 Right, hi everyone, and thanks for joining us and thanks to blender for giving us a spot in this apparently very huge theater He Sam I'm Thomas. We're from Ghent, Belgium, and we'd like to take you on our little adventure today Right so since 2015. I've been working as an artist in the VFX and CG industry and like many of us probably I have a little side project going on Yeah, and I've been working as a project manager, but especially in the websites and mobile apps industry So these are my first steps into the world of animation and into the world of blender Before we start just a small well on this screen rather a huge disclaimer This is no success story yet We have we have tried a lot We have tried a lot we have failed a lot and you all know those motivational talks on TEDx on YouTube wherever you go about Failure as a stepping stone to success Well We can't vouch for them. We aren't there yet. We hope they might be true because then within a few years We might experience success with this project But not at the moment yet So I hope we can resonate with a lot of you guys that have some side project going on and that Are thinking about should we go further with this? Should we stop with it? Or will it ever see the light of day? But we hope you will notice that what we talk in the rest of our talk will yeah You will you will know it So Sam can you tell us a little bit about the project? I actually can so as Lynn is my short film project and it's basically it's a CG Short film where I tell a very personal story and sadly in that one sentence I've basically summed up all of our problems as well Yeah, so it's CGI and we wanted to be to look good So you are the expert so you know what that means we need the whole crew we need Very much people a very large team and yeah, that's difficult It's a short film, so I don't know anyone in the audience Knows about the business plan for a short CGI movie that results in positive numbers That's not fair As far as I know it doesn't exist But yeah, maybe Then it's six minutes, it's only six minutes That should be a good thing, but six minutes is still 360 seconds If you multiply that with the average price of one second of animation Well, you roughly get the equivalent of to build a moderate house and that's a lot of money And last but not least it's a personal story, so it's not made to put advertising in it It's not made to have product placement not make not made to put branding in it so Yeah We need a big team. We don't have a business plan It's it's costly to be only six minutes and We can't get money out of advertising so Sorry Sam, but It's it's impossible Are you giving up now? Like can I can I please try and show them like how we got where we are today? Cool. Thanks. Okay. Okay, so Thank you the story of Aslin is about a little boy that's growing up in a world That's a lot a lot bigger than us and for a child This can be a very daunting thing to do like you're growing up you're having to find you know your place in a world That's that's so much bigger and it can be very scary like okay So this image is a lot spookier than I had in mind, but it's it's it's sort of like you know it's sometimes what it can look like for for a little child and So basically to remedy this he likes to dream off during the day at school as you know we all do I think and to do that he has a little cardboard figurine of a night that he made himself and so yeah, he dreams off but In the course of the story at one point he loses it and he discovers that he can't dream anymore So then the story is about how he tries to get it back so I've always wanted to make a nostalgic short film So it's set in the the fall of 1995 and it's sort of like based on childhood memories obviously condensed in a charming story with a bit of slightly darker undertones and While this is this is very much of an artist approach, so it's very visual and it's based on what I like to make as a 3d artist So I've had to learn basically that What you want to tell with it is actually much more important and story has to take priority over the visuals Next please thank you So I was lucky enough to be working at a studio at the time where I had a lot of friends and colleagues who actually wanted to help out with this But the remainder of work that was still left to do is too much for just me And I certainly cannot do everything well like I have my you know What I dare to call expertise and there's stuff that I really really bad at so And also the fact that you still need you know a full-time job to pay the bills and continue living It doesn't really help in in this regard So that's when the the overly realistic people that are always around us are telling us that side projects are there to bite dust and That's when I basically turn into a person that prefers working off radar and think like okay So when I'm ready with this it will amaze people, but you know later on just let me work in quiet and basically so Yeah, you can see we really went for the really poetic slide titles today Because starting a project for real is much of an emotional roller coaster Who else can't sleep when they get in the zone in the middle of the night, I'm sure there's there's already a few hands Okay, cool really cool This happened to me in the spring of 2016 which today I still mark as the start of this project But to be fair it also still happens like almost on a weekly basis and I've heard like on Thursday morning There was this talk by Ian Hubert who mentioned the thing called the deceptive free time unit It's the area between we were planning to go to bed and the point at which you actually do and I found my life To be like a collection of those so that was very very recognizable This thing I Didn't even come up with a more poetic name for it because they already did and our industry is very notorious for making you feel like a fraud because so I'm a 3d artist and I'm all of all of a sudden calling myself a director That's something that I did not go to school for so am I qualified to do that like I feel like I can do it I I watch a lot of movies. I know exactly what story I want to tell and So I'm basically looking at these things thinking I can try at least to do similar things because apparently that's how you make movies and Before I actually get there the only way of finding out whether or not I can do it is by trying but That's when that's when everyone else will tell you like, you know fake it till you make it because that's how that works But when you're feeling down about this whole, you know Industry pressure and everything and how tiny you are within the whole concept of it that faking part is really really not easy All right, so that's how the past three years went It all had a certain goal. There was not a lot of focus because it was just me We managed to get some visual work done because these people were helping me out and everything But there was no project management. There was no pipeline. There was not even an overview basically and what I also Noticed is that other short film projects many of which are like some of which are even here the people who made them are here at the Bender conference and they they were lucky to have People around them that just want to make something they want to make a short film and what it's about They will discover later on together I'm not in that situation now because this is a story that's based on my childhood and something I really want to tell with visuals that I really remember from when I was a kid and If people want to help me out doing that, that's just because they love what they do But they are not, you know dropping everything to just be able to be a part of this So in order to stand a chance of even realizing a project on this scale things have to get a little more official Than what an artist likes to think about Because you're asking people to work for you and that's not always, you know evident And that's when Thomas came into the picture. Hi into the picture. So I know Sam for 10 years also right now And I was searching in the beginning of this year for a new project some creative thing to go for and I Know he was working on his side hustle on this this project And he was here in Amsterdam and I was coming to Amsterdam for the FITC conference And we met up in some fancy cocktail bar and he told me the story the story of Aslin Which wasn't called as Lynn at that time? And it's it's really it was really a nice story He showed me some artwork that was already done that he did together with some friends with colleagues And I really liked it and I was convinced Maybe I should pursue this and go with him and then try to make it indeed a real adventure for us so we look together to see what was missing because we had all those loose assets and We didn't had the real overview and as a project manager. I like that helicopter view so Sam started to create the complete storyboard Well, we had a part of it But we made it complete and so we got the nice Pacing of the movie and we knew what we needed We got the asset list from that. We knew Which profiles we needed to create that asset? We knew we could make the timing on it We could make the complete estimation of it. So in the end we had a Full estimation what budget we would need to create this movie and all of a sudden well everything seemed very expensive So, yeah in financing I Already told you it was almost the the equivalents to build a moderate house And that's because yeah We need the modelers the texturing artists the production designer the rigors the layout artists animators sound engineers the whole shebang and Even if we slightly underpay everyone, you know how that goes and Definitely ourselves. Yeah, we still need a few hundred thousands of euros and that's a lot So we went looking where can we get that money? How can can we get this started? We're from Belgium. We have a nice government there. Well, sometimes we have and They have a nice support for projects like this They have grants and they can pay almost 50 percent of the budget you need we can get from that grants, but It's not the first 50 percent. It's a second 50 percent. So before you can start you have to prove Hey, we have half of it ready and we have half of it in our pockets But yeah, we can invest some of our own money, but our pockets aren't that deep So we started looking further. How can we get that first half? So we need an investor and we started checking with production companies with producers But there we faced rejection. We mostly got the no-time answer and that shouldn't surprise Since we are just two random guys not connected with our names to one crazy project or a crazy movie We're working on So we're just calling them or mailing them. Hey, we have a nice idea. We don't have any money. We don't have a business plan Can you help us? It's for them not the most commercial thing to do so It's impossible are you are you giving up again? I'm not not really, but you certainly have the answer about What's next and how we're going there and I'm seeing that finish line I might have so let me tell you what happened a couple of weeks ago A couple of weeks ago I went to the playground conference in and Hoven where I saw this great talk by Max Berman and Max Boutay Where a few industry veterans basically and thing in their presentation they talked about the same things just they have a lot more experience and The thing that struck me the most in their presentation was their focus on the fact that we can create without permission and If there's anything that the blender software stands for that is that Everyone should be able to make anything they want at any time and within the frame of reference of a production Pipeline that one stage where that's the most true is the creation of the pitch Bible It's what you want to make to propose your idea and to get the people on board that you that you want to that you that you need basically Next yeah, so with that Bible we have to find the right people and This is where connections are everything so of course we're talking producers But we're also talking smaller production studios who just you know need a project to fill up their bench time or something We're also talking investment branches of bigger studios theaters cinemas festivals But we're not put on this planet knowing everybody from the start so I like the idea of Knowing people who know people because it's also very much a thing in our industry And it's also the first and maybe only stepping stone you have and definitely in the beginning Yeah, and if we talk about convincing people we of course also have to talk about convincing you about convincing the crowd so crowdfunding crowdsourcing are Probably two of the most viable ways of getting a project like this started and finished So there are a lot of examples of people who did that you have being good That was a short film that was completely crowdsourced you have LaNoria that was partly crowdfunded So there are a lot of examples of it of it Crowdsourcing also is the thing that brought this movie this project As far as it is right now So it's the project is not completely non-existent So, yeah, it's it's a good thing, but it's also a double-edged sword So you ask people to work for free and Everybody always tells people never to work for free because yeah, it's your skill set So you you have to do the you deserve to get paid for it and As another part so we lose some some part of of the Deadlines and the milestones so they work for free. They have a limited amount of free time And there can come different things in between. So if we lose that we can't Make them work as much as possible to get that deadline and to get that milestone So these are little problems with that and I'm for crowdfunding Well, this project is too big to crowdfund I've said it before our names are not that big enough to just convince people They have to put their own money in it and be sure we will finish that this project within a few years We don't earn that yet So the first thing we're doing now is working at that Pitch Bible to have that completely ready Then we're going to look to make maybe one teaser scene 15 seconds where people really can see what we want to do with this movie What what the end result of the movie will be and then maybe we can convince some people Maybe we can go to a production company. Maybe we can start a crowd sourcing campaign or a crowdfunding campaign but that still yeah, it's it's it will shift our focus and Shifting our focus from the end result of a movie to The marketing of a Kickstarter campaign. It's a totally different thing but We know what to do next. All right So like we said everything we have at this point was either made by me or my friends and my colleagues that wanted to help out So everything we have at this point would not be here without these people that I would like to take it look this short slide to Musically acknowledge that They spent some time like either making something for real that's in there or Explaining something to me figuring something out Introducing me to people that might help me down the line And as you can see there's a small selection of artwork here that we collected that's already there There's a lot of environment and look deaf as well Some lighting and of course the beautiful character designs are over in there There's part of the of the animatic that was made With using both proxy geometry and the new grease pencil tools And yeah, so because there's no pipeline yet Basically, nothing is a pipeline is very helpful But it's also very hindering because it you know divides everything into tasks and they're all sequential pretty much sequential Because that's not there yet. I can do everything at the same time. So that's very helpful Yeah, and there's also the rough storyboards here and there that just made with good old pen and paper So nothing is impossible. We're here much better We're seeing a way forward. We have next steps And we just have to do it and I have to go for it exactly It's just not easy either also true Oh, yeah, that's me While it makes us often very often think like what the hell are we doing? This is a passion project and the definition of a passion project is that you should pursue it because it's your passion It also constitutes all you know the bad stuff, but It makes it makes sure that you know what you're doing and you actually want to do it Yeah, and of course always keep envisioning The end result Thank you Thanks so much Thanks so much for listening. I'm sure there's a lot of shared ground here I'm sure like at least with some of you So come find us during the conference and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Thank you