My overall impression: Very very promising!! Good work!! =]

A few crits:
1. The flock of birds that fly past are rather conspicuous the second time as they are too similar to the first flock (maybe even the same as?). In life, one does not generally expect to see the same flock of birds fly past in one direction, and then back again in the opposite. If they are meant to be homing pigeons (which DO fly round and round in circles), then you wouldn't expect them to be black, and the general direction would be more circular I think. I'm no expert, I just thought something looked wrong about it! ??
2. I think there could be more male-female separation. I could not tell whether the character in the stripy jumper was meant to be male or female. I guessed female at first. But after viewing again, I decided that he/she is male? I liked the design of the tall character near the end a LOT. (Except when I read your blog and found out she was actually a he I was very surprised!)
3. The choice of 'stripy jumper' for the other character does not go too well with the whole gothic theming. Well I am guessing since you are based in France are you not, that perhaps it works better over there. But here in the UK, black and white stripy jumpers make me think of two things – 1) Smugglers (the traditional sort – which probably has something todo with the French as it is lol), and 2) Emos. …I dunno whether there are Emos in France, but over here, Emos and goths get annoyed because people muddle them up. Both of them sometimes wear stripy clothing, but there is a way to do gothic, and a way to do emo, and yours looks emo to me. (Disclaimer: I am a goth) Some very very slight changes to the textures could make all the difference…
4. The sky in the intro shot with the title looks very flat, this may be the style you are attempting, however, it also appears to be very low quality. A higher resolution sky image would be very welcome.
5. I too thought that the animation was a bit tight and robotic. A lot could be done to improve this mainly in the way of time and TLC. I would suggest adding a few more subtle movements that do not have anything todo with the action the characters are performing. Nobody moves like a robot in real life, but then again, nobody moves perfectly smoothly either. The four things I would say are important are: 1) No sudden jumps or mismatches in animation speed. (i.e. if somebody is moving slowly one minute and suddenly moves quickly, it looks very wrong, or if somebody is moving slowly in one way and quickly in another, that doesn't look right either – [think: somebody moving their limbs very quickly but walking along the ground very slowly - in real life, when you walk slower, you don't just slow down your walk cycle, you also don't move your feet as far each step, which results in slower speed of limb movement]) 2) Some personality to the animation of each individual character. (i.e. somebody might blink a lot, or maybe put their hand in a certain rest position, or perhaps they rotate their hips in a different way, or make some movement more often than normal) 3) Some almost unnoticeable random movements that help the animation flow better. 4) An absolute must of musts: absolutely no moments when a character is perfectly still unless in exceptional situations to achieve a desired effect! Even then I would advise some movement elsewhere on screen.

I can't believe I just wrote all that. Lol. I'm not an experienced animator or anything, in fact I hardly ever touch the stuff! :P It's just what I've noticed from films and shorts and things I've watched, and games I've played!

Nice to hear mention of Theatres Des Vampires, though I'm not quite sure what you mean by collaboration? If they are doing some of the background music, that would be awesomely awesome! One question… Has the album cover from 'Nightbreed of Macabria' got anything to do with this by any chance? Just a minor point I noted in that the character in your short is very very similar to the sketchy drawing on the front of that album… :P

Anyhow, very nice work, and lovely style!
Take care!

Anyway, I'm not trying to hold some kind of grudge. The movie's online, I'm just going to forget about the production files, and I'll consider the response here to be enough of a response. So it's water under the bridge with me, and I won't bring it up again.

The new work, both this one and Llorona, look stunning as always. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on how these develop, and hope that they go well.

I remember reading about this here for some time now. Well over a year. Several people complaining about feeling abandoned and, well, robbed.

If everyone involved monetarily is willing to accept your reply now, fine. Personally I think the situation was very unprofessionally handled. The CG universe is very small, professionally speaking. This type of situation could very well come back to suck some professional blood out of you!

God bless,
-b

Oscar again!

Well… As I speak some months ago, the problem was that some of my partners in Murnau make me a bad game and I finish very bad. I know that this is no fault of the people that support me with the DVD purchase. But is the true!!! Now MURNAU is on Vimeo and is free, and as I say that time, ALL MY PERSONAL FUTURE WORKS WILL BE FOR FREE!!!
Again…. I´m very sorry!!!!!
(The comment about my "vampire wallets affair"…. mmmmmm…. that hurts!!!)

About LLORONA, well…. the project is not cancelled. We decide give time for some technical and musical problems. But the project will be produced in 2010 ;)

And about LE MONSIEUR, LE VAMPIRE AND RENNE MARCELLE project, the 3D animation is full of smooth and slow movements. I want with this project make some like the old school "2D TAKE ANIMATION". If you see, the animation of the characters is more like the CARTOON NETWORK style. I dont like the "realistic" animation. I like the "belive" animation. I try very hard to do this ;)

Thanks and I hope your support, comments and again…. SORRY ABOUT MURNAU!!!!
(I have to do some about…)

Atte.
Oscar Alvarado

The teaser, i like the atmosphere, but the backgrounds are to beautifull, for that simply characters, I see more work one aspect thant the other.

I admire Oscar's talent and his style of animation. His works are inspiring, and the themes he tends to choose are close to my heart. I love the gothic style, and the music of Theatres des Vampires is a big part of my life.

Murnau did not have ground breaking special effects, it was just a quaint piece of simplest design that told a known story well. The Llorona Project mentioned here a few months ago looked to add a little to Oscar's Murnau style by increasing the complexity of the drawn characters somewhat, and greatly increasing the use of more detailed textures on other objects and buildings, creating a little more real / natural look.

From this small clip Le Monsieur looks to take all of the above and add in extra effects to create an even more picturesque piece. I look forward to the finished movie and the telling of the whole story.