Friday 25 April 2014

The Slime Mold- complete animation


Finally completed the animation using Cinema4D and Maya. Any feedback would be helpful for further improvement.
Thanks.

2 comments:

  1. Looks really cool Sam!

    Here's what I think: You could increase the speed as the title starts to dismantle. It feels a little bit long for me. Secondly, the camera movements in your first 30 seconds is a bit jerky. Is that intentional? Thridly, how about adding crumpled sounds or something of that sort as it starts to form into or out of a shape? Because right now, your music makes everything moves quite slow. Don't get me wrong, it is visually engaging but how about thinking of adding more SFX to give it an extra edge? Also, I think you have to try sticking to the brief which is 2 minutes. Haha. Some parts i think you can speed up though :) Ouh also, for the word Mature sporophyte and aggregation, I think it needs a couple more seconds?

    Hope it helps!

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  2. Hey Sam: okay, some suggestions in terms of tightening this experience up: firstly, I think your running time is an issue, less because of some mechanistic view of the 2 minute run time as per the brief, but rather because your film gives the sense of you using all the footage you've worked so hard to achieve - a little bit as if you're in love with your own output and are loathed to edit more strictly. I think you should try - as an exercise in the first instance - to get this down by at least one minute - there's lots of bagginess in here; for example the 'streamers' section feels long, the ending scene when we travel under the 'bridges' is confusing, because those shapes are not, in fact, the fruiting sporangia, which we only see again at the end of the shot. There are some prolonged views of the spores too, which I think you could tighten. Yes, you're film is reflective in mood and tone, but there's a much tighter edit in here that I think you should push for now - let go of some of this footage - and let go too of your memory of making it it. I'm assuming you didn't peg this film down to a strict storyboard - that you were working in a more 'straight ahead' way; this is fine, but it also shows in terms of the craft of the edit. It's a bit too indulgent right now.

    Other shots to cut; you should absolutely get rid of those moments in your film when the camera travels into one of your assets; it happens twice - when suddenly the camera penetrates a shape; we see this often, and while there is a purpose to these sorts of penetrative shots in VFX sequences, more often it reads as poor camera control or a lack of clear direction; the general rule of thumb in Maya is don't let Maya cameras do what real world cameras couldn't do. I think you could trim these moments out and your film would feel instantly more polished.

    Ayunie is right in terms of time of text on screen - you need to let your audience read and feel comfortable around reading your labels - at the moment it does feel as if you're in a hurry to get rid of the text elements. I think there's an argument for additional text elements too to offer a bit more info - for example, the long streamer sequence feels like it could do with bringing back into the life-cycle more obviously via info.

    Short version is there's a tighter, more purposeful, more elegant and more 'audience-sensitised' edit in this 3 mins 21 secs, Sam - and one of the great disciplines of working in CGI is the objectivity to edit your own renders and cut where necessary - even if it pains you (the creator) to do so! Get in there and tighten this experience up - improved flow, improved sound design, improved communication etc. Be brave! :)

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