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Luna : Reactivation by vovoid [web]
[nfo]
screenshot added by jaw on 2011-08-06 22:49:24
platform :
type :
release date : august 2011
release party : Assembly 2011
compo : combined demo
ranked : 3rd
  • 58
  • 35
  • 7
popularity : 66%
 66%
  • 0.51
  • 1
alltime top: #1708
  • jaw jaw [Code, Graphics (design, modelling), Music, Other (direction)]
added on the 2011-08-06 22:49:24 by jaw jaw

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Beautiful demo...one of the absolute highlights from the competition!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:50:41 by Stebo Stebo
Absolutely stunning. The best linux demo to date?
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:51:16 by Saga Musix Saga Musix
Nice skating dancing!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:51:31 by ham ham
loved how it really took of after that atmospheric start.

Also: linux!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:53:54 by urs urs
Beautiful!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:55:36 by Frequent Frequent
absolutely beautiful!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:56:17 by Alpha C Alpha C
Dragged on a little to much with the same.. but hell.. o_0 keep it going! looking forward to the next one!!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 22:57:37 by magic magic
awesome! best linux demo ever :D
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 23:03:51 by pera pera
usually i wouldnt comment after seeing it in a tiny stream but i guess im on the safe side if i say: bestest linux demo evar!
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 23:04:41 by wysiwtf wysiwtf
didn't do too much for me, but it's not bad i guess
added on the 2011-08-06 23:06:03 by blala blala
best linux demo
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 23:12:10 by Defiance Defiance
Windows port plz. ;)
added on the 2011-08-06 23:12:47 by raer raer
Beautiful at parts, thumbs up abduction and taking to other dimensions.
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 23:13:48 by Serpent Serpent
The start was good.

The end was good. Or rather, what very much looked like the end was good, but it sort of just went on and on from there. :-)

The stuff in the middle was… too long.

Story demos are hard (and rare, probably for that reason). Kudos for a decent attempt, but I don't think you nailed it just yet. (Also kudos for making Linux demos :-) )
added on the 2011-08-06 23:14:36 by Sesse Sesse
Reminded me of MoViT
added on the 2011-08-06 23:37:17 by BoyC BoyC
I really wish I could say something positive about this prod. There definitely went a lot of manpower to create it (which I always admire), and which is the main reason I'm not downthumbing this one. It's cool, too, that you're supporting a non-windows platform (although I'm technically not a Linux fan). But:

* it's god-damn too long. If you want to tell the story, sustain the atmosphere. Keep the watcher itnerested in stuff he's watching. In case of this prod, the cuts are too long, they attempt to be cinematic (in which, in my opinion, they fail). After a while you lose a grip on the story, because it's just so slow. Or maybe I just can't admire it, dunno.
* 3d art is very poor on occasions. An example I can recall was the scene at the end with the tunnel and visible hands.. not only were they unproportional, but also the whole cut looked kind of funny, whereas (as I suppose) it was supposed to be sort of dramatic.

So, all in all. A piggy.
added on the 2011-08-06 23:39:52 by kbi kbi
just not smooth enough
added on the 2011-08-06 23:41:54 by superplek superplek
Hm, very cheezy. :o
added on the 2011-08-06 23:43:05 by elend elend
unfortunately the script errors out.
Code: . File "./launcher-gtk.py.sh", line 10 os.environ['__GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK'] = '1' ^ TabError: inconsistent use of tabs and spaces in indentation


other than that i enjoyed this one particularily. nice setting, atmosphere, progression, music, gfx... like it a lot :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-06 23:48:21 by nemesis nemesis
YT tells me: Bestest linux demo I've see so far. All in all standard demo though. Motivational thumb-up.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:08:02 by raer raer
Feels like this has been influenced by Haujobb, particularly "Liquid... wen?" and the dance made me think of TBL & Ocean machine along with parts of the music. The greatest suprise of the compo for me. Liked it a lot.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:15:07 by slux slux
I feel a dissapointment with poor /can I say/ lame animation of main character, but I must admit this was very pleasable and enjoyable cinematic story demo, with good music, and I found it far from being boring.

keep it up.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:15:51 by Trauma Zero Trauma Zero
nice
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:30:02 by nekomono nekomono
This is quite beautiful!
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:57:02 by Aasemoon Aasemoon
Great start scene, it has a really nice look and a great atmosphere. It deserves a thumb for that scene alone :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:57:40 by Zeila Zeila
Yeah this looked and sounded nice, animation was a little jerky (maybe some smoothstep would fix it?) but I can easily excuse that. I think some people are being overly harsh.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 00:58:46 by Claw Claw
nemesis, what shell is that?

a little about the animations, yes, we also think it they could be better :)

We knew before starting this project that working with a humanoid character automatically comes with the scrutiny of humans - even to get what we have now we spent months on it. This is why most movie studios doing manual animation go for a funny/stuttering/slapstick animation style, because it's so extremely hard to get it right without mocap. This demo is not using mocap, and not using any stock animations. In the end I felt it to be good enough for our taste, and left it at that.

Stutters are still there in some scenes. I think we forgot to convert some keyframes, since there are some 40+ channels for the character alone, it's easy to forget to add a few bsplines here and there. Maybe in a final version ;)
added on the 2011-08-07 01:23:12 by jaw jaw
not sure how this would be related to the shell, but it's bash 4.2.
what i did now was remove all spaces and indented with tab (which i'd recommend anyway because i.e. using spaceindentation in Makefiles breaks them).
so it parsed then, but it couldn't find pygtk. wondered why, but then i found out i had python and python2 installed. pygtk has python2 in it's depenencies, so i changed invocation from 'python' to 'python2' in the script, which breaks it here:
Code: Traceback (most recent call last): File "./launcher-gtk.py.sh", line 18, in run_button retcode = subprocess.call(arg) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 493, in call return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait() File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__ errread, errwrite) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1228, in _execute_child raise child_exception OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

uninstalling 'python' doesn't help. clean updated archlinux install btw.
added on the 2011-08-07 02:07:39 by nemesis nemesis
the traceback pops up after i press 'run demo' btw :)
added on the 2011-08-07 02:09:06 by nemesis nemesis
Superb!
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 02:27:54 by bitl bitl
There was some stuttering animation, and some scenes were a tad long, but regardless of that - best of compo.

Goddamn amazing.
rulezcdc added on the 2011-08-07 04:46:52 by Trilkk Trilkk
Some really impressive stuff here! Very nice!
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 08:19:19 by Mystra Mystra
I like the style and the theme a lot. Visuals and sound are really good.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 08:20:09 by Manwe Manwe
Beautiful. I agree with some others that the pace was not always optimal, but in part it was also because slow scenes in general never work on a big screen with 5000 viewers. Anyway, awesome visuals and solid package as a whole.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 10:40:54 by Mirv Mirv
ok
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 10:48:17 by fyrex fyrex
Short stories are my favourite form of science fiction, because in a short story you can concentrate on the gist of the story and imply the circumstances, while way too many science fiction novels succumb to technobabble and the kind of universe-building that's really completely secondary and meaningless to the story itself. This demo reads exactly like a good science fiction short story. It's has a fantastic atmosphere, a well-executed concept (despite some animation hiccups) and it concentrates on building on its strenghts instead of trying to go into multiple directions.

I have also a funny personal thing to share about this demo. I'm not sure in which order the demos were shown, but a bit before this there was the one demo from Pyrotech (?) that had greetings to every single group that had won the Assembly demo competition. While I didn't like that demo all that much, I started thinking about making a demo that would be based on greeting all my favourite groups that hadn't released anything for a while. Of the few names on that list that I could definitely come up with during that demo, Vovoid was definitely one. And then this one came up :) One of the definite highlights of the compo for me.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 11:12:04 by Preacher Preacher
Oh, and also: congratulations for making the first relevant Linux demo.
added on the 2011-08-07 11:13:08 by Preacher Preacher
I am not sure about this, it's mostly rulez than sucks. It was maybe a bit long watching the robot doing some dance figures and nothing new, though I liked the music and the progression of it with the visuals, somewhere in the middle I was dragged into it.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 11:23:01 by Optimus Optimus
Speaking of Linux: video-capture or cross-compile to Win32 anyone..?
added on the 2011-08-07 11:23:46 by gloom gloom
win32 port I think will be difficult I think, a lot of new code. Maybe possible sometime during autumn when I have tested all new code ;)

Video captures are at the mini-site for the demo: http://vovoid.org/luna (not available from assembly atm due to a NS caching hiccup tho)

Here are some url's to those: (done by asm and us)
http://www.vimeo.com/26824610 (our vimeo video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktkS7A5CZ8g (asmtv video)
added on the 2011-08-07 11:34:36 by jaw jaw
This could be really something, but there is one crucial ingredient missing: A character centric demo needs decent character animation. I'm not sure if this is a technical problem (re-inventing everything on linux again?) or an artistic issue, either way, it destroys a lot of potential.

But still, it was one of the best entries in this years' ASM demo compo.
added on the 2011-08-07 12:06:00 by tomaes tomaes
A very nice demo -- the first seriously nice Linux demo since 2006 actually. Could use some HDR rendering though, fades look quite washed out :)

If someone tries to run it on 64-bit Linux and gets the OSError exception when starting the demo (like nemesis did), make sure to install 32-bit compatibility libraries (ia32-libs on Ubuntu).
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 12:12:10 by KeyJ KeyJ
nice intro and then... totally utterly boring + non-inspiring music. can't understand the hype here. i guess that the linux achievement saves it from a thumb down. at least until i've watched it again.
added on the 2011-08-07 12:18:11 by prm prm
many regards ! im' not a coder but i'm happy to finally have a linux cool designed prod to tast on my computer ! thanx for producing this, regards
added on the 2011-08-07 12:35:18 by yogibeer yogibeer
nice but a bit too stretched thus too long during the compo
added on the 2011-08-07 12:55:03 by maali maali
Very nice graphics, but rest i meh.
added on the 2011-08-07 13:55:40 by maytz maytz
A good demo. Quite intriguing and I liked the soundtrack.

My only criticisms are that the colour scheme was too bland and the scenes were too dark. It could've been more, but still a nice demo.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 14:20:05 by Wade Wade
uh, not my cup of tea.
added on the 2011-08-07 14:24:56 by a-move a-move
best demo of asm2011
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 15:12:47 by Bartoshe Bartoshe
Improved towards the end, some nice atmosphere. Doesn't fit in a demo compo awfully well with its often slow pace.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 15:13:19 by Marq Marq
omg. this was borring ...
This is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I will however criticize (even if jaw already cleared it out) that for a character-centric demo, the skeletal animation should have been cared for a lot more.

Love the music too.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 16:00:57 by aMUSiC aMUSiC
 
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 16:45:23 by rbz rbz
Had a nice start and great looking environment, but with the INSANELY cheesy overlays, the lack of development (sure, you tried to make a story, but it went nowhere and turned out to be a lame effects show), and absurd length it was just awful.
sucks added on the 2011-08-07 17:14:34 by ferris ferris
I'm sorry, but this is just.. Annoying. I mean, the opening scene sets the tone perfectly (and I _love_ the vertical sliding scene transitions), and then nothing happens for 10 minutes. I'm glad I wasn't at Assembly this year because I'd be pissed for having to sit through it in the compo. I know a lot of work went into this, and it makes me sad because the work could have been spent so much better. :(

PS: on the Vimeo-page you write:
Quote:
Size: 32Mb (of which music is 50%)

How did you manage to inflate a 10 minute track up to 16 MB? One MB per minute is MORE than sufficient quality
added on the 2011-08-07 18:12:49 by gloom gloom
Not bad, much better than it looked on stream, there's a lot of detail around indeed. The big problem is that it's fucking boring. Nothing at all happens apart from a mediocre 3D model of a girl doing some absolutely terrible animations. The backdrop is awesome, but the main character, and the lack of action undermines everything.

Still, a decent demo, and I'm always delighted to be able to watch demos natively on my computer without having to rely on wine or crappy video captures, so thank you for that.
added on the 2011-08-07 18:55:04 by Nuclear Nuclear
Nice space/dream travel but skating or using hover-shoes on a planet ? ;)
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 20:22:56 by BackSpace BackSpace
Nice music, rendering and hand-made animation. Should be faster paced and some things really ruin the atmosphere like 'tunnel with hands' scene kbi mentioned.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 20:31:59 by Nitro/Black Sun Nitro/Black Sun
Plain irritating demo going on to long...
sucks added on the 2011-08-07 21:07:52 by Zplex Zplex
Puuh.. what to say. I really liked the great work on the animation a lot - finally a figure which is moving as well. Also the space topic and the graphical arrangement worked great for me. Actually this prod shows how much visual impression you can create with good arrangements and graphics and less effects. It appears to be amazingly simply sometimes, but I really liked this different style. And big respect for the outstanding skating animations.
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 22:25:40 by fiveofive fiveofive
I really don't know what to think about this, the music is really pleasant but the stiff character is just creepy. So it's a piggy, because of the nice environment & music.
added on the 2011-08-07 23:08:01 by cce cce
worthy podium-placement!
but the Z-Splines have been the best in the demo and you showed em like 5 seconds only :p
rulez added on the 2011-08-07 23:34:14 by ɧ4ɾɗվ. ɧ4ɾɗվ.
Quote:
One MB per minute is MORE than sufficient quality

What? That's like 128kbps, far from sufficient... The soundtrack here I think is quality wise sufficient.

About the demo itself, it's decent, even very good at the moments like the the first couple of minutes, but sadly it's not consistent in quality.

Maybe it will grow on me. I'd love to see it realtime as well.
added on the 2011-08-07 23:59:05 by noby noby
what others have said, mainly.
cool to see a character, but the animations deserved more love.
also, too much cheese to my taste.
piggy.
added on the 2011-08-08 05:16:54 by BarZoule BarZoule
Quote:

That's like 128kbps, far from sufficient...

If it's MP3 or WMA, but not if it's aoTuV or CELT.
added on the 2011-08-08 07:53:45 by chudik chudik
Nice animation but... all the other stuff didnt really do it for me, so piggy.
added on the 2011-08-08 08:35:34 by leGend leGend
very cool style, but way too long.
added on the 2011-08-08 08:38:19 by quisten quisten
Quote:
That's like 128kbps, far from sufficient...
It is more than sufficient, and one would be using variable encoding anyway, so stop talking about fixed bandwidth. There are long parts of this soundtrack that would use far less than 128kbps too, shrinking the size even more. I don't know how else to say this, but you're just going to have to trust me when I say that I know what I'm talking about here :)
added on the 2011-08-08 09:40:25 by gloom gloom
i missed the dolphins. only heavy use of dolphins can even top the kitsch in this one.
but no thumb down, since it's one of the best linux demos so far, and the graphics were quite nice in places
added on the 2011-08-08 09:50:25 by v3nom v3nom
Not THAT cheesy.

I tried to dive in and it worked.

Great crescendo, and amazing work. Deserve the podium imho.
rulez added on the 2011-08-08 10:51:26 by wullon wullon
.
rulez added on the 2011-08-08 11:30:36 by las las
Nothing personal, i'll thumb it down because you used a cheap trick (android girl) to get the Assembly voters on your side :) Otherwise it's good enough, although too long
sucks added on the 2011-08-08 12:40:56 by kurli kurli
Appealing to the audience is a 'cheap trick'? :) (I know what you mean, but it still sounds wrong).
added on the 2011-08-08 13:28:47 by tomaes tomaes
i somehow second gloom here.

it started so great and then sadly went on for a long time without getting anywhere...
added on the 2011-08-08 17:11:31 by gopher gopher
gloom: I don't have any doubts about you not knowing what you're talking about, and trust me I know too. I guess we just have different views on this matter. Personally I'd prefer demo soundtracks to be in FLAC or other uncompressed format, but hey that's just me...
added on the 2011-08-08 17:17:04 by noby noby
how the hell did that get a 3rd place?

also, a motivational thumb down!
sucks added on the 2011-08-08 17:49:08 by provod provod
noby: I think that's where our opinions differ, yeah. I consider using FLAC or even WAV in demos to be pure bloat. :) It contributes marginally to the quality (very marginally in fact) but uses 5 or 10 times the space. But, it's your release and you treat it how you like. I just thought I'd mention it :)
added on the 2011-08-08 20:16:50 by gloom gloom
This demo is nicely different, and I've always been a sucker for story demos. I also enjoy the slow build-up myself.
rulez added on the 2011-08-08 20:46:25 by Shadikka Shadikka
On a second viewing it didn't feel as long as it did during the competition, but I still feel it should have been edited. Liked it enough for a thumb.
rulez added on the 2011-08-08 20:57:35 by Endymio Endymio
Somehow for a moment I thought that just maybe there will be a chick typing away on a C64 somewhere near the end.. ;)
added on the 2011-08-08 22:24:06 by el-bee el-bee
The intro felt like somebody tried to copy visualice's recent style, and didn't quite pull it off. Then, dancing manga robots with terrible animation. If you're going to do character animation, then character animation is kind of a key skill, no?

Well, I didn't like it. But I respect the work that's gone into this, technically and artistically it's close to being really good. So, no thumb down, and keep at it, I'll look forwards to the next one :)
added on the 2011-08-08 22:45:45 by psonice psonice
Very nice demo, congratulations for the 3rd place! I hope we dont have to wait another 3 years for your next demo. :)
rulez added on the 2011-08-08 23:26:59 by blueghost blueghost
Much better than your last demo at asm and I think you deserved 3rd place!

A bit too much focus on girl in the end and I was waithing for the effects to really go to the next level but maybe next time... solid thumb!
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 00:13:30 by thec thec
My favourite of the compo!! well done!! bring back the story demos like the old Days..

Big thumbs up!!
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 01:16:10 by reload reload
started to feel sleepy during this one
sucks added on the 2011-08-09 08:02:37 by jasuy jasuy
I really liked this one
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 16:56:54 by evil evil
Very refreshing demo, very well done, everything is very consistent!
One of the best demos in the compo!
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 17:48:38 by xernobyl xernobyl
BTW I just noticed that the vimeo video was uploaded 16 days ago, but the compo was 3 or 4 days ago. Is that a vimeo bug, is it allowed to release early in the rules?
added on the 2011-08-09 17:52:23 by xernobyl xernobyl
xernobyl, I uploaded it in "private/hidden" status. Then I made it public directly after the compo.
added on the 2011-08-09 17:57:34 by jaw jaw
Ok, just to clear up the sound size issue, the soundtrack is mp3 and it _is_ 128kbps and I was sloppy and remembered wrong when writing the vimeo comments... Those have now been corrected. The mp3 is 11.3MB. Which is NOT 50% but 35%. I wanted FLAC also, but it ended up huge, so I used mp3 instead.
added on the 2011-08-09 19:29:45 by jaw jaw
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 21:53:56 by moqui moqui
Worked the best @ the compo for me. From despair to extacy! Dunno what ever happened to her in the end though. Only criticism was that it was too long (repetitive at points) and the music could gone even deeper (was fitting nevertheless). Thanks!
rulez added on the 2011-08-09 23:01:52 by tripper tripper
Super awkward modeling/animation and most of the graphics look pretty old. Plus nothing happens.

Am I missing something here?
sucks added on the 2011-08-13 10:24:18 by msqrt msqrt
hardy, you'll see more of that effect in a future demo :) ...where we don't have to make it look like a nebula, it can get much more interresting.

KeyJ, you're right, thanks for pointing that out. The rendering uses float buffers but the fade is applied outside of that pipeline, the fade could've been done inside the fbo's. I'll think of that in the future.

tripper, she reached her destination, but the planet was blown to pieces by an accident... so she's a bit sad in the ending sequence..
added on the 2011-08-13 11:48:57 by jaw jaw
can't have it running on my 64-bit Debian distro. launcher.bin just segfaults without an error message. :(
added on the 2011-08-13 12:17:03 by zerkman zerkman
How come this isn't on top of the month?
added on the 2011-08-13 21:38:09 by xernobyl xernobyl
Lots of wasted potential in an easily forgettable prod.
added on the 2011-08-17 16:28:30 by dixan dixan
It is longer then it should be. Demo starts to be interesting after 3rd minute. I will rahter thumb up some of your previous prods or wait for your next one ;o)
added on the 2011-08-17 16:39:07 by jack-3d jack-3d
I must agree with Ferris - Sorry
sucks added on the 2011-08-24 23:47:52 by cxnull cxnull
i really liked the intro part, really nice to watch for the first 2 minutes. the rest was too cheesy and also much too long for my taste.
added on the 2011-08-25 00:30:33 by gopher gopher
nice track and a great start. but then it became just boring on the visual side and the great mood created at the intro was destoyed. so it's just a piggie.
At last some serious Linux release!
rulez added on the 2011-09-11 12:20:44 by zbyndek zbyndek
absolutely wonderful! brings me back to some of my favorite demos of the 90s that had story like this. fantastic work!
rulez added on the 2011-11-04 05:12:17 by blackpawn blackpawn
I have completed a windows port (64-bit only though, wouldn't fit in 32 bit address space).

I'd say 6GB but at least 4GB of RAM is probably needed.

Get it here

Some small adjustments to animations and textures have been made in this version compared to the party version.
Also a shader bug fix to allow for resolutions > 1080p (2560x1440 etc).
added on the 2012-01-12 21:55:18 by jaw jaw
jaw

cant download the 64-bit port, file broken?
can u fix that plz?
rulez added on the 2012-02-21 13:53:46 by HarryHirsch HarryHirsch
HarryHirsch: which URL? http://vovoid.org/luna/luna-reactivation_by_vovoid-win-amd64.zip works for me at least...
added on the 2012-02-21 15:14:39 by jaw jaw
the url works but the download ends at ~25mb all the time.
so i think the file is broken.
try this: http://vovoid.org:10280/luna/luna-reactivation_by_vovoid-win-amd64.zip
added on the 2012-02-21 23:50:36 by jaw jaw
Huge Production! Visual brainfuck! :)
rulez added on the 2012-02-22 09:45:05 by ltk_tscc ltk_tscc
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./launcher-gtk.py.sh", line 18, in run_button
retcode = subprocess.call(arg)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 493, in call
return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1239, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory


wat?
added on the 2012-03-15 14:16:37 by cg_ cg_
refreshing.
rulez added on the 2012-03-15 16:52:26 by ilmarque ilmarque
"refreshing."

wat?
added on the 2012-03-15 17:00:01 by gloom gloom
If you're making a story demo, one of the most important things you have to consider is direction. Cinematography, editing, lighting, music. And yes, the fact that you're mentioning it in the credits means you know that too.

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any direction here, the opening scene is one long tracking shot which kills any emotional connection or chance for storytelling, whereas the "dance scene" is cut to death (often not to music) completely breaking the flow. Parts are separated with jarring changes and the last time I saw so much dutch-angled shots was Battlefield Earth - probably not a good thing. The stutter edits in the music are painfully misplaced.

It's the exact opposite of what you, I suppose, you wanted to do. You could say it's just a demo, but then take a look at Tribes and how that was shot / edited / scored, and how you SHOULD direct a story demo. As it stands, this is just two prolonged story bits with an cheesy uptempo middle section.
added on the 2012-03-19 11:11:16 by Gargaj Gargaj
well, it looks like it was a shitload of work, so i feel a bit mean being horrible about it.

on the other hand, it's almost the textbook example of what's wrong with "storydemos", so i have to be a bit horrible :)

- bad direction, pacing, camerawork. the establishing shots at the start don't actually establish anything properly so it's totally unclear as to whats going on or why anyone should care; the only reason i have any idea whats going on is by reading the website that accompanies the demo. if you need a website to explain the story of a *storydemo*, that's a surefire way of telling the direction is off course.
meanwhile the dancing is cut to pieces so it fights against the very sense of grace and flow you'd hope to get from ice skating action. the camerawork there makes me suspect there's a lack of animations that had to be covered up and reused as much as possible, but that's just a hunch.
the tacked on end sequence is a bit pointless also.

- contrast levels are ridiculous - it's basically black with some bits of white glowing stuff for large parts of the demo. there might be some decent models and shading under there somewhere, but it's impossible to tell.

- the pretentiousness level is remarkable. (see: website explaining the demo; huge, overlong credit sequences; "epic" musical score), which is probably what motivates me to want to slate it more. pretentiousness is fine if you've got the meat to back it up, but if there's something shakey about the base material then it's a risky strategy.
- frankly the subject matter is unoriginal and unappealing, but maybe that's just because im old. :)

the problem with storydemos is (as you can guess from the title) you not only have to make a good demo on a technical and aesthetical level which is interesting to watch and has solid content, you also have to think up a good story and tell it well - which is way, way harder. doubly hard when you build in the restrictions of time, budget, resources and technical issues, and even worse when you try and make it character driven (ive been there and had the same problems, so i sympathise).
added on the 2012-03-19 11:42:18 by smash smash
It's ok! ))
rulez added on the 2012-11-23 20:24:58 by aGGreSSor^tPA aGGreSSor^tPA
Quite cool looking and had some nice epic Athmosphere :) Well done!
rulez added on the 2013-04-01 17:56:56 by Sapphire Sapphire
looks more dated than it is, watchworthy demo nevertheless
rulez added on the 2015-11-03 20:32:17 by T$ T$
Anyone know how to run this on a ~2015 distro? I had to install libasound-plugins-pulseaudio and libXmu for i686 which fixed some missing dependencies but now it just hangs on the load screen. Running Fedora 21 x86_64.
added on the 2015-11-04 01:56:46 by jmph jmph
Somebody reminisced about this and I thought to come and give it the thumbs up. Better late than never.
rulez added on the 2018-08-20 13:15:07 by Warma Warma
perfect design
rulez added on the 2018-12-01 09:33:53 by rock rock
doesn't click
You guys should definitely make more demos like this, this is all fantastic stuff!
added on the 2021-02-20 02:45:05 by rock rock

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if this prod is a fake, some info is false or the download link is broken,

do not post about it in the comments, it will get lost.

instead, click here !

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