The Story of Sintel:
Plot
Sintel was a very young redheaded girl. She was homeless and alone until she first saw a baby dragon injured in the dirty streets. Being a kind soul, she takes in the little infant, cares for his injuries, and become very close that she gives him the name of Scales. But one day, when the tiny hatchling was flying on his newly healed wings, a large, unidentified dragon swooped in and kidnapped Scales, leaving Sintel determined to find him and bring him home. Her journey leads her into the cold mountains, deep into dragon territory. There she hopes to be reunited with her long lost companion.Sintel. Blender Foundation, 2010. Film.
Design/ Focus
Sintel's art style is a 3-D animated movie created in Blender, with detailed features on the main cast, while some of the background characters don't seem to have as much development. An example of this is when Sintel was fighting a thief near the beginning of the animation, her movement just seemed more fluid to me than her adversary. The backgrounds seem to be animated in 3-D as well, unlike some animations in 3-D that I've seen. My Maya animations looked to have similar shadows with the lights like they were. However, the facial features on the humans seem similar to Maya's as well. They weren't flawless, but well made for an independent film made by recent college graduates. Some of the fight scenes at the end, between Sintel and a dragon, weren't as smooth as some of the other fights. But the story endured, and seemed beautiful on its own.Reviewing Sintel
The emotions of story itself was enduring, at times peaceful, cute, and even a tiny bit tender. But the personalities from the main characters was there in all its beautifully rendered glory. The design for all of them were fantastic and their movement so varied and different depending on their own personality. But the tale being told of how a woman has dedicated her life to search for her friend in spite of the risks and difficulties presented to her was illustrated by at first having her fight an enemy, and then having a flashback to explain the backstory. A mini montage of Scales healing and growing closer to Sintel was mastered perfectly by holding the camera above Sintel's bed and slowly turning around on an axis, with each night Scales growing closer until they are next to each other.Myself, I would take some of the character development and design with me if I were to work inspired off of this animation. The characters just looked so right with the personalities given to them. I would also take the smooth flying scenes of when Scales and the opposing dragon are flying, as I've wanted to animate a flying animal in Maya for quite some time now. I am grateful that I have learned how to make backgrounds with similar texture, as if I hadn't, creating projects like this would be much harder and more tough to do.
What the Creator did Well: Sintel was full of very vibrant animations of dragons, a chicken chase, and animating so many people at nice in a marketplace scene. Development of the story through the use of light tones and lights for the fond memories that Sintel had of Scales, while the darker pictures later on showed the dark side of the animation. Very well used technique for this short film to showcase the feelings of the protagonist in the intensity and/or brightness of the light.
