BTS - Disney's Skate Adventure (155) (Patreon)

G'day adventurers, finally time to discuss the last episode of Hawktober 2021 which was Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure. One of my most requested games since the special began in 2017. So I've been very eager to finally cover this game!

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Logo work!
The logo on this was one of the first I re-created for the entire special given it was quite a simple one really. While it may seem more complicated than others, it's really a very similar process to all the previous THPS logos I've worked on:

• Background geometry
• Text
• Basic shape (the skateboard)

There was no animation of anything like that necessary so the entire thing was completed in under 60 minutes, which I'm proud of given the end result looks dope. 

However, there was an additional logo originally drafted for this episode! I dunno why but I've always loved the classic farty Toys for Bob logo animation with the rocket ship and weird music, so before building my Disney Hawktober animation, the original plan was to make this say Hawktober for the start of the episodes. I had a play in Photoshop's 3D animation workspace but I quickly learned that this type of animation was out of my depths. That was the reason why I settled on just having one Hawktober logo for the set of 4 videos. It's a shame though because I had ALWAYS planned to make this one and I just didn't, maybe I'll be able to resurrect this one sometime in the future!

Playing the game:
Unlike all of the other games, this one I actually smashed out in a single sitting while I was with my partner, who helped me take notes and write some funny bits for the video. Discussing how weird and creepy the product placement is really hits different playing this with someone who has never seen it before, compared to myself who played this growing up and never thought a whole lot of it at the time. THPS always featured real skate brands so it never seemed so off to me in this one. Don was also fully responsible for the joke about Simba on the loading screen being "hunted" as he's weirdly placed inside the scope of a gun. Very funny!

The GBA game is one I've wanted to play first hand for the longest time, ever since I first discovered it existed while researching a few years ago. That one was brutal, I'm gonna be honest. I actually fucking hated playing that game given it's so restrictive and having been a few years since I played the portable Pro Skaters... it was rough coming back to it. Though it was worth it, I always like to be thorough and those extra additions make videos special.

Cut Clayton Joke:
For some reason, in the GBA game, Clayton is not present for his own boss fight. Instead it's just against the ship itself which is weird. I wanted to make a joke about Clayton's death scene in Tarzan with the line "maybe he was all tied up with something else" and show him hanging himself. But I dunno, nothing flowed well. This stage of production on scripts for Hawktober was a bit of a rush job admittedly, given I was on such short and inconsistent work time. So it was just easier to drop it, though I'd like to recycle it if I can whenever I get around to reviewing the actual Tarzan game.

Freecam stuff!
Just to make the episode feel a little more special, I wanted to include some free cam shots of some of the levels, just to help showcase them a little better. This was achieved with the Dolphin Wii emulator and a Gamecube ROM of the game. This emulator is great allowing you to move the camera wherever you please, which often comes in handy for Every Level Ranked projects to get some neat shots. 

Thumbnail concepts:
I didn't know what the best approach to the thumbnail was for this episode. Like the Simpsons Skateboarding review, I considered getting a commission done in a Disney style but with limited time, it was just impractical. The big decider that scrapped it though was just a little play around I had with the composition to see what would fit, initially thinking it would be best to show more characters. But the image was FAR too messy, so I opted to go with a Toy Story character as the biggest franchise in the game. I originally wanted Woody but using the free cam in game to attempt in capturing some good poses were almost impossible given he is so lanky. Buzz was a much better fit in the end. It's honestly pretty rare that I actually experiment to such a degree with my thumbnails, usually the concept I have in mind usually pans out relatively close to the final product. Some thumbnails just be tricky!

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That's a WRAP!
It was another pretty simple episode to produce but one that I'm still very happy with. It was nice to finally check this one off of my bucket list! As anticipated, the episode was one of the stronger of the week as well, just barely scraping behind Simpsons Skateboarding, so I'm glad people enjoyed the final product.
Anyway as always, thank you all so much for supporting the channel for the 5th annual Hawktober event. It really means a lot. I'm keen to hear feedback and more than happy to answer further questions, but I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope you all have a great fucking day. Cheers guys! 🛹🤙