-
on December 12
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #6More development needed
For backers only
Post Comment
If you’re a backer of this project, please
log in
to read this post.
-
on November 26
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #5Mapping out action
Post CommentThank you so much to those that have supported Sancho so far.
Also I trust everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.
This next update is a rough animatic of act 2 of the "Dead Girls Eye"
In place is just a scratch track of audio (myself, the writer, concept artist, and a friend all took turns to provide the voices for this). Not only was this fun to do, but it also helps bring another element together to start giving this story life. I like forward to achieving our funding so that we can identify some awesome voice talent to provide the real drama for these characters.
In the mean time enjoy this snippet for the story.Cheers
-
on November 8, 2011
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #4Why 30k budget?
Post CommentFor those that keep up on film and or even animated film, I am sure you have heard how expensive it can be to produce such projects.
Generally most people do not realize all that is involved or the cost associated with film productions of any nature.
Even the most guerrilla of live action filming will have significant budget items, such as camera equipment, editing software, petrol cost for getting to specific locations, marketing and more.
In this case Sancho is a Animated film. We chose to go this route due to my background in animation, and my strong connection to fine art. At first glance to the outsider this may seem a cheaper route, as their is no actors, cost of camera equipment along with respective crew, or searching for suitable locations and getting the production crew to said locations.
On projects of this scale its important to come up with real numbers, not just something picked at random.
So to begin with we start with a schedule, what can be accomplished in 3-4 months using artist/talent that
a. may have full time employment some where else
b. if talent are freelance in the first place, they may have other life things going on.
Why is schedule important? Having to tight of a schedule, with to much happening in the script can really make a productions budget skyrocket. If the budget is tight, then their is the tendency for film makers to become overbearing and drive the talent past exhaustion with little in return for reward.
The idea for a independent project such as this is to recruit talent to help on it, yet make it a enjoyable and fun experience for them, which in turn should make for a higher quality of animation and visual experience.
So with this in mind, we identified that the production at the minimum would need the follow.
2-3 Modelers
1 Texture/displacement map artist
2 Animators
2-3 voice actors
1 musician
1 sound designer
1 Concept artist
Now this gives a good snapshot for starting point in determining the budget.
With this in mind, the project will begin to break down as follows.
A. Kickstarter and Amazon(which is the payment system in place) each take a percentage as they should, since they are providing a service for allowing us to promote our project.
Their percentage is roughly 5% each, which factors out to 10% and thus $3000
B. The next item to account for is the rewards. To keep cost in check we chose many digital type of rewards, especially since we are becoming such a digital age. Though it is still awesome to received real world item such as art books and so forth.
accounting for printing, shipping, and other reward factors we have budgeted $5000 for this element.
C. As we mentioned the crew above, we have allocated $16,000-18,000. Depending on if the artist we choose are generalist or specialist then we feel this will be enough to hire the minimum and possibly a few extra artist in completing the 10 minute short film.
D. The remaining $4000 is budgeted for potential software or rendering needs.
Specifically their is about 5 plugins that would be very beneficial to the end look of the project and save in per frame rendering time. For those that do not understand, rendering is the process of the computer creating the final image as specified by the artist. Their is one image for every frame, and Sancho is 24 frames per second at the moment. When the computer renders it renders one frame at a time, and depending on the info in the scene can take as little as 1 minute to as much as 30 minutes to complete one frame. So far the scenes on Sancho are designed to render at around 5-8 minutes a frame at full HD. And we currently have 3 computers(18cores) for rendering, but with 4 budgeted we could either purchase another computer or two for rendering, or make use of a off-sight rendering farm that is very economical.
Now that you have made it through all of this dry material, I Thank your patience in reading through it all, and trust this will help inform those already invested and future investors of Sancho of what it takes to produce a 10 minute animated short.
Thank you.
-
on October 31, 2011
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #3Flyer Art
Post CommentTo help promote the Sancho Short, the following poster design was created for flyer handouts.
The colors correspond well for the Fall/Halloween time of year as well.
The poster also takes ques from a old "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" poster.
-
-
on October 26, 2011
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #2Sancho?
Post CommentWhy choose this name for the main character you may ask?Around 2000-2001ish My CG supervisor at the time was Eric Hance, and I was working at Foundation Imaging. We were starting a new project, and he knew I enjoyed researching for the new projects, specifically in terms of look and lighting, since I was a Technical Director at the time.On this show which was "Dan Dare", a British comic sorta like Flash Gordon in terms of tech and sci-fi; On our episode their was a sequence story boarded out similar to something one may see in a western. At that time in my life, I had not seen to many westerns, except what I would glimpse going over to my Grandfathers house. So My CG supervisor understanding his crew well, and me, asked me to go watch "The Good The Bad and the Ugly" as their was several scenes in the film that would pertain to what we were working. On sure enough he was right, but he also indirectly lead me to one of my now favorite genres. Since then I have watched many, many westerns, some bad, some excellent, and some okay. All have different themes, or intensities to them. Some are super serious, while others are slapstick, regardless I became a fan, and the Sergio Leone Westerns are some of my favorite films. In these are some very rich characters, some only show up for a few scenes, though they still make a vivid impact. The name Sancho comes from his first two, "Fistful of Dollars", and "For a Few Dollars more". One the of the main bad guys Henchmen in each is Sancho, one has more of a role, but the bad guy always seems to place importance to this characters name and actions, but they rarely do much in the film. So this is where my characters name comes from. It is such a great name, that can be either Mexican, Spanish, or more in origin, and It has a certain ring to it. I thought it would be a great homage to one of the Western masters to have my character use the name Sancho.
If you want to learn more about Leone, please visit this link at IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001466/
-
on October 20, 2011
Jeremy Totel
Posted project update #1Generic scene progression
Post CommentHi fans of Sancho.
Hi fans of Sancho.
I thought you maybe interested in looking at a basic scene progression. A misconception about 3d animation, is that the software has a "Magic Make Art button" that will read a persons mind and develop whatever they are thinking in 3d world space.
Nothing could e further from the truth. I equate 3d to sculpting, painting, model building and acting all rolled up into one entity.
In the following image it shows how Landscape begins to take shape once the major elements have been modeled.
-It is first loaded into the software as wire frame or a shaded view.
-For anything to look ground in its environment i.e. rocks look like they are sitting on the ground. Lights are added to ensure shadows and highlights will be present.
-To build every crack, dent, ripple of sand would take enormous time and add geometry that would be to prohibitive to work with. (geometry is basically a polygon with one or more points. This may make more sense for those you enjoyed math.) To get around this normal or bump maps are painted, photographed, or etched into geometry using a variety of techniques.
-Eventually color, more lights, other props and fog, are added, with many levels of detail for each of these to ensure they match the style of the project.
This was just a quick run down. Ill post images and info that shows a little more in depth to each facet of the process.I thought you maybe interested in looking at a basic scene progression. A misconception about 3d animation, is that the software has a "Magic Make Art button" that will read a persons mind and develop whatever they are thinking in 3d world space.
Nothing could e further from the truth. I equate 3d to sculpting, painting, model building and acting all rolled up into one entity.
In the following image it shows how Landscape begins to take shape once the major elements have been modeled.
-It is first loaded into the software as wireframe or a shaded view.
-For anything to look ground in its environment i.e. rocks look like they are sitting on the ground. Lights are added to ensure shadows and highlights will be present.
-To build every crack, dent, ripple of sand would take enormous time and add geometry that would be to prohibitive to work with. (geometry is basically a polygon with one or more points. This may make more sense for those you enjoyed math.) To get around this normal or bump maps are painted, photographed, or eteched into geometry using a varity of techniques.
-Eventually color, more lights, other props and fog, are added, with many levels of detail for each of these to ensure they match the style of the project.
This was just a quick run down. Ill post images and info that shows a little more indepth to each facet of the process.
Thanks.
-
-
on October 17, 2011
Jeremy Totel launched a project
Sancho "Dead Girls Eye" (Canceled) by Jeremy Totel
"Dead Girls Eye" is a short film capturing a slice of life of Sancho a bounty hunter, that plays both sides of the law.
Funding Canceled (12/14/2011) -
on July 26, 2011
Jeremy Totel
commented on a project updateAwesome, Just totally a unfair and radical advantage to have these locations to shoot a indie film. In the US it would be so much travel and cost to try and get to spots similar as these..
-
on July 2, 2011
Jeremy Totel
backed a project
Cicada Princess by mauricio baiocchi
Through miniature puppets, we follow the lives of the Cicadas as they come out of the ground for the party at the end of their lives.
-
185% funded $74,272 pledged
- 1,097 backers
- Funded Jul 08, 2011
-
-
on July 2, 2011
Jeremy Totel
backed a project
Terry Pratchett's Troll Bridge by Snowgum Films
An epic short fantasy film based on the Discworld story "Troll Bridge" by celebrated author Terry Pratchett.
-
182% funded $82,000 pledged
- 1,239 backers
- Funded Jul 06, 2011
-
Jeremy Totel
Phoenix, AZ
Pixel Eight LLC is an independently-owned animation studio established in 2007 by Jeremy Totel. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, Pixel Eight provides high quality animation for television, independent films, corporate, architectural, medical, legal, and s... view more
