Example of "invisible visual effects"

Can you well me what I have done with this shot?

Behind the scenes on Subitize Me: Amazing Math (Article)

Subitize Me: Amazing Math is a DVD recourse and teaching aid for educators released by MovieMakers just last month. I was the Artistic Director for the project. The main film on the DVD is a 20min adventure film that teaches a fundamental math skill called "Subitizing". I am not going to get in to that much in this article, as I want to talk about the technical and artistic side of things.

Subitize Me was shot entirely on a green-screen stage, and takes place in fully CG sets made from scratch and contains over 250 visual effects shots. In the end, every shot seen in the film is a visual effects shot in one way or another.

Now, for all the geeks who just need to know, we used Blender for all our 3D work, and Apple's Shake for the compositing. I did a little work in Apple's Motion as well, and a few of the titles were done in Final cut pro itself.

Wile that is impressive for a film of this kind, effects and cool eye candy do not make a movie, what is really special about

this film is how he handled the meet of the film. The script.

This is a math film, a sit down and learn something film. I wanted the film to be more than numbers, it had to connect with kids. As a child I was not a math lover, so I knew I wanted to make sure we had the kids attention. The math concepts in Subitize Me are powerful, as we made the film I found that my math skills were even improving in little ways. Story engages people, and that includes children. Stories are a powerful teaching tool, a vehicle that communicates ideas and principles strongly. The kids want to watch films like this, they get engaged by the story and learn all kinds of important lessons along the way.

I always try to use everything I have at my disposal to make sure our films are accessible and engaging to kids, little things like making sure the camera is positioned at a child's hight rather than adult hight can make big differences. In Subitize Me I created worlds that were full of color, and fit in to a child's point of view as much as plausible. We even endeavored to write dialog that, wile being grammatically correct, was also what you would except to hear from child. There is a lot of little details to think about that can easily be missed.

Subitze Me was a lesson in time management for us, we created a project that was much larger and more extravagant than it should have been from a business perspective. That is really good thing for people who will be using this product, they get a lot of bang for their buck.

Written by Dallas Lammiman - Project Artistic Director.

For more information see www.MovieMakers.ca

Smoking kills

Ever notice how bad guys are always smoking just before they die? Smoking kills, with bullets. Made for the ChristianFilmmaerks.org VFX Challenge #3 - Feb-Mar 09

The Big Fall

More on this latter.

VFX Pipe Lines

The above image is actually my VFX work flow.

1. The clip is edited FCP, so thet is where I start.
2. The Clip is exported using QuickTime Conversion, converting to a .png or .tiff image sequence.
3. The image image sequence is opened in shake, and wear all the compositing and VFX are done.
4. The Final Compost is exported by shake as a quick time movie. Usually as a native HDV 30i codec, though that has been giving me trouble in PFC, so I have been using Apple Animation codec allot.
5. I Load the clip back in to FCP, I place clip in the time line above the original clip.
6. If I used Apple’s Animation codec I will need to render it in FCP.

So when I am done, I have 4 copys of the clip on my hard drive. The original, the .tiff image sequence, the .mov movie, and the FCP render file.

What does your Work Flow look like?

This is also being discussed at CF.org join the forum and join us in this thread: http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/forums/viewthread/2308/

VFX Reel

I have come in need of a VFX Reel, not the best put together really quick, hope you like it!

If you want to download it click here.

Leave comments please!

Amazing Math: Moving up, up, and away!

Well, I am been moving along at a pretty good speed,  except the last 2 days, were I spent all the time on ONE shot. It was a lot of render time with a simple animation out of Blender.  But it worked out well, and looks really nice I think.

Here is some of my progress:

Summer Update.

Well, I suppose I should post eh? Well I have been working on getting one of my summer weddings edited and finished, looks like I will get it done next week to, so not to much new to post.

Something not really Movie Related, I made a mockup Narnia Poster the other day, here they are side by side:

I made it in about 1-2 total hours, maybe less. Intoresting thing though, I didn't use Photo Shop or even the Gimp. I am so much more comfortable in Shake. So I used Shake for it all! Cool eh?

Gosh I Love Spaghetti! Here is what my node tree looked like for this one.

Amazing Math, Houses

I have spent the last few days learning to build a house in blender. It has been highly educational. I am getting close, and will soon begin turning my one house in to a whole neighborhood! And then cities! This scene will look very cool when it is done! Exciting! The video is a test with the model as I have it today (composited in Shake).

I am using this tutorial: http://www.vimeo.com/785249?pg=embed&sec=785249

The Lost Socks and my you-tube videos

Hey, long time no update! Well, let's change that. I was sick for a week and had to catch up on a lot of things as a result. This week I have begun to upload my video collection to YouTube. I only have a few videos up ATM but hopefully I will be able to get the permissions and have the time to get them all uploaded soon!

Of interest, I entered the 24 CF.org contest, and am now awaiting the results, out my submition, and then the before and after the effects video!

Please ask questions. I would love to answer them!