From concept to reality

New 2007 Showreel and Compositing Reel

2007-03-29T22:10:00.003-07:00

Showreel 2007:

Compositing Reel 2007:

enjoy!

all DONE~

2007-03-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

After 3 days of intense post production, the edit is done. Here are the final screengrabs of the 4 shots in the sequence.

Director's Statement:
This teaser animation is created for my client for a potential 5 - 6 minutes short animation. The potential animation was going to be included in the toy's website.

I've decided to go for a hyper-realistic style. The potential goal for this animation was to inspire the target audience and to project the idea that all the toys are alive.
(target audience: preschool kids).

The project is a combination of traditional stop-motion animation and animated stills. Both elements are then composited onto a 2d background. Colour grading techniques are used to blend all the plates seamlessly. (e.g. adding of interactive shadows, lens flares, additional lights and camera movement - see compositing breakdown)

Status:
The project is now delivered and I am now awaiting for further budget decisions from my client. The final edit is now available online:

youTUBE:
Teaser:

Compositing breakdown:

feedbacks and comments are welcome~

Production Week 01

2007-03-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

Week 01 is long hours for me. Monday, I spent the whole day in the studio just finishing all the stop motion animation sequences, I start from 11am and we finish at around 6pm, but luckily, I got everything that i need.

After that, its tedious procedures of masking out the characters in photoshop, lucky that I am using paths, if not, my hands wouldn't be able to handle the amount of paint jobs. There are totally around 300 frames that I am individually rotoscoped. I finished everything on saturday.

Whenever I have finished rotoscoped an element, I will quickly import it in after effects to see if the plates are lining up with the background properly or not. Above is a hi-res still image of the final test lineup and below is a test composite of the above scene.

things that could be improved or needed to be done with the shot:
- introducing shadows to all the elements.

- finish painting out all the backgrounds

- adding more traffic and pedestrians to the scene. As the main narrative in this shot is that the cars will give way to the pedestrians for them to cross the zebra crossing.
- final compositing ( colour correction to match the elements with the background plate )

I haven't had enough sleep and I slept in really late today, preparing for a busy week.

I want to finish compositing and editing the 4 shots in a couple of day, get it approved and send it to rob to do the sound design and final mixing. I am hoping to finish everything by friday, so i could go to my IFVA screenings without having to worry about anything.

Until next time~

cheers

Thomas

Plain bg

2007-03-01T07:25:00.001-08:00

General City Comp V2 (mid shot)

2007-03-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Playing with depth of field

Happyland is really full of crazy traffic!!
(incorporating still image stop motion and real stop motion animation)

version 2a

version 2b

General City Comp V1

2007-03-01T03:19:00.001-08:00

Crazy Traffic version 2

2007-03-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

hi-res image

work in progress animation tests

2007-02-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Timelapse animation (Day to night)

Crazy traffic composite

Everyone was friendly and kind

Busy City Composite

20 seconds Stop Motion project

2007-02-28T01:34:00.000-08:00

the first project that I want to bring to you is a 20 seconds stop motion animation project that I've got.

Below is the 1st draft script that I did.

Happyland’s mysterious footprint
1st draft

Scene 1:

Shot 01:
Script: Happyland village was a wonderful place to live.
description: big wide shot animated city scene (subtle zoom in)

1 second dissolve

Shot 02:
Script: The sun shone during the day, the stars twinkled at night.
description: starting from the ground floor of the bakery shop, a car passes from right to left, then another car from left to right. Camera starts to crane up till we reaches the second floor.Where we can see a character standing on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful view of the country side. It is a very sunny day. Character than goes inside the room and the sun slowly goes down, and a starry night with a nice moon comes. (simulated timelapse photography) then quickly goes back to day time.

Straight cut

Shot 03:
Script: Everyone was friendly and kind.
Description: outside the flower and green grocer shop, 4 characters are talking and smiling to each other. Animate their mouth and eyes.

1 second dissolve

Shot 04:
Script: There was something about today, however, that just wasn’t quite right.
description: outside the front of the rose cottage, a male character discovers some mysterious footprints outside the house. A policeman arrives, and both of them were questioning where these came from. (both got speech bubbles with a question mark inside)

requirement: background graphics.

welcome to my new blog!

2007-02-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

In this blog, i will show you how I execute a project from start to finish.

I will be posting stills, concepts, animation tests, compositing breakdowns and of course

the final product.

enjoy!!