Creation date: August 27, 1993 Description: Computer animated movie of corn playing baseball. TITLE: "Unknown" All suggestions welcome: (leave title, name, and date please) "Maize at Bat" Pete 8/9/93 "Field of Ears" Pete 8/9/93 "Field of Corn Dreams" Dan 8/10/93 "Is this Heaven? No, its an animation" Dan 8/10/93 "If you animate it, they will come" Dan 8/10/93 Main character: Maize Brown, baseball player, with possible cameo appearences by certain others... unknown. Total number of frames we want: 3600 - 5400 (120 - 180 sec) (2 - 3 min) Current total number of frames: 4050 (135 sec) (2 min, 15 sec) Scene 1: Room with a View ------------------------- Renderer: possibly ALIAS. This scene begins by showing a high detail view of some room/lab. We look around the room with camera and notice the detail in it. As we are showing different aspects of the room, we notice a mirror and in the reflection of the mirror we see the members of our animation group. The camera then swings over by a desk and above the desk, we find a window that overlooks a corn field. A possibility here would be to have ALIAS texture map a VORT rendered corn field. This would help us make the transition to the next scene more smooth. We continue to zoom into the frame of the window and eventually we do a fade or a quick switch to the next scene. Questions to answer: fade or quick switch? Number of frames: 300 (10 sec) Scene 2: Cornfield fly-by ------------------------- Renderer: vort (all remaing scenes with exception of final scene will be with vort) We enter into this scene with a sweeping fly-by of a typical Iowa farm scene. There are many cornfields in the distance as well as a barn or two. We fly by the fields in such a way as to get the blurred row effect that one gets as one drives by a cornfield perpendicular to the rows of the corn. Eventually, zoom in on one special corn stock. As we approach this piece of corn we start to see a bubble take shape over it. This bubble fades into our view rather than suddenly appearing. The bubble never fully becomes lucid, but it remains sort of blurred. Inside the bubble there appears to be a view of a baseball diamond. This view is a top down view. We zoom into the bubble until it encompasses our field of view at which point we make a sudden jump to the next scene. NOTE: Corn is approximately 6-7 feet tall at its highest. Therefore, fence posts should be about half of this height. Number of frames: 450 (15 sec) Scene 3: Transition into the Dream ---------------------------------- Our view of the baseball diamond becomes clear and we slowly zoom towards it. This is a simple transition to the next scene. This will probably be a quick jump. Number of frames: 60 (2 sec) Scene 4: Maize at Bat 1 ----------------------- In this scene the camera starts out being placed between home plate and the pitcher's mound. The camera is focused on Maize who is standing either on or near home plate. We notice Maize who is looking intensely towards 1st base. As we are watching him, it slowly starts to turn its head towards third base. Scene 5: Maize at Bat 2 ----------------------- In this scene we see the world as Maize sees it. We continue its scanning view across the field and eventually we stop on a view of third base. We see Maize's teammate on third. The teammate is in a position conducive to being ready to run. Maize's teammate gives a thumbs-up to Maize. Maize's view then continues upwards toward the scoreboard just behind and to the left of 3rd base. The camera pauses a moment on the scoreboard and we see that we are in the bottom of the 9th inning, there are two outs, and Maize's team is down 7-6. Maize's focus then starts to swing back to the pitcher's mound where we see the pitcher getting ready to pitch. Question: If Maize is to tip his hat to 3rd base man how can we see this if we are viewing everything from Maize's eyes? Scene 6: The Pitch 1 -------------------- The camera is placed halfway between home and 1st base. It's focus is on the pitcher. We see the pitcher perform its wind-up. The wind-up is very wild. The pitcher has flailing arms and look very much out of control. Scene 7: The Wave ----------------- Camera is in same position as in previous scene. Maize is at bat and on the batter's box. He has a facial expression the signifies concentration. All of a sudden, we hear a wave, crowd noise that is. Maize is distracted and turns right and watches this wave come toward right field. The wave started near left field. Therefore, Maize and wave are moving in opposite directions. We then see the pitch fly by Maize. Whoooooosh!!! "Srike One!" cries the umpire. Scene 8: Strike One ------------------- We see Maize quickly glance from pitcher to catcher and we notice that catcher has the ball. ?: Should we jump back up to Maize where we see him blink rapidly a couple of times. Scene 9: Scoreboard Update 1 --------------------- We do a quick jump from last seeing Maize blink to seeing the scoreboard with the new stat of 1 strike. Scene 10: Spin Pitch -------------------- The camera is in the same postion as it was for the first pitch. In this scene, Maize is more determined to hit the ball and this time is going to try to kill the ball. Once again, we see the pitcher with its flailing wind-up. The pitcher throws the ball and we see Maize swing violently at it when it passes him. His swing was so violent that he falls onto one leaf and begins spinning furiously. We also notice that the pitcher is spinning as well. Scene 11: Sudden stop and hat spin ---------------------------------- The camera jumps just in front of Maize and he continues to spin. All of a sudden, he stops completely. Although Maize has stopped, his hat hasn't and it continues to spin for a few seconds. When Maize stops, he stops in batter ready position. Maybe it would be funny for Maize to sort of raise his eyebrows to the camera after he stops as if he might say "heh heh. Scene 12: Scoreboard Update 2 ----------------------------- We do a quick jump from Maize's quick stop to seeing the scoreboard with the now updated stat of 2 strikes. Something interesting would be to incorporate a flying bird, or some sort of movement in the background. Time: 2-3 seconds at most. Scene 13: It's Outta Here!!! ---------------------------- In this scene, the camera is located behind the pitcher. Most likely, it's position will be just off the right shoulder of the pitcher. The right side would be better since the pitcher will most likely be right handed. We again see the pitcher's wild and crazy wind-up. When the pitcher begins to release the ball the camera begins to follow it. The camera remains a fixed distance behind the ball as the ball heads toward homeplate and Maize's bat. As the camera approaches, we see the beginning and the end of Maize's swing. The moment of contact between Maize's bat and the ball is going to be one of the largest recorded bat cracks in recent history. "CRACK!!!" The ball flies by us at an astounding rate and it quickly leaves our field of view. After it has left our field of view, we continue to witness Maize's incredible slug. Time: 10-15 seconds. I estimate this will be dependent upon what we determine out time frame to be. We might want to think about some sort of slow-mo action. Scene 14: Goodyear Blimp shot ----------------------------- The stadium is seen from an elevated view. We are out far enough from the stadium to see the outfield walls. It is important to be at a viewing angle that is consistent with the way the ball was hit by Maize. Or, better, we should have the ball fly out of the stadium at the same angle at which Maize hit it. Within a few seconds a ball comes screaming at us. At the same time, we are able to detect movement around the bases as Maize heads toward home plate. The ball continues to head directly toward the camera but as it nears us, the scene ends. The ball never reaches the camera. Time: 5-8 seconds. Scene 15: The Dream is Over --------------------------- We find ourself in the same scene that we were in before we entered Maize's dream. The dream bubble is still unclear and somewhat transparent. Suddenly, the bubble is burst by a baseball exploding through the shell of the bubble. "POP" transitional period between previous and next frame. fade into it ?? Time: still a few seconds... 5 - 10 seconds. Scene 16: Back in the Room Again -------------------------------- We are once again in the room. The camera is showing us the desk. There is silence for a moment as if everything is calm, and then... glass breaks and we see a baseball land on the desk. It's movement is stopped by some object on the desk. Time: 8 - 12 seconds THE END.