Sintel online premiere
on October 1st, 2010, by TonOur short animation film now has been published online for everyone to watch and spread! It’s been an exciting moment for our team, and for everyone who as eagerly awaited this moment. We hope you enjoy it!
Here is the Youtube link, file mirrors and torrents.
Next on our todo is wrapping up the 4-dvd box release, NTSC/PAL discs with extras and documentary, and 2 DVD-ROMs with tutorials, and all the data to reproduce the fim entirely. π
-Ton-
October 1st, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Great movie!
Thanks to all involved people!
October 1st, 2010 at 12:25 pm
It is nice,
Great work. Thanks you all the durian team.
October 1st, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Fantastic movie. By far my favorite movie produce by the studio. I’ve watched it several times today.
However, there’s a handful of intersections. Any chance of these being fixed for the DVD release? One such example is at the shot beginning at 11:40 where Sintel’s clasp of her top is inter-sectioning through the material.
Once again, fantastic movie. Can’t wait for the next one.
October 1st, 2010 at 12:52 pm
First of all, congratulations to all who participated on this great short movie!
To sum up my feelings:
1) great visual and musical peace of art
2) predictable story
3) one plot hole (at least for me – and I watched it 3 times in a row yesterday – also in different slow motion)
Was it worth the long anticipation? Yes!
*Spoiler*
The possible plot hole: Who was the man attacking Sintel? Doesn’t seem to have any motive but his blade plays a big role in the next events.
October 1st, 2010 at 1:09 pm
It’s such a dissapointment.
Visually stunning without any substance whatsoever, filled with cheap action and gorry sequances for no good reason – that ‘s simply bad.
I reckon that script is the weakest link in this movie, this combined with totally unlikeable protagonist makes it just barely watchable. She drags the flick down.
How one chooses as a main character to ba psychotic emo chick, yes emo, who happen to have serious problems with grasping reality… Jesusss.
Planks are more likeable and have more charisma. Also I’ve never met an emo plank.
After this great introduction of protagonist I’m suppose to sympathize
with this thing?? Really?? Care about her?/ NO friggin way. Nope.
Could sombody expalain me why, o why the baby dragon follows her at the very end ?? – well she happend to kill her mom/dad.
Absolution ?? Forgivness ?? C’mon –
Thank you for killing my mom/dad – I love you emo chick! Will you be my mom, please??
That’s what script throws at me……
Last but not least is gore. WTF!! there is a guy getting kill like 60 seconds into the plot – is that a Van Damme movie??
Baby dragon bleeds like broken water pipe, big dragon bleeds like Mocando oil well in GoMexico.
Puff – magic is gone, dissapeard – that was first warning bell that this film might be a bit lackluster.
Unfortunetly it is.
Magic of Elephants is gone, BBB lightness evaporated….
Thank you Esther Wouda for singlehandedly oblitirtating hard work of animators and 3d artists.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:35 pm
SPC my man, please dont hold back, i’m a bit perplexed at what your trying to say. Please could you elucidate a bit more for us mere mortals so that we may learn from ones obvious greatness.
I’m willing to stop supporting the Blender Foundation cause you seem like the man of the moment, the head cheese, the big dingaling, head honco, top of the class or am i confusing that with an appendage (small) adorning your forhead.
You seem like you have more to offer everyone else not withstanding you eloquence. You would seem to be a man/boy but in touch with his femanine side; able to show ones true feelings.
I dunno, but that last statment really cracks me up, what insight, what prose, oh my dear god….you are immortal, sorta reminds me of MayaForever on the IIRC last night…You sound like the type of person only a mother could love.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
The onlything I do not understand is what is meant with “gatekeepers”…does anyone know?
October 1st, 2010 at 2:40 pm
This is a great film. In contrast to spc I found the plot both well thought through and encapsulating. I was convinced I knew who the big dragon was right until the point when we find out – excellent work. Far from there being plot holes I found it opened up questions and made me think about the characters long after the credits had rolled. Personally I hate fantasy movies that try to tie up every loose end. Sintel is an excellent film.
Visually and audibly the work is better than Elephants Dream. It is on a par with BBB if you ask me but the two are in different genres so the comparison has to be brief.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Woah with the plot trashing guys! I don’t disagree altogether, but the point of this thing is to A) Showcase the technical prowess of Blender, and B) get the new major version thoroughly use-tested and live. As such they test specific features. Trees in BB Bunny, in this case I assume ( although I’ve been slacking on following details ) that liquid sims are something they’re trying to make sure is high & tight – thus blood animations. If the story happens to not be tremendous ( and I really challenge you to find ANY of them tremendous ), that doesn’t really negate the stated goals of the exercise. I also did not like Armageddon or the Last Airbender from any kind of a plot / character / story perspective. However, I did appreciate the technical achievements of those films tremendously at the time.
From a purely 3D and animation perspective, I’m very happy with what I see. I think the dev’s have done a GREAT job pushing forward the feature set and giving us all a truly epic piece of software to work with. Bravo e Brava.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Awesome movie !!! Third time watching I found some Eastereggs like Proog π
Thank you dear Blenderheads – hope to see you someday !
greetings from berlin
benNO!
October 1st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
This is a time to remember, guys! Congratulations, good work and good luck! π
October 1st, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I love the film!
Can’t agree with the story critics!
The plot is nice, really sad of course, but also very impressing. It makes someone think. Awesome graphics, altough the quality differs a bit from scene to scene, but still even those parts are great!
No words to the music, a stunning, beautiful score with an “I want to cry” ending song.
Congratulations to the team!
October 1st, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Just amazing.waiting for my dvds for starting lerning more
October 1st, 2010 at 2:45 pm
This is a time to be remembered, guys! Congratulations, good work and good luck! π
October 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I share a lot of things you said but I still think you were too harsh in stating your opinion, spc π
There these and other negative aspects but yet the film is positive.
I’ll only suggest the durian team one thing.
Few days ago somebody was talking about watching the film 36 times. I understand why! You should state at the end of the movie: “Watch it at least two more times before forming your opinion” because that’s it. The plot is an hazzard. I can’t really tell what someone who was not expecting for it for a whole year can think of the movie afeter watching it once. Instead I feel I’m loving it more and more every time I watch it.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Wonderful i saw it 5 times in a row and i still watching it toda y. And the dvds with all that Williams be amazing.
Congratulations and yes it has some mistakes but… Who cares?
October 1st, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Relax spc.
I found the story to be strong, surprising and thought provocative. A great piece of work. I enjoyed it.
Thank You!
October 1st, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Great work! Thanks to the team.
Question to the team: I translated the subtitles to Croatian. If it would be of any interest, please let me know where I can upload the .srt file or mail it.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Absolutely amazing!
Strange that you’ve only got 5 comments on this post though…
October 1st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
A litte correction for the italian subtitle: fortunata instead of fortunato
4
00:02:01,750 –> 00:02:04,800
Sei fortunata che il tuo sangue
scorra ancora.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Why is the ‘Download’-Link on the top of the Page still linking to the Trailers?
October 1st, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Relax spc.
I found the story to be strong, moving and thought provocative. Take a deep breath and watch the movie again π
October 1st, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I share a lot of things you said but I still think you were too harsh in stating your opinion, spc π
There these and other negative aspects but yet the film is positive.
I’ll only suggest the durian team a thing.
Few days ago somebody was talking about watching the film 36 times. I understand why! You should state at the end of the movie: “Watch it at least two more times before forming your opinion” because that’s it. The plot is an hazzard. I can’t really tell what someone who was not expecting for it for a whole year can think of the movie afeter watching it once. Instead I feel I’m loving it more and more every time I watch it.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Wonderful i saw it 5 times in a row and i still watching it.
Congratulations and yes it could have some mistakes… but… Who
bits a big effort from all including to blender comunities arround the world.
Pretty Wellington done shortfilm.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Loved the bamboo forest scene, that is worthy of a tutorial. Probably the most visually beautiful scene in the film.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Hi Crew!,
Well. I thought the movie was beautiful and moving. So proud of all of you for challenging yourselves. Raise a cheer and enjoy the praise that you deserve. I see that youtube is now up over 16,000 views as of now and climbing. Here is to future Open Films and continued success in your future projects.
To those who feel compelled to point out the flaws. I’m sure the crew knows things that they would change, but that is not the point. Why tear people down?
Onward and upward, Blender community!
Cheers,
MikeB,
North Vancouver, Canada
October 1st, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Hi Crew!,
Well. I thought the movie was beautiful and moving. So proud of all of you for challenging yourselves. Raise a cheer and enjoy the praise that you deserve. I see that youtube is now up over 16,000 views as of now and climbing. Here is to future Open Films and continued success in your future projects.
To those who feel compelled to point out the flaws. I’m sure the crew knows things that they would change, but that is not the point. Why tear people down?
Onward and upward, Blender community!
Cheers,
MikeB,
North Vancouver, Canada
PS. Your comment system seems overloaded. So if this is a duplicate entry sorry about that.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I suspect that the team themselves are the harshest critics.
Sintel became better than I was afraid. A half a year or more ago, when the team went silent, I suspected that Sintel was going to be more of a let-down than its predecessors. I think that it was realized that given the time, skills and current state of the movie, there were going to be imperfections. It’s a huge luck that the team pulled it through.
For me the story worked: I even noticed a small detail which I will not spoil before it was made obvious and for me it was a cool thing.
Technically Sintel enabled Blender to develop, mature. The team got invaluable experience. This is not a failure at all.
I salute the decision on the plot, which was a brave one. You could have aimed for a different emotional package.
***
But Sintel cost us Matt Ebb. It was said it was not related, but I suspect that at least on some levels. it was.
***
What I probably want to say is: Sintel was a success, but not on the spectacular scale that gets lot of positive feedback, but rather as a well put effort towards something far greater.
Congratulations to everyone involved. It has been a very interesting project to follow. Keep flying.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Great work and congrats to the whole Durian team!
Watching it through for the first time I didn’t notice the errors a few people are complaining about and on a second run through I had to pause the video to see most of them. (It would still be nice to have them fixed for the DVD).
It certainly felt much shorter than 14 minutes (that’s a good thing!) and still remained very satisfying to watch.
Brilliant ending – one comment I’ve seen that described the emotions felt towards the end as ‘painful’ ‘sad’ ’empty’ and like what you feel when watching Cast Away when Wilson floats away summed it up nicely for me.
It’s very interesting to read the various different theme interpretations coming from Youtube commenters, although I’m sure there won’t be quite as many crazy ideas as there was for Elephants Dream.
and @spc: seriously, if you’re not trolling, then you really don’t understand many elements of the movie. (I would love to explain, but I’m not going to risk feeding a troll/starting a war)
Oh and are there any Easter eggs, apart from Proog and the Durian? Maybe just a hint π
October 1st, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Watched it yesterday… it was.. amazing……
The story, though felt like it was for a longer movie, and that it was squashed, but.. yah.
I really enjoyed the effects, really realistic, except at some parts the movements were too fast or choppy.
Also, I find it quite strange that she went through all this desert, snow, mountains, etc. to get to the dragon.. as I’ve said, maybe if it was a longer movie, maybe you would’ve added more scenes of her spending time with him.
Simply awesome and amazing overall.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Now I’ve seen it a couple of times, here is my critic:
I think the animation is fantastic.
But its a sad sad thing, the compression sucks ass. The DivX version has a logo all the way through the film and your compressed versions are just horrible. The opening screen made me scream because of artifacts and there is a constant banding in the whole film. I seriously wonder how little you care about the quality of the video…
The story was ok in my opinion, my girlfriend was pretty upset, because there was no happy end.
By the way: On the download page, MP4 Surround Full is labeled as 270MB but its a 442MB download (and did I say the quality sucks?)
Did DivX pay you to produce only badly encoded versions so their version looks superior?
October 1st, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Well, the baby dragon is still a baby, and doesn’t understand the full meaning yet of what Sintel has (accidentally) done. To him, Sintel is someone who’s always been nice to him. And as babies do, he’s very curious and playfull, and follows her.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Now I’ve seen it a couple of times, here is my critic:
I think the animation is fantastic.
But its a sad sad thing, the compression sucks ass. The DivX version has a logo all the way through the film and your compressed versions are just horrible. The opening screen made me scream because of artifacts and there is a constant banding in the whole film. I seriously wonder how little you care about the quality of the video…
The story was ok in my opinion, my girlfriend was pretty upset, because there was no happy end.
By the way: On the download page, MP4 Surround Full is labeled as 270MB but its a 442MB download (and did I say the quality sucks?)
October 1st, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I liked it.
Very cool graphics amazing sounds, cool scenery too.
But there is a but….
I am going to have to slightly agree with spc.
*spoilers*
It was a bit violent π BBB was so peaceful π
It was somewhat predictable at certain parts. At the end when she walk out and the cave is sealed, i just knew the baby dragon would come after her.
I DO like how you put the green baby flower in the right hand side when everything else is bare—good symbolism!!!
While this film does not make you cry or anything like that it does bring up stong emotions, so good job on that!!!
The “CG-ness” of the blood is really noticeable in my opinion, and i think that it brought down a really good film a bit.
I think my biggest concern is sintel’s voice. There are times when it does sound like a girl but most of the times its is a woman. And that just throws the viewer off imo.
If some improvement were made this film would just be epic, but right now it is awesome. And it really is awesome, considering what work went into it, and how the work was conducted.
Awesome film Durian team!!! I look forward to the next open project!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Great short animation movie, I liked it π
And yes, there may be some minor plotholes, but it isn’t fair to blame just one person for it. The plot might be someone’s idea, but I reckon it was approved by others.
One thing that I noticed was that Sintel (especially her face) doesn’t look as nice as some pictures from the Gallery (e.g. http://www.sintel.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sintel_ab_original_dark_facial.png). Is this just the light/shadow?
I made a mosaic (with metapixel, nice program!) of that picture from the gallery, you can find it at http://www.ushareimg.com/images/650SintelTiles1.jpg. Be warned, it is a VERY large image – I think Chrome is the best browser for large images, my Firefox has major difficulties opening it. It consists of frames from the animation, hope you enjoy it.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I feel the same as spc. Most heros do get it when they are spared… but she doesn’t. She doesn’t even recognise the baby “she raised”, and is willing to kill her mother anyway… wow very disappointing.
But isn’t that movie supposed to be a blender promotional movie? So what’s the message and feeling that people will get after watching? .. yeah, it’s sucks and blender makes me sad, I’m back to whatever i was doing before which was a lot funnier!
On the bright side, considering all artworks and blender scenes are cc licensed maybe the community will come up with a better ending. π
So thanks for Sintel, but no thanks. I’m back to BBB.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Having watched it a couple of times it feels like someone really wanted to tell a story here instead of just showcasing tech.
The ending was a lovely mood piece.(goosebumps)
Nice job! Can’t wait for my DVDs
October 1st, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Yeah, it remains very cool!
Where are the PNGs?
The MP4 version is too low-bitrate and very blocky.
The DivX version is a lot better, but has that annoying logo in the corner!
October 1st, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Butterflies from BBB in the bamboo forest?
October 1st, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Great short animation movie, I liked it π
And yes, there may be some minor plotholes, but it isn’t fair to blame just one person for it. The plot might be someone’s idea, but I reckon it was approved by others.
One thing that I noticed was that Sintel (especially her face) doesn’t look as nice as some pictures from the Gallery (e.g. http://www.sintel.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sintel_ab_original_dark_facial.png). Is this just the light/shadow?
I made a mosaic (with metapixel, nice program!) of that picture from the gallery, you can find it at http://www.ushareimg.com/images/650SintelTiles1.jpg. Be warned, it is a VERY large image – I think Chrome is the best browser for large images, my Firefox has major difficulties opening it. It consists of frames from the animation, hope you enjoy it.
Oh, one other thing. I downloaded both the OGV and MP4 versions of the movie. With the OGV, after the screen goes black, it stays black. The audiotrack continues but the videotrack doesn’t, unless you manually move forward. I used VLC.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Thanx guys!
What is epic is not the film itself but the fact that you managed to make it using alpha software! :-)))
October 1st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Somehow the people who critic the story seem to be mostly angry at the fact that it didn’t give them warm fuzzy feelings. Tough. Personnally I think the team did a great job at storytelling, considering the time constraint.
Technically, I thought it was outstanding. Much better than many commercial (well-funded) ventures.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Hello,
the technology was great, the rendering, the camera where good… but the end of this story is like other stereotype dragon flims, i not really like this. I think the cirtics will may be better with an other end of this movie where Scales still alive.
and where is a *.avi file to download?
this schould be solved for a next blender movie or an alternate ending edition…
October 1st, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Come to think of it, I liked your references to the previous open movies. Proog in the market scene was clear enough (ED), the bamboo scene with the butterflies was so very BBB (and the color schemes and lighting were on par with BBB too!)
I practically liked the story – but like what others have noted, you have to watch the film again to get what was going – you practically made it such that the film grows on you on second, or third watch!
And the scenes where Sintel was bitten or scratched without her being wounded was an allusion to the end of the movie… **Spoiler** – brilliant!
Yes, there are cg glitches, but the sound and music kinda makes you gloss over the cg mistakes.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
anywho…moving along.
I just wanted to say that you all did a fantastic job! I think I’ve viewed the film at least a dozen times already. There are so many moments, big and small, that I really enjoy. I really was too caught up in the story, the visuals, and the music to really be a geek (or jerk) looking for flaws. I still haven’t taken the time to really do that. Sometimes I just like to be a normal person and simply enjoy a movie.
I will definitely be buying the dvd set. Thanks again!
October 1st, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Great work on the film! Excellent example of the power of Blender! Love the open movie projects!
But that’s how the movie ends?!? Sintel spends half her life traveling the world to rescue Scales only to kill him/her in the end? I hope she at least got to keep the other baby dragon.
But seriously, huge congratulations to the Durian team. The finished product really is excellent work. Thanks for everything!
October 1st, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Great movie!!! I wish It could have been much longer but I know you guy’s had work so hard on developing the new Blender along the movie. I am very grateful for all of your hard work and time that each and everyone had put into this project. Now onward with the game engine to make independent games… lol
Much and Respect.
Jeremy
October 1st, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Major dissapointment.
The story lacked in so many ways.It’s too complex for such a short film. Sintel is unlikeable and there are no real motives for her to chase after her pet for over 30 years, i mean common…
She is unlikeable because she is trying to kidnap the baby from her mother, what kind of person does this? It does not matter how much she likes scales, you just don’t take away the baby from its mother. She is also ready to kill the mother for her own benefit.
Also, is she delusional? Why does she not realise that she has been looking for scales for years? She only realises this afther she kills scales.
The CG and sound however was very impressive.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:03 pm
A great movie with a stunning end! Some things about the plot are not explained, and some extra minutes on film would have been necessaries… but the final result is really awesome. Thanks to all the team for their work, motivation and talent! See you!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I really loved the movie. The twist at the end was unexpected.
Just one thing, what is the thing that hovers under Proog’s left arm?
October 1st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
visually stunning
October 1st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Loved it, animation is great, style also, wonderful.
Some crits :
I think there’s a real pb with specular maps, they are flickering in almost any scene when in focus. Weird !
Blood and fire doesn’t fit well the overall style, which has a comic taste I liked very much.
For the story, dragons grow very fast …
Anyway, big thx and congrats to the Blender Fondation and the durian team.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:15 pm
@spc, your attempt and being the “o so witty” type with you sarcastic comments has failed, calling sintel an emo is not witty in the slightest, and any dim 12 year old xbox-live player could string together a similar insult.
anywho onto talking about the substantial point of you post
The ambusher is wielding a staff that has that tree on it, obviously tied in with the dragon, he is either protecting the dragon and that area being a “gatekeeper” of sorts, or he is off to slay the dragon as well.
of course both dragons bleed significantly, try stabbing yourself a few times and record the volume of water that pours out π
the movie is only 12 and a half minutes long so of course they have to squeeze all they can in that time, 60 seconds into a movie before the first death is not a plot flaw :\
and the baby dragon may not know that sintel killed its parent, it may be just following the smell of its parent on sintel, maybe “play stalking” as baby animals do. Assuming an animal would comprehend a murder like that is just silly, the baby dragon was not even there when their parent was murdered, lambs dont look at a farmer and go ” o no you killed my mommy bawww bawww” the dont have the intellect, and the dragons in this movie aren’t the mind reading, wisdom, magic type.
obtw, derp
October 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I had the opportunity to watch Sintel with a small group and believe me, not one of us were left unimpressed by the visuals or the story. Although I could critique certain shots, the film is ultimately not affected by them as it delivers such a poignuant, multifaceted message that deeply moved me and everyone I know who has seen it.
Congratulations to the Durian Team for delivering a meaningful product that was well worth the year of anticipation!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
About complanining storywise:
If it’s a very simple story like Avatar, people complain about being it too simple and cliche.
If it’s a more complex/metaphorical story, people complain that it makes no sense.
Great that such things are being made in this very down-to-earth country.
On to the next project!
Und auch mein kompliment an den Deutschen ton! (that’s funny, the German word for sound is the name as the name of our big producer π )
October 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
I thought that the plot was weak, but considering that they were compressing that shiz down to 10-14 minutes it’s ok for what we got.
I know that if they had more than just 15 minutes to get points across and more action then the movie would have been extremely kick ass.
I also think they were using features and probably having problems with new builds of Blender, so I can see why some of the effects are not as deep as I imagined it would have been!
The plot, as SPC said above, did kind of kill it for me. There are inconsistencies everywhere but I know that this isn’t exactly hollywood we’re looking at. I did get some of the messages, I think, and I watched it a couple of times to see if I would get it any more (hint : I didn’t, but I did like the plot).
But just like all of the Blender foundation projects you’ve got to remember what this is!
To me this is an example, a sort of tech demo for new developers, to show what CAN be done for free (package cost wise and other things). Apart from the fact that most things can be done in one package, and that the Blender community is very quick to respond to a particular problem about things in the program (certain scripts for example, or a modelling/rigging/animation/texturing problem) this program can do a lot for what some people might pay a lot of money for!
I hope we make a return to BGE and making it more accessible to people who aren’t especially well versed in scripting and programming. It’d be nice for people who are inexperienced getting some results and saying “Holy Rustnoodles, batman! If I can do this now I can do more later!”.
My thoughts, for what they are worth. ($0)
October 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Awesome π
October 1st, 2010 at 4:22 pm
ok movie, ok graphics, big buck and elephants dream look better both them more entertaining, i think biggest knock against movie is cartoonish sintel her shoulders droop and look frail much too thin and legs walk funny especially up hill at end, i downloaded every version of the movie i found the ogg/theora even with newest directshow codecs unplayable/choppy, the mpeg4/avi version is half quality (plays at average 2500kb) of the divx version, evident looking at detailed rooftops and her knit sweater/bedding that divx much higher detail due to its 6500kb rate, i hate HATE the divx logo in corner, since i dont like resloution of all other movies i deleted all of them and because story so sad im not showing this to my neice/nephews and i wont sit around laugh at many times over like bigbuck bunny, until release higher def version preferrably in avi container format(so i can edit it to smaller xvid as i do with all my movies) i dont plan on watching this again or sending or telling about to others
October 1st, 2010 at 4:22 pm
@spc, your attempt and being the “o so witty” type with you sarcastic comments has failed, calling sintel an emo is not witty in the slightest, and any dim 12 year old xbox-live player could string together a similar insult.
anywho onto talking about the substantial point of you post
The ambusher is wielding a staff that has that tree on it, obviously tied in with the dragon, he is either protecting the dragon and that area being a “gatekeeper” of sorts, or he is off to slay the dragon as well.
of course both dragons bleed significantly, try stabbing yourself a few times and record the volume of water that pours out π
the movie is only 12 and a half minutes long so of course they have to squeeze all they can in that time, 60 seconds into a movie before the first death is not a plot flaw :\
and the baby dragon may not know that sintel killed its parent, it may be just following the smell of its parent on sintel, maybe “play stalking” as baby animals do. Assuming an animal would comprehend a murder like that is just silly, the baby dragon was not even there when their parent was murdered, lambs dont look at a farmer and go ” o no you killed my mommy bawww bawww” the dont have the intellect, and the dragons in this movie aren’t the mind reading, wisdom, magic type.
DivX was a sponsor and payed for the 4k render, they can stick a logo where they see fit.
obtw, derp
October 1st, 2010 at 4:23 pm
@derp,
Asking as a person interested in story reception, I’d really like to know: if you found Sintel to be unlikable, why didn’t you find the ending, where she is left with nothing, satisfying?
October 1st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Congratulations! Thank you guys and girls.
@mk1
**Maybe I am spoiling it to some people** I am not sure. I see it this way: Sintel was late seeking something blindly – because of an intense feeling. The gatekeeper is a metaphor for obstacle in her life. She carries gatekeeper ‘s key, which is somehow associated with her objective. She had stopped in time. Then she ‘fails to see’, acts blindly and helps perpetuating the blade’s dark past. That was not her objective. Then she realizes she had killed her hopes, wasted her life. Ceases to be the young lively girl. She was living for it, and ended it. The newborn and Sintel were alive after all. There is some meaning in that. But I am not sure. Will both walk together towards another objective? Or will they ‘undo’ the path?
October 1st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
@mathias – install downloadhelper und download it from youtube as an MP4-video file (up to 2048 px !!! )
October 1st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
I liked the allusions to the previous blender films – Proog in the market scene, BBB environments in the bamboo scene (notice the butterflies?), and Sintel holding a durian fruit!
And I agree with some folks saying you have to watch the film twice to get the story. It is unique in the way that the film seems to grow on you as you watch it multiple times.
The allusion to Sintel’s age and appearance was subtle, and brilliant in a way – the Shaman’s remark about her being lucky that she’s still alive; the bites and scratches that she incurred on some of the scenes without her seemingly hurt by it physically (you see her act as if in pain, but you’ll find it strange at first no wounds)… and the opening of her eyes to the realization that time has passed between the abduction of Scales and her finding of Scales at the end…
CG wise, of course, there are some flaws (antialiasing problems, some intersection of the hairs with the cloth/skin, flickering on some parts), but overall, it did not distract to the overall presentation and story of the film. In fact, when I watched it in my television set (burned a dvd and put it in my dvd player) – those problems were largely unnoticed (in fact, there was no flicker at all – my tv set is not an lcd one, but the old type one). The sound and music just takes you in and make you largely forget about these flaws.
Overall, I am quite happy with the film. Kudos to the Durian team for making this happen! Maybe those cg shots will be fixed by some blender people at another time when those blend files come out.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Yay, tis here! Watched only twice, with mixed feelings both times I must admit. But still find it great! The story was less than inanticipatable (great word, innit? say it three times fast!) and, well, the end really got me. When do we get the score for download?
October 1st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Thanks for all the great remarks! And don’t forget, it’s a mark of quality to get people criticising our work here (even when completely ridicule). I was already afraid we had a crowd-pleaser here. π
October 1st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Biggest problem is the amount of stuff not explained.
**spoiler**
like why she would go on a ~ 30 year (???) journey to find a friend she probably only had for a month when it looks obvious that the dragon was being taken to be cared for by its own kind from the very beginning.
and how did the dragon get to far away and injured when it was a baby.
and why did that random person attack Sintel.
and “these are dragon lance Sintel” should of been “This is a dragon lance Sintel” [These is plural, meaning you would need multiple lances for it to make sense](At least I think that is what you were going for).
October 1st, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Fred,
It seems that you didn’t actually get the plot.
I think that that the whole concept was brilliantly worked out and realised and I do not think that this is just a showcase for Blender’s technical capability, it is a showcase of how Blender can be used to create a piece of art. I take my hat of to the team for achieving that.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:34 pm
I’ve been following since the early days of BBB, but never found the courage to make a comment. So, here is my first…
Wow… what a film! When I’d first heard the choice of voice actors months ago I’d thought I’d be disappointed, but now I don’t think the casting could have been more perfect. The characters, sets, and renders are simply beautiful – I give a big thumbs-up to all the Project Durian team!
The characters develop nicely through the first half, but then do seem to go somewhat stiff by the final scene. (I do understand that given the time constraints and such….) Still beautiful though.
Although I have to point out, I would have eaten that _peach_ if I’d been hungry. X)
October 1st, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I agree with spc, there’s just so many questions and lost bits of information:
*spoilers*
-Who is the attacker in the beggining, and why is his blade so important?
-How long did Scales and Sintel have to bond? It looked like they were with each other for a day and a night and she was already ready to travel to the ends of the earth and back.
-How long has she been traveling (at the end, it seem like it must have been years). The investment of the time and effort she must have put in the journey makes the previous bonding question substantially more important.
-How did she know where to even start looking and where to travel to after Scales was taken.
The movie’s sense of time is hard to gather (yet I still knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as that baby dragon squeeled in the cave :p ) and the sense of character bonding and motivation also lacks a good foundation.
The one criticism I have for the visuals is that the cave looked way too detailed, in the HD rendering, it seems suffer noise sparkling from camera movement and made it harder to see the higher level shapes of the terrain. But we can’t end on just criticism – The visuals were good and the character animations were FANTASTIC. The sad part is that while the visuals were great, parts that were lacking were out-of-blender resources: the script/concept/story, plot twists, have nothing to do inherently with Blender but this Blender Foundation’s product may have suffered dramatically from them.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:36 pm
And I really should of included something positive, because it is not a horrible film, at least as good as the average Hollywood film.
Its not bad.
Is their any plans for a sequel?
October 1st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
When can we expect the PNG’s and uncompressed audio? I really want to make a HQ playable disc for my Blu-ray player!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
My 2 cents…
***POST CONTAINS SPOILERS***
First of all, great job guys. The visuals and music were great. I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about the story. The one part that bugs me is that why would Sintel not think that the dragon had grown in the time it took her to find it?
Other then that I loved it. If you guys can burn some Blu-Rays count me in.
One last thing. I’d like to say to all of those people that are being incredibly hard on this film. Keep in mind that this was a very dedicated, hard working, but small team of people building this film. We’re not talking about a major studio that has a large team, tons of money, resources and a good amount of time. Keep that in mind and be constructive with your comments.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Oh and the only graphical problem I noticed was around 8:59 (in sintel-2048-surround.mp4)
The baby dragons left wing has holes in it.
you can see this a few seconds earlier, but you pretty much need to slow down the video to notice it.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@mathias: i think it’s a problem with your player, not the compression. the same movie (medium/stereo) sucks at winamp and runns fine in the movieplayer…..
October 1st, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Great, but I’m still waiting for a stereo 3D version…
October 1st, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Such a waste! |:/
I mean, it IS an amazing achievement. But after all the work that was put into the project it ends up with such a poor story? Shame. I know you cant squeeze a feature film plot into 15 mins. but IΒ΄ve seen tons of shorter shorts with great stories (be it sad, humorous or terrifying even some poorly executed ones). I wont go any further. Story just sucks(.)<-period!.
I was watching this project almost from the start. I was quite anxious to see the final result. And it really stands out (technically)! Every new open movie project is better than the previous, so IΒ΄m really looking forward to see whats next. But please, next time spend more time on the story development and donΒ΄t hesitate to rewrite the script from scratch. Even the professionals do it (usually several times before its roughed out for further development).
Big thanks and best of luck to the team on their next project!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Great job! I look forward to seeing the files and the insides of how it was made. To Ton and the Blender Foundation, thank you for doing things like this. You really are huge pioneers that are changing the way people think about art, movies and animation.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I liked the allusions to the previous blender films – Proog in the market scene, BBB environments in the bamboo scene (notice the butterflies?), and Sintel holding a durian fruit!
And I agree with some folks saying you have to watch the film twice to get the story. It is unique in the way that the film seems to grow on you as you watch it multiple times.
The allusion to Sintel’s age and appearance was subtle, and brilliant in a way – the Shaman’s remark about her being lucky that she’s still alive; the bites and scratches that she incurred on some of the scenes without her seemingly hurt by it physically (you see her act as if in pain, but you’ll find it strange at first no wounds)… and the opening of her eyes to the realization that time has passed between the abduction of Scales and her finding of Scales at the end…
CG wise, of course, there are some flaws (antialiasing problems, some intersection of the hairs with the cloth/skin, flickering on some parts), but overall, it did not distract to the overall presentation and story of the film. In fact, when I watched it in my television set (burned a dvd and put it in my dvd player) – those problems were largely unnoticed (in fact, there was no flicker at all – my tv set is not an lcd one, but the old type one). The sound and music just takes you in and make you largely forget about these flaws.
Overall, I am quite happy with the film (BBB was really good visually, but storywise, I like Sintel better). Kudos to the Durian team for making this happen! Maybe those cg shots will be fixed by some blender people at another time when those blend files come out.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:48 pm
16312 plays in its firsday in youtube until now and a lot more downloads and mirrors from the movie couldnt be wrong.
Sintel is a hit and the blender team is making dreams come true.
a free software like blender doing all these stuff and for free is wonderful.
October 1st, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I had the opportunity to watch Sintel with a small group and believe me, not one of us was left unimpressed by the visuals or the story. Although I could critique certain shots, the film is ultimately about much more than small technical details, as a good film should be. It delivers a poignant, multifaceted message that deeply moved me and everyone I know who has seen it.
Congratulations to the Durian Team for delivering a meaningful film that was well worth the year of anticipation!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I worked on over 100 movies at ILM and believe me, many had plot holes,cliches, broken simulations, messed up spec,shadows etc., including some of the biggest grossing movies of all time. Sintel is a pleasure to watch. It is made with blender and a very small team with limited resources and still competes with much larger films. I love the non happy ending. Great work all!
October 1st, 2010 at 4:53 pm
The movie is amazing.
The story is very good, but confused my a bit first. On the first watching I thought the gray hair was dust from the figtht. After watching it again I noticed the “ageing” of Sintel, which of course gives the scene a totally different meaning.
I think the butterflies are from Big Buck Bunny, but with different colors. Funny was also that Sintel first grabs a peach and then a durian. Did you make a video reference for the Durian smelling? π
I noticed that there some lava and steam designs that I saw when visiting the Blender Institute didn’t make it into the final movie.
Fantastic work!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Thanks – the movie is absolutely amazing.
Can we download the Sintel Song as MP3? It’s so beautiful!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I just noticed that both Sintel and BBB have close-up shots of frowning midway through the movie. π
October 1st, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Yes, great movie!
But I see Sintel as a trailer for a bigger production. Simply, the story is too big for a short movie. You can’t compress it without loosing a lot of little stories and adventures linked to the main line of the story.
I think this is how to see it all of us.
Again, great movie! Thank you! Don’t despair, some like it, some not -as in real life!
Vasi
October 1st, 2010 at 5:14 pm
minute 4:22 a ghost object or ufo is moving around the character of elephant dream, what a mistake!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Congratulations! Fantastic Work!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:17 pm
BTW, didn’t needed a second play to understand the story… Maybe on other stories I need more to understand but not here. This is also real life!
Vasi
October 1st, 2010 at 5:21 pm
First of all, my congratulations for a job well done and for proving that community-sponsored films using open source software can be made – and quite well-made too.
Sintel was way better than I feared, more than I expected but not as much as I dreamt of. On the whole it was a quite good movie.
The first part, up until the snatching of Scales made me tear up – and I’m an adult.
The second part was… oh… it was.. cruel. Not unexpected, though.
I had to read the discussions to get the ending, and then everything made sense. However, I would still like a more hopeful ending.
There were a few weaknesses and plotholes in the script, but the pace was fine.
The artistic resources and sound were excellent.
Lastly, my thanks to Team Durian for their contributions to the development of Blender.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Congratulations! Great job!
I thing that we can recognize all the efforts, all the benefits to the comunity and Blender development.
I would like to congratulate Ton and all the team!
But, i also thing that a art piece can be apreciated and evalueted.
There’s some techincal errors and we should not stopping looking at these errors because we like Blender and we recognize the efforts, like a said before.
There are some errors now that we didn’t find in Elephants and BBB. So it’s not a question of minimizing our criticism. We can expect more!
And criticism is necessary to grow. The script problem exists, it’s true.
So, it’s not about depreciate the entire movie and all things that was done: Blender development, the dvd tutorials, making off and a lot of things!
Another thing: Sintel is not Blender. If these errors can be repared using Blender it’s ok. We are seeing the Blender capabilities and we are thankfull for entire job that demonstrates this.
Again, great job!
Forgive the bad english, i’m fighting with this language problem.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Ton: a videoclip for the song?? is it much to ask??
October 1st, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for allowing us watch this movie unfold, it was a fun experience.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:29 pm
For everyone’s reference. Did you know that Blurs studio’s takes 3 months to finish a 3 minute video game trailer? and it involves 40 to 50 people.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/09/meet-the-pixar-of-video-games/
Anyway Sintel is great as it is. Congratulations to the team. I’m sure the foundation could have made it even better if there was just enough time and more people.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Hi all
I loved the animation. But i didn’t like the ending. Hope the community make a
second one and Scales is alive.
Anyone else want to save Scales.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:32 pm
You guys are mad!
Completely mad!
That project was simply too big!
But you managed to get it done and it’s good π
Not completely over the top good (to me at least, please don’t get angry), but the story worked quite well, the animation was for the most part quite solid, at times really great and on one or two shots sadly … a little floaty and awkward, the camera work was at times really nice (congrats!!), good composition and lighting.
That’s some amazing work you did! Rock on!
And please take on a smaller project next time, so you can take the time to make it really stand out.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:33 pm
First impression is great work, but very disapointed with the story, not technical, plot, or critisism, just personal taste. Views which unfortunately I cannot go into without ‘spoilers’ so will probably give when everyone has seen it.
Still the overall impression is truly great work artistically. I will try and go flaw and blooper spotting next π Lets face, it multi-million pound productions with armies of artists manage to make mistakes, so I’m sure we can forgive a couple here.
One thing this absulutely shows is: BLENDER ROCKS! That is undisputable.
Great work from a great team.
October 1st, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I was moved which is a rare thing indeed for movies. Big grats.
I found the pacing and story to be wonderful, it worked more like a fairy tale than the fantasy epic some seem to have expected. I’m surprised there are so many irrelevant questions being raised (“why did the guard attack”, “what are the gatekeepers”, …).
Technically it worked for the most part and was downright stunning in a few shots, but sadly some mistakes are noticable (hair/collar intersection, the animation in the first city scene is _noticably_ worse than the rest of the movie, some low-res models and textures, hit-and-miss blood etc). As a show piece, I think it still works since the best scenes blow most CGI movies out of the water. All in all a bit uneven but solid mostly and spectacular in parts.
Well done!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:34 pm
When I finished watching it, I wanted more! And thanks for the torrents – super fast download in high quality!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:39 pm
But if Scales remains alive she gets stuck with an enormous beast in her backyard! π
Or you make a very short version in which shoots the big kidnapping dragon with bow and arrow! π
October 1st, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Wow, disregarding other’s comments I have to say that this is the BEST Open Movie Project so far!!! The message, was there!! And it’s a message that gets to you!!
Congratulations to the animators, designers, everyone who helped, Ton and Colin!! A great work of art!!!
Technical Analysis:
Very little graphical errors, best audio of all films, full ambient sound, inspiring music!! I would have extended the cavern’s exit take 2 seconds longer. Too much blood on when she hit’s Scale’s hearth, too little when she hits the man who attacked her. Flies should have motion blur. Color gamma variates on takes when Scales is taken away from her.
The message in Sintel:
One shouldn’t stick to live in the past because then we “fail to see” the present and we end up to destroy ourself by not noticing it. There’s always a second chance in life, it is important to forgive and forgive ourselves in order to accomplish it.
The movie ends with a ray of hope. I love it!!!
On the future:
A game on Sintel’s world would be awesome!!!
We still need an open feature length film.
If the next movie was a short film it must be 3D.
Is there a place to download Sintel’s song individually? I would like to add it to my collection.
Thanks, and good luck on the future projects!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:45 pm
very nice history and amazing effects!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I must say that I’m impressed. I expected Sintel to be a nice short and IMO it was worth waiting for a year (started reading blog in October ).
Congratulations for team!
Waiting for Blender 2.6!
Ps1. Where can I found “Sintel’s song”?
Ps2. When you will release DVD’s for download?
October 1st, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I personally loved it.
With all the assets becoming available soon, there is the opportunity for a very dark alternative ending, whereby the little dragon at the end comes out and pushes the sobbing girl off the cliff, then morphs into the shaman, at which point the dragon we all thought was dead emerges out of the cave and roasts the shaman with a nice flaming blast.
On the other had the existing ending works just fine π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:02 pm
With all the assets becoming available soon, there is the opportunity for a very dark alternative ending, whereby the little dragon at the end comes out and pushes the sobbing girl off the cliff, then morphs into the shaman, at which point the dragon we all thought was dead emerges out of the cave and roasts the shaman with a nice flaming blast.
On the other had the existing ending works just fine, I loved it π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:04 pm
@MartianR π
Looking forward to your version release π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Congratulations to everyone who worked hard on it! π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:05 pm
With all the assets becoming available soon, there is the opportunity for a very dark alternative ending, whereby the little dragon at the end comes out and pushes the sobbing girl off the cliff, then morphs into the shaman, at which point the dragon we all thought was dead emerges out of the cave and roasts the shaman with a nice flaming blast.
On the other had the existing ending works just fine, I loved it π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Would love to see this propely nailed with a 60min/90min version, and using some of the improvements to Blender. Call it the Directors Extended edition.
Anyways Euro lottery is Β£82million tonight, who knows, BF should buy a couple of tickets π
regards all and have a good weekend.
TFS
October 1st, 2010 at 6:06 pm
If anyone understood the ending sequence, could you please enlighten me?
I was tracking along with the movie just fine, then when she stabs Scales in the heart (and realizes he’s not his [parent] as she seemed to believe up until then), everything gets weird, the cave starts becoming structurally weakened, the blood rolls out and she sees herself as (older? with random, weird-looking patches of gray hair that I could not tell if they were supposed to denote age or not), and she has a scar across her nose and a slightly narrower face…
Are we supposed to believe that she has someone grown old in the process of looking for Scales but did not realize it until seeing her reflection? Could that many years have passed, and her have survived somehow through such harsh climates without her clothes wearing out or becoming too small? Also, it’s no longer cold (there’s no snow, she’s not wearing her jacket) when she reaches the cave, so why did the shaman say she was “closer than [she thought]” she was… seems like it took her a while to get there regardless.
Or is the ending sequence purely metaphorical? And why does the cave collapse once Scales dies? Was it somehow being held up by dragon magic, or once again, just metaphor? I just felt like the film was so straight-literal up until that end sequence that I just couldn’t follow the crazy-hard-shift into (whatever that was).
And yes, I agree with others that Scales’ baby following her at the end seemed both totally implausible and a sorry consolation prize after accidentally killing the beloved pet you spent (years?) looking for…
Thoughts?
October 1st, 2010 at 6:07 pm
There seems to be such diverse opinion on the story, we almost need a blog just for this, so those who have not seen it can avoid spoilers.
October 1st, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Very good job! Very nice!
Thank you for Blender and Sintel !!!
RΓΌdiger
October 1st, 2010 at 6:21 pm
@Lucas : I think *you* didn’t understand what Sintel has done. Watch the movie again. (hint : look carefully at what they want you to look).
Great movie ! We were like little child waiting for Santa, in #blenderdurian !
I think most of the critics about the story are caused by the shortness. But hey, you can’t expect to be given all the details. Make your own mind.
Everyone can interpret the way they want, but my interpretation as of why did Sintel kill Scale w/o recognising him is “explained” when she sees herself in the mirror of blood : she has spent so much energy going there, had the kidnapping in mind and acted accordingly impulsively.
The only questions I would have are:
– What hurt Scales in the first time ?
– What is the background history of the guardian/the gatekeepers ?
– What is floating behind/under Proog’s arm ?
– Is Sintel’s reflection supposed to be looking old in the liquid that the shaman gives her ?
If those questions are answered in the DVD Bonuses, please don’t answer them π I’d rather wait for it to arrive and take time to forge my own theories.
October 1st, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Thanks very much for this wonderfull open film! Thanks for sharing it!
I think this is the better production of the blender foundation!
October 1st, 2010 at 6:27 pm
very great movie
π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Visually outstanding!!! The OST is really something else!!! I think this movie represents a big leap forward for Blender!!! But, I have to admit, the script hasn’t convinced me completely for reasons which have been pointed out by previous replies; regarding this issue, I liked BBB most. Anyway, congratulations to all of you: you did a very great job!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Great Works …. I’m proud of you Guys !!
I love the film and the characters, i see the movie 3 times and i love the render, models, sound efects, and the best Blender animation ever seen before, thnx for share this great project to the blender community.
I love the poetic in the film wen sintel turning old and decadent wen she kill your old dragon friend = ,,,, ( Fantastic !!
I love You Guys ——- And Thnx for contribute to Blender development !!!! its de most important …. =)
October 1st, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I felt that the lighting and compositing effects in most cases were very well done, but it seemed like at the expense of the animation and story. The story seemed like it was designed to be for a full length movie, and then was cut short. The plot seemed to be compressed too much, the and it didn’t make much sense. The animation was, in general, good, except for a few moments.
But the special effects such as the water, blood, and fire… *shutter*
October 1st, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Love it!
How about a WebM version?
October 1st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Incredibly fantastic!!!
The visuals, the sound, the camera, the story, the animation, great!
I could really feel it. So sweet, and so sad. I mean, you almost made me cry – what else to say.
Fantastic job!
October 1st, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Whatever happened to happy flicks? Seriously why so many dark flicks? I enjoyed it very much up until the ending. I get the many messages that it conveys. I just am tired of sad movies.
October 1st, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Great film, congratulation Durian Team :D.
October 1st, 2010 at 6:48 pm
BTW:
@Clint : wow, thanks … I didn’t realized that, until she sees herself as she really is, she doesn’t have any scar and that the scars appear after that π
I have to see it a couple more times !
October 1st, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Wonderfull, I love it!!!! The story is amazing and very well directed, congratulations Colin Levy. Everything is nice, I love the part of the Sintel travel all the scenes are perfect specially the Bamboo is amazing.
Congratulations to ALL THE DURIAN TEAM !!!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Great movie!
Where can i download ‘I move on’ ? I very like this song π
October 1st, 2010 at 6:57 pm
It completely blew me away. Great story, great imagery.
SPOILER ALERT
@Jesse: yes, i think the ending is metaphorical. Not just the cave caves in. Her whole world collapses. She just killed the one friend she ever had and for whom she spent a whole lifetime looking for.
October 1st, 2010 at 6:58 pm
The whole team did an amazing job!
Especially Jan and Soenke made this animation grow to a “movie”.
Obviously the hair- and cloth-simulation isn’t as good as we all wish it could.
And obviously there are details like to be found:
– a basket full of PEACHES
– Proog
And a horrible detail failure:
When the big dragon hijacks the baby dragon. At 5:33. The claws of the big dragon are empty!?
October 1st, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Great, but sad movie.
Now I know that there are films where you just want to cry (but I still don’t understand why titanic is one of them ;-)). Thanx to all of you. I just want a sequel, and I already have some plans…
October 1st, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Thanks, I followed it from the start and it I really pleased with who it turn out!
And a really big thank to you Ton who ones again dared to go for a none mainstream story! (But then I’m also one of those who would like another ED)
October 1st, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I liked it. The best part is where she climbs on the roof to find scales. I didn’t like how she thought the baby dragon was hers to begin with. The dragon that took it away was most likely the dragons mother and Sintel was just going to steal it back. That’s actually pretty messed up. I think her voice sounded a little off.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Oh wow. This was much more tear-jerking then I expected. And I was almost yelling, “No, Sintel, it stopped for a reason!” Why’d she have to get the fatal blow before realising? :'(
October 1st, 2010 at 7:14 pm
@Chris : I Totally agree. There seem to be a few who think if you don’t like it, you don’t understand it, which is rather presumptious. Personally I have enough tragedy in my life and prefer more comfortable endings to stories. That is absolutely NOT a critisism of this story btw.
Anyway, I have already worked out my alternate ending, which keeps the integrity of the message intact, but ends in a way more appropriate to my sensitive disposition π
October 1st, 2010 at 7:16 pm
the movie was awesome! π i see no problems with the plot except that maybe some more minutes could have helped a bit. i also liked sintel’s voice a lot. isn’t it somehow fitting to the age thing of the story?
i hope blender’s biggest renderer and hair/cloth simulation issues get solved before the next open movie. i think for people who work in 3d animation themselves it can be a bit hard to enjoy the movie and to not get distracted by intersecting hair and such stuff. π
will more correction work be done for the 4k render or will it be rendered with the current little flaws?
October 1st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Congratulations! Great job.
Thanks to Ton and all the team for all the efforts and benefits to Blender.
About the errors: Sintel isn’t Blender.
If these errors can be repaired using Blender it’s ok!
There were many points to conduce along this production: the movie itself, the Blender development, tutorials, DVD package… A lot of things beyond the movie. Maybe Ton can talk about it.
When a movie studio takes a production, it’s all about the film and all atention is on the movie.
I saw a interview (Ton) in Blenderguru, and he talk about the art ambitions, about the inexperienced artists and how they survived. I think that they learned a lot of things and we can learn too with this production. This is great!
I think that Pixar, Dreamworks and other studios do great movies, good scripts, excelents renders with no errors, but most of us don’t know how they do that. They don’t open they productions and all we can do is to watch and eat a popcorn.
I thing that i will learn a lot of things with that rain scene (wonderfull), more than with the “UP”.
I know that i can’t do a job like Sintel, all the artists involved are better than me (not you?), otherwise i should be there.
We can remember that first purpose: Blender. What are the benefits for Blender with this production? Is Blender better than before?
I think too that we should not stopping to look at the errors found in Sintel because we like Blender and we perceive all the efforts during this production.
A art piece must be apreciated and it can be evaluated.
Now, i’m happy: if a studio decides to use Blender, that studio can do a good movie.
Again, congratulations!
October 1st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I LOVE IT! Really really REALLY great work… really great work! ^^
greetings from germany :3
October 1st, 2010 at 7:22 pm
For those who wonder: we spent many months of time on the script, with very experienced people, we got film makers here to review it, and the reviewers from the netherlands film fund approved on it too. A script is also only the first step, with storyboarding and animatics taking several months as well. This heavily scrutinized and reviewed by the entire team.
The result might be still a personal statement from the makers, but certainly not a quick slammed together process without insight or professionalism. This is what we wanted to make, and we’re very happy with it. π
October 1st, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Thanks for the movie. I don’t understand anything about stories so I’ll just give you some hamburger feedback about the technical side.
-The big flame breath was just stunning. One of the best dragon breaths I’ve ever seen in all movies.
-The rain scene was really amazing. Your water looked great on Sintels face and her staff-thingie.
-Music and sounds were very good.
-Sintels animation stood out. It was very well done.
-I noticed one clear flaw on 0:50. The blade penetrates rock which catched my eye when I watched it first time.
-For vast majority Sintels moving looked weird. It looked like she was all the time off balance and when she moved it was far too “bouncy”. People walk and run in a more stiff way. This was especialy visible on the chicken catching scene where there is a gentleman on the background walking like humans do and Sintel bounced around.
-The dragon catching Scales scene was ugly. The biggest issue was the bigger dragon which is very low poly. Also the boulder it breaks just looks bad.
-Three scenes looked like if they were realtime which is clearly bad. The downstreet where Sintel finds a durian looks like it was from Assasins Creed, the bamboo scene just looked like any modern game with such environment and the scene where Sintel fights against that big wolf looked like an OLD game. The wolf was quite nice though.
-In the end when the sun sets the ground has far too dark shadows (From normal map).
-Young dragons move in an odd way. When they fly they look like a pigeon, when they walk they look like dogs.
-Scales was stunning. It was very high quality model with great texturing and animating. Both young and grown up Scaleses heads and eyes were superb. Professional quality!
-The shaman head was also awesome. Especialy his beard and eyebrows.
-The cave scenery fitted perfectly to grown up scales.
-The variety of weathers you had in the movie and the quality of them was cool. Snow storm looked great just like the dry environment of the city. I guess it was caused by your work on flying dust and the snow on wind.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:24 pm
*************** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***************
Graphics: On the whole they were inspirational; they were fantastic and it excites me that such great looks are achievable with blender (INTERNAL RENDERER)… the blood was completely out of balance looked WAAAY too… er… “stylised”, to the point where it looked like jam (Australian jam that is) at some points…
Sound: Again… on the whole it was of a truly professional standard, both the music and fx, just fantastic work!… the voices though, in my mind, did not fit the characters (for what little was said).
Story: I understand that you had a short time frame, and that you even went over your original time setting (almost double in fact), but the story was just too haphazard… it seems like a lot of things were cut, but not tied off neatly, scenes that explain other things may have been cut, and so elements were left IN the film without the reasons for why they were there. For instance: Lao Tseu… Who/what was he guarding? Why was he watching Sintel? Why did he attack her in the first place?
The twist was definitely unexpected, it made me sad and left a sour taste in my mouth… at first I didn’t like it (at all)… but upon reflection, I liked that it made me feel strongly about it (even if that feeling was dislike).
Conclusion: I am definitely going to invest in the DVD, a great resource for learning what is possible, not only in blender but in the world of 3D Animation, and how to do it.
**************************************************
Kudos to the whole team, you’ve done an amazing job, I look forward to the next project.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Magnifique ! ….Les larmes aux yeux !!!…
October 1st, 2010 at 7:39 pm
i don’t think sintel got that old. 70 or something like some comments suggest. not even 40. π you can get gray hair in a very young age already and she just looked a bit worn out.
October 1st, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Yeah ,I think the movie has a great quality, it looks more like a high quality game sequence but it gains a lot on HD, I mean the textures, a lot of details disappear when it’s stretched into another resolutions.
The script sucks, well, almost every Hollywood movie has a stupid script but technically it’s very well done.
The light is amazing, it’s several years ahead from big buck bunny, that was a cartoon style movie, though. But you have showed to the world that the blender internal render can perform really nice renders.
Some details: the dragon sculpt, the cave, the snow, the meat, the dragons tongue, the blood materials, Sintels hair …
Most of textures have a nice quality. Some doesn’t, like the baby dragon wound blood, though, but this is quite normal in games.
There are some weak points like the famous street hall, it doesn’t have a right illumination/composition, It seems to have been a nail in the brain.
Bu I can claim that colour, textures, materials, models, composition and animation are amazing. There are a lot of visual effects, I mean scenes and camera setups to cause impact on audience. But I don’t wanna spoil you too much.
Good Karma for you guys!!
October 1st, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Wow! Really good movie! Well done!
Long live to free softwares π
Funny that most of the comments show they didn’t understand the story at all!
!Spoiler!: Her quest to retrieve her pet “Scales” ends with her killing it and realizing how old she became.
I like the fact it’s not a happy end. It is sad yes, but also brings hope (Scales’s kid is following her).
October 1st, 2010 at 7:52 pm
that the universal consiousness and divine cosmos bless u !
;D
October 1st, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Yeah ,I think the movie has a great quality, it looks more like a high quality game sequence but it gains a lot on HD, I mean the textures, a lot of details disappear when it’s stretched into another resolutions.
The script sucks, well, almost every Hollywood movie has a stupid script but technically it’s very well done.
The light is amazing, it’s several years ahead from big buck bunny, that was a cartoon style movie, though. But you have showed to the world that the blender internal render can perform really nice renders.
Some details: the dragon sculpt, the cave, the snow, the meat, the dragons tongue, the blood materials, Sintels hair …
Most of textures have a nice quality. Some doesn’t, like the baby dragon wound blood, though, but this is quite normal in games.
There are some weak points like the famous street hall, it doesn’t have a right illumination/composition, It seems to have been a nail in the brain.
Bu I can claim that colour, textures, materials, models, composition and animation are amazing. There are a lot of visual effects, I mean scenes and camera setups to cause impact on audience. But I don’t wanna spoil you too much.
so
So I claim that you can be very proud of your work,
Good Karma for you guys!!
October 1st, 2010 at 7:53 pm
As i see at the end the cave colapse because the dragon break a few big collumns.
also is clear that the man who attack sintel at the beggining is a a guardian of that land thats why its call the land of the gate keeper. And a gate keeper is idntefy by the staff its pretty clear if i didnt undestand wrong.
also really like the age lapse, so inmerse in her quest forgot about time.
I wonder if that was the reason why during the flash back when the “wolf” attacks her, her arm is not injured even when the camera an her face lead the attention to it.
I cant explain the end. . . i didnt understand the flower meaning also
October 1st, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Yeah ,I think the movie has a great quality, it looks more like a high quality game sequence but it gains a lot on HD, I mean the textures, a lot of details disappear when it’s stretched into another resolutions.
The script sucks, well, almost every Hollywood movie has a stupid script but technically it’s very well done.
The light is amazing, it’s several years ahead from big buck bunny, that was a cartoon style movie, though. But you have showed to the world that the blender internal render can perform really nice renders.
Some details: the dragon sculpt, the cave, the snow, the meat, the dragons tongue, the blood materials, Sintels hair …
Most of textures have a nice quality. Some doesn’t, like the baby dragon wound blood, though, but this is quite normal in games.
There are some weak points like the famous street hall, it doesn’t have a right illumination/composition, It seems to have been a nail in the brain.
Bu I can claim that colour, textures, materials, models, composition and animation are amazing. There are a lot of visual effects, I mean scenes and camera setups to cause impact on audience. But I don’t wanna spoil you too much.
So I claim that you can be very proud of your work,
Good Karma for you guys!!
October 1st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Oh my god, just watched this from its being posted at io9, and it’s brilliant. Absolutely-frigging brilliant. That’s…really all I can say. Please, please make more awesome stuff like this.
October 1st, 2010 at 8:08 pm
HI team,
Beautifull movie, some shots are greater than others, and the end is awesome (be sure no one blockbuster will ever try this kind of end).
For those who wonder who is that guy attacking, I think that it is the apples seller that followed her to punish her of throwing his apple case in the street…
Congratulations to the team!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Amazing movie!
Thanks for creating it and congratulations! π
October 1st, 2010 at 8:20 pm
YEEEahh.. uhm… WAYYYYY TOOOOO SAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!! But it shows skill to make someone cry in 15 minutes…
But aside from the story it was like… WHHOOOOOAAAAA HAHA WOOOOOO!!!! good stuff yeah..
October 1st, 2010 at 8:30 pm
I think this is a great movie and it accomplishes the objective to showcase what Blender can do.
The visuals and the music are great. The story line is almost predictable. What I mean by that is I knew Scales was taken by her mom but I never thought it was going to end the way it ended. The ending made me feel like crying. I don’t like the ending because it is sad but I believe that if a movie makes you connect with the story and the characters it is definitely a good movie.
Sintel is a great short film. I’m proud to have helped support the project. I’m also more inspired to keep learning Blender.
Thank you guys!!!
October 1st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
@Belich:
Yea, you’re are correct. If you take a look at the shot where she realizes her age, you’ll see the scar from where that monster scratched her.
October 1st, 2010 at 8:38 pm
i’ve made belarusian translation for subtitles. where to send it?
October 1st, 2010 at 8:38 pm
What a fantastic demonstration of Blender true capabilities this movie is. Sadly storytelling has some flaws. Spc overreacted on this but really its the weakest part of whole project. But the message was pushed the right direction. This movie made me sad. Because…well…its sad. So you guys have reached the goal. Great work. Keep comming up. It is a great improvement from Elephants dream clumsiness I gues π
October 1st, 2010 at 8:48 pm
after the first 3-4 minutes, i thought, well, great animation but a little bit boring,
at the end, i was deeply moved. i cannot express how i felt (because of my bad english), but it would have had no such effect, if there had been a happy end. such a story of suffering could not possibly end happily.
i absolutely live this movie, in my oppinion the best open movie until now.
My compliment to the team, i was expecting something awesome, but you exceeded all expectations. I’m looking forward to the next one and hope it will be as great as this one or even greater…
October 1st, 2010 at 8:49 pm
@Jonathon Wisnoski
From the subtitle file..
>>22
>>00:07:37,800 –> 00:07:40,500
>>These are dragon lands, Sintel.
I just understood this way π
October 1st, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Guys there’s GOING to be seeming plot holes. That’s what happens when you don’t have the funding time, or crew to make a full-length, 2 hour movie. The film didn’t have the time or budget to fill in things like “where the guy with the blade came from” or “why she was so attached to Scales”. She mentioned that she had been alone all her life, so when she met this dragon, she finally had a friend! You think you’d just say “Well that sucks, guess I’ll just go about not having a life, now” if your only friend were taken away – even if by their mother? I have a feeling you’d be pretty bitter about it.
If you noticed at the end, Sintel didn’t really wasn’t aware of how much time had passed since she had seen the dragon. Of COURSE she didn’t recognize it. for a long time she’d been set on getting “revenge” by retrieving this baby dragon. If you noticed, she rapidly aged at the end. This wasn’t some sort of magical spell, but rather her realizing that far more time had passed than she could remember. The dragon she’d known had grown old while she’d simply been stuck in her own little world, obsessed with retrieving the creature.
I don’t understand all the negative feedback. My only negative feedback is that I wish it could have been longer, but understand that it couldn’t have been. There were tons of good models and animations in this film! Really amazing! Honestly I especially like the very very brief scene where Sintel is walking and gets attacked by that cat/wolf creature. I’ve watched it several times to try to completely see what it is, but can’t get it exactly – looks amazing, though! π Great work!
October 1st, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Phenominal work guys, really good content, excellent animation, and great plot.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:04 pm
This was a brilliant film. It’s story alone ranks it high above any of the bland, bloated-budget trash that seems to dominate the movie theaters these days. Of course, the visuals are stellar as well, an excellent showcase of Blender’s capabilities. But even if they weren’t, this would still be one of the best films I have ever seen.
I personally would like to see Mr. Pansy (spc) and Mr. D***less (fred) produce any material of equal or greater caliber. But if it’s anything like they slop together their sentences, I imagine these two dim bulbs have little to offer. I pass the same judgment to any of the above fools who incessantly whine about “plotholes” and respectfully suggest that they make better use of their time by complaining to movie makers who actually charge money for the garbage they produce.
Forget compensation; I, personally, would have paid to be a part of the Durian project. But I will not deny that my own experience with CGI is not yet sufficient to produce this kind of masterpiece. Truly, the best films are the ones not produced by stale profiteering business firms (like Dreamworks). I look forward to the next Open Movie Project. Congratulations to the Durian Team.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Great production overall. Scenes seemed to be inconsistent – some scenes rendered beautiful, others not so. Beautiful sound and musical score.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Just an technical question – not really complaining π
Both 720p mp4 versions are crashing my Apple TV (Version 3). I have some other short films with this problem, but in this case I’d really liked to solve it!
Any idea or hint?
..and to say something about the sintel story controversial-
@TL Bainter: Thanks I couldn’t have explain it better π
October 1st, 2010 at 9:18 pm
You know what I liked best? It was the completely realistic motion of the old man sitting down in the tent around the 3:45 mark. His legs fold under him in exactly the way the bones, hips, weight and strength of an old man would in the real world. Such a little moment, yet it tricked me into believing what I saw before me was real. I loved it. It was Pure.
Lovingly done by a master animator, that one tiny scene made the entire movie “come alive” for me, and I thank whoever did that.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:22 pm
(My last post didn’t show up… stupid computer. Trying again).
I really don’t get all the negativity.
First, this is NOT Big Buck Bunny. This is Sintel. There’s gonna be blood, there’s gonna be death. It isn’t the end of the world, and it wasn’t utterly pointless. It helped to tell the story! If there hadn’t been blood, you would have added that to the plothole: “Why was there no blood of any sort when Sintel stabbed the dragon?” Nor would you be able to tell that Scales was injured – he’d just be moaning for no reason in particular. It was used for the story.
It’s going to seem like there are plotholes, but the story was only 11 minutes long. However, some of these can be eliminated easily – like “why did she not recognize the baby “she raised”! If you paid attention to the end, you saw that she aged. This wasn’t magic – she really WAS that old. She’d been so bent on revenge and so obsessed that she hadn’t realized how much time had passed since she’d set out on her quest.
And then “why did she go on this quest?”! It’s gonna sound lame, but she went to find Scales because she was lonely. She’d been alone all her life – as far as she knew – and when she finally had a friend, it was taken away from her.
Other “plot-holes” could have been solved with a bigger budget, a bigger crew, and a lot more time. They weren’t plot holes, more just a lack of time to tell the story. Some things had to be cut out.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I loved the ending. It was an incredible film and very nicely finished up. Well worth the nearly year-long wait.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Shyamalan-ish story is both surprising and sorrowful.
Sintel lives alone and loneliness is a pain. She finds herself an unusual friend, a baby dragon. She loves Scales and this love makes her blind. Finally, she kills her friend and buries herself in loneliness again. This is her destiny. Remember the lonely tree. π π
October 1st, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Congratullations!! π good job!!!
The work in the plot is visible π
Really sad story he
Regards!!
October 1st, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Beautiful
October 1st, 2010 at 9:42 pm
I love it.
October 1st, 2010 at 9:45 pm
This thread shortened from 156 to 35 responses suddenly ?! What’s wrong? Liked to read all responses – it’s just entertaining π
October 1st, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Wow some sour haters here…
October 1st, 2010 at 9:51 pm
I watched 3 times this evening and I think it’s REALLY AMAZING !
Thanks to the whole Durian team, what you made is just AWESOME !
There is action, feelings, the end is great, music is a really good work, and, more than everything : the 3D graphics are just INCREDIBLE ! I also liked the plot.
To me, Sintel is a 100% success !
October 1st, 2010 at 9:55 pm
hmmm I was reading some harsh posts and made a reply and now they are gone (I think)
I guess they were spirited away by BBB butterflies π
October 1st, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I agree with spc.
The story ruined this film for me. None of it made alot of sense. Just plain bad writing. The stroy is too complex for such a short film. It just made no sense for the protagonist to chase after her childhood pet for over 30 years and kidnap it from its mother. Sintel is a very unlikeable character. Sorry, but it just did not do anything for me. A very forgetable short.
On the other hand, the CG was quite impressive.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:00 pm
@Derp, well you know its not a story in the sense of ”’What I did in the holidays’
Clearly some people arent capable of making the mental jump to discern what the story is in the same way music annotation conveys nothing to a non musician.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Great piece of art, saw it at least 5 times: story, graphics, camera, compositing, editing, sound and music. Congratulation !! Looking forward to get the DVDs
October 1st, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Great piece of art, saw it at least 5 times: story, graphics, camera, compositing, editing, sound and music. Congratulation !! Looking forward to get the DVDs.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Many technical errors. As I stated few months ago, some shots are looking as they were taken from game, not movie.
Holes in plot – Gatekeepers.
…
But… Durian fruit.
But… My girlfriend crying, after seeing scar on wing.
And me, saying to her – “I’ve been alone as long as I can remember”
Technically, lots and lots of flaws.
Plot also.
But… While it’s graphically worse than BBB or ED, and plot not as… Great? NEVER BEFORE ending had such an impact on me. I was left stunned and silent.
Great work.
Thank you.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:22 pm
The theora torrent for ‘small’ size seem to be downloading a file with .mp4 extension. Is this correct?
Also why is size of theora file (as shows on website) 284 MB while mp4 file is 93 MB? Is theora compression that bad?
October 1st, 2010 at 10:26 pm
becoming a lover of dragon trees π
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Socotra_dragon_tree.JPG
October 1st, 2010 at 10:31 pm
at all: there’s a caching system on our server showing older versions once a while, is being worked on. We don’t remove crits, no worries π
October 1st, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Congratulations to the team!
Waiting film… π
October 1st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
could you please post an mpeg2 version?
October 1st, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Thank you, team durian! IΒ΄m a blender-newbie. Sintel is a source of inspiration to me and makes me want to master blender.
Following your progress on the blog was a pleasure.
@all the criticism: I donΒ΄t get the point of your post-production bashing… the team surley is aware of minor flaws.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:48 pm
The movie’s just great. Congrats! π
However the downside for me is that the main development of 2.6 is kinda over too and there are still far too many issues to call blender grown up, not to mention, comparable to recent 3D suites. Brecht is moving on, I’m just hoping that someone can fill his position, if thats possible.
Anyway, keep up the great work and thanks!
October 1st, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Hello,
The way I looked at this, beings it was so short, was as a promotional piece that was very well done, to present to a potential funder to go forward with a full feature version of the Sintel story.
Frankly, I was anxiously awaiting the release, and somewhat let down that the movie was only 15 minutes long. I would like to see this story fleshed out more into a full length feature film using the staff and technology already involved in this project.
Thanks for your efforts in bringing this short film to the public, and I look forward to what ever follows.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Hey everyone, thanks so much for the encouraging feedback! Of course there will be a score release again, which will include the credits song. I just need to put some more time into the stereo mastering, and at the moment I’m pretty much swamped with other jobs. But I’ll try my best to get it done within the next two weeks.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I was delighted to hear this was finally out. I’m not a member of the blender community, nor-do I use blender all that much, but I do love the open source mentality of the blender foundation and its projects. Here is my critique of Sintel:
As a showreel: 10/10. the effort gone into detailing, modeling, texturing, rigging etc. is amazing!
As a short film: 2/10. the film feels like a glorified showreel without any real directing put into it. I have to agree with some of spc’s points but don’t agree with the manner in which he portrayed them. The film is full of things that would fall under my category of: “that’ be sweet to model”. Unfortunately, well textured dragons, nice hair calculations, and sweet particle simulations created in an awesome open source software don’t make a good film for me. I know there was great effort put into this project, but that doesn’t make it great. Unfortunately.
This is just my critique. I can’t pretend that I could do it any better (except the directing maybe), but if you had to be better than the people you critiqued we wouldn’t have half as many critiques as we do. It does help to have an outside observer! Anyways. Well done on sticking with it and seeing a big project through to the end! =)
October 1st, 2010 at 11:02 pm
@fred (the one which feel the same as @spc), after all, your reaction is based on the final π . You are sorry for the Scale, Sintel, etc… then the movie was good …
But you know what? Is the one of the few movies where you can make your own finale. I think you can be thankful after all…
Don’t worry, you are not alone in feeling the pain…
October 1st, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I have some trouble to critic this story, because I don’t fell affinity to the genre. I like monster movies, but mostly when they are the “heroes” π so I’ll keep it technical.
This is what, within my understanding, I thought of this awesome work:
I found this inverse format a very good way to pass a message or philosophy. It clearly shows allot of humanity biggest flaws, so instead of having a hero being a hero, all goody and such, you guys gave to Sintel and to the audience exactly all the characteristics that we should avoid. To name a few:
– Act without tinking;
– Failure in perceiving the reality of a event;
– Blind obsession/Tunnel vision;
It makes it crystal clear. In a way, I like this the most in the movie.
If Sintel was all smart and such it probably wouldn’t work at all.
One thing that I didn’t consider, or better said, in comparation to ED and BBB, Sintel seemed to didn’t totally achieved the blender improvement targets that were intended initially, like explosions, monsters (dragons are so cute) no story π I understand that just The 2.5 is a big undertaking and that allot of work was done in the foundations, but externally no flashy stuff like BBB Fur or ED Driven shape keys pop out.
Technically:
Highlights:
There’s some blender usuals to point, like some flickering but because I know by personal experience that they are a pain to solve I wont annoy you any further with this.
Sintel is a bit too much waxy and to make things worse the Shaman is too much good π Even the hair of the Shaman is so cool, that makes Sintels pails to it.
Modeling:
At a high level seams to be pretty much flawless! All excellent, from Sintel to the dragons and scenarios. I’ll have to dig it further to make sure π but on screen looks awesome.
Animation:
Is bad ass… animation is a problem to critic, because it’s a bunch of people work (Angela shape keys, Nathan rigging and all the animators movement and emotional content) what I can say is that all came together real nice.
There’s some issues again, but I’ve recently being doing similar work on 2.5… Bad ass!
Set and props:
is top nosh (erggg I don’t know how this last word is written)!
It’s all good, it’s well shaded, textured… can’t wait to take a peek π
Lighting and art direction:
Nothing to point there its gooood to me! Note that I’m still aspiring to improve this part of movie making, so I’m anxious to see the conceptual work to compare it with the finished work. Already learned allot from Chaos and Evolutions, but I’m still not satisfied.
Rendering/compositing:
Once again it’s so good that is almost too much good π
Direction:
I liked allot how the scenes fluidly pass trough the screen, there’s no residual stuff distracting or lagging things down and all just fit’s together real nice. Shot by shot it feels so natural that became imperceptible the technical aspects behind it, so one can just enjoy the story without distractions π
The story, like I mentioned, I have low affinity to it, but is really well created, so makes me admire and respect all the work behind it.
Production:
It looked like any director best dream from here π
All that was needed to make this movie a sucess was delivered.
It’s beyond my understanding, wish I could do it.
And last, to the blender development coding artists I only have to say: Thank you very much, I couldn’t make my work today without all the work you continually give to us π
Liked it very much and it was a pleasure to follow the development.
Sorry this critic extension!
October 1st, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Hi.
I’m glad the issues from the first viewing where fixed.
And I’m still amazed about some facials expression being so spot-on.
** SPOILER **
The story is ofcourse total rubbish ( sorry Esther, the dialog is really good π )
Nobody who calls his ‘dog’ a ‘him’ ( I’m looking for someone ) will not see it’s him if he’s a bit older, specialy after ‘holding hands’ in bed.
Or at least: being a dad of two kids I refuse to believe that to be true, not even if a real life example proves it possible.
When I first saw the movie I had the same blood gore feeling as spc had.
I think Esther thought I was an ass, well I was drunk, and saw Ian again, but I thought there was too much blood for the sake of the story. Not the fault of the script/story, i’m sure the script didnt mention the amount of blood needed in the shot. Sintel was not old in that version, giving it a big plot hole.
I kinda like how Sintel now comes to senses seeing the blood. It at leasts explains why shes so young when she’s with that bearded guy.
Still its weird how the dragon needs to be guarded but yet its easy for a baby dragon to get lost and bloody in a abandomed city…
Ton told me he rated the movie 12+. But I’m not showing it to my kids, if not the blood being shocking then its at least the deep sadness of the story.
Aparently the story is told in such a good way, with flash forward at the beginning that I believe some pixels/polys will go mad over loosing a found friend and in dispare kill it when she finds it.
I rate it at 16+ at least.
I was shocked that Sintel didn’t feel responsable to take care of the baby she orfend. Or at least could feel comfort for taking care of her ‘grand-child’.
Very weird, or plothole if you wish, that she thinks the dragon is her child, but the child of her child is not her grand-child.
What evil dark spot in my heart is the director trying to expose here?
What have I learned?
I’d like to discuss that at the Bconf2010.
Anyway.
Story smory. I’m very impressed with the amount of work done, i’ve done ( or tried ) a little character animation myself and know that nothing comes from the machine and all ( all as in all ) needs to be done by people moving the mouse. And this movie is filled with second motion, third motion and sometimes fourth motion. When a dragon falls we see the camera shake, it falls to dust, maybe even breaks where it falls to, things lit up of his fire, etc. etc. etc. Its done so well that things that are not done well suddenly get noticed. ( like hair interpenitration, cloth moving different from the buttons and stuff like that ).
Next movie I hope is a display of dinosaurs walking in Amsterdam and this time without trying to kill someone, which seems to be the motto in all BF movies.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:26 pm
It’s great! Thank you all for this movie! Congratulations!
By the way, I made russian translation of subtitles. If you interested in, email me please.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:27 pm
awsome !!!
great plot, at least for me – sad but opening ending !
graphic have some glicth but still outstanding!!
Huray blender and Durian!
October 1st, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Hmm sure it had flaws that I think weren’t necessary but overall it was pretty good.
IMO things that would have helped.
-The attacker should have been riding the big dragon at the beginning. It would have made his later appearance make more sense.
-During the big dragon attack there was no fire… makes it seem that it wasn’t an attack yet scales was in distress.
-The time difference didn’t make sense personally I couldn’t tell if sintel had aged a few years and gotten a tad grey or was merely singed and scarred. In the scene with teh old man it could have said X years latter… most movies do that even full length ones. Or an alternative could have been that the old man asks something like have you traveled many years? perhaps with no response from sintel…
Overall it was good but it lacked a lot of polish both in the storyline as I mentioned and in some of the effects namely blood, walk cycles, and the water looked extremely CG IMO. I don’t mind the violence but when it is there it needs to be justified somehow… instead of just leaving it superficial depth is a requirement of any good story and I don’t even think it would have required the film to be longer.
I hope the blender game engine is revamped for the sintel game… its just way too slow. I can’t play yofrankie even on a dual core laptop… perhaps the unladen-swallow python branch could be taken advantage of or perhaps eliminate python altogether for something faster assuming that is where the problem is (its definitely slower than C code).
October 1st, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Huzzah! it’s done.
Better then I expected.
Onto bigger and better things with a new team and competent art direction.
Anyhow, The film isn’t important (technically it looks nice) Blender 2.5 is and it’s improved a lot so thank you to all involved.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:33 pm
@Jan:
You’re very lucky that no one has complaints about your music, it’s simply beautiful! (I hope that once you get asked to compose for a feature, you can and deserve it!)
It’s also amazing that you completely pulled off the whole sound by yourself!
You’re actually a complete sound department on 2 legs. π
I hope that you release the lossless 5.1 mix, like the FLAC files of ED and BBB. (AAC is lossy. Better than AC3, but still lossy which is a pity when I need to convert it to uncompressed PCM, so I rather have the lossless sound as source)
October 1st, 2010 at 11:37 pm
what’s up with the h264 codec and mp4 container? the open x264 codec and mkv container would be so much more congruent with the ‘open’ goal of this project.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:38 pm
^_^
…The Visual efects:
I personally enjoyed the look of the blood, I’ve read some of the first posts about being too much or too water like. I don’t agree.
Fire looked very credible, very well done. Snow and water also very well accomplished π
Sondtrack:
It’s awesome, I can’t enjoy it in 5.1, but it feels just like any big Hollywood production. Epic is the word!
Voice acting worked for me, but I considered the first lines of the Shaman to be a little bit low perhaps… at least in comparation to Sintel.
Sound effects are seamless integrated in the movie to a point one don’t really think on them and easily fall in that category:
“If you do everything good is like doing nothing at all”
God on one episode of Futurama
October 1st, 2010 at 11:44 pm
There will always be criticism. And lets be honest. You will never ever please all the people. For myself – this comment of spc or whoever really cracked me up and I really had a laugh.
Now my point of view. The bad things first. I guess there are some problems with the plot. As well with some other stuff that was already mentioned. I would just repeat. Personally I would have liked (even) more fighting sequences. But hey – thats just me. Anyway what was worse … I nearly had to cry. How embarrassing. π
But on the other hand – this was awesome.
– I liked the plot (it was a short movie – now i’ll wait for the 2 hour version)
– The textures/materials, lighting, compositing are great (as much as I understand of it – I’m kind of a newbie compared)
– The models are all good. But the ones of Sintel and Scales are pure awesomeness. (I liked the easter egg at the market place).
– The scenery/backgrounds are superb.
– The soundtrack/effects are really good and fitting.
– The animation was as realistic as you could hope, cause this is one of the hardest things to do.
I followed this blog with its first post. It was fun and inspiring. We had to wait long. But it was worth it.
GREAT JOB DURAIN TEAM! THANK YOU.
Greetings from Germany.
Now please hurry up with those dvds.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:48 pm
This month marks my 10th anniversary as a Blender user, so this feels like a very fitting present. Such a pleasure watching the software grow up and great to see it put to such good use in producing Sintel.
Congratulations and heart-felt thanks to all at Team Blender and especially Ton for pulling it all together. Those of us who use the software feel very emotionally attached to it (that’s pretty clear from all the community comments on the film) so these moments mean a lot to us.
The film really is a triumph. Moving through so many different types of scene, combining still art and animation, all whilst telling a convincing story, is a real accomplishment. Thank you for the baby dragon at the end, to stop it ending on too much of a sad note.
Thanks again and I await my DVD eagerly!
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:10 am
A lot of people talk about the story and the flaws. I think Ton should be proud about this discussion, BBB and Elephant dream had no story, it was too short for that. It means blender becomes more and more a tool for telling stories and not just to show of some new tricks ( everybody loves Monster INC, becoz of the story, not becoz of the furtools if you know what I mean). I was suprised about the ending, but a sad ending is not the same as a bad ending. Flaws: only the scene just before Sintel meets scales does not feel right, wrong light? But remember that 400.000 euro for 12 minutes of very good animation is incredible cheap, Pixar spend 115 miljoen dollar for 92 minutes and they have a lot of writers, tech people and animators. One day a full feature will come, hopefully with a good budget.But this a good start.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:16 am
Crying… Let’s utilize all the weapon like she done! Thanks to creators!
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:29 am
Wow!
Really liked the movie, thought the story was engaging and the ending thought provoking, and the other people I’ve got to watch it thought the same without any prompting from me.
Very, very impressive visually, and my girlfriend couldn’t believe it was produced with Blender. She’s not “into” this sort of thing but had seen Elephant’s Dream at a presentation at the STRP festival a couple of years ago, and thought it was cool but weird and quite liked Big Buck Bunny. This however, she loved.
Whilst let’s face it, this sort of thing is all about the skills of the artists involved, it’s just insane to think that the tools required to produce such an outstanding short film are available free to anyone who wants them. I just wish I was more creative/artistic, but unfortunately I never really progressed beyond “programmer art” on the C64 and Amiga.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:33 am
It would be awesome if you could render Dolby 3D renders of Sintel. My local theater just got a 2K Dolby 3D projector installed and it would be awesome if Sintel could be displayed at some point there.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:33 am
Thank you for this. Very nice.
There might be a few minor things here and there I’d critique in terms of the story, but nothing major. Overall, it’s effective and I was moved. And you cut to black at the end at the perfect moment. Made for a good, strong ending.
Nice work by everyone.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:39 am
@Joeri:
I understand that you say: This should be 16+, but have you seen Beowulf? (I don’t mean the uncut version with a body ripped apart)
If that film even gets a 12+ rating in the UK, I think you’ve got a good reference.
Btw, creature violence is different in rating than violence against humans. (the killing of the guard doesn’t show any detail of penatrating or wounds, but you do think otherwise because of the sound, fast editing and music.)
You get shocked by the emotional impact of the film, not by some blood.
As you could read on the blog months and months ago, the Durianers have watched serveral violent sequences of films to determine how far they could go in the violence, so it’s not: ”just ad some blood, it looks funny!”
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:43 am
This is simply the most beautiful story I’ve heard/seen in my life.Thank you,wonderful artists in the team,you are true talents!
The graphics are unbelievable too,but I didn’t care much about it actually,this film is gorgeous with or without the special effects!
So I raise my hat and bow to you,Durian team,you are the best!
(and to all the people to criticise the film:yes,there are mistakes,but think about it…this is a non profit,”charity” project,not a blockbuster made by a money-grinding studio!There’s nothing wrong with pointing out the flaws and giving advice,but please do it with respect.)
Once again,thank you for the awesome experience,this gave me the inspiration to work harder and to continue my artistic journey with fresh ideas and tons of motivation!
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 am
I thought this was really well done. The story surprised me, at least, and I thought it was pretty unique.
Felt a tad rushed at points, particularly with Sintel’s flashback about finding Scales. I didn’t really feel time passing there, in either direction. The first time through it felt like that whole thing was over the period of four or so days (and only last week), giving the ensuing quest MUCH less impact for me.
I sense some nice symbolism in here, which has me wondering about that weapon she takes from the bandit guy. It feels as if some critical detail about it has been cut out. Or have I just not pondered it enough? π
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:19 am
The film should be a bit longer, but you need to realize that this film really pushed enveloppe in terms of what could be done with this budget and time.
Believe me, this film works so much better on a big screen than on your PC, it’s very cinematic!
I hope Ton can get more β¬β¬β¬ from the filmfund on Project Mango, since it will be a live action film. (with a lot of Blender in it, of course)
Budget 600.000 with a runtime of ca. 30 minutes would be very nice!
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:24 am
Great movie!
Lasse. have made Finnish text in Finnish Ubuntu-forum.
in Lasses attachment
http://forum.ubuntu-fi.org/index.php?topic=35572.msg279220#msg279220
Straigth:
http://forum.ubuntu-fi.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=35572.0;attach=5079
(Like he says:”Free to use”)
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:33 am
Hi all,
I have downloaded the sintel movie yesterday and watched it immediately after download. It is a masterpiece. Good story, great music, and the animations may rival the big hollywood animation blockbusters. There are some things to improve in some places (like more fluid movement, etc) but it is an amazing product from a community of enthusiasts and a collection of opensource software.
Thanks Ton for your vision and perserverance. Big thanks for all the movie team. Great work!! π Keep going.
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:34 am
I translated the subtitles into Hebrew (added some subs of my own to the text at the beginning).
Looks pretty good, Ive done some testing myself, can be found here:
http://ubuntuone.com/p/IIT/
Kind regards,
Yaron Shahrabani – Hebrew translator
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 am
I just saw Karate Kid (the latest one) and this was sooo much better! Epicness!
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:55 am
OK OK, I’ll start checking my mail again! Watched once on youtube but I can’t wait to see ‘er n full res, plus the cool extras! I’s like Christmas in October π
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:23 am
That is an absolutely AMAZING FILM!!! The Durian team ought to be proud of themselves, that is one of the best films I’ve seen in years (short and feature length). I found myself watching it a second time because it’s just so awesome and has such an excellent plot to follow. All in all, good job and much thanks to the Durian team for showing what you can do when you get a very talented group of people and a powerful program such as blender all working together.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:28 am
@Dylan McCall – “I didnβt really feel time passing there, in either direction.” I think that was kind of the point – neither did Sintel.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:38 am
Watched it again. Minor blemishes, interestingly enough, became less obvious, and I was more aware of the massive amount of detail I hadn’t noticed the first time. Yes, it’s not perfect, maybe the goals were set a bit high, but I paymy highest respect towards the Durian Team.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:47 am
To be honest, I found the story way a little expected at first (I presume, it’s because I have had similar feeling in my sub-conscious mind while I was following the Project Durian blog, right from when it started last year after BC ’09).
However, upon few retakes on the screenplay, I found so many metaphorical elements that have been so well weaved which I missed at first glance. Indeed, the original storyline couldn’t be justified in a shorter version. But I think Esther Wouda – Colin Levy did the best possible treatment one could (obviously after several iterations) on the subject.
As for the full length feature, I did pitch the same question to Ton some time back (because I didn’t have a fair idea about the production cost). He explained beautifully, what it takes for a ~ 90 mins animation feature – more than 80 artists working full-time for 2-3 years. But do not lose your hearts, who knows.. BI may come up with one as thing looking very promising by days.
Technically, it did disappoint me in certain level. However, that could be understood as team was working on a evolving software with such time and cost constrain. But never underestimate what Blender can do – ED and BBB already proved it’s capabilities. And let’s not compare with any previous edition and move on to make this project successful as lot of hard work went in to with no intention of making monetary benefit.
Oh yes, special thanks to Jan Morgenstern for his awesome and exuberant scores!
Arindam.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:48 am
Upon few retakes on the screenplay, I found so many metaphorical elements that have been so well weaved which I missed at first glance. Indeed, the original storyline couldn’t be justified in a shorter version. But I think Esther Wouda – Colin Levy did the best possible treatment one could (obviously after several iterations) on the subject.
Technically, it did disappoint me in certain level. However, that could be understood as team was working on a evolving software with such time and cost constrain. But never underestimate what Blender can do – ED and BBB already proved it’s capabilities. And let’s not compare with any previous edition and move on to make this project successful as lot of hard work went in to with no intention of making monetary benefit.
Oh yes, special thanks to Jan Morgenstern for his awesome and exuberant scores!
Arindam.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:38 am
I loved the movie. The script is solid (although not extremely complex, it’s captivating and touching) and the visuals were very good.
Of course there are lots of details that could be improved but having followed the development it’s clear to me that every “mistake” you can see in the movie were a consequence of a constrained budget and limited resources.
Pick any short movie or game intro with that amount of detail and duration and check how many people worked on it, and how much was the budget, and you’ll find another reason to be totally blown away.
So there is no point in listing the mistakes or the things that don’t look too good. Durian team knows them (and possibly they spotted a lot more than us).
It would be nice if Durianers themselves make an extensive list of everything they couldn’t fix for the final release, shots that couldn’t be re-rendered, flying things π and all. But not as something to regret, but something for fun, like a trivia.
It’s not our job to spot those weak points, anyway. We should be celebrating one very important milestone for our favorite 3D software.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:50 am
I’m very pleased with the results of sintel, it is a great accomplishment and i look forward to getting my box set with all the extras, i’m interested in looking at all the scenes in blender. i hope to be able to help more with the next open movie
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:31 am
Hi, I’ve translated the subtitle into Chinese (Traditional.)
Please grab the file here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3280872/Sintel.2010.zh-tw.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:32 am
BTW, about the subtitle translation, please license it under whatever you (the project team) like.
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:48 am
I’v been following this stuff/ movie for 8months now O.O
I was impatient to watch the whole of it, i must say am kind of disapointed with the story, well some places of the story xd
but hey, that movie is some serious shit : -) seriously…
the graphics are awesome, the artist works are incredible and also blender Oh My God, am stunned by the scenes about it.. and yes, just Great guys π
Nice directing from Colin levy and entire team =]
Movies like this seriously get me out of my bed ^^
p.s. can someone tel me if the dvd can be shipped to Mauritius ?O.o thx
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:56 am
it was very sad
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:58 am
Exelente, queremos un largo metraje de esta calidad!
Que buen trabajo para mi un 10.
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:41 am
WOW…some very very harsh critiques going around, its still quite a technical achievement, i personally enjoyed the story, as for the age, the shaman sees and alludes to what she really is and during an early part of the short, there is a glimpse of her older self, and for those scrutinizing the films for all its mistakes, its still a wonderful film and you really should take it as a blessing, we all learn better from our mistakes rather then our triumphs, theres plenty of things about this short to help any aspiring artist, animator, writer, or director, all in all, i would say best project to date, i feel for the team having to endure all the harsh criticism though
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:05 am
I’ve been looking forward to this release ever since I found out this film was in production, and I have to say, I am not disappointed in the slightest. The graphics, textures, and just general Blender work were stunning, the animation work astounding, and the plot was excellently laid out – you absolutely made the best of fifteen minutes. I honestly cried out “NO!” during that film, and I NEVER cry out “NO!” during movies. I didn’t plan on buying the boxed set, but I’m going to, ASAP, and I’m going to promote this as much as I can. Overall, an incredible job, to everyone who helped with or donated to this film, and thanks for making fifteen minutes of my life awesome.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:06 am
While several (hundreds) variations of the Cinderella tale exist, they move around the same idea that may well have originated in classical antiquity.
The idea of a character (a she, a he, a person or a animal), fighting her unfair situation (sometimes violently, other times more peacefully), and trying to recover/find her loved one.
While the resolution of the tale might vary in success or failure, the lesson to be learn is that even when we donβt achieve what we wanted at the beginning of our journey, we should keep believing, and having faith that our dreams might come trueβ¦ eventually.
At first sight our Sintel have a tragic lesson and a pretty sad resolution. Yet after watching the movie so many times and read about Cinderella tale I think I found what really Sintel team intended by finishing the movie so sad: Opening A Door .
A door for discussions, a door for new endings, a door for new versions, a door for new tales. As Cinderella tale have hundreds of variants and endings Sintel should have them too!
From my point of view, ED and BBB are finished tales, and no one would really want to create new versions from them. Things are completely different in Sintel. People want to modify it, enhance it, gave it a happy endingβ¦.
And if that is the intention, I think Colin Levy have a great success: His movie started a spark in several of us that believe Sintel should have a second change, a redemption:
Even is we cannot model/sculpt/animate them as good a Sintel team, we should do something: We should get the sources and give the Sintel the touch, the final we believe she deserves.
And somehow this is the start of our journey, just like Sintelβs, we might succeed, or fail, but we should not stop, we should have faith in us.
I invite all of you who like me think Sintel should have a variant (a happier one), to contact me, and keep in touch.
Please let me know your thoughts,
Have a great day, my contact is l3c_lara(at)yahoo.es
LC
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:11 am
hey i was wondering when we will be able to download The Sintel production files??? or whatever their called xD
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:30 am
correct me if im wrong, the dragons were sculpted by jeepster so calling them low poly throws me off, as for the rock that the dragon breaks, its a statue, but i could see an argument for a bit more destruction, the dragon did after all grasp it to kick off
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:43 am
Jan Morgenstern, you are very talented. That soundtrack was beautiful. The credit song was amazing! Congratulations on this incredible achievement Blender Team!
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:55 am
All I can say is WOW. What a great job you guys did. Sure some scenes where higher quality than others, but on a whole, it was very entertaining and well done!
But I have to say, I downloaded the DivX version, stripped away the mkv folder, and made a playable disk for the Playstation 3, watched it on a 48β wide screen with my 5.1 amp. Yes, the back speakers went into simulation mode, but boy if you think this movie sounded good on you small computer speakers, wait until you hear it on a 5.1 system! Iβm glad I did it this way first, it does make a difference. The sound track adds to the animation in nothing but positive ways.
I thought the story was a good one, for a 11 minute short movie, it was packed with stuff where if you blinked you missed something. But I figured out the story line at the time scales smelled Sintel, even though I missed several clues earlier in the movie. My 12 year old son eyes light up when Sintel saw scales scare. I knew it got it right then. We both wanted to watch it again. And the second time we both caught things we had missed the first time, the funny thing was we both missed different things.
So in my option, any time you can keep a 51 year old, and a 12 year old entertained for 15 minutes, it had to be a good movie. My 12 year old son spent the rest of the night making sketches of Sintel in is sketch book. So I know it left an impression on him.
OK, I did not quit get the ending, my thoughts on this is, it might be a set up from the BI for someone to continue on with the story? The first time I watched it, the first thoughts though my mind was; what a set up for a sequel. Later on, my thoughts was, well lots of people have all the assets, maybe this is a secrete challenge from the BI to see what other people can do with this?
ED got me started with blender, because I was amazed with the great quality you can do with blender, even though I though the story line was slow and dull. BBB made me laugh, but it made me want to get better at blender. Sintel shows me blender in the right hands can do stuff on par with the big boys, and with a jam packed story line, in a short movie; sure some things might not be fully explained but it was not hard for my son to get it, he was explaining is interpretation of the movie to me the second it was over. And maybe mango will put camera tacking into blender? Goodbye vooodoo! (even though it does work).
Now for things that need to be improved on, the credits just like a lot of Hollywood movies, jump. No doubt because it was made in 24fps then converted to 30fps for the distribution version. This is only noticeable with text rolling on the screen. Tough problem to enhance with out making the whole movie at the higher frame rate. Maybe there is another solution to this problem.
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:13 am
Great work guys. Story made me sad, but I know that was the point…
My only crit is typography: poor kerning on the “TO” in Ton and “WO” in Wouda. There’s so much space here that the first letters almost appear to be separate from the names.
And yes this is a REALLY picky crit but I see crits as part of the process with this project: it’s an open movie and many many folks participated along the way.
Awesome effort. Not perfect, but nothing ever is…and it was made with FREE software and a small (core) team. Really great job guys!
Oh and in regards to story: I don’t think it was 100% best ever, but Disney’s Up had a weaker story than this…and story is subjective anyway. Good luck making an emotional story that everyone in the world loves…
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:29 am
Hey
That Old Man Saling Pumpkins Is The Same Old Man From The Elephant’s Dream?
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:59 am
Hey,
I liked the movie very much. The animation, modelling and music were all great. I prefer animations with happy ending, but I agree that it’s almost probably impossible to create a tory that everyone likes.
The thing that bothered the most me was the fluid simulation, which was not perfectly reallistic, but it’s probably a really hard thing to achieve.
I was kindly suprised that there are Polish subtitles available :). I liked it, but I think they could be slightly improved. Maybe it’s too late to change them, but if you are interested, contact me :).
To sum up, Sintel is in my opinion a really good animation short, which shows that Blender is very powerful, despite being a free software.
Thank you Sintel team for showing to the world what Blender is capable of :).
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:02 am
To be honest I had no idea of the short until I saw it posted earlier on a forum. Since then I have watched it numerous times and it is always the same. Happiness, excitement, sadness and then longing for more. I, like others, want to know the story of the man that attacks Sintel. In the end I want to follow the dragon over the hill and see what becomes of Sintel. Great job on a wonderful little story and thank you.
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:16 am
if you backtrack through the blog, a lot will be explained, that man for instance, was supposed to be one of four(?) guardians
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:44 am
Having watched Sintel a number of times now, it’s impression has really deepened with me. The tragic angle was/is a bold approach. It doesn’t feel like a piece of fluff one watches once and discards. So much thought in it.
The main characters have very good ‘presence’ about them, which is vital in a short. They felt ‘alive’. The thing hat surprised me was the degree of character presence in the adult ‘Scales’ in the cave, particularly in the nicely underplayed ‘recognition’ moment.
Colin’s directorial style is impressive too, and thoughtful.
I suspect that when the dust settles, this will be very highly regarded as a short in itself, separate from the technical development of Blender, and even funnily enough, the community expectation angle.
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:48 am
Nice work, it were great to see this full-length π
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:04 am
Love the story! Told very well! You really need to watch it a second or third time to appreciate the amount of work that is in there.
Very well done. Unbelievable that it was done within a single program instead of a whole lot of applications. Compliments on the work done on the sequence editor. This film proves that it is very powerful indeed.
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
Great job!
As I promised slovak subtitles: http://ubuntuone.com/p/IEY/
It’s still beta version…
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:29 am
bad movie quality.. many flickr.. (bad render engine maybe?!)
best and great story …
quality:
1.BBB
2.Elephant Dream
3.Sintel
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Absolutely fantastic!
Great job Durian team!
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:41 am
I have translated the texts to Russian and made subtitles. Please grab it from:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3644953/sintel_ru.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:53 am
I allready mentioned it on Blender nation but I really dig your movie!
It’s great.
What I don’t understand is people complaining about ‘Emo’, ‘bad quality’, ‘looks like realtime’. These are just opinions! So ignore that rubbish please. Offcourse there is some well argumented critics cast. Use them in your advantage.
To all others try make useless statements:
Project is finished, they probably won’t change anything anymore. Be glad they gave us such a project and even give us the change to make our own contributions to the story. Prove your ‘professional expertise’.
Kind regards and a major Thank you! to de durian team!
Joost
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:58 am
@baguaki:
Thanks for the translation. I’d like to include it in a 720p conversion I’m just trying to make for my Apple TV. Unfortunately my tools don’t know CP1251. Is it possible for you to convert it to UTF-8 or ISO-8859-5?
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:46 am
First of all, congrats to all who made this film.
It’s very epic and emotional. The graphics are stunning, though I did not like the design of the dusty street (it’s too gray).
I like the plot, but in my opinion th big problem of this film is it’s shortness. For such a big plot much more time is needed. In my opinion each single shot would have been better 1,5x or 2x longer. Not with more plot, only more time to let the pictures take effect. You guys have seen the shots 10th of dozens of times. So you do not need the shots to take effect that long. When I will be watch Sintel for the 10th time or so, I will not need longer shots either.
But for the first and second and third time, the shots should be longer. The story is quite complex and very concentrated. It’s quite hard to understand it in the speed of the film.
This film is a short. But according to it’s plot and epicness, it’s a short short short short π
I’m looking forward to hold the DVD in my hands now, and I will enjoy project Mango for sure!
Thank you, Sintel team, to let me follow your amazing process for over one year!
You did a great job!
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 pm
“So ignore that rubbish please.” Amen
I liked it a lot. Yeah it was sad but so is life, and i’m sorry for those who thought all films should be about flowers and rainbows and happiness like BBB. I like happiness films but I think blender needed something like this, why because it shows we can do more then cartoon films. Elephant Dream’s quality was really low but so was the software at the time. Look at the people and not talking about still shots in motion. Sintel blows Elephant Dream out of the water. Gore? if you think this film has a lot of blood watch 300 or something this does not have a lot of blood, it does have some deal with it.
I liked how they told on a huge project finished it and sent it out with the community’s help and think it should still be supported by the community. looking over all the posts it sounds like the film is like by about 75% and that’s fine. The Goal was to tell a story and to improve the software which it did so if you like the story or not. I think it did both vary well with the fractures in mind, small group of people, alpha software, one year time frame. So whatever happens GREAT JOB!!!
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
@Jan de Vries: they didn’t use one program. Blender was the core app but they also used other opensource programs like Gimp, MyPaint and Inkscape for texturepainting and stuff like that
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:36 pm
That was amazing guys, I watched it once it was released and have been waiting for a whole year for this film. I don’t think the team could have possibly done better, good job. =)
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Regrettably I have to agree with SPC completely. I have been watching this blog from when it first started and I was so very exited for this film.
But when I watched it yesterday, I was incredibly disappointed. Sometimes the animation isn’t fluid (the shaman’s necklace sticks at the weirdest angles, Sintel’s hand looks off after the first fight), the story is depressing and certainly does not make me want to try blender.
When I compare it to the shorts that Pixar normally releases (and yes I know that they are way more professional, have more funding and other software, but still, the blender shorts will always be compared to those, it’s a fact of life), the Pixar shorts are always uplifting and make you want to learn the technology. I don’t know why Blender keeps coming up with these horrible plots but by now I have the weird feeling that they just enjoy brutality. I didn’t like big buck bunny when I saw the butterfly torn apart and I certainly don’t like this film.
Sorry guys, but I do want to give my honest opinion, especially after I’ve been following this blog for so long.
October 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hello guys, I am created Czech subtitles for Sintel (see Website), where I can send it?
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Finnish and Latin translations:
http://www.iki.fi/tuomo.sipola/sintel/sintel_fi.srt
http://www.iki.fi/tuomo.sipola/sintel/sintel_la.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
OMG what a FAIL.
totally agree with spc. No, I don’t have the words to say. Really. So much time for such miserable movie. Teh world goes down. ‘course you couln’t waste your time on more mentionable movie like “Lighthouse”. The idea of that movie totally leaves your one ashamed.
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Hi, I translated the subtitles into catalan:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8091173/sintel_ca.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:31 pm
I was very satisfied by the ending. An actual tragedy with a main character who missed to recognize the reality while reducing his mind to a single desire.
I didn’t feel too sad at the end, because it showed the chance that Sintel would find a new pet with the small dragon who followed her.
ED and BBB were more closed in their style, more finished. Sintel aimed for much more. It couldn’t be finished. The styles of ED, BBB and Sintel were closed styles, where Sintel had the additional constraint that it had to look sort of realistic, while ED and BBB could reduce the style to certain fantasies.
Congratulations for what you achieved.
All in all, I am deeply impressed by your strength. Now, it is time to get rid of this ‘post release depression’ and to target new projects.
The participation of the community was a great thing, even for those who only watched it.
Maybe, the next project should aim for even more participation of the community, more epic scenes, where many models, many animations, many environment assets are needed.
But, to bind all the different attributions, compose the film with a more ‘open style’, means more mixed up, with a touch of ‘trash style’.
That seems to contradict the main aim to showcase the power of Blender, but it doesn’t. As the discussion about Sintel shows, you always can emphasize the animations of one scene and the lighting of another one as showcases of special abilities of the used tool, Blender.
Imagine to start the project as something where you take the given resources of the finished projects, develop a story that uses the given elements, and the community produces the new elements, while the team’s tasks are mainly meant for composing and adjusting the contributions to fit in the film.
To combine characters, known from other stories, and assets that do not fit from the beginning, is a great fun.
‘Samorost’, ‘The Dark Crystal’ and mainly ‘ Kuky se vracΓ’ could be an inspiration for such an approach.
It is about extending the open source approach to the content of the products too.
Although, the tool Blender, needs a sort of closeness to stay a working and well organized useful instrument for all, it can be questioned whether the products that represents this tool could be more open, in style, in participation, in results. An even bigger challenge than the already observed projects, but who has the experience to try it but you?
Just some thoughts.
Thanks to the team for all the efforts! π
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm
well unlike those IRRITATING critics i liked the movie and i am very appreciative of the time effort and energy put into it. GREAT JOB!
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Uploaded a 1024x576x25fps version on vimeo.
Reframed to use fullscreen widescreen on PAL. To burn for your dvd.
http://vimeo.com/15478362
Enjoy
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Why did you crop the image? It ruins the beautiful compositions!
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 pm
About alternate ending – the one in which Sintel realizes truth soon enough… Will never have such an impact. Can you imagine each one falling in their arms/wings… And then Sintel realizing how old is she? Maybe not teenage Sintel, but a more mature (In a scene of Dragon Fight) and then few years after, when she became Gatekeeper…? : D (You know, it’s only my guest who Gatekeepers were)
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
As I have no reply where to send the belarusian subtitles, so they are over there:
http://www.mediafire.com/?cvl576yqvfj123s
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Sorry for double-posting, cannot held back – YOU GUYS ROCK!
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Belarusian subtitles
http://www.mediafire.com/?cvl576yqvfj123s
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Very nice movie! Great work actually I already was waiting since the project starts for this movie!!! But it is very sad at the end… Congrats once more !!! Want to know was there someone crying during the festival…
October 2nd, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Here is the Tranditional Chinese subtitle
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4896896/sintel_zh.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Hey Durian Team,
nice job you did there, great visuals and also a good story. Visually stunning, and great Storytelling, allthough there are some minor problems with the story. I think this was mentioned well enough before, so i dont have to enumerate those points.
Some scenes like the Dragon at the end still have a little bit of computer games graphics feeling to it, while other shots really look astonishing (for example the bamboo scene, or the fighting scene with that beast in the desert). Animation was in most parts really good, except for sintel going down that hill at the end (this looks a little bit strange in my eyes ^^). There are also a few glitches and overlappings that only catch your eyes if you watch the movie several times. Overall its a really great piece, better then those before and also showing what opensource or open movies can achieve!
Thanks to the team for this amanzing animation short (in contrast to spc i really appreciate your hard work, regardless of some small problems)
cheers
Chubaso
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
J. wrote :
“Why did you crop the image? It ruins the beautiful compositions!”
Thats the point. I ruined all the beautiful compositions, except in my world I made them better. It’s called taste.
Dont release under cc3 if you dont want people to alter your work.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Visually stunning with only a few flaws. It’s the best short film I’v seen in years.
The story makes sense. Sintel is homeless (remember her looking for food in the garbage) and seems to have no friends. In her early years she had only taken care of herself. Scales is the first real friend and it seems, that she felt like a mother cleaning his wounds. The long journey getting back scales makes her mind poisened towards the big dragon. In the end, she realized too late that she killed the grown up scales.
It seems to be a sad story, but watch closely! The flowers in front are opening as scales offspring follows her. So there is indeed a place for hope and Sintel gets a second chance.
Great film!
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Here is Sintel’s Song extracted from the movie: http://filebeam.com/c6098316cec008b389d330a99452963f
Will play on any player that supports ogg!
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:28 pm
other cleaning his wounds. The long journey getting back scales makes her mind poisened towards the big dragon. In the end, she realized too latVisually stunning with only a few flaws. It’s the best short film I’v seen in years.
The story makes sense. Sintel is homeless (remember her looking for food in the garbage) and seems to have no friends. In her early years she had only taken care of herself. Scales is the first real friend and it seems, that she felt like a me that she killed the grown up scales.
It seems to be a sad story, but watch closely! The flowers in front are opening as scales offspring follows her. So there is indeed a place for hope and Sintel gets a second chance.
Great film!
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Awesome movie.With very vivid colors and awesome post production.Nice short story made from a soul.I hope so in distant future there will be new and longer movies.Blender was and became an awesome software for creative people.Thanx a lot for this awesome movie.
Keep up the good work.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I can’t believe how incredibly beautiful it looks. Especially the cave section. I haven’t seen even commercial movie releases do art this good. Go Blender and all involved!
Also, GREAT story. Best use of 12 minutes by any movie, ever.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
@Joeri: You’re allowed to do what you want, or course, but how can say that this improves the film in your eyes?
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I am a big fan of Blender. I really appreciated and tried to support the development of the program in all these years and the big changes in 2.5. In this period I am avidly studying the “Blender compositing” book by Roger Wickes, to better understand the use of nodes and video editor in Blender.
Unfortunately, I agree with some critics, in particular with Makani.
In some ways, I think that there are some problems in choosing the objectives and target. As Makani, I don’t like the brutality aspects present in all the three movies, but there are differences.
ED was a sort of first demonstration of the real possibilities of Blender, and that’s fine, also the confusing story was acceptable for that.
BBB would be a perfect short for kids, great characters, simple but effective plot, gorgeous graphics, but the treatment on butterflies was excessive for the type of story.
In the case of Sintel the problem is bigger. Classical (and I must say abused) themes and look for a young audience, the fantasy world, the girl stronger than warriors, the dragons, the blood… But the story probably was developed with more mature intentions, a sort of brief tragedy. I can understand this, for example, in comics, Maus by Spiegelman comes to mind. But actually Spiegelman don’t draw mickey mouse in lagers, he maturely employs a very different style. In some ways, I think that with Sintel, the style and the content diverge too much to create a good artistic result.
I surely appreciate all the hard work involved, the enthusiasm of the team and the management skills of Ton, but as a finished work, I don’t consider Sintel a really succesful result.
Ok, now back to see BBB for the 25th time:-)
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Gotta add to the overflow of comments here by saying congrats to the while Durian team, their work has payed off in producing the best BF short film to date, I hope their all really proud!
I have issues with the story (depressing) but really overall its a great film, and the more I think about the plot the better I feel it is, although its still deeply saddening. Perhaps a happier part 2 is needed? π
I look forward to playing, with the production files. Hmmmm π
Anyways, again – congrats!
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Brilliant! Thoroughly enjoyed that! A big thank you & congratulations to everyone involved and all the sponsors! Awesome film!
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
In Short: Thank you for that great short. I just love it. Now i look forward to the DVD arrival!
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
First, I want to congratulate the Durian team. Yes, there were a few niggling bits that I’m sure they are aware of, but overall, this effort is the culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication, and it shows. The music is unobtrusive, evocative and the ending song is very well done. The animation is overall quite good, and in places, fantastic, such as when Sintel is lying on her back in the snow, with her hair and clothes being whipped around. Extraordinary. Sure, there were a few areas that stood out, like when Sintel climbed the wall and found Scales, but that’s pretty normal. Even Avatar, once they left the mocap, didn’t look totally realistic. I don’t think it’s possible to do a 100% realistic animation movie — at least I’ve never seen one. Regardless, Sintel reeked of professionalism.
The modeling and texturing, the lighting — I can’t find much fault with, and not enough to mention. Some of it was absolutely realistic, such as Sintel patting down a place for Scales to sleep. As was mentioned, the blood seemed to flow a bit too much on the roof — it seemed to me that Scales was bleeding to death in a hurry, but that’s a subjective judgment, I suppose. If the idea was to make it clear that Scales was in a lot of trouble, then it succeeded.
The rigging must have been great because one only thinks of rigging when it’s bad. π
The overall design of the world was fantastic. Congratulations, David, on your vision.
Obviously, the developers worked very hard, too, to advance and clean up the software while the production was going on. It must have been a nightmare for everyone to deal with all the technical issues while getting the movie finished.
After Sintel, there’s no doubt that Blender is fully capable of producing professional quality movies. Many of those who use other software packages have been sniffing around, wondering whether or not to jump to Blender, and this movie will give them a lot of reason to make that step. Also, those starting out have little reason to pay $3K for a commercial package. In that sense, making Sintel has succeeded admirably.
However, as a satisfying movie, it wasn’t that great. I think that Colin must have been worried about it because he kept asking for feedback and warned everyone not to expect too much.
I wrote about the plot in the blendernation forum, so I won’t repeat what I said there. Let me just add that if there is one cardinal rule about protagonists, the person watching must either be able to identify with the protagonist, or be able to understand them. I was rolling along, suspending my disbelief until the end, when the hammer dropped, leaving me wondering what just happened. It wasn’t that it was tragic. Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy, but that play had a moral. This story just didn’t make sense. The only explanation that makes a sort of sense, is that Sintel was so crazy that she didn’t understand how years had passed. We were seeing the movie — sort of — through her eyes. That’s bad enough: an insane protagonist isn’t usually a good idea, and keeping a key fact like that from the audience until the end isn’t so hot either, but then, even at the end, I still didn’t understand why she went mad. The story never gave a compelling reason. If a teenage girl found an injured lion cub and cared for it, and then its mother took it away, the girl might be upset, but she wouldn’t take years to track down the mother to steal it back, losing all track of time. If losing Scales to her mother was the reason Sintel went nuts, well, to me, the reason was weak.
I don’t know if it was the way the story was written, the way it was executed, or that the time constraints modified it so that it came out that way. It doesn’t matter. ED’s plot was weird, but it was weird and creepy throughout, and fun in a way. BBB was a lot of fun, funny, and it had a very satisfying plot. This story — well, it’s over and in the can, so there’s no point dwelling on it. Besides, I could be part of a small minority who couldn’t “get it,” so take my opinion for what it’s worth.
Anyway, the strength of the story, in my opinion, doesn’t matter as much as its execution. So, congratulations on advancing Blender and for demonstrating its formidable strengths.
October 2nd, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Sintel represents imho the whole humanity that pretends to love and understand how nature works but keeps killing and destroying everything that stands on it’s way. Humanity (like Sintel) will only understand it’s fault when it all be over (sadly).
Great movie! Thanks Durian and BF!
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:10 pm
# J. Says:
October 2nd, 2010 at 16:05
@Joeri: Youβre allowed to do what you want, or course, but how can say that this improves the film in your eyes?
Because it uses the 442.368 pixels your TV has and shows Sintel at 100% as much as possible. ( not the 2048 pixels sampled back to 768 , but the pixel one on one where possible ).
In my opinion the movie has the camera pointed down too much. All the shots have too much headroom, or so i think.
But I think you are on your wrong foot. I made something I like and share it, I’m not saying it should be something you must like. If you do, fine, if you don’t also fine, I could not care less what you think. Unless there are some famous movies you made I should know about?
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Pixels are a technical thing, composition is art.
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Simply awesome!!! I love it!! You are best professionals that I saw in the Open Source scenary. Great, great work. I supose that you, Team Durian, already started a new project. Certainly, in the near future, we can see a full picture of some work yours.
Sorry my bad english.
;p
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:45 pm
After watching Sintel a few times I must say that you guys did a great job on the animation, production and story. When I watched the film for the first time I was immersed in the story and almost forgot that I was watching an animated film. That is a good indication that the movie is good! I give the film a 9.5/10. I did not give it a 10/10 because Iβm saving that for the next Blender movie project!
Iβm not big into fantasy games or movie so the first time I watched Sintel I did not know what to expect other than I thought the move poster was too dark- literally and figuratively. I had no idea what the story was about so no preconceived notions. All I knew what what I have need reading/watching on the Sintel website for the last year. The fact that I was surprised by the story plot is a good testament that your guys did not give anything of significance away over the last year.
Here were my thoughts as I first watched the movie.
1) Why did that guy attack Sintel in the middle of a desolate snowy place? Why was he there and why did he feel the need to attack her? How could a little girl like her overpower a bid guy like that? Was it the sword that did it? When the guy fell over and died his body looked to stiff. This fight seen did not seem to tie into the story for me other than by killing him thatβs how she got the sword. There did not seem to be any significance that she got the sword form that guy over just finding it herself or if the guy in the house gave it to her. Maybe I missed something.
2) When Sintel picked up the sword from the snow right before she started walking towards the house, that was an amazing shot. The snow, sword and hand looked so real!!! It reminded me of a scene from BBB where the bunny grabbed the bow and arrows.
3) Showing Sintel in the reflection in the soup was brilliant and was very believable. It added a lot to the scene and drew you into the scene. However I thought that the lighting on Sintelβs face in the reflection in the soup did not match the lighting on her face.
4) Why was Sintel picking through garbage? It occurred to me later that she was looking for food because she was a loner and probably had no food of her own?
5) The flashback through time seemed too short. It did not give me the sense that a long time had elapsed when compared with how big the dragon had grown. Maybe that was intended so you were tricked at the end.
6) The music and sounds were excellent cinema quality. The placement of the sounds complimented the scenes and scene cuts perfectly! I like the way the music almost had a Far East theme but then it didnβt.
7) The scene where Sintel was sleeping with the dragon was excellent! I like how it kept fading to different positions and really gave you the sense that a long peaceful night or time had passed. I would guess that Colin had a lot to do with that shot??
8) When Sintel entered the cave to fight the dragon it seemed too short of a time from when she entered the cave and when she started fighting the dragon. I would have like to see more buildup to the fight. I know that this is a short film and not a move so there is not a lot of time.
9) I liked how you incorporated the opening credits with the flow of the movie and how the audio complimented the opening credits. I particularly like how you showed the Sintel credit as she was walking towards the house and then fell.
10) The eyes on all of the characters were great! They all gave the characters much depth and you could connect with them through their eyes.
11) The dragon modeling was simply amazing! The flying scene were the big dragon swooped up the baby dragon was amazing! Reminded me of Lord Of the Rings.
Well, I hope this was good feedback for you guys. I know you are eager to hear what people have to say. You guys and girls did an amazing job and you should be quite proud of yourselves that you could take a blank canvas and turn it into this amazing film! I had a lot of fun following this project over the last year. I wish more people could have the drive and courage to push themselves to do amazing things like this!!
Peace…
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I’m so sad now. After viewing this short, the first idea is that perhaps with Blender you can’t do animations!
The characters animation (especially humans) is horrible, it seems first 3d game experiments.
The story is senseless, I completely agree with SPC, you forgot the beauty of being one and only and you try to imitate something so used and abused. Sorry but there are so many shorts animations film so much better, that after all this waiting, I can’t believe this is what you reached.
Another bad thing is how Sintel interact with the environment. It seems you put her in front of an old green screen. Ray Harryhausen made it in a really better way. And Sintel is weightless. And you abuse of this deep of field and blur effects.
Really really upset of your work. Perhaps try to be more unpretentious could be better.
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:02 pm
I find the overall result really very good.
The concept art has been amazing from the start of the project to
the very end, down to every detail.
The emotional impact for such a short movie is incredible!
The story is simple (and for such a short movie it better be), but very
moving, and people who are not a bit moved by this are just too damn stupid to understand even a simple story, let alone what’s not totally
explicit.
The animation is excellent and the music fits perfectly.
In order not to sound like a “pleased-crowd” π : although some shots are
real “jaw droppers” (for me : the intro scene, the scene when Sintel runs up the stairs, and the dragon’s cave ..) some stand a bit behind, mostly the “fighting scenes” and some of the “travelling scenes” (in my humble opinion) because of strange lighting and sometimes weird deformation. This took me away from the story for a few seconds. I also was a bit disapointed by the fire simulation. The compositing also sometimes stands a bit in the way (for me).
But congratulations and hats off to the Durian team for a really good piece of work !! (Sintel is my favorite open movie).
Blender rocks.
______
JG
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Hello. People who badly critics the movie I think are forgiven the real context of this: This is a little movie made by a group of developers trying to show the capabilities of his software, not a big cinema best seller pretending movie.
The artwork is awesome, the sound, the music, a beautiful piece of art.
If someone can put in a 15min story a lot of action, emotions, impressive scenarios mantaining a plot with no “holes”, pleaso go and do it.
Congratulations for the people involved. Excuse me if my english had some lacks.
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Humm… yes. My English leaks…
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:15 pm
From seeing the voting results off of the YouTube site 98.5% of the world agrees this is a good movie. I consider these people to be a group of people that general know nothing about blender, animation or making a movie. But they voted saying they like it.
This has to be one of the greatest compliments to everyone evolved in this film. Because any large weak point would pull the whole film down.
As people on this site are rating it more on the creation and execution point of view, it still hold up under a very strong scrutiny by follow animators.
Things can always be better, but this whole project came together quite nicely.
Well done durian team!
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
congratulations to this great work! I enjoyed the short very much.
I downloaded and watched Elephants Dream again and noticed the incredible increase of donators that you had compared to your first short. could you state how the number of donators increased from elephants dream over BBB to this movie?
like many others here I think also that the story remains many open questions (why has she been attacked, what exactly is the role of the sword and the shaman). but anyway, I found the film very entertaining and overall excellent.
i am still fascinated of the story of Elephants Dream which is therefore my favorite movie of the Blender Foundation. but in terms of technical aspects, storytelling and the overall mude, Sintel is absolutely great and entertaining. it feels like a real cinema movie.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Wow, who animated little scales? Amazing work!
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Everything “rocks” when made with good thoughts. This isn’t this time. I know that developers, who wasted so much time read all this and payed some attention to spc comment and quotes alike. At least I hope you got it right. I once linked to my blog entry, where I’ve been describing the situation but my idea was trashed.
You know, there are many ways to show Blender at it’s best. Say, creating a simple, nice and happy plot with a bit of action, like “Lighthouse”. Why would you, developers, want unhappy stories? I really think many of you have much of unhappy moments in your own life. Do you enjoy them? Is it funny? Is this really funny when trouble comes to you? Why do you enjoy violence in movies when you hate it in reality? Or you don’t?
Okay, okay, even if we forget about the plot: improved graphics now is available, so you could waste all this time to make a shorter movie look absolutely real, for real. That would show everybody how great the blender is. Unlikely, what we see here is a … is a what? Teh movie that was meant to look realistic(i got this wrong?) in order to demonstrate wonderfullness of blender represents some really “computer-graphics-looking” scenes. Not everything is fail, of course, please, don’t get me wrong, some items of movie look great, I mean environment and items. You’ve done great work on some places.
Anyway, excuse me, but this is the way it is, and there is no point of thinking otherwise: you have failed completely when pulled in this nasty plot.
I hope, if blender foundation will continue creating movies in order to advertise the production, next one will be a lot brighter. I really hope so.
GOOD luck and keep^Wbring UP the *GOOD* work.
October 2nd, 2010 at 7:58 pm
I hope Colin does more work as a director in future blender projects!
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:24 pm
amazing, haven’t words!
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Great movie, I’ve seen it in the cinema, youtube and now downloaded it. I’ve been following the blender open movie projects from the start and it’s really great to see how much progress was made since Elephants Dream.
Things that stand out for me are the more natural movement, facial expressions and movement of hair and clothes in the wind. Most scenes are awesome with the scene where Sintel realizes what she has done as one of the best. As the goal of this movie was to do “Epic short story, emotional impact, action scenes” I think you really managed to do that.
I think the team can be really proud of this movie, once more: great job! I’m looking forward to the next one.
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
The film was amazing. I was wholly impressed by the superb graphics quality. The animation was quite excellent, but of course, not perfect. I was glad the story didn’t have a completely happy ending. Indeed, the story was fairly thought provocative, which in and of itself, makes it a very successful film. I realize there were some plot points that left the viewers hanging, but that’s to be expected. I assume a completed story can only be achieved through the audience’s imagination or a full length film. Unfortunately, a mere fifteen minutes doesn’t do it justice. Overall, very impressive graphics and some very nice shots. I’m sure the Durian team is satisfied with the great work they’ve done.
October 2nd, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Wow, some of the people posting here must be true masters of writing and animation to be criticizing this great work so harshly. I can only imagine that they would tear most Pixar movies to shreds for their cheap plots and primitive animations.
This is a beautifully animated and skillfully executed tragic story. It hits all the key points of a classic tragedy in a way worthy of histories greatest playwrights. It has the “hero” who is good and decent but is brought down by her ambition and human frailty. It has the “reversal” when the fortune of finding her companion and overcoming the attacking dragon becomes the realization that the two are the same. This turns into the “recognition” that she has wasted her life on a quest with a flawed premise. At that moment, many things come together. She realizes how much time has passed. She finally understands the true relationship between Scales and herself. Scales moved on long ago, and what was left, what was driving her search, was her own obsession and delusion. She now sees herself for the battle-scarred killer she has become. Her quest has stolen her innocence and now, by her own hand, taken the life of the one she treasured most.
The fact that the movie hits all these elements so potently and does so in only 12 minutes is amazing. The plot is anything but cheap, anything but senseless. If fits together more perfectly than just about anything I have ever seen.
This story is then backed by animation that suits it wonderfully. Are there imperfections? Yes. The blood seems too thin with unnaturally high surface tension; some textures/shaders seem flat, soft, or out of place; some physical interactions seem detached; etc. However, these are minor things. The real question is “Does the animation reinforce and empower the story?” Yes. It does. From the sense of wonder in racing up the temple to the epic scale of the journey to the expressions in Scales’ face. It all works beautifully to magnify the story.
While the main purpose of these short films is to prove and improve Blender, they have done so much more here. I could go on about many scenes’ perfect timing, the smart use of visual elements, the subtle hints and foreshadowing… but that would make this long post even longer.
Anyone who looks at this movie and is not impressed perhaps needs to take another look. Appreciate it for what it is, not what you expect it to be.
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I love it!
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Great Work and the plot was very good!!!!
Here is the greek subtitle
http://www.rapidshare.com/files/422735323/sintel_gr.srt
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Agh, I need the separate file of that credit music! So awesome..
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
@ Freddie Astare
1) I agree that the attack seems like it should have more significance than what is presented. However, it does serve a few important points. It shows that Sintel is someone that has been hardened by her travels and has no problem killing to protect herself. The choreography of the fight mirrors and foreshadows her fight sequence with Scales. She gets the blade that “has shed much innocent blood”. This further foreshadows that it has one more innocent’s blood to shed, but this time by Sintel’s hand.
2) Agreed. It’s only a couple seconds, but it’s a really beautiful shot.
3) The reflection of Sintel in the soup is what she really looks like. The movie presents the world as Sintel sees it. Until the end of the film, she still sees herself as the innocent girl that lost her friend. The reflection in the soup is a subtle cue to the viewer of the battle-scarred woman she has really become.
4) Yes. Sintel seems to be an orphan fending for herself. This helps explain why her bond with Scales is so important to her. Scales is the only companion she has ever had.
5) Yes, the movie does a lot of things to give a “fair” indication of what is really happening without completely giving it away. When you go back and rewatch the movie, you can see these things that hint at the truth and not feel like the movie unfairly deceived you.
I also agree with your points about how great the opening credits, music, dragon animations, etc are done. What few imperfections exist do not change the fact that this is a masterpiece.
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I think that itΒ΄s a great film and I like to participate again in the next film jejeje.
Impossible better to Jan Morjensten, congratulations to the Blender team.
Saludos
adiΓ©
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm
As has been the case with all the previous Blender productions (BBB and ED), this one also had amazing animation + modeling + texturing but weak story.
I think no one would question the art and skill of the team on the stunning CGI work done here. I only wish the script writers were as good as the animation artists here.
But all in all, a great achievement for Blender and this will surely prove to be a confidence booster for Blender.
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Hi Ton and all others.
I think it became a great movie… The visuals are stunning and audio overall is great.
The first time I watched it I thought the script was crap.
I somewhat expected a hollywood/pixar/disney movie, but Sintel isn’t anything like that. It’s more a european movie, almost like Ingmar Bergman style. And I like it.
The only thing that worries me is showing it to my eight year old daughter. It’s hard when creatures die, and even harder to explain.
But anyways, great work..
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
@David i finally decided to show my 9yr old and she tells me oh you havent seen it yet, its so wonderfully tragic, the way we tend ruin our own lives with greed and selfishness….i think i may still be in shock from her response, then again ive caught this child switching from cartoon network to cnn when she thinks no one is watching o.O
October 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 pm
@Jesse:
“Wow, some of the people posting here must be true masters of writing and animation to be criticizing this great work so harshly.”
You don’t need to be a runner to see who wins a race and who doesn’t.
Movies are mostly made for the audience, not the other movie makers.
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
@joeri67: An open movie like this is different, it is mainly targeted at Blenderusers.
Although i would have appreciated a diffrent ending of the film, i still think it is great work! At least i can’t wait for my DVD-Set. BTW: I had no problem at all with the OGG/Theora-Version playing.
To sum it up: Great work, many thanks to the Durian-Team!
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:08 pm
i wouldn’t say it’s targeted at Blender users, as with Orange the goal is to is to develop Blender to meet the specific targets planned during the pre-production, it was also to help raise awareness of Blender and its capabilities to the 3d community in general, i would say that Ton has been successful in promoting Blender with every short released, i have more then a few friends and some co-workers who scoffed at me for using Blender and suddenly willing to convert after watching these great shorts
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:31 pm
@ joeri67 “You donβt need to be a runner to see who wins a race and who doesnβt.”
Sure, but if you want to critique the stride of the runners, then you should make sure you have an understanding of it first. Actually, your post was less off-base than some. However, calling the story “total rubbish” is really unjustified. Sintel does not recognize Scales because her self delusion has her expecting him to be a baby. This is evidenced by her perception of herself as still being a young woman. The plot is quite deep for such a short film, and it is well realized. You do not have to like it. It is even okay to critique it, but just remember that what seems to be a flaw may just be something that you have overlooked. A number of people are making very harsh criticisms about things that seem to be more about personal preference or oversights on the critic’s part. Any critique, especially from non-experts, is best expressed with a degree of humility.
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:34 pm
I would not mind seeing this as a full film. It was absolutely AMAZING.
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:38 pm
i wept at the graphical/motion quality of this- it really had nostalgia in those market scenes as it made you want to see a continuation of the duo living but now thriving on the fringe looking out for each other and roast chicken every day.
it quite obviously sells what blender can do in capable hands by displaying the environmental archietypes: town, forest, desert, snow, and cave.
voice acting was tops – especialy liked the way sintel doted on scales- that little sigh/giggle she made spoke volumes how in love she was with the critter and then the other feelings of loss and then tragedy could not fail to hit.
though i was hoping to finish on a euphoric hight of narrative bliss it is by design a classic tragidy (could make a nice opera!) i have read of stories like this- loved ones killed over miss-identity and though i would question the logic/intellegence of sintel persuing a baby dragon, dragged home by its parant, you never quite think so of this when you see it happen- like when you find i cute kitty etc mothering instincs just kick in and you go ga ga- especially when you are young. so you just have to take the ending like a kick in the balls- thought you want to be a man it is unaviodably acknolegably painfull and its because of this that i feel you would not want to watch this over and over- i have to admit it felt worse about this till having read previous reviews – pointing out the sudden revealing of sintels age in the blood puddle, i think i asummed she had dust in her hair or i was stuffing my face (dinner and movie-my routine) so feel much better for it as i got very stuck as to how the dragon would have grown so quick- and she obviously didn’t get their over night. pay attention boy!
ps i pre bought this 18/11/2009- hope to see it in the post soon!
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:43 pm
gret Job Durian Team!
i wish there where a way to give you enough money to do a 90 min film π
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Nice movie with very nice effects, but I still liked Big Buck Bunny the best
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Thank you for this great movie!
I have watched it a couple of time over and over again and i really love the movie, really moved me.
Really love the camera direction, normally i am really frustrated about camera use in films (except for burton, the genius!), but Sintel is done great!
I see a lot of people have problems with the story, but i LOVE the story, the plot at the end is EXCELLENT! (i was speechless, and that is rare XD almost dropped a tear there)
Thanks for this great piece of work, love to look forward to check out the models and the soundtrack π
@Ton: Geweldig werk wederom, echt een meesterwerk!
Misschien een uitdaging om de volgende film langer te maken?
De 10 minuten shorts zijn erg mooi, maar ik denk dat het erg impressive zou zijn om een langere film (30min minimum) als volgend project op te nemen, om alles nog verder te kunnen pushen en echt te laten zien dat er meer mogelijk is!
Er loopt genoeg talent rond, en genoeg hebben we de skills van gezien in vorige projecten!
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:00 am
Ja, maar dan moet Toen eerst ergens een miljoentje los zien te peuteren. π
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:01 am
Oeps, ik bedoel Ton. π
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:12 am
Absolutely Brilliant.
Story was very emotional, and very well written. I’m still unsure how the gatekeeper ties in, but other than that well done.
On a whole, the visuals were stunning. A couple of collision issues, such as the baby dragon’s wing right at the. I saw Proog! Just out of curiosity, what was that thing floating beneath his arm? It looked like a collar…
Your choice of voice actor makes much more sense now. When we only aware of her as a girl, the voice seemed a bit old, but now it makes sense!
Over all, stunning. Can’t wait for the next one in two years time!
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:34 am
Sintel remember me of Roland from The Dark Tower (Stephen King)
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 am
Sintel remember me of Roland from The Dark Tower ( Stephen King )
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:53 am
@Aaron there were originally four guardians, theres some stuff people question about the short that in some way or another is explained on this blog
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:56 am
btw is the documentary thing that was mentioned awhile back going to be posted along with everything else or is that a carrot to be dangled over the dvd release
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:08 am
Here’s my (with my wife’s help) effort at Japanese subtitles: http://taniwha.org/~bill/sintel_jp.srt (utf8)
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:09 am
Overall, I understand the biggest issue was timeframe in this movie. The team tried too much with too little time and unfortunately it shows very clearly to all the professional non-blender users they were trying to impress.
I don’t want to focus on the issues of this film though, rather I think it’s time to draw out what we can learn from this. Next blender movie should focus on the technical prowess of blender. Forget epic story lines, forget long lengths of movies- next time it should be a very short film with ridiculous detail that will blow the socks off the artists at pixar.
As a key example in Sintel, the market scenes: we hear the chatter of a large market place but the streets are very empty. If the film was cut down to Sintel and the dragon at the market place with it ending with the dragon having to be let go because it was too big to hide/live there any more (a coming of age story), it probably would have allowed the artists to focus on building a bigger atmosphere and creating finer details.
I am not a professional artist or writer, so I don’t want to act like I could have done better or even close! I applaud the team for completing the movie even though they would have known the movie had many flaws while they were making it. I know from my own experience in programming and amateur blender attempts, that it’s difficult to follow through on a project to the very end, so again, I give a big applause for that!
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:29 am
Great Job!!! i loved this film and the visuals..I can’t wait to see you guys next film and the improvements of blender
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:46 am
Despite all the criticism that has been thrown at this I will say something.
This is powerful. The script is not weak. The protagonist is all too human and in fifteen minutes it has more of an impact on you, the viewer than the average $100 million CGI filled Hollywood blockbuster these days can pull off.
The fact that the protagonist is so very flawed is what makes the impact of the film so very deep – she is -real-. She’s a genuine character and the ending is so very tragic and painful that it hurts. If you’re one of those seeking the deeper meaning behind a film then consider this for Sintel – childhood. The ending sequence, coupled with the music is probably the most powerful part of the film. The toll that time takes, the loss of innocence and the sheer horror in her reaction to what she has done…and what she has lost. The Shaman at the beginning hints to some of this with his observation of the blade – it has shed much innocent blood.
I just wish to say thank you for this. I only stumbled across it today and am thankful that I have done. There are only a handful of films that have had any true, lasting impact on me for the meaning and emotion they convey and this is one of them.
And the baby dragon at the end? I believe that to be a portrayal of hope. Of the fact that all is not lost, despite the tragedy. People may think it’s an odd thing but Scales was intelligent and displayed this so. Who’s to say Scales did not tell their young of the one who saved them? And the last moments were moments of genuine trust. There is hope for absolution, forgiveness and love still, despite the horror.
Thank you.
October 3rd, 2010 at 3:42 am
I am immensely impressed by Sintel as a whole and I got great joy out of pausing it at any given time during Sintel and just seeing fantastic cinematography! As to say that every shot looked fantastic and there was so much attention to detail and the scenes were very well populated. Kudos to everyone involved in making this and something I found interested was in William Reynish 2010 demo reel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK9481M4dQc&feature=player_
Sintel had almost completely grey hair and the scene was properly rendered out so I guess they decided to give her less gray hair in the final thing π
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:01 am
Congratulations. I am very, very impressed.
That was one of the most powerful films I have seen in quite a while. Amazing visuals (although I wasn’t entirely convinced about the blood), an extremely high-quality soundtrack and a very, very shocking ending. This was a real treat to see.
I’m really disappointed at the trolls. All of the Blender Foundation productions have been great experiences to see for the first time. This was no different.
Thank you once again to the team for yet another great movie.
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:08 am
I just watched the movie the second time. Without the scrutiny of the first time. Which means that I got to see the story, the pacing, the details and the things that were not technical glitches.
Sintel rocks.
While it’s obvious that there were different animators for different scenes, it still rocks with the details. The small dragon in the end, its eyes.
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:13 am
To me, Sintel was quite an achievement. My congratulations to the Blender team for this great piece of work you’ve put together, and thank you for all the effort. I liked the plot, the setting, the scenery, and the characters. I might not have done things in exactly the same way, but that’s part of what makes it fun to watch. Thanks again, Blender Foundation. π
There were some technical drawbacks that others have noticed, for instance some rather prominent textures were too low-resolution (or at least so flat in color that they appeared so). Also the blood, while better than something I could do, was probably too great in quantity and the viscosity seemed a bit off. But part of the idea of the Blender Project in the first place is to be open — open software, open community, open video projects. Instead of complaining about the quality issues, why not do your own Sintel v1.1 with all the changes you’d like to see? All of the resources used to make the production are available. And if you don’t have the technical skills to fix the things you’re complaining about, maybe that’s a reason to give the Blender folks a little more grace and respect for all their hard work.
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:01 am
First off, congratulations on finishing the movie. I have mixed feelings about the plot, probably colored by my kids’ horror at the ending.
*** spoiler ***
I don’t see how Sintel could have been dense enough not to see what was going on the whole time – regardless of the plot twist at the end, even at the pyramid she should have realized what had just happened – I’m sure most viewers figured it out right away.
*** end spoiler ***
Technically the only objection I had was the fake looking blood. Everything else was at least as good as I expected, and very often quite a lot better.
All in all, thanks for your hard work, and I’m looking forward to the next open movie!
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:43 am
Technically, I thought it was very good. Clearly, a lot of effort has gone into it and it shows. Well done.
Some spoilers below regarding the apparent theme (although I doubt if anyone reading will reach this far without encountering this before now)
Unfortunately I DESPISE tragic endings. Yes, I know that sadness and tragedy is part of real life, but this isn’t real life. I have seen sadness and other darker parts of life in reality (though not too often, fortunately), but I can deal with those feelings and situations when they occur in real life.
I don’t understand why you would want to chase these feelings in fiction as well – it honestly seems extremely shallow – no offence intended. I don’t understand how being ‘moved’ by a work of fiction, regardless of how, is in itself a worthwhile goal.
Sadness and tragedy has it’s place in fiction as a means to an end, but as an end in itself? Sorry, I was looking forward to this but despite the amount of work you clearly put in the ending rips the soul out of any enjoyment that I may have gotten from it, and I can’t recommend it to anyone.
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:47 am
Technically mindblowing (despite some minor lack of polish, like a few polygon intersections or a few blurred textures), specially considering that poor mortals are subjected to in terms of so many amateur blender dumps. The price of being free to everyone is tolerating mediocrity.
Plot-wise, this made me feel thinking long after I watched it. I’ve watched it 3 times in a row, the feeling is the same: who never obsessed over some dear lost love for so long only to find out that life moved past you?
Not so with most forgettable Hollywood plot templates…
way to go, BF!
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:49 am
Poor Sintel…
I like the story, full of symbolism and interconnections. At first it looks predictably sad, but a deeper look shows the hidden messages.
what I got was that Sintel was not the hero we expected, but someone (a bit dumb?) to learn from her mistakes:
Don’t get blind by a selfish quest;
Don’t chase old friends, specially if they don’t care much about you now;
Don’t go on killing everyone just by impulse or poor judgement.
Also, it all makes a good start for a redeeming Sintel sequence.
A proud supporter
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:55 am
I’ve never heard of any of this going on, saw it posted on Slashdot. And I watched it once and loved it. The story, the visuals, everything. Very well done.
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:21 am
Great job for a such small team…
What i like
– Sound Track is wonderful.
– Story and shooting are predictable but well done.
– Visual effect, light and,rendering are great too with some mistakes (like hairs going through clothes)
– Scales : modeling and animation are really good (almost dreamwork level for me :)).
what i don’t like
– Shaman voice sound like young Man.
– Sintel’s Character animation are bad. Some faces are horrible and body seems to be moving under different gravity then the one on earth.
– Sintel modeling … i just don’t like it (dunno why)
To finish, i congratulate one more time the team work the amount of job done and the contribution to blender 2.5. At end, it is a good movie and good enjoy to watch. I don’t regret for having pre-order DVD. And i hope next time we will reach a professional level.
well done guys
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:52 am
Michael Says:
October 3rd, 2010 at 06:43
“I DESPISE tragic endings. Yes, I know that sadness and tragedy is part of real life, but this isnβt real life…
Sadness and tragedy has itβs place in fiction as a means to an end, but as an end in itself?”
yeah, let’s get rid of most Beethoven symphonies and Shakespeare tragedies and concentrate only on merry 50’s rock’n’roll and Mickey Mouse shorts…
too much sugar for me. I need my fix of pepper and beer…
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:12 am
I don’t know if anyone saw this interesting side effect of this movie, but I think that Jan just gave Helena Fix one of her best songs ever. I predict this song to be a media hit on its own.
@Jan you are great by any scale.
@Durian Team: Thank you for a very interesting year, and really great work!
@Ton: Thank you for being such a vision-er and for bringing Blender to us.
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:41 am
That was simply amazing. Looks fantastic also the plot felt fresh to me and had real a real emotional impact.
I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with next.
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:51 am
hi there!
Congras on this another great film and open film project.
here is a korean subtitle [νκΈμλ§] for the Sintel @ http://hack.jinbo.net/file/korean.srt
i pretty much enjoyed watching it and contributing a little by translating it.
from one of fans of the Blender as a floss and its filmmaking projects, from seoul, s.korea.
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:58 am
Oh and all my admiration goes to Colin for his subtle way of conveying
and sometimes even amplifying the emotion and impact of the story.
Excellent direction.
And the credits song is simply beautiful.
I’ve just watched it again so I feel I need to say it again : Sintel is
really a great piece of work altogether.
______
JG
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 am
Oh and all my admiration goes to Colin for his subtle way of conveying
and sometimes even amplifying the emotion and impact of the story.
Excellent direction.
And the credits song is simply beautiful.
I’ve just watched it again so I feel I need to say it again : Sintel is
really a great piece of work altogether.
______
JG
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:04 am
@_HD:
” I donβt want to focus on the issues of this film though, rather I think itβs time to draw out what we can learn from this. Next blender movie should focus on the technical prowess of blender. Forget epic story lines, forget long lengths of movies- next time it should be a very short film with ridiculous detail that will blow the socks off the artists at pixar. ”
Making technical demos is so boring.
Why spend a year of your life to prove polys can be made to not intersect?
I don’t know why not somebody painted out the hair going through her cape in the attack scene. Seems to me an hour work orso to get all frames in Gimp and paint them away. Or even render a mask to hide thoose errors.
I think its good that the story tellers dont care about the state of blender to hold back what they want to tell. And its great that they get a chance to tell their story in a rather commercialy protected environment without marketiers telling them what the story should be to protect the investment of the producers.
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 am
I can say that it is a nice movie with a sad ending. The plot, animation and the “I move on” song are awesome.
Please upload the song and its lyrics, if possible. It will be nice, If you merge the song lyrics into the subtitles.
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 am
This looks good, but I’m surprised there’s no option for FLAC audio. Also, There’s no surround-sound in an open codec. I have downloaded the Ogg version (with theora video and vorbis stereo audio) and the MP4 surround version to get the AAC 5.1 soundtrack. I now have to remux to put the AAC 5.1 with the Theora video to get surround sound. I’m gonna use the MKV container, while I’m at it.
The ideal download for me would have been 5.1 FLAC with Theora video (high resolution) in an MKV container, with SRT subtitles included. Still, it is free so I suppose I shouldn’t complain! π
Good work!
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:35 am
My congrats. Really exciting to see this movie. And even more exciting to see it as the free shared film based on opened cooperation.
I think, that we are seeing just the beginning, as the first production of Lumiere brothers was. I am pretty sure this is the future of the public (I really do not want to dishonour such a great project with the “mass” adjective) entertainment. Esspecially as I forsee the great unchartered space of movie (with e.g. user-decided view angle and zoom) and computer game (something like taking control over character by simply pressing button, or at least available at preselected moments) coexistence in one future-to-be-developed format and your concept is way ahead with prerequisites in this direction.
Be proud that by this release you will forever stay part of this future history.
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:37 am
so touching, so sad…
very, very well done – so awesome and sooo epic
the more i watch it, the even more i like it – maybe because of the many subtle things i discover…
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 am
@Jesse “From the sense of wonder in racing up the temple to the epic scale of the journey to the expressions in Scalesβ face. It all works beautifully to magnify the story.
While the main purpose of these short films is to prove and improve Blender, they have done so much more here. I could go on about many scenesβ perfect timing, the smart use of visual elements, the subtle hints and foreshadowing⦔
These words express exactly what i think (without being able to put it into such fitting words, though)
AND i love the camera moving AND the open-style of the story. not everything is explained in a clear and sort of “loud” manner – i have been watching the movie many times and i am still discovering subtle and explaining details
Well done guys!
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:03 am
wow, what a great and epic movie. i love it!
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:01 pm
You guys did a great job, really! Following the progress of your work during about a year, it’s better than what I was expecting. There have been times of great instability during the process of creating this short movie, guys coming in and leaving, some moments of dellusions on so many different levels, but you made it. I think, considering the fact that 2.5 was still in an enormous rewriting process after maybe 2 years of great changes, you guys deserve congratulations as a very POSITIVE team, always enthousiastic till the very end . Of course you would have needed more time and things can be improved. But you have been a great team and the community can be proud of the team and of course of the great captain.
The beautiful thing about this open movie is that all the complainers can do better movies out of it when they get all the files if they really think they can do much better. What a challenge for them π
On my side I watched the movie forgetting the technical little issues very quickly as I was quickly turned into a common audience onlooker instead of a blender user controlling the technical quality. This is rare for me and it means you made it.
I think the music is perfect and the fact that the story flows with almost no dialogs is a great achievement.
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Jesse says: “While the main purpose of these short films is to prove and improve Blender”
To an extent that is true, i guess.
For Ton it’s good to have real animators strugling with real issues to try and solve them with better software. In this case having a 3.0 build-from-scratch sort of issues was not very fortunate for the animators. I was at Nan having kinda issues with that. Making blender 2.0 games on blender 1.8 was pretty much impossible.
But I believe the producer Ton ( same guy ) also wants to make free story productions, that can make a mark, or are more than prove of technology.
Or else it doesn’t make sense to have a blender Institute, he might as well make big money with a commercial cg studio.
For animators and directors its of little importance with what software their story is made. For the foundation its no use having a director who doesn’t know blender, or trying to finance a big operation like a short for maya animators. But i’d like to see this movie being a vision that would have looked the same story wise had it been made with blender, paper or shot with real-life actors and cloth dolls. Although I’m sure the writer, director and producer had frustrations of the impossibilities as to making their views a little more clear, by default, it’s always like that. Views differ and a movie is a collab.
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
@Gunjan Gupta
You are absolutely right about the “I move on” soundtrack. It is truely breathtaking, i love it. Someone uploaded the song plus lyrics on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAubLFMVXRY
The sound design in general is very professional. Kudos to Jan Morgenstern for this great work.
I’m looking forward to recieve my pre-ordered DVDs π
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Fantastic!
Great quality! In all aspects. There were a few errors yes, like intersections, but the whole film felt thoroughly worked through.
I like how you make all movie projects completely different from each other! It’s great to see you don’t just have one style that you always do. It keeps the next fruit project interesting!
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:00 pm
WOW
What an incredible shortfilm! And the storyline lives up to the amazing graphics/sound!! how refreshing.
Thank you for the hard work this must have taken.
Proving once again the power of opensource.
J
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Amazing
can’t stop watching this
everything made using Opensource software (simply unbelievable :-D)
Geweldig werk ;-D
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
@Simon “I donβt see how Sintel could have been dense enough not to see what was going on the whole time β regardless of the plot twist at the end, even at the pyramid she should have realized what had just happened β Iβm sure most viewers figured it out right away.”
Sintel is blinded by her love for Scales. She appears to be an orphan that has been alone for basically her whole life. When she found Scales, she gained companionship like she had never known. It redefined her existence. When that is torn away from her, she “breaks”. From that moment until the end, she is in her own reality. I suppose you could argue that this is an easy out for the writers… they can make her do anything and just say “well, she’s insane”. However, they do not abuse it like that. In multiple viewings of the movie, you can see that she has a very specific characterization, and her behaviors are completely consistent with that. She is not just some random crazy person.
Off topic a little… in previous posts, I referred to the length of the movie as 12 minutes, which excludes credits. I did this because I was discussing plot. However, I should give recognition to the credits and the ending song “I Move On”. They are a perfect follow-on to the story. The song is haunting. It makes the ending even more poignant as you attempt to process what you have just seen.
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Congratulations!
I’m putting the torrents up on my seed box. I can give 128kB/s per torrent for at least a month or so π
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Fantastic job,
I’ve been following Durian and the team for about nine months and the wait was well worth the result. Brilliant use of lighting and very high resolution dragons, the plot really moved me, very tragic. For those who comment on the predictability of the plot I will assume that many of them would have followed the Durian blog, giving them an advanced knowledge of the plot which uninformed people may not have experienced.
October 3rd, 2010 at 3:36 pm
i agree with joeri67. why didn’t you use a mask to hide the hair problems? it would be cool if the most obvious hair problems got fixed with a mask for the 4k version. π
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
**Greek subtitles for Sintel**
Hi guys,
i just saw Sintel and it is a brilliant work,
the artists, developers and all the team
that put it together did a great job!
Now to the point, i have a little experience
with subtitles so i translated it in Greek (Ξλληνικά) .
I tested then and it works fine.
If you want put it in the youtube as an option
and in the site for downloading.
Anyway you can grab it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/422870592/sintel-2048-surround.rar
You did a great job guyz.
Keep it up.
Greetings from Greece.
– Panos
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Wow guys, it was an awesome movie and totally worth the wait. Just to let you guys know, I felt as if when watching it, I was watching a much longer film. And I made my girlfriend watch it with me, and she cant help but cry when the scales is taken away, and then at the end… EVERYTIME… But beautiful film though! Blender is definitely going to catch some attention with Sintel.
Nate
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Nice work!
I did enjoy this movie very much.
Never thought that the Blender Foundation did such as good work.
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:22 pm
@who?: sure…
I merged the lyrics into the english subtitles
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b3c7d26/n/sintel_en_incl_lyrics.zip
and translated the lyrics into german and meged them too
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b3c7d2a/n/sintel_ger_incl_lyrics.zip
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
GREAAAT!!! Awesome!!! Will be “Sintel 2” sequel as the sequel? Or maybe the full features version? However, Big Buck Bunny gave us great laugh, but Sintel…. Great imagery, great adventure, great action, great story!! ^^ Two thumbs up for you team!!
Is fruit that Sintel get before met Scale is a durian? It seem like durian or sirsak, a kind or fruit there in Indonesia……. hehehehehehehhehe…….
once more GREATTT!!!
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
As for any creative product, the end-result is what counts, and certainly can be judged on its own merits and how people perceive it. The overwhelming positive response is for everyone in the team an enormous compliment! Also the fact some people don’t like it is perfectly OK, that’s the nature of any artwork where artists had freedom to realize their ideas.
However, it’s quite striking that some negative reviewers are so persistent and seem almost frustrated. I truly wonder where it comes from, after all they probably have watched more lousy films in their lives. Maybe it’s coming from an emotional attachment (or aversion?) for the Blender project, and seeing something from Blender they don’t like then amplifies the bad feeling. Or maybe it’s to counter the extreme positive fanbois screaming out loud that it’s “the best movie ever!”. π
It’s also very funny to see people doing their armchair-movie-crit tricks, similar to movie review websites online, where any masterpiece gets ripped apart as well. That’s nothing more but a compliment.
Other crits claim their self-proclaimed rights to criticize the ‘film as it is’ by putting themselves in the position of the makers. Well, that’s quite a contradiction right? Of course you would have done it better, different, whatever. But for such reactions to be taken serious, I’ll only listen to people who do similar work themselves.
As producer I know we’ve been balancing all the competences, ambitions and resources on the edge of what was possible. In the course of our project we’ve been making 100s of decisions how to move forward, and we’ve definitely left plenty of issues in a state that could be improved. That’s how things go, time is limited, and that’s been our reality during the movie project. I think the balance of good and bad in the film is definitely on the positive side, sufficient for an audience to enjoy it as well. For CG artists the issues can be more irritating though, knowing how it could have been a relative easy fix.
(BTW: no manual painting or complicated post process fixes were done here, the film should be instant re-renderable, for 4k and possible stereo 3d, for Blender testing, and for everyone who gets the dvds).
Anyway, we’ve learned so much! Will definitely be taken with with us in the future.
And that’s really for me the best part of it, the true meaning of life is in creating, and I know everyone in the team looks forward to a bright future related that. And hopefully we’ve inspired you for it as well. π
(Jesse: thanks for the cogent review and reaction!)
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
The video files in the OGV torrents are misnamed. They are all named with the extension “.mp4”, rather than “.ogv” like they should.
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:57 pm
@gundampilot001:
I only hope, that they weren’t encoded mp4->ogv :-/
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Lousy film but hey, its free! Ok if i count the time i spent downloading, watching and then typing the comments its probably more effort than its really worth… but hey I’m willing to lose a little to support FREE stuff any day! I appreciate all those people who spend countless hours working on this…. even if its complete crap π Way to go! keep producing free stuff!
October 3rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Hello Blender Team,
As I heard, you read all new comment, so I’m adding mine to the list.
I saw the movie, couple of times and that didn’t “impressed” me, I mean I wasn’t like “wow ! that’s awesome”. I know you worked very hard on it, and I know (because I’m working on shortmovies too) making a movie in 1 year, it’s really really short so I want to be the more objective as possible.
The story is great, congratulations for that.
But the “images” themselves… There’s too much bump everywhere and it seems like a simple desaturated RBG texture to me (bump doesn’t work that way) so that is a bit ugly, add to this the fact that there’s not enough details in the textures, when the big dragon took Scales, I expected to feel like “wow ! that’s a damn big scary dragon !” but it looks like a toy to me (I mean not enough fine color variations).
When the fight is over, Sintel is seeing the shaman’s house. This house is 2d, with a bit of lights animation it could have add more depth to the scene.
At 5:48, there are lights artefacts on Sintel’s tooth, that’s really ugly for a closeup.
At 6:10, foot steps on sand are begining from nowhere, that’s strange.
The two scenes, when it’s raining are really great ! π
A strange thing, it’s probably me but, all the bump fabric’s looks the same to me.
The Dragon Tree scene, at 7:53, looks really really flat.
At 8:07, there is a huge lighting mistake, according to the position of the moon and the thick leaves of the tree, the tree branches can not receive such a light, even with indirect lighting, it’s too strong, there must be casted shadows from the leaves.
I particularly like the shot at 8:33, the colored perspective between Sintel’s hair and the blue tint of the cave.
But in the whole movie rim lights are too strong on organic things, hence that doesn’t fell natural, at 10:17 there are good exemple (Scales’ head), or on leather details, or even cloth details.
At 11:52, the bump, on everything, is really too strong, that doesn’t look natural.
There a strong SSS on skins, but at the end (12 minutes) the flower is very opaque, that’s odd, plus a strange orange atmospheric perspective.
Well, to conclude, I liked the story, but the graphics could have been really better.
Unfortunatly, this is not my favourite movie of the Blender Institute.
Yours,
Ps: Sorry for my poor english.
Clement.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I find the story both engaging and intelligent. I got it the first time I watched the movie together with my kids. Even my four year old got it, as put in his own words: “-She forgot he grew up!”. I find it striking that some commentators here fail to grasp what even a four year old could see (literally) That aside, there are issues (because I am a graphics artist and animator) related to art that I would like to see improved. But I also understand that there are many factors that decide why art ends up in the way it does. This movie succeeds in delivering what it wants to tell us. It also succeeds in making people debate (which any good art should achieve) as can clearly bee seen in this channel. However, I would like to send out a challenge to the most negative reviewers here. Soon you will be able to get all the data to recreate the movie yourselves. Improve it and send it back for scrutiny. I can’t wait to see the level you want this movie to be.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Minute 11:52, on the ground, Is that a rendering error?
In any case, even Pixar films have errors.
Excellent job guys. I admire your work and I congratulate you.
Thanks.
October 3rd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I just want to express my compliments and gratitude to the Durian team for making this movie. You have produced a work that IMO beats those of Pixar. I kept thinking during the entire movie that you would be entirely capable of producing a successful mainstream movie, and I’d almost like to see that happen. On top of this, you’ve showcased the immense power of Blender, and Free software in general. That is certainly your most important accomplishment with this work. I’m glad to see that it’s getting so much attention; it certainly deserves it. Despite the sad ending, I very much enjoyed this movie.
Some technical comments:
To those complaining that the encoding was bad on the h264 video, you are using an inferior decoding setup. The movie was entirely without any noticeable artifacts. There was no blockyness as some have claimed, even in high-motion scenes. No ringing, no combing, no stuttering, no nothing. I cannot attest to the ogv and divx versions, but i would suspect that they are of comparable quality for their respective codecs.
There were a few small issues with the animation. Not necessarily mistakes, but things that made it seem less realistic than perfect. This is completely ok. I have to agree with the comment(s) about the bamboo scene. The bamboo looked MUCH more realistic than the rest of the movie. Much less Pixar-ish, and more photo-realistic. I was very impressed by this (and yes, I know what bamboo looks like. I have an entire stand of it growing in my back yard =D).
Some subjective comments:
The ending was somewhat disappointing at first, but upon review during the ending credits, I found that, while it didn’t produce the theme that I wanted to see, it produced an entirely different, very powerful theme. The before and after of Sintel was an amazing effect. Before she looks just as she did when she left. Afterwards, she is scarred and aged. It’s something that I didn’t understand at first. But again, after some review it made the experience that much more enjoyable.
Overall, this was an excellent production, and my thanks and gratitude to the hard work and dedication of the Durian team, and of course the Blender developers. To the developers: you have produced a powerful, quality product. To the Durian team: you have proven the power of the software, and produced a wonderful piece of artwork in the process.
Also, my thanks for releasing it under the Creative Commons Attribution license, in this production as well as the last two. Again, this is a wonderful demonstration of the usefulness of these open source licenses.
Nick
North Carolina, USA
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
I also didn’t fully understand the ending at first, but that was at the pre-premiere, but the afterparty cleared up a lot!
Sintel has the same power as Big Buck Bunny in terms of that you can watch it over and over again.
I haven’t seen Sintel in my Home Cinema yet, therefore I wait for the PNG’s! (I want to create the highest quality version)
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Absolutely astonishing… great animation, stript, music… It really moved me. Congratulations to all staff’s members!
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Great job guys, much much much more ambitious than anything ever attempted before with that open-source format.
I hadn’t noticed any “flaws” with the storyline until I read comments about it. Then I read some more, had a giggle and thought that those people should watch “Being John Malkovich” or “Lost Highway” and then find some sites to post about their respective “flaws”. That should keep ’em busy π
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:02 pm
WTG Ton
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Excellent!
Congratulations.
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 pm
When watching the movie, I found the end packed quite a punch. I’m proud that this was a story driven piece and that a number of non-blender heads have watch the movie and been impressed. As a dvd sponsor and Blender user I’m a bit proud, and would happily hug each one of the team because with these blogs, this felt every part inclusive rather than closed-source filmaking.
And I thought you just made software
Thanks
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I agree with criticism regarding the story, but i deem movie being very good. It is beyond what i can produce right now in Blender, even if cloned to the number of movie crew π . So, i expect dvds which i ordered to be loaded with tons of stuff from which i can learn something! Blender will prevail π
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:25 pm
I join most people here and must say that it gets better each time you whatch ist – which includes that i was confused after first whatching. but i am totally happy with the result now – story and graphics. i think it’s a very europeanish ( i don’t think this word exists but who cares) film, even if it has been created by people from all over the world. “bad” endings are so rare in hollywood. maybe thats the reason why some guys don’t get it.
thank for all your hard work – i’m proud like if my football team had won the world cup (sorry for remembering π
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:38 pm
As the one of the 1000 credited supporters, I have to say – I knew from the very beginning it will be enormous Success for Blender community!!!
Watching open-projects and Blender going better and better is for me like the dream becoming true, really!
For those who are responsible for this brilliant project: Keep going, don’t settle, because I belive, one day the Blender Community will be the greatest industry source of talented artists, fresh minds and developers like nowhere else.
October 4th, 2010 at 12:03 am
Awesome. I really like the images, and I also like the story — I was a bit disappointed about the end at first, but after I watched the movie three or four times, I must say I like it and it’s really been the best decision to do it like this. It definitely makes the story less flat and … well, better. For a 14 minute film, I don’t think you can do much better stories!
As many people already stated, most of the critic rants are just ridiculous, who cares about tiny rendering errors, seriously. If you don’t watch the film only with the intent to find rendering errors, you won’t see them. And even if they mattered, you as the producers definitely would know best about them without hobbyist artists telling you. It’s like Linus Torvalds sais:
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, complain.”
Keep up the good work!
PS: Just curious, why didn’t you take the shaman’s pipe as an opportunity to show off blender’s smoke simulator? :]
October 4th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Also guys,this is the first movie in which I ever watched the credits!(mostly because of the awesome song)
I was wondering,are you ever gonna release the script of the movie?I would love to read through it!
October 4th, 2010 at 1:05 am
the longest and most controvertial post in the history of this blog!
October 4th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Today I’ve looked at my wall at facebook (I’m fan of youtube) and guess what I saw! Than I’ve looked at youtube – and Sintel was between “choosen” videos (on the right side of page)! Really, youtube did great advert!!! We all should thank them for it.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:00 am
You mean DCP, as KDM is the key. (which will not be used for this film, of course π )
But good point, I hope they make one as soon as the 4K version is ready, as 4K DCP. (which is also perfectly playable on 2K systems)
Btw, this movie looks fantastic on a cinema screen, the 35mm print was gorgeous!
October 4th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Just watched for the… somethingth time, the .torrented version this time. Much better than youtube! It is really amazing!
One aspect that hasn’t got a lot of attention (maybe because it blends in so well it feels completely natural) is the voice acting. It is about one and a half gazillion times better than Elephant’s dream. It works so great! The voices capture both the characters and their emotions.
Is the big dragon in the city much less subdivided than scales in the cave? The cave part feels like it has gotten much more attention. Most parts of it could work for live action shots green screened in imo. On the other hand, if resources was short I’d put most of them on the end.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:12 am
I liked it. Great visuals and sound. I think for the short amount of time that they had the story was good. My only gripe is my name got missed in the credits. I might not be so eager to do a pre order again.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:50 am
When did you order it?
Haven’t seen the checklist?
October 4th, 2010 at 2:57 am
@Ton “thanks for the cogent review and reaction!”
You and the Blender/Durian team absolutely deserve it. I’ve known of Blender for years but never found time to do anything with it (though now that I’ve ordered the Sintel DVD I plan to experiment some). I just stumbled across the Sintel trailer about a month back and have been looking forward to it. I was surprised that you managed to pull off such an epic story in only 12 minutes. I thought that surely the trailer was overselling it. I’ve never been happier (or sadder) to be proven wrong.
I’ve reworked some of my comments from here and posted it as a review on IMDb (and corrected my “histories” typo). It might take a couple days to show up. By the way, to give some context, I have not read any extra story details from the blog, etc. So my feedback should be a fair representation of someone with no “inside” knowledge.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:57 am
Sintel is on the YouTube front page under “Must-See in HD.” π
October 4th, 2010 at 3:01 am
I liked it!
Great Movie!
I like the Visuals in most parts of the Film (The best for me is in the end Cave Fighting Scene with the Big Dragon Scales!)
some Character animations are not so good
The Story is Strange but i like it very much in some Way!!!
and i see the “Suzane” Monkey face in some frames ….very coolΒ΄to put it in!
The Music and sound Fx are Great,,,,,,,,Amaaazing!
Thanks!
October 4th, 2010 at 3:16 am
This movie was wonderful! I hope that you can create more with such quality and expertise. I applaud you on this art!
I was wondering, though, if you would be willing to get in touch with a small toy manufacturer and create plush versions of Scales. You could market them with the DVD…
Just a thought. I would totally buy one!
October 4th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Impressive number of sweaty, nervous industry scumbags in the comments… you know Blender is making an impact when such vermin start fearing their specialization in a single proprietary tool will be in risk for future jobs… π
October 4th, 2010 at 6:19 am
@Steve Schiro
I looked at the sponsor lists and found your name on the DVD only sponsor list. You can find it here: http://www.sintel.org/dvd-only-sponsor-credit/
This list is for people who preordered after the cutoff date for listing in the end credits, which was Sept. 15 2009. If you ordered before then, you might want to take that up with Ton, but otherwise your promised credit is coming soon enough (on the DVD). I hope this won’t dissuade you from preordering in the future, but they’ve been very clear on this blog about deadlines for preordering and such, and I know they’ve made a really good effort to make sure everyone gets their proper credit, including several blog posts where they posted the credits lists for people to make sure they’re on the list. I’ll be sure to see your name on the DVD!
October 4th, 2010 at 7:09 am
Hey! When is the next movie going to come out? I’m anticipating it already. lol.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Hey Ton & Sintel Team,
I’d just like to add my voice to the chorus of people thanking you for a wonderful short film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story was top-notch and I really enjoyed the visuals.
Ton, thanks for making this all possible. Without what you’re doing here, my brothers and I wouldn’t enjoy such a great outlet for our creative talent or be so proud of you and the teams you have assembled! Thank you! I really mean that!
Kindest regards,
Socceroos
October 4th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Wow it is really great Guys!!!! Sorry to say that I didnt like the story . Even-though the Visuals are amazing, marvelous and eye candy. No word to explain the beauty of the project. Congratulations for those who worked behind this movie.
Can any one tell me what are the other software have been used other than Blender to complete the movie? I would like to know which software has been used to master the audio?
Regards
Dathan
October 4th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Powerful story telling, congratulations on a great job.
My thoughts on the ending were that dragons must have a “alpha dog” culture and that’s why the new baby followed Sintel.
Be interesting to see if someone runs with making a happier ending version once the DVDs are out. I hope the DVDs include not just the stuff that made it into the movie, but all voice recordings and deleted scene stuff. Give the “Save Our Scales” crew plenty to play with π
October 4th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The film was really grate. I story was nice too.
I would like to cpngratulate Ton and the Sintel team for their hard work. The quality of the film itself is outstanding. Its sure that I’m buying the DVD to learn how the team achieved those great renders.
Congrats again.
October 4th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
@Dathan:
search the blog on this site for Jan Morgenstern’s entry (“Greetings from the Audio trenches”, on June 8th). He posted quite an extensive and interesting article on his music production for Sintel, which was superb IMHO.
And congrats to the Blender team for this amazing achievement.
October 4th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
@J. Yes, sorry , not KDM but DCP, I would love to see it on the big screen :D.
Really a fantastic movie, my friends love it, they were sad because of the ending but they are just like me going to order the dvd because this is absolutely one to watch and watch again and then after it watch it again :D.
Please keep us updated for a possible DCP version :D.
October 4th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Sound files and PNGs are being uploaded to a mirror (xiph.org), will post it when it all arrived (33 GB). A French film distributor will then make a DCP package, and freely distribute. Will keep you informed!
October 4th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
what about exr?
October 4th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Awesome, Ton.
Ymagis will do that, right? (I hope they will use the Konken cinema mix for the sound)
Btw, it would advise to let them use the same DPX files as you gave Cineco for the 35mm print. (the PNG’s are 8 bit and D-Cinema is 12 bit gamma 2.6, so they really the DPX files to get full quality)
October 4th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Yes Ymagis will encode the DCP package. The DPX frames will be made available too, we have to fixup some shots in DPX though (we re-rendered 2 shots for the online version, to get rid of the worst hair shot!).
About exr: the farm produced half-float OpenEXR images, these then went to the Blender sequencer for final edits, cross fades and grading. That was output to DPX and PNG now. The amount of data is just gigantic (all openexr files are 366 GB), not sure if this will go online, but do give USB drives with all data to our main sponsors.
October 4th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I really enjoyed this – congratulations on producing something so technically demanding in such a short time frame and for such a low budget, without making any serious mistakes. Takes real skill to pull that off.
You have asked for criticism so I guess I should give some. I like the story – there is no point when your a small group producing the same stuff as Hollywood, something you must obviously be aware of given this and your previous shorts. However, my one issue is that whilst I can like Sintel on the first watching, until the end, once you know the ending its hard to like an idiot. Wouldn’t be a problem if this is a watch once movie, but its not, by its very nature – you are are going to watch it many times, and from the second viewing onwards it loses something. Saying that my favourite character is defiantly Scales, despite ‘it’ being almost emotionally blank (Does Scales have a sex btw? – hard to tell as I am not an expert on dragon anatomy;-) ).
Technically its of Hollywood standards – yes I can go through and find faults, but I do the same with the latest big films when the story bores me and I’m stuck in the cinema. I wouldn’t worry about all the nit pickers here – most people don’t sit through a Hollywood film to deliberately find errors – they are too long, whilst Sintel is of a length where you can do that. Stylistically I don’t care much for the object-specific backlighting – its a cheat, and looks as such, especially as its too strong/too white in some cases.
Anyway, I look forward to the next project – I hope it is even more successful than this one! Just remember to get us a nice sexy Blender 2.60 before then:-)
October 4th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Btw, Ymagis is no distributor, but an ”integrator”. (you can read an interview with them on http://www.cineserver.nl, in Dutch)
How big is the DPX version actually?
October 4th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Wonderful movie! The graphics are great but I’m also impressed by how the image, sound and music interacts.
Inspiring!
Staffan, Sweden
October 4th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Released DVD ISO with menΓΉ?Thanks
October 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Animago Festival (Germany, Berlin) nominated Sintel π
http://www.animago.com/en/hall-of-fame/2010/nominated-entries-2010/
October 4th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Congrats, let the awards come in! π
But ”Best postproduction”? Sounds like you’ve filmed on-set in Ishtar and added CG with Blender. π
October 4th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
“Animago Festival (Germany, Berlin) nominated Sintel”
Congratulations.
Best wishes.
October 4th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Wow! Post-production, eh? Let’s hope you will win this one! π
(Even though it wasn’t perfect to my eyes, it was very vivid in style.)
October 4th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Amazing!
Critics? Make more of such shortfilms. Absolutly Amazing!
October 4th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
@Lucaro: Minor correction to your lyric subs: sub #41, It’s “I’ve become”. The “v” sound is subtle, but definitely there.
Otherwise, good work, and thank you.
October 4th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
What about soundtrack? When it will be available? I can’t wait…
October 4th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Congrats to all the team! I’ve downloaded the movie, will try to see it tonight… Thanks a lot for providing a version in Stereo and OGV!
October 4th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
@taniwha: thanks, i fixed it and removed the old version
new Link: http://www.filefactory.com/file/b3cc270/n/sintel_en_incl_lyrics.zip
October 4th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Sadly there are still failures with the cloth rigging, dragon’s knee going through its wing. Also I’m missing dust in some scenes, statue on ziggurat breaking down, Sintel running over nightly sand ground.
I think the story is good enough to keep one entertained for the time; I suppose more wasn’t ment to archieve. As already has been mentioned the struggle between Sintel and Laotse in the beginning seems quite out of place.
Sintel doesn’t like Durian, shame on her!
Why does the shaman have two colored eyes? Why is the guy out of elephants dream there at the market place? Maybe his ancestor… π
They did it all wrong: Dragons blood doesn’t look like that. π
My favorite scene is the rainy part of the quest. And this was done by Team Argentinia. eheh
October 4th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for Animation, It’s a nice cast study for me and all
mango mango mango mango
October 4th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Ton says:
” we re-rendered 2 shots for the online version, to get rid of the worst hair shot! ”
Just before Sintel leaves the cave there are two wrong frames.
One missing arm, and one where Sintel re-appears in the shot.
The shot where Sintel falls and her hair sticks out her jacket could be fixed by rerendering the jacket and alpha-over the jacket over the shot. ( 4k compatible without painting by hand )
October 4th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Wow! This movie is fantastic! I understand the criticism about the quality of the script, but after watching the movie a few more times, I admire the work and enjoyed the entire film as a whole. The script and story comes clearer and clearer every time you watch it. So, if you have not seen the movie at least twice, please do so before commenting. The soundtrack was spectacular, in addition to being one of my favorite features of this production. All in all, it is too hard to choose just one favorite part because of the quality of the film as a whole. The open nature of these projects accelerate the quality of Blender as a software. Blender has gone quite a ways sense Elephant’s Dream.
October 4th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Great movie. When are you going to make a long play movie. I will have this blender files for editing them for a mod of a game.
October 4th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Hi all,
I just want to react to Ton βs comments on “October 3rd, 2010 at 17:31”
because i’m a bit suprise and upset after words Ton use against criticism.
For sure, it’s important to underline the great efforts and works done. It is also very important to measure how amazing amount of improvments have made blender 2.5.
This is a fact. And iβm the first to claim it and iβm proud to have participate to this (with my small help as Pre order DVD). It is obvious, iβll do it again, if needed.
But to be honest, behind critics, there are always somes message to understand and even more, ways to become better and better. I really donβt appreciate your world Β« iβll only listen people that have done something similarβ¦.. Β». As i know, Do you think the best car ever build will be made for his builder ? As iβm concern, Public has the last and ultimate judgement even what you want and as to be considered.
Afterwhat, according to all parameters and conditions, this is a great success for Sintel. I just want people to never forget to evaluate thing with a larger point of view (criticism as compliment).
Great Job Durian TEAM!!!
October 4th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Congratulations to the whole team, you really deserve it !
It’s really nice to see how things goes bigger and bigger at each new open project.
I guess people get more and more exited ,looking forward during the production how it will end. And it get more and more criticism, in positive and negative way. Surely because expectation are higher and higher.
I was really impressed by the movie, the story is really great, it makes me think of how life could be. Having a sad end is sometime hard for the audience, as we are so much formatted by the happy ending in many movies. But in this case, it really put the movie higher . I’ve found sound and edit especially great to. Many shots are simply beautiful. There are still some things that could be improved, but to me it never kill the movie.
Thinking of all the goal you have to reach : developing the software while working with it, match the deadlines and budget, deliver the project file in the end ( maybe it would have been easier with more dirty cheat that only you knowed) . The production is also truly epic, you are heroes of the CG world π
Thank you really much for all your efforts !!
October 4th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Nice stuff!!!
BUT – 2048 video – THIS IS SO STUPID!!! Whos idea is it? and WHY did you do that? Cant find a single argument not to say sh…t on this π remove this thing frominternet and make it 1920 wide.
October 4th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Nynn: I tried to word my statement very clear; I honestly love reviews and suggestions, the film in itself is a product that can stand alone and can be reviewed as such, several critical remarks I can agree with even.
But when it is about car manufacturing, there’s two aspects: the drivers themselves, and the people who know how to make cars, and get a driver happily and safe to a destination. π
October 4th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Just wondered… is it possible at some point to outline some creative development issues from a point of view of influences and the practicality of manifesting those influences within the pipeline ? Not sure how much will be covered in the DVD, but an informative feel for how characters developed beyond the art direction stage against practical issues would be highly interesting. For instance, with the dragon, how were the look and feel aspect reconciled to the practical demands of rigging, and what were the cultural or filmic reference points instrumental in making the dragon work as a character ? Even an anecdotal approach would be very informative, I have a feeling that there is still quite a story to tell regarding the entirety of Sintel. It’s only beginning to dawn on me how much of an achievement this animation short actually is, and there is probably a book in there somewhere.
October 4th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
This is great. I’m inspired to create my own movie and also to contribute to Blender development. The criticism I have read is giving us an opportunity to do better next time.
Once again, great work Durian TEAM and the rest of the Blender contributors.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
MartianR: Wait till you see the making of. Ali did a great job putting it together.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Alright so here is my take on the film:
The animation quality and sound quality is really top notch. The story I thought was very strong and I have addressed many of the issues that people have thought were “plot holes” but truly ARE explained in the film itself.
For those wondering who the “Guardian” is protecting, he is protecting the shaman. The first line the Shaman says in the film is, “This blade has shed much innocent blood”, Speaking of the blade that the Guardian was using. I took this to mean that the Guardian had attacked many others besides Sintel and quite possibly killed them..
Those wondering who the “Gatekeepers” are, they may be the guardians of the dragon lands to prevent people from just killing the Dragons at will.
*Spoilers Starts here*
Another thing I have seen people complain about is the fact Sintel didn’t adopt Scales son/daughter at the end of the film after she killed Scales. Actually that is not actually told to us so it is completely open to interpretation, SO Sintel could have adopted Scales’ son/daughter because he/she followed her home.
One last thing people have been ranting about is the fact Sintel is extremely old at the end of the film. I believe what they are trying to convey here is that people sometimes go on long journeys to help someone and become blind to themselves until finally they see who they have become and realized they did more harm than they did good. Sintel lived in her own fantasy word that her little scales couldn’t grow up,much like many parents today who don’t think their kids aren’t growing up and shelter them for as long as possible, which like I said is doing much more harm than good.
*end spoiler*
I hope this has helped some of you understand the so called “plot holes” that were found in the “horrible script” for this “bad” story. Thank you Durian team for making this amazing short film showing us the dangers of caring about something too much. I have watched several times over and over and over and it was an amazing experience each time. I look forward to the next project that the Blender Institute works on.
A fellow Blenderhead,
Trey
October 4th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I’ve been googling around a bit. Sintel really seems to have gone viral by now. Downloadlinks to be found everywhere π
Cool!
October 4th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
” But when it is about car manufacturing, thereβs two aspects: the people who know how to drive and the people who try to make cars “.
Right.
I thought the story to be a lot better than toystory 3 but worse to toystory 2.
On first view, at the cinema, I didn’t notice any of the flaws that are obvious when going single stepping through the movie.
The hair intersecting, the wrong extra frames, the weird “eyes in the middle of the frame” framing, the sea-in-the-bowl, the sterophome pilars, the floating buttons on the shirt, the gallons of blood, the monospaced credits making Da Vid Revoy the artdirector and Ester W Ouda the screenplay writer.
This movie seems to lack finishing up the details. Could fit the plot.
I thought the editing crued. And the ending cruel. Almost as upsetting as when I left “Dancer in the dark”. The injustice the director is posing on me the viewer, and leaving the viewer powerless to fix her will upset and angry loads of people, I’m sure. It pushes the mind to reject it. Or adopt I guess.
I’m curious about the commentary tracks.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Been thinking π
When I released Orion Tear a couple of years ago, I had some criticism that consisted in a single sentence: “It’s crap!”
Well at the time this kind of low developed criticism, of course made me mad. I worked alone for 2 years on this and you say it’s crap! What the…
Now, I understand that the problem was the monster “Compare”. Orion Tear simply wasn’t lousy enough to be compared to a student work, so I guess most of this short words persons compared it to “For the Birds” or something like that π So a compliment can be perceived from such a demotivating sentence.
But anyway, the ultimate truth is that it isn’t good π
If there’s one person that says something different then “WOW”, it’s because that person seen better somewhere else… and that’s the issue.
A Critic, critics accordantly what he has previously experienced.
To a fare critic to a Blender foundation project one should only critic it comparing it to other BF projects or at maximum to other Blender works.
Whichever you choose, Sintel is beats them.
It’s hard to please everyone, maybe impossible, because no one perceives things the same way… but what I think is possible is make such a phenomenal work then even people that don’t like it …end up doing it so at some level π
It’s not easy, but I think it can be done.
…anyway, ultimately Sintel in less then a week has gathered a view count enough to be indisputably considered a phenomenal success.
Sorry if I think stupidly or obsiously… I’m young π
October 4th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
i just noticed a minor mistake in my german translation for the lyrics, here is the new Link:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/b3cda27/n/sintel_ger_incl_lyrics.zip
October 4th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Congrats you all!
I think can find myself best in this Max’s comment: October 1st, 2010 at 17:32
So, very well done! I can’t wait to play around with the DVD
October 5th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Thank for reply Ton.
By the way, it gives me one more argument to defend Sintel, Durian Team and Blenderfoundation on my “fighting” talk around the coffee machine:).
What ever the kind of car ‘s manufacter you are (really good answer :)), i don’t know numbers of people who can say that a movie producer read and reply to comment from unknown common people. All the best to YOU.
and as said by rodper a bit early, Sintel is without hesitation the best success of BF projects….
….Until the next one…. :p ….
October 5th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Good story (I didn’t expect something that deep), GREAT, classy direction, GREAT music and song, good graphics and animation… Congratulations! This is the best one yet (although my favorite art direction is still Elephant’s Dream)
When is the video clip of the songs coming up?:)
October 5th, 2010 at 2:02 am
i was curious was there anything that this short acheived that other cg films hadnt before (4k maybe??), i remember ED hd-dvds being the first hd-dvd in Europe
October 5th, 2010 at 3:16 am
A few words after she kill the Dragon:
“What The F?!!”
And then I just enjoy the time leap… π
October 5th, 2010 at 3:28 am
WOW !!
Visually stunning and impressive.
Great short story, really well told
Wonderful effects and music.
LOVED IT !
October 5th, 2010 at 4:25 am
I have to say, what a truly amazing accomplishment this movie is. I was dubfounded by some of the remarks made by a few. They way they talked, you would think that they were about to demand a refund or something – amazing.
The plot was ambitious, but I for one was grateful to see it. A broader story had obviously been compressed into mere minutes. God forbid we should have to think a little bit, as if we were not even capable or willing to put 2 and 2 together. Obviously, some were struggling a bit there.
This film far exceeded my expectations by going way beyond simply demonstrating the capabilities of the software. When advanced capabilities were employed, and they were employed often, the results were positively stunning. Much like Blender itself, this project was constantly pushing the envelope. The story, the sounds, the snow, the rain, the fire, the smoke. The market scene was simply outstanding.
As someone who has witnessed enourmous sums of money wasted on stagnant Autodesk wares, such as Autocad, I cannot even begin to describe the hope and aspirations that this software and these movies represent to me personally. What people fail to realize is that if not for efforts such as this, corporations such as Autodesk would charge even more and do even less (as if they do anything now).
What I know is this; every other decent or hopeful piece of software was either bought or crushed by a company that is more interested in swallowing its competition than developing great software. Ton, you and this handful of amazing artists have done a great many people a really tremendous service. Please keep up the tremendous work. I for one, hope to see the day when Blender dominates the industry.
I Watched the movie several times a day for the past few days. I agree with some of the comments about the formats. The color compression may have detracted from the experience a wee bit, but it wasn’t the big deal that some made it out to be. This just further illustrates the enourmous technical challenges that must be overcome to make something like this.
Try to ignore the comments from people who are looking at this with a microscope. They should take a closer look at the stuff that hollywood is producing sometime. In summary, the movie did seem a bit more alive after I downloaded the full Ogg Vorbis version (800mb+). Next time Ton, make em watch it in its full glory before even making the other versions available.
Thanks Again!
October 5th, 2010 at 6:29 am
wow that blow my mind away, you guy did an amazing job, please fill me in on more work and keep the great work
October 5th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Watched it on the release; boy I felt like crying π 7 Months waiting, and it all paid off. Love you, Blenderheads!
October 5th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Hi guys! I was impressed when saw it! You can do all hard job in Blender now! Looks like fantastic program! And you all are very very talented! Thank you for developing such a great movie!
Just a small suggestion to graphics: I do not know if it is up to final render or to Blender itself, but I have feeling that all scenes needs more “dirt” and “smoke” even it has “dirty textures” applied. Sometimes scenes looks very “clean”. Other than that, everything is perfect!!! π
all best guys! n.
October 5th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Hi everyone !
Thanks a lot for this great movie ! I’m just speechless … It was worth the wait. It is visually beautiful, the animation is really good (especially the fights and facial expressions) and the story is good too, a bit predictable but not too much, *Spoiler* who could imagine that Sintel would be an old woman at the end ? *Spoiler*
I wanted to wait for my DVD but I could not resist !
I just can’t understand people like spc, if you don’t like the movie, it is your choice, but please use decent arguments, none of yours are …
So, huge congratulations to the Durian Team, everyone included !!
Thanks !!
October 5th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Since I asked for it, I might as well translate the subtitles into Esperanto, myself, for now. Even though I have no qualified understanding of the language.
http://www.mediafire.com/?99k24gjdwpn0x49
Please, someone, make a proper Esperanto version!
October 5th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I fixed some mistakes and made a new version.
Esperanto subtitles
http://www.mediafire.com/?vrlafl0m3q695me
October 5th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Beautiful. Congrats to the team.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
This movie really great except the sad story part.
Great work!
I made a vietnamese subtitle
download at : http://www.mediafire.com/?m6thm08nkpuxf9s
You can watch online Vietsub on youtube here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-noSaWT2k
October 5th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Watched it again,
I just wanted to add to my previous comment, I love the music, it is really fantastic!
October 5th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Loved the short film; definitely something I would have paid to see at a film festival (obviously too short for a feature!). Great work, team! Am eagerly awaiting the DVD set for purchase; I can imagine how awesome it would be if I could get the ‘source’ for the last three Star Wars films to *fix* them (e.g. Jar-Jar *who*?)
October 5th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Congratulations Blender Team!!!.
I think there is still much power hidden inside Blender!!!.
Awesome!!.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Not bad, except its again about dragons. And again dragons are all positive and beloved, they sing and dance and eat nothing but flowers. Dragons are useless and passive like hamsters nowadays. There is no fun about them now. There is nothing interesting about friendship between human and dragons now – most cinematographic dragons obey human directions happily, like puppies. And girls are always into puppies, you know.
There is dragon’s perfidy? dragon’s might? dragon’s wisdom?
Just imagine! A tiny wounded dragon play with young girl feelings, his wing is broken by some knight and he is seeking for revenge. He make girl meet the knight and she fall in love. Wedding. Knight ask “Sintel, will you marry me?” Girl is all ashamed “Wait a little.. there should be no secrets between us.. meet my dear friend”. Doors are opened and cute baby dragon entered. He stop near the knight, look at him with his big eyes.. Attack! Dragon bite off knights balls, burn everything with his fire and fly away though the window. Happy end.
Dragons should be dragons, otherwise draw them as butterflies cause butterflies they are.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
I guess it’s time to add my two cents and thanks. (WARNING: spoilers. But anybody reading this deep in the thread before having seen the movie deserves what they get :P)
First, my thanks: Sintel is a great movie and I was not disappointed. My only regret is not purchasing the DVD early enough to get in the on-line credits.
I fully expected a dragon slaying from the start. I was saddened that it had to be Scales, but I would have felt betrayed if in the end Scales had somehow survived. When something with a mouth and teeth that big sniffs you and suddenly rears back, you stab first and ask questions later (“hmm, smells tasty” is far too possible).
On first viewing, I got suspicious when the baby dragon reacted in fear to Sintel (“Huh? Why would Scales forget that quickly? Wrong dragon?”), became more than worried when Scales sniffed Sintel, to the point of thinking “No!” as Sintel attacked.
At first, I thought that Sintel had been kept young by some magical bond with Scales, and grew old (to near her true age) at his death. Too much influence from the likes of Dragon Heart, I guess. I had thought Sintel’s aged reflection in the bowl was due to the milkiness of the liquid and the lighting. Even if I had thought otherwise, it could have been scrying her true age, but her accumulated scars say otherwise.
I didn’t twig at the Shaman’s line abound innocent blood because it’s so clichΓ©d that it lost its effectiveness as a foreshadow (my one problem with the dialog script), but in hindsight…
One thing that occurred to me (fourth viewing): the guardian had been tracking Sintel for some time. The way she looks around made me think she feels like she’s being followed, and the way the guardian comes running out of the mist makes me think he knew exactly where she would be (possibly even when): he probably took a faster route to the ridge and “cut her off at the pass” (and thus why Sintel was looking in the wrong direction). Still doesn’t say who he was or why he tried to kill her.
The one possible plot “hole” is if she has been alone for as long as she can remember, where did she learn to fight so well? Where did she learn such tenderness? Where did she learn to talk? Instinct and being in the vicinity of others (while still being alone) covers some of it, but what about the rest? One reasonable explanation is she lost parents (or at least one of them, she may never have known the other) at a relatively late age in a tragedy the memory of which she has completely blocked out (possible considering she had “blocked out” the memory of the passing years while searching for Scales).
Sintel might have a darker past than the blade.
An amusing observation. I had begun writing a story about a girl raised by a dragon before even Big Buck Bunny was released, yet there are aspects of Sintel that are very close to what I’ve written or have in mind. Common influences, I guess π (two of mine I know to be CJ Cherryh’s “The Faded Sun” trilogy and “Cuckoo’s Egg”).
The eyes are absolutely amazing. Sintel’s are a bit iffy, but the guardian’s and Scales’ eyes say more than Sintel’s and the shaman’s words. From Scales, I get “Forget about me. Run. Look after my kid.”. More importantly, from Scales’ eyes, I believe that Scales understood what happened, probably better than Sintel.
I can understand some people not finding Sintel lovable, but I find it impossible to hate her because I sympathize with her (I clung too tightly to the past and lost much).
Again, thank you for the wonderful movie. I truly enjoyed it. It may even have been therapeutic. I’m looking forward to the next project.
October 5th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Congratulations to the Blender/Durian team,
for making an amazing and original plot out of a corny subject,
for the stunning graphics,
especially for the animation of Sintel’s face and the giant dragons, the
shaman and breathtaking landscapes,
for the full-immersive audio (after watching the movie, I had to realize that I
was in my living room),
for the wonderful teamwork which has allowed this incredible result,
for the great improvement of Blender this movie has promoted,
for Blender itself: there aren’t words describe this fantastic project.
Thanks a lot for all your amazing work,
Ocirne
October 5th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Congratulations!
Great work and great story!
I want more!
October 5th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Please include all the new subtitles which were posted here on the DVD!
Thank you!
October 5th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Thanks to everyone involved in the making of this amazing film!
good story + hard work = win.
*SPOILER*
In my interpretation of the movie,
Sintel’s hair got gray due to the sudden pain she felt when realizing what she’d done.
I’ve heard about a young woman’s hair getting all white overnight when she learned that her family was killed.
I’d say that Sintel is a metaphor about revenge
(notice her expression at 5:48).
She lost track of what’s important in the process of persuing it.
But in the end there was catharsis and thus a happy end.
*SPOILER*
Blender’s future looks brighter than ever and I wish someday to be a part of it.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
I hated it…
*Spoiler(maybe)*
it made me too sad
*Spoiler*
Fantastic visually, great music and voiceactors and good story.
October 5th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
My positive reactions (after about 5 views) :
Wow! Amazing! Breathtaking! Creates a sense of awe within a short span of time, and evokes many other emotions – such as affection for baby scales etc. The artwork was the strongest part, bravo David!
Kudos and gratitude to the whole team for their efforts!
My negative reactions:
There were a few visual glitches (which others have rather harshly criticised), but not major enough to ruin the viewing.
However, I feel that the story’s loose ends were this short film’s main weakness. It would seem that either the story was complex and the foreshadowing was not properly (or too subtly?) constructed. Or else the pre-production work (the script) was not finalized enough…’the making of’ will possibly reveal more about this.
Before I get *flamed* by the majority who find nothing wrong with the story, I would like to bring out that I am professionally involved in scriptwriting, and that this aspect too is as complex as rigging. Just like in rigging, when it is well done, nobody notices, so it happens with storytelling.
It’s not a matter of not liking sad stories, or expecting to feel the warm fuzzies…some have compared this to Greek tragedies and to Oedipus in particular. But these are well constructed, whereas here, for one thing, nothing prepares me for the fact that Sintel is doomed to kill the only friend that she ever had. By trying to avoid clichΓ©, there is an absence of closure as the story unfolds, and the story elements do not add up (why was she attacked in the first place? Why does the Shaman say that she does not ‘see’ then give her the lance in the next moment – if he ‘sees’, then he is hastening her to her tragedy? Why?). Some scenes such as the times when she is hurt, but the scars disappear the next moment, happen too fast to allow the viewer to note that this is a significant clue.
As a storyteller you are not dumbing down your viewer – like Disney does – but you cannot take for granted what you know about your story and expect the viewer to ‘get it’ right away.
This raises questions about the audience: if it is primarily aimed at blenderheads who will lovingly watch and watch again, yes then it can be full of intricate subtleties that gradually reveal the full ‘flavour’ of the film. But what about the rest of the world who watch this as just another animation? Say alongside the 20 shortlisted vimeo award animations (which are worth a look, by the way).
In large part the story flows well, but the lack of closure about certain semiotic elements give the impression of loose ends – and this ruins a little of the ‘awesomeness’ that this 3rd project conveys.
A humble suggestion for the next project: can the pre-production (at least the script if not the storybooard or animatic) be finalized by the team before production work really begins?
Can the Blender Institute/Foundation envisage opening up the pre-production work to the community (numerous formulas exist), everything will have to be under CC, a team shortlists the top 5-10 scripts and Ton and/or director decides on the best script (and/or storyboard and/or animatic)?
Anyway, I would like to express gratitude to the people who are behind the whole effort, developers, especially, and tell them that their efforts have paid off – the visuals are simply stunning!
October 6th, 2010 at 2:43 am
I have watch this a couple of times and I love it. But I’m curious about one thing:
The choose of casting someone that is pretty much more older then 15, which were Sintel character, was this a sort of clue that see had become older during the search for Scales? Or is it just a coincident?
Your sincerely
Dennis
October 6th, 2010 at 4:54 am
@dennis i definitely prefer it to the over-exaggerated high-pitched, squeaky voices they normal use, or the over dramatically mature voices they seem to go with now, her voice seems to be in the middle…for me atleast
October 6th, 2010 at 8:02 am
I am not sure Ton will read this but I would like to thank him for his efforts to improve the artists lot this time. In the past I have voiced some criticism of the long and perhaps unhealthy hours the artists were turning in to complete their movie and said these undertakings were underfunded and overly ambitious. I listened to Andrew’s interview of Colin today and I am pleased it was mentioned that they had some decent time off and there were many more people involved.
Possibly it still needs a little more resource to do a very good short in the time or the artists need to be able to settle down to productive work sooner but I really appreciate Ton’s effort in finding the extra money and organising more participants.
Thank you Ton.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:33 am
@ Aza: As you probably saw in the credits the script was written by Esther Wouda. I assume that she knew what she was doing, considering the circumstances and her experience.
Have a look at her website http://www.glowormfilm.com/
October 6th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Big Fan: nothing changed really, the teams here are always treated with the best possible reception, for housing, travel arrangements, food and drinks, working conditions (great studio), scheduled hours (8 per day), creative freedom, fees, budgets to visit conferences or festivals, and so on. The targets they had to meet were always carefully defined and agreed on, and weekends were by definition free. Per 3 months they could have a week free (paid) time as well.
What helped this time though was to not schedule work on our friday weeklies, and use mondays for kick-off, which loosened up spirits to enjoy weekends. π
The fact people love challenges, work hard, and have a passion for doing it the best way possible is their own investment, for which they get a lot of creative freedom and a great portfolio to take back home.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Thanks for the reply Ton.
I am sure you are not an ogre task master but I know in the past people have voluntarily worked perhaps a little too hard to get things done for the deadline.
I am curious if you think anything could be done to build a productive team sooner.
I think Colin mentioned it took about 4 months to get going this time and I seem to remember Elephants Dream also had a similar period.
Would you like to change the way things work in the studio so there is slightly less freedom for individuals to contribute and more direction?
October 7th, 2010 at 3:14 am
I love it!!!
By the way, what is the title of the song?
Love it too!!!!!
October 7th, 2010 at 4:19 am
@Aza
Yours is certainly one of the most informed critiques here, and the critiques as a whole have gotten more reasonable. However, even as a non-blenderhead, one of the things I appreciate most about the film is that it requires multiple viewings to really get. You say “nothing prepares me for the fact that Sintel is doomed to kill the only friend that she ever had” as though it is a bad thing. If the authors can give all the clues and still catch me by surprise, then I congratulate them. Having an ending so unexpected and moving is what made me want to watch it again. The desire for closure pulled me in and allowed me to appreciate the depth that multiple viewings reveal.
You say “scenes such as the times when she is hurt, but the scars disappear the next moment, happen too fast to allow the viewer to note that this is a significant clue.” Yes, I noticed that on the first pass but quickly dismissed this. It is an example where I was given a clue but chose to overlook it. Perhaps the authors intentionally framed it to encourage that, but again, I say good for them. If they can show me it and still convince me to dismiss it, then that’s my mistake. But do they punish me for my mistake? … no. In the end, I am actually rewarded for allowing them to guide me around such clues. The ending is most potent when my realization coincides with Sintel’s.
It is true that some elements surrounding the shaman and the attacker are not explained, but they are not critical to the plot. I like that they imply a world beyond just the story presented. This feeling of a vast world and the reward that comes from multiple viewings is why I describe the movie as having a depth much greater than its length. I much rather the authors reward viewers that dig deeper than cater to viewers that somehow cannot spare the additional 12 minutes to watch it more than once. If someone watches this film and is not compelled by the “absence of closure” to give it more scrutiny, then that as their loss. The rest of us should not be given a weaker experience for it.
To wrap up, you have valid points. Some viewers will never fully appreciate the film because many things are not clear in the first pass. However, I am very glad the authors went the way they did. Otherwise, they might have ended up with one of many clever but generally forgettable short films. Such films are fine, but why would I want another one when I can have something more?
October 7th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
BigFan: around the conference we’ll do a ‘post-mortem’ with the team members who’ll be visiting Amsterdam. I always take experience from previous projects with me to a next one. However, making a new team to be become a productive unit always just takes time. Three-four months seems to be a very natural period. You have to give people time to grow confident and develop themselves.
October 7th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Question: Has the DIVX video been taken down? I no longer see it available. Also, is there an ISO available? (so I can give a dvd of Sintel to my friend)
October 8th, 2010 at 1:47 am
Minifig3D: No, for some reason, DivX team removed links from the page with videos, but they are working and still available from the post in their blog: http://blog.divx.com/content/divx-blender-and-dragonshell-yes
October 8th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Beautiful… I cried!
October 8th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Hi guys!
I made a music video for “I Move On” based on Sintel movie of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vLv_dYKyYY
October 8th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
@Aza & Jesse
The Attacker – in credits you can see line: Guardian fight choreography with names – so this attacker it some kind of guardian. What was he guarding and why did he attack Sintel? There are two scenes where you can see that Sintel crosses a border made of pebbles with some kind of milestone or something: 0:30 and 7:00. So as guardian his motive is now clear π
The Shaman – listen to what he says – the blade has shed much innocent blood – so his motive can be – to stop any further bloodshed even at the cost of the life of Scales. By killing Scales, Sintel is giving up her life of hunter and at the end is she given a promise of new friendship. And the blade stays burried within the collapsed cave.
Just my two coins – take it or find another answers.
October 9th, 2010 at 11:33 am
@Peter: But what is the Guardian guarding. His blade has shed much innocent blood. Did he kill a lot of innocent travelers? And why? The blade also carries a medaillon with a picture of the tree in front of Scales’ cave. Is he some kind of guardian in the service of the dragon from a people who revere the dragon as some sacred animal?
Lot to phantasize about π
My two cents
October 9th, 2010 at 11:59 am
gotta say nice but short movie i liked it keep up the good work :> and will there be another part of the movie?
October 10th, 2010 at 5:37 am
The effects, direction and design of Sintel is superb and quite impressive.
*SPOILERS*
Until adult Scales sniffs Sintel does he recognize her and we see the recognition in his face but not in hers. It’s a heart breaking moment. If only Sintel hadn’t been impulsive. It reminds me of how cloudy and blinding emotions can be…like in Star Wars “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering”. If only she would have thought first. I felt for both of them, I think Sintel might have not realized Scales was taken by a dragon of its own kind probably to care for it, and she thought he was going to be hurt and wanted to save him.
However; if the ending had been a more positive one, it still would have been powerful. For some strange reason people seem to have the idea that an audience needs to be thrown extremes in order to feel moved; an extreme happy or sad idea, and the world has so much sadness and despair already that when I devote time to art, I truly appreciate when it has the courage to have a positive message. A happy ending or positive one isn’t being “Disney” (which by the way; Bambi’s mother getting killed and the story of The Lion King are pretty sad Disney moments, don’t know why people don’t remember those), it’s being inspirational and hopeful. By the time that Sintel saw Scales taken away from her as a baby it already made me feel sad…that emotional pull would have been enough for the audience as they feel what Sintel is feeling at that point, and after her journey to find Scales I think not having a sad ending wouldn’t have jeopardized the artistic aspect at all! As a viewer who is very sensitive to suffering (ex-vegan, current vegetarian for over 4 years) I felt manipulated and used by the choice of ending. You know what would have been a great moment? Sintel ALMOST killing Scales and then realizing it is him and the film could have ended there with that moment, and maybe her throwing the blade away. It wouldn’t have given too much away and would have hinted at what could have gone wrong. The art carries itself…you don’t need to shove a sad ending as far as it can go just to be anti-Hollywood or make it seem more artsy. And I appreciate the fact that it is similar to Greek tragedies, etc. etc., but Sintel would have been as great as it already is if it had a different ending. Because the characters and visuals were enough to show how brilliant this art form is.
The design of Sintel and Scales plus the characterization of them both was so amazing and both felt so alive which is why the story is heart breaking. I personally would start a petition or pay as much as I could in order to get an alternate ending; especially due to the success I feel it would be a great follow up. I know I definitely would pay a lot of money to see an alternative ending!
Thank you to all who worked on this film; the hard work shows and despite my feelings on the ending, you all did a great job!
October 11th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Wow, this movie was absolutely spectacular on every level and far above my already huge expectations. I have no shame in admitting that I had tears rolling down my face during the whole thing! Sure the ending is tragic, but the message of the importance of being able to let go of the ones we love would lose its impact if it wasn’t. It also demonstrates the huge advantage of open-movies, as it would be financial suicide to have such an ending for a commercial film. Having said that, I would love nothing more than to see this be turned into a feature film, but that seems very unlikely. I guess I have to learn to let go too :).
Anyway, congratulations Team Durian! The movie is something for you and the whole Blender Community to be very proud of, and it’s been an honour following its progress. Just can’t wait for the DVD!
October 11th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
As a retired elementary school art teacher, 70 years old, I can tell you that one of the great aspects of being retired is having the time to chase down things that interest me. That was the case when I saw Sintel for the first time this morning because a friend sent me the link to a video showcasing site on which it was featured. After watching it several times, I just had to start finding out more. I have now spent more than three hours on various sites, but I must say, reading through this blog was the most fascinating thing of all. I love the fact that Ton responded to the bloggers. I am not very tech-savvy, have never made any vids, and never heard of Blender until now, so most of the tech-speak was not understandable, although the gist of what people were saying did come across. I can’t wait to go back and rewatch it in order to see some of the things mentioned, because although I watched it several times, it was as an ordinary viewer, struck by the whole effect of the film. With each viewing, I picked up more of the subtleties of the story and the graphics, and loved it more each time. I tend to agree with the blogger who said that the YouTube viewers’ responses were a good measure of it’s value to general audiences. I am also totally enthralled by the ending song during the credits, which, to me, can stand alone as totally beautiful, even without it’s attachment to the film’s tone. If anyone can tell me where to get that song, I would be grateful. I am more than willing to buy an album, but buying an MP3 download would also be ok. I don’t know anything about other types of music downloads, but I can download MP3 to my media player. I’m such a newbie, even though I am a senior. After I post this comment, I’m going to check out BBB and ED, as well. I know you’ve seen so many positive comments, but I’m going to add another. – The whole is more than the sum of its parts. The whole film is so much more than just the technicalities. It is an awesome impact. My congrats to the whole Durian team for this insightful film.
Respectfully,
Carol Ross
October 11th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Man, I wish they’d had time to make it longer! The plot was complete, but had more possibilities. Who are the gatekeepers? Who tried to kill her? What was he guarding? These aren’t crucial to the plot, but it would have been awesome if they could have expanded it some.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed it! The plot was simple, but powerful. A fable, if you will. The visuals were spectacular!
The music was awesome, and I loved the song at the end! Can’t wait to see what they’ll come out with next. Keep dreaming big, guys!
October 12th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
I expect much more from this film. What about story I am disappointed, itΒ΄s too sad but that is my view. Technicaly is the film very good only a few things. Places unrealistic movements and that there was much. And flowing blood was terrible. No hugging surface, after flowing .But otherwise good job. I hope that next film will have happy end :))
October 14th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Hope, you don’t mind a proposal for the next project – in case you still have a look into these comments, any way.
Sintel and Scales gained so much popularity that many asked for a sequel and/or a full feature film.
An easier project is to follow up with a game project.
You made a similar thing after BBB with ‘Yo Frankie!’, trying to reuse the characters from BBB.
I would like to see Sintel and the dragons (the small and the big one) in a realtime environment again.
There are many interactive stories that I can think of.
Expendable companion AI and pet like interaction (feeding, gaining trust/taming…), where you can communicate with the non-player-characters with some mouse clicks are very much appreciated.
I think I am not the only one who would love to play this way with the cute Scales.
This time you know that you won’t need to collaborate with any engine, because the blender engine is worth to be developed, as well.
I would like to see an optimizing of the combination of high resolution model for the normal map and the ingame lowpoly model, easier and faster ways to work with textures (combining, baking, blending)…
When you look at the forums of Unity and 3DGameStudio and others, you see that many people are using Blender for the models and even the levels of their games.
Making Blender fit for Android, and maybe iPhone, is welcomed as well.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:53 am
Well the rush over the short is over, and people are unlikely to ever read my comment amidst 400+ of them, but I want to say something too…
Bad first:
The CG was not as good as I had been expecting… BBB was pretty dang good, and I suppose this is because Blender is good at dealing with cartoon appearances. However, parts of this short were cartoonish, and other parts were not cartoonish, so it felt as if the styles didn’t match too well. Also, the animating wasn’t on par, there were a lot of rigid moments. The textures were sometimes awesome, but sometimes they weren’t so great… or the textures didn’t go well as a whole. The liquids kinda sucked it up, sorry. The fire was okay, but still need work. The hair was kinda crappy, which surprised me after BBB. Sometimes I feel like the lighting was the source of a lot of the CGness of the short, which detracted from the look.
In whole, I felt like the organic objects were far less attractive than the inorganic objects.
I come at this from comparing it to quality professional movies done by Pixar and Dreamworks. Sintel attempts the quality, however it has a long ways to go before it’s industry comparable.
But now to the good:
The music/audio was very well done! I have no complaints, it was great.
And I know a lot of people didn’t like the plot, but I kind of love it. I haven’t read what it’s supposed to mean, but this is my get up from it:
SPOILER
Sintel has a baby dragon which she likes a lot, then it is taken from her, and she goes on a quest fighting off all sorts of baddies to get it back. Finally when she gets there, she accidentally kills the grown up baby dragon because she doesn’t recognize it. Having realized her error, she walks off ready to give up. However, the new baby dragon follows after her.
My interpretation of this is that we often times get so caught up in the objective of our mission, that we end up destroying the very thing we were trying to save in the beginning. It’s not until it’s too late that we realize what is happening, and by then everything is shattered. One good example of this is with families, and that we originally start working so that we can support our families and take care of ourselves to bring us enjoyment, but then we start becoming obsessed with our jobs, and we neglect our families, and lose what we were trying to preserve in the first place. This is what happened to Sintel, she was trying to save the one thing she absolutely loved, and after a while she became blind to what was going on, and killed her purpose for going on the adventure at the start.
Then the little dragon comes along after her after she realized what she had done, and this signifies that even though we screw up, life isn’t over. We need to recognize that we screwed up, and move on. That’s what this new baby dragon is: another chance…
So I absolutely adored the story, because I’m a big fan of screwing up and getting another chance. π It was a happy ending.
October 18th, 2010 at 4:16 am
nice anecdote there, Carol Ross.
Superkoop, glad you too got it it’s pretty much an allegory.
October 19th, 2010 at 9:34 am
@ Caroll Ross: Finally someone who is willing to answer your question about the music. The song isn’t available yet because all of the score was written for this film, including the endsong. However it will become available. Here’s what Jan Morgenstern, the composer/suonddesigner, wrote earlier in this thread:
# jan Says:
October 1st, 2010 at 23:01
Hey everyone, thanks so much for the encouraging feedback! Of course there will be a score release again, which will include the credits song. I just need to put some more time into the stereo mastering, and at the moment Iβm pretty much swamped with other jobs. But Iβll try my best to get it done within the next two weeks.
So keep an eye on his website : http://www.wavemage.com
October 22nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Is it just me or are there hardly any trees in the film?
Graphical good/bad:
Bad: Yes, the liquids – I thought Blender was better at this? Also, some intersections which I didn’t really notice at first…not enough detail in certain areas, mainly the horizon/sky, but maybe this was so we looked at Sintel and not what was occuring in the background? If animals in BBB can run properly, surely it isn’t harder to make a human run/walk? Characters’ mouths didn’t really move like they were talking at times (I know this can be difficult). The Scales disappearing when the mother takes him/her is one of those (doh!) moments…I also didn’t like the way Sintel looked in the rain scene, but maybe that’s just me.
Good: Obviously the time and effort put into the faces; they convey emotions well. The eyes are very nice…I liked the colour scheme for the most part, and most of the camera work was really very good. The most important parts had a lot of detail, and the fire was “good enough for me”.
@ Superkoop
I think I’ll agree with a lot of your comments π I felt emotional after watching it for the second time after reading a lot of these comments; I’m not that great at identifying what’s going on in a movie – sometimes, I think that is a good thing, because you aren’t concentrating on trying to figure out the entire film… other times it helps to know just so you can feel what the creators intended more-so than what you intend…
There isn’t enough that can be said about this story, there are so many questions and ideas of what might have been and is…
October 24th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
brilliant graphics! congrats to the Durian team. you really did show us capabilities of Blender! keep on pushing it!!
A bit of a crit I still believe that the shaman’s voice was a bit young though, no disrespect to Thom Hoffman.
Other than that, I really love how it unfolds to her that she has actually aged that long. i liked the realisation. my first thought when i saw that scales was the big dragon was that how could he age so fast? watching it again answered it. i loved it!
good work guys. i hope i can still order the DVD
October 26th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Haven’t seen the movie yet, I’m preparing a proper viewing. Just wanted to congrat you guys.
Like many others I’ve watched you guys along the way and you’ve been a huge inspiration to me regarding Blender and doing what you love.
So once again congrats and keep up the good work!
October 28th, 2010 at 3:30 am
I would love a Scales Plush! Any plans on releasing plush characters? And I am begging for this dvd as an xmas gift!
October 28th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Great movie.
I like it.
(Waiting for you next movie)
October 28th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Whoa, I waited a month before watching the movie cause I wanted to get the DVDs first, which arrived today. Those 15 minutes literally flew away o.0
October 30th, 2010 at 5:41 am
I liked the trailer I can’t wait to see it on a theater or to buy the DVD…. Hopefully this project continues making this and other movies….. π
October 31st, 2010 at 6:17 am
auwsom movie but i find it kinda sad that scales died
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:19 am
got my dvd this weekend (oct 29) in the post- its so nice to hold it in my hand knowing how long ago i put the order in! i had no clue what i was really paying for. the fact i new it was a project that would promote the software development seemed reason enough and it hurts my brain thinking about the work that went into it or any of this nature so congrats on a fine product- i figure it will be a matter of enevidibility the blender icon will be showing on the screens of many features to come. i just wish i had the capacity to make one my self, but as a loner it will not happen- but i have a greet software to use if i want to make a still thanks to you: blender foundation!
January 25th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Fantastic achievement! Great animation (preview). I liked the movements, details, colors (rendering) of the images.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Go, open source software! Go Blender! Go Durian!
April 10th, 2011 at 5:41 am
I loved it.
July 25th, 2011 at 11:31 pm
this link needs to be popularised more, really difficult to find the torrent links from the main page if you didn’t already know this was here. i’m doing my bit by seeding but no-one wants it!
will help distribute the higher quality versions (4k/bluray) by torrent surely?