Does Slow and Steady Win the Race?

Happy New Year!

Today, we are exploring a new topic - How to balance being a new parent with making films.  I wish I could just boil it down to some generic, three word call-to-arms like, "Just Do It", "Make it Happen" or "Find the Time", but it's a real challenge for creatives I know to be both a good parent and a productive creative.  I have found this to be an impressive challenge for myself, one that has slowed my traditional creative output to a grinding halt, or at least a slow trickle.  So, in 2014, I have decided to approach my projects differently.  I can't wait until I have a few hours to sit down to write or edit.  Gone are the times when I have an entire evening to focus on churning out a new draft.  I can't spend an entire weekend shooting and I probably can't sit down at the computer to work until late in the night, once everything is prepped for my son for the next day.  By then, of course, my eyes are drooping and my brain is not as focused as I would like.

So, what to do?  Give up your creative projects?

I say that the answer lies in the fifteen minutes.  Or the ten minutes.  Or even the five.

Maybe it is less than ideal, but if that's what we have, then that's what we can do.  Maybe in the first five minutes, I can only turn on the laptop and find my project.  Maybe the second time I get ten minutes and I watch the last edit of my project, to get caught up.  If I get five minutes again, I can watch the four takes I have of an alternate ending.  You get the idea.

Sound depressing?  It is.  But parents know that finding that magical perfect afternoon to sit down and work on a project will likely NEVER HAPPEN and so if you wait for that, your project will never move forward.

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?  I always felt bad for the tortoise.  Side note: I always thought that there needed to be a third character.  One who was fast like the hare, but not cocky.  Arrogance was the hare's downfall.  Otherwise, he had the edge.  Anyway, what I've had to come to terms with is that as a new parent, I am now the tortoise in this race.  And that means that my job is to come out of my shell, put my head down and move forward, slow and steady.

It's currently the only way to the finish line.

We'd love to hear about how other parents make it work!  We invite you to share your ideas in the comments below.

Autumn Days are Here Again

And we're back.  Happy October, everyone!  What an incredible year it has been.  Professionally, creatively and personally, we have had a year filled with unforgettable experiences and opportunities, and we'd like to share them with you.

We'll start with the news closest to our hearts.  As many of you know, we welcomed our newest Erickson family member since we posted last.  We are proud to share that we have a beautiful, smart and energetic son who turns one later this week.  Beckett has been keeping us on our toes and ultimately, making us better producers.  You parents out there know what we are talking about.  Now that we are approaching his first birthday, we are coming up for air and finding ways to get back to a more normal production schedule.

Both Daniel and Brigitte have had opportunities to work on projects large and small this year.  Daniel wrapped work on "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2", which recently arrived in theaters.  He worked on the Final Layout team and can attest that the movie is funny and a must-see for kids and adults alike.  Brigitte has been working on a new television comedy called "Enlisted" that will premiere on Fox in January.  She is working for an amazing team and has really enjoyed the experience.

Tower 26 Films has continued to develop projects as well.  We are very excited about the progress we have made on our biggest film to date, "Project Forty".  Many of you have been direct supporters of this labor of love and we are enjoying the journey of crafting this experimental science fiction film.  Now that we are beyond the earliest stages of parenthood, we will be able to give P40 more of our focus.  While Brigitte was pregnant, we decided to shoot a short comedy written by Brigitte called, "Visiting Day", which is currently in post-production.  Brigitte stars alongside the very talented Jim McCaffree and our son Beckett makes an appearance in utero.  We are looking forward to showing you more on that soon.

Thanks to all of our clients, friends and supporters for your words of encouragement as we became new parents.  Our son certainly inspires us each day!  We're glad to be back in touch and we'll have more updates for you all soon.

Cheers!
Brigitte, Daniel and Beckett

In Development

Hello Tower 26 Fans!  


We wanted to send out an update about what has been brewing with us.  First off, Daniel has been working at Sony Imageworks on a new animated feature film coming out this fall.  Hotel Transylvania is their follow up to Arthur Christmas and looks to be a lot of fun.  Daniel has been working in Final Layout and Stereo 3D since January and is having a great time with the team over there.


Brigitte has been very creative this year...in more ways than one.  She has been writing up a storm and fleshing out her various story ideas.  On top of that, she has been working "in development" on another version of Project 40.  She and Daniel could call it Project 40 Weeks.  Yes, you guessed it - we are pregnant!  Our little bundle of joy - and future film crew member - will be arriving in late October.


Along with all of this, we are also actively working on the real Project 40 and a few other projects.  We plan to get some more shooting in this summer.


All of these things have been keeping us very busy - and happy - and we are anxious to share the fruits of our labor with you.  Stay tuned for more updates and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well!


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tower-26-Films/144665912252023


https://twitter.com/#!/Tower26Films


Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte

The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!

Ok, I know that most of you whippersnappers aren't going to get the reference (or know what a phonebook is - it was how we found people before facebook.) Oh well, it's our blog, sue us.

The Kia commercial I worked on for Method Studios is online. I did camera tracking and matchmoved the hamsters on several shots. Enjoy!

Also, be on the lookout for the Verizon Droid commercial I worked on (it's the one with the hot chick fighting robots - I know, right??!!) We saw a teaser for it when we saw Attack the Block (go see it if you love aliens, sci-fi, or fun.)

That's it for now.

Cheers!

Daniel

Yes we know that the post is in all caps and the text is grey. Blogspot has been a little buggy today. Sorry.

July Updates

We have been really busy lately (more on that in a bit) but we wanted to give you an update on Project 40.

We are very excited about the story that is shaping up. We are nearing completion on the outline and will soon start the scripting process. It is a pretty dense story and every element has to fit together perfectly, so we are ironing out the last details.

Brigitte has had some writing opportunities come up this year and she has been working on finishing the second draft her comedy feature. She has also been developing a comedy television series that she plans to start pitching soon.

Daniel just started working at Method Studios, where he is part of the tracking & matchmoving team. The company works on high profile films and commercials and Daniel is enjoying the challenge. Check out the link to the company’s demo reel below. We’re sure you will recognize many of the projects they have done!

http://www.methodstudios.com/#/reel/

Also, here is a new animated piece we just worked on. Daniel did the animation and Brigitte voiced the Mom character. We are very grateful to our 3-year old friend Tilly for providing an authentic child voice.

We’ll have more updates for you soon!

Daniel & Brigitte

New Reels!

I know, it's been a while but we've been really busy lately so there are going to be a bunch of updates soon!

I have been doing a lot of tests for an upcoming film project and working with SynthEyes a lot and testing integration of cg characters into live action footage. I also took some time to put a Camera Tracking reel together (which I have been meaning to do for a while now.) Make sure to watch it in HD and full screen!

Also, Please check out the brand new Maya Generalist reel that I (finally) put together.

More to come about the short soon so check back often. Or better yet, add the RSS feed to your email client.

Cheers!

Daniel

The 2 Minute Star Wars

Just having a little fun this morning.

Cheers!

Daniel

Day 3 of the Brigitte’s Gone So Have a Marathon of Movies She Doesn’t Want To Watch Marathon.

She'll be home early this afternoon so I only have time for a couple movies today.

SUBLIME

I liked better when it was called Jacob’s Ladder.

On a side note, I was the photo assistant on the shoot for the DVD and Poster art.

THE IRON GIANT

So this isn’t technically a movie Brigitte doesn’t want to watch. We’ve both seen it and love it. But, I just got it on DVD and wanted to see it. My marathon, my rules.

If you haven’t seen it, watch it, and thank me later. If you don’t want to watch it because it’s animated you have your own problems and I can’t help you.

Brigitte is almost here so that wraps up my Brigitte’s Gone So Have a Marathon of Movies She Doesn’t Want To Watch Marathon.

Cheers!

Movie Marathon Reviews-Day 2

Here we are at Day 2 of my "Brigitte’s Gone So Have a Marathon of Movies She Doesn’t Want To Watch" marathon.

JOHN CARPENTER’S THEY LIVE

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.”

First up today is John Carpenter’s essay on consumerism starring Roddy Piper. Some of you may know him better as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (you know who you are.) More on him in a minute.

This is another one that I can’t believe evaded me until now. Maybe it wasn’t as readily available at my local video store when I was kid, devouring John Carpenter films, or maybe it was the lack of IMDB and Google and I didn’t know it existed. Either way, I fixed that error today.

While it’s not my favorite John Carpenter film – it can’t compete with masterpieces like The Thing, Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China (see a trend here?), and Halloween - it definitely has the elements that make me love his films. It’s got cheesy humor, good action, and a fun interesting story that keeps me coming back for more.

Roddy Piper – I don’t know why Kurt Russell wasn’t in this film – was their friendship going through a rough patch, was he busy? That’s all I’ll say on the matter.

I love John Carpenter’s films (for the most part.) His blend of comedy, horror and good storytelling works for me. They Live is no exception.

THE CAVE

Not much to say here. By that, I mean that the movie did not have much to say.

I, on the other hand, have a lot to say about it. But, I already spent an hour and a half with this movie so I will just say this:

It had your “traditional” action movie characters, many of them did not make it to the end. It had cool looking monsters that were wasted on this story.

BAGHEAD

Smart. Fun. It scared me.

I hated the camera work.

THE RUINS

Bloody. Good. Fun.

THE WOLFMAN (1941)

You can’t go wrong with the classic Universal horror monsters. And this one has Bela Lugosi and Claude Rains (Casablanca) backing up Lon Chaney (jr.) For a 60 year old movie it held up pretty well. Sure the creature makeup and effects are dated (the transformation from man to wolfman is just a dissolve), but the story and characters were well done and it is an enjoyable film.

This is definitely going into the annual rotation of movies that I watch over the Halloween season (what, you didn’t know there was a Halloween season?, Well, there is.)

Brigitte lands early in the afternoon tomorrow so I’ll have time to get a couple of movies in before she gets home.

Cheers!

Movie Marathon Reviews-Day 1

Hi everybody! Yes, I do mean all five of you.

Daniel here. Brigitte is out of town on a shoot for a few days so I figured it would be a good chance to watch a bunch of movies that she has been hesitant to watch (or just not interested.) Since I just finished a big job, I have a little free time until I find the next gig.
I just finished watching Quarantine, which made me want to immediately write my thoughts down, so I figured I would review everything I watch while she's gone.

I will make this a completely "spoilerless" review because that's just how I think it should be done and I want you to be able to experience it the way I did. I’ll also try to keep the reviews brief for the same reason.

Let me also say that Brigitte is the eloquent one. I'm doing my best to "use my words" as my mom used to say to me (when I was much younger, I promise) but images are the currency I usually deal in so bear with me.

UNDERWORLD

It was fine.

OK, seriously, it felt like your typical supernatural/action movie. The story is good, the writing is OK. That being said, I had a fun time. I enjoyed it more than the Blade series (2 came close which, I'm guessing is due to Guillermo Del Toro's touch). Also, I would ALWAYS prefer to watch Kate Beckinsale over Wesley Snipes any day.

There's not much else to say about Underworld. Enjoyable but forgettable.


QUARANTINE

FLIPPING. AWESOME.

I’m not going to call it “original” for several reasons(o.k., two) – first, it is a remake of a Spanish film called REC (which I haven’t seen but REALLY want to now), second, it has the tone and feel of Alien, The Thing, Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Strangers… you get the idea. But I will say that it was entirely satisfying and told the story in it’s own, unique way.

I will also say it is one of the best examples of the “First Person Camera,” “Documentary-Style,” “POV Camera,” “Subjective Camera,” whatever you want to call it. I thought they did a great job justifying the camera. I hate it when the script calls for the actors to explain why the camera is still running (or why they have it in the first place) when in any normal circumstance, the camera would be off and thrown to the ground and left as the anchor that is. I won’t mention any names but you know who you are (COUGH!georgeromeroindiaryofthedead,COUGH! mattreevesincloverfieldCOUGH!) Sorry, something in my throat. This worked for me and I didn’t think about it once. The choreography of the camera was excellent also. To make it look like it was all caught in real time with as long as the shots were takes an AMAZING amount of time and rehearsal. This was not improvised or thrown together. This was a difficult one for the actors, I can tell you that. And they did an incredible job.

Which brings me to the writing. It feels like there wasn’t any writing – just a lot of running and screaming. But, thinking back, I completely know what I need to know about, and can differentiate between, all of the characters - and relate to them. And, as I said, it feels like there wasn’t any writing – so I guess the writers did their job. Well.

I also loved that the story was “shown, not told.” This type of shooting, and a lot of horror movies in general, tell you the back story and the setup much of the time. There is usually one character or a few of them that sem to be figuring out what is going on and tell the rest of the group (and the audience) what is going on. Not here. What we do discover is told in very small bits visually. I won’t tell you how much, or what, we find out – watch it.

It was also very simple-one location (basically), one idea. It’s the kind of film that makes me want to go make a movie right now.

One final thought – I love monster movies, zombie movies, slasher movies (I don’t know where to catagorize this one) – this made crawl up into the back of the couch and it made me jump a few times…

I never jump.

That makes me happy.

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED

I found a Village of the Damned/Children of the Damned 2 pack at Big Lots for 6 bucks. What a value! This is the original black-and-white Children of the Damned (1960) not the 1995 remake by John Carpenter.

What fun! The DVD box listed it as “Horror Double Feature” but I would put it more under the category of Science-Fiction. It fits neatly into the same category as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and many other sci-fi films of the 50’s and 60’s that dealt with the world’s fears of communism – the “Group Mind” and a cold, emotionless enemy – in a way that the public could ingest, disguised as entertainment.

When I bought this I was surprised that I had never seen it before. It is such a part of pop-culture, the little blond kids and their creepy eyes. It’s been parodied many times, not the least of which on a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode. If you call yourself a fan of classic sci-fi (or horror) this is a “must-see.”

Well, that’s it for tonight. I’ll be back at it tomorrow night. I don’t know what I’ll watch yet. I’m just going where my mood takes me.

Cheers!

We Love Our Job!!

Hey Folks!

One more post today before we leave for San Francisco in the morning. 

This is a pilot episode for a project that we recently worked on.  We really had a lot of fun with this one.  Brigitte improvised the entire piece and Daniel created the opening title sequence.  Kelly Borgen at Rox came up with the idea. 

We’ll see you all when we get back!

Cheers!

Daniel and Brigitte

Good Job Ladies!!

Hi everybody!

A few months ago we told you about a project that Daniel co-directed and edited. Recently, it got a great review on Tubefilter and they specifically mentioned the episode that he worked on (chapter 3 – The Spectacle.)

Check out the review and watch the first three episodes here:

http://news.tubefilter.tv/2010/07/16/stalker-chronicles-gets-culture-all-up-in-your-grill/

For more episodes go to their website here:

http://stalkerchronicles.com/

We have a lot of projects in the works and some great posts coming up so check back often!

Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte

Go Aarti!!!!

Although we don’t watch a lot of reality television, one show that we are hooked on (we have been watching it since the first season) is The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network.

We were so excited to hear that one of our friends is on it this season!  Her name is Aarti Sequeira and she is kicking butt!  They are down to five contestants and she has been winning challenges left and right.  We think she’s going all the way, which means she would get her own show on the Food Network!!

Here is her Bio at the show’s website:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/chefs/aarti-sequeira/index.html

She also has her own cooking blog.  You can find it here:

http://www.aartipaarti.com/

So if you get the Food Network, check it out and root for Aarti!  It's on Sunday nights at 9pm (for those of us on the Pacific Ocean) and, if you miss it, they replay it several times the following week - no excuses!

Cheers!

Daniel and Brigitte

Sisters of Notre Dame video

Exciting things are happening at Tower 26 Films!  We are happy to announce the birth of a bouncing, beautiful web video created for The Sisters of Notre Dame.  We couldn’t be more proud.  Special thanks to the Roxburgh Agency and Kelly Borgen for bringing us in on the project.

The experience has been rewarding in so many ways.  It started with meeting these amazing women who invited us into their homes and shared with us their vocation stories and reflections on the work they do for God and for the community.  Being entrusted with the telling of that story was incredibly humbling.  They were also wonderful clients to work with because of their openness, collaborative spirit and the many ways that they expressed their appreciation for our efforts.  We have also been grateful for the ways in which this video project has sprouted opportunities for more work. 

We are so pleased to be able to share the final video with you.  

Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte

HDSLR Picture Styles

There has been a lot of talk recently about what "The Best" picture style is for shooting with your shiny new still camera that shoots HD video (at least there has been with my friends and colleagues).  Let's think about this for a moment and all decide on the "best" flavor of ice cream or the "best" pizza toppings - now remember we all have to eat it so we have to agree.


In still photography this doesn't really come up because, if you want the most control, you shoot in raw.  Case closed.  All of the information is there for you to adjust to your hearts content without sacrificing any image quality.  You can increase or decrease exposure, contrast, saturation.  According to still photographers this is the ONLY serious way to shoot.  Right? You tell me.  My brother in law Joe Photo is an amazing, award winning photographer.  He shoots jpegs (at least the last time we talked about it he did and if you look at the images he creates it doesn't seem like he should change just because everybody else says that he is doing it wrong).  If you want to see for yourself check out his website or his blog.


What does this have to do with shooting video with my HDSLR you ask?  I'm getting to that, be patient.


I hate putting up blog posts without any visuals so here is a video that we love:



What this means to shooting video with your HDSLR is this (see I told you your patience would be rewarded):  Don't believe what everybody else is telling you to do.  Test it for yourself.  Let me repeat that.  TEST FOR YOURSELF!  That's how it's been done in the business for years because it works.  Test it with your workflow from beginning to end.  It doesn't matter who you get your information from - Stu, Shane, some random video you saw on Vimeo...all of them are doing their own testing and finding what works for them.  Each of them has a point but the point they make is different - one says that "superflat" is necessary for getting the "best"(there's that word again) dynamic range out of an image - while another says it was "a BIG HUGE mistake" and "it buried me.  Consequently, we underexposed 25 or so shots trying to gain contrast. I will never repeat that mistake again!" So which is right?  (if forced to choose, I would go with the professional cinematographer, the member of the ASC, the one that has shot many feature films, including a tentpole studio film, but that's just me).  


There are too many differing factors to decide on the "Best" or "Only" picture profile.  Should it look saturated or de-saturated?  Should it look "true-to-life" or should it have a fantasy look to it?  What type of post process is it going to go through?  Is it greenscreen footage?  Are there visual effects?  Is it a documentary?  Is this an element that has to work with other footage that was acquired from a different source?

As much as we are pioneering a new workflow there are some things that the industry does do right.  Be prepared, do your homework and never trust what someone else says is the "BEST" or "ONLY" way to do things.

Of course, soon HDSLR cameras will have fast enough processors and be able shoot RAW like the RED camera.  Then we will have to rethink the whole thing.


Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte

HDSLR Camera Rigs, so far...

We recently added a Canon 7d HDSLR to our arsenal of equipment and are really excited about what that is going to allow us to provide for our clients (as well as our original content).  The image quality is astounding and the size and weight of these cameras allows us to put them into places that traditional film/HD Video systems wouldn't dream of going.  Also, they record to Compact Flash Cards so the amount of footage that you can shoot is only limited to the capacity of a hard drive.  You transfer the footage, format the card, and keep shooting!  


This leads us to our new slogan/motto/way of life...whatever...


Big Ideas, Small Footprint - Tower 26 Films.


Lately we have been working on building some camera rigs. We wanted a modular system that would be infinitely re-configurable as well as expandable as our needs grew. 


Since we are working to cut down on waste (and costs) we also made it mandatory that we used as many of the pieces we already own (from our film/video kits as well as our still photography kits).  We also found many of our pieces from home improvement/hardware stores.


But, even though Baron Victor von Frankenstein got his monster's neck bolts from Home Depot, he still needed some specialized equipment:

    You don't think he had this stuff lying around do you?

To allow ourselves the adaptability that we wanted we also purchased some new pieces.

Some of the pieces that we are using (both new and repurposed) are:

• 12" and 18" Rails,follow focus and Snap! lens gears from IndiSystem (there will be a separate post about them soon)
• Extra "monitor blocks" from indiSystem (2 so far)
• LCDVF viewfinder
• The Pod
• Stroboframe flash brackets (2), which each have a cold shoe that was re-purposed elsewhere on the rigs
• Hand grip from an old shoulder rig that never worked right.
• Simpson StrongTie L-brackets (2 bolted together)
• 4 pound weight for nylon strap-type scuba diving weight belt
• Mini ball-head connectors
• Brass 1/4-20 spuds
• Velcro strapping (the two-sided kind with the hooks on one side and fuzz on the other)
• We still want to get a hot shoe extender but nobody has one in stock

All of this is to attach the following gear:


Canon 7d HDSLR camera
Marshall LCD70XP-HDMI monitor
Zoom H4N audio recorder
Sennheiser ew100G2 wireless microphone receiver


Someday we hope to be as cool as our hero and get to play with all of the cool toys.  Until then we are completely happy to Frankenstein our rigs together as best we can.


Here are a few of the configurations (some of them are still in-progress):
(as always, click on the pictures to make them bigger)


The Shoulder Mount:

This one has all of the bells-and-whistles.  We are using the two flash brackets bolted together for the monitor, wireless receiver and the audio recorder.  This also works as a right handle.  

We are using the Pod as a shoulder pad (with a section of plastic cup and a 1/4-12 nut to hold it in place) and the Simpson StrongTie bracket assembly to hold the scuba weight on (with a strap of velcro through the belt loop).

You can also see the follow focus with the indiSystem Snap Gears - they are lens gears that attach around the lens using magnets to hold them together. - So far it seems like an awesome way to do it.

The Zoom is held attached to a mini ball-head (We plan to move both the Zoom and wireless receiver to the top of the camera once we get the hot shoe extender).

This is also, incidentally, our tripod rig (with the exception of maybe moving the monitor above instead hanging from the bracket) on top of our Manfrotto 525 MVB sticks and 501 head.

  
Handheld with follow focus (Stradivarius mode):

This configuration uses the viewfinder instead of the monitor.  You can really get into some tight places with this setup but you still have the follow focus so you can stay in focus while moving around (or while your talent moves around).  We have stripped it down to use only one of the flash brackets.  With the flash bracket, the camera's hand grip, and the view finder, you get 3 points of contact for stability.  Plus, we put an extra rail block on the end and adjusted the rails so it gives you one more point of contact with your chin (this is why we named it Stradivarius mode):

We are working on a pad but it's pretty comfy as-is.

Stripped down handheld (Lean-and-Mean mode):

This is exactly what it says, lean and mean.  With a super-wide lens you can shoot anywhere with this one.   Small, light and maneuverable - sometimes a camera and viewfinder is all you need. You still get the point of contact with the viewfinder which can help stabilize the shot when you need to.  I left the indiSystem Snap gear on because it gives a big solid area to grab ahold of for focusing.  

Home-made stabilizer (not pictured mode):

This is a DIY version of the Glidecam

I still have a few things to work on with this one (and I forgot to shoot it fully rigged).  So I'll put a separate post up for this one but here's a teaser of our first test drive:

We are also working on a DIY slider.  Kind of like this one.  More about this later as things develop.

Well, that's it for now.  Stay tuned for the indiSystem post as well as more about the DIY stabilizer and slider.  We also have a post coming regarding a recent job that we finished so check back often!!

Cheers!

Daniel and Brigitte

The Stalker Chronicles

As promised, here is a link to one of the projects that we have been working on here at Tower 26 Films.

Daniel was the editor, colorist and assistant director on a music video for a web series called The Stalker Chronicles. The video is chapter 3 in a 9(?) episode series. Each episode has a different theme and this one was inspired by a blend of Vaudeville, Old World Carnivale, and Silent Films of the early 1900's (specifically George Melies). Jamie Moniz and Genie Willett created, write and produce. They bring different director for each episode - fun, right?!

This episode was directed by our friend Todd Stashwick, who actually requested Daniel for the project. Thanks Todd!

To see the other chapters go to: http://stalkerchronicles.com/

You can watch it below. To watch it in HD, watch it here. But, please, go to their website and check out the rest of the series and click on the episodes there so they get the youtube views that are such a valuable commodity in the digital age that we live in. The first three episodes are up now with more to come soon. The website also has descriptions of the different film and theater styles that they are referencing. They are all really fun so go and check it out.



Thanks for watching!

More soon, so keep checking in.

ALSO, if you subscribe to this blog you will get notifications when we post something.
OR, add us to your RSS feed for your email client (if you have a mac, email me and I can tell you how).

Cheers!
Daniel and Brigitte

The completed piece...

Happy New Year!! (I know, I’m almost a month late – when I started writing this it WOULD have been New Years Day)

This is part five of a series of blog posts where I documented my process of taking a scene from the default materials stage to a finished textured and lit piece. If you missed the rest you can find them here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
A diversion...

I know, I said that I would post this the Tuesday after my final was due. What can I say? I’m sorry.

The job that we have been working on took over so we could get it to the clients by the first of the year – today to be exact (remember, I started writing this at the first of the year). We made the deadline and are awaiting feedback on any final tweaks. More on this project soon.

So, here it is, the completed piece. Below it I will also put a “making of” video that shows many of the steps in the process and some of the layers that were composited to make the finished piece. (watch it in HD)

There you have it. Weeks worth of work for 13 seconds of animation (months of work if you count the modeling and animating as well).

For the nerds, geeks, curious and family (obligated) all of the “Making Of” stuff is below. It’s full of tech stuff, data, illustrations and examples. You’ve been warned…


To recap: I started with a scene that was grey with only the default material assigned to everything; I assigned materials that gave each object its color, texture, reflectivity, among many other attributes and then I added lights to create an environment and set a tone. Then came render time...

Rendering – an art unto itself. Of the many ways that you can render a scene it all boils down to, really, two ways – the lazy way and the hard way.
To render a scene the lazy way you make sure the scene looks the way you want it, you set a range of frames to render and you start the render. If you have a complicated scene this can take a looooooong time. In my case, to render out one frame with this method (without motion blur or depth of field) took 4 minutes – multiply that by 376 frames and you see that this scene would have taken 25 hours to render. Not as long as the hard way but I only get the scene in one layer – if I want to change or fix anything, I have to start all over again.

To render a scene the hard way you divide the scene up into separate passes – a pass can be anything from a single object that you want on its own layer, all of the reflections for the scene, a character that you want to isolate, the background, shadows… – basically anything you want control over can be rendered out as a separate layer.

Once you have the separate passes (layers) you have to composite them. Which means that you take all of the separate elements and put them together into one seamless piece. This way you can adjust each layer individually – a little darker here, blur that a little bit there, ad a little contrast to that layer…Also, as I said before if you need to change one element you can do that without having to render the entire scene all over again.

Here is a screenshot of the layers it took to put this together:

(as always - click the image to see it bigger)



On the left is the layers palette and on the right is my other monitor with the video image.

In upcoming posts I’ll get into more detail about each stage in the process individually. It’s taken me way too long to post this one so I’ll wrap it up here and let you enjoy the rest of your day.

The nerdy details:
3 computers took a combined total of 76 hours and 1 minute to render all of the separate layers over a period of 4 days.
There was a total of 37 render passes
47 Layers in After Effects
131 hand painted photoshop texture files (see below for an example)
39 lights in the scene
6085 frames rendered
Average render time per frame - .74 minutes
Longest render - environment occlusion pass– 11 frames in 3hr 43min = 20min/frame
Average amount of sleep – 3 hours/night.

Pretty soon we will be posting some of the recent work that has been keeping us so busy lately – So keep checking in!

Cheers!
Daniel