3D Design, Models & Miniatures
Here are storyboards for the opening scene of Tar of Zandoria. After the opening title, the scene opens with a hand-drawn map of the world, zooming in on an area west of the oasis, tiny vultures are spinning over that spot on the map (this is the establishing shot “where are we”)–I point this out because the drawings are really just for me, so it might not be clear what things are….
I’m working on storyboards for Tar of Zandoria, and by serendipity discovered that the business card that I was using as a template to draw rectangles in my sketchbook is the correct aspect ratio for 16:9!
I just grabbed it because it was handy, and a good size for me. But it seems so obvious and simple–and readily available–you can draw storyboards anywhere! I don’t recall anyone ever sharing this as a tip before–so here it is 😉
Animation:Master tutorial/demo videos from Siggraph a few years back… I used to have these things for sale on Cafepress, but I decided to re-encode them to h.264 AAC and upload to my YouTube channel.
There will be about 6 hours worth of videos, after I get it all uploaded! This gives me a chance to work-out some technical issues about online video, and a reason to visit my channel. The 10 minute time limit on videos on YouTube have me thinking that that will become a new standard length for episodes…So maybe Tar of Zandoria will work in 10 minute chapters?
visit the channel link above to check-out the videos (really only of interest to Animation:Master users), I don’t see the point of embedding them all here…Here is a link for the playlists:
The newest incartnation of Tar is a little tubbier than my airbrushed version… I think that it fits the hippo better.
A few more sketches of the dancing girl…. The elephant’s name is “Tusk” (more designs to follow).
At the waterhole (bar), there needs to be some suitable anthropomorphic “extras”:
And here is a little bit more cartoony Ninja Hyena. It seems to me that The more I push the direction to be more stylized, the better it works–what do you think?
The stone monkey is an animated “sphinx-like” golem controlled by the evil wizard. Tar encounters him in the ancient necropolis…
This demon is conjured up by that evil monkey wizard!
This ancient chimp…an evil necromancer, has kidnapped the troupe of dancing girls. He plans to sacrifice them to the fiendish appetites of his dark gods, for tutelage in the black arts. Bad monkey!
In this first story, TAR is coming out of the desert and is ambushed by some bandits. The hyenas have already overcome a caravan headed for the oasis of Lund, and Tar will encounter those survivors right after he deals with these guys….
Update: Some more hyenas: Ninja Hyenas!
The lastest version of the story of Tar features anthropomorphic animals instead of people. I decided that some of the female characters would be birds…
in this episode that I’m working on, there is a troup of dancing girls. I’m picturing belly dancer ostriches 🙂
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php
This was a very thought provoking essay about how many fans it takes to make a living from your art. The 1,000 figure isn’t set in stone–it is the idea of “true fan” that is important.
Having been somewhat dormant online this past year, I haven’t been trying to cultivate fans ( I don’t really have anything for sale either…). But maybe there are fans out there who wish there were books, statues, DVDs to buy. Maybe those true fans don’t even know that they are true fans–they are just waiting to discover it.
I better get to work.
imagine if Kung Fu Panda was directed by Quinten Tarantino! , Tar is like Conan the Barbarian–except he is a hippo:
Zandoria Studios 