comedy notes

The physical comedian's childishness emerges first of all in his difficulties with objects - constant battles with objects - simple, domestic objects (e.g. soap keeps flying out of hand).

In these battles he is bound to be inept, for funny - he must constantly make mistakes, and constantly be susceptible to accidents.

Although clumsy and inept, he is very tenacious - he keeps on doing things long after the point where the normal person would have given up (e.g. after breaking a coffee cup, he puts the coffee powder, milk and sugar in his mouth, drinks in water, gurgles and swallows the mixture).

Uncivilized = amusement; does not understand social conventions, or incapable of following them. Disregards conventions, morality, legality - no consideration for others.

endings for monster city.

Monster City Premise
Father monster teaching junior how to be the biggest baddest, meanest monster in the city. Father is the ultimate destroyer, son seems interested only in ____________.

• Juggling
• Making music
• building
• landscaping
• chasing butterflies
• Singing
• Dancing

Ending:

1. Child builds structures that creates a domino effect effectively destroying city to Father's amazement.
   
2. Father is afraid of rodents which spill forth from the city's destruction. Child's singing ability or musical talent charms the rodents away and Father realizes he overlooks the talent his child has.
3. Child is a clumsy juggler that ends up destroying the city in a much chaotic manner to Father's approval.

Reframing

Thematic Compass: Mapping pre-conception onto others.

Subthemes: Overachieving parents, manipulative children, self centredness , selfishness, expectations

Low-level story: Parent Vs. Child in a domestic concept

Other possibilities of re framing:

(Qns considered: maturity reversal of parent and child, Live-action vs. Animation, Narrative, to the point.)

Sports training: Over enthusiastic parent yelling at the side lines (think Mr . Incredible and Dash at the sports day) The pushing results in a tragedy (child gets maimed for life)

Medevial: Father expects his child to perform feats of valour, swordplay, archery, etc, Child just wants to study boring books. Child saves the life of his father at the end.

Monster Wrecking City: Father monster teaching Junior the ropes, Junior just wants to do something nice (like making music with power cables). Father Insists. Junior ends up saving daddy's life as well as the city.)

Caveman: Teaching son useful skills like hunting and making fire etc. Son just wants to tinker with rocks and twigs, ends up inventing the wheel and benefits mankind.
--a similar idea I had was a tribal geomancer father and son.. the father insists on reading divination signs, while the son introduces... the internet =P

Assassin: Father teaching child the ropes of being a hired killer. Child is interested in cooking (something contrasting). How do they reconcile their differences.

LEON, The professional : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110413/plotsummary

Samurai: old samurai watches with pride as his son returns from education in the western countries. He expects the son to serve a great daimyo, but he wants to "serve the people" - build the future Tokyo; his values of independence and democratic thoughts is now considered disloyalty to the expecting father, who is enraged. but in the end the son acknowledges that "you are still my father", and disregarding their differences they still reconcile.

Corporation: dad is a middle-aged middle-management guy. He boasts proudly abt his company, his success and all to his kid. Unknown to him, his kid actually owns the MNC that he works in...

While you were at ICA :)

Why we watch movies:

Overcoming obstacles

Rituals Community

Narratve Questions? Puzzle

Narrative Closure - relief

Sharing emotions

Faith and Belief

Mastery - Voyeurism

Comedy

Learning

Escape

Excitement

Omniscient POV

Punishment / Justice

Fulfill fantasy

Musical / Beat support

Watching things Blow up

Chase / Violence

Role models

Empathy

Unexpected Expectations

Therefore as movie makers we have to satisfy certain qualities on this list :)

WHAT WE MUST DO :)

Clarity

Suprising

High Stakes

Goal Driven

Emotional

Action gets to point

Appealing characters

Show how it feels.

As Miyazaki would say " Stay true to what you want to say. What do you want to say? "

BIG NO-NOS :( "reasons of epic failure"

Confuse

predictable

off tangent

unfocused

unappealing

Holes in causality

Abstract motivations

the Selfishness of Parent and Child

Role reversal of the parent versus child.

A social commentary about the overbearing hope and pressure that a child has to bear because of the wishes of the parent.

The PARENT is a grotesque overgrown man with the thinking of a kid ; the KID is a calm, collected, rational-thinking child.

The PARENT throws tantrum, bawls, like a kid to get the KID to do a piano recital, while the KID is playing video games.

The KID is firm about his decision not to perform the piano play.

When the PARENT threatens him with a cane (he uses the cane not in a abusive context, that much HAS TO be clear, his line of thinking is of a child that hits and punches the parent because that is an action of leverage rather than causing physical harm and pain.) -- and breaks his video game at the height of tantrum, the KID is forced to move to the piano, but he merely hits some random notes randomly.

The PARENT is enraged, finally raises his cane high, preparing to hit.

The KID stretches out his hand, asking for money. The PARENT finally gives in, pays the KID, and END.

As credits roll, we hear perfect piano being played.

The child has more leverage and more knowledgeable than the parents because they in a sense, are hoping to live through the children, leaving the child to becaome more manipulative than they are...

===

The PARENT hits the KID with cane -- he uses the cane not in a abusive context, that much HAS TO be clear, his line of thinking is of a child that hits and punches the parent because that is an action of leverage rather than causing physical harm and pain -- and the KID defends himself with toys, things that he grabs from the floor, to a point that his demeanour is finally broken: he is wounded, vulnerable, he is only a child.

The PARENT realises this, that his noble intention of "educating" his KID had backfired, and his cane freezes in mid-air. END.

Scenarios for the Run

Son gets a phone call that,

Grandma is dying...

Son runs back home all the way from far far away to see her the last time.

Only to find that grandma is dying...to have a cup of tea / specs / something relatively insignificant.


-- tells *also* of the small insignificant gestures for our loved ones that we are normally complacent of doing, but is suddenly magnified because of the gravity of the situation. Are we still

willing to do these small little things in the normal times, when we are not faced by grave circumstances like death? Then we are no longer taking things for granted.

=====

Old doctor runs through a hoard of obstacles to reach a dying patient.

-- where the presence of an authoritative character is more important than the item he holds.

=====

Village guy and his house in the way of urbanization.

He runs to salvage his object of comfort, while the city builds itself around him, and he tries to avoid.

=====

Baker's mistake of making a cake puffing unstoppably. He has to run to a grocery store to get some powder to stop the cake from destroying the entire town...

=====

Running to catch a baseball for a winning game...

swaggering walk

all single poses in stepped mode, no offset keys.



notes:
1. camera MUST NOT change. when I animated I only care about the camera.

2. because I animated mostly in silhouette, the rendered geometry might have problem because I don't really know where the details go or will look like, especially when breaking joints.

3. will be good if character setup has the option to hide the limbs.

some 3D wisdom

Keith Lango on Thumbnails

There's some thought that your thumbs need to be locked down tight. That may or may not be true. I find it's good to not get too
attached to my thumbs, but to use thumb sketching as a stage of exploration. I'm not looking to define my animation exactly just yet.
What I am looking to do is explore different poses and different pose combinations. It's alot quicker to explore things in pencil
than on the box. But I came up as a CGI animator. I have no notions about the computer being an inferior animation tool.
So while I'll explore on paper, I also allow myself freedom to not settle on things until I get to the computer.
I think the computer can be a valid place for structured, focused exploration. It is, afterall, only a very expensive pencil.
Animators who don't feel comfy on the box may disagree. That's OK. God still loves you and I'm trying my best to. :o)

An interesting practice in some 2d animation circles is to work through your thumbs, and then put the thumbs away
in a drawer and never refer to them again. The main thinking behind this is to keep yourself from becoming a slave of your thumbs,
cutting off those serendipitous gems that arise when the juices are flowing while you're hip deep in the performance.
It's this kind of thinking that I tend to follow when doing my thumbs. Thumbs are great servants, but hard masters.


====================


Common CG Pitfalls by Jeremy Cantor

1) Fearing the technology

Cause: We fear what we don’t understand. Fearing a computer, or believing it is more powerful than it really is comes from not having a fundamental understanding of how a computer works.

Solution: Learn enough about the computer so that you understand its strengths and limitations. Remember that the computer is not a magical device. It can’t think. It just runs programs. It can’t do anything a person can’t do; it can just do things faster. It is only a tool. A very sophisticated pencil. Assuming the user has learned how to speak the computer’s language, the user is the master of the tool, not the other way around.


2) Motion is too robotic…linear.

Cause: Letting the computer simply write linear f-Curves that have no slow-in or slow-out.

Solution: Understand how f-Curves translate into motion. Learn & apply the fundamental principles of animation. Manually insert additional ease-in/ease-out keyframes when appropriate.

(My earliest computer animations were done with software that created linear keyframes and did not have an f-Curve editor. I could not tweak the slope of the curves to create ease-in & ease-out. I had to rely on the application of traditional animation principles and create additional keys to achieve such results.)


3) …or the opposite: Motion is too spliney…watery….”computery”

Cause: Allowing computer to do too much “unsupervised” work. CG software usually creates smooth f-Curves automatically when you set keyframes. “Watery” motion comes from just leaving f-Curves in their default spline shapes. This is why rubber is the easiest thing to animate in CG. Spline f-Curves result in rubbery motion by default.

Solution: Don’t trust the computer to make properly shaped f-Curves. Study how f-Curves translate into movement & manipulate their shapes/slopes accordingly.


4) Characters not displaying a proper sense of weight

Cause: Not understanding the basic principles of timing, slow-in/slow-out, squash/stretch, gravity, etc.

Solution: Don’t let f-Curves just remain in in their default shape after keyframes have been set. The slope of your curves translates to how the forces are acting upon your animated objects. If an object is falling, for instance, make sure your Y-translation curves are accelerating (gravity does not apply itself as a constant force, rather it causes objects to accelerate as they fall). Understand the differences in how characters of varying mass will move. It takes more energy to initiate, stop or reverse the motion of a heavy object or character than it does to do such to a light object or character. Think of the difference in the force it requires to set a bowling ball in motion as opposed to that which is required to initiate the motion of a balloon. And similarly, the force it takes to slow, stop or reverse the motion of such objects.


5) Characters seem off balance.

Cause: Not paying attention to the proper location of character’s center of gravity. Simple physics: A static object’s center of gravity must be directly above or below the point (or average of the points) of suspension, otherwise the object will fall. When a biped character lifts one leg, he must shift his center of gravity over the supporting foot in order to maintain balance. (Variations to this rule apply when the object is in motion, however).

Solution: Pay attention to general physics of center-of-gravity. Study posing and the concept of contraposto. Use yourself as a guide. Study the shifting location of your center of gravity when you transfer your weight from one foot to the other. When you walk. When you run. When you hang from your hands. Etc.


6) Isolated body part movement. Lack of overlap.

Cause: Because it is so easy to animate individual body parts separately in CG, there is a tendency to create movement where separate body parts don’t seem to be working together, or where one part comes to a complete stop before another part begins moving (no overlap). Such inorganic motion also, of course, results from not learning and understanding basic animation principles.

Solution: Study and understand the fundamental principles of animation. Don’t allow all of your keys to remain lined up on the same frames (unless there is a deliberate reason to do so). Work locally but think globally. Always remember that even when you’re focusing on a single limb, it is connected to the rest of the body and all of the parts need to work together, not individually.

7) Twinning (unnatural motion symmetry)

Cause: Twinning is when opposite body parts move as exact mirrors of one another. When the left arm motion starts and stops on exactly the same frames as the right arm. This is usually not desired for natural looking animation (although there are certainly times when it is appropriate) This happens when the animator gets lazy and animates multiple body parts simultaneously, or simply copies/mirrors motion from one limb to another & then leaving the resulting twinned motion as is.

Solution: To avoid twinning, after simultaneously animating multiple body parts or copying/mirroring motion, be sure to go in and add keyframe offsets or other naturalistic variations to the movement.


8) Repetitive or metronomic movement

Cause: Relying too much on the computer’s ability to copy and paste motion. Leaving cycles as is.

Solution: As always, remember that you control the computer, not the other way around. Don’t just blindly copy or cycle movement. Each step in a walk will often be (at least) slightly different from the one before it. Add some naturalistic variation and imperfections (unless of course, repetitive, robotic motion is the desired effect).


9) Squash/Stretch used on inappropriate objects (ie Bowling Balls)

Cause: Learning but not truly understanding the fundamental principles of animation.

Solution: Apply an artistic eye and understand when it is appropriate to apply squash & stretch & when it is not. It is certainly okay to add squash & stretch to a bowling ball, but only if doing so is the result of an aesthetic choice to deliberately bend the rules. It is not acceptable to do such if it is the result of simply applying the fundamental animation principles blindly. It is not enough to simply memorize the principles of animation. You must truly understand them so you can apply them appropriately (or deliberately ignore them if the animation at hand calls for such disobedience in order to most effectively tell your story.)


10) Volume changing when Sqashing/Stretching

Cause: Squashing & stretching an object in CG is a 2 step process. You must scale the object in one axis then oppositely scale it appropriately in the other axes. Neglecting this second step causes the object to appear to shrink when squashing & grow when stretching. Volume changing during squash/stretch is also the result of not truly learning & understanding this fundamental animation principle.

Solution: Learn & understand this principle & don’t forget the second step of scaling in the other axes.


11) Linear wrist/ankle movement (the “marionette look”)

Cause: A wrist does not move from here to there via translation of the wrist itself, rather, such movement is the result of elbow & shoulder (and clavicle…and back…etc) rotations. Therefore the resulting trajectory of a wrist will tend to follow an arc. A wrist can certainly move in a straight line, but that requires simultaneous compensatory adjustments in the shoulder & elbow joint. Such linear movement does occur in such instances as when throwing a straight punch, but the natural tendency is an arc. When animating limbs with IK, the resulting motion often looks like the character is a marionette with its wrists on puppet strings. This is the result of simply animating the trajectory of the IK handles in straight lines.

Solution: One solution is to animate your character’s limbs with FK, which will result in arc motion by default. However, it is often desirable to use IK, so, when doing so, remember to (usually) make the motion an arc. Simply setting an initial translation keyframe at point A then a destination key at point B will result in a linear trajectory and a “marionette” look. Intermediate keyframes are often required to create an arc trajectory. Linear trajectory is okay, assuming that is the intended result. Just remember that such motion is not the normal tendency of a jointed character.


12) Frozen holds

Cause: In traditional cel animation, it if often desirable to completely freeze a character’s motion for dramatic effect. CG animators can sometimes forget that this is one of the few traditional techniques that does not always translate successfully into 3D. Because of the additional dimensionality, the ultra perfect perspective, texture mapping & super-accurate shadow casting (etc) displayed in a 3D CG scene, the viewer tends to have a “higher” expectation of reality. And since very few real-live characters ever actually freeze completely, when a 3D character does so, it can look unnatural and the action of the scene can die completely.

Solution: Use “moving holds” instead, where your character maintains a small degree of motion. Just enough so that the scene doesn’t entirely stop dead, but not too much or the pose will no longer be a “hold”. Perhaps he continues moving ever-so-slightly along his previous trajectory. Perhaps he takes a breath or scratches his ribs. Some animators will put their character’s central pivot point on a very small figure-eight path, so that he will sway just a little bit.


13) Character motion starts & stops exactly in synch with camera cuts

Cause: When an animated scene is made up of several shots, the simplest screen direction for each complete action (or group of actions) to be perfectly book-ended by a camera cut. This creates a scene that looks as if a director had yelled “action” at the very beginning of each shot (just after the camera had started rolling) and then “stop” just before the end of each shot. This is rarely considered good screen direction, as the camera does not appear to be operated by a human being, rather it has the unnaturally cold, perfect & predictable feel of a computer that always miraculously knows exactly when to cut.

Solution: It is usually more visually appealing when the illusion of a human camera operator is created. A human camera operator will suffer from human error. He will invariably end up following just behind the action on occasion, or sometimes actually anticipating it. Overshooting will occur once in a while. Etc. Maintain some degree of overlap between your animation and the camera cuts. Addition of such real world “imperfections” can help to make your scene feel more natural.


14) Arbitrary poses & motions

Cause: The difference between “animating” a character and simply “moving” a character is that “animation” implies life…and character…and purpose. Because of the power of the computer, it’s very easy and often tempting to simply add more & more to your scene simply because you can.

Solution: Remember that every motion of a thinking character must have a purpose. Movement for movement’s sake doesn’t communicate anything & only contributes to unnecessarily increasing the length of your performance and reducing the clarity of the story being told. Ask yourself what is the reason for each pose & motion in your performance. More is not always better. Most often, “elegant simplicity” is the key to telling your story most effectively. The well known acronym KISS means: “Keep it simple, stupid!”


15) Geometry intersections

Cause: Not paying enough attention to the details of your scene. Since CG involves working with virtual objects that are intangible, there is only visual feedback to inform the user when objects intersect one another. Therefore it is sometimes easy to overlook such errors.

Solution: Pay attention.


16) Relying too much on automated processes

Cause: Expecting the computer to do too much of the work for you. With expressions, constraint systems and various other software “bells & whistles”, it is possible to create a variety of automated motions in your characters, such as automatic lagging ponytail bounces that occur whenever the head moves. Such processes usually look automated. Too perfect. Unnatural.

Solution: You should do the work, not the computer. There are certainly occasions where automated processes are effective time savers, but it is very important to implement controls into your character setups that allow you to override or completely disable such processes. This way, even though certain things are happening automatically, you still have ultimate control over them.


17) Unnatural facial animation – not enough shapes, not animating enough parts of the face

Cause: Using too few morph target shapes and animating too few parts of the face. Unless an extremely simplified style is the desired effect, facial animation usually requires a good number of target shapes and plenty of detail in order to effectively create a natural feel to the motion.

Solution: Make enough morph target shapes. Don’t just animate the mouth and the eyebrows. Add appropriate motion to cheeks, eyes, forehead & even ears. Add some corresponding head movement. Apply squash and stretch.


18) Too much camera movement.

Cause: Disregarding the notion that just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. CG software gives you complete control over the motion of your camera. You can add all sorts of crazy camera motion that is extremely difficult or downright impossible in the real world. Because of this power, there is often a temptation to overdo it. Too much camera motion can confuse the action and distract the viewer, and in extreme cases, cause dizziness and queasiness. Sometimes it is certainly appropriate for the camera’s motion to have “character” but it shouldn’t steal the action from the scene (unless the camera is being used as the primary storyteller of that particular shot, like in situations where we are “looking through a character’s eyes”. But such staging should be used sparingly).

Solution: Keep cameral motion to a minimum. Study films and notice that cameras usually don’t move all that much. Sometimes big, sweeping camera motions are appropriate. However, just make sure that you are adding such exaggerated camera motion to help tell the story, and not simply because you can.


19) Motion blur turned up too high

Cause: The motion blur button in your CG software package is a fun toy and, much like the ability to animate your camera, there is an initial tendency to play with it too much.

Solution: Remember, motion blur is an effect that is more sensed than seen. With most motions, you can only see the blurring when you freeze-frame. Watch live action films & you’ll notice that you can only really see blurring when there is extremely fast motion happening. If you can see the motion blur during the normal motions of your characters, it is turned up too high.


The bottom line

a) Study and truly understand the fundamental rules of animation before you start breaking them.

b) Don’t rely on the computer to do too much of the work for you. Remember that the computer is just a tool. You are the artist.


====================


One Step At A Time

This tip comes first hand from my mate Brandon Beckstead. This guy has an amazing ability to do the kind of `progressive blocking` that we all dribble over and wish we could do ourselves if only we were that good. I'm talking about the kind of blocking where there is usually a stepped key on every 4th or 2nd frame, and you can see very clearly how the animation will look before going into any kind of curve editing. Were talking subtle finger movements, facial animation, moving holds... all there in stepped.

I asked Brandon how he approached his blocking, and he told me a simple tip that seems so obvious and simple that I can't believe I never thought of it. Basically, when you first start to block a move, forget about timing.

Yep.

When I try and block in stepped, I tend to get confused because of this approach: I block my key poses on the timeLine where I think they should happen ( the core timing ) then I work between them with breakdowns. The problem with this method is that I have to think of two things at once! I have to think of how I get between the poses ( spacing ), and also how long it takes ( timing ).

Brandon recommended the approach where you block your poses on consecutive frames, disregarding any notion of timing at the beginning and concentrating only on your posing, and how the body needs to move to get between those poses. If you need another pose to describe the movement, you just add another breakdown and work in your shapes. I tried this approach last night and I love it!

I found it useful to block my poses every 8 frames, then I have room in between to add poses as as I need them ( note ... there is no relevance to timing here... I`m not thinking about how fast things move over 8 frames - its just an arbitrary amount of space I can fit a few keyframes into ) . At this point, you are not pressing play or scrubbing the timeLine, you're jumping back and forth between your poses using the next and previous hotkeys - only taking notice of how the poses relate.

After you have your basic movement working, you then slide the keys around in the timeLine and concentrate on your timing. Now you're gonna start playblasting and pressing play. There will be tweaks and changes of course, a body part is dragging way too much etc, but the core of your movement is already thought about. This also works very nicely if you keep a key on every body part for every pose you set.

When using this approach with dialogue, I can see that there may be an inevitable stage where you have to pose your character and think about the movement whilst not in direct timing with the audio ( if your posing on regular frames.. how could you possibly match it with the audio at this stage ?) So this will force you to be confident about your acting choices. At this point, its a process of animating a little `blind`, at least until you have the core of your movement figured out. Its then that you start placing the keys where they should be relative to the audio, in the timing stage of this approach.

I find this helps separate two complex parts of animation, timing and spacing, and allows you to tackle one at a time.. which has to be a good thing. Its still recommended to pose out your story telling keys, on their approximate frames, so you can see if your broad idea is working or not - but when you come to figure out the details, the above technique can help.

three legged legs

when looking for some three legged walks, inadvertently bumped into this awesome animation / vfx studio.



though the story for this one is kinda cop-out..



this reminds me abit of Si2..

idea - tugged out of comfort

another idea i had - because i'm going to go back to pandora... sorry, singapore. it's like being tugged out of a comfortable bed, hung on a charsiew-skewer and whisked back to work.. complete with slavedrivers and everything..

theme - the feeling of being tugged out of comfort i.e. when the vacation ends.
perhaps the main character is just wanting to sleep, but he keeps cannot do so, because of things happening ard him that forces him to work.



inspired by this:

Exciting times

dude i was going thru our ideas. and another one of yours caught me!! :D

unrelenting

this is a sketch done back in July, for a sci-fi, cyborg twist... an old man propped on mechanical legs fighting some malicious monsters/giants for the theme. The old man himself would portray that kind of unrelenting spirit, as he keeps persisting on even his physical body is failing.

The story of the sphinx came back to me, where the sphinx eats travelers who cannot answer his riddle.

In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. The riddle:

What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

I imagined this old man (or Biker old man in a harley wheel chair) riding down the desert and is ambushed by the sphinx monster. Question is asked, he gives a sly smile and answers it, they fight. Old man bursts out of his bike on a 3 legged walker. "three legs in the evening..." Cool right? Imagine him zig zagging on a motorbike wheelchair with a shot gun pulled from the motorbike parts.

animation test - landing

run, jump, land. animated gif.


landing by ~zhaomeng on deviantART

running thru ...

bon jovi's "it's my life" MV:



run lola, run sequence:



on a more historical note, there's also :

- Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, racing to send the message of British invasion

- Pheidippides' legendary run that supposedly inspires the marathon event.

story ideas...

some more story doodles..




a worker needs to deliver something to his boss... / a chef needs to deliver food to a king.. /
but his way there keeps getting obstructed.. the door shut on him, walls pop out to block his way etc. and he feels trapped, and panicked. - down moment -
as he looked up, a winged creature offers him a hand, and he soars to the air with it / her ... and is joined by a host of flying creatures / contraptions that travels through the sky - the uplifting moment -
and drops him into the boss's office / king's hall, where he kneels and delivers whatever he needs to, he is saved...

I'm thinking of what are the stakes here.. thinking that in the opening sequence, we can see a co-worker being fired, he's packing his little "you're fired" box with a sad face. like, that's something we fear to, unemployment.

it's partly inspired from a Sheridan short i saw at CGO'08, where a dog is parted with its handkerchief (treasured item) by a gust of wind. When he sought to retrieve it, he keeps getting blocked by the evils of urbanization - railroads, infrastructure, buildings that pop up and builds itself from the ground. I forgot how it ended though, and can't seem to find it on youtube.

well, the flying creatures in the background could be animated in 2D and painted, i think... if we follow URS, only the main character and/or foreground needs to be modelled and detailed textured. Paint something later after dinner.



I saw a child pestering her mother in the dentist's. It was quite fun to watch.

Then I thought of a grown man, very big in his size, and acting totally like a child, while a child, or an older man, could be his guardian. The big baby punches him, jumps, stamps his foot (thus making the ground shake), and bawls...

Could be a reference for selfishness and stuff like that.

Moongirl..

apparently there's alot of big names on this project, according to

http://www.animationblog.org/2009/09/henry-selick-moongirl-2006.html

at any rate, it's a beautiful little childhood fantasy story of how the moon might just work =D though the boy and girl do remind me of the "Leon" project guy...

story idea 2

a boy finds out, to his horror, that after finishing every action, a strand of hair turns white.

it was terrible. but overtime he got used to it, lived with it and grew happy with it.

finally when his hair turned all white, he dies with a fulfilled smile on his face. indeed, his white head is proof of his fruitful life.

==

similarities to Pinnochio, Mt. Head.

it could be something more significant, in place of the hair. like mt. head.

some other more... obviously... thoughts were:

- a runner who cannot run <-- this is so Go! Thaddeus..
- an artist who cannot see <-- "... ..."
- a dire patient being carried around to and fro because the doctor's busy clubbing.

yasmin ahmad on making films

the following was reposted from Yasmin Ahmad's blog. Emphasis (bold+italics) added by me.

==

Monday, September 03, 2007
Film and Feeling. (A revisitation.)

“How vain it is to sit down to write, when you have not stood up to live.” - Henry David Thoreau, 1817 - 1862

Often I’m asked by young film enthusiasts, what it takes to make a good film. My answer is always the same.

I have no idea.

I don’t know the first thing about film, and I’ve never claimed to be a good film director, or indeed, a good writer.

I do, however, have some hunches. And they are as follows:

I suspect a filmmaker is fundamentally no different from a novelist or a poet, or even a painter or photographer.

We all just want to tell a story. Or to put across a feeling we have about humanity, as we observe it.

I believe these feelings and observations must stem from a clear intention, and a sincere personal concern for the human condition. No use pretending, because sooner or later, the viewer or reader will see through your mask.

As artists and storytellers, it’s easy for us to slip into the trap of being obsessed about form rather than content.

After watching films by auteurs such as Hou-Hsiao Hsien or John Cassavetes or Yasujiro Ozu, I am always in awe of the style in which they delivered the emotions of the story.

I have to remind myself constantly that it was the emotions that moved me rather than the style.

When viewing a sculpture, it is the feelings the sculptor had about his subject that touches me deeply, and not the hammer and chisel he used to shape it.

Many years ago, I found myself sitting at the edge of a giant metal block somewhere inside Francis Ford Coppola’s vineyard in Napa Valley.

When I looked up to survey the cold bronze, which chilled my back as I leaned against it, I was overcome with emotions. It was a beautiful sculpture of a mother and child by Henry Moore.

I could feel, without words or explanation, the empathy Moore felt for the unconditional love the mother had for the child in her arms.

Walking through Pablo Picasso’s old villa in Antibes just outside of Cannes, I caught sight, from the corner of my eye, what looked like the carcass of a white dove, laid out on a wicker chair.

When I approached it, I discovered that it was nothing more than some crumpled bits of paper, carefully put together to look like a dead dove.

It wasn’t the pieces of paper or the way Picasso crumpled them that moved me to tears. It was the sorrow he felt upon finding a dead dove on his balcony.

“Painting cannot be taught,” Picasso himself once said, “it can only be found.”

Or as my partner and soul mate Ali Mohamed puts it, “It is like riding a bicycle. I can give you a rough idea of how to do it, but in the end, you’ll have to feel your own way through.”

This, I believe, applies to writing and filmmaking too. We have to feel our way through.

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness." - Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

In two of Kobayashi Issa’s haiku, centred on the humble spider, we are able to observe emotions far bigger than just about spiders.

“a broken web –
a refugee spider is still
looking for a home”

“don’t worry, spider
I keep house
casually”

Perhaps it’s just me, but in these haiku, I found deep compassion. Far from being afraid of spiders, the haiku master clearly cared for them.

And caring about something or someone lesser than you is a powerful statement about humanity.

Therein lies the genius of haiku. In just a few words, a writer is able to convey a feeling which could very well save Mankind, seeing the way the world is heading these days.

Now, at last, we might know how to begin. And the way to start writing isn’t by writing at all, but by living. It isn’t about creating something from thin air, but about documenting our personal feelings about the things that we see.

Or to put it crudely, how are you going to be a storyteller if you have no story to tell?

Perhaps, in the end, there are no such things as creative people; there are only sharp observers with sensitive hearts.

“A man travels the world in search of what he needs, and returns home to find it.” – George Moore, 1873 - 1958

CONCEPT! v1

1. fear of disturbances in our comfortable routines (unfortunate accidents)
2. challenging the belief of the ownership of one's fate through external circumstances
3. the consequences of each's fulfilling of their social responsibilities.


This animation addresses the irrational(?) fear for accidents, or any disturbances to our routine.

We believe that we are masters of our own fates, that we can improve our conditions by simply working hard enough. But at the same time, we fear unwarranted and unforeseen circumstances that might take away that very ownership from our hands.

/

Even though we continually strive for improvement, that working hard enough will bring us to a better place, we are still fearful, and aware that accidents will threaten our hard work, and the comfort of our lives. Then we are in a state of helplessness, that we are in mercy of others - and that is which we fear.


a rough rewriting of the concept based on our discussion.

the next task for us is that, knowing this is somewhat a direction, build a new scenario, or condense what we have, to communicate this theme.

I also recalled the lines "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul", it may be a good reference to check this poem, Invictus, out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

this following is Elvin's initial story idea:
http://blackroombox.blogspot.com/2009/12/story-idea.html

discussion log 1

my response to Elvin's story:

"i thought abit about it and it can go somewhere like social responsibilities, hence construct, hence government etc.

im trying to think what chris wld sort of say. he will ask, when we present the scenario (story) for the concept, and why is the story the best way to tell the concept - and compress it while we're at that.

like the two characters could be novice (fat) swimmer vs lazy (dozing) lifeguard. or something like that. just someone who does not fulfill his vocation, and somebody else suffers - the headline news in today's newspaper here is that a bus driver dozed off and got 10 of his passengers killed in a highway accident. we could even aim a shot at our respective govs if we think deep enough =P but i dunno whehter im thinking what you are thinking. haha."


then Elvin and I had a good, long discussion about our prospective concept that just ended. The conversation is logged here.

Benjamin says:

the theme that i thought in your story was someone who does not fulfill his vocation, and somebody else suffers

if u read my email.

is that what u were thinking?

Elf-patience says:

that and other things

i was actually picturing the old fisherman working hard at life

always looking forward to the end of the day when he makes port safely

while the contrast in the young punk neglecting his duties, slacking off

the characters never meet until the last part

Benjamin says:

hee hee sounds like us.. and some others.

=P

Elf-patience says:

when the young man sees the fisherman drowning off the coast

when the young man scrambles up to replace the lightbulb he sees the fisherman just off the coast, their gazes meet and then the waves dash his boat into the rocks

Benjamin says:

so if he dies - remorse; if he doesnt happy ending...

Elf-patience says:

yeah

dunno if it has enough punch

was just thinking of keeping it raw

Benjamin says:

raw as in?

Elf-patience says:

raw emotion like sorrow, regret,

Benjamin says:

oh.

i can see that..

is this what you really want to say?

as in.

like what miyazaki said that kind of thing?

Elf-patience says:

yeah.. like when i thought of respite

respite happens when the fisherman makes port every evening

respite in death

respite against the young man, who's conscience will punish him at the end

Benjamin says:

yup.

then we work on it ba..

it caught me.

Elf-patience says:

i dunno i think it still needs polishing

Benjamin says:

we will work on it to make something that will motivate us

Elf-patience says:

i met miss wang at a wedding the other day haha

Benjamin says:

for three months

=D

Elf-patience says:

guess we can rewrite the story in a few versions and see which will work before proceeding on

Benjamin says:

as in u saw my themes.

Elf-patience says:

or we can make him a space fisherman and a space lighthouse

yeah i did

Benjamin says:

what i really wanted to say is the unrelenting-ness

as in, i just need some mental strength from there... ahha

Elf-patience says:

teddybear =)

Benjamin says:

that was another story.

lol

i just thought the image might look funny

imagine the na'vi fighting a giant teddy bear lol

Elf-patience says:

haha

would be fun

although it would be a spoof =P

Benjamin says:

that fisherman to me, would be the hardworking, unrelenting guy ..

i would think.

Elf-patience says:

definately

Benjamin says:

like, he believes his hard work does sth to change the future, he thinks he is the master of his fate when he works hard.

but sth happens out of the blue and throws him off guard.

Elf-patience says:

hmm seems doable.. a motivation of sorts

Benjamin says:

so now his fate lies in the hands of some foreign entity - the slacker guy at the lighthouse

that's something we face too.

*hints at ict*

Elf-patience says:

LOL

excellent

Benjamin says:

so the theme is vaguely there la.. haha

Elf-patience says:

just need to crystalize it

over arching one

and the sub character tehems

Benjamin says:

i say that because i sort of feel that as well

i believe in working hard and all.

but i also fear that "something out of the blue"

that causes my fate to be robbed away from my own hands to some thing out of my control

Elf-patience says:

as in something that disrupts your grand scheme of things

yep

letting go and letting God =)

Benjamin says:

how abt someone who doesnt know god?

thats who it is for...

Elf-patience says:

meaning?

Benjamin says:

still thinking...

this discussion is getting good =D

Elf-patience says:

gotta write this down =P

Benjamin says:

as in, we see in light from "I know the thoughts i have towards you, thoughts of good and not of evil", that we can be reassured. but the fear of the unknown still lingers don't it...

esp for other ppl

who are not so-assured?

Elf-patience says:

yep

definately

thats where faith comes in no?

but its not easy to trust in the unseen and unknown

Benjamin says:

yes.

so the theme can be about addressing the fear of the unknown

Elf-patience says:

yep

thats sounds plausible

Benjamin says:

through showing the reactions of the main character

when he had to resign his fate to the

actions of a foreign, unrelated entity who positively does not know his existence.

==

Elf-patience says:

yeah

Benjamin says:

well im glad that lighthouse guy is not god.

Elf-patience says:

like the light going out

Benjamin says:

so, concept. 3 lines.

1. fear of the unknown

2. challenging the belief of the ownership of one's fate through external circumstances

Elf-patience says:

fwah cheem =)

Benjamin says:

i was going to add:

3. the consequences of each's fulfilling of asocial respoinsibilities.

=D

Elf-patience says:

yeah

put it up on the board?

Benjamin says:

it's kinda big right now.. but haha.

i feel 2 should be 1.

and vice versa.

what do u think?

Elf-patience says:

swapping it?

Benjamin says:

2. sounds more specific than "fear of the unknown"...

ah. nvm.

i suppose we start from the big -> specifics

.

sorry...

Elf-patience says:

nah its good we are thinking thru

Benjamin says:

its more like

fear of disruption / disturbance / accidents than "unknown"

haha

im trying to find a suitable fitting word.

Elf-patience says:

fear of the unfamiliar

Benjamin says:

because i can imagine the "oh no" look on chris and rashid faces when we say "fear of the unknown"...

haha

Elf-patience says:

haha

Benjamin says:

since it can mean like anything

Elf-patience says:

true true

fear of the ....hmm...

Benjamin says:

this animation addresses the irrational(?) fear for accidents, or any disturbances to our routine. When unwarranted and unforeseen circumstances threaten our ownership of our own fates whom we believe to be of our own making,

do u understand that...? lol

trying to piece together the last sentence.

Elf-patience says:

so far so good.. u understand

i understand*

Benjamin says:

*

this animation addresses the irrational(?) fear for accidents, or any disturbances to our routine. We believe that we are masters of our own fates, that we can improve our conditions by simply working hard enough. But at the same time, we fear unwarranted and unforeseen circumstances that might take away that very ownership from our hands.

3 lines...long lines.

Elf-patience says:

the owndership part is fine

irrational might not be the best word.. hmmm...let me think abt it tonight

Benjamin says:

i think it be good idea that we also log our entire conversation tonight.

Elf-patience says:

i logged

Benjamin says:

=D proof of derivation part 1. cool! thanks.

--

but as of now i think that the last two lines

are more explaining the scenario than a theme, do you?

Elf-patience says:

yeah

i think can summarize/simplify

Benjamin says:

sure. i need to check how i wrote mine this sem.. lol

A conceptual animation which highlights the issues of marketing that causes our exploitation through consumerism.

It is about how we are being constantly sold an ideal lifestyle, a dream, a promise that we are suckered into, so that we will buy advertised products.

The irony behind this: we are actually aware about the truth – that these promises are empty and the dreams will never happen – yet

it is abt how even though we continually strive for improvement, that working hard enough will bring us to a better place

we are still fearful, and aware that accidents will threaten our hard work, and the comfort of our lives

... of our status quo

Elf-patience says:

mmm

Benjamin says:

but then we got a theme on our hands.

so...let's say we move a step back from the scenario, and

Elf-patience says:

sorry ah

Benjamin says:

try to construct a new story / or

Elf-patience says:

brain doesnt function at 1am

Benjamin says:

strengthen the stroy based on this theme?

haha sure, sorry to keep u up late this hour =P

as in, dun care what to write on paper first,

we just try to make a new scenario or condense whatever we got based on this theme?

Elf-patience says:

yep