Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas

Hey guys!!
Just wanted to wish you all a happy holiday/Christmas!!! :)
See you all in the new year.
-Alex

Monday, December 17, 2007

happy holidays!

have an awesome break everyone. lets draw some funny oxen and get this story ready for when we get back in the new year.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

- its totally goin on my wall -

if i had an Ox I'd name it TheCelestialOx

Time for storyboarding?

I have to go to lifedrawing today to hopefully get some portfolio pieces, but after that it'd be great if people showed up at the studio so we could start storyboarding something to hand in for tomorrow. It won't be as pretty as the other leica, but maybe it'll be more enjoyable.

Life drawing ends at four, then I'll need to pick out and hand in my portfolio, so four thirty or so?

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Another poster

Ox story

Angeline and I wrote out the beat script so that its a story hopefully we can work out the kinks sooner then later, and figure out how to put this on the screen. lets get this story locked. we should meet up tomorrow and discus this new story, and make a reel.

Jason

Long ago the human race believed that sacrificing foods would keep them in good favour with the gods. Although the food supplies dwindled to next to nothing their faith remained strong and continue pay their respects to the gods. Up in the heavens the celestial animals eagerly await their daily offering of food. The ox buts in the circle curiously as the other animals all look at the ox and push him away. The ox knowing he’s not included hangs his head sadly. The other animals spot a tiny fruit floating towards the heavens, each animal starving from the lack offerings selfishly decided that they will be the one to eat it. As the fruit drew near enough to grab the other celestial animal madly scramble for the fruit. I the epic battle the fruit flies from the scuffle and lands in front of the celestial Ox. The Ox being a large and powerful animal was extra hungry from the lack of offerings and excitedly stuffed the fruit in his mouth. The other animals were slightly annoyed by this and expressed theirs anger towards the ox. Knowing that the Ox wasn’t the brightest star cluster in the sky the angered celestial animals send the Ox down to earth to gather more food. The celestial Ox is forcefully booted out of the heavens and down to earth. A human child is playing a game in the human temple when he hears a rumble and witnesses the Ox Landing in the sacrificial pot, the Celestial Ox looks back up at the Heavens, sighs, and gets on with his duties while still chewing his fruit. He grabs the sacrificial pot to gather food in. Meanwhile the kid is frozen from amazement and watches the ox walk by him. He runs off in fear. While the Celestial Ox is searching high and low for some food to bring home, the kid from the temple returns with some friends to observe the ox from behind a pile of rocks. The Ox is still eating his fruit from the heavens. He finishes his fruit, and spits out the core behind him. The glowing core falls into a crack in the ground. The ground around the crack begins to glow. A massive tree grows from the ground along with a lush patch of other edible plants. The Ox is completely oblivious to this, and only turns to see the tree after a fruit has fallen on his head. The ox is shocked and baffled because he could have sworn that tree wasn’t there before. The starving humans are amazed at his celestial powers of the ox. The Ox gathers up all the food with his strength by shaking the tree. He piles the fruit in the sacrificial pot to an amazing height. The ox examines the pile of food that is teetering and tottering until finally one fruit falls into his open mouth. Happily, he starts to pull the bowl back to the temple creating a large furrow in the ground. The humans who observed this run off excitedly. Back at the temple, the Ox puts the sacrificial bowl back on the altar and turns to find a huge crowd of hungry people watching him. The humans are starving and want some of the food, but the ox pantomimes NO! It is for the celestial animals. The humans look super-pathetically starving and hungry, but the ox still says NO! Finally, an ultra-super-pathetically starving child with enormous eyes runs up and grabs a fruit and holds it close to his body. The ox demands the fruit back with his tail, and the kid looks even sadder and stuffs the fruit in his mouth, exactly like the ox did at the beginning of the film. -Flashback!!!- To the ox at the beginning of the film, feeling rejected the other celestial animals and booted from the heavens. He thinks and decides with a smile to give the food to the humans. With heaping handfuls the ox throws all the fruit to the crowd. He does this until he reaches back, and there is no more food to be given. The crowd of humans is still hungry and the Ox thinks to himself how I can feed these people. He spits out his fruit core that he has been chewing the whole time into the furrow that he made himself as he dragged the sacrificial bowl of fruit. The ground starts to rumble as the magic core begins to grow. The kid seeing this directs the Celestial Ox’s attention towards the sprouting tree and other newly grown foods. The ox seeing this realizes that his celestial magic can make stuff grow with the aid of a seed and hole in the ground. The ox immediately takes off to start growing food for the starving humans. The ox is happily in the field ploughing with a makeshift plough, floating along while chewing and spitting seeds out behind him. For every seed he spits his glow fades and the ox dips towards the ground until finally his glow fades completely and he crashes to the earth. He tries to keep ploughing, but it’s much harder now. The kid from the temple jumps onto his back and encourages him to keep going with the humans help. The plants don’t grow as fast, since he’s not a glowing celestial power is gone, As the humans and the ox work together in the fields, the ox’s colour changes to a more normal brown colour. Cut into the future the land now is lush with vegetation and the humans look much healthier. The kid from the temple is telling this story to a group of children while sitting beside the noble ox. While they’re talking, in the background, the celestial monkey sneaks in to steal some food. -the ox floats through most of the story, until he starts to lose his powers. (During credits: Kid asks ‘Where do baby ox come from?’ Ox and narrator share a significant look, and narrator says ‘That’s another story.’)

Worked on the story today,..

Jason and I worked on the story today, he'll be posting what we came up with later on tonight. It's pretty much the same, but now there is a kid in it with extra wide innocent eyes to convince the ox to give the humans the food it was originally going to give to it's celestial bretheren.

Ahhhh. I guess I was just fighting a losing battle against the kid... T____T Hopefully we'll see some people around tomorrow to give us a hand with storyboarding?
I'm going to be heading to the studio today to work on some revised storyboards for the storyreel due Monday. hope to see some of you guys there.... we can totally make this reel awesome! see you guys later

Jason

Ox-inspiring

Here's my poster... I enjoy the quote at the top :)

Friday, December 7, 2007

Movie poster




I did this for fun, was just messing around and eventually handed in for the project!

BTW, I'm liking the new story idea, it seems to make a lot more sense. Especially with the animals as Gods, needing the food from the humans to survive. Neat ideas, guys, very good job. :D

NEW STORY BEATS [as per our mtg with Natalie today]

For the few of you who didn't make it to Story class today, we met with Natalie to get some input from her on our story "problems"... and it seems we all came up with a new story that really works!

Here are the newest story beats.... we will meet on Monday to go over this more and refine it.

**Note there is now no "God" character, but we are focusing now more on the other celestial animals as the main gods [and the ox]
*Also with tail, Natalie suggested it be more of an extra arm than an extra personality, that way when his power is diminished, the tail fades to just be a regular tail

1 - Establish a hunter-gatherer village/society who sacrifice food/fruit to the gods
2 - The food they sacrifice TO the gods, the gods EAT
3 - When the fruit is gone from the earth, there is no more food for the gods [let alone the people]
4 - There is one last piece of fruit on earth - they sacrifice it to the gods [same idea with priest sacrificing, and people being like NOOOO...!!]
5 - Ox sees this sacrificed fruit and takes it and eats it himself [doesn't think of consequences, just that he is hungry, he is always "taking" food to eat which angers other animals]
6 - The animals/gods see him take this last fruit and are angry [ox does not fit in with them, they don't accept him]
7 - The animals cast ox to earth to gather more food for them
8 - When ox appears on earth, it is random; he walks past some villagers and nods hello, one guy sort of waves, and is like, "Wait, wha–" [this is all pantomime, no need for dialog - but still want a narrator!]
9 - Ox is still eating last fruit he took that they sacrificed, he finishes it and spits the seeds/core on the ground and bury it [like a dog would bury]
10 - Because he is magical, this instantly sprouts a huge tree of that fruit, ox is oblivious
11 - He turns to see new fruit that appeared and picks some and eats it, spits out seeds, buries it, does the same thing [still oblivious]
12 - He gathers a mountain of food to bring back to the animals/gods
13 - Humans have now gathered to see what/who he is [the same guy who waved at him earlier has now brought a few of his friends to see, and they bring more people, etc]
14 - People are apprehensive of ox, but see mountain of food beside ox, want some
15 - At first, Ox keeps humans from food, motioning that the food is for the gods, don't touch!
16 - Humans point to their rumbling stomach, and ox feels pity so gives one piece, then another, then, oh alright, another.... until all the food for the gods is gone except for one last piece
17 - Ox decides oh well, and eats that last piece, spits out seed and it grows... people see what he can do [plow and seed] but ox still oblivious to it [Ox has been dragging a bag behind him and that's where he spits the seed - in the earth that has been plowed]
18 - People try to show him and he doesn't get it, finally they turn his head - SEE look what you did! He finally sees it. There are more humans to be fed....
19 - The ox has to make a choice - the food can go to the gods or to the humans
20 - He chooses to help the humans, every time he magically sprouts food, his glow slowly diminishes; his magic is slowly being lost until he is normal ox.... as the ox can do less with less power, the humans help him more and more [they seed, he plows]
21 - Humans show gratitude, celestial animals yell at him. He plows for the humans who have to help him more and more as he loses his power - he sees that he can fit in and he helps them and they appreciate and help him back; he is accepted there.
22 - The humans give him food and shelter and no longer need to sacrifice to the gods to get food - this gives the celestial animals their comeuppance because they never get food anymore. Ox is away from them and happy on earth.

THE END!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

We Can Do It Guys!!!!

Hey Guys,

Allen just called me, and said he won't be able to make it this week, which because its already thursday, but he said about next week, maybe I can ask him to come this weekend? Or do it monday morning? So that we have his amazing voice for our film. I know we are all frusterated with work load, and story, but I don't think we should give up on trying to make it good. Lets stay positive and remember that our film is going to be really funny. Many groups are going to work on it over holidays, or first week back, so lets not stress about it that much. I will definitely work on it over the holidays. I know we can make a great film, common we're the mocaps!! And there's someone who wants to help make it awesome too, lets continue to work together and remember that working as a group can be a lot of fun. I believe in our film and I believe in us.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

NEXT DQ MEETING

Hey Guys,

I talked with DQ after the lecture this morning; he cancelled the meeting tonight at 6 PM - so DON'T GO! He has a scheduling conflict, and we decided it would be better spent working on all the other work we need to do right now.

***We WILL meet with DQ from 1-2 THIS THURSDAY BEFORE CO-OP CLASS to review the leica with him further. Please be there!

Thanks Guys!

Monday, November 26, 2007

hey Gus,

I just wanted to remind you that the boards are due in the lecture, we really appreciate it, hope all goes well,

thanks again! and if you need help you can bring them into lecture and I will help you there,
Rachel :)

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Final boards for Tuesday

First off, thanks to everyone who put in tons of work cleaning up the boards, doing audio and doing and re-doing the leica! Go team, it looks awesome!

Rachel and I started compiling the final boards and labelling them yesterday in story class... it's a bit of a job cause the final boards used in the leica are all named differently and all over the place. We were comparing the leica and then finding each board and transferring it in order onto the template, then beginning to label them all.

We got maybe a quarter of it started yesterday, so I am gonna go into school early Monday morning [I work better early morning rather than late night!] and work on getting the rest of the boards together and labeled, ready to hand in Tuesday morning. I'll be in the second floor lab if anyone wants to pop by, but I should be able to get it finished before DQ's lecture.

**I won't be able to make it to DQ's mentor meeting, as I have to leave right after class to take the train downtown for the evening. I'll have the boards ready to give you guys for the meeting though!

Thanks again everyone, have a grand weekend!!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Rough Cut Leica is up

Its finally rendered as an .mpeg, with the sound synced up correctly. Its on the server in our group folder, I think I named it "celestial ox master leica.mpeg". I also burned a DVD and gave it to Natalie, so she has the new version with the sound correctly synced to the images ready for tuesday.

And now its time to SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
followed by lengthy periods of AAAAACTION AAAAAAANALYSIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSS!

Monday, November 19, 2007


here's some staring human designs based on Andy's character and story sketches i did for the setup...not sure if the eating the bug part is really necessary for the story tell me what you think.
take it ezz Penguins

Fields

What kind of fields are we going for? There are the fields in England, where the borders are more organic, and then there are the fields of western Canada that are more geometric.

england

screencap from mapquest, from Barrhead, Alberta.





Quick sketches for fields.

some thoughts on overlap...

After the ox gives his message, the food doesn't all pop up right away, it takes time to grow. The people wouldn't understand at first, since it's so *much* food that it's out of their range of experience. Then they'd celebrate. The ox would be proud that he's made the people so happy, and be watching them. The tail, meanwhile, knows the message is wrong and is frantically trying to get the ox's attention, finally hitting him on the back of the head.

(The food is still growing, or getting lusher, or maybe it grows in stages? Like real plants, only faster? Maybe the green stalks and trees were first, with seeds and fruits growing now.)

Ox looks at tail, with a What was that for? expression on his face. Tail points up to gathering clouds. Ox has an 'uuuuuuuuh-ooooh....' expression on his face, while he frantically tries to remember what his mistake was. People are still happy, food is still growing. Maybe now the fruit is ripening? Nearly ready for eating.

A godly voice rings out. "No no no no no no no no no! Never send an Ox to do a god's job!" The food growth rolls back, leaving the place as barren as before. People are shocked, unbelieving. The god continues to yell at the ox, who's tail grovels on the ground. The ox, meanwhile, is distracted by how sad the people are, he watches them and gets sadder and sadder himself. Perhaps the tail also notices the misery of the people, so the ox and he can be on the same page.

"I wish I could help them." The ox says, to himself. The sky, which was getting darker and darker as the god yelled, suddenly lightens up somewhat.

"You want to help, Ox? Are you sure? It wouldn't be easy."

"Oh, I do."

Then he gets his magical yoke, and lands in the field. He's still sad, since he thought that he'd find his place in the stars through this mission, and now he's lost that forever.

He meets the priest, who walks with him as the ox continues to plow. It isn't until the priest tells the ox that he's the best celestial animal that's ever come to visit them that the ox stops working, and looks at the priest, who then gives him his stars.


Wow, that was long. I was trying to think how our plot points could run into each other, but still be distinct enough for people to see them happening. I don't know if I got that balance right, but I think an easy overlap would be to have the food take much longer to grow in. If the food's almost ready to be eaten when the god hits the celestial RESET button, the people's reaction would be even more extreme, and maybe comic.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

My design sketches

I really like the idea of having the three constellations as sculptures, I think its symbolic, and more cartoony this way, I think we should make it more cartoony and focus on designing layouts in that pigs is pigs style, and not so realistic

In class we thought of some more ideas, but I think this one is not as dominant, it should be higher up.

Saturday, November 17, 2007


here's a quick layout for the temple I drew up tonight and some renderings i did at the story meeting. This reel is coming up real soon so we should hammer out some killer revised storyboards asap. see you guys on Monday

!rock on penguins!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Field designs

Here's a couple I mocked up.... colourful and sketchy!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

LAYOUTS

Hey guys!
Just reminding everyone to have their rough layouts done for tomorrow!!!

DQ-cancelled meeting

Sorry guys but I can't meet tonight
a family thing has come up and I can't meet
this weekend ...can we meet early next week?

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Symbol

Hey, guys, i just got an idea of one meal every 3 days and 3 meals a days' symbols.
One meal every 3 days--rich fertile land & seeds
Three meals a days--rich fertile land, seeds and the ox

Therefore, our story doesn't change a lots. Just in the climax, not the food, plants pop out from the ground; we show desert turns into rich fertile land and some baskets of seeds(should not be a lot,only a few)are appeared in the temple. The villagers confuse, upset. They think the God lies to them. Then the God shows up and explains to the ox: by their technology right now, they only can make 1 meals every 3 days unless you come to help them. The ox chooses his way...then rest are the same, only the ox doesn't get his constellation right after he starts working on the field. He gets his constellation 1 year later in a orange, harvestable field.
The moral: 1. (from the ox perspective) if you make a mistake, you have to respond it;
since you respond it, you will be accepted by others.
2. (from villagers' perspective) mistake can turn into great effort.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Hey hey

Hey guys, sorry to suddenly throw this in here, but I might have to go home today for a family situation. I'm waiting for the call currently, in which case I'll be in on tuesday morning, so I'm sorry if I do miss the meeting and classes and such.

But again, it's not sure whether i'm going or not, that's why I'm waiting for this phone call. If you guys need anything, I'll throw my cell/home phone number on the comments here so you can contact me/text me whatever, but if I do head home I'll be checking the blog and e-mail at my friends house (he lives down the road from me. Technically, it being a small town, EVERYONE lives down the road from me, heh.)

Again, sorry about this! Hopefully it's all good though and I don't miss anything here.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Fun Pack character pages done!

These are done enough to hand in to DQ anyway.... I shall print them for today's meeting as well!

See y'all at 5!
Stace

Friday, November 9, 2007

my storyboard pages, redone.










Here they are! I added the part where there's the close up of the tail and the ox's face to build up the tension. n___n





alrighty then




hope everyone pulls through with this puppy, see everyone in class.
keep it (un)real! because reality is boring for animation and stuff.

Phew




It's hard cramming in him getting up and working in 9 panels, haha. Sorry this is a bit late, a bit of trouble at home here the last couple of days. I'll print and throw on the details of the panels and such (panel number, etc)

PS: I hate drawing Ox's so small. :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Hey Stace,

I'm sending you the files through email, not sure if you wanted to number them correctly so I'll send you the photoshop files

Thanks Rach
Hey Mark

Well, we have a slight problem, you did part of my part, not sure if you looked at Stacy's breakdown, I was supposed to do Page 9 panel 5 and 6 and Page 10 panels 1-5, and then yours is afterward. Hopefully you can fix it before tomorrow so theres no overlapping,

Thanks Mark

Rachel's three pages all finished



Mark's Storyboard panels











here are my panels, i changed some and added others, hope u like..
i fix the problem rach,sorry about that, i realized it after doing it! sorry again

priest's 3/4 front&back view.

page one of Rachels

Hope this helps, I think Ang you're in front of me, so this is the beginning of mine. Hopefully it connects okay.

My panels

Brock and Andy here are my panels!