Thank you, Michael. I am delighted that you liked my video; appreciated my passion; noticed the science. Did you also notice the various messages/morals on different levels? They are why I made it.
Like most book-reading enthusiasts of science fiction, I dislike the “sci-fi” abbreviation. SF fans use “sci-fi” - pronounced “skiffy” - as a term of contempt for the mindless nonsense churned out by TV & Hollywood.
SF is the literature of ideas, logic, science & solving problems by THINKING. “Sci-fi” is the direct opposite, deliberately mind-numbing.
Odd that you want to make a production studio, yet have little idea how much work is involved. Why? Do you want money, power, status, fame? Or something better, more worthwhile?
Effort
Under “Work in Progress” @ BlenderArtists you should find “Ara’s Tale”. Its maker logged all hours spent on it. In a comment, somebody calculated how many hours per week.
Look at professional computer-animated movies: count the number of people in the credits, multiply by 2 or 3 years. From the length of the movie you can calculate how many man-years to make each movie-minute. The director of “Wall-E” mentioned that the whole movie needed 442 man-years for an experienced animator - no mention of matte-painters, model-makers, lighting & other skills.
Buy the dvd of “The Incredibles”. It has several fascinating videos about how the film was made. Also worthwhile are dvds of “Moanna” and “Wall-E” with their videos about research, cut scenes, etc.
I started “re:Xing” as a complete beginner. I quit work as a 6 month experiment to try making a game, but the “quick” intro movie took over my life. Subtracting 2-3 years for major life-changes during 2007…2020, I worked full-time for a decade = 1.5 minutes/man-year. It took me 1 or 2 years to gain basic competence of each new skill:- using Blender; modelling; texturing; lighting; … (Sad to recall that, in my prime as a software developer+designer, it took only 2-3 weeks to learn - and become competent in - a new programming language.)
Creativity
The GIF @ BlenderArtists shows my original plan, excluding actual rendered images added later.
Original inspiration?
Keen on playing computer games, I noticed that huge amounts of time were spent but nothing real gained at the end. I thought it should be possible to make a game that was both fun and useful. Escher’s sketch “Relativity” was an inspiration (as my movie says). How these evolved into the basic concept is long forgotten. Then I made it up as I went along, often going back to improve previous scenes. Most of the important themes/messages were inspired after the basic intro movie was sort-of “finished” (I changed parts later. Landing on Xing was completely re-done.)
See the “making of” videos on the dvds recommended above.
(If you get the later blu-ray version of “The Incredibles”, there is a retrospective review of its making. I’ve now watched it again to refresh my memory. The technical director says that they only succeeded in making impossible shots because they did not try make scenes perfect & visible from any angle.
Ha! In my ignorance, I made exactly those impossible full 3D scenes. No wonder they were so difficult! Suddenly I feel rather pleased with myself.)
Notice that most of their new ideas come from “storyboard artists” and the director picks which ones fit the movie. Working alone, I found it hard to kill pretty rendered scenes which did not fit. But see:- even professionals struggle to drop cut scenes.
For a book of theory about creativity, I highly recommend “The Mind of the Maker” by Dorothy L. Sayers.
This made a huge impression me, resonating strongly with my own experiences. I’ve read it again & again.
As she says: when creative inspiration strikes, you do not count the cost, you just follow it regardless. If I’d realised that my “little” movie would consume a decade of my life, I prolly would have abandoned it. But now, I have no regrets at all. If “re:Xing” video changes some attitudes; if a few people are inspired to do their own creativity, then I am content.
Sayers explains why creativity is not straightforward, following a complete plan. As you make each part, it clarifies the original idea. Viewing the results then changes both the original idea & the making.
You can see exactly that happening in the dvds above.
Inspiring Others
What a surprising, fascinating idea you have - to make “re:Xing” into a proper, full-length movie !
I do not recall ever seeing a film shot in the first person (“I”); from the viewpoint of the hero. Sometimes books are written from the “I” or “You” viewpoints but they are rare.
The whole point of my video is to make the viewer feel that HE is the person learning new things, making friends, building a team and saving countless people in a doomed city.
If you want to give it a go, the results could be amazing !
But funding will be a problem. The money men will insist that it be turned into mindless nonsense “sci-fi”. I heard that’s what happened to “The Matrix”:- the directors planned it as proper SF; the money men forced in all the un-scientific rubbish.
