Episode 5 of my space epic “Captain Howell”
The crew are under attack from unknown assailants who arrived in Episode 4.
I used my late father’s voice for the Computer, he sadly died 3 years ago but I had already recorded his dialogue and he always had a great speaking voice. I didn’t think it would take this long to get this far…
Acting still not great but I feel the editing is tighter – making it much shorter than the other episodes.
Lots of the animation could have been better, but if everything had to be perfect I would never finish and I’m learning as I go.
Walking/running still a bit naff and some movement looks ponderous and unrealistic.
Next episode I think I might try videoing live action and then use this as a guide to animate my characters.
Enjoy and please forward to anyone who might enjoy it!
Not a bad episode. If you can get your hands on “The Animator’s Survival Kit” by Richard Williams you animation will improve by leaps and bounds. It is for hand drawn animation but the prinicples transfer to digital animation. Things like “slow-in” and “slow-out” are very important in giving your characters that spark of life, making them look less robotic (yes I know your characters are robots). Also, you’d be surprised how something simple as a well-placed breakdown key between your main keys can make all the difference in a simple motion.
One other thing, don’t fade to black when switching locations in your film. Fading to black in “film language” usually means passage of time between the scenes. In a high action sequence such as this, the fades to black really puts the brakes on the flow of action.
All in all, a good efort. The voice acting was better than your realize (especially the female voice actor who played York) and the action and story moved along nicely.