Sunday, May 2, 2010

Undina

So here is my film, Undina:



I don't have -too- much to say about it except that is was a pretty good experience. It took me a long time to figure out the story and which direction to go in, and looking back at it, it seems so simple. Well! That's exactly what it wasn't; I needed to really simplify it, and eventually I did, but I think in the future if I make another short (and I hope to) it'll be much simpler. I wanted to focus on animating since I didn't have much in my demo reel animation-wise, so I'm glad I kept it at the rough stage.
The story was a big challenge for me, but I did it and I learned a lot. So were the minimal bgs I have, Boris helped me with the establishing shot which I ended up cutting in closer to for other shots.
Unfortunately I felt that my Sprite character ended up changing a lot from my original design, which I liked a lot more, and I found her difficult to draw for the most part, so I didn't enjoy animating her as much as I thought I would. She was the reason I chose to go forward with the story idea, but she ended up being the thing I left to the end because I wasn't excited to draw her. But in the end I think some of her shots turned out alright, so overall I think I'm satisfied with the work I did.

The pencil colouring turned out to be a lot more work than I was able to do for the deadlines, so I decided against it, although in some scenes Becky has rosey cheeks.

Also, there is pretty much no effects in my film. Again because of the time issue, but I also didn't really know where to start with effects and it's not something I wanted to worry about, especially since it still works with out them.

So I just wanted to thank Boris for helping me out when he could, it wouldn't have been done if he didn't help. Thank you to Dan Rodrigues who was amazing to work with, I think he did a great job with the music and such a short amount of time!
And I wanted to thank all the people who helped me at some point, friends who gave me suggestions here and there and people who were gracious enough to ask if I needed any help even though I didn't ask! It really means a lot, thank you! <3

42 comments:

  1. Awesoooome!! The animation is -gorgeous-, I love the story, and your characters are super cute :) You did a really amazing job on this! Congratulations!!!

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  2. omg wooooooow D:

    This is AMAZING, oh man. :D You did a fantastic job, I loved it!

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  3. awesome film!! i love the little girl, she's soooo cuteX3

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  4. Wonderful job Amanda! I always liked that sprite character..and the story is quite cute. Have fun at Disney!

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  5. Beautiful job with this! The animation was enthralling and the character designs were so cute!

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  6. It's lovely! Congratulations :'D

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  7. Wow!
    Your animation is great and this is something to be very proud of great job all around. I always like seeing pencil animation before clean up and once again wow. Keep up the great work and I'm sure you'll have an amazing career.

    :)

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  8. Hey Amanda,
    WOW that was a really good short film! I hope to see more short films
    ☺!!!
    From
    Nadia

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  9. Killer animation Amanda, so nice.

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  10. ditto; your film is very sweet and simple, with impressive animation to boot:)

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  11. my eyes are bleeding from seeing too much awesomeness. It's painful...

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  12. goodness, so much emotional acting going on in this film ._. the coloured test looked awesome, are you thinking of finishing it up a bit more? anyway the film looks great as it is. congrats and best wishes :)

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  13. This is adorable! I know it was a hard choice to go all animation, and even though I Said I was going to, inevitably I didn't. This is fantastic.

    also you might find it funny that my word verification to post this comment is:
    "Relarde"

    I dunno. I Thought you'd think that was funny

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  14. This is such an excellent short film!

    Very appealing characters. I loved that little bit where her cheeks got all red!

    That fish is just too cute.

    Congrats!

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  15. What a great job well done Amanda! Did you ever end up with clean up versions of the characters or did you leave it completely rough?

    David

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  16. That was a fabulous film. Wonderful animation, appealing story and design. Congratulations!

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  17. Shmooper awesome Amanda!
    Man someday when I grow up I'll be shmooper and make cartoons bawwww

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  18. Thanks everyone! 8)

    Chang and David:
    I'm keeping it as it is because I want to animate more, rather than spend more of my time cleaning it up. I did like how the fish workflow test turned out but I don't think I'd have the patience to clean up my whole film @_@ Thanks!

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  19. Wow this was really amazing. Your animation was so fluid and your characters had really great facial expressions. I loved the cute round form of your characters as well and their big expressive eyes <3 love itttttt.

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  20. Wicked and inspiring, makes me want to go animate!!!

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  21. I LOVE it! You are soooo Talented Girl!

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  22. sooo beatiful!! congratulations Amanda

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  23. That was fantastic! So glad I stumbled onto your site.

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  24. Hey Amanda!

    Discovered your work through the Lydia fiasco, and so glad I did! The timing and appeal of this short are pretty amazing. Can't wait to see what else you do :)

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  25. beautifull i discover your blog and this story is really poetic ,bravo ^^

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  26. Wow... beautiful piece! It's always nice to see they're still teaching "draftsmanship" over at Sheridan. Traditional animation rocks! Cheers

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  27. Hey Amanda! Thanks about your comment! It made me possible to know your work! Really nice stuff! Congrats about your short film! I liked a lot! Cute story, cute design and animation! Bests

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  28. I absolutely love your blog and your work. What programs do you use for making such short movies, like this one??

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  29. wow, this is the most pro pencil test i've seen of disney-like quality ever. you've got talent!

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  30. BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!

    such a great little story and some wonderful animation!!!

    You shud be incredibly pleased with this and im sure it will take you far!!
    Have you finished school now? Have you got a job?? You should have!! this is ace!! Alot of hard work that shud take you far!!

    Wud love to see it finished, coloured and cleaned up.
    Have you had it entered into any festivals??

    im very happy i came accross your work!

    You learn so much when making a student film. I remember back in the day making mine, i wanted to really show emotion in animation, and make an audience feel empathy for the characters.
    Its such a wonderful gift to make an audience feel such TRUE emotion, just through a series of drawings.
    If you are interested in doing an MA, you should look at going to Goblan in Paris!! Im sure you wud fly there!!!

    if you are interested in my student film, either follow the links on my blog to "Favelados" or here is a direct link to the favelados blog. There is also a pretty old and dated website for it too.

    http://faveladosanimation.blogspot.com/

    I really cringe now when i look back a it soo many years later, but it was an incredible journey, many many sleeples nights and dam hard work.
    I look back at it as a learning curve... and now, wis i chose something alot less dramatic.
    beacuse of the depth of the story, it cud easily and shud have been much longer (it cud even be feature length)
    So, alas, there is ALOT of story crammed into 3mins, which sadly in my eyes moves way too fast and the story is lost... but hey, i now know a zillion times more, shud i ever get the chance to make a short again :D

    Keep up the fab work and keep in touch!!!

    Tcat.xx

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  31. I can't believe I didn't comment on this before! Your film was one of if not my favourite of our year. Amazing job! Your animation is always so smooth and precise. Very inspiring, I hope your talent is taking you to great places right now! :)

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  32. This animation is amazing !! I really love your character designs for Undina, and the music fits it perfectly. keep up the great work !!

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  33. Hi Amanda,


    My name is Mercedes Lopes and Im a writer. I have been trying to contact you but I couldnt find an email address of yours.

    I would like to discuss with you about a project Im working on, that could possibly involve your film.

    If you are interested please email me at: mercedinhalo@gmail.com

    Thanks

    Mercedes Lopes

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