Ok. I've been asked by a lot of people to post work-in-progress stuff from the current crop of shorts I'm doing. I'm not comfortable with the idea, though, because first prepping stuff for posting takes time, and secondly, I just like to sit with a project by myself and contemplate on what a mess I've made. There is also a simple pleasure of showing something for the first time knowing that it is the best you could have made it given what you had. So I probably won't post any work-in-progress from my shorts. Sorry about that.

I really appreciate teaching, though, and would like to add what I can to the community. So I've come up with a short little project that I will post that will hopefully show my way of doing independent short film production. I'll keep an updated production diary AND post all relevant scene files as well so everybody can open them up and actually see what's going on, warts and all. I'm going to be working mostly on the weekends but I'm going to try to get it all done in a few months time. So, without further a due, "Don't Matchsticks With Play".

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The Idea - The idea is simple. A little matchstick guy walks out on a kitchen countertop, smiles, stretches, and proceeds to run out of frame. He then runs past camera a couple of times before tripping, falling, and burning to death. The end.

I got the idea years ago just after visiting New Zealand. Michael Asquith, Bay Raitt and I started a short film together for fun one afternoon concerning a very happy little scene concerning two characters that ended very badly. We didn’t ever get a chance to complete it as I flew home a few days later but I liked the tone of the piece and just thought that if I ever get the time I’d like to finish something with a similar feel. I came up with this idea that this matchstick guy would be having fun running around but due to his very nature meet a tragic end. I also wanted to convey the feeling of “fun cut short”. When I was a kid I remember play fighting with my brother on our beds having great fun, laughing and all that. During the fight I was thrown up pretty high and ended up impaled on one of the bed posts. Our fun came to an immediate halt as the blood flowed. Ah, the memories. So, the idea was born.

The Challenge. Now, what do I want to do with this short? Well, there is a whole list of cool things that I can try out. I want to go for a “Photo-stylistic” look and feel, meaning that I’m going to try create photo-realistic texture, material and lighting, but apply that to a very fantastical character and scene (sorry for using such a silly non-word like “Photo-stylistic” but it sums up everything I want to say without actually saying anything). To this end I want to use all the new rendering technologies I can. Blurred reflections and refractions, sub surface scattering, dispersion, true depth-of-field, GI based lighting, the works. I want to create a really nice looking environment. I did a very quick render test (in Maya 8) to get a feel for it that can be downloaded here. I used a simple floral pattern for the displacement, a free HDRI image for the base lighting from HDRImaps.com, and set up a depth-of-field through mental ray. As you can see, I get a very nice feeling render using these simple components. The render took WAY too long, but it served as a good test to see where I want to head in terms of visual development. I'm hoping to try out other, more efficient rendering solutions like finalRender to see if I can get the times down, but regardless, I'll work with what I can afford.

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Concept Design. As this is a simple little short, I need only design two things, a kitchentop and a character. I'll start with the character. I need a matchstick.....with limbs. I want to keep the design really simple as he will serve as a test bed to a whole bunch of newer rigging techniques and I don't need the grief of lots of polygons to work with. Also, I have to burn him to death and the animated displacement map, the contracting body and the animated texture will be difficult enought to deal with. Proportions are more important to me, as I want to animate him very "floppy" like and want him to read well from a distance. So, I doodle away.

Well, that should serve as a start. I dub thee "Matchie". The chest is a bit thick on the side profile but it's good enough for now.

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The Set. Now for the kitchen top. Why a kitchen top? I just felt like it....and it's the one counter in a home that always has intresting stuff on it. I really want to test out different rendering tools so during this stage I'm going to think about what objects and what material properties I want to struggle with. Right off the top, I know that since I've only a limited space I have to be selective on what to put where. One idea I have is some pasta in a pasta jar. Sub-surface scattering through pasta behind a refractive surface with blurred reflections rendered with a tight depth-of field sounds like fun! A metal sink would be good. Some sort of flower vase with flowers would look pretty, I think. A dish rag for a cloth object would be nice, and maybe a clock to add a little movement to the scene. Speaking of movement, some low curtains blowing in front of an open window would also add some nice animated shadows as well. The window would also serve as a great source for a rim light, always helpful in defining objects. Some sort of tiles on the wall to add some verticle interest should finish it off. I want to shot from a fair bit away using alot of depth-of field to get that "macro" look. I won't know how much coverage there will be in frame though until the animatic is done up so I better draw a little more then I think I'll need. That, basically, is my thought process for the set. Now to doodle one up.

Well, it's a good start. At least I know where to place everything. By the way, I picked blue as the major colour because I know my matchstick fellow will be brown. I'll end up changing some things, like the colour of the curtains for sure, but this will do for now. I'm on to the blocking stage.

Next weekend, the animatic.

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