Rayman: Level 1 (Unfinished)

Rayman: Level 1 (Unfinished)
Directed by Anders Borg

More than three years after its initial inception, Anders Borg's swan song finally limps, less than half-complete, into the 3dmm.com database, and I think I can see what the main problem was. Anders doesn't really like animating. To be sure, there's a fair amount of animation in the unfinished work, but the majority of the runtime consists of pans and zooms over non-moving scenery, while the sections that are animated are done reluctantly, with as few active frames as possible. These characters are colorful and well-constructed, and the world they inhabit is lush and imaginative, but their movements are limited and somewhat jerky. As a director with a reputation for animating, Anders seems reluctant to commit himself to it here, suggesting that he has a visual fixation as an artist, rather than one on movement. In that way, he's actually the opposite of his assumed mentor, Gorosaurus, who is obsessed with meticulous and subtle detail in movement, but has little patience for constructing scenery at all.

Interestingly, Rayman seems to get away with it because its world is so colorful and unique, though there's a level at which Anders seems to be depending on Superdings models to get out of thinking too hard about how to organize things. He has a genuine skill for putting these models together, but the sheer volume of pre-made trees, grass, and leaf-like objects suggest that he'd be sunk without them. But apart for a few exceptions where it feels like he's grabbing v3dmm font objects at random and making scenes out of his first attempt at arranging them, it looks good enough to not be too obvious. Rayman's hut in particular is one of the best forest/beach areas I've seen constructed in 3dmm, and the shrine isn't bad. But the first section of the movie, establishing this world, makes it very clear that what Anders likes most in this program is making colorful and vibrant images; there's no cohesion between the solid-color shots, the heavily textured shots, and the gradient landscape objects strewn with examples of both. The reference images included in the folder show the colorful style he's going for, and he manages an approximation of it, but isn't willing to put in the effort to do it really well.

The movie's visual effects confirmed the Superdings-fallback I noticed in the scenery; rather than attempt unique energy effects, Anders often grabs a few particle clouds or lightning bolts and spins them around or rotates them in a haphazard way. I may sound weirdly hypocritical criticizing him for using effects that I modeled and made available, but the way he's utilizing them seems to be compensating for a lack of real energy or effort. The particle clusters aren't arranged in any kind of aesthetic pattern, merely placed in the general range of where they should be. And the lightning bolts don't seem to follow the right motion arcs, or fluctuate size like they should, or fade colors like they should; 3DMM's limited framerate demands a critical eye for non-generic shapes like the Superdings lightning bolt models, and Anders seems to just toss them around like that's enough. Scene 78 is the best example of this sort of thing; I couldn't tell you for the life of me what the bolt objects in that dome are supposed to be doing. This is animation by suggestion, putting unique, non-native shapes into a scene and hoping they do the trick by themselves. They don't.

I'm not sure to what degree many of these scenes aren't finished. Some, like the gathering of the pink creatures, are obviously not done, but others could just as easily be skimping on the details, as a few of the more clearly done shots seem to suggest Anders has a habit of doing. Aside from the overreliance on Superdings, Anders has an innate sense of composition; whether it's the fairy lying wounded on the ground, Mr. Dark removing his hood, the silohuetted black-and-blue shots, and most of the non-moving character construction (nearly every shot of the Fairy is extremely well-posed), he clearly knows the iconic image he wants to get across. It's just that many times, it's one step from being what it needs to be (especially true of the plain black sky during the Mr. Dark fight, or the slapped-on gradient landscape object for a generic "bleak background"). We sense at all times what Anders wanted to see, and it's a very creative and iconic vision, it's just not what made it to screen in the glory it should have.

Oddly, for an unfinished film, the story is the strongest part, aside from the half-suggested world we get. There's a clear sense of the pacing, atmosphere, and feelings Anders was trying to evoke. I'll be the first to say I really didn't like Goro's role as Rayman (SORRY GORO, I always seem to be bashing your voice work). It's painfully cheesy and just doesn't fit with the image the character seems to portray, but this isn't entirely his fault: I'd actually suggest this movie be done without voice actors, using subtitles for dialogue while avoiding using it where possible. The strength of the film is in its imagery. Much of what it does right is chalked up to the character construction, expressions, subtle movements and staging of the characters' largely still-frame screentime. He gets a lot of mileage out of simply putting his characters in the right poses and then using a small touch of animation, such as hovering hands, a turn of the head, a glance down, and one of the best moments, Rayman gently brushing the Fairy's hair out of her face. The fight between the Fairy and Mr. Dark, while under-constructed and relying far too much on the non-native shapes of Superdings objects, is expertly paced. We get an actual sense of struggle, pain, and fear from the characters, and the back-and-forth shots are quick enough to not overstay their welcome. Many of the silhouetted travel shots are interesting as well, though even in solid color the Superdings shapes are recognizable as....well, shapes.

There's plenty to like here; most of my criticism stems from the long and shaky production process for the movie, heightened expectations from screenshots and animated gifs, and the clear skill Anders has for visuals, and the promise much of the unfinished product is just one step away from. Most of my complaints seem to stem from the fact that it IS unfinished, in many different senses of the word. It's uneven, under-polished, and settles for less than it should. I didn't get the sense of joy and exploration that earlier iterations of this project tried for, and I worry that Superdings might have contributed to that. The stuff Anders made while he was still exploring with 3DMM and the early expansions suggested a director more excited with the world his film would take place in, while there's a creeping feeling here that, after two years without a release, he desperately wanted to have SOMETHING to show for all his ideas. It's impressive in what it suggests, and much of it looks fantastic; there's nothing that looks quite like this in other 3DMM movies. It's just becoming apparent that Anders doesn't have the patience or inspiration to achieve all that he wants to -- in 3dmm, with these tools, in the community's current state, without sufficient motivation or a codirector, however you want to explain it. I hope he finds whatever it is he needs to motivate him to express himself artistically, because he has a unique artistic talent. Maybe with Rayman released, he'll be able to evaluate where he's strongest and give things another shot.

I'll close by saying that I did enjoy watching it, but unfinished films bleed potential and highlight every possible problem that might've contributed to their being unfinished. For everything it did right, this was definitely one of them.

Personal Score: 64/100.

[Digital Taco]

Nice review 10/10

[Aaron Haynes]

Thanks dude I worked hard on it

[Anders Borg]

Damn Aaron, you hit the nail perfectly. I agree with you on everything. There's also stuff in there that I didn't think of at the time but makes me think of now. Such a great review on such a short and unfinished movie. I can admit that I focused much more on the scenery than the actual animation. Looking back on Rayman, I think that my biggest problem was that I aimed too high. Like, my expectations were too great for me to handle. It's been a while since it got released but it was so worth the wait! I got inspired by this but considering how busy I've been lately.. I don't really know. After reading the review, I want to make one more thing before I'm officially done but we'll see what happens. As I said, I don't really want to spend more time on 3dmm but I think it deserves one more flick.

Amazing review! Appreciate it a lot. ^^

[Aaron Haynes]

Glad you got something out of it, hope you can find what really makes you tick artistically.

[Gorosaurus]

WHILE I AM DEEPLY HURT, I'll agree that my voicing was probably not the most appropriate for the character here. I've never played a Rayman game, I don't even know if he has a voice. What I did was the more happy-go-lucky, uh.. Mr. Gorosaurus stuff. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the same voice.

Didn't expect the movie to be quite as dark as it was. At the very least, I was thinking maybe a Roger Rabbit type of dissonance with the story. Probably would've turned out along those lines, afterall