Final Treatment - "Simulation #2"

My final project will be titled "Simulation #2". It is the sequel to "Simulation #1", which I made around a year ago in FST 332: Motion Graphics & Digital Effects. See below for video. It was made entirely in After Effects.

Simulation #1 from Matt Zeher on Vimeo.

That movie was literally done overnight, as the final project for the class. I was stumped on ideas, and came up with it at the last minute, being inspired by retro arcade games with wireframe 3D graphics and "Tron". It lacks a certain amount of refinement and debugging, which I hope to address in "Simulation #2".

For Sim2, I'm going to add much more diagetic evidence that it takes place in a virtual environment, such as a heads-up-display, and perhaps a 'start-up' sequence of sorts. The visual design will be much more advanced as well, with 'enemies' more elaborate than simple spinning polygons, and a protagonist ship that looks less like a stock airplane. The animation will be much more advanced as well...instead of a straight trench, I'm going to attempt to build a labyrinth of sorts inside AE, which the ship will navigate through, destroy, or even fly over in some cases.

I'm playing with the idea of having a transforming vehicle of some kind. Where the simulation will start out with the vehicle rolling around on the ground, and then it transforms into some sort of flying jet. That may be too complicated to be worth doing though. Considering that this project is only supposed to be one minute as well (unless we can go over), I may be trying to cram too much action into too short a time span.

So, to put it shortly, I plan to do something narratively similar to Sim1, but much more highly refined and detailed. And in HD. Storyboards pending.