Hansel & Gretel

[satyajit2000]

Hi all,

 

"Hansel & Gretel", which is my second work is at my website www.satyajitchakraborty.com. This is an 30 mins animation of the famous tale. You can see (on my website) that I have conceived this movie as an musical rhyme. And the whole storyboard, piece of script and a snippet of the music with the voice are there for you. Question : Do you find the accent of the voice annoying?

 

This is the documentation of the way this animation is being made. Everyone is welcome to comment and critic the arts and animation I am taking. It’s only your words that can make this animation a good one.

 

I don’t really know how to put an animation WIP of the entire 30 mins of film online. I don’t have that amount of space available to me. So, I intend to upload first shots, then replace them with new ones. By this way I can use the same space of say 10 mb to show my entire movie. Alas, the old shots won’t be available. Question : Do you have a better solution?

 

Not so long ago :

 

The project of "Hansel & Gretel" was conceived middle of this year. But it was not until

end of June that I started the actual animation. That time the models were almost finished, based upon excellent character designs by ‘Paul’. I have rigged (thanks to TSM2) and smartskinned most of them (except Witch) model. Some of them were still to be textured and secondary animation rigs are still to be perfected. But. by any means I wanted to start the animation. Other than the models I had already completed the sketchy storyboard. And, the unmixed track was in my hands. My artist friend ‘Kheto’ is already on the BGs. Yes, this is going to be another 2D set & 3D actors. I’m getting addicted to this technique.

 

So, first of all I started laying off the storyboard on the voice + music track in Adobe Premier. Almost immediately I found my very brief storyboard was vastly inadequate for the animation. Anyway, I didn’t do the storyboard in extreme details because I wanted to finish it at one go. Staying in the moment. So, most of the acting work is going to be done during animation. I continued the animatic by repeating the storyboard shots, occasionally drawing new ones. The number of shots in “Hansel & Gretel” reached about 120.

 

Present Day :

 

At this date I’m on shot no. 75. The witch has entered the scene and she is a interesting character to animate. The animation of this movie is going to be somewhat between ‘limited’ and ‘keyframe packed’. I have to compromise but keeping the story alive. Please help me on this. My present daily routine is animate by day and render by night. I really have very limited processor power. You’ll laugh and fall off the chair if I tell you my PC configuration.

 

Now :

 

I’m posting the very first steps taken for “Hansel & Gretel”. The character designs. Next, will come the storyboard, then the finished model shots, the rig. Then the animations will follow. I’ll showcase the beautiful BGs too. Lastly I’ll delve into compositing the shots.

 

Keep watching.

 

Satyajit

[Duke]

Hi Satyajit

 

Looks interesting, but I was at your website and cant seem to get to the music to hear the voice

I get to the 4shared.com website and see nothing there.

 

images are great though, would be interesting to see the movie.

 

Leo

[satyajit2000]

Thanks Duke,

 

I fixed the link. Please go and check it out.

 

Satyajit

[Kamikaze]

I'll be watching and thanks for doing this ,these are very enjoyable to follow and I always learn something durring the process...

 

Mike

[KenH]

I love your "dreamy" style. It's looking quite advanced already too. Keep it up!

[JTalbotski]

Very nice look to the whole production! Nice style to the characters and backgrounds. It will be fun to see the progress!

 

Thanks for sharing,

 

Jim

[Rodney]

By this way I can use the same space of say 10 mb to show my entire movie. Alas, the old shots won’t be available. Question : Do you have a better solution?

 

Satyajit,

While you will definitely want to pursue other ways of getting your film out don't forget about A:M Films!

Even if its edited out scenes from the movie you'll want to post at least some of it there.

Contact Hash Inc for more specifics.

 

I do like the idea of releasing personal film projects in serialized increments.

That'd keep interest high and give people something to look forward too.

Then when you're done... present the whole thing! Heck... sell a DVD!**

 

Not many people can sustain a project over a long period of time.

If anyone can do it though you can!

 

Love those character designs!

 

P.S. For the lazy people like me here's Satyajit's link in click version: www.satyajitchakraborty.com

 

**I see from your website that is already planned. Excellent.

Edited August 18, 2006 by Rodney

[ddustin]

Satyajit,

The "accent" is cool. It adds a different perspective. I only listened to the ryme.

 

How much space do you need?

 

Perhaps those of us on the forum with web-sites can offer storage for free.

 

Email me if you would like help.

 

David

[Zaryin]

Satyajit, I love everything about this so far. The Concept, Characters, Lighting, Color... Excellent!

[NancyGormezano]

Charming, charming sound track - perfect - beautiful coloring & design - looks like a winner for sure.

[satyajit2000]

Thank you all,

 

So you think the accent is going? That's a good news. 'Nilanjana' the voice artist did a pretty good job. I'll serialise the animation for viewing. That's for sure. Now, I may run into space problem. Please help me if you can. I'll mail you ddustin.

 

The next part is here...

 

 

The Character Design & Models of Hansel & Gretel :

 

While designing the characters I tried to develop a specific look. Somewhere between claymation models and soft toys. The costumes are consulted from various books. Biswajit ‘Paul’ came up with the characters pretty quickly. I remember we got a little stuck on the witch design. But we got through it. Paul did a great work. Then it was my turn. I began modeling them. Starting from Hansel. I tried to develop on the style Paul maintained throughout the characters. I think the whole bunch took me maximum of 20 days. Meanwhile ‘Kheto’, my other artist, came up with the color chart for the characters. Characters are looking lovable. And that’s the point. Question : Do you find the characters inspired from something? We took lot of care to maintain originality. Is there anything we missed?

 

I’ll discuss with the storyboard next..

 

Satyajit

[trajcedrv]

I can tell that this one is going to be great! Lovely work so far!

 

Keep us posted!

[satyajit2000]

The Script of Hansel & Gretel

 

The story of Hansel & Gretel has several popular versions other than the original Grimm’s tale. Several dramatizations are available in DVD format. Live action, animation and stop motion, every variety. So, this project had to be unique from the script. I visualized the whole project to be aimed at pre-school audiences. May be Grade I/II. And, I conceived the script in a rhyme. Gathering from all the version of stories available, a pretty long rhyme is written. The writer was ‘Manas Choudhury’. He was my art mentor. He did a fabulous job with the rhyme. I knew he has got talents of a poet, but at the end he way surpassed my expectations. I still remember when he got his first few line, I knew it then that he has got it.

 

A portion of script is attached.

 

Storyboards coming up…

Portion_of_script.txt

[satyajit2000]

The Storyboard

 

Storyboarding is a very important step to me. May be the most important. This is the only time I look at the story as a whole, without any built up notions of the characters, the animation and the voices. Also, my storyboards don’t look like storyboards at all. No exposure sheet, no script tags. Nothing. Just comic book like panels. And, through the panels I try to design the flow of the story. The drawing is very important too. Other than staging and framing it incorporates various other important things like BGs, expression of the characters, the situation, and the overall mood. If a frame doesn’t feel sad or happy or violent, suiting my entire story, then it’s not working for me. The drawing cannot be rough, depicting just lines of action and compositions. Lines of action and compositions are important, but my panels must hold the moments in its entirety.

 

In every sense, storyboard becomes a guide to the storytelling more than animation. My every coming step must respect and learn from this storyboard.

 

Storyboard pages

 

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs1.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs2.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs3.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs4.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs5.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs6.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs7.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs8.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs9.gif

http://www.satyajitchakraborty.com/storyboards/hgs10.gif

 

The Voice & Music coming up…

[satyajit2000]

The Voice & Music

 

The voice artist is Nilanjana. And the music is given by his husband, Indra. Nilanjana works as a Radio Jockey. Indra is a professional Keyboard player, popular in local rock bands. They came recommended by the producing company Asha Audio. When we met, I discussed about the script and we both listened to some musicals. I remember we all liked the way “Boundin” by Pixar was composed. They took some time to come up with musical concepts and home recordings. Nilanjana has a little husky voice and I think that goes well with storytelling for kids. Indra composed some music loops and a nifty little signature tune of the movie. I sounded sweet to me.

 

At the recording studio, Nilanjana’s voice was to be recorded first. After taking some time to cut out unnecessary huskiness and other defects were all set. I told Nilanjana to make it as expressive as possible. Indra was there throughout the recording. Sometimes, I intervened to give suggestions of dramas into the script, to make it expressive. Indra took care in helping Nilanjana during difficult voice modulations. After about two recording sessions the voice was done.

 

Then Indra came into the scene, loading his homemade loops from his keyboard into the Recording Studio Tapes. The loops were all separated into tracks. After that, the recordist and Indra sat together to compose the tracks in Adobe Audition. Occasionally, cracks were discovered in the voice of Nilajana and those portions were retaken. The main problem with this type of process is that composer doesn’t have a clue, when to hold moments and when to pass. But here, since I got the movie in my head, I sat with the storyboard, listening to the music and giving cues where to hold the music, to indicate passing of time.

 

After the music was done, we did a rough mix and I had in my hand the voice track, the music track and the rough mix. I can start from this.

 

Listen to the unmixed track

 

Animatic coming up…

[Duke]

Hi Satyajit

 

It's looking great so far dude, I like the characters, did manage to get into the site to hear the voice and it does sound fine, a little dreamy, but fine.

 

keep going am looking forward to see the animatics

 

Leo

[satyajit2000]

The Animatic

 

During the development of the animatic with the voice+music track in Adobe Premier, the storyboard proved mostly insufficient. So, I have to duplicate the frames and occasionally draw new frames to accommodate the camera cuts. This movie is not going to have many moving camera shots. I mean, shots like dolly and crane are limited. Most of shots being made are still shots and track shots. And, there is a significant difference between the timing of still shots and moving shots. In moving shots, camera itself becomes one of the actors and helps immensely to guide the eyes and mind of the audience. It’s a vital tool for the director to have the camera on move. Also, it uses the parallax to stand out the subjects and their relative distance. Whereas, in still shots, the camera becomes dead. And all the killing camera moves becomes totally irrelevant. In this case studying traditional animations (Disney, warner bros., anime) becomes helpful. And soon I began to discover the beauty and power of this technique. I’ll discuss more about this later.

 

Now, I’ll return to the animatic. The reason I got into this topic is, it requires understanding of this difference while doing the shot divisions. Animatic doesn’t incorporate certain things. The time of one shot with a moving camera looks faster than the shot of a still camera. And again, the movement of actors in a scene makes shots shorter or longer. But, animatic is always still. And while designing a fast paced shot division, it becomes difficult to determine shot lengths. It requires understanding of the craft. Until one goes through the exercise of storyboard-animatic-animation several times, it’s difficult to develop this intuition. Anyway, I do not claim I’ve developed the intuition, but I noticed that I’m getting better with practice.

 

My animatic is finished with about 120 shots in total. Timing and pacing is critical in telling good stories. I’m not that experienced in making a full proof animatic. During animation, I use to go back several times to the storyboards and re-edit the animatic. In this phase, the animatic becomes a rough sketch of the story. And, I’m all ready to get into the animation.

 

But there’s a little step to be taken in before that. I have to rig, smartskin (weight) the characters. And have to give them expression/lip poses too.

 

 

I’ll discuss about the rig next. I’d pick the witch model for dissection. he he…

 

The rigging coming up…

[Dhar]

Thank you Satyajit for sharing your experiences. This is very helpful for those of us who aren't animators by profession nor have the time to study the art.

 

The way I time my scenes is I play the sound track and play the images in my head, then stop the track at, what I beleieve to be, the end of the scene and then see what frame # the track displays, then I animate my scene within that time frame. But when I play the scenes together, your observations come into play..... "that scene was shorter than I imagined it".. or "that scene looks dead" etc..

[dawgking]

All very cool. My film is only 7 min and been working on it foreer. Can't wait to see your rigs

 

 

The Animatic

 

During the development of the animatic with the voice+music track in Adobe Premier, the storyboard proved mostly insufficient. So, I have to duplicate the frames and occasionally draw new frames to accommodate the camera cuts. This movie is not going to have many moving camera shots. I mean, shots like dolly and crane are limited. Most of shots being made are still shots and track shots. And, there is a significant difference between the timing of still shots and moving shots. In moving shots, camera itself becomes one of the actors and helps immensely to guide the eyes and mind of the audience. It’s a vital tool for the director to have the camera on move. Also, it uses the parallax to stand out the subjects and their relative distance. Whereas, in still shots, the camera becomes dead. And all the killing camera moves becomes totally irrelevant. In this case studying traditional animations (Disney, warner bros., anime) becomes helpful. And soon I began to discover the beauty and power of this technique. I’ll discuss more about this later.

 

Now, I’ll return to the animatic. The reason I got into this topic is, it requires understanding of this difference while doing the shot divisions. Animatic doesn’t incorporate certain things. The time of one shot with a moving camera looks faster than the shot of a still camera. And again, the movement of actors in a scene makes shots shorter or longer. But, animatic is always still. And while designing a fast paced shot division, it becomes difficult to determine shot lengths. It requires understanding of the craft. Until one goes through the exercise of storyboard-animatic-animation several times, it’s difficult to develop this intuition. Anyway, I do not claim I’ve developed the intuition, but I noticed that I’m getting better with practice.

 

My animatic is finished with about 120 shots in total. Timing and pacing is critical in telling good stories. I’m not that experienced in making a full proof animatic. During animation, I use to go back several times to the storyboards and re-edit the animatic. In this phase, the animatic becomes a rough sketch of the story. And, I’m all ready to get into the animation.

 

A portion of the Animatic

 

But there’s a little step to be taken in before that. I have to rig, smartskin (weight) the characters. And have to give them expression/lip poses too.

 

 

I’ll discuss about the rig next. I’d pick the witch model for dissection. he he…

 

The rigging coming up…

[satyajit2000]

The Rigging

 

The discussion of the rig will be relatively short. Because I depend entirely on the rig installing software by Raf Anzovin called The Setup Machine (www..com). Having used a few rig. I must say Raf’s TSM rig is not the most complex, craziest rig. There are rigs with better controllability of the mesh. The squetch rig of Hash inc is one of them. Raf’s rig, although customizable to a vast extent, keeps it simple while animating, and that’s why I like it and can’t live without it.

 

Rigging is an important step. For me, whatever magic functionality the rig may offer, while animating, the controls must be simple and minimal. This is very important. As I work alone, I constantly have to balance the quality in complexity and speed of production. So, the rig mustn’t have unnecessary controls that are seldom used. Extra control means extra time taken for animation. When the project is of 30 mins, an extra click while animating a frame counts. So, the rig must be sleek. Extra controls like squash-stretch can stay hidden from my view. I want to have a clear view of the character without lots of controllers floating here and there. But the question arises, does the quality suffers by keeping it simple?

 

Not necessarily !

 

I’m a storyteller (or at least trying to be) more than an animator. To me, if the character carries out the story as I want it to, I can do without that extra facial bone. The point is, knowing when to stop pushing the rig.

 

TSM 2 is a fabulous piece of software. It’s possible to dig into and customize the rig suiting your animation. In my case I use the stretching sliders seldom. Also, I never use the auto CG functions, doesn’t work for me. Apart from that, I’ve taken some steps to speed up the production time during rigging and posing/morphing. I’ve made a hand pose/morph for each hand from fist open position to close position. I can build up most of the hand animation using just these, for the others I can animate the fingers separately. The brows and face animation are done through pose sliders. I use only four Phoneme shapes – M, A in one slider and E, O on another. The eyelids are controlled through a single slider. Secondary animations of hair locks are done by Dynamic constraints.

 

That’s it ! I’m not using a facial rig or special scripts. Mainly to speed up the animation production. But does that affect the storytelling? I guess only the animation itself can verify that.

 

Acting during animation coming up…

[satyajit2000]

Acting during animation

 

Animation is acting, but in a weird sense. The methodology of acting and preparation of acting directly contradicts with the methodology of animation. Acting school teaches various ways to get into the character and the scene, and act mostly involuntarily. Actor acts as if the scene is real and tries to be into the situation, into the moment, without being concerned about how his limbs, walks and face should move. These movements mustn’t be voluntary, or the act will look unrealistic. As Ed Hooks said in “Acting for animation” (There should be more books like this) – Acting is reacting. In this book Hooks tried to bridge the gap between acting and animating. Acting and animating still remains the opposite banks of a river. Ideas can travel from this side to that. But that’s all.

 

Animators doesn’t have the advantages of the methodology modern actors do. For my characters cannot act involuntarily. Animation is very much voluntary action. So, every time I animate a scene, I find it hard to focus on the acting performance. I always have the feeling, that my performance is suffering immensely. As I cannot stay in the moment or character. Cannot apply the Stanislavisky’s principles. Sometimes I try to find solution in video recording a long performance and then playing it back to build my animation over it. But it seems unrealistic to apply it to cartoon characters. For example an actor mustn’t build up anticipation for an action. Which is a must for cartoon animation. So I couldn’t act, record it and rotoscope it for cartoon action. Rotoscoping may be applicable for ‘gollum’, but not here.

 

Gradually my animation acts start looking like from the age of ‘Francois Delsarte’. Where the acts are voluntarily designed upon poses and physical signals. Studying various acting theories only helps in creating the scene. An animator has a tougher task than actors when acting is concerned. I have to recreate the act every time, mechanically, when I animate. Many time, sitting on my chair. So, I guess mixture of pose based acting and a deep striving to act involuntarily while putting together an act is the key.

 

At every scene or sequence, I try to work out the act first. And, that’s the biggest problem. Keeping in mind the various principles of acting, I try to solve this problem. And most of the time this is where I get stuck. I cannot find the acting solution! Sometime the solution appears in ‘mime’-ing the act. Like trying to describe the words through gestures. But the words, which can’t be gestured, were most difficult to handle. I try to concentrate on Stanislavisky’s methods and other methods to work out the act. And when every trial is unfruitful I find it helpful to discuss with friends and family to find a way. And I tell you, this is a fine way, you’ll be surprised to find so many natural actors in your surroundings eager to help you out.

A third problem was the narration in between dialogues.

 

Like…

 

“Save your sobering,” said the witch

“It doesn’t help you at all”

 

This ‘said the witch’ phrase disturbs the flow of act and results unusually long anticipations or follow-thru phases. I had to be careful and plan some in between acts during the narration.

 

Anyway, after the act is designed and in my mind it’s essential to block out the animation at one go. Then I can start giving as much passes of anticipation, follow-thru and secondary actions my limited time quota permits.

 

At the end, I think, it’s the acting, which separates a good animator from a bad. I’m only beginning to gather an understanding of ‘Acting for animation’. There’s so much scope for a better act within the same dialogues. I should be practicing acting with monologues and attend some good acting classes. I’m nowhere a good actor. And if I nurture this weakness, I'll see my goal getting far away. I know, the way to reach it is to keep on animating. And acting. Over and over again. It’s no wonder during Disney’s golden era an animator was considered an animator after he has spent at least 13 years animating.

 

Now, the animations will start coming up. I’ve decided to put the WIP of the entire 30 mins film online. It’ll be shown in 3-5 mins serialized parts. I’ll use the youtube.com service to showcase this film. Also, the compositing of the film has not started. So, only the animation with the guide track will be showcased and put up for critics. You have to bear with blank backgrounds.

 

Next …The First Part of the “Hansel & Gretel” will be online. I’m eager to hear opinions and suggestions about it.

 

Satyajit

[trajcedrv]

Satyajit, thank you so much for sharing your process with us... This is going to be not only fun, but also educational!

 

keep us posted!

 

Drvarceto

[gschumsky]

The Voice & Music

 

The voice artist is Nilanjana. And the music is given by his husband, Indra.

 

So, Nilanjana is a guy? Sounds like a female. Though, to be honest, I really don't like the voice work. The visuals are outstanding, but I think an interesting take on the voice might be to have even a bit more of an Indian accent..Nilanjana sound as if he/she is trying to fake more of an English accent and avoid the richness of that Indian accent.

[KenH]

I assume he put in "his husband" instead of "her husband". I kind of like the voice.

[satyajit2000]

Oops. Nilianjana is a girl alright. It's hard to for a guy to sound like that.

Now, about the accent, I'm getting a bit worried about that. Any more suggestions?

 

Satyajit

[satyajit2000]

Animation WIP Part 1/9

 

This is the first part of the nine part series of animation. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

 

PART 1/9

 

You can post your feedback and critics here on this forum if you face difficulty to post at bloggers. I've included the shot no and frame no for specifying mistakes and suggest improvements.

 

I'm working alone in this project. So, your feedbacks are really valuable to me. I'm looking forward to make this real good. Please help me out on this.

 

Satyajit

[Dhar]

Positive: Great looking charaters. Anticipation and follow thru are very good. Expression and exaggeration are on the mark.

 

Nit-picking: Around frame 58, Shot 8, Henel's hands sink into the table, & around frame 300, Shot 9, Gretel's hair bows make some strange flicking. Their head movements look too mechanical, both moving at the same slow speed. Shot 11, the narrator says "starving is their frequent friend", but that is not translated well.

 

Disclaimer: these comments are not by a professional animator and do not necessarily represent the views of Hash Inc. or its forum members.

[Frank Silas]

Satyajit,

 

keep doing your thing man! I watched the animation wip. It is going to be fantastic when it's done. Kudos!

 

Frank Silas

http://www.franksilas.com

[KenH]

That's great Satyajit! You're out doing yourself. You really are getting great expression out of the bodies without much facial expression. Do you paint the backgrounds yourself? Sorry if you said already.

 

I too noticed the expression "starving is their frequent friend" which might be better as "starvation/hunger is their frequent friend".

Some minor points:

 

Shot 1...perhaps some bending on the swing ropes. It looks very ridgid.

 

Shot 7....the step mother doesn't seem cruel and angry. If she didn't frown she might look very pretty. Maybe she could be uglified as all step mothers seem to be....crooked nose etc. Your call.

 

Shot 13....slight slipping in Hansels walk as he walks away from Grettel.

 

 

Looking forward to the next part. Let us know when it's up. It's a pity it's not quicktime as we can step through frame by frame with it.

[steve392]

Great stuff ,lovely characters and I like the voice

[satyajit2000]

Thank you all for your comments and critics on Part 1,

 

Not only I'll address the problems but I'll try to explain how I solved the problems.

 

Shot 1 :

Bending in ropes > Have to add a little muscle animation at both end of swing, bending the ropes a little.

 

Shot 7 :

Stepmom model > I thought as the witch is model as crooked, it's better to make stepmom simpler. May be a woman who is pretty and tries to look younger that age.

 

Shot 8 :

Hands sinking > have to make the channels of hand bones to zero slope interpolation.

 

Shot 9 :

Bow flickering > Happens when you've stopped a render of animation with dynamic constraints and start the render again from the next frame. The simulation gets recalculated and yields different results in the two render and so filckering occurs at the juncture.

 

Head movement mechanical > have to offset the head animations a little and add a follow thru like motion.

 

Shot 11 :

Starving is not translated well > Have to work out a small inbetween shot. Any ideas?

 

Shot 13 :

Slippering of hansel feet > That's channel problem again. Have to make the feet IKs Zero slope.

 

Other Question : The BGs are painted by a very talented artist "Soumitro Kheto"

 

Satyajit

 

Part 2 coming up on 30th

[satyajit2000]

Animation WIP Part 2/9

 

Part 2/9 is uploaded and Part 1/9 is removed.

 

This is the 2nd part of the nine part series of animation WIP. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

 

PART 2/9 Link

 

Also, you can view the trailer HERE

 

Please post your feedbacks, your previous feedbacks were immensely helpful. I'm starting to believe that this is in the right hands for critic.

 

Satyajit

[KenH]

Nice work! Only crit would be to change the camera angle on the father in shots 24 and 27. At the moment, it's on the side of his face which isn't all that interesting and you can't see his mouth move.

[martin]

In Scene 28, the camera spends a lot of time looking at the back of Gretel's head, and worse, it blocks Hansel's face while he's talking. Close-up on Hansel while he's talking.

 

In Scene 34, cut to a close-up of the moon's face when it smiles.

 

Overall, you need a close-up whenever a particular character is talking.

 

You're holding too long, and you could make the camera angles more interesting. This is shot like Claymation - which is okay for Claymation but you're doing CG.

 

Characters are good.

 

Need other voices besides the narrator.

 

Sound effects will help immensely.

 

Characters need "Hair." In fact, I'm assuming you're planning on going back and texturing everything later because the palette is very small.

 

What age group is this aimed at?

 

Do at least one glamour shot so we can see what you intend for the final lighting.

 

GREAT JOB. ONE MAN, ONE COMPUTER, DOING A 30 MINUTE FILM AT HOME!

[satyajit2000]

Whoao! Thanks a lot Martin for taking a look. I'm trying hard to make this project a reality and with all of your help I'm starting to believe I can do that.

 

Your observations :

 

>Shot 28 : Camera spends a lot of time ..:

I agree. I'll include another angle.

 

>Shot34 : Close-up :

I think it would be nice. Let's see.

 

>You're holding too long, and you could make the camera angles more

>interesting. This is shot like Claymation - which is okay for Claymation

>but you're doing CG.

 

I admit the technique is inspired from Clay animation and 2D animation. For now I cannot include camera movements very much. I'd have to include more shots I think. When the holds are getting too much.

 

>Characters are good.

Thank you.

 

>Need other voices besides the narrator.

I'm afraid I cannot address this issue that you've raised for now. Like, I cannot do the voice recording again (Reason-budget).

 

>Sound effects will help immensely

Right you are. Sound effects will be there at the final version.

 

>Characters need "Hair." In fact, I'm assuming you're planning on going

>back and texturing everything later because the palette is very small.

I'd rather not include hair in this project. I'd love to, but the rendering time would be too long

to handle for my little PC. Well, re-texturing is an option I didn't thought over. Is it really

looking that bad?

 

>What age group is this aimed at?

8-13 primarily.

 

>Do at least one glamour shot so we can see what you intend for the final

>lighting.

I'll post some pics from the final compositing.

 

>GREAT JOB. ONE MAN, ONE COMPUTER, DOING A 30 MINUTE FILM AT HOME!

You preached us just that. I'm just a follower.

 

Thank you Ken for your obeservations :

 

Shots 24 & 27 > Camera angle :

I agree and I've replaced that right away by a 3/4th view of father.

 

Satyajit

[KenH]

Much better Satyajit. And good points Martin.....

 

I like the one voice doing the whole thing as it adds a sense of a story being told from a book. Perhaps that could be the intro.....a book opening. However, perhaps she could have made the different voices more distinctive but no matter.

I think the hair stands up ok for the look you want.

 

Also Part 2 kept my two year old neice watching it all.

[case]

cool looks neat keep us posted.

[satyajit2000]

Thank you all for posting the feedbacks. I'm glad Ken that you've liked it. Happy to make something watched by your 2 yr old.

 

I'm posting some shots from the composite, check them out

 

Also, 3rd part is coming up on 8th October.

 

 

Satyajit

[trajcedrv]

Looking great so far!

[satyajit2000]

Animation WIP Part 3/9

 

Part 3/9 is uploaded and Part 2/9 is removed.

 

This is the 3rd part of the nine part series of animation WIP. Only animations are there. Compositing hasn't been done yet. Please check it out. This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

 

PART 3/9 Link

 

Also, you can view the trailer HERE

 

Please post your feedbacks.

 

Satyajit

[KenH]

Shot 35 frame 268......Hansel gets up. His knees pop abit.

 

Shot 36....there could be abit more variety in their movments as they follow the pebbles. Their heads could move abit as though their looking for the next one.

 

Shot 37.....Step mother could look more angry by putting her brows down.

 

Shot 41.....Looks like some creasing on mothers top lip.

 

Shot 49.....when they walk, they seem a little flat footed. That may be the style, but I'd like to see some bending at their ankles more. Up to you.

 

Shot 50.....When the mother says "to collect" her head jerks back in about 2 frames....looks like a glitch.

 

Looking forward to the next one and the witch.

[Nunsofamerica]

awesome shots man. keep it up

[satyajit2000]

Shot 35 frame 268......Hansel gets up. His knees pop abit.

 

Shot 36....there could be abit more variety in their movments as they follow the pebbles. Their heads could move abit as though their looking for the next one.

 

Shot 37.....Step mother could look more angry by putting her brows down.

 

Shot 41.....Looks like some creasing on mothers top lip.

 

Shot 49.....when they walk, they seem a little flat footed. That may be the style, but I'd like to see some bending at their ankles more. Up to you.

 

Shot 50.....When the mother says "to collect" her head jerks back in about 2 frames....looks like a glitch.

 

Looking forward to the next one and the witch.

 

Points well noted Ken,

 

What to say. I have to correct these. Also, you're right, the walk needs more ankle breakdown.

 

Satyajit

 

Next Part coming up on 14th Oct

[Jeetman]

I commend you on such an elaborate project.

 

Although there are areas in the animation that could use some improvement (as Martin and Ken H have suggested), I think you are relaying the story quite well.

 

 

Keep up the good work!!

 

 

George

[gazzamataz]

OMG!

 

Where do you find the time man?

 

You must live and eat this stuff…

 

Makes my efforts seem limp…

 

Apart from that this is pretty gripping stuff, I will be keeping an eye on your great work m8.

[satyajit2000]

 

Although there are areas in the animation that could use some improvement (as Martin and Ken H have suggested), I think you are relaying the story quite well.

 

 

 

Relaying the story, yes that's what I want to learn.

 

This whole project is about that. I'm been asked, 'why am I doing this long story. I should concentrate on quality rather than quantity.' But telling a feature length story is vastly different from telling a short film. Though I'm a novice in this area, I want to continue to learn. It seems such a vast subject for one lifetime. And the masters of this trade seems to do it so well. And I'm so lacking. But somewhere down the road I'll know the secret to capture the minds and hearts. For that, I have to practice. And there's no way to practice storytelling than telling stories after stories and analysing feedbacks. At least for me there's no other way. So, I'm going to continue to do that.

 

Satyajit

[satyajit2000]

Animation Weekly WIP Part 4/9

 

Part 4/9 is uploaded and Part 3/9 is removed. I'm still on the corrections of Part 3. Anyway the 4th Part is up for critic.

 

This WIP video file will be online for a window of one week. That is upto 21st October. After that it'll be deleted from youtube and the subsequent part will be online.

 

PART 4/9 Link

 

Also, you can view the trailer HERE

 

Please post your feedbacks.

 

Satyajit

[Dhar]

That commentator sings quite well, I was expecting flat notes and terrible singing like I'm used to when hearing children stories being read, but this one pleasantly surprised me and kept my interes in the movie. (Hey, commentators deserve credit too)

 

Couple obvs., Hansel's walk cycle in shot 50, 56 and 58 need some work, it's too uniform. I think the foot needs to accelerate to the ground as the step is being taken, it will add not only to the believability of the walk but also to the desperation of the situation they're in.

 

Watch Gretel's hair bows in shot 61, start scrubbing the chor. before you get to the scene to allow the Dynamic Constraints to settle before the scene is rendered.

 

Good job. Keep us posted.

[case]

-hmmm animation when there chasing the bird was sketchey in some places.

 

-The story realtion is pretyy well so far actually love the story you have to it.

 

-One more thing a couple shots they froze right when start a shot emotion right when the scence starts.

[KenH]

Shot 56....I'm hearing this oran sound through out the film. I don't like it. It reminds me of tacky circus music. I'd prefer if it was something classic like a flute or clarinette.

 

Shot 58.....The two are walking in sync with each other. Abit of offset would be nice.

 

Shot 63.....Their pupils are so large, that it's difficult to see any eye white (to show they're eyes are open with shock).

 

Keep it up!