I saw Next Gen, and I know that there are ambitions to make either / both Cosmos Laundromat and/or Agent 327 feature length movies. Are there other specifically Blender-based projects out there that are aimed at producing feaure length animation? Preferably some that talk openly about the challenges, and are either complete or still active?
Before Next Gen, Tangent Animation did āOzzyā and spoke about that at Blender Conference.
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I have been working on an independent feature film since before I started using Blender in 2008. From 2008 forward I have ported all of the assets over to Blender where I have done all of the modeling since.
Over the years I have added a lot of other software into the mix and also grown my team. So that now we use a lot of Zbrush, some Maya, Substance Painter to name the main ones. But Blender is still at the heart of it all - especially for the freelance work we do. We do a lot of modeling and set up in Blender.
But with the release of 2.8 we have put a lot more of the focus on Blender and we have created a hybrid rig system than can allow us to make use of MotionBuilder and any .bvh files coming into Blender on the same rigs.
Currently any artist at my studio with free time is learning 2.8. Probably in the next month or so we should be completely converted to 2.8. The guys are loving it!
I am sure there are a lot of guys like me out there working on dream projects. I started mine in 2005. And I have been developing it and changing it ever since. But also at the same time I grew a small team around my freelance work, and to help on our studio ādream projectā.
So now we are working up to a point I can release quite a bit about it in January 2020 with a trailer and so on.
Been thinking about doing a WIP thread but it is hard since we use so many different software. If people are interested in our process, and how we use all of these apps together with Blender, let me know and I can start a thread on it and maybe do some videos.
EDIT: I do know that this is not maybe the large āhigh profileā project people might want to see. But I do think it represents the average Blender user who has āthe dreamā as I have had for so many years.
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I would LOVE to see that! I feel the area is a bit too much dream and too little grit, not enough people truly diving in and rolling with the punches. Iāve considered gaining a bit more respect and traction in the community and then doing a smaller side community that focuses entirely on feature length projects, good or bad, but I am very much in a void right now, knowing only my own few experiences. Anyone elseās thoughts would be great!
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OK. I will now consider doing something if there are more responses. I have been reluctant in the past because a lot of the updates are not Blender related. But some are. It is a mixed bag.
But yes, it is a huge overwhelming process to make any feature film. Much less a 3D one. And even worse, the quality I have been shooting for.
For me it has been a process of taking smaller bits and dealing with lower hanging fruit.
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This one as been done with 2.7* and is a mix of 3D / freestyle and grease pencil : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XxDHectfQE
Compositing was done with after-effect.
From what I know things would have been simpler if theyāve used the grease pencil as it is in 2.8. Anyway, they managed to pull off quite an impressive result especially given the budget (3.5Millions ā¬).
Theyāve made a talk at last year blender conference but sadly it as been removed due to copyright infringement.
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Hey, sounds quite interesting, some breakdown / making of ectā¦ on this kind of work is always interesting.
We see a lot of one manās projects breakdown but less when in involves multiple people.
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Itās not necessarily to much ādreamā, itās just a massive, massive, massive (did I mention massive?) undertaking to produce a full-length animated film.
As @Richard_Culver said, heās been working on it before 2008 and with a teamā¦ he hopes to have a trailer ready around 2020.
What you are seeing from the community, including myself 
, is the slow, slow, extremely slow, trickle of content creators are releasing.
Which from an outside perspective, it can appear they have abandoned their project. Which isnāt the case for some.
And like Richard, some arenāt showing anything until itās finished.
Feature animation usually takes a team of hundreds and a budget of millions.
Mad props for anyone tackling the impossible challenge with anything less. 
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OK. Let me think of the best format for this. There is quite a lot of information to share.
Are there any specific things that interest you in particular?
Your overall pipeline would interest me, as well as serious problems encountered along the way!
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I could have phrased it better. I meant that a lot of people talk about a project they dream of diving into, but they never really take the leap. I know so many who dream of doing something like this, but it never goes beyond āit could be so cool, butā¦ā. Even slow or outright failed projects are good learning material, after all!
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I donāt want to sound mean, but working on feature length project on your own is sooo much a big task.
If we do a little maths, one movie production is at the bare minimum one year of work with at the bare minimum 10 people. And in fact itās more about 20 people for two years. And we a far from the big budgets movies where itās more than 50/100 people over 2 or more years.
That doesnāt include story / design development , which can take also a year or two with various people involved.
You need also to look for funding, and find at bare minimum a million or two, and that could take some time too.
The movie I posted about take 5/6 years from the original idea to the release. And the production part as taken only 1/2 years of that.
If you decide to go for a very low budget or no budget at all. That means that people involved in your project will need to earn money and they will be available 2 days a week maximum. So instead of one years it will take 3. Chances are also that people will come and go, and you have to manage that also.
All that said , I donāt want to sound negative, itās awesome to make some projects , even when you earn your living with CG , personal projects are soo refreshing and itās were you can express yourself without anyone telling what to do, itās great !
what about making a short film ? That is doable in less than a year with a smaller team ? After that you can use that experience to go into longer projects . Also you can always turn a short into a feature length.
But itās always better to start small , because youāve got more chances to finish it , thatās better for you and people you involve in your project. And finally anyone who will see your work.
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Ah, definitely! I feel ya on that one. If you dream it, youāve gotta take that first stepā¦ and then the next.
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To clarify, the team effort did not start until 2014. And it was spotty around other work. The bulk of the teamās work has been in the last 2 years. Still spotty around other paying work.
But now we have launched a sprint to get a certain number of what I hope are achievable targets by January 2020 that we will use as part of a promotion to raise awareness about the project and thus some funding and/or resources.
The largest of setbacks for me over the last 14 years has been rewriting the scrip aboutā¦well literally something like 2 or 3 dozen timesā¦ lol
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There is way too much to comment on hereā¦lol And I donāt want to completely hijack the threadā¦lol
But thanks for posting!
As @Embassy_of_Time said, pipeline stuff, custom tools , challenging shots or issues, how you tie all these software together ā¦
I think, if you show what you find interesting , chances are that it will be interesting to me and others.
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Exactly what Iām trying with the promotional shorts first.
Iām a little more lucky with my screenplay, itās practically locked now. I came over to 3D to tell my story because I found in live action I was going to write-out so much of the story just to fit a budget.
Blender and animation has giving the story hopeš. Now Iām slowly learning 3D animation while working on the shorts.
I can hear and feel the years of determination in your comments, keep up the work. 
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Yup, I donāt wonāt to hijack the OPās thread. Good talk everyoneā¦ NOW GET BACK TO WORK! 
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