NEW Episode Skateboarding 'ZEY THE MOUSE' Episode 6 'The New Friend'.

**ianharding** · 05-20-2019, 02:27 AM

Hi, all Hope your all well?

I would like to share this 5 minute brand new episode of Zey The Mouse and Friends

Lots of Graffiti, and skateboarding tricks, ramps etc, Zey and Peter make a new friend called Malek Mouse

I really enjoyed making this episode, was a new challenge and some new methods achieved!

Hope you enjoy?

**TimStannard** · 05-20-2019, 03:23 PM

At last! Another episode of Zey!
Animation is very smooooooth now. I'd like to see a little more. I know it's very time consuming, but there are several still shots here which have always been used in this sort of animation as it saves a whole lot of time, but small movements instead of still would make this different from the pack.

I do think editing could be tighter - it's a bit Character A says something...pause....character B says something. You could save a lot of time as by getting rid of these pauses you don't need to shoot so many frames.
Do you record the sound first? If not, I suggest you do. Then you can accurately work out how many frames you need to shoot for each line.

Also, I know we've mentioned sound before, but here the voice is (a) too quiet in relation to the music and (b) sounds a bit like it's been recorded in a bathroom. Turn it up and speak closer to the mic! This is the easy bit compared to the set construction and animation so it's worth investing a bit more time to get it right.

**ianharding** · 05-20-2019, 03:47 PM

Hi, Tim, great to hear from you, and thank you for taking time to watch zey's new episode, i always value
your comments and feedback, i did put more frames in for different movements, and there were some spots
in the film where i could have tightened between characters speaking.

This was a very complex and deeply challenging process to make, an extreme amount of attention and concentration

Us the team are very happy with the overall production, as achieved many scenes that may not have happened

In the next episode i will look at these thing's like voice recording to mic etc, and other thing's

Regards

Ian

**Grapes** · 05-20-2019, 05:22 PM

Snap, I forgot to log in and now Tim has mentioned more or less all I was going to mention as well. I copied my reply before logging in again so like I said Tim has covered most aspects already but here's my initial comment that I intended to post this morning:

"Awesome! I really love the set. Maybe you can use it again a few times in the future. It would be a shame if it would be a one time use only sort of affair.
Also loved the ZEY drawing during the credit roll at the end.

Some feedback for the next one: Try adding some sort of background music or some atmosphere sound. The whole thing feels kind of empty when no one's talking or performing actions. The voice overs sounded kind of tinny. I suspect you can do a lot better and I'm sure this forum can give you all the advice you need to improve on that. We're always here to help, that's what this forum is about (or at least that's how it feels to me)

."

**ianharding** · 05-20-2019, 10:36 PM

Thank you grapes! very appreciated, in the next episode it will be based around 'Halloween', a big haunted house, with a revolving
set and inside rooms, and will be buying a smoke machine and have lightning effects and hopefully more music for next year October 2020!

**enc** · 05-22-2019, 06:03 PM

well, you seem to have perfected your lighting .. no dips in exposure! but as it has been mentioned in your previous videos, the audio needs work. this one imparticular the music is much louder than the speaking parts. the speaking parts sound too 'roomy' you need to get closer to the mic when recording the voice actors. also as tim mentioned the action needs a bit of pep i don't mean like a Stephen Segal film these animations are aimed at young children after all but a tighter edit would give a much more professional look to this series.

**ianharding** · 05-22-2019, 06:53 PM

will have to look at improving thing's for next episode, as it's called 'Halloween'

look at sound, and buy a smoke machine for spooky effects, and make a big
Haunted House.

**Grapes** · 05-23-2019, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by ianharding

buy a smoke machine

real time smoke movement + stop motion animation? That sounds like a challenge! Looking forward to the result

**ianharding** · 05-25-2019, 07:14 PM

My work is becoming an embarassment, and disappointing.

**enc** · 05-25-2019, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by ianharding

My work is becoming an embarassment, and disappointing.

it isn't a personal attack, People are offereing CONSTRUCTIVE critisism so that you may improve... how could possibly improve if everybody just came along and said wow, amazing work, that's fantastic... incredible.
The same issues have been pointed out on a number of occasions (check your previous threads) unfortunately you don't appear to have taken on board those suggestions.

you obviously put an incredible amount of time into the animations. and the series is obviously vey close to your heart but by taking onboard what people here are suggesting it could be so much more.

Out of interest, how were the voices recorded in this latest episode?