Winner of Hive's Cinematic Contest #6

[Archian]

"The Struggle" by APproject!

APproject has earned the prize of $150, 100 reputation points & an award icon for his outstanding work!

Congratulations!

Special thanks to the contest sponsors The World Is Flat, Shar Dundred and Shain Dundred for providing the amazing monetary award.

Also, thanks to everyone who participated in this contest! You guys sure made this an interesting competition with such great entries
You can view the other submitted cinematics: Here!

Download the winning cinematic and watch it here!
Or view it on YouTube:

Here's what the contest judges, Anitarf and iNfraNe had to say about "The Struggle":

Anitarf:

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:

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!

 

[Avahor]

OMG, congratulations!!!.
what a theme, the black death sign!, very stunning

 

[PurgeandFire]

Congratulations! I can't wait to give all the entries a watch.

 

[Wasabee]

Congratulations APproject!

 

[APproject]

It is pleasure to be on the front page, thank you guys for all of this.

I can't wait to give all the entries a watch.

It sure is worth it.

 

[Archian]

I'm hoping that our new upcoming contest (soon to be made public) will receive as much activity and entries just as awesome like our 6th Cinematic Contest

 

[sentrywiz]

Congratulations.

Wow that opening. The cool necromancer-like voice in the beginning was awesome.
Not sure if you made it or taken it, but you fit it well. Until the
scene where they throw corpses onto the wagon, I was blown away.

The voice and the look of the human male npc totally gave me a WoW
quest-like feeling, no not the whole "kill 10 rats" kind of quest, but the
cinematic like quests when a new expansion comes out, only less quality
which is totally expected.


Not sure if you want my critique, I'll give it anyway:

My immersion was broken by two voices. The voice of the woman
lying in bed felt so like being read from a script.
Like you-wake-her-up-in-3am-and-force-her-to-read-a-script kind of voice.

Also the plague doctor's crying felt forced. I can't explain it. It wasn't as good
as the woman crying after her husband? dragged away sort of crying.

Overall 8/10 from me, loved it. Well deserved

 

[SpasMaster]

Truly a well deserved prize! To this very moment I look at that cinematic filled with puzzlement as to how certain aspects of it were done... Your talent is unquestionable, well done and congratulations!

 

[Vidovit]

Congratulations!

 

[Sclammerz]

Congratulations, APproject! Truly remarkable, I must say.

 

[FireTiger]

Congrats!

 

[Orcnet]

I salute you!

 

[Xarwin]

Well deserved!

 

[BlackEnvyX]

Easily the most deserving cinematic for the award this contest.

 

[WhiteFang]

I'm still trying to figure out how is even possible to make a cinematic like The Struggle.

 

[Dr Super Good]

I cannot help but wonder if he won it purely because of the skintly-clad character model that was shown at one point.

 

[WhiteFang]

I highly doubt that.Why do you ask,because it's well known that nudity in games,movies etc 'sells' or do you disagree with the verdict?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Special thanks to the contest sponsors The World Is Flat, Shar Dundred and Shain Dundred for providing the amazing monetary award.

Broken URL (http://shain dundred). Should probably be http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/members/shain+dundred/.

I highly doubt that.Why do you ask,because it's well known that nudity in games,movies etc 'sells' or do you disagree with the verdict?

I personally do not care. However it can raise issues. For example, does YouTube permit such imagery without an age check?

 

[APproject]

Nudity content has been approved by Archian and it was deemed as non-sexual, that's why I did no warnings about it and did not apply age check, I can however if YouTube would insist.

As for the winning, it would be sad if it won purely just because of nudity content, which I highly doubt, since the Judges didn't make even a slightlest remark about it, surely it was not even taken into consideration judging from their reviews. They are professionals and there is no way that they would get lured by this cheap bait of nudity, it was just for the effects, it was not the cinematic itself.

 

[Kam]

Nudity content has been approved by Archian and it was deemed as non-sexual, that's why I did no warnings about it and did not apply age check, I can however if YouTube would insist.

As for the winning, it would be sad if it won purely just because of nudity content, which I highly doubt, since the Judges didn't make even a slightlest remark about it, surely it was not even taken into consideration judging from their reviews. They are professionals and there is no way that they would get lured by this cheap bait of nudity, it was just for the effects, it was not the cinematic itself.

Outstanding job on this. How did you decide on such a dark subject matter? The nudity is a non-issue.

 

[fladdermasken]

Nudity content has been approved by Archian.

Signature material up for grabs if you're feeling feisty.

 

[APproject]

Outstanding job on this. How did you decide on such a dark subject matter? The nudity is a non-issue.

Thanks, Kam. Well, I was always fascinated by the mystery and the beauty of those plague doctor masks, so I wanted to have this in the context, so I started reading up about it and soon I started developing the very first bits.

Signature material up for grabs if you're feeling feisty.

Nudity in this cinematic is very brief, it is about 6 seconds and you forget about it, while it might get disturbing scrolling down the forum and seeing same and same nudity content for minutes or hours. Also you see the cinematic most likely just once and throw it away. I also have seen sexual content in the signatures of Hive members before, not nudity content, but sexual one, yet no one cares.

 

[Chaosy]

yet no one cares.

Except that two guys kissing picture which many complained about.
But the staff went: "FU it's alllowed."

 

[leventopoulo]

Guys I'm really happy that this cinematic contest had so many people interested. Great contestants. I'm looking forward for the 7th contest

 

[Silva]

Daaaaaamn. Well deserved, APproject.

 

[BlackEnvyX]

I cannot help but wonder if he won it purely because of the skintly-clad character model that was shown at one point.

Remember how in the 1980s in the US, a bare breasted woman could be shown in a PG film?
Let's go back to that and stop making a big deal about nudity.
Not trying to be hostile, I just can't stand when people make a big deal about something as natural as the human body.

In my eyes, he won because his cinematic had the best aesthetic and pushed the editor to its technological limits.