Outcast Production Blog - Environments Part I

 Environments Part 1

Inside the walled City

The world in which a story is set plays a very large role in how the story will be presented, how conflicts and characters can progress within it and the general tone the story will be told in. I don’t think there has ever been a time I didn’t have the setting worked out long before I put an idea on paper. At this point I don’t have an outline of what the story is about, but just from establishing the setting I wanted to write in, I already know key components I will work with.

When I first sat down to work on this story, I started with a single line on paper, which was the setting this story would be in:

Our world 300 years from now

I wanted to stay in a science fiction genre for my first outing, mostly because it was a genre I was already familiar with writing, but I also wanted to root it in a world that would have grown out of the world I live in now. This meant I could mix things that were familiar with things that were fantasy.  They way I figured it, the more options I had to play with, the less constricted I will feel in telling the story, whatever it would end up being.

The next comment I made was one that would really set the entire mood for this future world of ours:

The end of the world has come and gone

Ok, to be fair there is no “end of the world” here, as we do have people living on the planet. What I wanted to tell was the kind of story we never get told. For example, at the end of “Independence Day” when they finally figure out how to defeat the aliens what happens to the world after that? With the loss of a large portion of the population, how does the world progress from that point?

Those kinds of movies are all about being invaded and how we respond and they have been done over and over again. So I had no interest in once again making that same movie.

I set out to tell a story that was rebuilt from the ashes of destruction. It was much later that I decided on the themes (people with extraordinary powers, the significance of the invasion itself) but from this I was able to establish the world I wanted it set, and that helped very much during the process in thinking of how things would be designed.

So with all that lead up out of the way, let’s talk about the locations chosen in Episode 1

 

Environment 1: Red Light District

Red Light District

I already touched on this a bit in the last Blog entry, so I won’t spend a lot of time here, but because the first scene takes place in this area, I wanted to immediately establish the mix between the old and the new. The outside environment would have to represent a futuristic city, while still keeping a look that would have evolved from the world we live in now. I could mix this feel of the area with the people I’d place in the scene, but taking them out, I still wanted the environment to speak for itself. 

 

I was very lucky that a 3D artist, whose content I had been using to create some exteriors, had created a Red Light district in the same matching theme. By purchasing that set from them, to use with my other sets, I was able to design a very unique Adult zone of the city, without it looking much different than the rest of the city. 

The Hole club, where we follow one of our characters to, was an environment I wanted to resemble strip clubs we have now, once again keeping that element of old and new. I just felt as though this would be the kind of place where someone could get a traditional, old school strip show. Even though it was basically an elaborate brothel with the sex rooms down the back tunnels, its initial impression would be just a regular club. 

The back halls of the place would be where all the naughty stuff happens and I wanted them to appear raw, very basic and metallic. Almost like going through service tunnels. Going through this space is what leads our Outcast character to what they are looking for.

Environment 2: The Old World

A city in the world that was

I have already established that the cities were rebuilt from the ashes of the old world so, for our characters outside of the city walls, I had to create environments that reflected a world abandoned and destroyed.

The city that the Outcast base is in was designed to be one of the places the initial attack just stopped, so while some buildings would still be standing, areas around them had to be a representation of devastation.

I used several models to set the mood, including several cities in ruins style models mixed with business neighborhood models. I was reminded of scenes from films like Terminator: Salvation or L.A in Independence Day. Enough structure would have survived to say “yes this was a city” but enough of it destroyed to impress upon the audience that something terrible happened here.

I am glad that city destruction is not a unique environment for me to want, so several content creators had made sets that worked perfectly. One in particular I was very excited to use, involved buildings in Rubble leading up to a bridge that had been mostly destroyed. I loved the imagery of the model and had to get it for this project. 

Environment 3: The Outcast Base

Outcast Base of Operations

The idea behind this base was that they moved into an abandoned military base from the old world, and got it running again. So it had to look fairly military but also very retro at the same time. Advanced to technology we have today but nothing too futuristic.

The command center was only part of it, having to create hallways, a landing area for the transports, and quarters for the outcasts who lived there. It all had to fit the same theme and blend with one another. I am sure many of our military bases these days would look fairly futuristic to what we would expect, so with that in mind I took a few liberties in thinking at the time of the invasion, things would have advanced a bit in those areas.

Because it is an underground base, the environment needed to feel enclosed, with no windows and no outside light, which ended up challenging in some cases. Luckily I had enough modeled environments to piece together and make it work. A lot of them needed a bit of texture work to match them up, but the end result has every area look like it belongs. 

Environment 4: The Senators office

Senator Durin's Office

For the Senator I wanted a very large room that overlooked the city. I liked the idea of this Senator being a bit attached to design from the old world, while ruling the new one. I found a fantastic model, created by an artist with the handle of “Ratracer”, called “Tycoon Office”. It fit the feel I wanted for our Senator perfectly, combining the reception area, Conference area and personal office all in one setting.

I actually re wrote the first scene here so it would fit the design, having the first moments we spend here be during a meeting with others. I quite liked the big windows showing the city outside and the fancy retro style desk the Senator works from. Part of the idea behind him is that he doesn’t just work in this building; he lives here. So the feel of the room had to be very personal. He even wears older style suits to match his “classic” feel.

There is a reason for this madness, but we don’t find out about that until much later, so no spoilers for now!

 

And that covers only a few of the locations in the first Episode. I still haven’t covered the Bunker and desert, where we meet some of our lead Outcasts, The Dome which is part of some secret government plan to (spoiler), and the G-Corp facility, which plays a very large role in the 3^rd and 4^th episodes, but makes its first appearance here.

Next time on the blog we’ll introduce you to a few of the characters, and the process in creating their look, style and personality. 

Jon

Outcast Production Blog - Writing process and adjustments

Welcome to my second blog entry for "Outcast". For this entry I thought I'd chat about the process or creating the story and things that change in the process of writing it.  Also a very quick note, I have created a new Facebook page for Outcast, and if you want to join it for even more updates, production stills, animated clips etc, please do! It's just getting started but I will be using it a lot over the next few months. Click here to access it

Outcast Character Victoria (Completed still from Animation)

Everything I have written has always come from a place in my head, where I had an idea how it was going to end. That’s not to say I have the ending all planned out, but from the moment I start telling the story, I know the place I’d like to see that story go to. That doesn’t mean I have a pre destined path for my characters, and in fact I have very often changed the outcome of my stories to match how the character develops. But it is a starting and ending point, and as I write I am basically filling in the bits between.

Final Redemption was unique in that I was working with an already established universe (Star Wars), and many of the character driven events were determined through unscripted Role Play. I still new, when I started writing it, where I wanted it to end, but that journey could have gone a completely different direction. There was a time that I thought it would be more fun for Nythaka to go all evil at the end, leaving the door open for a sequel…but then I swore I’d never make “Finaler Redemption” ..so best it ends as it did!

(as a side bar, the proposed sequel “Family” which never got made, was not intended so much as a direct sequel but just another story told with those characters, much as the Indiana Jones films are done)

The other part of my preparation to writing is setting myself some simple rules to work with, not to limit the story, but to help tailor the events and dialogue to work within the rule set I create for myself.

When I set out to write Outcast, I was very particular about 3 things:

1)      People were going to die

2)      The characters were not going to be defined as Good or Bad, but defined as Human

3)      It was going to be an Adult story allowing for Nudity, Sexuality, Language and Violence.

The first turned out to be vital in telling this story, as a sense of risk needed to be presented. This isn’t X-Men even if it does have inspirational roots from there. Not everyone is going to live to see the end. And not just people you’d expect to kill off for the sake of killing off…I mean everyone is game to die, even main characters

See once you eliminate that right from the start, you free things up completely to just tell the story as you see it happening. Events can happen logically rather than using a cheap excuse to escape danger (though I won’t say I am innocent of using the odd cheap excuse for things here and there…it is sci fi after all).

The Second thing came from the very concept I used when this story popped into my head. Not to give too much away, but in most films involving people with special abilities, they are either good or bad. I wanted to create a situation where they were more in shades of grey. While it might seem they are the “heroes” and the governments the “Villains” I very much wanted the audience to question that, just as our characters do through the course of the story. 

Outcast Character Sarah in the desert, (Pre Effects Still from Animation)

What would happen if you put the extraordinary power some of these characters have, in the hands of people you know? What would their instinct be? Can you be 100% sure they would only use them for good? Can you be certain you would? If you could be invisible do you think you’d resist the urge to go into the ladies showers and watch? (of course I wouldn’t you cheeky bastards! But I know at least 2 people who would)

I wanted to tell the story from the perspective of people who think they are right and justified in their actions. Jump into the “freedom fighter” who the rest of the world would view as a Terrorist. That was important to me, not to show some kind of sympathy for people who destroy innocent lives with terror, but to show how influential perspective, religion and politics is, all in the name of the “people”

Confused yet? Good good, don’t want you to figure it all out too soon!

The last of my rules, having it be Adult, was not because I wanted to make a naughty superhero movie with lots of sex and nudity, but because I didn’t want to feel confined to a PG universe. We don’t live in one now, how could we ever assume we would in the future? In fact I can see changes happening in society now that will probably eventually lead to a far more open society when it comes to nudity and sexuality. Well…maybe not in the US…but the rest of the world sure!

So as I wrote I always had that in mind, but I never wrote anything in just for the sake of  having something adult. It always served to set an environment, a scene, an atmosphere. In fact, for all of the writing I did, never feeling confined to a PG universe..the subject of nudity and sex in the story only came up at the very beginning

Here’s a possible spoiler warning for you, though I am not going to actually get into details. The opening sequence of the scripted version takes place in a Red Light District. The character we visit during this sequence is working as a prostitute in order to get closer to some government officials and get information. In this particular opening scene, she walks from an apartment, through the red-light district, to a club called “The Hole” which has a secret she is there to discover. 

Outcast Character Alyssia in the Redlight District (completed still from Animation)

Ok, spoiler bit done, what’s in the room and why you can find out later on.

So anyway, I wrote the environment as being very adult. Go go dancers on the streets, windows that offered a voyeuristic view of people getting naughty, strippers, prostitutes, gay, straight, lesbian…nothing held back. This was the sex district after all, and so I wanted to establish that.

When it came time to animate it, I had a bit of fun creating sequences for it and continued with my concept of an adult story. But it occurred to me as I was animating the opening sequence, that if I made it too adult (nudity mostly) then I’d be pretty limited on getting the final product out there for people to see. Was keeping faithful to one sequence out of the whole project worth alienating potential viewers?

I decided it wasn’t, and this was the first change that I made going from concept to animation. But I learned something in the process. As I went back to re do the red-light scenes, I found I could still get away with the feeling of the environment, without compromising too much. Instead of full views through windows I could use silhouettes through darkened windows. Instead of nude dancers, they could be wearing lingerie. While it may not be exactly as envisioned, it does get the point across, that is a place where people make sexy time. 

Before and After render from the Adult Club Scene

It bothers me a bit, when I watch it the new renders, to no longer have the nudity. I have always been a person who thinks the covering of body parts is pretty lame in comparison to the violence on our average tv or movie. The human body is a lovely thing after all and why not show a little nipple here and there! But I suppose I don’t make the censorship rules, and if I want to present this thing on youtube or other web services, best I behave myself.

Before and After render from the Adult Club Scene

As I look through the script, I don’t see much else that I will need to change. Once the opening sequence is done, there are only a few references to nudity, and those, being non sexual, are much easier to animate around without showing any bits. Maybe someday I will go back and remake it with the unedited content, even just for me and those who took part in making it, but I’m fairly content with the outcome (though I still wish I had a motion capture system to make animating a lot faster and better looking).

What do you think? Was it the right decision? Should I have kept it as is and hosted the film on my own rather than go through a popular video provider? If I compromise on that should I compromise on language and violence?

Personally, I’m trying to keep everything as I originally intended. I might cut some scenes here and there to keep pacing, or if they are unnecessary, but I’m not planning on changing any of the language or violence.

Next time we’ll look at creating the future city where most of the action takes place!

Jon

Outcast Production Blog - Welcome

The world we knew was broken....Prudence…the first of us…sacrificed everything she was so that we could evolve. Some did. Some didn’t. Change can bring out the best and the worst in people, but all change brings fear. Fear in losing what was before, fear in what was to come…it was fear that led to the lie. The greatest lie ever put forth by the human race. A lie that grew, with time, until it was so big, it became the truth…

Welcome to the Outcast Production Blog. What is "Outcast" you might ask? Outcast is an original science fiction story that I am animating into a 5 episode Mini-Series on the web. Basically it is the story of Prudence, a young girl who discovered she had amazing abilities when the Earth came under attack. She sacrificed herself to save the planet, but in doing so she passed on her gift to others. 

The story picks up years after these events, where humanity has rebuilt, labeling her their savior, while those who were gifted with special abilities were outcast from society. It is about a war in which both sides believe they are absolutely in the right, all the while something neither side could anticipate is about to happen, which may bring an end to everything. 

In short form the story probably does not seem too exciting at this point, and I admit, it only scratches the surface of what is going on. But I don't want to give away too many spoilers to the plot, so it is hard to describe it in a way that will say to you "Oh i see, that's an interesting concept" without giving away events that play a very significant role in the mystery. 

I am willing to say however, that I do wear many of my influences on my sleeve, and I make no appologies for that. Sure there is a X-Men element in here, specifically a group of people with special abilities, and a Heroes (season 1) element in which there is a question of morality to what having those kinds of abilities could mean. There is a Star Wars element in that it appears to be a group of rebels against a government empire and there is absolutely a Watchmen element in that not everyone you'd consider a "hero" is good.

But more than those things, the story of Outcast deals with a lot of deeper issues...how perception can blind us to what is right or wrong, how belief can be as deadly as any weapon, how one persons fight for the truth, is another persons terrorism, and of course, that ever haunting us question, what is the meaning of it all? Why are we here? Is there someone watching over us or are we on our own?

I don't mean to say I answer all of these questions in the story, and to be fair it is a science fiction project involving people will super powers, but it does address all of these things and much more, in a story presentation that is more than just another popcorn superhero flick.

Over the next few months, as I work on the first Episode of "Outcast", I will be popping onto the blog to talk about different aspects of the production. From animating it, to adding effects, storyline changes, voice actor information, and progress reports. I did a form of this ages ago on My Space when I made Final Redemption, but this will be a bit different. A bit more involved with Screen captures and concept tidbits, as well as video samples once and a while. 

I will make a point of noting right now, I am one person doing this animation, coming from a background that has nothing to do with Animation. I am using a few programs to put it together, but this won't be some pixar great that will be worthy of an academy award. My decision to animate it was primarily to create an animated storyboard of my script, in order to visually represent my story. That said, I will try to release it in the best form I am capable of and hopefully it will be entertaining. 

So thanks for reading, and I hope you'll pop in again from time to time to hear all about the process of making the series. More details on the release schedule and where you can find it to come

In the meantime, here is the teaser trailer i made while the script was still in concept stage. Some of the scenes you see will be in the film, and some will not (some things have changed in the script after the 2nd and 3rd Drafts so some parts i had considered have been removed). 

You can get more info at http://www.wakingdreamcafe.ca