Sunday, 17 July 2011
Brendan: A fantastic package arrived in the post this morning... The complete box set of the Mainframe cgi animated TV series REBOOT, courtesy of Rainmaker Studios. It's got all the episodes from all 4 seasons and an extra DVD full of goodies. I was asked to judge a fan art selection for the presentation, and my introduction and commentary is in a supplement booklet. The whole thing looks gorgeous. Shout Factory have done an amazing job of putting this together. I was involved in designing the first three seasons but I had nothing to do with the fourth. I think you'll notice a difference.
It's such a shame that this show is hardly seen in the States, as it was pretty much killed by the ABC network when Disney took over. They wanted to buy REBOOT outright and take control of it. Nobody at Mainframe Animation wanted that, so the inevitable happened. Luckily, strong sales around the world meant we could continue. There's now some talk of a REBOOT cgi movie, but don't hold your breath, as they say.
That we weren't able to parlay the success of REBOOT, BEAST WARS and WAR PLANETS into a cgi feature film was a great shame. We were doing this stuff well before Pixar and Dreamworks. And they pretty much hired everyone who was working at Mainframe over the years anyway!
I spent about 5 years at the Mainframe Studios in Vancouver, and I had a really fun time. I left the comics scene to help shape the earliest days of computer animation and there was a real sense of pioneering totally new territory. You can see how the cgi animation progressed in REBOOT, from the early, more 'primitive' episodes to the sophistication of the brilliant singing finale of season 3. You can't get to AVATAR without REBOOT.
There's plenty of REBOOT clips on You Tube, if you want to see what was going' on with cgi TV animation back in those days of cyber-yore.
These are a great and original bunch of characters: My favourite is the completely demented, digital witch, Hexadecimal. Seriously bonkers.
There's also a second volume of a book featuring many of my designs for the series, called REBOOT FOREVER, which is just out now.
It's such a shame that this show is hardly seen in the States, as it was pretty much killed by the ABC network when Disney took over. They wanted to buy REBOOT outright and take control of it. Nobody at Mainframe Animation wanted that, so the inevitable happened. Luckily, strong sales around the world meant we could continue. There's now some talk of a REBOOT cgi movie, but don't hold your breath, as they say.
That we weren't able to parlay the success of REBOOT, BEAST WARS and WAR PLANETS into a cgi feature film was a great shame. We were doing this stuff well before Pixar and Dreamworks. And they pretty much hired everyone who was working at Mainframe over the years anyway!
I spent about 5 years at the Mainframe Studios in Vancouver, and I had a really fun time. I left the comics scene to help shape the earliest days of computer animation and there was a real sense of pioneering totally new territory. You can see how the cgi animation progressed in REBOOT, from the early, more 'primitive' episodes to the sophistication of the brilliant singing finale of season 3. You can't get to AVATAR without REBOOT.
There's plenty of REBOOT clips on You Tube, if you want to see what was going' on with cgi TV animation back in those days of cyber-yore.
These are a great and original bunch of characters: My favourite is the completely demented, digital witch, Hexadecimal. Seriously bonkers.
There's also a second volume of a book featuring many of my designs for the series, called REBOOT FOREVER, which is just out now.
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5 comments:
That sounds like quite a package. Was the DVD region 2 at all? I'd love to be able to replace my battered VHS compilations of these shows- especially as the finale of season 3 was never broadcast in the UK
At the moment it looks like the DVD is Region 1 only, Bolt. Not sure if there will be a Region 2 in the future. You can order the Region 1 from:
http://www.playusa.com/82666312339/reboot-the-definitive-mainframe-edition-9-discs
But you'll have to wait till 28th July.
It really is a shame that more were not introduced to ReBoot in the states, thankfully I was able to see it as a child, though I only saw what had been shown on ABC, it took some years to finally see the full show via hunting down the eps. However, I will say, I owe ReBoot quite a bit, it was the thing that got me interested in 3D art, animation and design. Were it not for this show that got my attention as a child I likely wouldn't have ended up as a 3D artist! I still remember going "I want to make stuff like that one day." upon seeing the CGI in ReBoot, well, I managed it, even if I am just an independent artist.
I have got to get this set, be nice to be able to have the series on DVD instead of having to hunt for episodes.
i loved this series too.i was in my late 20s when it aired here in new zealand and i never missed an ep.Hexadecimal was my fave character and she ranks right up there in the pantheon of looneys.she'd make a great tattoo!Game over.
Hi, I find Reboot: The Definite Mainframe Edition Region 4 or in Spanish.
Can help me.
Miguel Ameneiro
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