The Wanna Be Project

The Wanna-Be Oddie

2011-06-20T17:27:00.001-07:00

A short film by Ben Lam.

This is my final thesis film that I did for my MFA program in Academy of Art University.

As an inspiration from early black & white cartoons, I tend to resembling something similar with current 3d approach.

credits:
-design, story, modeling, rigging, animation, texture & lighting, rendering & compositing by Ben Lam
-extra rigging helps from abAuto Rig
-visual effects by Wayne Lai & Ho-Jung Hong
-background painted by Ting Chian Tey
-vending machine robot designed by Hoi Mun Tham
-music & sound effects by Shi-Kuang Lee
-special thanks to my class instructors, students, friends, labtechs, beloved family & God.

production diary: thewannabeproject.blogspot.com

copyrighted 2011 (c) benlamjunbin.com

Chapter III: The Coincident

2010-12-22T04:44:00.000-08:00

It was happened to be a little coincident on my 2nd idea, The Pianist who Failed to Play His Piano that back in 80 years ago, a similar idea had been created in black & white Mickey cartoons.

Here's my initial sketches/ thumbnails of my 2nd idea:

It's about a pianist who didn't know he's actually playing a piano monster.

However after my 2nd presentation which we've decided to pick the 1st idea,

I found this cartoon during my research,

Mickey was playing a self-play piano! I have never seen this before I developed my 2nd idea but a similar idea was far well created in year 1929, it's 80 YEARS AGO.

I'm so glad I did not pick this as my thesis project idea.

Chapter II: The First Ideas

2010-12-22T04:18:00.000-08:00

In preproduction class, we need to figure out what we want to do for our thesis project. We'll propose the ideas and class instructor will guide/ supervise us until we get a solid, complete idea or story.

Each of us was required to present 3 different ideas at the beginning of the class and we'll pick the most interesting/ potential idea among the 3.

So the very first 3 ideas of mine:

i. The PRE 'Wanna Be Oddie'

The main character was trying to buy a coke but his coin has rolled underneath the vending machine accidentally.
He thought the big guy was tried to help him but the big guy took the coin and bought himself a drink instead.
As the result, the main character was trying to get back his coin/ drink back.

ii. A Pianist who Failed to Play his Piano

iii. A Mad Scientist and His Monkey Assistant

As you can see, this was the very first rough sketches that I did just to present my basic ideas.
I had more sketches and ideas before I have my PRE Wanna Be Oddie in the coke and vending machine story but I just couldn't find those sketches.

After the first presentation, I was required to continue in develop these 3 ideas but after the 2nd presentation in the following week, we decided to pick the 1st idea as my thesis project.

AND THIS WAS TOTALLY WHAT I WANT!

Chapter I: The Inspiration

2010-12-22T01:07:00.000-08:00

The very beginning of the story...

We always have inspiration of our works, and what inspired me to create this project, The Wanna Be Oddie was the old black and white cartoons.

So an idea came into my mind when I watch Steamboat Willie, I thought it would be fun if I make this into 3d. I also realized we've seen tons of animation short films but there're very rare of them had done in vintage B&W cartoon style.

As I moved on to seek for the possibilities, I noticed there's big copyright issue in remaking 3d Mickey. At the mean time, I was already a fan of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit when I studied Disney's history.

I find Oswald is actually more charm than Mickey, but he's the one who has been almost forgotten and nobody would ever mentioned about him.

So I decided to make a short film that dedicated to Oswald, rather than Mickey, but somehow I realized it difficult to separate Oswald and Mickey as they shared many similarities.

In the beginning of 2009, as it's time to present my thesis idea in preproduction class, (as Academy of Art MFA animation student, we need to finish a 2-3 mins animated short film as our thesis.) I knew this is what I going to do for my thesis: Remake the old cartoon style in 3D.

In the next post, I'll show the very early stage of my story ideas and sketches.

notes: The Wanna Be Oddie is a student short film that produced by me, Ben Lam that has no relationship with any properties of Disney Corporation. Any Disney related topics, videos, images that I post here is only for the purpose of references, researches and studies.

The Updates

2010-12-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

The updates on this blog has been stopped for almost 1 year as I got super busy with my works and studies.

However, I'll do my best to update this blog regarding the progress of making this short film, from scratch to the final film.

Behold!

It's So SWEEEET

2009-12-22T17:55:00.001-08:00

In the end of semester, I received this surprisingly..

A lovely birthday present from Zoei Bao!
Thanks x1000000000000000

Yes, Oswald is the inspiration of this project. He's the one who started this. ^^

PreProduction will be posted soon.
This project is currently in production stage now.
& I'm in vacation stage now.. =)

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

Midpoint Review

2009-07-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

THANKS TO GOD

I PASSED MY MIDPOINT!!
which means, I got the approval from school that I can start working on this project now.

Thanks Tom, Derek, Robert as my panels of my Midpoint Review.
Suggestions & comments are truly appreciated & considered!

& guys, (whoever is reading this) Don't do double sided board presentation! They don't like it..

Thanks friends who have been helping me for prepare everything.

& SO SORRY that I haven't been really contact well enough with my family..!

Alright, more drawings, design & preproduction stuff that I've been working on are going to update here!

Prelude

2009-07-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

A specifically blog for my thesis project, The Wanna Be Oddie.

I'm Ben, Academy of Art University MFA Animation student.
Thesis progress & dailies will constantly updates here.

Be Hold!

For those who don't know what thesis is, it's basically my final project for my MFA study in AAU. I've to finish it in order to graduate..

Thesis project, here I come~~!!!