It's a little late for me to say all of this, (almost 2 weeks late) but yes, my undergrad senior thesis project, Shadow Play, is finished! We made all of the deadlines, submitted to SIGGRAPH, and got the movie done in time for the Gala, which had overwhelmingly positive reviews from just about everyone I've spoken with.
I'm so proud of what I and everyone accomplished: it wasn't just an animated short, it was taking on a souped-up, next-level produced film. (Not saying it came out like that, but it definitley had the amount of work put into it where it could've been.)
And yes, now for the Debbie-Downer part, where I say "Yes, the film could've been alot better on definitely more than one aspect, etc., etc," It's true, the animation in many parts of the film are downright choppy and sloppy; the audio is off-timed, camera-work (and story for that matter) are a little discerning to the careful-eye. However, despite all fo these hang-ups: it's finished, it looked great, people genuinely enjoyed it, and it actually GOT A LAUGH out of the crowd! VL movies + Laughter is not an equation that makes tons of sense, especially if that doesn't include laughing at how these movies were possibly passed off as finished products.
Now I don't mean to hate on VL too much. I've learned so much over the past 2 years, from a total newbie at Maya, a sloppy Photoshop painter, and a production-virgin to what I am today: hard-nosed, self-filtering, and efficient/diligent. Am I ready to face the real-world? Skill-wise I think I have many hurdles ahead of me, but work-ethic-wise I think I have some pretty polished chops. I just have to simply get better at what I already apply myself to do, and I think I'll be at the right level.
What really inspired me was Manny Fraggelis (Modeling Supervisor at Dreamworks Studios) visiting us and telling us honestly and wholeheartedly that from the look of our film, it was evident we still had a little ways to go before being industry-ready, but that for an educational-based film project, we were "very excellent." He compared our movie, Shadow Play, something if you asked me if I compared it to Pixar movies or Dreamworks movies, I would laugh and say "Are you kidding? It pales in comparison", Manny gave us a "6/10" compared to these blockbuster movies. I was astounded. Our film? 6/10? Compared to Up and How To Train You Dragon? That means were at least a legitimate passing grade of a D! Glass Half-Full, That means we didn't fail at all in comparison to extremely well made films. What a great feeling.
P.S.: As soon as I can, I will put up my make-shift demo-reel on here. I can't as of yet because it contains clips from Shadow Play, as well as from my freelance animated-series work. As soon as I get clearance from both,
I'm so proud of what I and everyone accomplished: it wasn't just an animated short, it was taking on a souped-up, next-level produced film. (Not saying it came out like that, but it definitley had the amount of work put into it where it could've been.)
And yes, now for the Debbie-Downer part, where I say "Yes, the film could've been alot better on definitely more than one aspect, etc., etc," It's true, the animation in many parts of the film are downright choppy and sloppy; the audio is off-timed, camera-work (and story for that matter) are a little discerning to the careful-eye. However, despite all fo these hang-ups: it's finished, it looked great, people genuinely enjoyed it, and it actually GOT A LAUGH out of the crowd! VL movies + Laughter is not an equation that makes tons of sense, especially if that doesn't include laughing at how these movies were possibly passed off as finished products.
Now I don't mean to hate on VL too much. I've learned so much over the past 2 years, from a total newbie at Maya, a sloppy Photoshop painter, and a production-virgin to what I am today: hard-nosed, self-filtering, and efficient/diligent. Am I ready to face the real-world? Skill-wise I think I have many hurdles ahead of me, but work-ethic-wise I think I have some pretty polished chops. I just have to simply get better at what I already apply myself to do, and I think I'll be at the right level.
What really inspired me was Manny Fraggelis (Modeling Supervisor at Dreamworks Studios) visiting us and telling us honestly and wholeheartedly that from the look of our film, it was evident we still had a little ways to go before being industry-ready, but that for an educational-based film project, we were "very excellent." He compared our movie, Shadow Play, something if you asked me if I compared it to Pixar movies or Dreamworks movies, I would laugh and say "Are you kidding? It pales in comparison", Manny gave us a "6/10" compared to these blockbuster movies. I was astounded. Our film? 6/10? Compared to Up and How To Train You Dragon? That means were at least a legitimate passing grade of a D! Glass Half-Full, That means we didn't fail at all in comparison to extremely well made films. What a great feeling.
P.S.: As soon as I can, I will put up my make-shift demo-reel on here. I can't as of yet because it contains clips from Shadow Play, as well as from my freelance animated-series work. As soon as I get clearance from both,