Happle tea

This guy, Scott Maynard is an amazing comic artist. But what keeps me as one of his followers is the fact that he is always posting about mythology, fairy tales and the analysis of storytelling devices, folklore and the monomyth.

His latest post was of my particular interest since it touches on the myth that has influenced my story so far. It is not so much that this post was particularly groundbreaking in terms of my research, but rather that it provided a fresh look to the concept itself.

Anyway, check the post and the webcomic itself is great.

happle tea

Why make this Grad Film...

Well, wouldn't you want to know?

Technical Intentions

The film is intended as a CG production with a Non-Photorealistic Render that approaches the treatment of traditional media. By incorporating hand-painted textures with a layered-textured model; the intention of successfully conveying a muralist aesthetic, for both the characters and the backgrounds in a quasi-2D look is meant to be achieved.

My character pipeline intends to start modelling, texturing and normal map creation in ZBrush. Hand painted-texture maps will be treated and exported to the model from Photoshop to ZBrush, later exporting the mesh to Maya for proper rigging and blend-shape creation for facial expressions.

The background and prop sets will follow the same procedure but will further be incorporated as a matte painting projection in Maya if needed, depending on their placing on the shot. I will ask assistance into modelling props and certain parts of the labyrinth.

Special effects (i.e. sparks from iron/stone clashing, dust and blood) will be incorporated as hand-drawn effects animated in Photoshop. The brief appearances of the Minotaur as a physical character will be incorporated as a hand-drawn shadow. For this task I will key frame the animations and ask my animation assistants to in-between and colour them.

I am well aware of the strains and technical obstacles I will face as I try to accomplish all of these goals, yet I am confident in my skills and my assistant’s skills as well.

Theoretical Concerns

Taking upon the already existing myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, this film adaptation Gears towards a depiction of Theseus’ prideful conduct and how it brought the demise of Ariadne, the girl who helped him find his way out of the Minotaur’s maze.

This film’s intention is to reflect on how pride can blind and corrupt a noble intention; on how this notion that sustains our ego for survival can become the beast of our personal and society’s undoing.

Taking upon the formulas and examples of the psychological thriller genre I’ve researched and analysed I intend to convey a story that marries both a lush and painterly render with a powerful and agile narrative that successfully entices the audience into following the main character’s pathos and downfall.

Research

Concerning the study of this particular character development is deeply linked to psychology and patient-case studies, I decided to take an approach to C.G. Jung’s theories about the Unconscious and the Archetypes.

I take particular interest in the chapter that discusses the process of Rebirth and how this ritual is interpreted by the unconscious mind as a model of many different kinds of rebirth itself.

Stemming from these studies of Rebirth I arrive at the study cases in film pointed out by Terrie Waddell in her book Mis/takes, where she analyses the movies Mullholland Drive, Memento and the Others as pieces centring upon the ego’s mistaken identities, self-deception and dealing with the notion of death. All of these, crucial to the pathos I intend for my main character.

Influential Artists/Works

Informing the content and aesthetics of this piece, one could say that could be basically the sum of all of my experiences. For this project, said experiences garnish themselves as a rowdy pack of conceptually volatile films (if so I shall say myself) films, like The Machinist, The Shining or Mullholland Drive, these are my muses in terms of conceptual and visual structure. For aesthetics, I’ve been quite drawn to French animation for quite a while, yet it is the successful marriage of 3D with a painterly/quasi 2Desque render which has captivated me and driven me to achieve its ways for a couple of years now. Example of such could be Anchored, grad film by Lindsay Olivares, Meet Buck by Cerf Team or Le Tableau by Jean François Laguionie, which is yet to be released.

Nevertheless, I could say that the fuel for this project is mainly the feelings that arise when thinking of the deadline, of the people I intend this to reach, but most importantly, the kind of places I hope this experience can take me. You could say that I’m chasing my own Minotaur in that aspect. I trust that in venturing this maze I’ll achieve more than just wrangling this beast down.

Bibliography

Waddell, Terrie. Mis/takes: Archetype, Myth and Identity in Screen Fiction. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Jung, Carl Gustav. : Archetypes and the Unconscious. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. New Jersey: Princeton/Bolligen, 1968. Print.

Senior Project Proposal

Summary

The successful production of a 3 minute short film

Synopsis

This is a story about pride and its consequences. A young man is hell-bent on slaying a beast nobody has defeated before. Ignoring what is really important to him along the way, this reckless hunt will bring him dire consequences.

Project Description

Taking upon the already existing myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, this film adaptation Gears towards a depiction of Theseus’ prideful conduct and how it brought the demise of Ariadne, the girl who helped him find his way out of the Minotaur’s maze. This film’s intention is to reflect on how pride can blind and corrupt a noble intention; on how this notion that sustains our ego for survival can become the beast of our personal and society’s undoing. Taking upon the formulas and examples of the psychological thriller genre I’ve researched and analysed I intend to convey a story that marries both a lush and painterly render with a powerful and agile narrative that successfully entices the audience into following the main character’s pathos and downfall.

Visual Treatment

The film is intended as a CG production with a Non-Photorealistic Render that approaches the treatment of traditional media. By incorporating hand-painted textures with a layered-textured model; the intention of successfully conveying a muralist aesthetic, for both the characters and the backgrounds in a quasi-2D look is meant to be achieved.

My character pipeline intends to start modelling, texturing and normal map creation in ZBrush. Hand painted-texture maps will be treated and exported to the model from Photoshop to ZBrush, later exporting the mesh to Maya for proper rigging and blend-shape creation for facial expressions.

The background and prop sets will follow the same procedure but will further be incorporated as a matte painting projection in Maya if needed, depending on their placing on the shot. I will ask assistance into modelling props and certain parts of the labyrinth.

Special effects (i.e. sparks from iron/stone clashing, dust and blood) will be incorporated as hand-drawn effects animated in Photoshop. The brief appearances of the Minotaur as a physical character will be incorporated as a hand-drawn shadow. For this task I will key frame the animations and ask my animation assistants to in-between and colour them.

I am well aware of the strains and technical obstacles I will face as I try to accomplish all of these goals, yet I am confident in my skills and my assistant’s skills as well.

Sound Treatment

Regarding the ideas I have so far for sound treatment I intend this piece to be a non-dialogue film, I’m still toying with the idea of incorporating gibberish/grammelot as dialogue or just basic folly and the occasional gasp and scream from voice actors. As for the soundtrack I’m strong on the idea of incorporating a sort of ‘musical folly’ or subtle sounds that build up as if orchestrated that depict Theseus descent into madness and sheer anger.

Budget

• Hardware Expenses…………………………………………………..2000$

• Sound Composer………………………………………………………300$

• Sound Designer………………………………………………………..300$

• Press Kit…………………………………………………………………100$

• --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Subtotal………………………………………………………2700$

• Taxes………………………………………………………......340$

• --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• TOTAL…………………………………………………………………3040$

OIAF 2011- Day 4

'Sup!

So day 4 was basically the day that greatly magnified my wiz-powers and understanding of the world's delicate and intricate thread of inconspicuous facts. Or as the program called it: Professional Development Day.

The first session 'Give me a Job' was hosted by recruiters of Cartoon Network, DHX and Walt Disney Studios. These companies where present as well at SIGGRAPH, and yet they limited themselves to blurt out whatever requirements they have for entry level positions (which is basically listed on their website). Nevertheless, here they were engaged in a discussion of what a good portfolio and entrepreneurship as a starting animator really means within their respective companies and their take on the industry as a seasoned working professional.

They talked a lot about web presence and how this is in most of the cases as important as a job interview. How it is particularly for this reason that a clean and appropriate web persona needs to be projected through your social network profiles, so yeah either cleaning or filtering your facebook appropriately so no drunk pics get between you and your chance of landing a job. But particularly they made a strong emphasis on regular blog activity and how the layout of the aforementioned can be crucial to its review. The importance of filtering content in these blogs is also very important, that posting pics of things that inspire you is great, contrary to posting subjective content that doesn't really shows relevance to your work and development as an artist.

All in all a great panel, I found it particularly funny that although they all agreed mainly on most of the ideas and points posed, they subtilely where always tearing each other's studio reputation apart.

Followed by this was the Surviving as a Filmmaker panel, with panelists like Nick Cross (Pig Farmer) Andy & Carolyn London (Eager to Please), among others. This was more of a pep talk for all starting animators to keep on creating, to embrace their concepts over the soul crushing economic and time constraints that may imply, but most importantly to find the joy and profit out of the necessary evil of freelancing and working in a commercial pipeline, as creatively stale as it may appear to be. Several pointers were given about copyright organization, web distribution vs festival application, crowd-sourcing and concept harvesting, which can be roughly resumed in: be organized and don't get over emotional/critical about your own work, since that is the audience's job.

The Pendleton Ward and Thurop van Orman Misadventures panel was simply fantastic, Thurop pitched an idea he has for what can possibly be a short stop-motion film or a series called Black Forest and Pen gave out some Adventure Time sneak-peek for season 4 which was quite good, I won't spoil stuff so nyah.

Later on I rushed to the feature screening Dead but not Buried which was ridiculously hilarious. Quite a minimalistic piece I'd say and making lots of dark humor comments about its form and narrative cliches, which was nice. However I felt there was a point where it became kind of tedious. (And it didn't deserve to win best feature film imo).

That's... basically my highlights for day 4 at the OIAF 2011. 'Kay, see ya!

OIAF 2011- Day 5

Well, It's over. Those marvelous, precious, joyous and yet very exhausting 5 days at the Ottawa International Animation Festival are history. It certainly felt like a month to me (and Kristen can vouch for it)

But first things first, a summary of day 5:

Got up, went to the last Animators's breakfast at the Arts Court and stayed for the first of two panels of 'Meet the Filmmakers'. I gotta say, this panel felt like it was a last minute adjustment due to the lack of the usual moderators, because that guy had a really hard time to organize both his commentaries and making the panel engaging.

Then I rushed to the shuttle for Museum of Civilization to attend the Making of 'La Luna' panel. Seeing Enrico talk about his process and how his team managed to pull of his self-labeled 'Little water-plane' off the ground was great. I was particularly engaged by the textural work they did in the backdrops and the props since it was all done traditionally and then incorporated as both texture and normal maps, giving it that extra natural/traditional quality to the already vibrant palette.

After that I hit the road again to catch the School Competition: RISD vs Tokyo University of the Arts. I'm quite sorry for my RISD friends but the Tokyo selection kicked their school's ass brutally. I mean most of the RISD pieces were nicely crafted and somehow engaging, yet the timing, the craft and (well, not so much the content) but you could say the passing of TokyoU's films was amazing. Particularly the stop-motion ones, they were quite well crafted. I was also impressed by Yasashii march by Wataru Uekusa. The character design and animation quality, was GAINAX quality. Then again, apparently TokyoU is a post-grad university, so their top-notch-ness compared to RISD is understandable...

Then it was Chico & Rita. Great textures, loved the painterly CG, hated the ending. Here, I leave a link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWxB9hRjwI

After that I decided to finally chill for the next 2 hours 'til the Closing Ceremony (since I had already seen the next screening). So I went around parliament and downtown just taking some pics and strolling.

Closing Ceremony was unexpectedly long, the masters of ceremonies drifted a lot off topic and we ended up the whole thing an hour later than expected. After that we rushed to the Arts Court since we were not interested in watching The Best of OIAF (since we'll be watching it at ECU anyway) and walked down the bridge to downtown (last bus had already left)

Kristen stayed home and I went to the closing Party (which was unexpectedly a smattering more than a party) I said farewell to all my RISD new friends in hopes to find each other either at OIAF 2012 or along the animation road.

And so this concludes my brief and weird chronicles of the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2011, I left feeling like I had spent there an entire semester (which in terms of knowledge and people I met is quite equivalent I guess) It was one of the greatest experiences I've had as an animator so far and can't wait to repeat it, even if it is not next year, in the near future. It just reminded me of the so varied and great things I love about this medium and taught me to love it even more.

OIAF 2011- Day 3

So, here I am again, posting at 3 am Ottawa time for you guys (this is the time I get off party mode, which is essential for you to survive in this place imo).

Today was a pretty awesome day, (the best one so far) got up kinda early to catch the free breakfast at the Arts Court just before the meeting the directors from yesterday's Gala. Which was pretty cool. My highlights from that would be:

-The Renter by Jason Carpenter: Great animation short about a young boy who's dropped at a daycare in the middle of nowhere that is run by an elderly woman who rents a room to a nasty lonely man. Beautifully animated in flash, it was rendered with photoshop textures in a very painterly process according to the director's representative (Jason Carpenter couldn't make it to OIAF 'cause he's apparently becoming a father in a few days). I leave you with the film's website:

http://therenter.net/The_Renter/The_Renter.html

-Paso Doble by Jaime Metzger: This metaphoric animation poses the Paso Doble dance tradition as a comparison to bullfighting. The animation was great, very staccato I'd say. But then again, the juxtaposition of a very flat rendering of a female body melting with a red background fighting a scribbly black bull was a great piece of eye candy to me. I just cannot get around these kind of shorts. Here's a teaser:

http://vimeo.com/21377591

-The last Norwegian Troll by Pjotr Sapegin: The story of the last Troll inhabiting Norway, the predicaments it has gone through and how he has adapted to modern life's pace. Beautiful stop-motion animation with a nice plot. The sets for this short were just brilliant and the animation was pretty much great as well.

Unfortunately none of the directors for Paso Doble or The Last Norwegian Troll were at OIAF this year.

After that I attended Koji Yamamura's masterclass. This was both informative and inspirational. He explained how his whole process is heavily informed by the sound treatment and how meticulous it can be. Starting from finding the right rokyoku shamisen performer for Atama-yama to recording natural folley for Old Crocodile, it was great to see an animator's perspective being so thoroughly guided by the audio component of the film. The analysis he gave of his latest piece: Muybridge Strings (which I had the chance to see at tonight's Gala) was very personal. He related it to the fact that he scarcely sees his family due to the amount of work he has to produce, and how these slivers of quality time make him want to stop time and keepsake it forever, or as he puts it: Depicting the 1/24th moment of a second. This masterclass helped me t0 further analyse the posibilities in which a personal concern can be taken into consideration as a drive to complete a comission (I guess).

Then, la piece de resistance of my day: Animator's picnic. Getting to Strathacona park was possible thanks to the shuttles provided by the festival, here I had the chance to meet Thurop again and he remembered wrestling with me the night before, lol. At the picnic I had the chance to finally have a nice talk with Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilbis (more with Amanda than Wendy) and they gave me some really awesome pointers for story development and furthermore, introduced me to Madi Piller, President of the Toronto Animate Image Society, which at the same time introduced me to Gil Alkabetz, awesome animator and instructor. Networking-wise it was pretty awesome, but it got better. After that I went back to the Arts Court to catch the Canadian Showcase (which was packed) but I found a friend I met back in SIGGRAPH 2011, which was great.

Later on I went to the Gala and later on to the Salon des Refusés, where I had the chance to watch Ceci's film and reminisce with Kristen about our separate adventures throughout OIAF-land. Later on I met some of my RISD peeps and Thurop again and we went to the Avant-Garde bar to have a couple of drinks, it was nice... until they kicked Thurop out for being way to wasted, and we couldn't have a proper conversation with Pendleton Ward, who pretty much had to carry him out of the place. That aside, I got more business card trades with some RISD grads and Thurop himself. So I'd say Friday has been a great day for my networking progress.

'K, I'm exhausted guys, gotta catch at least a couple of z's before it's too late, tomorrow's a big day in terms of presentation, will need tons and tons of caffeine to survive it. Catch up tomorrow night guys!! (hopefully)

OIAF 2011- Days 1&2

Hey guys, so I didn't update you yesterday (well, it is technically Friday in Ottawa right now, but bear with me here) mainly because I didn't have the time. Regardless here's a summary of days 1 and 2.

Day 1

So, short competition # 1 was nice. Main highlights from that one would be Maly Listonosz (Little Postman) by Dorota Kobiela. Set to Chopin's revolutionary etude, it shows the determination of a child-postman to deliver war-torn Warsaw mail no matter what happens. Animated with 3D models it was then projected into a wall in Warsaw so a team of painters could render it frame by frame conveying a beautiful painterly style with an amazing sense of depth. I couldn't find a trailer but here's a link to a still from the short. http://grafik.rp.pl/grafika_zw/544570,322447,9.jpg

Next is Swimming Pool by Alexandra Hetmerova. A night love story of two outsiders, who meet in a closed swimming pool in the middle of a big city. This film was simple but effective, hilarious to say the least. The filmmaker wasn't at the 'Meet the Filmmakers' event because this is a 2010 film and running in other festivals as well. Again, since it is in the festival circuit I couldn't find a trailer but I'll leave a link to her portfolio so you can see her stuff and some stills.

http://alexandrahetmerova.blog.cz/

And last but not the least there's Strata #3 by Quayola. An abstract film which reaches and unveils that which lies beneath the figurative complexity of a painted ceiling, creating an abstract landscape. This was quite amazing, sadly the director of this film was not present at the 'Meet the Filmmaker' event, but luckily I could find an article with a pretty decent trailer for you guys:

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/11750/quayola-strata-3.html

So that was pretty much day 1, I got to Ottawa pretty late and after the Gala I was exhausted so I miss what, according to some people, was an awesome kick-start party.

Day 2

Got up pretty early in the morning to catch the 'Meeting the Filmmakers' event which gave me a more in-depth perspective about the films and the process behind them. Particularly at the Little Postman one which was my fave. I met some people from RISD at the Student Competition which was also pretty neat. I got the chance to say hi to Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, both directors of 'When the Day Breaks' (for those who haven't seen it, here's the link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuUwDuV8GNY and 'Wildlife' (I couldn't find a trailer for Wildlife, but they're both fantastic films) and attended their masterclass. This was very inspirational and gave me some very good pointers about the development of my grad-film and how to work with a different storyboard and reference approach. Their commissioned work was pretty impressive as well, here's a link to one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL_wG5gc4uc

Then again neither Kristen nor I have had a chance to properly present ourselves, since tonight's Gala was right after the masterclass. I hope I get a chance to talk to them tomorrow at some point though.

Then, Kristen decided to call it a day, but I went to the Student party, which was... alright, I mean, there was no music, I couldn't really get a glance at the Algoquin student's showcase since it was kinda packed, but I met lots of new people, traded some business cards... oh, yeah and I wrestled with Thurop Van Orman, creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. No biggie.

Seemed like the right thing to do, I mean he was wrestling with his fellow CN workers and all the kids were too scared gawking at him to even talk to him, so I approached him and I said: Hey, I want to wrestle! Thurop: Cool, so let's wrestle! and then one of the volunteers stopped us. Then again I got a chance to present myself to the guy and shook hands after. (he was way to hammered so I don't think he'll remember, still, awesome!)

So that's that for today guys, I'll update you on more OIAF 2011 coolness tomorrow.

see ya!

OIAF 2011- Onwards

It´s been a while since I last posted here and I probably should have done it sooner.

Anywho, in a few hours I´ll be in Ottawa swarming the animation rivers that each year overflow it around this time of the year, along with Ms. Kristen Campbell.

A streak of shenanigans is at hand. I´ll try to upload as much photos/sketches/film reviews/mishappenings/interviews/retold mayhem as I can. In the meantime, stay tuned!

Final Fog Scene

This is the final update in my 3D scene exploration for this semester. I will keep my research upon the subject and post updates on that if possible.

More inspiration

More of my inspirational pool for the explorations I did, mainly for the development of my color script.

Inspirational Material

These are paintings by Mexican muralist Jose Gonzalez Camarena. His colour palette as well as very vivid and dynamic composition have been a great sourse of inspiration for me ever since I discovered his work a few years ago.

CG test

CG test for the particle and style exploration of my film. An updated version with a smoother incorporation of elements will be up soon.

Here's the first mock-up of the color script & treatment I intend for the structure of my Grad Film. Story is currently under heavy revision as Character Development is... well pretty bad.

Main Character Explorations

Initial character explorations for the Protagonist.

Banner art

HD version because I feel like it.

Leica Reel

The current version of my leica reel for this project. Subject to drastic changes once I settle for the design of both father and son.

Boat Explorations

I have been struggling a bit with my boat explorations, I want it to be simple, yet very personalized. A vessel that portrays the expertize and rough experiences of its owner. More sketches will come.

Tooth Pendant explorations

Here are some brief explorations I did on the pendant of the father, which is a key motif within the project. I am still unsure of the pattern it may or may not have since it has to serve both functions: Being a memento of a lost relative and the grim remainder of his executioner.

Monster Sketches

Here are some explorations I did on developing the monster for my current project. I went through several references of fish, reptiles, fossils and varied sea creatures in order to produce them. None of these is the final take yet. I feel that further connection needs to be made to the monster and the tooth-pendant that the father of the central figure carries.