still rolling

everything is still rolling on my thesis... albeit a bit slow.

Ashwin took my models for rigging... i should get them back by the end of the quarter.

and im gonna start doing some more environment modeling

also, im signing up for my Thesis class and trying to toss a bone to Rhythm & Hues. Heres hoping they like what they see.

Thesis: The Story of Life

So... in a moment of brilliance or boredom... i sat down and wrote out a 4 page blurb explaining where my thesis idea came from and why it is important to me... and here it is for all of you to read. Enjoi!

---------------------------

The story of my thesis, is the story of my life. It is the story of all of our lives to an extent. It is the story of choice; The choice to make your own destiny and find your own opportunities. It’s the story of choosing to build your own dreams vs. sitting idly by in the hopes that life will build them for you.

As cheesy, lame and artsy as it may sound, the revelations of this story came out of a dream I had. Sure, it is based on the observation of life, but it was in my dreams that it was revealed with a clarity that I might never easily achieve in my waking state.

In this dream, there was a character with no legs who walked on his hands. He was a lonely sort of character who lived in a lonely sort of world. He decides one day to go out and try to find something new to cheer him up and happens upon a small cave. Upon entering the cave he sees a soft blue light that eventually leads him to an underground lake full of a glowing, “magical” liquid. The liquid transforms him into a brilliant and colorful version of himself. It also grants him the ability to pass this beauty into the world around him, transforming it as well.

Of course the deep underlying meaning that I pulled out of this dream was that it was my subconscious reminding me that it is up to us as individuals to go out and seek positive opportunities for ourselves. Then, upon finding those opportunities, allow them to affect us in a positive manner and teach us to grow from those experiences. We then can, in turn, pass that newly found knowledge on to others.

On the flip side it also warned of the dangers of complacency. It warned that all too often we run the risk of just sitting around and waiting for good fortune to fall into our laps. While that may occasionally happen to some, the majority of us must find the motivation to go seek our own opportunities and create our own good fortune.

The dream was very much a mental retelling of my own life story. For a long time I had played the, “Good things come to those who are patient” card. I played my life choices very safe. My choice in undergraduate college was a safe one. It was far enough from home to feel slightly independent but close enough to still have a security blanket to fall upon. And while not a totally wasted experience, it was a potentially dangerous one in regards to lulling me into complacency with life. However, when my back was against the wall, and I had to make a choice of whether to settle with the education I received and wait for something good to come of it or make the bold decision to go to graduate school and create bigger and better opportunities, I thankfully chose the latter. The result being that I found my own shining lake in the people I met, the places I went, and ultimately, within myself.

Of course, my actual thesis story has changed a bit since then. It is now the story of two characters, whose world has gone awry and effectively shut down. These characters must decide whether to accept their fate, or go out and change it. They, of course, decide to strike out across their world in search of the “control room” in the hope of finding a way to reboot their planet. Using a map they find, they succeed and finding the room they seek as well as the control to reset everything. They reset the planet, thus saving themselves and the world around them from certain “doom”.

It may seem like a radical upgrade to the story, but its “heart” is still intact. It’s still about choosing to change your destiny rather than becoming complacent and accepting what is handed to you. The only difference now is that when you find those opportunities that you were seeking, you can still choose to walk away and cut your losses, or you can choose to go that last step and “push the button”.

The changes in the story reflect what I’ve seen happen in the lives around me. I’ve seen person after person; take the same journey that I have, only to get scared to take that last step for fear of the unknown. People that for one reason or another decides to cut their losses and go fall into complacency. My story and its meaning urge those people to go that extra mile and push the reset button on their lives and see where it takes them.

It is all too often that we choose the familiar and safe route. We wake up many years down the road wondering why it didn’t go as planned. We make excuses to justify our lack of action. We tell ourselves, “that route… too expensive”, “that place… too far away”, “that idea… too risky.”

Instead we need to be bold. We need to refuse to settle for the mediocre and instead reach for the unreachable. And when we do that… when we seek out those things that we want most in the world, we find that we are not alone on that journey. Opportunity is right there with us. It finds us and rewards us for taking that risky, expensive, and far away route. All we have to do is be willing to do is reach for it.

My dream is coming true, but only because I made a choice to make it come true. I made the choice to forge my own destiny and build my own opportunities. I chose to take on my dreams instead of sitting idly by in the hopes that life will build them for me.

It is only because I acted like the character from my dream that I found my shining lake. I went out and searched for something better. And upon finding my reset button, I pushed it, and allowed the experience to change me for the positive.

minor setbacks...

my computer crashed... for lack of a better term...

but i have a new computer now and im slowly getting all my files back up and running...

thats the news

got a rigger

my friend, Ashwin Inamdar, has agreed to be my rigger!!! Woo! bless his heart... being christmas, im rollin slow on gettin stuff to him, but im simply excited to have him on board...

and thats all the updates!

Work up til now...

I am going to be contacting riggers in the next few weeks. I have a list! so hopefully by January i will be set with that.

I am also starting on a 3D animatic over the holidays. So when that is done i will post it for criticism and comment...

and here is what ive worked on so far...
----------------
FILM



Two Characters...


Here is the Main Charcter all ready for rigging...


Here is the planet control room...




And... the storyboard in its current state...
----------------
PAPER

Positions im looking for

This entry is more for me to remember... BUT...

People and positions im still looking for. (Credit will be given and some payment can be worked out as well...)




General:

-SCREENERS
[towards the end, i will need "screeners" to run my footage by to make sure the film is working... you may think this sounds easy, but it require some serious feedback of what works and what doesnt for you. If you think you are up for it... toss your name in the pot for consideration :)]

-PHOTOGRAPHER
[I will need a headshot for the press packet and i dont have one yet. So if you are up for taking some professional pics of "yours truly" throw your name into the bucket]

-SOUND DESIGNER
[for obvious reason... the film will need sound... and good sound at that... no cheapo stuff here]

-COMPOSER
[Do you like to make original music... then this could be for you!]

3D / Animation:

-RIGGER (3D)
[I Need a RIGGER for my 2 characters. ASAP(this person needs to know Maya)]

-LIGHTER (3D)
[It is still early for lighting, but i will most likely need one to give my film that extra something]

-TEXTURE ARTIST (3D)
[this is a maybe... as i am doing the textures right now... but if the look doesn't go over well with my committee then it could change]

Pre-Production:

-CONCEPT ARTIST (2D)
[I would like to commission someone to make concept art up for the film so i can give others an idea of the look (i can see it in my head but others cant)... this person would be provided with reference but also given freedom to improve or enhance my ideas and the possible look of the film]

-MATTE PAINTER (2D)
[Once again... this is not an immediacy just yet, and i may already have someone taking care of this for me... the look must get locked before this happens]

-STORYBOARD ARTIST (2D)
[I have completed preliminary storyboards but if someone really shows interest i would love to see someone else take them and make some really nice looking boards. In animation, you can never have enough detailed information going into production]





that is it folks...

Remember, if you... or someone you know is interested in any of these positions send me a note and we will start a dialogue. I will need to see examples of your work also. thanks!

Out with the old, in with the new

So, I have been modeling what is to be the control room of sorts for the world my characters live on. Ive been working on it for a few weeks now and its been slow going. Ive been simply frustrated by it and today i asked myself "why?"

the answer? I hate it... i hate the layout of it... its quite frankly a really crappy layout...

so i went back to the drawing board and sketched out a whole new and cleaner layout... and im already much happier with it... this is what i SHOULD have been working with all along...



Where the old space felt claustrophobic, Ive now opened the space up. Im thinking "original Star Trek" of sorts. i want clean, smooth lines... and that "future" but not "too future" look. I wanted something that actually somewhat looked like someone, somewhere had sat down and designed this room on paper and then hired a team of people to build it.

The old room didnt give me that... and this room is... so yeah... its like a fresh start... almost.

hope you like it as much as i do.

spots to fill

As for where my thesis film stands... im still modeling the interior of the control room... But I have some positions i would like to fill... and yes, there might be some pay involved but it would need to be worked out... i need interest first!

People and positions im looking for. (Credit will be given and some payment can be worked out as well... understand that i am in college though and not made of money)

-RIGGER [I Need a RIGGER for my 2 characters. (this person needs to know Maya)]

-LIGHTER [It is still early for lighting, but i will most likely need one to give my film that extra something]

-TEXTURE ARTIST [this is a maybe... as i am doing the textures right now... but if the look doesn't go over well with my committee then it could change]

-CONCEPT ARTIST [I would like to commission someone to make concept art up for the film so i can give others an idea of the look (i can see it in my head but others cant)... this person would be provided with reference but also given freedom to improve or enhance my ideas and the possible look of the film]

-MATTE PAINTER [Once again... this is not an immediacy just yet, and i may already have someone taking care of this for me... the look must get locked before this happens]


that is it folks... if you... or someone you know is interested in any of these positions send me a note and we will start a dialogue. I will need to see examples of your work also. thanks!

final main character design... ready for rigging

Ive updated the emo model to its final stage... now to get it rigged...

i tried to do it myself but lets just say it was a really poor rig... so im back to square 1

early control room

Just to prove ive been doing something... Here is an early beginning to the control room for the "Revival Planet". Its been alot of trial and error and sketches and rip ups just to get it to here. Its a tedious process but hopefully one that pays off.

between this and my motion graphics class... which has become quite tedious for me... im working a fast as i can i suppose... i just wish i had more time or could move quicker.