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

#57

Concept Name: SCHIRKOA

Website: http://www.schirkoa.com/

CGTalk WIP thread: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=153&t=1103500

Project Description:
SCHIRKOA is the story (an IP maybe) I will be trying to develop in coming years.
At the moment I am aiming at an animated Short Film. Followed by a graphic novel. And then let’s see what else can come out. It’s set in a dystopian city, involves bagheads and some other ‘creatures’ :slight_smile:

Status Number: 1

Team Members: 2
Ishan (Writing/Directing/CGI/Graphic Novel/everything else)
Yiming (Rigging/Animation/Simulations)

Start Date : Mid 2010. But it’s been mostly off until Summer 2012.

Estimated Completion Date : February 2014 (Short Film)

What went right this week: Basically, things got moving! Yiming (my rigger, animator friend) has come on board. He will be working from Singapore. The site is finally up. It’s still pretty empty, but hopefully I will be more consistent with updates. Talked to a music composer and the conversation proved fruitful.

What has gone wrong so far: I was chasing wrong rendering style. And I never locked the story down. These 2 mistakes left the film in a limbo. I am exploring some faster and simpler rendering styles and aiming to lock the story pretty soon.

Show & Tell :
A couple of drawings from my old storyboard. None of these sequences or characters are in the film any more, but these have provided strong foundation to the style of my upcoming graphic novel.

#58

Wow Ishan that is fantastic work!
-R

#59

Sorry, not getting the story. I must have missed it somewhere?
But it looks great.

Jules

#60

banman7, I really like your Silhouettes for the characters. You have been planning lots of things at the same time (manga,movie,t-shirts etc.) How you planning to manage this alone? I am thinking on similar lines, but my plan is to focus on one thing at a time.

Also the manga/online comic is just frames cut out and pasted back in as comic book mode to match the storyboard.

So cut and paste the best frame that corresponds to the storyboard. So really just making one movie and doing dailies that look like comics. :slight_smile: I might have someone compile it as well.

#61

Thanks Roberto! :slight_smile:

Hey, as I am still touching up the final draft of the story, the official synopsis should be out in coming weeks. I have dumped a lot of drafts you see. So far all I can say is - it’s set in a dystopian city, involves bagheads and some other ‘creatures’ :slight_smile:

#62

I have similar idea for my graphic novel. Once I will be set with the short film, I will end up with all the characters, props & environments in 3d. So I will pose the characters in the environments to get solid base for my drawings. And then I will draw & touch up each individual drawing to get the look I am aiming for. Hopefully it should be faster compared to drawing from scratch.

#63

Damn ishan - that looks FANTASTIC! Honestly, I would read a comic just on that story board style alone.

As a question for the guys making Shorts, what is the eventual end goal? Monetising shorts is VERY difficult. Interested to hear any ideas that you guys have on what your plans are after release, or if its just being done ‘for the sake of the art’?

#64

You can ask me again in 2014.

#65

Unique ideas are a dime a dozen-its the execution of those ideas that makes something great.
STAR WARS was not unique-it was a Flash Gordon movie. But its execution was amazing-and that’s what captivated people.

If creating unique characters is too difficult because of the amount of characters you have, the answer would be to have less characters, and spend more time developing them.

I know it may sound like Im being harsh, or picking on you, but I promise you thats not the case. I think that having a dating website crossed with a webisode series is actually a pretty fun idea. BUT the entire thing hinges on one feeding the other, and right now I think that the quality of the webisodes is letting you down. You need to get people interested in clicking that link in the first place.

#66

Let me second that comment about ishan work, it does look fantastic.
As for the question, I’m working on a personal story just for the sake of it. I feel passionate about them. Why an animated shortfilm? Cause even if the stories are very human (and wouldnt be too hard to shoot live), I have a very particular look for them in mind that I could not get otherwise, plus I have people willing to work on it, and they all work in CG fields.

I’m willing to spend money on it, and I really really hope I can actually finish this one (had a lot of others that never got to an end).

So yeah, I’m doing it just for the passion to tell stories, and currently focusing a lot on story alone, which I feel usually is the weakest part of most shortfilms around.
Cheers!
PD: as soon as I have something to show I’ll post, though I doubt it qualifies as IP.

#67

It’s true that the traditional view is that there isn’t really much to be gained financially from a short. That’s why we’re in much more for building a fan base and creating a mediatic buzz than for the money. Essentially, the idea is to use the film as a stepping stone to establish some recognition and be trusted to tackle bigger stories in feature film or episodic form after that.

That said, I’m sure that if the film is very successful and we put our minds to it, we can find some ways to make it profitable. Vimeo Tip Jar is a step in the right direction, and I’m sure there’s going to be even better options by the time we’re ready to release the film. We could sell a special edition DVD with lots of extras. Or write a book about our journey making this film. The little comics on our blog also seem to be enjoyed by a lot of people and I’m pretty sure that some would be ready to buy a compilation or something.

I admit it’s a leap of faith, and the outcome is probably harder to predict than if we were making a indie game, but it’s what we love to do so hell, we’ll just see what happens. :slight_smile:

#68

ProtZze
I don’t think shorts are the best way to develop IP but not impossible if it something that is more expansive and can be converted to a series, like Pendleton did with Adventure Time. It was a good proof of concept. Could expand the universe and follow the characters.

If it is a short that tells a one off story that is cool but yeah harder to develop to personal IP
Definately expanding to making of book, DVD, Ect is cool

I love your comic. That was fun. I think if your short doesn’t work you could do a simple comic. You are pretty good. :slight_smile:

#69

Hi, this is a long thread so here’s some random comments:

banman7: If you would like to take a look at some of my footage before it’s released that would be appreciated. I don’t render in Daz, I use Carrara but think I can get the look you want using SpeedGrade or using more/different lights. Interested in always moving forward…

And just about rendering in general; I have the plugin to get 50 cores running at the same time. Nothing would make my nerdy heart soar like watching a supercomputer boot up. Or I could set it up in an hour in the cloud and have a workflow to do just that. GI in animation? No problem. Cloth sims? Sure. But all this costs $$! Until you’re making money you have to work with what you’ve got.

redCigarette: Love the artwork, very stylized. I’m not really liking the bag though. Could be misconstrued as a comedy, or about robbers, many things just based on the initial visual. Am I right in assuming you are trying to show that in “society” your face has to be covered to conform? If so maybe something more stylized like say… Everyone wears a mask that looks like the Glorious Leader. On Mondays you have to wear a grey suit and a RED tie and on Tuesdays it’s a BLUE tie, etc…I think it would be more visually appealing.

Pyke said:

I think that having a dating website crossed with a webisode series is actually a pretty fun idea

I think as an IP creator this is the moment you wait for. From WTF to hmmmmm… It’s a journey. If this had been 2004 my website would aready have been spidered and rebranded. If you want to create a one-hour movie and a custom .net application it would cost some $$. There’s a barrier to entry there which is a little bit higher.

As for the rendering quality, see above…I don’t mind you picking on me; it’s competitive and I’m a total outsider and I get that. Everyone has their way of doing things, I have always been quick and dirty; get it done. My feeling is that you have nothing while you’re talking about it; it only becomes real once it’s published and on the street.

Anyway, back to expanding my mind using Photoshop and Dreamweaver; great thread…

#70

The Projects so far this week:

Project Name:____________CATEGORY:[color=dimgray]Start Date: First Post______Link
STASIS[color=dimgray]______________Games ______Dec 2010_____04-16-2013 [/color]Link
NeverEndingPrincessStory[color=dimgray]Animation____TBD__________04-16-2013 Link[/color]
Le Gouffre[color=dimgray]_______________Animation July 2011______04-16-2013 Link [/color]
Top secret project[color=dimgray] _________Animation TBD_________04-16-2013 Link
[b]Spec Commercial__________Animation___ April 2013___04-17-2013[color=#696969] Link[/color]
I am the Antagonist[color=#696969]______Cross Media TBD__________04-17-2013 Link[/color]
[color=white]SCHIRKOA_______________Animation___ Mid 2010___04-17-2013[color=#696969] Link[/color][/color]
HYPERREALITY ENGINE_____3D Engine ___ April 2013__04-18-2013[color=#696969] Link [/color]

I would love to see more Web comics and Toy makers joining our ranks.

-R

[/color][/color][/b]

#71

Damn ishan - that looks FANTASTIC! Honestly, I would read a comic just on that story board style alone.

As a question for the guys making Shorts, what is the eventual end goal? Monetising shorts is VERY difficult. Interested to hear any ideas that you guys have on what your plans are after release, or if its just being done ‘for the sake of the art’?

Thanks Chris!

As for your question, to me personally the very first driving force is the passion to tell a certain story. But then looking at the amount of time, money & sweat that goes into making a short, coming up with a one awesome short film that every one likes and no body pays for could be really bad.

No matter what way we choose it’s very hard to even get your money returned that you invested. Youtube partnership, Selling on iTunes, A making of DVD, are all good, but I wouldn’t keep them as my route to make money. Because it wont be enough. That’s why I am trying to create a small-ish universe. Through a large script. A script that can be transformed into a graphic novel, or a feature length animation. So when I really get the attention of an investor I have my short film as a pitch. And my script as my plan for the future. If nothing works I can always go back to expanding my graphic novel.

I also wouldn’t mind creating the whole feature myself (with my tiny team) if I get a few distributors interested. With hardware getting powerful, I feel I can do descent feature length animation film for Indian market at least.

So far this is the plan. It may sound naive & I am very bad at business aspect of things also. I am still learning :slight_smile:

#72

Ahhh, add me to the list!

CONCEPT NAME: HYPERREALITY ENGINE

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
A hybrid real-time ray tracing rendering engine that uses ray tracing and rasterizing render techniques to deliver real-time performance of 3D scenes with animation.

STATUS NUMBER: 1

TEAM MEMBERS:(Voluntary)
Jules Bushell

START DATE
April 2012

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : (Voluntary) -
April 2014 (?)

WIP THREAD:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=73&t=1086997&page=1&pp=15

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:
Project to restart on Monday 22nd April 2013

WHAT WENT WRONG:
NOthing, as will restart on Monday.

SHOW AND TELL:
This is currently the state of the engine as I last left it, running on a single GPU core of GTX590…


Video link: http://youtu.be/8_mvxhNbSAg

Be fun to develop the engine further and post up some new stuff from it.

Jules

#73

JWRodegher,
Thanks Man!

I admit it’s a leap of faith, and the outcome is probably harder to predict than if we were making a indie game, but it’s what we love to do so hell, we’ll just see what happens. :slight_smile:

Hey mate I soo agree with you on this.

redCigarette: Love the artwork, very stylized. I’m not really liking the bag though. Could be misconstrued as a comedy, or about robbers, many things just based on the initial visual. Am I right in assuming you are trying to show that in “society” your face has to be covered to conform? If so maybe something more stylized like say… Everyone wears a mask that looks like the Glorious Leader. On Mondays you have to wear a grey suit and a RED tie and on Tuesdays it’s a BLUE tie, etc…I think it would be more visually appealing.

TheCastle, thanks for your input. I had never looked at it this way. You are kind of close when you say ‘you have to wear bags to confirm with the society’. There are masks in the film too that come in the later part of the story. Let me see what I can do about the bags. Big thanks!

#74

Dont worry…
This thread (and the list) will be open until next Monday…and then we will have a new one.

-R

#75

I’m not quite ready to do this yet, but it’s a fantastic idea and in the future I will post a thread as well. Getting together some stuff I can show off has been priority for awhile :slight_smile:

#76

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.