#story development
Backround world and color development for a storyboard I did at Calarts Discover animation program
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I’ve been thinking about a short story arc that happened in Star Wars : Clone Wars. It was that bit where Anakin and the others meet what are described as god-like avatars of the Force and Anakin had to prove himself as the Chosen One. It’s nice that the whole chosen one thing was elaborated on but the whole ark always felt really out of place to the rest of the show…
…The story suddenly went from a war that threatens the governments of this civilisation to the universe being at risk and then right back down to the war. They never mentioned it again (I think) and it didn’t seem to have any impact on the show, apart from making the war feel kinda Podunk to me.
It made me remember a few other long form stories that had the tension sucked out of them by a sudden, brief threat that was a lot worse than the main obstacle of the story. Like there was that crossover in the Fables comic where they confronted the writer of the universe who wanted to erase them all. Or basically any time Q showed up in Star Trek after Next Generation.
It’s a matter of scale. How is the audience supposed to be worried about say, a city being destroyed when your protagonist just took 15 minutes out to stop the world from exploding?
A lot of the time, they make sense from a character/universe development point of view. Like in Clone Wars, it was a quick way of demonstrating that Anakin and the force itself is (potentially inherently) unstable. That’s something really important to the larger themes of the show and needed to be looked at. But if the story has to be temporarily twisted into nonsense to get some point about the character or world across, then maybe some more development should have happened earlier on, or later, or generally in a more subtle way.
I get that a lot of it is meant as metaphor. It’s not always meant to fit into the world because it’s representative of an abstract concept. If that’s the case though then why is it in the world? Why are these actual events taking place and being presented as a functioning part of the established universe? Then to top it off, all the characters usually pretend it didn’t happen.
It’s like saying to the audience “yeh, what just happened was crazy important, not in regards to the story but still crazy important. No no, it was all canon but not in the way that has any impact on the events to follow. Keep it in mind though, just don’t mention it ever again.”
Come to think of it, it’s probably just a specific way the pacing of a story can go wrong. A lot of these examples probably would have worked really well if they’d happened towards the end of the story, when the stakes are already high.
I suspect that this is something that only happens in episodic stories with no set end in sight. It seems like this kind of earth-shaking, self-examination by the story could happen in a dream sequence or something.
I donno. I just don’t think they work as a narrative tool. There’s probably a specific term for them, like mid-season story bomb or reverse narrative pause. If you know what they’re called, let me know :)
(If there’s some extended piece of Star Wars lore that puts the Space Gods into better context, please don’t shout me down by explaining it at length. In the context of the show, it was a self-contained incident and completely disconnected from the story as a whole.)
Moana Visual Development, Part 2
“The Brothers”.
At one point in the story development, Moana had 9 older brothers, who sailed off leaving Moana behind, and who Moana eventually had to rescue!
Designing them, I thought it would be a fun idea to give them each a distinct personality, and to have their personalities reflected in the way they wear their lavalavas (The garments around their waist).
Bro No.1 = The leader, most like his father.
Bro No.2 = The warrior.
Bro No.3 = The artist and dreamer, and who Moana feels closest to.
Bro No.4 = The easygoing lovable big guy.
Bro No.5 & 6 = Twins who were amazing at rowing in synchronicity.
Bro No.7 = The lady’s man who was a great dancer.
Bro No.8 = The annoying loud one.
Bro No.9 = The aloof weird one.
And Moana’s the 10th child of the chieftain, and the first daughter.
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Main heroes of a story I’m currently developing.
Usually It’s easier for me to sketch the hell out of the theme to grasp some important moments, emotions and stuff. So I have a ton of sketches, which I’ll drop here soon
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first animatic of the semester >:)
final story hw of the year lets goo
With Fall around the corner…
How does your OC plan on finishing out Summer? Did they have any favorite summer memories?
Green Thumb?
Spring coming to the Wasteland and it made us wonder, Does your OC have a green thumb or brown thumb? Can they grow anything any where or kill a house plant just by naming it?
Now, which OC is LEAST handy/crafty
Who can break anything? Who is always finding new ways to break the unbreakable even if they are trying to fix things?
Which of your OCs is more crafty/handy?
Who can repair or fix anything? Who is always coming up with new projects? Are they more into building furniture or more into gadgetry?
Your OC finds one of the rare working vehicles!
Which is it? How do they drive? How do companions react?
OC’s Worst Date in the Waste..
What was just the worst date your OC and Companion/LI had?
Your OC finds a perfectly preserved stash of Hot Cocoa!
How would they make their perfect cup of cocoa and would they share?
Which OC
Has already broken their New Year Resolution?
More about Kankuro and Rei’s ship child, her name is Mami (take a wild guess why I decided to name her that). I wanted to draw her aging up a little and how she would be.
Playmobil diver and shark. Development sketch from a past project.
a little character design woohoo
For all those writers out there! I discovered this awesome website called campfire from YouTube video. It’s your all in one place to store character information, story information, plot details, notes and drafts! I’ve recently started using it and find it very helpful! It’s free with options to upgrade (which I am considering as well)
