Buffy fans rock, and that’s a fact. But two of them just took fandom to the extreme, each by creating their own versions of Buffy Season 8 comics in video. One is a silent 3D animation, and the other, a stylized “film” out of stills, visual effects, and music. The results do need more polish, but they are certainly entertaining.

Going 3D - Fun and Campy

SmartJoe299 has finished digitizing all the 12 issues released so far. He seems to work amazingly fast as he’s able to churn the 3D videos within a few days of the comics’ release date. That’s phenomenal dedication. Although, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to slow it down a bit to smoothen the rough edges of the final product. Just a thought.

SmartJoe uses “The Movies” PC game to animate the comics, which he says, “simplifies things a ton.” The animated Scoobies follow the storyline for the most part, but deviates when technical difficulties present themselves. For example, for the bedroom scene between Buffy and Satsu, they were supposed to be naked and under the sheets. In the animated version, there are no sheets (hard to animate soft translucent cloth?) and instead they are in their underwear. Seems reasonable to me, except that the room could have been darker to match the mood. Movements also need to be less jerky, but overall, fine job. The Season 8 credits here is the best I’ve seen so far.

Stylized and Dark

Dravenuk, meanwhile, has done a more serious treatment of the comics. Right now he’s finished with the first arc, The Long Way Home. Some encouragement by means of views and comments might make him do the rest, so head on over to Youtube.

I love the way he captures the mood visually, and he has incredible attention to detail. The only thing is that the dubbing is choppy at times, and generally too soft. Also, if he could find a few girls to volunteer to dub some parts that would be great, assuming they are close enough to the original actor’s voices. Maybe the voice talents at Buffy Between the Lines would care to volunteer?