[UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short - Concept Artists
michaelcawood | 01/28/2009 @062 | edit post

Wanted: Concept Artists, Storyboard Artists and general collaborators. http://michaelcawood.com/images/CGShort/DevilsAngelsAndDatingPoster.jpg What is this all about? I’m making a CG Short Film for the love of it as a hobby on the side of my day job. But it’s much more fun and creative if I can find some talented collaborators. So I’m posting this to see if there are any talented souls out there looking to get involved. Ideally I’m looking for people with some experience already, perhaps looking to diversify their skill set and portfolio. Or simply to act as a showcase for talents they know they have but have yet to have the opportunity to do working in a professional environment. You can see how the project is shaping up at my website MichaelCawood.com ( http://michaelcawood.com/CGShort.htm ). The target audience is the web surfer, it will look striking enough on almost every frame for most people to want to click on an image of it, while intriguing enough in its subject matter to keep people watching. Obviously it will be fired off to the festival circuit and I’ll knock on any other doors that are relevant (TV, Cinema, DVD, etc...) but the internet is our only guaranteed venue. Here’s the current WIP Animatic (storyboard): http://michaelcawood.com/CGshort/DevilsAngelsDating_Animatic.mov Who am I? My name is Michael Cawood. I’ve been an Animated Filmmaker since 1994, having worked on Animated Films, VFX Films, Commercials, Games and made numerous personal short films in my student days. You can check out my LinkedIn profile ( http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcawood )and my Filmography ( http://michaelcawood.com/movies.htm ) to get a flavour of my work. My last student film, Panda Pander picked up a few million viewings on one of the video portals. But having started as a 2D Animator, I’ve yet to make my own short film in full CG, and my film making skills have moved on a lot since then. I love making these things and I’ve done more than my fair share in the past but, for the last nine years I’ve been focused on making other people’s projects. I enjoy the process in any capacity whoever it’s for, but I felt it was time to get back to making something for myself. I’ve never stopped writing stories or creating characters over that time but this project is compact enough to actually get made. I have most of the skills necessary myself to make this thing so I have no fear that it can be done. What do you get? Not paid: Don’t be fooled. There is almost no market for making money out of this. It’s too easy to watch a CG Short on a video portal for free, so why should anyone pay for it? So I’m not offering money. I could tell you that I’ll divvy up any proceeds should that happen (and I would), but you really shouldn’t be doing this for the cash. Personally I’m quite sure I’ll spend more on this than I’ll ever get back financially. Credit: I have no particular need to sit back and say I did all of this, so I’m very happy to share the credit, where credit is due. I’ll deploy a similar system to the BBC, anyone that contributes over 10% in any given specialist area will be credited, most likely in order of contribution. I’ll also try to maintain a list of contributors on my website during production, once they start having something to show. Portfolio Material: This isn’t a secret project, as it unfolds you are welcome to use whatever you are contributing in your own portfolio to sell yourself to employers, as long as you are specific about what you’ve done. I’m relying on this to ensure a high quality of product. Reference: I’m more than happy to write worthy contributors a good reference. For professionals, I’d heartily recommend adding this project to your LinkedIn profile (only once you actually start working on it) where I can recommend you and employers can verify the legitimacy of it. You can also seek recommendations from other people you’ve worked with on this project. Promotion: I’ll happily cross link with strong contributors if they have websites they want people to see. Contacts: Anything you do like this is a good way to make contacts in the business. You never know who you’ll be working with in the future. How much of a commitment? Since I’m assuming people are doing this for their own portfolio, I would expect that most people will want to do a small number of images or sequences. What’s the film about? Synopsis: Mr. Cupid, Master Devil and a rather sexy young judge, jury and executioner in the form of Miss Death gather in the ‘After Life’ War Room to attend to their daily routine of manipulating our lives down on Earth with modern techniques that would put our iPod generation to shame. Each of them reluctantly compelled to play out their role in the game of life in order to maintain the balance. There's an unspoken attraction in the room as their true personalities are revealed to each other. Then someone gets a bright idea and re-purposes their high tech tools in a way that turns the tide of war and flips everything on its head. At the moment I’m not posting the full script/treatment to avoid direct copy cats, but that may change. I’ll reveal it to people that get in touch with me when it’s suitable. It’s still open to change at this time but it has settled into a decent story already, and it just needs a few talented eyeballs on it to really make it shine. But the goal is to keep it short and manageable. What do you need to do? I want to make one thing clear. My standards are quite high, and although I hate to exclude anyone, I’d rather work with people that can prove in some way that they are up to the job so that we don’t end up wasting each other’s time. So get in touch through my website’s contact page ( http://michaelcawood.com/Contact.htm ) and send me a link to your work (no attachments please, unless they’re only a few KB). Make sure you’ve thought through what talents you want to offer and prove to me you’re capable. You can also join in at the 11 Second Club, where other artists and animators are posting our progress. http://www.11secondclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3770 What does the project need? Initially I’m looking for: Concept Artists (Enviroments, Props, Colour work, promotional artwork, set pieces) Storyboard Artist I’ll post other specialist skills as and when it’s most appropriate, but at some stage in the project you can expect most animated film making skills to be of use. If you are interested and just want to discuss it please get in touch here http://michaelcawood.com/Contact.htm .

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/29/2009 @828 | edit post

On today’s animatic update I’ve reworked the intro for Devil and done Death’s mysterious reveal. It also establishes the character personalities and the dynamic of how the characters interact. Some of the drawings are a little bit rough to really tell what their expressions are, but it will be refined later. Animatic http://www.michaelcawood.com/CGshort/DevilsAngelsDating_Animatic.mov

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 01/31/2009 @879 | edit post

Another animatic update. This time most of the essentials are present and there’s a temporary audio track in place. I probably shouldn’t have done the audio yet but it was an interesting experiment. Unfortunately I had some technical issues that really made it rather painful to get done (Premiere didn’t seem to like speeded up mp3 files with fade offs). It also gives you the illusion that the action scene has finished before it actually has, since the music isn’t a perfect fit. But I figured one version of the animatic with sound would give a few people a taste of the mood... although I have to admit, this music is probably a little too big too soon! Anyway there’s more to refine yet, not least the added twist at the end. I’ve actually managed to skip about 30% of the script overall and keep it relatively logical, but it’s suffering from a lack of depth and character setup time that the script has. It’s always possible to add this stuff later, but I’m going to try and see how much I can get away without at first to keep the film short. I’ll layer in what I need in other passes until it feels right. The same link applies, as before.

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 04/23/2009 @998 | edit post

Here's a video introduction for all the newbies out there that want to know more. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/project-introduction It's also available in larger HD here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XVPs8SWb70

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 07/31/2009 @743 | edit post

The character rigging has started. But we have three characters so we could still do with some more experience Character Riggers if anyone is interested. We also need a little character modeling work done, although we're 90% there. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=2892810%3APhoto%3A8205 [Message edited on 07/31 @744]

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 09/10/2009 @687 | edit post

Keith Lango is now a Supporter of our film production. He'll be donating training videos to our strongest contributors as we go along. Check this out for details: http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/forum/topics/gifts-for-the-team-official

Re: [UNPAID] Devils, Angels & Dating - CG Short -
michaelcawood | 11/02/2009 @752 | edit post

Episode 4 of the podcast is online now. In this one I talk to, team member, Iskander Mellakh and then go over a quick Filmography of my work before a status update of our short animated film ‘Devils Angels and Dating’. Blog Entry Direct