The Signalman - a ghost story

[Tore]

I used Moho for all the 2D animation in my 2016 short "The Signalman". The 3D animation was done in Animation Master, and the figure sculpting in 3D Coat. The 2D animated parts where imported as image sequences (with alpha channel) into Animation Master and placed as flat animated elements in the stage setup. The 2D/3D mix worked very well I think.

Watch here:

https://vimeo.com/156326280

[synthsin75]

Great sound design, music, and style. Looked like you were going for a sort of stop-motion feel. The walking seemed really stilted, but aside from that, very well done.

[Tore]

Thanks for looking and for the words, Wes! Regarding the stiltedness:
In all of my animations I'm using what could be called "simulated stop motion". Instead of letting the software determine the interpolation between the keyframes, I prefer to do the animation manually frame by frame, limb by limb, moving the characters parts, as I would if it was a real puppet or real cut out parts.
By using this technique, I want to achieve an organic feel that is very far from the bland slickness of normal computer animation. And hopefully the unavoidable jerkiness and roughness of the resulting animation will by far be outweighed by the amount of life and personality.
For the same reason I almost never use computer generated textures or computerized aids (eg mirroring) when sculpting or drawing. Every texture is made by freehand drawing/painting and every model is sculpted by hand using no symmetry or doubling or reuse of parts.

[Luke Marcatili]

Very nice hand-made look to the artwork and a nice sense of mood in the film. The lighting on the character was great. I agree- I think you could add a bit more life to the movements of the character while still retaining the stop-motion style you're going for. The walk of the main character could be given a bit more life and weight just by animating through the key poses of a walk cycle so you have the contact and passing positions rather than the legs just animating back and forth.

I shared it on Twitter

[Little Yamori]

Really moody and gloomy, well done in establishing the set up.

Was wondering about what software you used for the sound integration, it really came off crystal clear.

Good job,

LY

[lwaxana]

Wow, well done!

[Tore]

Thanks for nice words and advice

Was wondering about what software you used for the sound integration, it really came off crystal clear.

All editing, color grading, some effects, titling AND sound editing and mix was done in Sony Movie Studio Platinum (of the Vegas family of editors). The same software managed the final encoding into MP4.
Sony has recently sold Vegas to german Magix, so it is now named Magix Movie Studio Platinum.

[Little Yamori]

All editing, color grading, some effects, titling AND sound editing and mix was done in Sony Movie Studio Platinum (of the Vegas family of editors). The same software managed the final encoding into MP4.
Sony has recently sold Vegas to german Magix, so it is now named Magix Movie Studio Platinum.

Thx,

I'll look into it as all the sound on my final animations comes out really terribly.

LY

[djwaterman]

Tore, I love your work, I think I'd watched all the others some years ago and I recognized your signature style on this. I like it when the software being used falls away and all you can see is the art, this is one of those types of works.

[Tore]

Thanks for those words, DJW! Makes me really glad!

[Barry Baker]

I love the look and atmosphere of this film. It really has the feel of the golden age puppet films of Eastern Europe, and I respect your desire to be true to that by moving everything frame by frame. However, if you study the animations of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (as they were) of the post war period up to the eighties, it did not stop animators like Jiri Trnka from injecting a huge amount of expressiveness into the character movements. I think you could allow yourself more finish to the walks and gestures without sacrificing the handmade feel.

Nevertheless, my congratulations on a terrific piece.

The Hand by Jiri Trnka, 1965:
https://youtu.be/cS4Th36zN_g