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Phase Status
 

Completed:
Phase 1 - Character Design
Phase 2 - Set Design
Phase 3 - Story Boarding
Phase 4 - Character Modeling
Phase 5 - Texturing


 Active:
Phase 8 - Animation

  Pending:
Phase 7 - Lighting


 Canceled:
Phase 6 - Layout
 
Production
 

Read the notes for the Phase you want to enter below then download the script, read the rules and dive in. Be sure to also read the post in the Production Chat section of the forums for the latest thoughts from the director.


 

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phase 7
 

You can tell a whole story with a few colored lights and know the technical aspects of working with light in 3d. You love the way shades of light change the mood of a room and feel that sometimes the illumination in a scene is telling more of the story than the characters or the dialogue. This is the Phase of the Short Project for you.

Judging Criteria:

  • Mood:
    • Our sets are very simple at their heart; it's your job to make them come to life.
  • Feasibility:
    • We all love a good GI pass, but this thing needs to render in a few weeks, not a few months. Preferably the lighting setup would require little to no post.

Assets: The script, Story Boards, Layout Scenes, Objects and Textures. Character animation will be provided on an as needed bases with compelling reason only, and then only if available (animation is being done concurrently with this Phase).

Director's Notes: The lighting should derive from our evolving aesthetic and the needs of the narrative. I have some ideas what I'm looking for but I'm keeping them to myself so that I can be surprised by what you show me. Maybe the lights have a cheery brightness to them to contrast Musician's mood, or maybe the heavy shadows and harsh lights spell out the whole story. You'll be provided with the layout shots to light; depending on how you do things this could mean a custom light set-up for every shot, or maybe just a set-up for each of the two sets. Remember that the train has to 'move' and that will most likely need to be done by animating lights moving past the train in the appropriate shots. Again, I have to believe we're in LightWave at this Phase.

Deliverables: As many .lws scenes as lighting setups, configured to be easily imported into the final render-able scenes. Any imagery used as gobos or other similar effects.
phase 8
 

Motion fascinates you and you think of yourself as much as an actor as an artist. You love to bring the subtext of a scene subtly to live on the face of your characters and this is the Phase of the Short Project for you.

Judging Criteria:

  • Acting:
    • This script is all about sub-text and subtlety; I want to feel these characters from the first frame.
  • Discipline:
    • We will be editing and scoring to the timing of the layout while you animate, try to avoid making us adjust unless you have to.

Assets: The script, Story Boards, necessary sound files, Layout Scenes and Objects. Textures will be provided on an as needed bases with compelling reason only.

Director's Notes: I'm not going to pretend that the brevity of the script means there's not much animating to do, there's a lot going on in these short 2.5 pages. You'll be provided with the layout scenes with rigged characters roughed into the shota. Feel free to entirely supplant that framing animation with your own, its just there to set the composition and timing.

We are hoping to be able to provide video with time code of our musicians playing their instruments during our recording session so you can reference it.

Deliverables: A series of .lws files with one, the other or both characters animated which tell the story in the script, based on the provided storyboards.
 
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