Page 1 of 26

HAPPY LAND update

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:57 pm
by Mikdog
Final animation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_okVLZutkl8

In the interests of personal learning I've put the AS file up.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9kxdbtr3edg

By downloading this file you agree to not use any elements in your own production or for commercial purposes. It took me a long time to put this all together.

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:03 pm
by slowtiger
Niiice!

- Clouds should move only in one direction, at slightly different speeds.

- During a pan the clouds need to stick to the background - imagine your camera on a tripod, panning around: sky and hills move together.

- The sun in close-up is in front of the trees. Shouldn't that be behind?

- The scene with all 4 characters together is too close-up, so the sail and the sun blend together because they're the same colour.

- Why is the sun fading in and out? It could as well jump in from the side, which would fit nicely to the overall style.


This is a nice film and a fine piece of work. Yes, there should be music, and if I weren't so drowned in work I'd give it a try myself. But I can see that I won't have time for that until january ...

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:34 am
by Nolan Scott
Well, I really enjoyed this... such a marvelous piece of animation...
beautifully drawn... and what a nice storyline...
even the clouds are joining the “teamwork” and are able to move in different directions.

Cheers
Nolan

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:48 am
by Mikdog
Thanks slow. Will do all those things.

About the scene with all 4 characters together, this one I find tricky. I don't want too much of a long shot so that the player movements are lost. But if I do close-ups on the sun and others separately, it really looks jarring with the movement and then suddenly a close-up, etc. Might just move the sun higher up, include it in a long shot just once, then have the rest of the song as a close-up of the players singing without the sun at all.

The sun has always baffled me. Not quite sure where to put it. Come in from the side? Come in the below? Move smoothly in and out, or pop in and out? Tried numerous ways, never quite nailed it. Think I may have tried it but not done a proper job. Will try from the side again.

Thanks the for the list. very very helpful. ;)

Nolan - I like your 3D work. Duck Race was cool.

Mike

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:32 am
by Genete
The sun has always baffled me. Not quite sure where to put it. Come in from the side? Come in the below? Move smoothly in and out, or pop in and out? Tried numerous ways, never quite nailed it. Think I may have tried it but not done a proper job. Will try from the side again.
Maybe you can show the sun always, but with no face when not needed. Only when it talks then it show its face up (similar to what you've done with this scene but only with the face). Sun should be part of the background always if the camera framing is fairly the same. If not it could be very confusing.

Besides the beautiful use of color and drawing, the story flow is quite good. Nice work!

-G

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:41 am
by ulrik
Great piece of animation! congratulations! I must say I'm not at all disturbed that the sun apperars every now and then, he/she is one of the others and can pop up from wherever I think! :D

good stuff

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:14 pm
by Phatthumb
Hey that was a good show. I don't think anything was wrong with it. I don't think it would be fair to pick at all of the toon. No toon that is created is perfect. I like how the clouds move back and forth it makes you pay attention to the background. Oh, and the "fading sun". It can do whatever it wants its the see all and powerful sun, LOL.

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 9:21 pm
by slowtiger
Sorry for the late answer: I'm buried in my own AS project (my own? Ha!)...

Another way to move the sun could be to let it jump like a ball/frog. Think of "ball with a will". This way it would be mobile, but without that dreaded "on rails" look.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:33 am
by Mikdog
Cool, thanks, I'll give the ball with a will a shot. Nice ;)

Your own project? Woo! I wanna check that!

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:38 pm
by jhbmw007
I really like these characters and the voices. I have a 2 yr old and trust me this is much better than some of the annoying shows they have on tv for little kids.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:06 pm
by Mikdog
My plan is to make the first one awesome and use it as a blueprint for subsequent episodes. Then I'm almost certain I'll get this series to flight on national (South African) television. Once I've made enough for a series I can license out to International broadcasters.

So far, so good.

Legal landmine out there I've heard.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:31 pm
by Arkaos
It says "Link Removed". Can you repost. I'd like to check it out. :shock:

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:00 pm
by Mikdog
Sure, just need to make one or two glaring changes.

Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 2:21 pm
by Mikdog
Possible solution for sun's entry and exit?

*link removed*

Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:05 pm
by slowtiger
A bit too fast for my taste, and possibly too fast for your intended audience. Why not give it an arc, and some recoil?

(It shouldn't cover that little cloud, too. Put it aside a bit.)