Brisk - Ozzy
The second in our series of stop motion spots at Mekanism.
Another kinetic piece but this time moving through a huge number of sets.
Special props to my hand picked team of rockstar compositors:
Ben Hawkins (comp supervisor), Jason Arrieta, and Jun Kim.
(direct link to full HD version)
Brisk - Machete
We had an all star cast of animators, cinematographers, puppets, and sets.
To top it all off, all of them are great friends from my years in the stop-mo world!
This is a condensed version of the Machete movie in the tradition of the
animated Brisk ads featuring Bruce Lee, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis.
Robert Rodriguez thought it was cool and tweeted it - much to the delight of us and our clients.
(direct link to full HD version)
FILM EFFECTS
The Green Hornet
VFX SUPERVISOR
This was a 2D -> 3D conversion job for a major studio.
I definitely learned a lot and the skills are an invaluable complement to my arsenal of stereoscopic techniques.
Conversion is an extremely challenging task - the cinematographers palette of selective focus, and lens distortion,
along with things like gate weave and grain
all contribute to the problems to be solved in order to achieve a pleasing 3D experience.
(direct link to full HD version)
O Apostolo
VFX SUPERVISOR
I got to go to Spain and supervise 25 stereoscopic stop-motion sets
for 6 months of shooting - needless to say I get ZERO sympathy despite the fact that it actually was grueling...
for any of you who know animation - we shot 90 minutes (in STEREO) in 6 months (!)
We can't show anything but this teaser at present because we have not released the film.
BTW - IMPORTANT NOTE - this trailer features lots of quick composites our editor did to get a trailer out - not by any means our FINAL VFX work... :)
(direct link)
Coraline "Garden sequence"
I was really happy to get assigned all the shots in this sequence
mostly because it plays so nice - the birds are all time,
and its just really pretty with the bleeding heart flowers and the frog in the pitcher plant.
Coraline "Dinner sequence"
This was the first sequence I got to really get into the subtleties of the stereo effect.
BVH wanted me to develop a template for doing the steam and flames which could then be passed along to other people.
I started with the cake and was able to put the candle flames on properly but they were constrained to the picture plane,
rather than pointing up (out!) in Z along the axis' indicated by the candles.
Figuring out how to get a mono 2D element to bend spatially in 3D was very rewarding,
I felt really clever for about a hot second especially when Henry said, "Stupendous" in VFX dailies.
Coraline "Driving sequence"
The car sequence was pretty much standard compositing stuff with minimal stereo challenges.
Matching all the pieces on the Z-axis shot was very tricky, and the spatial placement of the rain had to be just so.
The most rewarding part of this sequence was actually getting the standard spill etc.
issues worked out for the chroma-key.
Check out the reflections, raindrops, and haze on the windows and mirrors.
Across the Universe "Uncle Sam"
The things we did to get this shot right.
Max actually has a large lock of hair that is puppeted...
(and thats just the beginning - lots of tricky challenges with this one)
I also did lots of Uncle Sam painting to make the textures so our animated Sam looked just like the illustration.
Outkast "Idlewild"
This was really fun.
This turned out to be a nice film and Andre is cool.
The stick figures were not too difficult, but the fire shot was -
handheld camera and the paper wobbling as it burned. Everything was hand tracked.
Cats & Dogs "Ancient Egypt"
We made a bunch of huge photoshop paintings based on lots of Egyptian reference,
and then we used after effects like a big multi-plane camera with a bunch of modular animation components.
I oversaw the whole thing and got to do a few of the paintings too.
ATI "Sophie"
This is another that was not strictly speaking a film effects job.
It is traditional animation (though done completely digitally)
This one was made in various aspect ratios and frame rates for projection and broadcast.
I did lots of multi-plane layout work to get it all to play right for logos / action / rack focus.
and I got to do a few fun effects things as well.
Genius direction and animation from Vaughn Ross.
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DIRECTOR
TCM "Edward Hopper"
The challenge with this piece was to bring life and movement to the paintings of
Edward Hopper in a subtle way without full animation which was deemed
inappropriate and cost prohibitive. I built some of the scenes in 3D to create animated shadow passes.
Nissan "$1500 man"
The agency (TBWA/Chiat-Day) felt that $1500 cash back was a pitiful amount
and wanted a tounge-in-cheek 'Mr. Bill' type of treatment. I designed and
animated the $1500 man and assembled the whole spot in post.
Apollo Ale "Cabal"
This was a spec piece we did with some agency friends.
Apollo Ale won a CA design award and we had some short-ends
and a few favors to redeem so we thought it would be a fun
break from the animation and music videos we were doing at the time.
PBS "Democracy Project"
PBS wanted an animated flag for their democracy project program.
We printed stills of a live action flag, rotoscoped a reveal sequence,
and then created a filter treatment to make it all look painterly.
Hitachi "Semiconductor"
Phil Robinson directed this piece way back at (Colossal) Pictures.
I include it here because I was the Art Director in-as-much as I designed,
built, and colored pretty much everything you see.
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VFX SUPERVISOR / CREW
Hershey's "Caramel"
This was a few weeks worth of constant refinement to get it just right.
I had to manage a complex variety of resolutions / aspect ratios / frame rates with multiple elements
since we delivered the spot in 30fps SD video, 24fps HD video, and 2k film for projection (without cheating).
Grocery Works "Fresh"
This project was incredibly complex,
involving a ton of rotoscoping and rod removal, morphed in-betweens,
paint resoration, and logo tracking for multiple versions.
I supervised a large crew for all the entire production and did the final composite.
Coke "Sun"
All 4 'Coke - Sun" spots together here.
I developed a unique
face-morphing technique long before morphing was common or popular.
It allowed us to smooth the irregularities in the delicate
shaded key drawings without losing the hand-rendered quality,
while generating a lot of in-betweens that didn't flutter, boil, or chatter.
I supervised a crew of artists and did a lot
of the texture painting and compositing.
Wheat Thins "Cool Ranch"
Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: I painted all the watercolor textures
for this spot, and created the photo-realistic food product textures as well.
I also composited the entire spot.
Oreo O's "Cream Team"
Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: I painted all the product textures,
supervised the legal breakfast photography, handled its post-production
beautification, and supervised the composite through delivery.
Ritz Mini "Juggling"
Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: I painted all the photo-realistic
food product textures and supervised the composite and on-line.
Ford Quality Care "Newspaper"
Designer: I did the design for this series of (4) spots.
The idea of an 'invisible car' made of floating parts in a blueprint world came up.
I was given free reign to come up with designs which, under the direction of Carl Willat, became the basis for these spots.
Hershey's "Red Carpet"
Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: I painted the Kiss textures.
The harlequin pattern was particularly challenging on the UV mapped model.
Hershey's "Marching Band"
Editor/Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: Timing and sync
were very important for this 'marching band' gag - my classical music
background came in handy. I also colorized the entire spot, a subtle
challenge with silver Kisses on white limbo- having been produced
monochrome for the first time.
Pebbles "Ogre"
VFX Supervisor: This was an incredibly complex
series of 4 spots combining 2D, 3D, and live action.
The editorial and sync issues were vey challenging - I was
responsible for keeping everything straight.
Visene "Twin Tears"
Composite artist/Post Production Supervisor: This spot was an interesting challenge
The composite is very subtle, just the right mix of light, shadow,
reflections, and characters was needed so everything could read clearly
given transparent and reflective charcters in white limbo.
Hershey's "Dressing Room"
Texture Artist/VFX Supervisor: I painted all the costumes which the
Kiss changes into and out of in this spot.
Coke "Watch"
Designer: This began as a call for submissions from CAA
The Director was very busy so he asked me to come up with a treatment.
My initial designs and storyline ended up as the art direction for the finished spot
Mainstay "Up, Down, Up"
Technical Director: The main challenge here was in preserving the
Tight contrast newspaper look while avoiding the inevitable ntsc 'buzz'.
Every element had to be adjusted independently through all stages
of texturing, rendering, and composite 'just the right amount'...
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MUSIC VIDEO
"Pills" - KALI
Director: I made this as a sort of collage from friends' footage, excerpted bits from jobs, pictures from the web,
and lots of layered effects tweaking. I was thinking about the odd triangle of ecstacy, viagra, and birth control pills...
Check out this amazing musical genius (me) at:
Geomagnetic records
and buy my album if you can...THANKS!
"Merry Go Round" - Scott Hardkiss remix
Director: I put together this whole video myself in a few weeks using a lot of found art and stock footage.
I kept making interesting composites until I ran out of time (and money).
"Digital Underground" - Kool Walk
Visual Effects Supevisor: Another very low budget music video project.
I designd and created all the effects on a very small budget and short schedule.
"El Kabong" - Cartoon Network
Animator / Composite Artist / Character Artist:
This was so much fun - working with one of my all time favorite directors (George Evelyn).
A very small team of us made and animated all this art.