Cherry Hill resident Brandon Wright has brought his love of anime to a host of viewers on the Internet.
Wright discovered his love of three-dimensional animation in high school and taught himself how to create animated short films. Those short films have transformed into “Deadstar,” an Internet series now in its second season on YouTube.
Wright first dabbled in 3D animation while watching the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” animated series. While he said he didn’t particularly like the series itself, the animated scenes and characters inspired him to look into the topic.
“I started to do different tutorials and different 3D animation programs,” he said. “In high school, I made one short film and I kind of took it from there.”
Wright didn’t need to take any classes on animation. He found online tutorials and guides to teach him a variety of 3D programs. Once he learned how to use the programs, he jumped into creating a variety of short films. While making the films, Wright said he picked up on storytelling and production techniques.
Wright is going to school for animation at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. His classes helped him learn a lot about the design aspects of an animated scene.
“I was studying 2D drawing animation,” he said. “It definitely helps because they start you learning about art and learning about background design and character design.”
It was in college when Wright decided to create “Deadstar.” This was not a school project or something he was assigned. Wright began working on the series in his free time, creating entire episodes on his computer at home.
“After doing anime short films after a while, I figured I could take the short films with the same characters and make it into a series,” he said.
To help create a storyline, Wright wrote a script and went online to find voice actors. After finding people whose voices fit the characters in the show, he e-mailed them the script. They would respond by recording their character’s lines and sending the audio files back to Wright.
The first few episodes were tough to create, since it was Wright’s first trip into a full series.
“The first few episodes for me, I didn’t know a lot of production value,” he said. “It’s getting a lot better over time and more people are watching it.”
With the series being online, Wright doesn’t have to worry about ratings or cancellations. Doing it as a hobby has allowed him to experiment and learn things on the fly he wouldn’t be able to do in the television industry.
The series has become a labor of love for Wright. The first “Deadstar” episode took him nearly an entire summer to create. Today, he can finish an episode in about a month.
Wright balances the series with school and other life obligations. He wishes he could spend more time on it, but for now, he’s happy with the product he is putting online.
“I wish I could just sit in the room all day to work on it,” he said. “If I could work on this like a full-time job, I wish I could.”
