after thinking about it, you guys are right, the cartoon eyes would suck!
anyways, heres a quick concept i made of the inside of the oven. will put up the .blend soon, if anyone wants it.
http://blenergetic.webspace4free.biz/muffinprojectpics.htm
comments? suggestions? (i know the lighting/mats suck, but that wasn’t the point)
Dante’s muffin concept is great! 
Blenergetic: I like it! Once you blend it, could you send it to me for lighting:
Appolux: I AM doing lighting right?
Fweeb: Personally, I dont know if I can part with the idea of the muffin jumping over. I mean, what would YOU do if a freakin’ muffin started talking to you?
skeletor: I see what your talking about but the thinking having the second muffin say that would really kill the joke.
lemmy: Thanks 
True enough, but I’m not a talking muffin. Besides, the extra movement, IMO, distracts from the punchline. I’d rather the muffin say it directly to the audience and give it a second to sink in. After that, I’d cut straight to black, but if you’re stuck on the jump, then that would be the time to do it.
Hopefully you don’t think I’m bashing you or your ideas. I’m just trying to think of what’s best from a timing perspective (comedic timing, not how long it will take).
dante, read wut u wrote to me, im sorry, but i cant make out wut you
said 
i cant tell which one u think would kill the joke
Fweeb: I understand your reasoning completely 
Actually, I think your approach is very insightful. The only thing is, it just doesnt seem to be that there is enough substance there. Plus, it would also make sense for the second muffin to freak out. But then, I suppose its time for an animatic, which I have prepared (without sound)using my pre-vis from yesterday.
http://dante.250free.com/animatic.html wait for the second time through, that way you KNOW its all loaded 
Not at all
dante
dont forget my post at the bottom of page 3 dante!
Skeletor: LOL! Sorry about that, pal. (wow, I must have been REALLY tired last nite…) What I meant to say is that (IMO) having the second muffin say “IM a talking muffin” would kill the joke. I mean, half of the humor (to me anyways) is that he IS a talking muffin and doesnt realize it.
sorry about that 
dante
(sorry for all the posts)
i just watched ur anim thing…
1- how are we going to establish that it is an akward silence
2- i think the mufin(2) should stare at muffin(1) for a second
i still think he should say “holy shit IM a talking muffin”
Alright, dante… how about a compromise.
The punchline gets said directly to the camera, pause one second (blink?), look back over to muffin 1, and jump baking molds… fade out.
What do you think?
And yeah, skeletor, saying “I’m a talking muffin” would kill the joke for the reasons dante said.
I was also wondering, wouldn’t make sense to have some of the other molds filled with something? I mean, who bakes just two muffins?
okay, i agree
but if we have them all full, then he couldnt jump…
so maybe we have 3 in the background, but they should probably be pretty lifless looking
Fweeb: I liiiiike eet! Very nice idea. This would be fun to make and certainly fun to watch. Hell, im having fun just imagining it!
Skeletor: I described how it would be awkward in the animatic but I will elaborate: They could be looking around, obviously avoiding eye contact with eachother, coughing, sniffing, whisteling maybe…
nuff said
dante
LOL… Yes, like when there are many people inside an elevator and nobody wants to see each other’s faces… also, remember that it is really hot in there… even if they don’t complain still they are all in pain. They just don’t want it to notice.
OK…
I really like the jump idea (already propposed it few pages ago)… but there is something bothering me with the jump on the previsualization:
It is too much atlethic for a muffin… What about this: The surprized muffin says his line looking straight at the cammera (close-up) and it inmediately freaks out… but instead of doing that super-man jump he struggles to get out of his mold (kind of ¨Damm! 'm stuck in here¨) and by doing small jumps he quickly get into the next empty mold… and avoids eye-contact with the talkative muffin. All the jump sequence takes place very fast.
I’m not sure I like the idea of him “freaking out”. I like the idea of slowly working his way to the other mold, though. Rather than freaking out, though, I think it would be best if he just quietly scooted his way to the other mold… kind of like when someone says something weird and you quietly adjust your seat so you’re farther away from them (in that “I don’t know this guy” kinda way).
Am I making any sense?
How about he jumps backwards startledly onto anotther muffin(a lifeless one), spins about 90 degrees in midair so he falls on his back while jumping, and rolls off of the pan? (into the oven maybe) hehe
I think jumping backwards would be better than jumping forwards, and hitting another muffin and rolling off would be kinda funny too. %|
Funny, but no. That’s too much for this simple one-liner. The humor of the slapstick will compete with the punchline of the joke, detracting from them both.
Every Team Member Should read this post !!
Ok… I think it is time to get organized with the tasks. Taking everybody’s word on what he can’t do and what he is willing to do I prepared this table (btw, how do you add html to your posts?)…
So’ let’s define what are going to be each one’s responsabilities around… I know that I sound like imposing myself (sorry), but I would hate to se work duplication, as I fear already is.
Lemmy, should we consider you as an official member of the team? Banana_Sock, what are your skills? you haven’t said yet.
Ok, first thing first… the story line
It will be agreed upon by all the team members, just like we have been doing so far (I REALLY like the way this is comming alone )
The way I see it, this is a two tails story,
A.- There is the perfectly normal kitchen where the perfectly normal cook is making some perfectly normal muffins (Hey! we could even use this sequence to over-lay some of the credits in a non-intrusive way… ever seen the way Six Feet Under beggins? – Don’t get me wrong, this tail won’t last more than 5 seconds at best).
B.- And then there is the inside of the oven, where the not-so-usual muffins are doing their stuff.
As an after though… there could be a C tail (1 or 2 seconds long) where one see the cook taking a bite off one muffin… kind of a clousure for the whole animation… tail B ends with the door of the oven been opened and all the muffin freeze their movements, then a pair of globed hands take out the mold and a quick cut to the cook eating one of the main characters and you hear the words ¨Hmm… delicius¨ like in a TV commercial, kind of a joke on top of the main joke.
Even better, it could be A -> B -> Credits -> C -> totally black screen.
The 3D sets
I already started to work with the kitchen, and L13 and Timonides said they would model some of the objects from the reference picture. - As soon as you have any model ready, mail them to me ( [email protected] ) so I can include them on the kitchen and we all can see how the set is put together.
Blenergetic is working with the oven (was’t is supposed to be a gas oven?) and both Kane and Dante made cool looking baking molds. I’ll post some real gas oven reference pictues as soon as the batteries of my cam get re-charged.
The Characters
Everybody is talking about the muffins (there are even some cool pre-visualizations done), but who is thinking/working with the misterious cook?
About the muffins… Shall I ask again: Vanilla, Blueberry or Choccolate Ships?
About the cook… a human female, wearing a dress and an apron. You never get to see her entire face (the closest to see the face is on tail C, when she takes a bite off the muffin, the cammera shows from the nosestrills down). Most of the time you only see her hands and on far shoots you see her entire body from behind.
Lighting and Rendering
Yes Dante, you’ll be in charge of the lighthing. Keep it mind that we are going to use Yafray, so lighting won’t be as easy as we are used in Blender. Dante, while you our Chief Lighthing technician, you should expect some intrusions from Kane (yafray experience), Feewb and maybe from me).
I think that lighting both sets in a convincing way will be a hell of a challenge, especially the oven… it has to give the idea of been dark, unconfortable and hot, but still the audience should be able to see clearly all the things going on inside.
For the final render, what about a framesize of 640 x 480, animated at 25 fps. Those are pretty standart settings, but somebody had to name them).
Remember… no cartoon look, we are aiming for a PHOTOREAL look … sure you can’t never be there, but Yafray puts you very close.
Texturing
Feeb, Luckybreak and Blendergetic… we are counting on you!!. Doing the UV mapping is a responsability of the set modelers or the texturing guys are the ones who do this?
Storyboards and Pre-Visuals
Fweeb… waiting for your storyboards. Who is up to put toghether a pre-visualization of the whole thing, from beggining to end?
Animation
There is plenty here for everybody… 2 main characters, the cook, the extra muffins in the background… not to mention the whole muffin-making scene.
Video Editing and sound acting
Still too early for this, but Skeletor and Enos Shenk, as you can see there is a lot of other work to be done around here … see anything apealling to you?
As soon as the pre-visuals and the storyboards are done and discussed we will freeze the story line and then the animation, sound and VE guys can start planning their moves.
Yeah, Okay. I agree, It would be too much. %|
Yikes…the cook would be tough…are we looking for a more or less realistic character or what? I suck at organic modeling…plus i wouldnt wanna rig that sort of thing either…any takers?
I can start working on some of the materials and objects in the kitchen. Any progress on the kitchen, btw?
In regard to the gas oven: I like blenergenitcs oven because its alows for some cool lighting. I vote that we keep it
Fweeb: How bout an animatic or something to show what you mean? I can kind of visualize it but…an animatic would be nice…
I will post/send my models shortly.
How bout you guys? Any work? Can’t wait to see it! we have a great team here.
ok, i updated my pics, created the outside of the oven. of course this is not finished, just previz. the .blend link is also on the site.
heres the link again: (remember to right click and say Save Target As… on the link the .blend file) http://www.webspace4free.biz/blenergetic/muffinprojectpics.htm