care deeply about, and we want to learn more about it. Don't worry yourself about deadlines that only exist in your head, and don't let shame, guilt, or perfectionism fool you into thinking you need to kill yourself with your work, or rush it to completion. Everyone has their own workflow.
As far as animatics go, I love this one, and I'd like to see more. It's great at telling the story and getting you invested in the atmosphere of the world. That bit where the music cuts out after the Stranger knocks on the door is _beautiful_ !
I've no experience with animatics, so I can't offer fantastic advice, but you could maybe try a library of re-useable base/stock images? Like the Stranger from multiple angles, a few Ram houses, some sky lines, etc. Things that could be dragged and dropped into a scene and quickly tweaked to fit in instead of drawn over and over again to save you time and energy. You could even use custom gradients or filters or something to more easily match colours and tones to different scenes. Aside from that, it's just time, patience, and work
How strange, that you can make a creature with the face of a rotting bird look inviting
this whole universe is so badass I've gone back and forth watching all your videos multiple times. In my opinion your style is so central to the identity of the world that I'd rather see fewer / shorter animatic videos of higher quality than a downgrade in the visuals. If a stylistic compromise is unavoidable however, I'd sacrifice a good amount of details long before I'd change the colouring. Your choices in light and shadows in particular are incredibly intriguing, especially in the witch burning scene. The process might be tedious, but god damn if it doesn't bring life to the work as a whole.
Gods… it’s hideous- but awesome! Honestly, I think all the rumours really downplayed them- absolutely incredible artwork and storytelling- but damn you, you’ve left me with more questions at the end than I had in the beginning! 😂
The sudden reveal of his face followed by the softest and most inviting "Come in" instantly makes him adorable.
I just discovered your stuff literally an hour or so ago, and I'm blown away. The distinct UNIQUENESS of it all, the true originality, the joy and love of creating that sips thorugh every line, every word... I savour every second like a once-in-a-lifetime fine meal. Thank you so much for your amazing work and talent! It reminds me of my neglected love for fantasy, inspires me to draw more myself, and helps me distract myself from a shitty mental health episode - thank you!! - I personally think that the story plus Animatics is AMAZING, but you do you, I totally understand if it's too frustrating to make. Either way, I hope you keep creating your marvellous art! I am hungry for more & wish you all the best!
great storytelling, the mood was one point. Advise: you don't need to use color everywhere, just color the focal point one every panels. For exepte just color the fire and the burning witch.
Also creat a small library of simple building and people to make quick copy/past
I hope this animatic style sticks around, but don't overwork yourself. If you do not keep it moving forward, nobody will blame you for it. Just do whatever you decide is best, excellent work as always, good job.
That door knocking sound is insane with headphones on. I jumped thinking someone was at my door, then had to play it back.
I do understand that animatcs take a long while, especially as an animator who takes hours just to make some proper boat, sails and wave movements, but god do I love the way you've done this. It sets a vibe which hits just the right spot of creepy, sad and enigmatic, which pulls me into the world and I love it. I hope to see more of this stuff, but if not possible, then I'll gladly watch what's next
This is incredible. I love the world building. The Witch Hunter definitely caught me off guard. Nice. Your story telling is fantastic.
I really appreciate the fact that you ask your audience for advice. Personally, I loved the whole thing. I know very little about drawing and the process you went through, but you can always decrease the amount of images that you make. This would still easily get the point across. I can't wait to see more!
I'm enjoying both formats but if it's easier for you then I enjoy animation as much as time lapse of you drawing witch hunter while explaining their lore or narrating other things about them
Something I’ve seen and done with animatics is do simple monochrome colour palettes with a colour that matches the mood of what your drawing, most colours will probably be diluted to make it easier on the eyes; sometimes though if your drawing fire or lighting in a house you might want to add a second colour usually opposite or at least different to the main colour (ex: dark mucky green as the main and a orange for a flame). Of course if you still want to do full colour I won’t stop you, especially since your colouring is so gorgeous. If you do like this idea I would suggest looking at Szin’s old Hamilton animatics or any musical animatics in general. (Also I love what you do and you make world building look like so much fun! :) )
OOOOOO, Great way to start my week off!!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOO BOYS!!!!
Genuinely, I think you could save a lot of time for your animatics by limiting the shading to the more important scenes. Like when the door opened revealing the "witch" the shading would allow you to emphasize the frame, and give a much more impactful display. As well as doing single cuts for parts like the rats scurrying across the ground. A single frame held for the narration of that scene gets the same note across with less effort.
And I'm sure I'm about to butcher this as I'm no artist, But I remember years ago when I went to my state history museum on a field trip in Elementary and looked at the paintings showing settling the frontier our tour guide talked about a concept of a visual triangle. From what I remember, which isn't much I'm afraid, was that many of these old painting had three areas that drew the eye directly them and and each area kind of pointed towards the others. Like a battle painting might have a commander raising a sword and the sword is pointed to a banner which is pointing towards a guy falling off his horse which has his foot pointing back to the commander. Having the same approach to each panel, where you have 3 points of interest all kind of guiding the eye to the other, and minimizing the detail outside of these points, reducing the shading to the most important animatics, should help cut the production time without compromising the quality. At least to my mind anyway!
I really like the animation but I also really enjoy watching the process of you drawing figures!! Dont burn yourself out and remember to take care of yourself!
I think the idea of animatics to convey this world is almost perfect, I personally loved this one already and was on the edge of my seat waiting for the door to open.
Monster garden may not be pregnant, but he never fails to deliver!!!
This is so awesome, I love the narration, the atmosphere, all of it! Had me hooked the whole way through!
Dude, you've inspired me to put out my own stuff. Great work as always.
Custom brushes is my answer. Make custom brushes of each kind of tree you use a lot, groups of trees, crowds of people, mountains, et cetera. Anything can fit in multiple perspectives without skew. I speed paint a lot of comics, for my own amusement, and this is how I balance the flow of ideas and actually putting down in digital ink.
I use Fire Alpaca and Krita. Krita is great at allowing you to bundle your brushes so you can quickly switch between sets. I have a tree set, a person set, mountain set, cloud set, blah blah blah.
Once you have a rough in its pretty easy to customize the piece afterward toward your final goal.
This format really helps with the immersion. The last frame surprised me, and in a pleasant way. (I felt like I started imagining the look of the Witch Hunter in the same way the Narrator did, and that we were both surprised when we saw what he really looked like, but at the same time anticipating something horrifying.)
A slideshow format with narration in the background would also have a similar effect, but I think that this method was even more immersive, fun and interesting
Your excellent storytelling skills are also responsible for how interesting the Monster Garden is, but I think this animatic format just adds to the experience.
It looks amazing I would love to learn more about witches and the hunters and if the animatic is too much work I think it’s fine, we’re in it for the lore.
This is awesome I love the concept of the story seeking traveler because he’s exactly like us here looking to know more about this amazing world. This delivery system is incredible.
Your other style of content where you explain details of the world while you show the process of drawing is also amazing to watch and listen to. I’m gonna hang on for the ride regardless.
The jumpscare is REAL man XD that was not who i expected to open that door.
Video was super cool tho and the storytelling made it literally seem like you were - really - following a guy around to look for some mystery witch hunters. But i can imagine that its sooo much more work than what you usually do. The youtuber zee bashew had a series once, where he animated the journey of a few dnd characters who uncovered some sort of cult.
Extreeeeemly cool story, beautiful art style, but he spend weeeks on these episodes (just for us to binge them in an hour or so).
So yea, it really is a ton of work - but if you do it, its so so so worth it.
Please never stop making content, you're literally the biggest inspiration for the DnD world I'm building and running. Regardless of how hard it was to create, the atmosphere is beautiful and dramatic and I have a personal weakness for the eerie, almost lovecraftian mystery and the grotesque appearance of that character
Keep up the good work man - super inspired to flesh out my own setting!!
time consuming as it may be, this is an amazing way to introduce things into the world you are building, like the witchhunters or maybe shorter videos about the different cities and how their history plays out. Having stuff like this to reference when for example making DND content for a campaign is such an incredible resource and really lets you into the world and how it all works. For inspiration this really is fantastic, i sincerely hope you find a different way to keep making similar content like this, its really damn good.
From an animator: This animatic is awesome!
For me your unique ideas, the style of your world and your storytelling are the most inspiring. Your drawing skills are just the cherry on top that puts everything together! To me it feels like you think you have to change things up since suddenly so many more people are looking at your stuff. If you ask me you should only do what feels right and natural to you and not what you think is expected from the channel. You skyrocketed because the stuff you already did is awesome. No exhausting changes needed. Period. ;)
I did the animatic because I wanted to try it, it's beauce I wanted to explore more ways of expressing the stories. It has nothing to do with the pressure or anything i do the things I do because I want to. So don't worry, I'm not pressured
@@monlenz Cool. :D In this case I can only gratulate to an other great video. I love the Stranger as a lense for lore! Great job!!!
Wow, what a reveal! I loved the story. Well written and with building tension. I can definitely see how the art (equally amazing!) would take a very long time to get through. You don't have to do this amount of work for every video. It will probably just burn you out again. Better to save it for special occasions.
Your art is fantastically well imagined and executed; that's why your channel has exploded recently. That's certainly what drew my attention. What I think works best about it is that you ground your work in detailed world-building so that every part of your art seems purposeful. That takes a crazy amount of work to accomplish, and I think that the hardest part in seeing through the project that you've set for yourself will be to manage the balance between the high standards you set and the amount of work that entails. Of course, it's also important not to get bored or discouraged, which brings the urge to drop it all like a hot rock and move on to something else. Do I detect a fellow ADHD soul? In any case, keep doing what makes you happy and don't feel the need to try to "live up" to the success that your channel has found. Your natural state is the reason for your success.
Let's goooo, new Monstergarden lore :)
Always love the idea of witch-hunters that have to bear a thousand curses. Adds a tragedy to it all
My man out here writing Lovecraft style horror. It even has the surprise abomination. Real killer.
As for improving speed, most animators I've watched always talk about how long it takes to animate things. It just takes time.
Incredibly good storytelling. I love how deep your world feels and how many questions I want to ask and see answered through your work. I think that with practice you can definitely speed up the animatic process, finding shortcuts along the way. The amount of time and effort that is clearly put into this animatic and all of your other content demonstrates your passion for the Monstergarden as a whole and I think that your passion can take this project to insane levels. Your magic system video got me so invested and seeing something like this out of you now makes me so excited for future content, whatever it may be. Take your time with making more animatics. It seems like this one was a lot of stress, (even though it turned out so damn good) so maybe take some time to rest or do something different. That's all I can say really, I hope you continue to have fun making this insane world :)
Wow I'm loving this journey! the animatics option is a great way to go for the story telling but I also still love your normal approach, so I would say you should do a mix of your normal videos and sometimes videos like this one with animatics!
"More than a coincidence of rats" is such a good sentence.
as long as it may take, this type of storytelling really helps show the vibe of the world, and i love it
I really love this, but I also really love your video about how the magic system works, even though it is just one image being drawn. I feel like this style fits this particular story really well, but I feel that the style for the magic system video fit that really well too, so maybe a mix of a bunch of different styles depending on the video. I definitely feel as others have pointed out that putting less effort in the coloring might be good to save time. Many animatics might not even use color, or only use color during important scenes like the last image in this. The visuals are only really there to help the viewer better visualize what is going on.
Honestly, even tho it was time consuming I absolutely loved it, it makes you immersed in the world.
Now, maybe drawing just the few key scenes and keeping the voice over together with some ambient sounds over a static backdrop could work. Obviously I much prefer the animated feel of this video but I think that the narrated entty gives it an radio feel, and I would love to see more of it.
Keep up the great work man!
I forgot that this one had so many illustrations and was just listening. I only looked at the visuals when you started talking about how much work went into them. I will now rewatch.
Personally I like this style. Maybe have the traveler carry a log of his own, and make field-sketches from the travelers point of view, simple scratches in black and white when possible.
Or as top comment stated: go simpler on the colouring on "transition" slides, and save detail for bigger setpieces (like the Hunter). Love this setting taking form!
Wow, the final reveal of the witch hunters face. The whole lead up. Your story telling and art style is awesome
I absolutely adore this type of storytelling. People always say when making stories, show not tell, and just dropping us in did an amazing job at that. But yes, things like this are VERY time consuming and difficult. As an animator I can relate to that issue A LOT, I can only imagine the pain of using your complex style instead of my simple one. Love your works
I think you uninteionally stumbled onto the best way to do it. Have less detailed sketches with a majority of the scenes and give a more detailed render to the parts of the story that hold more weight. The last frame is the most powerful here and having the general idea up until that part does the job, even if less effort is put into those.
Love the switch to the journal entries along with the commentary at the end!
I dont know why on earth this is in my feed. HOWEVER im absolutely happy it is! This video was fantastic and i thoroughly enjoyed it! I hope you make more, despite the struggles and time required. Hopefully these will be slimmed down in some way.
If you end up, never making something like this again, that’s fine. This is a masterpiece by itself. Congratulations.🎉
Crazy detail, love your work can’t wait to see more
I’d say to start building an asset library. That way, each successive video will get easier and easier. You can have backgrounds, skys, random crowds, characters, buildings etc that you can drag and drop to build a shot more quickly and then only add the necessary changes.
This will obviously limit the style and complexity available to you, but it could be much quicker. Also, stylizing it a bit like a stage show or play would help immensely if you only need one perspective and you can reuse assets easily.
It’s still a ton of work early on as you build the world and keep adding to it, but you can always go back and add story and fill in the world easily without having to draw everything by hand again.
Animatics are a *lot* of work, and it's no surprise that your first was more work than you expected. But like anything else, repetition leads to mastery. This was incredible for a first go, I'd love to see what your fifth, tenth, twentieth attempt looks like as you learn the craft. If you want to, of course. The learning curve is quite steep. But great work nonetheless!
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Great pacing & storytelling, the visuals work very well
I really like this! Maybe you could use some custom brushes to detail the pictures quicker, and color everything in grey and then use filters to add the complex-colored shading
I'm absolutely in love with the design and lore of these Hunters. More please!
I find it really interesting how transparent your voice is when it comes to emotion. Like you weren't even voice acting when talking about you're frustrations with how long everything took, yet I can perfectly tell how you felt just by listening to tone and the variations in your voice.
I mean at some points it sounds like someone voicing a character thats on his way to madness, yet its just you talking about how something went.
E isso, eu amo esse canal demais!!!! Cada vídeo que se passa o conteúdo fica cada vez mais interessante e bem produzido. Pra mim é muito claro o futuro brilhante que isso vai ter independente do que ele venha ser. Mais um fã pra conta.
Love the worldbuilding
I just love how this style gives so much substance to the world. I think that you could cut down on the time it takes to make these by doing few keystone images (like the one at the end of this one) and then filling out the rest with more rough cut images. That way you can still show of your suberb style and if you get bored or pressed for time the keystones can still carry the story.
The mood and sound design was just perfect for this video. Just one suggestion would probably be to place the design / speed paint section at the start, kind of like the rat catcher video. It helps build up to the animatic and highlight parts worth noting.
I loved it. But if you need to make it quicker, you will have to Hire a team. Unless there is a way to get an AI to do it, you're going to need to hire someone to help out.
I hope you're channel grows large enough that becomes possible. Your stuff is wonderfully engrossing.
I like this style of vid for storytelling, but i also really enjoy the other ones. There you really explain why the characters look like they do, as you are drawing them. If i could only have one type of video, i would pick your original style, but both are great 😊
The reveal at the end was so jaw dropping the build up and rumors of the witch hunters is so cool. You may think that the process is too time consuming, but like all great things time is a efficient resource for building great naratives. For mysteries like this its important to build up to a reveal to catch the viewer off guard. I feel if this was a normal concept art video it wouldn't be nearly as impactful or interesting as a gut punching reveal.
This animatic made it feel like The Stranger was telling me about the world from within the world. Your other lore videos feel more like you telling about all your cool ideas (which I also love).
Absolutely love your videos, keep it up!
god i LOVE this
I really love how the lore of this world comes across that a traveller has come to a far away land and is looking to learn and write down as much as possible in his time here, be it a sort of self-insert or not I really like this way of story telling.
and with animatics, I think it's one of those things that you have to keep at and experiment with to get a better work flow with.
Keep up the great work :)
The voice of the Witch Hunter game such a nice Bloodborne vibe! I hope this becomes a trend
Love your work!
If I'm honest I know how far off it seems but I genuinely think your best bet is to not necessarily scale back, but prepare to scale up. A Patreon could be great for letting you expand, taking the pressure off having to upload reliably, hire other artists who can colour storyboards perhaps, do some editing, get some other voice acting. This video was near perfect. I'd love to see more in the same style if you could find the strength.
This quality of video once every month or two beats 3 videos a week of compromises.
Definitely for the best to handle the most important panel first, seeing the witch hunter fully rendered was very impactful
This was exactly the bedtime story I needed after a long night of editing.
I really hope we'll see more of the story of this nice horrific hunter.
Fantastic video, I honestly think both your regular drawing+lore narration videos and this animatic style are great ways to expand the world. Maybe one animatic every once in a while inbetween the chill regular videos, as a special semi rare treat?