TIE Fighters Take Center Stage in Ambitious “Star Wars” Animated Fan Film Alex Gerage, March 25, 2015April 1, 2015 Star Wars never really left our collective consciousness, but with Disney’s long-anticipated feature film plans finally coming to fruition, the Saga is about to come back in a big way. One consequence of the renewed interest in the franchise is that many fans will likely seek to develop their own Star Wars fan films. Animator Paul Johnson recently finished his, and it is one of the best I’ve seen in years. Watch Star Wars: TIE Fighter after the jump.Johnson spent “over 4 years’ worth of weekends” drawing and animating the film, which chronicles an epic space battle between TIE Fighters and X-wing starfighters in a style that pays homage to popular anime cartoons of the 1980s. The result is a thrilling animated short presented from a unique perspective Star Wars fans are normally not privy to: the Empire’s fighter pilots. Watch it below:What if there was an Empire-focused short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that’s all but vanished from Japan nowadays? Well, I tried my best. Apologies in advance for not living up to Venus Wars standards. Drawn and animated by yours truly over 4 years’ worth of weekends, with music by the living guitar solo Zak Rahman and sound design by up and coming audio technician Joseph Leyva. Fans of Lucasarts’ seminal 1994 TIE Fighter game may notice a few familiar sights and sounds. That “incoming missile” noise gives me horrible flashbacks to this day…What makes Johnson’s commitment to the project even more impressive and commendable is that it stands as a true labor of love on his part. He has no designs on leveraging the film’s buzz into a full length feature, or using it as stepping stone to fundraise another endeavor. He just loves Star Wars and hopes the film brings enjoyment to fellow fans:Don’t support me on Patreon, because I don’t have one! And don’t donate to my Kickstarter, because I don’t have one of those either. Instead, if you enjoyed this, give someone at your workplace, uni, school or whatever a random bar of chocolate or can or Coke or something. Seriously, it’ll probably make their day. That would totally make my day.What do you think of Star Wars: TIE Fighter? Would you watch an anime-style Star Wars television show or movie? Let us know in the comments below. Fan Made Work Viral News animationDisneyPaul JohnsonStar WarsStar Wars: TIE FighterTIE Fighter
As Should Be Expected, Ping Gets a “The Social Network” Parody September 10, 2010I guess we should have saw this coming. Last week Apple announced “Ping”, an iTunes-based social networking system designed around music. While there has been some criticism about whether the service is even necessary, there has been even more about how difficult it is to set up. The group Wooden… Read More
Fan Made Work Watch a Montage of 2010 Film Montages December 30, 2010This year’s batch of year-end film montages have been pretty impressive, and to commerate their work, Badass Digest has created a montage of the montages that honor the films of 2010. Confused? Watch the video mashup (set to the “Bed Intruder” song) after the break. Read More
“Thor” Press Kit Causes a Scare at Bus Stop May 19, 2011May 19, 2011Normally press kits are tools from studios given to bloggers, newspaper journalist, and even T.V. journalists to push whatever it is they will be releasing. It is also a great marketing tool. But when a press kit becomes a threat to our security, then it raises some high brows. Hit… Read More