story development

whilst working on the development of the story, i've been looking back to my book "ideas for the animated short" to help build upon the ideas i've already got and what can make them stronger/require changing. From discussions with my tutor Dan Dalli, the stories resolution needed to come about a lot quicker as there seemed a lot of two and throwing. He also said the ending itself needed working on, so these are the elements Im trying to concentrate on this week. From discussions with the team, it also seems the story requires a bit more kick as its a bit lovey dubby at the moment....which is fine, but not exactly where i wanted to take it. I think in order for the story to be sustainable it needs more comedic elements happening in the piece. Ive got Matt working on some ideas in order to challenge what ive already written....sometimes its difficult to adjust what you've written and you need someone fresh to inspire new ideas in to the piece.

I've been quickly sketching some scenarios for the conflict between Macho and the Hero Gnome in their battle for Lady Gnome...my inspiration for quick drawings come from

Although your stories are in place, its a worth while book to invest in as it may help when creating future ideas. It also has a whole section on using correct camera shots and help with storyboarding etc....highly recommend it!


whilst researching into what makes an animated short successful, i stumbled across this list of the supposed top 25 successful animated shorts...check em out, might be some form of inspiration...

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/03/25-brilliant-animated-short-movies/

I'll post them on the team blog along with some others i found on youtube, so make sure you check em out!

thinking cap on

after some planning yesterday of a complete list of "things to do" it became all to clear that there needs to be a direct contingency plan initiated to ensure a succesful year film making

so ive formed an alliance with team Hitman in order to help one another out and they've v kindly agreed to help with our film and vice versa if time permits. Hitman are also helping out Pirates of the Produce Isles since they are in a similar situation to my team (2 permanent staff)

A big thanks to the team at Hitman for their support at this ealy but critical stage, think it shows how our year group can pull together to help one another out :)

I also started a base schedule listing all jobs required throughout the project and so far most are to be completed by me and matt HOWEVER i believe we need to (if the film will still involved 3 characters) one freelancer to model and texture the 3rd character using our designs and textures. This would ease the work load slightly for me and matt. We could also freelance out the props to be modelled and textured so long as a project file was set up with image planes depicting the final design to allow the modeller to get straight on with it and no confusion of design.....these can then be easily imported in the final scene and will save myself and Matt some much needed time.

(Image to be posted soon)

We also require a lighter...who will be able to keep tweaking the lighting as the project unfolds...this would be a constant update job and its one myself and matt aren't up to scratch on so please please PLEASE if you are a keen lighter then please get in touch/come speak to me asap

3rd year show thought?

im starting to think of the show as well....if we need to put up £75 each as a starter, shouldnt we all get that together and pay it into a high interest rate account so it can at least accumliate some money during the year? Any additional fundraising can be added on top of this but at least the money would be sitting there generating something rather than nothing?

Also im still interested in Simons idea for using Alecs Ants project for idents for the start of our showing? Is anyone else? might beat a boring title sequence and would certainly mean everyone can make another element towards the show? i dunno....i guess we need to start thinking about htis dont we ay even if it is early days

to start off...

First day back today and there was a tension and excitement in the air about whose pieces would be chosen to be green lit for the third year.

Amongst those chosen was my idea about Gnomes: a short about two gnomes competing to win the affections of the beautiful Lady Gnome.

So why gnomes?

the idea was born after creating a simple 2d gnome in maya on my work experience. I started thinking bout garden gnomes having little adventures and episodes and then it came to me that there hasnt been an animation starring these odd fellows. Also i kept seeing these guys everyday...

The main comment i've taken away from my pitch is...

"But gnomes are ugly"

yes i'll be the first to admit that they are ugly as sin and a bit of a garrish thing to ever be near but preconceptions are there to be changed and frankly, you cant just ignore something jsut becuase you think its odd/weird a bit different....

thats the aim anyway

so I started with a massive brainstorm of ideas ranging from rubbish fireman to kung fu type grannies, but my idea of these 2 garden gnomes kept on venturing back into the spotlight. The relationship would be one grumpy one vs one annoyingly happy one HOWEVER it was all too similar to that of my manic depresent clown and the cheery benny from last year. As I enjoy stories would a good conflict, I thought what other factors could cause these two conflict...it dawned on me that they were after the affections of another gnome since being a gnome can be a lonely thing (awwww)

so heres some early concept work experimenting with shapes...

For the Pitch...
After completing a few different designs for the characters, I've settled on these 3 for where I wish to take the Macho, Hero and Lady Gnome. These might however be altered and changed in the coming weeks to accommodate to the story of the piece HOWEVER I don't wish to change dramatically from my initial look of the piece.

The environment: Although the focus of my story would not be on the environment, it was important to establish the background for where these gnomes lived. I imagined that whoever would own gnomes would be a pretty big enthusiast of the gardening. The lawn would be pristine and abundant in odd accessories such as windmills, sundials, benches as well as pond to name a few. All these would need to be stylised to match the look of the characters and give consistency to the piece.
Inspirations Page - I shall post some video links of these inspirations on the team blog. Each one of these pieces has contributed to helping me with story or the aesthetic look I want for the final piece. To the left is a quick set of experiments I created in photoshop with layering colour with stone textures, something I wish to develop for the characters final look.

Currently the team has only 2 members of permanent staff with myself as Director and Matt Messenger as Producer. However this years 3rd year sees many freelancers who I intend to call upon throughout the year for their help and guidance. I've already begun discussing parts of the project I wish to freelance out to others who specialise in such areas. This includes...

Ferhan - for potential creation of fluid effects of the pond

Yaniv - who can help with many aspects within the project including modeling, texturing, rigging and animating

Dan Grigsby - potentially can help with lighting, although he is tied to 2 projects currently so I may need to gain a back up here.

I feel over the next coming weeks, my role as director will include getting people on board in order to relieve the work load from me and matt and get some high quality work being shown in the film.

I just want to thank all who voted and wish everyone good luck over the coming year, cant wait til showtime :)