IP Incubator Club Thread 2013: Week-001: April 15-21- 2013

#1

Rob Note:
What the hell…

THE IP INCUBATOR CLUB.

in·cu·bate

/ˈɪnkyəˌbeɪt, ˈɪŋ-/ Show Spelled [in-kyuh-beyt, ing-] Show IPA verb, in·cu·bat·ed, in·cu·bat·ing.verb (used with object)

  1. to sit upon (eggs) for the purpose of hatching.
  2. to hatch (eggs), as by sitting upon them or by artificial heat.
  3. to maintain at a favorable temperature and in other conditions promoting development, as cultures of bacteria or prematurely born infants.
    4. to develop or produce as if by hatching; give form to: His brain was incubating schemes for raising money.

Welcome to the Inaugural thread of the IP Incubator Club
The idea behind this Club is simple

POST WEEKLY UPDATES of Original IP that you are developing. Hopefully IP that can eventually help the creator generate some income.
Also you should provide CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK to the work posted by other posters of the club.

The idea of this “Incubator Club” is to get away from the gloom and doom and provide a lifeline of support for our fellow artists.

The artists will have at their discretion how much they wish to share on the projects they are working on, what program they will be using and the medium . But the IP HAS BE AN ORIGINAL CREATION.

YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO POST AND UPDATE…

There are 3 ways to participate:
[ul]
[li]IP CREATOR[/li]
Post weekly updates of ip you are developing.

Some Examples:
[list]
[li]A 3d artist developing a line of Vinyl toys on ZBrush[/li][li]A game developing working on a mobile game that uses Geo spatial data.[/li][li]A group of animators animator working on a weekly web series[/li][/ul]
[li]IP REVIEWERProvide reviews and comments of the IP being developed[/li]

I am looking for people like Roger Eberts of the world and not the Simon Cowels.
DIVAS will NOT BE TOLERATED.

IP MENTORSHIP
An experienced artist/ develop can offer mentorship for the IP creators.
Some examples:
[ul]
[li]An AAA game developer looking to help upcoming talent[/li][li]Experienced feature animators could review game animations.[/li][li]Writers can comment on story points[/li][/ul]
[/list]ANYONE CAN JOIN.

The Concept:___________________________
Ok so lets recap:
[color=white]The idea behind this IP incubator club is to provide a cool hangout place for IP creators. [/color]recap…
Weekly threads will be posted, to provide encouragement for developer to keep working on their idea.

On way to see this is to think of us as a spotter on your local gym.
You use your WIP thread to post your regular updates, But ONCE A WEEK you post on the IP INC thread a summary, based on the forsmat posted blow.

GENERAL RULES:
[ul]
[li]FOR GEN DISCUSSION of the IP CLUB CLICK HERE: Your Own IP?[/li][li]WEEKLY WIP are encouraged[/li][li]On your weekly post please Fill the following information (you can cut and paste it:)[/li][/ul]

CONCEPT NAME:

STILL IMAGE: (VOLUNTARY)
CATEGORY:

Art
Animation
Comics
Design
Fashion (3D Printing)
Film
Games
[i][b]Merchandizing
[i][b]Publishing
Technology
Toys
Web Comics
Video

[/b][/i][/b][/i]
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
STATUS NUMBER: 1
TEAM MEMBERS:(Voluntary)
START DATE
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : (Voluntary) -
WIP THREAD:
WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:
WHAT WENT WRONG:
SHOW AND TELL:

[ul]
[li]WIP thread should be posted on the appropriate CGSociety/Game Art Sub forum and should follow the following naming convention: IP Incubator!:xxxxx:[/li][li]Only participants who follow the rules and submit a weekly Entry entry will be eligible for a monthly spotlight ( A frontpage plug).[/li][li]Any piece caught breaking the rules will be taken off the thread.[/li][li]When you are done creating your IP please do give at least a thank you to the IP. We need the press.[/li][/ul]RESOURCES:

ART LAW RESOURCES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[SPOILER]
What is a Trademark?
http://www.uspto.gov/faq/trademarks.jsp
What is a Copyright?
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

US
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

INT
http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en

Notable Laws:
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
Copyright Act of 1976
Copyright Act, 1978
[/SPOILER]
MARKETPLACES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[Spoiler]
Film/ Video/ Animation Content
[ul]
[list]
[li]http://vimeo.com/[/li][li]http://www.youtube.com/[/li][li]Stock Footage:[/li][li]http://www.pond5.com/index.php?ref=orbitrob[/li][li]http://submit.shutterstock.com/[/li][li]http://www.stockfootageseller.com[/li][li]http://www.stockfootageseller.com/w…ostock-logo.jpg[/li][/ul]
[/list]Games/Apps

[ul]
[list]
[li]http://store.steampowered.com/[/li][li]http://www.microsoftstore.com/store…DisplayHomePage[/li][li]http://developer.android.com/index.html[/li][li]Web Comics[/li][li]www.comixology.com[/li][/ul]
[/list]3D Models (for Animation)

[ul]
[list]
[li]http://www.turbosquid.com/[/li][li]http://www.daz3d.com/[/li][li]3D Models (for 3d Printing)[/li][li]https://www.ponoko.com/[/li][li]http://www.shapeways.com/[/li][li]http://www.sculpteo.com/en/[/li][li]http://i.materialise.com/[/li][/ul]
[/list]Clip Art

Custom Merchadize:
http://www.zazzle.com/
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/Make Magazine: Ultimate Guide for 3D Printing is a FANTASTIC resource. GET IT if you are interested in getting into this market:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Ultimate…s=make+magazine

[/SPOILER]
CONFERENCES:
–CLICK TO EXPAND–
[Spoiler]
Digital Media:

[ul]
[li]SXSW[/li][li]Shepton Digi Fest[/li][li]NAB[/li][/ul]Gaming:
[ul]
[li]PAX[/li][li]PAX East[/li][li]Independent Games Festival’[/li][li]E3[/li][/ul]Europe:
[ul]
[li]Edinburgh Interactive Festival[/li][li]Eurogamer Expo[/li][/ul]Comics:
[ul]
[li]Comicon[/li][li]SPX[/li][/ul]Animation Festivals:
[ul]
[li]SIGGRAPH [/li][li]Bradford Animation Festival[/li][/ul][/Spoiler]

#2

Wait. It says “No WIP, only Final Entries”… but we are incubating these ideas right? So we kinda expect almost everything in here to be WIP or even “Pre-WIP”?

Also… how do we avoid people running off with other people’s ideas?

P.S.: Sorry, I just re-read it and noticed that you already stated that Creator of an IP must exercise her/her own discretion on how much to share.

OK.

#3

CONCEPT NAME: STASIS

WEBSITE: www.stasisgame.com

CATEGORY: Games

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Stasis is an adventure game that puts you in control of John Maracheck, a man searching for his family in a seemingly abandoned research facility. Going back to classic adventure game mechanics, you are required to solve puzzles and use objects around you to progress and to find Maracheck’s family.
Graphically, Stasis is fairly unique in the adventure game genre, opting for highly detailed isometric graphics, as opposed to the more classic ‘side on’ views of other adventure games. Richly detailed rooms and fluid animations create an immersive environment for the player to explore, with danger lurking in every shadow.
The stasis-plug suit gives you direct access to an Emergency Medical Kit. This is a piece of equipment that has the ability to break down any object of a certain weight and size into its base elements and store it for future use. While normally used to store small medical supplies, Maracheck uses it as an easy way to keep and transport object he has found. Objects can be stored, accessed, combined and brought back into the ‘real’ world at any moment.
At its core, Stasis is a story about an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation.
Trapped in a place where humanity’s horrors come out to play, how far would you go to protect your family?

STATUS NUMBER: 1

TEAM MEMBERS: 1 - Chris Bischoff

START DATE: December 2010

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : Q4 2013/Q1 2014

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK: This week was mainly spent on the cinematics of the game. Ive realized that I can get 5/6 seconds out, rendered and comped, in 24 hours. This is a pretty good average to work with, in terms of getting out (roughly) 1 sequence per week.

In terms of gameplay, its a case of, every spare moment I get, playtesting, and trying to break the parts of the game I have fixed.

http://www.stasisgame.com/stasis-infinite/

Interestingly, last week I did a bit of Fan art for BIOSHOCK Infinite, in a way that it directly relates to the game Im making (being similar in graphical style). The art went viral, and I increased the webtraffic to my site by around 3000 extra hits, and around 300 signups to my news letter. This also resulted in 100 new Twitter followers. Lesson? Branch out, and do other things to bring attention to your product!

I also managed to get 2 Blog posts up in 2 weeks-which is impressive with my current schedule!

WHAT WENT WRONG: Work got in the way of play!

SHOW AND TELL:

The fan art I did:
http://www.stasisgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/STASIS-INFINITE-B.jpg

#4

RobertoOrtiz,

Tell me if I understand correctly.
I start a thread in WIP Animation forum with a thread titled :IP Incubator!:MyIP_name:
Then I post weekly updates in this thread. That weekly update is more of a summary of what all I did in that week. Correct?

An IP (a game, a film) will take a considerabley long time to finish. So when you say

“WIP are NOT encouraged, only final entries”

I assume you mean something on the lines of “Final Character designs” or “Final environment render” etc.?

Pyke,

That fan art is Exceptional !!

#5

NEVER EVER WRITE LATE AT NIGHT…
:slight_smile:
I meant to say:
WEEKLY WIP are encouraged

#6

CONCEPT NAME: NeverEndingPrincessStory
CATEGORY: Animation
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Think Harry Potter meets Dallas. An original production with mass appeal. The catch-phrase is “Find Your One True Love” and the concept (IP) includes a fully-functional and state-of-the-art dating website to help you do just that.
STATUS NUMBER: 1 + contractors
TEAM MEMBERS: CEO/Head Dishwasher - Chris Cowan. I hire contractors from time to time depending on need. I will hire some voiceover arts @ $25. per “part” for example. Will probably use a service like Odesk for a consultant or 2 to get through all this software; get an “expert” opinion.
START DATE - Ongoing; go to youtube and watch the whole 1 hour movie or go to the website and register for the dating site.
ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : It’s NeverEnding of course…
WIP THREAD: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NeverEndingPrincessStory/210744261421
WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK: Spent alot of time watching videos and evaluating software. Got some great ideas/insights. Posted a short video looking for voice actors and received a response. Upgrading personal workspace before digging in; spring cleaning.
WHAT WENT WRONG: Spent a bit too much time learning and not enough producing. Getting confused about remembering what I used to know in web development, tons of new tools. Have to find 300$ to renew secure server certificate and register as apple developer. Want to spend more time outside now that spring is here too!
SHOW AND TELL: Check the production blog on FB for latest updates.

My expectations/commitment to CGSociety and it’s members, if you accept my submission is the following:

  • This work is “proof of concept” and is “made” by one person over time. It does not compare to feature film work and I know this. I work alone and am looking for valid and constructive criticism. “Daz models suck” or “You should use Maya” does not move me forward. “Try using this filter” or “no, I would do it this way…” does move me forward.
  • If you promote me of course I will promote you; I like to share the link love; it costs nothing.
  • You can AMA. You may not like the response but I will answer your questions to the best of my abilities.
  • If you like what I am doing then please register for the website and try it out. I need some data/feedback on this area too. If you want to create a few accounts and test out the automatch feature, for example let me know and I will approve all these listings for your testing.
  • I am not looking for anything for “free” and am not out to “screw anyone”. If you do any actual “work” on the production you will receive a nominal fee for your efforts and credit. The expectation is that if this actually works and becomes successful of course the rates would go up. But you have to start somewhere.

Thank you for your consideration

#7

cool. i hope more people use this so that it gets the attention it needs.

also, STASIS looks awesome Chris!

#8


The idea is to use the WIP thread the saqme way anyone would use a WIP thread.
Think of the weekly thread a summary, a “Status Report” of your progress.

#9

CONCEPT NAME: Le Gouffre

PRODUCTION BLOG: http://legouffre.com/en

CATEGORY: Animation

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Le Gouffre is an 8-minute animated short film about two travellers who embark on the amazing journey of crossing an impossible gap. The team is currently working full-time on the film, without any financial backing, and is trying to create a unique look that blends hand-painted textures with realistic animation. The film should start its festival run by spring 2014 and be released on the internet later that year.

STATUS NUMBER: 1

TEAM MEMBERS: 3

  • Carl Beauchemin (Animation and Rigging)
  • Thomas Chrétien (FX and Compositing)
  • David Forest (Animation and Art Direction)

START DATE: July 2011

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: December 2013

WIP THREAD: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=153&t=1085457

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:

We’re animating faster than what was planned on our calendar. That’s comforting since we’re also doing some of the trickiest shots of the movie and things could have easily gone wrong. All in all, we’re quite happy with our current pace.

WHAT WENT WRONG:

Some very heavy shots from the end of the film are taking impossibly long to render and that’s slowing us down. Well, mostly Thomas since he’s doing all the comp. But we’ll get through it!

SHOW AND TELL:

You can always check out our updates on our production blog for the latest developments on the film! These days we usually post every two weeks on wednesdays. Otherwise, you can visit our gallery if you haven’t already.

#10

I love the idea, but I think having its’ own forum section would be better and help keep things organized by project (each thread to an IP kinda’ thing).

Is this something that CGSociety is capable of doing for you Rob?

#11

OK what I want to suggest here is a GAMEPLAY note I heard from a discussion behind the success of Telltale’s “WALKING DEAD” games in spite of the dated graphics and lack of association with the TV show or why it’s a hit even with people who don’t know Walking Dead.

One player noted that Telltale’s “puzzle solving” system is seamless in that it does away with backtracking too far and assembling MacGyver solutions to problems. Instead, you click on an object it goes into your inventory, and then if a situation calls for that object and you already have the object, you click your mouse over the situation and if you already have the item needed for it, you use it automatically.

That’s not to say you cannot use some old fashioned “go into Inventory and pull it out” stuff, but having some of the streamlined/action bits with “Automatic Context” may help bridge the classical appeal and the modern quicker pace that people appreciated with Telltale’s work on Walking Dead.

#12

Usually, the fastest way to improve performance here is to remove some Render Settings, Separate Passes (which I assume you already do), and find some quirks of your chosen rendering engine (Ex: Blender Internal bogs down on Texture Channels, so baking textures together and reducing channels gains time).

Also if this is about Smoke or Explosions, remember that there are OTHER ways to do the same thing if you look at how Video Game engines and early CG VFX used Billboards or Cards to do them. This also saves time if you are waiting for a complex sim.

I sort of remember how a recent VFX film with a Flaming Tornado (“Harry Potter 5, 6, 7?”) used cards and a smaller scale fire sim to get the effect going. So basically if you do it properly… taking shortcuts like that help.

There is also a practical reason for shortening your render time. There is a logic that if you have capacity to re-render, you can improve a shot, whereas if you’re already “battered” from just waiting for the first go… you have no capacity left to fix it.

You may have more options available to you because the look you are going for is Hand Painted.

#13

I will try helping others if I have time. Thank you Roberto, I already started forgetting about this dream of mine.
What’s collecting dust on the harddrive…

Though it started as a group of 5 people, currently it’s me and my friend, who does particle and simulation effects, Sasha Kharchenko. No experience, no money, people needed to live, so they left.

The length: 6 minutes.

The plot: an old retired veteran lives with his pet cat happily. But still his past bites him back. After New Orleans accident some big people want to hide some dirty truth using him once again.

The cat will be kidnapped and used as a hostage. The main hero will fly to New Orleans to mine and detonate an old secret laboratory, where the bad boss already sold the bomb and wants to hide the traces until it becomes evident.
When flying to New Orleans, the main hero occasionally finds an innocent girl, who is being terrorized by marauders. He fights them and then goes to the lab. When planting the mines, he sees there’s still oxygen going out from the door. So he swims down and finds professor, who is too consumed with his computer. Professor tells the story about selling the bomb by the boss.
As time runs out, the bad boss sends another unit to clear it out. The main hero with professor use clothes of sent soldiers to disguise and fly away on helicopter, taking the girl with them. The secret laboratory explodes.
Using professor as a witness, the boss is being arrested and the main hero lives happily with the saved girl and the rescued cat.

The characters http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=7507794&postcount=164
The helicopter http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=7003496&postcount=88
Some screenshots


Currently I don’t work on it, as I’m busy with commercial working (I need money to live). If I could get something like kickstarter, but it can’t really generate any income as I understand.

The good things about it: the helicopter alone gave me several years of employment, and then also those characters you see gave me current employment. Each time I was contacted by a studio, and even didn’t search for work. I am really proud of this.
It motivated me learning new stuff. I started, when I barely knew hard-surface and some texturing. Then I re-made characters several times, they were horrible and it motivated me learning anatomy. I’m still on the road, but I made progress and I think it was worth of it. It’s hard motivating yourself making a lot of stuff, but this short is a great inspiration for me to keep going and learning new areas.

Conclusions: it’s a very difficult task for one person, and it’s really hard, because if you really understand how many years it will take learning, it might kill your ambitions. So I would suggest to anyone making it very small.

The most difficult part currently : I know no animation at all, and it will take me 1-3 years just learning the basics. So it’s halting me back, as well as current problems in my life. I need money to live, and financially it seems a wrong choice, as I can make much more with mobile games (though currently i work for big game projects).

The positive things: computers get faster, so I can render what took 1 hour today in several minutes. I got more experience, and i work faster, and will be.

What’s next: I hope finishing those characters, and then study architecture (and revise environment design) and hone my lighting skills. Then… maybe, animation, but it might be after 5 years from now. Though I think it’s better learning some stuff well, than making all badly.

I’m also not sure about the script, it was written by Olga Kolisnyk, and I can say writing a good story is incredibly hard. I also left out any dialogues not to complicate animation.

#14

Baby steps…Baby Steps…
-R

#15

Are these really important to the “Military-Thriller” aspect of the story? Or are the cat and the girl used for comic relief, or to emphasize other aspect of this story.

It sounds a bit like a potential Splinter Cell sequel.

P.S.: About executing a film with no spoken dialogue… Your story is way more complicated than the one I tried last time and I don’t think the arms deal details and everything will go down well without some “delivered words”.

Have you considered that the hero speaks in voiceover… like he goes through the experience and you can HEAR what he’s thinking?

#16

CGIPadawan
The cat is the eye-candy indeed, and comical, as well as professor. The girl is… well, in any movie you get this love story line. Definitely this movie isn’t to win any awards, and I understood in your short you were going through the same concerns, where the story isn’t the main thing, as it’s a lot to think about yet to make it working.
About words, you’re right it should be tested. I think I need to make an animated storyboard, and show it to the viewers to see the reaction. It was made, but I guess it could be reworked a bit so it’s clearer to the viewer, as it wasn’t intended to be shown so a bit too sketchy. Definitely makes sense before any animation.
Thank you fo your input. It’s amazing hearing it from someone who accomplished it. :slight_smile:

#17

In my opinion the “eye candy” will be when the evil henchmen go underwater in their specialized underwater swimming things (like in the COD MW3: Navy Seals Demo ) and there is this big underwater battle to decide things (see: Thunderball).

I know for a fact the Cat will be special, but I think the audience will remember more the big action finale (I’m assuming the end will be underwater because you mentioned something about submerging and oxygen under doors).

That will be trouble enough. I know how hard it can be to take advice like this: “Lose the cat”.

Is the girl important though? I take it that the main plot twist is that his bosses sent him to essentially do janitor work for weapons they bought (That the boss stole them would probably be more direct and better for the short format). Either way, not sure why the girl is important.

#18

Thanks man! It was fun to do, and I limited myself to only a few hours. I think that placing limitations on personal work is very important.

Thanks man!

To be honest, I think that that takes The Walking Dead away from being an Adventure Game, and moves it to become an interactive movie. Its akin to having rechargeable shields, auto aim, and 1 hit kills in a FPS-it takes away what MAKES it a game.

STASIS is being modeled on a classic adventure game model, but with the ‘modern edge’ of the graphics.

That said, the interface is context sensitive, in terms of the cursor changing depending on what TYPE of interaction is needed. So if you can look at something, it will become SCAN, if you can use something the cursor will become INTERACT.

#19

I can understand how you feel, and I definitely had no problem playing “Broken Sword” and “Runaway: A Road Adventure” - but I must say in particular that IF (and that’s the word: IF) you go too old-fashioned where you really force people to combine things even in absurd ways for the sake of puzzle gameplay and making people run end-to-end whilst engaging in the kleptomania and pixel combing required to solve things… That might limit your audience.

Unless that is the objective… to do something for the “hardcore”.

The only point in the Walking Dead example was streamlining… and it’s true… Walking Dead is more interactive movie than a “pondering adventure” like Broken sword where there is a lot of discovery and you work it at your pace.

It can definitely still work… but not in the age-old way it did before. To “communicate” with players today you have to do it in a way where they feel the adventure has a momentum and a flow to move forward. The stumbling block I find to games like “Still-Life” and “Syberia 2” is that they basically fall into illogical situations to really just try and stump you as if that was the goal of Adventure Games. Maybe that was the scenario that sometimes occurs, but what most people are thinking of these days is that “Things should make sense and not in too distant terms”.

You don’t want to “pick up the needle at the 10th minute of the game so that it is useful at the 10th hour of the same game because you need it to pick a lock that is held in place by a magnet you picked up at the 30 minute mark…” :stuck_out_tongue:

I assume when you “modernize” the genre… you are doing away with that kind of gameplay.

P.S.: One thought I did have was… if the game was such that your inventory is almost always “cleaned out” at certain points (like maybe after every 3 or 4 “challenges”) and you basically do not make people back track too far… even if the gameplay is “classical” it may be good enough for the modern and more “here and now” audience types.

There is a joy to seeing something and then thinking: “Right! If I pick-up the shovel outside that should be good for this challenge!”… That’s a nice part about adventures… but I also think that there should be “hard discards”… kinda like the Game letting you know “we’re done with that item… move on.”

Also: Multiple Solutions… I’ve lost count of the number of times I wished games like Broken Sword allowed for more than one way out of sticky situations (but not the main plot puzzles of course!)

#20

I don’t think that the adventure game genre needs to be modernized in terms of gameplay. Just like RPG’s became more and more diluted over the years, in an attempt to ‘modernize’ them, and FPS as well, I think it takes more and more away from what makes the genres unique.

If you look at the FPS nowadays compared to a few years ago-we have limited weapons, rechargeable shields, extremely linear paths through levels-I don’t think that any of those things have made the genre any better-I think they were added to make games easier, and give them more appeal to a wider audience. But they are diluted.

RPG’s started to head for a decline when recorded voice overs were added. Suddenly you had to get your story stuck in place very early in production, couldn’t evolve the story with the game, and quests had limited outcomes because of the massive expense of recording 100’s of alternate voice overs. They went real time, and took out a large part of the stats balancing that was a core feature of RPG’s. Again, this was to ‘modernize’ the genre-but it just diluted it.

If we look at the success of Broken Age, Torment, or Project Eternity, there is clearly a want and a need for games that go back to what made those genres awesome in the first place.
I really don’t want STASIS to appeal to the casual gamer, ‘hidden object’ gamer, or PopCaps ‘Soccer Mom’ demographic, because Im making STASIS for myself-its the kind of game I wish other developers would make, so I could play it.