This post is going to sound lame, but I’ve spent 13+ years wading through Ghostbusters III rumors online, trying to do my part as a fan of the franchise, contributing the only way I know how. From running this website for over 11 years to recently building my own replica of the Ecto-1.  So, if that wasn’t lame enough for you, here goes nothing.

The online Ghostbusters community may not be as big as the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek fandoms.  In reality, we’re a whole different group all together.  It is easy to typecast and dismiss us all as nerds, geeks, dweebs, etc.  Want to hear something strange?  I haven’t seen any of the Star Wars films, nor have I ever sat through an entire episode of Star Trek.  Yes, that’s right folks!  I’m a 27 year old white male, born and raised in the United States and I have never seen Star Wars.  I’m a different kind of nerd, I suppose.  I listen to NPR, collect vinyl, enjoy working at a tech startup, and I really enjoy Ghostbusters.

When Ghostbusters was released in 1984, it was a blockbuster success on so many levels.  Sure, it had innovative special effects, science fiction / fantasy undertones, and a huge budget.  But it was also a well written comedy, executed on behalf of a very talented and bright cast.  It had the magic formula. There is just something about the film, it transcends any stereotype, pigeonhole, or label you could possibly fathom.

The online Ghostbusters community, in a similar fashion, is comprised of a healthy amount fans who were touched by the franchise in many different ways.  We have grown together as a tight knit community, not because of sequels, spin-offs, and licensed merchandise, but because of the adversity we have collectively faced over the years.  We have all waded through years of Ghostbusters III rumors, we witnessed a new cartoon and toy-line awkwardly come and go after just one season, and we have, in recent years, dealt with rumors regarding a Ghostbusters remake.

Each member of the community expresses themselves in their own way. For example, Chris Stewart of Proton Charging is passionate about finding and distributing Ghostbusters news to the masses, exploring and chronicling the fandom, it was one of very first Ghostbusters sites to come online. AJ Quick of Ghostbusters Fans has been building props, identifying and selling prop parts and recently expanded his website earlier this year.  Paul Rudoff of Spook Central has been faithfully documenting many aspects of the franchise for over 13 years!  There are tens of thousands of ghostheads all over the world in the community who contribute in their own way, with hundreds of websites dedicated to Ghostbusters in one form or another.  Ghostbusters.net, which will be coming out of hibernation soon, has focused on user-generated content, fan fiction, and collaborative documentation, piecing together the small tidbits of information we’ve been fed over the years.  There are many facets of this fandom and we all congregate because we love the franchise.

This is our year to soak in all the cool new stuff coming our way.  We have a lot to be thankful for. In light of what some reactions were to the recent Activision pull-out.  We really aren’t “ungrateful little yuppie larva”.

Thank you Dan Aykroyd for keeping the franchise alive with your passion and big heart.  Thank you Terminal Reality for building the next chapter of the Ghostbusters series with with your phenomenal game engine.  Thank you Sierra Entertainment / Vivendi Universal for picking up the license and believing in the franchise.  Thank you Sony Pictures for moving the franchise forward.  Last, but certainly not least, thanks to the original cast for coming back and lending their voices (Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton).

We are grateful and excited to not only watch, but experience the next chapter of Ghostbusters, which Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis so lovingly penned.  What more can you ask for?  Did you ever think you would have the opportunity to trap a ghost with Dan Aykroyd?!

In short, cheer up folks.  We have something very special coming.. and it’s real!

Newcomers: parts one, two, and three.  Now on to the next chapter… Peter Venkman.

As we move towards the final two characters left on the list, we start to find that the designs look less and less like their live action counterparts, yet capture more and more of the character’s traits. With Peter Venkman (and lastly, Egon), we see animation character design at its best. They show us that a character can be interpreted many different ways, yet still retain the soul that everyone relates to.

Those traits being:

• Charismatic
• Humorous
• Witty
• Extroverted
• Mildy Sleazy
• Kind Hearted
• Business Savvy (always thinking of the dollar)
• Flirtatious

These traits are manifested in two ways within the translation of the face. First, the literal cross overs from Bill Murray. They kept the hair line, cheeks,  nose, the tired / jaded eyes, the smirk, and the flat “butt chin” . Secondly, they created traits from scratch that best represented the character. Most notably, his hair. Dana put it best when he said said “you look more like a game show host”. And what do all game show hosts have? Nice hair! Which is why the cartoon Venkman has much more styled hair than Mr. Murray…especially with the nice pseudo cow lick bangs with the lovely curl at the end. But the hair is just messy enough, and just long enough in the back, to pay a little homage to Murray’s hair while still taking it into the TV show host / ladies man realm. Another significant change is the head shape. Murray’s head is shaped like a rounded square. Problem is, in animation, a round head suggests innocence or youth, while a square head suggests someone is dense or dim witted. Venkman is neither. So they narrowed his face into more of a tapered rectangle. The narrow shape and slight “V” angle makes him both witty, and more attractive. Which plays well into his womanizing routine.

Venkman’s body shape fits Murray pretty well. But the main changes come in the suit colors. Again, these colors were chosen because they represent his character traits. Venkman is no doubt the most popular character associated with Ghostbusters and fans are going to want him to remain true to the movie. But alas, the classic Tan suit is already used for Ray, as his character best represents the heart of Ghostbusters. Venkman also represents the heart…but a slightly darker, more cynical heart. What is a darker version of tan?…brown. Also, people who prefer brown, tend to not be impulsive. And as we all know, Venkman rarely likes to just dive into a situation head first….he lets others do that for him. “Go Get Her, Ray!”

Now Venkman also has dark blue-green accents to his brown suit. People who prefer blue-green tend to be discriminating (dismissed Walter Peck right away), poised (always appears composed and self assured), as well as attractive and charming (both play into the lady’s man routine). And of course, blue-green is an opposite on the color wheel with brown. Contrasting colors always go well together.

So there you have it! By taking some of Bill Murray’s features, adding some classically attractive physical features over top of that, as well a dash of TV host hair, and colors that reflect those character traits, you get a timeless Peter Venkman animated design that doesn’t “look” like the live action Venkman, but sure as hell feels like him!

In the next and final chapter, I will be discussing Egon.

Too Zuul For School

As the great Norman Gagnon once said, Greetings and Hallucinations!

We’re all waiting on tender hooks for Ghostbusters: The Video Game to be released, and as such, I know that most (if not all) of you have seen the many screen shots and gameplay videos the internet has to offer on the subject; I sure have.

Those of you who recognize my name will also know that my thing has always been the Ghostbusters’ equipment (and subsequently prop-making). I devoted a lot of time to knowing all there is to know about the Proton Packs in the hopes of one day building one of my own. One decade and 5 packs later, I consider myself not an expert by any means, but yet still extremely well versed.

Okay, I promise I’ll get to the point now. I was watching the latest video with all of that new, exciting in-game footage when I noticed two lights on the proton pack in the game that aren’t supposed to be there in the movie. Now, before you start to throw roasted marshmallows at me, I know as well as the next ghosthead that there are MANY differences between the movie packs and the game packs. One glance reveals this obvious fact. From what I understand, the myriad of added lights and whatnot on the right hand side of the pack will be used to indicated health, pack heat, or whathaveyou. I can totally dig that.

Note the semantics of my assertion: I noticed two lights on the game pack that aren’t supposed to be there…in the movie.

In the first film, during the first call at the Sedgewick hotel, observant fans have undoubtedly noticed that there’s something slightly wrong with the pack Dan Aykroyd is wearing. The “power cell” (read: the little box on the left side with the blue lights) was either damaged by a careless stage hand or painted improperly, because the lights from inside the box - which are actually white lamps that shine through a blue gel of sorts - are prominently visible shining out of the front and sides of the box, as seen in the pictures below.

Clearly, this wasn’t by design, because nowhere in either of the two films do any of the other shots exhibit this detail. One viewing of the scene makes it obvious to anyone who has had the pleasure of constructing a proton pack that they simply didn’t paint the inside of the pack 100% thoroughly, allowing some light to spill through. Surely, this must have been noticed during viewing of the dailies, but what director would let such a minor inconsistency spoil a perfect take by these three comedic legends? I sure wouldn’t.

At any rate, the designers of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, in their thorough and amazing quest for ultimate attention to detail, very well might have gotten this production gaff confused for an intentional nuance, because these same two accidental lights appear quite intentionally in the in-game pack, as seen below.

How interesting! It’s much more noticeable if you actually watch the gameplay footage itself. Now it can be told, to those who might have had reservations before.

Alas, I am a huge nerd.  Hope to share more insight with you all soon.

- Astantax

After watching those new Terminal Reality tech demos for Ghostbusters: The Video Game demos, and seeing all the new details on the equipment, I am reminded of how cool a new line Ghostbusters toys would be.  Other than the Real Ghostbusters (and to a lesser degree, Extreme Ghosbusters), the movie franchise has been seriously lacking in the toy department.  Sure, there were those Ghostbusters action figures a few years back.  But the line only consisted of the spooks, when in reality what we all REALLY want are the boys and their toys.

It isn’t due to lack of demand that we have no Ghostbusters toys currently displayed on our shelves or a top our computers.  Its a known fact that this is due to celebrity likeness and the lack there of.

It has been many a year and people have stopped expecting any Ghostbusters movie figures.  But then a new Ghostbusters game is announced.  And not just that!  This game has all the approved likeness of each actor!…including their voices!   Could this be true?  Have all actors dropped the iron curtain and their faces can now be on products?  Could this mean….*GASP*….there is the possibility of a toy company making action figures based on the new video game?!  Ultra detailed, super poseable renditions of our favorite characters with the classic pack, the revamped game pack, traps, PKE’s, goggles, THE WORKS!  Each figure could be packed with a spook from the game.  Each could have a piece of a charred, pissed off Stay Puft that you can assemble when you collect all the characters.  And if the Gods were smiling upon us, each figure could have a voice chip in it.

Can you imagine the glory of such figures?

Who knows.  Stranger things have happened.

Too Zuul For School

Newcomers: parts one and two.

Ray’s character design is the Yang to Winston’s Ying. Where Winston’s design might have been the most difficult translation from film to animation, Ray’s design was no doubt the easiest. Of all four Ghostbusters, his translation is most direct, even down to the color choices. This can be contributed to the fact that Dan Aykroyd physically embodied most of Ray’s character traits so well.

And what are those character traits?

• Open minded
• Boyish/child-like enthusiasm
• Purist heart and soul
• Not intimidating
• Able to step in anyone’s shoes (brainiac, everyman, funny guy, business man)

How were these qualities translated into the character design? Lets take a look at the face.

As I wrote earlier, much of Akyroyd’s features were brought over due to the fact that he physically embodied the character so well. This is rarely the case with movie to cartoon translation. But one can contribute this to the fact that Ray Stantz is really just Dan Aykroyd with a fictional name. The part was writen for him, by him, about him. So many of Aykroyd’s qualities cross over. As you can see, they mimicked his chin, lips, and nose almost perfectly.

To accentuate the qualities of pure heart and child like enthuasiam they took Aykroyd’s already established features and made them more child like by making his head more round, adding a fair amount of pudginess to him and giving him larger eyes. As a matter of fact, Ray has the largest eyes of the Ghostbusters. The other main change is his hair. Winston and Peter both have dark hair, to add variety to the group, they gave Ray lighter, brown hair. Besides helping him stand out, the lighter hair also brings out more of the child like qualities since most children rarely have dark hair right out the gate.

As for the body, much of the same rules apply. They gave Ray, Aykroyd’s basic body, and altered it to enhance the child like characteristics and help him stand out from the group.

Just like with the face, they added some pudge to round him out, and give him a slight pear shape. They also made him the shortest of the group. This again shows him as more youthful, also makes him more recognizable standing along side the group. Since Ray is the character translated most directly from the movie, his suit colors reflect that by remaining the same and retaining the tan color scheme, with no variation in color along the collar and cuffs. Where as the other characters had color schemes that reflected their personality, Ray kept the colors of the movie. Why? Because Ray IS the Ghostbusters. He is the heart and soul of the team.

In the next chapter, I will discuss Peter Venkman.

Too Zuul For School

Ghostheads, the Ghostbusters community podcast, has launched its second episode. Ron Daniels and Jason Hughes were kind enough to invite Proton Charging’s Chris Stewart and yours truly for a roundtable discussion. The show notes are below, enjoy!

News Minutes 3 to 20

• Ecto 1 Tour
• Ghostbusters TV presented by Central Oklahoma Ghostbusters
• Ernie Hudson and USF Ecto 1 at Adventurecon
• Kubrick Figures
• No Louis in Ghostbusters The Game?

Featured Site Minutes 21 to 26

• Arizona Ghostbusters – http://www.arizonaghostbusters.com

Featured Segment: Roundtable Discussion with Chris Stewart from Proton Charging and Chad Paulson from Ghostbusters.net Minutes 26 to 58

• Special Ghostbusters.net Announcement from Chad Paulson: 53:00

World of the Physic Minutes 58 to 59

Mailbag Minutes 59 to 77

• Original Ghostbusters Radio Ads:
  http://forums.ghostbusters.net/viewtopic.php?t=4786&highlight=radio
• RGB Score Petition:
  http://www.petitiononline.com/rgbmusic/petition.html

Email your questions/comments/suggestions to ghostheads@gmail.com

Newcomers: From Real to “Real” (Part One)

In this chapter, I will delve into the character design behind Winston. Winston is perhaps the hardest character to design for animation, as he is the most underdeveloped Ghostbuster in the entire movie and didn’t appear until half way through the film. Since character design is heavily based on personality traits, this leaves the Real Ghostbusters art team in a real pickle.

Now lets break down Winston’s character traits.

• Down to Earth
• Common sense type
• Blue collar worker
• An every man
• Unassuming
• Athlete of the team
• Possibly the most religious
• Most relateable by the audience

So how does one translate this into animation? You start with the face, as that is what people relate to, and most camera shots are close ups.

To make Winston match those traits, you have to keep him looking looking generic so he is relateable by a larger demographic, but also kind and approachable. First is the get rid of the mustache. While it works well in the movie, in animation a mustache either ages you, makes you look like a tough bad ass, or turns you into a villain. Thinner eye brows also also takes attention off the brow and makes a person exude more confidence.

They also gave his hair more shape to break up his silhouette a little bit, as well as made him look a little more conservative with a more groomed, classic cut. Finally they gave him larger, more friendly eyes. A sharp contrast to Ernie’s narrow, more skeptic eyes.

Now comes the body.

Even the suit has to reflect his personality. That is where the Real Ghostbusters conceptual artists were really brilliant. They used color to separate each character to further establish their character traits. With Winston, the artists choose blue with maroon trim. Blue represents soft, soothing, compassionate and caring, Blue is the color of deliberation and introspection, conservatism and duty. Patient, persevering, conscientious, sensitive and self-controlled, Blues like to be admired for their steady character and wisdom. They are faithful, but are often worriers with somewhat inflexible beliefs and can be too cautious, and suspicious of flamboyant behavior. This clearly represents Winston. He is loyal and has a sense of duty to the Ghostbusters, but is also a little reluctant when it comes to their more outlandish ways. This is represents in the movie when he decides to get his own lawyer. He isn’t the type to jump to a mess and is indeed cautious.

He is the Ghostbuster who probably has his life together the most. His blue costume is trimmed with Maroon. Maroon represtents harsh experiences, which has probably matured the Maroon person into someone likeable and generous. It is often a favorite color of someone who has been battered by life but has come through. It indicates a well-disciplined Red personality—one who has had difficult experiences and has not come through unmarked but who has grown and matured in the process. This also fits Winston and his blue collar roots. He didn’t come from a cushy University Job. Winston started from the ground up. Works all sorts of jobs and knows the city from the streets up. That life no doubt had difficult experiences that matured Winston into the man he is today.

All these elements are well thought out and purposely chosen to represent Winston in the animated world of Real Ghostbusters. In the next chapter, I will talk about Ray and his design choices.

Too Zuul For School

I have always been fascinated by the transition Ghostbusters took from the movies to the cartoon. The character designs for each character are so radically different from their movie origins, yet they work. Egon has blond hair and a rat tail….yet we accept it! Why? I will attempt to explain that in a Ghostbusters.net blog series I like to call From Real To “Real”

I have been doing character design and 3D animation for years now, and with those years of experience came a new appreciation for the character designs used in Real Ghostbusters. Successful character designs from film to cartoon only work when the artist visually captures a character’s personality, not the actor’s likeness. The great thing about actors is they can change their personalities when acting. This is why we can accept the same face as different characters in different films. But in animation, if a character begins to look too much like the actor that played them, it gets to be too destracting because in most cases, they never look quite right.

Look at this art from the talented Dapper Dan.

While very skilled and well done, the characters are a bit distracting because they look like the actors…but at the same time don’t. And by focusing more on the actors likeness and less on the character traits, the spirit is gone. Venkman lost his charm and charisma and now looks weathered and unfriendly.  Stantz lost his boyish nature and pure heart. Winston no longer has the down to Earth, everyman sensability. Egon is the most accurate, if only because he is the most stylized.

An actor gets an entire movie to define their character. But in TV animation, you get a limited amount of time. Not to mention you don’t get the subtle changes in personality that a real actor can provide. So in animation you have to cut to the chase and define the character instantly with their visual appearance. That is where animation is at it’s most powerful. Each characteristic from body shape, colors, hair styles, etc has to define their personality. Plus these various characteristics have to be instantly recognizable. What is the main test to see if a character is designed well? The silhouette test! You should be able to instantly recognize a character even if it is totally in shadow.

Each of these characters are classic and each are readable in silhouette. Sometimes you have to defy reality to achieve this, but that is why animation is animation! Now if the designers simply tried to copy the actors from the movie, they would fail this test. Here is an example of the movie characters in silloute along side the animated characters. Which is more readable to the eye?

At best Bill Murray is readable due to his hair. But you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis. Below is another example using Janine.

Clearly the movie version doesn’t read nearly as well and has no place in a cartoon. But don’t feel bad for her, someone with her qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.

Designing characters for animation isn’t easy. But the artists behind Real Ghostbusters got it right! In the next chapters, I will go into more detail behind the designs of the four main characters.

Too Zuul For School

I remember when I first witnessed what appeared to be a trailer for a Ghostbusters game, awhile back… it looked as if it took place in an apocalyptic world, with HUGE space marine-esk equipment, and the Ecto-1 had just appeared on “Pimp My Ride” and came out a pimp-a-licious wreck.

It was my greatest fear come to life. There was a buzz in the air for a new Ghostbusters game that had lost all the Ghostbusters charm! I didn’t want Peter Venkman as Master chief! No! I wanted the Venkman that I remembered and loved! Soon after, things quieted down and the idea of a Ghostbusters game left the public’s immediate consciousness. But recently news of an official Ghostbusters game resurfaced, and guess what!…it was the old Ghostbusters I know and loved! YAY!

But then I noticed some things.

With all this Ghostbusters game footage being released as of late, I have noticed many modifications to the equipment. Some subtle, some not so subtle. First is the PKE meter. The entire front plate is now a big screen with a bar graph showing the levels of Psycho-kinetic Energy.

Another subtle change I have noticed are the addition of new lights to the pack. What was once simply a label or hook/clamp is now a series of blinking or rotating lights.

Perhaps the biggest alteration to the classic equipment is the merger of the slime blower with the proton pack. It now appears to have a small slime canister attached to the left side with an extra tube feeding into the proton gun.

Now you may be wondering, “Is Too Zuul For School not for these changes? Is he talking smack about the new game?! Blasphemy!”. Not at all! As a matter of fact, I actually enjoy these changes! First off, the new PKE display makes perfect sense. I always felt the old design had a screen that was way too small to be practical in the field. As for the pack lights, I have always subscribed to the theory “The more flashing lights, the better”. This hold true with space ships, robots, ray guns, and proton packs. Why have a label with science mumbo jumbo when you can have flashing and rotating lights! WAY MORE FUN! And lastly, the slime blower attachment. This one had to grow on me a little, but I found it makes more sense than having a separate piece of equipment all together like in Ghostbusters 2. And the use of the slime as a tether is rather brilliant. Plus it was integrated in such a way to not destroy the design of the classic pack. Over all, it is a grand update on a classic look.

But this creates a whole new playing field in a specific sub culture of fandom…..THE PROP MAKERS! For nearly 20 years now, Ghostbuster fans have had a limited selection of props to recreate. You had your two movies, and to a lesser extent, The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. With no Ghostbusters 3 released, it seemed like the idea of any new equipment was dead. But now you have “Ghostbusters: The Game” nestled nicely between the movies and the cartoons. How long before we find pictures online of prop replicas for the PKE meter (Video game variant), or the Proton Pack (with slime shooter attachement)?

As a matter of fact, I would like to set up a challenge right now! I want to see if anyone is able to recreate a full size prop from the video game BEFORE the video game is released this fall! And those who do, I would like to premiere the pictures on the Ghostbusters.net Blog for the world to see!

It’s a good time to be a Ghosthead.  Post your reply here.

Too Zuul For School

Hey all! I thought I would share with you one of my favorite Ghostbusters experiences. This was about 2 and a half years ago. I was taking a Ninjitsu class in Capital Hill, Seattle. I don’t take the class anymore as there was some political infighting that caused the class to self destruct. Sadly, I was not able to witness the final class. From what I hear, it ended with a 102 year old master going super Saiyan on everyone’s asses leaving a wake of destruction only rivaled by Chuck Norris.

Anyway, I digress. The Dojo in which the class was held, was used by many different classes and the Ninjitsu class was the final one of the evening. The Akihito class before us, hands over the keys to the building so that we can lock up. My chum, Sean, was in charge of all that. The Akihito instructor, a woman in her late 30’s, asks our group who is in charge of locking up. Sean was in the back getting dressed so I took it upon myself to answer on his behalf. It went a little something like this:

He’s in the back, getting changed. You see, he is the keymaster. I am the gatekeeper.

She just stood there, looking at me and didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to, her face said it all. Her expression either said “I have no idea what you are talking about, you are such a dork” or it said “Oh, a Ghostbusters fan, what a dork!” She could have killed me with one touch…and I am sure she contemplated it for a moment. But either way, I was the grand champion that night!

Too Zuul For School