Lirielle

There’s an interesting post over at the 37signals blog about the difference between an experienced carpenter and a novice carpenter. Here are two paragraphs that struck a chord with me:

 
The novice by comparison, spends a great deal of his time trying to figure out what to do. He does this essentially because he knows that an action he takes now may cause unretractable problems a little further down the line; and if he is not careful, he will find himself with a joint that requires the shortening of some crucial member – at a stage when it is too late to shorten that member. The fear of these kinds of mistakes forces him to spend hours trying to figure ahead: and it forces him to work as far as possible to exact drawings because they will guarantee that he avoids these kinds of mistakes.

The difference between the novice and the master is simply that the novice has not learnt, yet, how to do things in such a way that he can afford to make small mistakes. The master knows that the sequence of his actions will always allow him to cover his mistakes a little further down the line. It is this simple but essential knowledge which gives the work of a master carpenter its wonderful, smooth, relaxed, and almost unconcerned simplicity.

I feel like the novice carpenter. When I’m writing, I’ve been trying to plan out the arc of the story in a lot of detail and feel paralyzed at times because I’m worried about making a mistake and writing myself into a corner. I’ve tried outlining and index cards and stuff like that to try to figure out the broad strokes of my story. But inevitably I get bogged down in details and trying to patch plot holes and impose logic too early. I’m not quite experienced enough to understand how to construct a story with confidence.

I feel like I am improving and getting a better understanding of my particular writing process. I think I’ll be able to get over the hump soon. At some point I feel like I just have to take the plunge and commit to an idea and be confident that I’ll be able to address issues as I go. It doesn’t have to be perfect right from the beginning. For some reason I can be comfortable with that with programming or my drawing. But I find it harder to apply that concept to my writing. And that’s why I’m still a novice.

A quick painting of Prof. Cromwell, or perhaps just plain Cromwell. Inspired by Michael Caine, even though in my painting he ended up looking a little too old and it’s not a very good likeness. I think he ended up looking a bit too much like Malcolm McDowell, and I didn’t want to go quite that intense. But hey, not bad for 90 minutes.

He’s going to be a mentor to Lirielle. He’s going to push her hard. I don’t think she’s going to like him very much at first. Kind of like Eliza Dolittle and Prof. Henry Higgins, who are definite influences on my characters. I watched My Fair Lady a lot while growing up, and oddly enough, in college because both me and a roommate were into it.

In the steampunk-influenced universe that Lirielle lives in, the airship is the primary mode of long distance transportation. Large areodromes are a cross between Victorian rail stations and modern-day airports. The exposed infrastructure is tough to draw, but it something I find to be very visually interesting. I found a picture of the interior of a hangar and did a quick paintover to give the idea of space and depth I’d like to see. I put a couple of ships in there for scale, but I think they turned out too modern looking for where I’d like to eventually end up.

I’m hoping to set a couple of key action sequences in this environment.

This painting turned out ok, but it’s not what I had in my head. If I were a better artist I feel like I could have come closer to the mark. Still, I’m glad i got it done, even if I had to borrow a little from photographs to help with my mediocre draftsmanship.

I was trying to set the mood for my writing. Get a sense of atmosphere for the world and try yet another pass at making Lirielle more real as a person. I made another variation on her costume, mixing some steampunk, goth, and Victorian influences.

The city behind her could be a lot better. I basically gave up trying to fill in more of the gaps in the mid ground because I’m a little burnt out on this painting after spending 3 or 4 late nights on it. I want to get back to writing.

Well, I didn’t get my 100 pages written. I tried very hard. I got a couple pages, maybe. A lot of note cards and outline ideas generated. But nothing cohesive enough to call a script.

I got maybe 3 or 4 hours of writing time where I was really concentrating. But overall, I’d say that finding time to write where I can guarantee no interruptions is just not possible around my house.

I’m disappointed I missed my goal. But on the up side, I’ve narrowed the scope of my story and understand the characters a little bit better. The story is starting to become constrained enough that there is more problem solving and less brainstorming.

Things are coming into focus, but still have a long way to go.

Script Frenzy! is a writing event that helps motivate people to write 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April.

So far I have successfully procrastinated on my Script Frenzy! work by adding their icon to my blog and writing this post.

I’ve decided to stick with the original direction for Lirielle: brunette, kind of goth, pale skin. Here are a bunch of costume ideas. I like the short hair the best. I think eventually Lirielle will go with darker eye makeup, but here I like her starting out a little more innocent looking. Not sure which dress to go with. I like the long dress and the red plaid the best.The sketch of the blonde girl will be another character in the story. I’m thinking of naming her Hunter. She and Lirielle start out as friends but end up on opposite sides of a conflict. 

 Going a little different direction. Still goth inspired, but a little more punk Avril Lavigne direction here. Not sure if this is Lirielle or maybe a different character. Also playing around with my drawing style too. Trying to find the right feeling for the story. There’s a little back and forth with the imagery and the storyline, each one inspiring and informing the other. 

Good lord, it’s been almost a year since the last post.

In the last year I’ve been working on a short CG film for work. Not only did I supervise a bunch of it, but I was also one of two primary programmers for a new pipeline, plus I lit shots. That ran from Feb. to Oct.

In September, I almost left my current job to go to another animation studio, but their situation changed and I ended up staying at Disney. After the short film wrapped, I went to India to consult for a direct-to-video CG project. And then I came back just in time for the holidays.

That explains a lot about why I haven’t pounded very hard on my story development. At the same time, I hate using that as an excuse. My New Year’s resolution is to get a story finished and boarded.

Sketch for a character from the sci-fi anime story.