Here are two unused backgrounds for a project. I like them both, but they are failures. I’m more partial to first one, but it is too psychedelic. The second one is too busy. However, the second features one divine bovine. The bovine is very similar to another drawing of a cow I did in High School for a commercial contest. My idea had to do with milk, but the actual commercial contest topic had nothing to do with milk. Everyone told me not to draw the cow – but I inisted. Needless to say, I lost.

Continue reading Backgrounds →

While storyboarding Ameviathan: The Green Machine, I have run into a number of visual problems that the scriptwriting process has not taken into account. One category of problems has to do with space, and in particular a floating sofa.

Before I get to the floating sofa though, let me say a word about these spatial problems in general. On some level, I had anticipated such problems and in drafting the screenplay was mindful that I should not get overly complex in what I sought to portray. Nonetheless, when I transferred what I had written on the page into three-dimensional space and actual frame-by-frame shots, I found there were still elements I had not fully considered, like the floating sofa.

Continue reading The Case of the Floating Sofa and How Cecily Wound up Under the Table →

Here are storyboards 130 and 137 from Ameviathan: “The Green Machine”. Tim found a way to better render the pictures in Photoshop to get them a little cleaner and smoother looking. So props to Tim for making the crappy sketches actually visible.

As of today I’ve storyboarded about half the script. My production rate seems to be around 8 frames a day.

Continue reading Storyboards 130 & 137 – Ameviathan: “The Green Machine” →

In coming up with the itinerary I tried to accommodate everyones’ requests and suggestions as best as I could. See you in a week.

Official Itinerary:
Proto-Con 1.0
October 21st to 23rd, 2005

Friday Night

6-7 PM          Arrivals and Proto-Bag Handout
7:30-8 PM       Keynote Address
8:30-12 PM      Star Frontiers: Session 1

Saturday

8-9 AM          Breakfast: The Tea, Juice and Fruit Morning Mixer
9-10:00 AM      A Chat Amongst Friends  
10:00-1 PM      Project: Shooting Proto-Con's 2006 Promo-Video (i.e., next             
                year's).  The video will make use of cardboard animatronics 
                and/or sculpted beasties.
1-2 PM          Lunch: Make it yourself
2-3:30 PM       Creative Canned Biscuit Cook-Off Contest
3:30-4 PM       Photos (Costume and Group)
4-5 PM          Intense Discussion/Heated Debate: Extemporaneous plot and     
                character creation collaborative brainstorm
5-6 PM          Dinner: Tim's Goulash
6-10 PM         Star Frontiers: Conclusion
10-12 AM        Movie (TBA) catered with generic snacks and one variety of   
                strange alcoholic beverage (TBA)
12-? AM         Late-Nite Thom-foolery (may include, but not limited to):
                *  Snipe hunt (sniping bags will be provided but bring your own 
                   stick)
                *  The Nightwalkers - a bunch of fools walk home along a country     
                   road in the dark enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of 
                   the night and almost getting themselves killed as they fall 
                   into ditches, get hit by cars, and such.


Sunday

8-9 AM          Breakfast: Megan will arrive at 8 AM and cook EVERYONE French  
                toast and then go home.
9-10 AM         Excelsior - Where is Protozoic going from here?  What does the             
                future hold for CoT, Ameviathan, Ant Farming, Chook, Famouse the 
                Mouse, Odin 2000, Phos Rocks and other thriving/dead projects?
10-12 AM        Project: Penning of the Proto-Con Ballad
12-1 PM         Sandwiches for the Road and Awards
                Awards will include:
                1) Creative Canned Biscuit Cook-Off Award
                2) Costume Award
                3) Intense Dissussion Award
                4) Roleplaying Award (i.e., who won the Star Frontiers game,     
                the GM or the Players)
1 PM            Goodbye Speech: "Safe Sailing Dear Friends & Associates" (To be          
                given by Thom Webb, even if he's already left on Saturday)

Note: The dealer table will be supplied by Thom Webb.
                

This is storyboard number 44. It looks grainy because it was drawn in very light pencil and Tim had to bump the levels way up to get it to show.

I am proud to announce that we will be holding the first ever annual Protozoic Convention, Proto-Con, from Friday October 21st to Sunday the 23rd. Though the kinks in the event itinerary still have to be ironed out, I can say that there will be panel discussions, guest speakers, socials, cosplay and a session of TSR’s Star Frontiers (with modified rules). There is even a rumor that all attendees will get “gift bags” full of freebies.

If you are casual reader of the Protozoic website and are not on one of our many mailing lists, feel free to mail me or anyone here for more information about attending.

In the meantime, everybody else be sure to stay tuned for more information on the big weekend.

Is is possible to synthesize the element plutonogen? If not, what is the most “powerful element ever” not yet listed on the periodic table?

I have provided a chart that will hopefully help clarify last week’s question.

Charts, links and quotes are acceptable in your answer.

The Ameviathan script we will be shooting will be “The Green Machine”. Though we are still looking into filing for profit or non-profit status for the film-making future, “The Green Machine” will not receive third-party funding.

There are a couple reasons for this. With a 20 to 30 minute length video, there isn’t any sort of shelf life for the current incarnation of “Ameviathan” outside of the realm of television show. And with the the heyday off Sid and Marty Kroft (rather sadly in my mind) behind us, there also isn’t any real hope of a major bidding war for airing rights breaking out any time soon.

As such, “The Green Machine” will be S.T.I. (straight to internet), and see release here exclusively on Protozoic. However, none of this means that the our goals for “The Green Machine” are any less lofty. Technically, “The Green Machine” will represent the most complicated thing we’ve done to date, in terms of the writing process, pre-production, production and post-production.

This week, Tim and myself have started with a thorough read-through of the the screenplay, making some appropriate decisions. Next, I’ll start story-boarding and Tim will look into lighting. Meanwhile, Brian will harvest ants from our yard.

As for the future: We will continue to look into filing for non-profit or profit status and I will continue working towards the completion of a feature length script. At the current time, I am still working on producing treatments for potential ideas, though I think I’ve landed on the idea I’ll be developing. Brian’s plans for the future will remain steadfast: the ant-opian dream.