Gerry

Okay, I think I've got the hook I need. The cookies are gingerbread men. She dives into the TV and dances with them, when their heads, arms, legs start disappearing with a crunch. She watches in shock as they're being eaten while they're dancing! We return to the view of her on couch, fast asleep, and pan over to a closeup of the plate of cookies. Only one remains, and we see Santa's hand come in and take the last one. The end.

Here's her T-pose. I think she's gotta be a hardcore Santa groupie, the cookies will be Santa-shaped, her note will be on Santa stationery, etc. and the "punchline" needs to be more sassy than heartwarming. I'm still trying to tease out a joke but I think I'm getting closer.

Character sketch.

What I need to do is turn the "cookies for Santa" cliche upside down or inside out somehow.

Thanks for the comments! I agree the payoff needs work. I'm not opposed to using Santa but given my time constraints I'm trying to keep it to one character as far as animating goes. Doing the dancing cookies will be somewhat of a cheat since there's no hands or face to animate, and it's "only" a kickline with a looping, reusable action. My wife had a similar suggestion for Santa coming out of the screen, not butt-first, but that's pretty funny! Definitely open to suggestions! I'll be using as many props and models from the extras cd and library as possible.

Welcome to the forums maddle. Bienvenue!

Hi Mike! As I said up above, nice to see you posting here again!

Here's the rough, unvarnished storyboard and a character sketch. A little girl falls asleep in front of the TV waiting for Santa to arrive. We think it needs a better payoff, and my boss wanted to know if I could do this in time for Christmas as we're getting busy again. Of course I said yes!

that was fun!

Had to mention this when I looked down at the day's birthdays. Caroline's decaling and rigging tutes continue to be invaluable. I wonder if the International Dateline comes into play and if her birthday might be either tomorrow or yesterday, but I say to heck with the niceties! have a good one!

You should really consider putting it up on YouTube.

That's a beautiful poster, mark! You should check out some Print on Demand services before you go getting large quantities printed. CafePress, Zazzle and Lulu come to mind, and I'm sure there are probably others. EDIT: Here's a review of Zazzle I just came across... http://emptyeasel.com/2008/04/22/my-review...ters-on-demand/

Looking more and more brilliant all the time! I'm curious about the scale. Is it scaled-down, or "life sized"?

Hi Walter - check out Robcat's excellent keyframing tutorial at http://www.hash.com/two/RCHolmen/KeyFrameOptionsMP4.mov and all will be revealed!

absolutely top notch work!

Yo ho ho!!

For some reason "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath just popped into my head while looking at your group shot. Kind of a non sequitur but I could see it!

Mark, your gags keep getting better, and the posing and "acting" are great!

That's an interesting idea! I've been jotting down notes and I've got three ideas I want to sketch storybds for, but to be honest none of them are really grabbing me and it's making it difficult to get enthused. I may just try that!

How about some over-the-top gooey love duet? Unless you're wanting to do something for Halloween.

Much improved skin color! That's what I'm talkin about!

Longer arms, bigger hands! (hey, I'm just trying to help.)

Love the ogre! He sings backup, I assume.

Not technically a WIP just yet, but I wanted to start a placeholder thread. I'm going to have to put my "Nightcallers" work aside as it's the time of year when I have to start thinking about the company Christmas animation. I need to sketch out some ideas (I like to show three) and pitch them to my boss. Then it's off to the races. As long as it's creative and catchy, she's pretty flexible (see: the Christmas Snail) and likes me to have fun with it. This year I'm determined to center it on actual CHARACTER ANIMATION, yes I said it. So that's what I'll be pitching. Now I just need to come up with some ideas!

What Mark said. You can't take anything for granted when it comes to pixels and their shapes when converting from one app to another.