Short Animation: Mans Best Friend?

[3DArtZ]

I thought that hershey bar was gonna shoot down his mouth at one point!
I really liked the clip!
How long did it take you to put together?
Mike Fitz

[aqa_spain]

looks awesome to me!

You are a really talented infographist, it all has a great pixar feeling!

Congratulations!

[ed209]

I like the animation on your dog. His walk cycle is great.

[SteveDavy]

Really nice work, and I hate to be so literal, but what the helll is that turd supposed to be bouncing back off? The missing detail in the plot kinda undermines what's otherwise a really nice short....

[icky]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the crits so far everyone! :D

3DArtZ: lol, it took about 10 months from intial brain activity to end result. Animation took 65 days to complete. Most of my time was spent on getting the story reel to feel right!

aqa_spain: Thank you!

ed209: hehe, thanks :)

SteveDavy: It is a bit of a hole I'll admit. Well spotted. I'm not a great story writer by any means, as I focus on character animation. I think the poo is made out of that animation material that keeps cropping up in films..... the one that bounces one minute and gets squashed the next! ;)

Thanks for your comments :D

Keep 'em coming :)

[Velocamonkey]

You really are the bestest infographist in the world.

Hey Tricky well done on this, I know how much you busted a gut on this and it shows, this rocks!!

I gave it 5 stars as it deserves to have a lot more comments and a hell of a lot more respect. We should both be on the front page, what's going on? Must be a conspiracy.

Anyway, well done again. I like the bouncy poo, it's funny and it's a cartoon!!! You're supposed to suspend reality that's the fun of it!:surprised

[RedSilas]

The short was great! I really liked the body and facial expression of both characters. Nice work!

[Boristone]

The animation and the characters are really good !!!...the movement of the rope is amazing...how did you do?.

Congratulation & regards

:thumbsup:

[I animate]

I really like this one. Very cute story and animation is top notch.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[icky]

Velocamonkey: I owe you dude. Thanks a lot for your support! :thumbsup:

RedSilas: Cool, glad you liked it :)

Boristone: I used Sim Cloth for the rope, but it wasn't too pretty to begin with. I had a load of problems with it sticking to things. I solved it in the end by animating non-renderable objects to push it of the thing it was stuck too!

I animate: :) I appreciate your applause! :beer:

Thanks so far to everyone's thoughts :applause:

Can I squeese some more?

[sforsyth]

I thought the animation was excellent, the puppy was just about the cutest little fella I've seen in ages. Bless his little cotton socks.

There were a couple of minor things, such as the footsteps at the start, the audio for that was far too loud and didn't really suit an old man's shuffle. I agree with the poo bouncing off nothing to come at the old man, to have put maybe a bus stop sign or something for it to bounce off would have helped.

And lastly the lighting. Overall it was quite good, but you're just left feeling that it wasn't really as good as the animation. I realise you're mixing blue and orange lights, trying to get that snowy, cold, late evening effect, but I think the blue was overdone a little. Just my opinion though.

I was going to mention the sticker on his ass which a) shouldn't stick to him in the first place as it's only sticky on the back, and b) would be showing the back side of the sticker if it did, but those are details I think you've just got to ignore.

The old man was very reminscent of Gerry from Gerry's Game.

Loved the final stick breaking... And that puppy. Did you use extra lights for his eyes alone? They're so well done. Some of his expressions are just pure class.


:thumbsup:

[caulfield]

Heya, I like it, and the animation's pretty nice. But your dog should be more stubborn, and less of a whining pussy.

[icky]

Hi sforsyth, glad you liked the dog :D You've made his day. The sound is a bit crap..... I recorded it via my web cam! I was mostly concerned about getting my animation to the best I could do at that time (hence the second half being, I think, better than the first animation wise). That includes the lighting, but I probably agree about there being too much blue at times. I had a complicated set-up for the lights and basically didn't have time to adjust them all, when the camera cuts. In a few shots, the old man's body goes straight through a blue light, that illuminates his top like a camera flash!! lol.

Oh and the sticker is one of the many holes in the plot..... I'm not a script writer, so please ignore them ;) Nah, it's here to be C&C! For the general public though, they take it at face value. I've found there's many things in the story that the general audience never thinks about i.e the dynamics of a flying turd ;)

Spike: lol, not sure people would have found him so appealing mind :D but it would have been pretty funny

I appreciate the feedback :thumbsup:

[GrantMan]

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

That was awesome! I love the character design and the animation/story line are wonderful. The ending was truly perfect. Thanks for a good laugh and I look forward to seeing what you come out with next.

[Threedeemer]

That was wonderful in all aspects. I really enjoyed your movie. :applause:

[icky]

I thought this thread was days gone by (the turn over is so damn fast on this site!:surprised).

The Art Guru: Thank you for you positive feed back. It's always good to hear. I'm mostly glad you enjoyed my film..... it's all that matters in the end. That someone out there is entertained :bounce:

Threedeemer: Cheers :thumbsup:

Can this thread offer some more entertainment? I'd appreciate all the feedback that people can give.

Ricky

[Boxcarwilli]

That dog looks great. The poo he did reminds me of when my boy has done something that he knows he shouldnt have done. :)

You mentioned the rope being tricky, that was the only thing I noticed in a few areas was the rope on the ground moving on it's own without intervention from something else.......but.......so so minor compared to the great work youve done.

[Be_Be]

Hey icky

I LOVE the film. You have obviously spent a great deal of time on this, and it shows.

One of the best things to me is that you really seem to have got under the skin of your characters - you really know them and understand them. This shows in the subtle animation, things like eye movements that reveal the thoughts and emotions.

I like the contrast between bouncy puppy and grumbling old man - it allows for some good negotiations between the two of them, particularly at the beginning.

The only crit i have is that the old man's animation isn't quite as consistant as it could have been.

Well done on creating a really great short. Good luck in the future! (Though with this in your show reel, it looks promising already)

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[tom.lowe]

Its already been mentioned lots of times but that dog is just so cute and nicely animated.

Q: How were the textures produced

[mushroomgod]

wow, a fantastic animation......why isent this on the front of cgtalk?

btw...dident I see you being interviewed on tv a few months back...some local (maridien) movie review program?

[icky]

Boxcarwilli: lol, It's great to hear that you find things to relate to in my film. About the leash... it also sticks like chewing gum when the dog picks it up :hmm: You're right to mention the jiggling bits too (darn it! Wasn't the resolution small enough to iron these things out! ;) ). I don't think Sim Cloth was the best solution here though.

Be_Be: Hey, thanks very much for you feedback! I'm glad to hear you liked the animation :) I always try to get that depth of character in my work and it's great to hear others see it working in the finished thing! :bounce:

Tom_Lowe: I guess you mean the painterly style? I used some tricks in Photoshop, but if I told you how I'd have to, well you know the drill. Ah ok....

http://www.ickystuff.co.uk/curbs.jpg
I nearly always create a pass of crystallise and spatter filters at varying strengths. Here you can see the result of adding first a large crystallise filter, then fading it. Then a small faded filter and a touch of spatter. The biggest obvious change is to the colour, which was done to fit the scene the texture was to be seen in....

http://www.ickystuff.co.uk/bag_bounce.jpg

Does that explain some stuff?

mushroomgod: haha, I didn't think anyone watched that program... yeah I was on TV! as the great Mike Wazowski would yelp. I was peeing my pants I can tell you, but it strangely didn't look that way. I thought I looked bored out of my wits in fact. I'm glad you liked my short and happy to hear my wet pants didn't go to waste ;)

Thanks for all your feedback guys, does anyone else have something to add or ask? :D

[icky]

I painted all of the characters textures from scratch in Photoshop...

http://www.ickystuff.co.uk/h_top_02.jpg
http://www.ickystuff.co.uk/h_top_01.jpg

http://www.ickystuff.co.uk/h_top.jpg
And it sort of looks like a woolly tank top!

[Be_Be]

Hello again!
Thanks for letting us see those texture pics. I was wondering though, how did you achieve the eyes? I noticed that someone mentionned it earlier but you didn't reply :(

bb

[kannu]

Great work!
Very nice & funny !
Gratulations:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

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