Kick-off days
on October 6th, 2009, by Ton
Phew, second day of Durian already! Things are crazy fun and hectic here, we spend ages in meetings it seems.
To start with: check these cool pictures from Andy Goralczyk, he was in the studio here for a week course, and stayed a couple of days to welcome the Durian team and consult us a bit on various issues (4k render, epic shots, realistic human shading, …).
Andy’s flickr Durian Kick-off gallery
Yesterday we went over all the key topics for the startup of this project. Discussing essential boring stuff like working hours, keys, closing-down-office protocols, bicycles, apartment stuff, who gets us lunch, office cleaning, and of course about schedulig this whole project. Some decisions;
– We will make a schedule for a weekly MonkeyButler service, everyone then is for a week the office slave doing some cleaning, get and prepare lunch, manage dishwasher and change towels. I’ll do the first week 😉
– Script is getting some minor revisions for feasibility, but by Blender conference it’s final. We will present there the first scenes, about a minute of film. These scenes and shots we’ll keep updating live on the web for everyone, so you can watch it develop from storyboard to final.
– Everyone has a topic assigned to blog about this week.
– First month will be mostly design oriented, with targets to get final designs for the characters and environments during November.
We also defined first week targets for everyone:
– Soenke will work this week on creating an epic render in Blender, on Avatar level. (Yes, Cameron’s Avatar is the new reference standard for epicness)
– Angela and Nathan work on a quick female character model and rig, firday ready for Lee to pickup to animate.
– Lee will study fight choreography further, and come with proposals and designs for the fight sequences.
– Colin will review all feedback on the script and propose a couple of possible scenario solutions to further explore.
– Colin and David continue storyboarding, David continues with concept art.
– Campbell and Brecht focus on fixing everything in 2.5 that’s reported here!
Today, from 14-19h we spent on the script with Esther, going over all scenes, versions, stylings, characterizations, emotional impacts, deeper meanings, layers, bad-ass leveling, epicness and simple stupid silly fun aspects of this project. 🙂
Later more,
-Ton-
October 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Yay! First post!
Is this actually ALL happening in the first week?
And, who is that? Is that Nathan… Cleanshaven!?!
October 6th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
It’s really started. Wow! We’re looking forward to seeing this project progress, and I hope you will all also take on feedback from the community as you do.
You’re a bunch of smart people! We’ll trust in your good judgement!
October 6th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Picture from left to right: Epic Dino, Angela, Campbell, Ton, Colin, Soenke, Nathan, Brecht, Lee, Epic Horse. Backdrop details: Entrepotdok warehouses, where our studio is.
(David was still at home, Ben joins us in December.)
October 6th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Congratulations on the approval by the Dutch Film Fund. Will the project last longer now? (there was still some uncertainty about the duration of Durian iirc)
October 6th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Great Team!!
Is good to read another post =D
Soenke and Nathan faces are so funny =D , I guess the team will not get bored with their jokes =)
Great Team! Great Picture!!
October 6th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Eh, the FilmFund has to approve this still, we only submitted.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
great !
cant wait to see the first images !
go durian team !!!
;D
October 6th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
A Great Job for you guys.
Goodlock (for the slave of the week, OH 😛 it’s you Ton)
October 6th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
CHEERING YOU ON!!!! WOO HOOOOOOOOOO!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Enjoy this beautiful start, have fun and have a rest whenever possible, as all these 4k textures stuff and final adjustements shall surely keep you awake late at night, so late it will probably be quite close to early in the morning actually.
When all your frendly faces will look a lot more tired, don’t worry, we will be there to cheer you up !
Can’t wait to see what’s cooking !
October 7th, 2009 at 12:29 am
I love it.
Keep going guys 🙂
Blender is best ! Blender is the future !
I will be so happy if i hold the dvd in my hands !
October 7th, 2009 at 12:34 am
And it’s only the beginning 😉
can’t wait to see next !!
Good luck and have fun !!
October 7th, 2009 at 12:34 am
If everbody does it, it must be stupid. – Ton Roosendaal, 16 July 2009
Haha, that is now my FB status
October 7th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Love the idea of watching that first minute of Durian as it evolves from storyboard to screen version! Cheers for the one with the idea!!!
October 7th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Amsterdam has an organisation for possibility of learning medieval fighting techniques for various disciplines. They could provide some hands on research material for the action pieces xD.
October 7th, 2009 at 4:24 am
Andy, thanks for the pics!
October 7th, 2009 at 7:13 am
-The last photo taken of the Durian Team before they were eaten by a crazed steel cow.
Also Veggie… Holy cow I love you. Words cannot express.
This picture is now my wallpaper; you all look like superheroes.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
In case anyone was interested, here’s a deconvoluted look at the storyboard shot above Lee’s head from Andy’s gallery:
http://i37.tinypic.com/903uyc.jpg
Does that look like an arrow showing that the camera fall into what looks like a caldron? Argh, keeps me guessing! XD
October 7th, 2009 at 10:58 am
@Ton: Sorry, must have made a mistake. When I looked at the official website of the filmfund, it states that a proposal by the Blender Institute was approved. It wasn’t there on the website about two weeks ago, so I thought it was the proposal you blogged about on Sep 23rd.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Ton I think it is a mistake to put Campbell on the cleaning roster! I keep taking him off the roster at home – it’s just easier….:)
October 7th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Very nice Ton… And i hope you folks have bean bags at the studio to crash once in a while… 🙂
Cheers from India,
Satish
October 7th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
It’s finally starting! Yeeh! I’m very happy!
@Ton: Do not leave your new bike unguarded, Ton. It’s Amsterdam, will be stolen within 2 weeks. I know!
October 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
But where is Andy???? :p
October 7th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Best of luck. Please make a “making of” for the rest of us.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Would love to see Soenke’s epic render using Blender!
October 8th, 2009 at 1:03 am
finally nice to see everything rolling again, and keep up good posts!
@Ton: Any thoughts regarding community participation? cant wait to try out.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:43 am
Nice! I would love to see the full storyboard! Maybe I could help on something, who knows some sounds or graphics. (?)
There must be a making of!!
October 8th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Wish you all the bests things possible.
A jazzy sound called durian (The Cinematic Orchestra):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERGdND_2b4s
Peace :-).
October 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
If you haven’t done so already then check out Ong Bak and Warrior King (Tom Yum Goong) , two Thai martial arts films with amazing fight sequences, the choreography is pretty special.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
o man o man!!!!!
so excited!!!!!
looking forward to seeing Soenke’s EPIC 4K `AVATAR` RENDER!!!
(no pressure :p)
October 8th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Is Campbell stood in a hole? Or is everyone else except him and Angela standing on something?
Avatar? Hmmm, nothing I’ve seen of that has matched the verisimilitude of Davey Jones.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:18 am
I want a 2 hours movie with a team like that! :3
@ Lee
I’m sure you’ve already checked a lot a fight sequences, movies etc… here’s a bunch of my favorites pro/semi-pro stunts-fight actor choregraphers:
http://www.zgmain.com
http://www.thestuntpeople.com
They got a great sense of acting with high skills in martial art and stunts, and their sequences are very interesting to study.
Another crazy stuntman, Damien Walters, more a monkey or a cat than a human:
http://bit.ly/Z3caN
and more feminine, Audrey Ottaviano:
http://bit.ly/4dPPpO
I don’t put more, I’m sure you already got a lot to watch 😛
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
I like the Avatar 3D movie, especially the story line, not solely it brings a totally new feelings however eye opening ideas of humanity. I heard the New Avatar 2 is comming soon, cannot wait to see it again…!