Minor Project

For my Minor project I would like to revisit my 'Script to Screen' project from year 1 entitled 'The Gamble' and turn it into a 3D animated short. It will be a year long project so the Minor Project will be all pre production ready animated and the Major Project will be the animation and post production. Here is the original animatic sequence and pre-viz from year 1 followed to a link to the entire project on my blog.





From Script to Screen Project: http://alexnedmonds.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/From%20Script%20to%20Screen

The Premise
The short is about a Janitor named Jerry who dies in a tragic accident at the school in which he works. When he dies he is sent to 'Limbo', a lifeless environment ran by Death himself where lost souls deemed worthy enough can attempt to win their life back by completing impossible tasks at Death's amusement. To Jerry's delight he does complete the task given and returns to his life in the school once again. Although he had beaten the task, Jerry's life is taken from him once again and Death drags him into the afterlife.

The overall message shown in the animation is "you cannot cheat or beat death".

Genre: Comedy

What is going to be changed?
Due to this being a project from year 1, I had to pick three items out of a box and include all of them in the story at all costs. The items were the following:
Light bulb - How he dies
Graveyard - Limbo
Tightrope Walker - Task to complete

Some or all of these will be removed and replaced with others. I wish to remove the 'Graveyard' area in Limbo and replace it with a spooky, death themed casino where by the kiosk and the tombstone slot machine will make more sense. The task of the tightrope walking may change but I'm still deciding that. As for the light bulb it seems like a comical way for a Janitor to die so it will probably stay.

Design
In terms of 2D and 3D I would like it to be mainly 3D elements with 2D incorporated as well. As for the design I wish to redesign both characters and the limbo world but I still would like to keep the silhouetted style I had before. Jerry will be entirely 3D where as Death might have 2D elements because for one he is mainly smoke at the moment and two his world is entirely different to reality so I think it would work well.