Launches, Eggs, and Hens

First is my launch site. I'm liking the textures but may play more with color/color replacement to make it look not so Crayola-y

Here is my hen. She probably won't move except for a tilt of the head or maybe she shifts her weight to better settle into the nest. Im considering putting the ducks in full color.

Here is an initial go at my space egg. I want to add more lighting and shading to create more of a 3-dimensional illusion on the inside of it. And I need to figure out how to mask my particle party.

Plot Reducking

Plot Work

PLOT STRUCTURE SHEET

"Astronaut and Duck"

This story is about an Astronaut.

The Astronaut wants to investigate and discover the source of a signal from the moon.

Improper funding and technological hinderances prevent the Astronauts task from beings easily executed.

The Astronaut not only needs to find the source of the signal but he needs a win for himself. This discovery will also reestablish the necessity for future funding of the NASA program.

Inferior equipment prevents him from swiftly completing his task, then it causes him to tumble into his lunar lander and it starts to roll away from him. Then a duck appears which briefly halts his progress. When the duck helps him to return to his drill he sees that its results were inconclusive. The duck then appears to want to communicate with him, this is a trying task. Then he has to leave the moon and the duck, this proves emotionally difficult.

Our Astronauts faulty equipment and an inherent inelegance are the Astronauts first interruptions from his mission.

Our first turning point is during a big tumble when the Astronaut happens upon a duck on the moon.

The two then have to get the lunar lander and themselves back from the dark side of the moon.

Once back from the dark side the Astronaut then has to figure out what the duck is trying to tell him pertaining to his drill/mission.

Having found the goal of the mission, the Astronaut is hesitant to leave the duck out on the moon.

Astronaut and Duck

Elevator Line

An astronaut tumbles into a flock more than he bargained for during a research mission on the moon.

Theme

The astronaut and duck companionship resembles Man seeing himself in an animal; one being alone in the unknown. Through their partnership the duck reminds the astronaut of simple solutions, coping with unwanted results, and the mysteries of nature; and the astronaut provides the duck much welcomed companionship and spoils of comfort.

Tone and Execution

The aesthetic of this piece is not unlike the popular television cartoon, South Park. However, there is more of a "drawn" aspect as well as assembled, textures are emphasized more, and there is use of scanned practical objects for certain elements. The tone of this piece is that of an adventurous comedy; ideally you'll laugh and maybe learning something about patience or the ability to endure.

Objective

The goal of this project is to make a successful short film that not only expresses an artistic intent, but also entertains.

Target Audience

My target audience could be the 18-25 range and maybe the older crowd could appreciate the handmade aesthetics of the piece. I wouldn't be surprised if kids liked it though since it's basically G rated and has friendly looking characters; and that'd be great if they did like it.

Storyboards

Midterm Checkpoint

Instruments used as foley introduced.
The duck is only going to quack.
Proper beginning and ending to be added.

Final Project Proposal

I would like to continue developing my Astronaut story and complete it as a proper animated short film.

I will be adding more of a beginning to the story to better establish why this guy is on the moon and what he may be doing up there. And maybe I'll add low oxygen levels to add a sense of urgency to his getting back to the ship.

I'm not sure where the story will go quite yet. But the duck will be helping the astronaut to help himself for the rest of his journey. Showing him perhaps logical way to solve his problems that may have been so subtle that they were overlooked.

I'd like to have a nice elegant sound design to the piece and better establish a mood or atmosphere. I do still want it to have a comedy aspect to it, but I also want it to be an exciting ride where we're rooting for the guy.


As a side project I also have been wanting to plan a body of really nice cinemagraphs and perhaps figure out how to exhibit them.

A Clearer Dark Side

Made my paint splatters on transparency paper. (Which didnt matter because I couldnt figure out how to scan them translucently. May it did effect how the water dried.

And made the whip-crack of the grapple rope fling him faster across the screen. I had already exported when I saw that I still didn't put digi-interface stuff on his wrist in that shot where he looks at his wrist.
I like the cleaner paint splatters, but I may try and export "dark side" stuff at 12 fps and put it into the 24 fps story just to give it a little bit of that choppiness back,

Sound will be something i tackle over the spring break.