Welcome to pigeonimpossible.com! "Pigeon Impossible" is an animated short film being created for around $5000 by a small team in Austin Texas. Using off-the-shelf software, a little bit of know-how, and a whole lot of dedication, we hope to show that you don't have to be a great big studio to tell a good story through the use of computer animation. Written and directed by Lucas Martell, "Pigeon Impossible" is the tale of Walter: a bumbling secret agent whose mission is put in jeopardy by the local wildlife. The finished film will run approximately 5 minutes and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2006. A festival release will likely follow, potentially leading to funding for a feature length project. Thanks for visiting the site and be sure to check back regularly for updates. Please feel free to e-mail us with comments or drop by the forum to share your thoughts with everyone. Walter kind of reminds me of Wallace from "Wallace and Grommit." Is that just a coincidence? Yes and no. Wallace was one of my inspirations for the character and I wanted him to convey a very similar personality through his appearance. In fact, the name Walter was given to him because of this common remark, as well as being partially based on the title character from "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber. (I started shooting a fairly literal adaptation of the short in college but never finished. It's all for the best though because they're doing a feature length version with Jim Carrey.) Why bagels? Is Walter Jewish? Are you kidding? He has four fingers, a head that's twice as big as it should be, and a potbelly that defies all laws of physics. I'm not even sure he's human, let alone his religious preference. Honestly though, the bagel thing happened after I ate an entire bag of mini-bagels one night and fell asleep on the couch. I dreamed I was being chased by a bagel the size of the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man across the South Congress bridge. It freaked the hell out of me. What do you plan to do when it is finished? Party heavily. I mean, what do you plan to do with the film when it is finished?
Umm... probably back it up onto a hard drive, maybe a few DVD-R's as well. You're a smart ass. Why thank you for noticing. Seriously though, I'll do the festival circuit, and then the DVD thing if I don't get some kind of distribution deal (which is mostly unheard of for short films as far as I know.) I'm also trying to put together a larger project with a small team of people that will begin as soon as this finishes. What software do you use? My weapon of choice is Softimage|XSI. It's slick, it's intuitive, and IMHO is the best 3D package on the market right now. When is it going to be finished? I'm planning to have it completely finished by the end of August 2005, exactly one year from when I started. Of course, I'm trying hard to get it done way before that. We'll have to see how well that works out.Why are the gallery pictures on your site so freakin' huge? I'm doing this film in HD. (1920x1080, 24PsF) If it sucks and doesn't make it into any big festivals, I at least want people to see all the extra effort I put into the textures for them to hold up at that resolution. For example, the texture for the bagel is 2048x2048 because it will be featured in a tight close up. I can just feel the video game people out there cringing. So do you have a huge render-farm and millions of dollars to do this with? No, but I've been thinking of selling myself to one of those reality TV shows and putting the proceeds towards my next movie. It doesn't take a lot to do an animated film, just a good story and a lot of persistence. The tools are secondary. Do you want a huge render-farm and millions of dollars? Yes. February 3, 2006 I just finished a pretty drastic and much-needed redesign of the website. I'm also starting to advertise on industry-related websites such as XSI Base and AnimWatch. Thanks to everyone for the support! On the production side, things are starting to kick into high gear. We've finished the major characters and should be starting animation within a few weeks. On that note, I'm actively looking for people to help out, primarily with animation and environment modelling/texturing. Simulation and lighting artists might also be needed down the road. As much fun as it is to do some of this stuff, I've realized that I'm far more productive when there are at least a few people helping out. It keeps me on my toes and is much more enjoyable when there are others to share it with. I'm primarily looking for people in Austin but a telecommuter might be possible if they've got a lot of skill and are willing to work hard. If you're interested, That's it for now, hopefully I'll be talking to you more soon as the production train plods ahead! September 22, 2005 Sorry for such a long break between updates. First off, we need to welcome three new members to the team: Jason Nichols, Matt Hightower, and Amalia Litsa! Actually, Jason has been with us for several months, but like I said it's been a while since the last update. Bios coming soon, I promise!!! There are several new things up on the website including 3 animation tests of Walter in the Movies section. Furthermore, Walter has just undergone intense evaluation and has been declared fit for animation which will be starting within weeks. In the meantime we'll be finishing the pigeons, briefcase and environment, along with a fresh set of storyboards and animatics. Although the script has not changed significantly, let me just say that it never ceases to amaze me how just when you think you've got it nailed, something always pops up that a few little changes not only fix, but make the entire script infinitely tighter and more entertaining. Props to Gopal Bidari and Austen Menges for helping out with all the story stuff! April 24, 2005 Ahh!!! So much news! Most importantly, I'd like to welcome two new members to the team: Jim Jiang and Tad Catalano. Both are experienced freelancers who are graciously donating their time to help me get this thing finished. I'll be posting bios on them soon so stay tuned to witness their crazy-mad skillz. Based on several comments, I've made some tweaks to Walter's face, especially the mouth and ears. This also gave me an excuse to improve the facial animation system, closely following the techniques laid out in "Stop Staring" by Jason Osipa. It's well worth checking out for anyone interested in facial animation. I've posted two quick tests in the gallery section to show off the new and improved Walter. March 10, 2005 Made several tweaks to the site and begun a new set of (hopefully final) storyboards. I've also begun the expansion of the environment to handle the wider range of camera angles I'll be using. Tomorrow is the beginning of the SXSW film festival in Austin so I'll be busy mingling, schmoozing, and scheming for the next few days. February 28, 2005 Put two new movies up, an environment dolly test and a turntable animation of Walter. Also added a few new links and several tweaks to the functionality of the site. However, it's probably going to be a few weeks until anything new is posted. I'm re-tooling Walter and have to tear everything apart before I can put it back together. "We can rebuild him... We have the technology..." February 21, 2005 A compositing tutorial has been added to the Making Of section. I've also revised the script yet again (this is probably rev 12 or 13 and that's not even counting minor changes.) Big thanks to my roommate Gopal for helping me bounce ideas around and contributing several ideas to the story. Everyone say it with me now: "Writing is re-writing." Again with feeling! "Writing is re-writing!" February 15, 2005 Check out the new Switch Forum! February 13, 2005 I've been so busy working on the site that I've barely been able to work on the film. Right now, I've got Walter ready for animation (except a few tweaks to the cloth dynamics) and the background is mostly finished. The agent character and the pigeons are still a work in progress but I'll probably animate a few shots with Walter before I worry about completing the other characters. I've also been putting off the animatic (kind of like a moving storyboard) because I'm still revising the story and want that to be extremely well polished before I lock myself into anything. February 12, 2005 Welcome to theswitchmovie.com! Don DeGrasse, Ousama Itani, Adnan Chatriwala, Belal Hibri, Jason Nichols, Tad Catalano, Walter Beckett