February, 2011 | Luis' Illustrated Blog

Back on the Halloween show. Treatment of Scene 3. CARTOONISTA cartoons. My birthday fumble.

February 24, 2011 in MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I started board revisions on the Halloween show this week. I was given Act 1 which had the least amount of re-writes while my partner got stuck with the much heavier Act 3. It has a lot more re-writes and it’s much more complicated. It’s also the act the layout crew is starting on. It’s very funny and it had me laughing so much I was tearing up when we watched the screening.

VIDEOS

I’ve got some videos from fellow CARTOONISTAS I want to share this week.First up is Jim Lujan‘s latest cartoon HARD CRUMBLER. A story of a man searching for what he’s lost. Very funny. Jim has a way of making his cartoons seem so serious but they are sooo not. Great stuff:



Next is Raul Aguirre Jr‘s Act 1 animatic for a project he’s working on for El Padrecito Ministries. It’s a cartoon based on the HOMIES and MiJOS line of product of gumball machine toys, you might have seen. It’s amazing. Raul is the man. He obviously did all the voice work and put together an animatic single handed. Fantastic stuff. So much work. The project needs some stimulus money to continue so you might want to think about pitching in a few bucks, it looks worth it. Have a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYyFwDAjGF8


WRITING


Scene three is very short. The most significant thing about it, is that I officially pass the “antagonist baton” from the Lead Sorcerer to the Other Male Sorcerer (the guy who has his face covered by his hair). The Lead Sorcerer is no longer both the Antagonist AND the Impact Character. He is just the Impact Character. The way I’ve been writing him kinda forced me to split the role onto the other character. I’m just glad I had another character to give the role to.


As I have been doing, I’ll put the synopsis of the scene and then I’ll expand on it:

Scene 3 (Speculation/Inequity)

- Rob hands over his weapon believing the Sorcerers will keep their word leaving him out numbered and without protection.The Sorcerers laugh at the weapon and throw it in the bushes.Just as he’s about to cut the hot dog they attack him. (First Act climax)

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

The Lead Sorcerer takes the little hammer and thinks it’s some sort of joke at first. Then he senses that the thing has power. The others think it’s a trick, until the Lead Sorcerer tells them otherwise. The other two Sorcerers laugh at the puny thing. They both wonder that anything that small could do anything to anyone. They laugh at it and at themselves, wondering how anyone would be afraid of it.



The Lead Sorcerer doesn’t like holding or touching the thing any more than he has to, so as his companion laugh at the little hammer, he tosses it as far away from himself as he can. All the while pretending that he thinks the thing is laughable too. The little hammer lands in some bushes a few yards away. The Lead Sorcerer is relieved, knowing that they just barely managed to dodged that bullet. He hadn’t anticipated such power.

Everything being settled, Rob feels relieved that he’s at least going to get ten minutes of peace to eat. His stomach hurts from hunger so much he doesn’t really care anything about what the Sorcerers are doing. He takes his knife and is about to cut his hot dog again.The Sorcerers look on. The other male Sorcerers looks on as Rob is about to cut into his hot dog and hatred erupts in his belly. He sees no reason to give this monster any mercy of any kind. Before the Lead Sorcerer could stop him, he fires a volley of fire balls at Rob.

END OF SCENE

That last bit with the fireball was new. I didn’t know he was going to do that until I wrote it. I haven’t really worked out the Sorcerer’s magic system yet. Which means I kinda making it up as go. What I DO know, is that they get their powers by creating unions with “spirits”.


I find it interesting that, the more I write the more excited I get about it.


MY WEEK


It was my birthday on Sunday. I’m now 36.

For the first time in a very long time, I decided that I would actually voice what I wanted to do for my birthday. Most birthdays I sit back and let people do things for me for my birthday. This was fine for a while but I’ve gotten to the point where I would actually like to do something I really enjoy. Now a days, what I want to do consists of one thing: playing games.

Things haven’t really changed much since many MANY years ago (high school days I think), for my birthday, I invited a bunch of friends over to play video games with me. Things have changed only in the type of games I like. They mostly consist of tabletop games now. Well, I thought my wife knew what I wanted. When she asked me earlier this Month what I wanted, I told her,”You know what I like”. Thinking that she’d noticed I have a lot of boardgames around and I’m always asking her to play with me (which she mostly doesn’t do). I figured she’d think that I might want to invite some people over to play games for my birthday (because she knows I like that). Well, I found out Friday morning that she didn’t have that in mind at all. She thought I wanted to go to the park for some reason. I don’t know why.

I corrected that assumption and told her what I wanted. I wanted a game day and I thought it would be best to do it on a Saturday since people didn’t have to go to Church and some people had to work on Monday. So at the last minute, Alesha started contacting people about coming over on Saturday to play games.

I got very excited. Not only that, but I started to get a little worried as people started confirming that they were coming. It was going to be about eighteen people or so. This is a bit of a problem since most of my games average about four players, and I only had ONE table. My parents said they weren’t going to make it and my brother and sister-in-law weren’t either. I was counting on my parents coming to bring some extra tables, but in the end, I went over to their place to pick them up.

We cleaned up the house and rearranged the furniture to have the most space possible to have three gaming table ready. Then came the tricky part, what games to put out for people to play. I knew I was going to spend a lot of time explaining games because the games I have aren’t mainstream. Most people hadn’t even heard of them. So I thought hard and came up with some solutions. One table would have the game GYPE which requires you to read three sentences of rules before the game begins. It’s a fun fast game and I would just be able to point to the table and people could get started. It also plays tons of people.

On another table, I set up the game FORBIDDEN ISLAND. This is a very simple cooperative game for four people. It’s very pretty and easy to teach. Since it’s cooperative, it would be perfect as an intro to gaming, since everyone at the table is working together. I also wanted to hook up two TVs. One hooked up to the Nintendo 64 running MARIO PARTY. The other hooked up the my PS2 running DOKAPON KINGDOM (both are boardgame video games). Unfortunately I couldn’t get one of the TVs to hook up well, so that left only one. If I needed another one, I’d unplug the one in my office and bring it down.

For the “big table”, I wanted to put something I really wanted to play. Something a little bit heavier that I can really sink my teeth into. I wanted to play AGRICOLA, but I also wanted to go with COSMIC ENCOUNTER since it was silly strategic fun. I just couldn’t decide.

I forgot to tell you that the day before, Alesha had gone over and picked up her friend Rosetta who slept over. She’s one of Alesha’s best friends and she is one the few who LOVES playing boardgames with us. When she heard we where having a boardgame party, she couldn’t wait to come.
Everyone was suppose to come at two but by two o’clock, no one had come. Alesha, thought we should start playing something while we waited. So I chose DOMINION. I explained the game to Rosetta and we got started. We had fun, in spite of the fact that the kids kept interrupting the game. I was hoping to have other kids or people there already to keep them distracted but…oh well. By the time we finished the first game of DOMINION, we had found out that one group of people wasn’t going to make it because they were having car problems. That was okay, there were more coming. We started another game of DOMINION and finished the game much faster but still had lots of interruptions. Especially since Alesha was cooking as she played. By the time we finished the second game, we had received two more phone calls telling us the rest of the people who were coming weren’t going to make it because of car troubles. EVERYONE had car problems. Crazy.And so ended my big game day. We eat dinner after that. I was sung happy birthday and we eat cake. Rosetta had to go home (forty five minutes away) so Alesha took her home promising me that when she got back, she would play some more games with me. I stayed and played FORBIDDEN ISLAND with the kids (we lost twice) and then we played a game of TABLE GYPE (only using the flame side up).I love playing with my kids because it lets me spend time with them and they enjoy it so much. That said, I don’t actually enjoy any of the games I play with them. I mean, I really can’t be serious about playing against them or anything. They are just little kids. The games aren’t very satisfying and I was really in the mood to play satisfying games. After all, it was my birthday party.Well, I put the kids to bed soon after we where done (since it was their bedtime) and I was left all alone with three tables of games that no one used. I began to put everything away. I must admit, I was heartbroken. I knew it was my fault for not speaking up earlier and letting people know sooner. Still, it really sucked. My family was going to hold a birthday party for me the next day. Unfortunately, games are almost never played at parties held for me at my parents house. In fact, Alesha even suggested that we should hold the game night at my parent’s but I told her I didn’t like that idea, for a few reasons. 1) It would mean I wouldn’t have access to all my games, since I couldn’t bring them all. This meant I couldn’t cater the games I brought out the specific group that sat to play a game. 2) It wouldn’t have been about the games at my parents house. It would be about the food and the socializing. Socializing would come first, then food and if we had time (which we almost NEVER do) we would play something. The game day, as I had planned it, had NO finger foods (no chips or anything you eat with your fingers), and the food was secondary to the gaming. It was meant to be unimportant. Also, you could socialize all you wanted and not play a game but if you wanted to socialize with me, you had to play a game with me because I wanted to be playing something all the time. I wouldn’t have gotten that at my parent’s house. Anyway, Alesha came home about three hours later, completely beat. She’d been stuck in traffic for hours in rain and sleet. She was in no condition to play anything anymore and I was emotionally drained and sad so I didn’t really want to play anything either. The next day was my birthday, I went to Church with Elizabeth and got ready to go to my parent’s house. I brought my games with me along with all the tables and chairs I borrowed. As I usually do, I pack up very specific games that I think the people at the party will like to play. I do this every time I go to a party (just in case someone says to me, “Let’s play a game”). When I got to my parents house, I left the games in the car. I do this because we rarely ever play them so why bother taking them out. Like I said, I bring them just in case. I kinda had the impression that I was expected to bring games since they didn’t come to my game party. I knew better though. The birthday party was nice. The food was amazing. Eduardo, my Compadre, barbecued the most awesome stakes. I couldn’t stop eating them. I mean, these things were sooo good. They had this fantastic smoky flavor. Yum. The food was great and the kids had fun. Everyone left early because it was Sunday and no one mentioned games. My games stayed in the car. We left soon after. When we got home we put the kids to bed, Alesha asked me if I wanted to play something. We played a game of the CATAN CARD GAME and two games of DOMINION. We had a great time and I was very happy and grateful to her. But here’s the thing. I might be self centered, walking around feeling sorry for myself but in spite of my flaws, something really good happened in spite of my disappointing game day. Alesha’s friend Rosetta had an INCREDIBLE time with us. She couldn’t stop thanking Alesha on the way home for being invited to come. She had been going through a lot of bad things and having come over to spend time with us and playing games had been the highlight of her year so far. She was so happy. So all this birthday stuff, it wasn’t about me. It was about her and what SHE needed. Sometime you have to stop thinking about yourself and see the big picture. I didn’t NEED a game day. I just wanted one. She NEEDED what we ended giving her and you know what? That makes it a great birthday.

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Four Acts revised in two weeks. Retro Superman. Expanding Scene 2.

February 17, 2011 in GHETTOMATION, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I finished both Acts 1 and 2 for Show 20 last week and now I’m done with Act 3 and working on Act 4. That’s crazy. This will be the first time I was able to revise an entire show on my own. Unfortunately, things are a bit more hectic than they need to be. I needed to stay late all week in order to be able to stay home with the kids on Friday, since day care will be closed that day.

Still, I’m glad I’m so ahead on the work.

VIDEO/GHETTOMATION

Went to the comic store with some pals from work a few weeks back. They met up a with a guy who one my friend Dave knew who had had made a Superman cartoon for fun. He had it on his iPhone and showed it to my friends but I was somewhere else in the shop and missed it. They couldn’t stop talking about it, they liked it so much. Well here’s what I missed out on for everyone to see. It was animated by veteran Disney animator Robb Pratt.

Ghettomation at it’s most fully animated. And by Ghettomation I mean you’re making an animated cartoon with the tools you have on hand, Guerrilla style.

WRITING

This week on my personal project, I’m working on Scene 2 from Act 1. As I did last week I’ll put my Scene synopsis first and then I’ll expound on it.

This one got looong. The purpose of the treatment is to overwrite so you have everything you can possibly think of covered. I was trying to do this which made it difficult to be brief. I think once I’m done with this first pass on the treatment, I’m going to go over it one more time (though I probably won’t post it) just to make sure everything is working the way I want. It’s REALLY difficult for me not to write dialogue here. Especially since it’s my favorite part. I’m not saying I’m good at writing dialogue, I’m just saying I like to do it.

Scene 2 (Inertia/Order)

The Sorcerers confront Rob about his past and his future. Rob defends by explaining the circumstances behind those moments. If left alone nothing would happen. They try to convince him to turn himself over to the Sorcerers so they can lock him up and keep him from becoming evil. Rob tells them he has no intention of taking over the world. The lead Sorcerer tries to convince Rob that his cause is just. Rob just want to be left alone. The Sorcerers won’t do that. Rob asks if he could at least have ten minutes to finish his hot dog. They discuss it among themselves and grant him ten minutes on the condition he hand over his weapon. (inciting incident)

Now, I expand it:

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day continued

Settling himself down and mentally kicking himself for not paying more attention to the people in the area, Rob tries to play it cool. He hopes that if he’s nice, they will leave him alone to eat his hot dog. He smiles up and greets them. Then he asks if it would be possible for them to wait a minute or two while he finishes his lunch.

The Lead Sorcerer doesn’t like the attitude Rob has taken and suspects a ruse. He ignores the happy attitude and asks Rob to come with him and his two allies.

This is new to Rob. He is a bit puzzled. He usually just gets attacked and no one ever just asks him to come with them. He asks them where to and why.

The Lead Sorcerer thinks Rob is playing games so he tells him to stop. He tells him he know where and why.

Anger builds up in Rob’s belly but he holds it back. It is THEY that are bothering HIM. What’s with the attitude. Rob sincerely tells them that he suspects the why but not the where. He tells them that he suspects that they are here because they believe he’s some sort of evil dark lord that will take over the world. He also tells them that since it isn’t true, he doesn’t think he’s going anywhere with them. Especially since they seem so openly hostile.

The Lead Sorcerer is very surprised at this response. He’s angered by the blatant denial of his evil actions. He accuses Rob of lying about who he truly is. He challenges Rob to deny that he has previously incapacitated 30 other Sorcerers that he has come in contact with. He challenges Rob to deny the ruthlessness of those attacks upon them. He challenges Rob to deny that such power should not be considered dangerous and signs of an evil nature.

Rob is shocked at the way this is put to him. ALL does so called “attacks” where self defense. He got attacked FIRST and he defended himself. He can’t believe how out of context the situations are being portrayed. He immediately argues back about that very thing. Rob is outraged by how they’ve twisted what really happened.

The Lead Sorcerer doesn’t believe Rob. Though, he’s impressed with Rob’s very convincing acting ability. He does see a way to manipulate Rob’s act to his purpose. He proposes to Rob that if what he says is true, he would have no problem going with him and his companions to the Sorcerer’s High Tower and face trial. He tells Rob he will be set free and not bothered if what he said is found to be true.

It suddenly dawns on Rob what is going on. He realizes that that’s where they want him to go. They want him to go with them to some tower so he could be judged for defending himself. Rob can’t believe how messed up these guys are. He lets out a small laugh.

The Lead Sorcerer thinks Rob is mocking him and voices his outrage.

Rob tries to calm him down by telling him he wasn’t laughing at him, but at the ridiculous situation this was. He asks the Lead Sorcerer if the Sorcerer’s High Tower is where they wanted to escort him to.

The Lead Sorcerer confirms this.

Rob knows from his dealings with the Sorcerers that they always get the facts mixed up. These guys are only proving his suspicions. Even though he knows what the answer will be, he asks the Lead Sorcerer what would happen if he refuses.

The Lead Sorcerer assures Rob that it would prove he is guilty, evil, and exactly what the prophesy says he is because actions speak louder than words. Since only the guilty run. Having him prove he’s guilty in this way, they would have to kill Rob on the spot, in order to save the world from his slavery.

Rob sees the writing on the wall. This is going to end in a fight. His stomach grumbles with a hunger pain, which only makes him MORE upset. He tries to reason with the Lead Sorcerer, explaining that this was pretty much what led him to fight all the other Sorcerers. He tells him that they are only proving his point. He tells them he absolutely refuses to go with them. That all he wants is to be left alone, and more importantly, he wants to be able to just eat his lunch in peace.

The Lead Sorcerer didn’t want it to come to this, but he doesn’t have a choice and tells Rob this. He tried to reason with him, now it’s time to do it the hard way. He knows his companions where looking forward to this. They are itching to hurt Rob. They all get ready to attack.

Rob seeing this and calls out for them to stop. He’s at the brink of frustration and irritation. He decides to beg. He pleads with the three to let him have five minutes to at least eat his hot dog. Then he’ll allow them to try to kill them all they want.

The Lead Sorcerer considers this. He sees a tactical advantage here but he wants to make sure he isn’t being duped. He tells Rob that he needs to consult with his companions. Keeping an eye on Rob, he steps aside with his companions and tells them what his plan. He tells them that if Rob really wants these five minutes (as he seems to) perhaps he would be stupid enough to give up his weapon for it. If it’s a trick, he would refuse, but if it’s NOT then he’s defenseless. The other agree but the other male Sorcerer thinks it would be foolish to give him the five minutes if he gives up his weapon. He thinks they should attack him. The Lead Sorcerer tells him it would be dishonorable to do such a thing if they bargain. The Other Male Sorcerer begins to argue but the Lead Sorcerer orders him to be quiet. They then turn to Rob and propose to give him five minutes to eat his lunch in return for his anti-Sorcerer weapon.

Rob considers. He’s so hungry. He thinks to himself, why not? If he’s going to die, he might as well die after happily eating his hot dog. Besides, the darn thing always seems to end up in his hand no matter what he does. If it finally stops being attached him, like a curse, it would be a win for him. He looks up at the Sorcerers and agrees but only if they give him ten minutes instead of five.

They agree.

He reaches over to a loop on his belt and removes what looks like a tiny medical reflex hammer from it. He hands it over to the Lead Sorcerer. He warns them that no matter how hard he tries, the hammer always finds a way back to him.

END OF SCENE

My big surprise as I’m writing this is, how honorable the antagonist is turning out. It’s something unintentional but the story needs him to be so. I originally envisioned him as a big jerk. I may need to change his design a little because of this.

I think the next scene will be much shorter. I’m very excited that I’m getting closer to getting to the final art and boards.

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Storyboarding again. Adam Hughes teaches you to draw. Writing a treatment of scene 1.

February 10, 2011 in ART, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, VIDEOS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

It’s good to be back drawing storyboards again. I’m back on show 20. The story reel screening went really well and the writers and producers liked it. So much so, that the rewrite was lite.

I was assigned ONE shot to fix in Act 1, but I couldn’t help myself and started revising the whole Act. I was done by the end of Wednesday, which hardly ever happens.

Like I said, very lite rewrite. I’m working on Act 2 now.

ART/VIDEOS

One of my favorite artists is Adam Hughes. He’s an incredible draftsman. I’m in awe of his YEARS of finely honed drawing skills. Below are three videos of him explaining some of this thoughts and the way he approaches some drawing problems. They don’t exactly teach you HOW to draw but it’s great to see his process. It’s also great to hear his thoughts on light, tone and technique. WARNING: These videos skip a lot of basic drawing fundamentals and go straight to the flashy parts. There’s a lot of stuff here that is being thought and not shown or talked about. You’ll get more out of these videos if you know what fundamentals are being skipped over. In other words, they are pretty advanced drawing videos. That said, they are really COOL:

WRITING

I think I’m done using DRAMATICA for the time being. I’ve used it as far as it can go. DRAMATICA is good for setting you up to write but now I’m actually going into the writing process itself. Without abandoning the DRAMATICA themes and structure, I’m going to be using Robert Mckee’s book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting to guide me and compliment the work I’ve already done.

Alright, it’s time to stop breaking things down and time to start expanding things out. This week I’m taking Scene 1 and expanding it into a more fleshed out “treatment” using Robert Mckee’s advice. According to Mckee, the point of the treatment is to create…

“…the subtext–the true thoughts and feeling underneath what is said and done. We may think we know what our characters are thinking and feeling, but we don’t know we know until we write it down”

Keeping this in mind, I tried to write as much subtext as I could.

Below, I put my short paragraph description of the scene:

Scene 1 (Equity/Projection)

Rob waits for his hot dog impatiently as his stomach grumbles. Once he gets it he sits down and to eat it. He decides to share it with is White Raven.He’s about to cut it in half when he sees the Sorcerers coming toward him and gets bummed out, knowing he’s in for a bad time. (Introducing the characters)

Now, I expand it:

Outdoor Shopping Area – Day

Rob’s stomach grumbles. He looks up from his stomach and he sees his hot dogs getting prepared by the hot dog vendor. The ache of his empty stomach is visible in his face. He tells his Raven (who’s on his shoulder) that their wait will soon be over, but it’s obvious that he’s just trying to reassure himself.

The hot dog vendor comes up to the counter and sets down the hot dog. Rob places down some folded up and crumpled bills, and slowly counts out a bunch of change on the counter. He comes up short. He’s shocked. He could have sworn he had enough. The Raven flies off Rob’s shoulder as he searches himself frantically, only to finds nothing. He empties his pockets only to find lint.

Rob smiles pleadingly at the hot dog vendor, hoping he will take pity. The vendor, who’s a bit gruff and burly looking, looks at Rob unamused. He’s not the generous type and won’t give Rob any slack over a couple of missing cents. He’s got bills to pay. The guys seems like the type of person who’s not moved by much.

Horrified, Rob looks desperately around for the last bit of money. He worked so hard to get it and now some of it is missing. He takes off his backpack and starts searching through the clothes inside and the pockets on it. Hearing a squawk he looks down behind him and he breaths a sigh of relief. The Raven stands in front of the missing change he was looking for.

Rob thanks his friend for saving him yet again, turns back to the hot dog booth and puts down the rest of the money. The vendor hands him the hot dog expressionless. Rob smiles at the vendor, gratefully and thanks him. The vendor just grumbles something and walks away. Lousy, good for nothing, lazy kids, kinda of grumble. The vendor thinks kids these days are too sheltered. Rob grabs a plastic knife from the booth’s plastic utensils carries his hot dog to a nearby table, as if he’s carrying something sacred. The Raven follows.

In the distance, three ominous figures stare at Rob and his bird. They then look at each other knowingly.

Rob sets down his backpack on the table and sits down. He then closes his eyes, crosses himself, and says a silent prayer of thanks. Once he’s done, he turns to the Raven, and offers to share the hot dog with him. The ominous figures begin walking up to Rob. Rob doesn’t notice. He happily picks up the plastic knife, glad that he can finally eat. He’s about to cut the hot dog in twain in order to share the food with his bird when a shadow crosses over him. He looks up to see three hate filled people looking down on him.

Seeing them, Rob feels like screaming in frustration. Not again. Not here. Not now.

END OF SCENE

I added a character moment with Rob and his money in order to try to create empathy with Rob. It was one of those ideas that just popped into my head and I went along with to see where it led.

Also, I’m hoping that the whole grumbling stomach bit makes his situation relatable. Who HASN’T been hungry at some point in their life? Isn’t that a time honored plot device? Chaplin comes to mind.

I also have him pray. Not because I want to be preachy but because I want people to know he’s a “good guy”. I’m hoping that a character praying, symbolizes a person who has absolute moral values, to an audience. That way, when you hear the Sorcerers accuse him of being evil, you don’t assume it’s true. This was also an idea that just happened and I went with it. Not sure if it will work as intended…we’ll see.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

February 3, 2011 in FAMILY, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES, WRITING

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Moved on to the Halloween show this week. At this point in the week, I’m not sure I’ll get what I was assigned done. I’m going to try my best to finish. It’s my professional pride to finish what I’m given. I don’t like giving back scenes I didn’t get to. Especially since I know I only have this week to work on the this show. Next week I start on Storyboard revisions again.

FAMILY

Dante turned 3 years on Monday. We took him to Travel Town at Griffith Park. It’s an old train yard converted to a park/museum. Dante is train obsessed. He’s into Thomas and Friends. He was so excited to be going into the trains. He loved it.

I did too. Trains are cool. There was an enormous one that had wheels taller than me. It was a giant train engine. Amazing. We rode on the mini train they had there and I ended up buying Dante a James the tank engine from Thomas and Friends. We then drove to the other side of Griffith Park were Dante’s Godmother was. There, we took him to ride a pony and another little train. My parents met us earlier in the day at Travel Town, so they were there too.

Dante was dying to go home mid way through the day, not because he wasn’t having a good time, but because he so desperately wanted to go home and play with his trains. Unfortunately we had a party to go to that day and we went there instead. Lucky for Dante, there where toy trains at that house for him to play with, so it was all okay.

When we DID get home, he took his new toy train to bed and slept with it. The next day, he spent a few hours playing with it. Every day when we get home, he plays with his trains. He’s been doing it for almost a year now.

WEBSITES

Gamification is the concept that you can apply the basic elements that make games fun and engaging to things that typically aren’t considered a game.

I became aware of this concept a while back, but I really didn’t put much attention to it. Then I read an article on Purple Pawn that made me a bit more curious, so I decided to find out more about it. It was an article about a new website that allows you to “Gamify” your site called Gamify.com.

This kinda gave me a more concrete example of what Gamification meant. Not only that, but it made it accessible. I then made my way to the Gamification Wiki where I found these videos explain things a bit more:

All this has got me thinking about how I could “Gamify” my blog, or any comics I make, or any cartoons I create. I’d love to have people get into anything I do because it’s not only fun to read or watch but because it also has a meta element, like a game, to keep you coming back for more. That way you can get a longer lasting experience out of what I do.

As a gamer (and by gamer I mean I like playing table top games, as well as video games) I find this really fascinating. Especially since it would combine the things I love. What do you think?

WRITING

(For those of you coming in late to these posts, if you want to read what my project is about, CLICK HERE to learn about the general world the story takes place in, and CLICK HERE if you want to know the story itself.)

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote from a few weeks ago, as set up for what I’m writing about THIS week, in case you’re interested in following along with more depth:

Right now, the theory of story that I like to use to flesh out my plot is the DRAMATICA theory. Unfortunately the DRAMATICA theory is so complicated and convoluted, that I can’t really sum it up in a nut shell. If you want to get an idea of what DRAMATICA is all about, click the link below:

What is DRAMATICA?

In order for you to be able to understand it fully, you would need to download and read the FREE book on pdf. Click the link below:

Free DRAMATICA pdf book

or listen to the FREE audio book podcasts by clicking the link below:

Free DRAMATICA audio book

or read the FREE text of the book directly from their site by clicking the link below:

The DRAMATICA book readable on the net for free.

As I did the last two weeks, I’ll put up the DRAMATICA Table of Story Elements in order for you to understand what I’m talking about and so you can follow along. For a clearer pdf version of the chart (download chart now):

Alright, last act. As I wrote this one out I realized I’m going to have to make a few adjustments to Act 2 (more about that below) but that’s exactly what this process is about. Adjusting the structure of the story until you get the pieces in the right places.

Act 3

OVERALL STORY THROUGH LINE

Innermost Desires – The Lead Sorcerer stomps on the Hot Dog the main character so desired thereby demoralizing him. The Main Character sees his hot dog as a representation of the peace he longs for. Seeing this, the Sorcerers rejoice in the fact that they have can potentially attained the one thing no other Sorcerer so far have been able to do. Namely, kill the Main Character. They relish in the anticipation of the glory they so desire.

Innermost Desires ======> Contemplation – Having lost his Hot Dog and having nothing left to lose, the Main Character truly fights back. Giving into his desire to get revenge for the peace that was taken from him. He beats the Sorcerers senseless. This causes the Sorcerers to realize their mistaken impression of themselves.

Contemplation – A moment at the end there where the Main Character could have taken the Lead Sorcerer’s life but didn’t, makes the Sorcerer rethink who he is, what he does, and what all the other Sorcerer’s say about the Main Character. This leads to a generous act on the part of the Lead Sorcerer, who buys the Main Character two Hot Dogs to replace the one he destroyed. This makes the Main Character thinks that there still might be some hope for peace left.

MAIN CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Doing – Unfortunately the Lead Sorcerer destroys his Hot Dog, which forces him to pick up his weapon and fight them off or die.

Doing ======> Understanding – After dispatching all the monster and the other Sorcerers, he has the Lead Sorcerer in a weakened and vulnerable state. Understanding that the only way to show the Sorcerer that he’s mistaken about who he thinks he is. He chooses to let him go free.

Understanding – Rob realizes that it’s possible to change the minds of the Sorcerers and that gives him hope, that the attacks might stop and he’ll get the peace he wants. He also knows that every time he uses the warhammer, it gets more and more difficult to control himself and it.

IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Playing a Role – Rob begins striking down the Lead Sorcerer’s monsters and friends, making it easy to prove his point. He drives it home by showing Rob how easily he would strike down a helpless person, by NOT fighting him. Playing the role of victim to Rob’s predator.

Playing a Role ======> Changing One’s Nature – Rob shows the Lead Sorcerer that he HADN’T been as consumed and rage as he let on. Rob surprises the Lead Sorcerer by not attacking him when he has a chance.

Changing One’s Nature – The Sorcerer is deeply moved by this example and becomes very impressed. The Lead Sorcerer, makes a gift of two Hot Dogs for Rob out of respect, leaving Rob with a new perspective about the Sorcerers as a whole.

MAIN CHARACTER vs. IMPACT CHARACTER STORY THROUGH LINE:

Future – The Lead Sorcerer insists that the Main Character will enslave the world whether the Main Character says he will or not. The future is set, according to the prophesy. The main character insists it’s wrong, it’s false, it can’t happen.

Future ======> Present – In order to prove to the Lead Sorcerer that he’s not what the prophesy of his future says he is, he forces the Lead Sorcerer to notice how he acts here and now, by NOT treating him the same way the Lead Sorcerer treated, him. He doesn’t kill or hurt him once he’s down and powerless.

Present – Because of the way the Main Character treated the Lead Sorcerer, for now, the two characters end up, not as friends but not exactly enemies. There’s a type of mutual respect for each other that exist for the moment, that wasn’t there before.

Act 3 Themes (Truth/Falsehood, Suspicion/Evidence)

Scene 7 (Desire/Ability)

Ignoring the Sorcerers, Rob goes for his hot dog only to have the Lead Sorcerer step on it, leaving Rob stunned for a second. Rob becomes angry and his Raven flies from the bushes with Robs little weapon in it’s talons. He drops it on Rob’s hand were it magically grows large and he begins to fight off the monsters and Sorcerers in an almost out of control bezerker rage.

Scene 8 (Thought/Knowledge)

Seeing the might they have unleashed on themselves the Sorcerers are shocked and two of them are incapacitated by Rob. The Lead Sorcerer seeing this, thinks he’s proved his case and does the crazy thing of putting his guard down to prove to Rob who he really is. Rob sees this and fights to bring down his rage. The Lead Sorcerer expects to be struck down, only Rob surprises him by NOT doing so. (Act 3 climax)

Scene 9 (Thought/Actuality)

Rob puts down his weapon, walks away. He helps the other Sorcerers up and then starts picking up his things, which are now all over the destroyed area they fought on. By the time he’s done, the Sorcerers are gone. When he begins to walk away, the hot dog vendor calls out to him. He has two hot dogs for him, seemingly bought by the Lead Sorcerer. (Resolution)

And that’s that. I’m thinking about putting the “hot dogs getting stepped on” bit in Scene 6. I think it will fit better there.

I think Scene 8 will need to be the trickiest one, mainly because there needs to be a moment of inner conflict for Rob in order to be climactic and showing it visually will be difficult.

Now that I have a quick synopsis of what will be in each scene, I can star writing the treatment. Once that’s done, I will start writing the dialogue (which is the part I dying to write).

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

Monthly Archives: February 2011

Back on the Halloween show. Treatment of Scene 3. CARTOONISTA cartoons. My birthday fumble.

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Four Acts revised in two weeks. Retro Superman. Expanding Scene 2.

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Storyboarding again. Adam Hughes teaches you to draw. Writing a treatment of scene 1.

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Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

Back on the Halloween show. Treatment of Scene 3. CARTOONISTA cartoons. My birthday fumble.

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Like this:

Four Acts revised in two weeks. Retro Superman. Expanding Scene 2.

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Like this:

Storyboarding again. Adam Hughes teaches you to draw. Writing a treatment of scene 1.

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Like this:

Working on the Halloween show. Dante’s birthday. Gamification. Finishing breaking down Act 3 scenes on my personal project.

Share this:

Like this:

Hi, Welcome!

Both my books are now on Amazon. Pick up your own print copy today!

Buy My Art

Most Read Posts

Featured Post

Archives

Blogroll