The missing piece of my movies is the soundtrack. I make everything except the music, even going so far as not beginning a project until I find the right music. Indeed, Eros was first imagined on an airplane some years ago after simply listing to the music for the first time.

Recently, such a reliance on other people’s music makes me uncomfortable. Copyright, while a good reason in itself to stop using other people’s works, is not even half of it. Music is limiting when making a film — you can’t make a scene happy when the music is somber. I’ve never had any musical training, no instruments, no clue how it works, so I’ve dealt with it the best I could so far.

Over the winter break I spent a lot of time with some friends, breaking down (different from breaking it down to) various songs. Ridin’ Dirty becomes exactly like a Girl Talk song when you remove key tracks, which in turn shares the same basic beat as Madonna’s Like A Prayer. It’s all layers! After getting that, I spent some time working with a real keyboard, learning chords and theory while understanding little of it. But no matter, it’s all layers — pulling up a virtual keyboard and a whole orchestra of instruments on my laptop is all I need.

So I’ve spent the past few days working on this. It’s the opening sequence to my next movie, and is a mere 20 seconds long. Only the first 16 seconds are “finished” — it falls apart after that, but the file can be found here in the hopes that it will inspire comments.

Now, on to the movie itself. I’ve steered it in a much different direction then I originally planned. The movie follows my first human female protagonist, Madeline, deep in a Paris Metro station. The movie still has robots and now has nudism, but the story is robust enough to use both as plot advancers. As ever, it is subject to further change, but I am as excited as ever about this film.

Let’s continue were we left off with Madeline’s development.

Still using the reference image, her nose is taking shape with loops from the noose and mouth.

Without the reference image, it she comes into her own.

Global editing.

Some skin textures and hair modeling created with Blender’s particle simulator. Note the transparency on the ends of the strands.

Eventually Madeline will sport a French beret and a trench coat, but for now her character is ripening for the animation rig.

On Thursday, I will fly to Park City, Utah for my first ever Sundance Film Festival. My excitement exceeds even this movie. No doubt I will return brimming with new podcasts, plots, ski bruises and, most importantly, wisdom.