Dungeon Master Forum

our students had some group projects to do.. had just 3 weeks to do story, lighting, modelind, animation, rendering and editing of a short. It's a LOT of work and they've only had 3 months of training before they start it.. so here's two of those projects.. they decided to post them on youtube to share with the world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZB7XkxR_Fo&NR

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

Hey, pretty good stuff! I prefer the first one as it has better characterisation -- it's interesting, funny, odd and brilliantly voice acted (though it seems as if the audio may be slightly out of synch?)The lighting and modelling are top notch -- overall, very well executed and would be keen to see what other stuff these guys can come up with.

I wasn't so keen on the second one -- while technically it seems well produced, it was just a little too cliched for me and the soundtrack was too disjointed and the volume levels of music vs. sfx was all wrong. Nevertheless, top marks for doing a lot in a short space of time -- I know I don't have the skills to do that.

now the thing is.. the first one just ripped those clips from an already working set of commercials. Where as the others is entirely orriginal.

As for the lighting in the first.. there is none.. it's a solid colour pass.. much like cut out blocks of colour and what is called an ambient occlusion pass which is a cheat. It takes the creases of objects and darkens them giving a soft look. When both are laid on top of eachother you get what you see in their clip. This gave them more time for animation.

What this shows here is that finding the easy way out often produces a faster and better result. Which simply makes that group smart for choosing it knowing what they would end up with.

Not that the other group was stupid either.. they were rewarded in a different way. Technical skill. What the other group had to deal with.. which was no sound track to begin with, no absolutes in terms of length of scenes and not too sure what the colour schemes would be.. In terms of technical ability the second one has gone further but in the end it falls short in a few ways, mainly affecting the audience, which they are aware of.

all in all it's a learning assignment for them to remember for their final reels. Just wait until you see those

Either way I'm quite proud of both groups and can't wait to see their own finals. It's likley there will be a mix of animators, modelers, lighting people and technical. Each type of reel is different and many are not even story driven. So it's I guess a different kind of experience when you see those..

Perception is based on knowledge and experience, so it's interesting to now view them again with your extra background information. Don't really know much about 3D so find that the lighting in #1 is a 'cheat' surprises me -- good to see you clarified it with the fact they made the smart choice!