Category: A moment in the sun

A comedic animated short I started working on in April 2014. Currently in pre-production.

Categories
A moment in the sun Journals Stuff I made

Welcome to 10 to 16 April 2016. This is going to be a long’un!

It’s been a slow week. I sent the animatic around to a few people and heard what they had to say.

First, it appears that I’ve definitely made something funny. Which is nice.

A common note was this: how did Pointy know that Gronky was digging him up a hat? To me, the author, it was obvious – Pointy had just asked him for a hat, at some point. The trouble is I hadn’t actually shown it or referred back to it. It’s not difficult to infer, and not everyone noted this, but some people prefer things to be more explicit. Personally I love it when movies aren’t a willing slave to their own exposition and leave the audience a few clues to infer what’s going on – Mad Max: Fury Road is a fantastic example of that.

I spent the week coming up with something more like a prologue to explain what Pointy’s even doing out in the desert. I knew Pointy was out there looking for some peace and quiet. I also know Pointy is constantly whinging. So, off I went. I broke my “no screenplay” rule a little bit.

In the first draft, Pointy recaps the morning’s events while Gronky’s digging away for Pointy’s hat. This is literally it:

POINTY: “Look, I don’t wanna presume anything, but I just wanna make sure of something. So I come out here looking for some peace and quiet for my nerves. And bugger me the sun’s absolutely brutal out here. So along you come to rescue me and I ask you "Can you lend us a hat, mate?” – remember that? And you said “yeah” and you start digging up the desert, and like an idiot I thought you were looking for a hat. Except you’ve been digging holes for three hours and you’ve found nothing but dirt and holes and more bloody dirt! I wouldn’t mention it except I just wanted to make sure you’re lookin’ for a hat and you haven’t forgotten about the hat I asked you for.“

GRONKY: [stops digging] "The wuh?”

POINTY: “The hat.”

GRONKY: “Ohh! Hat!”

POINTY: (beat) “You boofhead! You forgot!”


GRONKY:

[shyly] “Yeah..”


POINTY:

“Uggh!”

Then I decided.. well.. if Gronky’s going to have forgotten he’s digging for a hat, why not have him dig up something that isn’t a hat at all? Also making the exchange a bit shorter and tighter would be good. I thought this might be more interesting to look at while panning across a landscape full of the holes that Gronky’s already dug.

POINTY: “Mate, I’m not accusing you of anything here but do you even remember why you’re digging holes?”

GRONKY: [still digging] “Hmm.. nope.”


POINTY:

“OK. I came out here before dawn for some much-needed peace and solitude only to discover I’ve got acute stress-induced photosensitivity. Soon as the sun’s up, I pass out. Luckily, along you come. I asked if you can find me something. You said sure, no worries! So off we go digging for treasure.. one hole, two holes, fifty holes.. but none of this stuff is what I asked you for.”


GRONKY:

“Here!”


POINTY:

“This is a novelty plastic kangaroo. I asked you for a hat.”


GRONKY puts kangaroo on POINTY’s head.

GRONKY: “There!”


POINTY:

“Just because you can put it on my head doesn’t make it a bloody hat!”


GRONKY: “(beat) Oh.”


POINTY:

“A normal hat, that’s all I’m after!”


GRONKY:

“Hmm.. come on.”

GRONKY leads them away to another place.


POINTY:

“Uggh.”

Thinking about Pointy’s character, Pointy would probably be far more patronising. I settled on Pointy playing a guessing game with Gronky which is a thinly disguised litany of complaints. That in turn guided the thumbnails I drew:

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POINTY: [restraining his anger but impatient] “Mate, do you remember what I asked you to dig up for me?”

GRONKY stops digging.

GRONKY: “Hmmm.. no!”

GRONKY continues digging.

POINTY: “Alright. I’ll give you some clues. It keeps the sun out of my eyes so I don’t keep passing out. It’s nice and lightweight so I can take it with me to find some peace and quiet without you!”

GRONKY: “Here!”

GRONKY holds up a novelty plastic kangaroo.

POINTY stands up, unimpressed.

image

POINTY: [pointing to head] “And it goes on my head!”

GRONKY tenderly places the kangaroo on Pointy’s head.

POINTY angrily gestures, knocking the roo back to GRONKY’s arms.

image

POINTY: [furious] “A hat, you boofhead! I asked you for a hat!”

GRONKY looks blankly and throws the kangaroo high into the air with no apparent effort. POINTY watches it in stunned disbelief.

image

GRONKY bends over to recommence digging. His shadow shortens, leaving POINTY’s head in the sun.

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Mid-sentence, POINTY’s dialogue slurs and slows and he passes out.

So that’s about where it’s settled. Nice storyboards will come soon and the pitch-o-matic will get redone shortly thereafter. Hopefully this weekend.

Thanks for reading. Bye now!

Categories
A moment in the sun Journals Stuff I made

I bid you greetings this week of 3 to 9 April 2016. Let us pause a while and reflect upon it. Have some images too!

This week I’ve been working up to a
pitch-o-matic. A pitch-o-matic is the high-tech equivalent of someone pointing at physical storyboard images pinned to a board with a pointer and talking through them. It’s not unlike a PowerPoint presentation – narrated instead of voice acted, still images instead of moving (like you might get with a story reel), and above all it’s fun.

The point of a pitch-o-matic is to pitch the story to other people to get notes on what works and what doesn’t at a story level. I did a few pitches at Blender Conference 2015 and Beorn’s advice was to use something more like storyboards than the planning comics I was scrolling around. So this is that. 🙂

The cleaned up images for the pitch-o-matic have been done since Sunday. There are 116 images to pitch with, 111 of which are narrative. The story is looking tighter and leaner than it’s ever been.

The first time I get to see how the story executes however will be when I put together a story reel. I’m quietly optimistic. 🙂

It’s
been a hectic and energy-sapping week at the dayjob so the narration’s had to wait until the weekend. I’ll be compiling it and sending it along to my usual reviewers shortly. 🙂

Aside from that, not much to report! More pictures!

Thanks for reading/looking. See you next week! 🙂

Categories
A moment in the sun Journals Stuff I made

Why, hello there! 27 March to 3 April, at your service. This week marks 700 days in flight on A Moment In The Sun. Tenacious, aren’t I? 🙂

Last Sunday I drew up the beginning and end of the film as storyboards. The beginning and end of the story are as good as set in stone now. Possibly there could be a gag involving an oozing eye.

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Over the course of this week I did a second-and-a-half draft of the antics that link the beginning and the end. Mainly it’s about shortening exposition, punching up funny bits, looking for clearer poses, that kind of thing.

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And I’ve finally figured out what Pointy is doing in an environment completely unsuitable for him, after all this time. Yay! The story feels nicely complete with that bit of information.

Today and tomorrow I’m getting the story to present. Then, to the pitch video!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! 🙂

Categories
A moment in the sun Journals Stuff I made

Greetings, citizens of 22 to 26 March 2016. Lend me your eyes. No not literally OH GOD that’s horrible put them back. You guys! Ugh!!

This week my attention was split. I’ve been knocking out more AMITS thumbnails and cranking out many rough little bits of 2D animation unrelated to AMITS.

Over the course of the week I’ve been going back to particular scenes in the middle of the story and trying out ideas for what could make those scenes funnier, finding clearer poses, etc. So far the story remains suspiciously stable. Maybe my story tweaking glands have been beaten into submission.

The 2D stuff has been really interesting. Full 2D animation gives you a hell of a lot more flexibility to try things with way less time and effort spent in prep compared with 3D. All it demands is drawing skills.

If I wanted to animate an Easter Quokka bounding around the screen using mesh-and-bone based animation Blender, I’d design it, make a 3D model of it, rig it, rig-weight the rig to the model, animate it, sim fur on it, render it all out, composite it… all in all a few weeks of full time work (assuming the sim behaves which it never does because fur is the devil).

If I wanted to animate the same Easter Quokka in 2D, I’d design it, draw the hell out of it, ink and paint.. and that’s it. In a few hours I’d have a rough pass, certainly something that people would be able to watch and enjoy. Something like this.

Even rough 2D animation could be a powerful tool for experimenting and planning. Aaron Blaise’s excellent animation course was the initial inspiration to give 2D another go, so now I’m rereading the also excellent “Character Animation Crash Course” by Eric Goldberg.

I also landed a copy of “Too Funny For Words” by Frank and Ollie, a follow-up to “Illusion of Life” about how Disney came up with their gags. Personally I don’t really rate Disney’s sense of humour as much as I rate Warner Bros or Tex Avery, but that’s like saying I don’t rate Beethoven or Wagner compared to Debussy – I recognise the craft, it’s just personal taste. 🙂

That’s all for now. 🙂

Categories
A moment in the sun Journals Stuff I made

And so it came to pass that 13 to 19 March 2016. I’m back into story and development again.

Back
in December, the story hinged on a rogue sombrero which shakes Pointy
around and smashes him into the ground because it doesn’t understand his
accent – a common problem that Australians face with voice activated
devices.

image

The
sombrero has stuck around but gag has evolved. The sombrero has gone
from hovering (and violently malfunctioning) to making the wearer dance
involuntarily (as a prank) to playing music by remote control (as an
annoyance) to having a novelty walkie talkie receiver inside it (as an
even greater annoyance).

To stop myself from straying too far
again into development limbo (again), I wrote some guidelines on what
drives the characters, what they can and can’t do, etc. Things like:

  • Pointy
    can’t stay out in the sun. It makes him floppy and sad. But there is no
    shade except a) Gronky’s shadow, b) whatever shade Pointy gets from the
    things Gronky digs up. Hence, Pointy needs Gronky despite loathing him.
  • Gronky
    never gets angry at Pointy. Gronky is fond of Pointy and wants to help
    him. Gronky is also utterly incapable of assisting Pointy no matter what
    he tries.
  • Pointy’s undoing is inevitably a result of his own
    hubris, impatience, anger, failings of character, etc. Gronky may load
    the metaphorical pistol but it’s Pointy that ultimately fires it.
  • Pointy can never get away from Gronky (or the game/joke is over).

So the stage is set for a sort of purgatorial comedy – not unlike the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons which had a similar set of rules.

image

Over
the course of the week I bridged my intro/premise (sun too bright, hat
fixes sun but hat annoying) and resolution (Pointy loses his cool and
suffers) with a good escalation. I tightened the story up, printed out a
synopsis and scribbled thumbnails all over it, did some audio tests,
cobbled together old bits of layout with newer tweaked ones, created a
new prop, did more thumbnailing to flesh things out.. generally getting
my ducks in a row for Easter when I’ll have a few days straight to go
hammer and tongs at layout.

Also this week, I tried out Jacques Lucke’s Animation Nodes plugin for Blender. It’s been getting a lot of attention and signal
boost lately – turns out that it’s useful, powerful and lots of fun.
Check out a demoreel here. or have a look at Jacques’s own tutorials here.

Also this week I saw Zootopia and started inventing an experimental artificial language which uses only verbs, anaphora and particles. As you do.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!