I scored my short film with GPO... check it out!

[Sepretod]

Over the last few days I created a computer-animated short film with 3DS Max. Naturally I turned to the wonderful GPO when preparing to do my score -- this was, after all, the main purpose for which I bought GPO in the first place.

I\'m very happy with how it worked out. The only limitation, of course, was my own musical skill (or the lack of it).

Check it out, and tell me what you think! You may have to save the movie by copying & pasting the URL since it\'s not my bandwidth -- I\'m borrowing from a gracious friend.

http://www.cramato.com/schmuckfeatures/mothertrucker1.avi (\"http://www.cramato.com/schmuckfeatures/mothertrucker1.avi\")
Mirror: http://www.everpresent.org/SA/mothertrucker1.avi (\"http://www.everpresent.org/SA/mothertrucker1.avi\")

Unfortunately the AVI audio is only 22khz mono, but higher-quality MP3s of the music are available at Soundclick, and here\'s the URL:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/idiotsymphonyorchestramusic.htm (\"http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/idiotsymphonyorchestramusic.htm\")

(Note -- I call my one-man band \"Idiot Symphony Orchestra\" as a self-deprecating reference to the quality of my composing skill, not as a critique of GPO. I love GPO, it\'s great. images/icons/smile.gif )

Enjoy!

[Karl Garrett]

Just getting the day started: wasn’t looking forward to it: watched your film: laughed: showed my wife: laughed louder: showed my son: even more laughs. My day now will be much brighter. Thanks for posting.

Oh yeah, the music compliments the film perfectly. Super work.

[guybrush threepwood]

rofl

the last sequence is great images/icons/grin.gif
The music fits ok, when it first appear in the orange car shot makes you think it\'s going to be a dramatic movie, which makes even more funny the end!

[Houston Haynes]

I could see the opening credits and can hear what seems to be all of the audio, but none of the picture shows up - second card fades to black and never fades up with the show. images/icons/confused.gif I\'m using Windows Media Player 9 on a PC, and haven\'t gotten any codec errors or anything.

The opening sounds nice!

[13]

seriously one of the most amazing things i\'ve ever seen!
i can\'t stop re-watching it, it\'s that good.

the score really fits in that tongue in cheek kinda way, which i\'m a big fan of. it works well with the sound design too.

don\'t be concerned with any musical limitation in terms of technical ability. you seem to have great musical sensibility which is often more important when scoring to visual.

great job. this is my type of comedy. i want to see/hear more.

[robgb]

Wow. Funny movie. The score sounds GREAT. Another good example that GPO can definitely do \"Hollywood\" scores.

[mschiff]

I downloaded it earlier today, but just got sound. Then when I just tried again, I get bad links on both sites.

-- Martin

[crr]

Very nice! Good work!
bye
Michael

[Sepretod]

Glad you guys liked it images/icons/smile.gif

Not sure why it might not be working for some of you. It uses the DivX codec, you might want to try downloading that.

Thanks again guys! I\'ll let you know when I complete my next one.

[Garritan]

Bill,

Absolutely incredible! This must have taken forever to do. Excellent use of 3DS Max and skillfull creative use of GPO. The music works exceptionally well with the film. Thanks for the credit.

I would recommend everyone to see this. It uses the DivX Codec which is available at http://www.divx.com/divx/ (\"http://www.divx.com/divx/\") This will allow Window Media Player to play the film.

After a hectic day, this was very enjoyable to watch. Excuse me, but I\'m going to watch again. images/icons/smile.gif

Thanks for sharing this! I hope you win an award with this short film.

Gary Garritan

[Houston Haynes]

I have the 5.0.2 version of the DivX codec, but after installing 5.11 I could see it without problem.

You should change the credit to \"performed by Garritan Personal Orchestra\". That should throw off all of the film festival buzz mongers... images/icons/grin.gif

[Jonny Lost]

Absolutely Fantastic. The music has a very Bernard Herrmann feel to it. (I think!)

Anyway, when the semi flipped over on its side, I was waiting to see the Terminator and here the Da-dum, dum-da-dum motif.

I do have to say that the unicycle was the clincher for me! :-) I can\'t wait to show this to my wife. Keep up the awesome work. Definately let us know when you get more done.

On a side note, the idea to put in the credits \"performed by the Garritan Personal Orchestra\" is great and I had already planned to use that later on. When I did my senior composition recital at Ohio Northern University, I made some mock-ups of orchestral pieces using a Kurzweil 2000. In my program notes I thanked the \"Kurzweil Symphony Orchestra for its dedication and hard work.\" Throughout the performance, my wife informed me that she heard several discussion about how great the Kurzweil Orchestra was and wondered how I got them to perform my composition. I let it stand as is. I never let them know that it was a synthesizer.

Just a little anecdote. images/icons/grin.gif

Later,
Jonny
www.jonnylostinc.com (\"http://www.jonnylostinc.com\")

[Ned Bouhalassa]

I beg you to pardon my honesty, but I find this short to be at the level of a 5-year old. And I\'m not talking about the quality of the animation, but rather about the content. Blowing up cars is great? Is that a woman too busy combing her hair to notice the accident? Please.... images/icons/rolleyes.gif Don\'t get me wrong, I love comedy, but this is too childish.

The music is good, congratulations, but it is hard to really appreciate it at that resolution. I tried the SoundClick link but couldn\'t connect.

[Sepretod]

Originally posted by Ned Bouhalassa:
I beg you to pardon my honesty, but I find this short to be at the level of a 5-year old. And I\'m not talking about the quality of the animation, but rather about the content. Blowing up cars is great? Is that a woman too busy combing her hair to notice the accident? Please.... images/icons/rolleyes.gif Don\'t get me wrong, I love comedy, but this is too childish.

The music is good, congratulations, but it is hard to really appreciate it at that resolution. I tried the SoundClick link but couldn\'t connect. <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Well I appreciate your honesty. images/icons/smile.gif It wasn\'t supposed to be Citizen Kane, of course -- usually I try and work in more satire and social commentary in my movies, or at the very least surrealism. In this case I had to make a very short film centering around a car-and-truck pileup because I\'m applying for a job recreating car accidents in 3D for the six o\'clock news.

Additionally, pretty much the entire film story was scripted by somebody else -- a friend at the Something Awful forums named \"Whiteycar\" -- although I do have to take credit for the woman with the hairbrush, that was pretty much all my idea.

People just have different tastes in comedy, I suppose, and I\'ll gladly admit this film was pretty much destined for the \"so stupid it\'s funny\" category. I\'m guessing you\'re not a fan of \"The Blues Brothers\", for example? images/icons/wink.gif

In any case, glad you liked the music. Not sure why Soundclick didn\'t work -- if I had my own hosting I\'d post the audio on my own site, of course.

Edit: Thanks, Gary, for the kudos. images/icons/smile.gif I won\'t be entering this one in any competitions but my future projects will be of a professional standard and will continue to use the Garritan Personal Orchestra.

Indeed, I will change the credits in future to say \"Music performed by the Garritan Personal Orchestra\", and will look at doing this in the opening credits -- I really have to hand it to you for making such a brilliant musical package, and am doing my best to spread the word. images/icons/smile.gif

[Houston Haynes]

To be a poster at NS and miss the presentation of a farse (unicycle in a pile-up, anyone?) is humorous in and of itself...

I love the Kurzweil anecdote, and is \"buzz-actly\" what I\'m talking about. Cheers!

[mschiff]

The DivX codec was the answer. Once I installed that, it played fine. Great work! How long did it take to do the animation?

The music is also very good, but I would like to hear it (with the video) in higher resolution.

-- Martin

[Sepretod]

Originally posted by mschiff:
The DivX codec was the answer. Once I installed that, it played fine. Great work! How long did it take to do the animation?

The music is also very good, but I would like to hear it (with the video) in higher resolution.

-- Martin <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">It took about 3 days to do the actual animation, but that was using 3D models and textures which I had created previously. All up, from scratch, it probably would have taken two weeks of solid work.

Sadly I don\'t have the hosting to upload a higher-res version. I did send one to a friend and it should be on his website, but I\'m waiting for his permission before I distribute the URL -- he has to pay for the bandwidth, and it\'s a 17-meg file.

Soon though, I\'ll be setting up my own website with all my animations on it. If all goes well it will be at http://www.unitedidiotpictures.com/. (\"http://www.unitedidiotpictures.com/.\") Check in a month or so, you should be able to find a high-res version of \"Mother Trucker\" there. images/icons/smile.gif

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Originally posted by Sepretod:
People just have different tastes in comedy, I suppose, and I\'ll gladly admit this film was pretty much destined for the \"so stupid it\'s funny\" category. I\'m guessing you\'re not a fan of \"The Blues Brothers\", for example? images/icons/wink.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Not really, if you mean like National Lampoon movies, and Beavis and Butthead, etc. In the so-stupid-it\'s-funny, I do really like Monthy Python, South Park, The Simpsons. Oh and every 3rd or 4th SNL sketch cracks me up as well.

[Hardy Heern]

That was amazing Sceptrepod. All of a sudden tweaking up some orchestral masterpiece seems inconsequential in comparison to the amount of work you must have put into this.

Even at my 59yrs I can\'t see that it\'s childish....I thought it was a great little film....I\'m just stunned by the amount of work you put into it and I\'m amazed at the professional results achievable with Three Dee Studio these days.

I was so engrossed in marvelling at the animation, and the music was so well matched, that it nearly passed me by. That shows that the music supports the film perfectly......(I know what I mean)

Fantastic effort! images/icons/smile.gif

Frank

PS Gary, thanks for the tip off about the DivX codec. I was stumped until you mentioned the need for that!

[Garritan]

bump images/icons/smile.gif

[kstevege]

How did you do that animation? How long did it take? Some of it looked very professional. Nice orchestration too. It worked well. The unicycle was the best part.

[Jeff Hurchalla]

This was great! The mayhem, the humanity.. the woman with the brush managing to create a smash-up unawares images/icons/smile.gif it all made me laugh

[EmmSee]

Very funny... the music does its job. Nice 3D work too, haha. You really know how to crash the cars well!

[Joe Allen]

Very cool! Besides the music - which was great - I absolutely love the \"camera\" work.

A lot of animators use fairly boring static camera composition and yours had a very nice cinematic feel to it. I love the handheld, sloppy zoom feel on the second shot of the jackknife.

The only flaw I noticed was that you had the driver on the wrong side of the car....
and everybody but the taxi was driving in the wrong lane!

Joe
(ducking and running)

[mathis]

I had a good laugh, thanks for that film! great sounds and music!