finished work: The Animator's Way of Surviving the Crisis

[Paul Fierlinger]

Markus, I thought you wouldn't see me as being too harsh because, after all, you are a teacher and have to know somethings about critiques. About this;

The humor I found sophomoric in a 1950's way
Ahrg, yes, that's a little bit hard, because I don't like the 50ies (I've never been there). I will think about that point.

At first I had written just sophomoric, because that's what I thought about many of the jokes -- something high school kids might come up with. But having done some teaching myself, I thought I should explain better because today's high schoolers would call this type of humor "too old" like something they would expect from my generation. So I though of dating it -- perhaps the sixties. But I lived in the sixties in Germany and that didn't seem to fit either so I threw in the fifties -- a bit careless thinking and wording on my part.

What I really wanted to say was that I would have preferred more sophisticated jokes and I know how hard those are to write; I wouldn't even dare to attempt it myself -- therefore I suggested a clever script in the future. My style is to pick up on works of writers I like. I happen to know that writers of short stories will often give animators permission to put their stories into animation without charging anything for it, unless the animator would make a lot of money with it. After all, it works as free advertising for the writers and it must be fun for them to see what an animator could do with their material.

Thanks for your tollerance and understanding of my positions.

[Sierra Rose]

I thought the idea was charming that people who are dreamers often live in imagination and do not always deal effectively with reality. I found myself having a deep chuckle at myself the whole time watching this little film. But if we didn't live sometimes in imagination, we wouldn't make art at all.

And I liked the survival ideas he kept inventing being shown not to be very good at all really, the contrast of that.....maybe you have a big enough audience of people like me who don't always love sophistication.

[Julian wigley]

Markus,
Your script held me, once past the opening credits, and that’s pretty good for this old fart to hang in there until the rolling end credits. I found some “personality” in the story and had a chuckle. I agree with Klaus about the POV- it is very linear. There were glimpses of a strong graphic style lurking within the film e.g. the bear in the tent and the air balloon rising.

Your basic premise is very now! Each morning my team sings…. “in every disaster there is an opportunity” and we all still enjoy the occasional Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote joke.

From a Smiley Smurf

PS. I still have reams of animation paper hoarded over the years, gathered for the lean times or for future use when the end is nigh..(Hoarded pencil stubs as well).

[slowtiger]

I still have reams of animation paper hoarded over the years, gathered for the lean times or for future use when the end is nigh..(Hoarded pencil stubs as well).

You too??

That's why I kept my girlfriend from seeing this film so far. She would endlessly heckle me about that.

[Animark]

Thanks all of you again for your feedback! It is the most helpful critic I got for this film till now - except those good dicussions I've had with my team and my friends during production.

All neat but I was missing personality.

I don't like to spend too much time with one project so I decided for the future

ouch.Can't agree, I am an alien from the other planet.

One time I worked on an own filmproject about 3 years. During that period I lost my inspiration and power for that film and never finished it. (That's my stack of paper I keep under my desk - to finish it sometime, or even as a memorial for an unfinished piece of work ) Today I know that it is one of my strongest skills, to get an idea and get the power very spontaneously to realise it in a short and direct way. I agree with the critic on the story and the film/picture language. Yes, it's often conventionally and not very surprising, but after all I am very happy with the results and I am working on possibilities to make the next project(s) stronger in that way. Sadly, I've lost some of my personal filmstyle during the last 10 years making little funny animations for internet advertising.

I wouldn't even dare to attempt it myself -- therefore I suggested a clever script in the future. My style is to pick up on works of writers I like. I happen to know that writers of short stories will often give animators permission to put their stories into animation without charging anything for it, unless the animator would make a lot of money with it. After all, it works as free advertising for the writers and it must be fun for them to see what an animator could do with their material.

Paul, thanks for that recommendation. I sometimes read short stories, my wife is writing (and publishing) short stories, but till now I've never been inspirated to make a film of one. Sometimes I've told my students that there are a lot of written stories in the world waiting to be animated, but it's not working for me (I also tell them that.). I am much more inspirated by feelings, events, situations of my own life, also that's the place where I find my power to animate it sometimes. Maybe, I just didn't found a good written story for me till now.

...maybe you have a big enough audience of people like me who don't always love sophistication.

Yesterday I've got the notification that the film is selected for the competition at the TINDIRINDIS Filmfestival in Lithuania. That makes me happy and, yes I also think that my film find it's audience. I've personally shown the film about three times to an audience of filmmakers and animators and they always laughed a lot and liked it.

While making this film I was not sure about my personal deeper message in it. I've shown my animatic to some friends and some thought, it is too depressive, because the animator is naive looser, not able to face reality. After that dicussion I decided to put the air ballon at the end. And that added a positive tendency I can give from my heart: Maybe artists/creatives are sometimes away from reality and lost in naive visons and ideas - but what would the world be without that.

[nomadin]

Hello everybody,

After the death of mirage and almost two years of failed attempt to get in here, unsucessful emails to Fabrice and who-else-is-in-charge i finally made it today and this is the first discussion i am reading in the forums.
Over the years I have matured in what i do and based on that I have a different perspective to the discussion concerning Paul's way of commenting (having known Paul's "character" from the mirage forums)

Let Paul be as harsh as he wants to be; the quality of a good creative person is to take critisisms.
Sure the voices were "lahm" and it could have needed more music and or sound effects.
However, it could never be compared with "Ring of Fire" because the latter had more action in it.

So in that regard, I am hoping Paul's "harsh" comments would be very useful to Markus.
Despite these, i was laughing a lot while watching especially in the VERY LAST end which actually is the climax (sure the credits covered the subtitles to these, so a non-german speaking person would not enjoy the end as much)

In 2006, I came across Mirage by chance and just like Markus, i made a 5 minutes film which i used to learn the software.
It was critisized a lot by many and showed only in 6 festivals in its life.
These critisisms helped me a lot..even got a free Mirage license as support from the bauhaus Team - though Fabrice and his team refused to give me an upgrade based on that...

Anyway, cutting it short; if I had thought the people who critisized me were harsh, i would not have improved at all.
I SURE still have a some steps to go maybe because i do not have enough people like Paul around me.
I have just one and being that i am married to him, i sometimes take it personal and get unnecessarily offended.
Just food for thought.

So;
@ Paul: I hope to have the honour someday of having you critisize my work in the HARSHEST way you could come up with.
..starting the storyboards for a music video and will keep you posted.

@ Markus: I am looking forward to your next work and would truly like to connect (as we live in the same city)

[Elodie]

In 2006,[...] even got a free Mirage license as support from the bauhaus Team - though Fabrice and his team refused to give me an upgrade based on that...

Maybe because Bauhaus wasn't authorized anymore to sell Mirage in 2006, so they didn't care about giving you freely our work
Nevertheless, don't hesitate to show your work here, we'll be glad to see it

Another thing : Markus' animation is now in the gallery

[Fabrice]

These critisisms helped me a lot..even got a free Mirage license as support from the bauhaus Team - though Fabrice and his team refused to give me an upgrade based on that...

Hi Nomadin and welcome,

Please can you tell me who you are in Private Message (PM) ? When did that happen exactly ?
I have checked in my email database but I didn't receive any email from the adress you have used to register in the TVP forum.

I admit we never gave any upgrade from Mirage to TVP for free, it's because 7 years of development are separating Mirage and TVP Animation 9.5.
But let's see in PM what happened exactly. I'm open to the discussion.

[nomadin]

Maybe because Bauhaus wasn't authorized anymore to sell Mirage in 2006, so they didn't care about giving you freely our work

..well there goes.. not bad at all. Smart bauhaus guys i would say.

[nomadin]

But let's see in PM what happened exactly. I'm open to the discussion.

I have sent you a PM
Thanks

[Elodie]

Smart bauhaus guys i would say.

Well, I would choose another epithet than "Smart" to talk about them...

[Animark]

Hi together,

@nomadin: Welcome here. It`s nearly a year ago I made this film and the more time went by the more I unterstood the critics at it. They were constructive and I keep them in my mind for future projects. So, we live in the same city and maybe we met before, because I am organising a meeting for animators since 10 years, called the "Tricktisch". Maybe you heard about or, maybe you've been there before. Feel free to contact me. I also would like to see your work, specially the mirage-film you made. Do you have a website or something online?

@Elodie and TVPaint-team: Thank you for presenting my film in your gallery. I like the compression-quality and hope, someone will be inspired to use TVPaint for own projects. I am teaching your software since a year and some of the student projects are finished. Unfortenately it's difficult to show them, because the students are not allowed to publish their films online. Maybe I can show you some this year in Annecy.

Edit: I've found one from Mauela Buske. She did it in 3 months with TVPaint.
http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/mediathek. ... &mode=play

[Fabrice]

But let's see in PM what happened exactly. I'm open to the discussion.

I have sent you a PM
Thanks

And I answered

[Paul Fierlinger]

Hey, nomadin, thanks for your thoughts about my contributions. I must say that I have curbed writing those lately, not so much because of some of the attacks I was getting but because they weren't doing what they used to do on the Bauhaus forums, which is to inspire others to join in with their own constructive thoughts -- it takes a village, not just the village fool to create a fellowship of supporting artists. I got very discouraged by the stream of comforting, empty platitudes that followed any of my critiques, as if we were all fragile kindergärtners.

I have been responding to some of the animators over PM and a few of us fell into the habit of mutually exchanging our WIP and critiques of our works in progress. I must say I have received a lot of helpful suggestions over these private conversations which I have used to improve my films. I'm not exactly happy that we cannot practice this exchange of ideas over the public TVP forums because there would be more voices which would bring more liveliness into our solitaire occupations.

I believe that much of the problem stems from the overly protective attitudes of some of the members here who fear that these critiques are dangerous because they might discourage new artists from joining the forums or even from buying the software. Personally I am convinced that the opposite is the case and that the lively posts on the old Bauhaus forums were the main reason why that website never lost its attraction even when there hadn't been anything new happening with Mirage for months upon months (except for a constant stream of false promises of the wondrous things to emerge in the near future). Because I had been so visible on those pages, I had been abused by Ford who used me as the voice of these false promises and I very naively trusted him and passed the information on.

Here we have a real product in constant development but as the development process goes with any software in continuous growth, there are often periods of lengthy lulls before a new major update is released and during those times it would be just fun to show each other what we are up to and offer each other constructive critiques or just to show how we are using some of the recent new features. Believe me, this is still going on, but behind the scenes, over private e-mails. It's a pity.

Just a final note to the lulls: I, as many others here, am very appreciative of the development team for showing some transparency by periodically informing us what they are working on to assure this community that there is real development going on in Metz.

[Klaus Hoefs]

I remember that B. had a rating system for recent finished drawings, clips and films. It helped to get the users more involved in critics.