Grind/Archetypes

After Jane Brucker said "Make it as 'Caleb' as possible," I kept asking myself what was the most 'Caleb' thing I could possibly think of. My thoughts kept returning to this idea I had for a randomized action-role-playing sidescroller (Grind being the working title), where each body part would be interchangeable, allowing for character customization, changing clothes, and swapping weapons without having to reanimate. I came up with the following animation tests.

I realized I was developing a style that would be perfect for my Archetype animations (the ones based on dreams). So I made this test for the self.

This would also make for an easier sheep crowd by mixing the same few eyes and mouths.

Lefty & Boomer Comics

A more lighthearted approach way to expand on the Lefty & Boomer project would simply be to show a series of short comics depicting them in various comic situations.

Programming Sentience

After rendering the videos as FLV's, I imported them into flash, created a bunch of buttons. I programmed the file to jump to particular videos when you pressed its corresponding button.

Compositing Sentience

 

First, I created a slightly science fictiony, but highly expressive background.

I then filmed actors in front of a bluescreen, so that I could composite them into the scene.

 

I color keyed the background as best as I could without loosing the actors.

 

I then created a mask to eliminate everything else. Animating the mask when the character walked away was the most time-consuming part.

 

I created a separate mask for the table on a duplicated layer.

  

 I added a greyscale filter to complete the German expressionistic effect (and make the footage between characters match better).

  

Finally, I corrected the contrast to make everything more unified.

Gallery Ideas

Idea #1 - Archetypes

Audiences will walk into a dome shaped to look like a brain. Inside will be two or three monitors looping surreal flash animations.

Self

Shadow

Anima

Idea #2 - Sentience

This idea was somewhat inspired by the video shown below.

Like Vito Acconci's Undertone, a monitor will be resting on a table displaying another character at the other end. The difference will be three buttons resting in front of the viewer, with which he can select which character to speak to and which question to ask.

As the dialogue progresses, the viewer will learn that it's the future, a philanthropist named John Formose has been murdered, and each of these characters had a motive.

Synthia-10246 

Synthia was a robot secretary with the most advanced curiosity functions ever created. This often creates the illusion of intelligence, or even sentience, causing widespread paranoia as to whether they could act out in a fit of rage or fear, despite no incidents having occurred.

John Formose Beta

Cloned from the victim for organ harvesting, and he missed a check-in around the time of the murder. His only alibi is that clones in the future are kept alive via a virtual paradise after their vital organs are removed.

Sargent Robert Benjamin Trask

A decorated officer in the Paragon Corps, a highly trained military branch of humans who were genetically engineered to perfection from birth. He was assigned to protect the victim, and was found unconscious, shocked by his own taser. John Formose was suspicious that a naturally born human had penetrated the Paragon Corps with a false identity.

Poster