Hey everyone, here is a 3D animation project I individually made for my first person shooter game called Extraction. Most of the environment and objects were modeled and everything was animated on Autodesk Maya. Once the frames were rendered as jpg images, they were imported as an image sequence on Adobe premeire.
World appreciate any feedbacks, cosntructive criticisms, opinions, tips, questions, queries anything in this thread or the Youtube link. I am always looking to improve myself and while I wait for my internship abroad I want to make new proejcts and develop my current skills and technical abilities.
Extraction Cut-Scene University Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRdNk8-ptc
For my final year Project in the University of Westminster based in central London, I created and embedded a first person cut-scene with a first person shooter game called Extraction made on Unity3D.
The environment and objects were modeled and animated using Autodesk Maya. Once the video consisting of over 5000 frames was batch rendered, it was imported into Adobe Premiere where editing (Post Production) took place. Adobe After Effects was also used for the special effects such as the explosions or the HUD scene near the end of the cut-scene clip.
Plot Summary: A US pilot and his team are instructed to recon an area but what they don't expect is a trap and ambush waiting for them. The pilot finds himself in a perilous situation and has to face an advanced aircraft from an unidentifiable nation. He has no choice but to eject and parachute on the outskirts of a city in the midst of an invasion. Now after being captured, he must find a way to escape either through shooting his way out or stealth, but soon after finds something that will change the course of human history.
Any comments, tips, queries and or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask me xd Hope you enjoy it.
Creative Destruction
Creative Destruction
Hey man, I just got into 3D Animation (About 5 Months ago) and I honestly can't give you much feedback on what to improve, but at 0:55 in the video, you can see a character rig in the reflection of the plane not being used. Hope this helped!
hahaa yes I noticed that as well, was hoping people wouldn't notice but thanks for outlining it. We all learn from our mistakes and next time I will be more careful, just had a short time limit with other projects as well as a thesis to back the project ): Thank you for your comment nonetheless!
Creative Destruction
Well, I took a look....
This is way, waaay, waaaaaaaaaaay too ambitious for your skill-level.
And it makes the mistake of plodding along. The first 2 minutes are a big waste of time. They don't do anything, it's not interesting......the animation and settings are pretty weak and bland.
Here's my advice:
Cut to the chase.
Start the stuff at the most interesting point.........that is, in the air!
All the other stuff before is pointless, wasteful exposition.
It's boring.
Unless you can enrich the boring stuff to make it lively--such as with better environments, or an interesting POV........then don't use it.
Look, this is supposed to be a hallmark of your skills, and your judgement abilities. If you bore your audience, then you've failed the objective.
You summary is waaaaaaaaaaay too much for something like this, and for the level of skill you show.
You'd be better off starting in flight......showing the shoot-down, the ejection, and the descent to the ground--ending when he lands. That's all you need. Cut out 2 minutes of this--make it no longer than 60 seconds. You don't need anymore to sell it.
All the backstory can be fitted in to the sequence I just described, and it'd be more dramatic in pacing and tone.
Remember, the audience you are eventually going to be working for doesn't have a great attention-span. You need to grab hold of them, make it worth their time, and then get them to playing.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Hey Ken
Honestly thanks for the creative criticism, really appreciate it. To be honest after I published the cut-scene with the game I noticed how long it was and wasn't happy with it for that reason, but by the time I realised it was too late for me to go back due to the limited time range. I tried to aim too high like you said and make an entire cut-scene like Battlefield3 by myself in a limited time of 4 months with other projects going along as well as a 20 thousand word thesis to support the project.
But as I previously said, we all learn from our mistakes and I have definitely learned from this experience. Next time I will keep it much shorter and will make more exciting scenes or add more interactivity like quick time events or more action.
Regarding the environment, I worked from home, modeled mostly everything and tried to render everything in the highest production quality as possible but I only had a limited time to render and sadly couldn't render in mental rays which would have made my work look better and stand out more... overall I had around 6-7 thousand frames and it took like 2 - 3 weeks to render everything excluding all the re renders I had to perform due to errors, etc so you can imagine. My project would have been better if it was a group project and not to forget the first person shooter game I had to work on using a new software Unity3D which i had to learn from scratch as well as a new programming language JavaScript. I was so ambitious I bought a new computer better than any computer at University to meet the project render requirements. I got a 1st for the project 70 on the dot, but for the same reason because I was too ambitious my teacher said and I did work hours and jad sleepless nights on it.
So you are right, I aimed too high for my level but on the other hand I learnt so many new techniques and solutions to problems and next time I will definitely make something better, nonetheless thanks again for your comment. I am already planning to make another animation project and will keep that below 1 minute and 30 seconds xd
Funny thing is I showed you one cutscene but there were 3 more, not as long, an extra 40 seconds overall lol so yep, definitely was tooo ambitious and tooo long ;)
I should have just showed you the trailer for my project, maybe this is better?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtgxifbpq0c
Regards
Creative Destruction
I'm seeing the same mistakes in your trailer as I am in the cut-scene. There's a lot of fat that could be cut from it to sell the idea better and clearer.
When I mentioned that this project was too ambitious and too much for you to handle......that comment really encompasses a lot of things. There's weaknesses in all aspects here......shot selection, rendering, models, pacing, animation. As a supposed showcase of your work, I cannot see how this is going to help you a whole lot.
Yes, I get that it's not a group project, and that you don't likely have a lot of oversight during the process.
Was there a storyboard for this? A "living reel" to cut the footage into and create the animatic? Were their designs done for the locales, the characters etc.??
See, all of the preliminary steps lead to problem-solving circumstances.
More pre-planning means the execution of the final product is that much more polished and professional looking.
You PRE-IMAGINE things before you get to doing the actual footage, so there is no fat, no wasted efforts.
You know exactly what your shots will be, and even can have it synched to music/dialogue before even your models are built.
Then you have something in front of you to critically evaluate and edit for best effect and impact..........BEFORE you commit to all this work.
Now, I have a critical voice here.......this SHOULD have been something addressed in class, by your instructor. This work........shouldn't....can't be a kind of "throw shit at the walls and see what sticks" kind of approach.
It doesn't work that way in the biz.
My responses and comments here might seem over-board, but I am trying to help/guide you... and anyone else reading this.
If the outcome you seek is to work in industry, then, in my professional opinion, you need to pare down things so as to devote more time to punch up the stuff that is going to serve you to meet your goal.
If you seek to be a director, then you need to show careful and calculated decision-making. You should understand economy--in terms of filmmaking--and how to do more with less. The more impact you can make with manageable shots and animation, the stronger it makes you look.
If you are seeking to be a modeller, or animator, focus on those things that showcase you can do that stuff effectively.
Not just moving things around per se, but plussing movements. Little bits of anticipation before a strong action, ancilliary movements on props ( like planes)--stuff like the flaps moving or nozzles tightening/expanding.
And don't forget, animating people is an entirely separate, demanding things in itself. The moment you show a person, in the flesh, in a scene....you are raising the expectations of your audience by tenfold. This is simply because we are so naturally attuned to human movements, that when we don't see it......it blows the sales job for CGI characters.
This isn't an indictment against you........I'm making observations based on your work, and pointing where the bar appears to be set in industry. You've done a lot of work already, but...........as gently as I can put it........there's still a LOT of work ahead for you.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)