[Original Art Music Video] Shades of Red - Prelude

[ScriptKitty]

Well, it's about time I show you guys where I was for a few months... I had to take a great deal of time off to work on a video project for a film festival. The guy running it is a good friend of mine and he was concerned there wouldn't be many entries, so I promised him I'd enter something. Those who want to hear the long drawn out horror story may read the spoiler, those who don't may skip ahead...

Spoiler

In short, it was hell. H. E. L. L. I later came to find out that not only was I the only person doing a 100% hand-drawn animated film, but I was also the only 1-person project... Every other entry was live-action, and had a cast and crew. Every drawing, I drew. Every character, I CG'd. Every second, I animated and timed. I went from knowing nothing about After Effects at the start, to being pretty darn good at it by the end.

When I woke up in the morning, meandered the house for about half an hour, then sat down at the computer and I worked on my video. I usually tried to remember to eat one meal durring the day. I worked on the video all day, until it was time to go to bed, then I slept in my office. The next day, I repeated. Picture that for two, maybe close to three weeks straight. This film project was my life. Let that sink in for a moment.

It came back to bite me however when... Well, my dog bit me. By accident, entirely. She jumped to get a milkbone I was holding up, clamped down on my fingers by accident, and cut a finger open with her teeth when she landed. So I jumped up out of my chair, and ran to the bathroom to get a bandaid... felt a little lightheaded... grabbed the sink...

...when I woke up I was laying on the floor. My arm hurt. My shoulder hurt. My head hurt. My butt hurt. Mom was in the doorway looking terrified and dad was kneeling beside me saying "She just passed out!". Turns out my lack of eating reasonable meals, and the fact I hadn't stood up in a few hours, lead to me fainting and being unconcious for at least a minute.

Well, I can now say this is the only artistic project I've ever walked away from, with deep bruises to show for it.

...But I did win Best Dramatic Presentation.:D

After returning from the convention, I immediately got "con plague" and was sick as hell for three weeks. As soon as I recovered, I had to get to work on an entry for an AMV contest coming up this weekend! So I was soooooo bogged down that I just had no time for RMXP.

The video is based on my webcomic, soon to be webnovel, Shades of Red.

But either way, behold, the fruits of my labor:

Shades of Red - Prelude
(requires xvid codec)

 

[linkz0r]

...But I did win Best Dramatic Presentation.

LMAO ^_^

Mad dog... xD And only one person working in a relatively big project like this one could really tires you... I become tired from spriting after a few hours, so i have to leave my computer or script for another hours before continuing... Now imagine CG´ing for so long time, ceaselessly... I simply can´t ^^

And i have to say, kudos to you SK, you´re a wonderful artist... I´m downloading the video to see, so i can´t really comment it... But i´ve seen your webcomic and i have to say you have a talent on CG that i wish i could have too ^^

BTW.... Could you say to me which program did you use to make the video?

 

[ScriptKitty]

Thank you! I use Adobe Photoshop to color the images, Adobe After Effects to create individual scenes, and Adobe Premiere Pro to assemble the scenes to the music.

 

[linkz0r]

Well i saw the video (damn connection, so many time to download it...) and i can say that´s pretty well done. The art is pleasant as well as the colouring, as i´ve said. The cutscenes combines with each other and with the music, catching the attention of the viewer on almost all the video.

RANTS:
1) The initial part (where the boss orates) deserves an oscar (seriously, i liked it a lot ^^).
2) Just after the last boss´s speech, there´s a cool blink effect on the video that follows the music beats... Nice, but it lasted so long and had so many blinks imo... ^^
3) The scene in the wheat field is really beautiful.
4) I wish i could see Fujin lighted in the beginning of the video... She looks really sexy... (>=Y)

BTW you´ve done an excellent job, really!

 

[ScriptKitty]

Afraid I can take neither credit for the speech nor blame for the beats. ^^ The music is "Dream Within A Dream", by Alan Parsons Project; the band did an entire album inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The monologue is narrated by Orson Wells, the greatest voice to ever narrate anything.

As for the scene with the field, that's my favorite part too! It was the last piece of the film I worked on; I finished it right before rendering it and mailing it out for the entry. I wish I had known that much about camera angels earlier on in the project so I'd have been able to use a similar effect in other places. Getting those fireflies up out of the grass was the toughest part though!

 

[AceJP]

wow, I liked it ^^
I like Lilith, my kind of gal
I agree with you all, the field scene is probably by far the best part of it ^^
And I am not sure what they mean about th eblinking, i didnt find it annoying at all! XD
Excellent work!

 

[Kojo]

It was very well done, and made good use of Premiere, After Effects, and Photoshop. Although it did not make much sense to me, I liked it, and it was done very well. You deserved the "Most Dramatic Award" by far. I was amazed at how richley you colored it, very well done. Your hard work payed off in my book.

 

[Sketch]

I agree...this was a very well done and orchastrated piece...excellent work, Skitty. I've always enjoyed your particular style of art, because it's borderline on what is and isn't conventional, but it gives it such a unique look as to not get lost in all the other 'anime/manga' styles out there.

Very well done and VERY deserving of the prize it won.