Production art: First Post - Big Bang

[lildragon]

Victor I know what sort of crits you're looking for and you're not going to necessarily find it in the WIP section sorry to say, so I'm moving it to Focus Critiques. I'll put in my 2 cents after I move this thing.

-lild

[lildragon]

PEOPLE PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS IS THE FOCUSED CRITS FORUM, AND NOT A REGULAR GALLERY PLUG - PLEASE READ THE RULES B4 POSTING.

Ok Victor, I plugged this not only because it's a very charming character and it's pretty close to finish, but you asked for some crits on it so here's some.

I love the style and ambiance of the character, truly nice and thought provoking, the colors you chose work well as it lifts the character from the background, but I have a feeling you can do more with the bg itself it appears very flat, it lacks depth, basically like the screen they would use for backdrops in Walmart photography if you know what I mean?.

Here's what I saw first glance, the comet/star like effect is nice and I see where you're going with it, but it kinda confuses me in a sense that I can't really tell if it's far away or just at his finger tip, judging by the blue tint on his fingertip it's close, but if it's a comet most will read it wrong unless he's a giant, (which come to think of it he might be, since it looks like he's sitting on a planet, can you verify that?) If it's a glowing star like thing, I'd lose the tail to filter out any confusion.

The character on the whole is very cute and appealing, and will come across well. Do you have a backstory for it yet?

hope that is of some help

-lild

[urgaffel]

To me, it looks like a giant (toddler) trying to touch a meteor like a regular earth-toddler would try to touch a firefly. LilD is right about the background though, it's a little flat. Maybe darken the nebula here and there, smudge it some so you get a more gaseous feeling? On second thought, it almost looks like the northern lights.

You say the characters and props will be 3d. Will they be npr rendered or "traditional" style?

Looking forward to see and hear more about this project.

*edit*

Thank you for the character development notes you gave me at 3dfestival. I try to use them for good ;)

*edit 2*

Just checked out the animatic and now I really really want to see more of this. Great start! The scale makes more sense and shows that my initial thought of a giant toddler was right :)

[hoochoochoochoo]

hey Victor!
having seen this start on the AM list and then seeing your storyboard I'm aware the of how the story works so I'll just say - maybe the detailing on the planet itself confuses people. He really doesn't come across as a giant or the planet appears more like a small round boulder.
Maybe you could use perspective or crop the image in some way to really show how big he's supposed to be? That way you would then read how he's fascinated by the meteor and not wonder "is it behind him?"

[Knut]

Very cute face on your character. He got that expression kids have when they discover something for the first time, like a butterfly flying in front of them. The "painterly" texture of the kid and planet is superb, i really love the look of those.

As Lildragon said i too am a bit confused by the comet, to me it looks locked in the background painting, but the highlight on the characters finger tells me its at his fingertips. Not sure how you can fix that, maybe add some(more?) highlight from the comet on his forehead?

I love the colours in the interstellar gas cloud (aurora borealis?), but i can't find a scale or place for the "snowflakes" in the background. If its supposed to be stars i don't think it's clear enough. Is it something else? Is it near the kid on the planet or surrounding him?

After looking at the yellow kid for a while i miss some definition in the wrists. It's feet have plenty of definition in the ankle. So for me his hands look a bit immovable. But just a hint of defenition not a lot, that would change his apperance too much.

That image put a smile on my face! Looking forward to see more of this universe. Hope this was focused enough.

[Dennik]

Hello Victor, nice to see your work again after so long!

First of all, i think you should also mention the animatic you have at your site http://www.navone.org/HTML/BigBang.html
Its good for people to see where is this going to, because many mention the proportions of the body, which i see are working fine.
As Tito said, the background seems flat (well it IS flat) so it would be good if you put the stars and nebulas in different layers and depths, i don't know how that would feel like in animation but its an idea to try. Also, i must admit that i prefer the painterly look on your character than the crisp 3d one, it fits better with that kind of background. So maybe you should consider puting some kind of painterly effect in post, to blend the two elements better.
In any case, i cant wait to see this film finished, judging from the animatic, it looks hilarious! :thumbsup:

[ACFred]

Hey Victor,

Nice job so far. I like the way you're playing with scale. The exaggerated scale of the moon fits nicely with the character. I think the shooting star looks nice as is. Not sure what makes it look confusing to some folks.

I really dig the color combo you have. That background really makes your hero pop and does a good job of pushing the moon forward, too.

One thing I'm wondering about is the scale of the background in relation to the character. I don't know the story you're working on, but if the universe is supposed to still be small and growing, it might be fun to give the background a feeling of curvature, as if it's still small enough to get a feeling of perspective from the burgeoning universe.

I look forward to seeing the blending of 2D effects and backgrounds combined with the 3D characters & props.

Keep it up.

Alec

[AnimBot]

Cool Victor I didn't even know you were a member here. Anyway let me start off saying I love the design of this character. Particularly the child like look of the large head and the closenes of the eyes. I'm not really crazy about how warm the colors are in the background. I think it would look more interesting if those purples and reds were maybe something like a lighter blue or green. It would also be cool if the shooting star was glowing red instead of blue, and maybe make the moon or asteroid or whatever he's sitting on a little warmer. Of course I'm also looking forward to the short when it's done. Cool stuff.

[Shad0W6600]

The character itself is great...no crit on him. However for the background I agree with what everyone else is saying about it being flat, but that might be primarily because of your "splotchy" stars. Also the nebula is supposed to look like clouds more or less where you can see through it in some places...right now it seems opaque. I think that if you added a bit more shading to the nebula and made a few areas transparent it would help the depth quite a bit. I like your comet and the design for the character and planet! I'm interested to see how this turns out. Great work!

[Soulcialism]

I would agree about the previous background crits but I don't want to beat a dead horse so I'll leave it at that.

What I found interesting about this picture is how much it reminded of Le Petit Prince. Have you ever read it? If you haven't, here's a picture of a front cover of the book..

http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/clear/internet/student/pages/viskochil/prince.jpg

There's a picture in the book of the boy reaching out to the stars. Just wondered if you got some inspiration from that or if it's complete coincidence.

[mattmos]

The only problem I can see with this piece so far is that the background image is a much lower resolution, which may be contributing to the feeling of flatness already commented on, as you can pretty much make out the individual pixels - bump it up a bit. No crits on the character, he works well with the story and looks dead cute! Looking forward to the continued development of your short victor...
Regards, Matt

[Nimrodicus]

Really like where you're going with this. I believe some of the issues mentioned will probably be easily remedied once everything is set in motion. Use your own judgement but here's a couple things I would do:

Once things are in motion, I would apply the background stars to their own layer(s) in After Effects, maybe s/up 2 or 3 layers, and give them some some movement at different speeds on the layers for a parrallax effect.

I would show maybe 1 or 2 comets passing by in front of your character, with maybe the character looking at them w/ a sense of child-like curiosity etc. before reaching out to touch one. The comets could be 2D or 3D particle effects, but of course would illuminate the character as they were passing by. I think that would help emphasize the sense-of-scale tricks you looking for.

Finally, as was hinted at in a previous post, perhaps shrink some the small planet/moon detail, but perhaps this would not be necessary w/ the other stuff going on. I really like the artistic direction, and would hate to see you change that unneccessarily.

Of course all the above are artistic type decisions and you seem to have your own vision pretty well mapped out, so these are simply ideas you can play with on your own!

That's my 2, ummm, 3 cents. :)

[dobermunk]

Victor!

The only thing I would question is his mouth: it's open wide enough that if he had teeth, you'd see them. So the fact that he doesn't have teeth is open to interpretation:
either he's some kind of astral chicken or the giant version of that ol' guy in the Lone Ranger series that says "who wuszat masked man? He stole my teeth!"
He doesn't fit the baby scheme enough for me to buy him being toothless because he's a baby. If that's what you want, maybe one tooth might draw him back into line. :shrug:

btw
What animation package do you use on a personal project like this? Me has to ask ;_)

[Dearmad]

Character Look: Having followed this one since you made it public I think you're character is finding more of himself and it has become more personal. I mean he's still as cute as he was in the early images, but he's no longer space Calvin- from his grin to even his pose, they're looking uniquely his in this image; I felt I was watching C&H inspired stuff in the animatic; now I feel confident it'll have your voice throughout the animation.

Colors are just right on for me.

Technique to the painting between background and forground has some scaling problems IMO- meaning the "brushwork" to the background doesn't mesh well with the style of the character. It appears almost likeit's affected by JPG artifacts to me. But I think this is only meant as a pre-vis, and in that capacity things are looking spot on.

Heh, is that rough enough for ya! ;) It's as critical as I can be- you've really got a good thing going here that's honest and not trendy.

[E.T]

Is it just me, or is the right foot a wee bit too big?

E.T

[Kain]

Hello Victor, well doesn't believe that I can contribute anything new to what has been said already, but I have not been able to avoid the temptation to wonder a thing. He titles, "Big Bang"... is a game of words?, do I mean, is the character's name? or do I make a mistake?. It is a silly question, but he has me intrigued.
As for the used technique, to my I find the correct one, because if the character is an enormous yellow boy, the style it reflects that infantile aspect perfectly.
As for him that the characters will be 3D and the funds 2D it is a good idea to shorten the production process. Do you seek to get an aesthetics similar to the animation of "The ChubbChubbs", or is something different?
I like the character a lot, it is very expressive, charming and comic... I love it.

For I finish, to congratulate you for your work and to make you know that I am an I authenticate enthusiast of your projects. Un saludo.

P.D.: I don't believe that you want neither time, but he would thank you you to give me your opinion on this:
Saqueadores: El templo de las maquinas (http://emilioraya.en.eresmas.net/Ilustraciones/saqueadores.jpg)

[Cyberdigitus]

Hi, I've seen your animatic some time ago, very cool to hear you are still working on the project. :thumbsup:

The concept work you post here looks really good, but indeed theb background could use some more depth or a small tweak in color. I'm more concerned with the 3D version of him though. I guess it will need more work to achive the look of your painting. Anyway's i'm sure you will succeed with it, and it's great to see you here and ask for input. Keep us posted!

[Digital Backlot]

The character is great, but I'm not a big fan of the resolution of the background... it seems very low-rez, or rather jpg compressed.


I'd paint a more detialed backdrop but blur it some so that the character stands out.. My eye shot right to the simple backdrop.

Hope that helps/

[ilasolomon]

IT IS A PRODUCTION PAINTING DUDES, nothing more, why are you criting on size of the left (or right!) leg or rez of the bg?! :hmm:

(and I think 'Big Bang' refers to 'Big Bang' theory in astro-physique.)

[E.T]

Ila: It IS the focused critique forum.
Its not the "you are a great guy i want to have your kids" forum.

I think the reason you post here, is because you want feedback.
Then victor can decide if he wants to do anything about it.
Which im sure he is more than capable of.

[The Cross]

Loose the tail on the comet, In photargaphy this would no doubt be a fluke shot. The comet is in the background because of the star points on the flair shines behind his finger. It looks like the character pose is reaching out for that comet in the background. which is odd.


I can tell you were shooting for the character's expression to be that of a child being marveled by something bright and mysterious.

Might i recommend placing a layer on top with a few tiny balls of burning gas, with the appearance that they are just about to burn out, and as they are on the top layer, they are casting the matching light on the character. Just an idea.

[dobermunk]

Had a go at the mouth (like I said, it's the only thing that I could find an issue with) and tried a minimal change solution. I just painted in gums. It kind of clears upo the mouth issue for me without really being apparent.
Also tried a tooth but that changed the figure too much.

[ilasolomon]

E.T. : yes I know where is here, and that's what I meant: please provide usefull crtis.
In a PRODUCTION painting it's not important the quality/resolution/scales and things like them. just the overall IDEA is in focused. I thought maybe ppl are trying to find something to crit! but it's ok ... let's go.

[orange_3D]

whoa! this is excellent...i've also checked out the animatic and i like the story a lot!:thumbsup: ...

i have a few suggestions to emphasize the scale, which i think is what you would want to give the story more edge...

1. atmospherics on the planet - i know the planet is a moon and would not have atmosphere, but if it had just a tiny bit of atmosphere (as most big planets do) then the scale would be empahsize, so maybe add in some cloud and haze...

2. where the baby contacts the planet, i would add a strong depression and displacement of the "soil"...you might also want to add cracks on the surface...

3. i was thinking the baby's eyes could be smaller but that's debatable...

4. you could play bit with the camera work...in the first shot where you see the baby's face, i think the framing could be tighter (as in not seeing the edge of the baby's face) and just do a pull back afterwards...

5. adding depth to your piece is tricky by virtue of the fact that the BG will be 2D...and in space our normal depth cues are not apparent (ie. desturation of far away objects bec. of atmosphere)...maybe an asteroid field could help? and some other planets?

hope this helps...

cheers,
sonny

[el_mone]

Hi, Victor

I saw your leica a few months ago and your idea liked me.
The story is very simple and funny at the same time it makes you an effect of pity with it.

This character works perfectly with the story what you want to tell, for its naive personality.

About the draw:
The look of the character in the image above is just great, but the background seems to be a bit void, just my opinion.

Cheers

[Eyemagic]

Hi Victor!. I'm glad to see you post news from your short. ^__^.

Well, about the image, I think the design of Giant is better than the old renders you post in your site, specially his mouth, that now is more like Calvin's mouth (from Calvin & Hobbes).

The BG is a little flat, like the others said you, but I think this is easily fixed in animation (diferent layers, like an old Disney films).

Well, the conclusion is..... I love it!

P.D: thanks for your last comments about my SadCycle:thumbsup:

[AJ]

I love the design - it's distinct and appealing, sort of pseudo-50's (although with more charm).

As someone else said, the character does slightly remind me of Calvlin from Calvin & Hobbes (no bad thing, mind...). Something about it also reminded me of a childrens series here in the UK called 'Moschops' - This is the best I could find for an example:

http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/moschops/pictures.html

However, it's more likely my poor recall and jaded nostalgia that led me to think of that rather than any actual similarites

It does make me keen to see more!

:D

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