Animation: Shuttle Landing!

[baby]

hehe quite funny...


if I may :

about the film and how it's shot

- reminds me a lot of 405 (but it's not the only one...)
- at the beginning (when U discover the city) too many shots with exactly the same timing...very strange
- some shots are really too slow
- in fact there is a general directing/rythm problem I think.

about the technique :

- some shots with a really weird persp at the begining
- you should put more often the motion blur buttons Guyz !!! ;)
- some contrast composition not exact


but that's cool !!!!

[samer]

;) It's wonderful!
the shadow has some trouble in the first pictrue.:p

[Splurgus]

HeHe Eish! Gotta love that ending! Mebe a bit more smoke and mblur woulda been nice but I am glad you didn't hurt the dassies and fynbos!
Nice one.

[Matt]

I'm not saying I can do much better, but there are a lot of things that can be tweaked to make this look nice. I'll just list my comments below starting with: First off, the shuttle is extremely large looking in some shots.

It's only half the size of a 747 jet.
The shaders used are like plastic...
Our shuttles are VERY dirty.
I think there would be more motion blur.
The shuttles use a parachute to stop. Perhaps make it break out the parachute, but have it caught on something, ripping that thing down. (Like a streetlight, which would in turn bash into some cars.)
I think the landing should be more violent, and a lot more noise could be added.
I have no clue what the guy at the end is doing when he's whistling.
It flies too stable... I'd think it would rock back and forth a little more in a scene like this... I dunno.

Remember, I don't think I can do better, so I'm not ripping on you. It's a great idea, and a slight bit like Flight404, but who cares... Just make that ship dirtier, blurrier, and add a little static to the video or something because it looks like a video, not like film.

[Matt]

Oh yeah, using Tom Hanks' voice uncredited isn't really cool, hehe.

[Khepri]

ok what the guys above said+ that the intergration could have used some of a, dynamic shoot, in that I mean, when you first hear A SHUTTLE IS FLYING OVER CAPETOWN!!!!!


the first reaction is panic!!!
the shots are shot way to peaceful!
it doesn't look like "they have a problem" from the cruise control- like flying"
I havent been working with combustion for some time now(neither on smoke or Flame), but it can get way better then this! also, filmgrain is your friend.

I found a pic of a shuttle thru Google(so I didn't do it!) to illustrate the dirt+colouring

http://www.wapers.com/vehicles/spaceshuttle/spaceshuttle2640.jpg

[SlipKorn]

Never mind Tom Hanks' voice...what about the uncredited Trevor Rabin 'Armageddon' music? Oh yeah, and more motion blur and smoke. Some of the live action stuff was really good, though.

~sk

[AJ]

Nice concept, but...

If it's meant to be a bit comical - then bang on. If not, then this may sound cruel. Some of the shots where the ship just 'shoots' past... incredibly funny... and it mysteriously changes size!

I don't know much about space travel, so I don't know if shuttles can fly at that angle... but it does look ridiculous seeing this behemoth of a ship rocketing past at about 45 degrees to the horizon... and the lighting/shaders look extremely odd in shots... I agree with what others have said, needs more detailing/filth.

I think some motion blur would've helped some of the comping too...

Sorry if this sounds harsh - it did give me a nice chuckle over my lunch - but then I laugh at everything :D ;)

[leigh]

Hehehe thanks for all the comments - unfortunately, this was made over a year ago, so now no changes can really be made... :shrug:

I know there are loads of weird errors like size changes, and that sort of thing... hehehehe... A lot of it bugs me too, but unfortunately, it's too late to make those changes :sad:

Also, yup we know about the parachute thing, and the logistics of landing it and all that - but in the end one has to use a little artistic license, I guess :)

The filth thing - I have a few hundred megs worth of references, and the only damage these things really have on re-entry is burn damage on the nose. Strange - I expected far more filth too... I think that when these things land out on dusty strips they do tend to pick up that dirt, but there is no dust here in the city ;)
We had the shuttle model lying around from an energy drink commercial, where it had been textured to look very clean - and I was given the job of redoing them all because they didn't hold up for higher res shots, and when it came to griming it up, I must say I was rather disappointed to find that couldn't make it as filthy as I had imagined...

As for credits - this is part of the company's showreel, which has full credits at the end.

The humor in it is actually something very South African - let me explain:
Here in SA, wherever you try and park your car, you get these guys who think they are doing you this huge favour by directing you to parking spots and "helping" you park. Then they demand money from you. And smash your windscreen if you don't.
It is actually a huge problem here, which is why we decided to turn it into a bit of a joke.
So that is what he is doing :p

Even though, looking back at this now I can see so many flaws, and there are loads of things I'd like to change about the work I did on it, I still think it's a nice little piece to look back on anyway.
It's just a silly, funny little clip, that I'm proud of because it was the first thing (along with the astronaut) that I worked on when I joined the company.

[Khepri]

hehe fun story bout the parking attendants :P

[leigh]

We generally tend to call them parking terrorists :D

[Soeren Nielsen]

lol.. watched the movie again after I knew about the "parking terrorists" and that kinda gave the movie another angle, really funny. there are some flaws in the movie yes, but I go in details since somebody else allready did that. The movie is funny, and I enjoyed it, that has to be a plus :)

[kyphur]

With the guy doing the parking place thing you should've had him climb the lightpole and throw a brick at the shuttle's window breaking it since they couldn't move it into the parking space. :p

Btw, what happened to your avatar with the moving eyes???

Kyph

[Teckniel]

it let me think to 11 september when you see it flying
nice but there is 1 care that you can see its a model

[leigh]

Soeren Nielsen - yeah that's the whole point! It's just supposed to be funny. An elaborate comical piece :)

kyphur - he would probably have been more likely to steel the wheels in this case :p
I changed my avatar after a large number of people said it was too creepy :surprised

Teckniel - yeah, we had been planning this thing for months, and had already filmed it when the World Trade Center was destroyed... Bad timing, yeah :sad: Which is why we made a point of mentioning that it was made in August ;)
And there are LOTS of places where it is a dead giveaway that it is CG! Especially some of the shots as it goes down the road towards the building.
It was also, in my opinion, way too saturated in some of the shots too.

[gnarlycranium]

The avatar too creepy? If you ask me, it's creepier to have the eyes moving some days, and some days not... with my browser urping at me, I'm always staring at that little pic wonderinig if I just saw it move, and if it's going to start suddenly peering around... it's great!!


heheh... space shuttle zooming... people running and screaming.. much wind... always fun! And it looks just great for its purpose, trying to make it totally realistic in a comedic format like this would be a waste of time. But... what the heck is with that woodchuck, or whatever it is?

I definitely wouldn't have understood the ending if I hadn't read your explanation first... heh. What is that music that plays at the end? I like!

[edaddy]

the landing was pretty cool, i dig that particle smoke and whatnot, but i was never convinced that the spaceship was REALLY there... i felt like it was too easy to spot the cg... the camera matching seemed right though... ;)

[baby]

with the end explanation, yep, much more funny !!!

[Flypaper]

Ok so there are the obvious flubups with the movie, But all in all, it's a great little piece which incorporated all aspects 3d and cinema from rotoscoping to compositiong, live action combined with cg. It's a great starting point for your company. The only thing that chapped my a$$ were the sound rip offs (which I know you didn't do anyway). Why spend all that time doing the work on the footage and animation, only to throw recognizable sound/music elements which totally distract the viewer. I was sitting there going, "Yeah that's pretty cool", next thing you know I wasn't paying attention going "I know that music, whats it from?"

Good work on the space elements - really enjoyed the astronaut.

[stephen2002]

that is a really funny video.

The only thing that is really "wrong" with it is that the shuttle is too big in the scenes were it is flying over the buildings.

good video :applause:

[barley]

I like it, it's a good concept executed well, though I too think the intro with the astronaut using the Hanksmeisters lines from Apollo13 draws the viewer away from the overall feel of the animation, there was never any indication of what the problem was, unless they were racing back to earth to claim that parking space :)

Along with the things that others already highlighted, such as the shuttle size, and missing motion/heat blur, I also noticed that the shuttle model "clips" into buildings and lampposts as it goes past, when it's landing on the street.
Good stuff tho, I really liked some of the pass effects when the shuttle was coming in to land. :)

:applause: :applause:

[xynaria]

MMNNN Liked the idea
Liked the story about the *attendants*
Hated the execution
Sorry, don't mean to be negative but the list of things I thought were wrong with this is bigger than my will to bother articulating them, and seeing as it's too late anyways. If it hadn't have tried to be *realistic* I think it would have worked better unless Atomic could have really pulled it off. When I started to think in terms of Blakes 7..er.. you know..... :)

[leigh]

:) Thanks for all the interesting comments!

At least they are constructive, unlike the abrasive and somewhat embittered comment left on the site by one of the indivuals at one of the other local animation studios here (you know who you are). Somewhat childish I think. Well, if it makes you feel better, then so be it.

Gnarly Cranium - yeah, I miss my older avatar too... perhaps I'll resurrect it one of these days... :twisted:

[Chupa]

Haha very nicely done, would like to see more of that stuff :thumbsup:

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