Here is another animation I did for the 2005 Blender Conference. It is a teaser for my upcoming short “Alchemy”. Music and sound effects by DedKnight.
You can download the animation here: teaser_final.avi DivX 6, 9.3 MB
The WIP thread for alchemy is here: Alchemy WIP
Alchemy Blog can be found here: Alchemy Blog
Sketchy you wizard! That’s really great stuff!!
The clockwork bird thing is pretty cool. I can’t wait to see the whole thing!
BGog
Great stuff. Simple, but great character expressions.
BgDM
Very nice sketchy it’s looking like it’s going to be a fantastic animation short.I really liked the look of some of the props and depth of field effects you had achived with some of the blog shots. I really like what you’ve done so far and the only crit I would have is maybe to get a bit of delay on the movement of octofrog’s tentacles. What happens now is on some of the frames the whole tentacle moves up with octofrog instead of there being a delay on the tip movement. If you just add a bit more secondary movement to the tentacle tips it will just add a bit more flow to his movement. It feels awful saying that when you really have created such a wonderful animation. Keep up the great work.
Levi 
BGog: Thanks man! Havent’t gotten to talk to you since you got back from your vacation. I hope all is well.
BgDM: Thanks. I was happy with the expressions as well. I struggled with them at first (as you know from the wip thread) but I think they turned out alright.
Levi: Thanks for the feedback. You are right about the tentacles. I keep that in mind while working on the final production.
I think the movements of the bird should be a bit more abnormal, they seem a tad robotic, but the movements of the Frog thingo, is perfect
Looks really fun so far! One thing I wanted to point out is that the feet of you bird character are too firmly planted on the ground. This is a common mistake that people make that use ik on the feet. The result is that the character looks like his feet are REALLY heavy, too heavy to be picked up even. To fix this you could add a little heel lift here and there where appropriate and by not allowing the knees to follow the torso so much. When the character looks all the way to the side he should move his left foot around to the left allowing for a more natural upper body turn.
Heh heh 
, I really liked it, can’t wait for the final!
The only thing I didn’t like was the smoke, it isn’t billowy and puffy enough.
you the man Sketchy! as i’ve said before, i just love your style. i’ll be waiting for this short too! [!]
i’ll give you one crit so I don’t get accused of being a fanboy. the close-up of the smoke looks like ass, you can do much better (think fluffy if you can).
Alex_G: Funny you mention that. Some people have told me that his movements should be more robotic. I think what I’m going to shoot for is clumsy, uncontrolled movement… if you know what i mean.
TorQ: Thanks for the excellent feedback! I thought his feet looked a little funny. I’ll keep your advice in mind when I’m working on the final production.
lucidMonkey: Haha :D. I don’t mind fanboy posts. A pat on the back is nice every now and then. About the closeup shot of the smoke, I didn’t like it either, but I was running out of time. Should be much better next time around.
solarsails: Was it only the closeup smoke you didn’t like, or did you not like any of the smoke at all. I liked the wispy look of the smoke in the non-closeup shots.
See what happens when I am not behind you cracking the whip…!!!
hehe awesome work man! See you when your done 
Crosswalk is not going anywhere…we have plenty of time to work on it.
I also think the smoke looks like a broken crack pipe!!! I know you will fix it soon, knowing how much of a perfectionalist (did I spell that right, I dont care) you are…Good luck with the Suzanne awards bro!
aha! that’s why you’re falling behind on your work. i knew it 
sketchy, i’m literally on the edge of my seat here waiting for the final product. by all means take your time with it though.
(but hurry the #@*% up!) 
Congratulations on being nominated for a Suzanne Award with this!!!
You are the man!!
Wow, that is awsome. it’s funny too, it actualy made me laugh, can’t wait to see the full animation. how lond did’t take you? i
Enriq766: Thanks man. Sorry I haven’t been around blender projects much this week. Been takin it easy. But I’ve been thinking about those (millions) of cars ;).
DedKnight: Don’t worry dude, you’ll be the first to see it! (and consequently, the first to hear it as well ;))
Bgog: :o :o :o suzanne award nomination! that is awesome! Actually your post was the first place I saw the news. So thanks :D.
Dark cheif: Thanks and welcome to elYsiun. I’m glad you enjoyed. It is hard to say how long I spent on the trailer. I know that from the first model I made, to when I posted the video file was about 120 hours. However, the trailer doesn’t have all the models in it (most notably the mad scientist and the airship). I can tell you that the actual animation for the trailer took about 40 hours (not including the rendertime of about 6 hours on 4 machines). If you are interested, I keep a running total of hours logged on my blog (link in first post).