Santa's little helper

[thejobe]

Well its been over a year. but finally it is done.

let me know what you guys thinks of it.

[Shelton]

Awesome

[robcat2075]

I enjoyed your production! You could call it "Biobot Saves Christmas"

 

There were a few story points that were a bit foggy but i think i got it.

 

I think you've got more animation there than I've done in my whole character animation life.

 

Congratulations on getting the show done!

[thejobe]

yeah it went thru like 20 name changes and never decided lol.

my buddy did the majority of the animations. i think he did a good job.

and thanks! it was a long rough road lol.

[Rodney]

Seven minutes of animation is a considerable achievement.

The majority never take a project all the way to completion and here you've got this success under your belt.

Congratulations!

 

it was a long rough road

 

It was fun watching you post progress on this short. There is a lot of work represented in the number of models and sets alone.

Add in the music, voices and such and its easy to see this was big production.

Not that I counted but I'd wager you approached having 100 models if we including those adapted directly such as the robot?

 

As far as critical feedback... boy I can't wait to see your future projects because you had to learn a ton on this one.

First time productions often suffer a little not in what is present in the production but what could be edited out and left on the cutting room floor.

I'll head off on a tangent for a moment to see if I can put my thoughts in this arena into words...

 

When I was in high school a very long time ago my art teacher critiqued drawings from my sketchbook with something akin to these words: "You draw very well but your drawings are seldom finished."

 

I must admit that I was a bit too high minded to consider what she meant by that and certainly too wrapped up in myself to consider asking her to explain in detail. Specifically she was referring to elements of light and dark that allowed things in view to recede into the distance or to pop forward and further control the imagery's focus. Note that I thought I had put these elements into the drawings but was not listening attentively to grasp that I was not.

 

So how might the lesson I learn translate into observation related to your short?

Hmmm... bear with me here as I attempt to move forward.

 

The music track was well done. It very impressively carried the story forward.

The dialogue wasn't as clear and could have been 'bolder'. What do I mean by that? I'm not entirely sure but for what it's worth I'd say the dialogue came through as someone reading a script versus word emanating from a 'real' character. This is no great sin in an early effort but an area to watch to up the game for future endeavors. As I'm not experienced in this myself I'll just suggest the reading should be read in a more exaggerated way several times over and then (only if necessary) scaled back if overly enthusiastic. Several characters seemed to mumble a bit and this exaggerated vocal quality can help to differentiate between characters without any visuals at all. My memory recalls that the voices were largely interchangeable and I would guess that this is primarily because they were read by the same person. That's fine but if one person is going to read more than one part there will be even more need for exaggerated characterization in voice recording. Note that I thought the quality of audio itself was very good. Regardless... impressive work and you should be very proud of this effort.

 

Back to the imagery...

As I've mentioned the audio really carried the story forward and this is in great and grand tradition of every piece of quality animation I've seen before.

Could it have been edited more tightly to push the imagery more? I think so.

Now, I don't recall if there is a specific reason for the length of your short (such as a class project with specific requirements). The length of that audio alone will dictate what imagery you have to put forth.

 

I suppose what I am saying is that with tighter editing there were a few composition/continuity gaps that could have been smoothed over.

***SPOILER*** A random example from memory which few folks might notice: As the robot approaches the ninja's that surround the captured elves the characters are arranged in such a way that no matter which way the robot approaches one of the ninja's are likely to see him. As the story proceeds however the robot moves all the way around to the other side (camera continuity-wise) and makes his presence known by tapping one of the ninja's on the shoulder. The scene works but could have been more direct and clear if the editing kept the sequences objective in focus. Note that I assume the objective to be that of the robot sneaking up and suddenly making his presence known. This is a case where perhaps 'less is more' because similar to an earlier sequence where the robot disappears and reappears and the audience gets that he has not disappeared but simply has moved forward that sequence could work similarly and echo that by letting the story progress in the mind of the viewer. Example: Establish scene by showing elves surrounded by ninjas... Show robot moving forward toward them... cut away so that robot disappears.... show close up of hand moving forward to tap ninja on the shoulder... show startled reaction of the ninja. About four or five story beats and then off they go to escape and the pace quickens even more. Note the change in pace that you seem to have attempted... slow... slow... slow.. BOOM! Reaction time and the chase is on. Not only does this motivate the characters (very imporant!) it clarifies the story points while further informing the viewer. Anything beyond what is essential is either wasted effort or opportunuty for character performance.

 

I drifted a bit there. Sorry.

With regard to my teacher's advise "finish the work"... think of each shot as having a sole single purpose. Once that purpose is accomplished attack a new purpose.

Minor example: When you show the elves at work near the beginning you might have shown them at a distance as a group (nice establishing shot) but then move the camera in closer to show what they are doing. If staying at the same camera distance too long the audience will begins to say, "okay, we've seen this before... am I missing something?" and they will begin to look for it. Anticipate what you can do with audience motivation by moving to (or purposefully hiding) another story point. Note that when I say 'purposefully hiding' this is to say that they will see something related to this later in the story but it's too early to reveal it now. For your story it might be a close up of a teddy bear or doll being put together by an elf but then later a dozen or more already completed with the elf still making more. That element of repetition but with some progression helps to tell a bigger picture than any shot or sequence can alone.

 

Okay, I've droned on enough.

In a big way you have done exactly what my teacher suggested to me in finishing the work.

And you have added experience to your current skillset that can come only with actually doing the work.

Revel in the moment and be justifiably proud of your work.

Take a break if necessary because you've certainly earned it.

With the promise of what I see in this short I'm already eagerly anticipating your next project!

[thejobe]

Thanks for the review and i will take some of the advice to the next project!

as for some of the scenes you mentioned.

most of the shots we had were for time saving since our PC power was not up to bar to the scenes we needed.

since we were rendering scenes while we were working on others we saved some time but if we rendered all of it after we finished animating it probably came out to about 2 months of rendering.

so most of this was just time saving. as for the voice acting, well yeah we just are horrible in that aspect lol. but this project was more for learning than anything.

most of the animations were done by my partner and he has done quite well considering he only learned 3D last August (2012).

 

we have already moved onto the next project.

everything here will be featured in a full 3D Video game that based on the journey of the robot going to save Santa.

 

We are actually working on 3 Games at the same time, and will be starting a kick starter soon to get our studio up and running.

[esolc]

7 minutes 4 seconds - impressing!