Sintel hits a million views on YouTube
on October 5th, 2010, by TonSintel is a phenomenal hit on YouTube! We’ve just crossed the million mark, and this will only get better. Reactions there are wonderful too, seems we’ve made everyone cry and stunned! π
Use this link on youtube to see the latest stats for views.
-Ton-
October 5th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
woohoo!!
BTW, when you’re watching the video it shows a cached version of the viewcount it seems, to see a more up-to-date one you can do a search:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sintel
π
October 5th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
@Pablo woohoooo too !!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
This is really phenomenal, especially for video without Justin *VOMIT* Bieber! π
Congratulations with this enormous succes, I think this is the most succesful Dutch production on YouTube ever!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Congrats!
The viewpoints will going up infinity π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Woot! Woot!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Oneβ¦ millionβ¦Β views! (Said in a Dr Evil voice)
My mind is appropriately boggled.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
congratulations durian team! hip hip hooray!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
This was beautiful. I can’t believe I cried watching a short film. Thank you for sharing your vision. I wish you the very best in all your future endeavors. I cannot wait to see what you bring next. Please keep me posted.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Ei. How about a live action sequel? lol.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
The blend/script does essentially a search.
For those who want to run their own stuff:
just script: http://www.pasteall.org/16006/python
blend+script: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/3828
A good example of how not to write scripts, but I was lazy π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Yes! π Let’s hope the views will continue to increase exponentially as opposed to logarithmically. π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
there are about 12 different version on youtube he should add those to the counter the are about 50283 views o_O
October 5th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Wow, this is awemose.
Congratulations and greetings from Colombia.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
the comments on youtube are very positive too. normal people don’t seem to be as nitpicky as cg artists. π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
50K people watching the wrong feed! π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Felicitaciones a Pablo por ser la cuota latina en el proyecto.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
yeah
October 5th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
@ asdrubal: Gracias! me alegra mucho serlo! π
I don’t really have a clue why other people upload copies of exactly the same video on their YouTube accounts when its already uploaded by BF, but still a good sign that they like it! π (specially when they have ad-sense active on their YT videos π )
The more the merrier!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
How many downloads from the downloads page (not youtube)?
October 5th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
You’d to first release the film under normal copyright, so YouTube can take down the other uploads, and after a few weeks release it under Creative Commons. π π π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Just read the interview with Ton in this months 3DWorld magazine; my daughter spotted the magazine first because of Scales on the front. Nice interview the Colin Levy at BlenderGuru.
Congrats to you all, hope its a nice slap on the back for all the hard work you all did.
regards
TFS
October 5th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
just incredible its a hit and the next openmovie would be to
congratulations blendere foundation and team and by the way team argentina made and incredible work doing the rain shoot.
October 5th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
That’s great. At least one of them is my father: I mailed him the youtube link since I knew he wouldn’t go the trouble of downloading a huge file and then search for a codec for his old PC. He enjoyed it very much and that’s particularly impressive considering he usually despises all such “Hollywood CG crap”…
October 5th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I believe there are much more to come (in other forms of recognition). As for youtube, the growth is of exponential nature from day one and there is no sign of getting flat in near future. Expect another order of magnitude of hit soon.
October 5th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
is that Blender script or python script?
October 5th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
OMG the movie is 1092392861096x better that i was expecting to be! π
congrats, guys
October 5th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Well that’s amazing π
I’m so sorry that my crap PC can’t display the 1080p video, but I’ve downloaded ’em all =)
Great work guys, you really have beaten those Hollywood snobs π
October 5th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Congratulations! Bit hits!
Oh if I can reach this. π
October 5th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Another version, for those who prefer a more 3Dish look:
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/3829
π
October 5th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Is there a graph of the views over time somewhere?
October 5th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
I am wondering what type of modeling program you use to model the characters? I am school right now using 3d max, but most of my experiences is in maya. But awesome video and congrats on the success.
October 5th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Woot !
Thats a lot more than the 500 on the Dutch Film Festival.
Wonderful.
”
Pablo Vazquez Says:
I donβt really have a clue why other people upload copies of exactly the same video on their YouTube accounts when its already uploaded by BF, but still a good sign that they like it! π
”
I’ve uploaded a reframed version. With less “eye in the middle of the shot” and filling a widescreen PAL screen with 100% pixels where possible.
Sintel Reframed to PAL -> http://vimeo.com/15478362
You can download the mpeg2 ( 720×576 ) to play with a dvd player or a TV that accepts SD-cards. But I guess the original mp4 will play excellent too.
October 5th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Brian,
the software is Blender from the Blender Institute, this website.
You can download the lastest build (2.54) from http://www.blender.org or goto http://www.graphical.org and download the latest development builds for various operating systems and development branches
regards
TFS
October 5th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
@Brian Fisher – They’re the Blender Foundation. They make and use their own software, Blender, and it’s freely available for all to download and use.
No offense, but I never thought I’d ever see anybody ask that question on a Blender site…
October 5th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
If only i typed slower
Development Builds http://www.graphicall.org
October 5th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Blender is actually from the community! They freed the sources, and copyrights in code are shared with the people who work on it!
Blender Foundation is the conservative force (copyrights, brand, websites, facilities), Institute the the progressive force (bizz, open movies, development).
October 5th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Congrats again!
October 5th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Hey,, I LUV IT!!!
Will u make it to a “2-hours” film???
Heh.heh π
October 5th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
If we pre-order the DVD now, will we still get our names in the credits?
October 5th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
And well deserved.
October 5th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
@namekuseijin this is both blender and python script. Blender uses Python as scripting language, but Blender has it’s own python API, so it’s a python script that only runs in Blender π
October 5th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
BTW the image is broken most of the time
October 5th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I’ve removed the image… dropbox.com link seems to be not reliable.
Benjamin: the dvd production is almost finished, the extra credits as well. We still need everyone to buy dvds though! And if we sell too many, the next film project will be sooner or bigger too. π
October 5th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
The best requirements for the next project and this time with 30 minutes, maybe?
This Movie convince me to order a DVD too. Or should I wait for Sintel Director’s cut? π
October 5th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I’m glad I supported this piece of art by paying for it. It is so amazing, great scenario, great soundtrack, great CGs. Long time I haven’t enjoyed something like this.
Waiting for the next movie from the Blender Foundation π
October 5th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
@Misty:
Wasn’t there something weath real actors planned for the next Blender Foundation project? π π
October 5th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
there is now about 44 copy’s on youtube mostly HD and different subtitles with total views 1132127 π
October 5th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
>>Reactions there are wonderful too, seems weβve made everyone cry and stunned! π <<
yep. you did. (=
beautiful movie. 15 minutes in a different world…
October 5th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
You guys were spotlight video! http://i.imgur.com/952lk.png
October 5th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
a well deserved success !
congrats again π !!!
______
JG
October 5th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
@Dan, I know Blender and python scripting in Blender just couldn’t believe someone would actually try a hack like that, that is, running a python script from inside of Blender itself to feed an image to a blog… :p
But in terms of unbeliavability, Brian Fisher’s question owns all… π
October 5th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
im slightly annoyed at the people re-posting the video only because my friends re-post videos to increase views, a lot of people re-post the most popular videos to try and become a google sponsored channel, after x amount of views google pays you, so people try and re-post popular videos, im sure google has people to throoughly check that sort of stuff first though
October 5th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
AWESOME MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN
October 5th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Congratulations!!!
October 5th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
I’m pretty speechless… this is such a wonderful feeling everyone. All the positive responses, and the sheer flood of views really make this entire experience completely worthwhile (yes, it was already, but what a bonus).
Thank you all for taking the time to watch what we’ve worked so hard to create, and share with each and every one of you!
October 5th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Very deserved but not surprising π
Thank you, and congratulations Durian team for creating this beautiful and touching short film! Now go party! π
October 5th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Congratulations to the 1,000,000 people who saw the movie! And also to the team who made it.
October 5th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
and out of a million persons only 281 gave it a thumb down. THAT IS FREAKING AMAZING!
October 5th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Wow, one million. Imagine if Ton gets Justin Bieber on board for the next project. Together blender and Justin could rule the world or at least rule on youtube.
October 6th, 2010 at 1:27 am
I wept, truly moving in just 15 minutes. Full length features have never resonated with me so much.
October 6th, 2010 at 1:39 am
I hated it I mean she can’t just go and kill the dragon You guys need to re make it just saying ps I rely did hate the part were she killed the dragon tho the first part of the movie was good
October 6th, 2010 at 1:40 am
HEY!!! The counter got reset to only 5,000. Earlier today was well over a million
October 6th, 2010 at 2:45 am
Wow… over a million in a few days… maybe between movie awards you get a guinness too.
October 6th, 2010 at 3:28 am
I love it! You really got it working, and the end is awesome!
October 6th, 2010 at 5:26 am
I’m disappointed I only just heard of this project, through its release (via a post at OMG! Ubuntu!).
I must say, I’m tremendously glad I found it. The story is superb and touching, and the graphics quality is just astounding. It certainly surpasses many, many high-budget commercial projects. The music was fitted perfectly, and really enhances the mood of the entire piece.
This was very, very well done. Kudos to everyone involved. And not only that, but as a demonstration for Blender and a way to help further development, that’s terrific. But even standalone, I am rather impressed, and several viewcounts in myself. I’ll certainly be referring those I know to this, and I know some have already favorited the site. Great work, very great work!
I also have a second disappointment, and that’s that there isn’t going to be a sequel (though if there is, gosh, I will be so delighted!).
October 6th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Oh and I want to take this opportunity, as a lot of people from
the community and Blender foundation & institute read this blog to
say something for myself, that I’ve been wanting to say
for quite a long time now:
THANK YOU !!
Thank you for giving us Blender, and such great movie projects.
Cheers,
______
JG
October 6th, 2010 at 8:50 am
I showed the video to a friend of mine, and she cried. Great job, guys. (:
October 6th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Awesome video and story!
It clearly demonstrates the power of open source and of Linux.
I believe that this effort marks the start of a new era.
(If you are in Linux, go to /tmp after the video has been loaded in youtube and cut and paste it to your videos folder.No need to download it otherwise.It is downloaded anyway in the tmp folder)
October 6th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Youtube just stated me some 1.218.000 Views on Sintel, which means it passed the number of views of BBB!
October 6th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Wow, that’s wonderfull, it is time to print Scales in 3d, prepare the Sintel toy set and start “sales of Scales” π
October 6th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Amazing piece of work, so so happy for you guys reaching 1 million views in such a short period of time. I agree with Colin in that the story was longer than the time allowed it to be, making the film feel a bit too short, but given your constraints, you’ve stepped up to the challenge and done a spiffing job.
Can’t wait for the next film, really excited about the concept of mixing 3D with real footage.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Congratulations guys, but WTF is that MovieManiacsDE sucking you views on youtube?
Also, search on youtube gives me no the very link at all O_o but only that shit from moviemaniacsde… grrrrrr
October 6th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Can you guys upload the documentary please π
October 6th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
You know, given the reaction on Youtube I hope there are some nice players in the Industry who could see their way to backing this to becoming a full length feature (Sintel – the Directors Cut)
Wouldn’t that be a nice xmas surprise for the Team, although I’m laughing at thinking how many DVD’s it would occupy.
So when are the Scales toys going on sale? π
October 6th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Congratulations!!!
Where can I preorder your NEXT!!! DVD PROJECT?
RΓΌdiger
October 6th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
I Just love it π
Amazing work! Congratulations!!!
October 6th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Ton: I think you should send out a email to all interested parties (youtube viewers fo a start) and see if they would donate to a full length feature.
Assuming target is realised, movies released in cinema first to raise further revenue, then DVD/and to the internet as usual. Assuming target in a raised, movies to fund development of next short.
Put up the link, Im ready to donate Β£10 to be able to watch the team nail this puppy…did someone mention screaming girls π
regards
TFS
You know it hit a nerve when ones 4yr old comes home from nursery after completing a painting of Sintel. Scales tomorrow aparently LOL
October 6th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I only fear if a full length feature would be realized, blender development would stop for 3 years, since Ton is occupied for that… LOL
October 6th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Where is the divx-hd video file?
Its no longer on the DIVX Page.
http://www.divx.com/en/electronics/solutions/high-definition/divx-plus-hd/video#showcase
I only see Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream on the site.
And on the german site
http://www.divx.com/de/electronics/solutions/high-definition/divx-plus-hd/video
the miniature posters don’t get loaded, because of dead links.
…maybe someone could tell them.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
SUCH A WAIST OF GOOD TALENT !!!!
Just saw the short film and could have easily been a BOX OFFICE HIT !!
(perfect in every way but 1)
So here’s my question ……..
Why spend all that time and effort for a SAD film??? don’t you guts think theres enough of that going around already?? in every way and form available to a person? and still you guys say with PRIDE!! we mooooved you, we made you CRY!!! WOW!! what an accomplishment …….. the other comments are right you guys should all give your self a pat on the back.
Heres a an example , so you can understand what all you time in effort went into :
Imagine someone who just lost there 10 year old pet and stumble’s across your video, what do you think happens next??
WOW !!! EXCELLENT !!! KUDOS TO YOU GUYS!! GREAT FILM!! for that person or child
Or any person or child that feels bad because they just lost a son or a family member or just feels bad for any reason for that matter, finds your film and watches it… how will that person feel when they start the film and think they will feel better because it looks like a great short film, just to end up feeling even worst in the end……. or for the people that are happy already and are having a great day and see your MASTERPIECE , what then ??
THE BEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE WHEN YOU SPEND ALL YOUR TIME AND EFFORT MAKING SOMETHING THAT MAKES OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY !! GIVING THEM JOY AND HAPPINESS TO THERE LIVES !!
so the next time you guys want to MOOOOVE US!!! try to do it in a GOOOOD!! way
October 6th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
LEMON??! in youtube video. 9:58 Scales says LEMON…. LOL
October 6th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
@The Fatsnacker: +1
I imagine the Blender Institute has considered such an approach for a feature film. I wonder if they could still meet the goal of advancing Blender while producing a 90+minute film? As you suggest, the proceeds from such a film could be reinvested in development, too; but that might be 2 or 3 years down the road. In my mind, the key (assuming funding is available) would be to have a clear software development plan in place so that Blender development continues to advance during the long production.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
@asttzer: may be divx compression technology doesn’t work with sad films π
October 6th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Or maybe they realized they screw up the picture with that annoying logo? π
October 6th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Very beautiful. I’ll show my wife she loves dragons.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
When will the blender 2.5x ???
October 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
@PVAV:I get your point,BUT:In my opinion,a joyful ending is pretty usual in movies,so I don’t get too interested in short films that have the cliche ending(Everyone is happy,yay…).I think that these shorts must be a bit more artistic than the big blockbusters,and team Durian did a fine job on that!Yes,it’s sad,but it’s also unique,and I personally really enjoyed the twist in the plot,I think that gave Sintel the extra punch.If it was just another happy ending,Sintel would’ve just sank into the deeep sea of short films.
So,the ending is sad,but I’m still happy:)
October 6th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
First of all: Great and touching movie.
@all haters of sadness
It’s a short movie, not a real tv news report about desasters. Feeling of sadness and happiness belong together. Romeo + Juliet for example isn’n just for laughing, but for dreaming in a wide spread of a mix of feelings as well. There are allready so many pure comedy movies out there. So thank you Durian team to make a movie for all upper aged movie lovers, too.
@PVAV
I have lost beloved pets in the past allready. You really have to learn dealing right with your feelings. They all belong to you and you can’t spare them out. When you ignore the backsides of them, they will eat you. Whatching candybox like comedy exclusive wouldn’t help much. Give the movie time to show you your inner reactions and then (a few days later) see it again to explore youre process about your impressions.
@Daniel Kovacs
thumbs up!
@Youtube video copy haters
People are on this news channels for exactly the case which occurs: they get infos about new movies. Some never heard of Sintel in the past, before they found it in their abo channel. I noticed that the same movie news channels which copy Sintel in full runtime normally upload trailers and reviews. They do so, because it is a short movie. Would it be honestly to only make a teaser and link to the “right link”? Yes, I think so, but with the full upload everyone who clicked on the videolink, jumps right into the action and I bet that more people see the movie that way without thinking: “Should I go to the official link now? But first this and that…(forgotten)”
October 7th, 2010 at 2:17 am
It was great and very interesting to watch this amazing project and follow its progress since the very beginning! Somehow I felt like being part of the production and sympathized with the team that was working hard.
So its great now to see the final result after observing so long.
I think you got exactly the right ammount of what you made public during the production, and what you kept hidden. So that there are many surprises left now, for the release.
Its exactly, what some other people mentioned up here in later comments:
The first time watching Sintel, I was indignant of the story not running as expected.
But watching it again, details and insinuations showed up and connections appeared…
now with every time watching the movie makes me like it more.
I am surprized how realistic the eyes of the shaman, the dying gatekeeper and Sintel are looking.
There are other important computer generated films like Disney’s “A Christmas Carol”(09) and “The polar express” (04) where that was my only point of criticism. There, there were moments, where either eyes did not converge the right way or did strange squint-eyed movements
Generally in these films the eyes of the characters did radiate much less vitality, than the eyes shown in Sintel.
In Sintel all that was perfect!!!
The face I like most is the shamans, with the two-colored eyes. His expressions are very felicitous and orginate his special charisma.
Very interesting how Sintel continues unconsciously the blades dark past, the shaman told her about.
(1:56-“This blade has a dark past – it has shed much innocent blood”)
So thats a kind of curse – very nice detail!
The Sintel’s Song is so beautifully performed by Helena Fix!
Thanks to Jan Morgenstern for such a wonderful soundtrack & composition!!!
It all sounds almoast perfectly like a real orchestra, especially the solo-violine while the zoom-in in the opening scene.
I would like to hear more about how you proceed composing the music and how that midi stuff is working.
Your Post http://www.sintel.org/news/greetings-from-the-audio-trenches/ was very informative.
Will there be further explanations by you on the DVD?
All I can say is thanks to the team and all involved people.
You all put a lot of time and effort into that movie.
It was so great to experience the Durian-project!!!
October 7th, 2010 at 5:50 am
This is fantastic,guys. Amazing professional work. This should be turn in a full length motion picture. There are really brilliant ideas all over. I love it.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:17 am
WOW! Sintel has got more you-tube views in 6 days then BBB has got in over 2 years! I guess this answers the question posted some time ago as to whether you should focus on the movie content and story or the render quality.
To put the numbers in perspective Sintel has now used 315,193 man hours, that the equivalent to 36 work years, and that is from just from one you-tube video in only 6 days! On average there are 137 views per minute! Which means that at any given time there are about 2,034 people watching Sintel!
Keep up the good work!
October 7th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Congrats! As several others have pointed out, Sintel has already surpassed BBB’s viewcount.
So… when are we making a feature-length film?
October 7th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Feature film: everyone should be aware that there’s limits to “crowd funding”. Even with the massive Blender community, the amount of dvd sponsors only paid for 25% of the film. The other 25% came from Blender Foundation sales of other DVDs and donations. Then we had Film Fund, Cinegrid subsidy and commercial sponsors. That completes the other half of the 400k budget.
For a feature, the costs per minute should be defined to go up with a factor 4 to 10. (more attention for detail, better sims, more characters per shot, better wages), and the duration will go up with a factor 8 (12.5 * 8 = 100 minutes). That’s in the range around 20M euro budget (not much for feature animation films).
Roughly, I should be able to get 25% community-funded to be able to get the other 75%. So where do we get this 5M from? That’s really a factor 50 more than for Sintel… will have to do some thinking about this. π
October 7th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Anton: As you can see in the credits, the solo violin is real, played by a session violinist.
October 7th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
First of all congrats to the “Sintel” Team, indeed people are speechless with excitement after seeing Sintel. I am sad that I could not pre order the DVD set and contribute. But I think if next time there can be a purchase method were people can pay locally to preorder the DVD it would bring more sponsors, just my suggestion. And Ton, Keep up that awesome energy ;).
October 7th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
yay…congratulation for u guys:)
October 7th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
” Roughly, I should be able to get 25% community-funded to be able to get the other 75%. So where do we get this 5M from? Thatβs really a factor 50 more than for Sintelβ¦ will have to do some thinking about this. π ”
Most feature movies don’t get pre-funded.
A story like “titanic” took investors $200 million dollars to invest and it made a profit of over $1.8 billion worldwide… But I think its not released as CC3.
October 7th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Wow so Elephants dream views are quite low, Big Buck Bunnys views are over 1 million views but bare in mind BBB has been out since 2008. But Sintels views are higher then that of BBB’s! Go Blender π
Link to prove it: http://www.youtube.com/user/BlenderFoundation#g/c/6B3937A5D230E335
October 7th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
@Ben Anderson: You have to consider that Elephants dream was posted to YouTube a long time after it was released. But you are still right that the movies become increasingly more popular. The DVD presale-credits get longer and longer with every movie.
I’m wondering if it would be better to make live-action movie with visual effects done in Blender. A 20 million is still a very low budget for an animated feature film.
I can imagine that Sintel could have been adapted for a small-scale live-action feature film like a District 9 of the fantasy world. π
BTW Would it be possible to have something like a e-mail notification for project Mango? That would make it easier to not miss the start of the next project. π
October 7th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Joeri: I’ve learned valuable lessons about investors! π
October 7th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
It could have been worse, Blender is everything but dead! π π π
October 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I really love this Movie. I’m one of those that needed to watch it several times to find into the story, but now i really love it.
Probably a movie should “work” by watching it only once, but for lots of people that’s not true with sintel.
So I ask myself: why ? … ?
I can find some flaws in the Storyline that annoys me more or less. And when i begin to think about how to do it better, it always (mostly) results in bringing additional scenes into sintel. When i have to accept that somehow sintel needed to stay in budget, i have to admit you guys have done the very best possible job in creating this movie. It’s exactly as Colin (the master itself) stated in the Interview at Blenderguru: Sintel is a bit too large for these 12 mins + Credits. It could deserve some additional minutes of story (and some additional 100.000β¬ of budget) to make some parts more “believable”. So i’m completely stunned with what you’ve done – and you already increased this thing from originaly six to eight mins up to twelve!
October 7th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Congratulations to the team, and all ! That’s amazingly fast to hit 1million views!
Interesting to read some bit about the funding and such.
a feature film… maybe by the time blender hit’s 3.0…
With blender more developed, more capable, the possibilities to do better work faster also improves… by then you can have generic logic nodes, so more atomation ( but artist controlled of course.
Also, by then, with maybe a few shorts before it still, Blender will have a much bigger community, many willing to sponsor.
I find it interesting how some scenes of Sintel were made by external studio’s. That model should be expanded upon massively for a feature film.
And also, community sprints, there’s a lot of, more and more, of people eager to help out. by the time blender hit’s 3.0 you could have integrated infrastructure to do so.
someone in this thread mentioned merchandizing, why not? that could be an interesting revenue, it doesn’t has to stop with t shirts. how is the license around this actually, is any merchandizing effort also CC ?
the costs and time involved do up exponentioally indeed, but there are ways to bring it back, by having a super talented core team doing thier stuff at the blender institute, but more as a directing effort. animation director, aret director, screenplay directing, …
Have the script, the animatic, all such done, then do delegation and integration work to bring it all together, models, animation and all such stuff from the community, whole scenes by studio’s, and community why not. Direction will have to be very enforced to make it manageble.
It would be inetersting to see how that would work out, how you can plan around that. And how much that brings the cost down.
Go for it!
October 8th, 2010 at 11:40 am
” Joeri: Iβve learned valuable lessons about investors! π ”
With prefunding the movie is truely free from commercial influences, thats a very valuable thing.
October 8th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Congrats for the mill hits!
broke my heart,
Yet another narrow minded human obsession turning into a tragedy,
love it! thanks for sharing π
October 8th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Hey, I have to ask – what is the name of the font used in credits? I mean this: http://media.xiph.org/sintel/sintel-2k-png/00017947.png
October 8th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
Hello,
congrats! I knew it would have many views, so no surprise… π It’s proof of good job… Today I found slovak subtitles in official video (on youtube) – can you tell me who made it, please? Or can you give me contact to him/her? I would like to chat with him/her about it, because I made my own version short time after Sintel’s release… π (And I think my version is better in few points and worse in other points…)
Thx
October 9th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Habo: on the bottom of the download page is a link to the forum where subtitle discussions are being done.
October 9th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@Ton: I have been wondering about the estimates you described for a feature length movie, first of all it needs to only be about 60-80 minutes long, secondly “For a feature, the costs per minute should be defined to go up with a factor 4 to 10. (more attention for detail, better sims, more characters per shot, better wages)” seems to not be that realistic, as feature movies tend to quite often even have less attention for detail as it fall away into the background of the whole story and more characters per shot is true if you look at any single shot but as a whole it will level out due to the ability to reuse characters more often. If you for example take “How to train your dragon”, 90% of the characters seem to be modeled after the same 3 or 4 main models. If not for the higher wages – which make sense – economically speaking there should even be a general factor decreasing price/min due to static costs (servers and other investments). But even if there is a 4x factor (which in all humbility seems to be too high to me…) increase currently the price/min was 32 000 (actually lower due to the static cost) times a 55 minutes (minimum feature length-subtitles etc.) gives 7M (Just trying to figure out a realistic absolute minimum estimate).
Next concerning financial problems, one possible option to explore is to literary get such a movie into the cinema’s. I am quite aware that logistically that would be extremely hard to get round, as that would also mean that I suppose about 40% of your current funds would be inaccessible (not sure about the requirements for these funds) and on top of that I suppose wages would increase even more, however the theoretical income of such a thing should balance the investments out. This still wouldn’t solve the initial investment necessary, however with a realistic source of ‘profit’ and previous experience finding investors shouldn’t be impossible.
Lastly I still believe you are undervaluing the opportunities of crowd-sourcing work, if set up correctly it should be *realistically* possible to get entire scenes created by outside teams. Of course this could possibly result in slight deviations in style, but look at for example the community effort which went into “sintel the game”. Most important in this would still be that all of this should be coordinated from a single central point (person+dedicated website), but I am fairly certain half a movie could be created in such a manner. Such a thing would of course require the movie to be slightly episodic in it’s nature, but with a good story this shouldn’t matter. One important thing to note is that it would need to be extremely clear to possible crowdsourcers where any possible profit (@cinema idea) would go to, and that means clearer than simply “to the blender foundation”. Personally I have quite a number of more specific idea’s how such a website and crowd-sourcing effort would need to be set up, so if this is ever attempted (or if anybody is interested either way) feel free to contact me and I would love to share them (ain’t going to write them down here, because possibly nobody will ever read this and it would mean this comment will become thrice as long XD).
One more wishful source of funding (though definitely not unrealistic) would be from an organization like greenpeace or world wildlife fund. At the very least I know that the world wildlife fund once sponsored a short (15 minutes) commercially produced animation movie and if a good story would be set up with a clear message I suppose it should be possible to find a main sponsor in such an area (not limited to nature, but any big non-profit organizations with a message).
October 10th, 2010 at 6:04 am
Making a feature length film would certainly be awesome- despite how difficult financially and timely it would be. That said, I can’t see how any investor could say no after watching Sintel. It’s simply too good.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Oh… My god! It`s beautiful. Authors of this animated film – you are the best!
Sorry, for me broken English.
From Russia with thanks & respect!
ΠΡ – Π»ΡΡΡΠΈΠ΅! Π― Π½Π΅ Π²ΠΈΠ΄Π΅Π» Π½ΠΈΡΠ΅Π³ΠΎ ΠΏΠΎΠ΄ΠΎΠ±Π½ΠΎΠ³ΠΎ, ΡΡΠ΄Π°Π», ΠΊΠ°ΠΊ Π΄ΠΈΡΡ! =)
October 11th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Interesting: will you see Russian words? I hope – yes.
And… Sorry for MY broken English)
October 11th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I see them, but don’t understand a single bit of it! π
October 11th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Absolutely NONE of my friends had ever heard of Sintel before today, let alone seen it, in view of all those YouTube hits. I would not have known about it myself, except for a friend who saw it on a video site today, and sent me the link. The whole production, IMHO, is incredible and wonderful. Such great talent you all have. Kudos
October 11th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
@J.:
He said: “You’re the best! I cried like a child! =)” <— A bit obvious, huh? π
October 12th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Right!) Thanks for translate
October 13th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Sintel is a very good self-contained animation short with a nicely economic story arc. It’s a mark of an excellent piece when it leaves one wishing for more, but I can’t really see the need to extend it to a feature length. Putting all technical and logistical issues to one side, I get the sense that this project is done and there are other ambitions to fulfil for Blender in terms of the application and other media projects, which will push the boundaries still further
IMHO, attempting to redo Sintel in a longer form would be like trying to trap a butterfly. Where is the beauty in that ?
October 13th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
@MarianR: Nobody is speaking about redoing Sintel, rather people were discussing the next open movie project.
October 13th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
@David Mulder
David, A number of people on various threads have indicated a desire for a longer version, partly because they enjoyed Sintel so much, but you are right, on this thread many are excited by the thought of a longer form successor using Blender.
I suppose the point I was rather ineptly making was that the Blender Institute and foundation are centred around projects that can advance Blender, both in terms of the application itself and in growing take-up in studio pipelines. Of necessity and in order not to defocus and spread resources too thin, that means short form pieces are eminently achievable (as shown by Sintel), but longer forms might require a different studio structure.
It took a year to make Sintel in-house, but a year may be all that is a available to make a feature, and that may only be possible given an external but dedicated and heavily-manned commercial structure.
Although a fantastic story and animation, Sintel was a ostensibly a vehicle to carry Blender forward, (which it has done spectacularly). If the Blender Institute were to foster long form films internally, would that not distract from the core mission ?
I’m rambling, I guess, but Blender is moving towards industrial take-up, and I think it is in the wider studio community where we will find long-form development, leaving the Blender Institute to do what it does best, which is carving out fresh ground, untrod by others.
I enjoyed your post. I was just offering another angle π
cheers,
Martin
October 14th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
@MartianR: Yeah, I considered those things too and I am quite aware of the core goal of the open movie projects. Still I believe that taken the investment which is necessary for a feature-length movie to be developed (both in terms of time and financially) compared to the attention blender is given due to this seems rather weak in respect to the attention a full fletched movie gets. Together with the financial perspective of it as I described in my previous post and the possibility of adding a very short blender-commercial to a full fletched movie seems worth it IMHO. Aside of this, if the studio’s will see a full fletched movie being developed with blender it will be far more motivational than a ‘simple’ short movie. And either way, unlike Ton I think that if set up correctly a full feature length movie should be relatively cheap and relatively quick to manufacture. Naturally it all depends on what kind of scenes, styles and story would be chosen… but if carefully planned it would be quite possible.
Still, the weakest point of blender – it’s UI – won’t improve through all these projects, as they are all done by people who already know blender… and it the most important barricade for outsiders to pick Blender up, so I hope some day time will be invested in a re-haul of the user interfaces and interactions. And with that I am not referring only to the locations of everything, but the actual interactions. It’s the same with android for example, android is far more powerful than any of it’s competition, but due to the fragmentation in the developmental process it’s just one big mess.
October 15th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
In less than 1 week of its premier on Youtube, the Blender-made short movie β Sintel has crossed 1 million views. The 15 minute animated film is developed by Blender Foundation as a means to further improve and validate the free/open source 3D creation suite.
October 17th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Splendid picture, and nice concepts, but too short and too sorrowful ending, we NEED MORE, we NEED CONTINUATION.
wbr to developers