Major Project: Creature Design Ideas

  I've had a look into some possible creature designs. Phil and I have spoken that this creature could be from swamps or marshes. One creature that came to mind looking at pictures of micro-animals was the mosquito. Which fits the brief of something horrid and something that could fit the marshy biome that the moss grows. Thumbnail 15 shows three possible stages of maturity based on a diagram of how a wasp pupa becomes an adult, where it seems to 'grow' into the adult shape from your typical grub.

  One key thing I might include: This creature is intelligent, and needs to open the door. Because it is much larger than your standard insect, normal insect feet might not provide enough support. So I've looked into perhaps giving it digits to help spread the weight and as a tool for communication.

Character Bio: Alfonse

Name: Dr. Edward Alfonse
Age: Early thirties
Occupation: Junior biotechnician, Outpost Wessex-Choris
Marital status: Single

A junior scientist for Wessex Biowonders and one of David's assistant scientists at Wessex-Choris, Edward Alfonse is a graduate of the Mars academy of organic sciences. But unlike David, Edward signed up to the Wessex-Choris posting out of enthusiasm for the pursuit of science. He is young, enthusiastic, hardworking but forever irritated by David's abrasive and work-centric attitude.

Edward is quietly resented by David. Relatively fresh out of university, Edward impressed his lecturers with his talent in bacterial genetic engineering and gene vectors. Edward's work won him the posting after developing a bacterial strain that could make alien atmospheres more breathable, which impressed visiting representatives of Wessex Biowonders. Despite this breakthrough, Edward's career on the outpost has been to run errands or act as an assistant for David; setting up testing apparatus and maintaining communication with the outpost's engineering team much to Edward's irritation while David focuses on his own projects.

In-between David's errands, Edward has made headway in finding other uses for the planet's local microbe life that he quietly passes to the outpost administrator. As much as Edward resents David bossing him around, Edward keeps his head down and avoids actively trying to irritate David. The only exceptions have been when Edward is called to perform a task while he's engrossed in his research.

Project Proposal (Version Two)

What I propose for a year-long project is:

• One animated Short. Est. 3-4 minutes.
• The animation will be a showcase of:
• Creature design
• Creature animation
• Organic modelling
• Environment design
• Subjects such as creature movement and anatomy will be deeply researched.

Synopsis: Resigned to a lone outpost far from civilisation, a jaded scientist finds a new lease of life. His efforts to escape old feelings of personal guilt and responsibility result in a discovery that gradually heals him, at the risk of his loyalty to the company.

Human characters will not be the focus, but two are planned in order to sell the outpost as a living place.

By the minor project submission date I plan to have ready:

• Production art
• Assembled set geometry
• Completed script
• Completed animatic
• Voice recordings

Major Project Script: Draft Three Version Two

Major Project Draft Three Version Two by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  After discussing development with Phil and developing the key characters (Alfonse's bio is under construction), I might have with me a more cohesive and gripping script. It's longer if we go by a rule of thumb that one page lasts a minute, but the true length will come from a measured recording. I'd like to aim for three or possibly four minutes of animation. This seems like an apt amount of time for the story as it is a fairly long-term project and series of events.

I'm tempted to make an alternative where only the voices of the human characters are heard. But the creature still walks and wanders the halls. Much of the dialogue would remain, acting more as ghosts. Any interaction with objects (the thrown mug, the computers) could be  done by invisible people (e.g. we see the mug hitting the wall, we don't see anyone throwing it). And this version could act as a guide for tone.

First Version Major Project Proposal

My proposed project is a year-long narrative project that showcases my ability to create fantastic creatures and place them in a world they know or can explore and discover. This will involve looking at a wide variety of creatures of all shapes and sizes. How they move, how they behave and react and the foundations for those behaviours and movements, and what they say about the personality. The way certain creatures think and how they live within their environments. But also what happens when such creatures live an environment alien to the one they evolved in.

The goal I have for this project is to create a short animation, showcasing my skills in creature design, creature and character animation and selling a world. I want to challenge myself in storytelling, a skill I have been developing more off-campus that I am eager to further develop to help bring to life creatures and the world around them.

The primary idea that I have considered building is a scientist, initially jaded with all but a functional interest in science lost. High in his field but low in confidence to make a mark, and scars that encouraged him to hide from his guilt by running to a distant part of the world where his scars could not follow him. An event happens however that makes him rethink his career, what he's done, until he eventually sacrifices himself in a bid for redemption.

I believe that by January I can have an environment that will be the world to explore. Once I have scripts, bios and profile backgrounds, I can build the concepts.

@Phil Major Project Ending Scenes Rethink.

Major Project Draft Three Version One by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  After giving it some thought, I'm keeping with "Four" living as he escapes to freedom. One of the things I talked with Alan was a freedom-imprisonment scale that the handler and Four simultaneously travel during the story. The more free Four becomes, the less free the handler gets until both of them are at opposite ends by the end of the story.

  Earlier today I had a chance to experience the remastered version of Bioshock. It is one of those games (Bethesda Softworks being a big fan of this) filled with macabre little set-pieces that have their own narratives to them. Scattered across the game there are all sorts of peculiar arrangements like a man slumped in a corner hugging a rocket launcher, a couple dead in a hotel room with the wife hugging her husband, An accompanying tape that had the wife talking about seeing their young daughter as one of the game's "Little Sisters". One level was filled with crates marked "contraband" full of Bibles, outside newspapers and wooden crosses. One set-piece involved an audiotape on a park bench surrounded by four wine bottles. These weren't used to tell the main story but did lean to tell their own stories. Some had no verbal explanation, others had a tape recorders lying next to them.

  These set-pieces helped me understand the power of telling a story without words. Depending on where it is for instance, a bottle of wine can indicate a character was being romantic, or drinking away their sorrows. I tried to apply this kind of set-piece placement into the office scene.

@Alan Major Project Ending Ideas

Major Project Draft Three Ending Ideas by Mark Stamp on Scribd

  After a discussion with Alan I considered that I might need to go back to the essential components. So in order to get an idea of what the story is about, I decided to focus on what the ending should be. While I have a fairly solid idea for the general ending - a creature/animal that attempts to flee imprisonment. The nuances are what these four proposals are trying to explore. How does this scene develop? What is the conclusion? I'm tempted, as shown by the first three being similar, to have 'Four' escape and find freedom.

  The fourth and fifth idea however, play on emotion. It's much less optimistic than the previous three and is primarily based on how in initial drafts the creature was found dead. They hit more emotionally, as we see Four not finding freedom. But I'm considering the value of keeping up in the air if he dies or if the guards take him away - these implications could be indicated in the story itself but it feels too comforting to say whether he dies or not.

  An alternative is one of the guards says something along the lines of "Target secure. Bag him." Again this could be open to interpretation as to whether Four is being bagged for transport or if he's going in a body-bag. Though I suppose 'bag him' could strongly imply the latter.

  The important matter is how to explain this kind of story in a pitch. In the case of these endings, we have "Four runs to freedom, chased by guards" and then either "he gets out as they charge to stop him" or "they find him and subdue him. Following orders."

Major Project: Crystallising the Creature

  Butch Auntie has kept me busy, and helped me brush up on my modeling and animation skills. But I've had to balance that with considerations over what I'm going to be doing for the coming year. I feel confident with the scientist and will look into script drafts before returning to university. While out I still felt deeply inspired by the London Aquaruium and ended up considering the creature to be some kind of aquatic creature. However I may be getting ahead of myself

  This made me realise I need to consider the environment this base is going to be in, the planet this creature will come from. Is it barrren? Is it lush? Is it full of alien flora? Is it cold? Is it hot? These questions would help determine what the creature may look like as it has to fit the world it comes from. And that led on to question if the research station would be in orbit or an outpost on the planet (where we might be able to see outside). The decision of ground or orbit will also influence the interior. It could be like the space base in Ridley Scott's The Martian with polytunnels and a prefab assembly. It could be like the inside of the International Space Station. These will help build what the lab could look like inside but I've kept to suggestions and decided to avoid the iPod feel. I am however tempted to include overhead pipes, which gives the environment a slight industrial feel.

  Working out a script might help considerably in understanding the world. Both the one the creature comes from and the one the scientist makes his livelihood in.

Major Project: Ideas For The Alien

  I might be close to the starting point for a script. Something that might come to fruition in early September. For now I had been thinking of the content, as the concept of the scientist is at a fairly solid state at the moment. The logs and the world will contain scientific notes, so there is a benefit to nailing the creature's form early for the benefit of the script.

  I had some inspiration after some food I discarded a while ago attracted flies. Days after disposing of it, the food bin sustained a colony of maggots but that is when the inspiration hit me: It seems quite common in the bug world for insects to begin life as an ugly grub, a mass of flesh that exists only to eat and fatten up, before engaging in a metamorphosis into a new kind of creature. I don't like flies, and this inspiration could help me avoid that cliche that an ugly grub turns into a beautiful butterfly - the creature could emerge as an adolescent, but instead of being graceful, it's the monstrous fish-creature I was experimenting with the other day. A possible maturation cycle could be as so:

• The initial sample will be in an egg or maybe a fluid state. Maybe this creature starts life as a kind of moss. It'll be dull, but that'll spur the resentment the scientist has for the project.
• As the moss matures, it develops a pupa underneath itself. This pupa will then emerge once it is large enough.
• The pupa develops, before creating some crystalline substance that it covers itself in in order to metamorphose into the adolescent form.
• The adolescent phase will be a juvenile form of the adult creature, it could develop features that would help it find a mate in the wild.

  As for a timescale, perhaps something somewhat brief like 5-12 years. Short enough that a mature scientist can watch it develop at a speedy pace, but long enough that his bosses will question the cost-time effectiveness of studying a creature from birth to adulthood.

  I will have to consider that the more life-phases I have, the more models I will need to build. The adolescent and adult will be fairly similar, and the moss form could be a surface that uses hair to give the impression of foliage. So in a sense the older this thing gets, the more complex the model. Two or three feels like a magic number. Or perhaps the adolescent grows into the adult.phase by way of extra bones or blendshapes.

@Phil Year Three Brainstorming Part Two

  I got into thinking a little more on the scientist. A hurdle that currently exists is that I risk falling int stereotypes: A monster that represents a line not to be crossed, a scientist who puts results over the significance of the moral or ethical questions, a scientist who puts work above all else. To make a story stick, it is good to be impressionable but not so good the content is practically box-ticking.

  Maybe the scientist was a charming man in his youth with a few achievements under his belt, that are being outshone by the achievements of younger scientists. Maybe he started off missing his family when the company asked him to work late more and more, and obligation became preference. Perhaps this could be a warning to the compulsion of putting work ahead of family - a problem that is hurting modern Japanese culture, where young men are just not bothering with looking for a girlfriend, nor are they interested in raising a family because work demands so much of their time.

The company itself might be an influence. The architecture of the lab will help sell what kind of place it is, as the design needs of a lab dictates what kind of facilities it requires. A biology lab is like a hospital: It needs to be kept sterile to avoid contaminating staff or subjects with unwanted dirt or microbes. A chemistry lab, also a place of cleanliness, does not need to be so squeaky-clean. These considerations stem from what the company wants with the alien. Why are they studying it? What do they hope to get out of it?

The core of the story, as mentioned previously, is that management gets impatient. It is taking too much time to get results and rather than wait further (at a cost), they're pulling the plug. What could they gain form this specimen? An attack animal for the military? Military applications for its unique biology? Regenerative properties? An exotic pet? Their intent will convey to the viewer who they are (think how Weyland-Yutani wanted to make a weapon out of the Xenomorph, their decision to install Ash on the Nostromo, its "shake-and-bake" approach to colonisation or how many 'failed samples' they went though to get a stable clone of Ripley the Queen. These details tell us what kind of company YT is.)

Working out these motives might also tell us what its field is. Weyland-Yutani appears to deal with pretty much everything. But while it makes sense for a company funding an ambitious alien study, does the story need a provides-everything megacorp? Probably not. There could be a few branches; billionaire Elon Musk, real life's closest equivalent to Tony Stark, is a leading figure behind SpaceX, Tesla and PayPal, all of which he holds a leading position in. Richard Branson's Virgin group offers airlines, train fares, telecoms, and space tours among other things. So while the company the scientist works for could be part of a larger conglomerate, it could be he only receives notices from the executives of his branch. Or maybe it's only a few ventures.

I might stick with the idea this is a branch of a business group, specifically some biotech firm as this sort of science more closely ties with studying a creature as it matures. Still early days but it's good to make progress.

Year Three Project: Initial Ideas

  August will be a time where I will be preparing myself for my third year of this degree. I am excited, and a little anxious as this year will be the project that defines me. I arrived on this course as a worldbuilder, so after discussion with Phil, Alan and others I have considered settling on a project that will allow me to tell a story though the environment.

  The idea I have presently considered involves a scientist, recording his observations as a newborn alien specimen, brought in by explorers,  is cared for and matured. As time goes by, the scientist's backers, the company he works for, feels the project is not worth it. Either it is taking too long or there is so far nothing worthwhile coming from studying the creature. The scientist however grows attached to the creature, and when the company has finally had enough they try and shut the project down by force.

The first stage of this project will be to work out who this scientist is. In order to demonstrate character development he needs to warm up, so at the beginning he could be cold and jaded. His peers and juniors could be rockstar-type scientists working on far more interesting projects while he, approaching the end of his career is stuck with this project, which to begin with involves studying quite a simple specimen. He could be a career man: He has family but has sacrificed attachment to them in favour of fostering his career. His wife could have had enough ,frustrated as to why he is spending entire nights in the lab and never coming home. This specimen could be the one thing he has grown attached to for the first time in many years. It could be hideous, a monster on the outside but with the ability for compassion inside.

  The scientist himself, to keep things streamlined, could be only a voice within the animation. While the monster's final form is kept relatively mysterious until the very end.

  The scientist's recordings could be flawed; signs of stress, moments where he has to put the recorder down in order to handle a situation or has to answer a phone call from his bosses. Things are somewhat loose for now, but can solidify as progress with the script is made. Once I have a script, I can work out the true length of the animation, what period the lab would reflect and what the narrative of the laboratory will tell (which will have similarities and differences to what the scientist is saying in his recordings, telling two narratives within the animation).

  I have a basic idea of who this scientist is, what comes next is to make them something more cohesive.