I've spent 18 months creating my first animated short, check it out! - General

Hey guys, I wanted to share my first film with you. I directed a team of 3 (including myself) through our final year at university studying animation, and this was the result. I'm really proud of what we achieved, given how little experience we had in animated film making. Obviously it's not perfect, but I hope you can enjoy it. I lead the entire process from scripts/concept all the way through to the final render and sound production, so I'd be happy to answer any questions about the project or studying animation. Check it out at the link below. [URL="https://vimeo.com/42559953"][B][WATCH HERE "TICKED OFF"][/B][/URL] If you're interested, you can see a few shot breakdowns and making of-esque stuff on my [URL="https://vimeo.com/42612680"]showreel here;[/URL] I'd love to hear what you think. I'm currently working on my second film at the moment but I estimate it'll take around a year or two to finish. Here's a little but of concept art which I've recently finished... [T]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YHj_icncPkw/USaismiKGSI/AAAAAAAAAhw/Q-okeZQCNY0/s1600/Fall.jpg[/T] Finally, if anybody wants to follow my progress I've got a production blog which you can [URL="http://kieranduncan.blogspot.co.uk/"]find here. [/URL] Thanks!

There's a slight issue with the texture mapping on the table at 0:37. 0/10.

That was just incredible. Major attention to detail everywhere I looked. Amazing work from you and your team.

Loved the art style, loved everything. Made me cum hard 10/10

Wait just you and like 2 other people made this?

[QUOTE=Squeegy Mackoy;39874034]There's a slight issue with the texture mapping on the table at 0:37. 0/10.[/QUOTE] Fucking hell man, you're the first person that's EVER noticed that and it's [B]plagued[/B] me since we finished. God damn it. You've got a keen eye though, well done. EDIT: although if we're getting technical, it's actually a modelling error not a texture mapping one. Doubled up polygons ;)

-snip-

[QUOTE=raccoon2112;39874052]Wait just you and like 2 other people made this?[/QUOTE] We had assistance from others but the primary team were the 3 of us. You can see the others in the credits. We modelled/textured/lit/rendered/composited/VFX'd everything... had some help with pre production storyboards, animation, sound/music.

The video is 9 months old, why share it now?

This is absolutely brilliant. I love the amount of detail put into the opening and the the gag revealed at the end.

[QUOTE=Freakie;39874067]The video is 9 months old, why share it now?[/QUOTE] We had it passworded because we were entering it into competitions, it's only recently we've been able to share it publicly. I would have posted it sooner, but some competitions are funny about it being available online.

Love the attention to detail, fantastic short film If you don't mind me asking, how long did this project last?

[QUOTE=Scotchair;39874078]We had it passworded because we were entering it into competitions, it's only recently we've been able to share it publicly. I would have posted it sooner, but some competitions are funny about it being available online.[/QUOTE] I see. How'd the competitions go?

[QUOTE=EvilPengy;39874087]Love the attention to detail, fantastic short film[/QUOTE] Thanks! There's actually about 20 or so easter eggs in the opening shot, some are personal ones and some are mainstream references. We went a bit mental with the detail.

That was awesome! Great job, you guys!

Dude the first 30 seconds of this movie is like Pixar quality beautiful. Awesome story as well. [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] Also that's not to say the rest isn't amazing. I also loved the transformation when he went into the time machine. Was there any inspiration from the Prestige taken? I did notice a big pile of top hats.

[QUOTE=Freakie;39874088]I see. How'd the competitions go?[/QUOTE] Well we ended up only putting it in to like 3 haha, we planned on doing loads but to be honest this film fucking destroyed us. I regret not pushing it more but to be honest, but most animation festivals like either extremely polished animation (which ours isnt) or pretentious abstract animation (which ours isn't). We still won an award at our degree show for best use of colour in the entire art school, plus we received an award as a student finalist at a competition in China.

A library seems to be a very odd place to build a timemachine in, no? [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] ALso why does he take the watch with him? He has one strapped to his arm.

[QUOTE=darcy010;39874098]Dude the first 30 seconds of this movie is like Pixar quality beautiful. Awesome story as well. [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] Also that's not to say the rest isn't amazing. I also loved the transformation when he went into the time machine. Was there any inspiration from the Prestige taken? I did notice a big pile of top hats.[/QUOTE] Thanks so much! It wasn't really until we were into production we realised the prestige parallels, which is why we added in the top hats easter egg. It is a film I absolutely love. I was never afraid of "copying" ideas or inspiration, as they evolve and grow away from their original source anyway. Plus, nothing is original. Picsso used to say "Good artists copy, great artists steal". [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Killuah;39874104]A library seems to be a very odd place to build a timemachine in, no? [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] ALso why does he take the watch with him? He has one strapped to his arm.[/QUOTE] It's a study, not specifically a library. He has 2 strapped to his arm, as well as about 12 clocks on the wall and the desk is littered with them. The idea is he was obsessed with clockwork/time, but the pocket watch holds a more sentimental value I guess.

This makes me wonder what i'm doing with my life.

Couldn't he just send a clone of himself back in time to explain to the original him what was happening?

[QUOTE=ultradude25;39874142]Couldn't he just send a clone of himself back in time to explain to the original him what was happening?[/QUOTE] I don't think he can go back. He most likely sends himself into the future where he abandoned his study.

[QUOTE=EvilPengy;39874087]Love the attention to detail, fantastic short film If you don't mind me asking, how long did this project last?[/QUOTE] From initial concept to final output it was around 18 months. But it developed A LOT through that time. In the initial version it was much darker and had a post apocalyptic future... in which he finds the clones. We ran with that for months before it changed to the way it is now. Also we never really took any holidays, we took a month off at the start and then spent the rest of the summer holidays in the studio. We were working around 50-60 hour weeks pretty much that entire time. I have distinct memories of compositing the opening shot on Christmas day haha. Here's some concept art of the original version. [T]http://i.imgur.com/blbengi.jpg[/T] [T]http://i.imgur.com/X3mtKr2.jpg[/T] [editline]11th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=ultradude25;39874142]Couldn't he just send a clone of himself back in time to explain to the original him what was happening?[/QUOTE] We wanted to have the time machine broken in the future, but we unfortunately never really had the time to model and texture a new version. We tried to get that across with the abandoned room and cover thrown over the machine.

That was great. Great quality in animation and art, and great quality in story-telling.

The only point I kinda dislike is the somewhat , and don't take me harsh here I simply don't know better words, "plump" message "we are dealing with a timemachine here" message by showing the papers. Same for the chalkboard. I thought that could've been done a little more fun and subtle, maybe hundreds of boxed clocks where he grabs one with a slight "sigh" or something.

[QUOTE=Scotchair;39874090]Thanks! There's actually about [B]20 or so easter eggs in the opening shot[/B], some are personal ones and some are mainstream references. We went a bit mental with the detail.[/QUOTE] TF2 reference? [IMG]http://speedcap.net/sharing/files/85/d5/85d5995bd8e7ab11ad8deb4068e55ebe.png[/IMG] [sp]All jokes aside, it reminds me of The Prestige.[/sp]

That was amazing, great work. I hope you get a job somewhere major in the future, it looks like you and your team deserve it.

Why does he have that many tophats in the first place? Teleported them?

The tophats are nothing but a nod to The Prestige (which has a similar plot) and as a bit of foreshadowing for the cloning... there's also some Russian dolls on the desk somewhere in a similar nod. Also, you're point about the obviousness of the time machine is understandable... but I think you're forgetting that 90% of audiences are stupid. There were a handfull of people we showed it to who (after watching the whole thing) didnt get it was a time machine... we wanted to make it clear exactly what was happening, which was probably the biggest challenge of all. Getting a clear, concise, interesting storyline into 5 minutes was pretty hard. Thanks for the feedback though!

Because the story is well written and it has a nice cute ending, it's very easy to overlook to small errors in animation and other minor details. Plastic hair just get's on my nerves unless it's a design choice, which I don't think it was here. Overall very good, keep making more.