David Cobb ART487 Sr. Projects Preproduction Blog

This blog tracks the preproduction for the short film “MAGNET: A Lesson in the Law of Attraction”, created for ART487 at UMBC.

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Story Splines

Once upon a time: there was a cute, expressive young girl

And everyday: she would gossip with her girls and scroll through social media

Until one day: she met an awkward young boy

And because of that: the young boy didn't know how to present himself to her

And because of that: the other girls felt the boy was too weird

And because of that: the girl decided not to give in to peer pressure and talk to him

Until finally: they started talking to each other more.

And since that day: the girl decided to spend less time on social media and more time interacting with real people.

And the moral of the story is: don't see people at face value; get to know them and value their presence.

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Story Splines

Once upon a time: there was a shy, awkward young man

And everyday: he would sit by himself in the cafeteria

Until one day: someone - a girl - sat next to him

And because of that: he started catching feelings for her

And because of that: he tried to be friendly and kindly make moves on her

And because of that: they tried to sort out their differences

Until finally: they started seeing each other more often at lunch

And since that day: our young man felt less alone

And the moral of the story is: being there for someone in need is the best thing a friend can be.

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I chose this scene in “STRANGER THINGS” (2013) to highlight how quick, but impactful cuts show action dictated by character.

Quick cuts and rapid-fire action in this scene from "STRANGER THINGS" dictated how I approach both the physical and emotional tone that I want to bring to "MAGNET", as - towards the later half of the film - Hero Boy tries to let go of himself as he's stuck with the Other Boy and Hero Girl.

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I nailed down the final designs and heights for all three characters.

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Color script, so far.

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ANIMATION TEST - Updated walk cycle, with compositing done in After Effects.

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Experimenting with the visual style of MAGNET with a Hero Girl head turn.

1. Comp with rim light

2. Comp with soft shadow

3. Color pass with no shadow

4. Tie down drawings

5. Rough drawing pass

Animation done in Clip Studio. Composites using After Effects.

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CHARACTER TURNAROUNDS

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In-progress style frame for MAGNET. The backgrounds will be in color. Just needed to do a grayscale pass to make coloring easier later on.

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HERO BOY is our introverted main character - shy, reserved, careful with his words. But he has a dark secret - whoever he has a crush on, he LITERALLY sticks to them! He has a magnetic heart so powerful, it can attract any person. For Hero Boy, that’s an annoyance he has to live with. Deep down though, he just wants to friends and to fall in love like normal people, and his experience with a girl and a boy will test the boundaries of his powers.

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TWO LIMITATIONS FOR THIS PROJECT

1. KEEPING IT SIMPLE!

- One of the biggest challenges I face going into this project is reigning in my ambition. I have a tendency to be overly detailed in my work, to the point that too much time is spent on one aspect of a project. For this project in particular, I’ll need to cut back on over complicated camera moves, simple graphic shapes on character designs, emphasize holds and strong poses on characters rather than complicated movement and acting, and painting backgrounds that “suggest” and environment, rather than explicitly show it in detail.

2. THE “HEART” OF THE STORY

- As I’ve been writing and developing the film, I’ve tried to keep the themes of love and the awkwardness of falling in love with someone intact. With the help of others, Ive been able to shorten the story down to at least four minutes, but I still have concerns that if I shorten it more, then those themes will be lost. One limitation I’ll have to put on myself is letting go of plot elements to strengthen the story as a whole AND to get this film under the required two minute time frame.

ADDENDUM- ASKING FOR HELP will be a crucial part of this project. We’re doing most of this film on our own, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. One thing that I can do to make it easier on myself is ask my peers for help with the production side of things and anyone that wants to listen for story advice.

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ANTI-MOODBOARD

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MOODBOARD #7 - The Monster Character

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MOODBOARD #5 - More Color and Shape Language

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MOODBOARD #3 - Shape Language

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MOODBOARD #2 - Color

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MOODBOARD #1 - High School

“MAGNET” is mostly inspired by and takes place at Bishop McNamara High School. I have very fond memories of McNamara; I consider it to be the best four years of my life. Much of what is shown in the film will be a dreamy, stylized depiction of my high school years. My goal is to recreate my experience as much as possible in both the backgrounds and in some crowd shots I’ll (hopefully) animate in this film.