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Podcast title The Process Diary
Website URL http://theprocessdiary.blogspo...
Description Paul Caggegi blogs about the creation of an independent animated pilot for his sci-fi action anime.
Updated Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:08:29 +0000
Category TV & Film
Arts
Technology
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Link to this podcast The Process Diary

Episodes
1. Work in Progress - December 2008
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Description:


Marcus and Corben Textured from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


The last WIP for 2008, and it's a good one. Please allow me to show you Marcus Blair and Corben Wallace finally textured.

It has taken me most of this past month, but I tackled the huge task of coming up with a texturing solution for my characters and have ended up with something I really like.

I got to know Kynan's models in fine detail as I worked to unwrap them. I made a few mistakes with Corben, trying to eliminate redundant faces so that there were less polys to texture, so I went back to the original mesh Kynan supplied. In this week's video, you will see some of the progress I have made texturing these two characters.

The Marcus mesh is an awesome piece of modeling (cheers, Kynan). Unwrapping it, however, was no easy task. A lot of the seams were not always on continuous edge loops, and many of the edges I wanted to make into seams were deep in the mesh's folds.

I originally textured Corben in a pretty standard way: slap some photographed textures over the exported color pass. The results were a little dull, IMO. I tried a different aproach with Marcus,, completely hand-painted the textures. Distressed metal is fun to get the hang of, and once you're on a roll, you'll want to keep distressing metal on everything. The technique is pretty simple.
  • I exported three passes: a color, AO, and UV map, then overlayed them in GIMP.
  • This gives me clues to where the raised edges are, so I know where to brush the color.
  • I create a layer over the color pass and under the AO pass (AO is at 75% ocacity, and I use a "darken only" transfer mode).
  • I paint on that layer in white with a fuzzy round brush along the edges I want the metal to have been chipped away by contact with other surfaces.
  • After I have roughed it out, I go over again with a fine brush and "flick" outwards from the thick base paint. I also use and eraser with a fine brush tip and "flick" into the white (this breaks it up a bit).
  • Finally, I use a couple of custom grunge brushes (available here) to add variance to the chipped look. (For GIMP users: these Photoshop brushes are instantly usable in GIMP 2.4 onwards. Simply place them in your "brushes" folder within the GIMP program folder.)
Ok, so those steps may seem simple, but Marcus has a lot of armor. It took me about 12-18 hours of work to paint, revise, check, repaint.


From Public Album

I added reflections to the material in Blender, and made sure it had enough "shine" to to to look as if it was once a polished metal. As an extra step, I made a reflection map by isolating the distressed layers, and inverting the color, so that when mapped onto the surface, only the red would be reflective, and the white would be diffuse.

It gives Marcus a really great, bold look, because the color palette I had originally chosen was not toned down by extra textures.

I added a hexagonal pattern to the body suit under the armor, and from that, I created a bump map. This material needed to have a low gloss, just enough so that when light passes over it, you notice the honeycomb pattern.


From Public Album


I went back and redid Corben's textures almost immediately after I finished Marcus, because I wanted to have them look as tho they belonged to the same team. I am much happier with Corben now. Sal should be a cinch.

From Public Album

That's all for this month (and year). I have a new promo doing the rounds, so if you have a podcast and would like to do a promo exchange, drop me a comment here on the blog, or email me at flawedprefect@gmail.co m and we'll swap promos.


From Public Album


From Public Album

Next year, I will be re-releasing this podcast feed. I went back and listened to older episodes, saw some of the older videos, and I could tell that there was an inconsistency in the quality, the video size, and even the players I chose to use.

I will always have the older episodes available off this blog, but I will begin to limit the ones released via the iTunes feed - this xml file is pretty big, and feedburner needs to truncate it in order to get it out there.

I am also toying with a slight new look to the blog, but it won't be too different from this brown.

The adjustments should take place just before the January discussion point is released.

Thanks for sticking with me this year. It's been a whole lot of fun, and I know it's been a slow process, but there shall be some real results quite early in the new year.

Merry Xmas all.


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2. Discussion Point: 12-08
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Welcome to this month's Discussion Point episode. I get down to some technical mumbo-jumbo with Kynan Stephenson - modeler of the Stanton Sandboaters.

We talk mainly about UV unwrapping, but we compare notes on modeling, unwrapping and rigging methods. Kynan brings a lot of insight on these topics, but that's not the end of it: we chat a bit about story construction while we're at it... and I dunno... maybe it's just part and parcel of hearing two 3D guys talk, but we very quickly get into Music to Model by... but never fear! It quickly leads to an interesting discussion on Neon Genesis and religious iconography in anime.

It may seem like a ramble, but trust me: it leads right into some juicy talk on the premise which brings about the world of Character Development.

If you're a visitor to this blog to read up on the changes, but don't have the time to listen to the chats online, why not get subscribed to the podcast via iTunes and listen to a couple of graphic guys chat about some pretty fascinating stuff? Stick it on your iPod.

The relevance of this chat for this December episode was because I am nearing completion of the Minauld rig, and have begun to texture Kynan's models. Like with the modeling process, we are getting into a to-and-fro with the texturing.

Here is a WIP version of Corben Wallace as he looks at present:


From Public Album

One of the things Kynan and I are discussing is the level of realism: should the textures be "painted down" as Kynan puts it, to a more toon-like representation of those materials? Any thoughts or comments you guys have would be much appreciated.

I received one interesting email from a listener this week, which I am sure is something on many of your minds:

Paul,

Nice music in your latest WIP video. Just wondering the name & artist... Thanks!

Great website/blog, BTW. Lots of useful things in there. I'm also big on Linux and am trying to get Blender to help me make sets & machines for a graphic novel. I'm also struggling with the same journey of writing, character design, etc. that you guys are. It's helpful and reassuring that these challenges are normal... ;)

-Abe

Cheers, Abe, for the kind words and for getting in contact. Most of the music tracks (besides the opening theme, which I kinda... composed myself) come from Garageband, so credit goes to uh... Apple, I guess? Beyond that, I use soundsnap as a resource for royalty-free (and cost free, in case you're wondering) tracks. In the past, getting free tracks meant having to settle for some poor quality home MIDI recordings, but soundsnap has got some really good stuff. If you find a track you like, email the artist who made it, and make them aware of the exposure you are giving them. They'll get warm and fuzzies and you'll get... good cosmic Karma. As well as a kick-botbot soundtrack to your next video!

If you do have the funds, I highly suggest you swing by magnatune and check out some of the tracks available there. There are some real pros on that list. You can listen to full tracks there, and then get in contact with magnatune or the artists to discuss payment for use of their music.

Buying the music outright, magnatune has a sliding scale system: pay as little or as much as you like for a track. I think 50% (or more) goes directly to the artist, so it's a pretty fine system, IMO.

Well, that's my commie-pinko rant for the month! Hopefully, I'll have a special "textured model" WIP video out just before Christmas for you guys - a good combo of Kyna's work, and my own.

Thanks for listening.
3. Work in Progress - November 2008
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Description:




Welcome to this month's WIP episode/entry. As promised, it is a showcase of the process I have gone through with the Minauld Wallace character. During the process, I had to brush up many of my more redundant skills in Blender, and learn a few new tricks that the updated software is now capable of.

So here's a breakdown:
  • Modeling
Modeling is my forte. It always begins with a concept sketch. The standard thing to do is use a front and side view, but you can sketch as many views as you want to get the best detail in the modeling process. I did a close up of Min's head after the body because I felt the first sketch was too "man-ish". One gripe most critics have had is that she is too masculine. There is a point, and I think her femininity will come out in her voice and mannerisms. I am thinking along the lines of Ed-o from the Cowboy Bebop series (SPOILER: Ed turns out to be a girl).


From Character concepts - June 08


From Public Album


From Public Album

  • Texturing
This was my most feared step until now. In earlier versions of Blender, UV unwrapping was limited to either primitive projections (cube, sphere, tube, etc) or some complicated flattening which was only editable if you spent weeks tweaking each point. I had some experience with Maya's UV un-wrapper, and was ok with its functions, but when I returned to Blender, I discovered that the unwrapping kept getting overhaul after overhaul. Current versions allow you to draw "seams" to aid unwrapping; pin specific verts so that each time you wish to update your unwrap, the mapping won't go all fubar on you. Here are some examples below of the unwraps I achieved within MINUTES:

From Public Album

  • Baking
I have always been a fan of Ambient Occlusion taken to a grainy, grundgey extreme which reminds one of a French film noir. I couldn't really paint this without going to great pains over the UV maps, so when I discovered "texture baking" I found my holy grail. My workflow now goes something like this:
  1. UV Unwrap (including seaming and pinning verts)
  2. Select base colors for your mesh (eg: skin tone for skin; rough material colors for specific materials)
  3. Bake materials
  4. Bake AO
  5. If you've used some procedural or tileable textures, bake a texture pass
  6. Take all layers into GIMP (or Photoshop) and layer them up: Material pass on the bottom; Texture pass; then AO pass.
  7. Add any textures you wish from library of files and place them over the unwrap
  8. Duplicate your AO layer and blur. experiment with transfer modes.
  9. When happy with the look, export a final, flattened texture
  10. Back in Blender, map onto your mesh
From Public Album

  • Rigging
Another area which constantly gets improved in all 3D apps. I discovered at a DMF talk by the boys over at Promotion Studios that Blender has a function with armatures where you can use "bone heat" to skin a mesh. This is literally a "one click" solution which generates the vertex groups based on the "heat" emitted from each bone in the armature. It gets it about 95% right the first go. You can either weight paint the mistakes, or assign weight manually to each erroneous vertex group, and then your skinning is complete.


From Public Album

Minauld has proved to be the experiment for all these methods. It has taken me a month of trial and error to get methods in place that I can now repeat within days on all the other characters. Kynan's meshes are quite hi-res, and I have tweaked them slightly where necessary to bring down the poly count for skinning and texturing, but overall, I've been pretty satisfied with the meshes I received. I still have to set morph-targets for the face, and some more extreme poses, but I'll re-attack that soon enough.

Next month, Look forward to a talk with Kynan, the modeller behind the Stanton Sandboaters.

Speaking of progress:

I have finally decided on the script I am going to use. It will be based on the pilot draft I used for the animatic - I found watching it back it had alot of stuff I really liked. The thing is I need to boil it down to the most crucial scenes. I am working hard to put enough set-up and explanation in the opening scenes, so that the audience feels as though these characters are doing all they can to achieve their goals... even if failure abounds.

Next year, I may be rebooting this process, using the work I have done so far as a study of sorts. I will be doing some redesigning of sets and props, as well as starting rigging tests on each character. From January onwards, I will be working to a close schedule (which I am in the process of finalizing). As much as I would love to give a list of excuses as to why I havent followed my previous one this year, I hate blogs which gripe about why they aren't doing something, so I won't in order to stay out of their rank and file. I know you'll appreciate it. :D

Until next month - thanks for watching!


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4. Discussion Point: 11-08
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Listeners-watchers-readers, meet Marcello: Co-producer, co-writer and uh... drinking buddy.

A few nights ago, over some pretty foul pizza and some even fouler pre-mixed drinks, Cello and I discussed the place of the pilot in terms of the over-arching storyline.

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT. I would urge anyone trying to write a script to not try this at home. Bourbon and Coke is BAD.

We discussed examples such as 2000AD; Firefly and even MacGyver (FTW?), citing them as good examples for characters who are inventive, and can get out of sticky situations under pressure.

Cello has a sense of beat and rhythm when it comes to story which is unlike my own, and I like to see the spin he can put on a scene from the discussion/writing phase. I think he's coming from a place similar to me (in which we like much of the same stuff, story-wise) but his differences are really what I think is going to make this an exciting process, and hopefully, some of that energy will be transferred into the story.

At this point, I am redrafting the outline, and along with Cello, I am putting the characters in "pure story" situations. Each character has an object of desire, some in direct conflict with others. This pilot, therefore, shall be used to play out the pursuit of those goals under a high-pressure situation.

I am parring back revealing diatribes, back-story and exposition. This is meant to be a taster; an introduction into this world. I believe if I focus on this, I can actually achieve the creation of this pilot. I think the pilot you saw in the last post/episode was too ambitious in scope. I also think that I can condense the story to ten minutes and just let the heart of the piece shine.

During the podcast, we discussed a few of the following. I have listed them below and provided links for further reading:
Incidentally, David Wingrove was involved in the writing of the Myst books, which I have on my shelf.

I hope you like these discussion point episodes. I intend to give them some congruity with the WIP episodes, but it seems the format might go a little backwards - ie: the WIP video will be a preview of the discussion point of the following month. I hope to rectify this in the new year.

Next episode, I have a very special WIP where I shall be revealing the modeling, texturing and (hopefully) rigging of Minauld Wallace.

A couple of extra notes right here, if I can sneak them in:

I am excited to hear that Steve Ogden (voice of Aziz) is back in the World and back on producing Moon Town. If you don't know, the voice of Minauld Wallace (Jane Newton) is also voicing the female lead for Moon Town, Cassandra Quinn. If you unsubscribed from the Moon Town feed, or have not heard of it yet, why don't you do yourself a favor and head on over right now and check it out: MOON TOWN.

Also: A special shout-out to Mat Forcum and his students. They are hard at work on their first animated short: Anabelle's Bistro. I have been following their new podcast with interest. Mat posts on his blog, House of Move. His students have been podcasting about the production of this cartoon and it is encouraging to hear their weekly discussion. You can subscribe via the house of move.

Finally: I have been to the Digital Media Festival this week. A huge event in my calendar from now on,. Part expo, part meet-up - all a chance to sit back and have a beer or two with other creative types.

Cheers for now, folks! I have a Minauld to rig...


From Public Album
5. Work in Progress - October 2008
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Work in Progress - October 2008 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


...The story so far: Paul Caggegi, a former Senior editor at a small post-production house, wrote a story about a world between ages.

This world had no moon, and was in a process of slow decline. However, because of a heightened degree of volcanic activity, and a substantial depletion of fossil fuels, Geothermal energy technology was developed, and the wilier of corporations managed to make a fortune off of this natural resource.

Economic powerhouses boomed to the point that their profits could sustain small cities, and eventually, larger and larger micro-nations.

On the edge of one such micro-nation lies a desolate wasteland called the Cadian desert, where none fear to venture. Its volatile tectonic shifting and high levels of radiation through its central bands makes it a dry, inhospitable place. None who venture into the Cadians ever returns...

Or so is the bedtime horror tale parents tell their children.

The truth is about to be discovered by Marcus Blair - a geothermal vent miner. He pursues a shadowy figure into the Cadians after his daughter, Sarah, is kidnapped. He is injured while crossing the threshold into the Cadians, and loses the trail. Certain that the desert will now claim him, he is surprised when he wakes up in the Commune of Stanton - a small band of anarchists, nihilists and atheists who have forged a new existence away from the cities they once called home.

He begs them to help him find his daughter, but none know how, so all refuse... but one.

The Captain of the Commune Sandboat (a trading vessel designed to cross the treacherous radioactive lines that run through the Cadians and dock at the Northern trade routes) makes him a deal. He will help him get information on his daughter if he agrees to help him in a conspiracy to bring a stop to the shifting of the plains for good.

The problem of the shifting movement must be stopped. It keeps many of the communes on the move, and many have died when their moisture caves have collapsed due to shifting. Bargaining with the native Cadian traders for information on the shifting proves futile, as they wish to sustain the shifting - it allows them safe passage between the Outland cities, where they pilfer goods and information, and trade to those Communes who have chosen to settle.

Marcus agrees, and so the mission begins.

The story of the Pilot episode takes place some five years after Marcus enters the Cadians.

Any feedback on this version would be welcome - please note that I am posting this as the script has now changed. I post this for posterity, and so you can see the progression of how the story changes, and what elements get kept in future drafts.

Email me at: flawdprefect@gmail.com or leave a comment here on the blog.

Next month, there will be the first "Discussion Point" and the start of the new format for The Process Diary.

Just because I could not resist, and because it IS a WIP episode, here are a current render of Minauld Wallace. I modeled this one myself in Blender, this past week, after sketching a few revisions of Minauld's face. Don't worry - there shall be hair soon. More to show and tell in the weeks to come.


Cheers, folks! I'll be back in two weeks.

Originally published November 1st 2008

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6. Fagin-omics... thinking it out again
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Hi folks, Paul here - back again on the process diary.

I've taken a small break from the intense scrutiny I was putting my story under, because I felt that I was getting into an area where nothing was good enough, the story was wrong, and that I may have to start over. Worse yet - I was doubting my story, and its validity.

Truth be told: I have a setting that's intriguing: a world on the cusp between ages, waiting for a hero to set things back in motion.

I was so far off my schedule, that it was practically useless all over again. I now realize why some productions go over budget, over time, and some times fail. I also realize that reading books like "Story" by Robert McKee, while extremely helpful, only cement the fact that our hindsight is ALWAYS 20:20, and that we can only see our mistakes and our successes in the full light of the day we accomplish a task.We can compare notes on productions which are completed, but never in the works. Books like McKee's read as tho the fully finished screenplay should leap out off the page, and grab the reader by the eyeballs and suck them into your world. While that's fairly inspirational sounding, it is impossible to do. You must draft, and draft, and re-draft again.

I am on my eighth draft of the pilot - it works in its own world, but it raises too many questions, and demands a pre-knowledge of the audience which only I have. And ultimately, I am not gonna be sitting in their living room saying "well, you see, Min is actually Corben's daughter, and that's why they hate each other..." If it is not obvious, the scenes of them together don't work. So I have to focus on what DOES. Rivalry? We can understand that - so make the scene more about that. We can concentrate on why they are rivals later.

So here's what I am doing right now, and what I plan for myself for the next block of time:

Story wise:
  1. Outline a brief history of the story - how we got to the place that made a desert like the Cadians possible.
  2. Draw a FRIGGIN map of the place, so you know where Market, Stanton, Young, the outlands, etc ARE.
  3. Illustrate how the Cadians function.
  4. Discern the "real" world from the "fantastical".
  5. Find each hero's desire, and explore how he/she would aim to attain that desire. THEN throw obstacles in their way.
Visually:
  1. Complete model-mesh clean up.
  2. Begin to explore textures, looks, colors, moods.
  3. Rig characters.
I have some new bibles on my shelf right now, and they in part, have halted my progression. This pilot was meant to be a "study" of sorts, but it is now an Opus. (Way to go, Paul). So i must par back the pilot to its absolute essentials.

I will get to those bibles soon. Right now, I have to figure out what to show you and in what order. I have decided that next month, I will put the full 17 minute cut of the first pilot up so you can all see what it has been. This is because when you see what it is, you will be able to gauge the changes made.

In the meantime, I have been attending life-drawing classes, and also have been practicing on some works to use as concept art for this project. I present them for you, now:


From Public Album


From Public Album

The anatomy on the second one needs fixing - I've posted this on CGTalk, and received some very good advice. I shall be showing a breakdown in an extra show soon, as well.

OK, that's enough ramble for this week. I'll be back, now, but on a fortnightly basis, as the work ahead of me is pretty intense. Reporting every two weeks might allow me to produce double the "wow" for each post.

Here's hopin'!

Originally posted October 16th 2008
7. Work in Progress - September 2008
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Work in Progress - September 2008 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


Ladies and Gentlemen, this very special WIP episode features for the first time some work NOT by me. Nevertheless, I am extremely excited to unveil it.

I first got in contact with Kynan a couple of months ago on a small local-ish forum called the DLF (That's Digital Laborer's Federation). Kynan posted a pretty sweet model for a demo he was working on. I was really running low on time and I really wanted this story to take off ASAP, so I contacted him and asked if he would be interested in modeling some characters for me, based on my concept sketches. Kynan sent me his rates, and I agreed to let him go ahead on Marcus.

He returned a render to me almost immediately. I knew then I had to pony up the dough to allow Kynan to complete his vision for all three sand boaters. He interpreted the designs faithfully, but took a few liberties where he felt necessary. In my opinion, it only served to improve the characters. We discussed points on Corben, for example - what kind of scarring should he have? How old should he appear? What parts should be modeled, and which parts will be left to textures to tell the story?

Here's a bit about Kynan Stephenson:

3D Background:


I originally started modding games like Jedi Knight when I was about 16, mostly creating models and assets for MP Levels using a mod community program called JED. Later I moved from JED into 3DS Max v1 (its certainly changed a lot from those good old days). I formally studied 3D for 2 years at AIE (Academy of Interactive Entertainment) in Canberra in my early 20’s. I am pretty much an all rounder dipping my fingers into Modeling, Texture, Rigs and Animation but probably my strongest area’s are in the model pipeline so Model, Texture and Rig. I’ve pretty much been a hobbyist 3D guy since my mid to late teens and have only moved into fulltime freelance work over the last 18 months.


The Rest of my work Background:


From the ripe age of 18 I started in the IT world working as an IT consultant for the Australian Govt. mostly working as a software analyst and later moving onto more technical roles in systems and integration analysis which are fancy talk for "I'm one of the guys who knows how a lot of the systems work both from a technical and a business perspective". I have pretty much contracted to the Govt. on and off for the past 9 years so I have been really lucky and picked up a lot of useful skills.


These days I’m pretty much splitting my time between the 2 areas, if I find a good IT contract I will jump onto it for 3 or 6 months still doing the freelance 3D in the background and then spend 6 or so dedicated months on the 3D side of things which is what I enjoy the most.


Kynan is extremely agreeable to work with, and obviously knows his trade. He models in 3DS Max and Z-Brush, and he does his texturing in photoshop. He knew I was working in Blender, so he went above and beyond and downloaded a copy of Blender to test the importing of an .obj file exported from Max, vs a .3ds file.


As you can see, he has modeled the sand boaters for me so far. I have someone re-working some of the vehicles right now, so as I revise the script for an eighth (and possibly ninth) draft, all the nuts and bolts are being screwed on in the mean time.

I've received great feedback in my decision to get some help in on this. I will still be doing the rigging, texturing, and final animating (all in Blender) but in order to speed to those steps, I hope you understand I needed the help.

If you wish to get in contact with Kynan, and think he can help you with some 3D work, you can email him at: Kynan_S@Condor3D.com

Originally posted September 25th 2008



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8. Thanks for the advice... but screw you Hollywood
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So I went back and watched my animatic from the fresh perspective of having my pitch be poo-poo'd by "Hollywood". Dan, a commenter on the blog (you can find Dan's work here: www.goofygraffix.com ) was confused as to my ultimate goal. He writes: "I had no idea you were shopping it around... I thought this was a personal project that would be available on DVD..."

Thanks Dan for making me realize I was probably confusing my audience with pitching. Also thanks to Matt (author of www.houseofmove.com) also for the encouraging words last week. He did seem to dwell on the backstory and not ask about the actual story... but I also admit I think I pitched the wrong story.

I've discovered that a pitch is a difficult thing to craft.

In this week's podcast, I address some of the comments and give special mention to those who sent me encouraging comments.

I've been reading a very extraordinary book: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. It is an eye opening look at the historical connection between myth, religion and our story's heroes. Part of solving the pitch (to Hollywood) is to understand the Hero's journey, and use that journey to pitch the story.

The encouragement alone could have been enough to keep me going with this. The pitch seminar taught me that I must be a good salesman, and package my product in a way that makes it appealing for the buyer. But it also told me that I was learning how to pitch it a very narrow market, and that there are those of you out there who would see this thing because it is NOT hollywood, and to you folks - you are the audience in my head; the audience I am ultimately pitching this to, and who will ultimately "buy" this thing. And by "buy", I mean believe it, like it, watch it.

My progress report this week reveals that I'm getting a bit of help with the project. Love it or hate it, I hope you don't think I'm cheating here, I know you're gonna be wowed next week when you get a peek at Marcus and Corben as they are looking right now.

I'll be taking a brief hiatus after next week's post, but there's a couple of real-life issues I can't avoid and need to pay attention to. But when I return in mid-October, I am endeavoring to wow you with a quantum leap in progress. In the meantime, if you wish to comment, or get in touch with me at all, please feel free to email me at: flawedprefect@gmail.co m I am always happy to hear from you.

Cheers,

Paul C

Originally published September 17th 2008
9. I pitched to Hollywood
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You've all heard the expression: "Those who cannot do teach instead".

I've been doing a lot of teaching and preaching on this blog. Yesterday, I had the chance to put my money where my mouth is, and attend a seminar entitled I sold my screenplay to Hollywood.

It was run by Steve Jasmine and Karel Segers. You can find out more about them at The Story Department blog.

I quote from the page they put up weeks before the pitching session:

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? We need scripts with a great concept AND a strong story. If we think you are almost there, we will ask you to work with us to make your film a cinematic experience for as many people as possible. Cinema is about connecting with people. We are not looking for screenwriters who just want to tell their own personal story.

And so I thought I had what it takes to "sell" my pitch to them as a Hollywood blockbuster that would make them loads and loads of money. This week's podcast features the pitch session recorded on 13/09/08. I played them my trailer, then read my pitch to Steve, who then proceeded to give me feedback.

The best thing about this was it was in front of about 20 people - 12 others who were pitching their ideas that day. I got to gauge their reactions to both my pitch and Steve's comments.

Suffice it to say... I do not have what it takes for Hollywood to be interested in my film. I took a lot away from this pitch, however, and it may be of great help.

You may think I am giving away the ending in my pitch (warning - it contains a lot of spoilers) but I've simplified a lot just to see if the gist would grab Steve Jasmine. Due to the fact that I am re-considering some major parts of the over-arching story, some of the things revealed are no longer relevant, so take from them what you will.

The biggest problems with the story (according to Steve) are:
  • It is hard to believe society will forget the past, as if we start from a clean slate
  • I pushed the boundaries of what is plausible too far
  • I am forcing the audience to accept my reality
  • There are too many "what ifs"
As I listened to other pitches, I discovered mine is but one of many that begin in that horrible setting of a dismal, post-apocalyptic future. This is the single most important point I could take away with me: Audiences do NOT want so see a world where we are in a bad place. It is not inspiring, it is not escapism, it is not entertaining. Life is shit, so why go to the movies and pay me money to see something that is even worse?

Fair point.

Some more recurring points resounded when others read their scripts:

The inciting incident should not be one of chance. We need to know that we were able to overcome anything that God, the universe, the Devil, your mum - can throw at us and still be ok. We need to have been able to succeed.

The hero should be someone we BOTH Admire, AND identify with.

The hero should not start at a point below "OK". ie: a crippled hero; one that has to fight jsut to get to the level we see every single day - that does not hook audiences. We want to see someone who appears to be just like us, then rises to discover they have a greater power within themselves.

Two things he THEN said which went against everything I had been taught (and this will really fry your noodle as it did mine) and I am gonna bold and italicize these words for maximum impact: The Hero ALWAYS gets what he wants. The Hero NEVER changes.

The greatest most attractive stories to us are ones where the world as we know it is in great peril, and is saved, and then goes back to the way it was.

THAT is the Hollywood movie formula which will make a story great.

Now the unanswered questions: Should I sell my script to Hollywood? Or are there other markets in which a story about a group of heroes trying to forge a new life in a hostile place will sell?

Can I pitch my story so it addresses all those issues above?

Originally published September 9th 2008
10. Actor Feedback Session
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I apologize for the length - it is probably the longest episode of the process diary I've recorded yet. It is, however, packed with interesting info, a few spoilers, and some great general banter from an excited cast (and some hangers-on) plied for comment with some wood-fired pizza and a bottle of 2006 Shiraz.

The voices you hear are:
  • Jane Newton - voice of Minauld Wallace
  • Osman Kabbara - voice of Sal Wedge
  • Adam Ring - voice of... every other extra
  • Sam Ardazinski - Jane's husband
  • Robert Caggegi - my younger brother
We watched the 17 minute cut of the pilot in animatic form, then I recorded this discussion (available via podcast on the iTunes feed, or by clicking on the heading of this blog post).

The comments were quite surprising. First, the actors concentrated on their own performances, then they went into the details of what they didn't understand and why. Finally, Jane revealed a shocking statement that she didn't know that the title of the series is CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

This session was extremely helpful. The story does not need structure revision - with which I am extremely relieved about - but there were certain plot-points and beats the actors did not get on first viewing. The various comments ranged from points of character relationships, to what they were referring to in their conversations. Most points will be addressed in the next script draft. Some made me smile, because I thought "that is exactly what I think should be a mystery at this point".

My plan now is to take two weeks to revise the script. In the meantime, models are coming to being finalized. For the sake of expediency, I have actually hired a character modeler to take my concepts and flesh them (or mesh them?) out while I fix up the script and the overall structure. There will be more about him later this month, and I look forward to showcasing hims work. He will provide you with the first glimpse into the world of Character Development like I never dreamed possible.

On a related note to story-telling, I attended a seminar last weekend. It was entitled "The Hero's Journey" and was run by Karel Segers of Ozzwood films. I learned about the most famous of archetypes - the Hero - and in relation to my own story, I had to re-evaluate who stood for what archetype.

I will go into a more detailed explanation on this in a later podcast this month, but watching it through, I discovered that each character is a hero in some way, and each goes on all or part of the hero's journey.

I hope you enjoy hearing the feedback. I highly recommend you keep it for later listening, and when the pilot is finally released, you listen back to this feedback session to see what the actors had to say before I went and changed it into the incarnation you will see.

Originally published September 6th 2008
11. WIP - August 2008
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Work in Progress - August 2008 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


Ladies and gentlemen... the storyboards are complete; the animatic is cut... and so this week I present to you a VERY special Work In Progress: The first draft of the Character Development Teaser Trailer.

I spent all of today just cutting this thing from the animatic. I hope it give you guys a quick peek into what the story is going to be about, but without spoiling it all.

I am a week out from the scheduled feedback session, and already, the actors are clamoring to see the cut. I have some final sound effects and panels to insert - there's some fodder for a couple of Process Diary entries for the next couple of weeks, right there. Once I have feedback, I will possibly be taking some time-out from the Process Diary to work out a few revisions.

Now a bit about the trailer. To create this trailer, I've used After Effects for the title sequences, and Final Cut Pro for the edit. The music is called "Ravenous" and credit goes to User Spinilius on www.soundsnap.com.

Soundsnap is a fantastic database of free (both cost-free and royalty free) music loops and sound effects for just this sort of production. I've actually used it for my entire sound effects track, which I will show you a bit of in the next week or so.

I'm in home territory now, cutting this trailer. I work in advertising, and cut promos, tv commercials, and info-torials every day. It's not that hard to sum up a story in a few sentences once you have a story. The usual trailer formula goes something like this:

  • A place
  • A mission
  • A reason to go on the mission
  • MOVIE TITLE
  • Story by: insert name here
  • Starring: insert names here
  • MOVIE TITLE
  • Coming soon
Of course, there are many other variations on this. I've said before I don't shy away from formula - it is there for a reason, and can greatly assist you in marketing your vision. But take a look at this classic clip from a few years back which pokes fun at the whole movie trailer phenomenon:

Commedian Movie trailer

The point of a teaser-trailer is simple: give the audience something to chew on; something to pique their interest - something which yells out "Hey - this show is for YOU. Come watch it!"

I hope this does the trick. As you can see, I've used the animatic shots to tell the story. As time goes on and I begin to replace the animatic with 3D renders, the trailer will again evolve.

So please, comment here on the blog, email me at flawedprefect@gmail.co m, and just SPREAD THE WORD about Character Development.

It's on, baby!

Originally posted August 30th 2008


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12. Need a Reference?
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Need a Reference? from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


I'm on the home stretch, now. I've storyboarded and rough-cut the first two acts for episode 1: Market. I flew through about ten pages last Sunday, and my wrist hasn't been this sore since... well before I was married.

I discovered that because Act 3 is predominantly action, I needed to find some really cool poses and angles. I've been fairly lucky being able to draw most things from imagination, but sometimes, I get stuck: If someone is pointing at you down a ten millimeter lens, is his elbow obscured? Where does his shoulder go? How big should his head be in comparison to his hand - or more importantly: his finger? How then, do I put this in my rule-of-thirds grid?

It taxes the mind, and that's when I need to take a break, and then take some pictures.

I am aware of many artists who cannot live without reference photos, and swear by them every time they are asked. Take a look at Jason Badower's work, for example, and he often talks about taking reference pictures for his Heroes work (He starred as Mohindir in a couple of episodes a few months back, having no friends to model for him).

I thought I'd give it a go, and Anh was happy to be my photographer (tho... not so happy to be in the pictures).

I've outlined how I go from picture to sketch in the vidcast this week, but here is a side-by-side comparison:

As you can see, I can use my reference to work out the finer points of perspective, and then use a little imagination to go the rest of the way.

I've been posing as Minauld, Sal, Izmir, Corben. Strangely enough, Aziz seems to take care of himself... or maybe I am just not that thin anymore.

So at about 50 pages in (50x6=300 panels), I have to admit I have been taking a few short-cuts. Is it cheating? Heck no. Work out the philosophy for yourself, if you like, but to me, it amounts to this: If all 3D is a cheat, then surely every step of the process can be cheated if the opportunity so arises?

What I mean is that we take short-cuts when we can. Sometimes, I need three panels to be virtually identical, except for a small change. Here is an example:

Not that panel 2# - only the lid flips up. Panel 3# - Corben's expression changes. I copied the first image twice, and made the adjustments in frame to make two more frames. In all, the first frame took me three or four minutes; combined, frames 2# and 3# took me thirty seconds.

Anyways, that's it for this week. I am racing to the finish-line now, with but five pages of script left to go... but I have no idea how many panels that may take me.

Originally posted August 12th 2008


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13. anatomy of an animatic
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Anatomy of an Animatic from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


This month is going to be a vidcast-palooza, and you guys deserve it. The final podcast for last month was recorded before the end of July, but the downloads kept on soaring. July boasts a total of 5,593 unique downloads. Not bad, considering the first month I began this podcast, my grand total was 20.

So this week, I began to cut my animatic. I have still got pages to storyboard, but in amongst the insane amount of drawing I've had to do, I managed to put aside an afternoon as re-record the Sydney cast. Osman gave a cracker performance as Sal Wedge, the disgruntled and under-appreciated Sand Boat loader.

I think I'm getting the hang of this director shtick! With Osman, I found that actually acting out the lines and allowing him to add his own personality helped him get into character and stay in character.

You'll hear a little of his performance in this week's vidcast, as I show you how I go from storyboard to animatic.

I go a bit fast, and for this I apologize, but you can see the programs I use and the methods I employ to export the individual frames from the storyboard sheets for use in a cut.

The programs I used this week are Photoshop CS3 and Final Cut Pro 6.03 - courtesy of KFilms (where I work). I'm actually quite relieved to have these tools at my disposal, as KDEnlive is not nearly up to snuff with the editing side, and I use FCP every day, so I can cut quite fast.

Photoshop is like the more expensive and flashier big brother to GIMP (which I have been using to sketch out each panel) and the reason I used it is because I needed a fast way to export individual frames from the 6 frame sheets into an exact-sized panel. The math goes something like this: 40 pages to date, 6 panels per page. 40x6=240 individual panels to export.

I could sit there and crop out 240 panels by hand, paste them into a comp and align them... OR I could be smart, and set up an action in Photoshop which does this for me.

GIMP at this stage can only do an action via Script Fu. And I'm not too good with scripting. For those interested in trying their hand at saving some scripts for GIMP, check out this page: GIMP SCRIPTS.

So why - I hear you ask - did I choose to make pages with six images per page? The answer is this: I can easily import each page into a pdf document for a future producer or studio to look at. It is far easier to flick through 40 pages than 240 images, and they can have a hard copy of it printed to flick through at their discretion.

So it's not a mistake (for once lol).

So this is how I got six images off each page and into FCP:

First, I had to set up an action. An action is basically a way of recording a bunch of tasks you know you are going to repeat over and over and over, then saving them, so you can apply it to other images.

The action I set up would crop each frame out of the page, and export the single panel into a folder of my choosing. I did this by setting up guides on the first frame, filling in a black square, then duplicating the black square five more times. This gave me objects I could snap more guides to.


I then switched off the black square layer, and began to record the action.


I set up a new action in my "custom actions" folder. Then i record the following steps:
  • Crop image 1#
  • Save as SB01.tga to folder: Animatic
  • undo crop
  • Crop image 2#
  • Save as SB02.tga
  • Undo crop
  • Crop image 3#
  • Save as SB03.tga
  • Undo crop
  • Crop image 4#
  • Save as SB04.tga
  • Undo crop
  • Crop image 5#
  • Save as SB05.tga
  • Undo Crop
  • Crop image 6#
  • Save as SB06.tga
  • Undo Crop
  • Save file
  • Close file
After that, I hit the "stop" button in my actions window and this effectively saves the action.


In the vidcast, you can see what happens when I apply that action to another board. This saves me a lot of time, you could imagine, but I still have to go back and relabel each export so that they number SB001.tga through to SB240.tga

Even so, the bulk of the work is done by Photoshop for me, and that's a good thing.

Next, it's time to import all the stills into FCP. Now I am a stickler for setting up a job template for all my work. In FCP, I set up an audio bin, and edits bin, and a stills bin. Audio is where I put the voice recordings; edits where I save my timelines, and stills where Import my freshly exported still frames.

I drag the still frames down to my timeline, and edit as I would footage, in a 16:9 comp. I found that the frame I was working in is actually slightly wider than 4:3, so cropping was minimal, and the compositions looked fantastic in 16:9. I only had to adjust the odd screen up or down to get the framing spot on - you could imagine my relief.

Editing is essentially getting the timing of the words to match up with the pictures. I am about 8 minutes into the first cut. This is looking as tho the pilot might actually fit into 15 minutes after all.

Creating the animatic takes very little time for me, because it is simply trimming the stills to time, and not drawing them. As I've said before, looking back over the work I've created thus far, I can see holes appearing, and putting them into the animatic, it is more obvious when something is missing - a pose, a shot, a cut away. I will be getting into how to fill these gaps in a future podcast, so stay tuned.

Special mention this week to my studio - KFilms. They were kind enough to allow me to use the work macbook and the software tools to produce the work for this week's vidcast.

KFilms is a post-production agency in Ultimo, Sydney. We handle all sorts of media - from digital signage to TV commercials. We can take your promotional package from go to woah.

For more information, visit www.kfilms.com.au or email info@kfilms.com.au

Originally posted August 7th 2008


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14. aspects of ratio
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Fellow independent artist and animator, Michael J Dowswell called me out on the flight forums about the aspect ratio I was using on the storyboards. This post and podcast is dedicated to him, and his unholy obsession with AR. Check out his work at Studio Tacitus. His work on "the rescue" is particularly good.

So Aspect Ratio is just a number to express what the frame of your film is, expressed in width to height ratio. There are two ways that are mostly used: integer or decimal - 4:3 or 1.33:1 respectively.

I normally don't quote the wiki, but in this case, the entry is pretty accurate, so check this out if you're interested in knowing more: Wiki Entry on Aspect Ratio

It is an important consideration when starting out, as it will define how you compose your frames, and since storyboarding is the stage at which you do this, it's very relevant to where I'm at.

Several things need to be taken into consideration when choosing an aspect ratio to shoot or render at.

I'll just focus on two, for the sake of brevity: Target audience, and scope of story.

The first is important because a TV audience expects different things to a movie audience. And these days, an internet audience expects things that are different again.

The second is wrapped up in many influences as to why this is so, but is your story intimate, or wide and sweeping? It is subjective, or objective? It is a space opera, or is it a Bug's Life?

Cinema scopes are by their nature wide, and all films from Lawrence of Arabia to The Incredibles have exploited it to good advantage. Films usually have big budgets, so wide sweeping vistas can be shot and displayed to give the audience a sense of expanse very easily.

This does not, hover, translate so well on TV. TV on the other hand, has traditionally had smaller budgets, and therefore, more intimate scenarios play out better. So a narrower scope works better in TV.

Lastly - the web age can arguably be considered aspect ratio independent, or free, but I would tend to disagree. Currently, YouTube works best with a 4:3 AR, even tho there are hacks to make wider ARs work.

iTunes, however, will play any aspects, but most iPods and iPhones are set out to accommodate wide screen. With Apple TV plugged into your plasma, you can download HD content - which is also 16:9 - and play it.

Because 16:9 HD is a format that is extremely popular, I am choosing to make the series available in this format.

This is a frame that gives me enough scope, but allows me to have intimate scenes as well.

Unfortunately, I have framed my storyboards in 4:3. Some of my frames will have to be adjusted to accommodate the difference. It is not a simple fact of making it wider. Here's why:

This is the 4:3 frame and the 16:9 frame side by side.

Here is a simple grid drawn over the two frames:


Each frame here is divided in 3 both horizontally and vertically. This is called the rule of thirds. It is a basic composition rule that allows you to position horizon lines, relationships between subjects and objects, foreground, middle ground and background, power relationships - the list goes on. Here is how:

It this example, the horizon line is just below the lowest third of the screen. This gives the sky the dominance. This is a great frame to put something large in, or flying objects. In contrast:

Putting the horizon there gives the ground dominance, so you can frame things from above, or focus on really small things.

Subjects in the fore-ground and background can be put in relation to one another using this rule also:


Now, the difference in framing is important when comparing 4:3 and 16:9 frames. Take a look at these two examples:

In the 4:3 frame, the subjects appear closer; the 16:9 frame, they appear farther apart. What do you think this says about the relationships?

So that's all I have for this week. Great news, however - I am nearing the end of storyboarding. So I shall soon be cutting my animatic. I record two more voices tomorrow - Corben and Sal (Corben shall be voiced by Joel Sarakula; Sal is a re-recording of Osman Kabbara).

I should have the Marcus reads from Orien within the next week, so it is reasonable to expect that the animatic will be well and truly cut by mid to late August.

ADDENDUM:

Michael just got in contact with me about a couple of errors in this week's podcast. Please read his comments below:

"2001 is shot in 2.20:1 and not on 18mm film. Bit of a mix up there...what happened was Stanley said bring the 18mm lens on bit of making of The Shining.

Kubrick was very much down in the lower ratios on most of his films with the only exceptions being Spartacus and 2001 which are both 2.20:1

He mostly used 1.33:1 for his films Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange , Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.
He came straight from a photography background and just loved working with those ratios.

They’ve actually started cropping his work recently quite savagely and a lot of people like me are very upset about it, because we’ve all come to know and love his films in full frame.

Mike"

Cheers for that, Michael. Some really informative stuff, there.

Originally posted July 30th 2008
15. Work in Progress - July 2008
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Work in Progress - July 2008 from Paul Caggegi on Vimeo.


This month's work in progress video: the first of the animatics based on a piece of dialogue I've had edited for over a month. I've just gotten to this page of the storyboards so I thought it appropriate to use it as a showcase of the work to date.

This edit took me less than half an hour. This is due to so much work that has gone before. The rest won't be so cut-and-dry, I know.

When story-boarding, I try to think of each most important shot to show. I am considering many things here. Aziz is a verbally diuretic intellectual, who poses in dramatic stances. Marcus is a stoic, stone giant. There is a great subtext I never thought of before at the scripting stage which came out purely by accident - notice the fondling and opening of the small crate? What do you think might be in it? It makes me feel as tho Aziz is going to pull out some sort of death for Marcus.

Could be. :D

I am as of this writing, at nearly 30 pages - almost a full week ahead of schedule. These shots comprise of pages 21 through 24. I think there could be some extra shots injected into that sequence, but I am determined to plow through to the end before I go back and revise the story-boards.

There's already scenes I am marking for edit. The edits range from shot sizes I think could be better, to shots I need to put in in order to explain events more clearly. I shall be showing some examples closer to the time.

One thing I WILL consider going back and changing, however, is the aspect ratio. (Kudos to Michael J Dowswell for picking up on that... albeit because of his unholy love for the 4:3 AR)

I shall preface this by saying: I AM HUMAN, THEREFORE I ERR. Coming from a video editing background, how could I overlook something as fundamental as Aspect Ratio? It should have been the FIRST thing I checked.

I didn't. I apologize. I need to go back and correct. What aspects am I thinking about? Probably a more cinematic 1.85:1 although the other night I was at an editor's seminar that featured footage shot on the new RED ONE and I am VERY tempted to cut the whole thing in 2:1 (Imagine THAT!) and render at either 2k or 4k.

This week, I also want to showcase the amazing efforts of my voice actors. I had but the merest inkling of what the characters should be doing in this scene, but it wasn't until I first heard Steve Ogden's interpretation on Aziz that I began to visualize how he may move and act.

And so I roughed out the scenes in my head. When the time comes to animate this, I shall have to resort to a tried and true method: film myself acting out the parts.

These past few weeks, I've really learned that the best way forward is to do focus on one task at a time, and not diversify too much. I am pushing modeling back until after the storyboards are completed. I am frantically reading up on things I shall need to know soon, such as texturing (my weakness) and I am formulating some very specific looks.

Milt Kahl - one of the "Nine Old Men" of Disney - once said (and I paraphrase of course): "Animation is doing one thing at a time." His justification? "I'm not smart enough to think of more than one thing at a time!"

Perhaps, despite this day-and-age, the old guy was onto something. And I had to figure it out the hard way. But I'm in here for the long haul. You guys are gonna tag along, right?

.....RIGHT!?

See y'all next week.

Originally posted July 20th 2008


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16. Slow ride, great view
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The past few weeks have been a bit of a slow roller coaster. I've had some hurdles, as I've blogged about, but I've also caught up in other departments.

More and more, however, I am realizing it is a slow but steady race to the finish line. Some people I have been talking to over the past few months have begun to doubt the validity of their own stories, and this week's podcast is a short cheerleader chant to them, as well as a quick essay on the importance of story.

I haven't got much to show this week, as I am really plowing ahead with my storyboards. I will reveal one or two pages on this blog, just to keep you guys in the loop, but my quota of five pages a week has been smashed because I am currently at 22 pages (count them: 6x22=132 panels) and I am getting better at drawing with every panel. This means I am just two scenes away from the end of ACT I. I think I'll crack a bottle of the Old Wynyard open when that happens.

By the end, I think I'll be drawing some Da Vinci's for sure.

I re-recorded Jane this week with my new set up. I not only got a better voice, but an even BETTER performance. Steve provided me with some "shouty" tracks for one of the final scenes, and when I put these up against Jane's reads and my own, our fake shouting just didn't hold a flame, so I said to Jane: "stand back, and let her rip".

I don't know what the neighbors would have thought, but I can tell you that I believe Corben and Minauld are caught on the top of a speeding Sand-boat during a meteor storm... oops, I have said too much. :D

Joel's Corben reads have yet to be recorded, and I am still waiting on Orien's Marcus reads, but I have time.

So as promised, some new storyboards for you to perve on: