Greetings all,
I have very recently finished doing all music and sound design for quite an ambitious animation that I believe people here will appreciate.
The quality of the character design and animation itself is quite impressive. Daniel Cohn, who solely conceived, designed and animated this, did so for his UTS Masters animation assignment - well exceeding the basic requirements.. I hope it provides inspiration and receives support from the local gaming community.
Any feedback would be appreciated!
Enjoy!!
Larger, Higher Res Link (.avi 77mb): http://www.insanelysane.org/Movies/BattleAxeLowResLARGE.avi
Smaller, Lower Res Link (.mov 30mb)
http://www.insanelysane.org/Movies/BattleAxeLowResSMALL.mov
And, if you are interested in listening to my original music that I strongly believe could feature in a future quality cinematic and/or computer game, check them out on my site: www.insanelysane.org/music.html
Thanks for reading.
Josh Cohn
www.insanelysane.org
What was the timer frame in which he completed it?
I agree with UniqueSnowFlake about the length and detail, it's certainly a lot to get done by one person, and it's clear it suffer from that. There are some good areas, and some particually nice moments of camera work, editing and animation, but also there are some parts that seem rushed out. Again, what was the time frame?
The lighting is definatly the weakest area, and the models could use work. The aniamtion and sound are the strongest parts.
Thanks for the feedback - Its a tough position to be in as I would be the first to (constructively) criticise works shown to me.. And with this particular animation one can pull apart quite a lot of it - ie many aspects are not top notch in this animation and if anything it provides insight into how to make better impact without spreading yourself too thin (which is the prime criticism which I also happen to agree with). The criticism regarding lighting as well as the length of the animation are spot on.
UniqueSnowFlake, you are also spot on with your comments about the sound effects in places. I can only say that some of the 'logical' sound errors (like the soldiers' marching not changing dynamics when camera changes perspective) were due to time constraints where I had so many other 'last minute' aspects to work on, that some things were sacrificed.. In the real world there is not excuse.
In fact, I was surprised at the amount of technical issues that came up and significantly interferred with initial expectations of what the animation and sound was going to be like. For anyone that has worked on an animation like this (and further more worked on a game etc) should know by now that only experience can prepare for how many 'hidden' variables will interfere. Every aspect needs attention and that is a very good reason to have an animation shorter in length in order to polish all aspects so eventually there is 'nothing' to criticise ! thats the goal I guess.
One other interesting comment (for sumeans interested in the work process) is about the work dynamic and control - in doing the sound, I had free range to come up with creative ideas that could help direct the flow of the animation (like soldier's charge music buildup followed by the dramatic 'silent' rumbling of the Battle Axe character just before the slaughter begins). However, there are a few parts where what instinctively feels right for an audio person is NOT RIGHT for the animator/director (in this case). There are parts where dialog dynamics are not consistent (where I was asked to significantly reduce volume levels for one particular line at the end), where music is too quite or footsteps too loud because that is how my brother wanted it (which is fine, but my instincts jarred with some of the decisions).
As I have not yet worked on a commercial title, I wonder how this sort of issue is dealt with within a company's structure (a question of who gets their way if there is disagreement about a certain aspect).
Just a last comment to respond about the time frame - my brother worked on the animation for 2 months - solid work, many many hours. He has some other assessments and projects which he either knocked out of the way early on or put aside until the animation was done. For the sound, I had about 3-4 days in total to work with the reference animation files (which came 'on the fly' in sequence parts from start to finish - a total of about 11 small video files).
Thanks again for spot on comments - and i'll make sure to put a few images on the links for preview.
Morning,
If what you say is true and your bro put this movie togeather by himself thats pretty impressive. I'm sure he had a short time frame to do it in and done a great job in trying to that much stuff in that time frame.
I have to say I was pretty worried about downloading a 30 or 70mb file for student work and boy was I right [^]
I've got no clue on what the course out line was But I think his time would of been better spent if he had done a shorter scene. Working up a few characters with tons of detail and a single enviroment to put them in. This way you would also have time for alot better lighting. Plus more time to work on your characters animations. There were parts of your animation I really liked but because of the huge load I feel that your bro didn't have time to polish any of it.
As for the music I'd have to say I enjoyed it the most out of the clip. Can't say I enjoyed the sound effects as much. Scene 1 you have some dude by totaly still water and for some reason you can hear running water amost as if there is a water fall near by.. Then you have the dudes walking towards the village and you hear there foot steps which is fine but then the camera cuts and you can still hear there foot steps as if there right at the camera.
Anyways. Thats enough from me.
Be nice if you put some pictures up for the clip so people can have a look before they download it.
If your trying to save bandwidth (sumeans) I'd say just check out the website sound bites then getting the movie.