Godzilla Fan Animation Thing 1 -- Kaiju in Town | #godzilla #animation #blender #kaiju #parody

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My first Godzilla animation that I began in early 2015 and many of my subscribers have been waiting for… is partially here.

Where to even begin? The idea for this goes back to the late 2000s, when I imagined what if I had my own cartoon, and what if it had a crossover with the Godzilla franchise. This played out in my head for years until I decided to go ahead and just make it. Over time, that idea changed. For one, I decided to remove my characters and focus on the kaiju.
The core idea was a basic spoof about some of the main Godzilla monsters with references to the classic films. I think the proper way to approach this animation is to imagine it’s still 2008. Gaudy animated spoofs are making the rounds online and the Godzilla franchise is in a “Dark Age” between the Millennium and the MonsterVerse/Reiwa era. My initial idea was mostly an amalgamation of all the tired stereotypes and fandom in-jokes of that period. I decided to title it “Animation Thing” because it sure isn’t a “film”. I might be old fashioned, but I like to think a proper film has things like structure and narrative coherence.

The reason it took 9 and a half years to upload this is simple. My old computer died in 2012 and I had to work with whatever replacements I could get. Imagine really busted up, early 2000s home PCs that could barely run internet browsers. Sometimes when rendering a video, I had to open the computer casing and blow on the insides with my mouth to stop them overheating and crashing.
Between then and now, I did video and sound editing with incomplete test renders and had three other computers die on me until I finally got a better PC in 2019. By that point I was so tired that I shifted my attention to other projects. This animation has mostly been left without progress in 2021.

There was also a huge shift in my approach in late 2015 while writing my university thesis on the messages of Godzilla movies. Access to most scholarly kaiju literature was limited, but I read books like Steve Ryfle’s "Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star" and David Kalat’s "A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series", essay collections like "In Godzilla’s Footsteps" and some extreeemely scarce Hungarian analysis on the kaiju genre, all of which looked for deeper meanings in the films. This me reconsider the animation and I began to look for ways to insert themes and have the kaiju represent real-life concepts rather than just being goofballs.
Kalat’s essay on Godzilla vs. Gigan caught my attention, which argued the film contains elements that could possibly be viewed as a sort of self-reflective meta commentary on the state of the kaiju genre in the early 70s. While I’m not convinced the film makers had such intentions, the essay did inspire me. Thankfully, the characterization of most kaiju already lined up perfectly with the roles I developed for them later on. For example, the evil kaiju represent negative aspects of film-making that have long plagued the Godzilla brand.
They are not perfect, clear-cut metaphors, but they do conform to the animation's main thesis: it’s commendable to infuse even simpler films with some thematic relevance. It's not much, but it's at least something.

I originally animated a different opening scene from the perspective of a human, who would return at the end to bookend the story. Later, I decided to leave out any original characters and put the spotlight entirely on the kaiju, but keep setting and goofy tone. This explains why the beginning of the video is so choppy. I had to remove and reanimate parts of it.
At first, I made the kaiju look rough on purpose. The idea was that they're sentient special effects living in a somewhat more “realistic” world. Since I couldn’t make the environments look lifelike, I made the monsters look deliberately faker, using different shading methods for their textures to make them stand out from their surroundings. You can see this in the previews I have uploaded in past years. Ultimately, I backtracked on this idea, which meant that I had to readjust the textures on each and every element on all the characters and even update the environments.
The early parts of this video that I made in 2015 had abhorrently ropey animation. In many shots, characters were frozen or didn’t emote, or they clipped into the scenery. While most of the animation was kept as is, I fixed up whatever I could and added new shots.
Currently, the animation is split between 13 Blender files, which all need to be updated similarly. This also explains some continuity errors you may spot. And the animation has no ending. So far, it’s about an hour and 20 minutes long, but I had ideas for at least 40 more minutes. In retrospect, I realize that’s ridiculous. So if I ever finish up the animation, I will have to cut down on my ideas. There are lots of creative scenarios I envisioned that I’d like to keep, but I can make no promises.

[Vrahno]

This is mostly an extended and better version of youtu.be/I1cS0H29QHI
The reason for Part 1's short runtime is simple, some of the following scenes have incomplete animation that will take more time to finish. So I cut this part off rather early. If you already want to see what comes next, it's this scene: youtu.be/T0eEZrMbUBI This will also be re-rendered in the style of this video.

Since it didn't fit into the description, I want to apologize here for some of the animation's eye sores and goofs. I know there are jagged, pixelated outlines around the characters but rendering the video like this was *much* faster. You might notice that the number of spikes on Ghidorah's neck changes in the video's second half because the earliest shots used a different model than the rest of the animation. I just wanted to get this animation out quickly. It's been 9 years in the making, there's bound to be some errors that I missed.
I've often thought of scrapping the entire project and never finishing it for public viewing. In my head, everything in the animation felt like something out of the past that I had moved on from long ago. But every time I rewatched it, there were always at least a few things that I liked. This video is only 7 minutes long but there's over an hour of further scenes that I have not yet published. I'd say among all of that, there's at least 5-10 minutes of decent content. So even though I might not like most of the animation, I think it's worth sharing those at least. Even if we all will have to wait longer for it.

[chadgorosaurus]

It's been 6 years, but it's finally coming. Peak is finally here.

[Coleyoshi]

You need to stop being so hard on yourself, these videos are some of the coolest, funniest, and most creative Godzilla videos. Who cares if some things look off, we’d be happy to get anything from you.

[Robo_goji]

Ghidorah having piano wires to move his necks are spot on

[Z-]

Please keep up the amazing work! These interpretations of my favorite fictitious characters give me so much joy. You've become my favorite Godzilla content creator and I want to support you in any way I can.

[mattugoji]

"Godzilla Fan Animation Thing, that's a name I haven't heard in years"

[TheBionicle]

I really love the scene with Gorosaurus and Baragon all relaxed on the beach, that was SUPER CUTE!!! Also, I happen to really like Zilla's predecessors. Especially the one from the animated series was wonderful!

[Lordodragonss]

You are one of the coolest animators of the internet! Keep up good work!

[C-Farsene_]

We got Vrahno's old animations being finished before GTA VI

[radzilla]

4:46 Dude! Just noticed the wires holding up his necks, your attention to detail with these is immaculate. Obviously bonus points wheneve ya refrence skelaturtle

[TheStevenotley]

The Baddie intro sequence is pure perfection. They all look beyond fantastic, their perfect Showa selves, and even considering the cartoony, silly aesthetic that pasted-in play-reverse-play explosion for Gigan's entrance, followed by that hard zoom in on his face and his screech, makes him look truly powerful and scary. OUTSTANDING STUFF!!!

[TheKaijuKing]

OMG! Ok, it’s happening! Everybody stay calm! Everybody stay calm!

[KeenEyeStudios]

“Know that I have faith in you, b*tch.”

I can’t exactly describe why, but I love this line.

[rexyjp]

1:17 lmao the mothra larva getting hit by godzilla's tail.

[GojimusPrime]

Idk why but at 1:35 I was expecting the camera to pan down while the camera man starts coughing uncontrollably when Hedorah flies by.

[HBtheLeezard]

It's been six damn years until we see this masterpiece!!!

[jamescousins]

The first 2:30 are basically the opening cutscene of a Pipeworks game set in the early Godzilla movies. I love it.

[liopleurodon]

OH HELL YEAH! it's so awesome seeing this old classic again. who cares about the little imperfections, it's still peak regardless

[Gojigaming]

I like how there is little strings above the characters cool attention to detail and the little skeleturtle was fire

[loganfury]

I hope you don't ever think that a single detail goes unnoticed or a description unread, I love seeing all of your thoughts and feelings on your work, I hold an extremely high opinion of your channel it is probably my favorite Youtube Channel period. I literally rewatch your old videos over and over again whenever Im feeling down or uninspired, and as ive commented before I am CONSTANTLY noticing new stuff that you put in that blows my mind how densely packed the animation is, or how constant and deep cut the kaiju references are. I truly believe you get better with every single project but to me the most exciting part of that was always from when I first found you making this and knew that even though this is already really, really, really good that you were only going to get better and I am pretty much blown away every time you release a new video. Everytime you upload it makes my day.