Hello New Here

Post Reply New Topic

I fancy myself as an artistically inclined aspie. Though I'm a novice when it comes to computer programs and draftsmanship. My strengths lie in writing and concepts, the following are an excerpt of many of my ideas for animated shorts subjects.

Overdrive: A man buys a new car for his girlfriend, the girlfriend then reluctantly tells him he is breaking up with him for reasons unknown. Irate he takes his anger out on the new car and throws it into a lake, the car then takes revenge on his owner by pursuing him and then killing him.

Wish Bong: A group of stoners get a hold of what they think is a bong that is actually a genie bottle. The Genie resents their anti-social lifestyle but must serve their bizarre and chaotic whims all the while their wishes change the world around them.

Safety First: An obnoxious teenager who is supposed to explain how to use the complex safety restraints work for a roller coaster speaks in an incoherent manner by talking to fast. As a result no one is able to understand what he is saying, he then reluctantly sends them off on the ride without proper caution and only a few of them come off the ride in one piece.

Alexander’s Birthday: A group of family members wish to inherit their 300 year old ancestors wealth, though no matter how old he gets he won't pass away, so they plan to steal his fortune by attempting to kill but they fail in their attempts to do so. The punch line of the film is that shortly after they are arrested and sentenced to prison for life, the ancestor finally passes away.

Future Shock: An Amish man's horse is too tired to continue the long journey back home, and he searches for someone to help him by entering a Best Buy. However he struggles to accomplish this when trying to make his way through the store because of all its technology and gets lost within the store, and traumatized.

After the Ball: A man throws a ball for a dog to retrieve and while the dog is running after the ball his pet destroys the city.

The Art of War: A group of sculptures, paintings, portraits, and other works of art and representing leaders and important figures who helped defeat various world evils pursue portraits of Hitler and Stalin from taking over the art museum.

For the life of me I believe have such great ideas but my poor draftsmanship inhibits technically inhibits me from animating anything spectacular. Maybe my talent lies in writing, whether you agree with me or not I have this philosophy that writing and draftsmanship are two different talents. I have seen capable animation students who are as good as any professional with no capabilities in narrative and just do re-hashes of previous animated films, no offense to anyone. My problem is that I am anxious to share these ideas but have no platform to do so.

Going off on a tangent I wish I was around decades ago where you could've done other odd jobs and the industry wasn't solely based on draftsmanship. Walt Disney was not the best draftsman in the world either however when he entered the industry in 1920 at the Kansas City Film Ad the industry was not very well established you didn't need to have qualifications. It was simply one-reel filler that had no cinematic value. This would have allowed anyone to join the industry. Walt created qualifications by bringing life-drawing influence into the industry derived from Europe as well as architectural design derived once again from Europe. Don Graham an art professor taught Walt's famous animators how to comprehend more intricate design. Once people figured out they could attract more revenue they decided in many cases to dump the individuals who had talents in other areas.

How this is relevant to the topic is how while I admire Disney it has been difficult because of what he did retrospectively to find a non-draftsman job in the industry. I just had to go into convoluted detail that is what makes me an aspie or why my doctor diagnosed me at age 8.

What do you guys think I'm hoping for a healthy debate.

Hello and Welcome to Wrong Planet

I like you story ideas. Here are my variations on them

A man buys a new car for his girlfriend and gives it to her. The car does not want to be in a love triangle with the boyfriend. So the car goes out and kills the boyfriend



A group of stoners get hold of what they think is a bong that is actually a genie bottle. They do not realize this at first and go ahead and use it as bong. Once they realize it is a genie bottle it is too late for their wishes. The genie has died from smoke inhalation.



When the ancestor will is read they get the magic that allowed the ancestor to live so long. They live long enough in prison to serve the full term of their "life" sentence.



and then start WW2 over again.



You have a platform right now. Do your own stories and animations and post them on the internet and youtube. You can get feedback on improving your animation and stories. You might then get good enough to attract someone without needing the qualifications.

Thanks I would certainly agree that I have the chops and thanks for the suggestions that the initial idea is just the tip of the iceberg of what it could eventually form into. The issue has to do with the fact that the industry is more concerned about draftsmanship than credible story telling. I know this from reading guidelines from admissions at a series of animation schools. To add insult to injury many of these artists narrative ability varies.

I have seen countless animated films suffer because their more focused on technical proficiency than unique story telling and all they are, are rehashes of previous films. Companies are scared to try out new ideas because they think it may alienate their demographic.

I understand your frustration. Regardless of if they are animated or not, a lot of films are just rehashes of previous films.

It make sense from the companies point of view not to alienate their demographic. They want to make money and it doesn't matter to them what makes the money. If anything they will wow the audience with something on the technical end to hide the fact that their story is just another retelling of a plot from another film.

Maybe you can team up with someone with good draftsmanship to do the animation while you do the story line. Then we would have the best of both worlds. A good story and animation that will impress us.

If you feel your draftsmanship is not up to snuff, have you thought of writing your stories as fiction? Writing, after all, is as much art as animation.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer