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CircuitDruid — Puka - Update, ATOM Finalist
Published: 2009-11-12 03:13:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 3399; Favourites: 14; Downloads: 66
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Description
Uptade *sorry but Im changing hosting, and this site may not appear untill the dns cashes refresh! sorry people for the downtime.
Direct Link: [link]
Update!* Now a finalist for this years ATOM award for best tertiarty animation [link]
I just got the letter telling me, I'm so exited! wheeee!
What ? this is not an animation? no the animation is here [link]
animation is 11.8k kb download roughly. its also a little performance heavy, so if your using a really old machine, you might want to turn off some stuff first.
There is a few reasons I'm not posting this animation directly to DA
for one thing its dynamic, and needs to access the sql server to work properly. it might work from da, but I'm not sure what their policy is on the matter. I assure you its safe, but I don't want to be chewed out for a technicality.
for another thing, I spent all that effort making it look presentable, all the green would spoil it
link goes straight to the animation, so go have a look eh? then pop back and leave me a nice comment ^.^
oh and thank you massively to Jessica for writing the music for me. its perfect. feel free to leave her praise as well, ill make sure she sees it.
Related content
Comments: 51
oh!!!!
I can't see it!
it's not loading, o I wish to see it so badly~
I can't find it through the link...what can I do?
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oh man, no its not. Thanks, Ill try to get this back up soon
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Can you send me the link again? I'm not able to pull up the page...
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i am afraid the site is currently down.. again. Ill repost the link when i have the cash for a working server agian
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....Wow, I can't even begin to describe how amazing I thought this was. I love the perspectives and 2D/3D mixed feel it had to it, and with the music it just made it beyond skilled. The story behind it has an interesting take within your animation, very well done, just awesome.
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I love this! It's great 
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were telling her she should do some recording too, she has a fantastic voice. hopefully one day she'll release some of her stuff
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Indeed! It would be awesome
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this is absolutely beautiful. the combination of the mood in the animation and the score was enough to honestly bring me to tears. i adore this, and I have to know more about it. what inspired it? what's the underlying story?
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Ok, sorry for the delayed response, but I've been pressed for time and wanted to answer you properly.
For starters the music is all Jessica. I told her what I was doing, gave her a short copy of the project documentation I had written up and she took it from there. It's just phenomenal, I almost cried at having to chop it up, and I cringe every time I hear it break when the flash timing slows a little.
As to what inspired it, it saw a project I had to complete, so I kind of crafted something that would be fun and interesting to do, but also has a story I could tell through image. And without dialog, because it made things simpler which gave me more time to work on details.
The underlying story, as I had to write up before I started, was that of a young girl moving into a new environment (shes moving house, hence the car and boxes), one that's very threateningly different.
There's a common myth about pukka luring innocents and taking them on long crazy rides until they fall off halfway across the world and can no longer get home.
So her meeting the mythical pukka is parallel with the change in her life. But unlike the poor victims in the myth she holds on tight, even when it gets frighting and dangerous and takes her far away completely beyond her control.
She finally takes initiative and decides and decides to fling herself off, to take danger on her own terms and control of her direction.
Of course in every good fairy story if you manage to best the fey you usually get a magic present, or power over the creature. In this case she got both; she looks up and shes back home, and she has also control over the monster and so also her 'metaphorical direction in life'. She's visualy changed, and so how we perceive the environment. The house and the strange forest is smaller and nonthreatening, and the whole world looks broader.
So its kind of a metaphor about growing through difficult and alienating experiences, and how we grow when we meet new challenges. I like to think its the kind of thing that most people can relate to.
There, I hope that was the answer you were looking for 
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don't worry about the delay. i appreciate that you took the time to give me a full and properly detailed answer. and no it's not too long winded. i think i would honestly love to get a copy of the score. it really is that beautiful.
it's a great story. is there any way to see it all with the different possable outcomes? like, because there are so many points for choosing, i assume it changes. really though, i do love this. i think i've watched it a dozen times already
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hehe theres the real tricky bit; It 'does' change, but not the outcome. The choices you make acctualy affect visual elements of the animation live. So your affecting how the whole animation looks, not just for yourself, but for everyone else who looks at it. In real time.
Tis called messing with peoples heads in the name of art! gahahaha
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lol awesome. am i gonna have to go back and watch it again? not that i mind but i haven't noticed any changes. are they subtle or significant?
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quite subtle, and they get more subtle the more people go through it. youd be better off coming back in a few months and seing whats different, prehaps the ravens will have come out by then
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lol oh really? so then things like the ant and the crow are the effects of others watching it?
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the ant is static, but you can see the crow? sweet im glad thats showing again I put allot of work into him
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cool. yea last time i watched it the crow took off wen they came onto that path. the amount of effort you put into the whole animation is pretty obvious. though... there are some points where it might use improvement. tiny bits like it looks flat in places as they run or parts of the motions of the horse. but all in all it really is a fantastic piece.
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I know the bits you mean exactly, I call them 'I ran out of time' bits ^.^
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lol well yea, but you always want to improve for next time.
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Adorable and wonderful and amazing animation! I only went down one '
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hehe there are no paths, the buttons actually do something else, there's a clue in the poem at the beginning if you can work it out...
glad you like it though ^.^
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*runs off to work out the poem and try the other paths*
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I am truly amazed. I loved it from the very first moment. The soundtrack gives me goosebumps, so beautiful. It's truly amazing and you did a great job.
Well done, is all I can say, very well done.
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Wonderful animation and I love the song.
I'm really impressed.
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Wow - lots of work in that, and it was all worth it
I particularly liked the Puka's entrance and disappearance transitions, and the very subtle foreground detail (the ant on the blown leaf, the peasant shifting stance) and the whole feeling of dynamism from compression and extension of the puka. Very animal, very engaging, very powerful.
Little wheels inside leaves at beginning.... very nice. I love spinning things!
Well done. Very well done.
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I do too
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I am blown away..
I always knew you were talented, but this surpasses anything I have seen you do in 12 years. There must be some comps you can eneter it into to get your name out there more, especially amongst people who will pay you realistic amounts of money for what you do.
Mega-glomps, zomg and kudos to you. You're insanely talented. 
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Not bad, not bad at all! I love the "choose your own story" aspect of this.
All I can constructively say is.. don't be afraid to draw more frames for your characters. There's no shame in making a tween looking less like a tween and more like a frame by frame.
Though the tweening seemed uniquely suitable for the horse (especially it's dark silouette, as you can barely see the tween joints) I feel like the girl could've had a lot more solid drawings to portray a bit more emotion in her face. I saw a variation of 4-5 different faces the whole animation.. and it's tough to relate/feel emotion with that.
But that said, a very fine piece. I really do hope to see more. And yes, the music very well done, and well looped.
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personally I agree with you. unfortunately for this project I was severely limited in the time-frame. it had to be finished by this week.
however if or when I do more personal animation in the future I'll take all the time I need ^.^
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eeer more than one week ><' allot more than one week. the php coding alone took 3
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Yes'm, that's damn excellent for just one week. I'm dazzled!
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Are there words for this? It's insanly amazing! I can't imagine how long it took for you to finish all the bits and peices. Did you have to draw and color nearly every panel? Or is a there amagic program that lightens that load?
Either way, it's amazing. I bow to your insane skill.
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flash 
still, took me around 6 months
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Oh wow, it's a very pretty animation and I LOVE the song. I want to play it so bad! It's absolutely gorgeous ^^
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tis isn't it ^.^I'm afraid I wont make it available for download, out of respect for the composer.
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a puka is one of those water spirits that drowns you if you're not careful, right?
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those are kelpies I believe, but the two myths are closely related ^.^
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