Preview
Video Clips of
Lost Planet
Updates of
Lost Planet Series
Still Frames from Lost Planet Series
Gif Animation from Lost Planet Episode One
Notes About Contrast Between Lost Planet Animation and Original Novel
Lost Planet Series
Project Log
The Lost Planet Series
I've been working on an animated sci-fi series based upon a novel I wrote during one of the most desperate times in my life, called "The Lost Planet". The most interesting thing about the situation was the fact that the act of recording the novel was, in itself, a very enlightening escape from that desperation. While writing the novel, I was completely alone in the world, so very alone that I felt like Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe's classic 18th century novel. At night, it became so dark and quiet that I could actually imagine being on an asteroid in deepest space, alone.
Well, unless you've been where I've been, alone and desperate as I was at that time (1989), you probably can't imagine what it was like. But if you've ever been alone and had no one in the world to turn to, and had to get yourself out of the hole you were in, without any help from anyone else whatsoever, then you might be more capable of imagining what it was like. It was indeed very much like being "Robinson Crusoe" stranded on an island, alone.
While writing "The Lost Planet", my intelligence was taxed to the limit, as I did all I could not just to imagine what being stranded on an asteroid alone would be like, but how I would go about the task of surviving under such extreme circumstances. Survival was fairly simple enough in the beginning, when I had plenty of supplies, but after months of time, it became more difficult and desperate.
I had high hopes about the sci-fi novel after it's completion in 1990, but after it went nowhere, I realized that it had managed to give me something to reach for, a practical goal that I believed in, and even though it failed to sell, it had helped me escape the solitary desperation that had over-whelmed me in the late 80s.
Well, at the same time, in the late 80s and early 90s, I had also dabbled with amateur animation and learned the basics while using a camcorder to record endless still-frames and put them in motion on video. It also went nowhere after I lost my job and could not get the technical equipment I needed.
But now, finally, after purchasing my first 21st century computer, I have returned to animation and have been working for over a year on an animated version of "The Lost Planet", and if I do say so myself, the results haven't been half bad. It's been a lot of work and the quality is the best I've ever produced, far superior to the VHS, sketch-book stuff I did in the late 80s. While the video graphics appear fairly good, however, I must admit that I'm not too keen on the soundtrack just yet.
Nonetheless, if anyone cares to check out the preview clips I have available, they can be found at this link-page.
Nick Zentor, 10/9/2006
Anime
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