Scrapped Concepts

These were actually done earlier in the week, but I hadn't had a chance to scan them in till recently.

These were the initial concepts for the farmer who was to be seen taking the chicken from the truck and putting him into the barn, as well as taking the chicken to the abatoire towards the end of the story. The original idea was that the farmer would only be seen from the chest or shoulder down. His face was never to be revealed. We had this idea in order to make him more menacing and mysterious. The drawback was that facial expressions are a significant part of character, meaning that we would be limited to showing the farmer's character through body movements alone. Since we are deprived of his face, I sought to compensate by giving him a more distinguishing body. Already I had an image of the farmer being lumbering chunk of meat, wether through fat or muscle. With regards to attire, I imagined him wearing very simple clothing, such as a butcher's apron, or dungarees. Giving him a cleaver or machete to wield made him more menacing and gave him a sense of brutality. In fact, my main source of influence was 'Pyramid Head' from Silent Hill, but I was reproached for making him too graphic. Aparently this 'inappropriate' for the 'happy ending'. Whatever.

One of my ideas (bottom left corner), was to have him wearing a necklace of chicken skulls, but again, this was considered too graphic. (@_@)



Although I said, the farmer's face was never actually to be seen, these were just to give us an idea, of what he may look like, and so help us with his attitude and personality.
The design in the middle (dungarees and cleaver), was to be the chosen design. However, due to the changes in the story (see previous post), the farmer has been scrapped and will no longer make an appearance. Censorship.

These are the concept sketches for the truck which was to feature in the openning scene, transporting the chicken to the farm. Again, because of the changes to the story, the truck will now simply feature as part of the scenery on the farm.

This was to be the chosen design for the truck.
It was vector-rendered in maya to get the outlines, then coloured in Photoshop.

Changes To The Story

This week was mainly spent discussing and developing the story further. After numerous heated debates, it was decided that the beginning sequence, which showed how the chicken arrived at the farm, was to be scrapped as it was not essential to the story, and took up too much valuable time.
The story now begins straight at the farm, specifically in the barn where much of the focus will be. We'd decided to allocate more time to the barn scene as this is the most important part of the story, involving various gags and jokes, as well as where the main narrative actually takes place.
The ending has also been changed. Originally the chicken was to be taken away by the farmer who is seen walking towards the abatoire, implying the chicken's fate. However, as was aparent throughout the pitching stage, it seems that only 'happy endings' will be accepted in this project. Therefore, it was decided that the chicken will instead find its true calling once it realises it is a cockrel, and reside in the barn in blisfull happiness with all the hens to himself. He will also be shown throughout the credits in various states of pampering, i.e. being fed, fanned etc. Hopefully this should suffice as a typical 'happy ending'.

The process of storyboarding has also begun, with Gary and Samir working in joint unison seeing as they will be our animators. Ian has agreed to concept assets, while I volunteered to take care of general concepts, i.e. character, interior and exterior designs. Luke as director will oversee the overall workflow, as well as lending his help where it is needed. He has also began creating and organising a production pipeline to help keep us within schedule.

Initial Concept Work

These are the initial concept sketches from Luke. I coloured them in Photoshop CS2. Shown here, is the Chicken, and also the barn which will feature in the story. There are not the final products, but are only there to give us a rough idea of what the final look could be.

These are the coloured versions which is did in Photoshop.

One of our issues regarding the chicken, was wether to give him actual feathers, as in polygons. This however could present some serious problems as dynamics can sometimes be volatile and unpredictable. It was suggested that the chicken would just be textured to look feathered. Shown above is my attempt.

I made the door smaller to give the barn a larger scale. I also removed the stilts as it seemed a bit silly that a building this size would be on stilts.

I wanted to give the barn a dark and menacing look, hence the use of dark colours, and old or decaying textures.

This is a version that was quickly modelled in Maya then vector rendered to get the outlines. It was then coloured in Photoshop. This was an experiment to see wether this method could produce much quicker results than drawing it by hand, and scanning it in. While it does work, the quality of the lines are not as crisp, and it involves alot of cleaning up before it is workable. This method does save time when drawing complex perspective angles, but pencil drawings seem to produce cleaner results.

Development of Story

Yesterday we went through the story, looking at the finer aspects. We discussed what the actual meaning or message of the story was, which we concluded seemed to be about maturity, and the desire to fit in. Throughout the journey the Chicken slowly realises that the world isn't as happy and pleasant as it seems, that it has a dark and ugly side. This is similar to a small child's transformation into adulthood, becoming aware of the grim realities of life. The Chicken's vigorous efforts to lay an egg shows its desire to fit in with the rest and not stand out. As it is said "the nail that sticks out gets hammered", and this is reflected by the chicken's fear of being noticed as different.

We also went through each scene, and discussed their relevance to the story. Several scenes were changed, or taken out completely as we believed that they weren't significant to the story. We didn't focus too much on specifics such as camera work, or lighting, since this will be iscussed during the story boarding period.

In the end, the original story had been disected and reformed into a more solid script, however, further development is needed.

With regards to the group's ability to function, so far everything has been smooth. Everyone contributed ideas as well as criticisms, and bar a few conflicts of opinion regarding certain scenes, has generally worked well, with cricisms being accepted and taken into account before discussing how it can be solved. So far so good!