JH: What do you think you learned most about yourself as an animator making this and the continued animated film?
MM: Learning how much I underestimate on how much time is required to complete a work is certainly one lesson that I will have improve on. Also being ruthless in omitting scenes that you may have laboured over for days seems to be another costly lesson. An example of this is from the opening scene where the camera view drops from the stratosphere above Japan, through the landscape and right down to the bursting egg.
This establishing shot has had several previous incarnations that were dumped as it just not working for the scene. Being precious about them does not help your final product.
I think the most important lesson I have to stick with is when you have a good idea, finish it.
It can be very easy to leave it on the shelf a third of the way through. You have got to go the entire distance that the project will take you.
JH: How long do you intend the final animated project to be? Will this be a full short, an episodic series, or a feature-length film?
MM: The final work should be 4 minutes long, the duration of the song. But as each verse takes an extensive amount to plan and animate, I believe that it will also be produced 'piece meal' in 30 second sections on line until the final scene is completed and all scenes are compiled in its entirety. I am looking forward to using this fantastic new tool kit and see how much further I will progress.
The big dream is that the final work is delivered to Tom Waits and Island Records to view and that E-Frontier add it in their software showcase gallery.
JH: Any new animated projects on the horizon? If so, tell us about them?
MM: Well there is one little pet project that keeps surfacing every now and again. 'Super beast' is based on the track title from Rob Zombies rock album Hillbilly Deluxe.
The idea is that it would be a 2D style animation, with strong black and bold primary colours to rhyme with his album art, our dreadlocked vocalist drives through a desolated futuristic urban landscape.His destination is a public battle arena where he fights, one to one, with the local goliath.
This piece was entirely created in Flash, but I felt the software had its limitation in relation to what I had planned. But this is exactly what E-Frontier's software is made for. I can hardly wait to get stuck in.
Now that I have my own company Helix ID, which specialises in graphic & web design, animation and DVD production, I can keep my skill set versatile with this cracking prize. Again, thanks to you and E-Frontier .
JH: Well, Martin, thanks so much for being with us and congratulations on your win.
Readers who would like to see this animated short and more of Martin's work can go to his website at: http://www.helixid.com.
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The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted. |
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