A crit I have, is that the goats back doesent look good to me… but that just taste…
Thanks everyone for the constructive criticism so far, and thanks all for taking the time to watch such a long film! You’re all, of course, right about the shortcuts I took - I got frustrated with repeated failed attempts at texturing nicely and so I just gave up and made everything either matte or shiny. It doesn’t bother me personally, but sometimes you can get so close to something you start to subconsciously excuse shortcuts like that.
And it’s possible that my obvious lack of research may have worked against me. I was told halfway through making the film that the Aztec pyramids were actually white. Oops!
I tried to keep render times down to an average of two minutes per frame. Though over the course of a year I stopped keeping track of it - mostly I’d animate and light during the day, and leave the computer to render at night.
Well, I kind of prefer films that don’t spell everything out, but since you ask, the point of the story is that by rescuing the goat, the boy has interfered with the course of events and enabled the night-demons to carry out their dastardly plan. In order to put things right, the goat is going to have to die some way or another, and so sacrifice gives way to self-sacrifice, making the circle complete.
The reason the demons want to kill the sun is that they’re night creatures and that the sun kills them (it turns them to stone, again sorry if that wasn’t clear enough!). Nothing more complicated than that.
I don’t know who made the tunnel out of the city! Conveniently for me it appeared to already have been constructed by the ancient civilisation 
Joking aside, there was supposed to be another part of the plot where the demons and the priest strike a deal: the demons want to destroy the sun, and the priest wants to assert his power over the populace, so he supplies the demons with the detonation equipment. I couldn’t find a way of making all of that fit in with the music, so instead it’s just implied - the fact that the bottles have all been left next to the tunnel, etc etc.
Wow. Just watched it, and i’d say very well done. Five stars. Love how you fit the music with the storyline.
and that took how long to render exactly, please post pc specs 
excellent work. i think childrens tv would be a great media for this. it s light enough to be viewable, but has dark elements and very good expressions on the characters.
well done. 
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Sorry that your work didn’t get into one of these festivals,but you know what… F… them!You’ve done what most people couldn’t do(myself included)…Finished your movie project.You may not have had a team,or had the so called Pixar quality look,but you made it to the finish line,for the people to see it.That counts more than anything.
Thats a cute goat.
You get 5 Stars for effort.
I like the story and the way you implemented it. But unfortunately (and I fear this is the reason why you’ve been rejected so often for a screening) its boring to look at.
I dont mean that the story is boring. Its just that everything is so plain. You used the Yafray renderer, but that seems like a waste. At rendertimes of 2minutes per frame you could have had much better results with the Blender Internal renderer if you would have put more effort into texturing and lighting. Even if the look stayed the same, you could have saved a LOT of rendering time using the Blender Internal Renderer.
Actually, considering the simple look of your environments and your characters, a Toon Shader would have been more appropriate, since it would have allowed you to use minimal textures to a better effect.
Sometimes good artists aren’t good salesmen.
Get your shit out there on animationcommunities all over the web.
Host a high quality version on the web, make sites such as blendernation and animation blogs link to your site and boost your way to googlerankingmadness.
If one jury falls over it maybe another one might not.
Now Bot: I love this animation but considering the length I’d prefer to have a downloadable copy I can put on a cd and watch in on a tv set :]
I love the lighting, those volumetrics in the tunnel really gave me the idea of a very hot desert set.
Some scenes come out a bit poorly but other scenes look like they were made by an expert photographer (most directors always have one of these guys on the set to help them with the scenes).
5 stars for all the hard work. Good job!
P
woah!
great animation!!!
1000 stars and the sun :spin:
but cause we cant do that ill give u 5 
First I’d like to congratulate you on your film. I admire your tenacity. It being a one man project I think even more of it. Congratulations.
Five starts for the commitment. There are true remarkable scenes.
I agree that the plot should be streamlined a bit, it should be more simplistic and metaphoric, since you don’t have dialogues between characters supporting the plot.
It is also evident than in some shots the characters’ animation needs more work. Don’t make them to repeat a certain movement several times like robots, like when going down stairs or up the dunes. Variation is the key.
Scene composition and lighting is very good, I like most of the shots, although some night scenes (13:00) look almost black in mi calibrated CRT monitor. Add a bit more of blue soft lighting in those scenes.
What GI method have you used? the result is very effective in some scenes.
I’m not that sure the movie needs an intensive work in the texturing department. Now it has got a consistent artistic look without texturing, I would add some basic texturing but not with realistic goals in mind, only to support the movie current artistic look.
Anyway, It is an excellent foundation to make improvements on it. You can still work in the movie improving things here and there, if there is still any patience left.
I’ve send you a PM.
Fantastic. An amazing effort for a single person, and a great story too.
This is absolutely incredible! The character animation is very good, especially considering it’s a 20 minute film! I really enjoyed watching it! I love the way you’ve synced the soundtrack to the film.
May I ask how long it took you to make this film?
Amazing film. And being only one person… wow.
Hope you get it played to an audience some time.
Keep up the excellent work! You’ve got tallent!
Cuby
The style reminds me of a christmas special. I like the story too. The music was awesome. Not having textures worked in your favor. The only thing that was missing was well worked out animation cycles and as that BBC guy said - sound effects.
Good job!
I think the movie looks incredible. The lack of textures doesn’t bother me at all, in fact I think it looks great considering the art style.
I definately agree with RONIN. You should be proud that you completed an animation of that caliber. Its a true epic.
could you put up a still or two of it for people who are on dial up and can’t download huge animations? i am curious as to the style of the thing, but i am one of those dial-up people.
The fact that you finished a whole 20 minute short movie as a one man show is amazing enough. Add the fact that this movie has a nice story, nice characters and a really cute goat makes it even more incredible. The animation of the boy and the goat is very very good. And this is a pretty hard job to accomplish.
The fact that you spared the textures is ok, it doesn’t take away too much from the movie. As said before, maybe you should have used the tone renderer. But then again, the way the movie looks is very nice. Very good atmosphere.
Two crits:
First: The video quality on google video is embarrasing. It takes away soooo much of the movie! Please, for the sake of the efforts you’ve put into that movie: Make a downloadable version.
Second: The camera movement in the fly-scenes is a bit too unrealistic. During the walk scenes the camera moves very nicely. But in the fly scenes the automatic tracking constraint nakes it look like a bad third person view in a lara croft tomb raider. Add a bit more personality to the camera movement.
Apart from that: Great movie. 5*
Yt,
Gunnar
I just saw parts of it, very nice work! I’ll have to watch again when I get home.
This is a great work of art! Congratulations! I’m glad you finished it.
Also, be extremely careful to not ruin your work by reacting to the responses of others. Remember, you were first inspired by Disney’s “Fantasia” and Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite”. I believe you have already stayed true to your original goals. :yes:
What if “Fantasia” had all sorts of sound effects to match the animation? Would you have been as captured by it? What about when you first experienced “Scythian Suite”? If there were foley artists performing along with the orchestra in an attempt to depict the sounds associated with the composer’s original thoughts that inspired the writing, would it have been as moving? I think that adding sound effects throughout the movie simply because it’s a “movie” (or film, whatever…) is a bit academic and could very easily destroy the impact of the music and the artwork that you’ve created. Sure, some things could be better but, attempting to make things “better” by delving into areas where you may have some weakness could result in a lesser work. If you decide to add sound effects, they had better be good (correct sound, mix, stereo imaging, environmental ambience, consistency, etc.) or you’ll make a mess. The same thing with texturing.
I think you’ve done an exceptional job with your current skillset. Start a new project and experiment with that one. Don’t mess this one up.
BTW, was it your goal to create a movie for festivals or for your own dream of making a movie (inspired by Disney’s “Fantasia” and Prokofiev’s “Scythian Suite”). If the latter is the answer…you’re done. Apply what you’ve learned from this project to your next project. Just some things to think about…
Great job!