Vlarion 1 - The Elemental War

[Aaron Haynes]

She probably saw a projectile sticking out of his back, but didn't think much about it because Dask was checking out that area of the lab. She may have been expecting it to be a melee weapon like a sword or a knife.

I just figure that since they split up, she just wasn't thinking much about the details of his death, letting Dask handle it while she focused on shooing away the cops and checking the logs.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by HMC

I see what you did there

Hahahaha, I left them in even after I redid the entire image. They ran until something like frame 1600, so I just sliced 'em all down and left the originals in just in case anyone happened to stumble across them.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Destra Afsetis

Just a little thing that kind of got on my nerves: Shouldn't it be Brackus' and not Brackus's?

Originally Posted by Chippy

I noticed that too.
And there's 'Terranian Capitol', aswell. But Aaron was half dead at points, so forgive and forget.

http://www.webster.com/dictionary/capitol. I did spell it "Capitol", didn't I? Because I do know the difference, so if not it was an accident.

And I'm still flaky on the rules about Brackus', Brackus's, Haynes', Haynes's. I would say "Brackus's Headquarters", so that's what I typed. Eh.

[Aaron Haynes]

Tried to get most of the smaller comments in here, will start on the big reviews soon.

Originally Posted by Space Goat

Congratulations, Aaron! I know first hand what it feels like to release something that's been in development for soooo long. Enjoy the high!

Thanks. Would love to get your thoughts on it, so check it out whenever's convenient for you.

Originally Posted by Orcus

I think the tone towards the end actually made me depressed. I'm still feeling kinda down.

Hahahah, yeah. Most people have that misconception about "fantasy" movies, whatever that means. If you thought this one was dark, V2 is gonna have you in the fetal position by the end.

Originally Posted by Cowtacular Spleen

Dammit dude, I did the line and everything... sorry i couldnt go on sooner. Will watch soonish.. tonight...

I figured you'd be able to get it done fairly quickly, but the movie was basically finished and people were yelling at me. Plus, I found a way to not have to use it; Rosal simply stops Markus with a gesture and answers his unspoken question

Originally Posted by Lord Trasher

VERY impressive. The sheer amount of detail and effort crammed into this is apocolyptic. I will, however, go on record as saying "SCREW YOU CLIFFHANGER, FUCK YOU!" Now I have to wait like another year for the next chapter.

Top marks, and the inspiration to get back into things. Cheers!

Awesome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Like I mentioned to Orcus, though, it's cliffhangers pretty much straight through to the end. And in terms of "......FUCK!" quality, V2's is about ten times worse.

Originally Posted by Andrew Salter

I always do them REALLY quietly, so there not all out there, but there's still an audible signal that they're walking. If you can get them to where you are still hearing it, but barely noticing it, it works.
I think a rule of thumb should be that when the character's feet make up the shot, there should ALWAYS be footsteps.

The pretty unanimous complaints about footsteps depresses me I worked incredibly hard to make them actually fade in and out as characters move closer to and farther away from the camera. Do you mean the overall quality is too loud? Because there's definitely a subtle shift in footstep volume as characters approach or walk away. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I disagree about footsteps being inaudible most of the time. That's one of the things people complained about when the originals came out. There's simply no happy medium with you guys, or if there is, it's way too precise a balance for me to try to hit. I'll crank down the overall volume though, I can understand that.

Originally Posted by Will BR

I've no fucking idea how you did that... I just watched a 3dmm movie that was longer than 3mins...

I've not done that in a long time... JESUS CHRIST!! IT WAS 80MINS!!

I've no idea how you did that, but well done. You managed to capture my attention with some interesting story telling.

Hahaha, nice. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Frederick Arnoy

Have downloaded and will watch this coming weekend.

Just thought you'd like to know, so you don't have to message me on MSN about it anymore.

Hahahah, I haven't bugged you that much, have I? I thought I'd just sent the link once.

Originally Posted by The Chinese Jew

Well...I will watch this movie. I don't know when, but I will one day. I have no clue what my expectations are for this.

and I promise I won't AV 3 you this time.

Whenever you've got time. I am gonna start bugging you if you take more than a couple weeks though. FAIR WARNING.

[Demented Ferret]

Woahwoahwoah - I thought the whole footsteps thing was brilliant, the sound design is on par with how good the animation and directing was. OH, and for those getting annoyed about the tiny little dialogue thing about the arrow? You're all idiots.

















Crossbow = Bolt. .

(I'm kidding, I don't think anyone cares.)

[Andres]

I will see this next weekend, when I'm on Spring Break.



Assuming you unblock me from AIM, you son of a thousand whores.

[Will B-R]

I've just watched it again and here are some thoughts I had.

Sound
In general there was nothing to crit. There was the odd occasion where there was a little bit of distortion but nothing major.

Overall I would say the sound effects were very immersive and did exactly what they need to.

Some of the footsteps were a bit to loud and detracted from what was happening on screen. But not to the extent that the spoilt the movie.

Visual
“Endings and Beginnings”
The moving stars were a nice touch that worked very well.

The grass texture worked very well but everything was very illuminated for night time. I would have liked to see some darker settings and maybe light coming from the windows.

“Ultima Productions”
The animation for this was flawless. However the final logo was lacking the wow factor, all of the colours merged into a gooey green mess. I think it would work better if it was simple and the colours contrasted more so it could stand out.

Intro Titles scene 26
I'm not sure what you were going for with the lines over the names, but I didn't feel it really added anything.

“Terranite Labs” Sequence
There was a distinct lack of textures here compared to some other places in the movie. Some of the camera angles seemed a tad pointless. Some of the shading made it hard to tell what some things were.

Scene 37
If the drill had been textured it would have been clearer that it was a drill. It wasn't until the sound effect started that I realised what it was.

“The Inverstigation” Part 1
Scene 64 over view of city.
Brilliant uses of traditional scene creation and on par with some of the v3Dmm scenes. I think if just a touch more detail could have been added to the sky would have made it even better. Not to much more as the contrast directs the eye to the city.

Scene 65 looking out the window.
I liked the angle but it just wasn't clear what it was you were looking at. It was very abstract.

The HMC animation here is impeccable and using one prop as a scene was very well here. It's a shame this wasn't employed in the “Terranite Labs”

There was however a nice feeling of nostalgia to see a lot of traditionally made 3dmm scenes mixed in with the one prop scenes.

Scene 94+
The 3D display system was very impressive.

Stacy's face looks a bit weird. The nose and mouth needed a darker shadow to help them stand out,

I think some of the scenes look a bit bare, I think more background activity and extra props would help spice it up. I think some dirt would also make a big difference. The whole movie was very clean and neat. If some of the scenes looked more dirty it would have been even more realistic.

There were lots of tables and such in the lab scene. They helped add perspective to the scene and give it depth but looked pointless. There didn't appear to be a reason for their presence.

The car interior scenes were impressive, a very effective use of prop scenes.

“The Seven Sleepers”

The letter in scene 145 is a very nice touch and a brilliant example of how details can enhance a scene. If this same amount of detail was applied to the backgrounds I think that would be a big improvement for Vlarion 2.

Brackus' Headquarters Scene 150

I was a bit disappointed not to see some amazing Evil theme architecture here. I was left with a box.

Scene 152 Prisoner.
The scenes with the shadows were very enjoyable to watch. Also Gustave's texture suited the character.

Scenes 170+
There are some very nice camera angles here but again there is a lack of detail and textures. Also there is an array of boring architecture.

I think with v3dmm you could probably get to the same level of detail as HalfLife1 levels, without getting any slowdown as long as they are kept small.

Scene 209
Some brilliant camera angles and awesome texture work.

The Battle scene... AMAZING.. nothing to criticize there. There is a dramatic improvement from the begin of the film.

Scene 231
Yet another brilliant camera angle and this time in a scene with comparability more textures.

Scene 232
The shadows on the steps look great. I'm going to stop mentioning camera angles now as it's clear you have a brilliant eye for them, but this is another example of a brilliant one

Scene 263
The use of lighting adds an interesting depth to the scene, the darker skin works well.

Scene 294
The teleport like animation was very fluid.

Scene 305+
The use of texturing here is just what was needed for the beginning of the movie but was missing. I think you'll agree if you compare it yourself that these scenes look a lot better.

Scenes 314- 381
With one of two exceptions where the scenes were amazing there were a lot of bland and boring scenes.

Scenes 382 The water battle
Another example of some of the best animation seen in 3Dmm.
Completely enjoyable and some brilliant water sound effects. The mixture of the brilliant underwater texturing and bassy sound was simple amazing.

Scene 429
The 2D display is great, but a lot of the other computers look out of date.

Scene 449+
The colour scheme works well here, and the animation of the spider was great. The explosions and magic effects were animated to an amazing high level.

Scene 492
The coil font with the smoke texture was brilliant. Something to be proud of if you ask me.

Finally.. the outro credits
Some beautiful cinematography was put to great use here. If similar scenes could have been used in other places in the movie it would have been an improvement.


Quick Simple Summary

Animation
The Greatest animation in a 3Dmm movie ever.

Production
Generally to a very high standard.

I would like to see more HMC animation as I enjoyed that the most. The battle sequences were breathtaking.

I would have liked to see some more custom models. They would have helped make the movie even more immersive. Just silly things that would help fill out some of the empty space.

Custom character models, now with v3Dmm we finally have the ability to move away from the default actors.

Directing.
Brilliant camera angles and some generally great pacing.


Overall my main criticisms are:

Lack of textures and detail in some scenes when compared to others.

I realise this isn't a gore fest movie but I would have like to have seen the blood looking a bit more like blood. May I be so bold as to suggest some custom gradients to make it shine?

The biggest problem for me was the amount of empty space. The city and the lab at the beginning spring to mind the most.

To conclude, criticisms aside. This is a beast of a movie and by far the most impressive thing to be made in 3Dmm

Congratulations on producing a superb movie.

[Justin Wawrzonek]

THis was definatley worth the wait. Somehow every time Aaron releases a movie I say that its the best 3dmm movie ever, and this is no exception. Everything from the Special Effects to the Soundtrack were superb. I definatley want to see if he can top this with V2.

10/10

[Digital Taco]

Originally Posted by Aaron Haynes

And I'm still flaky on the rules about Brackus', Brackus's, Haynes', Haynes's. I would say "Brackus's Headquarters", so that's what I typed. Eh.

From dictionary.com:

The possessive of singular nouns ending in s, including nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh, is formed by adding 's, e.g., witness's affidavit. However, if the next word begins with s, then add only an apostrophe, e.g., witness' story. The possessive of singular nouns not ending in s is formed by adding 's, e.g., VIP's seat, baby's food. The apostrophe follows the s of a word with two sibilant sounds, e.g., Kansas', Moses'. The apostrophe is added for the possessive of a noun that is plural in form but singular in meaning, e.g., mathematics' formulas. The apostrophe follows the s for the possessive of plural nouns that end in s, e.g., girls' movies. For the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s, add 's, e.g., women's rights. For singular proper nouns, add only an apostrophe for the possessive, e.g., Achilles' heel.

[Cowtacular Spleen]

it.. doesnt work. I've tried and tried. YOU'VE GOT TO MANY EXPANSIONS! MY COMPUTER CANT HANDLE IT!

* double clicks on Vlarion * "FXJPGIcon::create: unable to create icon"
* clicks ok * "V3dmm Manager has performed an illegal operation and blah blah blah"

here's the details "
3DMMMANAGER caused an exception 03H in module KERNEL32.DLL at 0197:bff768a1.
Registers:
EAX=00000001 CS=0197 EIP=bff768a1 EFLGS=00000246
EBX=00000001 SS=019f ESP=0078ebb8 EBP=0078efbc
ECX=00000000 DS=019f ESI=00f58df0 FS=11a7
EDX=80004db8 ES=019f EDI=bff21451 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
c3 cc cc 55 8b ec 56 57 68 c0 94 fc bf e8 01 d9
Stack dump:
004683c8 504a5846 6f634947 633a3a6e 74616572 75203a65 6c62616e 6f742065 65726320 20657461 6e6f6369 00000a2e 004b86d6 00000000 0078ec8a 004f6852
"

[Beast]

Awesome, we watched this last night and It kicked ass.

Spoilers and what not.

When the movie first starts you notice how much better the graphics are. The second thing I noticed was Dask's voice in that first scene. I have no idea why you didn't redo that man, sounded like you were eating the mic. Every other scene was perfect, though, so I don't know what happened there. As far as voice acting as a whole it was awesome. Brackus' voice should have been a bit louder, though. As it's not very crisp it's hard to understand over the music.

People said that they don't like the voices of Brackus and Rosal because they're overally dark, but I think it works perfect. The coloring of the bad guys is dark, too. One weird thing, though. Scene 342, who did my line? And why didn't I do it? Or was that somebody else? Sounded nothing like me. Didn't I record like twice that many lines, too? Tons of dialogue with Dask that was cut or something. Anyways, enough with the voicework.

The animation was awesome, some of the best seen ever. I loved how some of the Classic Vlarion stuff was kept. IE: how hirolix still kept the same rather plain style. I loved how that dude moved this time around though, awesome. The characters all looked great. The only one I wasn't really fond of was Stacy. Looked out of place with the different face shading. I loved how the tint of the bad guys was all greyish looking, and the scene where Rosal is in shadows and he's darker, Underwater Dask scene, the list goes on. Definitely takes some work in teh 3D. Paid off, too. It looks awesome.

Definitely look forward to part 2. Congrats, dude. Maybe your best release yet.

97%


EDIT: I didn't have any slowdown at all in the movie except one scene where it almost completely stopped. 221 I think where Jack cuts Hirolix in half. Just wanted to know if anyone else had that happen, too.

[Lord Blazer]

that reminds me:

I don't like the new hirolix as much as the old one

[Travis Wells]

Originally Posted by Cowtacular Spleen

"FXJPGIcon::create: unable to create icon"

Try turning off thumbnails (Options->Create Thumbnails)

[Gerfro]

Aaron, whatever Internet is left these days, you win it. As well as all sorts of other stuff.

Sorry I couldn't watch it until today; this week was terrible. But oh man, what a great way to finish the week up. Right now I'm literally quite speechless.

For old time's sake, I'll write you up a "rubric grade" for this. A modern one, though... none of the cheesy stuff I used to do.

Needless to say, though, once again you've done something beyond what I thought 3DMM was even capable of. I honestly would pay money to see this in a theater. Even if it looked like this.

I'll touch base with you sometime, dude. Thanks for making my week totally worth it.

[Pogo]

Some more random comments and observations, in no particular order, or indeed, of much relevancy

The table in the debriefing room post-Hirolix looked quite a bit like the Haunted House table from the originals, especially with the angles used. Was this a deliberate reference?

I don't think I've given enough credit to PORUS yet. He rules. Kinda reminds me of The Fear in MGS3, 'specially the shot of him on the cave wall. Totally looking forward to Kriven's main battle now, his new look is TEH SEX, 'specially considering I didn't much like the old Kriven design. Nice blood on the teeth as well.

I liked the shadows in the interrogation scene, but Brackus kinda went from crosshatched, to dark, to bright in different shots. The Lowlight Markus didn't work as well as the one in the cave either (O SHIT SUNBURN)

Barry has ginger hair in scene 131.

Interesting how Adrack tries to escape along with Chadran at the end, rather than with Gelst as in the original. Was this just to develop Chadran as a character and involve him more in the story?

No seatbelts in the future? or were they just too rushed to buckle up? Maybe testament to the sheer crappyness of Dask's crappy car?

NICE music timing. Especially in the closing scenes

NICE music full stop. I really want a copy of The Dig now.

Ro-Zahl, or Roe-Zil? I heard both.

8000 years on, and America STILL hasn't switched to metric distance, and STILL measures the temperature in Farenheit.

The Chaos Temple "Remix" was written by Nobuo Uematsu for FF Origins.

The AT operatives are all wearing WH Smith outfits. I swear I have the same uniform in work.

The water effects are AMAZING. That's probably the best scene in terms of sound design as well.

Well. I'm done.

[Ben Rice]

Hmm, I've only just realised that Dasks dark sword never appeared in this film.

[Travis Wells]

Originally Posted by Pogo

8000 years on, and America STILL hasn't switched to metric distance, and STILL measures the temperature in Farenheit.

I mentioned this one, since somebody has a 24H watch though. It's like a crazy mismatch of America and Not America! Almost as if Aaron had created this universe and makes it follow whatever standards he wants!

[HMC]

Also, smart setup having Adrack mention that they recovered the Hirolix vial.

[Lord Blazer]

Originally Posted by Ben Rice

Hmm, I've only just realised that Dasks dark sword never appeared in this film.

That didn't show up until V2. Right in the begining, immediately followed by the swordfight with Brian, I believe.

[HMC]

Really? IIRC, they fought Zarethio, then found the sword on the altar, then went after Rosal, then the movie ended, and Vlarion 2 started with them by the campfire, and then Dask went to the city, where he met Brian.

[Lord Blazer]

Oh, you're right, actually.

But shifting into V2 actually makes things a bit more logical, IMO.

[Jesterfoot]

I've never seen a 3dmm movie come so close to being perfect. The pacing, the animation, the voice acting, etc. This movie seemed to nail it all. The thing I probablly loved most about it was the v3dmm use, cause you did it so slickly. V3dmm has a way of making a movie look really tacky if it's not used right, but nope not here. You've got amazing costume redesigns, modelled scenes, textures, cars. (btw, did you make that? cause it looks really professional but it's got 3dmm-like textures). My favorite v3dmm thing was the water battle field cause it had that sexy pink sky and the underwater lighting effects. The only thing I didn't like about this model was the pixelated surface. I loved the Hirolix scene model too, but some of the buildings were pure colored and would have looked much better if textured.

As for sounds, I agree that there were a little too many default sounds, and (only in the first few scenes) the footsteps were too loud, but other than that I could find anything else to critisize. My favorite voices were the three main characters, and their boss. Some of the others were a little too dramatic for my taste.

I remember I used to spend hours on animated scenes motivated by the hope that I might one day make the best animated movie. Haha, that dream has just now been analy raped. There's so many scenes I could name right now that completely blew me away, like THE ENTIRE WATER BATTLE, especially when Dask is dodging the snakes attacks near the end, and you can see the unde water bubles following them around. Brilliant.

The thing I'd say I like least about this movie is the story. The writing is great, but this story seems a little too generic. These kind of stories go great in video games because there's interaction with the player. I feel that there could have been more depth to the characters (with the exception of their boss). There was some depth, like I noticed Dasks saracstic cynical attitude, and how the other guy's more comical, but I'd say there's too much ephasis on their missions and what has to be accoplished...like in a video game. I prefer stories that allow characters like Detective Detective Joe Peterson

overall this is an amazing movie, possibly even the best 3dmm movie ever made

9.9/10

[Dr Ashworth]

How close is the AVI file to being done Ferret? (Just wondering.)

[Beast]

Almost done, it's coming out in September.

[Thomas Newman]

WOW! That was absolutely amazing. Amazing storyline. Amazing voice overs. Amazing animation. Amazing design. Every amazing. Absolutely brilliant.