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Black & Blue

37

By Ruud Bakker

Ruud writes:

Hi, my film BLACK&BLUE made its online debut. It was fully modeled an animated with blender.
Besides the storytelling I really focused on a unique modern graphic style.

Is it bad luck?
Is it fate?
Or just stupid?

BLACK&BLUE is my graduation film from AKV st. Joost, Breda, The Netherlands.

Written, animated and directed by Ruud Bakker
Music and sounddesign by Bram Meindersma, Audiobrand

Screenings

Pictoplasma Berlin, Germany 2013
Klik! Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2012
Multivision, st Petersburg, Russia 2012
Cut-Out Fest, Querétaro, Mexico 2012
Fête de l'anim, Lille, France 2012
Playgrounds Festival, Tilburg, The Netherlands, 2012

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

37 Comments

  1. That was fantastic.
    Hardly worth listing what what I liked about it, because I liked everything about it. Geat style, great pace, great colour, great audio, great story.

    Well done.

    Ian McGlasham.

  2. Hi Ruud.

    Astounding animation. I was locked in from start to finish. Agree with Ian, everything was superb, although I loved the cyclist and the housewife especially.

    Again, great job. Good luck with the festivals.

    • Thank you, festivals are over for now (turns out the internet is the most awesome festival) but its awesome to see the film in a theatre

  3. I think that story could be better. I really don't get that plot. There are few different scenes. People from those scenes meet at the end, but I cannot say why. What's the purpose? It looks like the author wanted to make something but didn't know what exactly and why.

    On the other side, I find the graphic style to be pretty good. Animation was also not bad. Editing, overall rythm of the film - also very good.

    My advice is: spend more work on the script next time. With better storytelling this could be amazing and now it's "just" very good.

    • I thought each section was an individual sketch, not being related to the others, but you can see at the end that they're all tied together with the bus ride home from the hospital, hence the name 'black and blue'. The story is simple and subtle, but very well done.

      • I think that the fact they're all in the same bus in the end is not enough. Don't get me wrong. In my opinion this short film is very good, but with a better thought ending, some sort of punch line... it would be even better.
        The author uses the term storytelling in the description to the article. There isn't much storytelling here. Nice graphics, nice animation, funny sketches, but that's it. That is something to thing of during work on the next film, I think.

        As an example of the short animated film with storytelling, punch line, something to think about: https://vimeo.com/32966847

        • Chrome Monkey on

          After trying out "The Employment"
          ( https://vimeo.com/32966847 ) I'm not clear on what the story was. Are they showing people literally doing those things or are they just representing that these are products that they make? Does the main character have something to do with the manufacturing of doormats, do the others make traffic lights, mirrors, sliding door timers, etc? Makes it less clear what the punchline is supposed to be. Maybe it's just too subtle.

    • I agree with mallow. I have deep respect for the filmmaker. The it was beautiful to watch, but the story didn't really grab me. It might not be the film's problem, it could just be my personal taste. But I also didn't particularly care for the animation. It felt a little too "swimmy." I think this style would have been done better if it had been animated more snappy, even on 2s.

    • Yeah i agree with you 100%. Everything was pretty great except the story. And I see this happening alot here.
      Storytelling seams like something most animators just skip or don't bother to learn.

      And it's real annoying when you see a film here that looks great but have no story and people start talking how everything is great, including the story...

      • Chrome Monkey on

        If people saying they find a story where you don't is what really, really annoys you, then count yourself lucky not to have more pressing concerns!

      • Chrome Monkey on

        I should clarify my preceding remark.

        It's perfectly fine and acceptable to offer critiques of an artist's work. However, it crosses a line of presumptuousness to call out others for being insufficiently critical. At that point it's moved beyond a critique of the work and into editorializing about how others don't see things the same way, and how dare they abdicate their collective responsibility to have sufficiently high standards. I'm not going to call that annoying, but it is a bit off.

  4. They are gags. Search a "gag show" like "the fast show" in the uk or saturday night live in the us. Perhaps this genre of comedy is not as well known in your culture.

    • I know the term. I think that saturday night live is very good and funny. But the difference is that it is a show, something cyclic. This is just one short film. In my opinion it would be better here if all the gags were leading to some sort of punch line. They should be connected, combined. Without that it's hard to talk about storytelling of any kind.

      I really liked this animation, but I think it could be much better if the script was better.

      As an example of good storytelling: https://vimeo.com/32966847

      To the author of the Black & Blue: I wish you all the best. I hope your every another film will be even better. I see some aspects that you can improve, but overall you did pretty good job. I'm not yet amazed, but I think I could be in the future ;-)

      • Instead of this film just being a collection of unrelated even shorter films, the van is what brings them all together. If you payed attention, the film started off with the driver starting the van and driving off. It finishes with the van picking up the last unlucky person from the hospital. What I think you fail to see is that this film wasn't supposed to make sense. That's it. Just take it at face value. It's not complicated. Sure, we can all pick out unrealisms like grand piano's don't fall out of windows these days, bikes don't turn corners on their own and birds don't get big enough to carry a fully grown man off to feed their offspring. That's what makes it funny. I'm not an art guru by any account but I can surely see that this is just art. Visit any modern art showing and you will see many visitors drinking wine. Perhaps that's because a lot of folks need to be a little tipsy to appreciate what they are looking at. So, grab yourself some wine and watch the film again. Maybe then you will see it for what it is.

        • Sorry, I don't drink. And while being sober I can appreciate art with no problems ;-) Like I said earlier, I did like this film. Instead of discouraging the author, I wanted to encourage him to work on improving his storytelling skills.
          I've noticed that all the characters are in the same bus at the end. I just don't think this ties up the story enough. And such ending isn't funny in my opinion. It's not some abstract comedy like Monty Python for example, that sometimes has no sense to such level that it is hilarious. It just doesn't make much sense and that's it.
          On the contrary, the gags were quite funny. And like I said earlier, it would work for me in the tv show, but it doesn't in the short animated film.

          If someone finds this animation flawless, I'm OK with this. But why constructive criticism is not OK? I've complimented Ruud for many aspects of this film (including graphics style and googd timing) and (as I wish him well) pointed some things that could be improved during work on next film. What's wrong with that?

  5. comeinandburn on

    sooo Good!!!!

    I love the visual style and it had me genuinely laughing! thanks for the entertainment:) Congrats on a excellent project.

  6. Well, it seems External World met Adventure Time's 5th season in this "Glitch is Glitch". And I thought "Why Maya? How would I wish it were made in Blender"

    Brilliant work!

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