have you taken your caffeine CAPsules yet :)

[justice strike]

yes i also support the idea of a team however i do not wish to exclude those not wanting to work in a team.. for them hav their own sepreate "Project" is an option without having to compromise the other people working as a team on a "project" in the end we could just as well put it in a framework wich would fit. team or no team..



however i want to make some teams right of before this is going to take to long..

ok let's make it a real production let's see a real production has
i'll list the people i think would fit best on wich place please submit what u liked to do alot.

• Voice & Sound fx
  
• Music
  
• Character design
  
• Animations
  
• BG
  
• CG
  
• Scripting
  
• Inking and Colouring
  
• Story development
  
• Promo
  CNO
  
• web
  Party2000
  
• R&D
  

[xup878]

i'm not sure about this whole catagory thing...
the problem with team work over the internet is that its not like real team work where you can properly interact with people and always have up to date info etc on the project...
things dont always work out very well...
i prefer the idea of individual work put together to form one bigger project.... of course story, sound and music should all be done together, but i think we should keep our own styles and characters, rather than try to emulate someone elses....

[justice strike]

hmm ok.. let's put it this way.. lets try this if it doesn't work we'll look for other solutions.. we have a saying in dutch translated it sounds like this:

never shot is always miss

so we'll just try it.. i'm not asking you to emulate someone elses drawing style... just to work togheter.. and with each other... after all it's a community project.

[xup878]

i dont know if you were around for the original CAP... but i just dont want something like that to happen again, its disapointing...
especially as that time loads and loads of people wanted to help...

anyway lets start on some ideas, i'm sure we'll work something out

anyone like the superhero idea?
i'd like everyone to do some animation on their own original character

[argonauta]

Originally posted by xup878

anyone like the superhero idea?
i'd like everyone to do some animation on their own original character

I think we should only work with one character...that way the fianl production would look like one movie, instead of a bunch of little projects put one after the other.

I think One and ONLY one character should be chosen, then draw it from every possible position, so that people have a reference on how it moves, talks, smiles, screams, runs, etc.

Then everyone makes a scene with the character, there is where each individual animation style comes.

I think working with one character would be best. And to design it, i think of two ways:

something like photoshop tennis: someone draws a character, and we start from it, then other person changes it a bit, and so on until the last person of the project adds something to the character;

The other way, which i find more efficient, is something like the footer comp (nothing to do with the fact that i won): everyone designs a character, then we make a voting of the best character and that's the one we should work with: maybe the other characters could be used aswell, as secondary support characters.

Then, the group leader (i guess that's JS), sends task to everyone: u XUP draw the character laughin, chris draw it from behind, CAD draw him screaming, and so on, until he have a bunch of sketches of the character, so that would be everyones reference to animate it.

Do i make any sense?

i'm just not inventing this. Although i got no experience in animation, i do have experience in project management and design, as in software development and projects like DataWarehousing and intranet development.

[justice strike]

the problem is that people just draw different... it isn't possible to make a character in every possible position... rather i think everyone should make one figure that's their own and in their own style, and make that figure part of a story.. like the story is that 2 figures are talking, then for example xup draws one person.. in a special pose, and cad draws a other one to interact with xups figure. then someone else can draw the bg.

i think this is a better idea then to make a story surround a specific character..

ofcourse with animation you should be more considered and should make a script but i think it can be done..

what would also be nice is that the voice acting is done before hand.. instead of an addin this way you have better a syncing of the animation.

oh and before i forget i want to know which flash versions you all are using.. just for reference.

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]

I haave to say that as justice said we must choose one guy that draws the animated characters, because having too much different styles makes it all too weird.

Also one person drawing BGs and a group colouring them, because coloring can be not affected too much by style, after choosing a way of colouring I mean.

Musics and SFX depends on the kind of movie, we can try to have just one guy making them but first of all the subject and *please* let's spend a few more weeks but let's make a decent storyboard, it's FUNDAMENTAL.

Then we must choose a director that will also put the scenes together and say "YES" or "NO" to what he's watching, accordingly to the other members, but he must be a serious person and will listen to everyone.

So what about the subject? I don't like the superhero one, I've never liked superheroes, sorry...

will it be:

-serious
-stupid
-comedy
-horror
...

it will treat about:

-sci fi
-love
-adventure
-normal life
...

how many characters?

at wich FPS?

how long?

........

u see there's a lot of variables.

if we choose a subject and someone doesn't like it in a particular way, please leave the project instead of *****ing in trying to change the subject into some not working hybrid or doing work in a bad way just for being into CAP.

Take responsability for what u've decided to develope into CAP.

Me too I dunno if I will be in for time/job reasons.

let me know what u think of these random thoughts

[justice strike]

i think it might prove usefull if there are more animators... but every animator only animates 1 character in the story.. yeah sure mabe it will look a bit weird.. but atleast the work will be divided more equal.. and i think it could have a nice thouch (given the styles are not to far from each other) animating should consume far more time then the other tasks.

i can go either way.. with it being serious or humoreus, however as i said think of this as a long term project... it doesn't mean your stuck to it when you don't have any time.. you'll just focus on something else and when you do have time then you spent some more time on cap.

[xup878]

i think the humerous idea is the best... i dont think you could do something serious with loads of different drawing styles poking in...
ok lets get some ideas going... we need a story, then we can start character designs

[justice strike]

how about uhm... a journey hmm something like final fantasy but then with a humorous thing like uhmmm a boy on his journey to the supermarket

[TrIzKuT]

a boy who dropped off a helicopter and landed in a half-pipe with his board, but broke all his bones

now we're showing his funky life afterwords

[Ian424]

i'm not much in actually drawing and animating, but if you need some shiny preloader toy or something if the file size gets pretty big .. i can whip something up.

(are we doing this in MX? )

[TrIzKuT]

if I can, I'll try to help party2000 with the site and also develop the concept of this darn thing .
I may also try a few character designs

[pishkapa]

Whoa I go away for a couple of days, come back and there's a huge conversation here I'm missing out on. Here are my thoughts.

I think we should stick with one person drawing a character, for the same reasons stated above - it looks wierd with too many people doing it. However, that doesn't mean that one person has to animate it. All we have to do is have one person draw the character and then give the source file to whoever is animating.

Step by step I think this is how it should go:

1st- get a story/script - I think humorous is the way to go simply because people usually react more positively to a humorous story than serious. If this is gonna be a fun project, I find it easier to have fun if the subject matter makes me laugh. To prove my point - take a look at the footer contest - the majority of those were humorous - I probably wouldn't have even entered the contest if I thought the subject had to be serious.

2nd- soundtrack - someone takes the script and makes the soundtrack. Maybe an additional sound sweep at the end of the process too, to add little sounds to accentuate the animation like someone walking across a creaky floor or something.

3rd- design - get the characters, backgrounds, props etc. all designed and agreed on so everyone has the elements there.

4th storyboards - This is what I'm thinking for this stage - the storyboards made in flash, using the soundtrack and the elements from design, the storyboard artist(s) working closely with the designer(s) to tell them what they need - like 'Pete Picks-His-Nose has to be facing backward in this scene so can we have someone draw him from behind?' - take that drawing and put it into the storyboard. Same with the backgrounds and props 'we need a fork so he can stick it up his nose' - send that info to the guy designing props and he does it. The storyboard artist really becomes the organizer. They break down the script into elements and deligates tasks to each design department.

5th- after that the scenes or sections are assigned to the animator(s) to be animated. By that time everything in the scene is designed so there won't be any 'wierd' anomalies in style.

The above is just a suggestion for the way we should do this. I thought just 'cause people it sounds a little like people are starting to lose interest and get frustrated already, that if someone wrote down what the goals for each stage are it'll be easier to see how this production could be accomplished.

BTW - nice site Party.

[justice strike]

i don't think it is possible to let one person draw it all.. and i don't really think it matters if it looks out of order with different styles in one picture.. it's just a project.. however the way you suggested it it would seem that the animators would just have to move some limbs... but actually they would have to draw it all frame by frame so in this case it wouldn't be possible to have one drawer

[chrisvo69er]

This seems really interesting but I've got my own thing to do. If you need then I'll be up for a few voice overs should you need it

[pishkapa]

Why would they have to draw it all frame-by-frame? I never draw stuff frame by frame. Everything I've ever done has been someone else's design that I've scanned in, traced into flash, broken up into elements (like the hand, the bottom of the leg, etc.) that I animate to completed the scene.

I know that it sounds like you're gonna lose all of your 'magic' but if we're gonna do a full production the best way of doing it, I think, is to use what standard animation studios have been using for years. The designers in Disney films never animate and vice-versa. From what I've heard the same structure is being used in Flash studios. Someone is hired to design, someone to build the libraries, and then someone to animate.

This is why I suggested the Anijam project, because I know it's always hard, especially over the internet, to get people to agree on what to do. With that project, all we have to agree on is a character design - and that only for a single frame - the character could turn into/be killed by anything you want for the duration of your time in the animation (as long as he comes back to life/changes back for the last frame). It gives the animator more room for creativity and since everyone here has made their own stuff, losing that kind of creative control is hard to deal with - especially with something we're not getting paid for.

Maybe two projects? The Anijam one and the full production one. I'm up for participating in both but then I'm unemployed and a freak. The problem with having two of course, is that it would require twice as much time.

[Party2000]

If there is an eventual (if not already) division, I will happily help direct the "full production" one. I've never had enough server space, much less bandwidth, but if someone wants to set up my design somewhere, just email me before you do so. And if you can't update it often, I'll be happy to. (Hey, I'm on the 'net almost every day, and all of my current summer projects are on hold right now anyway)

I think the next step is visual brainstorming. If you are willing to draw the 30 or so base drawings that will probably be needed for the project (that's the number I ended up with for one of my more recent storyboards... I haven't heard back from my artist friend yet... I think he had a breakdown, or something!) post examples of the style you would want to do. Then people could vote on the style to use.

[toony]

I'm up for any character or background design..

As i've said before think of a name for the site and i will purchase the domain and web space, if we can think of also a team (sort of business) name then that's what i will register it under.
Then i can give who ever need's it the ftp & email details sound fair? i.e. party and I could be the administrators.

Let me know, lets start thinking of some names..

[xup878]

i'm more up for the anijam version, sure it means more work for me, but i just dont think the other way is gonna work...
plus i like the idea of seeing alot of individual work... rather than someone gets someone elses animation, tweens it across the stage, ads a background, and thats it they are done.... whats the point the person that did the animation in the first place may as well have done that...

anijam anijam