Friday 16 March 2012

Unit 4: Character Concept Art


Unit 4: Thumbnails



Unit 4: Environment Concept Art




Unit 4: Prop Concept Art


Unit 4: Thumbnails





Unit 4: Thumbnails




Unit 4: Lonely Rivalry Final Script

Lonely Rivalry


Act 1.
Scene 1.
EXT. Laboratory


The laboratory is a complex consisting of multiple structures over a large flat land mass, with a towering cylindrical structure in the centre.


ESTABLISHING SHOT of LABORATORY, the camera captures the scale of the facility.


Scene 2.
INT. ERIC'S OFFICE
CUT TO scientist's office.


Paper is scattered across the office and scrunched up pieces of paper lay across the floor, indicating the persistence of the scientist.


The perspective is down low, sneaking up on the scientist, ERIC, at work.


The whiteboard is covered in drawings, writing and designs. ERIC is at work on his latest project. The squeaks of the board marker are heard from outside of the office, with approaching footsteps growing louder as they enclosed on the door.


The door is swung wide open as the rival scientist, DONNY, aggressively slams it.


HOLD SHOT, showing DONNY standing in the door. Both in the same lab coat as an indication to their employment.


PAN RIGHT on the whiteboard to reveal Eric's designs.


CLOSE UP of DONNY as he grins to his rival. His smile indicating his superiority over Eric.


HOLD SHOT as the two scientists, DONNY and ERIC, approach the centre of the office.


CUT TO a sideways shot of Donny and Eric. Donny walks to the whiteboard, rubbing out the markings on the board and replacing them with the requirements of a challenge between the two scientists. A drawing of the laboratory and the moon appear on the board.


Act 2.
Scene 3.
INT. WORKSHOP


Eric begins to write up designs for a design to compete with Donny in the upcoming challenge. 


HOLD SHOT on the bin in the office, as scrunched up paper is lobbed within the vicinity of the bin. 


CUT TO Donny drawing on the whiteboard in a frantic manner, the squeaking of the marker pen contributing to his state of mind.


CUT TO Eric constructing his device, a pair of jet powered skates. A slight peek over Eric's shoulder, slightly revealing the device.


CUT TO Donny constructing his device, a jet pack. A slight peek over Donny's shoulder reveals the device.


CUT TO a shot of both scientists at either end of the workshop, with their finalised devices.


CUT TO Donny as he peers over his own shoulder, glancing at Eric, as he schemes to sabotage Eric, ensuring his own victory.


Scene 4.
EXT. CONSTRUCTED RUNWAY


Eric ready's himself by positioning himself in front of the half-pipe ramp. 


PAN OUT to see both scientists in position, ready to test each others intellect. 


CLOSE UP on Donny as he ready's himself, with a smirk on his face, knowing that his rival cannot contest him for victory.


CUT TO FRONT SHOT of both scientists as they count down for the starting mark. Both using their fingers to indicate time decrease.


CUT TO BEHIND SHOT both, Donny and Eric, begin their rocket powered equipment. Eric shoots off down the runway, whilst Donny begins a slow ascent towards the moon. 


Scene 5.
EXT. AIRSPACE ABOVE RUNWAY


CUT TO shot of both scientists heading off upwards towards the moon, with Eric in the lead.


CLOSE UP Eric's rocket powered skates begin to malfunction, and his left rocket powered skate loses power.


CUT TO Donny, enjoying a brief moment before colliding with Eric, causing the two to spiral out of control.


CUT TO REAR SHOT of Eric and Donny rotating and moving further and further away from the camera.


Scene 6.
EXT. DESERT ISLAND


CUT TO the scientists falling from the sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind them.


FADE OUT with sounds of distant clutter, clashing and smashing against itself and the ground.


FADE IN Eric and Donny sit un-impressed on top of the rocks, 


CUT TO front shot, by looking away from the other.


CLOSE UP of Eric and Donny as they turn to one another.


FADE OUT to black screen.

Unit 4: Lonely Rivalry Premise

Two angry Rocket scientists in the laboratory challenge one another in a race to prove their own intellect, but their antics land them stranded on a desert island.

Monday 12 March 2012

Unit 5: Influence Map

Unit 5: Animation - Components

"The geriatric - telescope"


Geriatric as an adjective means, by definition of a dictionary; 1. In relation to geriatrics. 2. In relation to the aged or to the characteristics of the ageing process. As a noun, it is an aged person. It is associated with the diseases and illnesses that elderly people become a victim of.


Some characteristics/thoughts came to mind about the word, such as;

  • Elderly people
  • Worn out
  • Old
  • Useless
  • Obsolete
  • Disregarded
  • Senile
  • Irresponsible
  • Disorder - Disabled
  • Senior
A character that came to mind was Carl, a 78 year old man, from the Pixar animation Up. His movements, both in the face and in the walk cycle, are helpful in making the character believable. He uses a four balled stand walking stick as another leg to keep the character upright, making the character feel very 'slugish' and reliant on that third leg. As a result he hunches his back, much like a gorilla. The consistent/constant depressive look on his face, is a giveaway that he hates how life has turned out for him/others, a typical generalisation for people of old age. He follows a dream that he once wished to fulfil with his wife, out of both regret and memory, to live up to his promise from his childhood.

Another character was Geri from the Pixar animation Geri's Game. An old man who is playing chess by himself. This loneliness or de-illusion is a sign of a senile/crazed man. Whilst the character is never given much of a background, there is a sense that he doesn't need one because of the (lack of) life given to him in his movements. Slow, sluggish and reliant on support for walking, he still has a personality. Two sides of the board, and two sides of Geri, one the calm, wise old man and the other a bold, arrogant, taunting, not so old man.

Pendulum Tutorial

Unit 4: Yet Another Story Idea

The rocket scientist, Donny,  is hard at work when he gets wind that he has a new boss. However, his new boss isn't just that, as he was also Donny's high school bully. His new boss got the job through some very high up connections from his father.


Suffering from the same antics, as he did in his high school years, the scientist comes up with a plan. He devises a plan, an ingenious trap that will rid him of the bully forever. So, the engineer offers to show his boss, his latest and greatest invention yet. Donny opens the door to a set of stairs, leading down to his workshop. The engineer offers the bully to go down first, but his boss has a moment of kindness and offers the same gesture to his worker. He pats the engineer on the back, unintentionally pushing him onto the steps below.


The engineer had placed a pair of skates on the stairs as a part of his plan, which has began to unfold but with target being himself rather than his bully. Donny falls onto the skates and begins to roll down to the workshop. When he reaches the bottom, he triggers the pressure plate which gives him more forward momentum. Enough that the wicks on the rockets begin to heat up due to friction. Rockets ignited, he zooms across the room slamming open the door at the far end which opens up onto a small runway where Donny had placed a ramp at the end. Still picking up speed he fly's off the ramp into the sky, leaving his boss bewildered and shocked.


The scientist lands on a desert island, where he had planned the bully to be imprisoned on.

Unit 4: Another Story Idea

Two rival rocket scientists, Donny and Eric, have been playing 'Cat and mouse' (Tom and Jerry) since their childhood. They both decide to face off in a head-to-head race to the Moon, to prove just who is the better scientist.


Both design their own means of transport. Eric creates a jet pack and a pair of thrusters that attached to his boots, to take him to the moon. Donny, however, made a ramp on the basis of 'half pipe skating', as well as a pair of rocket propelled speed line skates. Eric, not taking any chances, decides to sabotage his opponent. Donny was thinking the same way and sabotaged his opponent as well.


Set to begin the race, they ready at their starting marks. The race begins with Donny heading down the drop on the ramp and Eric begins his take off, waiting for the rockets to kick in. Donny went up the vertical rise, igniting the rockets. He noticed that there was an issue, as his projections were off as Eric had tampered with the ramp. Eric begun to pick up speed, and as he crept above the ramp's highest point a smile appeared on his face. However, Eric's jet pack suddenly blew out and he lost all control of his stability. As he began to see more of the downhill ramp, Donny suddenly appeared and collided with Eric.


The two spiralling out of control, swirled across the landscape, out above the open sea. The two viscously holding onto one another, in both anger and fear. Soon their rockets begin to run out of fuel and crash land onto a desert island. The two scientists sit side by side, unimpressed and angry by themselves. They turn to one another and repeat their old antics.

Unit 4: Story Idea

The crew of a shuttle are planning to fly to the moon, but have encountered an issue. The shuttle doesn't have the resources to get back to earth. The Rocket Scientist, Donny, is called in to devise a plan to save the crew.


Upon thinking of an idea, he comes across nothing but failure in his designs. Resorting to using toys, after using models, to help his analogy, he comes across a roller skate. Treating it as the shuttle, he fitted it with a small rocket. Activating the rocket, the skate went of control, tilting the skate causing the rocket to switch off and stabilise itself. Went it straightened out the rocket used what little fuel it had left to get back to Donny's feet.


Donny contacted the crew of his idea and they all agreed to the plan. The plan is to propel the shuttle around the moon, using gravitational pull as a magnet with both the attraction and subtraction in mind, then reactivating the rocket to send guide it back to earth. The scientist calculated the entry point of the shuttle when entering the Earth's atmosphere. The shuttle would land close to a small land mass, which rescuers would be rushed to, to save the survivors.


Putting the lives of the crew in his hands, the scientist decided that he too would go to welcome them back to earth and congratulate them.

Unit 4: More inspiration and ideas





The images above are concepts for the floating crystal island in Superman Returns. Giving me the idea and concept that the 'Desert Island' doesn't essentially have to be grounded. 


The image above is of Angel Island from Sonic Adventure. Just another bit of inspiration, spawned from the concepts above.

Unit 4: Storyboard examples - Superman





Some storyboard examples from a fictional view.