Ilidrake

I couldn't stand the thought of short changing on a model so I hunkered down today, with no inspiration of where this charactet was going, and so far this is what I have for Latimer's father. Over all I like where it's going. It started out rough but I've spent a couple hours tweaking, adding splines, deleteing splines. Now I have to add hair, glasses, and teeth. Compliments, Critics!!! Edit: With hair. I guess next I'll add eyebrows and then teeth and his inner mouth.

Quick question. Should I devote the time into creating a new model for the Father, or would aging Latimer work? I hate to go the short route and it not come across convincingly. I don't won't people being pissed cause I was lazy....never mind, answered my own question. Here's a quick render I did playing around with Latimer.

Alright I've decided instead of finishing a model completely, I'm going to just work on the entire casts heads. Faces are really complex and take the longest time for me because I will tweak them for days. So I have Latimer, the main character, and now I'm working on his mothers head. Here's what I have after an hour. Edit:Here's a render of her with particle system hair. The results are really nice. Edit:Edit The Mother's head is complete. Textures, teeth, gums, and particle hair! Ta-Da!!! Moving on to the Father.

Thanks Darkwing. I've actually went back and checked out some of my older posts and was like, WOW! LOL It's sad when you impress yourself...anyway I hope to get some good feedback about the script. Good or Bad I'll take it all!!! So I'm calling it a night but on a side note here's a final render of Latimer with texture maps and hair. I went a head and played with the settings on MuhHair and I can can this is probably as good as I can get it. Tomorrow I start clothing the guy!!!!

Thanks for the feedback guys! Funny you should mention that Rodney. I've spent the entire day tweaking the splines and then decided I didn't like the weak jaw so I brought it forward a great deal. It's much better looking and gives his mouth and jaw a better look. I also went ahead and added hair to get a better feel for the his personality. Next I cloth the guy!

A little more work on Latimer here. A little more personality is starting to creep out. Did a bit of shifting of the splines. Added a few here, took a few away there. Added eyes and redid the ears completely. Overall he's looking pretty good. Like everything I model I have to wonder if he'll animate well....of course IF I animated any of them I'd know LOL.

I'll have to send you the latest revision as I've been editing it quite a bit the last couple days. Rodney gave me some feedback that was really helpful in rounding out one of the characters, so kudos Rodney!!! Here's the character with ears added.

Things on this project are steadily moving forward...(so hard to find the energy)...So I have the script finished(until I read back through and start tweaking issues) but it's there. So I decided to start on the main character. Latimer. Here's the start of his head. I think it's about 30 minutes of work. Still needs massive amount of tweaking but it's a start.

What will the frame rate be? And speaking of such which is the prefered frame rate used for the following: movies? webeisodes? TV?

My general approach is to just use surface attribute colors. I get a picture of gums and teeth, load it into photoshop, and get the RGB numbers and enter them into AM. It's close enough to pass.

WOW!!!

Same wagon here, although my career is probably less involved. I work 28 days and get 28 days off so I do have some time to devote to my projects. I would like to do it full time but think I'll wait until I retire.

Checked out Salvador Dali art but I can't say that's the route I would take. Good inspiration though.

I'd be willing to pair up. Modeling would be my primary skill set so hit me up if you'd like to work together.

What is the Dahli style? I was thinking more along the lines of my own visual style. Anyway all of that aside, I've been writing like mad this last week. I'm actually writing a script for this and I must say I'm quite stunned at the ideas that are popping into my head. I had the general, broad view, of the story but none of the small details like dialogue between characters and set designs. now all of these elements are starting to come to life and I'm very satisfied. This is of course a rough draft and I have parts I don't like much but over all the feel is very good. I have a few issues with showing any of it in detail but would love to get feedback from Rodney, Darkwing, and Nancy if you guys are interested. I could email a pdf copy for you guys to look over. Of course if you do want to read it please understand I've never written a script so it is very rough and clumsy. I'm using Final Draft Pro though so it can't be as bad as I think it is. Though it's probably worse

I love ur style

Well not to sound rude but i have invested alot of time and money into learning to animate and model so.....ya im gonna make an animated film. Else i wouldve got into some other hobby.

Quick question. Would Cleopatra make a good villain?

It's one of those ideas that I've been tinkering with and building on for about 2 years now. At least I think it's been that long. At any rate I would really like to pursue it but it's scale is probably bigger than one person can accomplish. I'm not saying I won't, I have in fact drawn some sketches of some of the characters. As well as I continue to write on the story and tinker with a script. Rodney, you know I value your thoughts and would love to hear more about what you think. If you have any areas that could be improved or thoughts for something diffrent please let me know. You too Darkwing!!! Someone who has actually done a webisode or animation is someone who's opinion I value.

Another idea a friend of mine helped come up with is about zombies from outer space

I'd like reserve 22 plz.

Hello! The name is Ilidrake and you'll find me lurking all over the forums...even when I'm not looking. So hello to the new guys...and gals, and hello to the old guys....and gals......again

Okay this idea seems to have stirred a slight bit of interest so I'm going to write up a story and character summary for everyone to bash around. Please note that it is still a work in progress and nothing is written in stone until I say otherwise. Also note that putting my ideas out here like this is something that has never, ever occured. Latimer is a normal eleven year old boy. He lives in a not so normal world. His parents are not wealthy but they are very well to do. So much in fact Latimer's mother loves to put on airs. Even if there is no one to impress. His father, wanting only the best for his family, allows his mother to live in this fashion. He may not approve of it completely but he does so enjoy it sometimes. Unfortunately Latimer has a very bad disagreement with a cherry on his ice cream and he dies at the young age of eleven. Though he realizes it or not his parents are crushed by this lose. And even though it would be wonderful for some event to occur early in this story to show him this, it isn't. Instead the boy is “unburied” on the other side by a person known simply as Gravedigger. He's a simple gatekeeper between the land of the living. He tries his best to make sure that all those that pass over are pointed in the right direction upon “waking up”. After calming the boy down and explaining what has occurred he points him in the direction of a small city nearby. It's the only city in the land of the dead in fact. It was built here by the bad guy(no name or idea who the main villain is yet). Built around the great portal to the beyond. Unfortunately for poor Latimer the bus stops here. Literally! The Villain has not allowed anyone to pass beyond the gate for many years. His excuses have no boundaries and he enforces his law with giant skeletons under control of his magic. Truthfully the Portal of the Great Beyond still works. Though to ask the Villain you would think not. Instead he has blocked all from leaving and is using the souls of the departed to fuel his own evil machinations of domination. Not content with just ruling the dead he has conceived of a plan that will allow him to bridge a gap between the two worlds and rule both with a iron fist. But he did not see a small boy in his plans. Because like all boys his age Latimer has many questions. The only thing he lacks is the self confidence to pursue them to the end. At least at first... As Latimer takes off to the City of the Dead he is greeted by a most unusual fellow driving a horse driven carriage. The Man! The Myth! The Legend! None other than Death! Who is completely depressed being out of a job. Since the Portal beyond quit working no souls have needed to be ushered to there final resting place. Instead he ushers them to the city where he owns part of a pub. The pub, named The Raven, is also part owned by Edgar Allan Poe. Of course it's only part of Poe that owns part of the pub. Just his head really. Which spends most of his time on the pub's small stage reciting many of the lines from his books. And he's quite proud of them. But also angry. Everyone enjoys a bit of his poetry from time to time, but not any new material. Whenever he attempts to quote something new he gets booed. These two fine fellows quickly friend the boy. But Latimer cannot accept that this is all there is to it. And why the city, if it can be called that, isn't any bigger than what it is. Where is everyone? Shouldn't this place be filling up on an hourly basis? Death and Poe try to explain it away with the same excuses they themselves have been told time and time again, but Latimer isn't hearing it. He sets out to meet this Villain and get some answers. And meet the Villain he does. But the Villain dislikes being questioned and banishes the boy to an old deserted castle that the Villain himself used to inhabit. After a bit of exploration Latimer runs into Franky. The last experiment of the Villain. And also the reason that the Portal of the Great Beyond being closed. Franky of course has some quirks. He is a monster and knows it, but the Villain accidentally fused small parts of a woman's brain into Franky's so he has great fashion sense. He sometimes forgets what sex he is and Latimer needs to constantly remind him he is a boy. Franky also has a terrible temper. He knows this and is probably one of the reasons he allows his feminine side to wander into his day to day affairs. He knows by allowing the anger out he could hurt many many people. So that's kinda what I have so far. No major scene ideas just a general synopsis of the story I have in my head right now. I've really been giving all the characters a bit more thought and I've been flushing them out on paper. So feedback, ideas??? Things that don't work? Things that could or do work?

When you say write the story with only those three characters, do you mean without Latimer? Because the original idea had nothing to do with the boy at all, he simply formed as i fleshed out more of the story in my head. And the cherry just sort of popped in there too. I could imagine Latimer setting all proper at the diner table, his parents stiff and unapproving. A maid enteres and places an ice cream sundae topped with a cherry in front of each. Delighted at the treat the boy takes a huge bite and then his eyes bulge as he gasps for breath. As he struggles his parents contiue to discuss grown-up things completely oblivious to the boys peril.... for some reason I can picture that scene being animated to be very funny. But yes Rodney. I can write just about anything if you give me sufficient time. What do you have in mind?

Well like the title says I'm just bashing ideas around. I'll sit on my Alice idea for a bit longer. Another idea I have is a bit darker, with some Burton type humor. Latimer, a boy of about 11 years old, dies one evening while having dinner with his parents. He chokes on a cherry. He comes from a well-to-do family who are very proper and stiff. This of course has made the boy miserable his whole 11 years of life. He wakes up in the land of the dead. He is unburied on this side by the gravekeeper, who after calming the boy down describes what Latimer's situation is. Latimer, and ever other soul, is stuck. A being of pure evil, a lich, has seized control of the gateway beyond and is attempting to build a device out of it to conquer the living and the dead.... Latimer, along with a few friends, must overcome several obstacles to free the trapped souls so they can find eternal rest.... Side note friends include....An out of work death, a frankenstien type monster that has some serious gender isssues, and the head of edgar Allan Poe. Anyway, thats my pitch. I've actually been rolling that idea around for a few years as well. I wrote a small short story on it and even did a storyboard for it (lost due to a computer crash) But it would definitly be aimed more towards teens to adults. The artwork would be very close to what my female elf character looks like.