Fish or Chips - VFX Breakdown

Here is the breakdown for the visual effects shot for 'Fish or Chips'. The shot was composited in Nuke and the glass simulation and illumination pass were created in Houdini.

Fish Or Chips

I have just finished a small selection of VFX shots for a friends commissioned comedy sketch on the BBC website titled 'Fish or Chips', the main shot was a building explosion with a handful of interactive elements, alongside some basic sign replacement on the shop itself.


A breakdown will be coming shortly.  

Venous Return - Music Video

Well I finally finished my first music video for my friend's band 'Venous Return', Overall I am proud of the final piece but certainly learned where I fell short. I have started to tame the beast that is my DSLR for film and video. I had such fun doing this project and realised how much I like the idea of shooting music videos, there are certainly going to be more projects coming soon like this.


Without further ado, the video. Enjoy....

Venous Return - Teaser

This is a small Teaser I put together for the upcoming 'Venous Return' video, enjoy.

Venous Return - Production Shot's Day 2

Shooting day two of the music shoot in a 3,500 sq ft empty warehouse shooting through the night.

Venous Return - Music Video Production Shot's

Currently working on a music video for a friend of mine's band 'Venous Return' , the video is set in two part's with a performance and a narrative rolling out, we have currently done two shooting day's in a church in town and a disused warehouse for the performance. 


Got to start the edit soon, there will be some visual effects to carry out through, small rig removal's etc. 


Check out the production photo's below.

Beach Shoot - Day 3

Was helping out on a friend's short film the other day working as a jib operator. Absolutely freezing I was, got some great shots in the can though.

Grey Day...

Venous Return Music Video...

So I have started underway with producing a music video for a band by the name of 'Venous Return' for their track 'No Rain In These April Showers' I am just in the midst of securing locations and fleshing out the shots and concept but this will be an exciting project for me to set myself. 


This will also include a few visual effects shots which I will be working on, looking forward to getting my head back into a thick nuke script!


Check out the track below, more post's to come when I get further with this project. 


No rain in these april showers by venous return

Winding Up The Cows....

Shot an irritable cow for a while, he looked pretty edgy so I moved on...

Day Out To Bingley...

Had another day today to get out and shoot some photo's, so I went to the train station, closed my eyes and picked somewhere. That turned out to be 'Bingley' and here are some of my snaps. 

First Time Lapse

I am a little bit obsessed with time lapse photography at the moment, after witnessing some amazing stuff on Phillip Bloom's blog I decided to purchase a cheap intervalometer and have a blast at it myself. I did a pretty standard outdoor cloud scape thing, but it was good fun. 


Looking forward to doing more.

Today's Goonie's Adventure Style Photo Shoot.

Well not quite....


Pete (check out his blog here) and I went out shooting in the sun today, it got too hot, we tried to get in to a derelict factory but failed miserably. I did get this nice picture of an old man though. 

Updated Showreel

I just updated my showreel with that new shot today and also had some other lovely news which I am not allowed to talk about just yet apparently, but hopefully something good may come of it.


I shall update more when I get more info...

BITERS - 'Club Shank' Breakdown

 Well here is a small breakdown for that little VFX short in my new 'BITERS' teaser, I used houdini and Nuke for the shot and pieced the breakdown together in After Effects.

BITERS - TEASER 1

Finally! I actually got an idea out of my head and onto the screen of some sorts, I am pleased with this first shirt teaser it has been a great learning experience, given me and chance to play with my new camera and started to teach me how to get the best out of it.


Also I have had the push I needed to get a small VFX shot to work on which I will be working on the breakdown for soon to get on my reel.


Here is the first of four small shorts hopefully. We are starting to talk about the second one next week, the ball is rolling!


I still want to work on the club impale shot for my reel and knock it up a little more but I feel its fine for the short for now.


Breakdown coming soon for some of the shots, enjoy...  







This was shot on two canon 7D's with a few different lenses, post production was done in mainly Nuke and the edit was put together in After Effects.

Back Tracking (WIP)

I am currently working on one of the VFX shots for this small zombie shoot we are working on, this is a screen shot of an object track I am intending to replace with a half snapped golf club snapped through the back.

The stub is made from a smarties tube :)

Shooting Zombies! (With Cameras Not Guns)

At last we finally shot this Zombie short!


We have been talking about it for so long we finally set a morning aside to go and shoot it, it went well, everyone turned up despite the 7am start and the sun was shining for it!


I felt it was rushed in parts and I overlooked certain things but it is all adding to my film making experience and how to handle things on set. On the whole I really enjoyed the shoot and we came out with some really nice looking footage. 


I have reviewed all the rushes and am about to start a rough edit after I make a strong cup of tea! 


Check out some of the production shots...

Canon 7d First Footage

Holy Moly this camera is great, I am still getting used to it taking loads of shots and filming bits, trying to push the lenses I have and see what they can do, I guess it all comes with practise. 


Check out my first bit of test footage, yeah everyone has done it. Shallow depth of field, dreamy pointless sequence, slow sedate audio track over the top. I hold my hands up but I am still loving it!  





Tomorrow's a free day for shooting and the sun is out. More shots, bits and bobs to come. 

Zombie Teaser Update.

Ok so this project went cold for a little while but I have ploughed through and organised a meeting with the grounds keeper for all of the major leeds golf courses and secured permission to shoot on one of his courses, this was one of the biggest hurdles as we now have a production date to work to.


We are going to shoot this on my new camera so it should look great and I have jigged a few shots around, I am still working on look development but the kind of feel and look I was going for is pretty much summed up in this video by Philip Bloom, who is a big wig in the DSLR world. 


His video titled Venice's People really has the vibe that I want with this shoot so its a nice reference video. Check out the silhouetted basketball players at 4:48, this is exactly the type of shot I have had rattling around my brain for a good while now. Looks beautiful.  





We are still pushing forward with makeup tests, I want these undead to look absolutely spot on as they will need to hold up on camera. 

A little more colour seeping from the skin and white contacts to come next.


Theres still too much life in them there corpses!

I bought a new 'tool' - Canon 7D

Wow exciting times for me. I have decided to invest in a canon 7d.

I had thought long and hard about this and my goal is to become a working compositor so a good camera is a must have really, it dawned on me after reading through 'The Art and Science of Digital Compositing' by the brilliant Ron Brinkmann, that I should be taking way more photos, way more frequently than I currently am, if I want to improve my eye for this type of thing, so I thought a logical investment would be a great camera. 

This is also going to help me build onto my reel and help me carry out some projects in the mean time that have been swimming around in my head for the best part of a year. 

I have purchased the body with a stock lens (EF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS) an extra lens ( EF 50mm f/1.8 Mk II ) which I have been told is a must have budget lens. 

An extra battery and 16gb memory card. Goodbye Pocket money!

Its currently being shipped so I should have it all by early next week. 

New Version of my Reel

Wow I really have to start making a concious effort to update my blog more regularly. This is really for myself more than anyone else reading it, a record of my early progress with projects. 


I have updated my showreel, not much new content, just a breakdown for my microgravity shot and a small section of roto work I have added. 





Hopefully this may get me a foot in the door somewhere as its coming to the time where I am starting to look for jobs daaan' saaaf'. 


More updates to follow. Watch this space. 

VFX Shot - Location Recce!

Well as its been snowing heavily it has managed to put the brakes on any production at the moment but we (Woody and I) managed to find the perfect location for this upcoming Xmen style shot we want to create.


It turns out the location was right under our nose, my uncle owns a removals and storage company on the outskirts of town and his warehouses are the perfect location for the shot, I could see them in my head but didn't think to ask. Sure enough we can shoot anytime we want there!

Now if only the snow will dissapear we can make some stuff happen!

New VFX Shot Early Work.

I haven't updated this in a while but I have started work on a new shot, mainly for my reel and so I can brush up on my matchmoving and compositing work.

I am working with my good friend Tom Wood on a small shot taken out of context. It's kind of an X-Men Magneto telekenisis rip off but I think it will be a nice little challenge.

The premise is a guy walking into a secured building of some sort, the guy has telekenisis and just bends out the fences and rips the door of the hinges with the gestures of his hands. A guard runs out to intercept him but he just keeps walking on.

I have started early work on the animatic. This is a general layout of the scene and order of event's. The finished anamatic is to follow and should be finished by the end of the week.

Half Zombie Proof Of Concept Test

Ok so for one of the shots in this short we want a desmembered Zombie which claws its way across the grass, so I shot a couple of plates in my living room for a proof of concept test and a slap comp.

We also did some early look development of what this Zombie will look like focusing mainly on the back tears so it draws the eye down to the end of the torso.

Half Zombie Crawling test to follow...

Storyboards - Zombie Project

So here are my first drafts of storyboards for this upcoming zombie short we are working on, very crudely drawn, my drawing skills are next to non-existant but not bad progress for a slow period at work.

Storyboard Page 1

Storyboard Page 2


We are working on a dismembered zombie test tonight to see if it is going to hold up on camera and some stomach ripping tests.

More make up and concept tests to follow shortly.

New Projects On The Horizon!

I have now completed my masters and I am glad to be living back up in Leeds for a while and starting some exciting new projects, after watching Charlie Brookers Dead Set I have been inspired to start work on a small Zombie piece which I am excited about. There's a group of us throwing around ideas at the moment and it seems to be picking up speed so hopefully something good will come of it.

Term 4 - Sticks and Stones

This is my term 4 piece for the NCCA entitles 'Sticks and Stones' its a small VFX piece about a coupld of boys running round in the woods playing army and letting thier imaginations run wild.



Houdini - Nuke - PFTrack - Python - Canon 500D



Breakdown

Term 4 - Production shots

Here are some production shots taken on set in the woods and within our VFX studio shooting practicals for our final piece 'Sticks and Stones'. Our piece is in the final week of post production before our deadline so its crunch time at the moment!