Well, this has been a while coming. There’s been a WIP version on YouTube for some time, but I finally got the music, sounds, etc done and edited, re-lit and textured, tweaked animation, and basically finished this up. You can see it streaming here:
Or download it here:
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/421/TOMATB-1280-Hi-xvid.avi
Hope you like it.
I actually thought you had abandoned the project- congratulations on the completion! I’ve seen the youtube WIP already, but I can’t view this one because of dial up. Can you upload a smaller version to google/youtube?
Hi, this divx version is smaller than the xvid one, so it might be easier to download.
http://uploader.polorix.net//files/421/TOMATB-1280-Hi.divx
Unfortunately, there are a few things I would still have liked to fix, but I went up a few versions as I made the animation and later found that some of the things (mainly things to do with rigging/character animation) were not so easy to adjust later.
Hiya Tony, do you have a YouTube Version of this?
Nope, ShareCG and downloads for now. ShareCG is streaming, and it’s a cool site for CG artists that I’d like to try to promote. For one thing, it pays artists who submit work a portion of the ad revenue, which I think is a good idea, and YouTube hasn’t gotten around to doing anything like this.
Nice modelling - especially the hands.
I like the semi-toon look too.
Not sure I get the story, though…
I’ll have to take another look…
ahh… awesome, finally finished, liked the wip and so do i like the finished one! 
Were you the secret scenarist of ED? Confess!
OK, have you lil’ mytery if you want but I tell you right now: I am not googling for ‘bean’.
This being said I was really, really impressed by some parts (which is a good thing since I am reading your book on animation right now) especially those old arthritic hands and the way they don’t seem to allow for a grasp on earthbound stuff anymore. Impressed and touched.
There is a very mechanical feeling to the animation though: computers are machines and I find it the most difficult part to breathe life into a character… although, for all the good it did to God with Adam one may question the necessity… Nevertheless you’ve got loads of stuff right like the overall feeling of extreme old age through the design of your character, the way its movements are limited. Too many still moments though: it would have helped if your character had just a tiny bit of that constant unsteadiness common to folks that old. I understand that there are time constraints and that you are not an animation team all by yourself.
The shading is quite a find, well except the slippery golden stairway to heaven: you’d think that it would be more adapted to senior citizens wouldn’t you? I especially like the toony contrast of the ribbon, toy train… with the character which is more like half toony.
Anyway, sorry if my reply felt like hot-cold-hot shower but I despise (hate, vomit…) brainless, gutless, easy praise. I downloaded the animation and will watch it quite a few times again: do I need to say more?
Jean
well I wish I could say I liked it cos I know it must have been a lot of work and you are far ahead of my ability…but I didnt
the old mans pointy ears annoyed me ( looked like horns) and the eyes moved too much and were not ‘old’ - the animation at times reminded me of ‘Thunderbirds’ puppets… 
hmm well maybe not quite but it was not quite right somehow…
I also disliked the toon style - to me it looked like avoidance of texturing …and the story was maybe a little flat…
other than that I liked it 
keep at it… sorry to be a downer…as I say its much better than I could do
Hi folks, thanks very much for the feedback.
Obviously, there are some things that are just a matter of taste, and so some may like it or not like it for a lot of reasons. That said, I definitely agree with comments about the still parts and the movement. The character animation is really not very good in parts. This is partly because I was learning as I went. The rig I built for the character I actually built over a year and a half ago and it had a lot of problems. Unfortunately, going back much later to fix some of the problems, I realized that due to some changes in the Blender version, some of the fixing would require re-rigging and re-skinning the whole character which… call me lazy, but that just wasn’t worth it.
There weren’t proxy objects when I did the animation, either, so re-rigging would have meant re-rigging for every shot.
It is a little embarrassing to be caught not taking my own advice… my book actually emphasizes that stillness is no good. But it is what it is. On to better things!
<edit>
Actually, I could have done a much better job using the rig from the book, which was based on Jason Pierce’s Ludwig. But at the time I first rigged this character, I knew much less about rigging. So my next project should represent a great improvement.
I remember when you stared this way back, great to see, that you’ve managed to finsih it. Over all it’s pretty decent animation, the main character portrays emotion pretty well and you had couple of nice effects in there. I especially liked the wiping out the dust from the picture.
You could have adjusted the candle smoke a bit more, now it looked too unnatural. Also some flicker to the light would have been a great addition, now that the candle seemed to be the main light source.
Hippie, I agree. A while back LGM put out a great mesh candle flame and I seriously considered stealing that idea… But recreating it for each shot was an overwhelming prospect. For my next animation I’m doing more planning in advance, and I especially am going to make sure that I get things like libraries and proxy objects sorted out right in advance.
The flickering I agree with too.
All in all, fun, a great learning experience.
cool modeling! nice animation! i had to watch it without sound cuz these speakers are busted but it brought out a couple issues i had with it.
the lighting is good, but lacking in some places. the use of some fill lights and maybe a bit of AO could help refine the look a little bit, while keeping it cartoony. slower to render, sure, but right now the look is pretty unpolished.
i had to fast forward through a lot of it: it is very slow. i understand that it probably makes better sense with sound and music, but even so, the actions and movement of the characters should convey more of the story and it could definitely be compressed into a more ‘watchable’ length, for those of us with short attention spans.
the movements could be quicker and more fluid, more lifelike if you know what i mean, at times it seems there is too much unnecessary slow movement and shifting (eyes especially).
altogether a solid animation! looking forward to the next one
I have to echo everything that IamInnocent mentioned. Was exactly what I was thinking while watching as well.
The beginning was also very slow and seemed to be way too long and drawn out for my taste as well.
Nothing personal here, and I know you know that.
BgDM