Technically, Fort Castor doesn't exist yet. But I dunno, maybe getting this page set up will get me warmed up to actually get started on making it.

"Fort Castor" will be a collection of Blender-animated cartoons all taking place within the city of Fort Castor, obviously. I'm drawing inspiration from Gooseworx's "The Pink City" animations as well as various productions by Radio TV Solutions, among others. There'll be a few focus characters and plotlines for me to explore and figure out, but before I can think too hard about them, I just want to make the first video I have planned, and then we can go from there.

In the meantime, I can show off a little of what I have planned for the world of Fort Castor.

Fort Castor Overview

The stories take place in an weird cartoon city, itself within an weird cartoon world - electronic technology is rolled back by about 20-30 years, legal documents have the potential to alter reality, and there's a whole dimension of unknowable, esoteric static that people dredge whole TV shows out from. The point of this project is for me to have something to practice animating in Blender with, and to have fun writing weird stories.

So far, I have four ideas for skits/storylines:

• The Chavez & Beau Late-Nite Power Hour - Follows a late night talk show co-hosted by Chavez Critterson and Beau Button*. Their producers are negligent, the show's budget is low, and the hosts are kind of laughingstocks. Still, the people like them, so they stay on the air.
• Fort Castor Theatre - It's about the theatre. I don't have too many ideas for it yet, outside of drawing inspiration from Eyes of the Killer.
• Guide to Ghosts - Analog-horror adjacent, I suppose. In-universe training tape or public service announcement about different sorts of ghosts, how they operate, and how ghost hunters deal with them. (I wasn't sure about adding ghosts to Fort Castor because I was worried about it being too similar to The Pink City, but I have a character in mind that I'd like to use very much, so they're not fully off the table.)
• Dredging - For this one, I want to explore the concept of dredging things out of the weird static dimension. The concept of venturing into this dangerous, alien dimension that's almost completely incomprehensible to a mortal mind for something as minor and silly as contemporary entertainment (and for it to actually work) is hilarious to me.

*Chavez Critterson is not the same as Chavez the webmaster, and Beau Button is a bit different from normal Beau. I just wanted to be able to make an animation with the character designs. Plus, it helps if the only character that talks in the video can be voiced by me, since Beau doesn't talk. It's strategic.

Worldbuilding for this project has been different from what I usually do, because the setting is meant to be a backdrop and foundation for absurd comedy. I've had a lot of fun coming up with wacky stuff to fill the world with: life insurance sells you years of life, and if you don't pay them you just inexplicably die; if someone's death is improperly filed, they will become a ghost, so ghost hunting is a legitimate career choice; people in this world have types, Pokémon style, and one of them is Tumblr Sexyman. It's awesome. I'm having the time of my life.

Fort Castor Development

The idea is that once I actually start working on the animations, I'll put some work-in-progresses and behind-the-scenes pictures here. I don't have very many right now, but I have a few concept doodles.

Concept Art