The Last Lore of Sexy Girls and Scary Monsters

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1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HLeTNK2YpE

Hi people.

I made this for a video competition, however it didn’t get selected.

Would love to know what you guys think.

Any constructive criticism is welcome, whether in the drawing, animation technique, timing, or anything at all, happy to hear.

This was mostly frame by frame animated, created in love of transforming and destroying things.

This was made in toonboom animate 2, I’ve yet to get toonboom animate 3 and waiting for the next iMac operating system to come out.

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Thank you for the additional information.

I am just commenting to give you something to think about even if you reject everything and think about something else and I hope something will help or inspire you.

I believe you are making a mistake using that galaxy sequence as your YT logo. I don’t know whether or not you created it. I gather from the About section that you are a 2D animator. This may not be a good analogy but the galaxy sequence tacked onto all of your work is like using science fiction special effects to sell a romantic comedy. The ultimate objective is the gift not the wrapping. You can wrap a gift so nicely that people are reluctant to unwrap it. I think you need to stick to the theme and create an opening animation sequence with your animation skills.

The working for or against contexts reference was about how well the video matched the theme of the contest. There are elements that might repel some people or attract others. If this had been a general animation contest I think the dark sexual content would have worked against you.

You described using ideas sparked from a game. But you said you had doubts that people familiar with the game would get it. People not familiar with the game definitely would not get it. This is where it might have been good to have a higher goal in mind…something that everyone could understand whether they knew of the game or not.

Sometimes when people remake a film they present some angle that did not exist in the original and only loosely base the film’s storyline on the original. In other cases they use something special like focusing on an instrument that ws not done in the original song in music or something like the way the film Titantic used a love story as the driving force for the disaster theme.

When I said the soundtrack was strong for this type of music I just meant you have to like the style or genre to appreciate it. The music is front and center dominating the video. It does not work as a background for the visuals. It seems as though the visuals are supposed to be something to watch while listening to the music. Is the music part of the game?

With regards to the quality of the artwork and how it works as an animated sequence, I can only offer my impression as a viewer. I don’t see any obvious signs of flaws in its construction. Like I said before I think something very clever needed to be developing. I have since watched the video several times and I think the music is kind of repetitive. It doesn’t go anywhere once it gets going. It just sort of pulsates. Having the animation doing the same thing doesn’t take the viewer anywhere.

It is great that you did all of the work by hand though. I think the only way hand drawn animation will stay alive is with everyone hand drawing as much as possible. But I wonder whether rigged cutout characters would have been sufficient for a large portion of this.

I am subscribing to your channel and anticipate seeing more of you work.

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Can you provide more information?

What was the theme of the contest?

The animation is well-synched and the morphing is smooth.

One can name an instrumental anything.

The soundtrack is strong for this type of music.

Separate from the soundtrack, the imagery would work for or against different contexts.

I cannot tell whether you were just morphing random imagery or making a point and telling a story.

The soundtrack is so strong I think there needed to be something very clever developing with the animation.

Given the opportunity, I would have encouraged you to reconsider the opening graphic sequence. That galaxy is spectacular. Using it is shooting yourself in the foot when you intend to switch to flat B&W linear art animation. This even more importantly if the sequence is just random morphs based off imagery taken from the song title.

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Sure thing

The contest was for a game I use to play called runescape, so it was themed around the video game. They have a yearly video contest, it isn’t really about animation, and this year they decided to ignore the animation category and go for live streamers on twitch.

There was no story to it or point, it’s just more of an imagery type thing. I mean it roughly had one, in lore order to the game, but it’s unlikely even the people who play the game would see the pattern.

When creating it, I listened to the soundtrack first, contacted the music label for permission in using it, then I sketched down things as I visualised them to the sounds and beats within the music. After that I did a rough guide to get the timings right, some things were added inbetween when the timing wasn’t correct, and I just went along with it.

And yeah, I totally agree with the galaxy bit, unfortunately that’s my youtube logo, so people can identify my video, and I went overboard with it a bit, because after all it’s clip I’m going to have to use on each of my videos.

I hate having to use a branding intro and I hate using the subscription and links to previous work, however these things are really a must if I want to survive on youtube and grow. If you look at other famous youtubers they all do this, as it’s something that counts towards the way youtube analytics works in sharing your videos.

I hope that’s enough information for you.

I had a bit of trouble understanding some of your other points though in imagery would work for or against different contexts, and the soundtrack being strong for this type of music.

Any animation techniques on what I’m doing wrong would be great.

E.g. What doesn’t look right, what doesn’t animate naturally in scenes, how I could make my animation work faster and more productive, what I should concentrate on simplifying or adding more depth, etc.

Thanks.

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Thanks, I’ve taken onboard your input about the intro vid, I’ve used the youtube editor to cut it out. I’ll make something a bit more simple in future that is 2D animated.

Yeah, I get what you are saying about the story and people not understanding. I do like people watching and not understanding though, I like the idea of them watching something and trying to make their own story or conclusions about it. :slight_smile: For a story or animated episode I wouldn’t do this though, but I feel music is subjective and so should the animation sometimes.

For the music part, it’s not from the game and it’s something I chose, it’s pretty hard to get any permission to use music, so for that I’m grateful to be allowed to use anything. This one is a pretty hard one for me to fix, because if I get it made, it has the trouble of being boring, or like you say, if it’s too strong, people may not like the type of music it is.

As for rigged cutout characters, do you have any examples?