Self Initiated Project Brainstorming part 3

On Tuesday I had a meeting with Phil about ideas I had for my self initiated project. He told me that all the ideas still feel too big for my 15 week project. However I did mentioned an idea where I have one character doing many small skits which revolves around him interacting with one object but the outcomes are always ends badly for him. The animation is meant to resembling Bill Plympton animations 25 Ways to Quit Smoking and How to Kiss as well as Adny Riley The Book of Bunny Suicides. In that the main concept with all of my ideas is that the show begins with the main character/test subject interacting with an object without problems, until something goes wrong, ending in a comical fashion for the test subject.


This image shows off the idea development process for my next project, as well a list of shows and comics that could inspire my animation. I was also developing the type of person the test subject is, which is he is a very clumsy person who gets hurt at the end of each skit, think Disney Goofy. I also wrote a summery of the three ideas that I was working on, which are shown in the next three images.


The first idea is about the subject iterating with video game genres. For instance with fighting game genres, we see the test subject playing a fighting game but he then gets punch in the face by the television. I actually had a word with Alan about this idea and he told me it would be better if he was alone in his house with a lot of house hold objects and re-enacts all the game genres I have list with the objects, like a prop based comedy sketch. For example for platformers he moves across the selves with his fingures (or have the character very small for this skit) while avoiding obstacles to reach the finish line, but ends up failing. For the fighting genre he treats one of his objects, maybe a broom or table, as his opponent by fails at defeating it.
Alan told me to also look at a Steve Martin film called 'The Lonely Guy' for the concept of a lonely person. This concept does seem to have some promise for my animation but I am worried that this would be too big to handle, although I could find a way in working with this idea much easier.


The next story idea open with each segment with the test subject playing with a toy, like a paddle ball, but only ends up getting injured in the end. The idea is to show that even the friendliness looking toy can be very dangerous if used poorly.


The final idea focuses on the test subject interacting with words beginning with the letters of the alphabet. However the outcomes may very. For example if one of the words was a C he would use a cactus to scratch his back, but if the word was Ball which begins with a b, he then gets hit by a ball. I also had a word with Alan with this idea as well and he said that I could update the alphabet by using more recent objects or be political with it. If I was going for this idea, I think I would go for the updated alphabet story with no attachment to political things because I am not that interested to politics.

That is all the ideas I have thought up please leave some feedback to let me know what you think about them and which one I should focus more on.

Self Initiated Project Brainstorming part 2

Some more of me brainstorming ideas.

The first image show some ideas that revolves around living trees. I thought what would it be like if trees can talk, my first idea was to have a tree telling a dog off for trying to pee on it or something bad will happen to it. However the dog still pee on it and in retaliation the tree kicked the dog very hard while saying '' I told you not to do it.'' The story ends with the tree threatening a Lumber Jack next.
The next idea was to have a tree tell it's life story from being a sprout to a tree before before it was chopped down and became a stump. The story ends with the stump telling the audience not to worry because when he is removed there will be a new tree taking it's place and hopes it does not go through the same thing as the stump. the last idea that involved a tree character was to have a child lost in the woods and was terrified. Suddenly a scary tree came to life which scared the child, he then ran away. However the tree was actually trying to help the child to find his way out and looked in confusion. The tree then shrugged it of and went back to it's neutral position.


The next image shows off two ideas for my story. The first was to have a person who was very bored and he did everything to entertain himself but no luck. He then decided to go for a drive. During his drive he sped up faster and faster until he hit something and launched out of his window. The story ends with him looking at the camera saying '' and you know what...I'm still bored.'' This idea was meant to have a bit of a dark humour that through out the short he tried to find things that will entertain him, until he finally found something that would kill his boredness but it didn't, instead it killed/injured him leaving the main character still unsatisfied.
The final idea was actually a remake of a very old story I thought up which is about a Jack in a box, but instead of a glove it was a small wizard toy.
It begins the same way, with the wizard toy waking up from his crate and ventured the room he was in. Suddenly he found a box and investigated it, the wizard then found a handle and turned it. When the handle finished turning, Jack came out and scared the wizard toy. Out of anger the wizard toy cast a spell but that only made Jack more scary. Again the wizard cast a spell but that only made it worst, the wizard toy kept repeating it until there was only a box with a handle. The handle then started turning making the wizard toy panic in fear, the wizard toy then hide somewhere hoping to be safe. When the handle finished turning nothing happened, the wizard toy took notice and came closer to the box. closer and closer until the wizard toy was too close to the box. Suddenly the box opened and a monstrous Jack popped out and scared the wizard toy straight back to it's crate.
I did thought of an alternative that when the wizard toy was first scared by Jack, he hid in his crate, when he looked out of the crate he saw Jack laughing at him which made the wizard toy mad. Jack went back in his own box still laughing, the wizard toy went back in his crate think on how to punish Jack. He then saw some duck tape which gave him an idea. Next scene we then see the wizard toy turning the handle again, but when the handle stop moving Jack can't come out. The wizard toy duck taped Jack's box lid tight and the wizard happily went back in the crate and called it a day.
I actually liked the alternative ending better because it feels more realistic then having a toy with magic powers.
Let me know what you think by leaving me some feedback please thank you

Self Initiated Project Brainstorming and Refining ideas

Here are two images of me brainstorming, most of them are refining some of the ideas I have posted on the blog but I will try to come up with some new ideas.





Please leave feedback

My meeting with Alan

Today I had my first meeting with Alan about my ideas. He told me that they are ok but since most of them are comedy based, they need an extra element to make them work. which is thinking up a flaw for a character just like my terrified glove, or my drunken vitorian man. I did find a list of some character flaws from a web site called
http://www.darkworldrpg.com/lore/flaws.html
It does have huge selection so maybe using this could help define my character and my self initiated project.
If anyone know where I can find some more character flaws please let me know.

Ideas for the Next Project 2

During the week I have came up with some ideas for my project.
The first idea is about a cartoon character and an anime character having an argument to see who is better. This idea came me because I feel like there is a conflict between these two forms of animation. One is more realist than the other or more fun and enjoyable. I also had another idea where instead of arguing who is better they explain their differences like majority of cartoons have talking animals while majority of anime are set in school. The only draw back to this idea is that a huge amount of research on both mediums is needed and that might take too long.

My next idea is set in a library, it begins with a Liberian looking for a book in the back of the library storage room for a customer, while doing his search the library suddenly became a fantasy world which then turn into a fantasy quest. Problem with this idea is that there might be too much things to make. Although I could go around it by making the librarian character the only cartoon character while the creatures and everyone else could resemble wooden puppets. The story could end with the librarian getting the wrong book and has to go back in.

That is all the ideas I have so far please let me know what you think of them

Ideas for next Project

First I got some bad news, I was not able to finish my Albert animation but I will do it when I have more time on my hands, sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it.

However I have came up with some ideas for my future projects.
the first one is a zombie story, it is set in home department store where a clerk is left alone to defend himself from a zombie. This story is meant to have an isolation theme but carry a bit of black comedy in it, having the store clerk setting up weird traps which ends in funny results. I have some ideas for the ending of this story. The first idea was that it was all a prank by a friend and the store clerk kills him by accident, the second idea was that it turns out to be an old man asking him the price for a power tool and the last idea is that the store clerk finally defeated the zombie but then ends up surrounded by many more zombies.

The second idea I came up with was about a thief breaking into a museum or a jewellers to steal a diamond but has trouble stealing it, by avoiding the cameras, lasers and security guards. It ends with him taking the jewel while the security guard arrived too late to stop him, however it turns out that the diamond was a fake and the security guard had on him the rest of the time. Again this meant to have a cool yet comedic feel to it with the thief executing the robbery in cool fashion while ending the story in a comedic way.

The third idea was meant to be done in a interview style with objects talking about a breaking in their house and tried their best describing a man who came in their house late at night leaving mysterious packages under a tree?

The next two ideas are my own adaptations of children stories the, first idea was a
billy goat gruff adaptation however the narratives for it are different.
The first idea was to have the three billy goats facing one troll in a wrestling ring.
The second (and my favourite idea) is to do my own idea of how the story of the three billy goat gruffs was done. Following it's style with the troll letting the goats pass so he can eat their eldest brother but when he finally came the eldest was very tiny. Much to the trolls displeasure however the eldest billy goat was surprisingly strong and defeated the troll.

The next idea is a Jack in a beanstalk adaptation but treating the event like it is on the news treat Jack as one of those celebrities who pulls of weird stunts, example would be David Blane in a glass box.

The final two ideas was to make a transcription animation based on music. The first idea was to make a bunch of mashmallows sing Through the Fire and Flames by the rock band Dragonforce. There are two versions to this song the 7 minute long one and the 5 minute short one so out of the two I would pick the short one.

This animation mainly focusing on really detailed lip animation, the marshmallows as the singers for their bounciness which is great for head banging, it is also meant to be a parody on the group but only out of fun.

The second idea was is an animated short based on the Ya Burnt by Starship Amazing . They are a group who I believe makes music that sound 8 bit and this one particular music Ya Burnt feels like a child dreaming about being in the world of games. I imagine it to have a puppet theatre style to it, and it begins with the main character sleeping and we enter his dream. Where inside he does a lot of things like platforming, puzzle solving, flying, fighting, racing, until finally he faces the final boss and save the princess only to wake up disappointed that it was all a dream.

However I am having second thoughts with these two ideas because I need to ask permission to use their songs but the artists might be too busy to reply so I might leave these out.
Leave some feedback one these ideas if they are good or not, I will try to come up with some new ideas.