Senior Short Film - "The Potter"

[MonteCristo]

AWESOME,
great character, light, animation.
Amazing affect!
And good story.

excellent work!

[AJ]

Hey Josh,

Fantastic job! It really is an accomplished piece of work on all levels; well designed, well created & well told.

There's really only one niggle for me and that's the quality of the Potters skin - it isn't quite up to look/shading of the rest of the scenes - but that's an anal complaint from a critical nerd.

I hope everyone who worked on it is proud, because you deserve to be!

:D

[Empath]

Awe inspiring.

[gra7]

amazinng man.. exelent effects.. c ya !

[mrtrashtalk]

brilliant work.

I really love the music you guys chose.

I think it is often underestimated what music can do to enhance a story. It's always sad to see a wondeful animation, that obviously took tons of work, to be ruined by a theme that fails to capture the mood of the story.

[pum]

Wow! I am truly amazed! Everything is just so good! especially the lighting , animation and the effects.
Amazing! :applause: :applause: :applause:


cheers,
HB

[ODoul]

Very beautiful on all levels. Congrats.

[chrisbeaver]

I saw this one at the student-film show a couple weeks ago; fellow SCAD-student here. It was awesome, man! Got great applause afterward.

[swardson]

very well done,

I love the fact that there was no dialogue. The emotions were conveighed using body language and music. Brilliant idea for this short. I loved the effects on the "blowing on clay" sections and when she was molding the bright clay, it looked great. The lighting and mood was perfect for thie piece.

Good job 4 stars from me

-Brad

[Ls3D]

WOW, I'm jealous for a team and creative project like that!

-S

[thesuit]

Very beautiful indeed...
If I had one crit:
the music gets kind of boring after a few minutes. And my only crit on the 3d is a few seconds of the green character's shoulders. Other than that I find it very well executed. Plus I'll give 5 stars for a clean storytelling.
Good luck finding the great jobs you'll land with this...

[MMuster]

Fantastic. :applause: It's alomost a metaphor for all (3D-)artists. Don't we also have to learn from the masters before we are able to let the magic flow into our work? :D

[joel3d]

I love the story, Really felt the emotion.
It was like watching a short made by a big studio.



Thank you.

[dragonz]

I must say, I am quite impressed indeed. As has been stated, you can really feel the emotion being directed with all movement and the music makes it work perfect. Fellow Scad student here as well, and after seeing it again, it just blows my mind away. Great job.

[jjburton]

My wife called me to say the film had been plugged...thanks, Dave.

Thank you for the kind words of encouragment. I'm very sorry that the server with the project info collapsed. Suprisingly, it was from another site on the server and not this one. They're working on it...but of all the days for it to happen...:shrug:

If someone has some webspace and wants to mirror the project site (no movies, just images and info), please pm me.

Fellow SCADDIES, looking forward to the senior show!

I'm gonna try and fill in a little as a stop gap measure. Here's the team and VERY rough breakdown of responsibilities:




Josh Burton - Director, Animator, Concepts, Modeling, Rigging, Texturing, Lighting
Ben Willis - Animator
David Bokser - Animator, Rigging
Jon Campbell - Houdini Master, Particles, Technical Director
Scott Engert - Modeling, Animator, Texturing, Technical Director, Project "Mr. Fix It"
Scott Spencer - Zbrush, Texturing
William Atkin - Compositing
Hunter Curra - Sound Design
Matthew Parrot - Houdini Shaders
John Austin - Sound Research
Software used - Lightwave, Maya, Houdini, Nuke, Shake, Digital Fusion, Body Paint, Photoshop, Premiere, as well as some 3rd Party plugins

By the way, all of us are looking for jobs;)

[fooxoo]

WOW what a touching beautiful animation!!!:thumbsup::bounce::buttrock:

It is absolutely fantastic! I love the light shows!

[PeterPuppet]

That is a very nice, very emotional movie full of phantasy, encouragement, love and partnership. Yeah, phantasy can and will change the world. Congratulations! Hehe, Jesus got a credit. Love ya guys. I wish you all get the job of your dreams! You deserve it.:thumbsup:


That guitarsound rules so much!


peace, pete

[shenai]

I have been following the progress of "The Potter" for quite some time now since you guys posted the main character on z-brush central.I have to admit that this piece is one of the best shorts I have seen.It just goes to show the talent of its creators and all the hard work that is put into it.I am truly amazed.All the best guys for SIGGRAPH
Keep up the good work

[bawhabmw]

Wow, I'm so glad to have so many great responses! and positive ones at that! We all, everyone on the team, worked very hard on this project and is such a great feeling to know that others appreciate the effort we made. I do have to say that it was Josh who brought us all together and made us believe in this project. He is a very talented guy who I'm positive will go far in this industry. So blessings to you Josh!

oh and shenai... We didn't make it into SIGGRAPH this year.:sad: But that's ok because there are tons of other festivals and venues out there!

Again thank you everyone for your support!

|Benno

[doppelganger]

Thanks everyone for the kind words,


I count myself lucky to have been involved in the project and it was a great experience. Its hard to believe its been over a year since it started! : )

Thanks to Josh and the team and to the CGTalk community!

Scott

[Konoku]

Wow fantastic job!

only small crit i have, is that even thoe it was not that noticeable.
I seen the characters clothing going through the Actual model it'self a few times.

Again great job you guys!

[jjburton]

One of our fellow members was kind enough to donate some mirror space for the site. I have all kinds of crazy code going so it's gonna be a little slow till the regular site gets up. But it's something:) Thanks AJ_23 for the space! (The nav won't work for now properly)


Team (http://www.cgdo.com/pottermirror/team/)
Pipeline (http://www.cgdo.com/pottermirror/about/pipeline.htm)
Breakdown (http://www.cgdo.com/pottermirror/about/breakdown.htm)


My hosting company is apparently getting a server attack today...blast you Murphy!

Shenal, thanks for following the project. Ben's right though, no luck at Siggraph, we did enter in the student side as well though and haven't heard back on that one yet. We'll just try harder next time. I think Scott S is gonna post on zCentral as he's our resident zbrush guru

Peteboy, glad you liked it. I'm a sucker for bluegrass as well;)

Benno, thanks for chiming in and thanks for your words. It was great working with you.

Scott, you rock man:)

[nuclearbum]

That was pretty cute! Something i think my non animation enthusiest would sit and watch :) Nice little message, too bad the kids won't do the same as the guy in the short, blasted "I just want the answer right now!" mentality.

Character designs are pretty cool and nice smooth animation, what more could i ask for?

[Wilson-3d]

Well congratulations on producing such a high quality short. It turned out great. I hope you guys get it into a bunch of festivals. Nice work.

Chris Myers
(Motion Graphics Artist for SCAD and part time M.F.A. in animation)

[drzorn]

Thats realy sweet! congrats!

[posetopose]

Wonderful stuff. It's great to see how much the comp. art dept. has improved since I left!!

Great work guys. A few crits:

The eye movement in some places could use a bit more detail, as could the face. I love seeing characters think through the movement of thier eyes.

Some of the pacing could have been a tiny, tiny, tiny (really tiny) bit tighter, just to keep the story's momentum going.

So, minor quibbles. Excellent work guys, send it out to festivals, and go get some jobs!!!

Cheers,

Greg

[SumGii]

That was beautiful. I am saving this as one of my all time favorite 3d animations. Great job all those who worked on this project should have no problem getting into the industry if they aren't already.

[loocas]

This was one of those rare longer animations/short films of which I didn't want to skip a single frame! Very well done! Very good! http://www.cgtalk.com/images/rating/rating_5.gif from me with a :bowdown:

[Corduroy Squirrel]

That project is an attractive accomplishment, but it's a little too slow pacing wise for me. I think a lot of the animation and thought processes could be faster and still be as intimate, but that's a minor flaw. The lighting, particles, and texturing were awesome. Good modeling as well, very attractive designs on the boy. Good luck with it. Thanks for sharing.

-C.Squirrel

[kpwproductions]

Great job guys, fellow SCAD student here - this project has been one of the best things I have seen come out of our school yet. Great use of zBrush - and of course, Houdini makes for beautiful imagry as well. Congrats to you all.

[S-m-i-l-e]

Beautiful... Thanks for this relaxing moment :)
Congratulations...

[TheDarkKnight]

I like it very much. Nice little Story with cute charakters. I like the expressions in their faces, the lightning and animations are very nice to look at. Very Familiar Feeling i had while watching this great piece of Art. :thumbsup: They look like good friends and the little one learn from the bigger one :rolleyes: and the music fits perfectly. Like it very much. There is no need for a dialogue, the pictures show everything i must know for this little story.

Very nice Job and an applause to all the people wo made this. :applause:

[-NG-]

Master piece, you can definatlly see emotion in the potters eyes. The character is excellent, he gives a real warm and kind feeling. :) Great work!

[ThomasMahler]

I love it, it's like "a sculptors life in a nutshell" - I immediately had some deja vus! :) Very nice work!

[jjburton]

Thanks for the great response, all.

Wilson, we've submitted to a few and we've only just begun the circuit. It showed at one in April and will show at Cannes short film market corner (I don't know if that's quite the right name) in a week or so and another in Italy in a month or so. We're waiting to hear back on a number of others.

Greg, thanks a lot. And thanks for your crits as well. You were like the hero professor when I got here that I never knew but heard stories of.... One of my buddies talked about you all the time. So know you made an impression here. I hope life is treating you well. I'll keep your crits in mind for the next project:)

Squirrel, sorry the pacing didn't suit ya. Glad you liked the rest though;)

kpwproductions, thanks man, I'll keep an eye out for your work

Still waiting on the site to come back up...first time something like this has ever happened with this host. I'm grateful we have the schools servers running well.

[HocusPocus]

Amazing!!!
nice character, lightning, render, textures, effects...
absolutely amazing!

[scottiedoo]

Wow Josh, so far we have some great replies! The new sound fx are much better than before. Good job Hunter!

It was great working with the team on this project and now I am feeling it is all worth it. All the hard work everyone has put into this animation was great and couldn't have been done without a committed team. Josh, you set the bar pretty for all of us we thank you!


Thanks everyone for your comments and it means a lot to all of us.


Take care!

[Cathy]

WOW!!!
Simply awe inspiring! Beautiful narative! Congrats!

[zazery]

Amazing; simply amazing. I really liked how you told the story through visuals and music instead of dialog. It really set the mood for the animation.

[tdamcbigity]

Well I'll add my excitement on top on the rest, thus forming a gigantic "You did fantastic" button or such, maybe even dancing... Great work.

[GatorNic]

I saw some guys working on this around the lab and I have to say the finished product is awesome! Phenominal job guys, I think you guys will definitly win some awards. Good luck to all of you! :thumbsup:

[B-rad]

This is great!! I can't begin to tell you how nice of a feeling it gives me after watching that amazing piece of art. Without a single word being said I understood everything. Very well done! Loved the characters design as well great job I saw no problems what so ever. Very well done I hope you guys make more, you all seem to work well together. :thumbsup:

[Jaycee77]

Absolutley amazing, this is easily the best short animation I have seen in a very long time. Makes me wish I was at school learning this stuff also. Amazing work, keep it up there!

[Mystifyurmind]

Congrats Josh, this'll get you places. (And Scott and Ben and Jon and the rest of the crew)

This gives SCAD a good name but more importantly puts you guys on a stool you all deserve. Good Job :D

[alseides]

Visually, I think everyone thinks that this animation looks great.

I'd rather comment on the story, which is much more important than how it looks. The story is good. But from what you are trying to convey, I think the duration could be shorter, perhaps by a minute or two.

[snovak]

HOT DAMN! I'm blown away.:applause:

[dcmoutinho]

very nice !
congratulations:bounce:

[coolwizj]

Awesome!! :D :thumbsup: :bounce: Can't wait to see more your your work... :D


- Ian

[kira-hime]

Wow, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen! I'm gonna watch it like 20 times now ;) Really awesome work you guys. How did you come up with such a cool idea? :thumbsup:

[eygji]

Very nice. a good portfolio peice for everyone involved!
good modeling and animation, good soundtrack, and good story.
very creative.
love it. :)

[Pi3141]

That was amazing. :love:

[scottiedoo]

kira-hime: I think josh could explain this pretty well, but to save some time, Josh was interviewed by Newtek just recently about the short. It talks about the idea behind this short. Thanks for the comment

Josh, you are welcome to fill in any blanks :)

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/profiles/JoshBurton/index.html

[Neeno]

hey there just like to compliment you ona great short... very heart warming.. great!

[Obraxis]

Hey guys - very nice work there. Looks quite proffesional.

I'd like to if I may, provide some critisism on it. The characters are great, it's got a great story and great look. My main issue is with some of the animation.

Allthough mostly of a high quality, I did notice that there were a number of scenes where the characters would just freeze in position and not move. I think a number of shots could do with 'Moving Holds'. For me, it kinda loses some of the magic when the characters just freeze totaly, even when the other character is moving and becomes quite noticeable.

Other than that - impressive work. Good job :)

[Værs]

Superb work

[jjburton]

Holy Fritos, Batman! The Server is working again. All links on page 1 should be good to go now.

(Edit, the Joker is at it again, the site went down again...and the Joker is down, and the site is back up!)

Thanks again for your thoughts and encouragment.

Scotty, welcome to the party. Chime in as much as you want.:)

Nix, thanks man. Nice work on your head in the other threads.

Nick, Thanks man. Looking forward to seeing everyone's work at the senior show.

Obraxis, I understand your criticism. One of the things I had to accept in taking on a longer story with multiple characters and all that was going on fx wise was that there are only so many hours in the day and sometimes good enough has to be good enough for some shots. Some shots had to be approved at 90-95% of what I thought they could be simply because if we kept tweaking them, the project would have never been completed on time. The shots that were key recieved the most "tweak time," but it was impossible to to devote as much time as we'd like on every single aspect of the piece. We're all still learning and each shot we push through will only make us stronger animators. Thanks for the crit, plenty yet to work on and learn;)

On using no words. I'm very glad it worked. The original script had dialogue and my professor pounded me to tell it without. It took a LOT of attempts to get it, but I'm very grateful he pushed me to do so as I think it makes a lot stronger story.

On the source of the story in particular- follow Scott's link;)

[anex700]

This is really mmmmmazing guys! I can tell a LOT of hard work went into this and it is going to pay off!! Very professional, great ideas, great acting... wow just great :)

I love the characters' expressions and body language -- there is no dialogue needed because these two ^ are so effective.

CONGRATS to all of you!

Hope to see your names in other credits soon! :D


WOW!!!

~ dinky

[waibeans]

Compositer here,

Wanted to let everyone here know how much fun it was to work on the Potter. Each of the guys on the team did an amazing job. I've been on projects that almost fell apart because of poor team dynamics, but this one was simply a pleasure!

Good luck to everyone and thanks to the wonderful responses!


William Atkin
Digital Effects Artist
www.william-atkin.com (http://www.william-atkin.com)

[TheShow]

I love the way you captured the potting process. The first few pots put on the shelf remined me of my first attempts. Great work - great piece.

[Maplewood54]

I don't have to tell you that I think all of you rock, cause I know you all know how I feel. But just to be clear....I think you all freakin rock! Great teamwork throughout the whole project, awesome organization. The professionalism on this project was well beyond the years of some college students. Less than a year to make this thing, once it was in production. Amazing! So I guess I'll be seeing all of you around for the next, oh, 30 years? Again, excellent job guys.

+ Christian

[ma13pramod]

Nice work dude :thumbsup: , really emotional stuff :cry: ...liked it very very much...three cheers to u ppl...keep going ... :thumbsup: .

pramod :applause:

[Spater]

holy crap, that is one of the best shorts I've seen, this one is saved under my inspiration folder.

[jjburton]

Welcome to the thread, Will:)

The site is back up....(for how long, I have no idea)

Christian, thanks man. I think I saw your pic in the school paper- something about a group doing stuff in NY? I'm gonna email ya.

Thanks again everyone.

[NunoNisa]

The movie it's really really good! and i man everything, animation (softbody, character, lightong, sfx), models, textures, enviroments etc. Congratiulations. Though i notice there's a scene that the character doesn't get with clay on it's face and arms when it's hands are full of it. But just a thiny little detail on such good work! Excellent and flawlessly done! Congrats for all of you guys!

[csmallfield]

Hey there,
that movie is great. Seriously one of the best things to come out of SCAD (I'm an alumni). 5+ min? That's crazy, it's so hard to even get a 2 min one done. It must have taken a lot of drive just to keep working on it. I am very impressed. I'll be looking for more of all of your work in the future.

-Chris

[Por@szek]

No crit, this is AWESOME!!:scream: You rock man:buttrock:

[freakmoomin]

excellent

I sat engrossed for the whole short. And i usually get bored pretty easy.

i can t say anything anyone hasnt already but id just like to add that i thought the music was excellent and i thought it was instrumental to keeping the mood of the short.

brilliant.

[RobW720]

Very nice. Thrown into my insparation folder as well. Loved it. the animation was good, modeling good, texturing good, lighting good, everything on it was good. The only crit i have is the pace. its a bit slow. you could have trimmed it up a bit. maybe shave off a whole minute of it here and there and still told the same story with the same impact. other than that well done!

[nomadicrain]

This is absolutely wonderful...very touching, and a great sign is that my 4 year old and 17 month old were captivated by it. They are asking me to play it again. :thumbsup: I love the impact of the story and I really feel the characters, superb!!!

[NumbRobot14]

I love the short. It is clearly a labor of love by everyone involved and it's amazing. The quality of the lighting is probably what stands out the most to me.

As someone said above, my only suggestion would be to shorten it just a little. I'm all for setting a scene up slowly but my attention wandered just a little bit in the middle.

Anyway, great work for everyone involved! :applause:

[Gaetano]

Now that was inspiring!! Great job all around. A well told story that touches the heart. http://www.cgtalk.com/images/icons/icon13.gifhttp://www.cgtalk.com/images/icons/icon13.gif

[Zack Attack]

I just want to say Congrats On a good job. It was very inspiring and best of luck in your job hunt.

[CursedPoet]

I like the kind of magic feeling of this movie.
I'm impressed by all the "Wow that's the greatestest awesomest movie" comments, because I've seen important problems.
First of all: the texture of the kid has not the quality of the green guy. When you see all the nice light effects for example, sometimes the little potter doesn't totally fit. There are smaller problems in modelization and texturing that are very acceptable for this kind of production.
Secondly, the slow animation + the music = I wouldn't watch it twice, I would fear to fall asleep. Ok that's an exageration of course, but nonetheless there's a problem there in my opinion. You should use the music to help the story, to emphasize the try-miss-learn-success thread. Also the slow animation of the green guy is ok because he's heavy and have slow moves. But for the potter, he seems floating sometimes. His fastest moves have the speed his slower moves should have. Alright pottery needs patience, but when the green guy shows him something he stays like several seconds watching him like a fool. He doesn't seem very enthusiastic apart with his smile or maybe he's not very reactive.
Well, the long pauses could work well if the music was telling something.
So globally I'd say there's a lack of rythm.

Now I must bow to the work done, I know how hard it is to lead a production to a state you can say "It's finished!". A few problems, but the rest is fantastic! :)



Sometimes I wonder where do you guys find the time to render these long long scenes where almost nothing happen. Personally I have problems to give enough time to see things. Damn deadlines! Damn low-rated computer! :D

[berniebernie]

concentrated talent juice !

loving it.

[Geddart]

First of all. Congrats to the whole team for what you achieved. Very very nice Film with lot's of emotion.

I love the beginning and when the little potter got into his miracle phase. (nice effects too)
Some critiques of me would be that the guy sometimes seems a bit too pessimistic to me. I know it's hard to do that kind of stuff but he let's his head hanging again and again. For my taste he could get some more FUN and "yay, i'm gonna make it!".
Also the whole thing is a bit slow to me. Animation and the length of the scenes. I think it would be more intense if it was a bit more compressed.

But hey - that's just my opinion and style and it might not be yours.
What you guys have done here is brilliant already! Keep it UP!

[jjburton]

Site is down again, host tells me it's a DOS attack...mirror links are still on page 2. What a week for this stuff to happen- been with them 6 months and this has never happened before...whatcha gonna do? They tell me it'll be up soon.

Thanks again for the encouragement, all.

nomadicrain, best affirmation right there man:) I do some volunteer work with kids and they've been dying to see it, I should be able to show them next week and I can't wait to see what they think;)

Cursedpoet and Geddart, thanks for your candor. Good crits are important. I've had mixed responses in terms of pacing which can be very much a matter of tastes and the majority seems to like as is. When I was cutting it, I showed it to a few friends and professors who I knew wouldn't be afraid to tell me to cut something. There were originally a few more shots that were cut. The music was a matter of doing the best with what we had to work with. I had 3 composers lined up who backed out at different times throughout the process and it was only providence that connected me with Mark and Kyle who gave me permission to use their music about a month before the film had to be done. So we had a CD of music to cut together to try to make work. The music is 4 songs cut together and I feel works remarkably well considering our options. I fully agree that if they'd been able to score it properly, it would have been even better. But, when life gives you lemons... However, thank you for being honest in your crits as well as your compliments. My next project will be much shorter and smaller in scope and I'll try to tighted things up;)

[watermage]

I am absolutley blown away. Ive been planning to go to SCAD as one of my friends and business partners atteneded. If this is what I learn then...WOW! I look forward. This was a brilliant team effort and you love what you do, that much seems eveident. Pixar should be knockin' at your collective doors soon.

[Luciferul]

WoW
great ... everything :P

I love the whole thing, nice job

[treAnIMAtoRn]

Congrats to everyone on the team, especially my friends Josh, Ben and Scott Spencer. Your hard work has definitely paid off and it is awesome to see your personalities shine through your work on this project. I wish all of you the best of luck and look forward to seeing you each grow as artists in the coming years!

Trent

[geis]

Fantastic emotions. Beautiful animation, light and texturing. :applause:
I love it! :love:

[xiao_x]

wow,that is a really nice animation,plus,that make in lightwave,i`m lightwave user also.U just burn up my fire to study hard and archieve ur animation standart.............. :thumbsup:

[GreetingsEarthling]

That's wonderful.

It works as a metaphor or as just a heartening story. I think that's a sign of good writing: much like the clay pots, it has definite matter, but it is up to the audience to create a form in which to see that content.

[Drake83]

Wonderful film. Very beautiful effects, and i'd like to know : which version of Houdini did you use?

[scottiedoo]

Drake83: Maybe our visual effects guy can be more clear, but from my understanding we used Houdini 6 mostly for all the shots. I think there may have been one or two smaller effects done in 7, but I am not sure. I'll let Jon know and maybe he can post more specific information about how it was done.


Thanks again for your comments, glad people are still downloading the film and enjoying it!

-Scott

[Drake83]

Sure i downloaded it this morning (France). I love this kind of magical atmosphere, the effects, the story, and the music really really matches the video.

I asked this question because i'd like to reproduce the same effects, especially the dust particles, and Houdini seems to be a powerful tool concerning particles so i just wanted to know which version it was...

Anyway, your short made me dream.

[shoban]

Budy, Its a cool one. I like the music, camera movement and the dissolves verymuch.
Its an inspiration work for beginners. Great work.


emotions communicated

Shoban
shoban@frameflow.com

[theKal]

one word : incredible


I love it !

I even shout ( kindly:p) on my mother when she disturbed me watching your job ;)

[A12]

Great work. I loved the hand gestures and the facial expressions. The editing for the potter in training sequence was timed well. Good job!

Brent

[runroy]

wow that was awsome
i love the character emotion
:thumbsup::applause::buttrock::love:

[Norl]

Good work on the models, effects, texturing and lighting though the animation is quite jerky and can be made smoother to show fluidity in motion. Other than that, I like the storytelling part of the short without dialogue expressed through body language and facial expressions, good work on that too. Keep it up!

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