Every 'Star Wars' Fan Should Watch This

The "fan film" has become an art form. We recently saw some pretty stellar examples from Joseph Kahn with his dark and gritty Power/Rangers and Ruairi Robinson with his awe-inspiring "Moby Dick in space" called The Leviathan. But both of these guys have so many resources at their disposal that their fan films are more like professionally made side projects. Paul "OtaKing" Johnson, on the other hand, calls himself a "one-man animator," as it usually takes him years to create one piece. His latest, an anime-style Star Wars short film, took him four years to create. But, as crazy as that might sound, all his efforts paid off handsomely.

The fan-made short is titled TIE Fighter. After only 11 hours of living on YouTube, it has surpassed 8,000 views — and that's before the blogosphere picked it up. Even if you're not a fan of Star Wars, you have to appreciate this guy's work. TIE Fighter looks so professionally done, with artistic flourishes and details that rival even professional animators. If you think about how widely released anime and animated films have an entire team dedicated to the production, the fact that one person did all of this is truly miraculous.

As Johnson, who's based in the U.K., wrote in a description accompanying the video, he drew and animated the short while laboring on four years worth of weekends. Now that's dedication. Watch and be amazed:

Inspired by the 1994 TIE Fighter game from the now deceased Lucasarts division, Johnson had an idea for a new Star Wars work:

What if there was an Empire-focussed short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic '80s anime that’s all but vanished from Japan nowadays? Well, I tried my best. Apologies in advance for not living up to Venus Wars standards.

He even made a poster for the short film that's inspired by his love of classic movie posters with an oil/acrylic composition. Has it taken any of you four years to do... well, anything? I didn't think so. Some movie studio needs to hire this guy stat.