Mango Called ‘Tears of Steel’, Teaser Released!
Ton Roosendaal writes:
The open movie project Mango now has a title: “Tears of Steel”. A teaser edit with music by Joram Letwory has been made available now.
The Mango project and blog will continue as usual – we’re far from ready! We’ll be continuing work until end of September and planned to have the film – and DVD box – ready before the Blender Conference, October 12!
The blog has also been moved to www.tearsofsteel.org.
Can’t wait to see it.
Me neither looks good so far! Got all the other Blender Movies so this will go nicely with the collection too!
well, its time to prep up some snacks :)
Great news!
Unfortunately this teaser give me the impression of a generic cheap B-movie…
I think it look pretty good.
I don’t know how anyone will expect an “A-movie”, that just won’t happen. Blender foundation is not pixar or ILM etc.
Many details which make it look not as good as it could aren’t about limited resources. Like the lack of an unified look and feel of all the shots is more an artistic rather issue than a manpower one. If all shots looked the way the one does where the guy with the gun drinks the mango juice, the movie would be awesome.
So the different stances of reality/simulation/outside/inside in the film should all have the same look? Seriously?
The thing about a teaser is that it contains short from the whole movie, but it will show them out of context. So you now don’t see why there is a different feel to different scenes. Especially the bridge scene seems out of context in the teaser, but it definitely should look like that in the movie. I don’t actually know how Hollywood solves this.
Hollywood solves this by hiring specialized trailer editors who know how to find the shots that work best together to create a cool looking trailer. Also, there are entire departments of people who work on these trailers at the Studio and give notes to the trailer house editing it so that it meets all of their branding qualifications. That’s how Hollywood does it :)
So, to get back @guest ‘s remark, making a trailer look good does require a lot of resources.
even with its flaws , sintel had good writing and story . IMHO , you don’t really need to be ILM to write good dialogues . Its the whole package that count not just parts of it .
But there is nothing really wrong with the dialogue in Mango. It’s cheesy, but that’s a matter of style. There is just always a lot of people on forums who are not happy with everything. I have heard the same complaints about Sintel.
I disagreed, I think the blend foundation can be like pixar and ILM is just the time and financial resources that will help produce such quality film. Remember open sources movie are for the purpose to develop blender to a main stream studio use software. The trailer animation dose have a Ray Harryhausen animation feel ! Ilkie it!
Blender foundation is not pixar or ILM etc… Yet. :)
Unfortunately you don’t get the point of Mango. Professional users will.
LOL..”professional” users!?? Wow, get over yourself. Plenty of people get the point of the project. Can the elitist attitude and let folks have an opinion. At this point, it looks like crap. Will it get better? Maybe. Using live actors was a bad decision and it shows in this trailer. They could have stretched and demonstrated the capabilities of the motion tracking system without them.
Why the down votes , as a blender fan I think we should be ready to listen constructive criticism .
Why shouldn’t they down vote? It seems that more people don’t agree with him than do.
@21640020055b2a669cc7feb5f829ed97:disqus and they disagree with everyone on this thread who is giving harsh but constructive criticism , seem more fanboish than anything else . I know this is tech demo but anywhere on earth the whole package is evaluated not parts of it. You wouldn’t buy a Ipad or Anrdoid device if its software was excellent but hardware was falling off.
@google-49c262a0773820923ac75edc33ba3ded:disqus, calling something crap isn’t constructive criticism. Let’s face it, though that trailer looked better than a lot of commercial scifi series episodes do, what they should’ve called it is a preview.
@Dippiduu agreed :)
I was surprised that the acting was as good as it was actually. And I´m not being ironic.
I agree. I didn’t think it was bad at all…I thought it was hilarious in Ian’s style…
Just like other Ian’s movies unfortunatelly.
The teaser is very teasing. Looking forward immensely to the end product, but also really enjoying the blog format too as the project unfolds. The recent workflow demo video was fascinating. There is so much new ground being covered in Blender these days. Means a few nights in, learning :)
keep us updated about the premier I would love to be able to go to that!! ;-)
Loving it! Can’t wait to see it!
Only crit is the guy with the mechanical eye staring at the brain looks a bit off.
Looking forward to seeing the result. Watched the workflow demo as well. Hard work will go into this! :) About the B-movie feel (in this teaser). It´s the music coming on too strong after her comment about her robot hand. Why is that so super dramatic? Better if it had waited a bit until the attack onthe flying thing. Also. All this oveloaded dramatic music in movies these days really takes the drama away. I´m beginning to feel very reluctant as soon as big drums go banging, or string goes staccato on me. But, I don´t
necessairly take this piece so seriously. It will be good fun, so keep it up! :)
The point of the teaser is to tease you. You now wonder why the music comes on so strong after her line “Why don’t you just admit that you’re freaked out by my robot hand” and what is super dramatic about that. To know that, I guess you will have to watch the whole movie. Consider yourself teased!
Yeah, I get that. But unfortunately I´m getting unteased. ;) Still teased to the finished piece though.
Watching this reminds me of old scifi movies like terminator.You gotta love the mixure of real scenes and 3d.Blender is becoming a real profesional’s toolset.Looking forward to get my Dvds now :)
theme song should be this, just replace balls with tears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemW4z_J_Uo
HAHAHA LMFAO :D
They should have skipped the actors. And just made a pure 3d-movie. I do understand the point with motion tracking but still. Its not the music that gives you a feel of a b-movie its the actors.
I think you may be missing the point of this project.
I do understand the point i think. Im sure a lot of people will like this. Im just not that entusiatisk about what i saw.
The point of the project is to show how blender can fit into a vfx pipeline, that wouldn’t happen if it was all 3D as no keying, masking or tracking would be needed. If they didn’t do different type projects then although new tools would be developed for blender they wouldn’t necessarily all work together smoothly in a production pipeline e.g. although the compositor is great, it’s speed is being radically improved to cope with the needs of a real world project.
I think the idea :”Forget that it’s poorly written and directed, it’s all for vfx” is bad, mostly because these vfx does not really match nowadays standards (and in bad movie they look even worse; they are maybe close but still they cannot be compared to any from modern sci-fi productions). I guess the industry will see the movie and think – well, once again Blender is aiming higher than it should. So far BBB was the best movie produced by foundation, I don’t think Sintel came close to that impact. Mango (or should I say “Tears of steel”) will have to struggle to proove it’s not another youtube-fan-amateur movie.
But I don’t really think this is aimed at ‘proving to the industry’ what blender can do, it’s about improving blender as part of a pipeline. Regardless of whether you view the effects to be up to standard, blender is improving as a result of the project, which I believe is the aim.
Well why not limit those movies to some video tests, short 10 seconds clips, no story, no acting, pure examples of Blender’s features?
To be clear here – I believe Mango will not be a disaster, it’ll probably be less spectacular than most of us expect but it will still be acceptable from CG’s point of view. I’m really happy to see keying, tracking and fast Cycles within Blender but I was hoping the movie will present those features in more elegant way. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m not a big fan of Ian’s movies, they just feel so amateur and shallow sci-fi-fan productions. Man, such opportunity as Mango comes once in a lifetime, impressive budget, pro equipment… It’s a waste it turns into such quasi epic “cool” short. I just hope I’m wrong here, sometimes poor teaser is followed by a good movie and on the contrary – the better teaser the crappiest film in the end. We’ll see.
To me, it’s neither the music nor the actors that give out the B-movie feel, but the title.
In any case, I don’t think there’s any problem with B-movies per se, as long as they can keep their implied promise of being entertaining.
I agree on that.
I’m thankful to all of the sweet developments this project has brought to Blender. I hope the next one will be a new Blender Game Engine project, a cross-platform desktop and Android game.
The next project is project Gooseberry, Ton does not want to make a game again.
To date my favourite Blender movie was Big Buck Bunny, it just hit all the right spots from the tone, the lighting, the characters and the feel. Now I don’t doubt that the effects for Mango are gonna be really cool, the “unnatural movement” actually works for me, I remember medusa from the original clash of the titans scaring me partially BECAUSE her movement was unnatural and Mango (like the other projects before it) will be more about improving the tools we have in Blender, which is always awesome. I’m just not gonna hold my breath for the other non-Blender aspects of the film (eg story, acting) that being said it looks like it could be fun :) Keep up the good work guys!
ha ha…. freak out by my robot hand…. lol, this is bad writing! But I Love this Project!
Agreed, all that needs to be said is “freaked out by my hand” the robot part is implied.
Agree
I totally disagree. She says “Why don’t you just admit that you’re freaked out by my robot hand” while the hand in not yet in view. I find it hilarious that the part where she grabs his face is somehow completely overdramatised. But you and the parent poster are right, the dialogue is supposed to be corny. There was discussion on the mango blog about the line “I just want to be awesome in space”, which does not appear in the trailer. This is also obviously meant to be corny.
If the film comes across cheesy, it’s not going to give the impression that the software is for professional users. It’s going to come across that it’s the plaything of amateurs.
Agree. If your going to spend a lot of money and time on VFX, and u are going to shoot it in 4k, so make a good story, writing, acting, IMO.
There is a lot of professional film makers that use cheesy lines. Being cheesy is a style. Take for instance Josh Whedon. He writes extremely cheesy dialogue.
You really can’t compare this writing to Joss Whedon, they are worlds apart!
Ofcourse I’m not saying that Ian is the next Josh Whedon. Josh Whedon is like a god to me and not a puny one! I’m just saying that being cheezy is a sometimes a choice.
I would have been happier with “robotic” or “cybernetic”. The “robot” part just feels almost juvenile. No offense to the writers, I’m sure everything feels good and maybe it’s in context to something the gent said earlier. Maybe it’s because I have a 6 year old and 3 year old running around making robots out of things left and right so the word robot is associated with the youth … maybe I’m just a cranky old man. That .. probably is it.
Kids now days are really creative.
I have fairly creative kids. My 6 year old writes his own stories. Draws his own comic books. Learning Blender so he can make his own movie. Granted, his stories are a little scattered and his stick figure comics are a little .. odd. But he goes through a spiral notebook of paper a month, and only one because we limit him to save us money!
you know most would be inclined to agree with you but when I think about it a lot of my friends would say that line in their own way just a weird as it sounds maybe even worse lol. One thing that bugs me in movies sometimes is that everyone always speaks so well with proper grammar and everything but in reality this is not always the case. Now i’m not sure if it was the writer’s intention to make the line sound as corny as it did but it’s only one line. I’ll don’t think we can give a fair judgement of the writing on account of just this trailer.
Wait for the answer – “I love your robot hand” which is not included in a teaser.
Well I’m not interested in how good the acting or the film is, only what I can learn from it. To me that’s the whole point
Cybermen all over again! When will humans ever learn? LOL
I’ve been not following the development blog, so I was not expecting the cheesy tone at all, but I’m a bit relieved; the fallback towards goofy is way less risky if goofy is the starting point.
Still, the zeitgeisty cutting of the trailer is not doing the project any favours, I think.
Strong timeline and a lot of work…..keep it up.
I find I am interested from a 3D perspective but I am left flat from the content.
The mix of real and 3D, looks very professional, very much a part of the world. The physics, the movements, the mix with real action are all simply astounding compared to the tools and execution that was available exactly one year ago. I was eagerly anticipating the tracking feature for so long, and it really does not disappoint. It’s hard to imagine it getting better, but there have even been promised *improvements* to the system.
The lines and delivery were both pretty hard to swallow . . . not just the “robot hand”, but also the “not my fault”. Interest in cool things is not the best quality for a director. Storytelling is as difficult as creating anything else of quality, and seems to be lacking at this point. Maybe the content can be fixed in post, but it seems a long road from here.
As a final kibbitz, I could not hear the “brain” scene comment, and the machinery and guns were too loud to allow turning it up further. I know overwhelming with the loud scenes is a theater trick, but then the theater’s surround sound is well-balanced. This should probably be edited with two audio mixes: one for computers, and one in full surround and awesomeness. Any chance of a Blender feature for generating multiple audio versions automatically?
The point of a teaser is multi-faceted, and has to sell a number of things in a short span of time. The grx, audio, story, etc. all have to promise more and better in the full film. It may be argued that the viewer should focus on one aspect of the teaser or another, but every view that is presented in the teaser is fair game for comment.
Despite my concerns, one thing that has to be remembered is that the team has actually achieved a very difficult milestone: it has given the viewer the ability to comment on the *content* rather than the *technology*. It compares against teasers from feature films with multi-million dollar productions. Even without knowing it, I compared this against “Cloverfield” and “Empire Strikes Back”; I complain to myself that it is not as deep and meaningful as “O Brother Where Art Thou” or as intricate as “The Crook” (1970). That level of comparison is new — absolutely novel — for projects such as this.
So, ok . . . let’s see more!
Interest in cool things is the best quality for a director when he is made to make a showcase of the VFX pipeline, which is exactly the goal of project mango. So your final remark about getting the technology so far that people can complain about content is spot on.
The story should be somehow entertaining enough to make it more than just a vfx demo and I think it definitely is. Hell, I like Ian’s sense of humor, so I actually think the dialogue is great. Although the obvious Dutch accents can of course be a little bit distracting.
The claim that this trailer is a vfx workflow test and nothing else seems without merit. There is no claim the post for this trailer, nor in this BlenderNation post, that this is vfx demo. In fact, there is a vfx demo on the movie’s blog (cf., http://mango.blender.org/production/tracking-keying-and-layout-workflow-demo ).
To argue that the whole project is a real-world test of the vfx pipeline is similarly weak. This could have been accomplished with less cost and difficulty by having one of the developers quote some Shakespeare in front of the greenscreen, and then putting that content through the workflow. But this is not what has been done, nor what the Blender community has been led to expect.
If the vfx workflow focus is not spurious, I, for one, would be interested to see where this idea is coming from.
Respectfully, that is what I said. The story is there to make it more than just a vfx demo. And I certainly think it is. I really enjoyed the trailer, because it is funny and it looks good!
Irrespective of the correction, I am arguing against the idea that this project is “a showcase of the VFX pipeline”.
Also, there is a false category in the idea of cinematic technical demos, and therefore no directors of such. A director is roughly equivalent to a storyteller and cannot be judged as a director otherwise, and the extent that he or she succeeds or fails allows qualitative judgement.
There is not much that is humorous or interesting story-wise in this teaser. The parody of this trailer would be humorous. “Just admit that you are freaked out by my . . .” and fill in the blank with “tomato aspic!”, “real human arm!” (no vfx), “bag of pre-chewed sandwiches!”, etc. The goal is to be better than the spoof, I guess; if I can imagine better, I become disappointed. If that happens, I try to find where it let me down.
Wow. That was cheesy.
Mango juice at 0:07
I noticed that the second time I was watching it. Great meta product placement! :)
Bad writing, bad acting. 2 seconds in and it’s already horrible.
I didn’t went through all the comments. But the few I’ve read are about this teaser looks cheap and some replies about the limited budget/resources.
Let me go straight to the point: is not a matter of budget / resources here. Don’t get me wrong, the guys are doing a wonderful job. All the 3D stuff is really cool. What this teaser is actually missing is a good direction. The acting is not convincing, what can look funny for some (the mango juice) looks just distracting, cheap and out of contest for me, something that simply gives the whole thing a childhood feeling. Some shots have just ad unlucky choice of camera angle, fov (the last shot with the robot looks like a toy on a fake city scene).
As for the color correction, I guess they’ll probably fix something for the final rel. I guess this is just a wip, or at least I hope they won’t keep this CC for the final grading.
You see? you don’t need to have millions of dollars to make a good movie. It’s all about tricks. If there’s something you can’t afford, just cheat, hide it, use a different camera angle, make it perceivable by sounds not necessary images, as long as the direction (good acting), the cinematography (good shots / lighting) are strong enough the viewer can be caught and the imagination will do the rest.
Well just consider how you are going to pay to have top class blockbuster actors, top class story writers, 100’s of experienced vfx workers working all night, amazing script writers who know how to create a believable character and world just from conversation, ability to re-shoot whenever required with extremely experienced directors at a different angle with different costumes, lighting setup and massively detailed huge sets.
Also to have access to millions of dollars of software and hardware that all their users know exactly how to use.
It’s not an easy thing to create a movie which flows well and tells the story with exactly the desired direction without being cheesy/”childish”/B or whatever you want to call it….. especially when the movie is only…. ~10 minutes long.
It’s a very VERY fine thing and there are so many elements to consider which cannot be because of limited resources.
Lines, actions, scenes are always going to be compressed and simplified for the story to be told at all.
This is not a teaser for a 2 HOUR long movie which has been in production for years with a story being written and manipulated for many years prior, as well as a 100 million dollar budget and the best actors/ director in the business to boot.
Stop comparing to “A grade” movies.
This is a TEASER (not a trailer) for a very much Work In Progress– Short Film — produced by a team with many limitations.
No you can’t always work around limitations and end up with a blockbuster, its not that simple.
It looks like a bit of a goofy direction is being taken with some of those lines shown already and things like the juice. To me this is a good idea and a safer way.
The team is doing well, just don’t expect an A grade movie where Blender just happened to be the vfx software used.
This movie is too show off the capabilities of Blender and to improve on those capabilities. Anyone who was expecting a blockbuster with such a small budget had their hopes too high. On that note, the graphics look amazing. Its awesome what they have achieved with a FREE program. Screw the acting, the teaser looked incredible. They didn’t have millions of dollars to spend on actors. To get good actors they would’ve to shell out a lot of money. There is a reason why major league baseball players get paid millions to play and minor league players don’t. Don’t judge this project based on the acting.
I agree with you but it would be a shame that all the hard work put into the film would lose some of its meaningfullness because of poor acting or writing.
I don’t mean to bash on anything but I think constructive criticism is kinder than just giving compliments.
I don’t know if the whole film is like that but the first line that girl said was probably some of the worst starts for a teaser in my opinion. Even if that line was delivered by Anthony Hopkins it’d still sound cheesy. It immediately gave me that “Uh-oh!”-feeling. I don’t know what the Mango team think themselves but I hope they haven’t been afraid of commenting or giving critique on the acting and writing.
The rest of the teaser was better though, the effects were good and convincing enough. Nice work! I just hope whatever possible weaknesses don’t drag down too much on the whole thing.
I actually think the acting is quite good. Try to look past the fact that the actor have Dutch accents.
Regardless of the accent I think the first line was delivered pretty badly. I thought the older guy was more convincing though. “It’s not my fault you know.” Nothing fantastic about the line but it feels genuine in my opinion unlike the girl’s robot hand line which just feels awkward.
It was a bad, on-the-nose line delivered with false emotion. Bad writing and bad acting. The problem with VFX films is that generally, people get really excited about the VFX and the VFX Process (all great here, btw), but let the acting, writing and direction slide. Thus, you get the Transformers movies.
It might just be me, but I think they were going for humor. The sniper takes a swig from a juice box. The tech demo movie done before this was pure intentional tongue and cheek humor. With this understanding girls dialogue is no longer bad writing, but good writing that made me crack up so hard.
I would be cool like that too if i was attacked by big angry robots. :D
Ok Maybe I’ve not got the point. I thought the idea behind Mango was to use small projects that could help to drive the development of the software. As such, any comments on acting, script, storyline – whilst valid – are hardly the reason this project exists. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that people have opinions and as a forum they have a voice, but I must admit that if I was working on the project I would be banging my head against a wall at the moment with all the negative comments that kind of miss the point of the whole project. As I say that’s just from my understanding of what Mango is actually about. I didn’t think it was “let’s make a movie” – more – “Let’s drive the technology by application”.
From that perspective this project is an out and out success I would think. Great work all involved and good luck with you very tight deadline.
I think it is great that the production has been as open as it has been, something of a much-appreciated and generous gift really, but also a expected double-edged sword as personal reactions will vary. If I remember rightly, Sintel had a fairly vigorous (sic) reception by the community (which can’t have been too nice for the team at the time), but it went on to be very well regarded as an achievement, both technically and artistically. The Foundation now has a very good track record, which augers well for this film too
Good VFX does not a good movie make.
Also, what you say is true… for the VFX artists. But a director’s job is to make sure the ENTIRE project is creatively viable. Performance is one of the most important aspects of this.
In general yes, but in this case, the director is a guy who’s VFX reel starts with the line “Ian Hubert, the human who makes cg and does other stuff”. *grin*
Why is there such a strong smell of sour grapes on this tread? The Mango team volunteer their time and efforts in taking Blender to the next level, and show off its amazing professional new abilities with a great looking short, and all some people can do is be hypercritical about petty details.
Fantastic looking FX people, and great work all round!
Thank you. :-)
Doesn’t anyone remember “minimal story, maximum impact”?
woow, that was Awesome!
I think it’s hilarious how all these people can comment on how bad this movie is going to be, how bad the script is, and how it should have been all in 3D. The real point it to show the creativity and ability that these people have in creating something. I agree it’s not going to be a pixar/disney or any other big hollywood comparison, because they don’t have the man power or budget. For demonstation and entertainment, this is going to be an awesome movie, and for those who have the feeling of hate, please post your own self made video to compare soon, I’ll be watching for it, if it ever does come.
I agree that people should see this movie for what it is: a showcase for the blender vfx pipeline. But besides that, I think the lines are great.
No thats not the point. The point is showing blenders new features. I think its arrogance to expect everbody to have the same opinion.
So people how criticize movies must have made one themselves your full of yourself arent you. :D
Bullshit. I work in Hollywood, and I see one man generalists and small production teams on little budget create awesome VFX films all the time because they’re trying to get their name out there. The thing is, these folks are using Maya and other software. So time for Blender to man up. We have to expect the same quality from our software and creators as we do of other 3D packages if Blender is going to compete.
I like.
Hellooooo!!! Starwars had REALLY bad writing, worse acting and disastrous directing and it became a cult thing. I am not trying to say that this will also become an icon, but let’s be honest we don’t watch FX movies for the dialogs, Transformers? Hulks? all the apocalypse movies??
Well, I think the primary goal being achieved is what is most important. Technically, we can see things that are achievable in Blender.
Acting and story would be a bonus. Though I also believe a great story and good acting has many times more impact than otherwise to get attention to Blender. BBB was a gem, no doubt. It managed to achieve appeal in all angles (technical and story).
This, also being a teaser means, we cant rush to conclusions before we see the whole. I would not be disappointed by any bad acting/story as I would be if I cannot see how much Blender can do in this genre. The rest becomes up to us
Transformers had brilliant FX. But it was a struggle to ignore the distracting,bad acting
IMHO “The Incredible Hulk” – 2008, Edward Norton was brilliant in acting and story though Hulk seemed to have been modelled different when comparing different shots and scenes.
I love it. Every part. It definitly teases me well. This IS pretty freakin’ !
Just one sidenote for the commenters: Talk about “bad writing” after a 40 second (!) Teaser is a bit like judging a book by its cover.. plain stupid.
Anyone who knows how to do it better should just do it.
That’s a pretty stupid comment. Even if I’m not an actor I can tell that the acting in this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyophYBP_w4 is a lot worse than any acting in for example “The Lord of The Rings”. Just because you can’t do it yourself doesn’t mean you can’t tell how it should be done.
I know, but unfortunately I am stupid. :) It was meant as an encouraging kick in the ass for some of us, and not as an absolute and deadly serious statement on this discussion. I also agree on your comment – it´s obvious.
I didn’t mean you’re stupid and I partly agree with you but I’ve come to realize that ignorant people’s opinions matter to some extent too. I agree that it can be very annoying when unskilled people whine about everything but some might actually have good points and valid criticism to share even if they couldn’t make it themselves. It’s up to the receiver to judge what to just let pass and what to listen to.
From what I’ve heard or read during Sintel the film crew didn’t want to release all that much because people had been critical of what they had done so far. That seems pretty immature and silly to me. Ofcourse there’s always going to be someone whining about completely stupid things but there might also be people who genuinely could give some feedback that could help make a better end product. If a crew can’t ignore the trolls and listen to the sensible critiques then that’s their loss. If all they receive is negative feedback then the problem probably isn’t on the audience’s side.
Also usually movies, games etc. are made for more people than just those that could do it themselves so their opinions might be worth noting even if they might be wrong. If they’re just being negative and ignorant then it should just be ignored as nonsense. Thing is they might be right sometime too.
Sorry for being a bit blunt in my previous comment.
Excuse me here but whinning; whos whinning about what? Do you have to be a filmmaker to be allowed to comment on this teaser? Thats humor to mee at least. :D
Ofc i agree that constructive critiscim should not be ignored and trolls should allways be ignored.
That’s actually exactly the opposite of what I’m saying. I don’t know where you got that impression. The statement quoting myself “when unskilled people whine about everything” was more or less hypothetical. I think it’s quite clear I’m actually saying that you can give valid criticism even if you don’t have the skills to do it yourself.
Yes there are people “whining” about different things. I was “whining” about bad acting in another comment.
With the budget they have they are doing great. Hundreds of other movies are being produced every day that are just as bad if not worse. Already the title “tears of steel” is quite corny. The fact is that they are trying to show case the software. It is obvious from the start that it is not a big studio production and to criticize it like if it was is a bit pointless. Yes it could be better. But o my god! it is possible to make such a movie!!! and that is more important. I shall enjoy every bad cue and every silly line and even have a go a redoing the editing and be thankful for them making it happen.
Wow just wow!
Oh, man! This looks great! The VFX blend pretty well, and the dialog is hilarious!
Now just give me real render layers and render layer overrides, and I’ll be a happy camper :)
Very entertaining. I can see the movie being both cool and funny. Given the director’s previous work, this is the style I expected and hoped for. And, of course, the effects are unlike anything we’ve seen in Blender. Great work, guys.
whoa! in this discussion i bet there are lots of awesome actors and directors. If it’s not the case, please, don’t show your supidity here! :D
The trailer looks very good to me the first time that i’ve seen. Now i think the same. Keep the great job, learn and do! :D
Blender really should get better users, these tirades from unemployed actors and directors are getting old.
EPIC! Go Blender go! :)
Kick awesome trailer, and kick awesome name! So much better than “Amsterdam gets Eaten”… :)
The VFX look awesome, the motion tracking is spot-on, and the mere complexity of the giant robots still astounds me (in one blog post it was reported that the robot armatures contained over 600 bones 0.0)
As for the story, I think they really tried hard to get a good solid plot going before they began filming, unlike Sintel where the story was kind of just thrown out there at the last minute and they ran with it.
As for the acting, I was actually expecting it to be alot worse. No, they’re not astounding actors, but from what I see in the trailer they’re pretty good. You can’t just expect awesome oscar-winning actors for such a low-budget film like this.
Also, unlike some of the commenters here, I don’t find the dutch accents distracting at all. And did you expect them all to have American accents? This movie is set in AMSTERDAM. People there have DUTCH ACCENTS. They’re being realistic, unlike those movies where a guy is born and raised in southern Georgia but sounds like he’s from California…
Yes, it could be better. Yes, they could have made a better story, better dialogue, better effects, better actors… if they had the time and money to do so. They don’t. Of course it’s not going to look like a big-budget Hollywood film, but they’ve utilized what little resources they have to their fullest potential, and I admire them for that. Even for a 10-minute short film, this was a huge undertaking for these guys and I think they’re doing an excelent job so far.
Good job, Mango. Two thumbs up, and I absolutely cannot wait for Tears of Steel to come out ^-^
Correct me if I’m wrong but main the point of these projects isn’t to make a hit movie, advance the careers of those involved or even to market Blender; it’s to field-test the software. Blender has moved ahead further and faster as a result of the open movie projects than anything else. I wish they were able to do more on a regular basis.
Blender isn’t likely to be added to the ILM pipeline any time soon but projects like these show it could be the perfect toolset for independent filmmakers. The same way Activision might not use Blender for creating video game assets but *lots* of indie developers do.
Besides, it’s a bit cheesy and the acting is…odd…but Hollywood has certainly produced worse on $100+ million dollar budgets. No one’s averse to criticism (I hope) but people are walking a fine line between being critics and just “haters gotta hate”.
tears of steel!!!! T.T
Looks cheesy as fuck! Renders and composition look great but… so cheesy… like, megashark vs giant octopus cheesy
I think it works like this:
good script + good VFX = Great movie!
good script + bad VFX = good movie
bad script + good VFX = mediocre movie
bad script + bad VFX = bad movie
As for the trailer, here’s something to think about: This cheezy teaser/trailer was for another sci-fi film (but the final film turned out okay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLqsWJK8jpQ