Music Video 2

[Mikdog]

EDIT: here's the video!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNTQTM7xFf4



Hello guys,

Got another music video gig, this time for some chilled out down-tempo music for a female Kenyan artist.

A little background on the story:

The song is 'New Day' and deals with struggling and then coming through in the end. So my story revolves around a character (little weird character) in Kenya that has an affinity for the sun. He/she is constantly trying to get as close as possible to the sun, jumping off giraffe backs, hopping onto hopping Masai Warriors - he/she lives for the sun. Eventually he/she is able to fly through space and arrive at the sun where he/she (gonna refer to he/she as 'it' from now on) finds nirvana. The sun's doors open and there are lots of its, flowing rivers, majestic mountains, fertile valleys, etc...

So, I'm trying to find a suitable main character. Originally I had a little blue bullet man (26) but he might not be suitable for the artist, hey, well you can listen to her song 'New Day' here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/nakaaya

I want 'it' to be super optimistic, so that NOTHING gets it down when the worst seems terribly worst. In other words it has a ridiculous naivety and gung-ho attitude that it doesn't even see the failures it makes in trying to arrive at the sun, it just keeps on trying and trying, never giving up until it makes it.

Some brainstorming:




If you forum members would be so kind as to let me know if any character immediately takes your interest on face value? I'd be very grateful. Having trouble seeing the wood from the trees at the moment. Peace!

[funksmaname]

hey man... you've found your niche huh? :d

I like something like no.20 or 21 for this story, as they sort of look like fire, it makes sense they would be trying to get back to teh sun?
The world they are trying to leave could be made up of all the blue characters? (i like those) which would make the fire 'it' look like an outsider?

oh, and i still want your comic... where can i get it?

[Mikdog]

thanks funks, that's cool, I'll develop them flame dudes.

Wondering whether to go off on a completely different animation technique for this vid, start afresh with something else...anyway, thanks.

For the book, I still have some copies but they're in South Africa! They're a good laugh, even I laughed hard the other day when I was reading through it. Please PM me and we'll see if we can figure something out,

Peace,

m

[chucky]

1,12,15,16 29.
Congrats on the new gig.

[synthsin75]

12 is the one that stood out to me.

[Mikdog]

thanks guys

May have to make it a little Kenyan girl, but I'll make it crazy-like.

Thanks for your input, helps a lot as always. Peace

[toonertime]

how about some toon designs of
the Sun as a character? Brand new day!

[Springymajig]

Congratulations! I look forward to seeing how it turns out

With a story like that... I couldn't help but think of something with an almost spiritual, earthy vibe to it, so number 10 definitely seems the most appropriate to me.

Another thing that may help design a character for a simple, cartoony story like that is sorta thinking about how it's appearence will fit in with the world/story you create. For example, when me and my friend made our short Ectype's End (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3t3bqlm3Vo) we wanted to give the main character a square body and square head because he comes from a mechanical world, and then goes to a more organic world where everything rounded and squishy looking.

So I would think like, where does this character start off? Is he in Kenya? Some fantasy world? If he likes the sun, does he have a tan? Is he trying to escape from a world that doesn't let him experience sunshine? (that is probably something to consider... it would make it a stronger story if there is some kind of major obstacle between him and the sun... in other words, sure he likes the sun, but what's stopping him from just lying on the beach? What makes him want to actually go right up close? you might already have a clear way to approach this but I thought I'd mention it in case you didn't think of it cos I found that a real simple secret to building a better story)

[Redeye]

Congratulations on the job. It was your Goldfish animation that swayed me towards getting ASPro over other software - It totally blew me away!

Looking forward to seeing how this evolves

Cheers

[Mikdog]

Thanks Red. Glad you chose AS Pro. Its a great li'l app.

Springy> Thanks man. I agree some logical thought process goes a long way. I'm trying hard to get a proper story in there...I love a good story, and get irritated when an animation is made without a sold backbone of a story, yet I'm totally guilty of it myself sometimes. Doh!

Tooner> Will def. look into giving the Sun a proper character! It suits the song title! Schweet!

Another character design I thought could work. Its roughly based on the singer as a school girl, and Kenyans are known for their long-distance running. Thought she could turn yellow when she gets attracted to the sun. Would be fun to animate her with her long legs and heavy head. Could be lots of fun with the physics of it all.

[chucky]

Great character mikdog, I like this one the most by far.... vote in...

[Springymajig]

Nice! Even before I read the reasoning, I liked it the most out of any of the designs... it just has that kinda of earthy "african-ness" that I reckon the story needs. And I liked it even more when I read the idea behind it

I really like the idea of her glowing when she's near the sun.

[Mikdog]

Here's my animatic for this vid:

http://vimeo.com/2481370

For the sun, it'll be real pics of Nakaaya singing and I'll make her a sun.

[toonertime]

[Mikdog]

Testing the face as the sun vibe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfk0MX5jWcY

m