The upside down tree (non-entry)

[Marj Atkins]

Due to hectic family commitments I only managed to finish this yesterday – way past its sell-by-date I know.

The idea of filming my hand drawing this story proved to be a technical nightmare basically because I did not have a cooking clue as to what was involved before I started.

This was a huge learning curve for me as the technical niceties of this had to be worked out bit by bit by trial and error. Consequently the final result is full of anomalies and obvious mistakes but it served no purpose to start from the beginning again which is what would be involved to sort out these problems.

In an effort to speed things up I shortened this story a bit. So . . . for all its worth .

The upside down tree on Vimeo

[Allan Black]

Marj, what do you mean 'past its sell by date' I bought it, nice work :)

You could use your experience and produce stories for kids on line.

Happy new year.
Cheers.

[LeRoy Gunderson]

WOW!

What a remarkable piece. Extremely well done.

I showed it to my grand kids and they were spellbound by the drawing and the story. That is not an easy feat to capture the attention of a 13 and 16 year old kid.

Have a Great New Year!

[Marj Atkins]

Thanks Allen – this one gave me a real headache but I have learnt what not to do! Not so sure I want to rush into another one of these in too much of a hurry though – very time-consuming.

I illustrated a children’s’ book once and was so bored with repeatedly coloring yellow teddy bear fur that by the time I had finished I decided it was definitely not my scene. I guess, however, that doing it this way one could cut and paste which is not nearly as tedious!

I am sorry I could not use After Effects ‘cartoon’ and ‘stroke’ effects for a lot of this which would have made the task much easier, but for this Challenge it had to be video.

Thanks for the positive feedback LeRoy – definitely useful to know what approach appeals to the younger generation!

[Kevin Railsback]

Wow Marj!
Without a doubt one of the most time consuming and technical films we've had.

You are always the master storyteller so when I saw your post this morning, I knew I was in for a treat.

These types of films are huge right now with Internet marketers and I easily get bored waiting for the pitch to end. Not so with this. The pace was spot on. Not too slow that I was waiting for the next image to be drawn but not so fast that the words were lost.

You have the amazing ability to come at these themes differently every time. While I'm pretty much a one trick pony, you always come up with a unique take on the theme while still giving your work the Marj treatment of compelling story and impeccable imagery.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Marj,
You keep impressing with your creativity and video skills. I agree with what has been said already.

This was really cool and at the same time educational.
Thank you for teaching me something new from your part of the world.

[Bill Thesken]

Marj, very excellent work!
Green screen, time lapse?
Precise drawing, we all had fun watching it.
The story with the the English accent, outstanding!

[Marj Atkins]

I logged on hoping to find the winners of this challenge by now . . . . looks like we will have to send out a search party!

Thanks for all your positive feedback.

Kevin. I like to use these challenges to try out different things however, if things don't quite work I sit with a problem! I entered this challenge because I felt like doing something “fun and entertaining” as Lorinda put it – even had the perfect “fun” music – but wow what a subject. I was stymied. This was the hardest theme to date. Had to make a plan.

Bill - yes the drawings were done on green paper so I could add the colour afterwards. I should have used a ring light for this to get a cleaner image. Big learning curve this one.

[Tom More]

Marj that was wonderful and worth all the time you spent. Interesting story, fantastic drawing, and excellent use of transitions kept me engaged every second so I wouldn't miss what was coming next. Thanks! With the feedback you've gotten the search party may be coming to find you:-)

[Shaun Roemich]

I'm absolutely stunned...

[Marj Atkins]

Thanks so much for your encouraging feedback Tom - helps a lot.

Shaun coming from a DVinfo guru and professional like you I take that small comment as a huge compliment! Thank you.

[Kevin Railsback]

I never would have guessed that this was basically a greenscreen shot!
I was trying to figure out how you drew that and then matched it up to be colored.

This is certainly a one of a kind film!

[Marj Atkins]

Using a green screen is the solution I ended up with after trial and error. However the coloring is certainly not how I visualized it. I wanted to do subtle ink reveals but just ran out of time and ended up using the colors from my final drawing.

I have to add that I appreciate the fact that everyone here has very kindly avoided mentioning the huge technical flaws in this. I am fully aware of them!!

[Lorinda Norton]

What huge technical flaws? (You don't have to answer that.)

Marj, I almost don't know what to say about this piece; it's so fascinating and so well done it pretty much boggles my mind each time I watch it. I would love to see a breakdown of this--a kind of behind-the-scenes look at how you accomplished such a feat. You are an incredibly talented person. Thank you for showing us another dimension to your talent.

[Marj Atkins]

Thanks for you kind words Lorinda!

Unfortunately a breakdown of this won’t be easy. Because this film was an experiment from beginning to end, I did a lot of hacking around to try and make things work so the workflow was overly complicated and convoluted. There is a lot of inconsistency due to the fact that I tried different fixes for different bits of the story so I am not sure I would even know where to begin to explain my clunky processes.

Thank you for all your hard work behind the scenes on our behalf Lorinda and for giving of your valuable time to provide such insightful feedback on each and every the film that is submitted for these challenges.

Marj