Story Shmory

Im pushing right along with the film. I find myself spending much more time on the story for this film then my last. Were the narration in my last film kinda laid the story out for you, I want the narration in this film to sorta help the viewer along the way and let the animation tell a lot of the story. This is a scary thing because of the fact that my animation is pretty weak, but I think it will make for a much more engaging film.
I began texturing my first environment, which is exciting. Im lighting the scene with a candle, which is new for me. Its makes for a nice atmospheric look.
I'm starting to think that this film will go much longer then 6 minutes. I'm thinking 10+ minutes. The big worry is can I keep the viewer interested for that long? Heres to hoping =) Im also worried about the render times. It took me months to render just 4 minutes last time. I may add another computer, or even use a rendering service. We'll see.
I'll get some new pics up soon.

-Eric

Creature Texturing

Heres my flying creature, with its first pass of texturing. Its getting there!

Mr. Scrim - texturing (first pass)

State of the Project Address: oct 23

Things are moving right along. The script is getting there. The story is complete except for the ending. I've taken to the Miyazaki way of doing things. Miyazaki always starts work on a film without knowing the ending, and then the ending just kind of comes to him. I'm no master filmmaker like Miyazaki, but im confident the ending will "come to me". =) I never want to make a film that doesn't have a meaningful ending.
Anyway, as you can see from the work in progress shots, I've begun some of the texturing. Not everything is modeled yet, but I felt like some texturing would be a nice change of pace.

Status......
Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 100%
Story/Script - 70%
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 100%, Ms. Scrim 10%, Flying Critter 90%
Modeling Environment - 70%
Rigging - 20%
Texturing - 10%
Lighting - 10%
Animation - 0%
Compositing - 0%

Some wip shots of some props

Creature - First Look

New look at our Mr Lonely

Moving right along. This is a new shot of Mr Scrim. Just starting the texturing and displacement modeling. Im almost done modeling my second character as well. The critter; i'll post some shots of him soon.
Most of my time is still being put into modeling. I have all the environments started. I estimate this movie is going to be about twice as big as my last. Thats a LOT of models.

Enjoy!

Updated Status

Status......
Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 90%
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 90%, Ms. Scrim 0%, Critter 70%
Modeling Environment - 55%
Rigging - 0%
Texturing - 5%
Story/Script - 40%

So whats this thing about? Summary

We know the film is about a lonely guy named Mr. Scrim, but lets here some details, right? =)
The story really is a simple one. The complexity lies in the characters.
Our main character is lonely (Mr. Scrim). He lives all alone in a very secluded home with his dead wife, who he sort of pretends is alive ( a la "Lars and the Real girl"). Deep down he knows this isn't healthy and he unconsciously yearns for a companion. In comes our yet to be named flying creature. Mr. Scrim is a bird fisherman, and he catches a very odd creature one day. Deciding that this thing is to unique to eat, he lets it go. But go it does not. The creatures befriends Mr Scrim. They play video games together, they garden together, they even gaze at the stars together. Of course, our story doesn't end here. That to easy. One day, mr. scrim (with his new outlook on life) wakes up and can't find his new creature friend.
How will this end? That I will leave out. Im a sucker for happy endings, but there will definitely be a twist =)

-Eric

Concepts

Here are a bunch of the concept sketch I've done so far. Not extremely detailed, but they do usually lead me in the right direction.
Enjoy!

-Eric

A couple concept shots of the flying critter

First Look!

Whats the deal here?

Ok, this is a short film I'm developing both for myself, and for pitching. What I mean is, this is an idea that I would like to pitch to a studio, and since the likely hood that it will be picked up is slim to none, I would like to make the film myself. As I did with my last film http://ericprovan.blogspot.com/ , This will be a place that is mostly meant for myself. I'll continuously post updates, status reports, work in prgress shots, summaries, etc. I'll start by posting some stats.

Working title is "The Lonely Mr. Scrim".
Production Schedule - 4 months from today (Jan. 07 2009)
I have been developing this idea for about 3 weeks now.
3 Characters - Mr. Scrim, Ms. Scrim, and a critter.
Narrated story - Much like my last film, but less preachy. Focusing more on dark comedy.
Audience - Everyone. This film is going to be much more edgy then my last. But I don't want to exclude kids. I hate when filmmakers dumb down stuff thinking kids are stupid.
Format - HD720
Goal - Don't care if I don't make a dime. I just want to tell a good story and hope people like it.

Status......
Concept art - Characters 100%, Environment 80%
Modeling Characters - Mr Scrim 80%, Ms. Scrim 0%, Critter 0%
Modeling Environment - 50%
Texturing - 0%
Story/Script - 35%


So there ya go. Feel free to ask questions