V-656

Film with Kids and CG is right up my alley :)

The kids did really well although the boys cried a bit too much given the girls cool demenour :)

You did really well with this, especially given the restrictions on software (you used poser right?). The V656 had too much floor slide (it didnt move forward as fast as the feet, so it appears to be on ice). The rendering didnt make it feel real, you really need environmental lighting sampled at the location or a light rig that matches the location very well, for this to look real. But these are all issues with using poser which has no match move ability, limited rendering and poor animation tools.
Upgrade to a proper 3d package and you'll rock.

Overall I loved this film. Congrats to you and the crew!
 
Yeah, Poser - especially version 7 - just doesn't have the chops to do this right. I figured the entire thing was sort of cartoonish so I could get away with it with a little leeway. Seems I was wrong. I had the same problem you did, time rendering verus full quality. I guess the lesson was, one actor, one room, no special effects. Still, it was a joy making it and working with the kids. I hope there was enough from them to make it work for you. I'd love to spring for Maya, ZBrush, 3dsMax and V-Ray, but with the economy the way it is, I'm lucky to struggle by with Poser and AfterEffects!
 
I personally can't fault any of the animation because it's such a huge undertaking especially considering the deadline. There's always more time to work on it, but for what you got accomplished for your entry is pretty incredible to me. I can only imagine how much work went into the filming of this, and then incorporating the cgi. Not to mention you have multiple actors acting against nothing in nearly every shot. And for that i give you major kudos. Not to mention I like the film overall and thought it a great "kids" movie, you should pitch this thing to networks as a saturday morning show.
 
first off, working with kids, you deserve an award for that (even if they are related i believe two were right?) they actually did pretty well in my book, the other too seemed over the top. But that aside, having to work with children and having them work with imaginary actors....o.O GIANT GOLDEN FREAKIN KUDOS to you sir! Excellent job!

Rogan
 
Fun film. The kids seemed to have a good time doing it and did a good job. I thought the cg was really good. I've done some stuff with after effects so I know how difficult and time consuming that can be. Cool kids movie, this could hold its own against some of the other popular kids programming I've seen.
Awesome job!
 
Wow, yeah, I totally forgot about the fact that the kids had to act with nothing there. They sold it so well that I didn't even think about that! Awesome!
 
I thought you did a great job. I watched the BTS earlier on so I had an idea what to expect. My expectations were surpassed though.

Spoiler:
The girl's robot was by far the best looking with believable movements. The rest were a little too jerky with no acceleration or deceleration in their movements if that makes any sense. I guess my mind expects larger robots to be slower due to their mass, but I didn't get a sense of mass from the big bots. Having done a tiny bit of animation years ago in college I can appreciate how difficult it was to put all of this together in the time you had, and here I am nitpicking minor details - so enough of that!

You must have had some of the models either built or in development prior, right? The V-series was very complex and it could have taken weeks just to get that done. It looked like it jumped right out of my XBox - I mean that as a compliment BTW.

I can only imagine how much fun it was for the kids involved - a movie a killer robot? Sign me up!
Spoiler:
I also loved the twist at the end with the cyborg teacher - I didn't see it coming.

 
Unfortuately I lost my initial feedback that I typed here doh! So apolagies for the slightly shorter version but if you want to ask me any further questions on my thoughts about about v-656 id be happy to oblige.

Essentially i found this to be a charming and fun film, that was marred by wooden performances from the children. It is a childish film (and thats fine) but with a zappier pace, zappier jokes and better performances could almost have felt like a kind of robo-fetishistic tim and eric style comedy piece.

It is in my top 5 imperfect though it is (even if it does have the 'dad has forced his kids to make a pet project with him vibe' - (better that with your film than some of the others i guess haha!)
 
I really enjoyed this film.

Great title sequence - what a fun way to open the film.

What I really liked here was the story. It felt complete and I especially liked the twist with the teacher.

The CGI (for a short film fest) is also really impressive. It's got a great B-Movie quality and I mean that as a real compliment (I am a massive Ray Harryhausen fan and his films feel the same to me).

What didn't work for me quite as well was the tone, which wasn't always consistent. I wish everyone had played it a bit more dramatically and closer to the vest (for example, the reaction to the destruction of their teacher felt a bit over-the-top).

Still, this was one of my favorite films in the fest. Really well done.
 
Alright, this was fun. I'm sure the kids had a blast with this.
Not much to say that hasn't already been said?

The robots were cool. The kids did a good job for the style of film you were making.
I laughed a few times. Fun stuff. I'm sure this took a lot of effort to make.

I liked the "smart" girl. She played her part well, as did the teacher.
 
Thanks, everyone, for taking a look at our entry. I hope Chris gets to see the ending - especially after our discussion about his Samurai Fest entry.

This fest a is a rare chance to get honest and constructive comments about something you made, a rarity today when most of the feedback is filtered through fawning friends and family, or folks who feel they must be PC when commenting about your film. Your feedback is real raw data that goes a long way in making any future project better and more satisfying.

It’s interesting to see how divergent some of the comments were. The hardest to decipher were the overall take on the acting in V-656, which went from “wooden” to a “bit over the top.” Any criticism belongs squarely in my lap. The kids gave it all they had and followed my instructions, so any missteps in this area are entirely my own.

Same with the CG - I had neither time or equipment to go all out with it, but wanted to give it a shot. I thought making it a bit 50’s Sci-Fi might overcome the technical limitations, which is why we went for an over-the-top Saturday matinee look instead of dark, chilling drama. This was never going to be totally realistic so there was no point in pretending it was. No excuses, just my decision what direction to take it. It seemed to work for some viewers and disturb the heck out of others.

This was a fun project and the fest was a great opportunity to watch 17 films from talented filmmakers from around the world. Can’t wait for the next one, and all your thoughtful comments will hopefully make my next entry better.
 
Fun kids film! I thought the acting mostly fit the tone of the whole. I really liked the robot animation for the push in shots (like 3:06). One easy (ie low rendering time) way to sell some of the animation shots would be to add some camera shake to the footsteps when the robots walked in all of the wide shots. Not as much as Transformers or anything, but just a little. The robots sounded really heavy when they walked and it felt off to me that some action shots were handheld but those were locked down. I know you had shake in some of them, I guess I noticed that it wasn't consistent. I did like the short though!

I am curious if you liked the fact that the table was reflective or if you were mad because it cranked your render and animation times up haha.
 
I actually liked the reflective table - pure chance that the scinece room had them. I think the little robot is probably the most realistic of all the bots, partially because of the reflections and because his walk is the most alien and robotic so you buy it.

Actually, V-656 shakes the camera everytime he takes a step. I thought about doing it with Bob, but I was afraid it might take away from the big guy. Easy enough to go back and add a little for him, too.

Thanks for watching!
 
Wow, that was really creative. Kudos to you because that must've been extremely time consuming. My sole venture into animation was a balloon and that took forever.

Anyway, I found myself chuckling at parts and really found the whole thing enjoyable. Great work!
 
A cute cartoony kids short. That smart kid really acted her but off. Any significance to the robot's number?

Oh yeah, I liked that ending better when it was mine.
 
Last edited:
Chris_Keaton said:
A cute cartoony kids short. That smart kid really acted her but off. Any significance to the robot's number?

Oh yeah, I liked that ending better when it was mine.
Click to expand...

I thought the number sounded cool so I went with it. No significance.

My granddaughter will be happy to hear you liked her performance.

Actually, my co-writer Kent Tentschert came up with that piece of the plot. I laughed out loud when I read your script in Samurai Fest - not at the script but at the coincidence. Apparently great minds think alike.
 
LOL. i was laughing alot. at first i didnt like the cartoony look...then I saw that thats what u were going for. Its a nice kids flick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top