Monday 5 March 2007

Story & Concept Art - Part Two, For True!

So we've previously established that our zombie-duck pal is a bit of a leech and a moocher, and has coerced the hunter into letting him stay for the night...
After an offer of one night turns into several weeks of scrounging, the hunter's patience wears thin. But this duck isn't going anywhere. You can't tell in this sketch because of the position of the wing, but would it be too disgusting and unpleasant to have the pizza he's just eaten be visible in his stomach wound? He is a zombie and I want him to be a little bit gross in a cute way, but I don't really want to make people throw up.

Personalities clash and the duck slowly starts to destroy the hunter's quality of life, through alienating his friends, constantly eating his food and, in this scene, stealing away his prospective lay. Bit of a smooth-talkin', Rico Suave mo'fo, this guy. For the hunter, it's the last straw.

Having had enough, the hunter chases the duck through the house, cornering him in the trophy room. Will he finish what he started all those months ago and kill the duck proper, or will our seemingly-doomed zombie friend smooth-talk his way out of it?

There is a final sketch for this first batch of concept art, which I won't include as it gives away my current ending. The reception these sketches have received so far have been positive on the whole, but my concern is whether I have the ability to maintain this style for a whole film's worth (by that I mean, like, 10-15 minutes). I don't doubt that a lack of fundamental artistic knowledge is evident with these drawings - the backgrounds are especially shaky and scribbled, while the characters don't really maintain much of a strict model. My plan over the next few weeks is to carry out some tests for what means of animation will best suit the visual look of the film. Whether or not traditional, 2D animation can carry it, or perhaps 3D CGI remains to be seen. Having seen its effectiveness on shows like Futurama, I'm quite interested in the idea of perhaps even marrying the two. One means can quite possibly cut corners of the other (for example, 3D CGI backgrounds with 2D character animation over the top, or perhaps the other way around) without jeopardising the film's aesthetic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

mwahahaha I know how it ends! I'm special!!