Forest of Dooooom (thesis..)

aesir

So ummm, I've been working on that short film thing, and, here's the result.

http://www.artofscottjonsson.com/FoDlowres.mov (save target as. its not web friendly. Its H.264. 55 megs or somethin)

Here are a couple screen caps to look at while it downloads.







My thoughts on my film (me whining):


I reallllly bit off more than I could chew with this film. I mean, obviously I finished it, and pretty much everything reached an acceptable level, but there isn't a single element in it that I can say was completely polished, whether we look at design, cinematography, pacing, modeling, texturing, lighting, animation, etc. Honestly, I don't know how I thought it would be a good idea to have a film with this many characters. I made too many compromises as I worked to keep a schedule. Hurray reality. When I try to compare the original idea in my head to what the result was, I captured none of the feeling/quality I wanted. I'm definitely still a beginner when it comes to film making.

However, it was a GREAT learning experience for me. It gave me a much clearer idea of where I am skill wise, and gave me a much better handle on how to make films. I feel like the next piece I make will be miles beyond this one quality wise. And next time, I certainly wont be on a schedule and I won't need to rush anything.


I'd really like to hear some of your guy's thoughts about my film. I know film making and animation isn't most of your specialties, but just let me know what your impressions were. Is this something you think I should even bother submitting to film festivals?

Note: dont pass around the link to my film too much, since if I do want to get it into film festivals, I wouldnt be allowed to have "screened it" online anywhere. Because of that I'll probably take down the link in a few weeks. Also, I dont have a ton of bandwidth.

Adam Curtis

I really like the feel, especially the work on the environment and it's simplicity. I lol'd a few times which can only be a good thing!

I'm not knowledgeable about film festivals and the like, but the quality doesnt seem far off from other shorts i've seen.

Overall nice work and I look forward to the next one.

MoP

First off, nice job on getting it all done by yourself. It looks like a huge amount of work, and I'm very impressed at the overall quality of the whole thing.

The rendering style, and backdrop art works out well, and the guys look cool too. I like the style and consistency. The depth of field and most of the camera moves worked well too. I didn't much like the camera move when it spins around from the back of the 3rd guy to his face... seems like a cut might have been better there?

The dragon feels a bit "meh" ... I like its expression, but the overall design and lack of surface detail make it slightly less imposing than it probably should be.
Modelling-wise, I think the weakest part was the goat. Did you look at much reference for that? It just seems ... not very goat-like, and its legs appear to be in a very unnatural position as it walks forward. Obviously, given more time, it's clear that you have the skill to do a better job of this.

The pacing felt pretty good to me... I'm no film critic or animator, but as a general audience member I never really got bored or confused, so I guess that's a good sign!

Some of the animations here and there were a bit weak - the guys running in initially felt rushed, and some of the facial animation could have done with being more extreme and expressive (pixar-style) ... the guys never really seem to fully express the intended emotion during the facial closeups. I definitely think you can push that to be more cartoony and stretchy.

The weakest part overall for me was the sound. I guess since you were focusing on modelling/rendering/texturing and generally getting it all finished, you didn't have much time for sounds? There were a lot of scenes there where some more punchy and detailed sounds could have made the scene MUCH more "alive" in my opinion. Spears flying, metal jangling, stuff being dragged along... the guys getting out of breath, or gasping, just general stuff to reinforce what you're seeing happen.

Also the very final bit where the dragon opens its eyes... seems incredible clich

ImSlightlyBored

Yeah, I really liked the plant designs for one, that style and detail was great.
I also laughed a few times just through the motions alone, which again, must be a good thing.

I would enter it in to certain festivals, yeah. Your quality is good and I could easily see it on a professional level, if im honest.

Cody

Pure awesome.

TWilson

Pretty sweet Aesir. I like the modeling and rendering style throughout. Really fun.

The pacing does feel off to me but I can't tell you why because I'm not an animator.

aesir

Massbot: thanks a lot

MoP: big thanks for the huge well thought out reply.
You're right about the monster design. I wasn't too happy with it either. It went through a huge metamorphosis as I tried to get a design that would work with the story. In the beginning, I had a giant blob monster with a hundred eyes, but I couldn't find a good way to get it to move around realistically without it... just rolling on its eyes. Tiny legs all looked silly. It changed from there to other designs which actually got modeled, but weren't conducive to other story elements. So, I ended up compromising my original ideas with a more generic one.
As far as the animation, yea, some things were more rushed than others. I animated about 1 scene per night, even the ones with 4 characters in them, and every animation is a first pass. I didn't go back to anything. I've certainly become a much faster animator because of this project.
About the sound,... I know nothing about sound, so I hired a guy who gave me a nice rate to do all the sound and music, but it turns out his sound design ability is a bit lacking. Still, he was a really cool guy who did the work for really cheap for me.
As far as my story, yea, totally cliche, I know. Storytelling is a new skill I'm trying to develop, but I'm still a complete beginner, so I wanted to do a very basic story, and hopefully do it really well, at least that was the plan anyways.

ImSlightlyBored: Thanks!

Cody: love hearing that

TWilson: yea, I need an editor or something. I feel like if I cut a minute out of this film it might be stronger. Thanks!

Xaltar

Great stuff getting all this done yourself. A fun watch for sure.

Tumerboy

Good stuff aesir! I agree with Mop's critiques, but it's still very well done and conveys what you want it to. Impressive for a one man show. Nicely done!

Mark Dygert

Awesome! I really like. Much respect for doing that huge body of work in such a short time. The backgrounds are top notch, so are the characters, great style, good camera work and great lighting.

A few things that I think let you down and could be cleaned up if you had more time would be the animation and the animal modeling/textures. The characters seem to float along and I don't feel their weight when they walk/run. Walk/run cycles are hard and very much time consuming but I think you used 3dsMax and you could have taken some shortcuts using layers and maybe even biped/footsteps to get some better results in a shorter amount of time.

The timing on some of the animations and sounds could have overlapped to flow a bit more smoothly. It kind of feels like you worked on it scene by scene and each scene is its own micro movie and instead of keeping the flow, they almost have their own start which breaks the flow a tiny bit.

Awesome stuff, a big congrats from me, you should be really proud!

pazuo

excellent animation! the only thing i have to say is that there were a few times that characters seemed to just stop moving. when the dragon comes out to eat the goat it walks out there and turns to stone. a little bit of movement or overlapping animation would have helped bring life to the creature and make the animation a little more believable.