CODE || Life Series Animatic

This animatic is dedicated to the Life Series as a whole, focusing on the winners of each season.

Even though I've been following the series ever since the beginning of 3rd Life - this is my first animatic dedicated to it (and, actually, first one ever). The moment I heard the song I knew I had to pull it off somehow, so I tried my best to take it out of my imagination and put it into reality. And despite all the power outages, air raids, and other irl obstacles - I am so happy I managed to finish it! I am so very proud of it, and I hope you enjoy it too! :3

Song: The Code by NEMO
Programs used: Photoshop, iMovie, CapCut

[deadtired]

GODS ABOVE ME THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. The artstyle of cource is almost storybook esc? It reminds me of like the steven universe or gravity fall pilots yknow? Flat colors but detailed in a way that draws the eye to the intended features of the charcter! Then of course were the stunning transitions between seasons. Theyre simple and yet they flow into eachother in a way that just tickles me! Grian to Scotts? LOVELY Reminds me to when movies cut to a new scene using an object in the other scene as a centerpeice. I dont know if it was intentional, but the songs beats for each season slowly add or change the melody of the song in a way that kind of reflects on the pacing of the season and the audiences view of the winner/season! With grians being dramatic and grand. The first winner, the first war. Betrayal and dramatics arcing in every dirrection. Weight on its shoulders as the foundation of both the song and the server, before winding down and into last life.
Last life with those slower beats, the somber yes, but the underlying speed is added to this pov as well the fear in the boogey curse, and the adrelinale that came with scotts resitence against it. the trembling desperation in it, the quickness of the segment before its given to peal.
Double life is *defenitly* pearls season, and the whole songs segment is a given to that fact. It has the personal nature of the rap, the lyrics reflecting on how many saw pearls pov in the season. Lonley and cold. Then quickly zooming out on the season and taking in the dramitics of it all, with grian and scar, boat boys etc. Having that through line of the stakes that wasnt *lost* in last life, but wasnt nearly as heavy as it is in this one and 3rd life.
The ticking like transition leading to Limited life is awesome. The weight of the lyrics reflect here as well, the volume showing martyns underlying narrtive ofc, but the fast ticking from the last life segment is back. As is the boggy curse. It gives the segment the appropriate gravity and speed that we give it, like time is running out.
Then theres sceret life. Where the melodys that have been near constant through the song are dimmed, quieted. Whispered. Its not quite somber, but nor is it peaceful. Rather its almost the quiet a predator brings. The shots of the end of secret life as it pans through an empty world, and then to the victor that made it that way. The predator no more powerful. As he wins the game.


It circles back to the victors silohettes and their full povs running behind them. A actually genuinely creative take that I am IN LOVE WITH. As the voice pitches howls and screams. A cycle.

The shot with Cleo at the end. The puppet master in a way. The only victor who won as herself and not as the charcter she played in a season. A victor in a day. And as a creator rather then the muse.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk of reading way to into things! Absoultly love this animatic!

[Nuno_TheKitten]

Yes, the sped up parts at the end are victors' entire seasons, from start to end. Yes I sped up every single episode to fit in a couple of second.. I had a vision ok

[ReklessTW]

I love that Pearl’s sped up section has several sustained frames of her freezing lmao

[badenanderson]

That shot of Tango and the warden was EPIC

[SilverMonarchyYT]

Damn at 2:37 you can actually see the clock running down and it's kinda stress inducing

[logandamudkip]

I love the detail with
Pearl having a red shirt under her jacket in the last life bit, that's what we in the business call, to quote Oversimplified, "Thats called Foreshadowing"

[theExev]

We need Martyn and Jimmy to react to this! This is so amazing

[zackaryjargowsky]

I LOVE that in pearl's rapidfire montage you can see the flickering powdered snow damage border. Adds a perfect little touch. I am honestly too stunned to have more coherent praise for this but rest assured I'm going to be having this on loop for a while!!!

[Crow_in_Thornes]

This is absolutely incredible!! Love the detail of Cleo puppeting the winners at the end

[jadenbuckingham]

The shot at 1:11 is fantastic as there is some symbolism in how Grian and BigB are separated by Ren, not only by Ren being soul-bound to BigB but also from Grian's kill on Ren pulling BigB away from him; there is also the heart monitor showing the bond and how it was broken by Ren.

[pharuhs]

This is giving: Modern Day Mythology. Like, if we the people of today had our own version of Greek Mythological Lore, this would be it. The iconic silhouettes at the end are just that powerful, I'd say. Combined with the music and THE FOOTAGE MONTAGE?!?!? that was genius

[Shortnamesareoverrated]

The transition to Pearl OMGEE

How shes like evil and then like sad omg

[samathekittycat]

i had to pause at SEVERAL MOMENTS to take a breather and scream "jesus CHRIST". i am agape. i am breathless. wOAH?!

[emcustard]

This is so amazing! The amount of care and thought that went into this, incredible! I especially love the little peak of Cleo winning Real Life at the end. I know a lot of people don't consider their win canon, but I absolutely think they deserve the recognition

[cosmic_ghostbruh]

I AM GOING FERAL AT HOW UNDERRATED THIS IS.

[mythicstar]

One thing I’ve noticed is that in Minecraft fandoms (Life Series, Lifesteal, etc) all the direct quotes are taken by the fans and made even more sinister or cunning in animation. Like the whole cheating on your soulmates stuff in Double Life was just a joke but there are many animatics on it. The only quote however that I think had the exact feeling as the animatics, was Scar’s “Awwww he looks like an animal that’s been wounded! Let’s put him out of his misery >:)” chills. literal chills.

[lemonbread]

Everyone has already picked the animation itself to pieces (as it should, it's amazing) but in particular i love the ending
There's something so cool about seeing the sped up versions of everyone's POVs and the details you can glean from them

Some things i noted (some more obvious than others)
Main hand:
- All the desert in Grian's POV, but with chunks of one or the other, like a cycle
- Scott switches tools a lot, often seen wit ha bucket, showing his skill at survival
- THE POWDERED SNOW TICKS IN PEARL'S WAUGH!! Also how little she holds a proper weapon until the end, it shows her arc from recluse to snap, also so much doggo (this may be confirmation bias but i'm sure i see on average more darkness/night too)
- Martyn almost constantly has a sword in his hand showing how offensive an on edge he was, also the only one(?) who plays with subtitles
- Similar to Pearl, Scar almost never holds a weapon until the end, however his hand is mostly empty until the last few seconds (curse and finale episodes) which is so cool to see. Hand empty, relying on his words rather than brute force., and yet he still won

As for offhand:
- Grian doesn't use it much, more commonly torches than food it seems which is fascinating cause he doesn't use a lighting mod that would give reason for that
- Shield almost constantly, again, showing his preparedness and common sense way of playing these things. Shield and water bucket, practical and safe
- Switches between torches and shield more than Scott, not much i can infer that hasn't already been said
- From one or two watches couldn't catch a single flash of anything but a shield, this man near constantly held a sword and shield, an aggressive parallel to Scott's more reactionary build, poetic given the way he won this season
- Mostly shield, but they're pretty standard for everyone by this point especially with the unpredictability of tasks and a red name so early it's understandable. Main hand more noteworthy here


So cool, so so cool, amazing first animatic i wish you all the best

[AxelStarchaser]

1:25 I LOVE THIS PART SO MUCH I CANNOT STOP LOOKING AT THIS

[anicrue]

My favourite life faction: Qatar! (0:21)

In all seriousness, this is amazing, and the shot of Cleo is so unexpected it works _flawlessly_

[GenrihG]

OMG NUNO
THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC WORK
THE FRAMES, THE SONG

Esp wanna say how good the part with every winner and their whole POV speed up

YOU DID SUCH AN AMAZING JOB <3