Pajama Gladiator Post-Mortem

Nicktoons Network has Pajama Gladiator posted up for a day so people can vote on it. Hurry and watch it before they take it down.

Things I did on the short:
- pitched the original story---a bit different from how it turned out, but I still feel happy that it was the project people picked
- worked with Joe Olson to do the majority of the character and environment pre-production art
- modeled the horned guy (didn't do the acid-purple surfaces)
- did surfaces for the "Cyclops" character in Renderman
- animated a couple scenes, including the "Cyclops freaks out scene" at the end of the battle

Things I learned from doing the short:
- No matter how much you contribute during pre-production or production, the folks that really matter are the post-production guys. This short never would have been done without those guys and they deserve all the credit in the world.
- The timing you get in the story boards/animatic is probably not tight enough for the final renders and animation. This thing felt really good at first, but now all I notice are the awkward gaps in the timing.
-Don't suggest a freeze-frame action montage unless you're willing to back it up with an example of how it should look. This is the most awkward part of the short, by far.
- Don't complain about the rigs on a student project, no matter how bad they are. Either help design them so they get them right, or shut up so you don't get the all-powerful rigging guy mad at you.
- It's hard to get people to see eye-to-eye on a group student project. Period.

In spite of all these problems, I think it turned out pretty good for a student short and I'm proud of it.