Lock 'n Load

HISTORY:

Hot off the heels of Spiderman Cartoon Maker and Godzilla text RPGs, I found myself awed at Z-man's famous "Godzilla 98" 3D movie. Frank D. Frog and Flybo had starred in several cartoons, flipbooks, comics, and homework papers prior to this point, but as soon as I learned how to advance a frame in 3DMM, I knew I had to complete their and my masterpiece.

The first day I had 3dmm, I made a Lock 'n Load preview that involved what should've been headlights steering across a black screen, and running into a cat. The next scene said something along the lines of "Lock 'n Load," and was followed by a fairly detailed sphere-built Frank D. Frog and the text "comming soon." It would be another two years before I learned there's only one 'm' in coming. This preview is lost now, unless Z-man actually has it hidden deep within one of his harddrives.

The very next day, I started Lock 'n Load. It took me several months to complete (I believe I started in August 1999, and ended in February). Even back then speed was not on my side.

My Thoughts:

You might enjoy watching my skills progress as the movie rolls. I don't know how or why, but many parts of animation seem done in slow motion (My only guess is that I held the record button on one of the shapes to advance another frame, and my timing would usually add several). Actually, I do slightly remember honestly thinking about how long certain animations should take, and then doing the proper division of animation frames to make them move realistically. Without any basis, who would've ever thought that skipping a few would do anything but make the animation slow-mo? Heh.


This movie is both very embarassing and very enjoyable to me. The non-title soundtrack is almost completely videogame/movie themes. The Final Countdown, which I considered the movie's theme, was not a song I had ever heard before. I only had an obscure MIDI named Countdown.mid which I had downloaded from a page which said it was the Davy Crockett theme. But I really liked the MIDI, and I figured if it's from Davy Crockett, almost no one would know it, so it's pretty much mine for the taking.

Funny Tidbits:

A good year or so after Lock 'n Load's release, I hear Europe's version while my dad flips through the radio channels. My brother and I exclaim "That's Lock 'n Load!!" It would take some diligent radio listening over the next few months for me to catch it again and actually remember any of the lyrics long enough to search for and download the song. ..It took me a long time to prefer the real thing over the MIDI.


This was only six years ago, folks. I was the most self-sheltered 14 year old in America, this side of the Flanders.

After Watching:

If you get to making it through this movie, I commend you. But I had a lot of fun making and watching it. I even threw in some shameless 'previews' at the end. Movies of just about all of the hobbies I had in my life at that time. That Biff Bros movie actually got two or three scenes made for it (Which were amazing at the time!), that Godzilla text was made before I even asked Z-man for permission, so it didn't even have a title.. hence "to kick butt once again!" instead of a movie title after "Godzilla's back." This project would slowly morph over the years into Godzilla: Maximum Impact, with James Ballard, JP, Evan Strobel, myself, and possibly Z-man on the team. But that's probably a story for another time.

For what it's worth, the Xtreme Pictures intro is still the coolest thing ever.

Oh yeah, and Lock 'n Load 2? I've got like 6 pages of storyboards. Thank heavens I didn't find the free time to make it until 2004!

Additional Questions:

Now some of you might ask, "Why is it called Lock 'n Load?" My answer? It's the first 'cool' title I thought of when I started making the preview. And I thought it was so cool and stylish that I rushed the movie as much as I could and checked every movie database to make sure that no one had taken it yet. I was seriously paranoid that someone would take Lock 'n Load. It's not even a play on words! Haha, I've still got a little of that paranoia in me today, and it rears its ugly head at the oddest times (Almost always when I think of something creative or funny). See if you can spot it once in a while, it's the same reason I've registered 'Gorosaurus' under everything I've come across since some little twerp stole that name on AIM... hmph..

The original 'Gorosaur Industries' scene was made too small to be a proper logo, so I decided to do it. This one happened to be too big, and didn't exactly fit in the borders. Well, letters are boring. That's the version that stayed, though I still have the old one around.

I can't remember if this was made on a 95 or a 98, but probably the latter. There was some very real effort taken to synch things up properly back in the day (Especially the final 'Final Countdown' sequence). Use your imagination, folks. Since there's almost only MIDIs in it, there aren't any lapses of sound until the very end.

Revisions made in this release were just fixing some wav codec issues, fixing animations on scene 11 so the eye gore isn't in front of the other eye (Only fixed because that's how it originally was. I think 3dmm crashed after I was happy with the scene years ago. Hey, check it out how the wound just ups and disappears after a few scenes. I just forgot about it over the 3 month production!), and a sound effect from Galaga plays in scene 14 instead of the line "Help I've fallen and I can't get up!" because its codec went crazy and I didn't still have that wav around.


This is.. Gorosaurus?:

Now you might watch this and think "This... is Gorosaurus??" Yeah, that's exactly what I thought after just watching it, too. Sure, the animation is hinted there, and the characters resemble their latest versions (FUN FACTS: The Frank D. Frog design in this movie is his 'original' design, but by the time this movie got started, I already had a version very similar to the Toad of today. I always liked the original, though, and the spheres looked very nice here. I didn't use the new design because I wasn't satisfied with it yet, and it would've been a total pain to try in 3dmm. Want to know something else? This Frank D. Frog is much, muuuuch more complex than the Toad of today. 3 freckles on every cheek and knee, developed eyelids,..a nose?? I made cartoons a science back then. Still trying to break a few habits.), but there was real, nasty gore in this flick! This isn't like Tom and Jerry.. this is RED SPHERES! Well, it was a phase, I suppose. They weren't bloody before this movie, I guess 3DMM just has Diabolical Delightment hardwired deep within its code.

Final Notes:

Lock 'n Load was released in February of 2000. To Z-man. It was only ever accepted at one 3dmm site within three years of release, and that was Chris' 3DMM Page (Now known as boardmember Chris Lohr) to a score of 7.0, which I was pretty happy with. He wrote that it might be the very best 'first movie' he'd ever seen, and I was elated to hear that for several days, until I stumbled into the 3dmm.com chatroom and was bluntly re-assured that my movie was nothing special at all. JoJo the Clown was there, though, so I was still happy to be in the presence of kings. Explode Productions later picked it up in 2003 when I cheaply re-released it. Don't happen to know what they scored it..



Alright, For Reals, Final Final Notes:

Oh yeah, and this movie was completely lost from the earth from around 2001-2003. Gone. Completely. Or so we thought, but Z-man apparently found a LockNLoad.zip on an old computer of his (Might've been in the TEMP folder, I dunno), and made me the happiest guy on Earth for a week or so. Then I watched it and remembered why it was banished in the first place. But yeah, that one copy did save what I consider a very valuable piece to me. I'm not especially proud of my choices in the movie, and I'm rather embarassed to be showing it to other people at all, but I really do feel there is a lot of insight to be found in this piece.

If you read this, I thank you very, very much. Seriously, it does my heart so well that anyone would actually care about anything like this. It keeps me going, make no doubt about it!

[Aaron Haynes]

I remember briefly watching it a long time ago, aware from the start that it was one of those very early outings with the program that we'd all prefer never existed. The fact that it's your first outing, and that you are happy it still exists, speaks to how special it is. I remember it bringing back a lot of memories to the first few times I tried to create something. I'll watch it again soon.

[Gorosaurus]

Consider that I made this when I was 14. Then consider what Jacob Adams and HMC were capable of at 13


It's a surprisingly not bad feeling to feel destined inferiority!

[Slime]

Originally Posted by Gorosaurus

It was only ever accepted at one 3dmm site within three years of release, and that was Chris' 3DMM Page (Now known as boardmember Chris Lohr) to a score of 7.0, which I was pretty happy with. He wrote that it might be the very best 'first movie' he'd ever seen, and I was elated to hear that for several days...

Hahah, wow. Its amazing to know that people actually CARED about the ratings I gave them. Like, I know I definitely cared when my movie was rated + reviewed on Jeremy's 3DMM Page, I was SOOO excited, but I never really thought about how people might care about the ratings I gave them on MY page in the same way. So... thanks fer lettin' me know this, heh!

[Gorosaurus]

Heh, it's amazing when you think about how much you can impact someone's day or whole life, just by small choices you make each day - Like for instance, if you compliment someone on their looks, they could spend the week that much happier. But those who know 3dmm know that it's more important than looks or women or most of life, so I guess those little comments just tend to stick around a little longer

* STILL REMEMBERS THE FRAME USED AS THE MOVIE'S PICTURE *

[Funny Bones]

https://f001.backblaze.com/file/3dmmtv/o5zE.mp4