Monday 31 August 2009

ANOTHER ANIMATION?

uh oh!...UH OH!...

*scream*

Well I got a bit carried away here, but I really like this title card a lot!



I don’t know if I’ve ever said...but one of the things that I absolutely love the most, is putting text onto the images I’ve created...weither be something CG or a photo I always love the measuring it up and balancing it out...I think really, I’m a bit of a graphic designer at heart.

Theres a piece of music that for some time now I've wanted to use to do another animation to...but I should not get into doing another animation at this point.

COLOUR CHANGE

Just tweaked it a tad.

DID SOMETHING

Currently sort of stuck in a state of not doing much...I spose it’s a break period...burnout again I think.

But I did this after being strongly influenced by the new colour scheme on the new Shooting Stars tv series.

Friday 28 August 2009

BENCHMARK MOMENTS IN CINEMA FOR RAYTRACING #003

Another rare moment was when Davy Jones arrived on the silver screen...it was a very special moment that I actually got to see at the time whilst I was in USA. He was special for a number of reasons...1) The eyes 2) The way he moved 3) The quality of light on him 4) The detail / oraganicness of his skin

These four points are probably the most important things when it gets down to it.

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BENCHMARK MOMENTS IN CINEMA FOR RAYTRACING #002

The big one.

This one blew me away when I saw it for the first time (and still does to this day)...I think I saw it in about 1989 or 1990...it was of course done in 1985...and the movie is Young Sherlock Holmes.

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BENCHMARK MOMENTS IN CINEMA FOR RAYTRACING #001

I think this one shot in Return of the King (2003) might well go down as a moment where audience members like me (who are extremely fussy about things like this) can say…”yes!...that shot and its movement were pretty real, or getting closer to being real...they're very rare in cinema.”

I would imagine though its because Gollums eyes are shut in this shot, and also the depth of field.

I don’t know what it looks like up in the high resolutions...but, it's still a moment for me I wont forget.

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Thursday 27 August 2009

...OR DO I JUST GET ON WITH WHILE THEY SLEPT?

While They Slept is a project I’ve spent a great deal of time on... and is also something I’m extremely conflicted about...BUT, I am very happy with bits of it and it does have it’s fans.

The thing about 3D animation is that when I go in there and create it, I’m not tied down to the really awful and frankly impossible to solve problems I face with Incident At Laboratory 19.



TO DECAY OR NOT TO DECAY, THAT IS THE QUESTION...

Some more stuff here. Some might have noticed that I seem to have jumped project again...which is actually very bad...it's something that you shouldn’t really do....but, I was getting really excited about teaser trailers...and wanted to a really great one (what happened was I ended up doing a very basic one...and then wanted to expand on it with more visual ideas)...but ive gone away from my main project While They Slept.

But the thing is, the thing you have to remember is, that every one of my projects is so long...that I get really frustrated and veer off into something that I find a bit more exciting.





Friday 21 August 2009

HERES THE SLIGHTLY ALTERED EXPERIMENT SHOTS WITH NO EROSION EFFECTS

I try really, really hard to get rid of the digital look...but sometimes its not quite possible...it’s a strange thing.


IDEAS AND MORE POSTERS

You know the Sci-Fi short La Jetée (1962) ?...It's made entirely with still photographs?...I'm thinking that MIGHT be the way to do this on my own...plus it means I could do a HD film. I don’t know...it might be a interesting way to go about it...or it might bore the backside off people!...the problem I have with films that are just still photos is that...well, they are...just still photos!...there’s not a lot of movement on it...there’s NO movement on it. But I don’t see how I can do this any other way...unless I make it as another CG animation.

Here’s some more posters, a behind the scenes still...and a experiment still frame.




Thursday 20 August 2009

ANOTHER REALLY EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING DAY

I did more filming today...but really you need some things...1) A crew 2) At least five actors 3) A good writer.

Today’s efforts went quite badly, whereby I did some blue screening...and got completely disillusioned and frustrated again. This happened yesterday too. I shot loads of stuff with only one shot looking ok-ish...but wanted to terminate the project.

So to try and salvage my mind I looked at my photos, and one photo I took quite a while back now stood out at me. So I’ve put the title ontop of it.

I get very depressed when I get defeated...and I cant help but feel that really perhaps I shouldn’t stop working on my animation...even Incident at Laboratory 19 could be a animation...but the thing is I badly wanted it to be live action. I could perhaps try a new type of animation style though...I don’t know

Anyway here’s the poster.

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Wednesday 19 August 2009

BASIC TEASER TRAILER

This is all a bit silly...and very, very frustrating...but here we go...

Tuesday 18 August 2009

1884: YESTERDAY’S FUTURE PROMO TRAILER

This one is really quite special for multiple reasons...but make sure you stick it out to 1:10 where it suddenly explodes and becomes really great!...those crowd scenes are wonderful...don’t get me wrong, there were some great shots before then...and the organ at the start is awesome…its very, very interesting timing on this one because ive been talking / thinking about 2d animation with cut outs a lot recently...its very special stuff and this is a shining good example of it.

Bravo Tim Ollive

JUST REAL QUICKLY...

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...I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a teaser of some kind for a while now...and I think it may actually happen...I’ve found a bunch of props...well, my dad recently bought this mask, but it’s a really cool one.

So anyway, I did this poster today.

Theres also been two sources of inspiration...one being a internet friend who does teasers recently completed one...and also theres a lot of post apocalyptic films being made at the moment...which is a genre I love to pieces.

Monday 17 August 2009

COMING SOON: POST APOCALYPTIC FILMS BY THE MANY

There seems to be a very high number of post apocalyptic films appearing. Now i really love this type of thing a lot...because it goes into so many interesting scenarios and questions. The one I'm looking forward to the most is The Road.

Stake Land - Post apocalyptic vampire film
Legion - Biblical apocalypse
Terminator Salvation - Post Apocalyptic situation caused by Nuclear detonations
The Book of Eli -
The Road -
Carriers - Post Apocalyptic situation caused by Plague
Jericho - Post Apocalyptic situation caused by Nuclear detonations

Sunday 16 August 2009

ASSAULT ON EARTH - TEASER TRAILER

My pen pal Mr Cos has just completed a rather great teaser trailer...it's 50's Science fiction B movie style, but he's really nailed it with a first rate job on all the sounds and effects. Steve Ogden has done another superb job with the voice work.

Can check it out HERE

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JUST CAUSE 2

This is crazy...

...I’m just in awe really, at how detailed things are getting...this reminds me a lot of a game called Farcry (the team that did Farcry later went on to do Crysis which Ive not yet played)

Thursday 13 August 2009

WHILE THEY SLEPT - PART 2 - CLIP 2

I had real problems editing this one, but I think it's come out ok.

It jumps from being up top to being on the ground...but I think that kind of thing works ok here. Extreamly tired at the moment and now going to pass out.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

A PLUG FOR MY OTHER BLOG

Just a very quick plug here again...I dont know if people know but I do another blog called Short Subject Cinema I definitely felt I had to do that blog...and am quite proud of the collection over there.

A LITTLE REPORT

It's going full out over here at the moment. I've managed to get four shots finalised...but one of them may have to get axed...it’s a real shame too - cause it’s really quite a nice shot. I really hate it when that happens...but it unfortunately does happen.

I’m working on joining up the sequence at the moment. This has been a lot of fun to do and quite challenging with some problem solving regarding the shadows that was very interesting.

Monday 10 August 2009

LITTLE STAIR

Have just done the little stair. I think I can see why the Lego community likes my work / might like my work.

JUST A QUICK POST

A few changes to it now...it never seems to go quite how you invision it, ive been trying to have a bit more stuff around the vehicles...but cant seem to get it the way I want it, maybe when I’m less tired I can come up with something.

Sunday 9 August 2009

GRILL THEN SCENE

Just a tiny bit more detail was added with a grill thing to the front, and then I went onto the actual scene.



SMALL YELLOW CRAFT

Did another wacky looking vehicle today.

WHILE THEY SLEPT - PART 2 CLIP

So here we go again, all new While They Slept continuation.

Friday 7 August 2009

JOHN HUGHES (FEBRUARY 18, 1950 – AUGUST 6, 2009)

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Now I don’t often write about somebody who’s just died...but, John Hughes was one of the ALL TIME GREAT film directors...but not only that, wrote and produced everything he directed too...and was sadly not even that old, only 59!...I put him in the same boat as Bill Forsyth and Alexander Payne...they are of course each very different to each other, but I also think they might all get along very well in that boat. And I also think there’s quite a few parallels with Bill Forsyth.

Wednesday 5 August 2009

MORE DETAIL AND NEW DOCK ADDED TO THE EARLIER SLUMS SCENE...LOOKS A BIT LIKE POSH SLUM THOUGH!

Here we go...I suddenly thought that what the animation needs is something quite different for people to look at, and that it should be a crowd scene. I’m thinking of having the blue ship perhaps refuel or maybe the lone robot inside gets out while its refuelling and the looks at the slums / crowd.



Tuesday 4 August 2009

MORE CITY REDO

Have taken out the centre stretched cubes on each scraper and given it a back lighting...I know it doesn't sound very strong of me, but I don’t know how I feel on both lighting setups. I still would love to know if this happens to other solo creators...the question being, do you reach a point in it where you don’t know if you hate it or love it...I mean do you just have to roll on with it regardless?

CITY REDO

Moved the sky scrapers in. Not happy with the design on them...I think they need iether redesigning or the middles taken out.

BEIRUT - SUNDAY SMILE

This version of Sunday Smile I much prefer to the other one. i still reckon it could be improved further, extremely nice song. the beginning is incredibly nice.

SLUMS AND ABANDONED CITY

Not to start on a big complaining spree again...but I’m really unsatisfied again. I’m (at the moment) trying to do a very detailed slum, that gradually builds it’s way up into becoming a big city with skyscrapers...this of course is very ambitious...I’ve done cities in the past on various projects and its never easy.

Somebody said after they watched the first bit of While They Slept, that it reminded them of Wall-E...well this next bit is really going to remind them of Wall-E quite a lot!...it's definitely not intentional, I just love to pieces post apocalyptic stuff...always have done. In fact I may have to write about all the post apocalyptic films that ive noticed have suddenly appeared.

Anyway, I’m frustrated with these images, and I don’t know what to do...I hate to not march on and get in a rut again with redoing things over and over. I really want a Hong Kong style slum on steep mountainy type of terain but its quite tricky to do...in a way its times like these that bring out my impatience for the medium. My mind really wanders over into thinking strongly about illustrating it...because I could get want I want...or closer to what I want with illustrated backgrounds.

When it comes down to it though I want miniatures.



Sunday 2 August 2009

TOOTH NO LONGER THERE - DAY #03

So they took the tooth out at my request...which was bottom second from the back (the big really useful food mashing up ones)...things were not going well on the run up to this surgery...I was going into shock and thought that it was a really cold day...and afterwards as I climbed back into the car...I realised why my dad had the windows open as it was actually a hot summers day!…

...the horrific pains that ripple across the top of my head went away, and the ear ache also. I really didn’t like those...when you take out a persons sleep / food / no concentration on watching a film...things get a bit too much. I was on fifteen pills a day that honestly didn't seem to do much.

I have to say though I’m already missing this tooth a lot...I found myself eating some beef and it’s quite tricky to chew it up. I’m sure things could be much, much worse though...and I can thankfully get sleep at night now...well actually, last night wasn’t so good...but I got a good sleep the day before.