Josh Abene Thesis Blog

I'm having some issues with the skin of the inorganic pieces, will probably have to re-bind the legs and the upper left torso so that the metal pieces don't deform.

Download latest animatic as mpeg-4

Download Faculty Critique Summary Report as pdf

Modeling Progress:

Face

Torso Arm Joint

Arm Joint

Plant Growing on Skull

Bottom of robot hand

Top of robot hand

as we go into the square galaxy, we follow a round asteroid which hits the square planet. we see the main character who finds it and looks up into the sky. we fade out and then back in to launch pad.

Will likely have to update some portions to fit with the new storyline...
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Here's a pdf of my responses to comments from Patricia and Myles...
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Here's a sketch of his family photo which illustrates his feelings of isolation and being abnormal...

This will be surrounding the spaceship, hiding its round shape from the cube world... at least until it blasts off...

I anticipate the spaceship having very round features as a contrast to the world...

so after thinking about it for a bit, I've decided on a new narrative for my piece in order to have it be shorter and tighter, also i think this new narrative will allow more opportunity to highlight modeling and texturing, rather than charcter animation... so, rather than getting into the suit and going out on the street and having the vision and breaking out of the suit, the main character will instead have built a spacecraft for him to escape to a round world. Pictures of his family will show that he is abnormal in his round features. we will zoom in from the outer world into the space craft, hidden by a cubic structure holding it up (similar to a NASA space launch). Here is a pic which which portrays the ending, where he escapes...

Still thinking of having the box of light, where he uses the light as fuel by breaking open the glass and putting in the fuel tank.

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An artist will be portrayed as breaking out of the literal and figurative boxes that oppress him, depicted in an industrial dystopian style, using 3D animation and particles.

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Download storyboard PDF

The face on the robot in this poster will be used as a reference for the face that appears on the building/factory...

Here's an image from Metropolis which I will use in creating the building/factory that the workers are walking into like sheep...

Update: In this version, the artist accidentally makes a circle with his fist, which fascinates him, but he throws it away due to guilty feelings when he looks at his metallic boxy suit staring at him from a dark corner of his room.

Also, at the end, the square planet revolves to show that the other side is lit up and has a round surface. As we zoom out we see that the planet is a speck on his new drawing which resembles a galaxy.

Download updated visual script

Using 3D animation, dynamics and particles, I will tell the story of an artist who breaks out of the literal and figurative boxes that oppress his mind and his world, depicted in an industrial dystopian fantasy style.

Download file

Download file

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This reference is for the materials of the industrial boxy "business suit" that the character eventually breaks out of.

"It's Not the End of the World" - visuals by Numero 6, song by Super Furry Animals
This video demonstrates some the textures, hues, saturation level and lighting that I'd like to incorporate into the short film, albeit a little darker.

This is the poster for the 1927 film Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang. The industrial and angular elements will help accentuate the dystopian themes.

This image is from 3Dfiction.com... it represents the sort of cookie-cutter, ominous, oppressive feel that I'm going for; however, I'm looking to have no diagonal forms and have everything at right angles.

This is the character from "More", the animated short by Mark Osborne which stylistically represents the type of character which will be the protagonist.

Here is the short film...

Similar to the Metropolis poster, this poster for Dark City shows the oppressive elements of an inorganic and cloned existence. It illustrates a melancholy inherent with the loss of individuality, a major theme of my thesis.

After meeting with Mike, I'm considering a few adjustments to the synopsis. First, the character might not have a son who gives him the light. Instead the light would be something he keeps either as a souvenir or something he stumbles across as he's preparing to go to work.

Perhaps he will use the light to either paint with or it will be used as ink in his inkwell. Or instead, perhaps the light will be a tiny "glass snowball" type of souvenir thing that resembles a galactic formation which inspires him to create organic forms in his boxy world. He keeps it with him always because it is the only inspiration he has.

Perhaps he lives in a world where only one side is all boxy and never faces the sun so it is always dark but we see that the other side of the world is organic and round, but he's been trapped by his duty and the oppressive forces of society. We see that this side of the globe is all lit up and as we pan back we see the same sort of galactic formation which is the galaxy he lives in...

I was thinking that instead of having the main character doing artwork, he will be preparing himself to go to work. He is an organic character, but in his world, wearing business attire consists of screwing on inorganic pieces of metal and other industrial construction pieces onto his face and body. While he's doing this, his son puts the light ball into his pocket. When he discovers the ball of light in his pocket, the industrial pieces eventually fall off of him as he walks out of the factory line.

I'm thinking that I'd like to have the main character start out working on a piece of artwork in a shabby little apartment. in the corner of the room the son is playing with an object, which turns out to be a ball of light. The ball of light represents his spirit or his lost joie de vivre. The son seeing the father looking sullen at his desk puts the ball of light into his father's coat pocket before going to bed. Then when the father is going to work and he looks up at the clock is when he notices the warm ball of light in his pocket. The reflection of the ball leads us into his eye where we see scientific progression of particles to make him whole. As he holds the light tighter the it becomes a part of him and now invigorated he steps out of the line of workers to go back to be with his son. When he steps out of line he gives a few drops of the light to someone standing near who has noticed his transformation. We then pan back to see the planet gradually light up with the invigorated beings and as we pull back we see the planet turn into a ball of light which is revolving around another ball of light, recalling the atom from the big bang that he saw in his mind.

Also, I'm thinking that the character's style will be boxy, and that everything in his world is boxy except for his artwork, his ball of light and the planet he lives on. This will draw further contrast with his environment and illuminate his inner conflict.

http://www.refworks.com/refshare?site=010331135929600000/RWWS5A664897/Thesis%20Bibliography

1. Narrative
History
More by Mark Osborne. A story about a character who uses his "essence" to fuel a new product which makes him powerful and wealthy, but in the process he loses it.
Dark City. A man breaks free from the oppression of aliens looking for the key to human happiness, and he becomes even more powerful in the process.

Source: Animwatch.com - Interview with Mark Osborne:
http://www.animwatch.com/Feature05-MORE.php

Relevance
Throughout modern human history man has struggled with the dichotomy of being a part of a productive society while trying to maintain his individuality. This story is about a man, an everyman, who realizes that there's more to life than his menial daily tasks. Ultimately it's about the importance of enjoying life on a daily basis and appreciating life itself at all levels, no matter the cost.

Source: Hope lost, hope regained by Vincent Geoghegan ISSN:0952-6951
http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3637/cgi/reprint/16/1/151

Contribution
By introducing a scientific perspective to the everyman's life, I hope to illustrate that beneath the skin of the most mundane life lies a rich existence that is looking to be realized. It's about finding meaning in life beyond a paycheck.

2. Style
History
Dark City, Matrix, Metropolis, More
Metropolis being the original, the style of all three films is dark and industrial with an eye towards the future. So there are elements that clearly are tied to the past but also elements that take the style into the future.

Source: Neurosurgery Online - Metropolis: The Foundation of Avant-garde
http://www.neurosurgery-online.com/pt/re/neurosurg/fulltext.00006123-200110000-00039.htm;jsessionid=LTkJpvLpQTlTSdQfYQX6WGFBM1NmHN2nLF7qFkX9wnQ3JSLBx646!1589587030!181195629!8091!-1

Relevance
The industrial and monochromatic aspects emphasize the oppression felt by individuals who have become virtual cogs in a machine. Their environment is devoid of nature and resembles the inner-workings of a vast machine. Each of these stories is about a man breaking out from the oppression to become more human and the style indicates an environment that typifies the man-made prisons of everyday life.

Source: "Wake Up!": Narratives of Masculine Epiphany in Millennial Cinema by Daniel Tripp

Contribution
My contribution will be to add more of a character feel to it, to give it more of an allegorical impact. In addition, the juxtaposition of the characters and scientific visualization in a work of fiction will add a unique spin stylistically.

3. Technique
History
3D modelling, dynamics and particles used in films such as Wall-E, the Incredibles, and in medical visualization.

Relevance
3D characters will allow for a more stylized environment and for the narrative to play out in a more stylistic and interesting way. Particles will be necessary to visualize the more scientific aspects of the narrative

Contribution
I will link the character and the scientific visualization together by zooming out to higher and higher levels of perspective.

In a crowded dank metropolis, everyone dressed uniformly in industrial-era business wear, a man stares into the abyss of his daily life, represented by a clock above the entrance to his cosmopolitan factory, a skyscraper that angles up into the sky with the falling rain. As he looks up, a drop of rain falls beneath his eye, simulating a tear. In the pupil of his eye, a spark of light erupts, and as we follow it into his eye, we see it is an atom, which then becomes a molecule, then a blood cell, then a group of blood cells rushing through a vein, then the tissue, then a beating heart seen radiating energy through the pounding in his chest. As he reaches up to the sky, we zoom up into the clouds to see the skyscrapers, streets and pedestrians which together form an image similar to the veins of a beating heart.

I will use 3D modeling, dynamics, and particles to visualize a hierarchy of patterns in nature with lively microscopic and macroscopic worlds that belie a dystopian malaise, depicted in a futuristic industrial style.