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Cosmos Laundromat – First Cycle

92

The Gooseberry team just released the first part of Cosmos Laundromat at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles. In 'First Cycle' Franck meets Victor, who is about to change his life in a very unexpected way.

Ton Roosendaal writes:

We’re very proud and happy to share the first 10 minutes of Cosmos Laundromat with you. It’s been more than a year of hard work by many people! Thanks everyone for helping to make it, and thanks to the thousands of supporters and donators for making it possible.

Want to see more? Join Blender Cloud and subscribe for just $10 per month, or send us a donation via PayPal to [email protected].

On behalf of everyone on the team,

Ton Roosendaal.

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.

92 Comments

  1. the animation is just awesome! and so is camera, lighting and shading. I'm really really looking forward to the final movie!

    • After reading all the comments concerning the f-word and the suicidal storyline: animation isn't just for children. I like the natural way of the dialogues, you don't see such realism in animation (and in movie scripts in general) very often. It shows consistency: natural way of speaking, realistic handcamera, realistic shading and lighting, and yet you are thrown into a whole new interesting world. Keep up the brilliant work, we need more animation with so much love for details and fine nuances in motion and mimic!

  2. Good work shoving meaningless profanity into the animation and utilizing psychiatric disorders as the entirety of a character's definition. Now you've just limited where and to whom this short can be played in its intended form.

    Strong language has its place but this felt forced and completely wrong within the context of a open film that's meant to be an ambassador to a wonderful project. Next time think about making a deliverable that we can show to everyone. Even those who are not yet old enough to utilize Blender but could benefit from the sense of wonder we all experienced as kids watching our first animated film.

    The subject of depression and other severe psychiatric disorders is a tough topic and not one to be used lightly or to be used as the entire defining principle of a character. From a character writing standpoint its lazy. From the standpoint of trying to limit the damage that modern media has done to the public's understanding of mental illness, this is downright disrespectful.

    That said, the technical aspects of the film are wonderful. The dynamics of the complicated wool/hair and the volumetric smoke are stunning. These open film projects are a fantastic way to push development and generate interest in a powerhouse FOSS application.

    I'll end with an incredibly relevant quote from John Lasseter (Executive producer / Director / Writer of numerous animated films in conjunction with Pixar and Disney) It would behoove any future team working on Blender Foundation films to pay close attention.

    "From the beginning, I kept saying it's not the technology that's going to entertain audiences, it's the story. When you go and see a really great live-action film, you don't walk out and say 'that new Panavision camera was staggering, it made the film so good'.

    The computer is a tool, and it's in the service of the story"

    • I agree the "fuck" isn't necessary, but one of the things i like of this projects is that they don't focus on fantastic, impossible world were everything is happy. I don't see how anyone with depression or the sorts would feel offended by this.

      I don't believe the main motive of the character to be lazy, but rather real, i think it's a much better developed character (even thought we don't see any actual development, but just an introduction) than many from other animated films. That said, I, living on planet earth can totally relate with the intention of comiting suicide.

      May be it just shocks people that a cartoon focuses on such topic. But that kind of exploration is one that the "free" community can and should do since there's no reason to sell your characters out.

    • "psychiatric disorders as the entirety of a character's definition": how do you know? you have seen just the first ten minutes. movies need a strong entry, you know that.
      "Now you've just limited where and to whom this short can be played": could you imagine that creating an all cute pixar-style movie is just another strong limitation, as well?
      "downright disrespectful": a bit over the top, dont you think? cant see any disrespect here whatsoever.

      "The computer is a tool, and it's in the service of the story" well, with blender movies its the other way around: "These open film projects are a fantastic way to push development".

    • "Good work shoving meaningless profanity into the animation and utilizing psychiatric disorders as the entirety of a character's definition. Now you've just limited where and to whom this short can be played in its intended form."

      I agree entirely. I had been looking forward to showing this to my kids, now I won't for exactly these reasons. Perhaps the 'strength' of the f-word isn't fully understood by whoever wrote the script? Whatever, it ruins the gentle feel of the scene and must be replaced with something else.

      The technical excellence is clear to see, with wonderful lighting, texturing, physics, colour and crystal clear scenery. This really showcases Blender as an artistic animation tool. However, the editing in the first 4 minutes drags, with such long pauses between dialogue it was like watching one of my dad's home movies. Cut! Cut! Cut! And as for the plot.... well it's all so weird and incoherent that it hardly stands on its own. It looks oddly like a movie that was cut short during development ;-)

    • Don't you think your perspective might be a little too narrowly framed? I mean the word "fuck" is something every person says every day. It's not a bomb as many people say, it's an ordinary word. Though the tv and movies (mostly in US I guess) would have us believe otherwise with the strict rating principles that sometime rules over content based on planned demographic.

      Is it not nice that an open movie project is free from market shackles, free to tell its story any way it wants, without having to submit to the tyrannical MPAA PG rating?

      • I agree with the needless inclusion of an offensive word without a warning. I sat down with my family to watch this short. I wasn't pleased. I avoid most movies because of their "colorful" language. It would have been very easy to use a different word or to at least warn us. Several other non-offending words can be used as a descriptor. I also know that there are people who never use this word, let alone use it every day.

      • Torbjörn: I'm not sure of your nationality, or if English is your first language, but 'fuck' is NOT a word 'every person says every day'! It is most definitely considered an offensive word, and as such is completely out of place in this movie. In Tears of Steel it would have been OK used by an angry man talking to another, but in the context of a little animated film about a sheep it sounds ridiculous to a native English speaker. Yep, they really f****d-up this bit of the script! ;-)

        • It's one word and the movie is open source. How hard is it going to be to download the video and insert a 2 second bleep so you can show the movie to your kids.

          Someone can make a tutorial on how to do this in blender and we can all go back to enjoying the movie for the technical achievement that it is.

        • REACTION, the word 'fuck' is a commonly used word. I live in Sydney and socialise with all kinds of people and the word in question is used in everyday conversation. Even intellects use it.

          I've studied feature film script writing for two years, Linguistics, and my career is in literature, and I don't see a problem with this word.

          Suicide is a strong and very real subject. Opening the film on a sheep trying to commit suicide is very interesting and pulls you in. It's a very strong opening. The inciting incident is the sheep being stopped by Victor.
          The journey of the sheep and the whole film will show us, along with the main character, that life is beautiful and comes in many forms; that suicide isn't a great option. It has a CODA.

          How would you feel if you were a sheep trying to hang yourself and the branch broke? It would have taken a while to put that rope around your neck, right? Then you have to drag the branch to a cliff which is quite a distance away. Then a man interrupts you. You would say 'fuck'. In fact, you would say a lot more words. In real life, I don't think Frank would have been as polite when Victor was walking away without an explanation. I think he would have been like, "Where the fuck are you going? You piece of shit."

          • telling people you don't know what they would say is a little much.

            i wouldnt' have said it. i probably would have just yelled "what!?".

            i know it's a commonly used word in some circles.
            not all of them though. if you pay more attention to all of those different people you socialize with you may find that you've made an assumption that they say it just because it's common and they never objected to you using it.

            also, opening the film with a sheep trying to commit suicide kind of put me off rather than drew me in. i wasn't sure if i wanted to keep watching. i'm sure it would have gotten better but with just the first 10 minutes alone it all just kind of feels wrong. i just felt let down by it.

            that said the art style of this movie, the trailers they put out previously for it, and the lack of this kind of serious stuff and language in past open movies is very much misleading as to what to expect here at the start.

          • @DAELDALJS - Fuck knows how you somehow missed that it involved a suicidal sheep - they've never hidden that fact in the CL blog.

            Given that you saw enough to be offended by the word 'fuck', you also saw that the sheep was interrupted in his suicide attempts by an angel who had a mysterious but clearly hopeful message for him, right? Or were you so upset that you didn't fucking care about that part? I'm know I'm using the word 'fuck' a lot right now, but I'm trying to normalise it for you...

          • @dmanvr
            yea i don't really read the blog that much. almost never in fact. i'm probably not the only one judging by some of these other comments.
            also, even if i had heard it at some point when you hear "suicidal cartoon sheep" is your first thought "it's gonna hang itself" rather than jump off a cliff or something? does hearing that he was suicidal even indicate that they would actually show him trying rather than just talk about and allude to that he had after the fact?

            at any rate i sincerely doubt you really read what i was saying in my previous post so much as made assumptions as to what i was saying. when did i ever say i was offended by the word. shocked a bit maybe but i did explain why i felt it was unexpected.

            right now, at least to me, you just look like a douche who's trying to be annoying to someone with a different view than you. how that's supposed to make me care about what you have to say is beyond me.

    • "The computer is a tool, and it's in the service of the story"

      Yeah - this is the bit that's always a bit back-to-front in all the Blender Foundation films. The real point of these films is always to develop Blender, and to show off Blender. They are essentially tech-demos. The stories exist, but they require the demonstration of various features.

    • Cartoon != ForChildren
      Would you show this movie to your child if there were not those f-word? Really? The movie, where fist shots are all about suicide?
      C'mon.
      It is a great animated movie! NOt for children.
      I watched it several times, it means something.

      What about some mistakes in the movie:
      1) Why the hell does the ship try to hang when he is on the tall rock (!) and there are all water around it? No logic here.
      2) The rope does not affect the hair when Frank pulls the branch. This is very noticeable.
      3) Hair is moves through the strap when frank talks to Victor.

      Overall picture is perfect, animations are just awesome and... waiting for more!

        • You can laugh, but I saw the Kite DVD once (original japanese anime, not that movie with SLJ) on the shelf in children area of the dvd store along with Dumbo, Cars and Monsters, inc.

      • "Why the hell does the ship try to hang when he is on the tall rock (!) and there are all water around it? No logic here."
        Because sheep knows that hanging is not as bad as smashing into the rocks/water. Its 101 of suicide.
        Just saying.

        • or because it's a cry for help.
          I mean, he tries to hang himself from a dead branch, only about 2.5m up, by jumping off a 40cm rock after several hours tying a noose with hooves, rather than jump off a rock. It makes you wander about the island, though. Frank's expression to victor calling him a wolf looked like someone who has been told that "wolf" is an offensive word, but doesn't know why. Presumably there are no wolves on this island. Does the shepherd get there by helicopter, or is this a small selection of sheep that have been marooned after a section of cliff has collapsed. This seems more likely as there is no water on the island, so the sheep could only have spent up to 10 days there.

          Having said that, in terms of story, this is the most engaged by a Blender Institute film since Elephant's Dream. This film isn't here to show off sweet new techniques: fur in Big Buck Bunny, fire and rigify in Sintel, camera tracking in Tears of Steel, and seems also less locked to a certain genre, which may be why the story seems more inspiring.

    • I think, it is as always:

      technically the movie looks great given the number of people and the budget, but the story and story telling seemed to had the lowest priority.

    • I agree with the surprise of a curse word. I, too, wanted to share this with my family. (I'm always promoting the capabilities of Blender, to everyone's annoyance! :-) ) But now I cannot/won't. Disappointing. Love the work otherwise! Great look and intriguing story. (Can angels be gingers?)

    • Yeah I agree, every movie should have at the beginning a table counting for each "strong language" word the number of occurrences in the movie. Well-spelled please, in big fat characters.

      The Panavision camera did make the film good... but please, John Lasseter it totally irrelevant with your will to limit movies to bunnies and fairy tales. First, at no point the movie is screaming "rendered with cycles". You see the technicalities if you want to, the movie doesn't push them on you. Secondly, who said the movie's tone was meant for kids? I mean, it's Blender Foundation, not Pixar, no moral contract implied. Thirdly, black humour and a stranded "fuck" (like in primary school : "Miiiiissses O'Connor! Paul just said the f-woooooord") might hurt kids (their daddies already said the word 1000 times since their births). Things could be worse, they could watch the TV news.

      Blender Foundation, use the tone and language you want.

    • I think your complaining about non-issues. While they could've left the swear out, it would still fall under the pg-13 rating, and considering the introduction to the series is Franck trying to commit suicide, I think the swear is acceptable. The theme of the series so far is interesting, and a more adult themed animation is not a bad thing. While I appreciate the more child friendly blender animations, they tend to be childish, and I don't really watch them. It's like comparing (certain) animes to American cartoons. The adult themed animes (not porn) tend to have quite interesting stories. Judging Franck so quickly after just 10 minutes is a bit shallow, and as a person with severe chronic depression, I am always intrigued by stories that tackle the idea. Not many people ever try and fewer are successful in creating an interesting story based around it. It's not lazy, it's incredibly difficult, and the end of the movie will be the deciding factor. Calling it disrespectful is obnoxious since I'm willing to bet you don't have depression, or know anyone with depression considering your immediate feedback after 10 minutes. If your looking for a kids story look at Sintel or any of the other earlier projects. As another final point, it's again 10 minutes of a planned full feature length film. It's the pilot episode, at least watch episode 2 before writing it and it's story off.

      • Victor is the devil, his name means Conqueror. He is remote neuro monitoring Frank (meaning: Free Man) and enjoys the thrill of dying in a simulation over and over (which he is experiencing through those ) He even goes to smoke a cigarette after.
        Those who refuse to join the herd and especially those who use their free will to end their own life are seen as perfectly acceptable sacrifices.
        A friend of mine showed me this yeaaaars ago on a burned DVD while he was in film school. I am shocked how long this has taken to get online.
        I am not sure if you guys put this out there to help wake people up or rub it in their faces but i see what you are doing here and I'm not alone.
        Project MK Ultra; Monarch (butterfly symbol in there et all.
        I dont care about your swear words though.
        Victor is an abusive manipulative POS so i sure hope if this continues and you keep with the in your face obvious symbolism you at least reveal him for what he is.

    • The quote does not make any sense... my understanding is that BF is creating an animation to push fwd the Blender tool. Resolving tech issues and adding new features are the goal. If anyone is looking for a family like movie than get a Disney movie. About being disrespectful with people with mental disorder/depression I do not see anything in that direction. About storytelling I really like it and wanted to keep watching... I am very happy with this first 10 minutes and I hope that BF finishes it. It will be a great movie.

  3. Great job on this first part of what promises to be a great project.

    The animation, modeling, lighting, story, timing... it's all top notch :). I'm loving the characters as well. Kudos to the voice actors too !

    I'd love to see this project take on a life of it's own.

  4. Am I the only one noticing that noise when DoF comes into place? When you watch these kind of HQ movies this becomes very noticeable and badlooking on the eye.

    • I watched on a tiny iPhone screen, so not as noticeable, but noise always shows up in DOF in any scenario. The background is blurring and spreading and smearing colors. Real cameras get significant noise from heavy DOF.

  5. visually stunning! great fur, lighting, shading. even the texturing work is consistently good this time! only crit: the ocean looks a bit stiff. some variance is missing on the water Id say.

    other than that i am really interested in how the story develops! it does not feel like ten minutes, it appears much shorter because its so well done!

  6. Visually beautiful, technically wonderful and an intriguing story. Really great work, but I was surprised to hear swearing in it, because this limits the audience, but I guess it's not aimed at kids.

    I can't wait to see more!

  7. Wow... What a wonderful unique style. My mouth stands still open :o
    I love what you did. So much looking forward for more...

  8. Juan josé Guzmán on

    Por que juzgar el proyecto por los primeros 10 minutos estamos mal acostumbrados a ver filmes tipo pixar o este tipo de historias y lo que esté fuera de hay resulta que es grotesco o que es incorrecto, pues eso seria un pensamiento cerrado y no va con este tipo de proyectos que buscan trascender y ser totalmente abiertos, en cuanto a la animación y el arte es de primer nivel, lo que demuestra que blender esta a la altura de otras herramientas de pago y con grandes presupuestos. Blender es libre y gratuito al alcance de todo el mundo.

  9. Gosh... what can I say... what a wonderful beginning. This short view seems to forecast a story with a depth of meaning. I can't wait to see the entire movie. I am already beginning to wish Gooseberry had been a full feature movie.

    Wonderful visuals and characterization. As always, we see the showcase of Blender people developing amazing results with their talent, hard work and intelligent minds.

    I read the remarks before I watched this segment. In the long run... the full movie... I feel confident that the majority of option will be a strongly positive. I do not discount the comments, it is great that people are strong in their convictions and have a place to voice those convictions. And, I hope they always stand by their opinions. This is what makes the world a creative and "full of life" existence instead of a death, die, kill or be killed lifeless perversion repeated in endless nonsense . It has been stated that 18 million children in the world are homeless. What if only a forth of them were in your neighborhood.

    The blender team did a wonderful job putting this amazing visual, emotional and provocative experience together. Some here are saying it is too strong of a story with harsh language. The world has lost so many great people to their personal desperation's. And, this touches our lives deeply and sadly. We all look for hope in desperate times, this is a strong statement in a story.

    Isn't it ironic... today is the one year anniversary of the terrible death of one of the world's greatest film personalities... Robin Williams. And, in his life, Robin Williams pushed the envelope of the art of expression in movies (theater) to amazing levels.

    Let's hope that we can all keep up with making art that gives life and meaning to our future.

    Thank you for this time to present my views.

    ron mcdowell

  10. All in all I loved everything! Probably my favourite movie now from the foundation. Thought some of the shots dragged on a bit, would have loved to see a little more going on with the tornado, and was disappointed that I can't show this to my kids, but still, amazing job!

  11. Beautiful... The transformation of matter... Neat metaphor! Something that justifies the use of hyperrealism. My favorite part is when Victor comes out of the washing machine. :) The "tropical background" is so funny...

    I just loved the wing detail on Victor's jacket.

    Is "He" an irish hipster that owns a cosmic laundromat? ;)

  12. Oh god, I swear it's incredibile how someone focus on a single word that's heard multiple times a day instead of talking about the clip.
    I guess there's no hope for humanity , ahahhaa

  13. Animation was great, very fluid and weighted very well indeed!

    The Rendering was miles ahead of anything I have seen from the Blender Foundation so far!
    Though the Ginger hair was a little too candy floss for me, the knotted sheep wool was very well made!
    I really appreciated the tear on the cheek, it added so much mood to the story!

    Script was..... obscure.... but I guess we are only seeing a snippet of things to come. Not sure but I got the impression the sheep didn't used to be a sheep? Not sure. But it was interesting.

    Acting was spot on! For once the voice actors sounded natural and not "recorded". Well done!

    The slightly disturbing sounds of the sheep choking on a noose and then the use of the word "F**k" was a little bit of a shock. I guess I wasn't expecting this to be so bleak on those parts. That kind of stops me being able to show this to my youngest son really. Shame, but it depends on the dynamic you are aiming for.

    The sound and music score was simply moving! I loved the music that formed when the spin cycle tornado hit!

    All in all I am pleased, but will withhold my final judgement until we see more of this story.

    Well done guys!

  14. Gorgeous work! Excellent animation, modeling, character design, editing, sound editing, a cohesive look, etc.!

    And thank you for not making it another children's movie/short.

    Btw, as someone who suffered from depression for the better part of twenty years and contemplated suicide on more than one occasion, it is precisely an utter lack of hope that drove me back to the bring time and time again. All the well wishing and the utter lack of understanding by those who tried to get me to "buck up" or to cheer me up drove me ever closer to doing the deed by contrasting their happy lives with my own. This episode starts in the right place, hoping that there is a reason to hope.

  15. @bertamG

    Why shouldnt children see a depressed person ?.

    I think of the famous movies of Winnie the Pooh, where several characters in it have some kind of light mental disorder. Igor is always down, tigger is over excited, and pigglet has lots of fear, winnie doesnt think trough.
    However in the stories, they learn how to deal with it, including the little stupidities of Winnie.

    Also murder is quite common in children stories, there are often evil persons. (snow white , evil wizards, etc )
    Tom and jerry are no friends either ( and it even becomes worse in itchy and scratchy, as in the Simpsons).

    Thinking about it, while i myself am on medication,
    I think its excellent, so that children learn to identify people who have it a bit harder then the rest of us. It helps them to deal with such situations themselves but also helps them to help others. Once i got an anonymous letter from a child to never kill myself, use drugs (i dont), or smoke (i dont smoke either). At the time i was pretty down, but her letter did me good. I dont know who she was but really sometimes we only need a few words to feel better, which is more then often the story in all those fairy tales

    The important thing is that children should learn from it, how to get out of such situations.
    And that makes lots of good children stories.

  16. Suicide, f-word and smoking by positive protagonists all in 10 minutes...
    Who made those choices? I bet it was Mathieu Auvray :P

    Next step, add alcohol and prostitution to the list, then a full porn scene,
    Art is break the rules, die poor, alone and in disgrace!
    Who cares what people think? You're an artist.
    Fuk the big studios, all their fans, all their moneys, and all their quality protocols.

    • It's so refreshing to see smoking not a symbol for "bad guy"! This preview is very uplifting, can't wait to peer into those other spinning worlds.

      • Drugs addict people deserve their chance too! We definitely need a hero who saves the world and then snorts cocaine in a bf cartoon.

  17. Looks interesting. I'm shocked by the complaints about the f word.. 'won't somebody please think of the children!'. the children have heard the f word. they will hear it again. If you don't want your children to hear it, don't let them watch it. instead watch the previous blender foundation movies. May I suggest Big Buck Bunny? a cute adventure where a large rabbit seeks violent revenge against a group of other animals?

    • Please stop to consider that it is not only children under 12 who do not want to hear profanity. I do not want to hear it and I am not under 12 (I am 35 years old).

      What bothers me additionally is that Blender is showcasing its best visuals yet, but the use of needless profanity immediately restricts how broad the viewing audience will be -- regardless of age. Think about it: because of profanity, some will not want to see what Blender has to offer. As seen in the comments, decisions such as this unnecessarily cause hurt, even among those of us Blender community.

      • I see your point, I just don't agree with it. I work in an art college and I can tell you the art that tries to please everyone, pleases no one. I would also disagree with the phrase 'needless profanity'. The profanity in itself actually helps define the character. It tells the viewer something. I rarely use profanities myself, but I dislike when characters are stunted by the clean cut unnatural language. maybe he could have been a character who doesn't swear, but he does. thats part of his character, its part of his current mental state. Maybe instead of restricting the viewers this will actually attract a different audience? as previously mentioned, Akira is considered a masterpiece by many. would you have that cleaned up and sterilised for the sake of a larger viewing audience? The blender foundation has made, and will hopefully make many short movies. This one just happens to be what it is.

      • Jonathan: I agree entirely. I think the problem here is that (I guess) none of the creators of Cosmos speak English as a first language, so therefore do not understand how inappropriate it sounds in this movie. I have Dutch friends who sometimes swear (in English) at the wrong times and locations, making parent's heads turn!

        If Blender Foundation wanted to gain wider acceptance with Cosmos, it had to create another universal film that could be played in any public space. They have pretty-much eliminated the U.S. due to that silly word, and the U.K. too.

        • Okay, tape of your hands and try to tie a nose and a knot from a tree and hang yourselves. believe me I don't think (or hope) you will manage.......then you can judge poor old Frank and his frasing......digits and opposable thumbs are sort of essential to tying knots and noses, if he would have been a monkey this would have been easy and you would have been right. In fact this is the part that sort of breaks it for me......but the "fucking hooves" just sets it straight, it indicated that Frank took a long time and a lot of effort in creating this contraption and thus in trying to kill himself.....this also indicates that he thought it over thourougly and did not make any rash decisions.

          Greets, Ed.

          Greets, Ed

  18. Wierd and wonderfull. Like it a lot.

    Can't see why some people is surprised by the content of the movie.
    It's an open movie after all...

  19. I'm just wondering about all comments related to the f-word.
    This is an open-source project, right? This means anybody could
    change the pieces that he or she doesn't like, as everything is there.
    So just tweak the soundtrack and there is a children's version of
    the sheep trying to commit suicide ;-) Ok, perhaps change some
    more text and then replace the tree at the end of the rope by a
    bouncing ball or something.

    I'm already waiting for part 2 by the way; I think the story is very
    interesting, my english teacher ought to call this "food for thought"...

    And apart from that I really like the atmosphere and colourfullness.
    Thumbs up!

  20. i showed the latest blender movie to my mom this morning. but because of the f-word and "profanity" (whatever that means) she committed suicide... ; ) seriously, no one outside the US cares about the f-word.. please get rid of your double standards! youre producing way too much porn for that.

  21. Un subscribe from feature replies
    But I like the story. Most fairytales have swords knives killing murder evil curses etc. So nothing wrong like main character isn't a perfect person.

  22. Wonderful! Very excited to see the full thing and to see all the elements on Blender Cloud.
    Great job and keep going. This is very inspiring to all of us aspiring Blender artists.

    And please stick to your first instincts and don't change the film just because some people are complaining. Leave it as is. It's great character building and I can't wait to see what happens next.

    Good luck.

  23. i don't get what people said about profanity. I felt it appropriate in the context.

    Also,Isnt this an open movie? Can't the community easily make a version that can be watched by children. Are there any legal problems in doing that?

  24. hmm, it was good, it's a short. I know I know but it's too short I WANT MORE!!! PS on a side note... I'm seeing some people crit the F word in the movie?... all I have to say as that I'm a born and bread north American and I don't use the F word literally every day but I use it and many other words around everybody and anybody allot of times, I understand what true freedom of expression is... the Shorts F words was delightful! finally some realism for the mama's boy who can't hear the F'word making such a big deal out of bull.... I know plenty of morally backward people (so called civilized) who are some of the worst selfish stupid greedy perverted F's in the world who... can't here reality, can't hear a spade be a spade so to speak, without having a fit.. Sorry to piss on your hush puppies. why don't you put your head back in your hole... and leave blender (FREEDOM) alone!!!!

  25. Great work, the nice thing is the mix of a comic and a real look......stunning work....F......good, so to speak :-). The fact that most of the comments are on the vocabulary used by real people (who do swear, take a particullary large hammer and a slightly infected thumb and find out for yourselves if you don't believe me) instead of on the technique, well that proves something doesn't it. I guess Blender is all grown up now, out of it's teething face definetly and ready to take on the big dudes. Now the subject is boredom not depression IMHO and if it was depression remember one of the most succesfull (critiques and box-office) Dutch commedies (Simon) was about a womanizing grass dealer chosing euthanasia instead of rotting away from a brain tumor while being taken care of and befreinding a gay male getting married to another gay male.....need I say more of do you understand what I'm saying? Indeed chocking and offending Dutch people is difficult, that needs a little bit more than bits and bytes can provide!

    Greets, Ed.

  26. As many said here:
    - F word is really bad here. Children can't see this movie. And my doughter too.
    - Suicide theme goes through entire movie. Bad thing for people who are near the suicide.
    - Story tells nothing. Weak part of the project. It seems somoeone used stimulators to write such a crazy thing.

    I was disappointed. Not sure if i will donate again to this project. Sorry.

    But i wish goodluck to the Blender Team and the Gooseberry Team. The movie looks really professionally and good.

    • Mifth, for starters your children live in the world where people die everyday and where people swear everyday. I'm sure they catch a glimpse of the news when you watch it and see much worse. If your children are at school, they hear the 'F' word.

      Second, this movie isn't pro suicide. If anything, it is anti suicide. A sheep wants to end his life and then a man appears and persuades him not to, to wait. Then the sheep's world is turned upside down and he is reborn as a caterpillar. It's pretty obvious that him living out many different lives in the film, experiencing different things, will lead to him wanting to live, to no longer take his life.

      The washing machines are a creative way to convey the mechanisms behind the universe.

      A film needs a strong opening and a powerful subject for us to latch onto. This is done well.

      My career is literature; I've studied feature script writing and directing for two years. I don't see anything wrong with this story.

      If you tried to hang yourself and the branch broke and you then had to drag it with you as you walk to the cliff, then to be interrupted by a strange man, I'm sure you'd say the F word. If anything, he should swear more.

      A story needs to be truthful to itself, not false and censored because of fragile people like yourself, sheltering your children from the horrible truths in the world.

      • Indeed from all the worlds sensorchip selfsensorchip is the most destructive form of sensorchip. It is done in silence yet it distorts anny discusion into a polictical correct sounding horrible farce.

        Cursing is also a hell of good way to let of steam. I have been called names, been cursed at, and have cursed myself (and cursing can be turned into an artform if you practice it correctly). But it never hurt me. Not a bit. It brings out the best in men (and women) since it shows their innermost feelings, without a filter, loud and cristal clear. Children should be tough how to curse and how to solve their differences cursing. The only problem is that most people are not vrrbally strong enough to curse creatively so they wind up with nothing to say.....in which case they turn nasty and either start shooting at each other (a popular pastime in the USA these days, right), or start calling for an ban on cursing (even worse then shooting since it frustrates a whole society into a gross unreal lala-land with parental advisory (who are these parentals anyway) on every corner).

        No, teach children how to curse from a young age (I would start at kindergarten). Teach them how to verbally kick the living daylights out of each other, chances are they will be less inclined to so physically.

        Greets, Ed.

        • Haha - your spelling and grammar are atrocious, but I think I know what you're getting at.
          And I don't entirely agree, but carry on, sir! Carry on!

          • A yes, I'm dyslectic in any language (except for programming languages) and I can speak and read several of 'm....just not write them down properly (or it will take me ages and I don't have that many ages left at my age). But I hate, loath and destest hypocrites of all denominations, ages and countries.

            Greets, Ed.

    • Mifth: I agree with every word you say. I like strange concept animations / films that artists make, some with very bleak themes, but Cosmos Laundromat has such a sour storyline that I'm surprised everyone at Blender Foundation went along with it... or they were afraid to offend the person who wrote it. Either that, or the opposite is true, and the movie spent so much time in front of a committee that the concept got lost. For me, this Blender movie is a resounding 'miss' and it'll take a massive effort for subsequent episodes to pull the story around to something watchable. Such a shame when the technical excellence of the film is incredible, being so well visualised it's almost possible to forget it's a rendered animation.

      • Hmzzzz,

        I don't usually judge a film by the first ten minutes of it.......okay it took me 45 minutes to walk out of Ace Ventura Pet Detective (but that was me being polite) a movie I guess even it's makers want to burn. But this story will be turned into a 90 minute movie and the plot would evolve around the tranformations Frank undergoes untill he sees that being Frank sheepside isn't the worst of afairs (or so I guess since I have only read some vague posts online about Ton ideas with this movie). It would be a global coöperation (as this short is as well) and it would be the first full fletched movie made in Blender, allthough Blender has been used more often then we might know, even in Hollywood. Some European funding cock-up prevented this at the last minute so to speak.

        Greats, Ed.

  27. I believe you are correct not showing a small child this movie, which contains a cigarette smoking ginger version of dr who, a suicidal, cursing sheep and a theme of going to other worlds via washingmachines, (like narnia but that is dangerous to kids to imitate), it is almost, and Im just going out on a limb here, as if it's not a movie för children.

    • A did he smoke? In fact he puts a cigaret in his mouth but does not light it. I guess that sort of is essential for enyoing a good fag......btw, I'm a non smoker, so that might have changed without me knowing so.

      Greets, Ed.

    • I honestly would prefer no smoking as BF is doing free Ad for a dirty industry but no concern about children. My generation survived from movies like The Three Stooges, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny and etc; and we do not see people from my generation going to shopping malls, universities, movie theater and shooting/killing people. Maybe nowadays parents forgot to teach what the word "No" means. Anyways... BF is not Disney. About story telling... kid's movies are becoming more and more like shown on this short: https://vimeo.com/74868773

      I loved the Cosmos storytelling so far.

    • yes, it seems like it! please blendernation-daddies, i really want to know more on how you raise your kids! i think its an utterly professional argument to judge a movie by how harmless it can be..

  28. Matray at his best! He looks like Jeremy Brunell in What Just Happened ah ah. I expect to see Victor punch and kill Franck not for the story but just to disappoint the audience.

  29. Ok, took me two visionings to start having an opinion. I think that I want more! That sums it up! (John Lasseter should be proud of you). I think it is the best pitch in all BF movies.

    Artistically it is top! That sunset lighting is specially well done, the image remains detailed. Camera is not too shaky, just enough to simulate the moves of an steadycamer (I hate that camera-shake effect you see in bad advertisements or cheap tv movies with no action but the camera shaking like crazy). Maybe just Victor's hair which looks "wirery" or thin...

    Ok, ok I'm a tech-freak, so yes indeed, the rope going through the fur instead of compressing it was a small sim-fail. Same for the headphones on Victor's head. That's all I spotted on the technical aspect.

    What's next? :D

    Daniel

  30. everything in this short clip has an immense amount of detail and a great color paler I can't wait to se more!!!!!!!1

  31. Even though I did not work on this movie, it fills me with pride as some one who first used Blender back in 2003. Blender has come a long way since Elephants Dream. the hair, cloud, and grass rendering were a pipe dream back then. the developers, artist, and animators have out done themselves.

  32. YAY! Finally! Been waiting for this to come out for what seem alike ages! SO I can only image what it must feel like for the team that have been working so hard on this for so long! Great stuff!!

  33. That was incredible. There are some errors like the rope not interacting with the fur, but overall it was beatiful. The story also start beautifuly. Can't wait to see the rest of it.

  34. Thank you for all the comments fighting for a / the freedom of speach! Made me feel not that alone. Besides, this movie is packed with poetry! It's not only about suicide, a stunning intro or a cool showcase of virtuality (the birds eye view of the island looks a bit like a computer game; very strange topography and I was not able to spot the tree!)- it's also a great metaphor of how people play with other peoples lives - and all the sheeps just stupidly watch it and sing in a choir!!! This is an art piece. I love it. And it's quite authentic - could have some more f-words. But maybe Frank's mood will develop during the movie from sorrow to anger. Would love to see more film funds supporting it, so that the full story could be told.

  35. masterxeon1001 on

    I loved it. A visual masterpiece. Also darker than previous works even though TOS was a dystopian future. Just because it's animated doesnt mean it is for kids. So to all the people complaining about the F-word. Get the eff over it. The fur especially looked effing awesome! The best part of film-time is the enhancements made to Blender over the courses of them. Keep up the effing good work guys!

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