Cinematic Contest #6 - Results

[Archian]

Thanks to everyone who participated in this contest. It's been a unique experience watching all the submitted entries.
Special thanks to the panel of judges, Anitarf and iNfraNe. I strongly encourage our members to view all the entries and read the judges reviews.

First Place: 100 Reputation Points, $150, Unique Award Icon
Second Place: 50 Reputation Points, Unique Award Icon
Third Place: 25 Reputation Points, Unique Award Icon

The winner of the First Place will be notified by a private message within 14 days on how to claim the prize.

Anitarf
iNfraNe

The decision of the contest judges is final.

First Place & Winner of Hive's Cinematic Contest:

The Struggle By APproject

Second Place:

Glistening Heart By Tickles

Third Place:

The Prince of Rhoswen By Ungoliath

Reviews by Anitarf & iNfraNe The Legend of Lost Brothers Blade and Blood Grobb n Limpsy Operation Char Resident Evil Third Place: The Prince of Rhoswen Second Place: Glistening Heart First Place: The Struggle

The Legend of Lost Brothers
By Loner-Magixxar

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

The Legend of Lost Brothers sets out to tell a story that is far too long for the five minute limit of this contest. As such, we are left with an incomplete tale. Perhaps a shorter story that focused just on their dragon hunt would have been better, as that feels like the stronger part of the cinematic.
Technically, the cinematic is a mixed bag. There are some nice details in there, characters turning their heads, the music syncing with the action in the dragon fight, the camera pan through the castle,... but then there's the battle with the Rule Breaker which is basically just a bunch of running around, the camera pan through the castle gets abruptly interrupted...
The floating text based dialogues and narration are interesting, but not ideal. The fading colours make them difficult to read at least part of the time. They are also more blurry due to their low resolution. I am convinced that standard game-message-based subtitles would have been better.
Overall, the cinematic shows some promise but as a whole it needs more work.

iNfraNe's Review:

This cinematic tells the story of two brothers that protect a kingdom from various evils. It has lots of innovative use of the editor. For instance, the head animations were very well done to show the units that are talking. It really instantly makes one feel more attached to the story. The shot of the dragon breathing fire at the brothers was also very good. There are, however, a few issues with this cine that prevented it from belonging in the top 3. First of all, there were actually 3 stories going on here. I least fancied the story of the rulebreaker, this felt also the poorest executed (rushed?) part. It would’ve been a fine cinematic were the bad news that a dragon was situated nearby, for instance. Second, almost every shot lasted a bit, or sometimes a lot, too long. There was no real reason for this cine to go past the 5 min mark. Another tip for the hypothetical next time: base the pictures you show on the music you will use. This way, you can make use of the tension that builds in the music in your pictures as well! Overall I liked this cinematic very much, but just didn't make it to the top.

Blade and Blood
By Arad MNK

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

This cinematic had some neat features. The terrain was nice, there was some fairly good voice acting, although the pacing of it in-game was too slow at times, with excessively long pauses between the lines. However, this was primarily an action cinematic, and the action could have been better. The unit animations and movements didn't always flow well, with awkward pauses interrupting the action several times. The camera didn't always manage to follow what was going on and I couldn't always follow the fast camera changes.

Furthermore, the emotional tone was inconsistent; we get flashbacks that show us the bond between the two brothers but in the action the bitten brother gets killed without much hesitation and seems to have been completely forgotten by the time the battle ends. These issues prevented the cinematic from competing for the top spots, but it was still a decent effort.

iNfraNe's Review:

This cinematic covers a(nother) revenge story. The cinematic focusses heavily on the terrain, which has been done very well. Sadly, because so much effort was put into the terrain/atmosphere, the other parts are quite lacking of structure and attention to detail. The timing of the dialogue was very poor and felt unnaturally slow (for example: "what is it" ... "he is here"). The action sequences also lacked timing and details, which overall made this cinematic unable to compete with the top ones.

Grobb n Limpsy
By Naze

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

This was the only comedy cinematic among the submissions. This could be a good choice, as a work that doesn't take itself too seriously can be forgiven technical deficiencies as those can always be seen as part of the humour. Unfortunately, the jokes were not strong enough to carry the cinematic on their own. I did chuckle a bit at some of the meta humour but overall there just wasn't enough funny in it.
As such, we are left with a nonsensical plot placed in a basic terrain with rudimentary action, so the technical aspects of the work were just too far from what the other entries had to offer.

iNfraNe's Review:

This comedy cinematic portrays the struggles of an emotional teenage kodo and murloc. A problematic consequence of a comedy is that it relies very heavily on facial expressions and intonation of speech. The complete absence of voice-acting or facial expressions therefore left this cinematic rather unfunny. I must say that a successful comedy I have not seen yet with the tools that warcraft 3 offers us, so it is quite a challenge. The highlight of this cinematic was the moment when the cinematic suddenly changed from an anime cine to a movie studio. This was rather unexpected and took my attention for a moment. The rest of the cinematic is, sadly, rather dull.

Operation Char
By Radicool

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

Set in the StarCraft universe, Operation Char was the only sci-fi submission of the contest. As such, I am inclined to be more forgiving towards it in the visual department as there just aren't as many futuristic art assets to choose from as there are fantasy ones. That being said, there is more than just the available art assets that make the cinematic visually underwhelming.
The main issue is the inconsistent scale. The cinematic feels like an in-game cutscene, where indoor and outdoor environments need to conform to the same gameplay and as a result what is a small unit or building on the outside becomes enormous on the inside. The inside of the dropship also looks very plain, while the hallways of the command center look somewhat better.
The story is not very strong either. First of all, any semblance of tension is lost when two of the characters aren't even given proper names, immediately indicating that they were going to be the first to die. Second, it is incomplete. It barely manages to establish the setup before running out of time. Ultimately it doesn't explain what is the artifact, who or what killed the guy they found, what was that guy even doing there, and why the ceiling fans are still turning if the power is out.
One last thing, the custom cinematic borders are too distracting, in the blackness of space they actually attract the eyes more than the main scene. Simple black cinematic borders would have worked better.

iNfraNe's Review:

A starcrafty cine that shows a mission to obtain something from a base. The part inside the base is definitely the highlight of the cine. In there, the atmosphere is creepy, dark, and that builds suspense. It was actually a rather well-done horror style (with blinking lights and everything!), although not very original. What it did lack, however, is a constant music score that builds suspense. The cine has a sound fx that builds suspense twice, but is otherwise quiet. This makes for a bit less involvement by the viewer. The weaker points are the earlier parts of the cine, which try to portray the story. However, nothing is really happening here, and we do not feel involved with any of the characters (which are too many for such a short film). The story is on the one hand too poorly explained: the author tries to convey some sort of goal to the mission without being too clear. On the other hand, it is way too elaborate: we don't need to know much about the mission for a 5 min cine. A simple "One of the reactors stopped working in the base, which means the communication is off, we'll have to investigate." or something similar, would have sufficed.

Resident Evil
By DatnessX

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

From what I can tell, this is just a word-for-word recreation of the beginning of the film Resident Evil. It feels like it was intended to have the original film audio over the WarCraft visuals, but due to copyright restrictions we ended up with a silent film instead.
I say a "word-for-word recreation" because words are the only thing that gets even remotely reproduced. The actual visuals are... not really worth describing. There is no effort in evidence, although if there were any then things would have been even more confusing. As is, the map seems more like a rudimentary exercise in using the editor than a serious contest submission.

iNfraNe's Review:

My hopes were not very high, as this cinematic was completely only very shortly after the contest was started. It delivered nothing more than expected. Everything about the cinematic felt as if corners were cut. Cameras went through the terrain, all the characters had the same model, the animations were not suitable for what was being portrayed, etc. Altogether, the author should've spent more time if he wished to deliver a quality product.

Third Place:

The Prince of Rhoswen By Ungoliath

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

This is our third place finish and I'll get to how and why it is good in a moment, but first I have to point out something bad, because it is so difficult to ignore: the animation set chosen for the prince model. Its stand animation is so exaggerated, it dominates any camera shot in which the prince is present and diverts attention away from everything else. Simply choosing a different animation set would have improved the cinematic tremendously.
Not that it needs much improvement otherwise. First and foremost, the voice acting and writing is a cut above the rest. The dialogue sounds like what the characters want to say to each other, rather than what the author wants to explain to the audience. This can leave the viewer wondering a bit what exactly has happened, but by the end you get the gist of it anyway.
There are some minor timing issues, particularly with the subtitles. It might not seem like much but out-of-sync subtitles can be very distracting. The action sequence is also a bit messy but it doesn't detract too much as most of the cinematic isn't about action anyway, which is in itself interesting considering the Diabloesque setting. Some other camera changes were also too abrupt but for the most part the camerawork was fine.
More important than the minor technical timing issues, I see a conceptual timing issue with the establishing shot. The hanging corpse immediately sets the tone for the rest of the cinematic, but the narration of the prince does so more gradually. As such, the first few lines we hear and the visuals we see clash with each other. I think it would have been better if the corpse only came into view once the narration reached its dark point.
These are all minor complaints though. Aside from the glaring animation issue with the main character, The Prince of Roswen is an impressive piece of WarCraft cinematography.

iNfraNe's Review:

A very atmosphere-rich, daunting cinematic. The story seems interesting, and invites the viewer to discover more: as if this were the introduction to a more dialogue driven (opposed to monologue) cinematic. The voice-acting was done very well, although I must say that the quality of the audio was lacking. The reverb made the voices seem boxy and far away at the same time. Because the voices were done by 1 person, it was a bit difficult to keep them apart. However: the emotions were well conveyed and it felt natural. The cinematography was excellent: it really felt like a huge, old castle with a dark atmosphere of a fallen kingdom. Well-chosen camera angles surely accentuated this. There was one, hard to overlook, mistake made: the stand animation of the prince looked as if he was dancing. Especially in such a dark, tragic story, you would not expect a very over-the-top stand animation. This took way too much attention which made it hard to focus on the good things. It took a second look to really appreciate the otherwise excellent quality of the rest of the cinematic.

Second Place:

Glistening Heart By Tickles

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

This cinematic was simply a piece of beauty. The music and visuals sync up nicely to create a well flowing experience, with only minor hiccups where different music tracks are spliced together. The visuals gradually become more and more surreal, until the final scene when it hits you just what happened to the little bear cub.
The camera work was a bit basic, but that does not really detract much from the overall experience. The part where one of the wolves wakes up and the cub escapes into the water could have been clearer with better camera placement and transitions, there perhaps could have been some more close up shots, but it's not really a big deal.
The movement of the fish was really well done. The later segments had a bit fewer details but they were conceptually strong enough that the simple execution couldn't hurt them. In fact, the last scene was so beautiful precisely because of its minimalist aesthetic.

iNfraNe's Review:

Very pretty, is what came to mind after the viewing of the cinematic. After finding its parents killed, a polar bear cup slips into the water, where it encounters a wonderful surreal world. There were very few things that were off in the cinematic. Only certain changes in animation or the abrupt change of the music track come to mind. Otherwise everything fit perfectly in succession. The fish, that really behaved like fish (excellent job here! When the school of fish got startled and swam away it felt very natural). The overall underwater atmosphere, up until the bucolic silhouette ending. A very calming experience to watch that I really enjoyed.

First Place:

The Struggle By APproject

Watch it here!

Anitarf's Review:

The Struggle is a technical marvel. It has it all: high-res models, custom animations, competent voice acting, detailed terrain and sounds down to every footstep. It is a superb work both in terms of effort and talent and a worthy recipient of the first prize.
If I had to point out any weaknesses (which I do, being the judge and all), I would say that perhaps some more cohesion could be added by better developing the transitions between the three parts of the cinematic, currently the cuts between them are a bit abrupt.

Also, the voice acting of the residents of the second house could be improved. The first lines feel a bit rushed, the man is explaining how desperate he is to save her but the desperation doesn't really show in his voice. Again, it is not a big issue, the voice acting is still much better than what I've heard in cinematics in the past.
Thus I am happy to select The Struggle as the winner of the 6th Hive cinematic contest. Congratulations!

iNfraNe's Review:

Very detailed cinematic with a clear, powerful short story. Everything was perfected to the details: detailed high-res terrain, custom animations/models, voice-acting and the only cinematic that had perfectly matching sounds throughout. Only minor comments can be made: the voice-acting of the man and woman seemed rather apathic. Where this is suited for the doctor, having seen what he has seen, for the man&woman I would’ve expected a far more emotional response. This fact was also not helped by the talking animation of the man, which repeated a few times. Really conveying emotion in a cinematic like this, however, is very, very difficult and the author made a great effort. Perhaps the walking of all characters was a bit too slow, but it did not really bother me too much. Apart from that, the atmosphere was excellent, the camera angles were well-chosen and the story perfect for a short cine. A well-deserved first place for APProject!

 

[Vengeancekael]

Tickles took the cake for me, but congratulations AP and others!

 

[Tickles]

Congratulations AP! Always fun going up against a titan.

 

[Naze]

Yay! You guys produced some awesome work indeed, very well deserved. Congratulations for the winners!

 

[Ungoliath]

Congratulations to AP and Tickles, your cinematics were both just outstanding! Such a great contest, will definitely try to participate in the next one.

 

[Arad MNK]

Good contest

 

[iNfraNe]

Congratulations for everyone as the average quality of this contest was outstanding! I'm very happy to see this much activity and quality still around!

 

[Ralle]

I am so happy with how this contest turned out. We were afraid nobody was going to show up and no entry would deserve the awards. I am glad to say that our fears were unwarranted. Many quality entries were submitted that are worthy of the prize. Thank you all for participating and putting your heart into these fantastic creations. Finally, I would like to thank the sponsors The World Is Flat, Shar Dundred and Shain Dundred for providing the amazing monetary award.

 

[APproject]

It was a great pleasure participating in this contest. I did not expect so many entries as well, I thought 5 entries would be already a miracle. In overall, it was invaluable experience and I would surely participate once again even if there were no prizes.

It is an honor to belong to this community, therefore I can not let my frontal cortex not to take over, for that I share my award with the community. I already contacted Ralle about it and if it Sponsors will allow it, I will donate 50$ for the Hive and share 50$ with Tickles for taking the second place and 50$ with DivineArms who did this amazing voice acting for free and improved the overal quality of my entry.

 

[Chaosy]

I would watch all the entries but the 5 min limit prevents them from being my cup of tea.
Congratulations either way.

 

[Radicool]

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to the judges for devoting your time to running this contest. I appreciate the feedback you shared.

 

[Loner-Magixxar]

Congratulations to AP and Tickles. Yeah my work was (super) rushed. Almost the last 3 and half minutes of my cinematic were finished in the last day. I cut corners dramatically and it had its consequences. My cinematic didn't come out as what I wanted it to be. It was the third contest which I couldn't make it on time. I definitely learned a lot, though.
But to be honest, personally I don't think that my cinematic deserved to be in the last place.
I won't take part in another cinematic contest, because this contest proved me that I don't have what it takes. I had some plans and this contest ruined it all. I'm sorry, but I'm leaving hive! I updated my "The Eternity's End" campaign. Hope some people enjoyed it. Bye to all hive members. It was a pleasure meeting all of you guys. Take care

 

[FireTiger]

Congrats!!

 

[Radicool]

But to be honest, personally I don't think that my cinematic deserved to be in the last place.

I think you've misunderstood. I don't think the cinematics were ordered (except for 1st, 2nd and 3rd). The judges provided feedback, but no rating or placement to my understanding.

 

[APproject]

You should not leave, Loner. You did well and you did learn a lot as you said yourself, why would you let go all of this? But if WC3 modding is ruining your IRL plans, I can see your point, no one can judge your decision.

As for the placement, only top 3 has been ranked, rest has no order, unless of course you are saying that judges granted DatnessX a 4th place, which is obviously not the case.

 

[iNfraNe]

But to be honest, personally I don't think that my cinematic deserved to be in the last place.
I won't take part in another cinematic contest, because this contest proved me that I don't have what it takes. I had some plans and this contest ruined it all.

You misunderstood. Your cine was close to the top ones. You did a very good job, as we clearly listed in the comments I believe. I'll quote myself

Overall I liked this cinematic very much, but just didn't make it to the top.

Only the 3rd 2nd and 1st place are displayed in order.

I even feel that you very closely listened to our comments in the original thread. You were just beat by (imho) better cinematics. This doesn't at all mean that you should stop trying.

Anyway, thank you for competing and delivering quality material!

 

[Ralle]

It was a great pleasure participating in this contest. I did not expect so many entries as well, I thought 5 entries would be already a miracle. In overall, it was invaluable experience and I would surely participate once again even if there were no prizes.

It is an honor to belong to this community, therefore I can not let my frontal cortex not to take over, for that I share my award with the community. I already contacted Ralle about it and if it Sponsors will allow it, I will donate 50$ for the Hive and share 50$ with Tickles for taking the second place and 50$ with DivineArms who did this amazing voice acting for free and improved the overal quality of my entry.

This is amazing. I just contacted Tickles to ask what to do with the award. He/she replied back saying that the money should be donated to Hive.

This leaves us with:
$100 donation for Hive and $50 for the voice actor DivineArms. You guys are generous. Thank you

 

[Vengeancekael]

D'aw, that's actually a really sweet gesture. Kudos to the both of you!

 

[Duke]

APprojects and Tickels cinematics were really great, but for me The prince of Rhoswen is the winner, it had really great atmosphere.

It is awesome what you guys can do with the editor.

 

[Eat_Bacon_Daily]

Such great cinematic and such great community! Congrats!

 

[Kristopher]

Tickles took the cake for me, but congratulations AP and others!

I agree.

 

[leventopoulo]

Hey Loner-Magixxar are you crazy? Dude! I loved your cinematic. And the judges didn't mean that your cinematic was at the last place. (That would mean that resident evil was 4th - seriously..)
Everyone did a great job. Congratulations winners, can't wait for the next cinematic contest.

(oh and love you DatnessX )

 

[Veritas 117]

These cinematics were pretty amazing. APproject's was my favorite because somehow I missed Tickles' cinematic. When I watched it though I have to say it got me right in the feels. Extraordinarily well done and touching. The different routes people took with their cinematics was pretty amazing.

Well done everyone.