Animation: The Gravity

[AndersEgleus]

OK, gonna see if I can display some of these images in the post...

Scene 2 Shot 5:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc2Shot5.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 2:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot2.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 3:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot3.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 4:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot4.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 6:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot6.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 7:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot7.jpg

Scene 3 Shot 8:
http://home.sol.se/anders_e/Gravity/Sc3Shot8.jpg

Hey! It worked! Happy downloading.

[SirManfred]

Yupp... truly awsome, comrade!
Come on people! You gotta check this out! :buttrock:
Keep it up, mate.

[AndersEgleus]

Frederik! Ah, a familiar face. Thanks for promoting, comrade.

:beer:

[killahsin]

I'm digging this oen totally, everythign seems to fit perfectly, the sound and such. I do think when he starts to pop out of the cactus the sound should get deeper and more dark etc =)

but man this is lovely work.

[AndersEgleus]

Killahsin: Thanks for the crits. About the music, Well it was composed sometime in the early 20:th century, so I can't do much about it, hehe.

Actually The animation is based on and inspired by the music, and my intention with the action/music interaction in that scene was that the music would start out with a chill as a strange creature emerges from the cactus, but as soon as we see how small (about 20 cm, or a bit taller than a cactus if you like) and fragile he is, the music becomes more sympathetic. I guess it's a matter of taste, but the story will become a lot darker further on.

[aurora]

I liked the animation. I loved the ending with the burning cactus and the imp? coming out and looking around. He was awesome and I'm glad you added a few stills for the people that don't watch the animation.
My biggets comment though is it did not make to much since with the transition from the falling clay pot to the broken pots every where to the cacti's and finally to the burning cactus/imp. Is there supposed to be a relationship between the 2 scenes, falling pot, emergence of imp?
The one last comment is that once we do start seeing the cacti's they seemed a little to lined up in the direction the camera was moving. If that was intentional then it was great, if not add a couple more out on the fringes.

Enough complaining back to the imp. MAN I loved him, the details and textures are some of the best I have seen. GREAT JOB. I don't think theres a Smilies potent enough to express how I feel about the ending.:beer: :applause: :drool:

[AndersEgleus]

Aurora:

Some explanation. It's supposed to be a surrealistic piece of work so there's a lot of stuff going on that can't be explained logically (like a winged tin creature being born out of a cactus - give me a break). But there has to be an internal logic of course, even if it's my opinion that you shouldn't have to know the internal logic to appreciate the film. Anyway, the landscape is supposed to be made up of billions of smashed terracotta pots which have fallen from the sky for aeons, and the falling pot is meant to hint at that, and establish the fact that we're in a place where the laws of nature are quite different from our world. But I'm thinking now, thanks to your confusion, that it might be a good Idea to have a few pots fall and get smashed in the background after that point to establish the fact that it is something which happens frequently in that world.

For more elaboration and explanation, see this thread at maxforums:
http://www.maxforums.org/forum/forum.asp?t=102740&r=25

About the placement of the cacti: No it wasn't my intention for them to look lined up for the flight path. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll correct it for the next update.

the details and textures are some of the best I have seen

I'm blushing. But I've had comments elsewhere that the textures on the creature look a bit too procedural, and I'm inclined to agree. But thanks, it warmed my heart.

[aurora]

Thanks for explanation. I kinda figured that the whole thing was an abstraction. And yes your textures are diffenently procedural but they are still fantastic. The reason why I love them so much. The dull 'flat' appearance. He looks like he is literally made of ashes. Thats what grabs me so much. We are so used to seeign everything with spec, reflection or other highlights to something like your guy rather uncommon and much enjoyed. At least in my book.

[AndersEgleus]

That's delightful to hear, Aurora.
Actually, my Idea for the "anatomy" of the creature was to make it look like some kind of hand crafted, roughly sculptured puppet made up of a skeleton of thin, twined steel wires and muscles built up of soldering tin with a dull oxidated layer around the seams. The head is also supposed to be made of soldering tin, but more carefully sculpted.

I don't know to what extent that's conveyed, but it's not as important as having a nice material, anyway.

[AndersEgleus]

Well, I'm quite happy today as the animation just got hosted by animators-online (the film hasn't been updated though), which is good since the other server is only a temporary solution.
New link:

http://www.animators-online.com/movies/thegravity/Gravity.avi

Check out the host site too, they've got quite a few cool animations for download (among them "The Cathedral" trailor).

http://www.animators-online.com

[XerC]

Really, really cool! :buttrock:
Music fits the story perfectly (or maybe vice versa? ;)).
I especially like the scene when the camera spots the falling flowerpot until to its smashing. The impact looks damn good! What did you use to make it look so real?

Greetings,
XerC

[AndersEgleus]

Thanks for the crits, XerC.

Music fits the story perfectly (or maybe vice versa? ).

Yeah, vice versa, actually.

...when the camera spots the falling flowerpot until to its smashing... What did you use to make it look so real?

I'm very flattered. I assume you mean the smashing part. Well, I split the pot into shards using boolean intersection with noise displaced spheres (it was made in 3dsMax btw). The movement and rotation of the big shards is more or less hand animated with a simple "gravity" expression as the base (position on the y-axis equals time squared). The smaller shards were made with particles and gravity and deflectors, and the crater was made with a simple morph. The fine dust was made with particle atmospherics (Afterburn).

Hope that covers your question, otherwise feel free to ask.

[Pttr]

Cool pictures, but the link doesn't work! (Länken till min film borde funka nu :))

[AndersEgleus]

Updated the link now. Actually I changed the compression and uploaded to my own site several months ago, but I didn't think anyone would look at this thread again.

[ewerybody]

Coooool! I like the animations most! Did you animate it all by yourself? Wooar! I really really like it! I see so much great looking stuff but with so brackish animations. They all don't know how to put the "live" into the anim... there are only few people that know how to do that!

for critix only: the desert still seems a tiny lil artificial. There are a lil to much bumps in the terrain. I think it may look better with something more "silky" surface. And the character: Hmm.. the material isn't finished yet, isn't it? But the wings.. and the cactus material... greaaaat!!!

Sounds like you don't have Sounds so far?!? ;] Music imho fits perfect!

keep it up! ´:]

ps: I clicked the URL: didn't work. I opened URL in QT: didn't work. Then I just saved it to disk: worked .. dunno

[Angelusx1592]

I really the style, man! Keep it up.

[mimo8]

or teaser - rhe animation of the character is really great - makes me wanna see more of it

just the cameramove over the desert is a bit odd
you drive arround so much - it made me think constantly - what is he trying to show

the idea of the kaktus potw falling fom the sky is nice
but I think you should work it out a bit more cinematographicly ... show it more clearly what your idea behind it is, build it up more focused

perhaps the camera doesnt have to move that much and it tells more

looks really promising
how are you working? alone - team? how long took it so far and what will it be

keep it up

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