In Progress...

So while interning at DUCK Studios I had the chance to get a critique on my animatic from some of the animators working there. Basically, they found that the story was not bad, but it needed a lot of reworking because some of the concepts I tried to show were too vague. The viewer got lost in the film rather than intrigued. The fat dude was unnecessary, too.

I wasn't surprised by the critique, because I'd been having doubts about the story myself. For a while, I kept convincing myself that I don't care about the story--that all I really care about is producing a good-looking film. But a good-looking film is nothing without the story. The production manager at DUCK told me to focus the most on the story, and make sure that its good, because it's really the backbone of your whole film. I've come to the conclusion this summer that I can't skirt the story. It needed to be fixed.

I was initially stressed out, because i had planned on getting a head start on production this summer. A fellow animator at DUCK, however, offered to help me rework my story. We got together for happy hour at Chan Dara and started reboarding, tying together the loose strings.

Fast forward to three weeks later, I have a brand new story. Same characters, same setting, new boards. The fat guy isn't there anymore, and there are no more guns. Rather, Ray turns into a monster himself. I have a new animatic, which I come to learn is actually called a story reel (times out the boards, with no animation). I also flipped the layout of the store.

I'm a lot happier with this story. I feel that it is much more reasonable and makes much more sense. The old story did have a charm of its own, which slightly saddens me that I've decided to drop it. Still, I think this new story is much stronger. I feel much more confident in it.

As for the background, its coming along slowly. Dom is in Singapore right now, so the production of it is sort of at a stand still. He's been modeling and I've been creating the textures. The store still has a very realistic look, so I'm going to check out toonshading. I started taking shots from the model to put in my animatic for layouts. I wonder if I made the store too large and spacious, but it seems to fit the boards...I dunno.

As for my goals this summer....since I had to retrace my steps for a few weeks, I don't think I'll be able to accomplish most of them, or any of them. Even the background is a little slow in production. Regardless, I just need to keep going.

Updated Character Designs

I showed these at my presentation, but I hadn't gotten around to posting them. I updated Joseph's design, as well as Helen's. I also created a turnaround for the monster.

someone assumed that she had two-colored hair, but its actually a hood. I'll probably put it down in the actual film since that was the case....

working on the background and thinking forward

I met with Tom Sito the other day to talk about how to start doing the animation in terms of organizing my shots. Being at Duck also has really helped me get a feel for how to organize all of my shots. My initial plan was to get all of the rough animation done by the end of the summer, however, I'm not sure if that's possible.

After Tom, I met Dominic to talk about plans for creating the 3D background. I sent him a floor plan, schematic, and my visual development piece. He said that we could probably finish the entire background by the end of the summer, which would be fantastic because then I don't have to worry about it as much. I'm providing all of the textures and he is putting it together.

I definitely want to finish the background by the end of the summer, so I guess my plans for finishing the rough animation by the end of the summer is out. Besides, it will be easier to layout shots once I have the background setup. I would like to get in a little bit of animation however, because I'm itching to start it. I want to at least do the easy closeup shots.

Goals for the Summer
1. Finish the 3D background and work with Dom
2. Rough animation of close up shots
3. Edit animatic (There are some parts i still want to change)

Here's the schematic I sent to Dominic

I tried making the store more like art books/toy store. Kind of like Giant Robot and Neotype (in Chinatown), or Stuart Ng. It makes more sense since I'm putting my own artwork on all of the books. It looks more complicated than it actually is, because most of it are books. This drawing isn't perfect, but it reads well enough for now.

I drew a few sketches of my characters that I'll post one fine day when I am not lazy. I updated my character designs too, so I can post those later.

I think one of the hardest parts about this process for me is communication. I have both a bg designer and a composer (currently unknown) to communicate what i want.

Thesis Treatment Draft 10

Untitled

Joseph, an awkward, reserved-looking 21 year old college student, enters a small comic book store. He passes Kevin, the store owner, who is too engrossed in a television news show to notice that Joseph has entered. The news reports of traces of a strange creature, thought to be lurking about the city. Joseph peruses the isles of comic/art books in the new releases section, picking up one of interest to him. As he reads the back cover, he secretly observes the other people around him.

In the back corner of the store, Ray, a wannabe rocker dude, obnoxiously plays his guitar, in attempt to serenade Helen, a tomboyish girl who works at the store. Helen looks unconvinced, but amused. She unpacks books as she watches Ray, loudly chewing gum.

Joseph watches Helen, until all of a sudden, Helen turns to Joseph and they make eye contact. Joseph is taken aback, and tries to cover for himself by pretending to be reading. Joseph scratches the back of his neck, and we notice an odd design on the hood of his sweatshirt.

All of a sudden, Ray tries to kiss Helen. Helen, slightly taken aback, spits her gum into Ray’s hair. Ray pauses for a moment, not quite sure what had just happened. He reaches up to touch the piece of gum on top of his head, and starts to scream in horror. Gradually, the scream turns into a hysterical laugh. Ray is extremely loud, but Joseph is the only one who seems to notice. He protectively puts his hood over his head. Kevin seems completely unfazed.

Ray’s guitar transforms into a gun. He points it at Helen, who seems barely shocked. Joseph seems to be oddly concerned with zipping up his jacket, but gives up. He impulsively runs and grabs Ray, jerking him backwards. He punches him as hard as he can, causing Ray to merely stumble a bit. Joseph gets a little gum on his hands, which he tries to peel off. He makes eye contact with Helen again, but it is quickly broken.

Ray turns his attention to Joseph. He smiles, wiping the blood off his mouth. Ray starts shooting like a madman as Joseph runs for cover, doing a little “dance” as he dodges the bullets. He darts behind some shelves in attempt to take cover, and starts to zip up his jacket. His jacket zips up all the way, revealing the face of a creature. Joseph reappears on the other side of the shelf as his transformed self, a monster.

Ray is initially taken aback by Joseph’s transformation, but then gets excited. Joseph snarls at Ray and attacks. Ray dodges and shoots, jumping on book shelves. They begin to fight.

Helen watches the battle apathetically. Finally she reaches under the cabinet and pulls out a ridiculously large bazooka-type gun. On TV, the news station reports on an explosion at a comic book store. The bazooka lights up…

Cut back to reality. Ray finishes off his bad love song. Joseph places a book and his credit card on the counter in front of Kevin. Kevin smiles, and proceeds to run the cashier. On TV, the news interviews an intellectual who describes a theory on multiple realities. Joseph looks over at Helen, and again, they make eye contact. Joseph freezes. Helen smiles. Joseph, relieved, smiles back.  Kevin reaches for the remote control, and turns off the TV.

Animatic 1st draft

still working on what I want to do for sound...

I'll have to discuss with my composer soon.

cleaned up version of visdev

layout/visdev/workbook/I don't know what this is called?

After drawing Ray with his gun I had the urge to add a background. Here's a really sketchy version of it.

I was thinking for the un-actiony scenes, the bg would be normal, and then for the actiony scenes I could play around with distortion and fish eye. I didn't pull this angle from one of my boards, but I think it might be cool to add in. The only problem is that he's pointing his gun the wrong way....

Again, to what level should I be refining vis-dev work? I plan on doing some color tests on this rough version of the bg with my copics/prismas.