And here's a little extra thing: my key pose pencil tests for some of the ending animation.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Storyboards for Final Project
And here's a little extra thing: my key pose pencil tests for some of the ending animation.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Treatment and Timeline for Final Project
Treatment: My film project is a bit ambitious as it is set to the three-and-a-half minute song, “Lake Pontchartrain” by Ludo, and follows the plot the song lays out. It will incorporate traditional character animation and a comic book aesthetic as the story unfolds. The “reality” of the short is our narrator sitting in a police interrogation room, trying to explain to the police what exactly happened to his friends. These shots will be fully animated with traditional hand-drawn animation. The comic book look will come in as a visualization of the narrator’s imagination as he tells his story. It will feature a lot of half-tone overlays, and will have more limited animation.
The story follows the narrator and his two friends, Darius and Nolan who are trying to get out of Missouri for reasons unknown, as the narrator explains to the interrogator. Taking the 55 south to Louisiana, they stop at a local joint to eat—the narrator’s friends both have crawfish, and the narrator sticks to chicken.
By the time they get back out on the road, a nasty storm is blowing in, and our gang of protagonists is listening to the radio when the song they’re listening to is suddenly interrupted by a strange local show where all they hear is this mantra:
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
rest your soul and feed your brain,
that’s where you will get to see
everything the water can be.
They decide to ignore it, turn off the radio, and keep driving.
By the time they reach Slidell, a town on the northeast border of Lake Pontchartrain, the rain is so heavy outside that they’re having trouble reading the map in the car. They pull off into a motel parking lot so they can figure out where they’re going to go next, when they’re suddenly accosted by a haggard old man who seems to appear out of the lake itself. “He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, banging on the windshield, screaming like a demon at the top of his lungs…”
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
rest your soul and feed your brain--
free for you and all your friends,
crawfish ‘til the bitter end!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
wade to where the shallows break,
that’s where you will get to see
everything the water can be.
Needless to say, the narrator hightails it out of there. He tries to get back on the interstate, but the highway has flooded, so he takes a road through the woods. He admits in the narration that this was a poor choice in retrospect—this road disappears in the rain, and he almost runs into a sign. When he finally slams on the breaks, he and his friends realize they’re right next to Lake Pontchartrain. Darius says he sees somebody out in the water, and runs out to help them, and Nolan follows—the narrator shouts after them to come back, wondering, “why the hell would they leave the car?” That’s when the narrator hears voices calling for Darius and Nolan… coming from under the lake itself.
Suddenly, a huge tower of water starts to rise out of the lake, with crawfish and skeletons and all manner of disgusting things inhabiting it, all vocalizing together, swaying hypnotically to the music as Nolan and Darius approach the shore. The narrator gawks, frozen by his own terror, unable to do anything. Everything starts to shout the same mantra from earlier:
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
COME DOWN TO LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN!
The song finally reaches a fever-pitch, the tower of water reaches its zenith, and, “horribly roaring,” it crashes down on Darius and Nolan and drags them into the lake.
“That’s how it happened,” cries the narrator to the police officer, “Why would I lie? There were no bodies, I’ve got none to hide!” His expression sours for a moment before turning lamentable again. He walks to another officer in the room, and another, imploring them to believe him. “I’m just a boy who lost his friends in the rain—any more questions? Just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain!” He snarls the last line, and crosses his fingers behind his back.
He’s been lying the whole time.
Timeline:
October 27th: Complete "nothing to hide" shot with full color, key frames for other interrogation sequences, starting on backgrounds, finalize character models for "in-world" sequences
November 3rd: Completed animation for interrogation sequences, completed backgrounds, coloring animation for interrogation sequences, creating "comic book" graphics
November 10th: All interrogation sequence shots completely colored and compiled. Comic book graphics (Lake Pontchartrain sign, speech bubbles, etc) complete.
November 17th: Completing animation and compiling of "in-world" elements.
November 24th: Compiling shots together, adding music, rendering.
The story follows the narrator and his two friends, Darius and Nolan who are trying to get out of Missouri for reasons unknown, as the narrator explains to the interrogator. Taking the 55 south to Louisiana, they stop at a local joint to eat—the narrator’s friends both have crawfish, and the narrator sticks to chicken.
By the time they get back out on the road, a nasty storm is blowing in, and our gang of protagonists is listening to the radio when the song they’re listening to is suddenly interrupted by a strange local show where all they hear is this mantra:
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
rest your soul and feed your brain,
that’s where you will get to see
everything the water can be.
They decide to ignore it, turn off the radio, and keep driving.
By the time they reach Slidell, a town on the northeast border of Lake Pontchartrain, the rain is so heavy outside that they’re having trouble reading the map in the car. They pull off into a motel parking lot so they can figure out where they’re going to go next, when they’re suddenly accosted by a haggard old man who seems to appear out of the lake itself. “He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, banging on the windshield, screaming like a demon at the top of his lungs…”
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
rest your soul and feed your brain--
free for you and all your friends,
crawfish ‘til the bitter end!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain,
wade to where the shallows break,
that’s where you will get to see
everything the water can be.
Needless to say, the narrator hightails it out of there. He tries to get back on the interstate, but the highway has flooded, so he takes a road through the woods. He admits in the narration that this was a poor choice in retrospect—this road disappears in the rain, and he almost runs into a sign. When he finally slams on the breaks, he and his friends realize they’re right next to Lake Pontchartrain. Darius says he sees somebody out in the water, and runs out to help them, and Nolan follows—the narrator shouts after them to come back, wondering, “why the hell would they leave the car?” That’s when the narrator hears voices calling for Darius and Nolan… coming from under the lake itself.
Suddenly, a huge tower of water starts to rise out of the lake, with crawfish and skeletons and all manner of disgusting things inhabiting it, all vocalizing together, swaying hypnotically to the music as Nolan and Darius approach the shore. The narrator gawks, frozen by his own terror, unable to do anything. Everything starts to shout the same mantra from earlier:
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain!
COME DOWN TO LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN!
The song finally reaches a fever-pitch, the tower of water reaches its zenith, and, “horribly roaring,” it crashes down on Darius and Nolan and drags them into the lake.
“That’s how it happened,” cries the narrator to the police officer, “Why would I lie? There were no bodies, I’ve got none to hide!” His expression sours for a moment before turning lamentable again. He walks to another officer in the room, and another, imploring them to believe him. “I’m just a boy who lost his friends in the rain—any more questions? Just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain!” He snarls the last line, and crosses his fingers behind his back.
He’s been lying the whole time.
Timeline:
October 27th: Complete "nothing to hide" shot with full color, key frames for other interrogation sequences, starting on backgrounds, finalize character models for "in-world" sequences
November 3rd: Completed animation for interrogation sequences, completed backgrounds, coloring animation for interrogation sequences, creating "comic book" graphics
November 10th: All interrogation sequence shots completely colored and compiled. Comic book graphics (Lake Pontchartrain sign, speech bubbles, etc) complete.
November 17th: Completing animation and compiling of "in-world" elements.
November 24th: Compiling shots together, adding music, rendering.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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