Try and watch it in HD if you can, the particles are quite subtle :P
It's a little jerky at points so I've popped back and put some cross fades in to fix it and there are no sound effects as I was worried about having too much going on with the music and the voice over. Other than that I'm generally pretty happy with it :)
okay - lose the particles! I can see them now, and I think they seem decorative, as they don't move in connection with your action; they feel very much 'over-laid' - and also lend a 'this is magic' riff, when, in truth, your animation plays things very straight - in a good way. I think the broad sweep of your art direction is sufficient, Molly,
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of cross-dissolves, as often they're use to fudge rather directionless editing; yes, it is a bit jerky in places, but that's because you're not listening to what the music is giving you in terms of 'switches' between scenes; for example
You cut from your establishing shot to the close-up just before the chord change in the music; listen again - you'll here an obvious 'emphasis' or beat when the chord comes in (it happens around 11 sec mark). If you were to absolutely synch up the hard edit between those first two shots so that the second shot begins on that chord change, I think you'll see that the transition is already much smoother. I would suggest that this level of frame-by-frame fine tuning would iron out the majority of those wrinkles; a good hard edit won't feel 'flicky' it will be invisible.
Something odd happens to the texture of the bacteria around 2.08 secs? It sort of switches off/on? Also - and I know you don't want to hear this because it means re-rendering etc, but what would really bring additional life to the bacterium is if it also rotated slowly as it moved; it does feel a little bit like a torpedo here... (admittedly rather a chic torpedo!).
Instead of fading to black, your world feels more as if your fades should be out into white? Try it - I may be wrong, but black seems out of place in your world somehow.
Also, don't forget your secondary sound effects - just nice, expressionistic sounds to really sell the various 'contacts' - it's hard to know exactly what these sounds should be (or where you may source them), but I suggest you get creative in Premiere, slowing down ordinary sound effects, or even chords, or fragments of your soundtrack, until you resolve an aural recipe that suits, but doesn't intrude; again - keep it soft and in keeping with the mood of your peice as whole.
That's all fine. I can re-render two of the scenes and hopefully that'll give it a little more life.
ReplyDeleteI'm on it!