My review on Plumiferos
After watching the movie in a theater, surrounded by my all-time friends, colleagues and family, and close enough to the screen (maybe too close) I could summarize my experience in one sentence: “I thought it was going to be worse”.
Original story after all these comings and goings changed a lot but still the movie is quite entertaining. Sound work had many highlights and just a few downsides (to my liking anyway). It highlights the image and reinforces comedy punch lines. Music is painfully missing in a couple shots, which turns down a bit the rhythm, but generally speaking is OK, specially the couple songs performed by argentine rock band Smitten. The band choice was one good decision from producers.
About the image… well. Here I’m going to elaborate further as you might expect. 80% or so is acceptable, there is only around a 20% of it that has technical issues which ironically enough, could have been easily fixed… if they had allowed the right people to do what it had to be done.
Unexplainable (well I can think of a couple good explanations) a few shots seem to have been rendered in a GameBoy resolution and then stretched up to cover the screen.
This is particularly painful to me since I had already watched those shots in much better quality in the past !
The traditional problem of high frequency textures, something in animation translates to an annoying “frying noise” or flickering of pixels, shows up recurrently during the movie. This problem would have been easily fixed by turning off the offending texture or pressing the “Full OSA” (the Fat Fullosa as we used to call it at the studio) button in material settings.
Characters’ eyes passes were badly composited in many shots. These characters had a rather complex setup to composite reflections, shadows and other passes, and this task was overlooked creating an unpleasant “cataract” effect in the eyes of many characters. Once again, this could have been fixed by editing the composite or calling one of us for help.
Mesh interferences here and there, sometimes barely noticeable some other blatantly obvious. Also easy to fix by changing a pose.
Render Layer compositing problems like the typical object that should have been behind another, being composited in front of it instead.
Too small shadow buffers which produced pixelated shadows or banding noticeable in those shots that were lighted in the very end of the production when no Director, nor Director of Photography were working any longer.
All these technical mistakes (which do not show up all the time thank God) are distracting and “break the illusion” but, also true, might go unnoticed by regular viewers (non-3D-expert) .
In the end, and in spite of all the glitches, the image and quality of the film is far superior to that of other comparable budget competitors produced with commercial software even and has many chances to become a blockbuster at least here in Argentina.
Frustration and anger I experimented when noticing those errors, came from knowing that they could have been easily fixed if it wasn’t because of the negligence, stubbornness and pride of producers Giannini and Alvarez that prevented them to call for help to the people that could have helped.
In the funny anecdotes department, the producers that have shown a prodigious untidiness have even misspelled the names of Ton Roosendaal (”Ton Rossendall”), Bassam Kurdali (”Basam Kurdali”) and Andy Goralczyk (”Andy Goralsyk”) in the film credits 
.
Having seen the previous versions, which were rather worse by the way, I had the pleasure to see that in the end, the movie is pretty decent. My daughter enjoyed it big time, fascinated by the characters, and my wife and I had a couple laughs even (which is remarkable considering my increasing anger).
After the premiere, we talked about all these with the crew, we were all happy anyway, and those who could (it was tuesday and the next day people had to get up early in the morning) we did a traditional celebration for this occasions which is having a pizza at Corrientes Avenue 
Since this humble place, all I have is a big bag of congratulations for all the gang of friends that worked with me during so long. It is a great joy to finally see this on the screen. First Blender feature movie ever !. We have learned a lot since those times we shared and we keep on learning.
So folks, I strongly recommend you to watch it and let me know YOUR impressions !
February 17th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Hey! I didn’t see a tuxedo there!
This is a great review of the movie + experience from an insider perspective. I can empathise with the feeling those kinds of mistakes can give ).
Still, I’m glad this movie had a chance to be released, and I hope it does really well in Argentina (and elsewhere if it gets released outside) Any idea if it will have a US premier/showing in theaters?
Cheers
Bassam
February 17th, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Wish Bassam and I could have been there with you — Congratulations to all! (Especially Rosendoil, Bassoon and Goralshtick.)
February 18th, 2010 at 4:52 am
No matter how frustrating the experience might have been it would have been an even greater shame if the movie had not finished. Hopefully we will be able to see it in other countries as well.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:00 am
Congrats! I hear this shareware 3D package was used, Blinder.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Congratulations !!!! It’s incredible that you finish it ! I would like see it ! Is there a chance to watch the movie in france ?
February 18th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I admit I was skeptical about this when I heard it was finished without a director in place, so I’m glad it’s turned out well, all things considering. It’s a shame about the easy fixes being missed, but this is still a big step for Blender’s growing success. Congrats!
February 18th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@Jakub: Blender is not shareware, it’s open-source. FREE!
I understand the frustration Claudio has shared regarding simple fixes & render quality; perhaps these short comings will be corrected on the DVD/Blu-ray release (if the producers plan on releasing for the home market). I don’t see why not if they want to maximize profits. Looking forward to seeing this film in the US.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
[...] PD: Para los curiosos pueden leer las impresiones de uno de los principales responsables del proyecto en su blog. [...]
February 18th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
@Jakub Steiner lolz xD
February 18th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Congratulations to you and your team, Claudio — I’m glad your movie finally made it to the big screen!
Regards,
Chris
February 18th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
@Blenderboy: I think Jakub knows. He’s the designer behind “ZUZE Linucs” artwork :-p
Double Fail!
February 18th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Big congratulations for getting it released. Even with a few flaws, it’s a really fantastic achievement and a massive milestone for Blender imo. I’m going to get the dvd as soon as it’s available over here.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Felicitaciones, esto significa muchísimo para la comunidad blender… y para ustedes, después de tantos años… me alegra profundamente saber que se ha finalizado
Espero saber pronto de sus proximos grandes proyectos
February 19th, 2010 at 1:11 am
I hope that they will be able to go back and fix some of the things you noticed. That way when Plumiferos is released on DVD, we in the comunity will be happer to pick up a copy. They should focus on the simple things that will have the biggest visual return.
I know that music can make a big difference. One preview of a Thai movie that was released a few years back had wonderful music that make the action scene really enjoyable. However the final work that was released was painful due to the music being so quiet it did not contribute to the mood. Also go with subtitles for the handicap who can not speak the language. I really dislike dubs, it often ruins the personality of the character.
Congrats and good luck!
February 19th, 2010 at 2:23 am
@ Blenderboy: Jakub did not refer to the blender, he was referring to “Blinder” lol , jajaja
Regardless of these errors, I’d love to see the movie, when I saw the trailer It seemed to me very nice, because I see that the argument is very funny,… then, was the film made entirely with blender as a tool 3d? or were working with proprietary software 3d too?. Many congratulations to those who were part of the first movie in Latin America that integrates blender, cheers ¡¡¡
February 19th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Hey thanks everybody for the encouragement and good vibes ! I really appreciate it
@Robert: I know nothing about what the producers are going to do with DVD release. Please contact them for more info.
@Bassam & Fateh: love for you guys, you’re awesome
“Blinder” sounds indeed like an interesting software for us in CG… it would certainly help to get good reviews ! Too bad it’s shareware…
February 21st, 2010 at 12:05 am
oops… my mistake.
March 19th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Thanks the author for article. The main thing do not forget about users, and continue in the same spirit.