Uplift Universe - Video Entry: Mike McCain

#100

Software: After Effects

Here it is via cgtalk flash player… quality is probably gonna get eaten a bit.

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#101

Great team here!!! :thumbsup:
This film is very nice and funny!!!:eek:
Goob luck guys!

#102

Looks great! I didn’t see any technical issues during my viewing…and I thought the storyline was funny :smiley:

Maybe my only comment is to make the “time to go back to work” bell a little more audible. Right now it sounds like the ding of a spoon hitting a wineglass, rather than what I’d expect it to be (more like a buzzer). Took me a minute to realize the signifigance of the shot where we see the human drinking the coffee over the angry alien’s shoulder because of that.

#103

Looking good, Mike. I hadn’t realized you had such a big crew working on this. Congrats to the entire team on some great work. The only crits I have are on the very beginnign and very end. I guess the rest of teh time I was too caught up in it to notice any missteps! :slight_smile:

I’m not sure whether I buy the guy writing with the pencil in the beginning. The movement feels a bit fake to me. I’m not sure what to suggest… maybe morefinger movement (the fingers with the pencil in them) instead of arm/wrist movement, perhaps?

Secondly, the alien’s last pose before the credits. It holds a while on that shot and it looks completely static. Perhaps just some subtle movement somewhere to keep it from looking like a freeze on a still… angradual shifiting of a leg or arm, some breathing? Anyhow, just an idea… Good luck with your polishing stage! :thumbsup:

#104

Hey thanks guys! Good feedback.

Tyson, good point, we acutally weren’t thinking of it as a “return to work” ding, but more just a cue to bring the alien out of his crazedness… we were thinking it was to signal the human’s coffee being finished. But that didn’t read well at all in this cut. In the old version we used a loud slurping noise from the human as the audio cue, so I think we’re gonna go back to that!

Thanks walrus! Yeah there are 11 of us now, in our spare time. Started with 6 I think. We’re gonna try to polish up those two shots along with a few others… it’s very nice to have a “finished” product and now have this extra week to improve on it : )

#105

VERY WELL DONE! Congruatulations guys!GREAT WORK!Dont forget the making of,must be after the movie in the same flv.:buttrock:

#106

it is very entertaining, i like it very much, great work!!!

#107

Very good indeed! The characters and props are engaging and well animated. Nice motion and timing.

I think that I would have liked to see him surrender to the human’s coffee, at the very end, in order to get his uplift. But that is just one of many possibilities.

Great all around project with enticing updates. I enjoyed watching it all come together.
Good luck!

#108

Thanks guys! And yeah, we gotta put together a making of piece still… glad we got the extra week or else that would have been a crappy string of images and text! hehe :slight_smile:

#109

Our making of piece! also testing FLV conversion quality.

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#110

Hi

I don’t have so much idea regarding this subject. Just I suggest you to take steps accordingly.

#111

huh? …spam?

#112

exporting… twiddles thumbs anxiously

#113

Software: After Effects,Maya,mental ray,Photoshop

The final cut of our video entry, Coffee Break!

Thank you all for a very fun three months. This is the first CGChallenge we’ve entered, and it was a great learning experience. We’re very proud of our finished product, and of everyone else’s too.

Our story developed from the idea that even though alien technology may be more advanced, sometimes a simple human approach is better. We wanted to illustrate this in a fun and slightly abstract way, so we opted for an everyday office setting instead of a spaceship or a distant planet. Our alien protagonist thinks he’s pretty hot stuff with all his hi-tech alien gadgetry, but today he just might learn otherwise…

We hope you enjoy watching!

#114

WOW!! High quality job!! Congratulations guys, you done very well. I laugh a lot with the alien expressions … hehe

Congrats again and good luck :beer:

#115

Hahahahaha! Was he controlling that pen with his mind? Baahahahah…took like 3 double-takes to fully get that :wink:

Awesome job you guys…a pleasure to watch! I hope you do well :smiley:

#116

jajajaja…nice job…very funny short…i did jump a lot on my chair …that was very cool…an nice detail with the making of…

#117

Great job! I am happy to see more “cartoon friendly” stuff in the challenge. Definitely not an easier job to do. I like how you folks effectiovely used colors and shaders. It can be fun to emphasize alien’s anger even more. I dont really want to see alien guy beating the machine, but maybe to see him agresively run to the attack, before you cover it with black. But that is just my 2cents. Good luck!

#118

Thanks guys! And thanks for all the support throughout the challenge. It was really fun!

If anyone’s interested, larger better quality version here: http://zhi-chen.com/cgchallenge/finalcut/ (h264, ~90mb)

#119

Congrats!

That’s awesome, Mike! You really deserved the win for all your team’s great work. Congrats to everyone who worked so hard on this short. It’s a fine piece of work.