#ax3001-TVShowProject

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: TV Show - Cognitivation: Main Characters and Roles in the Story

Alex, the PSI Prodigy

Alex is a young and adventurous boy in his small hometown, a self proclaimed protector, he roams the town with his trusty stick and keeps all evil do-er’s in order! He loves his home, his family and his friends. But, is suddenly forced to put on his big boy shorts and face the world outside of his hometown. The world is a big and scary place, Alex will be tested and his own emotions will come into question as he wonders. Why me? Why am I the ‘PSI Prodigy’.

Alex was the first character designed and is the heart of the whole series. His journey will be one full of self-discovery and self-doubt, I want to capture the pressure of expectations of children and how they can effect kids. The whole prodigy thing may be toned down, since I'm not the biggest fan of prophecy stories. I'm undecided, but right now, I think this will give him the added depth he needs and could be relatable to kids that may have the pressures of expectations, I know I certainly did.

Alex's name was originally Andy because he was actually inspired by a character called Alex, that Alex being from the Indie JRPG game known as YIIK (Y Two K, not Yiik). A game that suffers from several problems such as severe tonal shifts, terrible endings that make the entire game redundant and a character who is insufferable that doesn’t learn to change his ways and is rewarded at the end of the game. Alex is simply an awful character from an awful game and I was going to call my lead Andy, but that name wasn’t really vibing with me. So, I kept Alex since it was more gender neutral too, so boys and girls can reflect their own feelings onto him. It may still be subject to change, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Of course, as our lead character, I gave him a pinkish red and a gold colour combination. The red not being a strong red since red is a very strong colour and I didn’t think that level of passion would be embodied into Alex so soon. So, he’s simply a pinky red. The gold elements are there to reassure his good boy status, with the badges on his bag being a reference to the badges on Hambone’s hat from my first year film. Just a little Easter Egg that puts a smile on my face, like how Pixar or Disney may just throw something in there as a nod.

I chose the shorts as I’ve not drawn a lot of characters that wear shorts and a young kid that likes to run around would probably want the best clothing for the job. So, shorts it was. The cap too was to give him a unique silhouette compared to the rest as he’s the only one with the hat and very rarely will we see him without it. He also carries a gold coloured backpack that he keeps all of his helpful items inside.

Alex’s primary attacks are the most potent PSI abilities that Frank has ever seen and he teaches him how to activate them. Alex’s PSI abilities are both helpful for the team’s defence and offence. While physically, he wields a powerful stick that his Dad found and gave to him to use on his adventures.

For a main character, Alex gets the job done and I’m looking forward to where his character will go over the course of a season and over the course of this project.

Frank, the Frantic Freak

An aimless twenty something year old still living at his parent’s house, Frank is unemployed, never goes outside nor does many people know of his existence and since he doesn’t bother anyone, his parents just kind of let him exist. A member of the Orb.Net forum, he honed his PSI abilities purely from nonstop training with spoons. Bending them with his mind because he saw it in a movie once. Frank knows of the oncoming threat and for the first time in forever, leaves his room to embark on this epic quest with Alex. To save his world, a world he doesn’t even truly know.

Frank was always meant to be an outcast, original concepts were of him to be occupying a house where the kids would prank his house and get him to come out and shout at them. Until he finally catches Alex one day and recognises his psychic powers, taking him inside and telling him everything he knows about the oncoming invasion. Alex would then understand that, even though he’s a crackpot, he means well and is just misunderstood. While I loved this concept, I wanted to make Frank just a little stranger, so I went with the unemployed aimless twenty something who just practises psychic abilities in the comfort of his room.

Design-wise, Hector came first and then Frank was modelled after him. Since the brotherly resemblance was an important part of their design, it was important to nail what a younger brother of a family would look like first. And once I had the traits off of Hector, I used and tweaked a few things to make Frank older and also give him a few new design quirks. The main ‘quirk’ being his hairstyle as hair is always important to my character designs. I took Hector’s hair and instead of having the hair be styled up into a point, it was like an explosion. Symbolising his psychic powers being more volatile and dangerous with his hair all messy where his powers come from.  

His facial expressions were important to show that he was a bit nutty, Ghiaccio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure served as inspiration for that. Just the way his face angrily distorts just gives him a different feel compared to the regular characters.

His outfit was just simple loungewear because since he doesn’t care about who sees him, he’s not going to dress up too nicely and definitely not going to wear clothes that are restrictive and make him uncomfortable like jeans. Compared to the rest of the colourful cast and even his brother, Frank’s colours are incredibly limited and a way to counteract this a little was to give him mismatching socks. Just a little asymmetry to make him stand out more.

Frank’s weapon of choice is spoons, not really as an attack, but a way of calculating how powerful his PSI attack is going to be. He also bends them regularly and spent most of his savings on spoons so he can always stay on top of his psychic abilities.

Frank was a part of the original four, he’s an idea I’ve liked for a long time and is now a character that I will really enjoy working on and writing for.

Hector, the Apathetic Assistant.

Hector is just a kid that’s kind of done with it, just everything that’s going on in the world. What he thought would be a regular friendship, unfortunately turns into a big adventure and he’d just rather have the life of a kid. But, it’s too late for that now as Alex needs him by his side. Hector knows too much and if he’s only going to see his friend if he comes on this epic quest, then so be it. Hector doesn’t have many friends, but those he does have understand his extreme loyalty.

Hector was created as a contrast to his crazy brother, being much more relaxed and apathetic to this whole world ending thing. In the initial concepts, there were going to be four main characters much like Earthbound has, but I decided to increase it when I thought about Alex’s and Frank’s roles and how it might be a little strange if some stranger suddenly shows interest in this young boy. So, I figured a good catalyst would be a little brother to the crazy stranger! Alex has someone to be friend with and gets the plot started too.

I also thought it was quite amusing that it was the little kid that was the cynic and the big brother has much more enthusiasm about the world. Like the strangeness of his brother has no effect on him to the point where Hector is like, “Oh god here we go again.”

Hector and Frank have near identical colour schemes, their primary colours being green and greenish hues. It was all in contrast to Alex’s bright red, white and gold elements that make him look like an adventurous youth. Hector has dirty blonde hair and pale skin, sort of to hint at the fact that he and his brother are a little odd.

His hairstyle was created to be similar to Frank’s, but being styled and maintained because Hector does care about his appearance since he is the one who will be seen by others. It was made to contrast against Frank’s hair explosion, with Hector spiking up his hair to meet all at one point. I also like to think Frank also had hair like this at one point.

Hector and Frank also have weird shapes ears compared to what I usually do because some people do have weird shaped ears or other body parts and it will never be brought up in the show that they look weird. It’s purely visual to normalise these little oddities, that people shouldn’t judge someone for the most trivial things.

Hector’s weapon of choice is his backpack full of spoons, I chose this as I was drawing his pose and thinking about the relationship between him and Frank. Frank’s obsession with spoons to keep his PSI abilities in check requires a lot of spoons and I just had this sudden image of Hector with this great big bag full of spoons on his back. Hunched over a little as he looks annoyed like “I’ve got to carry this around all day...” And since it’s such a heavy bag, I imagined him using it as a weapon whenever in combat because Hector doesn’t have any powers and Frank only taught himself PSI. However, the less spoons he has, the weaker it becomes, effectively making Hector weaponless at certain points.

Hector is a great character in my opinion who I feel turned out really well as he was everything I wanted him to be. He filled a gap in the story nicely and I got a nice character out of it. An absolute win in my book.

Benjamin [Benji], the Anti-Social Armourer

A renowned child genius, famous in the orphanage for his Tools of Destruction. The other kids never interact with him if he doesn’t want you to, having a strange attachment to his box. Hiding under it when he feels threatened or if he just wants you to go away. His only friend is aware of his skills and is a member on the same forums as Frank... Which sets a mission to get him adopted into motion...

Benji was created as representation of shy kids and how hard it can really be to come out of your shell and make friends. Wanting to stay in somewhere that makes you feel safe and secure. Also, as a representation of kids that others may consider weird and outcasts, so we could get a closer look at him and show kids not to judge a book by it’s cover, maybe even give a kid they consider weird in their own life a chance of friendship.

Benji does have one major source of inspiration and may just have to go a few more designs before I’m truly happy with this design. Near from the manga, Death Note. Near was the replacement of the main sort of rival character, L, and is a child genius himself that displays some cases of social awkwardness. While Benji does have a lot of these similarities, the main aspect of Near that attracted me was that whenever he had a scene, he’d often have toys surrounding him and he’d play with them while deducing the whole mystery of the series. I feel one of the reasons that this aspect is my favourite thing about him is because I’m still quite fond of toys and sometimes fiddle about with them.

A specific scene (I can’t find a better screenshot I am sorry) where Near was surrounded by model train tracks with the trains going around him resonated with me, I saw him placed in a safe space where he’s protected by his toys and that imagery immediately gave me an idea of a boy that hides to be protected, but uses his toys to fight rather than help him think.

His weapon being model cars and toy trains with motors in them, creating ticking time bombs, I felt was a nice way of weaponizing Benji for the conflicts they will run into. Carrying a toolbox within his box, never getting to see his operations, only the results of when he converts a plane into a homing missile.

Benji needs a little more work, in my opinion, but so far, I am happy with this character.

Lottie Sweet, the Tough Nut.

The younger sister of Dentist Gloria Sweet, Lottie is a no-nonsense thirteen year old and always has a serious pouty face as she’s out and about. Using a Skipping Rope as a weapon, she has mastered the art and uses it to keep people away from her at a distance. While she remains unfriendly, deep down she has a good heart and a strong sense of justice.

Lottie came to be as a younger sister for Gloria Sweet, she was created to add a little bit of conflict between the main crew. With her not having very high opinions of any of them and then she has to work with them, causing her to try and take the lead. However, things don’t go as she planned with Gloria and Frank often getting her out of trouble.

Since Frank and Hector turned out so nicely, I thought to make the group an even six by giving Gloria a sister. While Frank and Hector were purposely designed to have very similar colour schemes to hint at the fact that they are brothers. The only shared colours between the sisters is the skin tone and hair colour. I chose the orange and purple for Lottie because I felt it was striking and that matched her personality, plus nobody else had those colours on them.

The Skipping Rope as a weapon came to me because I imagined a girl using her imagination to see one as a whip and just like that, it stuck. One of the charming things about Earthbound was that characters had specific weapons, Ness had baseball bats, Lucas had sticks, Jeff had guns and Paula had... A frying pan. Not stereotypical at all... With Lottie not being that kind of girl, I felt a more sporty weapon could work and the Skipping Rope was appropriate as both a sporty weapon and a girly weapon, depending on how you look at it.

I have also never designed a younger girl character, so this was a nice exercise to do. As well as just a nice design, I really enjoy drawing her pout and her wider eyes. Usually I go with the round eyes, so it’s nice to change up the eye shape. Her hair was definitely fun, as it’s usually my favourite part to design on a character, I remember the girls in my school tying their hair back whenever they did activities. Obviously, it’s so their hair doesn’t swish around in their face while they do things and I added the little hair strands on the front of her head to sort of hint to how intense her movements may have been. Since two strands have come loose.

I wanted to create a sporty girl and I feel like I did. Lottie was a successful design that I am really proud of.

Dentist Gloria Sweet, the Healer.

Gloria is a sweet and passionate dentist, that understands not everyone likes her line of work. So, she takes their feelings into consideration and tries to make everyone’s experience comfortable. Born with these PSI abilities, she was just able to do them rather than training to enhance them.

Gloria was one of the characters first characters I thought up back when I had created this series. Inspired by Earthbound, my initial group was made up of four people with three people being PSI users with Gloria filling the healer role that the Earthbound series typically has, the one character that learns the healing moves. Although, more characters have an array of offensive moves to go along with their healing abilities, Gloria was created much more as a support ally rather than an offensive fighter.

Gloria’s PSI abilities had to play a role in her field of work and the first job that jumped to mind was a doctor. A doctor that healed their patients using their PSI abilities, that then evolved into a dentist as a lot of people don’t like the dentist and are scared of going to them. Luckily, the mad dentist I had was long gone at the time and my dentist helped to inspire this idea, since she’s nice and it’s always an easy time for me (Though that’s probably because I care about my dental hygiene.)

Since people viewed it as an unpleasant experience, I thought it’d be nice if she was a really sweet character that makes her business by ensuring her customers shall be fine if they have anything done to their teeth. This also played into her design, I didn’t want to give her blue eyes like Lottie and I didn’t think brown eyes looked all that great. Then, I tried red.

Again, it was a play on the whole scary dentist cliché. People find her incredibly unsettling as she’s staring at their teeth with those red eyes, but are quite comfortable with her personality and painless operations. I really liked how this turned out and I just love how it contrasts with how she is as a person. Very happy with how Gloria turned out from an initial concept.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: TV Shows Research - Dreamcatching - Dream Log #1

Since it’s related to my whole project on dreams, I think it might be a little useful to at least log some of the dreams I have before I finally decide on either this project or Cognitivation. A few days ago I had a rather bizarre dream, for the first time in a while, and it was a dream that felt like a few days, so when I woke up I was like “Whoa... What does that mean?” So, I thought it’d be interesting to document it. Now, don’t laugh at the title, in the dreams this was actually really spooky.

The Haunted Thomas VHS

For my research for several projects and just general nostalgia, I have recently been watching a lot of Thomas content. Mostly relating to the classic episodes as they are what I grew up with and have the most attachment to, specifically the VHS episodes which typically had episodes from both the 80′s and 90′s. 

In the dream, I was doing something. I’m not entirely sure, but I went through the VHS’ I have and the one I ultimately ended up going with was a compilation of the haunted/spooky episodes of the classic series, which is an actual VHS they released. I think I put it on as background noise and usually you can work along to background noise, but if it’s suddenly different, you may take a moment to notice it. Which is what happened to me, no narration, no music, no engine sound effects. However, there was some ambience that was very un-Thomas-like.

The character, Donald, was stood in the middle of a misty void with a few trees in the background. He had his worried facemask on and was looking around in silence. The video then distorts his face, creating a jumpscare that did get me, and it cuts to black. Then, I’m sat there in the dark thinking, “What was that?” 

Another video starts of this weird machine that I may have to draw because I can’t really describe it. But, it suddenly activates with a metallic sounding roar as it slowly opens a segment of it. Opening and closing it several times, roaring the whole time. The camera then cuts to Percy, wearing his sad face, looking up at the machine sadly. With the camera cutting back to the machine, but this time at an angle that shows Donald behind the machine.

That is the most I remember about the dream, there was a part afterward where my friend “Nathan” kicked a ball directly in some guy’s face, but that’s all I remember after the Thomas thing and that I tried explaining it to people and they didn’t believe me.

When I was describing this dream to my sister after I had it, I used a screenshot from the episode, “Haunted Henry”, to describe what I saw. However, as I was scrolling through the images I found this image.

And oddly enough, this episode also features Donald. Granted, he doesn’t corner Percy with some big scary machine in a misty abyss, but I find this very odd. As this isn’t an episode I revisit, nor one that I consider really nostalgic. The episode is about gnomes or something and I honestly have no idea if this is linked to my dream or what. But, I found this quite interesting and that it was interesting enough to write about.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: Summer Brief: Dreamcatching TV Pitch 2 Research: The Memories in Inside Out

Now, here is research for a film that I haven’t seen, but I’ve heard and seen enough to know about the memories and how wonderful of an idea I think that is.

Going hand-in-hand with my last post about Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and making The Dreamcatcher an archivist. The memories in Inside Out is literally portrayed as an archive, with shelves upon shelves of orbs with many different memories and emotions associated to them.

Something me and Bee has talked about is associating people’s personality with colour in conversations about spirituality, but of course it is a big part of character design and with Inside Out we basically see it at it’s most basic, not that that’s a bad thing.

From left to right, green as disgust. Jealousy has always been associated with green, the phrase green with envy comes to mind.

Purple is one that I wouldn’t normally expect at a glance, but often purple is in the palettes of villains and bad guys. Characters you’re most likely expected to be feared, so in that sense it makes sense I’d say.

Joy as yellow because it’s a bright colours and brighter vibrant colours tend to look more lively and optimistic.

Sadness as blue because it’s quite a calm and cold colour, to go along with a feeling that makes you a lot more quiet and distant from others.

And lastly, anger as red because it’s a very strong colour and some of the strongest emotions have been tied to red such as love, lust and anger.

The Memories in Inside Out and how they are represented.

Memories are represented in these colour co-ordinated orbs that has the memories inside. The colour of the orb represents whether the memory is a happy one, a scary one, a sad one, an angry one or a disgusting one. There are core memories which define a person the most or are the most treasured. Though many shelves exist with memories from the main character’s past, showing how many things can happen in one’s lifetime.

As my Dreamcatcher character is a sort of archivist, I really liked the idea of the dreams being a part of these orbs and maybe he could crack them open and scatter the essence in a fire or a lake or a portal to the Dreamscape where he takes you to watch the dream. Or maybe there’s a slot in the ground or in some kind of machine that opens the dream up and allows him to watch them.

^ The emotions watching over an old memory.

The colours of the orbs can connote the potential themes of the episode, red might mean a particularly heavy subject as the episode theme and the Dreamcatcher could react in a way like “Oh-ho-ho, this will be a doozy” or something like that. Or if they get a blue orb and it’s a sad dream, he could wipe a tear away and be like “Oh dear, this one always gets to me.” Just little titbits to give him that little dash of character. 

Or it hints at the personality of the person who had the dream, like if a violent person was the main character, they’d have a red or purple orb and the Dreamcatcher could be like “Now, this was a real nasty piece of work. With fantasies like this I wonder where he is now.” Or if they have a yellow or bright coloured orb, he could be like “This person is a little ball of energy, perhaps one of the more fun ones I’ve seen in a while.” Again, I wanna give the Dreamcatcher all the character he can have while he’s on screen.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: Cognitivation - TV Pitch #1: Research - Thomas the Tank Engine and writing for children.

"You got to remember who you’re writing for. You’re not really merely writing for children, you’re writing for the unfortunate people, who've got to read the stories over and over, and over again".

Ever since I’ve heard that quote, it’s always stuck in my mind. Children are not dumb and children can handle content that does not talk down to them. That very reason was why I remained a fan of the classic Thomas the Tank Engine episodes even when I was past the target audience.

The world felt real, the visuals certainly helped to draw me in, but as I got older I learned to appreciate the tales told much more. It wasn’t a nicey nice world, characters were assholes and they were all assholes to each other. Of course, there are nice characters in these stories, but most of the stories is focused on either one or two characters with one of them making an ass of themselves. And that’s exactly what made these stories so good!

Thomas

Thomas starts the whole series as a dick, he’s inexperienced and cheeky. In the first episode, he wakes up Gordon and is a constant nuisance. He brings up some of James’ accidents simply just to annoy him and he even calls Henry fat for having troubles with his build. Thomas isn’t completely rude, he’s only rude to them because they are rude to him. Most of them looked down upon him when he was the only tank engine on the railway. It was only when Edward showed him basic kindness that we see the nicer side of Thomas and that he isn’t just rude and inconsiderate.

Which is accurate to how people are, if someone is unpleasant to you, and especially as a kid, you aren’t exactly going to treat them kindly or want to keep interacting with those people. And again, we see Thomas’ kinder side when he first meets Percy and they have to team up to teach the Big Engines a lesson.

On James’ first day, he suffers a crash and Thomas immediately goes to help an engine that he’s known for only a short time. He’s kind to James when his arc comes around, but he’s not entirely above being cheeky as he brings up one of James’ accidents which immediately sours James’ mood. He never makes fun of his first day because James wasn’t in control and I think that says a lot about Thomas’ character.

Terence the Tractor wasn’t even rude to Thomas, in fact, Thomas actually initiated the rudeness by calling Terence’s wheels ugly. Which Terence responds, “I can go anywhere, I don’t need rails.” Giving Thomas the same rudeness, again, this is relatable because Thomas isn’t really a role model, in that very episode he’s extremely immature and bad which lands him in a whole lot of trouble! Thomas gets punished for his bad behaviour and that’s a good lesson to take away.

Once more, the first time Toby arrives onto the island, he scares a Policeman who was rude to Thomas, so immediately Thomas is accepting of Toby as a friend. He’s a flawed character with a streak of kindness to those who deserve it and that’s what made him a compelling protagonist in Series 1.

Of course, he lightens up over the series and goes through somewhat of a growing up arc. Where he’s selfish in Season 1, in Season 5 he tells James that if he, for once, thought of somebody but himself he’d probably be a much happier engine. 

James

The only splendid red engine on Sodor could definitely give you an ego and that is what James’ biggest flaw may just be. He has a superiority complex and prefers to hang around the Big Engines, Gordon and Henry.

We’re going to look into James’ character in his three/four episode arc as Thomas is rewarded with a branchline and isn’t around the other characters for a few episodes. James is our replacement main character and here we get to see what really makes up James’ character.

James’ very first day on Sodor did not go well, he came off the rails and Thomas had to come to his aid. When James was fixed up and returned to Sodor, he realised he had a lot to learn and is immediately put to the test. This is never explicitly stated, but I feel like such an accident on James’ first day probably really affected his confidence and so he became extremely anxious about messing up in case the Fat Controller would send him away. More on this at the end of James’ segment.

In an attempt to teach James how to handle coaches, he doubleheaders a train with Edward and confidently lets off steam at the station which ends up ruining the Fat Controller’s new top hat. The moment he realises this, he pressures Edward to hurry up so he can get away from this situation and avoid his problem. And he does so without the Fat Controller stopping to tell him off.

Already anxious from making one mistake, James makes another when they arrive at the next station and they both overshoot the platform. Even making this mistake is at the back of his mind because he’s so worried on what the Fat Controller is going to say. The rest of the journey goes well, but when he returns to the shed, he indeed gets what was coming to him. The Fat Controller tells him off and threatens to paint him blue, which James really is not a fan of.

Scrapping his positive mindset, he bangs the coaches into place and ,unlike before, none of the passengers came near him to admire his paintwork. He mumbles about how Gordon doesn’t have to shunt his coaches and he angrily gets to work. He pulls the coaches way too fast and rough for comfort which results in a leak in the brakepipes of the coaches.

Embarrassed about having another accident, James continues with his work and in the next episode, it’s stated that he was left in the shed for a few days for being naughty. The Fat Controller comes to him after sometime and tells James that he has caused several problems for the railway, which James apologises for and as a result, is allowed to come out and pull a goods train. James desperate to come out, accepts it in a heartbeat and is ready to work!

Thomas shunts the train together with James smiling all the while until Thomas brings up the bootlace incident, immediately ruining James mood and he bangs back down onto the trucks angrily. The trucks claim they want a proper engine and not a red monster, to which James simply ignores and gets on with his work. The trucks try their hardest to make him give up, slipping on their breaks and bringing the train to a halt. But, James was determined not to let the trucks beat him.

James carries on until they reach Gordon’s Hill where they struggle to try and pull the heavy trucks up the steep hill. James tells himself the whole time that he can do it, but halfway up the hill a coupling comes loose and the tailend of the train rolls down the hill. Edward comes to the rescue and offers his help to James, which he refuses and continues on alone much to Edward’s support.

James pulls the trucks up the hill and arrives at the station happily, proud of his efforts. However, James is immediately worried when he sees the Fat Controller approaching, thinking he will bring up the accident on the hill. But, no! The Fat Controller was smiling, praising James for his work and how he deserves to keep his red coat.

This last scene is really interesting as James assuming the worst makes me think that there is some insecurity about his character. He wants to make an impression, he’s the only red engine on the railway and stands out the most with his splendid red coat. He wants to show there is more to him than they might have heard and when the other engines bring up his accidents, he gets defensive and would rather forget the weaker aspects of his personality.

Though, the insecurity thing isn’t stated, if I’m able to look at James’ character and get this from it, I think this just goes to show how powerful children’s media can be and how kids may look at this character and feel the struggles he had gone through. Of course, James isn’t without redemption, he like Thomas has a streak of rudeness within him.

When Gordon jams the turntable and has to pull his trains backwards, James laughs at him and after Gordon warns him about turntables remarks that “I’m not as fat as you.” James is then revealed to be too light for the turntable and the wind easily spins him around.

He is unsympathetic towards Henry, claiming that he doesn’t work hard enough and not taking the time to understand his conditions.

When Gordon declares a strike, James joins both Gordon and Henry. Probably doing so as he believed it earned him a place with the Big Engines in the shed. And despite Edward being extremely kind and a mentor figure to James, he sides with Gordon and mocks Edward for wanting to shunt and do the work that the railway requires to function. This is probably where James became the most comfortable as he was among the Big Engines now. He wants to be at the top of the social hierarchy and being with Gordon assures him that he’s at the top of the top.

Toby is a tram engine and is very old fashioned, however the Fat Controller really took a shine to Toby and allowed him to live on his railway. James, however, was extremely rude to him due to him being old fashioned and unlike the rest of the modern (at the time) steam engines around him. Although, Toby didn’t put up with James’ nonsense and knew that bringing up bootlaces was enough to not only annoy James, but shut him up completely. Especially coming from an out of date tram engine.

Once James was fully settled into the island, I feel he became much more comfortable with himself and judgemental to those who didn’t work or try as hard as he did. Showing a gradual change of his character not only makes him more fleshed out, but believable because people do change. We’ve seen both James at his best and James at his worst and I think that’s something we shouldn’t shy away from.

Henry

Henry is one of my favourite examples of the complexities of these characters. He can be paired up with any of the other engines and work well together. He’s shown to be kind, helpful, but has an arrogant streak inside him and also has numerous technical flaws that prevented him from performing optimally at his jobs.

In contrast to James, Henry’s introductory stories actually have him at fault and we are immediately shown his arrogance as he stays inside of the tunnel to avoid the rain, refusing to move since the rain would spoil his lovely green coat. 

After several attempts to get Henry to move, the Fat Controller declared that they shall take away his rails and that he shall remain here forever. He then proceeds to brick up the end on the tunnel which Henry was in and Henry was left there. A bit overkill, don’t you think? I mean I’m sure certain trains had to be re-routed or some just straight up cancelled because of some rude engine blocking the line.

Gordon and Edward would both go past Henry in the tunnel, with Edward always whistling hello while Gordon made fun of Henry’s foolishness. One day, however, Gordon was planning to make fun of Henry once more, but a broken safety valve leaves the train stranded and when Edward comes to move the train, he is too weak to do it alone. Gordon suggests for Henry to try and the Fat Controller agrees. Henry was no longer worried about the rain, he was simply happy to get back to work! However, Henry would soon have problems regarding his health and his work would struggle because of it. 

It’s also worth mentioning that the strike by Gordon which Henry took a part of happened between the events of the previously discussed episode and the episode I’m discussing after this. In which Henry was arrogant due to Gordon’s influence and was equally disrespectful to Edward for just doing his job.

Anyway, after the strike and Henry was able to work again, Henry struggled to do his work. Leaving him to thought of as weak and discarded by the others, specifically James who was especially harsh to him. Most likely due to James having to do Henry’s work as well as his own. Even Thomas is unsympathetic as Henry arrives late due to his own faults, shrugging it off and calling him “fat”. Not even giving Henry an apology. 

Fun Fact: Henry’s problems was based upon the Reverend’s own Henry model that was a troublesome runner that never did run all that well. 

As opposed to Thomas, who reacts by being rude to those who are rude to him, or James, who gets angry at the mention of his bootlace incident, Henry reacts sadly to his faults as it’s something he genuinely can’t control. James tried to make fun of Henry’s tunnel incident, but it doesn’t bother him because that was him being stupid. Henry doesn’t fight back because he can’t. There’s nothing he can say to change their mind, so instead he says nothing.

The drivers and the Fat Controller discuss what to do with Henry, even considering to replace him if he isn’t able to work. The driver suggests Welsh coal and the Fat Controller agrees to order some as Henry must have a fair chance. This turned out to be what Henry needs, with him feeling quite energised and capable to do his work. Showing the Fat Controller and everybody that Henry can indeed do his work and even arriving early to give Thomas a run for his money! Showing kids that you can be flawed and still do well.

Henry has an accident in the next episode which was not his fault, the Fat Controller sends him away to be rebuilt. Upon his return, Gordon was very rude to him and immediately tore down Henry’s happiness. Percy supportively chirps up and telling him that he’s glad Henry is home again.

Henry soon meets up with Edward, happily greeting him, showing us that like Thomas, under certain circumstances Henry can be a really nice engine and is only really influenced when the biggest kid in the playground is on his side. Henry has both his arrogant side and soft side. He can play for multiple teams and still remains true to his character. His changes never seem really out of place, he just needs to surround himself with more positive influences.

Sometimes I’ve heard the dynamics of Thomas described as a playground where the bigger kids are in charge and all hang around together. I think that aspect is really defining of Henry’s character, much how it might affect a real child who may be in a friend group like that.

Percy

Classic series Percy was an amazing character and unfortunately in the later years became more and more flanderised, when Percy was introduced, all the big engines were pushing Edward around and calling him names because he would do the work of what they deemed “Little Engines”. Percy shows up on the scene and immediately puts them to shame, when Henry decides to come out of the shed, before he gets the chance to hiss steam at Edward, Percy wheeshes steam into his face!

Percy was a mischievous character, sometimes a little too much for his own good! He caused his fair share of troubles and was perhaps the most naive of all of the engines since he was bought straight from the workshop. All of the other five engines were bought from separate British railways, so they had some prior experience to working. 

We see this in “Percy Runs Away”, when Percy forgets to whistle for the signalman to change the points for him and it results in bringing Gordon to a stop and Percy jolting backwards in fright! In the second series episode, “Percy and the Signal” he plays off that he knows what a backing signal is to appear smart in front of Gordon and James, who had both made the idea up to get back at Percy. This, of course, comes back to bite him in the ass and he looks like an idiot in front of Gordon. 

Even Thomas and Percy have their faults, in “Thomas, Percy and the Coal” Percy causes an accident that buries Thomas in coal, which makes him laugh uncontrollably much to Thomas’ annoyance. This arc actually spanned several stories in the Railway Series where Thomas and Percy were not friends. These were not actually written by the Reverend himself, but his son, Christopher, the very boy who these stories were made for. 

Of course, Thomas and Percy become friends once more in the end with a rather nice moment of Percy choosing to help Thomas after he suffers a drip from his tank. I wish this would have been adapted, but as it stands Thomas and Percy have their fallings out and is resolved in one episode. Showing the children that it’s normal for best friends to fight and as long as you’re both sorry and recognise your mistakes, you can move on. It’s a good lesson to learn and a relatable one at that because kids do bicker over the most trivial things. Me and my friend Joe had several arguments because I thought Sonic was better than Mario and vice versa for Joe.

Characters must have flaws, no world is perfect and the sooner kids realise it, the better off they’ll be. As a kid, I grew up with Thomas and while other kids moved on, I stuck around because I saw the goodness inside it. It had compelling stories and characters, moments were the good guys aren’t always good guys and the absolutely stunning visuals. It was clear that the makers of the show had passion and they wanted it to be believable. Of course, the kids my age moved on since at the time we were kids, the show airing on TV was not the Thomas I grew up with.

In 2003, the formula changed dramatically. Thomas became very simpler, the visuals were flatter, the personalities became drawn down to a single trait, the dialogue was a lot more plain and the stories where much much simpler. Instead of doing actual jobs and making the railway look like a railway, you’d occasionally get an engine making their way in the opposite direction with no train behind them. Thomas runs around getting ice cream ingredients to make ice cream, Percy shunts around a single flatbed with a carpet tied over the top of it. Instead of writing original stories, just copy Tortoise and the Hare and nobody will notice. And what certainly doesn’t help is Michael Angelis’ narration because he just sounds tired.

Instead of Thomas being a cheeky, little tank engine, he’s obsessed with doing the most important jobs and gets upset when an engine aside from him is chosen to do it.

Instead of being a kind and reliable mentor figure for engines like Thomas and Percy, Edward is old and rickety and useless. His only important roles in these years was being a back engine to push engines up Gordon’s Hill when they got stuck and that’s it. Insulting as this was Awdry’s first character and the one that started it all.

Henry was an arrogant engine with a softer side to those he was willing to show it too, no let’s make him ill again and him having problems becomes his character trait.

I can see why this didn’t leave an impact on kids my age because the stories packed no punch, there are a few nuggets of goodness in this era, but they are few and far between. And this is what infuriates me about children’s media like no other. The whole nicey-nice worlds and I’m so sick of stuff like this, we need grit again, kids want something they can relate too. Give kids something more substantial than this friendly PC nonsense. And at it’s most PC, Thomas is failing and after 24 seasons, Thomas is finally on hiatus because the series is failing. Just including female leads doesn’t make a show better and flawless characters makes shows worse, you shouldn’t go in with the source design to be “girl” or a token something. You should just make characters and that’s why I look at Thomas as a great example of what to do and also what not to do. Because they’ve nailed it before and they can nail it again.

Now, it’s time for me to nail it with my own.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: Summer Brief: Dreamcatching - TV Pitch 2: Ideas and Format

A show I was very fond of as a kid was Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and each episode began with this creepy fellow introducing the episode and preparing a movie to be played in his theatre. I hadn’t remembered this upon the initial development, but I recently realised that this show is exactly the format I want. With a character that introduces the episode and is effectively our guide into the subconscious.

The Dreamcatcher

The Dreamcatcher is a mysterious entity who, as previously stated, will be our guide into the subconscious. It will be the only living Dreamcatcher we see and the only resident of the subconscious. They won’t do much to interfere with the main story, but giving them background roles and occasional lines will add to their personality.

In this example, the guy looking down is our main character of the episode. Having dreams about dealing with his inadequacies and trying to be better, having to hit his lowest low before crawling back to the top.

With the Dreamcatcher, in this scene I imagine them as the one whispering the guy’s inner thoughts to him. Or just being silent and simply observing the dream, sort of a reminder to the audience that they are doing the same thing. The dream characters never interact with the Dreamcatcher.

It’s not intentionally designed to be mean or evil, but I think having some kind of moral ambiguity could be the kind of uncomfortable that draws you in more, like the old guy above. 

And here we have him simply in a background role of an adventure dream, he could be a bard, merchant and even have roles in the dreams, but people don’t see a Dreamcatcher man, they’d just treat them a person. This scenario was based off a friend who says they tend to have dreams where they travel to fictional worlds and could have an adventure in worlds like Mario or Pokemon.

An example of how he may interact with the background environment of a shot in a comedic way, here swimming in a sea of coins and riches. This was based upon dreams I tend to have of feeling successful and living a life you are comfortable with. These episodes would probably end with the person waking up and being sad that it wasn’t real.

Again, another example of him being a background character. This time a whimsical truck driver that can drive on rainbows. Shows him in another outfit and allows for many fun appearances for the guy. It could add to his personality too, that he’d be willing to dress up to sell a role.

This was a favourite of mine because the concept behind it was that the Dreamcatcher has seen a lot of dreams, but even some dreams he’ll be like “Oh god, dude what’s wrong with you?” Showing his reactions is a way to humanise him, I want an uncanny valley of personality. Where you can relate to him some moments and find him offputting in the next. This was inspired by my sister who says that she has violent dreams and some of the ones she’s described to me have been really concerning. (Luckily none of them were aimed at me.)

All of these dreams would be either animated by other studios with other visionaries at the helm, in entirely different styles, visually and story-wise. Another would be keeping it in house, but let an artist have an episode each. If they have ideas, they can suggest them before the writing process and if they don’t know what to do we can always write something with their style being their contribution to the episodes.

I got this idea from how different dreams can be and how different a human’s personality is and since the personality exists within your subconscious, I think it was a perfect fit.

[thebigladjake]

AX3001: Summer Brief - TV Pitch 2: Dreamcatching Research - Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

This was a show I particularly enjoyed as a kid, though I don’t remember the stories, I really do remember enjoying the opening stop motion sequences before the actual story of the episode. It was really dark and atmospheric with the kid walking to the theatre in the rain, the clever use of the old man’s puppet where they use his hands to great effect and as a child I had a feeling it was him but I was never certain. 

These moments always stood out to me, probably because he was one of few consistent characters in the show and the 2D animations were a lot cheaper looking. So, when I thought about creating a show about different stories each episode I knew I wanted some kind of shifty and creepy figure to be the host.

The Host and why he works

I think what really works with this character is the combination of his design and his voice. He is definitely creepy, what with his long spindly arms and fingers, hunched back, bloodshot eyes and hooked nose, but his mouth definitely draws you in as it’s much bigger and noticeable that the other details. He’s big goofy smile and rather proud voice helps a lot to make this character inviting in a strange sort of way. 

And under the right circumstances, he can look quite cute too.

As a child, I always thought these were coins, but now I know better and that these are film reels. It really should have been more obvious to me since he works at a theatre, but upon revisiting this kind of gave me a better idea.

From what the intro shows us, the man is the only worker at the theatre. He hands the boy the ticket, he hands the boy the treats and he loads up the reels. Rather than feeling like an actual worker, it kinda felt more like his hobby to me. So, that gave me the idea that he’s more of an archivist and that’s why he has stacks of reels! He’s a collector of all things gruesome and that gave me the idea that my character for Dreamcatching should be an archivist. Showing us their most favourite or just dreams that they find interesting.

 For Dreamcatching, I needed to think about how I will go about conveying that what the audience will see are dreams. That’s when I remembered this show and the character, so I had a little revisit and this stack of film reels helped me to piece this together.

What about the actual stories?

As the show puts it, these are a collection of cautionary tales. The story segments are narrated by the old man, similar to the classic episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine, just more scary. There are sometimes a lesson at the end, mainly just don’t be an asshole or don’t do a certain thing too much or else something bad will end up happening to you. A meaning isn’t necessary, but it’s nice to have something to take away from the whole experience.

The dreams I will explore in my series won’t necessarily be cautionary tales, it’ll mainly dependent on the character created for this dream. The character’s personality should be created first and then we create a possible dream for them. Because a dream is made up in our subconscious, it only makes sense if the character comes first and then their perception of the world is built around them.

The New Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

Though this wasn’t necessary, since I had the old series to go off of, I saw on YouTube that there were various episodes with styles I didn’t recognise and 3D animated visuals for the introductory segments, it had made the unfortunate jump to CGI, much like how Thomas did, much like how Bob the Builder did. Watching the intro sequence immediately shows how ineffective this is, it’s not the CGI that makes it bad. Let’s take a look at what makes the original intro so good.

The intro begins with a kid walking through the rain to go to the theatre, judging from the collar beneath his coat, he may have just finished school and wants to go to watch a movie. Since the theatre’s name is “Squeam Screen”, it sets it up like maybe this boy likes these kinds of movies and potentially knows what he’s getting into.

The doors open with the man beckoning the boy in with his finger, maybe he comes there regularly or he’s just getting his attention. He gets his ticket with spiders on it and the whole floor has bugs crawling all over. Making the theatre a little more disgusting and uncomfortable. 

The boy takes his seat with the man handing him a box of “treats”, usually a different bug each episode. Cackling as he slinks away, the boy turns back to the screen. His nonchalant reactions to the glass smashing, the bats, the ghost, the screaming gives you the impression that he is used to this. Like he’s been here before or knows what this is about.

The man introduces himself by blowing out his torch and taking a reel from the stack. With the boy blindly eating one of the bugs in his box. The man then loads up the reel and begins the episode. It all works well, it doesn’t feel weird or exaggerated. Again, he’s a weird character, but he’s not entirely off-putting. 

Now look at this.

This is not the same character, as I just found out that the old man’s name is Uncle Grizzly, but in this CGI reboot, the Night-Night Porter replaces his role. He’s the manager of the Hot Hell Darkness. Let’s just analyse the intro and discuss why I don’t think it’s that effective. Watch to the one minute mark or one minute fifty seconds.

The intro begins with a misty night and the boy is walking through a graveyard of all places. The cheap animation also doesn’t really help as it’s pretty stiff and I think they had a vision in their head which they couldn’t really achieve. The textures are rather grubby and grimey. This time the boy runs off in the direction of the hotel. Instead of going there by his own volition.

The boy hides behind a tombstone after running away by the bat, and then the silhouette of what we can assume to be the manager of the hotel can be seen pulling a lever which opens a pit that takes the boy to the Hot Hell Darkness. 

The manager greets the boy, declaring that his room is ready and wrapping his arm around the boy’s shoulder and taking them to their room. Locking them in their cell, revealing a huge selection of doors where the manager has presumably done the same. Making him much more creepy than Uncle Grizzly who was just a weirdo with reels upon reels of cautionary tales. Although, the reason given is that these are all the kids from the stories the manager can tell. While I do accept the reason, I personally think the cinematic aspect of the original is much more inviting because I’d definitely prefer to go to the Squeam Screen. Also, why does the boy get locked into a room? What’s he done? In the original, the boy isn’t punished for what he does, he’s legitimately just there!

I think they tried to do the opposite of everything the original intro had, but they didn’t do it well. It’s mainly the introduction shot of the boy walking through a graveyard at night, you can at least see why he’d go to a theatre on a rainy evening after school. It’s the middle of the night in the CGI version, what’s he doing there? Why does he run deeper into the graveyard? I think they should have definitely used more of the manager to set up the boy going to the hotel since Uncle Grizzly played every single role in the theatre in the original. 

Also, Squeam Screen rhymes. It rolls off the tongue and tells you everything you need to know. Hot Hell Darkness sounds like an edgy attempt to make some spooky hotel. It really bothers me because I feel like there could have been a much better way to get the point across.

Even though my projects don’t stay in reality much, you’ve got to be grounded in a way that’s believable and if you already have a good intro, what’s the point in trying to fix it?

[thebigladjake]

Year 2: Summer Brief: Dreamcatching - TV Pitch 2: Research

My second TV pitch was an attempt to go out of my comfort zone, try a series that has no narrative, little to no consistent characters and a different story each time. However, one for adults that’s actually for adults. Just like how Cognitivation was inspired by a poor attempt at Earthbound. Dreamcatching was built upon a series known as “Love, Death and Robots”.

It didn’t begin as a straight up “Love, Death and Robots but done right”. The anthology idea came a little later. But, for a while, I was quite fascinated by dreams, one day I was thinking about it and said “What if this was a TV Show? An adult TV show about dreams.”

Initial Idea

What fascinates me about dreams is how everyone’s subconscious is different. I usually have dreams somewhat based in reality, everything is technically possible and very rarely does something that cannot happen appears in them. Whereas I’ve heard friends say they can have dreams in fictional worlds such as games and TV shows, or some that just have nightmares, or some that have much darker themes that you become kind of worried.

It’s interesting to see what the subconscious chooses to take in, what you think about when your body is off, but your mind is still on. What exists inside of your subconscious is what you choose to exist and I think that’s very cool. How we represent people or problems or even symbolism in dreams.

It was then I realised this could work as an anthology series and recalling the last anthology I watched, I began to think on how an adult animated anthology should really be handled.

Research and Development

Like I said earlier, the anthology idea came around when I remembered my experience watching the adult animated series “Love, Death and Robots.”

This series had potential and I really wanted to like it, but a lot of it annoyed me because some of the shorts simply were uncomfortable with being for adults without featuring some kind of nudity or swearing. The first example that jumps to my mind for this was the short, “Blindspot” which was a short I remember liking.

Blindspot was a short about a group of cyborgs that performs a robbery on an armoured convoy. I absolutely love the visual design, the concept and the various weapons and machinery, I think this has great potential as an actual show because it shows off a lot to this universe. What these characters are up to, what they are like and how their deaths don’t really matter as long as their data is backed up and can be restored. This is an awesome concept and I’d love it, if it wasn’t for one thing. Swearing.

In a scene where they are going over the plan, one of the more experienced members of the team makes fun of the character above (Rookie) for being a... Rookie. To which he replies “F*** you, Sui.” and that took me out of it a little.

It’s not that swearing offends me because I swear so much, it’s basically a part of my language. But, when a series has to go out of it’s way to swear it doesn’t feel natural. It felt a lot like “Ooh! Look he said a naughty word! This isn’t a kids show!! This is for aduuuults!” and it kind of kills my vibe with a show.

This isn’t just a problem with Blindshot, a few of the shorts had this problem. It was either swearing or characters having sex that took me out of it. This wouldn’t annoy me so much if it wasn’t for one episode, “Zima Blue”.

The part of this post where I absolutely love Zima Blue (Please go watch it if you can before reading)

This episode appears as the ninth episode I believe and at this point, I was annoyed at the try-hard adult-ness of all the other shorts. So, when I see a lady going to see a weird metal, blue, naked man, immediately I thought, “They’re definitely going to do the dirty deed.” Probably not exactly like that, but this is an academic blog, so I can’t really say what I thought.

However, what I was treated to was the most adult short on the entire anthology... And it had no nudity, sex or swearing.

The short is about Claire going away to Zima’s private island to interview them about their art pieces. Starting off doing portraits, before moving to murals and the next step in this direction was creating pieces with a specific type of blue in them. Zima Blue.

Example of Zima’s work.

When I saw this, immediately I was like “Oh shut up. How pretentious.” It reminded me of those hoity-toity artists that see “Oh there’s such a deep meaning to this art piece indeed!” and it’s like a dot on the canvas. So, I was about to think this was going to be a sexual and pretentious romp, but I carried on watching.

Zima is built up as a character who has it all, fame, fortune, immortality, everyone loves his work and believe him to be a man with robotic elements, but when Zima tells Claire about his past, explaining that a Zima Blue coloured tile was the first thing they ever saw and their whole purpose. We discover that Zima was originally created as a pool cleaning device, who’s job it was to clean the tiles as they move around the pool and replacing any damaged ones with the same Zima Blue tiles.

This was the one job that they felt they truly were good at, what gave their life meaning and this is why they become obsessed with the colour ‘Zima Blue’ and add it into everyone of their pieces. So, as an unhappy artist that feels like they no longer have a purpose. Zima organises one final artistic event for everyone to see.

A pool. A pool that when he falls into it, causes his body to malfunction and come apart. Giving you the impression that something has gone wrong before...

He transforms back into the simple machine that he once was. Automatically going up to the nearest side of the pool and starting his job all over again. Because it was the one piece of art that he was truly satisfied with.

And with that, is the most mature of all of these shorts. Because it doesn’t need to pander to adults, it doesn’t need to prove it’s not for kids. It’s an animation for adults and that’s one of the reasons I absolutely love this short. In fact, it’s a good thing the rest of Love, Death and Robots is so garbage because it just makes this short even better.

But, that’s not all of it’s merits, it’s a genuinely good short and captures how being an artist can feel with work your never happy with. Feeling like no matter what you do, your art will never be enough and you’ve got no purpose. Animations that make you think like this, is adult animation.

[thebigladjake]

Year 2: Summer Brief - TV Show Ideas: #1 - Cognitivation [Working Title]

Being given the chance to create six new and completely different ideas is not an easy task, so when it came to thinking of new ideas. I did what I’ve always done, referred to series which I like or am interested in.

It’s a good way of coming up with ideas in my opinion. A lot of the things I enjoy, I sometimes wish I could have someone to share these thoughts and ideas with. So, when it comes to creating something of my own, I like to think “I want my audience to have similar experiences that I had.” Not exactly the same, I’ll probably have a few key aspects in there, but other than that, I tend to try it out and see how far I can stretch an idea.

And then, there’s my other way of coming up with ideas. Where I look at something that might not have caught on initially and think about what was holding it back or what was it’s eventual downfall.

Shows that spring to mind are things like Clone High; a high school full of famous historical figure’s clones ran by a crazy scientist, was cancelled due to their portrayal of Gandhi. Although, a reboot is (thankfully) in the works.

TUGS was a show made by the creators of the model series Thomas the Tank Engine; which was about two rival tugboat fleets competing for work in the 1920′s. This series was particularly expensive to film and didn’t resonate with the general audiences since it was marketed as a kids show, but had a much older feel to it. 

Shows like these have their merits and it’s a shame to see them not get any success that they deserve since you can tell the crews wanted to make something good here. So, the next best thing to do are spiritual successors!

Y2K, otherwise known as YIIK (I put Y2K first because you’re going to read YIIK as Yick and that’s just disgusting) was a game considered to be a spiritual successor to a cult classic game, Earthbound. With it’s Role-Playing Game mechanics being in a modern world with quirky enemies and “funny” jokes. However, it tries too hard to be artsy and deep to the point where it just becomes pretentious and droning with how long the characters spew out exposition sometimes.

Earthbound is a game where the world is invaded by the evil forces of Giygas who was warned of a child named “Ness” that was said to be the one to bring him down. After being warned about this by an alien from the future known as Buzz Buzz, Ness sets off on a journey to gather his three friends who were prophesied to end Giygas. Simple and to the point! 

Along the way, Ness is confronted by a lot of strange characters and enemies. Fighting crows wearing sunglasses, tiny UFO’s, trees that explode once defeated, cultists obsessed with the colour blue, ants and a literal pile of vomit. There’s a lot of quirkiness to this game and it’s easy to see why game creators would be so inspired to revitalise this classic game into something new and potentially resonate with newer audiences!

YIIK could have been so much better than it was, however, misses the mark in several places. With either very badly timed comedy, an unlikable main character who becomes the most special boy in the universe, exposition that just goes on and on and on and overall just bad writing, YIIK infuriates me to no end and this finally comes onto the third method of idea generation, being absolute hate and disdain to where you look at a piece of work and say... “I can do better.”

So, this is where Cognitivation comes into this.

COGNITIVATION

Cognitivation, a combination of the words Cognitive and Activation currently the working title for the show, is an idea inspired from both YIIK and Earthbound. Where YIIK failed to give character and have interactions to Earthbound, I aim to succeed. A series for Earthbound really could have worked, several moments of the game could even be entire episodes, the characters have loose molds that a TV show really could have expanded upon and give them a little more depth than the game does.

I plan on the series relying on the character dynamics of the main group, representing certain kinds of people and showing that even weird people have their merits too. 

I want zany locations with zany little critters to live in and expand the universe and abilities of the main bad guy, Enigma. 

Earthbound has four simple lead characters that fit into a character type. Ness, the leader. Paula, the girl and PSI user. Jeff, the smart kid and weapons expert. Poo, the PSI user that’s mastered his skills. I’m going to try and expand them a little bit, see how far we can go and possibly even consider game mechanics if that’s where I really want to go with this.

The series will about PSI users gathering together and finding a way to save their universe from the evil forces of Enigma, a lot more inline with Earthbound here, but in the format of a Kids TV Show I think it can really flourish. With it’s weird location, funny enemies and character dynamics, Cognitivation is definitely an interesting one to be working on.

This is an idea I’m really vibing with and am looking forward to expanding it in further posts!

[thebigladjake]

Year 2: Summer Brief - Cognitivation: Enemies and Wildlife Design

One of the most endearing parts of Earthbound was it’s enemy design and feel. Since it’s set in the modern world, no longer are you fighting dragons or demons or little blob creatures, instead you arm yourselves up with a baseball bat, grab your favourite hat and start knocking out Runaway Dogs and Spiteful Crows! 

When you go into the next town, you’ll run into New Age Retro Hippies who may bash into you carelessly, Cranky Old Ladies that swing their bags at you for massive damage and Annoying Revelers that spend a turn to grumble about today’s youth!

The enemies encountered on your way between towns are more than likely going to be some kind of little everyday creature that we can encounter in everyday life. Just a little more dangerous to our heroes! Enemies are made to fit their environments. Caves are the home to moles or mushrooms or ants, while the deserts are open to scorpions and snakes!

Of course, this isn’t the only kind of enemies that are affected by Giygas’ influence. Giygas of course has his own henchmen that wield the very psychic powers that you have been using!

And finally, perhaps the most iconic of Giygas’ henchmen. Complete with a simple, sleek design that easily establishes their authority and position in the Giygas hierarchy. The many classes of the Starmen provide for some of the most challenging battles in the game.

So, as you can see, the enemy design of Earthbound is absolutely fascinating. They establish a mood in the battle with either their goofy designs or gestures or make you feel uneasy and maybe that the battle will be too much to handle! They all appear in the appropriate places, you don’t get a Starman just wondering the streets of Ness’ hometown at the start of the game. You don’t get scorpions in water. Every location was thought about clearly and the appropriate enemies were placed into them. 

Although, not all of the enemies are based off of objects, I really liked that aspect of Earthbound. Like just an everyday object that can be turned into a weapon or a menacing little enemy to fight. So much so, that I messaged a few of my friends and asked them to give me an object and from their suggestions, I generated these little characters in the spirit of Earthbound.

Series 1 - Cognitivation Enemies

From left to right we have: - Sock (Suggested by Alex) - Chicken Wing (Suggested by Nathan) - Gooch (Suggested by Keanu) - Keychain (Suggested by Kyle) - Vase of Flowers (Suggested by Joe) - Spliff (Suggested by Matty)

For this series, I knew I wanted to have some weird looking enemies and rather than forcing the ideas to come, I simply asked around and got some pretty nice results from their suggestions! We’ll start things off with Sock.

The Sock of Suffering crawls out!

The Sock of Suffering is a sock that was influenced by the Enigma, gaining consciousness and becoming aware of what it is! Waking up in a draw of someone’s room, it becomes too aware and wants it’s pain to end! 

Typically found in messy rooms of people that don’t care for themselves, the Sock generally hids out of the way of people, only encounter-able in dark places. Once found, the Sock shall begin to scream in an attempt to warn off it’s predators. Generating a thick saliva that it’ll shoot out to poison it’s opponent! Though, that is the extent of it’s combat abilities.

Many breeds of this sock exists, coming in all different sizes and colours! Most definitely not available in a store near you.... Or maybe they are?

The Scalding Chicken Wing bursts in!

A chicken prophet, prays to it’s god before it’s sacrifice, dousing itself in hot sauce it prays for a fire based attack to land! Once it does, it’s power transcends that of a normal chicken! It’s emotional stability goes out the window! Gaining access to the most offensive and potent Fire attacks known to all PSI users!

These can typically be found in Fast Food stores after being greased up in a fryer! The chickens they come from can be found on the farms of the eastern sides of the island, they all pray to the one true lord; Colonel Sanders and pray that their sacrifice will not be in vain! It will use different sauces to enhance it’s capabilities in battle! Although, if it’s paired with a hungry teammate, they may just tuck into it! No matter how hot the chicken wing may be!

The main inspiration for the Chicken Wing’s design was actually hot sauce. Like how hot it can actually be and how it might make you react in pain or anger.

The Armoured Gooch rolls up from behind!

One of the objects that cropped up that was not made from Enigma’s influence, instead they were sent by Enigma itself to patrol the world and keep guard at certain areas of interest! The Armoured Gooch rolls around, it’s face smushed inside it’s tough armour. It’s defences are high, but lacks an offensive front. It’s not powerful or smart enough to handle PSI based attacks, so it usually rolls into it’s foes.

Wherever Enigma has infected, Gooches will be patrolling the place making sure nobody intrudes. Abandoned factories, city halls, etc. They tend to initiate battle by sneaking up behind it’s opponents, getting the jump on them! Armoured Gooches generally don’t work in teams due to their sheer incompetence, their allies will tend to flee from the battle only to get away from the Gooch!

This is only the basic Armoured Gooch, many breeds exist with many different armour sets to distinguish their ranks. This blue colour being the second to lowest rank.

The Body-building Keychain swings his keys!

Found abandoned on the streets, this little toy bear keychain had to learn to fend for himself the hard way. Being thrown into it’s situation and linked to a heavy set of keys, the Keychain got sick of it and worked on himself. Transforming him into the Body-building Keychain! A tough, hench little bear who wield his set of keys. Throwing them into opponent or stabbing at them with the keys themselves. It’d probably be more effective if he was bigger than a keychain...

These critters are typically found in abandoned streets or fairgrounds where prizes like these keychains are likely to be.

The Dooming Bloom... Blooms!

An experiment given life, the Dooming Bloom are a team of three flowers trapped together in a vase! Their absurdly long necks and hefty bodies aren’t a good match as they can’t really stand up on their own, plus they can’t survive without being in water! Much like a normal flower! 

The three flowers all represent their life cycle, left is them coming into bloom, a little tired and low energy since they haven’t reached their own potential yet. 

Whereas the middle is the happiest little chappie alive! Wearing a big innocent smile, they only want the best in life and tries to pursue every dream they’ve ever had.... Too bad they’re all evil plots to destroy orphanages, cause nationwide pandemics and leave scathing reviews on upcoming movies before they come out! So, don’t feel bad when this guy dies.... 

The Mean Green lights it up!

This shifty character is the Mean Green! The Sinister Minister! A devious figure that was created out of Enigma’s own imagination to go down to Earth and unleashing his devious deeds upon hopeless people. Mean Green sells a lot of illegal merchandise that does more harm than good, since it’s corrupting the people of the Earth and letting Enigma take control of their minds!

Working from the shadows in big cities, he’s got a lot of the criminal underworld now on his side. With knowledge of the entire city layout, he knows everywhere to hide and everywhere that’s perfect for operating his plans...

Helping to Develop the World

When it comes to developing stories with deeper narratives, I tend to stick to a very loose plan so that if I develop something I can usually add it in easily without having to majorly change anything. And with designing these creatures first, it gives me a feel of what the world will be like. What locations and challenges can our heroes face? 

Maybe they go to an Amusement Park, fighting strong keychains and scalding chicken wings! Maybe they have to venture into the deepest parts of the city to stop Mean Green’s evil schemes!

Not only that, but it’s a lot of fun to look at an object and see how it can be turned into a mean little character that can pack a punch!