More snow!

Here's some video capture from Second Life showing the snow and the head design for the main character. (You'll need Flash 8 to view it)

Snow!

I found this great snow in Second Life for the opening of the The Trouble with Flying!

The Trouble with Flying

I went home from the shop last night excited by the prospect of this quick Machinima project (see previous post). I've decided to call it 'The Trouble with Flying' - I think that's a nice title, and similar in tone to 'The Truth about Cats and Dogs' and 'Because of Winn Dixie' - both of which I haven't seen but I think the titles are sweet.

Nothing is formed yet, but here's a list of ideas that popped into my head, some of which will naturally be dumped as time goes by. These are in random order, just as thought about and jotted down.

• Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster.
• Is it too much like Ricard's project?
• Picaresque - I love that word! It should be episodic - the episodes ultimately more important than the framing story.
• How do I make snow in Second Life?
• How much to put in trailer? - Needs to tell a story in itself.
• Some ideas; Girl meets Oracle at bus stop - is given power to fly - Monster is called Pinky, and tells the girl the future, between munching on buildings - Maybe Spook from Angels is in it, as a ghost.
• Maybe at the end of the trailer, it flicks to game controls on the screen (life meter etc.), like you've just watched the opening video on a computer game. Maybe that is just wrong.

I'm also excited (I never thought I'd say this) by an essay I am writing about the web and its effect on practice and process - it's for my MA. Initially it was basically an overview of tools and how to use them, but after talking to Frank (my MA tutor, not the scary rabbit from Donnie Darko or the drugs advisory service), I think there's a bigger essay in there. Why do these things always have to happen when all I want to do is go paddling and eat choc-ice?

By the way, me and Nicola are organising this; Come along if you can! (You may recognise the character from earlier posts!

Lovely Day Out!

Pictoplasma is coming, look busy!

Hi there. I have a long post hiding in my draft folder about exactly why cartoons for grown ups should be allowed to be cute (see Pocoyo post), plus some great quotes from Charles Schulz. It's proving to be a bit of a difficult one, but I'll post it as soon as it's done. In the meantime - I got an email from Pictoplasma today, calling for film submissions for their upcoming conference. 'Angels' was in the Characters in Motion screenings last year, and also in the book and DVD that accompanied it.

So, I need to make an animation before 1st Sept! I'm desperate to do it, even if it's just to justify a holiday in Berlin in October! I've decided to work in Machinima, using a character design which didn't make it to the final cast for Ricard's project.

She sort of looks like this;

To make character development simple, I'm going to exploit Second Life to the full, and take advantage of it's in-built tools. I'm also going to pretty much use this doodle as the beginnings of the character/story. This gives me a set of rules.
Here they are;

1. She is a bit sad to begin with.
2. It is cold where she lives.
3. She can fly.
4. She can teleport to new places.
5. She can change into anything.

I'm going to develop the piece as a 3 minute trailer. The rules suggest a longer story with episodic sub-stories. The teleport immediately allows for 'Quantum Leap' (that's not me being clever or fancy in any way, I mean the 80's sci-fi series with Scott Bakula) story development - she can be anything/anywhere each time, framed within a larger journey.

And that's all I have, although I'd like to include a monster. Maybe one that eats towns. But it's pink - and really cute. She is friends with it. I think I'd like ghosts in it. I'd also like a baby faced oracle who lives in the sky - maybe the narrator?. It should also have some romance in it, because that would be lovely. Maybe the episodes are true stories. So it's a documentary, set in Second Life. Narrated/presented by a girl who can fly. Er...Oh. I don't know, I might be getting carried away.

That monster I was telling you about.
Baby faced oracle who lives in the sky...

Ok, here goes - it starts like a fairy tale, a girl in a cold, gloomy Northern town wants to get away. One day she discovers/is given the power to fly - and change into things. She flies off. The trouble with flying is she doesn't know how long she can fly for, so occasionally she drops from the sky and lands in places she knows nothing about. And then all sorts of crazy adventures ensue.

I just thought - this might be a way to start off the fictional blog stuff too. I'm sure this is just cos I'm off on holiday next week - I'm already getting into the beach ideas flow.

Any ideas? - Seriously, if you have any - please let me know! I'll credit you on the film - you can even come and do a voice if you like! Anything - plots - tales, character ideas, new places to visit...whatever!

All apologies...

All apologies to Pocoyo, Where the Wild Things Are, BatImp etc. - Thought I'd post this doodle as I'm trying out some new character design ideas - I think it's quite sweet though! I've made some wallpapers of it - if you want one, contact me and tell me what size and I'll mail you one.

One of the artists, Alula (Sherry Pollitt and Andrea Scott), who sells work through our shop introduced me to the Japanese word Zakka, which they described as 'products that make you feel happy and light as air'.

I looked it upon Wikipedia, and got this;

"Zakka has also been described as "the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane". On one level the zakka boom is just another in a series of consumer fads, but on another it's plugged into something spiritual. Cute, corny and kitsch is not enough. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be attractive, sensitive, laden with subtexts."

Finally, I have found a doctrine to live by!

Pocoyo!

I just discovered Pocoyo! Andy at work told me about it. It's the cutest thing I've seen in years, beautifully made and animated. Why aren't people making stuff like this for grown ups?!