I apologize in advance.  This got long (again).  Maybe it will help if you think of it as three posts in one.

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A similar, though more studious exercise, is to write down the "structure" of a couple of your favorite movies, and a couple that you do not like.

From the "Austin Madison" video I referenced near the start of this thread, if all you can say is "And then..." you only have a series of events, but probably not much of a story.
Think about how a typical 5-year old tells a story.  "And then, and then, and then..."
However, if you say, "Because of that," meaning things must progress, and one event drives another, it can be much more interesting:

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STAR WARS... "Because of that..."

Once upon a time there was a.... Farm boy (Luke) who wanted to be a star pilot
Every day he...  Tended to the farm equipment, going nowhere
Until one day... His Uncle bought some droids that were involved in a rebellion
Because of that... Luke ended up meeting a Jedi, learned about the rebellion and a princess who needed help... and his aunt and uncle were killed (crucial event)
Because of that... There was no reason to stay, so he agreed to help a princess and deliver the droids carrying vital plans
Because of that... He learned about The Force, and made some new friends
Because of that... Luke rescued the princess, lost his mentor, and fled with the plans
Because of that... The rebels found a way to destroy the weapon, but also... the empire followed Luke and found the rebel's base
Because of that... The empire was about to destroy the rebel base while the rebels attempted to destroy the weapon
Because of that... Luke used the Force to destroy the Death Star in the nick of time, and became a hero
Ever since then... Luke was a Jedi, and was friends with Princess Leia and Han Solo and Chewbacca

So... Luke wanted to be a pilot, but became a Jedi.
Yes, he also became a pilot, but that was incidental.  It was much more important that he became a Jedi, which was something he didn't even know about when the movie started.

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STAR WARS... Structure...

Some "structure" (not from any single book) looks like this:
a) Inciting incident - What ends the status quo, and starts things moving - Luke encounters the droids
b) Debate - Remember, Luke "had to stay on the farm" and rejected the invitation to help the princess
c) Pinch point or catalyst - His family is killed
d) Point of no return - They enter the Death Star
e) All is lost (often involves death, literally or figuratively) - Obi Wan dies, and their "easy escape" means they're being followed
f) Climax - Death Star is destroyed

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SAVE THE CAT

One final comment, harkening back a page or two about wanting the protagonist to succeed...

That is why Blake Snyder (very, very big on structure) titled his book, "Save the Cat."  It's about when you meet the hero, and he does something which defines him.  (Maybe you see him rescue a cat from a tree.)  In Luke's case, we see him "being a good son" (nephew, technically), accepting his responsibility to his family and putting his dreams on hold.  He is a good person.  We feel sorry for him trapped in a dreary place, and we would like to see him achieve his dreams.

Sure, there are "anti-hero" characters, but the point of us wanting them to be victorious is still valid.

My wife and I recently wanted a romantic comedy where the female lead seemed to lack any redeeming qualities.  She was rather grumpy and bitter most of the time, and to a certain extent we almost cheered against her because it didn't seem like she deserved to end up with the good guy at the end.  So remember to let your hero have a "save the cat" moment early on, even it is merely tending to some farm equipment and cleaning the droids.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Great post Dennis. I had forgotten 'Save the Cat'...Yeah! all your points are very valid and helpful. No-one writes like anyone else, that's why we have plagiarism laws. 'Different strokes for different folks'...but when we 'folks' get it! The end result is hopefully always the same. On a professional gig once, I had written a piece that I thought was inspired. The boss took one quick and demanded a re-write. This went on all day. By late afternoon I wandered despondently into his office and said, 'Here it is. It's what you wanted...but I don't buy it?' He just smiled, looked at me and said, "You're not our market!.." That was the day I learned to write for an audience... I love that IClone gives me a chance to give life to some of my old scripts, but I always remember the 'audience'...





















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iClone 7.93/8.01, 6.0 Pro, 5.5 Pro, 3DXchange Pro, Character Creator 3/4, CrazyTalk Animator 2.5 Pro

Homebuilt computer - Windows10, 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K   3.00 GHz Nvidia RTX 3090 Graphics, 64GB DDR5 RAM,  MS-7306 motherboard, 12 terabytes of disk space, 28” monitor and Optoma UJHD65-LV projector. 

Update

Yes I have tried doing that from movies I like many times but always get confused and lost as I progress and end up giving up.
The thing is I never thought of using things like
     Because of that ---------------------
     Because of that ---------------------
until reading things in this thread. It makes sense so next time I do that I will try doing it that way.
In the past I tried to figure out what proverbs or sayings fit the movie so I could examine how they use the movie to illustrate that saying.
I did that because that's what I thought was needed to make good stories
You know, things like
     "a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush"
     "a person is known by the company he keeps"
     "a stich in time save nine"






i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

So what do people think of the "animation" part of this topic? Can you tell your story effectively through animation? What tools would make that part easier? Is there anything that stops you in your tracks?

For me the animation part of this topic is not about creating interesting stories. It may have a simple story but its purpose is not for story telling.
Rather, it is for showing how animation works or learning how to animate effectively. That's only my thoughts though.

i7-3770 3.4GHz CPU 16 GB Ram   
GeForce GTX1080 TI 11GB
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Nothing stops me in my tracks but things can force me into a detour. as an example, basic walking and sliding feet. I learned long ago how to solve
 the most irritating (and yet basic) movement in animation. Sometimes, I just can't get it to my satisfaction for one reason or another, who knows exactly why.
If it gets frustrating enough I just change the camera angle or delete the offending character out of the scene and come up with something else.
Opening doors, climbing stairs (which I may have a solution for due to some new animations I've picked up) and other specialized tasks can slow down the 
production but stopping is out of the question once I start the story.

Viking: You've just summarized the content of the book I mentioned earlier. The 'Hero with a Thousand Faces" describes exactly the timeline of an epic
heroic story. Lucas pulled his characters and story directly from the text. I'm not speaking of Luke or the others specifically or of the setting, but the bones they,
and the entire original Star wars trilogy story are built on.

pete



http://www.youtube.com/user/peterblood50?feature=mhee

What stops me in my tracks?

In a word:  Me.
In five words:  The scope of the task.
Or in another single word:  Time.

I am not as proficient as I'd like to be on many of iClone's features, and I most certainly am not as efficient as I need to be.  I spread myself too thinly across applications and across time, meaning it's easy to forget things.  For example, I may briefly play with the voxel settings when they are first released, and then two months later on a short project, and then again six months after that.  As a result, any project involves a lot of learning and re-learning, which slows me down and greatly increases the time it takes to accomplish something.  As a result, I am not able to quickly (in relative terms) produce a quality project.  I am often happy with the stories I tell, but the technical ("animation") aspects of my projects are, frankly, substandard.

It's difficult to embark on a significant project knowing how it pulls time away from the family and basic responsibilities, and I don't really want to work on a single project for 6 or 8 months.

It would help if I was more willing to purchase more sets, motions, clothes, etc., but mostly I need to do more "deep learning" on more of iClone's capabilities, so I remember where they are and how to use them when needed.

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@PeterBlood - I've heard that George Lucas researched a lot of "classic story types" and historical "epics" when outlining his vision for Star Wars.  Indeed, there are a lot of classic features in that story.  I think I'll have to put "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" on my birthday wish list.

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Firstly sorry about my font size, I have been working off my  laptop and didn’t realise, hope this is more suitable?

For my last, a very short post. I almost forgot this, but thanks to justaviking's prodding my memory on 'Save the Cat'?  I am  the worlds worst cinematographer. I have neither the patience nor the technical  skills in terms of F-stops, lenses and exposure to be able to do the job well. It’s  all too fiddly! But I know what I am doing as director, and I know my editing  skills… 

The thing I love about IClone’ is that I can set up my shot  and play with all the parameters and depth of field…and just render! 

How I finally learned how to deal with the camera and  begin  to wrestle with film comes from a book widely recognized as being one of the  classic texts on the subject. Printed in 1965…I have relied on this for much of  my critical and film making life. Wanna’ learn ‘Film Grammar’? Find a copy of 

Joseph V. Mascelli’s, ‘The Five C’s of Cinematography’

…it’s available as an e-book as well as a few copies still  in print. 

Can’t tell a close up from a close shot? Unsure of the  difference between a wide shot, and an establishing shot? Don’t quite  understand how they affect not only your story, but an audience? 

…This is the book for you!

Need to learn about cross cutting, cutting on sound, cutting  on action etc, etc.

It’s all in here. It takes some time to get through, but  there are many pictorial references to explain the concepts.

 

I defy anyone to become a ‘worse’ film maker after reading  this vital reference book…. As we say here on the forum, Enjoy!

 

It turns out however, that the last laugh will be on me, for  if everybody takes up all the advice in these posts, the bar for IClone movies  is gonna’ be so high, I’ll never get to reach it… 

As Oliver Hardy used to say, 

‘Me…and my big mouth!’…

 

iClone 7.93/8.01, 6.0 Pro, 5.5 Pro, 3DXchange Pro, Character Creator 3/4, CrazyTalk Animator 2.5 Pro

Homebuilt computer - Windows10, 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K   3.00 GHz Nvidia RTX 3090 Graphics, 64GB DDR5 RAM,  MS-7306 motherboard, 12 terabytes of disk space, 28” monitor and Optoma UJHD65-LV projector. 

Update

It's good advice about structure and such, but I have mixed feelings about it myself as it can also delay starting the actual work. I have maybe fifteen or twenty books about screenwriting and I haven't really found one that resonates with me.

So I just dive in and hope for the best. A couple of times I've had the benefits of a story idea from Dennis (related to Pinhead). I liked taking that idea and making something out of it.

It's interesting about the audience and who they are. My last major film I sent to festivals with mostly negative results but a few surprises. One of them was that it was shown in Minsk. So you never know where your audience might be.

EDIT: Fixed typos.

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Delema...it is difficult. You're going to want to bring up the volume to get back to your 'happy' place. But if you continue, you'll start to see how the story is being told with just the visuals...I do this still occasionally if I am stuck with a particular film problem. I'll dig something out of my collection and watch it with no sound. You have to concentrate again on something you think you already know. The surprise is, with the sound off...there's all this stuff you never noticed before...ain't it wonderful, it's magic...some call it art. So long as it's always fun, who cares?....

iClone 7.93/8.01, 6.0 Pro, 5.5 Pro, 3DXchange Pro, Character Creator 3/4, CrazyTalk Animator 2.5 Pro

Homebuilt computer - Windows10, 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K   3.00 GHz Nvidia RTX 3090 Graphics, 64GB DDR5 RAM,  MS-7306 motherboard, 12 terabytes of disk space, 28” monitor and Optoma UJHD65-LV projector. 

Update