The Wobbling Dead

[thefreshestever]

already saw this on facebook... great model!

[largento]

Wanted to update this thread with what's going on with The Wobbling Dead!

 

In order to help me get everything done, I'm doing a comic book version of it first. This is helping me not only in being a way to get me to do storyboards for the film, but also in keeping track of all the elements that I need. I'm essentially building everything I'll need for the rest of the movie for the comic. My hope is to have it finished by the end of January.

 

That means I'll have February, March & part of April to finish animating. A process which should be greatly helped by having every shot already set up.

 

I've booked a table for the Dallas ComicCon in May. It looks like this is going to be a giant one. Last year's sold out completely before 1pm on the Saturday (the show runs Friday-Sunday) and thousands were turned away. To accommodate the extra people, they have moved to the Dallas Convention Center. The convention will make use of some 600,000 square feet! They say they are going to announce some kind of partnership that will help to give it a national awareness. I can't imagine what that will be, but that'll just add to the scope of it. This will certainly translate to tens of thousands of con-goers, but who knows how that will translate to sales in the dealer room.

 

I have struggled greatly with this one. I think I really took on more than I should have with this, but hey, you learn (and suffer) from your mistakes. :-)

[Wildsided]

Hey Mark,

 

I love what you've been doing on with the 3D puppets. That's what Tech was supposed to be when I made him for Epic Gamin, but you've totally nailed the movement style and mannerisms. Also a comic is a great idea coz you could sell it separately as the graphic novel of the film.

 

I can't make it to Dallas but good luck with the Con.

[largento]

Thanks, Dan!

 

Obviously a big plus of doing puppets is that they don't have a lot of moving parts. :-)

 

I'm hoping the comic will succeed in making it seem less daunting. There's just so many things I need to do, but somehow it seems much simpler if it's just stills in a book. And I do know from animating some of the Wannabe Pirates scenes that it does help to have pre-existing choreographies with everything set up and waiting for the animation to happen.

 

...and I'm hoping the May deadline will scare me into staying on track. :-)

[largento]

Some of the fun I'm having now is feeling free to throw in more gags.

 

I've mostly steered clear of making direct references to the Muppets, but I've found an opportunity to put Recch on a bicycle like Kermit in The Muppet Movie. :-)

 

It's a quick and dirty model, but I think it'll work fine.

 

[Wildsided]

Heheheheh. Like it Mark

 

For an extra cheap and easy laugh, you could make it a girls bike by lowering the cross bar, color it pink with white pedals and stick some tassels on the hand grips. Just thinking out loud, but if you wanted to go all the way you could make it a tiny 7 year old's bike that would be no faster than walking for him.

[largento]

That is funny, Dan, but I want to try to replicate the original shot as much as possible. Complete with the picket fence and Doc Hoppers billboard. :-) I may even try to rotoscope the bike movement.

 

It's going to be a very short shot that leads into a big gag, so I'm hoping the audience will get it quickly and then be caught by surprise by the gag.

[Wildsided]

I really need to watch the walking dead. I think I've seen the first maybe 3 episodes. I'm miles behind

[largento]

I don't know if you carried through with it, Dan, but I can highly recommend it. I think The Walking Dead is one of the great TV experiences. Well written, acted and produced. It's amazing how quickly some of the people I know have become addicted to it.

 

Obviously, I haven't been putting everything out here, but I thought I'd share this one.

 

 

This was an image I've been dreading since I started this project. In fact, I made the original Walking Dead shot my desktop picture so that I'd constantly be reminded of it. I must've had about ten or more false starts until I finally completed it this week.

 

Everything about it just seemed too daunting. All the buildings, all the cars, the layout of the ground. And yet, there was the knowledge that it would only appear on screen for a few seconds.

 

I tried starting with maps of the area, but the producers had created the shot from several different elements, so there wasn't a direct connection between what was on the maps and what was in the image. Finally, this week, I decided just to wing it. I created a profile of the top highway and brought it into a choreography where the camera had the original image as a rotoscope. I then began extruding the profile in a model window while watching it update in the choreography window.

 

This worked really well and once I had one piece in play, I could start creating the other pieces in the same way. I worked hard at recognizing what I could do to simplify the image and not lose the storytelling it needed to do.

 

I had stressed very early on about all the kinds of cars I would need before finally realizing there were so many of them, that just having different colors would work to show variety. I created a very low patchcount generic car that worked perfectly.

 

It took about three days, and it's a little simpler than I'd originally planned, but it'll work for my little puppet movie and one of the great obstacles is now out of the way!

[robcat2075]

I had stressed very early on about all the kinds of cars I would need before finally realizing there were so many of them, that just having different colors would work to show variety. I created a very low patchcount generic car that worked perfectly.

 

Looks good, mark. I recall in the commentary for "Open Season" they note that in a crowd scene they really only had two models, a fat person and a thin person and they just varied the clothes colors and hair.

 

I've asked this before, but I'll ask it again... what sort of picture do i need to send you for my kickstarter-funding zombie?

[Rodney]

Nicely done Mark!

 

This is just outstanding in it's storytelling simplicity:

 

I then began extruding the profile in a model window while watching it update in the choreography window.

 

This is a great approach and I wholeheartedly recommend it, especially for complex scene.

I've had a couple projects where I posed a character and then build up all the props around him.

It has a delightful way of keeping us from modeling things that wont be in the shot in the first place and, of course, making sure everything is exactly where it should be from the camera's perspective.

In this way we can cheat on a lot of unnecessary detail.

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

I've asked this before, but I'll ask it again... what sort of picture do i need to send you for my kickstarter-funding zombie?

 

 

Just as proof that I didn't ignore the question. :-)

 

[robcat2075]

Just as proof that I didn't ignore the question. :-)

 

 

Ah, OK. I guess Kickstarter never sent me a notification of that reply. Thanks!

[largento]

This has been a productive week for The Wobbling Dead!

 

After several drafts and many outlines, I finally have a finished script and the storyboard/comic book is nearly 2/3rds finished. Hoping to have that done in the next week or so.

 

Then onto animating! It's going to be tough work, but I gotta' finish it in time to have DVDs made for the Dallas ComicCon in May.

 

I've decided to drop the arm rods from the models. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but I don't think they really add as much as I'd hoped they would and are just big pains to have to keep track of. They are constantly intersecting things. It means I'll have to re-render the shots they were in, but it'll be worth it.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed that things continue to go well.

[robcat2075]

Could some constraints simplify the arm rod management?

[largento]

I'm sure there's a way to make them easier to use. The inherit problem is that the rods aren't supposed to be able to achieve all of the normal movements of the hand. They are attached to the outside of the hand, which means the hands mostly stay thumbs-up. The rods can be angled outwards to allow some rotation, but not the amount a normal hand would have. Full palms up or palms down would be virtually impossible for a puppeteer to achieve with the rods. Especially since they are holding both rods with one hand.

 

I think the biggest drawback I'm finding is that they look out of place in long shots. Typically, in a long shot, a puppet type character is replaced with a marionette which wouldn't have the rods. So it just seems odd for there to be these rods sticking out of the puppet's hands.

 

Put simply, they don't help with the illusion, they just draw attention to themselves, which is not good.

 

I don't know why I was so doggedly determined to move forward with them, even after seeing how odd they looked, but I've gotten over that now. :-)

[robcat2075]

OK. If anyone asks why the puppets don't have rods you can tell them you "removed them in post."

[largento]

Exactly.

 

Plus I already have another puppet movie with no rods for precedence. :-)

[largento]

My simple tank for The Wobbling Dead.

 

Real tank, I found, was far too complicated for what I needed, so I simplified it. It doesn't move or fire in the story. It's only story purpose involves the hatch, so I made just one large hatch. The tracks are probably too detailed for my needs, but I think it somehow makes you not notice how simple the rest of it is.

 

 

EDIT

 

Here's a wireframe...

 

[itsjustme]

Nice tank, Mark!

[largento]

Thanks, David!

 

Here's a quick and cartoony General Lee model I've been working on today. I still have to create an interior for it.

 

 

I'm still finding it difficult to model cars, but given how little screen time these are going to see, at least I'm able to get something in the "okay" area.

[Rodney]

Sweet! That one's an instant classic.

 

Great tank as well!

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney!

 

Let's just hope I can keep up this pace. :-)

[jakerupert]

I Think your modeling skills and style have reached a very, very high standard.

Love your tank and toony cars.

 

Keep it up.

 

,) Jake

[largento]

Thanks, Jake!

 

I probably should one day take the time to figure out how cars are really put together rather than trying to make the whole body one mesh.

 

I'm doing a puppet show, though. they could just be drawings on cardboard being held up with sticks and I could get away with it. :-)

[largento]

Some more stuff, as I switch into crazy-to-get-it-done mode. :-)

 

Here's a couple of sets in town.

 

 

And here's how I rigged the bicycle. For junior riggers like me, what I did was create bones to rotate the wheels and in an on/off pose, set them to rotate like the bone that rotates the pedals. The pedals, themselves have rotation bones and they are set to aim their rotation at nulls centered above them. That way, when you turn the pedal bone, the wheels turn and the pedals mimic the rotation they would with a foot on them. The central bone controls the orientation of the bike and there's another bone that rotates the steering.

 

bicycle_rig_s.mov

[Rodney]

And here's how I rigged the bicycle. For junior riggers like me, what I did was create bones to rotate the wheels and in an on/off pose, set them to rotate like the bone that rotates the pedals. The pedals, themselves have rotation bones and they are set to aim their rotation at nulls centered above them. That way, when you turn the pedal bone, the wheels turn and the pedals mimic the rotation they would with a foot on them. The central bone controls the orientation of the bike and there's another bone that rotates the steering.

 

Nicely rigged Mark!

(great sets too)

[largento]

A couple of more character models for The Wobbling Dead...

 

"Moile" (Merle)

 

 

and "Glint" (Glenn)

 

[Shelton]

Love the characters! And love the rigging of the bike

 

Steve

[Rodney]

Hehe. Great characters!

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Mark!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

[largento]

Hey Guys!

 

I'm running another Kickstarter to raise money to print more DVDs. If you've already supported the first Wobbling Dead Kickstarter, there's no need to support this one, but I'd love it if people could get the word out there. This project has taken so much longer than expected that DVD replicating costs have actually gone up since I started.

 

Check out the little trailer I made for the Kickstarter, too: The Wobbling Dead DVDs. It's kind of shameful that I used an iMovie template to make it, but boy does it look cool. :-)

[Rodney]

I hope you can take some Stalled Trek videos to the show too!

Those are sure to get the attention of folks that won't bite with the Zombies.

[largento]

I'm actually planning on running a con special, Rodney. Buy both for a reduced price.

 

Just wanted to post an update on The Wobbling Dead:

 

Although there is still much to do, I've been doing well with getting the project going. The comic book idea was what I really needed and I will definitely be doing it again for future projects. Of course, this might not work for everyone. I've just been making comics for much longer than I've been making movies and so, it's like being able to do the story in my native language before having to interpret it.

 

I think moreso than a script, it allows you to visually plot out the movie. I'm finding myself being able to push and pull scenes and get where I need to go. Some scenes were written just to move the plot from point to point, but being able to go back and find the gags seems to be much more visual this way. There's that thought that just rewriting lines in the actual script will just get lost.

 

Also, setting up a choreography for one frame instead of animation, seems to be more focused on just what you need. There's the temptation (since it's 3D) to create more than you need for a shot. An entire building or room when in the end, you're only going to see a tiny portion of it. I remember there being some talk about this kind of thing on the Blu-Ray release of The Incredibles. Brad Bird, coming in as an outsider, knew what he wanted to see on screen and the Pixar people were "we can do that because you're not making us build every single part of everything." There was almost a hint of revolution in that. Of course Pixar normally builds more than they need, but that's because they are often still finding the story while they assets are being built.

 

But when you are building the assets for a single frame, you CAN see what you're going to need and what you don't need.

 

It's still going to be a footrace to get this done by the deadline, but I'm running it!

 

Fingers crossed that I make it across that finish line in time!

[largento]

Some different shot setups from The Wobbling Dead!

 

[NancyGormezano]

This is looking very very good! and looking very INTERESTING (even to a non-zombie afficionado)!

 

Although there is still much to do, I've been doing well with getting the project going. The comic book idea was what I really needed and I will definitely be doing it again for future projects. Of course, this might not work for everyone. I've just been making comics for much longer than I've been making movies and so, it's like being able to do the story in my native language before having to interpret it.

 

I think moreso than a script, it allows you to visually plot out the movie. I'm finding myself being able to push and pull scenes and get where I need to go. Some scenes were written just to move the plot from point to point, but being able to go back and find the gags seems to be much more visual this way. There's that thought that just rewriting lines in the actual script will just get lost.

 

I'm so glad to hear that you are enjoying the process once again...and making a comic (aka potential storyboard), along with animation is WONDERFUL and suits you so well. And animation is more about "show, don't tell" in general.

 

For me, I tend to linger over stills, images to inspect them and look for details...but for animations, the beauty is so fleeting, and I rarely rewatch, unless I am looking for details that I might have missed, or the animation was exceptionally brilliant. Quite disheartening when I consider how much time, effort goes into making animations. I of course, am not counting the gabazillion times I rewatch my own, during the creation process and as well as after.

 

Wishing Much Success to you!

[Rodney]

Looking very good!

Now you've got me intrigued about each of those scenes.

[largento]

Thanks, Nancy & Rodney!

 

I'm so glad to hear that you are enjoying the process once again...and making a comic (aka potential storyboard), along with animation is WONDERFUL and suits you so well. And animation is more about "show, don't tell" in general.

 

Comics and movies are very similar in that they both use a visual narrative. The chief difference is that the audience controls the timing in a comic book, whereas the movie dictates time for them. I'm keenly aware as I put these panels in that the animation is going to give each panel time. Is this panel going to come too quickly after the one before it? In the movie itself, am I going to need to cut to a reaction shot or insert a close-up because of how long it will take to speak the narration.

 

That said, some of the same story telling skills are shared by both mediums. Transitions between scenes, visual cues to the audience.

 

The big gag in this movie is the narration. The main character is telling the story and the humor mostly comes from the visuals either contradicting the narrator or providing the punchline the narrator set up.

 

Speaking of time...

 

I wonder if I'll be able to finish in time. It's doable, but it's not knowable.

 

All I can do now is just keep moving forward no matter what and hope that I beat the clock. :-)

[thekamps]

Awesome!

[largento]

Thanks!

 

Well, it's official! I've finally set up all the shots for the rest of the film! That means, that unless I suddenly come up with something new I want to do, all the characters, props, sets, etc. are complete and set up to go!

 

That means my 32 page comic is also complete (save for a nifty cover I'll have to come up with.)

 

Recording the rest of the dialogue tomorrow morning and then assembling the story reel. I'll finally know exactly how long this thing is! I've animated about 12 minutes of it, and I'm hoping I have more like ten minutes to go than 20 minutes.

 

As a back up for the convention, I think I'm going to get some Dropcards made. That way, if there isn't time to have the DVDs printed, I can sell the digital version at the convention.

 

So excited to be this close the end!

[jakerupert]

This looks so great

 

I really also wish you the commercial succsess you have deserved for such a long time now.

Best of luck from here.

[Rodney]

Heck, a few folks might purchase just to get the cool drop cards.

 

Make 'em awesome k?

 

Great idea.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney and Jost!

 

Put together the story reel for the remaining part of the show and it looks like I've got about 9 minutes left!

 

Aiming at a minute a day and finishing animation on the 2nd of May. This is gonna' be fun. :-)

[robcat2075]

I suppose i better catch up on "The Walking Dead" so Mark's show makes sense when i get it.

 

How many seasons do i need to watch to get the jokes?

[largento]

You only have to watch the first season, which is only six episodes long. But I'll be surprised if you don't end up watching the whole series. :-)

[largento]

Took some time today to put together the cover for the DVD!

 

[NancyGormezano]

wonderful!

[largento]

Thank you, Nancy!

[largento]

JUST ANIMATED THE LAST SHOT!

 

I've got post work to do (audio mostly), but that should be out of the way tomorrow!

 

I'm not a drinking man, but I may have a drink after I deliver the DVD master to the replicators! :-)

 

Then, I'm going to sleep for a week! :-)