The Adventure Zone: Animated is a multi-animator project (MAP) focused on bringing to life episode 4 of “The Adventure Zone” podcast’s “Balance” arc. The audio was heavily edited to cut out verbal descriptions made redundant by the presence of visuals, which brought the episode length from around an hour to around 30 minutes, 34 minutes total when credits are included. Over 150 different animators and artists joined the project to complete segments of animation, either solo or in groups. There was no enforcement of character or visual design aside from the canonical descriptions of the characters and setting in-podcast, a decision made because of the perceived importance of artistic self-expression in the fandom at the time, which allowed for every part to look unique. The call for animators went up on June 1st, 2017, and the final video was posted on January 26th, 2023.
Why does any of this matter here? Because on that fateful June 1st, I was the one who posted the call for animators. I was also the one who spent probably at least close to 80 hours finalizing the credits and editing together the last of the video with some crude sound effect work. For that fact alone, if you’re reading this you should watch the video because I worked my ass off! But more than that, the contributing artists did stunning work and the video is like magic to watch.
For the bulk of its creation time, it sat about 80% done with just a few errant parts that kept getting scattered to the wind. It was my first time organizing a project of this size, and it wound up far, far bigger than I had planned for. This project was a beast to get made, and for the years that it was still unfinished, it sat on my mind in a way where nearly every time I found myself idle, I had some impulse to get it finished, only for a large number of reasons, that wasn’t possible.
The final piece of the pizzle was sent to me on Christmas eve, the best present I’ve ever gotten. I wasn’t able to focus on anything else this January because I needed to finish this so badly. Now that it’s done, the weight is off my shoulders and I hope that will mean that anything else I try to make becomes that much easier. It’s still hard to believe that it’s real and it’s done.
Despite all the time I spent watching the video over and over and over while editing it, when I watch it now, finished and posted online, it just feels like pure joy to me. The work everyone contributed is amazing, even if it’s so old now that many people have said they aren’t very proud of their contributions. The way it all fits together, each part so disparate and unique yet still perfectly cohesive is like magic. I’m so proud of this project. I’m so happy the rest of the world finally gets to see the love everyone put into it.
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