Do'er and Dreamers

It's been 6 months plus since my last post. A kind person questioned my silent blog - ok what can I say to that, well 'a lot has happened'. I have been working a lot of freelance which is good, and the rest of the time I have been working on a childrens television series called "Bear Mix 6" - it used to be called 'Bearobics' but due to popular demand the name has been changed. Together with AirBag Productions we managed to get a pitch produced ready for MipCom in Oct 2009. Please feel free to check it out www.bearobics.com - even if kids shows arn't your thing I am sure you can appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into the Pitch.


Mipcom went down very well but a production is yet to be secured, there was lots of interest so hopefully something happens soon......patients is not my virtue.




My animated short 'Welcome to the Biggs' - I love it to death - it's my baby and it will happen. I am still pushing concept artists to sketch for me and I am still personally working on the script and animatic. If something like Bear Mix 6 happens this will give me the opportunity to schedule production for 'Welcome to the Biggs' the thing I want to most work on.

The Do'ers and Dreamers title of this blog is more to say I can do all the dreaming in the world but without action I will get no where. Pixar is still my target as is driving a ferrari baaahahaha. If I am good enough and I can be involved in great projects then people will find me :) (or at the least not ignore my applications).

Oh and if anyone is interested in helping out with 'Welcome to the Biggs' give me a yell. Later people :)

Opportunities

I have been thinking about a few things lately regarding our industry. As everyone has seen from the media that we are apparently in the middle of a Global Financial Crisis. My first little rant is - that's absolute bullshit, it's just a shift of power (and wealth), someones always getting rich so don't you worry about that. Also I am seeing the production companies and advertising agencies using the GFC as an 'opportunity' to get people to work for less. So here I am saying stop using that as an excuse and pay what people deserve, your all full of shit. More money is being spent on movies as people need an escape, companies right now should be advertising more then ever, if things are slow then why make it slower but reducing your marketing, doesn't make any sense to me.

When I look around the world at all the major players in the industry everyone is busy, animated movies, special effect heavy movies are everywhere and the opportunities are immence for a 3D artist. Sure America has reduced their VISA intake but look elsewhere - games companies are looking for talented people, if you want it go and get it. A colleague sent me a link to a TRON 2 'Legacy' trailer - holly crap, if you were born in the 70's and were any sort of a nerd then TRON was most likely your thing. Some movies leave a memory burn and TRON was one of them, honestly I think that's why I am in the industry. Jesus I think I might have to change my website to 'IwantajobatDigitalDomain.com' because working on TR2N would be living a life dream. Check it out here



So what have I been doing - few commercials here and there but mainly I have been working on 2LargeProductions children's television series pitch called 'Bearobics' which our own IP. We have a deadline of end of august so needless to say we are flat stick. No movement with Monty Biggs - hopefully I can get back onto it soon.

quiet ambitions

Firstly please don't think because I have been absent from blogging that nothing is progressing with my short. If anything it's the opposite - it's never too far away from my thoughts and discussions. I havn't been this poor yet totally content with my life for a long time. I love being in this industry - I love getting up in the morning ready to attack what ever is planned for the day, I am keen as ever and the only thing I can nail down for a reason is that I am working freelance and able to be as creative as I like. Dan and I have a few projects going with the long term plans being my animated short (Welcome to the Biggs) and onto maybe one day a feature (got to love the dreamers hah). Dan read an early script I wrote off his treatment for a full length feature and he liked it, WOW ! this is cool because he's the writer. I was expecting some harsh feedback considering it's his idea.


Different note - I watched Monsters Vs Aliens the other day on IMAX !!!!! 3D, so where do I start. Firstly, freaking incredible character design, I loved it. There was plenty of empathy for the characters and the visual style and animation style was spot on, another great job by Dreamworks. Now onto the story - I really felt that after 30 minutes of fighting scenes that that was really enough. Surfs Up my all time favorite animated movie hammers all over this movie in the story department, it was just way too much action and not enough plot developments to get me excited.


Oh and one more thing - watching stereoscopic movies with 3D glasses on top of actual glasses - while NOT being directly in the middle of the IMAX massive screen was MASSIVELY distracting. Anything within the left 3rd of the screen was blurry regardless of how I angled my head, it just pissed me off way too much. I think I will have to watch it again without the 3D maybe I will get into it.

My blockout rigs

Just a quick one - heres the blockout rigs for my main character for when hes an All Star and when hes a Has Been.



Oh and someone on MaxPro (3DSMax software mailing list for senior artist professionals, veterans) sent around this - WOW !!!!. Normally tech doesn't excite me much but this is way cool.


AniSculpt Tutorial -- Pepeland from psl on Vimeo.

Blender is making a lot of waves in the industry with it's open source free software.

oh wow another re-write

A few blogs back I mentioned I had settled on a version of the script - oh boy how wrong was I. As feedback started to flow in it was a resounding "I like the earlier script", this was unexpected feedback to say the least. Firstly I decided to go the Frankenstein route and mash together various parts of the old script and the new script to make one "ULTIMATE SCRIPT!!!..script...script...script". Several re-write later things went way off course with the major problem being plot points were lost in the script (but remained in my head). This in turn destroyed the flow of the script and confused even more people...........ah Solution 'REWIND'. Yeah I went back to a crude old draft (8 version back to be exact) and just tweaked that. This version I have now is a lot more simpler and doesn't explain as much to the viewer, for one I only have 10min to establish characters, create empathy, make a call to adventure, have a final push then reveal an aftermath that will tie everything together nicely......mmmmm too easy.

Well I have been reading the draft over and over and I feel it sits right to create a great animated short, guess only time will tell.

Pre Production - few things have happened. Kate has completed all the expression sheets for Monty Biggs (main character in my short 'Welcome to the Biggs'). Check it out
Monty - ROOKIE

Monty - ALL STAR

Monty - HAS BEEN



These are priceless and Kate has done an awesome job working off Kyle's original concepts. Having these sheets assists the modelling greatly and Eoin and I can really pick out what is needed most in the topology of the mesh and what shapes I want Eoin to hit.

And welcome to another person on the team - Carl Knox my evil nemesis whom I used to work with at Yomp Studios. Carl has an incredible knack of poking the bear (me) in just the right way to invoke irrational outbursts that involve flying fruit (but that's another story). Carl has done a quick blockout rig for me in Maya. You will see I have not skinned the mesh but instead have cut it up into pieces. For the blockout stage this is fine to work with.



I already have the sets blocked out and with the Monty character low res mesh rigged ,an animatic is next on the agenda. Speaking of animatic - I meet with Dan Fothers the other day and discussed the possibility of him doing some animation for monty biggs. If you havn't seen his reel it's worth checking it out. We have discussed a trade of talents - he will help me block out the animatic and I will model some high res characters for a short hes working on. This trade made a lot of sense and running with your strengths is the only way to go when your doing something so ambitious.

It's funny the more I work on it the more I enjoy this creative process. There's nothing like it - working with talented artist on your idea is an incredible high. I want more and more every day, and I have to stop myself from asking these guys every hour "hey done any more for Monty" baaahaha. They make me want to write a better script just to do their concept work justice, how funny is that. With that said I have to leave this blog now and get back into it.

cheers,
Potter

First incarnation of Monty the Character in 3D

Eoin just sent me a 3D WIP of Monty Biggs. This is really very cool and very inspiring.



Eoin has got some crazy ZBrush skills. Check out his blog of Iggy Pop - wicked !

Kate has been busy too - she managed to complete the expression sheet for Monty Biggs when hes an old washed up 'Has Been'. If Kate doesn't land a concept illustrating job at one of the big boys (Pixar, ILM, Sony Pictures etc) then what chance do any of us have baaahahah


You can really tell when something is going to succeed, it consumes your thoughts, its never really a drag doing it and you get a buzz seeing your creation come alive. I love this part of the industry, I have spent the past 10 years creating other people ideas and giving them the buzz, now it's my turn. I really love art directing, writing and producing this is where it's at for me right now, VFX supervising will still be my bread and butter which is still cool (but lacks the buzz).

Oh and I found a producer to join the Monty Biggs project - Dan Conway former 3D Department head at iloura. Together we are producing a pitch for a kids television series, and going of funding for Monty Biggs (AKA - Welcome to the Biggs).

not good blog a great blog

It's been a long whole since I have posted anything. So what have I been doing to increase my chances of landing that Pixar job well.....I have been doing something. The biggest thing to happen is I just finished a 3 month contract back at my old stomping ground 'iloura' post productions. Were I was lucky enough to somehow sneak into the team and work on the latest Drumstick commercial. I do have to say this have been one of my highlights in the industry so far. I saw some concept sketches whilst lingering at iloura then proceed to wink, nudge,....plead and beg until they gave me the contract. If you would like to check it out you can see the full 60sec Here .It was a great job Directed by a first timer director (old timer 3D lead) Josh Simmonds, cummon he had all the ingredients - great live action plates, incredible concept designs, excited clients and the cherry on top - an agency willing to let the 3D artist run free a little.

Here is a list of stuff I got to do - Modelling, Robot, BBQ's, Thongs, Ice creams, Sandman and his float. I also did the lighting and rendering for all the main Robot shots, plus the thongs.

Below is a WIP of the Sandman float that I am quite happy with


Now to move onto something even more exciting - 'Welcome to the Biggs' my personal project. This is were a great blog comes into play. I am totally buzzed - the people involved and the concept work being produced is inspiring to say the least. Firstly there's a new guy doing some after hours (free) ZBrush work on the project. He read my blog and script and offered to have a crack at some modeling. This is some of the stuff he has done -

OLD HASBEEN MONTY - WIP V02. I love this work, the body is perfect, I am getting him to work on the head which is a very evolving process as we have to also work the Allstar Monty at the same time to make sure there's continuity between the ages

SATAN - WIP V01 - still early days but the body proportions are cool



And check this out - it's an Expression sheet done by Kate Moon frikin AWESOME !!!!

That's some of the best concept work I have seen since the Drumstick commercial. Which isn't so funny cause Kate did that aswell.

I am totally inspired and buzzed to have Kyle, Kate and Eoin chipping in. Thanks guys. If you get a moment please checkout there websites by clicking there names (hyperlink'ed).

Oh and there one more guy I hope to get in the Mix - Paul Braddock, a crazy talent working at Animal Logic. Here's a sketch he did awhile back. I might get in contact with him soon to see how busy he is. Check out his site - really nice work.


More concept work - hopefully much sooner then 3 months away baaahaha Lets say 3 days away