Short Film : 'Hitchhiker'

[ThirdEye]

First one to reply: absolutely excellent my friend, nothing else to say, well worth a plug :)

[SimonReeves]

cheers Alberto :)

[Solothores]

Wonderful work Simon, I love the style and the soundtrack compliments it perfectly :thumbsup:

[Grin3d]

:applause: really really great. very stylish. i like the mood and acting. simple story, but very effectively produced.

roman.grin3d

[MMuster]

Hi Simon,

I like your short film very much, especially the visual style. The modelling, the textures, the lighting etc. are great. :thumbsup:
But maybe you can overwork the story a little bit. Normally dramaturgy follows a kind of bow so that you reach the maximum tension shortly before the end.
Now the punchline (Is that the right word?) seems just to be a further gag and I expected that there still had to come a conclusion after that.
To solve that maybe you could keep raising the music volume or density until you reach the dramaturgical climax. Another possibility could be to play around with the scene's elements for example you could let stop the car (the last hope so to say) in front of the hitchhiker who is almost overly excited about his luck. But just when he makes a step into the direction of his saviour the plane crashes between him and the possibility of escape. You could then use your current ending.

I hope that I could help you. :) By the way: I have been on your websites and I have to say that your work is awesome.

Bye,

Nico

[mimo8]

beautiful shortmovie - congrats for the frontpage.

what I liked
+ the simple but effective scenery
+ nice textures
+ great postproduction, colorcorrection, DOF ...
+ storywise the first part. good buildup.
+ what I also liked is the crash of the airplane. no need for paricles and effects.
looked beliveable and toon and fitted well for this style.

what I didnt like so much
- some moves lack weight, for example when he gets up from sitting on the ground
- biggest crit would be the story. sorry to say, but you make us expect more as you serve in the end. I see that you tried to build up a relation with the airplan and tried to close the circle at this point. but the fact that the airplane guy gets picked up and not him is just another disapointment. it doesnt give a bigger meaning and lacks a conclusion, insight or gag.

hope you see what I mean.
still there is a lot of quality in your movie and it is very enjoyable to watch it.
good luck

http://www.brain-one.at/mmm/bunny.gif

[kr3ml]

that's a really awesome short, I like the screenplay, nice job :) , and of course nice cars :D

[greyface]

Good style and visuals, and good choice of music, but I have to agree with mimo8, I really was expecting a twist in the end :). The work on your site is great :D

desty

[thedoc]

The screen shots look lovely. I'm downloading the hi rez now. Can't wait. I'll be sure to post again when i see it or PM you or something.

[SimonReeves]

thanks for your comments guys, especially Nico and mimo8

I certainly understand what you mean about the story [the end] it is a bit of an anti climax really, but I am still pleased that i think it finalises somewhat :)

also I should say now about any dodgy animation :) I'm not specifily an animator and I do have a lot more experience with everything else, so its certainly not going to be the strongest area, but overall I was happy with the animation :)

[Miezis]

great mood! visual style is very convicing! but the story lacks twist and needs to be more intense... overall GOOD!

[wybl]

love the style, everything just looks awesome.

[Jezzarts]

Very cool mate, well done! ... a bit inspirational actually ; )

The ending was'nt as funny as the first half, started off great though!

[AidanGibbons]

Simon,

Well done again, this is such a great film and youve done amazingly well. I look forward to working with you next year (and this summer!)

[DanJoplin]

Simon,

Congratulations on the film, the music was perfect for the part, the modelling was great, animation seemless and you even got me to laugh at the end, congratulations.

DanJoplin

[Rodi]

top quality film, well done simon!!!

[Cadinho]

I like it a lot!! Like the mood specially! :thumbsup:

The only critics I would give is about the animation and some FX that could have been created.
Some parts, when the character stands up or walk, I miss some natural movements and some weight too...
And when the plane crashes, you could have putted some dust and some camera shaking too emphasize the crash on the ground...

When he tries to hitchhike the ice cream truck, you killed the joke when you wasted too much time on the truck after he looks at the wallet on ground.
I believe that if you had edited this part of the movie with shorter scenes the joke would surprise the expectator even more! :shrug:

Well, that´s my 2 cents. :applause:

3 stars from me!! :thumbsup:

[SimonGibson]

Nice job Reevesy, my respectometer for you has gone even higher :)

Your work kinda blows away any 2nd year (and proberly most 3rd year) university work i've seen :P

So erm, Good job, cheerio!

[FunkyCowie]

A really nice short, let down only by the fully body animation and expressions but as you have already replied this is not your strong point... so this is something you should practice on because otherwise it could distract the viewer from what your really good at. Either that or find an awesome animator and collaborate :). The story telling could have been a little punchier, some scenes needed to be shorter.

[FabioMSilva]

that was so sad man...
poor little fellow

good job.

[loocas]

Hehe! :D Really cool mate! ;) Thou the animation could have been a little bit better, especially the anticipation, secondary animations and when the main char. got up off the ground... but nontheless it's a great piece of work! :thumbsup: One thing thou, why are the cars driving on the right side of the road? You're british aren't you? :D But that has nothing to do with anything actually, just a little thought in my head... Anyways:http://www.cgtalk.com/images/rating/rating_4.gif from me as well! :thumbsup:

[ToddD]

Great showing Simon, your skills go well beyond building great cars! I am thoroughly impressed m8-- Cheers!

Todd

[harmonic01]

Hey Simon.

Great job, an awesome short. I love the lighting, textures and rendering.

[Reality3D]

The animation is a bit poor, but everything else is cool
Congrats Simon!

[Jaapie]

Nice short.

Really liked it.

Keep up tha good work!

[Loulu79]

That was a nice, nice short film you got there. Your obvious strong point would be the lighting and texturing part. Not to mention good choice of music for this piece, and good timing and mood for it. The semi-strong point would be the animation and the story-telling of it. But the weak link here is the gag...and more omph to the animation itself. For example....when the hitchiker comes off the ground on the ice-cream truck scene...I felt a lack of effort getting off the ground...because there's an existence of weight. And the antcipation isn't strong enough. That includes the ice-cream truck scene and the plane crashing scene. I'd say work on that a little bit more...I don't care what you say about yourself...that you're no animator ... You have potential at discovering more of your artistic skills...I see it is there. :thumbsup:

[ajay1589]

great story! I especially liked the phone wire being hit by a plane part....very creative!

[MDR]

I love it that was top quality piece of work. I liked the way you portrayed the main character, even though his movements were limited you still managed to give a sense of emotion most noticably in the facial expressions. I agree with some of the other comments made regarding the weight used in movements, there were some parts where things seemed to float at tad too much was very little force present.
Other than that a great piece of work overall, great style decent story. Keep up the good work, look forward to your next piece.

[moidphotos]

Excellent first animated film Simon, I expect next years to blow me away even more! No point offering crits as you know where things need adjusting, have to say the lighting is very very nice - dusty desert sky, great pastel colours. Looking forward to next year's efforts already:)

[fabianv]

Oh man! That is absolutely great! Where did you get the music? It fits so so so damn well!
I laughed so much when I saw that crashed plane on the telephone line.

Your sense of humour is awesome : ))) :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[requiem]

I heartily agree with the crits about the animation and ending. Great job with the rest of it. I laughed out loud at the plane crashed into the telepnone lines. You have a great cinematic flair.

[My Fault]

Yeah, I think if you could pair up with a great animator this would be gold. You obviously have huge strengths in cinematography, texturing, lighting etc but the poor character animation hurt this piece. I never felt any sense of drama or comedy as the main character had zero emotion and also no weight, anticipation, etc. Love the design on the character however!

All in all though super effort. As someone before me said you have a definite cinematic flair!

[webhead]

I liked the look of the film. Some good textures as well. The guy in a suit in the middle of nowhere with a plane flying around looked right out of Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST with Cary Grant. Was that an influence?
Besides what has been said already, what I had trouble with was the way the guy's wallet was in his hand one second with him holding it in front of him and then one second later it's fallen on the ground. It could happen, but it wasn't very believable or as clear as how he lost it so fast. The plane crashing all of a sudden for no apparent reason as well as how it spun around like it was rotating on something as well and how it seemed to land too far back from where it should have landed judging from the wide shot of it flying over the road was a problem for me as well. A few other small issues, but I still enjoyed watching it.
I look forward to seeing more of your stuff in the future. :buttrock:

[Duke3d]

Bravo.

Inspiring work.

[mehdianim]

Good style, although I thought some shots were too slow and d ragged on even though you got the point. Like the pan around to show there is nothing for miles around besides a phone could be a little quicker. The tracking shot down the phone lines to the crashed plane was too long, needed to be sped up. Things of the sort. And in the end the punch line wasn't all that convincing. Also your characters need to be different enough. I thought the guy driving up in the car was the main character puffing his cheeks. Work on the pacing and story mostly though.

[alseides]

Visually, this short is just great. The atmosphere and environment you have created is very nice. There is a sense of semi-photorealism. The music is also great and very fitting. Camera work/cinematography and composition is almost perfect. All these things makes your short very professional.

There are some shortcomings though. The first thing that I noticed is that realistic that the world is (down to the smallest detail), the character faces look out of place. They look like they belong in a different world.

Second was that the airplane crash near the end didn't really crash. It just plopped on the road with virtually no animation. I wasn't convinced. This is somewhat the climax of your story and I think it deserves more attention.

Lastly the story leaves much to be desired. When I finished the short I didn't really feel like the story got anywhere. It starts out with the main character missing the bus, who then needed a ride. By the end, he still needed a ride. I think the purpose of animating anything is to tell a story, and story alone should be the driving force of any animated short, even more so than it's visual quality.

I really do think you've done a good job though, it's just that I always concentrate on criticising improvements rather than what is already the high points. You've created a very beautiful world in Hitchhiker.

[RockinAkin]

Well done! You've got an excellent sense of camera movement / composition / cinematography.
May I ask what you used to compress the high res quicktime film with? and what settings?

[Scraggy_dogg]

I loved it, no reason to crit it as all there, very nice work, will now look see what else you have done in the past as it has inspired me to at least 'try' a small animation. instead of modelling for stills.

Scraggy

[TheIvIaxx]

can anyone mirror it? his host hit the maximum bandwidth while i was in the middle of watching :(

[jejuhorse86]

yea me too
i can't watch it either
the link won't work :(

[meheekano]

my favorite part was the error message

i thought this site hosted front pageliners

guess not

[colintheys]

Uh oh! Transfer limit hit. :/

[tevih]

we need a mirror! :sad:

[Meko]

yeah a host is needed =)

mirror mirror

this movie sounds funny, cant go wrong with a funny animation

[kfc]

yeah.
we need a mirror.
I haven't had a chance to see it yet!

[eraser851]

aww, i havent seen it yet.

Somebody host it for him.

[SimonReeves]

hey guys I've bought some more bandwidth [not sure how long that'll take to come into effect though] but I mirror would indeed be very appreciated :D

[SimonReeves]

1 mirror up now and another 1 to come, thanks to FunkyCowie + Ol Blue
:D

[Bentagon]

Cool film. Nice look and feel to it. But I just can't help feeling there could've been more in this. Nice character animation could have made it a lot more fun and interesting, and also some different gagtypes. To me, the gags - on which the whole storyline was based - were relatively uninspired and predictable.

Still nice, though :)

- Benjamin

[Kid-Mesh]

Hahaha, entertaining. This was very well put together and I actually felt sorry for the guy. Nicely done mate :thumbsup:

[faridz7]

great work mate..you're one to envy and an inspiration at the same time ! though that workstation next year will be mine! grrrr hahaha, amazing work as always mate :thumbsup:. have a good summer now

[huskyboss]

good idea and nice job although previus animation (crab) has a better idea :).

[Preston]

The dude driving the car has such a crazy face i want to laugh and poke him in the eye. Nice work, lighting& rendering = prefect, looking forward to your next sir.

[asimco]

that was great! if the animation was better it would have been even better, the weight of the guitar... him stomping, some things that could be worked out. what you had worked out well anyway, congrats and good luck in the industry.

[laber]

like the others said :) i like it alot

Another mirror
http://www.rubenmueller.de/temp/simonreeves_hitchhiker_large.mov

[4saken]

hm, I dont know what all the fuzz is about. this short did not deserve a plug in my opinion. the animations are not good at all and need alot of tweaking, the story lacks an interesting ending like others said before and top of that, there are alot of rendering/texturing mistakes.

only plus I would give is the style of the characters and cars.

[AlexandroCastro]

Wow! Excellent job man! I think you could make animation a little better, with a best timming, but is really an excellent job. Congratulations

[meheekano]

totally digged the textures and modeling
your timing needs tweeking for the jokes and such and keep working onthat animation
at times it seemd to slow and soft on the movements


especially the plane crash didnt have enough umf on the impact

anyways keep at it
good job

[Finotti]

Simon says ..... opsss!!! Simon listen..... Excellent. nothing more to say !!! Cheers

[HenningK]

Well, it looks really really good. I like the environment you put the story in.
The animation was kinda weak though and the cutting could be a lot faster-paced.
The perfect hitchhiker target made me laugh. The bumper stickers were very clever.
I thought we should see the car turn around though, because the downed pilot actually requests to go the other way doesn't he?
-hen

[herbertV399]

1- design very nice and simplistic
2- posteffecting - the violet tone is a nice choice
3- the animation fits the kind of atmosphere what you are going for.
The style is minimalistic, like the animation.

Good work.

[santiago]

very cool short Simon, the character design and environment, the textures, everything is there, although like others said, the animation has room from improvement.
I'm just learning to animate characters these days, some crits I've already got concern camera shot sequences and fine tuning motion. I think one idea to improve your short, or maybe the next project you'll work on, is dramatizing an important event, in this case perhaps towards the end where the character finally sees hope when that car appears from a distance, maybe use of slow motion could help, maybe improving his facial expressions of joy or excitement seeing that this may be his way out of the predicament.
Another idea is to pause the music at the moment the plane crashes.

Also, in the beginning of the short, I thought it might have been better if the bus already has its doors open, as opposed to opening them and then closing. And that it takes off a little earlier, so that the character runs right behind it and is left in a cloud of dust or smoke, instead of meeting the doors at the exact moment they close. When I saw it the first time, I wasn't immediatley sure if the bus had left him or not, it took a couple seconds to get it.

I think you did a wonderful job with the textures and modelling. I noticed that the road texture's tiling was easily noticeable, but personally it didn't bother me. I really liked the vastness of the scene, and the lighting is perfect in my humble opinion.
Congratulations dude:thumbsup:

[Capn_Camo]

Gday mate,

I absolutely loved it. 10/10 in my opinion. Your style, storytelling and animation are all top notch! :buttrock:

[SimonReeves]

Heres a couple of question I can answer :

fabianv : The music was from 'The Third Man' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/)
webhead: yup North by Northwest was a big infulence indeed :)
DivideByZero: I tried out using sorenson squeeze it is very impressive

but overall thank you for a lot of replies so far with suggestions, specific crits and comments I'm trying to take them on board for the future and its good to hear varying opinions on different areas of the film

cheers :)

[Cannonball]

I like the overall feel of the short, I was entertained. I have to agree about the animation, it was average in my opinion. Some of the gags should have been a lot funnier if the animation was better (hench, the hitchhiker and the planes).

I didn't understand the planes crashing and all...

Some of the camerashots have a sort of camerashake in it, which I didn't like, it was too artificial. Some camerashots I understand, some I didn't...like the shot with the endless wired poles (?). It was understandable that you did it like this, but I felt weird. Maybe it has to be shorter (faster tracking along those poles).

I didn't like the gag with his wallet, I didn't understand that part...I thought it was a strange way to let the car stop.

I could not read the signs on the cars bumper, you cut away to quick. I felt that I missed something.

And why does the driver come from one direction and then suddenly turns with the pilot back to where he came from. Felt a little weird. :sad: (maybe I missed something that was printed on the bumpers)

But...the short looked great, no crits on that.

All in all, I could not enjoy this short as much because all the things that I described above.

Not to bash you, because I hate that, but I do not understand why this is frontpage material...

it looks great, has some funny stuff, but also has a lot of shortages...which is fine, but I expected a lot more...


7/10 ...sorry :sad:


EDIT: after watching it again, I understand the planes flying there. I also understand the driver turning...but it didn't do it for me...sorry

[neofg]

Wow man! Nice work! I love the shaders.They're realistic, and so camera animation...
I have a question:
How u make the environment? Particularly in the horizon, where there's no junction... Do u have a sphere, as sky, with a matte painting mapped? If u have wires, or something helping...I have environment problems...
Good art!

[Winner]

like most have said... animation could be much better, some sequences have a slow pace, and story ends a bit strangely .... but ive got to say that some of the shots ( in terms of cinematography and composition ) were a sheer joy to watch. This is clearly the best short posted here for a long time.

[snwbrdn7]

Second year in school huh? Well I think you will do just fine young cubby. Keep up the great work and thanks for posting the short.

[Sparks]

Nice job! Love your style and choice of music!! I feel the animation needs to be a little looser...more fluid and with more weight.

[flea608]

ack! unnecessary moving cameras!! very distracting!
but you are young yet in the ways of short animation so i forgive you. you shall learn.

shorts like these are great for reminding people that character animation isnt easy. very nice textures and lightign and models and stuff. animation-wise youve got some practicing to do.

keep it up!

[Bluebird2602]

As flea has stated earlier, stop moving the camera so much at the begining!!

It is really destracting from the action and takes focus away from your main character. At times you seem to be pointing us in a direction on the set that doesn't make any sense nor does it connect the shots sequentially.

Perhaps you may already know what is about to happen in the next shot and are trying to hint at this, but we cannot read your mind and consequentially the connection that you intend for us to make, is obliterated.

As far as "the look" of your piece, it is fantastic. It definately feels like the "period" and I get a really good sense of the environment from what you have created. Your lighting is superb.

If this a piece only from your second year in school, I would say you have nothing to fear!!
Just bear in mind your sequences a bit more, and flesh them out smoother.

[mdwsr]

Excellent!

[paintbox]

You already heard the pro and the cons from other people so I am just going to say I was very entertained ! So goal achieved Simon. I am sure we're going to see more stuff from you :)

[DJB343]

OMG Simon that is truly a awesome animation you have there :) :thumbsup:

Im hopefully going to be starting the Digital Animation Course at Herts this September, if everything goes well ! =D ... got my interview coming up, so fingers crossed !

[mushroomgod]

top stuff...nowt more to say :)

[C1imaX]

Amazing work! Just one thing though. I don't know if this has been mentioned in this thread but there is a little mistake that I caught. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/C1imaX/mistake.jpg

The hand is kind of popping out of the sleeve. You may want to fix that if you haven't already. Besides that, everything looks amazing. Keep up the great work

[alexyork]

Excellent work Simon! You kept this one quiet :) Love the lighting and the whole mood/look of the piece.

Congrats on the plug, too :thumbsup:

[Breinmeester]

Nice, but it needs a lot of work on camerawork and animation. The look is sober, but nice.

[geekbot]

i loved the look of your film.

animation wise, it didnt touch that spot for me. it seemed very linear. also on the picky side of things when the main character looked to either side the eye's looked a bit weird. like he was looking at his nose.

it was a sweet story. and well done for finishing it.

[Trep]

hey si, blimey, people get in here quick with the replys dont they.

tis a great looking film, really nice lighting and rendering as usuall. the crits that i have have already been mentioned, (slight thingys with the story etc, oh yeah and the poping wrists, remember you telling me about that, didnt notice it though) but its still amazing stuff. it was close between you and aiden but i dont think the grand prix award went undeserved at film day. inspiration/motivation for me definatly. me and sean have decided that we need to be keeping you on your toes next year so watch out! :D

any who...congrats again on the filmand for front page of this here site. cu later

HAVE AT YOU!!

[jriggity]

Hey man,

Bueatiful lighting modeling and backgrounds....the look is TOP NOTCH!

I just enjoyed looking at it.

The only thing that bothered me was the animation.....but I know that is not
you only focus!

great job.

jriggity

[APD-Jack]

Wow! That's good work. Great rendering, and some part great modeling-texturing. But, i don't like your character animation and rigging of main guy :shrug:
in addition, your film has not an ending (or surprise). Instead of a short film, it was more like a sequence from a movie.
Anyway great effort, especially lightning and rendering, i appritiate this :)
Keep good working

[EMJAY]

Hi Simon, just thought I would add a comment. For a first film, the overall look and feel of the film is fantastic. Minor issues with some of the animation, but I know these are things you will address for your next short. All in all, you approached the project with true professionalism and have made the transition from modelling to animation without too much hassle. Great work mate, keep it up.

Malc

[FunkyCowie]

My mirror is down after only a few days of it being up... this animation is so popular it used up most of my bandwidth alone due to many sites hotlinking it it`s had nearly 40,000 downloads and used around 240GBs of my monthly bandwidth... I`m now putting in place some security so people can only access future animations I host from visiting cgtalk.com... gotta hate those sites that hot link...

[Jamus987]

:bounce: that was awesome man!

[Norl]

I really like the environmental details that showed a certain realism. Good animation, though I wish the character has more facial expressions and acting with strong poses since there is no dialogue to know what he is thinking. In summation, a good piece of work!

[jamagica]

This is a very great film but I found one thing it lacked in many actions....anticipation. Let me name off all parts I saw this flaw:


*Before he picks up the phone...you should have him raise his hand for one second and then have him grab the phone

*before the first time he bangs the phone. You should have him raise his hand up a bit longer than you have it now

*Before he comes to a stand from the sitting position you should have had him lean back then come forward and up to a stand

*before he flashes his thumb for help you should have shown his hand raising up, and for about one half of a second it should have been at a suspension point. Then he should have finished off the move

*When he runs out into the street for attention from the truck, you should have had his arms slightly swing back for anticipation of raising his hands. This anticipation would only be slight or else it would be seen as part of the raise...you want anticipation to blend in with the move

That's about it....it's an awesome film other than those little flaws...texturing, animation, and timing is all great!

[haloevo]

hehe.. that was a good little movie there.. well done, I'll say.

Keep up the good work bud. That's some phenominal modeling. :)

[lil_t_moe]

that was an awesome little short!

[Obaid3DFX]

Nice film...I like it...nice render


:thumbsup:

[Nikkels]

I thought it was pretty cool man !!

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