The Liminal - a personal animated short

[adamf13]

A few years ago on my daily commutes I began to think of scenarios for a small animated short film. It was going to be an opportunity for me to do something creative for myself and a chance to try out some stuff that I don't get to do often enough. I had lots of sketches, ideas, and starts and stops. I would occasionally start modeling and leave it for awhile, or get in a groove and just churn ideas out several nights in a row. Eventually, the scope of my personal project started to grow and I thought it was overambitious. Though, by now I was past the point-of-no-return. I had to do it.

I did what I knew and learned what I didn't. It took way more effort than I initially thought, but I'm happy to say I did pretty much everything in this short (except the music, I'm not so crazy that I would try and score an orchestral piece). I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Though, after staring at it for so long, it's hard to not think about what I would have or could have done different. But, that's just going to have to wait for my next project.

Here's the technical details I'm sure everybody cares about: made in 3ds MAX with Vray (of course). The post was done in After Effects (including Reel Smart Motion Blur and Lenscare plugins) and edited in Premiere Pro.

https://vimeo.com/53271615

Thanks for watching and please let me know your critiques/comments.

[matanov]

Very nice. True artist (not only 3D one).

[adamf13]

Thank you!

[olly]

That is great work for only your spare time. Well done!

[Morne]

WOW that is Awesome! Well Done!

[sandykoufax]

Very nice short!

[jonnybefree]

realy nice! only thing i would think about maybe is using vray dof instead of lenscare. to get rid of the jagged egdes.

[adamf13]

Thanks! I probably should have tried the vray dof, but I was already worried about the render times. However, I wasn't anticipating the difficulty of posting both dof and the motion blur at the same time while getting a clean image. So that is definitely something I could have done differently.

[stevesideas]

Very lovely animation. A feeling of freedom and melancholy with hope at the end. Thanks

[adamf13]

If anybody's interested, I just uploaded a compositing breakdown for four of the shots in this short. Shots were broken down in to Diffuse, Raw Lighting, Raw GI, Reflection, Refraction, Specular, velocity, and z-depth passes. It was put back together and color corrected in After Effects.

https://vimeo.com/55753293

[kiteman]

Very good job. It must have been a great effort. Congratulations!!

Regards.

[mikeh]

interesting ending. So is the correct interpretation: dreams meet reality (a pessimistic outlook)? Or is this the beginning of something good(an optimistic outlook)?
mh

[adamf13]

Thanks. It was meant as more of the dreams meeting reality. Though, I didn't really see it as something pessimistic. To me, dreams are fantastic, yet fleeting. They take you on adventures and for a few moments anything is possible. If there weren't an end to the dream, then it wouldn't be special.... it would just be normal.

By the way, thanks for taking the time to comment and ask questions. I've shared it around on quite a few sites and it's been surprisingly difficult to get some questions,comments, and critques.

[mikeh]

Adam,
You're welcome. the movie has so many apparent nuances in terms of message that i wasn't sure if i was going into areas you didn't want to discuss.
But, since you've opened the door... Dream meets reality. A beautiful paper airplane meets a crumpled beaten piece of paper mashed down by daily commuting and all it entails...that might require follow through (as in sequel) to come off as optimistic.

On a technical front, the surge and follow though of the birds in flight was quite realistic. How did you accomplish that? It was such a nice touch compared to the more mechanical flock of birds in flight i've seen in the past.
mh

Oh, and critique? The slow way it unfolds is so refreshing compared to the usual slam bam thank you mam stuff that currently is popular.

[adamf13]

The flock of birds was done using pflow and lots of trial and error. The birds were animated shape instances that were following a path. The birds also had some "jitter" animated in them so they'd somewhat appear to have a bounce as their wings pushed down. The most hardest part was figuring out what was the proper reference for a paper crane flying. If you watch a small bird (like a robin or sparrow) vs a larger bird (like a pigeon), they are pretty different in flight. Smaller birds have a more erratic flight pattern while pigeons are smoother. I opted for something closer to the pigeon's style because it just looked better and it felt right in the environment and the story.

As for the sequel.... I think my next personal project needs to be more of a manageable size. So, if I were to do a sequel, I better figure out a way to make it optimistic in 30 seconds or less. Unfortunately, that means it'd probably have to be the "slam bam thank you mam" style. I guess that means that I'd probably lose people like you as a fan, but I'd get the impatient masses.