HOME | DD
MisterAibo — Out of Reach
Published: 2012-08-23 11:47:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 12248; Favourites: 501; Downloads: 256
Redirect to original
Description
--- Commission detailsCommissioned by =lekadema . The two main characters are Coco Heart (unicorn) and Kateline (pegasus).
--- Technical
Time taken: 14 hours (4 hours spent playing with blinking eyes)
GIF created with GIMP, frames rendered with Adasek's SVG Render Firefox addon.
Five iterations, animated since the third. Used some of my OCs as background characters. Practiced spline animation.
--- Premium Content
Premium content includes the original animated SVG which is also available here .
--- Disclaimer
The SVG and the GIF are the property of =lekadema , but can be downloaded for personal, non-commercial use. Feel free to examine the code.
I welcome any input!
Related content
Comments: 69
Short critique time!
I'm not an artist or animator, just a viewer.
The timing of the movement of the shake and two ponies looks off/unnatural(eyes closing, milk shake, the reach).
Nitpicks: The red maned pony's color pallet draws a bit of attention(being a dark warm mono pallet) and adds a sense of calmness/maturity through her aesthetic design, and I wish a bit more animation was done for her to round out the overall piece.
The frame glass might have been used to brighten the pink pony giving more focus to her and the center of piece.
I'm not sold on the depth/distance of the mountains, it might be the amount of close to white contrast(or just bright) colors from the center to the top center right area of the piece.
That's about all I wanna write at the moment so I hope this helps.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, the timing seems pretty logical to me - Kate reaches for the milk shake, Coco pulls it away and Kate retract when she fails to reach it. All this while Coco cackles.
The red pony - and all the other "background" ponies - is simply the result of me not wanting to create new characters just for the animation. It would take up my time which in turn would ramp up the price. I really only wanted to populate the picture more, to make it seem more like a Saturday afternoon than an orchestrated film scene with budget too low to afford extras.
This is also on of the reasons the ponies are not that animated. The other is pure lore - the fact that I still want the animation of the parts of the image to correspond with the memories of the pony "commissioner."
This means things that the pony would remember more vividly would be animated, things that the pony might have caught by an accident would be animated, but only slightly and the things that the pony would not notice wouldn't be animated at all.
Coco could remember the soft breeze as it swung the flower pots from side to side. She heard - and felt - her magical aura as it held the milk shake, and still laughed when she remembered Kate trying to reach it. Kate - the other participant in the procedure - remembered Coco cackling maniacally, rocking her head back and forth, closing her eyes, while she tried to reach the treat. The pony behind Coco seemed a bit amused, too.
The color issue is a pretty minor one, I think. I simply wanted the palette of the place to correspond with the nature of an ice cream parlor. The closeness of the mountains is the result of me trying to do a viable Canterlot landscape without having to go into too detailed background - it could have been buildings, but this explained the wind much better, not to mention that the vista explained the two ponies in background just standing there.
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
The timing of the shake if off being taken away from the white pony(A to B), then during mid laugh/head tilt back to her(B to A), then away again still during mid laugh(A to B), and then finally back to her at the end of the laugh/head tilt completing the cycle(B to A). So having it move back and forth twice during that loop/cycle to me doesn't look right.
I see, I got the impression that it was the three ponies in the front were the main focus of the piece, each contributing to the memory being portrayed.
Now that you mention it this is a more populated piece than your previous work, which I think is a good thing.
Yeah I agree that the color is minor but looking back I think I nailed it down to the wrong thing. Shift focus from one side to the other a few times I noticed that separation of warm and cool colors was huge and distinguishable from a color aesthetic point of view, and that the warmer colors were much less comparatively(about 2/5-6 ratio with tables being a neutral light brown). Looking at the flow of it the brightest areas(sky and building) stood out the most and this made it the target, when in reality the separation of warm and cool needed to be broken up a little more.
I didn't really take the time cross examine of what it was because I originally intended to post it as a fast little comment critique, but ended up with just enough to post it as one when I stopped to check.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think I see the timing problem. Coco would probably have no knowledge of another one of Kate's attempts to grab the shake. However, making Coco watch her friend all the time seemed very stern - there's so much energy in Kate's wiggling that I wanted Coco to have a lot of movement as well. Keeping in mind that the loop time should be kept to a minimum (4s here I think), this seemed like a reasonable solution. But I see how it can make less of a sense in hindsight.
The orange-mane pony on the left is not supposed to be the main focus. I did move her back a little to make her stand out less. I originally intended her to occupy the back table instead, but I didn't have any pony sitting from behind.
The parlor is also tinted a bit so she wouldn't stand out as much. I could have changed her color scheme around to be more bland, but I haven't thought of that.
Now the warm/cold color separation is interesting. Originally, the parlor was white as well, which brought the pink pony out a lot more. The placement of the ice cream cone should serve as a color contrast for the white pony, seeing as the building in the background is the same color.
The problem was that I changed the parlor's colors to make the third pony (see above) stand out less, not to mention fitting the ice cream theme more. This shifted the color balance.
My though was that I should switch the ponies in their places, having Coco on a bright background and Kate on a darker one. I didn't do that, however, since the image came up with an interesting diagonal color separation - warm colors on the bottom left, cold ones on the top right. Instead of putting each pony on a contrasting background, the image now seemed more like a meeting of two worlds, which felt less intrusive than lots of color contrast.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well think you should leave Coco's animation alone, just change the shake so theirs more of a pause at each end so its not happening twice in the loop, or add more movement or distance before returning back creating longer loop of the shake, which I think right now is about 2 seconds time.
Also, just nitpicking here, the magical aura around the shake doesn't encompass the straw making show inaccurate. Your using the horn glowing animation for it which works but at some point your gonna have to make another one to suit what you need.
By the way, every realize how deep/involved our critique conversations get sometimes? lol.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm trying to avoid making more magical effects for as long as possible. Flowing things are just... complicated.
Anyway, I'm not changing the image for the few little things that might be wrong with it. I hope to do better next time instead.
And yes, our conversations do get pretty lengthy.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Vision: Your animation is smooth and very nice to look at, along with your art and background, however there seems to be almost too much motion, and it detracts from the image by giving it an unrealistic feel. (Also maybe have the border less intrusive? Just a thought)
Originality: I doubt you'll find another animation like this, not only is it original, but you even used your own OC's. + points!
Technique: I love the camera angle you chose for this, and the coding seems solid.
Impact: This was one of the great things that made me take the time out of my day to write a long reply too, had a big impact, and the humor really just made my day.
Summary: 9.5/10. Truly a good work.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Love the humor here. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Yeah, I could see that work.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh like the hanging/swinging planters btw.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Someone put this in the Gryffindor Common Room right away.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You're getting really good at these, loving it!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
In my mind, she's cackling madly while moving the drink.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
There's a thin line between merry hijinks and bullying, isn't there? Ah, but Kate seems to take it in a good spirit.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh my god xD
I thought it would be a friend / acquaintance doing that!
Tbh, if I was a unicorn, I would wonder how I could NOT do that!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
magic is seriously over powered when its viewed this way o.o
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I was thinking something similar. Is it any wonder some earth pony isn't the current ruler of Equestria?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love this! I'll have to keep an eye out for an animation slot again in the future. I'd like to have one in color.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm constantly improving on the technology, too. As you can see if you look at my cinemagraphs chronologically.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yep, definitely! I love mine still but already have ideas for another one.~
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Eh, Coco means no harm. Maybe she just wants Kate to watch her calorie intake?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
haha. lols. she still ought to curb back on the jokes i'd say.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You just keep getting better, don't you! I really love everything about it. The background is so detailed, and the movement is so smooth. You're a genius.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks. Like I said, non-linear timing makes a whole lot of difference. I tried it first with Mystery Gift's cinemagraph and I think I'm getting the hang of it.
This time I had some background ponies as well. It felt appropriate and the scene looks a bit more like a city.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes, you really are getting the hang of it! It looks flawless!
Well, actually, the background pony doesn't blink, which is a bit weird, but it would be unnecessary I suppose. It looks amazing this way!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I can just say that they take like magical photos that moves. Like in Harry Potter! Derp!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
No, it's like -
Oh never mind...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is simply sooo awesome!
I just love how the the facial expressions of the Pegasus and the laughing unicorn, just suits the animated scene so perfectly!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
First laughter animation I made, actually. Felt a bit weird.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You just keep improving more and more with your animations, did you know that? This one came out very smooth, loved the flow you gave it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
| Next =>