TheDarkDemon

Hey guy's my name's Sonny Fernandez, I'm an indie filmmaker, have a production company called Down Twisted Studios. Anyway my new film is an animated flick called Lake Villa Vamps. I'm doing all the animation myself have voice actors from all over that email me their lines. I just released a trailer not too long ago and I'd love to know what you folks think. Any kind of advice or opinions will be welcome!

It's Great. But don't post here on Beginner Section.
Post it here viewforum.php?f=33.
Don't know what program did you use for your filming.

I actually used Anime Debut I want to say version but I might be mistaken with that. It's not all flash, I have some good old traditional frame by frame stuff in there as well-

haha thanks man. I'm not a TERRIBLE artist, certainly not the best, the problem is if I took the time to animate every scene to my 100% ability, I'd be working on this film for 10 years, so I had to kind of pick a more cartoony; kind of stylistic, simpler approach. There are some shots in the film that are better drawn, just for effect, but it's over a two and a half hour film! Here's kind of some more dynamic stuff- kind of shows the mixture of stuff in there- these are clips I just show to cast and crew btw :)

This picture is for the DVD


here's another clip!

I think you should improve before you start films man! I don't wanna be the party pooper, but your stuff isn't that awesome, they look very lazily done and no effort put into them! This is just my opinion though!

Believe it or not I make a living off my movies (My film the New Girls has sold over 100,000 copies :- P ) I was able to buy a house and I support my wife and 2 kids rather comfortably. Not everyone digs my stuff though man, I have a big fan base, but it's pretty niche, so don't sweat it.

Hmm well I'll be honest there's still a lot of room for improvement in the movement and art of these animations tbh I would like to give more insight to it and all but sadly I'm no flash animator.Still its pretty cool though I mean I'd prefer if it was some high quality stuff like Chris Oney or Ego Raptors shit but what ever floats your boat and brings dinner to the table. All Ik is that if you continue to improve the quality your fan base will probably expand and you might sell even more copies.

Hey thanks man, I appreciate the feedback. Just so you guys know this IS coming out on DVD and VOD next year. So any critic is supremely appreciated. I agree completely that there's room for improvement, this IS my first animated film so the audience is kind of coming on the journey with me. The animation when the movie starts and the animation where it is now is vastly different. I don't know if there's any horehounds here but here's a bit I'm pretty proud of-

That's actually quite awesome that you've been successful with this. Great to see such an abstract and interesting style making an impression on a wide audience.

The drawings (particularly the line quality) is messy, but the animation is actually quite good in certain areas. 1:16 - 1:23 had some nice animation in it. 1:31 where the head was ripped off was animated quite well. 1:41 - 1:46 also had some nice animation. What really amazed me was how even though they were still drawings, that you moved them in ways which actually made them look good. It still had a hastily drawn and "lazy" feel to it, but the animation shone through that if it makes sense?

That aside, I think it would be cool to see you improve your drawing and use of colour (in particular). I like that you're trying new things. Animation needs more rule-breaking these days, because all you see is the classical influence and that realistic is good (this dates back to the days of early Disney work, and is still prominent today). I'd like to see you experiment with this style, but take it further so that the colour theory works more, or so that the compositions of scenes are nicer or perhaps get a better understanding of the structure of the human body. Keep some rules to make things look good, but also discard certain things. Part of being an artist is breaking new ground, but also knowing how to make it work. I think you're getting there, but need to get past the lack of effort phase. Keep doing what makes you successful, but put in the extra effort in certain areas. I think you'll definitely see results. I hope this advice helps. :)

Thanks so much for the advice man. I actually agree with a lot of what you said. When I started this film I didn't really want to go with any established style of art. I have my own kind of unique way that I draw and I really wanted to retain that. I didn't want to go too realistic, because like I said before, I don't want to be working on this film for the next 8 years. It's been over a year already, I've got a bit more than 2 hours done (some of my films run a bit long in the tooth, fans know that sometimes my flicks run for almost three hours) but this is the first in a trilogy so I had to settle on a style that wasn't going to take too long to do.

The entire movie uses a lot of different animation styles though. There is a bit of flash in there I guess, but there's also a lot of traditional animation, particularly in the action scenes. Here's an example, I just did this today actually. The sounds a tad bit off, but here I tried to keep things kind of rubbery as opposed to the other fight scene above which is very tight and concise. There's more to this scene, it goes on for another 10-15 seconds.

Sonny wrote:Hey thanks man, I appreciate the feedback. Just so you guys know this IS coming out on DVD and VOD next year. So any critic is supremely appreciated. I agree completely that there's room for improvement, this IS my first animated film so the audience is kind of coming on the journey with me. The animation when the movie starts and the animation where it is now is vastly different. I don't know if there's any horehounds here but here's a bit I'm pretty proud of-

phpBB [video]

Nice rotoscope from Genocyber... Don't be proud from something you straight out stole.



However, I like your stuff. the "crappy" style of these fit the 70's odd horror flicks which I find really awesome and I'm sure was what you were aiming for, with the themes and gore'y ideas. I can't really tell on what to improve on, because I love it the way it is. Keep the DIY indie spirit up. I've always wanted to make my own feature length animated movie, but never figured out the story for it, how do you start with scripting and such?

Nice eye man, you're the first person to get that! I wish I did have the ability to rotoscope, it wold make things a lot easier, I did try to match it as much as possible though. I opened it up on one computer screen then opened it up on the other and kinda went frame by frame as much as possible. I've got a head explosion from Scanners in there as well, but nobody has spotted it yet!

I wish I did have the ability to rotoscope, it wold make things a lot easier, I did try to match it as much as possible though. I opened it up on one computer screen then opened it up on the other and kinda went frame by frame as much as possible.

He just said to not be proud of rotoscoping, this thing is like stealing others' work.

Little reference is always good, but I think showing creativity on the deaths is very important in these kind of films, can't let the best animated/creative death be from a reference. ;) Keep up the good work non the less.