A young boy, sad, lonely and in hospital after the death of his parents
is visited by a strange but benign magical creature. Quite simply a
lovely animation by Adan Garcia who worked on this for over a year - a
real labor of love. And it shows.
Link
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.
is visited by a strange but benign magical creature. Quite simply a
lovely animation by Adan Garcia who worked on this for over a year - a
real labor of love. And it shows.
This short animated film by Adan Garcia a graduate of The Art Institute of California - San Francisco, majoring in Media Arts and Animation. During his time there he gained extensive knowledge of art and the industry. This really shows in Milo's Journey - it is a really special film which is all the more wonderful because of its simplicity. Not a word is spoken throughout the film but it speaks volumes. Pythagoras said Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few. Or none as the case is here.
Link
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.
Why circle the earth, and blast off.... if you're going back to earth.
I would have made the ending a bit different but maybe thats just me.
Blast off Mr.Cowsquirrel, we're blowin' this popstand and not lookin' back!
Note to Snarlz: Please bless this site with a link to the animated movie that you made almost completely on your own, fresh out of school. Flip books don't count.
Just because the artist posted, doesn't mean you have to wet yourself with adoration.
Constructive criticism is what it is, and does not require I make my own movie from scratch before evaluating another. lalla6, lets see YOUR work since you praise this so heavily.
WONDERFUL music. A real home-run there. Kudos to Nicky Bendix for the score. It's tremendous.
Christian allegeory did pop in to my mind with the halo effect as Milo was passing back through the door but I suspect it was a visual metaphor instead of a sales pitch! (my reading).
@ some of you re the length. One of the (many) things I liked about this was exactly that - the length of time we are given to learn about Milo and get to know him, his backstory and so on. I liked the fact that this animation did not use (and abuse)cultural media (and expedient) signposts for the sake of brevity.
Am with snarlz with the blast off... I was expecting a journey elsewhere at that point, not a short cut back to the door. But v cool animation that once done just *had* to be left in... :-)
I am glad that Aden is in on this discussion here - I posted the link without him knowing (sorry, but didn't know whether it would hit the front page!) but I was entranced by Milo's Journey the moment I saw it because it hit a nerve for me - and no, I didn't lose my parents in a fire before you ask!
It was enriched uranium what did them in..
(but that's between you and me and I am sure the British police are not reading th... erk..).
Anyway, what struck me was the sense of storytelling, the great care and love that had gone in to its creation and the whole karma of the piece.
With karma in mind, everyone has a right to criticise. Let's be constructive.
But it's still a great film!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Milos-Journey/162980007894
Screenplaywriting and directing are 2 totally different professions from animation-technician. As far as I'm concerned you scored 2 out of 3 - the pictorial part looks the part, the movements look good and there is direction in a clear story.
Now also learn about time, timing, and timekeeping and you can earn your keep with this.
I heared several people say that good writing in plays, music and books is all about daring to delete as much or even more than you dare to keep the essentials in place and clear of clutter. If it is too long, people get bored. If it is too short, people get annoyed. But bear in mind that modern attention span for vids and attractions like museums is about 2 minutes.
... Perhaps you should try a short version of this same animation- say try to make a version that is only 4 minutes at max instead of the roughly 12 it took now. And then see how folks will react on it?
Yay thank you for your review. I agree that it could be a little shorter. I will play around with it and see what happens. From the beginning i knew it was going to be more than 10min. Its going to be hard cutting out stuff because i love everything so much. Thanks again for taking the time to write a comment :D
Adan
I dont really understand what you mean by "creepy christian allegory" I made this movie and yes i did add in some religious elements but only because i love that stuff. Have you ever seen the anime "neon genesis evangelion"??? its full of religious themes. Im just doing the same here. The story is Milo is in recovery but is still dying of a broken heart. he goes on his final journey to heaven to reunite with his paretns. the way you put it "The only way to be happy after personal loss is to die and be with the ones you love? Whoa!" now thats creepy hahaha im in no way attacking you or anything its just funny how people dont "get" what im trying to show :(
Even the squirrel-cow, which looked like something from a child's imagination, conveyed the feeling of presence, as if there were a deeper mind behind the toy face.
But as far as the pacing and logical flow of the story, well yes, it could have been better. It was a strong and emotional message, but the delivery could have been tighter.
Looking forward to seeing your next piece.
Ok my 2 centz worth.
-well done on the tech skillz. How did you do this for someone who wants to follow you?
-some parts dragged eg the eye blinkz, the general 'slowness of the movements' etc but you are the artist
-I agree with the 'white light' aspect being overtly religous and thus upsets us non-believers of the invisible friend clans.
-I loovvveeee NGE but they handle religion as 'alien presence fact' and 'super mind', the relationship to atcual religion is in passing. I much prefer how 'things' are handled in 'My Neighbor Totoro'.
-have you seen this http://www.empsfm.org/programs/index.asp?categoryID=216
-you say a 'year'. How many 'person hours'?
Last but not least, keep it up. Wish I could do it.
Thanks for your 2 cents hahaha. The only reason why some of the scenes seem really slow is because i didn slow them down but only because i wanted the scenes to fit the music. Now that Nicky Bendix is composing an original score i can go back and make those scenes faster. Oh and i am in no way trying to be religious, i do believe in God but i am not trying to throw it in peoples faces. I just wanted to tell a story about a little kid to lost his parents and then reunites with them in heaven. I pretty much HAD to use the white light and the angel(the little creature) to guide him. I fucking love Evangelion. I just watched Eva 2.22. Great stuff.
Yeah i started this project in august of 2009. It didnt take very long to model everything. the thing that took months was rigging the characters. Everyone i hired sucked really bad and produced a horrible rig for the 2 characters. I got lucky and found a great person so animation actually started in December and ended in April. I edited and added music as i finished scenes. Rendering the scenes also took forever. It took 15 hours to render a scene that was 15sec's long. I could only render one scene every day and a half. So yeah this project is very dear to me and im so happy it turned out the way it did, considering its my first ever animation :D
adan
Here are my comments, purely from a layperson's perspective:
1. Seriously, why IS that creature dressed like Mario? I found it distracting and, Mario or not, the clothing didn't seem to fit the plot or actions of the character. Why does a flying space squirrel/spirit guide wear overalls and puffy gloves?
2. While I loved the space scenery, I also thought it seemed to clash with the storyline. I would expect the dream of a little boy to be less scientific and more fanciful, with crazy planets and like, space whales or something. Moreover, Milo's helmet was a cute touch (ha ha, upside down wire hanger), but I immediately thought: why does a kid recovering from burns and psychological trauma, in a hospital, have a cardboard space helmet? It didn't seem authentic.
To me, this animation seems to have melded two different stories/moods that are not fully compatible: A. grieving boy goes on a melancholy, magical journey and B. awesome, inspiring, and realistic tour of our galaxy. Both ideas are cool, but it was hard for me to accept that they could both work together.
I hope that you continue making new animations and posting them. I enjoyed watching!