• Location: Earth Prime
  • Joined: December 28, 2008

Topic: BIONICLE Nuva: Astray in the Drifts

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Would it be foolish of me to ask why all Ko-Matoran are so...cold?

Created in association with Custom BIONICLE, this is the third in a series of Bohrok Kal-era BIONICLE animations, just in time for the new wave of sets in 2015! You can see the other episodes, and more BIONICLE animations, in The Untold Chapters.

Episode 4 could be a while away. I'm just about to move into my university accomodation, and I'm not 100% sure whether I'll have the space (or the time, between my Film Production lectures and stuff) to do many animations, so it could be a while before I make more of anything, but I don't plan on giving up. I've got so many ideas, and 2014 has probably been my most productive year YouTube-wise, so I'm keen to repeat the success.

The sound's a bit dodgy, but I wanted to make sure I got this out before I leave for uni.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ZoefDeHaas/stuff/sig1.png
"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

jampot's Website

  • Location: United States
  • Joined: June 21, 2011

Re: BIONICLE Nuva: Astray in the Drifts

Ok, so I'm going to be honest.
-First, very few can read the Bionicle lettering. I suggest showing that, then fading into an English translation of the title.

-Second, there was a TON of names, of both people and locations, that totally lost me. And no doubt will lose most people. Having inside-jokes is fine, but see if you can make things more easily understood for outsiders.

-Third, the animation was jumpy, jerky, and didn't ease in/out much, which is understandable, but distracting. It could be a lot worse, and I know how hard it is to do things well. But if this level of complexity is possible, you may be able to get yours a bit better.

-Fourth, there was no scenery or set at all. Having just white gets boring after a bit, and even a bit of snow on the ground for texture would have helped.

I love that you're breaking the norm by using Bionicle characters, that's great. Also, with so few doing it, you don't have many ways you can improve other than practice. So keep practicing, and keep releasing them. You keep that up, and you'll do nothing but improve.

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Pritchard Studios's Website

  • Location: Earth Prime
  • Joined: December 28, 2008

Re: BIONICLE Nuva: Astray in the Drifts

Good points, though please bear in mind that this was created for the Bionicle community, who would get the names and references (posting any of these to BiM was honestly an afterthought). It's done fine on BZPower, where people regularly commend me for my level of detail. If you'd like to read up on any of these characters, there's a really detailed BIONICLE wiki. The BIONICLE lettering is just the title of the video, so I don't really think it's a problem - Vrahno (who's vastly more popular and more skilled than I) gets away with it regularly.

The set is a fair point, and I wish I had at least printed off a MNOG background as I did with the last two episodes. It also made the snow effect hard to get right (most shots are barely passable in terms of the snow, but I was working to a bit of an unofficial deadline with this one, trying to get it off before I go to uni) and is pretty boring.

Any BIONICLE from before 2004 has very little poseability (except perhaps the Rahkshi, and some of the larger 'titan' sets), but I actually think I've done pretty well considering how few points of articulating the Toa Nuva have. I actually altered their necks so that I can move them at all - in the actual sets, the necks don't move mini/sad

LittleBrotherhood is hugely intimidating, and for the amount of time I had available to work on these animations, I'm not even going to entertain the thought of competing. I've got a lot of room to improve, but I'm in no hurry to be that good, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for your input!

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/ZoefDeHaas/stuff/sig1.png
"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

jampot's Website