Sunday, May 13, 2012
Old Crooked Crotchety Man
I was batch capturing at work for a bit so I decided to sketch while I was waiting on the footage. I had a funny thumbnail of a disgruntled old man and I thought I would flesh it out in my sketchbook. Here is the drawing:
Friday, April 20, 2012
NAB 2012! Pictures and Info!
Ok, so I don't have a ton of info, but I will mention what I did get to see while I was there for Monday/Tuesday. One of my biggest regrets while I was there was not seeing the Andrew Kramer "Demo" on Tuesday. I missed it by a few minutes... :( Anyway, I did get to see a lot of great stuff. Including After Effects CS6 and what it will do for the next iteration of users. AE CS6 now offers an onboard 3D tracker for less complex 3D solves. The demo they showed worked almost flawlessly out of the box, and as I'm certain that other more robust trackers are better suited for complex moves, this addition is much needed and I for one am very grateful. AE also now has an option to use a Ray Tracing Renderer to add additional controls to things like text in 3D. You can now extrude objects (text specifically) and possibly other flat objects that are using the AE 3D. So this will save some time in dealing with plugins like the invigorator, etc... And last but not least, CS6 AE comes with a global cache system, which if you aren't aware, is a much loved addition and something that users have wanted in AE performance for a long time. Basically what this new feature does, is allow each layer to be rendered independently in RAM preview. It keeps the other layers render data stored in a cache on the disk, effectively giving you MUCH less overhead when you render. Now it only needs to render each layer you tamper with, while the others remain untouched. This will hopefully provide some huge time saving opportunities when building complex comps. Here are a bunch pics!
The entrance! Full of bustling photo geeks and sales people! Booths, Booths, and more Booths!
One of my regrets ^^^^ above. I didn't get to spend much time at the Foundry booth. I wanted to learn much more about their software like Nuke.
Autodesk had a big showing of course. They made a lot of announcements for Smoke. Looked like a lot of interesting developments, coming out of it, but I was more interested in the new features of Maya 2013. In the above image you can see a new feature for Maya at work. A camera-less motion capture system that links up and retargets on custom character rigs in realtime. She can animate that character on the screen, in realtime, by simply walking around the stage. No cameras necessary the suit communicates via wifi. Really awesome stuff!
Black Magic had a very interesting booth. It not only had all its really cool DaVinci Software/Hardware, but also a brand new camera that shoots RAW 13 stop 2.5k Video. It is a very sleek looking camera, with a fairly simple interface. It uses a CMOS sensor so there is some notable Rolling Shutter but significantly less than the 5D Mark II or the 7D. It is a pretty nice looking camera. They had 3 on display for people to try out, including a mock set built for the occasion.
Giovanni Ribisi was at the RED booth promoting the short film LOOM, directed by Ridley Scott's son, Luke. LOOM was a Stereoscopic 3D film created with 2 simultaneous 2k progressive images instead of interlaced. I believe that it was shot on 2 RED EPICs, but please leave me a comment and let me know if I am wrong.
We ate lunch at Big Daddy's Barbecue. Some really good pulled pork sandwiches!
A view from inside my hotel room. Of course after NAB during the day, it's all about Vegas at night!
The entrance! Full of bustling photo geeks and sales people! Booths, Booths, and more Booths!
One of my regrets ^^^^ above. I didn't get to spend much time at the Foundry booth. I wanted to learn much more about their software like Nuke.
Autodesk had a big showing of course. They made a lot of announcements for Smoke. Looked like a lot of interesting developments, coming out of it, but I was more interested in the new features of Maya 2013. In the above image you can see a new feature for Maya at work. A camera-less motion capture system that links up and retargets on custom character rigs in realtime. She can animate that character on the screen, in realtime, by simply walking around the stage. No cameras necessary the suit communicates via wifi. Really awesome stuff!
Black Magic had a very interesting booth. It not only had all its really cool DaVinci Software/Hardware, but also a brand new camera that shoots RAW 13 stop 2.5k Video. It is a very sleek looking camera, with a fairly simple interface. It uses a CMOS sensor so there is some notable Rolling Shutter but significantly less than the 5D Mark II or the 7D. It is a pretty nice looking camera. They had 3 on display for people to try out, including a mock set built for the occasion.
Giovanni Ribisi was at the RED booth promoting the short film LOOM, directed by Ridley Scott's son, Luke. LOOM was a Stereoscopic 3D film created with 2 simultaneous 2k progressive images instead of interlaced. I believe that it was shot on 2 RED EPICs, but please leave me a comment and let me know if I am wrong.
We ate lunch at Big Daddy's Barbecue. Some really good pulled pork sandwiches!
A view from inside my hotel room. Of course after NAB during the day, it's all about Vegas at night!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
"Pop Dreams" 2012 - Multi-Award Winner!
Here is a Harkins "HDN" to play on their digital network at Harkins Theatres. The agency won 2 Silver Telly Awards in 2011 for this spot. One for "Video/Marketing Sales" and one for "Use of Animation." We also won a Platinum MarCom award for this spot. I was responsible for the concept and execution. I used Turbo Squid for some of the concession stand models but I had to do a lot of rebuilding and optimizing for Maya. I had to create the cup, cup rig, animation, shading, lighting and staging, rendering, compositing, and the edit. The cup design is by our graphic artists at the agency. Thanks for watching!
This spot was produced by us for Harkins Theatres. They wanted to cross advertise their loyalty cups with their soda flavor selection.
This spot was produced by us for Harkins Theatres. They wanted to cross advertise their loyalty cups with their soda flavor selection.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Mayo Clinic "Benny": Silver Addy Winner!
The Addy Awards were on Saturday at The Duce in downtown Phoenix. We all had a blast dancing and enjoying the festivities. The theme this year was "Glutton for Punishment." For those that have never been there, The Duce is a stripped out boxing gym that doubles as a gym, and restaurant/bar. A very cool venue indeed! Anyway, We ended up winning a Silver Addy for a spot that I cut. The original spot was made in Jacksonville, Florida, and was 1 minute long. I cut it down to 30 seconds and shaped it for the Phoenix market. Credit goes to the directors and Nitrous Creative of Dallas for all the original footage. You can watch the video below:
ANDERSON also won a Bronze Addy for all the great work J. Gonzo did on the Harkins Theatres loyalty one sheets. Next time you visit a theater be sure to check the posters for Harkins loyalty comic books! Thats all him! Thanks for viewing. :)
ANDERSON also won a Bronze Addy for all the great work J. Gonzo did on the Harkins Theatres loyalty one sheets. Next time you visit a theater be sure to check the posters for Harkins loyalty comic books! Thats all him! Thanks for viewing. :)
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Wichita Kid Productions - Animated Logo
Hello friends! A little while ago I sat down and had some breakfast for dinner with my friends over at Wichita Kid Productions. They have made some really fun and inspiring films and all of their projects have a great sense of humor! I had the pleasure of developing an animated logo for them and you can watch the final below.
The character was designed with their sensibilities in mind by Kristina Runyan, a very talented budding animator and artist. She created a variety of designs for them and then animated a walk cycle for the final version. I then took her animation and implemented it into the logo and gave some direction on sound design for them to get a final master. You can view more of her work here:
http://kristinaroserunyan.blogspot.com/
This was her first official animation and I think she did a great job! Check out more of her content, especially her life drawings! They are really quite fantastic. Thanks for viewing!
The character was designed with their sensibilities in mind by Kristina Runyan, a very talented budding animator and artist. She created a variety of designs for them and then animated a walk cycle for the final version. I then took her animation and implemented it into the logo and gave some direction on sound design for them to get a final master. You can view more of her work here:
http://kristinaroserunyan.blogspot.com/
This was her first official animation and I think she did a great job! Check out more of her content, especially her life drawings! They are really quite fantastic. Thanks for viewing!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lost in Atlantis - "Tek No" - Official Online Release!
The Lost in Atlantis Music Video. Please Watch, Like, Share, Comment and Follow! :) Also check the labels group on the right --> for the "Lost in Atlantis" label to find more content, like production stills and other info.
We finally finished it! I suppose there is always more we could do, and we may touch it up some more before the SIGGRAPH deadline but we managed to finally get it done. Thank you for watching and please do leave a comment, share, and spread the video. If you want more project updates on future works, you can follow me on blogger or the other various social media applications by clicking their icon on the top right of the page.
We finally finished it! I suppose there is always more we could do, and we may touch it up some more before the SIGGRAPH deadline but we managed to finally get it done. Thank you for watching and please do leave a comment, share, and spread the video. If you want more project updates on future works, you can follow me on blogger or the other various social media applications by clicking their icon on the top right of the page.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Lost in Atlantis: Making of and Production Stills
Here are a bunch of stills we took during and around the production of the Lost in Atlantis (LIA) "Tek No" music video. HUGE thanks to Paul Hudson, and Lizette McCorquodale at Lizardland Video for the equipment rentals and support on set when we were shooting.
We ran some tests using my Canon 7D and an LED ring, but quickly realized that for this particular type of project, we needed as minimal spill and frontal light as possible. So we opted to film on a separately lit blue screen and white backdrop.
The concept was relatively simple, we wanted to create a video using an awesome technique we witnessed on a vimeo video called Eye of the Storm. The filmmakers used black lights and florescent reactive tape to control patterned colors and silhouettes in post for a very illustrated quality. Since our budget was pretty small, and we didn't have any locations other than the studio, we thought this was the perfect platform to base our shoot off of.
You can see the great music video here:
EYE OF THE STORM | Lovett from Lovett on Vimeo.
So using this base, we bought a bunch of black light tubes and filmed using 4-bank Kinos blasted onto our actors, with the background being lit by regular 4-bank Kinos. The result allowed us to put patterns on the costumes and control the patterns with things like audio waveforms, color, etc... You can see some of the setup below. We also wanted the max resolution at the time so we shot on the RED ONE. We also used a secondary AF100 as a backup/alternate camera.
The post production process was also interesting. We filmed each band member separately, compositing each one of them into the shots when needed. We knew that we wanted them to be in silhouettes during the "space" portion of the video, so lighting them this way made it feel relatively consistent.
Conceptually, the we wanted to give the video a loose narrative. After discussing with the band we came to the conclusion that the song is mostly about perseverance. The band had a space theme to their branding, so we created a kind of chase in space feeling to the video. The band would go through an asteroid field, take a beating, but eventually rise from it and blow through all the obstacles.
This was actually not too different from the actual production of the video. We had major changes and obstacles that took place immediately following and during the videos production. Frankie Mendoza, the video's original Director, had to leave to work in Floyd County on the FX show Archer. He left right when production got heavy, so the reigns of the project were put in my hands as Director, and we all had to make adjustments. Post production was scattered between 3 different cities, with Kevin Rich in Tucson, me in Tempe, AZ, and Frankie Mendoza in Atlanta, Georgia. Although this put a big strain on communication, we did finally make it work and ended up with a very collaborative project that I feel is just as much the bands as it is ours.
Serving as a wonderful testing ground for new ideas and techniques, the LIA "Tek No" music video was a blast to make and experience. I hope to work again with Lost in Atlantis and other bands to direct and create entertaining and high quality music videos in the future. Thanks for reading/viewing! :) Follow my blog for more updates on projects!
Paul Hudson and I are talking about the next set of shots. Paul and Lizette were AWESOME to say the least.
No fun shoot would be complete without some goofy images.
This shoot was my first real experience working directly with the RED ONE camera. It was a great learning experience.
The LED ring we tested on my 7D.
We had some very helpful Interns on the shoot. Thanks to Tallcat Productions.
Rebecca Martos was an outstanding Producer for the video. She gave us the flexibility we needed to make the video but also put her best foot forward in keeping things moving and simply put, producing the video. She was invaluable in making this project.
More of the wonderful interns.
Kevin Rich was our 2nd Camera Operator, as well as a G&E and other things on set. He was also responsible for all the interior 3D background elements, pre-visualization, and a Co-Editor on the video.
Liz on Set.
Audrey, Kevin's dog, kept things interesting late at night when we were building the costumes.
An example of the costumes. We used black fabric and the florescent reactive tape to create interesting silhouettes with the blacklight.
On the hunt for various supplies for the shoot.
We always have a little fun after all the shooting is done and we are leaving for the day or packing up.
Say hello to my little friend!
Next up. The video!
We ran some tests using my Canon 7D and an LED ring, but quickly realized that for this particular type of project, we needed as minimal spill and frontal light as possible. So we opted to film on a separately lit blue screen and white backdrop.
The concept was relatively simple, we wanted to create a video using an awesome technique we witnessed on a vimeo video called Eye of the Storm. The filmmakers used black lights and florescent reactive tape to control patterned colors and silhouettes in post for a very illustrated quality. Since our budget was pretty small, and we didn't have any locations other than the studio, we thought this was the perfect platform to base our shoot off of.
You can see the great music video here:
EYE OF THE STORM | Lovett from Lovett on Vimeo.
So using this base, we bought a bunch of black light tubes and filmed using 4-bank Kinos blasted onto our actors, with the background being lit by regular 4-bank Kinos. The result allowed us to put patterns on the costumes and control the patterns with things like audio waveforms, color, etc... You can see some of the setup below. We also wanted the max resolution at the time so we shot on the RED ONE. We also used a secondary AF100 as a backup/alternate camera.
The post production process was also interesting. We filmed each band member separately, compositing each one of them into the shots when needed. We knew that we wanted them to be in silhouettes during the "space" portion of the video, so lighting them this way made it feel relatively consistent.
Conceptually, the we wanted to give the video a loose narrative. After discussing with the band we came to the conclusion that the song is mostly about perseverance. The band had a space theme to their branding, so we created a kind of chase in space feeling to the video. The band would go through an asteroid field, take a beating, but eventually rise from it and blow through all the obstacles.
This was actually not too different from the actual production of the video. We had major changes and obstacles that took place immediately following and during the videos production. Frankie Mendoza, the video's original Director, had to leave to work in Floyd County on the FX show Archer. He left right when production got heavy, so the reigns of the project were put in my hands as Director, and we all had to make adjustments. Post production was scattered between 3 different cities, with Kevin Rich in Tucson, me in Tempe, AZ, and Frankie Mendoza in Atlanta, Georgia. Although this put a big strain on communication, we did finally make it work and ended up with a very collaborative project that I feel is just as much the bands as it is ours.
Serving as a wonderful testing ground for new ideas and techniques, the LIA "Tek No" music video was a blast to make and experience. I hope to work again with Lost in Atlantis and other bands to direct and create entertaining and high quality music videos in the future. Thanks for reading/viewing! :) Follow my blog for more updates on projects!
Paul Hudson and I are talking about the next set of shots. Paul and Lizette were AWESOME to say the least.
No fun shoot would be complete without some goofy images.
This shoot was my first real experience working directly with the RED ONE camera. It was a great learning experience.
The LED ring we tested on my 7D.
We had some very helpful Interns on the shoot. Thanks to Tallcat Productions.
Rebecca Martos was an outstanding Producer for the video. She gave us the flexibility we needed to make the video but also put her best foot forward in keeping things moving and simply put, producing the video. She was invaluable in making this project.
More of the wonderful interns.
Kevin Rich was our 2nd Camera Operator, as well as a G&E and other things on set. He was also responsible for all the interior 3D background elements, pre-visualization, and a Co-Editor on the video.
Liz on Set.
Audrey, Kevin's dog, kept things interesting late at night when we were building the costumes.
An example of the costumes. We used black fabric and the florescent reactive tape to create interesting silhouettes with the blacklight.
On the hunt for various supplies for the shoot.
We always have a little fun after all the shooting is done and we are leaving for the day or packing up.
Say hello to my little friend!
Next up. The video!
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