The Project

For my minor project I have revisited 'Shelf

Life', the story I created during my frst year
on the course. Te minor project goal was to
complete character and story preproduction work ready to continue into the
major project.

Original Story
My original script told the story of a rubber chicken's journey back to a nest of plastic
eggs. It took place inside a joke shop and was born out of a random selection of the
words; contortionist, joke shop and egg. With the freedom to move away from the
restrictions of these three words, I decided to change my story. Keeping the journey
aspect in mind, I wanted to develop the plot around the character's need for love and a
sense of belonging. I also decided to change the environment from a joke shop to a toy
shop, as I felt that this would allow me more options for other characters and props.

Final Script

FADE IN

INT. TOY SHOP

Te shop is empty, but the foor is littered with toys. Camera pans around the shop to a bargain bin in the
back corner.
CUT TO:
INT. INSIDE THE BARGAIN BIN
A rubber chicken lies alone amongst the forgotten toys and junk.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
Te chicken looks at the shelves full of toys longingly.
(Faint laughter)
Te chicken looks curiously across the shop.

CUT TO:
P.O.V. CHICKEN
Trough the window of an elaborate doll house, a doll is laughing.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
Suddenly, the chicken jumps up, looking excited.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Te chicken climbs out and bounds across the room. Te camera follows the chicken's erratic movement
across the foor.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FEET
He knocks over the frst in a line of dominoes that starts a chain reaction.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE

He looks shocked as he falls and hears the dominoes falls.

CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
(Dominoes knocking against each other)
Te chicken gets up and continues running to the bottom of the display then climbs to the frst shelf.
Upon reaching the shelf the chicken steps onto a track and knocks a remote control.
(Sound of electric toy car)
A car knocks the chicken over.
CUT TO:
P.O.V. CHICKEN
Follows the course of the track up to the next level.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He has an idea.
CUT TO:

INT. TOY SHOP

Te chicken presses the remote until the car returns in front of him.
He climbs on the car and reaches over with his foot to the remote.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FEET
His foot presses down the button on the remote.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Te car shoots up the track with the chicken holding on. Camera follows behind the car.
Once on the next shelf the chicken jumps of.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He looks around the shelf. Tere are boxes of toys but nothing that appears helpful to reaching the next level.
Hanging on a hook above him he sees a toy monkey.
CUT TO:

INT. TOY SHOP

Te chicken jumps and grabs the monkey's feet and starts to climb.
As he begins to climb, the spring above the monkey's head loosens.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He looks shocked as he begins to move back down.
Suddenly, he eyes go wide as the toy springs back up.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Te monkey springs up and down repeatedly while the chicken tries to hold on.
Finally, the chicken manages to propel himself of as the toy springs high.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He cries out as he hurtles onto the next shelf.
CUT TO:

INT. TOY SHOP

Te chicken lands in a pile of play dough tubs.
He gets up and looks down at himself. He is covered in patches of brightly coloured dough.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He spins around trying to look at the coloured dough on his back and feet.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
On this shelf there are whoopee cushions.
Te chicken pushes one to the edge of the shelf.
He jumps on the cushion.
(Fart sound from the whoopee cushion as the chicken lands on it)
He pulls himself onto the fnal shelf.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE

He looks back down the shelf, relieved to have made it.

He turns and sees the house.
CUT TO:
P.O.V. CHICKEN
Camera pans the front of the house, stopping on the door.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Te chicken walks up to the door. He takes a deep breath and knocks.
Te door opens.
CUT TO:
P.O.V. CHICKEN
Te fashion doll stands in the door way.
CUT TO:
P.O.V. FASHION DOLL
Camera pans the length of the chicken, focusing on the splodges of play dough.

Te chicken smiles and waves at the doll.

CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Suddenly the doll slams the door in the chickens face.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He is distraught.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Te chicken stumbles back and falls of the shelf.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He stares at the house as he falls to the ground.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP

Te chicken lands with a bounce and a squeak.

(Silence)
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He stares longingly at the house, upset.
(Bell above the door of the shop chimes as it opens)
He eyes go wide and he freezes.
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
A young girl, Susie, walks into the shop. She walks towards the shelf in the middle of the room.
She stands on the chicken, fattening him.
(Squawk)
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. SUSIE'S FOOT
She lifs her foot. Te chicken's body springs back into shape.

CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. SUSIE'S FACE
Te chicken is staring up at her.
(Susie giggles)
CUT TO:
INT. TOY SHOP
Susie bends down and picks up the chicken.
She hugs him to her chest and laughs again as he squeaks.
She begins to walk out of the shop.
CUT TO:
CLOSE UP. CHICKEN'S FACE
He smiles, overjoyed as Susie takes him out of the shop.
FADE TO BLACK.
(Bell above the door chimes as it closes behind them)

Story Influences

Character Profile
Wants

Find a home

Needs

Not to be alone

Flaws

Delusional, scattered, uncoordinated

Story Goal
Fears

Discover his place in his world

Being alone

Physicality

Rubber, bendy, skittish

Character Turnaround
Tis is my fnal design for the rubber
chicken, taken from my original
year 1 project. I will be using his
design as the starting point to
designing the other characters and
environment, keeping within the
same style.

Character Expression Sheet

When transitioning my character into 3D, I will take my expression sheet

into account. I will need to create a rig that can give me extreme facial
expressions and a stretchy body.

Orthographic Drawings

Influences - Susie

Susie, the child who rescues the rubber chicken, is alone just like the toy. She doesn't ft
in with other girls who have perfect hair and play with fashion dolls. When she
stumbles upon the rubber chicken, she loves him because he is as unique as she is.

Susie Glasses Designs

Susie Hair Designs

Susie - Clothing

Susie Final Design

Orthographic Drawings

Influences Fashion Doll

Inside house the rubber chicken yearns for, lives a doll. She is fashionable and popular
and thinks the chicken is messy. She doesn't want him living in her perfect house so
turns him away. I chose the fashion doll, as she is his opposite; where he is clumsy and
rubbery, she is rigid and plastic. I looked into 1960s fashion to help design the character
as well as looking at vintage dolls, such as Barbie.

Fashion Doll Initial Sketches

Fashion Doll Hair Designs

Fashion Doll Glasses Design

Fashion Doll - Clothing

Moving into Maya

Having completed my orthographic drawings for the rubber chicken and Susie, I was
ready to begin modelling them in Maya. I have had many discussions around the
movement I hope to achieve from my chicken. I want to create a rubbery feel to his
animation and therefore need to keep this in mind when beginning the transition into
3D sofware, especially during the stages of skinning and rigging.

Modelling

Finished Model

UV Layout

Texture Maps

Skinning

Rigging

Using Corrective Blend Shapes

I wasn't happy with the way the shoulder was behaving afer skinning, so I decided to use corrective
blend shapes to fx it. As blend shapes only work in one axis, I frst had to create a tracking object,
fxed along a plane. Tis object was then constrained to the shoulder joint. As shown above, when
the shoulder lifs, the tracking object moves across the plane. Once this is in place, set driven keys
can be used to turn blend shapes on when the object reaches a point on the plane.

To create the parallel blend shapes, I duplicated the original mesh when it was in the problematic
position. By moving the vertices of the duplicate, I created the desired shape. I repeated this process
for each movement of the shoulder. As I was using parallel blend shapes, I created a positive and
negative shape for each movement. Once these blend shapes were plugged in, and set driven keys
applied, the shoulder had a much more believable shape and motion.

To correct the opening of the beak, I once again used blends shapes. Tis time I was only concerned
with the movement up and down, so the tracking plane didn't need to be as large. Unlike with the
shoulder however, for the beak I used a Front of Chain blend shape.

Finished Character Rig

Modelling

Finished Model

UV Layout

Texture Maps

Skinning

Rigging

Finished Character Rig

Final Renders