Concept
Create a series of short animated episodes telling the story of J’onn J’onnz, the Martian Manhunter. This project is purely for the fun of creating our own story and sharing it on YouTube.
Story
The story is slightly altered from his comic book origin. I move him to Gotham and keep the scientist alive who accidentally teleports him to Earth. I’m keeping the timeline ambiguous and setting it with the idea he could be the Snyderverse version, where he eventually takes on the identity of Swanwick. At this point he is still the detective John Jones, although I thought it would be better for him to be a PI instead of working for the police. I’m going for a bit of a detective noir thing with lots of voice overs and inner monologue.
Outline
- Chapter 1
- The Experiment: Dr. Saul Erdel has created Omnious, an AI supercomputer meant to explore space and time. He is about to test it.
- 10,394 Years ago: We see J’onn J’onnz trying to escape White Martians when a mysterious wormhole opens up and sucks him in. Trippy sequence of him traversing through space and time.
- J’onn arrives in the lab and tells the history of what happened to him on Mars (Ma’aleca’andra)
- A civil war was happening between White and Green Martians.
- Additionally a plague was affecting Green Martians where they would burst into flame and die… this was happening via their telepathic ability. (His family was already dead)
- He suspected his brother, Ma’alefa’ak was involved and was going to confront him.
- His brother confirms his involvement and sicks his White Martian goons on J’onn… a battle ensues!
- The battle causes the destruction of the Temple of Energy and J’onn is forced to flee. He stops by his burning home one more time.
- Omnious refuses to send the Manhunter back in time, so he decides the best course of action is to assume an identity on this world and help in any way possible.
- He senses danger nearby.
- Cut to an alley. John Jones (yes its a silly comic book naming thing, but keeping it) is confronting a mysterious man and is murdered.
- The Manhunter arrives and takes out the two thugs, but the man is gone. He assumes the identity of Detective Jones.
- Later he walks the streets of Gotham and monologues on his plan to fight crime in the city.
- The mysterious man is revealed to be his brother, Malefic (as he is known on Earth)
- Chapter 2
- John meets Diane Meade, a police detective who will eventually be a valuable partner, but now she is just pissed at him.
- He tries to continue the dead detective’s case investigating this mysterious man. He is not used to the huge population of Earth, so he cannot pinpoint him telepathically, however.
- He finds info on a illicit weapons sale happening at the docks and heads over to check it out.
- He watches from the shadows as the criminals gather, then in his Martian form intervenes. A few get away, but he apprehends most.
- Later: The police with Meade show up and the Manhunter is in his human form. He lies that he got a lucky tip and managed to break up the weapon sale.
- (This episode is still being fleshed out)
Animation is a super slow process by myself so the episodes are short and infrequent. I have been using AI voices, but their acting is rough. I thought it would be cool to grab some real voice actors. It might also be cool to get help on the animation side with people that can create models in FBX format (Blender is good for that) and if any happen to have iClone 8 they could even help with that if they want.
Who I Need
NOTE: all participants will be credited in the video and on YouTube with links to their site.
Voice Actors!
Main Cast
- Martian Manhunter/John Jones: deep voice, preferably African-American
- Dr. Saul Erdel: kind of a goofy older bumbling scientist type. Will somewhat serve as a mentor to the Manhunter
- Malefic: J’onn’s evil brother. I think I’m going to do this one using all my Dungeon Master skills to voice a good villain ha.
- Diane Meade: tough, no-nonsense police detective. All around smart ass. Often annoyed by Jones. Won’t take her long to figure out who he really is.
Minor Cast
- Batman/Bruce Wayne: This would be earlier in his career. Definitely need the Affleck sounding voice though.
- Random Thugs: all genders. Anyone who likes doing different voices would have fun with these.
Animators and Modelers (Nice to have, not required)
- Animators
- iClone 8 is a must, all of my assets are for that plus I need the motion blur.
- Character Creator 4 is optional, but is useful too.
- Modelers
- Characters are going to be created exclusively in Character Creator 4 to simplify the pipeline (I won’t have to do any rigging conversions, which is a pain in the arse)
- Sets and props can be created in any software you want as long as they are exported as FBX with PBR textures.
Writers, Final Cut Pro gurus, etc.
- I can always use help with writing the story, so if anyone wants to hop on as a cowriter I would be glad to chat!
- I am pretty good in Final Cut, but if anyone is interested in helping with editing and post-production I would be happy to hear from you too.