Taking the advice that was given to me on the second concept, I have decided to pursue the sci-fi dystopian detective noir short film. My reasoning behind this is that I would love to test and improve upon not only my 3D modelling and texturing skills in Blender but also my story telling skills in a non-ttrpg environment. Even if I am only able to get a 3D animatic done, I will be personally satisfied. Setting expectations and realizing the scope of a project at the beginning of anything is an important step in the design process, just as if not more important than the actual execution of character design, set design, and world building.
I have also chosen this concept because creating an entire short film such as this is entirely out of the comfort zone, even if I have the foundations of the skills necessary for its which is knowledge of the tool set given by Blender and Unity. I say Unity because at first I was adamant about modelling and animating within just Blender but I quickly realized from previous renderings out of this computer that the hardware is not up to the task. Or I was just rendering in Cycles incorrectly. Either way, I have chosen a to use a combination of Unity and Blender for beginning this project.
As for the story of it, I want to draw inspiration from L.A. Noir, Noir genre stereotypes, and Observer, which is a sci-fi extreme dystopian horror game that I really enjoy. I absolutely enjoy creating character concepts as I am the forever Dungeon Master for my group of friends, and the job of a Dungeon Master is to make the world the players interact with. That includes the history, the significant characters of history, present, as well as the future and I think that puts me at a significant advantage when it comes to character design and world design for the scenes I want Detective Dylan Garret to look at outside the blinds as the grizzled detective smokes a sci-fi cigarette from the year 2577 in precinct A of Central City.
The challenges I would have with this project is the doing part of it, not the thinking part of it. I want to make the soundtrack and Foley from scratch in Ableton Live 10, the 3D Models and rigging of characters and building exteriors/interiors in Blender, and the lighting and animation in the most recent Unity.
Above is the unorganized brain dump of what I would like to do. Below will be a bit more structured and repetitive of what is seen above.
Main Idea
From the minimal feedback received, I have decided to expand upon the second concept. The second concept is a short 3D animated film based in a noir style sci-fi detective room. It is inspired by L.A. Noir (Noir Detective game), Observer (Dystopian sci-fi police horror game), and some elements from the series of futuristic dystopian short films made by Dead Sound on Youtube. Ideally, this would comment on the brutality of today’s politics and army enforcement.
Medium and Scope
I’m going to be using Clip Studio Paint for concept art, character design, and story boarding. I’ll use Blender for building up the environment of the office and build up the characters themselves and Unity for the animation, lighting, and camerawork. I will be using Ableton Live 10 for the soundtrack and Foley.
I have never committed to a project like this before, and the central themes may change in future development. I will begin on the check list ASAP in this semester, but I worry about my horrible time management skills so this will also be a learning experience in that as well. Whether or not the characters will be styled, I do not know but they will more than likely wind up like the RWBY 3D anime models as they seem easier to commit to than realistic models. For the outside of the office, I will probably look around online markets for assets to build together a brief but detailed view of the city out of the window in the beginning of the short film. I do not know the duration, as this project is still in very early stages of development.
For this project, the central difficulty will be managing time correctly, building up the characters, and making the soundtrack to fit to the film. This is where the bulk of the research and prototyping will go during this semester. I need to flesh out this idea a lot more than I currently have it and will be posting another blog post with a more detailed pipeline, some concept art, and a few sound experiments later in the week.
I’m liking the sound of this idea. I love a good noir story. Will the story be monochrome like a stereotypical film noir? I would still think in color for this project. Maybe I’ve been reading too much TVTropes again, but how much toying will you be doing with typical film noir tropes, or will your project be a typical film noir?
I also like the sci-fi setting as well; sticks out from the nonspecific-early-1900s-American city settings that most film noirs go for. And also opens up to lots of environmental story telling at places, like how humanity changed over the years.