News release from Oscar Alvarado of Mexico:
"This is an animated short film inspired by Mexican folklore and people's cult to death. "Llorona" is a typical folklore song that speaks about a pretty woman. In the plot of this film "Llorona" is called "La Viuda" and the story tells how this character went crazy abut the death of her man called "El Catrin".
The whole atmosphere centers around the old and traditional Mexican culture with elements like music, architecture and graphics.
The pre-production starts the first of June, 2008 and the release of the short film is scheduled for the Blender Conference 2008 in Amsterdam in October.
23 Comments
I like the design and look so far cant wait to see it
Looks interesting so far. Keep it up!
Looks promising :)
In one of the screenshots there’s a rendering… O_O really wide screen ha!
2,40:1!?
Nice atmosphere, nice character design and very Tim Burtonesque. Permit me to indulge in generalization because I keep hearing that Mexico has lots of top shelf animators. This is really one to watch out for.
The face on that character doesn't look so good to me.. no nose or just too blobby.. I am still excited though. Great textures from the looks of it. Let me know if you need help!
muy buen trabajo Oscar!, mantenenos al tanto :)
un abrazo!
Whatever happened to Murnau the Vampire?
I think I'm going to elaborate on my last comment. Oscar Alvarado is making some of the most exciting, intriguing Blender animation around in my opinion. I'm a big fan. But I've been very frustrated about the lack of updates about the Murnau the Vampire project. Almost a year ago now I pre-ordered the DVD with the understanding that there would be a DVD/Creative Commons release. Since the movie (apparently, I don't know because I wasn't there) was presented at the Blender Conference in October, there have been no updates on the website (in fact, there have been no updates for longer than that, the last update on the Murnau website news page is from around Sept 2007). I have even emailed Oscar personally and I have gotten no reply.
Frankly, if the movie is not released on DVD, I wouldn't complain about the pre-order. I understand that there's a certain risk in pre-ordering things like this, and some projects don't pan out. However, I do expect to hear some news when I put money into a project, even if it's as a donation. I'm a big supporter of Blender artwork and a big fan of Oscar's work, but I'm beginning to feel disappointed by the way Murnau seems to have been completely abandoned. Even if there is no DVD release, I would like to know what's going on with the production files, which were to be included among the CC licensed content.
Basically, I would like Oscar to throw me a bone for having supported his project.
Correction: sorry, it wasn't "almost a year ago" that I pre-ordered. It was well over a year ago, last March.
Muy buen trabajo y viniendo de Oscar no puedo esperar a ver los resultados, sigue asi.
I also never received anything for giving this guy money (in march 2007)... he's not even responding to emails. This certainly was the last time I supported an "open source movie" project aside from the Blender Foundation ones. This really sucks.
yup, i ordered the dvd of Murnau the Vampire after seeing it at the blender conference. Wicked animation, shame i never got the dvd!
Sometime ago I thought in a more trust worthy method for this kind of pre-order DVD’s stuff.
Persons would pre-order the DVD’s, but instead of the money be cashed right away it would stay in some kind of standby during a certain period of time (the time established to make the movie), not in the buyers hand and not in the filmmaker hand.
If the movie gets done, the DVD’s would ship and the money would be cashed and if for some reason the movie didn’t get done, the money would automatically return for the buyers.
Woww... looks so cool.. looking forward for updates and more info.
@rogper, that wouldn't work. The whole point of the pre-ordering is to finance making the movie, which means that the filmmaker has to *have* the money.
I appreciate this, and as I said, if the film just fell through and didn't get made or finished, then I would understand. In that case, I'd want to be *told* about it, and I would probably want at least some access to what was finished, such as video files and some 3D assets, all of which were promised, and all of which apparently exist in this case. If there is some reason why those can't be given out, then again, at least the minimal courtesy is to let people know.
What's really got me annoyed is the unprofessional attitude of not responding to emails over this, and apparently it's happening with other people also. In fact, apparently it's happening with everybody who supported Oscar's last project.
This is really a pity, because it sours people on this kind of project. I hope Oscar can stand up soon and do the right thing on this, rather than giving everybody the cold shoulder after they helped him.
I want to strat with a great SORRY!!!!
In the past year (November) after the Blender Conference.... all the people that support to me in this project (closest people) like my producer and partner etc. Just run... I have a lot of problems cause this people was very important for the project.
I send some mails to the DVD costumers explained this problem and the fact that I was "hakers" victim in my website and paypal acount.
Here I want to promise somethings:
1: All the costumers will be their money back.
2: The Murnau Movie will be upload in the Murnau site for free download this week.
3: All my next projects will be "free"... no more sales in internet!!!
4: I promise never more desapoint to my people ;)
I hope everybody understand my situation and please keep a little more of patience.
I was afraid (I`m human)... and in this moment... I want to take the "horse drive" and reapair all my mistakes :(
One more time.... Very Sorry!!!!
Atte.
Oscar Alvarado
PD.
Sorry for my veru bad english!!!!
Oscar, thanks for replying to the thread. I figured it was some problem like this, and I want to say that you *do not* need to return my money. I realize that the money you return will all come out of your own pocket and I knew that supporting the project was a risk. The important thing to me is that you got the project done. I imagine it already has cost you a lot of your own money and time. So I for one don't want my money back.
However, if I could make a little deal, I would certainly like some of the production files! Perhaps if they could also be made available for download along with the movie, I would be completely satisfied.
T
yep, im with tony, i'm not fussed about getting money back. if you load the movie onto the website i can download and own it. thats what i paid for so i don't feel ripped off. cheers Oscar
To Oscar, I look forward to following this project as I have done your previous work.
Please could you let us know when Murnau will be available for download, I keep looking but have not seen it available yet on the Murnau site.
I pre-ordered Murnau in March 07 also. As others have said, I am not worried about having money back. I would just like to watch the movie and to possibly have some of the blend files to play with, as these were promised on the DVD.
Thanks,
Neal Dorling
I wonder, has anyone heard more of Murnau? It has been longer than one week, in fact over one month and Murnau is still not available to download yet.
If anyone has news or has the files that I can download, please could you contact me at.. ttblood at hotmail dot com
Thank you so much.
Still no word from Oscar, over a month later. Really disappointing.
It does seem a shame that the animation was completed (and shown at the blender conference) meaning all the really had work has been done, and yet it seems unlikely that many people will be able to see it as it is not available to buy or download. Come on Oscar, everyone wants to see all your hard work!
I agree with jake. I have seen the conference showing via the blender org site, squinting madly at the end to check if my name was in the credits. But I am sure I would appreciate the work a lot more by seeing a proper quality version of it.
If I had his ability to create work like this, I wouldn't hold back, I would want everyone to see it.
I still continue to wait patiently as I have done for nearly a year now.