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2006-12-12T11:03:00.000+11:00

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Le Deliveri Update

2005-08-18T11:36:00.000+10:00

Le Deliveri, the flash animated short film that was done in 15 hours has received the award for 'Best use of Quote' in the 15/15 Film Festival 2005!

Screenings and Awards so far.

2005-07-29T18:56:00.000+10:00

Have now decided to put up a list of festivals that UNmarked has been or will be screened.

Award for Best use of Sound by Soundcorp.
Award for Best Production by Mickey Duck & The Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Screening as part of the OZ Digital Shorts program.

Honors Award (Independent Films under 5 minutes)

Winner (Animation in Course)

Silver (ASEAN Short Animated Film)
Bronze (Short Animated Film: Open)

Finalist (Animated Short category)

Screened at the Greater Union Cinema 1st August 2005 5pm.

Finalist

Finalist

Le Deliveri

2005-03-15T00:20:00.001+11:00

Alrightey then... a pair of shoelaces, a quote that goes "Where does it go from here?" and 15 hours to create a film. Great!

It was truly a challenge to those of us involved in this project for the filmfest15 competition. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Thanks Aimee, JieLin n Ben for being machines for the entire day. It was truly an experience.

Thanks Markus for an amazing sound edit which brought the whole piece to life.

Thanks Jeremy for your stellar edits. Quick, cheap and effective.

Thanks Josh and Ni (SBS radio) for documenting our processes.

Thanks LynDee for being our caterer for the day.

I'll try to get the film online as soon as I can.

Closure

2004-11-27T16:07:00.000+11:00

Was having this conversation with Ben the other day about what the screening meant to us. We felt that what the screening provided us with is basically 'closure'. Somehow, we didn't feel like we were done, even after submitting our BETA tapes on the deadline about 2 weeks ago. We still came into the labs, not working on our film but working on other small things like the DVD interfaces and animations.

Those two weeks really didn't feel right. True, there was nothing else to do but i think all of us needed the screening night to tell our minds that it's really finally over. Had a great time at the screening and a better time at the party! I have not drank so much for more than a year and a half. The feeling of getting drunk after so long was just shithouse! But it was still very enjoyable. I'm going to have to take a few days to recuperate now. Thank god there's no more major project.

weird article

2004-11-24T10:42:00.000+11:00

http://www.datelinehollywood.com/showarticle.php?articleID=340

Anyways....life after AIM...Don't know how that feels like yet! Still working away at the labs. Have animated the transition between the main menu of the dvd and the students' individual pages. Still waiting for Aimee to come in and finish up the sketches this afternoon before I can complete everything. Most probably tonight.

Rant & Rave

2004-11-13T02:03:00.000+11:00

Alright...here goes the first rant & rave session...Although this is still related to the film in many ways.

Thanks Kate & Matt for the first few months of torture. Without those months of story telling lessons, I think the film would've been a complete mess. The many (although not as many as Ben) versions of the animatic really helped sort the story telling process out. And yes I will think of a movie with a concrete ENDING before i start production the next time around.

Thanks Jeremy for every little bit of guidance you've provided. The discussions we had were truly valuable. Sad to think that I've only got another semester to learn cool stuff from you.

Thanks John for neat compositing tricks. I think i remember Ted & I calling you the "King of Procedurals" or something at one point. Haha...Still would like to thank you for everything you've done for the HOP project.

Ben...What can I say? Hahaha....We've had some pretty good discussions this semester AND the last. Most of them mindless i must say. But i truly enjoyed them.

Lily...Thanks for food. It's been great havin group dinner at your place. Thanks for the morning Coffee sessions before VIT as well. In that, i'm truly grateful.

JieLin...Man you're one sick son of a bitch! hahahahah.....sleazy bugs eh? I'll be hearing that squeaky little thing in my grave! Thanks for the nights with Futurama and Hungry Jacks....Those two go together like a charm!

Astri....astri....hahahah....Glad you liked me porridge. 4 and half bowls! hahahahah...You'll be carrying that to your grave too i think....We'll definitely have one more session of chinese porridge with 100 year old eggs....Yummy!

Well, those are the usual suspects. I would go through my whole list but that's just going to take forever. But all in all, I'm truly truly glad that i've met everyone in AIM this year. And i mean every single one of you lot who are reading this. Thanks for the experience. It's been one helluva year.

There is also another thing i've learnt this year.....Hackey Sack! hahahahah....

Lilly, Shy, Astri.....I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YA'LL IN MALAYSIA! HOLIDAY IN A TROPICAL COUNTRY AT A BEACH RESORT! LETS GET OUT OF THIS COLD!

DONE!

2004-11-13T01:54:00.000+11:00

UNmarked is now officially finished! This blog will now become a place for ranting and raving. Unless of course I come up with another project that I intend to do. There's still one scene that I'd like to fix and I've been taking the past few days to think about how to fix it. Yes, I'm talking about the scene where UNmarked is walking on the table and she appears to be floating. Will try to fix that up before the screening.

That's that then.

A Nightmare!

2004-11-01T18:38:00.000+11:00

Have started putting in sounds for the film and just realised that putting in a different or slightly tweaked rustling sound for every movement of the paper dolls is a freaking nightmare!

A COUPLE MORE SHOTS!

2004-10-29T16:30:00.000+10:00

Have completed most of the fixes and the 'mystery' ending is being rendered. Will only have to render ONE more shot after discussion with Jeremy today. I should have all the video bits done by Saturday or Sunday. Will include sound and editing into the weekend as well.

It's strange how i was feeling really sick and tired about the project a couple of weeks back and after the scene fixes, things are starting to pick up again. Weird. I still just want to quickly finish this project. I can 'smell' the finish line now. I'm sure it'll taste great!

C8H10N4O2

2004-10-28T16:13:00.000+10:00

Adenosine binds to adenosine receptors in the brain and this binding of adenosine causes drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity. In the brain, adenosine binding also causes blood vessels to dilate (presumably to let more oxygen in during sleep).

To a nerve cell, caffeine looks like adenosine. Caffeine, therefore, binds to the adenosine receptors. However, it doesn't slow down the cell's activity as adenosine would. The cells cannot sense adenosine anymore because caffeine is taking up all the receptors adenosine binds to. So instead of slowing down because of the adenosine level, the cells speed up. You can see that caffeine also causes the brain's blood vessels to constrict, because it blocks adenosine's ability to open them up. This effect is why some headache medicines, like Anacin, contain caffeine - if you have a vascular headache, the caffeine will close down the blood vessels and relieve it.

Hmmm....feeling really really sleepy today. In fact coffee doesn't even help me anymore. Caffeine....BAH! Still need to keep awake to finish animating these bloody scene fixes. Ok so coffee doesn't work anymore. Red Bull next. Red bull, red bull, red bull, ed bull, bull, bull, bull, bull......

Discussions and Fixups, among other things.

2004-10-27T21:49:00.000+10:00

Have had a great deal of feedback from discussions with Jeremy and Kate on Tuesday and am now at 3/4 way of finishing the scene fixes for the film.

Was not too happy with the falling motion of UNmarked when she gets flicked out of screen by the father so I have decided to hunt for some motion-capture data on the internet. I found the 'ENDORPHIN-Virtual Motion Capture' (view demo videos here). Downloaded some of their demo videos of biped characters falling and i found one that i particularly liked. Took a few snapshots and used those images as reference to keyframe animate a falling motion for UNmarked. I'M REALLY CHUFFED WITH THE RESULT!

Anyway, the 3 PCs are still at the receiving end of lots of working nights, busy churning out the scene fixes that i've animated. The movie is sitting together heaps better now.

Will be getting the music files from Chris next week, which is when i intend to only be doing editing and sound. NO MORE ANIMATING NEXT WEEK! I HAVE TO HAVE A CUT-OFF POINT! (KATE ARE YOU READING THIS? hahaha just kidding).

All in all, I am quite pleased with the movements of the characters as I wanted to achieve a rather cartoony "snappy" sort of movement for all the characters to break away from the typical 'smooth' look on alot of 3D animated shorts. Again thanks to some great tips and tricks from keithlango animations.

The end draws ever closer.

2004-10-21T22:29:00.000+10:00

3 weeks left to go. There are 2 ways to look at this:

i. Oh I wish time would hurry up so that this will all be over with!
ii. Oh I wish I had more time! ONE MORE MONTH PLEASE!

...the second option would be nice. But I don't think I can handle looking at my project for another extra month.

Anyway...Progress progress. Have completed rendering all of my scenes today and laid them down in FinalCut Pro but soon discovered that some of the scenes actually needed some tweaking. Have completed tweaking the ending bits and are rendering them now. I should be able to complete the rough cut over the weekend and sort out what needs to be tweaked in Lightwave and what can be tweaked in AfterEffects or FinalCut.

I can say that I am on schedule and I'm pretty glad I have this remaining time to iron out problems and stuff.

A productive week

2004-10-18T11:44:00.000+10:00

Have completed everything that needs animating. Have started the computers on a full time rendering run. Still don't think I'm going to need the beast yet. In fact, I think I should be able to get by without even touching it! Showed Jeremy my animation so far on Friday to try and iron out some problematic shots. Have come up with some solutions to all of that but I am going to wait for this render to finish (should be by Wednesday) so that i can put a rough-cut together and work on any shots that need tweaking.

Progress, Progress.

2004-10-04T15:31:00.000+10:00

Have completed animating and rendering till the scene where UNmarked spots the table. Have also tried putting the scenes together in Final Cut Pro and they seem to be sitting pretty well with sound. There's just a few minor editing problems to be ironed out. Haven't had the need to call upon the "beast" as of yet because I can animate with one computer and render on the other two during the day and when I'm off at night, all three machines will be rendering. That seems to be a good solution so far. Don't know if I'll ever need the beast as of yet.

My eyes! My eyes!

2004-09-21T02:02:00.000+10:00

THERE! Finished animating all the automated sequences involved in the first scene of the story. Going nuts staring at the tiny dots on the graphs that made up the movements of various parts and characters. I could've sworn i was seing little dots flitting about in my field of vision. Oh well, that's that. I will now begin to try and tackle the mountainous task of convincingly animating UNmarked.

Read this on the CGtalk forum yesterday.

Bad Animation is ...
When Character joints bend like cardboard.
When a Monkey walks like a duck.
When a tree blows in the wind and the branches go right and the leaves go left.
etc etc ...
It's Good Animation when it's Realistic. A Lion walks like a Lion for example.
posted by RorrKonn (http://www.Atomic-3D.com)

When a character's joints bend like cardboard.....But my character is made out of paper! *ponders*

Discussions & Changes

2004-09-18T14:26:00.000+10:00

Had a talk with Jeremy yesterday and was at the receiving end of..........some very nice feedback. It is now official that i will be taking out the scene where UNmarked tosses the desk caddy off the table due to conflicting directions. That scene seems to lead the audience to thinking that UNmarked is going to take revenge or something when what i actually want is for her life to go spiralling downwards from the point that she pokes her eye out. So bye bye desk caddy scene.

Optional endings:

1. Scene re-opens after the shredder and we see UNmarked's head lying next to the conveyor belt with the shadows of the parents and daughters passing over her.The world keeps on spinning despite her efforts and tragic end, which is really how the world works.

2. Scene re-opens with the familiar alarm associated with UNmarked's birth. But this time it's the parent's lights that are flashing red. UNmarked could've been happy or accepted if she had only stayed awhile longer.

3. Scene re-opens with a pull-out from a CU of UNmarked's face. We see the shadows of the parents passing over her implying that the world has not changed. We then realise that it's only the head of UNmarked lying there in a pile of other mangled figures.

THIS IS A MUST SEE!

2004-09-16T03:41:00.000+10:00

http://www.jackals-forge.com/abom.html

I really can't believe how cruel the world can be. Beginners' work, put online and this is what they get.

Parts to be added to Animatic

2004-09-15T17:58:00.000+10:00

1. After the daughter turns back to look at UNmarked, There needs to be a scene where there's something reflective in the scene e.g. Puddle of water, piece of metal sheet etc. so that UNmarked can see her reflection and know why she's different.
She then turns back to look at the printer machine and the other daughters before she sees the markers and pencils on the desk.

2. The Zoom in to the shredder will now be a PULL-OUT from a Extreme CU to slowly reveal the shredder. Camera continues to zoom out through the hollow eye of UNmarked.

Animation, Renderings and what nots

2004-09-15T17:49:00.000+10:00

Have completed animating the automated process of the blinking printer lights and have set some scenes into the render queue. Have proceeded to pencil tests on the jumping sequence for the parents. Will use the stills from that as a reference when i start animating the automated parents sequence next. Here's the test sequence.

Will start thinking of keyposes and acting over the weekend and come up with references for animating UNmarked. There are 2 ways that i'm thinking of doing this:

1. Capturing live acting on a DV cam and extrapolate/exaggerate the movements on UNmarked.
2. Draw basic poses on paper and run it through the pencil tester to get the acting part right.

Scene optimization

2004-09-13T16:24:00.000+10:00

Have optimized the lighting and the complexity of the little cables hanging around here and there. The rendering time is now down to 2 minutes per frame!

UNmarked Variations

2004-09-13T15:42:00.000+10:00

Have completed all the models and textures for the different versions of unmarked.

From left; Smudged face with hole in head, Just hole in head, Back of head showing the torn bits of paper.

Final lighting and texturing

2004-09-12T19:17:00.000+10:00

Have finalised the textures and lighting for the factory. Rendering time fluctuates between 3 - 5 minutes per frame (depending on complexity of the scene) at 720 X 576, medium anti-aliasing, depth of field and motion blur turned on. If EVERY frame takes 5 minutes to render, it would roughly take 22 days to render the 3 minutes worth of animated scenes. That sits comfortably in the time frame that I have put aside in the production schedule with 8 more days to spare.

IT WORKS! ZE RIG WORKS!

2004-09-10T15:38:00.000+10:00

Am very happy with the way the new bone setup and the updated model works together. I can easily position the arms and legs where i want them to be without doing funny things to the model. Have decided not to go with an IK controlled head as it doesn't deform a flat head very well.

Here are some tests.

RIG!

2004-09-09T23:08:00.000+10:00

Thanks to lostpencil.com for a lovely reference. I've made this final rig and have found it to be very economical and easy to animate. The bones in the arm can easily bend towards the face and the head can easily be made to face downwards for a sad pose. Will duplicate this rig and make another with FK arms.

The legs are completely IK and driven by only one 'goal' each. The other nulls were put in there only to keep the feet pointing downwards. The spine is controlled by FK as it allows for more control.

Will proceed with posing tests tomorrow.

Production Schedule

2004-09-09T15:51:00.000+10:00

Production Schedule has been set up and can be viewed here.

Free Rig!

2004-09-08T15:55:00.000+10:00

Have gotten a hold of a fully rigged Lightwave character (special thanks to http://www.lostpencil.com for the free model of Noodle). Will now break attempt to break the rig down to bite sized chunks to understand the setup and I will hopefully be able to rig my character the same way.

FK, IK and Animatic issues

2004-09-07T02:24:00.000+10:00

Okay I must admit that I have achieved more in the animatic in the last 5 days than in the last couple of weeks and this is making me much happier as it is now telling the story alot clearer than the first and second draft. Have decided to render still frames of the movements from Lightwave and composite them together in After Effects for the animatic. Still have one more scene to go on that one. Should be done latest by tomorrow.

Have been reading up on Inverse Kinematics and Forward Kinematics because the current rig, although works very well for walk cycles, is crap at deforming the body of UNmarked when it comes to more emotional poses e.g. crying or burying her head in her hands which, compared to stomping around looking dejected, ARE essential to the telling of the story.

I will finish the animatic by Wednesday (Latest) and work on the idea of an IK/FK hybrid rig (IK for the legs and head turns, FK for the spine and arms).I really hope that works. Will also need to add more subdivisions to the models to allow them to move a little bit more like paper. Currently the joints are breaking as if the characters are made out of corrugated cardboard or something. NASTY!

Just wondering if anyone can let me know if Lightwave7 has a feature of switching between IK and FK within one rig (like in Maya). That would be very welcome.

More Epocs and Tests

2004-08-29T20:28:00.000+10:00

Have completed updated skeleton for UNmarked. Using that, I've created a test walk cycle. I'll need to further refine the bones in the shoulder and arms to allow for more shoulder twists and arm movements.

Character rigging

2004-08-27T20:02:00.000+10:00

Have discovered today that the setup for the character wasn't especially very friendly for this model. Will have to come up with another rig. A messy result!

Skelegons

2004-08-27T03:13:00.000+10:00

Have completed the bone structure for UNmarked using the skelegon feature from Lightwave. Had to go through a couple of tests before I decided on the best rig for her movements. Successfully set up the IK that allows for most of her movements.

Modeling progress

2004-08-25T18:59:00.000+10:00

Completed 2 versions of UNmarked. One for when she's just born and another when she's marked herself. Have made the markings on her body look like they've been made by an old marker that's almost running out of ink. Next model would be the one with a big hole in her head.

The original ending

2004-08-25T02:02:00.000+10:00

Have been thinking of the ending for a long long time now and i have decided that 'UNmarked' is going to shred herself in the end.

Arrived at the decision because in our world today, the different are almost certainly shunned by the community. Their deaths won't change anything but I just want the audience to feel for her, even for a brief moment how the people who are 'different' feel.

Lighting the scene

2004-08-23T18:10:00.000+10:00

Spent the day lighting the warehouse. Considering that radiosity takes way too long to render, I've lit the scene mainly with spinning spotlights to simulate area lights. Tutorials on that can be found here. Am fairly happy with the results. I reckon i'd have to darken the shadows a little bit to get more contrast between light and dark.

This is a sample render of the factory space with some dummy characters.

The scene (720 X 576, medium anti-aliasing, motion blur and depth of field) took 1 minute to render.

With basic textures, the scene takes about 1.5 minutes to render.

Status of animatic

2004-08-19T19:20:00.000+10:00

The animatic is now approximately 70% done. Quite a few shots had to be added here and there to tie the different scenes together as the errors in the flow of the story wasn't apparent in the storyboards. It's all sitting together alot better now.

Tutorials and Video reference

2004-08-17T18:35:00.000+10:00

Had a look at the timing of the pose pauses in 'Evelyn' again today to get a better understanding of the timing for a sad film. For those that are interested, it's available at http://www.keithlango.com/movies/evelyn.mpg

Keith Lango has also written a few tutorials on tips and tricks to make 3D animated characters more lively by pushing beyond the basic pose-to-pose style animation that always seem so apparent in 3D animations. And that's available at http://www.keithlango.com under the tutorials section

Animatic

2004-08-16T18:35:00.000+10:00

Have completed all the models (except the shredder) for the story at this point. Have started to move on to come up with the animatic. It's baffling that so many errors and funny cuts showed up at this point that wasn't noticeable during the storyboard stage. I'll have to add more scenes here and there to fix those things up.

Will have to meet with a sound designer this week (latest next week) to confirm that i'll have someone else handling my soundtrack and maybe foley as well.

Am planning to finish the animatic with basic sounds in by this week.

Epocs

2004-08-09T17:11:00.000+10:00

Have completed some of the modelling for the space as well as the members of the family. The images are test renders of the space in various camera angles. Lighting is prelimenary. Will complete the stage and basis of the characters before proceeding to animatic.

Animated textures help create the illustion of the conveyor belt without actually moving the mesh.

Have also decided to change the look of the film. Decided that the moody black and white look gives the film a more sinister feel. It also helps make the family characters seem like they have an evil side behind their broad grins.

Changes, changes, changes...

2004-08-06T18:29:00.000+10:00

New character designs out. Major changes include:

a. More cartoony look
b. More 'PRINTED' look
c. Expressionless with a stupid grin to make them look more emotionless and robotic
d. Incorporated 'necks' to allow for freedom of head movement

3D paper character test

2004-08-01T23:39:00.000+10:00

Tried setting up the bones for the simplest character which is the mother. Should be quite easy to control her movements with just one IK chain. The textures were illustrated in Adobe Illustrator.

This is probably how she will look in the world. Still going to texture the back of the character.

Character Concepts

2004-07-27T17:36:00.000+10:00

The concept sketches for the characters in 'UNmarked'. The size of the characters are are relative to each other.

More references

2004-07-27T14:54:00.000+10:00

Have found various images of paperdolls.

http://www.paperdolls.com/pages/pdgallry.htm

Sound ideas

2004-07-27T12:11:00.000+10:00

Act 1

1. Photocopy machine
2. Bells
3. Paper rustling (various)
4. Hydraulics
5. Heavy metal door opening
6. Heavy metal door Clang
7. Alarm noises
8. Lound clunking of machine
9. Thud
10. Crumpled paper
11. Spitting / vomitting sounds

Act 2

1. Background machine ambience
2. Rustling of paper
3. Voice over (refer to script)
4. Hydraulics
5. Heavy metal door opening
6. Heavy metal door Clang
7. Quick rustling of paper
8. Marker squeaks
9. Paper being ripped
10. Thud
11. Gasp

Act 3

1. Soundtrack
2. Slow rustling
3. Faint machinery
4. Shredder whirring
5. Rustling of paper shreds
6. Heavy metal dragged across floor
7. Photocopy machine
8. Whirring of shredder
9. Bell
10. Screams

Notes: Am currently working on the soundtrack to go into 'Act 3'.

Script (First draft)

2004-07-26T23:57:00.000+10:00

Have completed the detailed script for "UNmarked" and is available here.

http://www.geocities.com/justinfoo/UNMARKED_script.doc

If the link doesn't work, just copy the address and paste it into a new browser window. Still some niggling problems that needs ironing out.

Essential Parts to Story

2004-07-21T12:42:00.000+10:00

1. Birth of unmarked child
a. Scenes of paper people coming out of machines.
b. Scenes of parents picking up their daughters and walking out of scene.
c. Daughter machine has a malfunction and spits out a crumpled unmarked daughter.

2. Shunned by parents
a. Parent's reaction to unmarked daughter.
b. Roughly pushes her aside and picks up another girl behind her.
c. Unmarked daughter 'looks' longingly at other girls being picked up by more parents

3. Stationery depot
a. Unmarked daughter spots a stationery depot and runs towards it.
b. Picks up a pen and starts marking herself, making a mess.
c. Spots a hole puncher and tries to punch out eyes but ends up looking worse.

4. Paper shredder
a. Daughter walks around looking depressed.
b. Spots a paper shredder.
c. Fades to black screen where we hear sounds of heavy object being pushed.
d. Paper shredder is now located under printer and is shredding up every girl that is born.

Character References

2004-07-19T01:45:00.000+10:00

These are various images from which i will draw inspiration from for the characters in "UNmarked". Characters designs will only be a full frontal view and a full back view which is printed on both sides of the paper.

Warehouse Render Tests

2004-07-18T18:50:00.000+10:00

Been testing different renders for the warehouse settings to develop various 'clean' looks. Model is from an old classroom set. This is also a test for different lighting solutions. Radiosity takes too long (almost 15 minutes a frame) and so other lighting solutions will have to be used. These are all rendered below 5 minutes per frame.

1. Light incidence angle (for high contrast)/ Outlines / Super Cel Shader.

2. Outlines / Realistic shading. (Overall softer feel)

3. Outlines / Realistic shading / Super Cel Shaded foreground elements (characters, props etc.)

Shader tests

2004-07-18T03:43:00.000+10:00

A few prelimanery tests for maps, shaders & procedurals. Each render took no more than a minute on a Pentium4 1.7Ghz machine with 256Mb of RAM.

Black & White / Super Cel shader / Outlined:

Colour Image map / Super Cel shader / Outlined:

Colour Image map / Procedural Bump Mapping / Super Cel Shader / Outlined:

Plot Structure (2nd Draft)

2004-07-17T13:22:00.000+10:00

1. Exposition (Beginning): Scene establishment

2. Rising Action: Scenes of machines churning out paper figures. Monotonous process. Piece of paper that doesn't have prints on it is cut. Unmarked daughter is born.

Plot Point 1: Unmarked daughter is shunned by supposed parents. Parents opt for 'normal' daughter.

3. Conflict: Unmarked daughter realises why she's shunned. Realises that she's different. Feels angry.

4. Climax: Unmarked daughter starts feeling jealous and tries to make other 'daughters' unattractive by dirtying them, pushing them over and stomping on them but they just get up and dust themselves and they're as good as new. This hints at what material they're made off. Unmarked daughter realises that it's pointless.

Plot Point 2: Unmarked daughter finds a stationery depot. Tries to give herself an identity by drawing eyes, mouths, dresses etc. She falls over and the ink smears, giving her a freakish look. Feels even more depressed. Smeared ink looks like she's crying.

5. Falling action: She now sees a paper hole puncher punching papers. She runs and throws herself onto it hoping to punch out some eyes. However she only ends up looking like a mangled figure.

6. Resolution: She looks in a mirror and is shocked at her hideous appearance. Runs around crying. She spots a paper shredder nearby. Scene fades to black.

7. End: Scene re-opens and we see that the paper shredder has been moved directly at the end of the printer and daughters that are born are instantly shredded.

Other considerations

2004-07-13T13:45:00.000+10:00

"If everybody looked the same, we'd get tired of looking at each other".

The unmarked girl can be considered attractive due to her difference. She can be so attractive that the parent figures are actually fighting over her and starts ripping her limbs off. There can be a realisation later that she's torn and the parents actually resume their normal scenario.

Alternate Endings

2004-07-13T13:37:00.000+10:00

1. Unmarked girl faxes herself to another place where she's more welcome.

2. Hanging end where the story ends when the unmarked girl discovers the paper shredder.

3. Story ends when the unmarked girl discovers the paper shredder and later:
a. Pushes the paper shredder to the printing machines to shred up all the other girls.
b. Empties a bucket full of other paper girls into the paper shredder.

Plot Structure

2004-07-13T02:52:00.000+10:00

1. Exposition (Beginning): Scene establishment

2. Rising Action: Scenes of machines churning out paper figures. Monotonous
process. Piece of paper that doesn't have prints on it is cut. Unmarked daughter is born.

Plot Point 1: Unmarked daughter is shunned by supposed parents. Parents opt for 'normal' daughter.

3. Conflict: Unmarked daughter realises why she's shunned. Realises that she's different. Feels angry.

4. Climax: Unmarked daughter starts feeling jealous and tries to make other 'daughters' unattractive by dirtying them, pushing them over and stomping on them but they just get up and dust themselves and they're as good as new. This hints at what material they're made off. Unmarked daughter realises that it's pointless.

Plot Point 2: Unmarked daughter finds a stationery depot. Tries to give herself an identity by drawing eyes, mouths, dresses etc. She falls over and the ink smears, giving her a freakish look. Feels even more depressed. Smeared ink looks like she's crying.

5. Falling action: She now sees a paper hole puncher punching papers. She runs and throws herself onto it hoping to punch out some eyes. However she only ends up looking like a mangled figure.

6. Resolution: She looks in a mirror and is shocked at her hideous appearance. Runs around crying.

7. End: She spots a paper shredder nearby. Climbs onto it and we see her fall. (Think Suicidal Jumper)

Synopsis

2004-07-13T01:35:00.000+10:00

The idea for "UNmarked" came to me as I was browing through my mind-map notes and listening to Groove Armada's 'Vertigo' album.

"If everybody looked the same,
we'd get tired of looking at each other"

Groove Armada

"UNmarked" is going to be a 3D animated piece that starts off at a 'factory' which produces (prints) paper-people. Every man, woman, son and daughter is printed and die-cut with exactly the same template.

The story starts when one of the paper accidentally bypasses the printing process (probably blown by the wind) and goes straight to the die-cut stage thus creating a 'daughter' that doesn't have an identity resulting in the parent figures calling her 'Freak' and choosing another 'daughter' over her.

The 'Daughter' then ends up trying to 'draw' and make up her own identity. In all her efforts, she is still unable to look like the rest and is still shunned by the community. In her desperation, we see her trying all sorts of things to fit in and is faced with all sorts of calamity.

Finally, she see's a paper shredder nearby...