Mark of Uru: the animated web series

[grafikdon]

First episode of the animated series "Mark of Uru"

http://www.mayhemproductions.org/Mar...Episode_1.html

[ledgerbalance]

Awesome. You've done it again! This is incredible and just goes to show one more time what amazing productions can be achieved.

I have no idea why the other animation you posted didn't appear on the front of the site here. Absolute scandal. I mean for independent animators these sites are not necessarily what it's all about, but still it's just silly and shameful. If administrators are actually relying on a system of votes or something, then the system's failed.

Again this is superb work, it's what it should all be about. thanks for sharing.

LB

P.S How long did each animation take you ? Were you working on them in one consecutive block or a bit here and there over a longer period of time ?

[kwasiada]

He's right you know.
Bang on.
You'll get crits for this and that but the vibe is right and we dont get to see this kind of story very often.
Keep on keeping on.

[Kid Mesh]

The Don, the tireless one has stuck once again

Your are a true inspiration to tireless effort. Looking forward to checking this out when I get home.

Been awhile since we spoke. Would love to catch up later. Cya around.

KM

[tobian]

Very nice animation, I liked the graphic style of it, and the mocap work qas pretty high quality.

The only crits I would give is the sound editing and sound quality wasn't up to the same standard as the animation, there were also a few places where the animation could do with a little selective editing for better flow..

However I am pretty intreagued, and I will try and keep up with the story as it comes out, if you let us know

Why not share some of your workflow and processes with the community: We might have some ideas to improve your work, as mutch as we would be interested in how you did it all!

[ledgerbalance]

Sure... Independent animation or 3d can be a very difficult and very serious path with very different goals to what's on offer in the industry, and it's a real achievement to actually get anything made of your own, and as well at a quality that challenges the mainstream as some of this work does.

[tobian]

Oh very much so, working in 3D is one of the hardest disciplines on a computer, because you have to have so much knowledge and so many skills! An awful lot of us on here are just hobbyists, we 'get' that, but there is always room for improvement: You always see something better than you have, which drives your work forward

[grafikdon]

Thanks for checking the series out fellas. Every critique is duly noted. I aim to improve on each episode and correct the errors found in previous ones. Fortunately, it is easier to ''sniff''' out what needs improvement when you have wrapped up production. When you take a few steps back and view the work from a distance, everything becomes very transparent.

@Ledgerbalance, the animation for this episode took me approximately two weeks. I shut down every other project and worked on it from animation to post production. I have a regular job so I delve into it after work but I must confess that I put in very crazy hours during weekends. . . I remember locking myself indoors for 72 hrs two weeks ago (didn't go to work on Friday) and didn't see the sunlight (well except the one I saw through the window).

@KM, been a long time. I've been ''locking'' myself up too often... lol

@Tobian. Yup, I kinda noticed that audio thingy, especially the warrior guy but he won't show up again after episode 1. I am working on Episode 2 audio at the moment so I will try to avoid the errors of episode 1.

For the workflow, I model everything with a combination of Lightwave and Modo.The detailed storyboard is created before everything is moved to XSI for animation, except scenes involving cars (the other series Business and Pleasure) and close up character shots with dialogue which I prefer to animate from scratch in Lightwave. In order words I have two rigs for the characters, Lightwave rig and XSI rig. I also do all camera movements in Lightwave and then render everything with Lightwave.





I am kinda running outta royalty free music though so I may go on a shopping spree after episode 3. Anyone know where I can get free music with no strings attached...I gotta have the link . Mixing 'em up with whatever I buy will kinda cut down the production cost for me, because the way I see it, I am gonna need a ton of music if I want to avoid unnecessary repetition...I actually sneaked in a music I used in a past project.

[Kid Mesh]

I could not tell you the countless times I have heard the same song or songs in different movies. What is old to you is new to others and if the track fits just reuse it if you have to. No big for sure.

Don't get me wrong though, music plays a huge role in films. But for indy projects with tight budgets we gotta do what we gotta do sometimes

[ledgerbalance]

thanks for the info grafikdon, thats how it is with IA indeed

Tobian: And sure nothing wrong with critique (in the tradition of animation), as long as the really important things on a case by case basis are acknowledged.

[tobian]

At the end of the day, I liked it and I said so, but nothing is perfect, and I thought the other work was less strong, it does require some polish. This is a friendly forum, where we offer constructive criticism, it's not a fanclub or a 'press release' area, it's somewhere people post up their work and get feedback, that is the function of a forum in general.

[grafikdon]

I would only give this work ONE star! My computer is too slow to view it - you need to put it on veoh again grafikdon! I would then proceed to remove my one star rating because I hear talk of motion capture. hehe Will you people not learn nothing from the lessons that Beowulf has taught us?

*shakes head disapprovingly*

It's on youtube, I'll upload it on Veoh later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSXwhQ4VYtU

The episode has a total of 123 shots. I used mocap on 9 shots to be precise.

[PAL]

really nice work, professional and all... and also a very cool ink style with line rendering and toon shaders and all... I just think it is very good... comment on the bad things... I am overwhelmed by this so I really have noone here... just a massive peice of incredible good work here...

Your PAL

[kurv]

Made a few edits to keep the thread on track.

Great work grafikdon, very nice! Also btw... you might want to check out vfxcast.com to upload the file there as well. They accept larger files and the video playback is better than YouTube... we moved all of our videos there.

Lets stay on track guys!! Great work!!

[Shuggs]

Very nice man. I admire your hard work and dedication.