BYU Animation Story Pitch

Monsters.

2009-03-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

Found the truck I think we should use...

2008-03-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Not sure who is responsible for finding this image, but I think it's great. Kudos to whoever found it. Anyone else think it's what we're looking for to kill our characters? There's more stuff in the props folder for more inspiration...

Listen to Mike!!

2008-03-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

Just to add to what Mike said, I hope everyone takes the initiative to sketch things up for monday. We all know the direction we're taking for the environment and the color palette we'll be using (cars, abbey's color swatch...), we just need to flesh out the details. Feel free to take the environment design and try sketching it from different angles, put some new twists on it, re-position the gas station, etc. We'll be showing everyones stuff on monday when we all meet together with story and I'd be nice if we could gather opinions and finalize things then so we can move forward. Thanks for all ya'lls help recently. Making this film is a daunting task, but I think things will move much faster within the next few weeks.

Oh, and I know we've all heard concerns about the character design. For those of you who didn't hear, Ryan said that the character was too generic, not interesting enough to look at for long, and that we went "safe" on her design for ease of modeling and 3d sake. I think we can probably all agree on what was said....Lately Ryan, Carson, and I have attempted to tackle this thing once more (although I know we said that the last design was final). I guess since she's one of our main characters, we might as well get it right! :) Things are looking very well with the new designs, as we've taken elements of the last one, and adjusted some things. I hope you all will be supportive of this! Sorry about taking so long on this,...I guess alot of us didn't realize how dang hard it was to draw armadillos... Thanks guys!

-Chris

Environment team

2008-02-29T17:07:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll. I just talked with Brian and we both agreed that we need a lot more ideas for environment, both in the gas station and in the general environment. Other props also very important (car, bushes, miscellaneous debris). So far we have about 4 ideas: Chris' original, my color pass, Brian's gas station, and Abbey's gas station.

We need a lot more drawings if you get the chance this weekend. Dave pointed out to me that we (mostly me, but I think a number of us are included in this) need more DRAWINGS, not fully rendered paintings. We just need more ideas. Cool, creative things to make this world UNIQUE and different from any desert or gas station you've seen before. Even written ideas would be fantastic (you can post them here as a comment!) I thought a tornado-hit gas station would be fun, or maybe one that was really a secret entrance into Area 51. In fact, maybe that's why our armadillos are walking around...they're really alien science experiments on earth life forms...

Later.

Cinematography Notes

2008-02-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

Storyboard Team:

Here's those cinematography notes we went over on Wednesday. Thanks!

What are some of the things a cinematographer has to do in order to make a good shot?
a. Composition
b. Angles
c. Balance
d. Distance

Cinematographic Elements

1. Composition
a. Rule of Thirds
b. Placement
2. Angles
a. Canted
b. High
c. Low
3. Balance
a. Mass
b. Space
c. Weight
4. Distance (remember the Powerpoint)
5. Vector
a. Physical
b. Eye line
c. Movement
6. Shot Duration
a. How long the shot is
b. Long Take
c. Short Take
7. Moving Frame
a. Dolly – Camera changes position, traveling in any direction along the ground, be it
forward, backward, circular, diagonal, or side to side.
b. The shot of Henry V was a dolly, or trucking shot.
c. Truck, or tracking - Same as a Dolly shot
d. Crane – Camera moves above ground level, like the shot in the Narnia clip we just saw
e. Pan – Stationary camera pivots on vertical axis side to side
f. Tilt – Stationary camera pivots on horizontal axis up and down
g. Helicopter (also crane shots, helicopter often moves more, crane is more sweeping and smooth)
h. Hand-held – Obvious, hand held, like The Blair Witch Project

Hope that helps. Thanks!

A new storyboarder map

2008-02-28T19:10:00.001-08:00

Hey Story guys, thought something like this might help, a map with a bit more things o play off, if you don't like something, let me know, it is just an idea. The right is where the sun is rising, the east, Ryan suggested clouds over there so lets go with more clouds on the horizon on that side like in Mike Mercers pictures, also from mike, I put the big rock behind the gas station. i tried to put shadows to get a relative idea of height.

The line on the left i was thinking was a bit of a burm, with a hill going down to the left (like a short drop, then sloped, like the side of a plateau)

i threw in a canyon with a river, you'll probably never see in the lower left for fun. if there are any other questions or suggestion on it let me know. (I know I misspelled plateau...probably here too)

again this is for storyboarding purposes, I am not dictating the environment design, design guys.

flowers!

2008-02-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

Another

2008-02-26T20:27:00.000-08:00

Here, I went back to the original and just made some very small tweaks with the liquifier. Oh, and I changed the arm.

Guy design

2008-02-26T18:54:00.000-08:00

So, i realize you guys may have decided on a final for the guy already, but since i'm not sure if you guys saw this (i couldnt be at the design group meeting so i asked Kevin if he could put this in the groups folder monday before class, maybe it didnt make it), i thought i'd post it. rachel said that the upper body/shoulder/clavicle area is too human. she's right. there are a lot of parallels to the Deliah design, obviously. Im mostly concerned with the personality of his face. what do you guys think?

A Couple of Interesting Things from the "Cars" teaser

2008-02-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

I was checking out "The Incredibles" again to get storyboarding/framing ideas and the "Cars" teaser came on. There are some really cool elements with that road and the bushes next to it. It would be worthwhile to watch for inspiration.

Also for story folks, the way the bee gets hit suddenly is fun and we have an echo of it in how Deliah gets hit, so the way they staged it is cool for studying as well. anywho, just a thought.

Ok i found the cars trailer and here are some screen grabs, the lighter three are just inspiration for cool desert type colors, plants, etc. The bottom three are some awesome lighting setups, more golden hour with soft edged hard shadows. anywho, they are cool for getting ideas.

in the center left photo, i just noticed something we may want to try, having the action take place at the top of a rise could allow for some cooler long road shots and mask oncoming cars better. just a thought

Tweaked Characters

2008-02-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

Here's the tweaks I was happiest with. Minor changes to both characters.

Brent's Opinion today

2008-02-25T12:08:00.001-08:00

Brent gave us his opinion today. I took notes.

Environments:

Start with a clean slate now. No NEEDED colors (for story's sake) so anything goes.
Don't do pre-dawn b/c everyone's creating a demo reel so make it easy to create a good demo reel and make textures/lighting be beautiful on any object.
Don't be subtle. Most successful shorts (so far as likability) have been the colorful ones (Pet Shop/Pinatas).
Subtlety of story is NOT more important than making good demo reels (said Brent, remember these do not reflect the opinions of the author of this post)
Brent wants gorgeous colors.

Use white, red, green for gas station/props. No Chevron Blue.
55 gallon drums often red/green...
These are of course all rusty, faded, and interesting-looking with LOTS of color variation within them.

Desert:

A lot of red and green again, though muted

Sky:

Maybe red-yellow-orange combo.
Maybe very blue.

"I'm not trying to design your colors. Do other colors other than these. Just make it colorful."

So that's the notes I took. If anyone else took notes please post them.

Our team is working a lot on color until Wednesday. Abbey is working on some shape designs for gas station. Brian is working on male character/female character redesign. Chris is on the flower. Kevin I think is facial stuff...Al is on something too...but I can't remember what...anyone I missed?

Dude a dillo

2008-02-25T11:18:00.001-08:00

Well, here's the one from class. Cheers!

Deliah's Colors

2008-02-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I'm using the blog a lot b/c it's easier for me than FTP. Forgive me for posting a bunch. It's mostly so I'll have something to show at dailies without having to carry a thumbdrive around.

Here is a rough of Deliah's colors. I painted it in layers so once I'm done I will be able to alter the lighting, the shadows, her basic colors, etc, to pretty much any color and still maintain harmony. I hope to have 5-10 good color schemes for her that will hopefully help inspire environmental design.

NOTE: this is not a texture exercise. Only color. Please also note I paint on my laptop so it might appear saturated/just a little too dark. If so, that's why. I'll fix it when I'm all done so it appears right on normal screens and then if it's still too saturated/dark we can go from there.

North by Northwest

2008-02-24T20:36:00.000-08:00

I just saw a shot of North by Northwest while watching the oscars where the airplane is chasing the hero, there is a cool feel to that landscape if anyone wants to check it out. there is a cool old fence and road. just for environmental inspiration

2008-02-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

More Illegal Research...

2008-02-23T18:56:00.002-08:00

I feel like a criminal.

Here's some better sky lighting (or close to it) shots.

I think the above could work. You could see car headlights in this lighting as well as see a ghost shader.

The sun is definitely up in the tetons. I think this is a sunset pic.

I'm related to that last big elephant on the left. Cousin of mine.

This is a cool-looking desert. Too smokey? Too pink? I think this could potentially be romantic...

Lighting and color schemes

2008-02-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody. I'm going to post a bunch of copyrighted images from the web here so if anyone's worried just take them down. If anyone asks I didn't do it.

From what I understand the story team is looking for sky lighting for the short. I have a concern about sky lighting in that I feel it might end up being too monochromatic or just too dark altogether. An alternative is to have the sun up but not visible (behind mountains/clouds). Dave said the story team decided to have mountains for this purpose.

I think I like these subtle colors best. Feels very morningy. Do the colors speak cartoon? Probably not. Do we want the colors to speak cartoon? I have no idea.

Not much to say. More subtle colors. We could definitely play on saturation if we went this route. (say, for example, the ghost is more saturated, as is the flower....)

This is basically the color scheme I was shooting for at first. Blue blue sky for a cartoony feel. Suns up so you can see the colors (although it might not be visible). Lots of saturation and brightness but trying to maintain a morning feel.

Too saturated? Too dark? Notice that the sun is up in this photo and the world is STILL dark...is there a work around so we can make sky lighting work? I realize exposure is at work here but I'm not sure how we can make this work for us. Maybe I need to go out and shoot some pictures some morning...

Feels very monochromatic. Too monochromatic in my opinion, although the peachy color definitely feels texan to me.

What's everybody elses' thoughts?

Lighting concepts

2008-02-23T15:47:00.001-08:00

Ok so I think it's time to start talking lighting and stuff. Here are a couple passes I would really like critiqued before I move on to finishing the piece.

Blue shadows, tan rocks. Blue sky, big sun. This one has more of a just-after-sunrise feel. Jeremy said it should be warmer.

Above is color corrected for my stupid laptop. I will fix these in the future.

Not color corrected.

Warmer rocks/shadows. I wanted you to see the vastness of the landscape. The idea behind this one is that there used to be a traveled side road going to a place called "Big Al's Oasis" and that's why a gas station popped up. But when Big Al's shut down there wasn't much hope for the gas station. (The gas station is called Brigham's Squeaky Clean Gasoline). The gas station I wanted to feel like an "oasis" (loosley meaning a small populated area) too in the middle of a very flat, dirty and empty desert landscape. The clouds act like mountains on the horizon in every direction. Why? Because I thought it'd be cool.

Please comment. Thanks!

Just more flowers....

2008-02-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

here are some quick car ideas, they will just zoom by mostly, but that doesn't mean they can't be cool
Here are some more flowers i thought were cool,the two on cacti are arizonian flowers, the rest i believe are texan, i don't know why this is underlining

Downloading images on Flickr

2008-02-22T06:47:00.000-08:00

Friends!

As per Mike's request, here is a quick tutorial on how to download images that are "protected" on Flickr.

I looked up images of The Pink Umbrella Man from Santa Cruz, CA. He's a legend there, he walks down Pacific Ave. at the pace of about a block every hour. In pink. Seriously. If you don't believe me, just Google it . . .

Anyway, if after searching for an image, you click on it and see this little "All Sizes" button then you are in luck:

Clicking on it will lead you to another page with download size options. Booyah.

However, if that glorious little button is somehow NOT found, like on this page . . .

Dragging this image to your desktop will instead download "spaceball.gif" which is a transparent GIF placed over the image to protect it. Thats no good. Go to "Tools" and then "Page Info"

Then click on the "Media" tab and scroll down until you see the image pop up in the Media Preview window. Then click "Save As" and you've got it.

And then you can be as smug as the Pink Umbrella Man 'cause you just downloaded images from Flickr.

Dhalia Flowers

2008-02-21T22:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I don't remember who's doing the flower, but I ran across this flower called a "dhalia" native to Mexico area and I thought it had some cool-looking variations. Also, since our main character was named Dilia (is that right?) I was like, shoot, it's only one "h" short of dhalia...and that could make for an interesting connection. Anyhow...not sure if it's any good but I thought I would post them. Texas is right next to Mexico, in case we were worried about the plausibility factor. Anyhoo. Off to paint!

I didn't know Jeremy played basketball . . .

2008-02-21T07:09:00.001-08:00

pre sunrise?

2008-02-20T21:13:00.001-08:00

environment sketch

Storyboard template and backgrounds

2008-02-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Here are high-res scans of the backgrounds for the storyboards (Jeremy's are the good-looking ones) along with a jpg to use as a template. The template is the file that looks like a white rectangle with a black outline. Its based on the proportions of the feature board from animationmeat.com, but scaled to be 720 pixels high. Sorry I couldn't post a .psd with layers, but blogger won't seem to let me do that. The scan are all at a much higher resolution than the template, so you can paste them in as a layer and scale them down to whatever size you need. Hope they're useful to you!

--Mike S.

Meeting in IRA room wednesday, Feb 20th 9 am

2008-02-19T16:48:00.001-08:00

Hey all you design fellas and lady fellas, we are going to get together normal class time in the IRA VR room for a group meeting going over progress on the story and design fronts so we can un-plug any clogs we have in flowing this thing along. Let everyone know to come. Have your latest stuff ready and we will try and get this thing moving. Any Environment Art, Character Stuff, would be awesome. Now that we are getting closer to nailing down our main girl character, feel free to bring any designs of the Guy and other girl, PLEASE bring environments stuff, and we will need stuff soon for the Station, the fence, cars, bushes, etc.

thanks

2008-02-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

A few of you mentioned that the front view may look too much like a turtle. In my opinion that can be remedied by taking away the typical pig/hippo/turtle nose that armadillos tend to have and give it a more mammal like nose. Here's an example...

Jake's Design!

2008-02-15T22:32:00.001-08:00

From Big Al:

2008-02-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's Al's character design:

Character Designs-Female

2008-02-15T09:58:00.000-08:00

For those of you involved in character design, just add your images to this post. Here's some of my sketches:

-Chris

2008-02-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

Alright story crew, here are your assignments for Tuesday:

1. Up until the flower gets away: STEVE
2. Up until she gets hit: CARSON
3. Flower swipe: MIKE
4. His reaction to the flower: DAVE
5. Trys to get flower to other girl: JEREMY
6. Reaction to realization: JENNY
7. Happy Ending: RACHEL

I hope that makes sense. Remember that we are just doing thumbnails. Thanks!

Character Design for story team

2008-02-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

And here it is, guys.

Also, I submit this to the design team as the perfect look for the guy armadillo...

...Just kidding.

The rest of the boards

2008-02-13T18:07:00.001-08:00

Wednesday's Story Mixup somewhat done

2008-02-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

I spent the last 5 hours or so trying to reconcile the boards together, since I cut them up and pasted them on papers, I have to let them dry before I Scan them and put them up, But I'll have them up in an hour or so, posted under this post.

Never mind I can edit this post, so here they are,

Storyboarders email your scanned stuff to me

2008-02-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

My email is carsonmckay@gmail.com if you want to send me stuff

thanks

love carson

Ghetto Map for story boarding purposes

2008-02-06T12:49:00.001-08:00

here is the tenative map of our curent view.

Story Team Reminder

2008-02-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

Thanks for those thumbnail templates, Jeremy. Here's what we're doing with 'em (because having written reminders always helps me):

Board your two beats out in thumbnails for Monday, basically. Remember that
- we are trying to keep this simple and quick
- keep the horizon line around the bottom 1/3rd of the panel
- camera should feel like we're in the shot with the characters
- camera direction (hopefully Carson will post his road map soon)
- character moments; we should feel sympathetic for both the guy and the girl
- try to steer clear of predictability
- storyboard character design should be close to the Shane Lewis/Mike/Ra ch el designs, for consistency and clarity

The beats so far and who is working on them (feel free to correct if I don't have it quite right):
1) flower exchange [Steve, Jeremy]
2) accident (wind) puts flower in road [Steve, Jeremy, Carson]
3) girl 'dillo follows and dies [Carson, David]
4) she realizes she's a ghost; juggles flower [David, Mike]
5) guy 'dillo's grief [Mike, Morgan]
6) he sees and takes the flower to the other girl [Morgan, Jenny, Rachel]
7) girl 'dillo uses her limited windlike influence to keep the flower away from this other girl. [Jenny, Rachel]
----------
and that's all we're focusing on working out for now. Probably about 2/3 to 3/4 of the film. Let's get some good stuff done.

Also, for anyone who wants the animation notes from Dylan Brown's workshop yesterday, I'm posting it on my blog so it doesn't clutter the space for our film.

storyBoard ThumbNail Template

2008-02-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Rigging Presentation

2008-02-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

We met with Tim to go over rigging issues with the Armadillo. David Dunn video-recorded it all so you can ask him for the tape.

Here are the notes from the meeting:
* Really like Mike Mercer's design's nose. Better to not have it slanting up. Thought it was more feminine.
* When shoulder is moved back we want to make sure the shoulder stays rounded so it doesn't look like it is just skin. Make sure it never gets too convex.
* Adapt the stuff from skites for the dynamics of the joints (inertia associated with ears)
* Keep eyeballs as spherical as you can
* There will not be a lot of lower lid
* Model the lids closed so you can always get to a nice, tight lids-closed look
* Chris' design will have trouble with eye-brow mass. Make sure we can play with eye-brow mass.
* Make sure we get all the possibilities of emotion in the face as possible.
* Somehow the shell should be able to slide back around so you can get the arms back.
* Likes that Mike's design has some wiggle-room around the middle of the back.
* You have to know where to cheat, don't try and make it all correct.
* Likes long ears. Ears can be used for expression.
* Make the whole character one geometry mesh. Will help prevent intersections.
* Shell on back can be like shawl that is pulled up. Controls for making top of shell go up and down and bottom of shell. Controls for moving it back from sides so arms can go out.

Technical Comments

2008-02-04T19:41:00.000-08:00

Comments from Pixar:

* Don't get caught up in wanting to do something technical. How you do the Ghost spirit depends how you want to do it artistically
* Find something simple (like 2D effects and comping) to do the ghost. Guestau was too complicated.
* Make sure you can read expression in the ghost.
* Make sure it can be lit.
* Selective transparency might be a good idea.
* Blur behind in compositing
* Oasis in the desert with heat-wave effect could add to it. (using environmental elements to tie into characters).
* Design what the ghost looks like before you start doing it in 3D with the model.
* The environment is big and you can see forever. Make sure you use matte paintings.
* If you have 100,000 pieces of grass there is a Siggraph paper on how to do tons of grass.

Environment Comments

2008-02-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

* Pixar said when they thought of an Armadillo they thought of a dry environment, like in the desert and if it wasn't vegetated they wouldn't think twice about it.
* Have the character design drive the environment design.
* A lot more visual interest in Chris' first environment design.
* The other design was a little more desolate. (something from Coen brothers film)
* The design needs to depend on the story. If it is very Tex-avery then make it more cartoony.

Character Design Comments

2008-02-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

* They talked about issues they had with the muzzles on Rat, ie. Seeing the mouth when its talking. Seeing the upstage eye. We will only see a sliver on an eye. Their solution -> Brought the eyes up and closer together (more muppet-like). Lowered bridge of nose.
* With eyes on side you will be locked into one expression.
* Seeing only one eye and the mouth can be done if its done carefully.
* Shape of back of rat from back of head to tip of tail was important
* Tim liked using the shell as a garment (from geometric purple design) though he said that design would be very restrictive to gestures
* They didn't believe we should use physical things to force the audience to realize that the armadillo is feminine, ex. Fingers, color, eyelashes.
* Posture and performance can bring out the gender. Don't need eyelashes, fingernails, flowers.
* Tropical flower designs don't work for Texas.
* Make the protagonist regular Armadillo color but the light gives it a glint of purple. Don't need in-your-face purple.
* Round up fingers on Mike Mercer's design.
* Likes hands on Jake's design
* Cheek behind the eye can be effective. (Like Jake's design) but can be in front like a human if we want, but inbetween is bad.
* Going between 2 legs and 4 legs is hard. Get to a place where you're happy with just 2 legs or just 4 legs.
* Make informed decisions as to why we choose the design. Make rules as to why they would (like when they run on 4 legs.)
* When they roll into a ball cheat and make them intersect all over the place because the audience can't see the intersections anyway.

Story Comments

2008-02-04T19:27:00.000-08:00

Please post any errors or additional notes in comments.

* Tim spoke about the "rules" of the world a lot, for example the rule that if you go into the road you will die.
* They thought that it was a bit predicatable. Right when you saw them you knew one of them was going to get hit. I thought that he would figure it out. When the other girl popped up I thought that was a nice suprise.
* Her setting up the rube-goldberg was a bit predictable. They thought it was outside of the world that was set up.
* Rube-goldberg needs to be shortcutted.
* Really liked the killing of the flower.
* They gave an idea of a more manly armadillo getting killed and the protagonist decides to go after that guy.
* Need more shots to establish him getting sick of new girlfriend.
* Spend more time developing their relationship in the beginning.
* Do not foreshadow the road in the beginning
* They suggested we set up an expectation and the play off of that, for example: Look left, look right and an airplane hits her
* Really liked that we chose a simple story and sets, and are making it more character driven
* If you think that characters can't get hurt then there is no story. That is why Kryptonite exists. Incredibles had to have vulnerability.
* Play on the tragedy, play on the surprises.
* Needs to be consequences of dying on the road.
* Rube-goldberg is not as motivated. If she can why doesn't she just shove him into the road.
* One idea for the problem of not being able to touch that they had was if she can make herself come visible for just a flash.
* The rest of the story is about the consequences of her being a ghost. That is the central thing in the story.
* Maybe she can't touch anything. You can tell she is trying to kill him but she can't do it. When she figures out how to touch him that is when she realizes she doesn't want to kill him.

Character Design

2008-02-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

I spoke to Jake who informed me of the general direction we wanted to go with design. Jeremy and Dave gave me a lot of critiques and here's the 90% done version (I can't figure out the colors for the hands and feet and I'm going to bed).

Critiques are most welcome. If you see some of your design elements from previous designs (Abbey's head, Jeremy's flowers, etc) it's because I stole them.

carson's boards

2008-02-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

Here are mine, hope they are ok, should we try
any sort of shading, or keep it simple...?

More Storyboards

2008-02-03T20:12:00.001-08:00

Here are the boards for section 4 - acceptance. See you all in the morning!

--Mike South

Boards

2008-02-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

Feedback Please!!

2008-02-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, i need feedback on this. I was looking to color and paint something up before monday and this was the best i could come up with. Any ideas?

Storyboard Quick Designs

2008-02-02T10:58:00.001-08:00

Shane Lewis drew these up for me as a real quick simplification of Deliah for storyboarding purposes.

1200 x 640 is the size we are going to use. If you scan the pages at about 175 dpi it will be really close to that. So don't go any smaller then that.

Story Team Assignments

2008-01-30T14:24:00.001-08:00

Hey gang, here's the rundown, as promised:

Main beats and whose jamming to them:

1. Death - Carson
2. Realization - Jenny
3. Grieving Process - Steve
4. Moving On - Mike
5. Anger and Revenge - Jeremy
6. Redemption - Morgan
7. Saves Him - Dave
8. Dies Anyway - Rachel

Remember we need at least 4-6 solid boards each, and if you want to shade them before we meet again, remember that middle gray should be the darkest you go.

We also need to talk about what time to meet before Monday. It sounded like it would be Friday, so please, PLEASE everyone email me back ASAP with your preferences for a good meeting time so we can get on top of this. The only thing I have on Friday is class from 12:00-1:00, so other than that I'm good with anything. Thanks guys, and good luck!

How to Access CAEDM from your Home Computer

2008-01-30T12:13:00.001-08:00

1. Google and install FireFTP for Firefox.
2. In Firefox, go to Tools >> FireFTP. A new window should appear. Create an account and call it whatever you like. I call mine "CAEDM."
3. It asks you for a server. The server is ftp://et.byu.edu but I will check on this soon and update it. It also asks for your CAEDM username and password.
4. You should now be able to click "Connect" and access CAEDM.

Remember:

You can only download/upload stuff. You can't delete anything or move it around.
You can easily download a whole folder (of say, concept images).
The green arrows in the middle are your upload/download buttons.

Environment Update

2008-01-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

Chris had a sweet painting of a cartoony landscape. It is in the gladiator >> ghost >> environment >> favorites folder. He was inspired by Polkarella.
Big Al, Cameron, and MM organized all our photos/art into gladiator >> ghost >> folder. It should be easy to find from there. We put our favorite photos and artwork into a folder called FAVORITES which we will show to Pixar. Please add anything you want to to these folders.
An important development is that Brent told the group to not necessarily close off the idea of a more humid environment. What "more humid" means is up for debate.
The balance of cartoon and realism needs to be discussed more.

2008-01-29T12:55:00.000-08:00

Some people who weren't able to be in class on Monday have asked for a recap, so here it is:

We posted our new armadillo designs and again voted, but stuck with Chris's original design (posted somewhere below). We then put up our concepts and references for environments, and agreed that we wanted a hot, arid place, and reference for those should be in the groups folder soonly. Next, we split into story and design; story will meet with Kelly in the 2D lab and everyone else will meet with Brent in the 3D lab for Wednesday. Design is again split into character and environment, and there will also be people who will start to deal with future technical problems. I believe the assignments for Wednesday have already been previously posted below somewhere, and I think that's all we did. If you guys think of anything I missed or got wrong, please correct me or add to this post. Pixar will be here on Monday, so start crankin'!Thanks guys, and good luck everyone!

story points

2008-01-28T23:12:00.000-08:00

As I sat down to start doing some concept boards, I ran a complete blank. I then realized that it would be easier to do if I had a list of the basic story points. So I made one! Hooray! Dave (who was apparently having the same problem) suggested that I post these story points for the sake of those on the story team. So these are them, insofar as I can recall them. Hopefully it's helpful to get the gears turning, if you know what I mean; ya know, to prime the pump, so to speak; ya know, to get the engines churnin' and burnin'; to get the wheels in motion, if you catch my drift; to prick the proverbial donkey's bum; to spur the horse.

protagonist (hereafter referred to as "Ptag") falls in love with the boy
Ptag gets hit by car
Boy grieves for girl, then gets over it
Ptag tries to get boys attention, but to no avail
Ptag becomes extremely lonely
Boy starts hitting on the "other woman"
Ptag sees this, becomes really angry and jealous, and plots his death
in spite of hooking up with the other woman, the Boy still has feelings for the Ptag
Ptag sets her plot in motion or sets a trap for the boy, which will end with his death
while the boy is in the middle of falling for the Ptag's scheme or falling into her trap, She realizes that he still cares about her
she feels guilty for plotting his death and saves his life at the last second
She returns to her ironic existence and her lonliness
The boy suddenly gets killed by something else, and they are together

Anyhow, that is not all set in stone; those are just the events that TO ME seem to comprise the story as it currently stands.

Story Update

2008-01-28T15:55:00.001-08:00

Haha, very funny Mike. Anyway, as for the story side of things we are already starting to board, and are each going to have 5-8 panels by Wednesday, so if any of you guys have any ideas, please let us know! The story crew consists of: Morgan, Dave, Mike South, Steve, Carson, Jeremy, and Jenny.

Also, Mike Mercer is going to post how to access the groups folder from home on here, so that we can see what each other are doing as well as be able to look at the references and designs we've amassed from anywhere we want, not just the lab. Hope that will help move us along. Thanks!

VisDev Group Summary

2008-01-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hi all. Jenny the soon-to-be producer just asked me to post the summary of what happened in VisDev today.

It was decided that there will be a service station. Brent pretty much laid down the law on this and everyone (I think) was in agreement. The station should probably have structure elements that allow for perspective lines in low and high camera angles.

Our goal for Wednesday is to collect tons of reference from ANYTHING and compile that into the groups folder before class Wednesday. We will be deciding on lighting/color/style directions on Wednesday, at least that is my understanding. It was decided that in general we want bright, saturated colors with stylized shapes but with fairly realistic textures, such as in Pinatas, etc.

Our goal for Monday is to have as many nice concept pieces as we can for environments and characters. These pieces will be full-color like the Gladiator concept work.

Our Designs on Network

2008-01-27T21:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, all of our previous armadillo designs have been scanned and are in a folder called "Armadillo Designs" in the Ghost groups folder. I hope that is helpful, and good luck with your designs, everyone!

Armadillo Research

2008-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

So I was doing a little research on the armadillo and it turns out that only the three banded armadillo can roll into a ball. The three banded armadillo only lives in South America, especially in the Mato Grosso area of Brazil. You can read more about them here:

http://www.msu.edu/~nixonjos/armadillo/tolypeutes.html

Here are some pictures of the Mato Grosso area:

Narrowing it down . . .

2008-01-23T09:18:00.001-08:00

Here are the two images, don't forget that Kelly wants FOUR images from each of us by Monday and also THREE environment designs.

Some things to think about:
• Color
• How the mouth will move
• Age (she's a teenager)

Armadillo Videos

2008-01-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

These are all hosted on Google Video so they should be viewable on campus. The first one is the best one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2761761020407906353
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2051251175731165065
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6868655365473251015
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2883479303741839171
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2492168889586752305
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8550805869761021819

Ghost Character Bio 1/16/08

2008-01-16T09:32:00.000-08:00

Alright gang, here's the character's personality that we voted on in class:

Animal: Armadillo
Gender: Female

She is a teenager, around 17, who is not a complete nerd or outcast, but not exactly really cool either. Slightly off and awkward, insecure, and emotional (but not necessarily to extremes) but kind and caring. She is caught in a jaded love story, but is still the heroine, and has potential for great pathos and room for great character development.

Revision of Ghost Pitch 1/9/08

2008-01-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

This pitch is a combination of my favorite elements of Jenny's and Jeremy's stories. It's long but (hopefully) worth it. It's also purposely VERY specific, but as always, EVERYTHING is changeable. I decided to do a real post b/c it was too long for a comment.

//Backstory: (this is so you can picture the character and environment)

In 1915 Redrock Plateau, a retired mining and oil-drilling town, was made part of the Dry Dirt National Park. The people moved away from the town because their property was purchased by the government and it was now illegal to stay. The last to leave was Quentin Gruber (groober), the biggest procrastinator in the town. He was never getting his work done on time. Not only this, but he was a pack rat and had way too much stuff to move. Finally when he was ready to leave he was two weeks too late. As he was taking his last look at the town, a rusty oil pump broke and killed him, smashing him flat except for his hat which floated to safety. The government authorities came and did a search, but never found his body, only his hat, and so they declared him a missing person and marked the town as abandoned.

But Quentin's ghost never left because his body was still there and had never been buried.

Quentin became very lonely. For forty years he saw no one. The only thing he had for company was the lizards. But in 1955 the government came and paved the road that ran through town and a female park ranger started driving by once a day. He thought of the Park Ranger as his girl friend, although he knew they could never be together. He soon found a way to develop their relationship, however, because he discovered he could possess a lizard and throw items into the road that she would then smash into "ghost items" (if he placed them just right in the road) that he could then collect, just like he used to collect items in real life. It gave him a purpose to life and comforted him. He hoarded these ghost items into an abandoned barn that was his home now. Each day he littered the road with leftover items from the town and the park ranger would smash a few that he could add to his collection. Little did he realize that his life would soon change forever, because today he would make a big mistake.

//Title: Big Mistake
//Subtitle: His biggest mistake will haunt him forever.
//The setting is the town of Redrock Plateau, located at the top of the plateau. You can see forever from up there. The now-paved road goes straight through the center of town.
//3 characters 1 setting

A nondescript fly (sphere with wings) buzzes through the town. Past the creaking windmill, past the saloon doors that knock in the wind, past the empty corral littered with cow bones. It lands in the middle of town on a rock on the road. Then: Slurp! A lizard eats the fly. But the lizard is being stalked, too...by Quentin!

Quentin jumps into the lizard and squeezes his fat body inside the small creature until he's possessed it, then speeds inside a nearby building, returning with a pocketwatch that he throws into the road. Then he gets a small wooden child's toy. Then a fork whose prongs are bent. Then an old-fashioned, rusty top (the kind that cranks). All these things and more he puts in the road randomly, but purposely, as if he's trying to make some kind of abstract modern artwork on the road. Finally he depossesses the lizard (who walks away like he's drunk and passes out) and waits eagerly in ghost form...but for what?

Enter Park Ranger in her original series Hummer. She smashes the first stuff which *poofs* into ghost items. Quentin checks them out and his happy and flies them into the barn. Park Ranger drives more through town hitting more stuff until the last thing she hits is the fork in the road and *pop* her tire goes out and her car goes out of control! Quentin must then save her because she's headed for a cliff! He possesses her, cranks the wheel, but makes things worse! Oh no! The centrifugal force pulls on Quentin and he starts to get pulled out of the Ranger and, in the stress of the situation, he begins to flicker into reality and they have a wonderful, intimate moment as their eyes meet for the first time, she checks him out, he checks her out, there's lightning between them.

And then Quentin gets pulled out of her and she goes off the cliff and her car blows up. We see Quentin's reactions from the explosions (but not the explosions themselves). He's mortified. His only friend in the whole world he just killed!

But as he walks away, her ghost floats up from behind the cliff and waves. Hi handsome! They both light up in a big smile and the short ends.

Story Notes From Class

2008-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Alright gang: Mike M. asked me to post all the notes I took while we pitched our new versions of the ghost story so that we can have more to work with. My notes were kind of cryptic, so hopefully they will make sense and jog your memories a little bit, and if they are a little of, let me know! Thanks! This will be a freakin' long post, so bear with me...

CARSON:
- Ireland
- young ghost woman
- man driving with picture of that woman
- they both miss each other
- he sees ghost and then crashes and dies
- finally together again

BRIAN:
- Nasty Mike and Frank are bank robbers
- Mike kills Frank as they bury their goods and then runs off
- Frank's ghost has to guard cursed gold forever - he's ticked, so he's going to give it to the first he meets
- 100 yrs. later someone comes by and Frank leads them into the cave with the goods
- the cave collapses and they both dies

CHRIS:
- dry, hot desert
- old cow skull shot
- loud pop, silence, pop, silence (3x)
- little cowgirl ghost shooting at skull with ghost cork gun
- cork hits her and she falls over the skull
- she's the only one there and is lonely, so she decides to go look for friends
- tries to flag down car, but accidentally possesses the driver
- sees bunny, hits breaks, and is flung into bunny
- then gets knocked into tumbleweed, then into a roadrunner
- hits tree, flung out of roadrunner, tree falls over and demolishes tombstone in an animal graveyard
- ghost dog comes out and they start to play fetch with his bones

NICK:
- old ghost town, camera shows its solitude, focuses on tumbleweed
- it tumbles across an old man's feet who is a ghost sheriff
- he's very lonely, and then his eyes lock on the cemetery, where he sees his own gravestone and realizes that he's dead
- he tries to stop a car, but it doesn't work
- pushes boulder to hit car, but it misses
- tries to hit car with falling tree, also misses, makes him angry
- sits by roadside and tosses rock up and down
- car sees this and crash because they are watching it
- new ghosts step out of wreckage and sheriff rushes over to new friends
- heaven sucks them up instead

JEREMY:
- daybreak over town on the edge of a cliff
- church with only one tombstone, and its ghost comes out and mopes
- car comes down the road with a female park ranger who is HOT
- drives right through him and then a lizard walks by
- ghost concentrates so hard that the lizard can see him, then possesses lizard
- goes into saloon, plays piano and drinks rootbeer, then leaves lizard
- a couple of days pass and he is still very lonely and sad, sees a small flower that has bloomed
- hot park ranger passes again
- ghost concentrates so that she sees him and then freaks out and spins out of control
- ghost possesses her to save her, but is yanked out
- their eyes meet while the car spins out of control = LOVE!
- car goes off cliff and she dies, but now they're together forever!

STEVE:
- show sheer boredom, pretty silent
- old guy shootin' guns
- tries to stop a car
- an van full of old people rambles along going to party in Reno
- ghost gets into van and tries to get their attention
- doesn't work, so he possesses driver and crashes so everybody dies
- new ghosts are ticked so they keep on partying, but the first ghost is not invited

DAVID:
- a guy's car either breaks down or he's a photographer
- ghost cannot get his attention
- guy finally tries to leave, but ghost possesses him and kills him

JAKE:
- ghost is a total jerk and thinks it's funny to haunt people
- everyone is annoyed so they leave town, so now he's very lonely

ALAN:
- western feel
- message: You can't get anything unless you go for it.
- nice, kind, and considerate ghost
- can move objects, but not people
- makes people crash into town and the town blows up, now no more town to haunt

MIKE SOUTH:
- dry gulch and rickety bridge over it with an old crashed wagon down at the bottom
- the ghost who died in that crash is also chillin' down there
- there is a sign: Lonely Gulch, population 0, so the ghost wanders back to town and goes into the saloon
- sign of dancing girl, tries to flirt with it, but it's no use
- sees a mirror, and then we see his memories of life inside the mirror
- his reflection interacts with his memories, but then they fade
- car comes by and he tries to communicate with it
- he possesses driver, and they both fight over possession of the body
- car flies off cliff into the gulch, now they are both ghosts

KEVIN:
- ghost possesses players at a golf range
- a statue of ghost when he was alive - he was a great golfer in life
- he possesses golfer to make the perfect swing
- ghost possesses another golfer who is set to win the tournament but always makes him miss at the end
- living golfer buys ghost repellent on ebay and wins tournament
- pulls down statue of ghost golfer, but it falls on him and kills him, so now they are both ghosts

RACHEL:
- dusk, little lonely ghost kid
- empty checker table shows loneliness
- tries to scare things, but it doesn't work, so it floats away and finds a highway and sees headlights
- cars fly past, but it can't scare them
- cut inside one car, where the ghost finally scares the driver
- driver freaks out and crashes - oops!
- child ghost is really guilty and sad, but the now ghost driver takes pity on it and forgives him
- become friends, hold hands and walk off

ABBEY:
- Ireland, dead quiet, run-down old inn
- sign for inn, with lanky Irish ghost chillin' underneath it
- sees headlights in the distance, but they can't see him
- tries to kick pebble, but it doesn't work
- another car comes and he doesn't see it, accidentally possesses driver
- steering wheel comes off and kills everyone in the car
- ghost innkeeper now has friends to stay in his inn

MIKE MERCER:
Character ideas:
- character is an outcast ghost (maybe a lizard?) who is fat and has never been the hero of anything
- likes food and tries to get food
Story idea:
- speed demon driver who sees a sharp curve too late and takes out curve sign
- car flies off cliff and dies
- doors at bottom leading to heaven, but they don't open
- tries to fix sign before moving on
- possesses a woman to go down into ravine to get the sign, bring it back, and fix it
- saves everyone, so now doors open and he moves on

ROGAN:
- Irish setting, counting is heard
- enter ghost who is so bored and lonely that he's counting blades of grass, bricks, whatever
- cut to cart coming down road driven by a man who is really worried about the precious cargo he is carrying in the back of his cart
- ghost wants to make friends and tries to say hello, but scares horse, which bolts
- cart tumbles, but the precious cargo is safe, but the driver dies
- precious cargo slips through ghost driver's fingers and breaks

CAMERON:
- Scottish tavern complete with a creaking sign and a very depressed ghost
- sign triggers flashback to ghost's former life
- strange noise (car) brings him back to the present
- car comes and the ghost thinks he recognizes the driver
- tavern owner (ghost) appears in car and scares the driver, who starts screaming
- ghost in turn freaks out and starts screaming
- both are screaming
- cut to a peaceful cliff overlooking the ocean, but then the car is seen flying over said cliff
- next cut is back to the tavern with the guilty owner and the annoyed driver, both ghosts
- ghost driver throws contents of beer glass into owners face

WHEW! Hope that helps. Good luck everyone!

Latest Ghost Pitch

2008-01-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest pitch for our Ghost story as of 1/9/08:

GHOST STORY PITCH

Acorn in the middle of the road. A squirrel sees it and runs out to grab it. A car zooms through, and when it passes, the squirrel is still standing there, but in ghost form. He tries to grab the nut, but can't. As he struggles, another car zooms past and smashes the acorn. Now he has a ghost acorn and is happy.

He gets excited and starts throwing other random objects into the road, making a bunch of ghost objects. Time passes and this game starts to bore him. Other creatures go by and he tries to interact, but they can't see him. He now has all of these possessions but no friends, so he tries to build a friend out of his objects, but it doesn't work.

He has a girlfriend and goes in search of her. He discovers another male squirrel flirting with her and gets really jealous. He decides to get her killed somehow so that he can have her forever and the other squirrel can't get to her. He is watching all this from the other side of the road when he sees her reject the other squirrel and turn away. He sees this and now feels really bad about thinking about killing her.

As she crosses the road, he sees a car coming directly for her and now has a dilemma. Should he let the car hit her and let her die, or should she try to save her? He panics as the car gets closer and closer, and then finally he jumps into the car and possesses the driver to swerve and miss her, saving her life. She keeps going, and he sadly watches her scamper away. As he turns to go, another car zooms by in the other lane where she was crossing, and he turns to find her ghost now standing there after the car passes. Now they can be together! Hooray!

THE END

4 cents

2007-12-12T16:28:00.000-08:00

One more idea that I think will drive a lot of your posts away from plot and into character. I think there's too much dialog about plot, but I'm a strong believer in that if you have nailed down a solid, likable character, then the plot will unfold itself naturally. So it would really benefit you guys if you start talking about the main character in each of these stories. What's the ghost's personality like? the bear? and the others in the other two stories? Character association helps sometimes too. (Bear is like Marlin Brando in Godfather) It's the Homer Simpson Theory: you take Homer, put him in any situation and you've got an instant entertaining story. Why? Because Homer is such a solid character. The audience is more entertained with Homer, than they are with the plot. Characters should really drive story, not the other way around.

3 Cents....

2007-12-12T06:25:00.001-08:00

Hey just an FYI for all of you, my wife is a quarter Native American with her mom being half Native American. We attend the valleys Native American ward, which consists of probably more that 200 people from over 30 different tribes. My wife is very active in the culture and actually dances the hoop dance competitvly. I told her about the story and also to a group of about 30 or so other individuals from my ward that were all Native and they were ecstatic about the idea. This one was their favorite without question. I think it would be exciting to build a story around such a respected and spiritual culture.

-Chris

2 cents

2007-12-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

First of all, it looks like you guys have narrowed it down to two films. Bear or Ghost Town. Two very funny concepts. I don't usually add in my advice too rapidly but there's a few arguments here that I have to speak about. First of all, I'm not convinced that any of you really need to worry about Ghost Town being about death and dying. That's not the story. The story is about a lonely person, who finds friendship through very unpredictable means. Remember what Frank Thomas said about the importance of pathos in comedy? Feeling sorry for the ghost makes the ending so much richer. Furthermore, death does not need to be associated with horror (don't we believe in an after life anyway?) since this Ghost is just as much alive in persona than the people who die. Were you offended by Casper? He was dead! Of course you weren't, because he was very much alive and so were the other characters when they became ghosts. It worries me a bit when many of you have this concern, because this kind of hypersensitivity is what waters down good stories. The person who dies doesn't have to be dark either, he can actually find happiness and friendship as a result of their death. Then the two are happy together. For those of you who didn't like the death in Ghost Town, yet liked Bear better...what about the mawled hunter, a dead dear in the back of the truck, and the pieces of hunting clothes? Now that's really about a dark death!

Bear is a funny idea. This one however, is going to take some serious creative thinking to take it out of it's predictable ending. We've seen so many of these "animals taking on human qualities and tasks" in the past onslaught of 3-d animated animal films, that I don't think it's all that original anymore, unless the character is fully developed in personality which you really don't have time for in a short film. It's a big gag with the hopeful payoff of a laugh, and if you don't get that laugh, then the story is empty. (which is the situation with Noggin). This idea can still potentially work, but it's going to take some creative minds to do it.

So there's my two cents. Take it for what it is worth to you. Since I am not a voter, you can even chose to totally ignore if you wish. You're a talented group, so no matter what you guys decide, I'd be happy to help out and make it the best film possible.

Ideas in general

2007-12-11T18:27:00.001-08:00

Let's keep the blog clean, you guys, (meaning let's not create a ton of new posts) let's just comment on the four stories that we have here, and if you have any other comments (like about what we want to do in general), post them here.

Here are a few ideas from the meeting today:

Jenny: The group doing Kites is suited to do Kites. Let’s do a story that is suited for us. "Birds” and “Boundin” were funny and still got a point across. Let’s be true to ourselves and do something that WE want to do, and let our personalities show through the movie we want to make.

Rogan: Keep it SHORT because people ARE going to leave early to internships, etc.

Here are the votes from today:

Ghost Town: +6 -3
Wolves: +3 -7
Mime: +4 -6
Carson's Bear: +5 -2

Bear Truck

2007-12-11T18:18:00.001-08:00

Pros – Has potential to be fun and clever
Most entertaining of all the pitches
Great acting potential from the bear
Different from other animated shorts
Potential for artistic, dynamic

Cons – Could be more funny as real live action stuff, when we see a cartoon bear, we expect him to act cartoon…ish
Cliché?

Mime

2007-12-11T18:17:00.002-08:00

Pros – Lots of potential for story, animation, environment
Fun message, can be short, emotion, acting
Irony is freaking hilarious in this story
Potential for change of emotion (animation)
No dialogue (sweet)
Strongest character, someone you could root for

Cons – Why animation? Could be done in SNL or something.
Lots of animation, but not enough stuff for shaders/lighters, lacking certain elements that would appeal to everyone’s interests
Cliché, we’ve all seen mimes
Crowd control: people going to be too repetitive?

Wolves

2007-12-11T18:17:00.001-08:00

Pros – Good theme, touching, brevity while still getting concept across, good character possibilities
Could be beautiful artistically, style
Emotion to convey through not only human characters, but wolves as well
Chance to show respect for Native American culture, gives us opportunity to “break away” from traditional story

Cons – Seminary video, preachy?
Doesn’t have a story right now
Technically challenging
Lots of research since we’re covering Native American culture

Ghost Town

2007-12-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

Pros – Possible depth, comedy, possibilities for good artistic . . . stuff
Special effects (ghost?) Fun story
Most possibility for scalability, visual style
Emotions expressed through animation, can be detailed or simplified easily
Simple themes/animation will allow us to put more into it
Fun car crash scene?
Strongest emotional center/appeal
Character based
“less is more”
Doesn’t have to be cliché ghost town, haunted castle in Europe?

Cons – Killing people to get more friends? Possession?
Unbalanced story: loneliness then death then more friends?