As some of you might know, ít’s my ambition to make real cool CG films such as “Final Fantasy: the spirits within”. I’m currently unemployed and I don’t want to have to start working at another fast food restaurant like the unemployment agency says I have to.
As much as I enjoy using Blender, I need to start making money. I’m currently in the process of making a CG Kung Fu movie as many of you may have heard about, which brings me to my question(s).
If I was to make a short CG film using Blender, can I get the vidoe onto a DVD format so others could watch it using a normal DVD player? And if so, would people buy it if they saw my film selling on eBay? Would anyone from these forums be interested in buying it and if not, why.
I hope someone can help atleast answer some of these questions.
Authoring a DVD is possible, depending on the platform and the software you want (or are willing to pay for). There are issues as far as getting different kinds of DVD-writable media to work in conventional players, but those issues are disappearing (and DVD-R tends to work most of the time). If you know you’re going to get sales, you could consider having a batch of DVDs professionally pressed… that gets really expensive, though, especially for small batches. The advantage is that those DVDs are more or less guaranteed to work, but you better be able to guarantee that you’ll at least be able to break even on the cost of production (and even then, you’re not MAKING money).
As to your question about whether or not people will buy it (here or on ebay)… well, it depends. It’s all about marketing. First and foremost, it has to be GOOD. And I’m not just talking about technical strengths. The story, sound, voice acting, and general concept need to be strong. This is the kind of thing normally covered in writing courses. Getting something that would be good enough to distribute to people who will pay to view it takes just as much (or more) pre-production work as production and post-production. Also, there has to be a reason (outside of the story and technical strength) that will compel people to want a physical copy of your piece. Are you going to release just a trailer to entice people to watch the full DVD? Are you going to release the full movie for download, but at a more bandwidth-friendly size (so the DVD advantage is higher quality)?
Think about these things. The more you think about it now, the less you’ll have to think about it later. Also, don’t count on getting this knocked out in a few months… if you’re doing a long piece that’s good, it’s gonna take much longer than that.
That said, go for it! Hopefully I haven’t rained on your parade.
I think you should distribute your movie freely. Since you’re a novice in movie production, it’s better that people get to know your work first without charge, and then you can sell your movies latter and face less suspicion.
Since you’re willing to do your movie in blender, I think you should consider distributing it in this site (elysiun) and you could also convince the authors of the blender guide to include a DVD with your work. It’s like an investment. You are investing in the promotion of your work before entering the commercial circuit. And this way, you could also heavily promote our beloved blender!
Regarding the DVD media issue, I think you’re not going to have problems in rendering your animation to avi and then use a DVD authoring program (there must be some free ones around) to record it to the DVD. If you are looking to reach a maximum of public, you should use DVD-R because it has by far the best compatibility.
Finally, I think you should also consider the use of Xvid or DivX for your video encoding and you would have the possibility to record to CD (cheaper) instead of DVD and ease the distribution on-line.
nothing wrong with doing some “dirty” work. before i could start my PR and design agency, i had to work as a waiter. hell yes, i needed money. i still had spare time to “unleash my creativity” and strenghten my graphic and communication skills. a financial basis, even a small one, is often worth more then wild dreams alone.
As much as I enjoy using Blender, I need to start making money. I’m currently in the process of making a CG Kung Fu movie as many of you may have heard about, which brings me to my question(s).
If I was to make a short CG film using Blender, can I get the vidoe onto a DVD…
i hope that you are 200% sure that this is the right way. i would never talk about unfinished projects AND plan to earn money with them. this can go very wrong (believe me, i know what i’m talking about).
i don’t wanna disencourage you, just talking of my personal experience. to answer your question about selling dvd’s: as a regular customer i would barely go for questionable dvd’s, especially on ebay. if i want some eyecandy, why should i buy an animated short on disk, if there is so much on the internet for free? and legal?
i have no doubts about your talent (unless you convince me of the opposite with bad work ;)), but also consider the facts behind films like FF - this is nothing that can be done by an individual alone. be sure to have realistic aims.
I know it seems quite extreme, making a movie by myself but it is my ambition to do so. I’d also like to show people how much one person can do with this fantastic software. I can write music and I’ve been playing the keyboard since I was 12. I’ve been using Blender on and off for about 4 years and before that, I was writing stories.
I know that I probably can’t achieve the quality of something like Final Fantasy but I think people can still appreciate a lower quality film that was made by just one person using free, open source software.
The more people using Blender, the further Blender will develop. But blender needs more promotion. There needs to be more finished work coming from Blender that shows its true potential. We won’t know Blender’s limitations until we atleast try and reach those limitations. I think this software can go alot further than many care to believe.
The idea that I have in mind is…a kind of chronicle film. A film with many chapters that can be watched in any order. Rather like the Animatrix as you may have scene. A compilation of short manageable stories. Some chapters could be very toon based and others looking very realstic. That way I get to include a wide variety of Blender’s features. I could also include “The Making Of” which could act as a blender tutorial. Perhaps that would give people another reason to buy it and get involved. I could also give a way a sample chapter as a teaser.
It’s guite possible that after the first few sales of my “would-be” short film, it would just get ripped-off and freely distributed ilegally on eMule or another P2P but atleast even then I would be getting some promotion for both Blender and my work.
I understand that it’s important to get recognition but…I’m really not interested in working for someone else. I don’t like been told what to do. I like to think up and create my work.
I that that it will be a long way but I need to try. I need to believe that I can get this done and even if it doesn’t make any money, it’s still a personal achievement for me and perhaps and inspiration to others.
My project is beginning to build a lot of momentum and I’m very keen to let it roll. I know that any problem that I run into, there’s away around that problem somehow. Together with the support and positive feedback I get from these forums I know I’ll get there eventually. I’d really like to see more people making movies with Blender. I feel somewhat alone in the matter