Any ideas for shortmovie without character animation

[mackdadd]

i once did a challenge that was along these lines. me and some friends decided to test our story telling skills, so, we decided to do animations using only primitives in our 3d programs. we weren't allowed to bend, squish, stretch, or deform our primitive characters in anyway at all. that way, it was entirely up to the animation by itself to create the characters personalities and tell the story. it was great!

as for ideas, well, try to think along those lines. just a situation. my short was about a sphere stuck in "traffic" (other spheres). all the spheres were the same size. then a little guy comes swerving through everybody and gets ahead of the main sphere. the main sphere gets furious and starts smashing all the other ones and wrecking through them wildly to chase after the little one. he ends up launched into the sky, landing in a river, sucked into a drain pipe, and bursting out of a sewer before finally catching up to the little one, who was oblivious the whole time. just as he catches up - the little guy is beamed onto a spaceship and taken away, leaving the main sphere unable to have his confrontation.

all that came out fo the idea of just being stuck in traffic. when the sphere got mad, and gave him a slowly increasing vibration. when his heart sank as the little guy flew away in the spaceship, i just had him slowly moving down. it was all amazingly effective.

i know i didn't offer up any ideas, but hopefully something in my little experience may kick something off for you. :)

[Creature]

That really sounds like a cool animation. Thank you very much, it got me thinking.

[pollywoggles]

Maybe do something in homage to Oskar Fischinger's work -- or even something along the lines of Disney's Fantasia.

[directorjoshharris]

Well, to expound on that idea, I used to play with Hot Wheels when I was younger, maybe you can do something like the "stuck in traffic" idea, but do it with Hot Wheels in a kids bedroom or something. That way the shoot is confined to one room, so you won't have to rent out an airport or something ;) You could have a lot of fun with it, maybe even use the tracks that Hot Wheels move on. Remember those?

I picture this... the title comes up (Hot Wheels) then fades out and into a young boys face, smiling precociously. We turn around and see a gigantic Hot Wheels race track set up in his room, complete with jumps, loops, and even a couple fire hazards or something (Bunson burners). You could have the boy put on a racing helmet, then cut to him in the Hot Wheels car on the racetrack (in his imagination of course). If you want you could have another boy pull up next to him in a Hot Wheel car and "rev" the engine. Before we know it, the new kid screeches off down the track and the other kid follows. You could all sorts of rad sound effects and stuff to make it sound like Days of Thunder or something like that. They peel around the first bend and go down an insanely steep ramp, which then connects to a large loopety-loop. The cars shoot out of the loop neck and neck and through a series of boulders (marbles set up as hazards), which they both skillfully avoid. Maybe they bump each other competitively which causes them both to spin out. They both shake their fists at eachother, but then out of the blue smoke, another car zips by, and the young girl driver smirks as she looks into her rearview mirror. The two boys look at each other then speed after her. They come up to another steep hill that leads off the bed and speed down it. The girl reaches the bottom which abruptly curves up into the air, and she launches off of it, over the fire hazard, and lands onto the track across the way. The two boys follow, but the newer boy crash lands in a shoe, while the original boy lands onto the track, barely. The girl is weaving around extreme turns and picks up more speed. The boy is gaining on her though. She arrives at a corkscrew and speeds through it with insane speed, while the boy is right behind her. They both arrive at the final stretch of the track, but all of a sudden, the boy who crashed into the shoe pulls out in front of them. He arrives across the finish line right before the other two. The original boy "Hey you cheated!" new boy "No, I just took a shortcut!" original boy "I didn't make a shortcut!" the girl "I say we have a do-over." They all stop and look at each other and smile. Cut to black. Role credits.

Anyways, I would watch that. Maybe something in there inspired you, I was totally riffing on the idea, so go for it.

Josh Harris

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