Earth Savers (airing in Sweden, Finland and Norway)

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ponysmasher
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Earth Savers (airing in Sweden, Finland and Norway)

Post by ponysmasher »

I recently finished this:
Image
It's a six part fully animated documentary series for TV about people who do good things for our environment.

I animated it all by myself on an insane schedule. I had about a month for each 14 minute episode and in that month I had to:
  • -Collaborate on the script
    -Edit the interviews
    -Make an animatic
    -Animate the whole thing
    -Make music
    -Record sounds
    -Edit the episode
    -Mix the sound
I wouldn't recommend working this way if you value such things as "sleep" and "life"....

We were two people working on it, my partner traveled around the world recording interviews while I stayed at home animating. Fair division of labor right? :)
Actually, I tagged along to Stockholm and London but he went to Congo, Chile, India and Trinidad.

It may not be the best looking animation ever but given the constraints I feel pretty proud of it. It's by far the biggest project I've undertaken yet.
I tried a lot of different ways of working in order to be as efficient as possible.
In this shot there wasn't a lot of movement needed so I drew the tiger in Illustrator and Imported it into AS:
Image
This workflow was quite a hassle so I only used it on this shot.

Whenever else there was limited motion needed I drew pieces in Paint tool SAI instead:
Image
That background is a bitmap as well, but most of the time I made the backgrounds in AS. I made an .anme file with trees, bushes, grass, skies etc and then imported and rearranged pieces to get suitable backgrounds.

I also experimented a little bit with shooting silhouettes on video and mixing with the animation. In this shot I filmed my backlit hand and composited in:
Image

Here's a still of a shot where I used the silhouette of my head:
Image

In Sweden it will air on SVT2 at 14:30 on these dates:
  • January 26
    February 2
    February 9
    February 16
    February 23
    March 1
It's not exactly prime time but it will be up on SVT Play as well.
It will air in Finland and Norway as well but I don't have those dates or times yet.
A recut version of the India episode will be screened at the Gothenburg Film Festival at the end of the month.

There's a website for the series (with some short clips) here: http://earthsaversfilms.com/
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Víctor Paredes
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Post by Víctor Paredes »

Wow!
That's a LOT of work and a beautiful project! I just checked the trailer and looks great, congratulations!
You should have told your friend to contact me in Chile! I would have been happy to give him a ride for my country and give him some advices and contacts.
And, of course, in my little apartment there is a couch for anyone who needs to sleep :)

Anyway, fantastic beautiful work, huge congratulations.
Image Image Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

Rigged animation supervisor: My father's dragon, Wolfwalkers & Star Wars Visions "Screecher's Reach"
My personal Youtube Channel
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skitoba
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Post by skitoba »

This is insane! 14 Minutes in one month? How did you survive this?

Appart from this, I think it could be a really good experience working on nearly all the parts of a production.

Very well done.

all the best from Tobias
ponysmasher
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Post by ponysmasher »

skitoba wrote:This is insane! 14 Minutes in one month? How did you survive this?
With a lot of re-using of assets and little sleep... :)

By the way, I checked out your portfolio in your signature. Fantastic stuff! Your 2D animation is prety much flawless and I love your maquettes.

Can't wait to see what more you can do with Anime Studio.
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ulrik
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Post by ulrik »

Congratulation to this great work!!
Well done!
Grattis
I will check it out when it's aired in Sweden.
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hothead
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Post by hothead »

Congratulation well done.
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Barry Baker
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Post by Barry Baker »

That's an amazing achievement. I had a look at the clips on your website, and it's very impressive, particularly in view of your schedule. It must have been a nightmare though!
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neon22
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Post by neon22 »

Hey Ponysmasher - great job. The stills look excellent and thanks for showing us some clips. If you need some extra graphics for one of the games - yell out. Happy to help.
Cheers...
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3deeguy
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Post by 3deeguy »

6 episodes (x) 14 minutes each = 84 minutes. Add the trailer... :shock: Add up all the conceptual work under the time constraints without coming up for air. You were one of the two caped characters in the trailer!!
Cheers, Larry
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funksmaname
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Post by funksmaname »

well done Ponysmasher - that's so awesome! I really like your character style, very recognisable.

Hope it's well received at the festival, I'm sure you'll get a lot of work on the back of this - just try and give yourself more breathing room next time (or at least become filthy rich in the process)

All the best!
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uddhava
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Post by uddhava »

Congratulations! Keep up the good work.
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AmigaMan
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Post by AmigaMan »

What an achievement! You are right to be proud as it looks excellent. Did you use HitFilm too?
Genete
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Post by Genete »

Excellent style, story, execution, and result!
And even a game in html5!
Epic!
-G
chucky
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Post by chucky »

Loved the clips PonySmasher, would really like to see the whole series too.
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capricorn33
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Post by capricorn33 »

Fantastic work, ponysmasher! The clips are looking great. Congrats to a job well done! :D I'll watch the whole series as it airs on SVT and/or YLE.
capricorn ( - just call me "cap")
children's tv pro, character animator
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