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Once Upon A Dark Christmas

Posted By Kidder 4 Years Ago
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Once Upon A Dark Christmas

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Kidder
Kidder
Posted 4 Years Ago
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This is my latest movie, It should have been out in time for Christmas, but alas I missed the big day.
But here it is. It's better watched using headphones.
A special thank you for all the forum members and their tutorials and advice in making this all possible.



It's Christmas Eve in the sleepy town of Hillview. The residents are looking forward to a peaceful, and uneventful, White Christmas,But something is coming, Something very bad!
His name is Jack Morgan, and he's about to change Christmas forever. tand his year, A White Christmas, is going to turn, very Dark!
Welcome to my new series,
This is the 1st Chapter and the story is told through the eyes of Danny Roberts, a detective with a Christmas history that haunts his soul...Now a Killer is on the loose, and it's Christmas again.
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy...K



See my other videos on my YouTube channel Kissler101





Amper Sand
Amper Sand
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Last Active: 2 Years Ago
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You have a good hand in doing this - I did not see very often such good animation, great work!

______________________________________________________________________________
Software developer. iClone hobbyist since January 11, 2020. Best work so far: Robots among us: The Lab and The sad end of a legend
In progress: Black Mamba
AMD Ryzen 3950X 16C/32T 4.2 GHz, 64GB RAM, RTX2080 11GB, 2TB Samsung 970 Pro SSD, 8TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD, Win11 64-bit, iClone 8.12

toystorylab
toystorylab
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Wow, that's a huge amount of work, respect.
I don't really like the render since I saw what is possible in Unreal,
but the story and the animations are well done.
Looking forward to chapter 2... ;)

Toystorylab on Vimeo : 75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlargehttps://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/ce44ea78-6984-47d8-9bf4-b783.png    Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: 75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlargehttps://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/fcc4df30-b3a8-40a5-a427-0735.png

Kidder
Kidder
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Thank you Amper and Toystory for your kind comments, I know unreal is the new normal but I wasn't sure if I had to have all the export licenses for every Reallusion item I use in Unreal, I only just got the pipeline 3DX and was hesitant in spending so much on outdated programme when its built into IC8 etc I also have thousands of pounds worth of props and every charactor pack collected over the last 10 years and I can't even imagine what it would cost me in upgrading licenses just to get a perfect render. I will try it for something simple made from Daz items. But I will say the renders look cool but it is about story telling as well. I always hoped that Iclone would at least improve their render quality, but I guess now it's obvious they will not.
But thanks anyway for you appreciation of my work.
K


See my other videos on my YouTube channel Kissler101





toystorylab
toystorylab
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Yeah, although we only make movies, having to buy those export licenses sucks...
And sorry, did not want to be harsh about your render, it is a good render,
though as soon you worked with Unreal, you see iClone render with different eyes...
IC8 will have render improvements, at least volumetric lights, mirrors, motion blur and lens flare!

Toystorylab on Vimeo : 75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlargehttps://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/ce44ea78-6984-47d8-9bf4-b783.png    Crassitudes (my "Alter Ego") on Youtube: 75% of original size (was 671x19) - Click to enlargehttps://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/fcc4df30-b3a8-40a5-a427-0735.png

thebiz.movies
thebiz.movies
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Very strong set design, lighting and camerawork.  Loved the visual details and extra animated characters that brought the scenes to life.  I personally didn’t mind the native render but that’s not often my focus.  Some rather stylish scenes such as the men’s club set to music and the APB montage at the end.  However, many of the scenes had a fair amount of padded dialog details that did little to move the scene forward and left the episode feeling a bit slow and bloated.  The extraneous dialog was highlighted all the more by the robotic voices.  Text to Speech has improved over the years but is still very recognizable and stilted.  

Overall, congrats on completing the first part of your ambitious project.  Good to see new stories being told by talented creators.


jeffkirkland
jeffkirkland
Posted 4 Years Ago
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Really well done. As others have said, the set design, animation, and camera work is great. I wish my current project was looking as smooth. 

The lighting was good in most places but in some scenes I felt it was a little harsh. The blacks seemed really crushed, like maybe tone mapping was turned on and/or an overly contrasty LUT applied but that's just my personal taste as a real-world cinematographer and colourist. 

As good as everything else is, the dialogue feels a little unrealistic in many places. Using real actors instead of the obviously computer generated voices would have fixed that and lifted the film to a whole new level. 

Anyway, well done. I'll be very happy if I can get my little animated film to be half as good as this one. Looking forward to seeing part two :) 



Jeff Kirkland | Director • Cinematographer • Storyteller
Hobart • Tasmania • www.one18films.com
SYSTEM: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 | 32gb RAM | RTX 3060 12gb | 1tb SSD System | 44tb HDD Storage
Kidder
Kidder
Posted 3 Years Ago
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Thebiz and jeff, thank you for taking the time to watch this and give good positive feedback, I agree with all your points, i strongly agree with the fact that good voice actors bring out the emotion in the story, but I am not in a position to use pro talent,  And I have older projects that came to a halt because I lost access to friends who helped me out. (or probably got bored waiting and rewrite and second takes weren't really possible). I procrasinated for over 2 years on writing scripts before taking a decision to use Replica and get on with my ideas,  I also know that I use scenes with slow pans and zooms way past what would be acceptable if I was a Profesional but I a hobbyist so I use my movies as a showcase for the sets and lighting atmosphere.The crushed blacks drove me mad, main reason it wasn't out for xmas, i re-rendered a lot and applied acculips but I had to get it out.I really do appreciate you views and will take it all into account for my next project.
Thanks K


See my other videos on my YouTube channel Kissler101





jeffkirkland
jeffkirkland
Posted 3 Years Ago
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I wouldn't apologise for the cinematography. I'm a pro cinematographer and the pans and dolly shots were fine.

As far as the voice actors go, some were actor friends, some were found in Facebook voice acting groups. There are plenty of people out there who will even work for free in order to build up their portfolio. In this case, this is the first animation I've ever done, I had no idea if I could make it work, and I had no money so everyone generously volunteered their time to help out, and they all happily contracted to do four more episodes beyond the two we've already recorded.  

From my experience, the real trick is to nail the script(s) first and then get the voices done as quickly as you can. I spent a month writing my series, then I think it was about five weeks from casting call to having everyone's voices in the can. No time for anyone to get bored :)  I also made sure that everyone I cast had their own recording gear so whenever I've needed a change, I let them know what I need and it's been no great effort on their part to re-record a line or two.

But anyway, what's there tells a story and I'll definitely be checking out the rest.

Jeff Kirkland | Director • Cinematographer • Storyteller
Hobart • Tasmania • www.one18films.com
SYSTEM: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 | 32gb RAM | RTX 3060 12gb | 1tb SSD System | 44tb HDD Storage



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