Logline: A trapped gecko must choose between saving himself or his fellow captives.
Treatment: A gecko is lying on a sunny rock in a suburban backyard. Without warning he is swept up in a net by a malicious young boy, who takes him into a ramshackle shed to feed to his much-abused pet hawk. The gecko escapes from the boy and the bird and nearly gets out the door, but faces a moral dilemma when he spots a mouse trapped in a cage, also doomed to be eaten. In a moment of selflessness, the lizard turns back to save the mouse, but is recaptured as he opens the cage door. The mouse escapes, and must choose whether to flee the shed, or stay to help the gecko. The boy drops the gecko over the hawk’s cage, but the mouse intercepts him just before the hawk does. They flee, and the boy chases them around the room, eventually recapturing the mouse. Unable to help but unwilling to flee, the lizard risks everything and releases the bird from its cage in the hopes of creating a diversion. Instead, the hawk places the gecko on its back, and together they fly straight at the boy, steal back the mouse, and escape from the shed through an open window.
Style: The film will be constructed entirely using 3d animation (Maya). The character design/expressiveness/render quality will take much influence from Dreamwork’s well-known Madagascar characters. The action sequences will be heavily influenced by the Oscar-winning short animation “Oktapodi”, while the lighting and atmosphere of the shed itself will draw from the dark film-noir world of “Double Indemnity” or “Touch of Evil”.
Gecko's Gamble Animatic
This is the current animatic for my thesis animation. It's about 3 1/2 minutes, and blends a lot of heavy chase-sequence action with emotional character performance. I'm still looking to tighten it some more and add sound, but the basic story is there.
Gecko's Gamble from Matthew Steidl on Vimeo.
Shed Concept Art
Here's an idea of what the inside of the shed will look like. It's old, dark, and dilapidated, full of dust and sharp tools and cold metal cages. Most of the light will come from a side window and a small incandescent light above the center table, supplemented by lighting leaking in through cracks in the wood slat walls.
Hawk Design
Here is the latest version of the Hawk for Gecko's Gamble. He's pretty mean-spirited, but straightforward as models go. No feathers explicitly, but he'll have intense red eyes that you can see clearly in total darkness.
Mouse Character Design
Here is the newest edition of the design for the Mouse in Gecko's Gamble. She's fairly timid, and cute but not too distracting for our hero. When still or performing via facial expressions, she will stand upright. But when running across the shed, she'll be down on all fours.
Gecko Character Design
I've been revising character designs over the past several weeks; here is the Gecko. His design will draw heavily on Oktapodi and Madagascar for shape and movement, and a little from How to Train your Dragon for eye expressiveness. And of course, I coudn't ignore the most famous CG reptile out there: the Geico Gecko.
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