Collaborative CGSociety short film?!

#65

Crowd surfing - Accept him? I don’t see that at all. They are running from him and he uses them to achieve his goal. They are unwilling participants in his success, not helping. I like this because after he realizes that he’s not accepted among the others, he “uses” them to get away. It’s a vindictive and selfish act which works with the character well. He’s not interested in being one of them anymore … only escaping to another place where he “thinks” he’ll be accepted.

Props - Eh, no. The idea is to simplify the whole experience of the orange cube’s life. There are no other elements in the room other than characters and environment because it’s an analogy to the experience. Adding little bits of extra things just complicates the point of the story. In case you missed the title … “A simple truth about life”

How long has he been there? - Again, it’s irrelevant to the story. He’s one oddball existing in a world of clones. That’s all you need to know. There’s no back story about how he got there, what his favorite music or films are. He doesn’t have hobbies or other interests. K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Silly! I can’t stress this enough.

2D artists needed - Exactly what Pascal said. There is plenty that can be done to make the animatic break these boards into a more refined shot breakdown and timing aid. In betweens for scenes can be done. Mood paintings can be done. Textures can be created. There’s plenty to do while the 3D guys/gals start creating the characters, rigging for squash and stretch and making a few test animations of the character’s movements.

Revisions - As I said, revisions are welcome. However, I’d like it if you kept to the original intent of the film. If it deviates away from the message, what’s the point of making it? There are a few shots that could be changed due to camera angles or actions not conveying the mood properly. Some of the humor bits could be fixed if someone has a funnier idea. Etc. But don’t go changing my story, please.

I don’t want to be an ass … but a happy ending, props or character identity changes are definately not a part of this short.

#66

did you read my comments kirt?

would you go with it or do you think they change your first intention? especially the thing about grey cubes walking away… too much diestractive from the plot…
but im being picky here :wink:

#67

I think that a better front for the Writers/2D folks to start on is to start the next project… while the 3D and post folk use Kirt’s great story to tighten up the procedure. The Production and Post collaboration across timezones/platforms/applications/styles can be much more technically taxing than the collaboration of the pre-production team.

If the Production and Post people have a run at this script/premise while the Pre Production people go nuts developing the next story and concept, then the second one will gain the benefit of a longer pre-production period to refine the project, and the Prod/Post people will have a full collaboration under there belts to base the second one on.

Just a thought.

#68

EDIT: posted while Kirt was replying above.

It’s a great little story but I agree that there are questions about the beginning.

The cubes seem to be in an enclosed room, so where did the orange cube come from and how long has it been there?

-If the room isn’t enclosed, why does the cube choose to take the difficult route through the circular opening rather than just walk off?

-If it has been there a long time, why have the others only just started to react to it?

I think the idea of coming through another chute is a good one but would probably go more for the orange box arriving through a square-shaped (and possibly differently coloured) hole in another one of the walls (you could perhaps have each wall with a different shaped and coloured hole to reinforce the idea of difference).

I don’t see the orange box as crowd surfing but rather jumping from box to box to gain height and momentum to make it through the hole, which works for me.

Eventually they get bored and just slump off to doing whatever they were doing before Orange made his appearance in their world.

Another idea could be that in his jumping on the grey boxes, the orange box flattened one of them so it is now a different height compared to the others and while orange squeezes through the hole the big grey boxes turn their attention to the small grey box. Maybe this wouldn’t be too good for the flow though?

#69

pascal - I think it could go either way really. But I like the end result that I scripted. If the gray cubes stand and stare at the opening for a bit and then cut to the next scene, then you get the impression that the grays miss having the orange there to ridicule. I had this in mind when I was doing the boards but decided that the grays really have no interest in the orange cube, so it would make more sense that they shuffle back to what they were doing before.

If you think of it in context to a persons real life, the “clicks” or “groups” of people that you may want to be a part of really wouldn’t care what happens to you if you fail to join and move on to something else. That’s the point I was trying to convey there.

This orange cube does not fit in. Will never fit in and his only satisfaction is finding someplace where he does … or so he thinks. In the context of the message of the film, he probably would have been happier just being who he is and making the best of what life dealt him. Instead, he’s chosen the easy (maybe a little difficult in this situation) escape to something that ends up being no different than what he left.

Ordibble - Read my previous post. Backstory isn’t important.

#70

I’m with JDex here. Honestly, there isn’t much to be done with this. A small group of 5 or so people can put this together in a pretty short period of time. There appear to be quite a few people interested in this, but this particular project leaves a lot of them out. Maybe forming a second group to start on the next project from a story standpoint is the way to go.

#71

I agree, there’s no need for a large support team on this one. If you’d like to work on another project from the beginning go right ahead. I think we’ll have to eventually split this thread or start new ones for different projects. I would suggest naming conventions for your threads which are currently being used in the main collab forum.

Project Title: task

Simple Truth: modelling
Simple Truth: pre-vis
Simple Truth: animation: scene (number)

Etc.

#72

Hi all,

FYI - I’m assigning Kirt Stanke as the leader/director for this collab short film. If you want to liaise with him, PM him.

As for people setting up more groups – can we please get one done first, prove that we can do it, then think about future short films? It’s very easy to start stuff, but kind of sucks they never get completed. Even with the numbers of Forum Leaders that we had (way more than 5) we never completed this short film because everyone got too busy and then the novelty fizzled out.

Thanks,

Leonard

#73

I’m game, I use 3dsmax, and I’m a modeller.

#74

I can do anything in 3d, lighting, camera work, and I have 2*244 for rendering if anyone wants, I’d really like to be involved…

edit: I use lw…

#75

I’m definitely in!

I pretty much like the story, it has style. :thumbsup: I can help modeling, texturing and doing some animation if needed.

PS: maya is my 3d tool

cheers

#76

Someone PM’d me and asked me to contribute to this thread. I don’t know if the kind of contribution I could give is compatible with the nature of this project. However, I’ll share a personal thought here as a point of reference.

As some of you know, I had a short film going, one that was widely publicized (Promise). It didn’t go anywhere because it was never meant to be modest and simple–it was always meant to be epic and cinematic in quality. That was the reason it never happened, because it’s impossible to do something of that quality with online volunteeers, and to do it in a production studio, the film would need about $500,000 USD to get completed (if the studio works on it fulltime and not take on side-projects to keep itself funded and operational. That was our estimate when I was a director at Optidigit).

Of course, you will ask, “Why not just do something simple and short first?” Well, because I have no interest in something simple and short. I’ve seen countless simple and short 3D animations made by others, and although I like them, they are not what I’m interested in as a director. Promise is a film that’s meant to be emotionally shattering, yet gives you a sense of hope–that bittersweet feeling we rarely get to feel in today’s climate of entertainment. It’s a highly personal film–a reflection of my internal melancholy, dire need for redemption, my emotional sanctuary, and eternal hope for salvation. I did not write the story to showcase 3D animation. I don’t believe in writing a story to showcase some technical effort. If you want to tell a story, then the story is your God and the soul of your project–everything else serves the story, with no exceptions allowed. If you deviate away from that, then you gotta ask yourself why you were doing the film in the first place.

I had hoped that the film could be completed in about a year or so at Optidigit (doing it without a studio will be nearly impossible. Every single person’s that’s seen the screenplay, storyboards, and concept designs agreed on that), and particularly with Steven Stahlberg as co-owner of Optidigit, I had high hopes. The plan was to then submit the film to different festivals, and ideally, having it win some relevant awards, which would hopefully lead to the birth of a new CG studio that will produce its own animated features. But since the funding for Promise fell through, the project is now on hold indefinitely.

I don’t know if I really have point in this post. I think I’m just trying to say that people get involved in short film productions for different reasons. Some do it to learn and gain experience, some do it for fun, some do it for reputation, and some do it as a career stepping stone. For me, I’m only interested in telling stories that are emotionally relevant to me. If the end result can lead to funding for a feature film, all the better. Essentially, I have no interest in CG production work. I’ve done it for a living before, and I don’t enjoy it because it’s really just grunt work with no emotional and creative reward. I’m by heart and nature a storyteller and director–that’s what I’m best at. I’m not even a very good artist, and it’s kinda sad that people only know me and think of me as an artist. I’m actually a much better storyteller/director than artist. No one will ever get to find that out though–not until Promise gets funding and gets completed. It might never happen. I can’t predict the future.

Anyway, I wish you guys luck on the project.
#77

Why not making Promise here in cgtalk? :shrug:

I don’t know how difficult it is, but there are a lot of people interested in contributing in cool projects. You can go to the corresponding forum in cgtalk (not CGS related) and you can find one project “Minas Tirith” where they’re modelling and texturing all the city of LOTR from a top drawing and some screenshots of the movie ( :eek: ). Another one making a short of “Ferrari VS mercedes” where there are some people contributing too…And here in CGSociety they’re planning to make a short film*.

  • A short film that it’s really well planned, and it’s emotive. But it leaves modellers and texturers apart, and the cinematic doesn’t go further than where a school final individual project would go. We’re professionals, we can make something better, more impressive, not only story telling. Modelers/texturers like complex stuff, stuff to show their abilities.

Anyways if the “simple life” short can be used as a “beggining” to prove how well organizated we’re, then it’s a great idea.

Let’s contribute!

#78

Because we don’t really have top-notch animators here at cgtalk who has freetime. The ones who are at that level are always busy working for Weta, ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks…etc, and they do not have time to do volunteer projects (and some of them have contracts with their employer that forbids them to do so). Promise needs absolutely the best animtors on the planet to pull it off. It relies heavily on body language and facial expressions to express extremely complex emotions, with many layers of subtlety. If we do motion-capture it would also cost a lot of money.

I’m not interested in making a mediocre, or even a good short film. I’m only interested in making a masterpiece that’s high quality enough to be a strong contender for the Academy Awards’ Animated Short Film category.

#79

yeah I was supposing that…silly question by the way :wink:

I wish you good luck with that Lunatique :thumbsup:

My dream is also making a top notch short film, although that’s quickly said…

#80

If I have the time I will definatelly would like to contribute, I’m a maya Modeler/texturer/shader but I have been doing Animation and fx as well… so bring it on!

#81

I like Kirts story, and I like it more because it´s simple.

I will see how much work I have, and if I can I will be happy to help (I got quite excited yesterday and said I would help even before knowing how much work I will have for the next months Hahha CGS is great! :scream:)

Im also with Leonard when he says not to start another project before finishing this one, as I think this one will show how well (or badly) we can all work together.

Anyway independent of me woking in this project or not, I will surely follow it closely.

:smiley:

#82

I like Kirt’s idea quite a bit, and as I indicated in the other thread, I’m game for lighting or post work.

I find the minimalist art direction very appealing from both aesthetic and practical points of view. I think it’s the ideal first project if this type of collaborative effort is going to become a constant – simply because it’s achievable under a fairly short timeline, and we can worry about mood, pacing and acting without having to delve too deep into ultra-technical realms like getting good human skin, hair, cloth – stuff that would tie up a project until the end of time in an R&D stage.

I’m not sure if it was in this thread or the other, but I’m inclined to agree with the people who were talking about the need for modeling/animation/lighting leads, simply for quality control and consistency purposes. It also helps divide up the responsibilities in the production, and also has a side benefit in that the director and the leads will be the ones responsible for adhering to the vision of the project and directing their team instead of everyone getting their $.02 in and ultimately descending into chaos (in my experience, long distance collaborative projects usually do unless they have strong leadership enforcing the creative decisions of the director).

#83

EDIT::banghead: Doh wrong board Sorry

#84

Methinks therein lies the story basis! What happens to said fly once it has been swallowed? A take on The Fantastic Voyage perhaps?