here is the youtube link to my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltjKHpd8hLQ

I think my story idea would be a success because it will be fairly simple to animate (the characters don’t move a whole lot), the plot is easy to follow, and it’s humorous.
If we were to do two animations as a class, I believe my story (Self-Checkout) and Blades of Vengeance would be good choices.

However, if we were to pick only one animation to do as a class, a few of my favorite ideas are:
1)Fly Me to the Moon – I’d have to watch the animatic again, but I thought the story was really cute and creative.
2)The Bus Stop – (Same as above).
2) Rat Trap – I love the story idea. I don’t think it would be too hard to animate, we would just have to make sure the rat’s run cycle is good. However, while watching the animatic, I wondered why it was so difficult for the scientist to catch the rat when the rat ran on the wheel. The chase has to be convincing. Also, the story seems kinda short.

Can everyone please post their animatic to this forum so the class can see all of them? I’m sure I’m forgetting about some good ones out there.

Our student pages were having some issues yesterday but it seems like everything is fixed now. (for the moment)

hey everyone, this is my animatic for my animation short Fly Me To the Moon…

i would definitely like to direct this if it gets chosen because i have a few ideas that i think can make this a very solid animation for our class to work on. honestly, i don’t think my animatic really does the story justice because i didn’t write everything down on the individual frames and i don’t think the rising action is depicted as clearly as written in my script. and as simplicity goes, i don’t think this would be too hard to model because there is basically only one setting, this old lades kitchen, and a tiny space for the mouse to live in. the only characters we would have to worry about are the mouse and the lady as well which i think we can handle.

well thats it for my brief pitch… and as far as other shorts i’d like to see come to fruition i honestly can’t remember the names of them all but ill try to get close…

-Grass Vengence
i like the story and i have a feeling that we as a class have the ability to make this a very strong piece. ps i think we should add that matrix dodge of the blade i think that would be pretty badass

-*Something* Pocket… (the one about the hot pocket attacking the kid)
i liked the simplicity of the story and i thought it was pretty funny as well

-Digetsu(i probably butchered that)
i think this would be one hell of a project to tackle (due to the godzilla like antagonist and all the possible explosions) but i think if we pulled it off it would be a pretty impressive first animation short for all of us as a group (assuming this is the first for everyone)

if anyone has questions let me know and i try to respond asap

I guess I’ll get this discussion started again.

Since we’re doing two animations, my vote goes to Fly me to the Moon and Daikaijuu. I think the two of these are furthest along in terms of art direction and story. As an added bonus, both creators want to be directors. I think that this ensures that the directors will put forth extra effort to make sure the projects are a success.

Here are a few tutorials that might help with Daikaijuu:
Explosions: http://www.tutorialsworld.com/index.php?id=1&option=com_content&task=view
Blastcode: http://www.truecg.com/TextualTutorial.aspx?id=41

I said earlier that Fly me to the Moon might benefit from the exclusion of the old lady, and I still think that is true. You can show that someone has been working in the kitchen without animating someone working, which would require a lot less work and allow animators focus on the mouse.

What do you guys think?

Oh, dude, Doug, way to go on finding those tutorials! Special effects is so, so far out of my depth, I was sitting here trying to figure out all the ways we could do it differently, but those could work very well!

I think I’m going to toss my hat in with your idea, Doug, to have Fly Me To The Moon and Daikaijuu to be the two choices… Fly Me To The Moon seems to be one of the really popular options, as much as I love The Bus Stop and Blade of Vengeance. (And, of course, I just really want to do Daikaijuu, but that’s just me…)

Another question of mine, though, if Dr. Patterson happens to be reading (though maybe anyone else could hazard a guess?), is can we borrow people from the other production? Like, say one production or another needed help with storyboarding or something, I wonder if other people can help. I’d love both of these to be the absolute best products they can be, something we can all be proud of, you know? I think that would facilitate that…

yo doug, thanks for the suggestion. i never really thought to take the old lady out but i can see where your coming from. i still think she’s partially crucial to the end of the story because her turning the lights on in the kitchen makes the mouse realize he’s not on the actual moon, but what i can do is re-work the story to completely exclude her then, if my animation is chosen, everyone involved can meet either in class or in the library at some point and go over both scripts and take the best parts from each to make a solid short that fits to everyones liking.

Palmer, I don’t think it would be too hard to exclude the woman. You’d probably just need a different reason to end the short– maybe the mouse knocks the bowl off the windowsill and once he’s outside, realizes the moon is still up in the sky?

….I wonder, though, is this the part where I get to go “…..Bueller? ……Bueller? ….Bueller?” into the vast silence of this forum? It seems like this place has been abandoned. Any other ideas/questions/comments/concerns to contribute, guys?

I really enjoyed the simplicity of both Blade of Vengence and The Bus Stop, either of those would be my vote for the project/s. I like the comic feel of Blade of Vengence but then on the other hand I feel that The Bus Stop would be a nice change in mood, I think Eric said we might work on two projects this semester. Doing two animations that had different art directions/moods I think would both be beneficial and engaging– if you felt stuck on one you could shift gears to work on the other.

That’s my 2 cents. Hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.

I really liked the blade of vengeance idea and the fly me to the moon one also. Here’s my animatic in case anyone wanted to watch it…

Thanks for posting animatics — nice work.
Also, thanks to those who have been discussing stories here.

Please see the recent blog post on crewing positions. This will help us decide the two productions with which to proceed.