After spending way too much time on this little project it's finally done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7XIB2Y2gc


Thanks must go to itsjustme for providing the how-to for the straps on the jet pack!

This is hilarious! The soundtrack alone cracked me up but I guess that's not what you want to hear about an animation short. But very funny and silly. Lot's of fun!

Looks like all your hard work paid off model on !!!!

Funny! loved the sound track as well

Way to go Atkelar. That was pretty funny.

Good job!

the sounds were great. feels inappropriate to praise in detail cause they might act like spoilers..
thanks!

LOL! That worked out great, Atkelar! Great job.

Very well done... I although think that the animation is working great. It has a quite good timing and looks fine,.
Of course the music and sounds do much too (but that is normal)

*Fuchur*

very nice animation and music

That was great!

thanks to Fuchur i now want to elaborate.. gushing and spoilers ahead.

didn't mean only the sounds were good, it's just so hard to find words. here:
what tickled me about the film was the way both
1) the speed of the balloon&propeller protruding and
2) the propeller's sound worked to herald the severe anti-climax of this sub-optimal military investment.
with the balloon it felt like it was practically moving me backwards in time, the change in the general pace was perfect! it didn't feel like hitting the breaks but like a suction before a slo-mo implosion.
when the propeller's sound came i just cracked completely; you crossed (more like rammed) the line from your set-up, straightforward 'wysiwyg', to surrealism by giving associations to a fake/toy propeller in the hands of a person who makes the noise because -naturally- there is no motor.
it wasn't just good animation, it was really good storytelling. massive flood of information in me igniting my lived experiences in a split second, transforming me from a spectator to a part of the film.
well done!

It made me laugh!
So, you don't have much faith in military hype, huh? Well, I can't blame you for that. (If you were British I wouldn't blame you at all.) Heath Robinson was watching, recording, imagining and inventing many years ago.
All praise to the open and inventive mind!

That turned out real well!

I think that was a great idea for a short. Better than any of my short ideas.

<insert large round of applause here>

That was wonderful... and funny too!

There are some really subtle things that say 'newbie' in any animation effort and you've managed to dispense with most of that in this short. Newbies of all ages can learn a lot from watching your animation.

Here are some things I think would benefit Newbies a lot:
1) You got rid of the default ground plane and came up with something that works well in every shot.
2) You found/created an interesting piece of music for your animation
3) You've kept things simple yet worked in some considerably more complex elements and actions. Nice.
4) You've varied your pacing throughout
5) You've got distinct beats to your actions... and a comical and very satisfying payoff!

My one suggestion would be this... use some formof post processing on your animation to mute/blend the color and saturation.
This would help to set and keep the mood going throughout. There is currently a same-sense of saturation with little variation throughout. Dirty it up a bit! If working this aspect within the animation itself that might be accomplished through the introduction of an overhead swinging light? As you've rendered this out already... you've still got post processing.

My first thought was to suggest using the Post Effect 'Film Grain' but... not too sure about that.

Bravo!
I like it. I like it a lot.

Wow. Thank you for your kind words... I'm at a loss of words here. I guess the years and years of watching - and analyzing - animated features and comedy finally pay off
Of course I will try to improve these shorts in the future as I plan on doing between four and six a year. The improvements might not be as big as between the first and second one and maybe there'll be a decline once in a while but that doesn't worry or stop me. It's just an awesome bonus for me that people seem to like my work.

Some quick answers:
I am from Austria actually so I couldn't have less faith in military equipment... having served my mandatory term in the "army" myself...

As for the technical details, I decided early that I wanted to do somethin more than just plopping in a character and animating two or three movements. But to be able to tell some visual jokes and not being forced to model backgrounds for each scene I decided to keep it visually as simple as possible. Only the key actors and props would be there at all. That's the "artistic style" I chose in order to get the "technical stuff" manageable.

As an inspiration for these shorts I might point to the famous Pixar short "Luxor Jr." - it showed that it doesn't take huge environments for good looking 3D objects nor does it take faces to express emotions. The concept of short, random comedic situations without any connection from one episode to another might be used in many shorts but I first saw it in "La Linea". The music is created by an online friend from Switzerland who volunteered to create the "score". Everything else - modelling, animating, editing, sound effects - is done by myself.

Also thanks for all pointers to areas for improvement. I get them left and right and I might work some of them into the next short - there's already an idea forming...

Greetings, Atkelar

brave

One of these days we'll have to get someone knowledgeable of scoring to run us through some of the basics.
Music is such an important part of the work. The same could be said for sound effects/foley.

I'm sure there are some websites devoted to the subject?

It doesn't have to be anything fancy as long as it works.
Yours certainly does.



It has!