Made My Own (not-KSP) Short Film! [EDIT: It's OUT!]

[BagelRabbit]

The finished film is out.

It's strange, and I hope you enjoy it.

~~~

Hello! I do things on the Forum.

Today, I embark upon a project to make a complete five-minute animated film in two weeks.

[EDIT - Trailer One Out!]

Questions you probably have right now:

"Why are you doing this?"

I've felt the need to make a dedicated animated film since this. With a full week off from college this Thanksgiving, I finally have a chance! (The second week will likely just be post-production, and I'll have time for some frantic last-minute work.)

"What's the title?"

S W E E T

"What's the premise?"

Because I'm not really all that normal, this film will also be deeply not-normal.

The basic premise is that there's an ice-cream cone that appears in the desert, questions its existence and purpose, and then melts. Further details (including a script!) as events warrant.

"What's the budget?"

$0 (besides the stuff I've already got).

"Will it win an Oscar?"

Well, I can dream. I will be posting this on YouTube when it's done so that everyone can watch it for free. This does, however, mean that you will have to pop your own popcorn prior to watching.

Let me know what you think! I'll be posting a progress report every day or two.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Upsilon

Edited December 19, 2014 by UpsilonAerospace

[longbyte1]

This looks... unusual. Good luck on your project!

[BagelRabbit]

This looks... unusual. Good luck on your project!

Thanks!

Progress Report, 11/23:

I've "made" the music (really just my Spheres of Legend cover played 400% slower, trippy!) and found some good wind background noise, I've made about a third of the art, and I've finalized the overall cinematic direction of the work. Good stuff.

Oh, and here's the preliminary teaser trailer, banged out in less than two hours from start to finish.

Do you see the cuts in between scenes? The 'trippiness' is gradually going to increase as the ice-cream cone melts, to a nearly constant stream of it. If done right, this will be very powerful.

It's actually coming together. I'm quite happy.

[longbyte1]

My only concern is that it's really hard to find an audience on YouTube. After all, only about 1%* of videos actually get a substantial amount of views (let's say, at least 50,000). Even I have trouble with this on my channel, which is why I don't make many videos. But again, consistency and originality are important here. As for making a video viral (meaning that one of your videos suddenly gets a bunch of views from sharing, while the rest of your videos rot), it's entirely hit or miss. It's really disappointing when you put a few weeks of effort onto something and put it on YouTube, but only a handful of people actually appreciate it, so I suggest you get as much attention as possible before you release.

* I'm making statistics up here, if anyone finds stats for subscriber/view distribution, please inform me as I've been looking for this type of aggregated data for a very long time.

[BagelRabbit]

My only concern is that it's really hard to find an audience on YouTube. After all, only about 1%* of videos actually get a substantial amount of views (let's say, at least 50,000). Even I have trouble with this on my channel, which is why I don't make many videos. But again, consistency and originality are important here. As for making a video viral (meaning that one of your videos suddenly gets a bunch of views from sharing, while the rest of your videos rot), it's entirely hit or miss. It's really disappointing when you put a few weeks of effort onto something and put it on YouTube, but only a handful of people actually appreciate it, so I suggest you get as much attention as possible before you release.

That's the reason why I'm trying to push this wherever possible (including the totally-unrelated KSP Forums).

I have every reason to believe that this video will get a few thousand views, at least. The last short film I made, which was tailored to a very, very specific audience (KSP players watching the arrival of MAVEN at Mars), has 550 views and counting. The film I'm making now will be for all audiences, regardless of background. In addition, I've got a merry band of subscribers who will watch and spread the video, if they like it.

Speaking of which!

Once this film is done, if you like it, please share it with family and friends. I would appreciate that immensely.

[BagelRabbit]

Progress Report, 11/24:

I'm more than halfway done with the art... I've made 19 pictures in all, with variations on some of them (having the Ice Cream's mouth move to talk, etc.) I also did some test renderings of talking animations. They're a little cheesy as of now but I think I can pull it off.

Here's the latest image I made, showing the cone half-melted.

I'm a little disappointed with the lack of progress today but I plan on making up for it tomorrow. And, after all, there are few people in their right mind who would try to do something like this, in the first place.

[BagelRabbit]

Progress Report, 11/25:

Sorry, can't write too much right now. I'm not supposed to be on the computer in the first place

Anyways, I've got the pictures 75% done and the first minute-and-a-half of footage recorded, though I still need to add in voice effects and tweak some things a little. Overall, I'm happy with what I have down so far.

See you tomorrow!

(why is no one commenting here?)

[HafCoJoe]

Awesome! Looking forwards

[BagelRabbit]

Awesome! Looking forwards

So am I.

Sorry for not posting any progress reports, but to be honest, not a lot of progress has been made. I'm still hovering at around the 1:30 mark of the video. I did do some rendering, some more drawing, and began work on the script, but that's pretty much it.

Here's my latest image. ("DREAMSCAPE14") It's one of the better images to flash across the screen for a second or two.

I give myself five minutes for each DREAMSCAPE, because there are a lot of them.

I'm making all of the art in the free Windows app 'Fresh Paint,' by the way. It's a good program for this sort of thing, even though it was not designed with animation in mind, and I have to then plug in all the pictures into my nasty video editing program. It's slow work, but it's coming along alright.

[longbyte1]

Done yet?

If not, I will ask the moderators to enable negative rep just for you. (jk)

[BagelRabbit]

Done yet?

If not, I will ask the moderators to enable negative rep just for you. (jk)

Break out the Negative Rep!

I'll be done on the 10th or earlier. I just have had so little time to work on this project (>1 hour per day) because I'm really bogged down with school right now. I need to study for finals, and stuff!

I'm about 2:30 of the way to my 4-minute goal, so more than halfway.

Sorry for not having this done sooner. Wish me luck as I try to make the final push over the next couple of days

-Upsilon

[BagelRabbit]

Oh my god, it's done.

It's actually done.

Well, not really. I would still love to tweak some things. But I've gotten a workable film out the door.

Here it is.

A couple of notes on this project:

♪#1: Please watch in full-screen. It's better that way.

♪#2: I still feel like it's not 100% done, but it never will be.

♪#3: It's not supposed to be funny, just a touch absurdist.

♪#4: It's full of metaphorical meaning - it's very 'deep.'

I hope you enjoy this thing.

[PakledHostage]

I hope you enjoy this thing.

I laughed, I cried... It was better than Gravity!

No seriously. It was very well done.

[BagelRabbit]

I laughed, I cried... It was better than Gravity!

No seriously. It was very well done.

Thanks! I really appreciate it

I should probably mention again: If you think that anyone would like this video, please share it with them! This was by far the most difficult and time-consuming film I've ever made, and I feel as if it deserves a little recognition. (Especially since YouTube is notoriously fickle when it comes to which videos get loads of views, and which ones don't.)

-Upsilon

[Thomas988]

I hope you enjoy this thing.

Though a bit dazed, I really enjoyed it! Your style of animation is very unique, and certainly better than what I could ever make! Nice work!

[Bill Phil]

Hmm. Some deep music tracks you have there. And an interesting plot. Some expansion on it would be nice.

[longbyte1]

Those are a lot of comments for just 136 views.

[Camacha]

Oh yay, a proper animation. I very much reminds me of salad fingers and I do not think that is a bad thing.

[PakledHostage]

And an interesting plot. Some expansion on it would be nice.

I am not sure. I like how the story leaves a lot to the imagination... The moments of madness/hallucinations mixed with moments of lucidity. We don't know any more than the character itself does in its addled state as it slowly succumbs to the elements.

[Bill Phil]

I am not sure. I like how the story leaves a lot to the imagination... The moments of madness/hallucinations mixed with moments of lucidity. We don't know any more than the character itself does in its addled state as it slowly succumbs to the elements.

Yes. And some expansion could be done by showing other instances of similar things happening, but with a few twists. IE, landing in some other place, like a very cold one. I don't know. I'm just one of those guys that thinks expanding a universe is always a good idea. Look at Star Wars, it's a huge universe. I doubt many people know about the New Republic. My point is that anything can be expanded upon. Although, if that's helpful or not is up for question.

[BagelRabbit]

Though a bit dazed, I really enjoyed it! Your style of animation is very unique, and certainly better than what I could ever make! Nice work!

Yeah, I tried to make this thing noteworthy and unique, and I think it worked out reasonably well.

Hmm. Some deep music tracks you have there.

It's actually my Spheres of Legend song slowed down 400%! In other words, the music has something to do with KSP, at least...

And an interesting plot. Some expansion on it would be nice.

I am not sure. I like how the story leaves a lot to the imagination... The moments of madness/hallucinations mixed with moments of lucidity. We don't know any more than the character itself does in its addled state as it slowly succumbs to the elements.

Yes. And some expansion could be done by showing other instances of similar things happening, but with a few twists. IE, landing in some other place, like a very cold one. I don't know. I'm just one of those guys that thinks expanding a universe is always a good idea. Look at Star Wars, it's a huge universe. I doubt many people know about the New Republic. My point is that anything can be expanded upon. Although, if that's helpful or not is up for question.

This story was deliberately set in a 'small' universe: the entire universe consists of what the ice-cream cone knows. If the universe was expanded, in this case, I feel like much of the magic would be lost. I am never going to make a sequel for this thing, even on the off-chance that it does go viral. It simply would not work for this type of film, in my opinion.

Those are a lot of comments for just 136 views.

Yep, I have subscribers on YouTube who are really not used to stuff like this, and wasted no time in telling me how very odd it was. I'm actually quite shocked that none of them 'Disliked' the video, yet.

Oh yay, a proper animation. I very much reminds me of salad fingers and I do not think that is a bad thing.

I can see where you drew that connection! Actually, I haven't watched Salad Fingers in years, and (this is actually pretty scary) everything in this little film came out of my own head, I think. I'm not sure where else any of this stuff could have come from.

-Upsilon