[B]Hi,
I'd like to introduce my first TF2 animation:[/B]
[video=youtube;LpKs9UpIe8I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpKs9UpIe8I[/video]
I'm conscious of the animations are far from the ideal but I'm glad with the overall effect.
I worked on animation over 2 months (including learning work with the program).
Previously I was creating Minecraft animations: [url]http://www.youtube.com/user/XxBO7SSxX[/url]
I'm counting on constructive comments and advices.
[B]Voice Actors:[/B]
FilmmakerJ - Soldier
[url]https://www.youtube.com/user/FilmmakerJ[/url]
john arce - Spy
[url]https://www.youtube.com/user/juneswinter[/url]
DeadTom22 - Scout, "Boss"
[url]https://www.youtube.com/user/DeadTom22[/url]
Eric Wheeldon - Demoman, Enginner
[url]https://www.youtube.com/user/EricDubyu[/url]
2:11
that's some...talented, voice acting.
Well Kudos for doing something with an actual story and voice actors, it's a damn sight more than what most people bother to do. My main critiques for this piece are the camera work and editing (pacing).
The camera work I feel needs a lot more variety, most of the shots appeared to use roughly the same field of view or composition. I never felt like I was 'inside' the film, more watching it from a distance and because of the use of these wide angles a lot of the shots felt like they had too much wasted space.
Good camera work isn't just about containing the actors within the frame or pointing in the right direction (not saying you think this, just an example), it should compliment the actions in such a way that the two feel almost connected and working together. The largely static nature of the shots meant that everything felt very dead and lifeless. I'm not saying the camera itself has to be moving, but why not pan with the actors or something. Do you know that in SFM you're able to puppeteer the camera? i.e. manipulate it in real time and have those actions be recorded? Essentially becoming the camera man on your own shots. Simply panning the camera with the action would improve the majority of these shots 10 fold.
This kind of leads me to my next point, pacing. The film did not need to be 6 minutes long. Think about the information you need to convey, then basically try and convey it in the shortest amount of time possible. For example, what was the point of the first shot even? All it seemed to do was tell us we were in the red base, which we would of known from the 2nd shot anyway. That was 24 seconds not even needed. There are other shots throughout the film like this. In fact I'm not even sure what the point of the first scene was, it didn't really give us any information that we needed to know, and we never see those characters again. The main story and character of this film is the red spy. I really didn't see the need for that first scene. There are other ways of speeding things up, for example a lot of the shots seemed to cut a second or so too late, try overlapping shots so that while one character is talking we cut to the person listening as they begin to do something else etc... You goal should be to make the tightest edit possible.
Not helping the pacing was the incredibly slow animation at times, note that I'm not criticizing your animation quality, but the speed of it. At times people felt like they were walking in slow motion. It's very simple to select a period of time in the motion editor for example, then alt drag the edge to speed up or slow down all animations contained therein.
A couple other minor technical things, like motion blur/dof samples samples too low, overexposed shots, etc..
All that being said, this is a good first attempt and your focus on story is admirable. My advice would be to not make something so long next time. Until you master the techniques of camera, editing, staging, etc... There's really no point in making a long film, you might as well make something 1 minute long and you would learn the same things. All you're doing when you make a long film is repeating the same mistakes over and over. Make really short stuff until you're confident that you've mastered all the techniques to make something that will hold peoples interest for a longer time.
Good luck, keep at it!
I enjoyed it. There are much shorter SFM videos that don't hold my attention as well as this did. I agree with everything PalmliX said above, but I still think it's important to compliment it on the feature of being just plain enjoyable. And it's much better than anything I've made to date. Good job, keep it up.
[QUOTE=Hogie bear;43174588]2:11
that's some...talented, voice acting.[/QUOTE]
sounded like a fuckin chimp
@PalmliX
Thanks for a lot of tips on camera. I'll try to to practice and learn something.
I noticed it some time ago that I've a tendency to make slow movements. It seems to me that it's better than previously, but of course I'll be working on it. I will try to correctly use your advice, we'll see how it comes out. I usually do shorter animations (2-3 minutes), but this idea I couldn't "compress" to 3 minutes, but you're right that it would be about one minute shorter.
you missed the Megatheard
No, I didn't missed. It's from Megatheard:
"You can still make an individual thread for your movies (as long as they're not incredibly short, like 10 seconds)"
I made the new thread to get more comments which will help me to create better animations. In megathread videos quickly disappear.
[QUOTE=dzoo11;43181652]you missed the Megatheard[/QUOTE]
You and people reporting this thread missed the sticky.
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