Animation - Showdown

Do not mess with strangers!

The music is very effective, as is the opening shadows & sky. The animation style is not entirely attractive, the lines are more of a scribble than clean & defined, which is not that visually appealing. However, your hero's face & hair do begin to gain some appeal. But the close-up where we see his lip quivering for so long is incongruous, as lip quivering is usually a sign of weakness or emotion, whereas this person has neither. I'd prefer that shot to be much shorter & instead of lip quivering, to have the face sink a little lower, as he does at the end in his lowered post-fight position, but as the face lowers slightly, the eyes & mouth narrow a bit, he's tightening his jaw about to pounce into action.

There is a odd continuity issue when we move to the other background. I like both backgrounds individually, but somehow juxtaposed there is a slight break, causing a disjointedness.

My biggest issue is the animation style on things like the sword overhead, the fight itself & the severed head. These are all appearing very weak, so the boldness of the action loses all its power.

Perhaps if your man is squiggly or scribbled style, but his blade is sharp style & white instead of black, we'd have the contrast that would work well with your black blood too.

You've probably seen it, but I'd highly recommend re-watching The Warrior's Way.

There are some sword scenes that are shot as silhouette & appear as very beautifully stylized animation. One in particular with cherry blossoms floating by. The mist-like blood effect they use is also very powerful.

Thanks for sharing.

Alright thank you for your comment! I always appreciate good criticism You as always have really good points! Thank you for taking the time to watch my movies!!! /Ogrindo

You've got a great attitude, Ogrindo. The positives in your piece far outweigh the negatives. Whenever there's an opportunity to watch one of those shows on master painters or artisans, I always tune in with great interest. You'll notice their process takes time. Yes filmmakers are often pressured to meet deadlines, but I'm aiming for an ideal here. These artists will work on something, pour their heart & soul into it along every step of the way. Even the preproduction phase is full of detail & passion. But just when they get to what we could think is the finished stage, they might take a break, leave it a while, come back in a few days, touch up some things, continue to develop the piece. Part of the art is knowing when it's finally done. Many regard Leonard Cohen's songs in high regard, I heard him say in an interview that while constructing them lyrically, often times he agonizes for two weeks over just one single word!

Enjoy the process.


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Speaking of the ongoing process... I've been thinking about your film... I'm still 100% on the idea of trying a sharply defined katana cut shaped white sword blade, but the transition between the two scenes is beginning to take shape. When we shift to the fight scene we're using an embedded texture with a reddish tint which is absent in the preceding. So the close-up shot on the hero, instead of the lip quiver, I like his face dropping lower a bit as we slightly zoom in on him. Emotionally, this zoom means we're moving into his world. As his eyes & mouth narrow a bit, his brow knits into a furrow of determination, as we hear him slowly exhale. As he does that, let's bring in the red tint & texture but only inside his face. This implies he's entering into his samurai warrior mode, & we have a slight contrast where red is usually the sign of anger, yet our swordsman is detached & dispassionate. Say, for instance the red tint is currently at 60% during the fight scene, as we move in on his face, it could keyframe up to about 35-40% within his face. Experiment to find what works best. It's not full red until it appears as it does in the background of the fight scene. He has tremendous power, but he doesn't waste it.

Then when we see the next scene of the entire frame with the reddish tint & texture, its as if he has externalized his inner power out into the surrounding situation, totally overcoming it.

That is a nice idea! Thank you!