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"Remember When..." Video Post-Mortem + Behind the Scenes
🕑 Added 2023-09-14 05:48:50 +0000 UTCHi! I was a bit busy today (both life stuff and Doodley stuff) so today's just a bunch of behind the scenes and writing.
I wanted to reflect on the last video a bit and have a think about it. It's mostly just for me, but figured it would also be interesting on your guys' end to see the process. If you haven't watched the latest video, you can find it HERE.
Post-Mortem
Post-mortems are useful to figure out what went right and what went wrong. Often, you'd do these after shipping a project, like a game or film. This is that!
Summary
So, why did I want to make this video?
In my video ideas shortlist, I've had this written down:
This is actually on my older shortlist, so I must've wrote it down sometime before the channel even started.
I've always been kind of obsessed with this weird trend, especially because I grew up noticing it and being annoyed by it, so I always knew I'd make a video about it sometime. When I actually decided to do it was when I realized I could compare certain films to a modern, fully-animated reboot.
After going full-time, I wanted to start with something I knew would do well so the transition was less scary. The rigging video (which is up next) is my top priority and gets at the heart of what I'm passionate about, but it's not as "safe." This video was a good contender from the shortlist for a simpler, easier to make video.
This video was intended to be closer to the vein of the Choppy Animation video -- something more fun to watch that can appeal to a wider audience who then may discover what I love about animation specifically through my other videos.
That said, I don't intend on videos like these to become the norm, which will be obvious as you continue on.
What Was Successful
- Editing: I've received a lot of comments that said the editing has improved, which is nice. I wasn't really trying to consciously improve anything specific, but I did want to try new things, so it's nice to know it worked!
- Comedy: I've pretty proud of the jokes and moments in this video. A lot of them came through in editing rather than being planned out. I wasn't happy with certain jokes as written in my script, so I tried to see if I could come up with some that didn't require voice over. This ended up with some of the jokes I'm most proud of, like the various segues between films.
- Animation: I intentionally pushed Doodley's expressions a bit more in this video, and used his eyebrows more. People noticed this, which was nice. I want to introduce more and more new elements to Doodley's rig and animation, so it's not just the same hand waving over and over.
- Narration Style: I think the pacing and narration/dictation in this video is fairly solid. It feels like it's pretty good at holding attention. Whenever I do feel the need to make videos like this, I want them to be in the vein of some video essay-types that I watch, and I believe this is the closest I've been to that style.
What Was Unsuccessful
- Script: I'm not super happy with my script in this video and had to re-write, add, and remove sections very often. The outro of the video was completely redone from what I originally intended. I also moved from script to voice over very very quickly as I was testing how how fast I could make a video while full-time. But this ended up slowing me down and creating a weaker script that meanders. I believe the exact same thing happened with my Choppy Animation video, but I think I pushed that thought aside since that video was successful.
- Underestimating Difficulty: In my head I tend to think videos like these are easier to make than my tutorial/educational videos, but I no longer think this is the case. This is the 2nd video of this type that ended up being more difficult than expected. I'm still trying to figure out why -- it may be because I don't have as strong of a vision going into it, and maybe am less passionate about getting it done. It also may be because it requires me to prepare more assets in several different programs, rather than just animate everything straight through in Maya, which I'm much quicker at.
- Lack of Uniqueness: Maybe this is me being harsh on myself, but I don't think this video is as unique when compared to my other videos, and resembles more of "standard" Youtube fare. I realize that my own personal bar is set way higher than what most people watch, but it's still something I want to meet.
- Actual Video Success: The response to this video feels more muted than before. Perhaps it's just me, but I think the public response reflects how I feel about it. I want my passion to show through, and I think the more muted response reflects the ulterior motives I had for this video and don't feel as strongly about it as I usually do. Call it consequences!
- Focus on the Negative: This video is pretty negative. I try to be as honest as possible in my videos (as in, not overly positive for the sake of positivity -- you are always hearing how I genuinely think about things) and keep my feedback and thoughts fair, but I should have spent more time on things in the same lane that I thought worked. For example, I had a small section on the live action adaptations I liked, and why I thought they worked, but it was cut so I could wrap the video up. I think that would have made some of my criticism seem less harsh. (You'll see some of this in the behind the scenes later in this post.)
What To Do Next
Am I proud of this video? Sort of, but not as much as I usually am. I like aspects of it, but there's a part of me that almost shelved this video halfway through, and I believe the video's actual metrics after releasing are reflective of how I feel. Good, but not great.
I think my initial template for analysis videos was successful, and I want to return to that. That is, videos like the Henry Selick one.
(I realize it's a little silly because there's only one video like that on the channel and it was only my 2nd video ever, but bear with me, I had like 3 more planned before I got sidetracked.)
There's a stronger sense of identity and purpose to doing an analysis video in that template, and I end up being prouder of the end result. This means stuff like:
- Costumes
- Spending more time on script
- Visual "narratives" throughout the video
- Props
- A focus on behind the scenes and the artists behind the work
- More positivity
In all, while I do think some of the improvements in my editing, comedy, and animation will be used in future videos, I will likely not make another video in this same vein. I want to do more positive, artist-focused videos with a slight educational slant. So expect more of that!
Behind the Scenes and Fun Facts
"Business Guy" Placeholder
I originally planned for this moment to be 2D animated, similar to other videos. I drew this little business dude placeholder for later.
I ended up using Suit Doodley instead since I felt like it was funnier, and I realized it's fun to see Doodley in new roles when a narrative calls for it. It's kind of like a sketch comedy -- I wanna do it more often than some of the generic characters my videos sometimes have.
It still tickles me that I gave this suit Saul Goodman colors as a placeholder, but it just ended up sticking because I love the color combo too much.
"Fingered Citron" DnB version
Jayfoo originally wrote this track with drum n' bass, but realized it'd probably be too intense for the video. But when he showed me this version, I realized it'd be perfect for the "Madness" meter joke in the Garfield section, so I asked him to keep that version seperate while continuing with the new one. I think it adds a lot, and it's cool I got to use both in the same section!
Madness Meter
Speaking of, I recreated the Madness meter from Elden ring by taking a high resolution screenshot and manually recreated a few elements. They were separated on layers, and I masked out the end of the bar to fill up while the tick at the end was animated to follow it. It was actually easier than expected.
Gustaf Poster
You can't see it in the final video, but I actually am holding the "Gustaf" version of the poster in the animation. I originally intended for him to turn around and show it, but the timing didn't work out.
I don't know why I did this joke. I just thought "Gustaf" sounded really funny.
"Rotten" Music Track
Speaking of music, the track that plays briefly during the Yogi Bear joke is actually called "Rotten" and is displayed in Wingdings to be edgy.
It's meant to resemble the "chase" music from Ao Oni, which I used as a scratch track before asking Jayfoo to make his own version for me.
Scrapped Yogi Bear Throw
I was originally going to "throw" Yogi into the poster, but scrapped it. The timing didn't end up working out and it was a complex movement to do in 3D anyways. (Animating rotations cleanly around like that, keeping it towards the camera and having Doodley's arms visible behind his head, is a much more complex motion than you'd think.)
I had a placeholder where the PNG just zipped into the poster, and that ended up looking good enough that it just made it into the final video.
TMNT Movies Section
This was a pretty complicated section to edit correctly, and tended to make my computer chug, but I like the visual a lot. I had to edit each "ribbon" to make sure a Turtle was in frame at all times -- usually I had move the camera between cuts.
I wanted to show a very wide bevy of approaches to adaptations, but wanted to do it within the same franchise to more closely show the difference between those films. TMNT ended up being a good example, especially having something recently released.
Script Changes
This gigantic text-heavy section probably won't get read, but what the hay. Let's treat it as a way to document my process! If you read it, you're a real one.
As mentioned in the Post Mortem, this video has a stupid amount of script changes. I also removed an entire section at the end when I realized it would add several more minutes to an already long-ish video. (Well, long to me. A few people called this video short!)
This isn't all the script changes, just the major ones that made it to a voice over but were either changed or scrapped.
I originally started the video like this, but felt like some people would take the disappearance of 2D animation during this time as a good thing, so I changed it.:
If you grew up in the 2000s like me, you inevitably grew up with the rise of 3D and CGI in film and the waning of 2D animation as a result.
I also added a section about Mutant Mayhem but removed it to get to the purpose of the video more quickly.
With the release of TMNT Mutant Mayhem, I was thinking about how good 3D animation has been getting in recent years, but also thinking how far we’ve come since the 2000’s.
The brief history on 3D animation within CGI originally described the process differently and has a note about what makes live action adaptations work, in my opinion. This was transformed into the brief note at the end of the released video about good live adaptations.
This was where The Flinstones live action adaptation was meant to be shown, as I like how that film looks even if it's not very good. I do wish I added a section about that, as it would have shown that I think live action adaptations can work, but shouldn't be done like the films I showed in the video.
Before the 2000’s, if you wanted to make a live action film based on an animated property, you either A.) used costumes and puppets, or B.) if the characters were all human, you just have actors portray them. And sometimes you get both!
This was its own little trend in the 80’s and 90’s, but it didn’t really do as well as the trend we’re here to talk about. But I don’t think the concept of creating a live action adaptation of an animated series is a bad one, you just have to pick something that will work and do it right – the worst examples are immediately unrecognizable because they throw out everything charming about the character in an effort to be as realistic as possible, while the best examples embrace what makes the animated series fun and silly. The result can often be kind of campy and fun to watch – it’s a way better approach than taking yourself as seriously as possible, I think.
This was the big one, where I removed a section entirely about the Disney live action remakes. I could probably make a video about the remakes on their own someday, but I don't plan to for a long time.
Okay, I can’t close out this video without talking about the Disney live action remakes, can I?
I haven’t personally watched any of these films*, I just don’t have any interest in them, but yeah they really take everything that works about the original and toss them completely out the window for the sake of realism.
Much smarter people than me have done tons of videos about these films, so I’m not interested in going too deep into them. But I do want to present to you an idea, something you’ve probably never considered.
All the films and characters in this video have a direct comparison to a more recent, stylized 3D rendition of those characters. They all received new films or appearances that try to more faithfully recreate their original art styles but with modern technology, and I think on the whole that’s a better approach than trying to make them as realistic as possible.
Now I love 2D animation as much as the next person, and if I had the choice, I would much rather they opt for an approach like Klaus and mix traditional 2D animation with modern rendering and technology. People have been asking for that since Paperman. But I can’t help but think, with how much money they pour into these live action remakes, why have we never seen any stylized 3D remakes from them?
I’m not suggesting any of these films need an update, I don’t have the mindset that 2D animation is outdated or anything. 2D animation is a timeless medium with films that haven’t aged a day compared to some of the films from earlier in this video that are aging badly at barely 20 years old.
But I feel like revisiting some of these films in 3D could be super fascinating, and it’s something I’m personally really interested in. Obviously you’ve got Kingdom Hearts, you’ve got Wreck-It Ralph 2, all that stuff. It has happened before, and people seem to really like those 3D versions of these characters.
But for some reason, the thought of a 3D remake over a live action one never seems to cross their mind. It’s not a bad thing, you know, I’d rather them make new IPs like they’ve been doing, but if I had to choose between the soulless live action remakes and a 3D remake, I’d choose the 3D remake. I don’t know. Am I crazy for thinking this? Am I going to get roasted for ending the video on this?
Like, yeah, I know they’re following the money with the live action remakes, they make money hand over fist. I get why they’re making them. But will people care about those in 10 years? 20? Does anyone talk about Cinderella? Am I going crazy?
I’ve felt this way ever since I played Kingdom Hearts as a kid. I even remember thinking, whenever Paperman played before Wreck-It Ralph, everyone was like “oh man Disney’s cooking up a really cool mix of 2D and 3D in their films” and then they just…never used it?
(It ends abruptly because I realized this section was getting too long.)
*Note this section about how I haven't watched any of these films. I haven't, because they don't interest me. But, I think if I did make this video, I'd probably make it about watching every single Disney live-action remake, and giving my thoughts on the era/ranking them/whatever. Especially now that they're on a downtrend and will probably stop happening eventually, that may be an angle I explore someday.
Sorry for the big wall of text at the end. Hopefully you found all that interesting. Thank you as always!
