Major Project idea

Well Hi guys, it's been a while since I was last on and that's because I have tortured myself by writing my dissertation at the last minute! NEVER AGAIN!! But I am now back nice a fresh and ready to do something amazing for my last project!

I have had a chat with Alan about things I can do and we also took a look at the minor project so we can work on the things that I didn't do so well. He mentioned that I had got better with my design process but lacked on my technological aspects of the pipeline - Which I heavily agree with. 

My initial ideas is not to do a creature design again because I would like some diversity in my demo reel and something new and fresh to get my head around. I would really like to show all the things that I have learnt in the 3 years and prove to myself that I can do this too. So i would like to make an animation with the full pipeline, the animation will be more cartoonistic, brighter and more concentrated on the animation. The last couple of days I have been thinking of some ideas. 

  

Tonight, on the way home I saw a red cone behind a low wall, and for some reason all I could think of was that is definitely a sneaky gnome that is trying to hide but his big hat is giving him away. All the way home I couldn't shake the idea of the stealthy gnome from my head and I started to develop a story in my head about a gnome that must stealthily move from one garden to the next avoid a guard of some kind to get to his love. An I started to get really excited about this and picturing more and more gags and pieces that can go into the script. This is what I have: - 

Agent Gnome

Synopsis – A young male gnome must get to the next garden to get the girl he has seen through a small hole in the fence – she was placed with her back towards him so she doesn’t know he’s there. A small dog is on watch, the gnome must sneak past using the obstacles of the garden. This will be a James bond parody type animation, serious yet funny at the same time via small gags throughout the animation. – 2-3 minutes long depending on how much it can be cut down by.

Characters – Fully modelled and rigged Male Gnome, Basic working dog, Very basic Female as she won’t appear too heavily in the animation.  

Setting – Garden A and Garden B – Night time (depending on the need of the comedy and stealth)

Three act structure

Beginning – setting the scene

Scene opens on Sleeping dog (Chihuahua, or other small dog – adding to the funny side)

There’s a noise that wakes the dog (thrash can being knocked over possibly)

He wakes and looks about and sees quick blurry movement – causes alertness – he hears a rustle from the bushes – a red hat is sticking out of the bush.

The shot changes to the gnome behind the bush, he is looking at a map that he drew on a  leaf.

Dog barks – the hat disappears down.

Middle – losing the dog and getting over the fence

(More obstacles are used – trap the dog possibly or just fool him – This will be thought out)

(Getting around the fence will also take some thinking about – This of course needs to keep the style involved and it needs to be short to keep the overall time down)

End – Meeting the girl

He see the girl – there is a pink mist filling the air – the water fountain that she is near turns on, creating a heart.

He travels to her and turns her around. He notices she is actually a guy gnome painted pink.

He screams, falls back off the edge (a smash sound can be heard out of screen) and shards fly back up into shot.

Scene Ends

I am very excited to take in feedback and get cracking on, so if you are reading this then please tell me what you think. Everything must happen quickly for me to be able to get everything done to a standard that will get me the highest grade I can get. So this is the initial time frame.

Week one - Finalize Idea - Start script - initial character design

Week two - Finalize script - Design Male and female character (quick idea, the female could just be the male dressed pink!)- Chose what character the guard will be (get designing)

Week three - Start and Finish an animatic from the script. - Continue designing process

Week four - Finalize design process - prepare to model.

Week 5 - Model at least one character fully - Continue the others

Week 6 - Finish all characters, with textures and Uvs completed

Week 7 - Catch up on any lose work - Model and finalize both gardens complete with obstacles

Week 8 - Finalize all lose work - Set up lighting in the garden scenes for testing.

Week 9 - Begin animation - Key important poses in act 1 - fill in animation

Week 10 - Key important poses in act 2 - fill in animation

Week 11 -  Key important poses in act 3 - fill in animation

Week 12 - Finalize animation and finish special effects (lust scene and heart fountain)

Week 13 - Finalize lighting, Cameras and Render settings/passes - test everything - Render

Week 14 - Render everything to high standard - Composite - tie in music. - Full fill any submission requirements - turnarounds, DVD, demo reel turnarounds.

If any extra time, do a title sequence.

I have to get to work!!! CIAO

Initial sketches of cthylla

So heres a quick start on the visual look, for me this is just a warm up to see what it could look like. So far I am happy with these sketches but at the moment I am miles away from actually designing as can be seen in these.

What these sketches have shown me though, is that this mash up of creatures doesn't and shouldn't look like a mash up. I certainly don't want this creature to look like a cut and paste design. So other ways I want to experiment, for example is the use of the tenticles; It seems obvious that they dangle from the face like a Davey Jones character or dangle from the bottom like number 3 on page 1. But I want to use each part properly and to the creatures advantage.


This would mean I first need to decide what this creature is - Character for a game or movie? Most feared animal under the sea or above... or he could possibly be the much lower down the food chain which opens up plenty of possibilities.

Idea for the beginning

The Microscope

I was thinking of a way to make my animation unique and also give a clear idea right at the beginning that what is seen is a magnified cell infection. I've been constantly imagining the animation starting with the model of the microscope, the camera then move foward and goes down the lens of this microscope to then see the liquid on the stage plate glass on the stage, also zooming in a bit closer and then a fade out. Then there could be a Fade in deep inside the solution, which is where the rest of the animation takes place, with the animal cell being attacked by the HIV. This could be a great way to start the animation, its clear and to the point and on a learning point of view, modelling the microscope would be a task that I would like to achieve.