'Bubblegum Crisis' on A:M Films

[Rodney]

I must have missed the announcement for the release of Noah Brewer's digital reimagining of the anime classic 'Bubblegum Crisis'.

 

 

 

...and now his work can be seen on A:M Films for everyone to enjoy.

 

Bubblegum Crisis by Noah Brewer

 

One man, one computer, making feature film animation.

In a word...

 

A M A Z I N G.

 

See more of Noah's work at: http://www.noah3d.com/

[johnl3d]

Wow...Wow....

[aaver]

Yes. Truly A M A Z I N G!!!

[John Bigboote]

WOW. I am watching right now...taking a while to load...I think because TONS of people are dloading it...

 

I've never followed the 'Bubblegum' story...but one word can sum up this animation...

 

HOT!

[dborruso]

Holy Mackeral! This is great stuff. I was expecting cartoons with big eyes because it said anime, but I really liked this a lot. Great modeling and effects.

[noah brewer]

Thanks for starting this thread, Rodney! In my delerium to try and finish this animation, I guess I forgot to tell people about it...!

 

There are some bad transitions between shots, and shots that are unfinished, so I can't say that it's COMPLETELY finished, but at least its MOSTLY finished for now

 

It definitely was a fun challenge, trying to figure what parts needed to be prioritized. It seemed liked an overwhelming undertaking at times, but I knew A:M was up for the task, so I could only blame my own laziness if I didn't finish it! That, and the idea of not doing what I love for the rest of my life was another motivating factor to push myself.

 

If you have any general questions or comments, or about any shots in particular, I'd love to discuss them in this thread!

 

Thanks for you interest!

Noah

[nimblepix]

Stunning work Noah!

Congrats on this major accomplishment!

[trajcedrv]

This IS QUALITY ANIMATION if I have ever seen one!

 

Great work, Noah! You are an inspiration!

[Dark_Jedi]

wow shweet what an awsome fight. i had to watch it twice before posting

[Dhar]

Noah! You're an interesting fellow. Your face says: "I am the angel sent to this world to spread peace and happiness". Your work reveals your inside which says: "Hasta la vista - baby!"

 

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

 

Did I mention awesome?

 

Awesome!

[gschumsky]

Wow....

 

That was pretty impressive. Nice work Noah.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Greg

[jakerupert]

Hi Noah,

 

Oustanding work.

Did it help you getting a foot in the animationindustry yet?

 

I guess, the guys from bubblegumcrisis should be very keen to

do a whole movie in this style.

 

 

;>) Jake

[DeeJay]

Hi Noah,

 

Oustanding work.

Did it help you getting a foot in the animationindustry yet?

 

I guess, the guys from bubblegumcrisis should be very keen to

do a whole movie in this style.

 

 

;>) Jake

 

As far as I know he's currently working in the game industry, isn't he?

[noah brewer]

Thanks again. Yes, I'm currently working at Midway on Mortal Kombat Armaggedon as a modeler. I originally applied as an animator, but like many studios, they use motion capture almost exclusively here.

 

I think its probably less stressful than working on cinematics (or full-motion video), because with in-game models, you are restricted to the speed of the game system that you are making it for. With cinematics, there are no limitations, so there are much higher expectations. Therefore, to the viewer, you are constantly being compared with the best visual effects of Hollywood movies.

 

Anyway, I've been an MK fan since the first game came out, so I'm pretty thrilled!

 

-Noah

[oakchas]

I enjoyed it... lots of Terminator types.. Great action! stuff blowing up! tentacles! girls! fun!

[gugesbri]

Thanks again. Yes, I'm currently working at Midway on Mortal Kombat Armaggedon as a modeler. I originally applied as an animator, but like many studios, they use motion capture almost exclusively here.

 

I think its probably less stressful than working on cinematics (or full-motion video), because with in-game models, you are restricted to the speed of the game system that you are making it for. With cinematics, there are no limitations, so there are much higher expectations. Therefore, to the viewer, you are constantly being compared with the best visual effects of Hollywood movies.

 

Anyway, I've been an MK fan since the first game came out, so I'm pretty thrilled!

 

-Noah

 

 

Way to go Noah, you do great work!

Good luck at Midway.

[MattWBradbury]

I have a few questions:

 

1. How many hours did it take to render the film?

 

2. How many hours did it take to create all of the animations?

 

3. How long did it take to create all of the models and backgrounds?

 

4. How much time did you spend on story boarding?

 

Awsome work.

[the_black_mage]

WAHHHH I CAN"T VEIW IT!!!!!!!!can anyone help me. 8'(

 

oh and good luck on mk, though its not the kind of game i like playing....to much blood.

[oakchas]

WAHHHH I CAN"T VEIW IT!!!!!!!!can anyone help me. 8'(

 

Make certain you have the latest quicktime player and allow active x.

[Dhar]

I can't believe MK is still going. I had hours of fun playing it with my kids many many moons ago. Of course once my kids got good at it and started beating me every time I lost interest.

[noah brewer]

Yeah, the violence has always bothered me a bit, but I'm more bothered by first-person shooter games, because they are more realistic. MK violence is so over the top, it's almost like Tom & Jerry, or Road Runner.

 

As for how long it took me to make the Bubblegum Crisis video, I spent about a thousand hours (not including render time) on setting up shots, lighting, animating, modeling, texturing, compositing, and so on. You could probably add another 200 hours to this figure if you want to count the time I spent modeling my generic human model and the setup time on that, which was done prior to this beginning of this project. Still, 1000 hours isn't that long if you figure it at 40 hours of work per week, then it works out to be 25 weeks, or about 6 months. However, having the discipline to work on something without getting too sidetracked, or getting burnt out is much easier said than done. When I was feeling burnt out, or the weather was nice outside, I was probably only working 20 hours a week, which put me behind the schedule I had set for myself.

 

As for render times, I would set the render multipass settings according to how long I was going to be away from my computer. If I was going to sleep, then I would start a 7 hour render, which would probably be between 5 to 9 passes per frame. If I was going out to run errands, then I would try to gauge it at 3 hours or less, so probably just 2 or 3 passes per frame. I would have to jot down on a list the shots that needed to be rendered, or re-rendered, in case I needed to take a long break and forgot what was ready to be rendered, and thus, not waste any render time.

 

My storyboarding probably only took about 20 hours, since I based a lot of my shots on the original show, and because my storyboards were very crude.

[oakchas]

Thanks for all the detail Noah.

 

Alot of newbies (and heck, me too) would like A:M (or any other program) to produce that quality level of video by pushing a button and having it "happen".

 

6 months of work for a very nice video short. If you have talent and have practiced to begin with...

 

So, you can't buy any program and render a wonderful little short in 15 minutes. Heck, you spent half of a school (or work) week just working on "very crude" storyboards that weren't based on a totally new story or concept.

 

But, if your story needs to be told, and you really have the desire to do it; it can be done. And, A:M will do a stellar job of it for you. Frankly, it will probably do it better (easier, more intuitively, and definitely less expensively) than most of the other programs right out of the box.

[TeresaNord]

I don't know why I hadn't looked at this post yet. That was TRULY amazing. Sheez, stunning, I'm in shock! Where did you learn how to animate? Did you teach yourself or go to school? That's CRAZY GOOD!

[noah brewer]

Thanks a lot! To be honest, my goal was to utilize animating the camera as much as possible, because the character animation portions of it took more time and energy. Although I do not consider myself to be a very good character animator, what I have learned comes not from school, but from watching a lot of animations and live-action movies, and also from great learning DVDs like Jeff Lew's.

[williamgaylord]

I'm unable to view it either. I have Quicktime 6.5.2. I would upgrade to 7, but I'd have to pay for the Pro upgrade again. (If I need to, I will.) Anybody else have the same version that can play it? At the first attempt I got the error message that the "required decoder was not available on the Quicktime site".

 

Bill Gaylord

[3DArtZ]

Hey Noah, this is definately cool stuff!!!

 

Tell us, how did you render this stuff? did you use multipass? how about the motion blur?

 

congrats on the finished work!

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[noah brewer]

Yeah, the quicktime pro upgrade is a pain in the neck. However, you should be able to see most of the movie on my website with the older versions of quicktime.

 

As for rendering, it was done with multipass in v10.5, with 30 percent motion blur.

 

Thanks!

[Zaryin]

Noah, congratulations on finishing. Great work, just amazing.

[cosmonaut]

Awesome work Noah, watched it last week but never got around to commenting. Amazing sutf Can't believe you did that all on your own. Just out of curiosity, how many passes did you render with multi-pass? Thanks.

 

Kevin

[noah brewer]

Thanks! Usually 4 or 5 passes. Sometimes 9 passes, if I had the time.

[gschumsky]

I'm unable to view it either. I have Quicktime 6.5.2. I would upgrade to 7, but I'd have to pay for the Pro upgrade again. (If I need to, I will.) Anybody else have the same version that can play it? At the first attempt I got the error message that the "required decoder was not available on the Quicktime site".

 

Bill Gaylord

 

That all depends on what codec he used. Anything made with QT7 will work fine (or should) in 6.5.2 as long as it's not h263 or another QT7 only codec. Mpeg4 should work fine, as well as good old Sorenson 3. All the videos in our game were Sorenson done in QT7, but Apple only lets developers ship 6.5.2 with products. Did the same with Mpeg4 movies and they played back fine in 6.5.2.

 

Greg

[trajcedrv]

After some hundred viewings (several times a day, 2 - 3 times in a row ;-D) I have to say that I am still amazed! Nice pacing, lot of action, cool special effects... only remark, there is one residue of the storyboard which lasts part of the second...

 

What about the distribution? A:M films is a cool place, but this baby needs to be seen... EVERYWHERE!

 

Drvarceto

[noah brewer]

Ah yes, the glaring storyboard! There would actually be like 4 glaring storyboards, if it were not for the repitition of certain shots...

 

As for distribution, I think AM Films is perfect for now. If I get serious about this project someday, I will tweak the video and try to pitch it to the company that already owns the rights to it.

 

Thanks!

[gugesbri]

Thanks! Usually 4 or 5 passes. Sometimes 9 passes, if I had the time.

 

 

Hey Noah, is there anyway we can get a better quality version of the Bubblegum Crisis movie.

I love the work you did on it and would like to study it.

The movie on the AM forum and your site look like they've been compressed alot.

Hope I'm not asking for too much.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Gustavo

[noah brewer]

A full size, high quality movie would be tough to host, but if there are certain segments that you'd most like to see, I could post those in high quality. Just let me know which parts you would like to see.

 

Noah

[luckbat]

Screw that. If hosting's a problem, I'll host it for you. My provider allows me 2TB of bandwidth per month.

[noah brewer]

Okay, I'm going to take you up on that.

 

How do you want me to give you the full-size files?? Shall I just post them in chunks on my site?

 

Thanks!

 

BTW, I love your 'camera spin' quote. That was ME for about 6 months last year...!

[luckbat]

Please FTP the uncompressed full render to my server. I've e-mailed you the FTP information. I'll retrieve the file, compress it, and host the compressed version(s).

 

Yeah, once you deviate from your storyboards, it's tough to stop. ("Hmm. What if I twirled the camera around this guy's head like a tiny moon...?")

[gugesbri]

Okay, I'm going to take you up on that.

 

How do you want me to give you the full-size files?? Shall I just post them in chunks on my site?

 

Thanks!

 

BTW, I love your 'camera spin' quote. That was ME for about 6 months last year...!

 

Full sized and full movie like the one on the AMFilms would be great dude.

I've got a broadband connection so I don't mind the long download wait.

You're movie is worth it.

 

If you can do it, thanks.

If you can't, thanks either way for doing such great work.

 

Goose

[noah brewer]

Thanks! I was going to do it last night, but I was exhausted when I got home. I'll try to upload it tonight.

 

Thanks!!!

[noah brewer]

The full version I have is compressed into DV mpeg, so I'll have to paste over the higher quality animations shot by shot. This could take a couple of days...

[Dhar]

Noah, just so you know, your piece was shown at Martin's house during the Hash Bash, and you got cheers from the audience

[gugesbri]

The full version I have is compressed into DV mpeg, so I'll have to paste over the higher quality animations shot by shot. This could take a couple of days...

 

 

It's worth the wait.

[the_black_mage]

wow,thats some serious rekignition

[Mark.Reynolds.MPS]

Just wanted to add that I saw your animation at AnimeExpo2006 as showed by the Hash crew. About 3 minutes later I had my copy of AM in hand... At first my boss thought this program was a waste of time. So I personally shoved out the money for it. Now that I am through most of the tutorials, and now that he has seen a fair bit of your work (still not the movies though) he is a bit more optimistic and we will likely be using AM to advertise the company.

 

If you are ever bored Noah and would like to get involved in a killer project look me up at www.MechaPS.com

[someawfulbridge]

This is an OT aside, but I have to say that I have to do an identity-theft double-check everytime I see your name on the fora, given that Mark Reynolds is my name, too. I assume you're not just spyware?

 

Mark

 

Just wanted to add that I saw your animation at AnimeExpo2006 as showed by the Hash crew. About 3 minutes later I had my copy of AM in hand... At first my boss thought this program was a waste of time. So I personally shoved out the money for it. Now that I am through most of the tutorials, and now that he has seen a fair bit of your work (still not the movies though) he is a bit more optimistic and we will likely be using AM to advertise the company.

 

If you are ever bored Noah and would like to get involved in a killer project look me up at www.MechaPS.com

[pixelmech]

Hey Noah,

 

First of all I wanted to chime in and say like everyone else that I really enjoyed it. Technically, it really is quite an amazing achievement and you should be proud!

 

Now, how about some critical comments? I know when I finish something I like to hear how I can improve.

 

For the most part, almost all of the animation looks like gaming animation. This is probably partly due to the fact that it's almost all high intensity action and you were certainly striving to get this thing done so it didn't drag out forever.

 

What made it seem to me like what I'm calling "gaming" animation is the stiffness of most of the movements. So in the future you would want to work with your arcs and easing, and follow through and so on.

 

A good example is the girl running toward you on the catwalk - her movements are extremely stiff.

 

However, this didn't take away from my enjoyment of your film - it's completely cool

 

And I realize your intent was probably not to set the world on fire with character animation skill, but to get the movie done as a whole - and again, it's a great accomplishment.

 

Your models, as ever, are stunning.

 

Hope to see more in the future!

 

Tom

[Gaijin]

Just a quick question on the scripting - what ever happened to Nene? You have Priss, minus hardsuit, roaming about on her motorcycle and on foot, and you have Priss's hardsuit in the middle of the action at the same time Priss (sans suit) is fighting elsewhere. I understand this is an adaptation, but for those of us who know the source material - both the 2040 version and the original 2032 OAVs - the discrepancy is rather glaring.

 

P.S. Did you ever finish the hi-res version?

[Mr. C]

All I can say is wow... ive watched it 8 times so far... Ive always wanted to creat a 3d cgi mini series and I think I just got my insperation.