robcat2075

IDL stood for Interactive Distance Learning. This is an opening I made to start off training broadcasts we used to do back when Nortel was somewhat richer than it is today. It was meant to represent the Distance Learning concept of people from various locations gathering "virtually" (a real happening word at the time) to hear from a remote instructor. I did everything except the video montage near the end. I think I was using A:M v5 at the time for the 3D, Strata MediaPaint for the fireballs and Adobe After Effects to tie it all together. The music is from a library we licensed. Links you can right-click on to download in QT or WMV appear on: http://www.brilliantisland.com/demoreels/demoreels.htm (under "IDL Open")

The cross-eyed appearance, even when they are looking straight ahead, contributes to their "cute" factor, but i think it's going to give you trouble when you have to animate them in a glance to either side. The pupil on the outside eye is going to disappear. Yes you can always swing the full head to point at whatever... but such nice characters should have subtler options available to them.

What an interesting look and feel to this work! I do very much admire it. I'm uneasy about the voices, however. This is obviously a story in a fantasy setting. Great "suspension of disbelief" is required of the audience to buy into it all and the everyday, middle-america quality of the voices is working against that goal. I'm wishing for voices with more "character". No, they don't all have to have old english accents or adopt speech impediments... but something extra is needed from the voices to fuse them with the characters we are seeing. I remember Ralph Bakshi did something called "Wizzards" a long time ago (the 70's), with very flat , expressionless voices. Maybe it was a reaction to all the highly exaggerated voices that populated cartoons at the time, but when i watch it today, it adds an element of tedium to an already iffy film.