Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a4381073df6f1cc4

Jump to content

Draft:Chalk Warfare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chalk Warfare
GenreAction, visual effects short film
Created bySam Wickert
Eric Leigh
Directed bySam Wickert
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes4
Production
ProducerMicah Malinics (4.0)
Production companySoKrispyMedia
Original release
NetworkYouTube
ReleaseMay 15, 2012 (2012-05-15) –
July 22, 2020 (2020-07-22)
Related
Chalk Warfare (video game, 2026)

Chalk Warfare is an American web series of live-action visual effects short films created by Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh and released on their YouTube channel SoKrispyMedia between 2012 and 2020. In each film, teams of players draw weapons in chalk on nearby surfaces, pull the drawings off as working objects, and fight one another.[1][2] The fourth film, Chalk Warfare 4.0 (2020), featured a cast of sixteen including actor Jamie Costa, YouTubers Zach King and Star Wars Theory, and Video Copilot performer Sam Loya; it was nominated for Visual and Special Effects at the 10th Streamy Awards.[3][4][5] By 2026 the series had accumulated more than 350 million views, and SoKrispyMedia unveiled a multiplayer video game adaptation, also titled Chalk Warfare, at Unreal Fest in June 2026.[6][7]

Background

[edit]

Sam Wickert and Eric Leigh met in fifth grade in Greenville, South Carolina, and began making films together; they launched the SoKrispyMedia YouTube channel in 2009.[2] They were sixteen when they released the first Chalk Warfare in 2012.[8] The series' success led the pair to build SoKrispyMedia into a visual-effects and production company that has worked on commercials, television and client videos, including visual effects for MrBeast.[2][8] SoKrispyMedia won the Streamy Award for Visual and Special Effects in 2022.[9][10]

Films

[edit]

Chalk Warfare (2012)

[edit]

The original two-minute short was released on May 15, 2012.[11][2] Wickert later said that the video "just erupted" after upload, and the pair immediately began a sequel.[2] Laughing Squid described it as a live-action short "where all weaponry is drawn to life".[1]

Chalk Warfare 2.0 (2012)

[edit]

The sequel was released on September 10, 2012.[12] Set in an abandoned warehouse, it added more fighters to the green and orange teams and larger weapons, including a flamethrower, a small tank and a bow and arrow.[13][1]

Chalk Warfare 3.0 (2014)

[edit]

The third film was released on April 17, 2014.[14] It featured chalk versions of weapons and equipment from video games and films, including a Portal gun and Iron Man's armor.[15][16] Gizmodo wrote that in the film "your weapons are only limited by your imagination and well, your drawing skills".[17]

Chalk Warfare 4.0 (2020)

[edit]

Chalk Warfare 4.0, a sixteen-minute film, was released on July 22, 2020, six years after the previous installment.[18][8][4] Directed by Wickert and produced by Micah Malinics, it was structured as a battle royale between four teams of four.[4][19] Its release, originally planned for March 2020, was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]

Production

[edit]

Filming took place in Los Angeles and South Carolina, with an aerial unit for a skydiving sequence.[19][3] Unlike the earlier films, in which cardboard props were recreated in computer-generated imagery, the weapons were designed digitally first and then fabricated as laser-cut transparent acrylic props with tracking markers, so that the chalk effects could be composited over them.[4][8] The chalk was simulated with the tyFlow particle system, environments were scanned with lidar, and some shots used real-time virtual cinematography in Unreal Engine.[19] The film was shot on Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Pocket Cinema Camera 4K cameras in Blackmagic RAW and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fusion; Blackmagic Design, Frame.io and Boris FX were production partners.[20][18] The film's in-house visual effects were led by Brendan Forde, with additional artists including Allan McKay.[19]

Cast

[edit]

The cast of sixteen included actor Jamie Costa, the YouTubers Zach King, Star Wars Theory, Dom Fera and Lana LeStrange, and Sam Loya, an on-camera performer known from Video Copilot's visual-effects tutorials.[4][3] Per the film's credits:[18]

  • Zach King as the Blue Team Leader
  • Jamie Costa as the Blue Team Jedi
  • Dom Fera as the Blue Team Golden Gunner
  • Lena Holmes as the Blue Team Witch
  • Sam Loya as the Orange Team Leader
  • Star Wars Theory as the Orange Team Jedi
  • Chris Reid as the Orange Team Shotgunner
  • Brett Driver as the Orange Team Saw Gunner
  • Eric Leigh as the Green Team Leader
  • Bob Reese as the Green Team Parkour Master
  • Justin Robinson as the Green Team RC Car Operator
  • Nico Sexton as the Green Team Mega Laser Gunner
  • Isaiah Stratton as the Pink Team Leader
  • Shama Mrema as the Pink Team Sniper
  • Austin Koon as the Pink Team Telekinesis Gunner
  • Tiana Webberley as a Pink Team member

Reception

[edit]

SoKrispyMedia passed one million YouTube subscribers following the film's release, and by mid-2021 the series had accumulated more than 150 million views.[2][8] As of September 2026, the film itself had been viewed more than 160 million times on YouTube.[18] Chalk Warfare 4.0 was nominated for Visual and Special Effects at the 10th Streamy Awards in 2020, losing to Aaron's Animals.[5][21] Interesting Engineering called it "an epic follow-up" to the earlier films.[22] The production was the subject of technical features in fxguide, befores & afters and No Film School.[19][23][8]

Video game

[edit]

In June 2026 SoKrispyMedia unveiled Chalk Warfare, a multiplayer first-person shooter adaptation of the series, at Unreal Fest in Chicago in partnership with the workstation maker Puget Systems.[7][24] Players draw weapons during play, and a custom recognition system built by the studio converts the drawings into functioning firearms whose handling changes with the drawing: a larger weapon reduces recoil but slows movement, and a larger magazine holds more ammunition but consumes more chalk, which serves as both ammunition and currency.[24][6][25] The Unreal Fest demo included a tutorial and one-on-one and two-on-two capture-the-point matches; Inven Global found the shooting "not yet fully polished".[24] The game is developed and published by SoKrispyMedia for Steam; a reveal video titled Chalk Warfare 4.5 was released on July 31, 2026, and the game gathered more than 25,000 wishlists within three weeks of its announcement.[26][27][25]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 Page, Justin (September 12, 2012). "Chalk Warfare, A Live-Action War With Chalk Drawn Weaponry". Laughing Squid. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hale, James (August 20, 2021). "YouTube Millionaires: SOKRISPYMEDIA Started With 'Chalk Warfare' On YouTube. Now They're A Full-Fledged Production Studio". Tubefilter. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "Skydiving and Robots: Chalk Warfare 4.0 Shot on the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2". 4K Shooters. September 6, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 McNamara, Lisa (July 22, 2020). "Made In Frame: Chalk Warfare 4.0 – Four Times the Wow Factor". Frame.io Insider. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  5. 1 2 "10th Annual Nominees & Winners". The Streamy Awards. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  6. 1 2 Doyle, Callum (September 6, 2026). "Viral YouTube series turned into game where you have to draw your own weapons". Dexerto. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Antunes, Jose (June 18, 2026). "Puget Systems and SOKRISPYMEDIA debut video game at Unreal Fest". ProVideo Coalition. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "How a Couple of Upstart Kids Became the Indie Kings of VFX". No Film School. July 1, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  9. ↑ "12th Annual Nominees & Winners". The Streamy Awards. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Here are your 2022 Streamy Award winners". Tubefilter. December 5, 2022. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  11. ↑ Chalk Warfare. SoKrispyMedia. May 15, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2026 – via YouTube.
  12. ↑ Chalk Warfare 2.0. SoKrispyMedia. September 10, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2026 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ Taylor, Jeremy (September 12, 2012). "'Chalk Warfare' Is Back For More Skillfully Drawn Mayhem". TheFW. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  14. ↑ Chalk Warfare 3.0. SoKrispyMedia. April 17, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2026 – via YouTube.
  15. ↑ Page, Justin (April 18, 2014). "Chalk Warfare 3.0, A Third Installment of Live-Action Battles with Chalk Drawn Weaponry". Laughing Squid. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  16. ↑ Paur, Joey (April 2014). "Chalk Warfare 3.0 Action-Packed Short with Iron Man Armor". GeekTyrant. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  17. ↑ Chan, Casey (April 17, 2014). "Chalk that can draw deadly weapons look fun until they kill you". Gizmodo. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Chalk Warfare 4.0. SoKrispyMedia. July 22, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2026 – via YouTube.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Seymour, Mike (August 10, 2020). "Indie series 2: Chalk Warfare 4.0: chalked and loaded". fxguide. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  20. ↑ "New Installment in Chalk Warfare Created With Blackmagic Design Workflow" (Press release). Blackmagic Design, via Hollywood Professional Association. July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  21. ↑ "YouTube Streamy Awards Nominations Unveiled With David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain And James Charles Leading The Pack". Deadline Hollywood. October 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  22. ↑ Alexander, Donovan (July 31, 2020). "Action Heroes Battle It Out Using Chalk Drawn Weapons in This Epic Short Film". Interesting Engineering. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  23. ↑ Failes, Ian (July 27, 2020). "The making of 'Chalk Warfare 4.0'". befores & afters. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  24. 1 2 3 Yoon, Seoho (June 17, 2026). "'Chalk Warfare': A Great Concept Where You Get Weapons by Drawing Them with Chalk". Inven Global. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  25. 1 2 Collins, Emma (September 7, 2026). "You Can Draw Weapon With Chalk In This Indie Game Based On YouTube Series". 80 Level. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Chalk Warfare on Steam". Steam. Retrieved September 8, 2026.
  27. ↑ Chalk Warfare 4.5 | Official Video Game Reveal. SoKrispyMedia. July 31, 2026. Retrieved September 8, 2026 – via YouTube.
[edit]

Category:2012 web series debuts Category:2020 web series endings Category:YouTube original programming Category:Viral videos Category:Upcoming video games

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Chalk_Warfare&oldid=1376672559"