The idea that didn't happen

Okay, so following on from Rob Sprackling's talk, I got thinking about how I could put his advice to good work. Having heard his bit on creating a world and adding a contrasting element, and hearing one student say 'grandfather clock' I thought a contrast to a grandfather clock would be a digital LCD clock. So I thought about there being wise old mice living in a grandfather clock, who gets visited by LCD shaped aliens from a digital watch ship. My general thought was to keep it to one, elderly and probably lonely old mouse.

Mockup of Clockkeeper. Lineart in Photoshop, CG in Art Rage 2.

I thought of a mice for the main character since, as any fan of Hickory Dickory will tell you, clocks and mice go hand in hand. Influences for the character design above can attributed to typical kindly sage type people, as well as various animated mouse features such as An American Tail and The Tale of Desperaux. The staff thing can be attributed to many staff carrying people of all kinds, particularly ones with magic powers such as Mumbo's wand from Banjo Kazooie, and I think Clank uses one in Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time.

Quickie mock up drawn in Flash.

When it came to his alien friend, I took inspiration from LCD digits you find on alarm clocks, although the main issue came from trying to figure out a look that both represents this and would animate well. The most common design was a simple body and head piece, with blue backlight (inspired by my old digital watch) for its eyes and a number on its front. Not particularly sure what it would have been for, but it could've been used to show expression or, in the case of multiple ones, as an identifier. The general look is reminiscent of Eve from Wall-E, with a little touch of Mr. Game and Watch, the hero of various LCD games (this was also a type of animation I considered for it). A general problem would be how he would interact with things, since the cubic nature of the character is rather restrictive.

The main, and probably fatal, issue was trying to come up with a story that links the two characters together and gives it meaning. I was hoping to aim for one of those buddy movies much like the majority of Pixar animations (Wall-E, Up and Finding Nemo ring bells). One plot point I considered was for the mouse to have a grandson who was unfortunately killed by a mischievious cat, leading the elder mouse to become lonely, scared of the outside world and untrusting of others. His design is a little reminiscent of one of my own characters, Bunnycat, who like my other character, sports a pair of goggles, though his pair would be more fitting to the timeline.

When I showed this idea to my tutor, the idea of a grandfather clock scenario was well received, but there was general criticism over the necessity of the LCD alien, my inability to fixate on a story and the general overhyping of things (a problem that bit me in the butt during Date for One's production).

And that's when I showed them my other idea.