Short film: "Gone" -- black and white geometric abstraction

[edlundart]

Hey everyone. I've been reading this forum for a while, and asked a question here and there. I would love to answer some too, but usually I just don't know the answers to people's questions. Hopefully that will change over time, but I'm still a novice, for sure. I thought I could be somewhat useful though by sharing my project in the WIP section and describing my process a little bit. If this post gets any kind of response, I may continue to post updates or answer questions or more likely ask questions on how to overcome my latest technical problem as I continue working on this short.

 

I've been working on my first animated short film on and off for several months. I got A:M about a year ago, started out doing tutorials, and once I got the basics figured out I started modeling a woman in the style I have developed in the last decade as an illustrator and artist. I have a body of work of characters in this style, but it's always been still images, and they've (almost) always had a more painterly texture. My work has not been character-driven as much as pose-driven, and often it has veered into very abstract territory. I love using these geometric forms to express various human ideas. I enjoy the contrast between the warmth of the messages I am conveying and the cool hardness of the forms.

 

 

So anyway, simple as she seems, modeling and rigging this woman took me forever, mostly because I insisted on beveling every shape. I think that was crucially important though. Despite all my efforts, she is far from perfect, especially in terms of rigging. But I've been able to work with its limitations, and I'm fairly happy with how the project is coming along.

 

Over the years I have attempted a couple of animation projects, but I always give up because I get too bored with it. To me, once I know exactly what it's going to be in my head, it feels as though the puzzle is complete and I can't stay interested. I've found my solution to this problem: I don't create a storyboard, I animate the scenes out of sequence, and I don't decide what individual scenes will look like until I start working on them. All I've got to work with is the general story outline I wrote. I intentionally refrained from working out all the details ahead of time, so that every moment of working on the film is a process of discovery, trial and error. You could argue that this is not the most effective way of working, and certainly it's close to the opposite of every piece of advice you'll ever hear about how to make a good film... but it's the way to do it for me.

 

Due to this way of working, I initially figured my film would probably be about 5-7 minutes. Now I know it likely won't amount to even 2 minutes. This is not because I have cut scenes I planned to do, it's because I have figured out the natural pacing of it as I went along, and it's clear to me now that the story will be told in less than a couple of minutes. I did make some decisions along the way to try to save time: I knew that coloring and texturing would be a drawn out experiment, so I decided to make a black and white film without any textures. I felt this aided my story and characters anyway, and the fact that it would help cut some corners in terms of time was a great bonus. I also chose many camera positions that are hiding flaws or missing scenery, etc. I really like coming up with shots that are both really great compositions AND clever in terms of hiding "problem areas."

 

I have well over a minute of finished animation, though some tweaks will be needed on some of the shots. The final render will probably take a couple of months running in the background on my pc... If you have comments I would love to hear them. Happy animating to all!

[johnl3d]

looks interesting and definitely a different style

[DarkLimit]

These shots are great am looking forward to more, I like ur style.

[Animus]

I really like the style of your images, very moody, can already feel the pace even without animation. The lighting looks great, the grainy look too.

 

Michel

[nixie]

Of all the animated shorts I have seen, at various festivals etc, the ones that hold my interest the best are those which do not exceed 2-3 minutes.

 

So I think you are doing well to keep it shorter. Good luck, it looks very original.

[edlundart]

Thanks for all the kind words. I'll post now and then with updates. Right now I'm working on a couple of shots where the character is seen drawing with chalk. It's definitely among the hardest shots I'll need for this project, but so far it's looking good. It's basically the shot you see in the middle row on the left in the image I posted.

[robcat2075]

That looks promising! Bevels are good.

 

I'd wish the images were somewhat better lit so i could more clearly see what's going on.

[nino banano]

Hi edlundart..this work has a very interesting look...I like the renders...keep on working and share it

[nimblepix]

Bård,

 

This is looking very good!

I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[edlundart]

Hello everyone,

time for an update on my project. Since my first post about it, I have actually completed the final renders for several scenes. I started a file in my word processor listing the shots and their status -- "currently rendering", "ready to render", "completed", "needs tweaking" etc. (a spreadsheet would probably make more sense, but I guess I'm more of a free-form kind of guy when it comes to organization). I'd estimate that about half of my film is rendered so far (sans any kind of post production). As you can tell, I am rendering some completed scenes while other scenes don't even exist in any form yet. I will probably post some short test animations here eventually. In the meantime, here are three more stills from my film:

 

 

The shots I mentioned of the character drawing with chalk are essentially ready to render, though I may need to do some more test renders to ensure the lighting is ok. Someone mentioned my posted renders look a bit dark. I am definitely riding that line, but I'm aiming to create a dark, moody look. I personally feel like it's working. I have a couple of shots where the character is turning on some lights, so there will be a nice sense of slightly different lighting situations.

 

By the way, nimblepix, thanks for getting my name right! I live and work in New York, but was born and raised in Oslo, Norway.

[NancyGormezano]

I live and work in New York, but was born and raised in Oslo, Norway.

 

Very, very interesting look - I look forward to viewing the story.

 

And now I might know why your art work reminds me of Scandanavian furniture.

 

My curiousity is really peaked.

[edlundart]

Indeed, those furniture designs have had an influence on me! I'm happy to hear the images make you want to see more. I'd say the film is about 75%-80% complete in terms of workload, even if I only have about half of it actually rendered.

[edlundart]

 

Amazing, but true: My short film is finished! Okay, let me modify that statement a tad... I believe all the animation work is complete. I am still doing final renders, which will take many more weeks. Then comes editing, and sound, and credits (I've gotten a start on those). I already wrote and recorded an original song for the film, but expect I will need to edit that to fit the pacing of the film. I'll also need to do some minor post production stuff, although I've tried pretty hard to render images that are very close to final.

 

According to my "status document" mentioned in a previous post, my film consists of 21 shots, plus 3 still shots that will be shown in rapid sequence to communicate three consecutive moments in time (kind of a mini montage).

 

For a total of 24 shots, there sure isn't much action. "Gone" will be a slow-paced, lyrical film, and not exactly a summer blockbuster. But hopefully a few people will find it beautiful. While I've been finishing the animation for this short, I've started planning my next project, which will be a comedy thing. It will be cool to work on something that maybe has a slightly broader appeal, while still being something worthwhile that I really want to work on.

[edlundart]

I last posted in the middle of April to say the animation work on my short film was done. Amazingly, it only recently was finally rendered! It ended up being a little shy of 3 minutes long. I am now in post-production, adding credits and sound effects as well as music. Hopefully I'll be able to post the film here fairly soon!

[Rodney]

I last posted in the middle of April to say the animation work on my short film was done. Amazingly, it only recently was finally rendered! It ended up being a little shy of 3 minutes long. I am now in post-production, adding credits and sound effects as well as music. Hopefully I'll be able to post the film here fairly soon!

 

I missed your earlier posts... must have been in transition.

Congratulations to you on completing production of 'Gone'.

 

Have you any thoughts to share regarding distribution of your short?

(Apologies if you mentioned this and I missed it)

[KenH]

I missed this one too. It seems like some threads aren't showing up in the activity page.

 

Anyway. please let us know when you have it completed edlundart. I'd love to see what it's about. Also, good tips on keeping your interest in a project!

[PaulX]

Great innovative work! I love the minimalist style and could see this doing very well in any animation festival...

[Gerry]

I'm only seeing this for the first time too! Nice look and style. All I can add is that at the outset, spending extra time on beveling is always time well spent! Looking forward to seeing some animation.

[edlundart]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I'll definitely post again when the film is ready. When it comes to festivals, does anyone know if there are any worthwhile festivals that would accept an animated short that is NOT on film (I don't want to spend money transferring this to film -- unless I learn that it's actually not that expensive for a 3 minute piece), and also if any festivals accept animations that have been previously shown for free on the web? I don't really want to sit on this for months while I wait to hear from festivals, when instead I could be showing it to people on the internet. Especially because I guess I'm not overly optimistic that any festivals would take my little aimless poem of a film.

 

The Animation Show seems like a good option. Any others?

http://www.animationshow.com/About

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[StormedFX]

This is goning to be a great animation. Keep us posted.

[edlundart]

Well... my film is finally done. You can check it out here, but make sure you click on the high quality link right below the video on the right-hand side:

 

I ineffectively spent about a year and a half animating an ambiguous story devoid of anything that could possibly generate significant audience interest. And I did it with dumb amounts of passion and pride, despite the many obstacles along the way.

 

The result is a humble black and white film of geometric figurative abstraction, perhaps best described as a visual poem about love, loss, and longing.

 

My first proper animated short is a reality. It was a lot of work. Please reward my ego by telling your friends about it, blogging about it, linking to it, commenting on it, and whatever else. If you like it, that is. If you think it's just boring or terrible, it's OK by me if you don't bother your friends about it. ;-)

[KenH]

Very nice work. I got all those words from watching it. Congratulations on finishing it.

[Caroline]

Wow - that was very emotional. Congratulations on your first movie. You must be very proud of it.

[MJL]

Profound and moving. A tale of sad truth, well told. Thank You

[edlundart]

Thanks a lot, folks. I hope more people will take the time to check it out. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, I’m proud that it has its own voice and is expressed in a unique style. And mostly, I’m just super-happy to be done with it! It’s kind of a liberating feeling. Now I’m ready to pick up work on my next project which will be a comedy series. But until then… check out my artsy-fartsy film and leave a comment if you like it!

[thefreshestever]

impressive.... i really liked everything about it, great look & feel... must have taken a looong time to render that i guess...

[NancyGormezano]

Has a wonderful feel to it, with very nice, interesting imagery for a heartfelt, moving story. I really enjoy seeing authentic personal style come thru.

[edlundart]

Thanks!

thefreshestever, it did take an eternity to render, although part of that is probably due to my oldish computer. I'd say that it took slightly less than an hour per frame (720x405) on average. I've been thinking about whether getting more RAM might increase the rendering speed or if my video card is just too crappy to allow for any performance boost through RAM alone. I might post a question about that later as a separate thread with more details.

[NancyGormezano]

I'd say that it took slightly less than an hour per frame (720x405) on average. I've been thinking about whether getting more RAM might increase the rendering speed or if my video card is just too crappy to allow for any performance boost through RAM alone. I might post a question about that later as a separate thread with more details.

 

The video card does not influence rendering time, a faster cpu would have the most impact on render time, and depending on what's in the scene - more ram could help as well - What are the specs of your computer currently? It's hard to imagine that those frames took 1 hour (I'd have to go back and analyze the imagery) The imagery seemed very straight forward..what were your render settings? Did you have a lot of reflections?, light rays, passes? I don't remember seeing hair. Were you using materials that were complex?

[johnl3d]

Nice piece well told story

[martin]

That was filmmaking, Ed. (You succeeded.)

[Gerry]

Really beautiful and minimal in the best way. I've left a comment on YouTube that unfortunately has something negative to say. (maybe that will get a few more people to click over there!)

[edlundart]

Thanks Martin! And thanks for the great software.

Gerry, I really appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts on YouTube, and I responded there. I had to respond in two parts because there is a character limit. It was meant to be read in this order:

 

I appreciate your comments. The "Prizeless" name is intended less as self-deprecation than a kind of jokingly bitter sentiment. I think my work is good but perhaps underappreciated because I don't do much networking or partying or schmoozing with the right people, etc. For me it's a defiant name, saying "this may not receive glitzy awards, but it's the real deal."

 

I will likely take you up on your second point -- the "nudity" angle was a silly attempt to draw some traffic to a film that probably isn't catnip to most YouTube viewers. I'll probably change it to something less sensationalistic soon. Thanks very much for your kind words and your thoughts.

[StormedFX]

It is great but too sad for me.

[Gerry]

Well, now I have a followup question: What are you gonna call it when it DOES start winning prizes? Heh! Gotcha!

[edlundart]

I forgot to answer Nancy earlier:

 

It's hard to imagine that those frames took 1 hour (I'd have to go back and analyze the imagery) The imagery seemed very straight forward..what were your render settings? Did you have a lot of reflections?, light rays, passes? I don't remember seeing hair. Were you using materials that were complex?

 

The long rendering times are due to the whole film being rendered using Ambient Occlusion. It would have taken a lot less time if not for that, but I like the look...

 

To StormedFX, I'll take that as a compliment that the film had an emotional impact! And Gerry, that's a problem I'd love to have! :-) If that happens I'll have to come up with a new production company name or just drop it altogether. It's really just for fun, after all.