I have slaked my need, at least for now, to voice my opinions, comments, questions, observations, and so forth into essay format. However, I still feel a desire to create something to make use of my creative energies stirred by Sluggy Freelance. Thus, it is my desire to create a Macromedia Flash movie - a 'fan film' if you will - relating some epic occurance in the story.

I have relatively little skill in Flash when compared to some of it's most renowned artists and animators, but then, I have a keen desire to sharpen my abilities as well as a desire to portray the characters and setting of Sluggy Freelance. Since, however, it is not my creative property, it is of course only right to ask Peter first - even if I have no intent to market or otherwise take credit for his creations. In effect, I hope to create what amounts to another fan-art-style entry for this site. I was, however, unsure just what to do now that I have comitted to this idea.

In other words, I want to make this movie, but I am unsure how to ask Peter about it. Should I e-mail? Does fan-art even require permission, if it is to be submitted simply through the already-available submission system? I am aware that by being overly cautious I might inadvertedly bother those whom are already busy with the comic, but then again, it would be all the more damaging to leap straight into making a fan movie only to learn afterwards that I had violated some sort of guidline or personal request.

Should this idea be permitted, my second question would be with regards to concept. The original idea struck as I wrote about upcominc epic conflicts in Sluggy Freelance to the accompanyment of the song 'Until the End Of The World' by U2 - I imagined that final, glorious battle between the forces of light and dark, a battle riddled with personal vendettas and a staggering history to it, and was struck with the desire to animate it. If it would be all right, then I would wish to create a flash set to that musical accompanyment and painting an imagined 'what if?' of that battle.

After confirmation, I would need no further input nor assistance, I just wanted to be assured beforehand wether or not the creation of any such film would be all right, as it is the right of a creator to control their own creative output.

Any thoughts or answers would be much appreciated, thank you.

Pete. It's Pete. I hate when people call him Peter, even if it may be his real name.



No, fanart does not require permission, of course. are there are many sluggy related animation files there. But by the sounds of it your idea would be over a meg, and therefore would need to be hoseted somewhere awat from the fansite.
If you would like to ask for Pete's permission then I would suggest you messege Thyla. As Pete's assistant she'd most likely be the one to OK it or not.

Also, If I were you I'd messege here. If this turns out like a large full story flash file I'm sure Pete would like to be able to have his say on it.

I may be wrong.

To be honest, I was never sure if it should be Pete or Peter, so I was just switching between the two at random.

Anyways, so you reccomend messaging Thyla about it? All right then, I will. Thank you.

You may be waiting a while, though. Pete gets a lot of mail and it can take him a long time to reply to e-mails (I'm still waiting for a reply regarding my Sluggy project)

Which is why I suggested asking Thyla. She's always replied to my mails (Alot of them) in less then a day and Pete has too many users messaging him about nothing in particular it's likely to get lost if you ask him directly.

It's Pete ;)

And yes, I'm quicker on the email because I'm not flooded under by fanmail. People email me when they need a response, or when something's wrong, so I don't have, you know, mountains of praise to dig through in my daily journey through my inbox.

*sniffle*

I've never sent Pete a praise E-mail. I'm still waiting to be popular with Thyla to get a personal invite. *hint, hint*

Aw, Thyla, I'm sure everyone appreciates how much you do around here too. Imagine what a state Sluggy Freelance would be without you - if it would even be here at all, for all we know?

Either way, I would like to state officialy praise to you for your ongoing dedication and contribution. Good work, I say!

Oh, and I would like to state I have begun my projected work on a fan flash film.

Although I have run into a slight snag (I've been having difficulties coaxing musical accompanyment into Flash, but I'll get it eventually) otherwise all is progressing well. It is to be a battle of good versus evil, as an excuse to animate Sluggy Freelance's characters in battle. Set to the backing of 'Until the End of the World' by U2, an invasion from the dimension of Pain must be stopped and the Demon king defeated. Not only does that allow me to put in most of the main characters, but also - since the Goddess has various divine powers, perhaps even over the dead - a chance to use many dead secondary characters, such as Bert, through the magic of the afterlife.

Anyways, I'm only about twenty seconds in so far, it's difficult to start a new project since you have to create a character model for each character, and there are quite a few, but it is progressing well, and I have confidence that I should be able to complete the project. I will, however, set no deadlines. It is fun, however.

Wouldn't that be a breach of copyright?

Also don't double-post, use the edit button.

Other than that, it sounds good.

Oh, I apologize. The forum I am most accustomed to only allows for edits for one half hour after the post, I will be sure to keep the rule in mind when posting here.

As for the copyright thing... hm... you know, I guess I'd never thought too much about it. There are countless flash movies, many of them making use of songs, I was under the impression it followed much the same guidelines as parody. Failing that, it's not quite like I am preparing this for any mass-distrubtion, or even an open-source as of now. It is more an exercise of Flash then anything else.

Are you just doing speech/thought bubbles, or will you have actual voices...?

And in the spirit of Sluggy, I reccommend including a few well placed jokes (painful puns ).

Well, it was my intent to have it set to music in it's entirety (I know no good voice actors anyways), and to sprinkle gently a few visual gags but to keep it more focused on the main concept to keep it relatively simple.

For hosting, think of newgrounds.com

If it's a flash under a certain size and it's cool they'll always host it as long as it stays real cool.

Thank you for the tip, it might certainly be an option if I can withstand the cruel beatings rained down upon the critical critics that reside therin.