Topic: Castlevania: Umbra of Sorrow (1999 Fan Project)

[Shiroi Koumori]

Thanks D9! 

[theplottwist]

Hello peeps! Today I want to introduce one more plot-element for this story project which will impact the events of 1999 -- The Outbreak of 1997.

(click to show/hide)

In 1997, the Church, who was pursuing -- with little success -- clues about an evil cult suspected of having Dracula's remains, received a distress call from Romania. The Church receives many of those in Europe and in the world all the time, but this one in particular signaled a possible attempt at reviving Dracula on one of his centennial cycles: A mysterious disease of supernatural origin was spreading amongst the people, causing them either die, or go murderously insane.

Suspecting this to be an attempt at blackening the hearts of people to spur Dracula's revival, the Church deployed Alucard and Lenora Belnades on ground zero to investigate. Amongst the growing desperation, both Alucard and Lenora met the person who made the distress call, and another person who was helping the people to protect themselves. The four of them formed a team, and together they tracked down the origin and cause of the mystery disease, discovering it to be indeed an attempt by the evil cult at gathering panic and despair to resurrect Dracula. The disease was nothing more than Dracula's influence being amplified to corrupt the populace -- like Dracula's Curse -- and coming from the Dracula's remains in possession of the cult.

The cultists managed to escape capture, but not before losing the Heart of Vlad to the team and making their name known: "Angolmois." The message was clear: The cult was well aware of Nostradamus' prophecy, and tried to outsmart it by reviving Dracula before the predicted time.

Their attempt thwarted, the curse was quickly stopped and cleansed by Lenora's prowess in magic during the following months. The event didn't go unnoticed, however, and attracted the attention of the government, who immediately started investigating the Church's affairs. Unable to avoid investigation any longer, the Church disclosed its secret feud with Dracula, Nostradamus' prophecy and their pursuit of the evil cult to the government who, in response, created a coverup story about the disaster, calling it an outbreak of West Nile Virus, and initiating a healthcare campaign, all to avoid mass hysteria and hide the truth.

Yet, the governments of Europe were far from letting this settle down. After the revelations of the Church about the King of Terror prophecy, they joined forces under a man named Berthold -- one of the two people who joined forces with Lenora and Alucard and had witnessed the effect of Dracula's influence in 1997 -- to form a secret battalion properly armed to fight the supernatural in 1999 if the Church failed to avert Dracula's resurrection.

The other person to form the team of 1997 took on the role of the Church's eyes, becoming an undercover agent and updating the headquarters whenever Angolmois reared its head.

These events explain how the military got involved with Dracula in 1999, and General Berthold was already introduced, for those following the project. Yet, this second character is new. Although he has been a piece of the plot ever since the beginning, only now his story is fully fleshed out. However, I'm not telling who it is or what is their name yet.

[theplottwist]

The Count beckons.

Listen to a snippet of his dialogue.

This is what the revived Count will look and sound like in Umbra. Junki was given specific instructions on how to portray him, and he achieved it with flying colors. Now you also know what is the second character Dracula9 is playing.

There is so much behind this, yet I can tell you so little...

[TatteredSeraph]

The Count beckons.

This is what the revived Count will look like in Umbra. Junki was given specific instructions on how to portray him, and he achieved it with flying colors.

There is so much behind this picture, yet I can tell you so little...

.... Holy crap.  This is utterly gorgeous.  Junki really has captured everything about Ayami Kojima's portrayals of Dracula in this, while making it a new version of him at the same time.  I love it.  *Picks jaw up off the floor* 

[Chernabogue]

This is excellent!!!

[Dracula9]

Welp, cat's out 'da bag finally.

Obligatory repost.

[darkmanx_429]

[eryson]

Wow. He looks so more dinamic and warrior like, Better than the everytime "pompous" looking. I loved it.

[VladCT]

The Count beckons.

Listen to a snippet of his dialogue.

This is what the revived Count will look and sound like in Umbra. Junki was given specific instructions on how to portray him, and he achieved it with flying colors. Now you also know what is the second character Dracula9 is playing.

There is so much behind this, yet I can tell you so little...

[Belmontoya]

Nice design and nice voice work on Dracula.

The sibilance was a little strong though. Try using a de esser plug in.

[Dracula9]

The silibants are deliberate due to the Count being of an older body and Mario wanting a bit of a Doug Rye feel--though they could use some reigning in.

[Belmontoya]

The silibants are deliberate due to the Count being of an older body and Mario wanting a bit of a Doug Rye feel--though they could use some reigning in.

Yeah it sounds cool hanging on the S sounds. I'm talking more about the high frequencies going on during them.

You should be able to roll that back a bit.

I have to do it all the time. We had to do it to Belgrades takes too.

[Dracula9]

Oh, yeah, that.

Having minor audio annoyances goes with the territory of me not actually having a windscreen or pop filter hardware for this mic. 

[Belmontoya]

Oh, yeah, that.

Having minor audio annoyances goes with the territory of me not actually having a windscreen or pop filter hardware for this mic. 

Oh shit. Well that explains it.

A thing a lot of vocalists do when faced with recording into a condenser mic without a pop filter is to turn the head slightly away from the mic for S and P sounds. It works, but if it makes you uncomfortable or takes your focus away from the acting (which is by far the most important part), then don't do it.

If you were using a dynamic mic like a shure sm58 it wouldn't matter. But recording into a condenser mic like the snowball without a pop filter is a no no. You can get a pop filter off amazon for under $10. You do good work so you owe it to yourself to get one. I would also suggest something like the monoprice microphone isolation sheild (that's what we use in addition to a pop filter). It makes a huge difference in quality and is very inexpensive. You can get all of this stuff for like $100. I think it's worth investing into your talents. Especially considering you're recording vocals for a cool project.

Unless money is tight. And man-o-man.. I understand what that's like!

Anyways, I'll stop nitpicking you now. Keep up the good work!

[Dracula9]

Do they even MAKE windscreens for the Snowball? I've never seen ones big enough.

Also, it's purely a question of money. At present my coping mechanism is to simply record about ten inches from the mic and compress the audio to compensate.

Hardly ideal, but it's what I'm stuck with at the moment.