Early in the 7th grade, at only 12 years old, we had finally obtained Macromedia’s Flash MX. After several weeks of experimenting with this application, a significantly more complex animation program than the archaic JASC, we decided to make a flash trilogy, modeled after the various kung-fu and ninja oriented animations we had seen online.

We chose to use characters called chi-bis (japanese for “little people”) partly because of their colorful and fun appearance, but mainly because they were infinitely easier to create than anything else. The trilogy took about a month to complete, and it was made all the easier after we discovered how to motion tween about halfway through the project. In our haste, we skipped all tutorials and lessons, preferring to learn through trial and error. But despite the depth of the program, we managed to complete an entertaining and advanced animation. After inserting some royalty free sound effects and video game music, we released our chi-bi creation to the world!

Well there it is. If you are not able to discern by yourself, then let me explain. This seems to be a movie about a legionnaire football player (the helmet gives it away) killing some barbarian guy quite soundly only to be shot through the chest by an unseen barbarian menace with a single-word vocabulary. What more can you expect from two sixth graders who are forced to animate every single frame in an ever-lengthening video? Not much. Still, the movie is enjoyable for all of two seconds thus completing its role in life.