Everyone hates the factory

Okay, so everyone has (nearly) unanimously decided that the factory setting is inappropriate. That's okay, I was never really in love with the factory either. It's just that now I can't really use my previz setting for my lighting and rendering II final, which was my plan from the start. Oh well, chalk it up to bad planning.

So, in the factory's stead, I'm trying to decide between an indoor swimming pool or a well in the middle of a forest. Opinions/votes?

Swimming pool problems:
-swimming pools are huge. This may make some shots (which I have been framing with a well) difficult
-The perspective shot with the tiny dragon filling the frame might be harder to sell with the swimming pool. I'd have to use a really wide angle lense really close up, and there will probably be major distortion problems.
-Swimming pool caustics (shudder)
-no well ledge to place the box and ingredients. This seems trivial but it makes the animation so much more complicated. The action of placing a box on the floor requires a much keener sense of weight than merely placing it on a waist-high ledge. Same thing for picking up objects from the floor versus a ledge.
-Honestly, I find a dragon coming out of a swimming pool much more incongruous than a dragon coming out of a well.








Forest and well problems:
-first and foremost, the forest itself! I will have to model and texture trees, which I really really don't want to do.
-the ground: brush and rocks and dirt. More modeling that I don't want to do. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a little forest set that could be reused
-leaves rustling. The leaves on trees are never stationary, and that would all have to be animated. And before anyone mentions it, massive amounts of paint effects up close is a bad idea unless you don't mind your project looking like a video game. Actually, maybe I want my backgrounds to look like video game backgrounds. Who knows.
-the well is still just as anachronistic as it was five weeks ago. So make him a farmboy instead. Uncle Joe came in from the big city and dropped off some cool science magazines and Little Billy decided to order the Dragon kit.
-Light goes out scene. I'm thinking that I'll use a single light on a pole, maybe a telephone pole, that flickers, goes out, and comes back on. The scene will obviously be at night, no moon / new moon, maybe some stars.

Story Beats, Version (stopped counting at this point)

I realize that I haven't really put down a true list of story beats, so here they are. Things have changed, but the story is mostly the same.

-Camera fades up from black on an old, dirty sign that reads "Danger! Do not enter." There are footsteps, and a shadow quickly passes by
-Next shot, a boy (Billy) drops a box onto a ledge, obviously exhausted.
-Billy opens the box and takes out a manual.
-The first page of the manual reads: "Thank you for buying this Instant Dragon Kit. Please read all directions fully before ..."
-Billy flips the page and the second page shows a picture of a knight on the back of a dragon.
-Billy smiles.
-Billy flips the page and the third page reads: "Step one, find a well," and shows a picture of an old well.
-Billy looks up, and this is the first shot of the environment as an establishing shot. It is a grimy, old factory with a giant vat in the center. The box is resting on the edge of the vat, which the boy is looking down into.
-Billy turns to the next page which shows some of the ingredients.
-Billy begins adding ingredients to the well in a quick montage sequence. The well starts to bubble and change into different colors.
-At one point, Billy adds the wrong ingredient and the well starts turning a thick pastel orange. Billy realizes this is wrong, makes a face, and starts to scoop it back out.
-Billy gets to the second to last page in the book, which reads: "Final ingredient: WARNING, be sure to use no more than a couple drops."
-Billy carefully takes out the final ingredient, a vial of glowing pink fluid, and uncorks it.
-Suddenly, the lights flicker, and Billy looks up nervously.
-With the camera tightly framed on Billy's face, Billy adds a single drop of the final ingredient into the well.
-A shot of the well shows that nothing has happened except for a tiny ripple from the drop.
-Slightly frustrated, Billy adds in a few more drops. Again nothing happens.
-Billy pounds the side of the vat, and the vial of ingredient slips off the side of the well and into the liquid. The fluorescent lights above go completely black, leaving Billy only in the glow of the vat. Billy makes a scared face.
-The camera follows the liquid into the well beneath the liquid.
-As the vial sinks to the bottom, viscous pink liquid flows out of the bottle and starts forming into a dragon embryo.
-Cutting back, the liquid is now bubbling furiously. A dragon bursts out of the liquid and rises into the air, roaring and breathing licks of flame.
-Billy looks on in wonder, with the dragon's shape reflecting in his eyes.
-The lights suddenly click on, and the dragon makes a face.
-The next shot shows Billy and the dragon in frame. The dragon is very tiny.
-Billy looks on in wonder as the dragon lands on the edge of the well, kind of upset that he's so small.
-Billy's surprised expression slowly turns into a smile, and he puts the dragon on his shoulder. The manual's last page shows the same picture of the knight on the dragon, and the caption "Enjoy your new mighty dragon!"
-Billy walks over to the picture and touches the dragon's face, slightly disappointed.
-The dragon makes an angry face, and breathes a huge roar of flame that instantly reduces the manual to ash.
-Billy is totally surprised, but then gets a mischievous face, which the dragon mimics.
-With the dragon on his shoulder, Billy runs out of the factory.

Yes, I'm drowning in animation at this point. Someone, advice on cutting it down whilst keeping the story intact? And of course, any story critiques are greatly appreciated...

Logo, Version 2.0

Some catch up work. Here's my new logo, the one I put on my T-shirt.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Tom mentioned the sorcerer's apprentice, which has turned out to be a decent reference. As far as I know, no reason was given for Mickey's task of carrying water from the upper floor to the lower floor, and no reason given for there being a well in the sorcerer's lab in the first place.

Plus it's fun to watch.

To Do List

My to do list for previz, before the end of the semester (it helps me not freak out if I can see all the things I have to do listed):

-finalized story beats
-finalized story boards
-2D animatic

-proof of concept animation / technical research
--character rigging and animation
--bubbling water dynamics
--fire / burning dynamics or shaders
--dragon skin texture
--water dripping off the dragon
--dragon embryo forming underwater

-finalized or near finalized design
--kid
--dragon
--environment
--well / vat
--book / manual

-research paper
--mainly dragon films and animations

-3D animatic
--basic models
--basic textures

The story beats, story boards, and 2D animatic will be coming within the next two weeks. Probably. Hopefully.

Environment design

So we're all back from spring break, and it's time to start thinking about thesis once again. I'm a little behind in the design phase, so I'll have to pick it up a bit (seems like that way for all my classes). I spent my spring break doing the Animadness group project, and I think I worked harder that week than any other week I've been in school. So much for a vacation, but I had fun along the way, and it certainly was a change of pace.

But anyway, environmental design! Up to this point, my room has really been quite arbitrary. It started out as a cave-like setting with torch light, but now that the story has been "industrialized" so to speak, I've been thinking of a warehouse-like room, with cold fluorescent light. Again, it's arbitrary. So I was thinking maybe I should make it a factory setting -- I can get away with making the well some kind of industrial vat.

There are very few objects that actually work for the well object: it has to contain water, and it has to be deep enough such that a crocodile-sized dragon could conceivably form in its depths. It would be hard to get away with the "actually the dragon is small" joke if it formed in a bathtub. Same goes for the kiddie pool. But a vat or tank might work.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures I found inspiring. Vote for the ones you like best!

Four from mattepainting.org:





Three from avanti.nd.edu:




Miscellaneous:



The breakdown for this image is here: http://www.fxguide.com/article320.html

More dragons

I am ashamed to have forgotten to include two of my favorite dragons on my previous post:

Spyro, the title character in the Playstation video game series:


and Gorbash, from the animated film The Flight of Dragons:


I actually really like the design of Spyro, mainly because modeling is not going to be my focus, and this character is really capable of making strong facial expressions. Spyro is a pretty spunky character and yet endearing at the same time.