Cyborg Tortoise- - Nuff said!

Character Development

The main character actually started out as a human being, living among desert creatures, but I couldn't make it work. I was not as excited about it. When I thought to change the human into another desert creature, a jack rabbit, it was like adding the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Here are some initial sketches.

Tumbleweed: The story

Although I won't go into detail about the story, I can say that it has elements of the Wild West, with a futuristic twist. As I kept thinking about the story, I decided to do one different thing. The characters in the story would be animals, not human beings. Not actual animals, but "animorphs" or animals walking on two legs and acting human-like. I love how characters like Daffy Duck or Mickey Mouse were animals with human pathos and emotion. I wanted to do something similar.

The title of Tumbleweed is the name of one of the characters. The story line will revolve around this character, but he is not necessarily the main character.

The Beginning!

This blog is to help me chronicle my journey to put my imagination to good use. My wife challenged me recently to focus on one hobby and stick with it for 1 full year. Due to my imagination and my profession, I decided to put my passions to good use:
On my way home from work, I was in my usual focused mode, and began to imagine a story that I found fun, exciting, and entertaining. When I got home I wrote it down in treatment form, and wondered what I could do with it. As I continued to tool with the characters, the treatment, and the story itself, it dawned on me that I could create this in animated form (Flash-possibly). I grew excited, but before I draw the cart before the horse, I realized as a family man and full time instructor of an art college, I should take this one step at a time. I will start this by first working in pre-production by making an animation bible. I will test our own curriculum and fabricate a treatment, a shot list, storyboards, character designs, overhead diagrams (for the camera angles), and find lots of reference material. Then I will proceed with production and worry about assistance and such, as I may need. Who knows? Maybe I will develop this further.