New film now online: Bopper Wars - Special Edition
I was twelve when I "obtained" my first copy of Flash. It was Flash 5, and I'd never seen anything like it.
I was already interested and experimenting in animation (I had Wallace and Gromit to thank for that), but it wasn't until Flash that I think I realised it was what I wanted to do with myself; the ironic thing being that animating in Flash has almost nothing in common with the actual animation I went on to study.
I suddenly had the power to create anything! Anything! So what better way to use this new power than to recreate Star Wars using the small green bodiless aliens that were drawn all over my maths book!
Looking back, it's pretty clear I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't even figure out the drawing tools, so I drew everything in MS-Paint (I hadn't yet discovered the wonders of Photoshop) and imported it. Badly. And the less said about timings the better. But without Bopper Wars, and all its massive failings, I may never have become an animator.
I went on to make The Bopperz Strike Back and Return of the Bop, and each was better than the last. Between those three films I think I learnt everything Flash 5 had to offer, with the exception of ActionScript.
The Phantom Bopper, on the other hand, was an abomination. Let us never speak of it again.
But, like George Lucas, as much as I loved my first ever film, looking back at it made me wince. Beyond its inherent awfulness, which was a big part of its charm, there were things missing that I wished I'd included. Laserblasts during the space "battle", for one. And stars. So, like George Lucas, I went back and changed things.
Bopper Wars is now available in both its original form (button on the left) and as a new Special Edition (button on the right). Scenes from the original survive intact, in all their pixelated glory, interspersed with new ones. If nothing else, it's quite a thrill to see my first attempts at animation alongside my latest! It's nice to see how far I've come.
Both versions are available here.
Like George Lucas, I consider the Special Edition to be the definitive version of Bopper Wars - Episode IV.
Y'know; until the Blu-Ray comes out...
