Anaheim and me....

So, awesome news..... I got an e-mail from SIGGRAPH the other day congratulating me on the fact that my work had been selected to be presented in SIGGRAPH Dailies! at this years festival in Anaheim.  

SIGGRAPH Dailies! is quite new to the festival, I think that this is it's fourth year, and it is an opportunity to not only present your work but also the story behind it. Each presenter gets up to one and a half minutes to tell the story behind the creation of their work and then it's onto the next person, sort of like speed dating I suppose. This year they are allowing presenters to record their presentation if they are unable to attend in person.

I was over the moon when I received the e-mail from Mark Elendt from Side Effects Software who is chair of the selection committee and then I read the bit where I was expected to be there to be there to present. My heart sank, I was certain that I had selected that I would not be able to attend on my submission but when I reviewed it I hadn't changed it from "I will attend"..... what to do?

-Promotional still from Shadow & Light-

I was worried that my selection into the festival hinged on the fact that I would be there to present, if I mailed them to say otherwise would they retract their decision to allow my work to be shown?

Anyway, I mailed Mark letting him know that I had made a mistake on the submission form and that I wouldn't be able to present in person, with my fingers crossed I waited for the response.....

Mark replied very quickly considering the time difference between Sheffield and Anaheim and said that the story behind my work was great and that they are looking forward to receiving my recorded Submission.... Phew!

It's funny that after many years of wanting to attend SIGGRAPH but never being able to afford it, I have never even considered that I might one day be able to present my work there but here I am, presenting at this years exhibition and still not being able to get there!!

Here's a bit more about SIGGRAPH Dailies! from last years chair.....

Even the Rubber Ducks Are Leaving...

Here's another snowy video.......

Even the rubber ducks are trying to find somewhere warmer to be this spring!!

I made this as a quick compositing exercise. It was interesting to experiment with ways to get the ducks floating and in the end I opted to use the Maya ocean tool and I turned each duck into a boat object which constrained the X and Z rotation as well as the translate Y but still allowed me to animate the X and Z translation and Y rotation of the ducks enabling me to make them appear to float in the right direction with a fairly natural bobbing motion.

I like the effect, it's not perfect in this video but I've created a neat workflow for myself now which I will be able to apply much more effectively in the future.

Snow Joke, It's Spring!!

It's March 23rd, spring is officially here so what better way to spend the morning than to traipse around the valley in 8 inches of unexpected snow?

I went out with an idea to shoot some footage for a project that I'd like to make but it was so cold and the fact that my camera was getting wet (note to self, get some sort of camera umbrella!) made me cut the excursion short but not without grabbing a few scenes to play with today.....

I figured that walking backwards and then playing the video forwards would make for a pretty neat effect... and it does. This video is what I was able to create with a few minutes of impromptu shooting and I reckon that with a chunk of pre-production planning I'll be able to come up with something pretty nice.

Maybe when the weather gets a bit better eh!!

Kinetica-tastic

Apologies for how quiet it's been around here since December.

Amongst other things an operation on my knee stopped me from sitting at my computer for a few weeks but things are better now and the creative juices are flowing!

So, I went to Kinetica Art Fair last weekend and shot this video......

I used my trusty Nex 5N but only took the 18-55 kit lens which is a good all rounder but, at f2.8, was no where near fast enough to deal with the poor lighting conditions. In future I'll have to make sure to take at least one fast prime lens with me on any trip that I intend to record.

The main reason for going to Kinetica was to meet up with a Dutch artist called Rob Hermans who goes by the name IEOIE. For the past 7 years or so, I have acted as technical director for all of his 3D video work and we were presenting a collaborative piece on the Musion stage at the fair.

Musion Systems are a modern take on the peppers ghost illusion that has regained popularity in recent years at entertainment events through the impression that it gives of holographic projection. It was really great to see our creation effectively floating in space on their stage and it has certainly inspired ideas for future projects of my own and with Rob.

Houston We Have A Problem.....

After putting some ridges on the top surface and some lights around the edge, I figured it was time for a flight test.......

This is a really quick test clip to see how the UFO looks as it starts it's engines, retracts it's legs and takes off. There are some elements of the idea that I like, particularly the acceleration of rotation and the weight of the ufo as the legs are retracted, and others that I really dislike including the very quick take off.... it seemed like a good idea at the time but next time I think I'll try something a little more steady.

This really demonstrates the importance of testing concept.... an idea can seem great but when it is put into practice it might suck!

Retro Saucer

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted the little alien guy here and I figured it was high time that I put something new up here, so here's something I made yesterday to help the little alien zip around the universe.......

It's a very simple model again, this time taking design notes from the 1956 classic "Earth Vs the Flying Saucers"..... view the trailer for the VFX spectacular HERE. The hydraulics in the legs and the feet are all independently poseable, the upper side can be rotated and the door on the underside can open and close.

There's still work to be done on the model before I can say it's complete including some kind of crazy death ray being fixed to the underside door and some detailing needs to be applied to the upper surface to demonstrate the rotation. It shouldn't take too long and I'll post up the finished model when it's done.

Little Green Man

I made this little guy for my students to use in the VFX module that they are about to begin. He's a simple rigged character with a few blendshapes for expression and correction.... the basics are there for the students to expand from.

My students are already aware of and understand the rigging techniques required to create a simple character like this so hopefully, after a couple of sessions, the power of blendshapes will also become clear to them.