Very nicely done!

Great editing, I especially like the first scene. Where's the music from, is it Danny Elfman? That scene is exactly like the first scene from....I think it is Men in Black.

Some critics:

Maybe a tad too much first-person-camera-views and camera movement.

The model of the guy reading the news paper could really need some work.

The mouth of the girl could also need some work, especially around the corners.

The ending was a bit....abrupt..

But great work!

i enjoyed the movie very much.., brilliant by any standards.

too good to nit pick and i loved the camera moves.., that long shot was straight out of an Orsen Welles intro..., very long duration and a great intro to the story and the location, ect.

i am faced with this now.., doing 'advanced dip of CGI anD VFX. at another colledge.., finished post sound at uni (4 years) jumped straight into second year (the last year) and have seen many of the showreels there. your is very high standard.

can i ask (this is a big ask)

how did you come up with this concept

how long did you have to come up withe the concept

how did you 'create' your characters (and i dont mean.., nurbs, blah blah.., ect)

the story board

the anamatics

and how long for the final piece

problem for me is i have a film background and also jumping straight into second year.., the teams are already formed as friends from last year and im like a lost sheep.., and this is a new environment.., CGI. (it used to be a hobby :) )

you should be proud Matt, and so should your teachers.

M:)

Absolutely superb stuff Mat!!

I know how long you have been working on this and the result is tremendous.

I see a big future for you in this industry so grab is by the balls and have a blast!

:beer:
Dave.

That was great.

The story had a nice ending too. I like the concept that life and death is decided by a game of chess.

5/5

hehe, congrats mat, that turned out well :)
Time to relax for a bit or have you other things still on?

Simon

Thanks guys,

arran: I did a bit of celebrating on the evening I finished it, unfortunately I had to take it to university the next day (a 5 hour round trip!) and I wasn't feeling too good. Next time I'lll wait until the weekend!

DJ: Yep, it's Danny Elfman, the theme tune to Beetlejuice to be precise. If memory serves me correctly it too has an intro which is the path of a fly, much like Men in Black.

The first person camera's in te ward scene were totally intentional, later in the film they were used as a time saving device (don't tell anyone though!!). I'll address all that if I ever come back to this project.

The reading guy is actually a recycled model from my second year animation so he's a little more primative than the other two characters. Nell has a good mesh, I think it's her blendshapes which let her down in the mouth department. I will probably be recycling her for future use and will spend a little more time on the facial stuff then.

Mirek: You're becoming a perpetual student!!!

I'm not sure where the story came from, it pretty much just happened, I knew I wanted to have a little girl as the main character and she was to go on an adventure (initialy using a red balloon as her means of transport) to another world where she would defeat the bad guy and then wake up wondering whether it really happened. I guess I didn't stray too far from the original synopsis in the end it just evolved a little.

We were told at the end of second year that we needed to have a project proposal ready to present for the second week of third year so I guess we had about 4 months to get the project set in concrete and to a presentable state which we could follow through to the end.

The characters..... I'm no pen to paper artist and as such the characters were born from a bottle of wine, my inability to draw people in proportion and the fact I'm quite easily pleased. I guess I pretty much knew what I wanted them to look like so designing them wa fairly straight forward.

The storyboard took about a day and a half to draw (like I said, I'm no pen to paper artist!). I made the characters first so had a couple of weeks to get the story right in my head. You can take a look at it here.....

STORYBOARD LINKAGE

.... Not the greatest piece of art but I remained quite faithful to my original idea.

Animatics weren't really a concious part of the process with this project, yeah I roughed out the animation and developed from it but never actually set out to specifically create an animatic. If you're working in a group, they're essential so that people know where things go and when they're meant to happen but as I was working alone I knew how I wanted it and so the storyboard was enough for me.

From start to finish I think it took me about 8 months to complete the animation.

Phew..... you ask a lot of questions!

Dave: Top man, Cheers!

Louis: Check out "The Seventh Seal" by Ingmar Bergman, that's where I got the idea from. OK it's a 50 year old Swedish film but it has it's moments of inspiration. Or you could watch "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" which also had a pastiche of the seventh seal in it where they end up playing twister etc. with Death.... Their Excellent Adventure was better though!

Si: Cheers mate, unfortunately my time to relax is restricted to this weekend. I've still got a group prpoject to complete and a photography project to start. They shouldn't be too tough to complete on time though. Good luck with yours, I just saw the PM you sent and am looking forward to having a look at your traffic tool.

OK, that pretty much covers everything I think. All I got to say now is cheers and thanks for tuning in.

Oh yeah..... If you could show it to anyone who you might think will employ me that would be cool too! Contact details are somewhere on my website.

Th...Th...Th...That's all folks,

Mat :beer:

Hey Mat,

Sorry for the late reply, only just had chance to download it!

Great work man! Came together really nicely

YOu going to have a bit of a break now your finished, or crack on with the next project!

he wont be able to relax for weeks

thanks for those answers Matt.., very helpful

:)