We're actually going to be following two stories here. The first is an epic saga following the history of the Thyrokhys: a fictional species of dromaeosaurid that discovers sentience after finding a unique meteorite. The other follows a modern-day scientist as he stumbles upon them and the metaphysical quandary of finding a culture seemingly 66 million years out of date.
In spite of the fantasy elements, the main goal of this is primarily xenofiction- a genre that follows inhuman characters working things out through an inhuman frame of mind. On that side, there is definitely a strain of Watership Down and Children of Time in there. Of course, as the situation develops and the true nature of the Caltigara becomes evident... well, let's say it gets more complicated.
That's the Thyrokh name for an asteroid that lands in their territory and starts the story. It's largely told from their perspective, though, and they don't exactly have a good frame of reference for what lies inside. Truth be told, we don't either.
HELL, NO. Aside from the dubious ethics and environmental problems behind the current popular models, part of the reason I'm doing this is the joy of the creative process. I want to learn how to be a better artist and storyteller, and while I'm primarily using computer animation to convey that, you can't do that by letting a computer do these things for you.
As of now, my budget is very limited, so I'll be making do with free programs that anyone can pick up today. Blender, Krita, Musescore, all have a surprising amount of flexibility that can almost let anyone with a laptop make a full-length movie on their own. Almost...
I'll do as much as I can, but I'd also love to bring others into this when I can. The main goal for now is to show an example of the types of stories that can be told in this world. If anyone else does come on board, I want everyone to be on the same page. One of the issues of developing something so close to my heart, I guess.
Hopefully, not much. I didn't have much of a schedule anyway, but I still have plenty of work that I do want to do. The world keeps moving, and something new and exciting will always be around the corner for me to talk about. Even if there wasn't, I'm going to need the occasional distraction just to keep my sanity intact. As big of a project this is going to be, you can always expect a little extra on the side.
That's part of the challenge behind this series that I enjoy. I've always appreciated stories that treat their fantastic elements with some sort of grounding in logic, and I'm hoping to use that as a launching point for some serious discussion and introduction to higher concepts. For instance, reptiles and birds don't have lip muscles to make the complex mouth shapes humans can to make their consonants, but some evidence suggests dinosaurs had bird-like syrinxes to create a variety of other sounds, so that was important to me in how I developed their language. The world building is full of examples like this.
I very strongly considered every age in the geologic column for this, even some Paleozoic and Cenozoic time periods. In the end, I decided that the themes of the story I wanted to tell depended a lot on the culture utterly disappearing before humanity arrives, which is much easier to do with the K/Pg asteroid than most of the other extinction events. It also adds a level of dramatic irony to the whole thing: so much hope and potential for this society, only for it to have an end date nobody could have predicted.
Still, I'm hoping to take the chance to explore sides of this that recent documentaries and movies have unfortunately neglected. You can expect some of the heavy hitters like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops to make an appearance, but they're more cameo roles than the main stars. There's a whole ecosystem of crazy animals here that would affect daily living, and most people only have a superficial understanding of it. As stated before, this is a great way to introduce them to that.
Unfortunately not. As long as I have been working on this, my budget is, again, very strained, and I'm waiting to see if the demand is there. If there's enough interest in it, I may start small with things like desk ornaments and pins.
As an indie creator, anything will help. Even liking, commenting, and sharing my posts on social media shows that my art is connecting with people, and that's all I hope for most days. If you mean in a more tangible, financial ways, you can subscribe to my Patron for as little as $1 a month and get access to early previews and 4k renders.