initial final project idea - chaz evans

I want to complete a short film; featuring avatars modeled after the performers of my group, parker. I want there to be multiple characters represented by original models and to have them deliver voice recorded dialogue/monologue. The artistic decisions of how to animate the virtual performers will be guided performers will be guided on how best to interpret an original text written by one of my co-artists in the group. That is to say, animation choices will be an exercise in finding out how the digital actor/performer moves best, what gestures are effective for a digital body, which are not etc. Similarly the way it is shot will entirely be determined by how to best serve the text, but the primary artistic goal is investigating gesture. That said, the aesthetic that I am for will be very specifically not shooting for any kind of realism. I want the aesthetic of the characters to be transparently polygonal, noticeable geometric edges, and probably the use of solid shaders to give it a somewhat toony feel. This is not to say the look will be at all sloppy, but keeping tightly with the style of video game sprites from the mid to late 90's. I want to explore the aesthetic of outdated technology and graphical style, which I believe will also work well with the text. Their vocabulary of movement will also be somewhat in accordance with an aesthetic of old game sprites, but hopefully much more interesting. Basically, what I'm shooting for is the look of early Machinima rather than the high gloss of Pixar or recent work of Robert Zemeckis. In early Machinima the characters have the physical connotations and vocabularies of simple puppets like marionettes or Jim Henson style. This kind of puppetry utilizes simple gesture for defined emotive purpose. I plan on having the environment that the characters perform in be very minimal, as the emphasis is on the characters and their language of gesture. The specific content will be more clear once the text is developed.

In a way I want to synthesize the movement aesthetic of machima:



with a high art short film: