The Magical Mishaps of Thelonious the Mushroom​​
SCRIPT AND STARTING
This story begins with a brief animated introduction that explains the enchanting world of fairy circles, setting the stage and context for their mystical significance. This prologue gives viewers context about the magic and wonder surrounding these natural formations before transitioning into the adventures of our mushroom friend.
A little mushroom opens his eyes to a brand new world as he awakens from the ground, emerging from a fairy circle. He soon meets his sidekick, a cheerful flower. As they trench through the hot weather and wish for rain, water unexpectedly begins to fall from the sky. This convinces the mushroom that he must have magical abilities, believing his wish has come true. Excited by this turn of events, they rush to share the news with the mushroom community. Unbeknownst to them, a curious sprout has been observing from afar and realizes that the rain was simply the homeowners watering their lawn, and the event is not related to the mushroom at all. The sprout decides to follow them in stealth, concerned about their misinterpretation of events and wanting to prevent any potential harm to the fairy circle community.
As the mushroom and flower explore their newly budding town, they encounter another mushroom struggling to cross a stream. Inspired, the mushroom suggests building a bridge, and to everyone’s amazement, a branch conveniently falls from the sky just as he speaks. This incident creates excitement in the community, and they eagerly follow the mushroom and flower across the makeshift bridge, believing wholeheartedly in his newfound magic. Meanwhile, the sprout is torn between revealing the truth and letting the community enjoy their newfound hope. The community, inspired by the mushroom’s apparent magic, seeks his help to revive the barren patch of land they have discovered after they crossed the bridge. However, when the mushroom attempts to cast a spell, nothing happens, and panic ensues. Just then, the sprout steps forward, revealing the mushroom’s powers are a fluke!
The community wallows in disappointment, but the wizard mushrooms friend remains optimistic. She demonstrates that by filling a hollow acorn with water from the nearby stream and splashing it onto the ground, life can flourish once more as a piece of grass sprouts from the ground. Inspired by her actions, the entire community joins in, transforming the wasteland into a thriving garden.
Morals
Ultimately, the mushroom learns that, despite not being magical, the true power lies in friendship, self-belief, and collective effort. The story imparts valuable lessons about believing in oneself, pursuing dreams, maintaining a positive outlook, and the importance of self-expression and community support.
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Character & Environment Design
Characters:
Protagonist: Thelonious
Sidekick: Fiona
Antagonist: Sprout
Side characters: Rad + Dish Twins,
Old Man Shroombert, Tommy
Main characters
Theolonious
Age: 1 second old
Appearance: Round, small and short legs. Wears a big mushroom hat, leaf cape and carry a “magic” stick.
Personality: An imaginative, curious, and bubbly mushroom with a touch of obliviousness. Their natural extroversion, contagious optimism, and charm make them a friend to all they meet.
Background: Born in a fairy circle, they emerge from the ground in a moment of supposed magic, which leads them to believe they possess magical powers. Eager to share these abilities, they embark on an adventure with their sidekick to show the rest of the community.
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Flora
Age: 3 years old
Appearance: Has a green stemmed body with some thorns. A petal hat framing their whole face.
Personality: They are cheerful, warm and lively. Their loyalty and support make them the ideal friend, always ready to lift others up and spread joy.
Background: This flower meets the mushroom and is immediately enticed and optimistic about their magical powers. Filled with excitement, they eagerly join the mushroom on an adventure to share these abilities with the community.
Sprout
Age: 1 years old
Appearance: A short, round sprouted potato. Wears a green leaf cap with a sprout.
Personality: This sprout is curious, observant, and reserved. While motivated by good, they are also cautious and driven by a strong sense of responsibility and a desire to protect the community from potential harm.
Background: This sprout has observed the mushroom from afar and realizes that the mushroom’s supposed powers aren’t magical at all. Concerned about the misinterpretation of events and the potential harm it could bring to the fairy circle community, the sprout decides to follow them secretly. As the mushroom excites the community with its "magic," the sprout becomes torn between revealing the truth or letting the community enjoy the moment.
SIDE CHARACTERS
3 Side characters
Rad & Dish Twins
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Age: 3 years old
Appearance: Round and red skinned with a leaf sprout on the top of their heads.
Personality: The twins are playful, cheerful, and silly. Their enthusiasm and twin telepathy can sometimes come on a bit strong and feel annoying, but their endearing nature shines through.
Background: The reddish twins have always been inseparable, growing up in the heart of the fairy circle community. Known for their vibrant personalities, they have a natural talent for spreading joy and laughter wherever they go.
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Old Man Shroombert
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Age: 100+ years old
Appearance: Round and Old Mushroom. Wears a large hat, glasses and carries a cane.
Personality: Slow-moving yet sharp and wise, they are patient and surprisingly crack lighthearted jokes.
Background: The old mushroom has been a steadfast figure in the fairy circle community for as long as anyone can remember. With years of wisdom and experience, they have become a trusted elder, often sought out for guidance and advice by younger mushrooms and other residents.
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Tommy
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Age: 2 years old
Appearance: Round and red with a leaf stem on the top of their head.
Personality: Shy, warm and clumsy.
Background: Tomato has always been a gentle presence in the fairy circle community. Growing up in the garden, they find comfort among the leaves and flowers that surround them.
ENVIRONMENT
Garden, Fairy Circle, and Bridge
Brainstorming
Art direction, lighting design, and general model structure and art style was done on Figma and designed with pencil on paper.
Fairy Circle
The fairy circle is a circle of mushrooms where our protagonist is born. The mushrooms surrounding the protagonist are Marasmius oreades. This fairy circle is surrounded by large old growth trees.
The Oreades mushrooms and trees will be modelled in a 2-3 forms, and then duplicated and scaled to create variations of the same object. These trees will be used later on in the story to populate the forest space.
The grass will be primarily flat greed polygons with a few sparse model of grass. Depending on scope and skill, we may use tools to model fields of grass using shaders.
The garden is a yard which connects to the forest through small stone trails. While we will not see this garden in full view, the space is intended to give context for a plot in our story where the protagonist thinks he does magic and makes it rain when really a human is watering plants nearby.
This space has some large foliage which over-towers the protagonist and his friend. This foliage can be created in a few variations then duplicated and resized to make it appear abundant.
Garden
Bridge
The river setting is were the protagonist helps the old man mushroom to cross the water/ cliff barrier and is made of rocky terrain. Additionally, this scene will include a large stick which will act as bridge to cross this barrier and reach the other side.
The team will consider whether to use water or a cliffs edge as the barrier depending on the time we have as water will be harder to animate. These alternatives allow us to scope as the project goes on.
Drylands
The dry lands are just past the river/ cliff barrier where the characters will enter a part of the forest where the land is barren.
No life will grow here so it will not carry many objects and will consist of mainly dirt.
Storyboard
Scene 1: Act 1
The story begins with a brief animated introduction that explains the enchanting world of fairy circles, setting the stage and context for their mystical significance. This prologue gives viewers context about the magic and wonder surrounding these natural formations before transitioning into the adventures of our mushroom friend.
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A little mushroom opens his eyes to a brand new world as he awakens from the ground, emerging from a fairy circle. He soon meets his sidekick, a cheerful flower.
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Scene 2: Act 1
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As they trench through the hot weather and wish for rain, water unexpectedly begins to fall from the sky. This convinces the mushroom that he must have magical abilities, believing his wish has come true. Excited by this turn of events, they rush to share the news with the mushroom community. Unbeknownst to them, a curious sprout has been observing from afar and realizes that the rain was simply the homeowners watering their lawn, and the event is not related to the mushroom at all. The sprout decides to follow them in stealth, concerned about their misinterpretation of events and wanting to prevent any potential harm to the fairy circle community.
​
Scene 3: Act 2
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As the mushroom and flower explore their newly budding town, they encounter two other mushrooms struggling to cross a stream. Inspired, the mushroom suggests building a bridge, and to everyone’s amazement, a branch conveniently falls from the sky just as he speaks. This incident creates excitement in the community, and they eagerly follow the mushroom and flower across the makeshift bridge, believing wholeheartedly in his newfound magic. Meanwhile, the sprout is torn between revealing the truth and letting the community enjoy their newfound hope.
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Scene 4: Act 3
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The community, inspired by the mushroom’s apparent magic, seeks his help to revive the barren patch of land they have discovered after they crossed the bridge. However, when the mushroom attempts to cast a spell, nothing happens, and panic ensues. Just then, the sprout steps forward, revealing the mushroom’s powers are a fluke!
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The community wallows in disappointment, but the wizard mushrooms friend remains optimistic. She demonstrates that by filling a hollow acorn with water from the nearby stream and splashing it onto the ground, life can flourish once more as a piece of grass sprouts from the ground. Inspired by her actions, the entire community joins in, transforming the wasteland into a thriving garden.
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Pitch Video
Animatic
Done with Maya, each team member was assigned different shots to do and it was assembled as a final direction for how timing, music, vocals, and visuals would be displayed.
View Video
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