Lunatics!

ANIMATIC: Pilot Episode "No Children in Space" CREDITS, DOWNLOADS, and MORE...

CHARACTERS: Hiromi Aoki Lerner

Hiromi Aoki Lerner, wife of Dr. Robert Lerner, is the field doctor and nutritionist for the International Space Foundation's Lunar Colony. Mrs Lerner holds a Masters in Health Science from the University of Toronto's Mississauga Academy and a Masters in Space Nutrition from the University of Texas Online Branch. Only daughter of David Aoki, founder of Aoki Aerospace, Hiromi has been interested in space travel from her youth. She has a daughter, Georgiana Lerner age seven.

CAST PROFILE: Ariel Hancock ("Georgiana Lerner")

Introducing Ariel Hancock

Lunatics is Ariel's first voice-acting role. She is the daughter of Rosalyn Hunter and Terry Hancock. Although she was selected primarily for the ease of directing in-person, she has shown real enthusiasm and a pretty high-level of professionalism for a 9-year-old. She's been very serious about the project, and this has made us seriously consider looking for other acting opportunities for her.

CHARACTERS: Georgiana Lerner

Daughter of ISF founder John Robert Lerner and Hiromi Lerner, Little Georgy has charmed the hearts of all who have seen her. Despite her popularity as the first child in space, Georgiana is very down to Earth. She likes trees and bunnies and she wants to be, " just like mommy" when she grows up.

Rendering of LTS Lander as it appears in the Animatics

Animation Test: Rocket Plume Effect (Vacuum) View on Vimeo

Current Status: Excerpts from the novella

Rosalyn Hunter recently wrote an initial draft of the novella version of "No Children in Space" as part of NaNoWriMo. We're planning to offer print and e-book copies as part of our upcoming crowd-funding campaign. Here's a couple of brief excerpts from the story. (read more)

About Lunatics

Lunatics is a new animated series being produced by Anansi Spaceworks which will follow the first true extra-terrestrial colonists in their new life in a Lunar Homestead.

There comes a time when exploration has to change to development, when outposts are replaced by settlements, and when space becomes not just a place to ork, but a place to live. This is the mission of the International Space Foundation's lunar colony project, led by space visionary Dr. Robert Lerner and dynastic space entrepreneur Anya Titova-Farmer.

In the pilot episode, they are joined by their respective families, forming the basis for the colony: Lerner's wife Hiromi Aoki Lerner and young daughter Georgiana and Titova-Farmer's husband Joshua Farmer and teenage son Igor Timothy Farmer.

Follow-up episodes introduce the "Meta-Conceptual" resident artist, R. Allen Emerson and planetary geologist Dr. Sarah Allison.

Some Basic Facts About Lunatics

3D Animated, Using (Mainly) Blender
The story will start with a pilot episode of about 60 minutes, titled "No Children in Space." Later episodes will shoot for about 45 minutes, but since we are releasing online, we'll allow a range from 30 to 60 minutes to suit the story.
It will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, version 3.0, through various online video hosting services.
Many of the production materials will be made available through this website. I currently intend to add a Mediawiki wiki for this.
We'll conduct a pre-sale campaign to sell the disks in videodisk formats, including at least NTSC DVD, and in a new 1080p high-definition high-fidelity Non-DRM format called Lib-Ray.
We currently plan 18 episodes per-season, broken up into "volumes", which more-or-less matches how DVDs will be made, and we'll try to finance a volume at a time.
Ideally "seasons" will be real-time (i.e. one season per year), but if we have to, we'll slow down to match the funding before we cancel
We're using several variations on a Creator Endorsed sales and revenue model to finance the project
Although the roles will be mixed, Rosalyn Hunter will be the primary writer and script editor for Lunatics. Terry Hancock will be the primary producer and director
We will be needing LOTS of help, including: 3D modelling, character design, character rigging, science and engineering consulting, lighting, textures, graphic arts, 3D character animation, motion capture, sound recording, foley, voice acting, commissioned music, and more stuff I haven't thought of yet

Stuff we've already got done:

Storyboard Animatic for "No Children in Space" is completed.
Voice recording is finished for "No Children in Space" (pilot episode) and nearly finished for "Earth" (episode 2).
Script for episode 3 ("Cyborg") is nearly finished (currently being edited).
Brief treatments have been written for all of Season 1, and some of Season 2 (subject to revision).
Character concept art and model sheets is completed for the first two episodes.
3D character models have been drafted for "Georgiana" and "Hiromi" for the pilot episode (more are needed, pending funding for modeling team).
3D set model for Soyuz spacecraft interior has been drafted (still needs some revisions).
3D models for Lunar Transportation System Lander/Shuttle and Service Module have been made (need detailing and texturing).
Artbook and Writer's Guide / Volume 1 is finished.
Initial 3D Animation Animatics for some spacecraft/exterior shots are completed.
Several 3D models for animation are completed or nearly completed.

Funding cycle / Status

Successful Kickstarter campaign in December 2011 funded pre-production work.
We have just one reward item left to deliver on that campaign, which is the combination DVD/data-disk.
The remaining work is simply to master the DVD from the existing animatic and do the necessary file-management on the source material which will be included (Expected completion in early January 2013).
An attempt to fund the production of the pilot through a Kickstarter failed in Fall 2012, but we recorded full-cast audio for episodes 1 and 2 anyway.
We are currently preparing to do another fundraising cycle with a more complete proposal (Expected January-February 2013).