Old Is The New “New”

Aug 10, 2022 | phungus & mowld

Two years after its release, I decided to watch the pilot episode of Phungus & Mowld again. Although had fixed some of the animations in the first scenes when I was close to completing the episode (because I learned so much by that time) I still found them quite lacking this time around. So, I decided to tweak the initial scenes of the episode. Again.

To the untrained eye it’s probably not going to make a huge difference, and I only tweaked the scenes before the getaway from the Infinity Beach Bar. I just wanted to make sure that the pilot wouldn’t leave an all too amateurish first impression, so people give the other episodes a “second chance”. And while I was at it I also updated the Emperor Zaggerty Fong with the latest animatable rig that I created for episode 3 where he actually gets to talk. All in the name of consistency.

Voices, Schmoices

Ideally I should re-narrate most of the dialog of the first episode, too. Back then I still used voice changers for both, Phungus & Mowld’s voice (you might have noticed Mowld’s voice is significantly lower in the pilot). From episode 2 onwards I decided to only use the pitch shifter on Phungus voice to raise it ever so slightly, and do all the other voices 100% myself with no voice altering tricks.

On top of that I really feel I hadn’t found the voices for either character yet. So many parts of the dialog are ‘just recited’ instead of me acting the part fully. I’m afraid I had to leave that as it was, though, because re-synchronizing is beyond my powers as a humble voice actor padawan.

Two For The Price of None!

Screwing up your previous work is an ancient tradition of independent filmmakers, that started with none other than George Lucas himself. Accordingly, I couldn’t just leave it at the pilot, I also had to tweak episode two. I didn’t add any CGI monsters, all I did was cut out some short pieces of superfluous dialogue that I could get away with, to tighten the episode a little. It was (and still is) dragging in a few places – I couldn’t fix all of them, but I think it’s an improvement, albeit a marginal one. So the new episode two is now roughly one minute shorter.

I have replaced these two episodes on all streaming platforms (Vimeo, Amazon Prime, Pzaz TV, Trickfilm) as well as the downloadable versions (Pixelblast shop, Gumroad). Please note that publishing on Amazon Prime can take a few days, so right now the video hasn’t yet been updated. Also on Pzaz TV it could take a week or so until they’ve replaced the video.

If you have purchased a downloadable digital file and would like to get the updated version(s), too, please let me know via the contact form on this site, or DM me on Twitter, I will send you links to download the updated files.

Where to get it?


Episode Three…?

The cold open is done. This one ends with a joke and the title theme cuts in just at the perfect timing. I can’t help the feeling I have actually improved my skill, after doing this for three years (about time!). But there are still so many backgrounds I haven’t prepared yet… rest assured that the fist 3:48 minutes of a 21-minute-episode are in the can, though!

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