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The Bee and the lost Axis

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This is the short i made with 9 other friend during a master in C4D.
C4Dzone is part of the Authorised Training Center Maxon for training in Italy. They release both the Nemetschek and the Maxon certificates.
The course I attended is based on a special program that lasts two months and it is addressed only to professionals who want to use Cinema4D in a top-level. The course is made up ten participants who work in team and realize together an animation short film, (yeah this one) both in character animation and in traditional animation. The aim of the course is to analyze every tool of the software, by teaching the secrets of the 3D application.
my contribute to this movie touches every field from the storyboard to audio sinc and publishing, but especially to modeling the Bee and many other objects in the enviroment and the animation of the bee itsfelf and many other details.


hope you like it, enjoy :)

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The lack of focus on the motion elements of the animation really held back the high quality and masterfully-done visuals. I also felt that more attention to the audio was needed.

In other words, the whole video lacks balance. If one is going to put a ton of work in visuals, they need to put an equivalent amount of work into the motions and sounds. Balance is tricky, but is absolutely necessary for maximizing the cohesiveness of content.

NG-Rough responds:

hi :)

i agree. the render of the single shot are very good but too much use of deep o field and motion blur ruined it in the end...an error that i don't want repeat! :P

thx :)

Very nice animation and well done on your project. Although I doubt it'd make a difference at this point since it sounds like a past project that is long over, but I wanted to make a few suggestions that may help for future endeavours. Mostly, consider a little more carefully how you relate the animation to reality, so that things don't seem out of place. Even though your bee and other elements were kinda cartoony, I found things like the empty rocking chair to be a little off-putting. I am supposing we were supposed to get the sense that someone was recently in that chair, and so it was still rocking. But through the whole thing it was rocking and resting in the extended forward and backward positions as though someone were in the chair. It gave the impression at first that there was a ghost in there. But seeing the rest of the animation, I'd say that's not what you were going for. A rocking chair left unattended would have a few short, quick rocks left in it before settling, and become shorter and shorter until stopping. I know it's a small thing, but it felt so very out of place. Not to mention the sound of the rocking chair was the kind made when there is a large weight on it, to cause the creaking in the boards. I immediately was fixated on the chair and wondering what it's deal was. This brings me to another point. When working with sound effects, consider the context to make it seem more real. Like the creaking of the chair which made no sense with nobody in the chair, the bee's steps to me made no sense in terms of the surface he was on. Even if he was the size of a person, nobody's steps sound like that. The bee kept varying the pressure and intensity of his steps, but the sound effect was exactly the same, no matter what. That's what I mean by the context of a sound effect. Think about how something WOULD sound in a certain context, and maybe even replicate it by actually doing it. It actually would not have seemed odd at all to completely omit the bee's stepping sounds, since he's so little. But changing the pressure, loudness, and duration of sound effects can make a big difference in making a person feel submersed in the animation.
One last thing: I felt the beginning of the animation was drawn on for far too long. We were just looking forever at scenery, and then FINALLY when we get introduced to the bee, he ends up flying around that very same scenery for a while. What would have been far smarter, in my opinion, would be to use bee flying around as your way to begin the credits. Start with him flying around and showing off all your CG furniture, taking a look around, and then we're already becoming invested in your story even during the opening credits. That way, when the credits finish, we get to be introduced to the bee, which we've already been wondering about since we've journeyed with him up to this point. See what I mean? More interesting than staring at furniture forever and then doing it all again with the bee when the show "starts". Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good work though.

NG-Rough responds:

hi! :)

first of all thanks for your comments, this is what i'm searching for! :)

second, i totaly agree with all you have said. the rocking chair would be move by wind like the other things outside but like you say it seem a ghost (probably an elephant ghost) is sitting there. i really hate that point...i think there are two thing that mainly and drasticaly have reduced the quality of the final movie, the first thing is the 'connections' by shot and by people, poor comunication became a problem and the shot does't fit each other perfectly (very visible in the firstbee view where every fly around start in a different location...i really don't like that).

second the time we spent on the production was unbalanced so we spend long time on the individual stuff and when the various shot was rendered, in a couple of day we bring on all the scene, add sound, add effect, add adjusment and correction... as you see even the sound in not even good, taken by a small library...

in the end it's an old project, when i see now i see a lot of mistake...but i learned a lot from this! and more important it was very very fun :) i hope to upload some better and new stuff soon!

again, thx for the comment :)

Animation is excellent but your description is cryptic as to your involvement in the project. Feel free to give us details as to your contribution to the work with more clarity. No man or woman is an island and acting as a contributor to a project such as this one is quite an accomplishment. I for one would enjoy more elaboration on your work.

NG-Rough responds:

hi :)

sorry but i don't now if i really understand your question, if the description of my contribution is too vague i try to explain better: the course is structured step by step in all the field of the software from modeling to animation and every guy had a number of thing to do for every step (that in the end are used in the short) so what i mean is my contribution touches every field like in modeling i made a lion head on the wall, a black african statue on the table, a crossbow that i have also textured, i made animation of the firefly outside the window ecc...everyone have different task but in every field and i say especialy in modeling and animation because is the field i feel more comfortable and i try to do my best, for example i made the modeling of the Bee and for animation i made the shot where it punch the glass case (is my favourite, very fun to do :D) or when it looks at it's hands and see the wolverine like claw

hope i respond correctly to your answer :)

Credits & Info

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Faves:
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Votes
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Score
4.09 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 28, 2013
3:39 PM EDT
Genre
Other
  • Daily 3rd Place August 29, 2013