PROJECT PROPOSAL


Calling all animators... I've got an idea for collective participation. An idea that will allow the individual to shine, while being part of a larger project. It could be a lot of fun. It could be a dud. But we won't know until we try.

In the last 18 months, I've produced three sizable independent projects. HIDE AND SEEK, FRANKENBERRY REDUX, and most recently TIMEBOMB. These have been long, lonely, and exhausting efforts. I'm now taking a break from the solo project and I want to try something a bit more free-spirited and open. Something more collaborative and unpredictable. This idea will feel reminiscent of CREATURE COMFORTS, and that's fine by me. I don't mind the comparison, as long as everyone has fun participating.

I'm opening this project to independently motivated animators, designers, modelers, and TD's in general, willing to work for the love of it. I'm looking to create a collective. A collective driven largely by the animators.

The idea is simple. Each animator will have a "monster". This monster will be of your own design and creation, or one can be designed for you. If you don't know how to model, I'll try to find modelers to help you out. If you don't know how to set up a character, I'll try to find someone to help set it up for you. I'll do my best. The amount of support I can provide will be limited to the amount of talent that responds. Because of the potential for file sharing, I'd like all work to be done in Maya. Alternately, the more work you're able to do on your own, the more control you'll have over your finished piece.

These monsters will be vocal. You can chose to be the voice of your monster, or we can find a voice actor. As you know, the voice track will drive the performance of your creature. You might even want to re-design your monster to fit the voice track you've settled on. In the end, I want you to love your monster.

Each round I will ask a few open questions or set up specific scenarios for the monsters. The size and type and personality of your monster will obviously determine the answers. You can choose to ad-lib the answers, write something up for your lines, or have something written for you. You can even open it up to the other animators to give you suggestions. It's up to you. In fact, your "answers" don't necessarily have to be in words...monsters might only "speak" in emotive grunts and groans. Answers and performances can be any length, generally under 15 seconds. Monsters can even have multiple answers to the same question. Multiple takes. Whatever inspires you.

This basically means that when a question is asked, you'll sit and decide how you're going to answer it (or ask for help). And then you'll figure out the performance and animate it. When it comes to recording, we should consider doing it together. I've found the best performances come out when beer and a small group of goof balls are together in a room. We'll feed off one another. Group recording is not mandatory, but if you miss out, you'll need to make sure your independent recording is high quality.

Or perhaps you'll want to be surprised. We can have voice actors record something. You won't know what the result will be until after the fact. We'll give you all the recorded dialog and you can pick from the selections. We probably won't, however, have the chance to go back for more recording.

Once you have everything (your monster is set up and you have your sound files), you'll have a set amount of time, like 60 days, to animate and render out your work. Will you need help rendering? I'll try to find someone to help out with that, too. You will then deliver to me rendered images on CD-ROM.

I will create DVD's for everyone. The DVD will include all individual animation submitted, and will also feature a "main track" that will have the various pieces edited together. Keep in mind, this means there's a good chance not everything will be edited into the "main track". That's okay. Don't take it personally. All work will be on the DVD. The "main track" will be edited for overall timing and entertainment value, creating a finished piece.

Everyone will be fully credited. Copyright ownership will break down as 70% to the artists, 30% to toonlets.com. Let's say you need help designing a creature, you need help modeling, you need help with set up, rendering, recording, and you need voice acting. The overall breakdown will look like this:

20% animator
15% character designer
10% modeler
5% set up
5% textures
5% rendering
5% voice actor
5% sound artist
30% toonlets.com

As you can see, the more tasks you do, the more ownership you retain.

My feeling is these short snippets may just be perfect for cellular phones. We might even consider animating specifically for the cell phone screen size (which is taller than it is wide, and calls for minimal camera motion). Currently, HIDE AND SEEK has been licensed for cell phones in Italy, and there's been talk of licensing for Japan. If I cut a deal with our monsters and some phone company sends me a check for a $100, I want everyone to know how the money will be distributed. On the flip side, if HBO sees your work and wants to buy your monster outright for a hundred million, we're all in agreement ahead of time how that hundred million will be shared. Before beginning, we'll have to agree to the above percentages. I will keep track of everyone who has participated, and in fact I'll try to publish updated information on the web for all to read.

Assuming there's the potential to make a few dollars, it pays to do as much work as you can by yourself. As for the toonlets.com 30%, that covers the project idea, organization, project management, dvd authoring, editing, and people networking (getting the final project "out there").

The plan is to go through perhaps 3 or 4 rounds of these question and answer sessions, with the hope that each gets better and more entertaining. I'd like to put together a sizable collection of varied, but related material. If we can get in a groove; if we find the work creative and motivating; we will move on to stage two.

My hope is that the characters will develop personalities of their own. Inevitably, some characters are going to be stand outs and others less successful. Again, don't take it personally. It's just part of the creative process.

But if we develop a handful of stand out characters, the next step would be to create short scenarios for the characters to act together. This will be difficult, since each animator will only animate their characters. File sharing will need to be worked out. More details will be discussed if and when this phase begins, but the goal is for stage two to see the creation of 60 second, multi-character scenarios.

This isn't just a small test. This is the first step in a much larger project. Only by starting small can we have any chance in completing the larger, more interesting material.

Interested parties should contact me at: jam(at)toonlets(dot)com

chris
rev: 05.27.05

Posted: Fri - May 27, 2005 at 09:21 PM          

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