Out of the Box - animation

[AndyD]

Well here it is. My first ever contribution to the Finished Projects forum - and my first, all-original animation.

This video is the result of more than two months of evenings' effort. I'm not going to say too much about it as I want the video to speak for itself. Hopefully it crosses cultural and language barriers reasonably well.

Format : Mov (H.264)
Size : < 2.5Mb
Dimensions 320 x 240

DOWNLOAD HERE
This is a medium-resolution render. I hope to upload a larger, high-res version when I can.

GOOGLE VIDEO version here (view at original size for best results)



Feel free to distribute it widely if you think it deserves it. You can even Youtube it if you like, so long as the whole thing remains intact (I'll probably youtube it eventually anyway).

Oh - and be sure to stay till the end of the credits

[TheANIMAL]

Wow, great cartoon. I cant believe you've never posted a finnished project before.

Some of the clapping and head movement in the crowd movement is a bit funky at times but it is expected whaen you have so many to do at the same time.

The timing and voice acting was brilliant aswell.

Top notch, 5 stars despite the cheap gags.

[RobertT]

Superb animation, AndyD!

Such a funny character as well

I look forward to seeing more animations from you!


RobertT

[Virgilio]

Hi, AndyD!

Strong work you just showed us! Thanks a lot for sharing it.

The character animation itself is good. Not outstanding, but is good. For me, what really makes your work top notch is your very good sense of camera angles and knowing that you've made everything, from original story and voice to the actual production of the short.

I also liked a lot your care for giving a graphic treatment for the opening title. It's what the big boys ( 1, 2 ) usually do. =D

Looking forward to see more "finished projects" from you, man. 5 stars!

Cheers!

[Naive Amoeba]

Ha, that's fantastic. I would have liked to see a more climatic ending but ah well. Great job

[AndyD]

Thanks guys. It certainly isn't perfect but was a learning journey.

My main focus was to have something that had a fairly "complete" feel to it, including the camera angles and edits so I'm very glad that aspect was noticed (I watched a good few stand-up comics for ideas in that area). I have to agree the audience needs a bit more work but I'm hoping those flaws will only be noticed in CG circles or after multiple viewings.

Since my past efforts have always borrowed from somewhere else - either 10secondclub soundbytes, pop songs or Sago's Super Wu caricature, I really wanted this video to be all above-board and either original or CC and I'm glad to say I achieved that.

As for a more climactic ending - I considered "the obvious" but decided against it

I'll possibly go back and revisit the whole thing later in the year but the time had come to set it free and see if any more effort would be worthwhile.

I can't wait for Mac Blender to get fully-functioning muxing capability. The post-editing on this was more of a nightmare than the animating and meant an extra level of encoding (though for a 2.5Mb file, I'm pretty impressed with the H.264 codec used for the final output).

[digiman]

I could not see it only heard it. Sounded funny, did you write the jokes? The video won't play on my quicktime how can I see this?

digiman

[effstops]

That was outstanding, Andy! Well done.

[forTe]

Very nice animation, the only thing kind of on what TheANIMAL said, was that the audience felt a little stiff compared to the animation of the match.

Outstanding work, though.

[AndyD]

Thanks all.

The video won't play on my quicktime how can I see this?

Quicktime 7.0 should play it. Earlier versions probably not. I'm on a Mac (10.3.9) so it's pretty much a standard for me. I can't offer too much advice on other platforms except that recent versions of (FREE) VLC Player or MPlayer should handle it fine.

It's in your interests to find a compatible player as H.264 is being widely adopted and is already the standard codec for movie trailers. Good luck. I'm glad it at least sounded funny given that all you had to go by was the poster image

the audience felt a little stiff compared to the animation of the match

Yeah, maybe I should have turned their lamps down even more so they were less obvious.

I'm happy to take any specific crits and suggestions - especially if something is noticed on the first viewing rather than subsequent viewings. I can't promise I'll change anything but it all helps next time.

[BgDM]

Friggin hilarious AndyD. Loved it. Great timing all through the whole animation.

BgDM

[Lasphere]

haha love it andy

[deltawing]

That was inspiring Andy. I liked the whole package...your match guy concept/jokes/character features...very funny -> nicely done

[Woodman5k]

Man I respect ya for putting up the time to make this. People usually don't realize the time and effort it takes to make an animation. Well, I thought the animation was good. The material and matchstick were so cheesy it was endearing. Thanks for posting your completed animation

[Popsy]

Oh man... those jokes were dreadful! Perfect for a stand up comedian...
Really nice animation and a great sense of timing. I liked the lip-sync too, couldn't spot many or any flaws

[Microwave]

5 stars! Really good work.

[denshidan]

Looks really good, shame I cant get it to play...

[relledom]

really nic a very special idea you had

[Numarul7]

Can be better why just? Standi jokes ? Exemplify the joke will make it more entertaining but... that will make it not a short movie but an movie!

Animation 5 stars
Scene 2 stars * don`t like the overall colors hmm dunno maybe something needed
Maybe it is the camera that must do somethin`

I prefer vivid colors with lot of light effect!

That it is just me i like the crystal not the plain water :P

The idea it is just another "stand up comedy" not new but with a little imagination concept!

The idea can evolve in something more!

Andy you can do it a lot more better! i know! Wanna see some camera movement to light up the entertaining thing

I`ve seen all Flinstones,Mike & Mouse,Disney (all they characters i know to exist),Pixar,Metro Goldwin Mayer (...odlies but goldies), Warner Bros .... when i see Carton Network cubic style i see it more like a joke compared to Diney`s full of life creations and fluid animations

I`ve seen lot of animations so i think i know the basic of animation enought to give a corect critic and non-critic advice

It is a short but an movie it is made from short movies like this one!

1 act scene 1, act 2 scene 1, act 3 scene 1 ...and scene changes

SO in the end my rating it is 10 of 5

PS: Off topic Do you play piano,or write poetry,or sing,taking pictures?

on topic

Maybe use of "Fla-off" shader will help

[AndyD]

Thanks again to all.

Thanks for your observations OneMan. I'm not sure what you mean by "Fla-off" shader???

On the lighting I'm largely a victim of the technology. If you saw the original PNG sequence you'd see a lot more vibrant colours, especially in the audience where the background really glows. The PNG folder is around 80Mb. However, from the PNGs it came back into sequencer for final compile then rendered to hi-res Sorenson3 - about 24Mb of files - then into post-editing for export as a lo-res H.264 at 2.5Mb. Some loss of quality was expected and a lot of the vibrancy is lost due to the super-softening of the reduced, compressed image (original is 600x450).


For those having trouble viewing it, I've uploaded a copy to - GOOGLE VIDEO

Hopefully that solves the problem though I'm not certain the quality s quite as good.