1st Place : Sassy Frassy
Hero of the Elementary School Playground.
This Collaboration with Sharon from Smiles and her granddaughter Brooklyn not only received the most votes in the contest, but also the most views and conversation through facebook and the blog.
2nd Place : Conga Princess Conquers the Aliens
If you think she looks like my wife, that is because she is based on a cousin. With only one vote less than Sassy Frassy, Conga Princess has been hailed as a hip idea and appeals to the audience's love of dance (Which is how she conquers the aliens). Click the image to view her story.
3rd Place : Apotheterra Seedling
Meant to be a possible branding strategy for Nate Stout's new company, this character has gained attention as having one of the strongest, original stories and most appealing design. This idea was inspired in part by David Wilson Illustration for his love of seeds and natural formations. With his fascination in memory, I often visited the park with my son and I found myself exploring and sketching the surrounding wonders more and more. Click the image to read more about this story.
Honorable Mentions
As this contest progressed, my wife and I agreed that there was some interesting skewing in the voting patterns due to quality and appeal in the drawings (which were all meant to be quick sketches) and also female votes vs male votes. The ideas above won fair and square, but the runners up below have an interesting history.
Runner Up # 1 : Siggs Thinks In Pink Ink
In looking at the Marathon overall, this idea received alot of interesting said. Zach Smith, a remarkeable innovator himself, made the following comment:"That's a GREAT story. I really think you should pursue this further. I don't know the entire process to developing a full-length feature animation film, but this has HUGE potential. Keep up the great work. You TRULY are inspired."
To read the story, simply click the image above. In addition to the attention during the marathon, both pieces of art have a history of success prior to the marathon. And I personally think there may be something special here to explore in the future.
Runner Up # 2 : Monsieur Revieu & The Carousel Clock.
This is another story idea which received hearty praise during the contest. It was also noteable to me because the idea came as I pondered the negative reviews on the first movie I ever worked on, Chipwrecked. This story has much unexplored potential.
Runner Up #3 : The Junk Collector
Of Mention : Misfit Supers & Invizy the Villian of LenseWorld
There are several ideas who tied for 4th runner up, but I take the liberty to un-mention those. This next idea received only 1 vote and hardly any attention during the marathon. Yet the other day, I found myself imagining this story as a great children's book. So I looked back to see who voted on this idea and found it was a fellow professional visual storyteller, Paul Cox. Okay, so maybe he sees potential. Also, the characters as I was imagining them for the book look nothing like the image below (which I felt were quite inadequate). Also, my wife says the lenseworld idea is "out there". So I think with further exploration (better visuals and clearer story), this could become a solid idea ... but I could be biased. What do you think?
Stay Tune : Surprise Development
As great stories have unexpected turn, so does my story. As of now, these ideas are officially "shelved" and I will be using this blog for my next development. As I seek to become more established as a character animator, I will now be animating a few brief shots to add variety to my demo reel. As I feel this is simply a continuation in my life's marathon toward Character Driven Story, I will post updates here.
