Help Preserve Wing Commander Academy! (October 16, 2016)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Archiving Wing Commander material is a subject that's very near and dear to us here at the CIC. From the University of Texas to EA Mythic and dozens of other projects, we've been on a mission to preserve Wing Commander history for nearly two decades. The next great adventure kicks off today as we attempt to save thousands of pieces of artwork created during the production of Wing Commander Academy. A huge trove of animation cels and design sketches have been uncovered in California. We've made arrangements to purchase the lot, but the total costs for everything work out to nearly $10,000. You can help us save this material by donating at a new GoFundMe page here.











Once we can secure the load, it will then be gradually scanned and made available online. As an example of what may be available, check out this fabulous 240-page storyboard of the episode 'Recreation' (258 megabyte PDF, so download rather than click!). As you know, the CIC runs no advertisement and accepts no monetary donations or compensation whatsoever to run the site, so the campaign is strictly capped at the amount it will take to purchase the Academy art. Some have asked how they can help over the years, and now's your chance! We hope the attention brought to this effort also helps get the word out about George Oldziey's plans to get a second Wing Commander album recorded as there are two exciting WC crowdfunding campaigns running in parallel now. Asking for money is a little awkward, but we would only do so for causes we are incredibly passionate about. The process should also be very fun, and we can't wait to enjoy it with you! Read up more on the background and consider donating if you can - thanks!

What do you want?! Confederation spies have located a massive cache of Wing Commander Academy production artwork deep in the wilds of Southern California! There are 30 large boxes of artwork, each containing roughly 1,000 cels and several thousand sketches for a total of (we estimate) about 50,000 distinct pieces of Wing Commander artwork ranging from the cels used to make the show to the sketches and other drawings used to plan out scenes. My objective is to purchase this artwork and produce high resolution scans of ALL of it which will be made freely available to the Wing Commander community!

Where does all that money go? All of the money will go to the purchase of the artwork. For every $300 donated, we can buy an additional box, up to 30! (The remaining $800 covers GoFundMe???s fee and credit card processing.)

Will you do any other cool things? That depends on how you define cool! To help promote the crowd funding project (and because I really, really want to) I???ll be streaming live commentary of all thirteen Academy episodes. Once the artwork has been purchased, I???ll stream the initial exploration of each box so that everyone else in the world can see how goofy excited finding a drawing of Admiral Tolwyn???s arm makes me.
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Original update published on October 16, 2016
 
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I believe the correct Blairmoji is: "we're going to kick some ass here."

One thing I did not lean heavily on in the description is the fact that this art will, essentially, be destroyed otherwise. The animation dealers take these raw materials and 'make' their own single frames to sell... throwing out dozens of other pieces each time that happens. So there's a bit more of a ticking clock than explained, but I'm CONFIDENT we can make this march happen!

If anyone has any questions, suggestions or would like to help in any way, I'm available 24/7!
 
I went in for $50... I didn't take a look at the settings though and didn't realize it defaults to anonymous :p oh well :D
 
Don't worry, it's only anonymous to the rest of the world, I have yours logged!

I'm really, really happy with how it is going. I have to admit, I'm stressing a lot more than I ever did on Star Citizen! I will be so glad when we've reached the goal and the cels are home safe.
 
I was going to write up a linking post on the Wing Commander sub-forum for this on RSI. I wanted to ask if you felt this was ok to do @Bandit LOAF ?

That, and George Oldziey's album two fundraiser.
 
Ah sorry, I missed the question about the RSI forum. I don't want to tell anyone to post about it there... but I also won't stop you, if that helps! :)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Ah sorry, I missed the question about the RSI forum. I don't want to tell anyone to post about it there... but I also won't stop you, if that helps! :)
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If indifference implys what I think it means...

Ok, just wanted to be sure I likely wouldn't be immediately shot down by the mods...possibly. They are going in the WC sub-forum. :D

EDIT:
Done.
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/351702/help-preserve-wing-commander-academy

If it brings even one more dollar it's worth it. I'll be able to donate myself early next month.
 
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