My first 3D animated short

Lydia

Active member
Hi,

I just finished my first 3D short film, after I started learning 3D (modeling, animation…) 3,5 month before. There are still many flaws in it and the animation is a bit simple (especially the android), but I can’t do it much better at the moment. I hope, I will learn a lot more. The story is simple too, but it is mainly an exercise and I just wanted to see if I can make a film. It was a lot of fun anyway (and a lot of work and render time) and maybe you like it nevertheless.
(Everything is made by me, except the plants. They are form Free3D)

 
Nice work, that's a great first short. 6 minutes is pretty long, I'm creating a music video
for a 4 minute song and it seem like forever. And I'm just doing video editing.

I love the bike. (y)
 
For somebody as new in the world of 3d as you, this is awesome.

You know the flaws yourself, so I skip that. What I find remarkable is that you had the right ambition, just what you could do, no more, no less (beginners very often want too much in too short a time). You already have an own style, some funny ideas and get your story across nicely.

It's probably could have benefitted from a bit shortening, just a minor crit. I'm looking forward to your next one.
 
Thank you Hasdrubal for your nice words. With the next film (if there is a next one) I hope to do a lot better and above all to plan better. This movie was created somehow without much planning and therefore probably too long.
(Sorry for my bad English. Google helps me, but I do not know if Google really understands what I mean. I hope you do.:))
 
What a pleasant story!(y)

Just as I was very impressed with MMounteer’s animated short
I am very impressed with most of the same aspects of your short.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks for your nice comments. That motivates me to go on and get better. Sometimes you need that, because there is a lot of time in it after all, that you have to forgo somewhere else. My boyfriend kept saying I should not sit around so much at the computer and go out more often instead. :geek:
 
For a first animation after 3.5 months experience. This is quite impressive. There are so many disciplines to learn and combine to create a final product; and then commit to a huge amount of time just to render. As another said, there is nothing to critique at this stage because this is very impressive for your experience. But progress can be enhanced with good feedback. I hope you don't mind my thoughts.

Specific items worth noting
The scale and scope are quite impressive. over 6 minutes is staggering for
You created an interesting set you could explore visually with your characters.
You created good expression in your characters to propel the story without dialogue.
Your style was simple and consistent throughout.
Your renders are clean.
Nice nuanced animated gestures.

Some notes to consider for improvement.
Work on settings to render glass/transparent objects more realistically; rendering in Falcon may introduce more artifacts.
Continue to explore textures - good skills in textures can really add to style (or realism); this may add to render times.
Study camera movement in animations you enjoy. Begin to learn the language of camera movement from other artists/animators you respect and then explore in your own ways.
Continue progress on character animation; for a first time out, this is outstanding, keep progressing.
Continue to study storyboard process; moving from concept to actual production and commitments to render. (consider using simplified, low resolution clips [640x360] to create basic edits to determine which scenes get committed to final high resolution renders).
Down the road, begin to research the process of compositing — the role it plays in animation and how to render separate elements for compositing.

Really, quite an impressive first outing on many levels. More refinement will come with more experience and you absolutely have the tenacity it takes to get projects like this completed.

Cheers
 
Thank you very much for your detailed comment, Rene.
I am always so happy about criticism and suggestions. It really helps me! I'm sitting here in my little Bavarian village and I don't know anyone who does anything in this direction, or can do anything with it and can help me. Therefore I am extremely grateful for any feedback here in the forum. :)

Everything that you write about suggestions for improvement - textures, camera movement, better character animation, low resolution clips for testing, better conception ... - I tried to implement in my second short film. Of course, I haven't done everything so well, but I still have a lot to learn. I think I especially overdid it with the camera movement. :LOL: It should just show that the figure is drunk, hungover, panicked, confused. You can see it here:

I am currently planning my third short film, in which I want to concentrate on better character animation. At the first two films e.g. I animated without controllers, and almost without IK-Handles, because I just couldn't manage that the joints didn't jump in any strange direction all the time. That was a bit laborious. But I think with my new character, I managed it after many hours of trying. Let's see if it gets better.

But do you really think I can render an entire film with Falcon? So I mean whether that makes sense with my requirements. I tried separate pictures, and if it really is to be without noise, it takes an eternity. I have a second Mac that I can render on while I'm working on the other, but the render time is already very high. I also have fog in both films, and as far as I can see it doesn't work in Falcon, does it?

Thanks again for your feedback!
 
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