I would rather have called this a movie review but I just feel that I'm not capable yet of doing so. So here's just my little reaction on Blender Foundation's third open movie, titled "Sintel".Technically, there were some issues I saw that needs more improvement (but with what the Durian team have gone through, I would not complain why). I noticed some hair particle errors, being that Sintel's hair is crossing through her coat's collar, but I believe that it's such a very cumbersome and extremely difficult task to get right, let alone the hair move in a realistic way (which has been very convincing throughout the movie). Another thing is some anti-aliasing issues which have caused some parts to flicker accidentally, this is evident in scenes like the tree, cave, and town scape. But then again, from my own standpoint, this has been very difficult to fix inside of Blender, and would've caused huge amounts of rendertime. And lastly (not to spoil too much already), some objects were crossing others, as seen on the baby dragon's wings intersecting with the roof with dripping blood, it would've been a little less obvious but since the wings diffuse color and that of the blood is contrasting a lot, it has been an obvious glitch.
However, with the technical downsides presented above, which really doesn't matter too much in my opinion, the huge weight of the short movie comes down to the awesome screenplay and presentation of the whole movie. The story and plot draws you so close that I kept having goosebumps every now and then and in the climax (I guess it was), it almost had me crying. It is so well presented and elaborately told. Not to mention the mind-boggling and emotionally driving foley and sound effects. Compositing and color grading was one of the most well-done aspects of the movie too, since it draws you even closer to feeling what the movie is all about and what the scenes are actually telling you.
To sum it up, here's a category score for the short movie Sintel:
GRAPHICS: 9/10
SOUND: 10/10
STORY/PLOT: 10/10
ANIMATION: 9/10
VISUAL EFFECTS: 9/10
VISUAL COMPOSITION: 9/10
Congratulations to the Durian Team for a job well done (or think of the best adjective you can think of)! This has indeed brought Blender to whole new heights again, and a big thanks to the support team, volunteers, and community for making all these possible. And last but not the least, to producer Ton for pushing the guys and making them do things they wouldn't have done. ;-)
And if you're still reading up to this point and haven't seen the movie yet, go ahead and be blown away yourself, check it here > http://www.sintel.org
3 comments:
i missed the technical parts you mentioned, but i agree that the movie - once again - is top-notch quality. i can hardly believe this was done in blender (but then my blendering sucks :P).
same as you, i was nearly in tears when Sintel realizes who the dragon is, more so when she looks at her reflection in its blood (need to get me a dragon-blood mirror sometime!). still, it ends on a hopeful note (kind of) so it's not too tragic an ending. great movie all round (maybe i'll have to sponsor a full-length blender movie in the future...now back to work to fulfil that dream)
Totally agree, although I didn't notice any technical issues, I was so absorbed by the story.
I'm still reeling from the end! O_O
Thanks for the critique, we will have to rewatch it and try to spot these. :)
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