VISUAL DEVELOPMENT! GO GO!!!

Pouya just looked over my blog. Said everything was good, but that I had to create a visual embodiment of both Saga and Nexus. That and lots of visual development.

I've kind of already decided that Nexus is going to be some giant hulking mass of black/blue/purple fire with an evil face. I mean it's not concrete, but yeah... Still working on that.

Also, in development is Chapter 3. Halfway done with that. It'll be up on the blog soon.

ACTS

Have to write a summary of my first two chapters in ACTs for Conceptual Storytelling.

ACT I

Clarence is scootering around making deliveries for his parents bakery. The wind pushes him down an escalator and into angry gang members. Clarence escapes, but loses his deliveries. He walks away depressed and gets surprised as he accidentally bumps into a boy named Ken, with a high and mighty attitude. Ken get pissed off and pushes Clarence into a wall. The two spirits, Saga and Nexus, enter Clarence's and Ken's bodies respectively and Ken walks away unknowingly.

ACT II

Clarence begins to walk away when suddenly an explosion far in the background stops him in his tracks. Clarence stops to look out of curiosity. Saga's voice comes out of his mouth asking if he's just going stand and watch. Clarence flips out as Saga starts having a conversation with him through his own body. After no explanation is given, Saga takes full control of Clarence's body and  runs off to the burning building.

ACT III

Clarence's body races down the sidewalks and finally reaches the building. Clarence shoots up the stairs and out on the 49th floor. As Clarence enters the room, a blue fire ball is shot at Clarence face. Clarence's body bends backward and pulls off an incredible dodge, but then falls backwards. Saga reveals that he can only control Clarence for one minute a day and from this point on, he's on his own. Clarence flips out once again to find out the one who caused the explosion and the fire ball was the boy Ken he had met earlier. Ken is now possessed  with the spirit of Nexus, an evil time traveling demon. Clarence then learns that the spirit's name that possesses him is named Zero, but then changes it to Saga. Saga tells Clarence how to fight, but Clarence uses the powers incorrectly and nearly collapses the building. Ken jumps away and escapes and Clarence runs for the stairs as emergency sirens could be heard in the streets below.

Scraps/Brainstorming

It's not really much, but I thought I post some brainstorming/scraps that I've been using I have more I'll post up later.

Damn grammar nazi...

Lawrence Ou went on a grammar spree all over my first two chapters. Pouya suggested that I pay him in candies. Lawrence said that for every grammar mistake I got wrong, I owe him a candy. I now owe him 47 candies. I need a pinata *sigh*.

EDIT: He just corrected this post. I now owe him 49 candies. DAMN IT.

Storyboarding (WIP)

The storyboards I have were done very quickly so I need to go back and make them clearer and more presentable.

Character Name Background

Some background regarding some of the character names and personalities.

Clarence
Clarence is named after one of my cousins. I chose to name him that because of the growing up journey
Clarence has to do in order to defeat Nexus by the end.

Now, my cousin Clarence was never the strongest of people. Swayed easily by peers, picked on, not physically strong at all, not very social, and extremely awkward and shy. Looking back on all of that and seeing how much my "little brother" has grown up, has shown me how much a person can grow with just the right guidance and motivation. Now, he is the most one of the most powerful, bravest, and social people I know. (I don't mean that literally because I'm still stronger than him. WHAT UP!?! =D)

His design was made by Taylor Ash.


Saga
Saga's name has been the hardest name to come up with and I still don't know if it's going to stick.
Originally, I was going to name him Spirit because 1.) I wanted Clarence to name him and show that he has no creativity and 2.) I couldn't think of anything cooler.

And so I named him Zero (Thus the name "Project Zero". There's a back story behind it, but I'm not going to get into it.) But I wanted Saga to change his name (as to keep it covert), so I gave him the name Legion.

I named him Legion because that was the name of the Geth squad-mate you receive in BioWare's Mass Effect 2. But that was just a placeholder name because it was definitely better than Spirit and I thought it was a great meaning behind it. ("Mark 5:9 in the New Testament —  "And he asked him, What is your name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many." The Geth accepts this to be an "appropriate metaphor" and is henceforth known as Legion.)

Again, the problem was that I didn't think it fit the personality of Saga and there was only one of him so the name Legion wouldn't make any sense.

And so after lots of thinking, I decided to name him Saga.

sa·ga 

[sah-guh] 

noun

1. a medieval Icelandic or Norse prose narrative of achievements and events in the history of a personage, family, etc.

2. any narrative or legend of heroic exploits. Synonyms: epic, tale, history.

3. Also called saga novel . a form of the novel in which the members or generations of a family or social group are chronicled in a long and leisurely narrative.

4. a dramatic history of a group, place, industry, etc.: the saga of the transcontinental railroad.

5. any very long story with dramatic events or parts: the sad saga of her life in poverty.

Taken from Dictionary.com

Honestly, it fits him very well, considering his back story and the fact that a saga can be used to describe a certain span of time.


Ken
Ken's name really has no significance other than I kind of used it from the series, Digimon Adventure 02, when the main antagonist's name from the first arc of the series, was named Ken, in which he was the Digimon Emperor.

After that, I've always wanted to use the name of Ken for an antagonist.

His design was also created by Taylor Ash.

Nexus
Nexus's original name was Nightmare. Now, as terrifying as the name Nightmare is, it's already WAYYYY too cliche. So, I came up with Nexus.

nex·us   

[nek-suhs]

noun, plural nex·us·es, nex·us.

1.a means of connection; tie; link.

2.a connected series or group.

3.the core or center, as of a matter or situation.

4.Cell Biology . a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion.

Taken from Dictionary.com

 Considering his back story, Nexus was a very appropriate name for this antagonist. Plus, I've always thought that Nexus sounded like a evil name.

Character Designs

Two of the character designs for Clarence (Protagonist wearing green) and Ken (Antagonist wearing glasses).

Drawn and colored by Taylor Ash.
http://cd-chemical-fox.deviantart.com/
http://ifuwa.deviantart.com/

Last class, when Pouya wasn't here, I was told that it might be good to give a visual identity to the two spirit entities that posses Clarence and Ken; Saga (Protagonist (Probably colored red)) and Nexus (Antagonist (Probably colored blue or purple)). Definitely thinking about it.

Project ZERO: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

                  Clarence couldn't stop his body, no matter what he tried to do. It just kept running and running. “I don’t know what’s going on, BUT GET OUT OF ME!”, pleaded Clarence at the top of his lungs.

 “No can do, buddy! We got things to do, people to save!” said the voice quite proudly.

“Can you slow down a little at least?!” asked Clarence in a desperate attempt to protect his already fragile body. Clarence could feel his body stumbling, having difficulty as he shot down the sidewalks. He had never felt his body go so fast before, and although he would never admit this to the other entity invading his body, he found super exciting and exhilarating. Part of him never wanted this rush to end.

                   “Nope! Gotta move fast. Only have 45 seconds left!” said the voice.

“45 seconds? What happens after 45 seconds?” Clarence thought to himself.

They arrived at the bank skyscraper that was engulfed in flames extremely quickly. At this point the building was already evacuated and there was no one in sight. Clarence’s body shot up the stairs of the building as if they were made of springs. Clarence, now slightly cooperating, suggested that they take the elevator, but the voice quickly responded saying that would be too easy. He finally reached the exploded 49^th floor and looked around at all the blue flames. A complete, open view of the sky was now where the roof  and the rest of the 51 floors should have been.

                  “YOU!” yells a voice from a wall of blue flames. The flames parted to allow a blue fireball flying at break-neck speed straight towards Clarence’s face. Clarence’s body easily dodged the fireball by bending backwards in a way he could have only imagined in movies. As he was still bent, he collapsed to the ground.

“OW! What’s going on?!” exclaimed Clarence as he started to realize he had regained full control of his body.

                  “Sorry kid, you’re on your own now.” said the voice.

“WAIT, WHAT?!” exclaimed Clarence, now panicking and scanning the room for a quick escape. This situation was over his head. He had just let himself go along with this because this entity had seemed to have everything under control, and then this happens. “What do you mean, I’m on my own!?” yelled Clarence in a wild confusion.

“I can only control a body for 1 minute a day. I have to wait till 12AM until I can take control again.”, the inner entity explained.

“12AM? Not 24 hours?”, asked Clarence slightly confused. “PSSH, I don’t know why it’s like that! It just is!” the voice spat back.

“Are you done talking to yourself, fool?!” The wall of flames parted once again to reveal a dark figure.

“Wait, I know that voice!” exclaimed Clarence. Out of the flames walks Ken, hands in his pocket, staring down Clarence, giving him cold looks. Clarence had shivers continuously sent down his back. His body was frozen, he couldn’t move.

“Why are you here?! ANSWER ME!” yelled Ken.

“I-I-I…” stuttered Clarence still trying to get over the shock that the boy he met only moments ago was behind this giant explosion and then proceeded to shoot a fireball at his face.

“Calm down, Ken.”, said a demonic voice coming from Ken’s mouth, “It’s because of that imbecile within him, Zero.” Ken’s eyes look straight into Clarence’s, which immediately makes him feel super uncomfortable. “So, Zero, it seems that even after that warp, your choices are as poor as ever.” Says the demonic voice and chuckles.

“So your name is Zero?”, Clarence asked the entity within him, still slightly offended that the poor choice was referring to himself.

“It was! But I don’t want that name anymore! Too cliché in this era. So I’m gonna be, um… Co-… Sup-… Power… Kamen… No, no no… Um… Saga! For now, my name is Saga.” He responded proudly.

“What do you mean ‘for now’?” asked Clarence.

“I like to change my name every so often so I can keep ‘covert’, know what I mean? Plus, it’s a cool name don’t cha think?” said Saga.

“No, I don’t know what you mean! Saga?! That’s so stupid! Can’t I just call you Spirit and just keep this simple?” asked Clarence sighing.

“SPIRIT?! I ain’t no Spirit! What do I look like? A horse?! Get that shit outta here!” Saga retorted.

“Enough!” yelled the demonic voice and shot a fireball at Clarence’s feet.

“AH! Spir- I mean Saga! What do I do?!” asked Clarence frantically, just barely dodging the attack.

“Ummm… Fight?” Saga responded with an obvious tone in his voice.

“Okay, and how do you propose I do that, smart guy?!” asked Clarence still dodging and endless barrage of fireballs.

“I don’t know. Shoot an energy ball at him?” Saga responded casually.

“I CAN DO THAT?!” Clarence responded surprised.

“Yeah, that wasn’t obvious?” Saga said once again casually.

“NO! NO, IT WASN’T!” Clarence spat angrily.

Clarence drifted over the broken particles on the ground and coolly came to a stop. He took a deep breath and tried to analyze the ridiculous situation he was dragged into. 

“So, how do I do this?” asked Clarence calmly, now coming to terms with what was going on.

“Focus all of your energy in your palm, then release. Make sure it’s quick or you’ll burn yourself out.” Saga explained.

Clarence stood up straight, fists clenched, closed his eyes and focused. All went silent. He could feel his body getting warm. He could feel a sort of light weight push down on his body, but it wasn't oppressive. In fact it felt right. He could feel all the power circulating through his body.

Suddenly, Saga’s voice broke the silence of his concentration, “DON’T CONCENTRATE ON YOUR BODY. FOCUS IT IN YOUR HAND.”

“Wait, what? Why?”, asked Clarence.

In an instant, Clarence’s concentration was broken. He felt the power he had just built up snap. Clarence looked at his hands and watched physical energy radiate off his hands and arms. The destroyed building around them started to shake.

“Ken, this is bad. We’re getting out of here now.”, said Ken’s demonic voice.

“Grr. Fine!” says Ken and stares directly at Clarence, “This isn't over! You hear me!?” Ken’s body springs upward and out of sight. The building, now shaking more violently than before, begins to show signs of falling apart.

“Saga! We have to get out of here!” yelled Clarence as he started to run for the stairs.

“No! We can’t yet. You need to release all your excess energy first.” said Saga.

“Wait, what? But this building is falling apa-” Clarence was cut off as his body let off a huge energy shockwave that completely obliterated the top floor of the building putting out all the fires and sent rocks, debris and large chunks of concrete into the air crashing down into the streets below.

Appalled at the amazing strength his body just sent off, Clarence could barely muster words to speak in sheer utter amazement. “Saga… What just happened?”

“That’s Nexus. You’re going to need to fight him.” Saga paused. “Oh, and we need to go. Now.”

“FIGHT?! Are you kidding me?! I don’t know how to fi-” yelled Clarence and then paused. Incoming emergency sirens could be heard racing in the streets below.
“Yeah… Let’s talk about this later.” said Clarence quickly as he raced towards the remains of the broken staircase. ­

                 

Project ZERO: Chapter 1

Project ZERO

Chapter 1

Clarence, making the 13th delivery that day for his family’s bakery, H&J Bread, was already exhausted. It was 12:00 in the afternoon, middle of the summer, and making deliveries for his parents’ famous Filipino bakery was very tiring, but he enjoyed it. Looking at the environment around as he cruised around LA on his broken blue Razor scooter. He’s seen it all too many times in his 17 years alive, but at the same time it was always new. He enjoyed the new things the world had to offer.

Clarence closed his eyes and smiled “Ah man! The breeze is so nice today! I can’t wait to-” The wind picks up and pushes him down the up escalator of the Civic Center Metro Red Line Station. “OW!” Sighed Clarence. “It felt like I knocked down some peopl-…” Clarence was cut off as he looked up and saw seven angry gang members. “I’m so sorry! It wasn’t-“

Clarence escaped with his scooter as he distracted them with the bread he was supposed to deliver. “Hey, I escaped with not as many bruises as I did yesterday. That’s an improvement!” He smiled then stared at his empty hand then frowned and sighed. “But my parents are going to be so mad that I lost the delivery! But I guess this is nothing new.” As he walked back to the bakery with his head down, he turned the corner and bumped into another person.

Clarence freaks out thinking the gang members followed him and raises his scooter above his head in defense, closes his eyes and starts screaming wild nonsense hoping to scare off the other person. When a punch doesn’t come to his face as expected, he opens his eyes to see a boy around his age, glasses, hands in his pockets, giving him a very odd look.

After a long awkward silence, the boy pushes Clarence back into a wall, “Get away from me, fool!”

As Clarence hit the wall, all of a sudden his eyes freaked out on him. Every color imaginable flashed before his eyes. His body felt as though someone dumped a giant tub of IcyHot all over him. He thought he was having a seizure; his body was so confused.

In a split second, his body returned to normal. His body was exactly the same, as though nothing had just happened. He looked at the boy that pushed him. He had the same look on his face. He finally came to and shook his head, to collect himself. The boy stares at him and walks away, hands in his pocket. “Get a life kid.”

Clarence gets slightly angered and looked down to find some sort of card. He picks it up and turns it over to find that it’s the boy’s state ID. “So his name is Ken, huh? HEY KEN!” He looks up and Ken is nowhere to be seen. “Oh well, I’ll try and return it to him later.” He continues walking when all of a sudden an explosion happens far off behind him.

Slightly freaked out, Clarence turns around slowly with a very confused look on his face. A building behind him was on fire. Only the fire was a very dark blue. As confused as he was, he turned back around and began to walk away. “Ah that sucks… But the Fire Dept. will take care of that…”

“ARE YOU REALLY JUST GOING TO WALK AWAY!?” This voice came out of nowhere. Only Clarence’s mouth moved, and these words came out. Now very confused, Clarence started patting down his face checking for any abnormalities. “YES, YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY!” his mouth moved again.

“AHHHHH!!! WHAT’S GOING ON! WHO ARE YOU?!” screamed Clarence.

“That doesn’t matter right now! We have to go help!” replied the voice.

 “HELP?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! THAT FIRE IS BLUE! BLUE! THAT SHIT ISN’T NORMAL!” Random people walk past now staring at the lanky boy with flailing a scooter over his head yelling to himself with two different voices.

“ALRIGHT, FINE!” yelled the voice, “If you won’t listen, I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands!” Suddenly, Clarence lost all control of his body. His hands, feet, even his eyes all started moving on their own. “YEAH! LET’S GO!!” yelled the voice.

“WHAT ARE YOU- HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?”, yelled Clarence. He started running forward and tripped face forward.

“Aw man, this is gonna take some getting used to…” said the voice.

 “OUCH! WATCH IT!” yelled Clarence, as his body ran off toward the blue fire.

Starting "Project ZERO"

And here I thought this was just going to be some simple assignment. hahah What was I thinking?

"Project ZERO" was just supposed to be some short story for my Conceptual Storytelling class with Pouya Afshar, but as I started writing, ideas kept coming and coming and now I want to complete this story/series and turn this into something that would make an actual cartoon on TV... And of course turn this into something I could put into my portfolio.

Starting from here, I'll be blogging about all the progress I've done with "Project ZERO" and everything leading up till the end... Whenever that may be.

"Project ZERO: The future comes full circle."