Lisl and the Lorlok - First Feature Film with Blender

Artwork Finished Projects
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Such exciting times! My first full-length feature film to use Blender is having its world premiere at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema on January 12, 2011. The official website is www.lislandthelorlok.com and you can watch the official trailer at the site or here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_roAZpS92Q

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I was the Lorlok wrangler, responsible for texturing, rigging, animating and compositing the Lorlok into about 30 shots in the live-action movie. I only used Blender for the 3D part of my work, my work was the only 3D SFX work in the film, which, as far as I know, is one of the first American full-length feature films to use Blender, as Blender was therefore the only 3D tool used in the production of the feature film. We will be signing a distribution agreement, and I hope you can see the film at a theater or on a DVD real soon now. Woot!

EDIT: I stand corrected regarding Plumiferos and Hunter’s Bride. My apologies to the teams that succeeded before me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I had forgotten about the skunk works team that resurrected Plumeriferos and heaved it over the finish line with Herculean effort. Congrats to them. So, I will console myself with being the first American film.

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Nice! I look forward to seeing it! Trailer looks very, very interesting.

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Congrats - it does look interesting.

I’ve heard of it being used in pre-production a few times and some adverts have been done in blender.

Plumiferos was the first feature length animation done entirely in blender (premiered feb 2010)

As far as adding fx to a traditional feature length movie I do think you may have that. If not - using only blender for the fx would be a first.

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I am happy that you could use blender commercially, i think there are very few. Awesome!

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trailer looks very very interesting indeed!

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First feature film with Blender? Seems like the Germans have been faster: http://www.huntersbride.com/HUNTERS_BRIDE/01_HOME.html

Blender was used for modeling, compositing preparation, camera-mapping and particles.

Started in cinemas on Dec 23rd :slight_smile:

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Well it might not have been the first, but it definetly looks good!

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I stand corrected. I narrow the “first” to be qualified “American” :slight_smile:

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Sorry to say, but not even the first american one. I know of a medieval budget feature film which used blender for sfx

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Let’s just celebrate that Blender is used in many feature films nowadays! :slight_smile:

Happy new year!

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I think you should just stick to saying that this is the first feature film you’ve used Blender on. :wink:

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Lisl and the Lorlok, the first American feature-length film to use only Blender for animation over live action, premiered at the Idyllwild International Film Festival along with a number of other great shorts, featurettes, and films. Out of 11 films, our film won Best Male Actor and Best Picture. Stephen Savage, a noted director hosted the event. Conor O’Farrell, a famous lifetime actor presented the award Ignatius Fischer, the director, and Brian Dillon, the screenwriter accepted. After the screening, I got to get up on stage with the cast and crew for a short Q&A. What a great experience!

It was such fun to see the film, and hear the audience gasp as my Lorlok attacked Lisl (Katerina) or moan as it descended onto Grandma (played by Bobbye Louise Ames). In addition to the director and screenwriter, Derek Nickell (dp and ghost effects) and myself were interviewed by Red Rocket TV (will be shown on Time-Warner cable) and got to talk about using Blender and our process. I gave a great shout-out to the Blender Foundation and revealed my next plans :slight_smile: