Peter's New Project

They are a lot moving! Once I were observing in on the raider of the tomba on the Internet and have found many images impertinenti. This happens otherwise for anyone?

Didn't Peter say he was doing something with Aeon Flux? I wonder if that's still on the board.

Found this. Looks like the typical well-animated action scenes, which is great, but I'm more interested in finding out about the story. Peter goes wild when left to his own devices (see Matriculated) and I can't wait.

It looks like AF's action scene's taken to level 1000, but I'm with you in that the story is going to be the part that I'm most interested in

I really thought the Laura Croft character was similiar to Aeon Flux, only somehow Aeon was more cool, seemed deeper a character, but certain elements retained in the Croft theme were interesting. I love that artwork, gorgeous and perfectly suited to Peter's style.

I hear you when it comes to story, those AF stories were great, kept you going and endlessly surprising. No one out there had that kind of depth in animation stories. So different. I liked the dreamy mysterious aspects.

It isn't that I don't always pay attention to story in general as it's what everything should revolve around, I'm just particularly interested to see what Peter will do within the context of that story, as I find it rather cliched and droll. I wonder what, if any, limitations were imposed, in terms of what the characters could say and do.

Probably, but he can work his way around those, I'm sure, as he did with Aeon Flux. This time it seems the story is about death, and I'm always excited when Peter deals with such philosophical themes. (But then, when doesn't he?)

I came out from work tonight and there was a convertable, expensive type, brand new, hovering in the middle of the isle of the parking lot, motor running, next to my car.

I got a little nervous and tried to get into my car fast, and the car backed up to where the driver was parallel with me. It was a young beautiful woman, dark hair, smoking and seemed totally lethal. I was honestly afraid of her and wondered why, and in a second I thought, she looks like Aeon Flux!

I drove home thinking of her, wondering about her, what would or could she have possibly done that I had that fear, except she exuded this dangerous feeling to me.

In lieu of that similiarity to Aeon I also found it interesting that she should be the character chosen to be subjected to stories centering around philosphical themes. You would expect someone more pensive, withdrawn, Einstein-like or something.

Of course, as much as I love Aeon, I have to admit I'd be scared to death of her if I ever encountered her.

As for a character like her being appropriate for philosophical stories, I think it's perfect. An armchair philosopher can only theorize, but someone like Aeon can literally, physically, explore those philosophical quandaries. She's willing to get her hands dirty.

Hello everyone. Hey, I had not idea this board was still up.

The Tomb Raider episodes are about 5-6 minutes each. My 3 together
add up to about 15 and a half minutes, similar to Matriculated. I
definitely had less freedom with the writing than on Animatrix (and a
much lower budget). The client didn't want Lara to show much
emotion, so that was a big problem trying to give her some
dimension. She's just in tough chick mode throughout. It's aimed at
Lara Croft fans, mainly.

The story deals with the idea that the existence of God could be
proven by the discovery of an artifact with mystical powers. It's a
variation on the Demiurge premise, but without all the guilt and
psychodrama (unfortunately). The Demiurge himself makes a subliminal
cameo.

If anyone's coming to San Diego for this year's Comic Con, Gametap is
hosting a Tomb Raider panel with me and some of the other
contributors to the series. Sat July 28 at 4 pm.

I'm also doing a signing at the Gametap booth from 2 pm. I look
forward to seeing you.

Peter Chung

Tomb Raider Revisioned: Keys to the Kingdom Ep 1 goes online tomorrow.

Episode 2 goes up on Wednesday, followed by Episode 3 on Thursday.

http://tombraider.gametap.com/

for a lower budget it looks absolutely amazing, the animation is so crisp and fluid, and the character designs were excellent, I really love the way you draw people in general, its like crack for my eyes to see you work. MORE, MORE, I PRITHEE MORE!!!

Very enjoyable and all too short... I'm excited for the next snippet. It does remind me of the Demiurge so far. And it's very interesting to see a character who was most likely inspired by Aeon Flux drawn and animated in her style.

In case anyone's having trouble viewing them on gametap, they've been posted on youtube:

1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nmNKHnnQaI

2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_4kklPhAJ8

3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk-vWo9pxuc

neato.

Will it be released as a dvd?

Thanks for the links, Peter... the framerate seems much better on the YouTube versions.

It's nice to hear Drew's music again, it worked well here as always. Nice of them to let you pick your own composer! (I presume.) And Minnie Driver, I didn't expect that. Excellent voice acting.

I also loved the humor during the conference scene in the second episode. Also interesting to see how your Demiurge-style philosophies translate to a "real world" setting. This all reminds me of something I've been thinking a lot about lately -- how foolishly presumptuous it is of anyone to claim knowledge of the workings of the universe.

I still recommend viewing them on Gametap, to give them the traffic. Some people seemed to be having trouble figuring out the interface. If you wait for the entire episode to load before playback, it should play smoothly.

There was originally more humor during the conference, but the client made me cut it back.

My first treatment was about Lara raiding the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican. Her goal was to steal the keys to heaven given to St. Peter by Jesus before ascending. During the raid in the basilica, the statues of Jesus, Mary, the Seraphim all come to life to protect the crypt. Lara pulls out her guns and shoots the statues to pieces (like her gleefully shooting the buddhist statues in the first Tomb Raider movie). That proposal was instantly rejected.

In the finished version, Zahir comes off as an evil incarnation of Osiris, bent on world domination. That was entirely the contribution of Gametap execs. In my mind, Zahir was Lara's savior, revived from the dead, but just a good human. For me, making him the villain cheapens the drama, but in the end, I couldn't waste time arguing my point, and they may have been correct in judging the type of story that would appeal to Tomb Raider fans.

"In the finished version, Zahir comes off as an evil incarnation of Osiris, bent on world domination."

I'm not sure where you got this. To me he was only trying to show that humanities religious values were off base from the truth of this worlds divinity, and since the three major religions were warring in the background at the time, I thought it was safe to assume that the implied motives of his message "Your religions are false," were ones of peace.

You're right -- that is the interpretation I wanted and I'm really glad you got that. Thanks.

It was Gametap's instruction to make Zahir/Osiris the villain. In their rewrite, they had him say "Your religions are false. I am Osiris. Bow down and worship me." I refused and we compromised so that Lara kicks him after "I am Osiris".

As I said, in my version, Zahir was supposed to have been a man who sacrificed himself for Lara, and not a god at all. Originally, I had Lara be more touched by his sacrifice. She originalyy kissed him on the forehead when she turns away from his body without reviving him in ep. 1.

Gametap didn't even want her to say "I appreciate what you did for me at the museum" when she seeks him out. I fought for that one and got it-- but overall, the story is pretty watered down from what it should have been. The emotional relationship between Zahir and Lara was supposed to be much stronger.

"In their rewrite, they had him say 'Your religions are false. I am Osiris. Bow down and worship me.'"

Ouch, yeah, it's amazing how much one small line can cheapen an entire story. I suppose when your working with video media the dialog is usually so sparse that you have to be very careful of it's impact.

I'm guessing you couldn't get the line "so Osiris thinks he's the one true god," out. That was a little bit confusing, but I think there's enough ambiguity in the statement, and the end is strong enough, so that it doesn't confuse your original intent too much.

To be honest I don't think I would have liked Zahir coming back as a human. It may just be due to the fact that I saw this version first, but I really liked the idea of a god breaking off from a pantheon of indifferent overseers, or even just egotistical gods, and try to stop the violence that their own religions have created. And I loved the fact that the god who was chosen, Osiris, was of an extinct religion. It's someone who's been removed for two millennia from the ecstasy of unconditional fervent praise, and has had time to see the folly of organized religion by watching it unravel beneath the feet of the next generation of deities.
It's nifty. Too bad you couldn't have devoted more time to the subject. I guess you got longer than anyone else though.

As it is, Osiris' goal is to set off a religious war between the rival groups of monotheists, each of which claim to be the true religion. (Since they're so bent on meeting their maker.) The conflict is only on Earth between the human believers. As we find out in the Pleroma, the gods themselves get along with each other very well.

Lara herself becomes an unwitting pawn in Osiris' plan because she trusts Zahir. That's fine with me. I don't care much for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, as a character. As with Indiana Jones, I could never figure out what was supposed to be admirable about someone who steals the treasures of indigenous people.

That's why in every Tomb Raider comic (I read a lot of them before starting the project), she's trying to prevent some villain from acquiring the same relic she's after, but who wants to misuse its power for evil ends. That's also the plot of both movies, and a formula I tried to reverse by having her be the one who possesses the relic and her rivals trying to prevent her from using it.

Haha, interesting... I like that! I've never followed Tomb Raider and didn't see the irony in that.

And really, what kind of archaeologist wields a pair of pistols, Hong Kong action movie-style? Or a whip, for that matter?

"As it is, Osiris' goal is to set off a religious war between the rival groups of monotheists, each of which claim to be the true religion."

I saw his motives as peaceful. I think you could equally argue that he was trying to show the three leaders of the religions the truth about divinity, but he got interrupted, and things were misinterpreted, and a war broke out.

In defense of Indiana Jones, I just watched all three movies a few weeks ago after about 14 years, he really only found treasures that were abandoned or lost, I.E 1 & 3, and when he found a relic that was sacred to a still living society in number 2 he ended up returning it to them rather than keeping it for himself. Just thought I'd add that.

The only time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark was in a theater in 1981. It was a profoundly alienating experience, and motivated me in a perverse way. (I quoted from it in both the AF pilot and the LTV short War.) During the opening sequence, when Indy steals an idol belonging to a native tribe who chase him through the jungle, the coaxing of viewer sympathy was so out of whack, the heavy hand of the director was so obvious, it affected my film watching from then on.

I only caught glimpses of parts 2 and 3 when they happened to be playing on TV in the background. I remember reading that Spielberg himself has apologized for 2, and I believe as penance for the pervasive racism in it, he made The Color Purple.

Hmmm, I had assumed that the people chasing after him were merely a local tribe from the area that his rival archaeologist had paid to hunt him down. There was the whole scene when Indiana came out and the rival was there giving them instructions in their language, which Indiana couldn't speak, but I can see your interpretation of it.

I don't know, I think I've become a little jaded to the constant drive for sensitivity towards presenting positive images of other cultures and races. Not that PC doesn't have it's place, or it's uses, but it really seems like one of those impossible fights against immorality. It's like we're searching for this perceptual perfection to impress into the masses of our society. But of course the enemy is invisible, and incalculable, and everchanging, so it ultimately feels like were in 1984's never-ending war, the one that's taking place just outside the city walls. The one that occupies a good portion of our society's time and concern as their own lives are left to fester and reek of poogas.
I don't know, I probably am just jaded. Maybe Utopia's right around the corner.

I wonder if the fact that Indy was fighting the Nazis was supposed to offset his other injustices...

http://video1.washingtontimes.com/zadzooks/2007/07/lara_croft_meets_peter_chung_1.html

(Appropriate venue for coverage of this particular project, considering who owns the Washington Times.)

Thanks for the link Peter, very interesting! Also, good luck with your current projects, I look forward to seeing the fruits of your efforts, as usual.

HI PERTER!!! :)

While digging around for press on the Tomb Raider shorts, I came across this, which I hadn't seen before. This was from Cannes during the Animatrix release. Michael Arias went on to direct the Tekkon Kinkreet movie soon afterwards.

http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/fest_content/festivals.pl?debug=&channelbar=&lang=en&year=2003&fest=cannes_logs2003&page=play&partner=&medi_id=20299