The MB Blog

2009-11-26T19:23:00.000Z

Cinematographers Perspective:

To conclude the documentation, i have trawled through the work produced to date, and wished to share some of my most cherished produce from the years last scheduled project. Below lay two screen shots from the developing film Nosey Neighbour. The shots i have decided to speak about are from the point of view of a cinematographer, with a slight hint of art direction and continuity.
First of the bat is this beautiful shot:

For those who have no idea on the concept in the story, at this point she is staring through a peek in the blinds while watching off a disturbing neighbour leave her drive. On location we came across the issue of how to film the shot without needing to venture outside. Somebody mentioned just move the actor from the window. But this would have looked odd. We needed to get here as close to the camera, and the camera as close to the window as possible. Then there was the issue of lighting. The natural light from behind the camera and myself would cast a shadow. So with a soft spot light we recreated the light flooding onto the face to give the effect she is still up against the window. Thus giving the viewer the comfortable transition of continuity between behind and front cuts. In addition, the shot just has an extra quality about it that stands out from the rest as a result of this bizarre lighting technique.

This is my very close second favourite:

This shot unbelievably comes directly after. My two favourite visuals both together right towards the end. Need to learn how to spread them out slightly! The quality of this image is the colour. The shares of brown and cream, very mundane and neutral colours representing a nice vision, also the central "symmetrical" positioning feels very cinematic. Apart from that, its just a personal favourite. Enjoy

2009-11-23T18:39:00.001Z

Paper To Screen: Story visualisation in comparison to film footage

Torture Sequence:

Here are a selection of comparisons showing how much my composition for screen has improved this project. Being the storyboard artist, and the onset Camera operator/Cinematographer. I feel this job is by far the most important task i undertake in the production. This means making sure i have the correct composition before going on location. And ideally even thought we only did it for one of the projects, we should be framing on set with the actors as a "dress rehearsal" kind of idea

Below are two examples of the comparison:

Torture Sequence:

Same again but with the torture sequence:

2009-11-17T15:04:00.002Z

Nosey Neighbour Shoot: My Overview

The second shoot of the week, and to be bluntly honest, it was previously my least favoured of the two. With that said, i would possibly be eating my own words, with the location being set in my home, it was a rather strange experience. Theres no truer experience of bringing your work home! This fact gave me a sense of comfort, as i could snack as and when i pleased! All jokes aside, i was really disappointed with using our home as the location. Down to facts such as lack of preset art direction, warmth or even feminine impression to the rooms we shot in, Using the "backup" location for the production literally put me straight off the idea of salvaging any usable material for showreel. This would be the case in if the above theory to these lacking conditions were to come true.

Regardless of these negative vibes presented, i took the shoot in my stride, and tried my upmost to take the job seriously but keep relaxed and even fun, with the hope of it being educational to my skills. This attitude worked wonders when it came to the day of the shoot. Not only was the situation an enjoyable one, and not only did it flow smoothly, but most importantly for me, i learned some valuable lessons, and with fingers crossed some decent footage. Hopefully from what i have seen, some of my cinematography focus looks to have paid off. but more on that at a later date

Looking at some lessons learned would most probably be the idea to stop immediately judging situations and even people for a more personal matter. This habit of mine, only appears to divert me from where i would like to go, or in this case, what i would like to achieve. Lesson well and truly learned

The cast were very nice to work with, as always, however working with difficult is something that we all was looking forward to doing with a certain actor for the torture shoot, but he was too unreliable to risk a no show on shoot day. John was the camera assistant that the producer had fished up from the film club down at vernon street. Although i really did not utilise this chance to the maximum, i still managed to let go of my precious grip on the camera slightly to allow john to operate, and i could then take more of a backseat camera directing role. Was a great experience, and i shall be doing this on my final major next year.

2009-11-17T13:44:00.000Z

Post shoot review:

The Shoot, what a series of events that was. I played drums without actually making a noise!! I got punched in the face numerous times by a good friend! And stressed my self silly transporting a full drumkit and full rig setup for a music video in a three door hatchback! EEEK!! Regardless of all the trauma, it was a great time, full of laugh's and good times had by all. Would do it again anytime in a heartbeat.

At times it did become slightly frustrating, this developed through my eager sense to want a hold on everything going on, and wanting full control. The shoot, especially the second day was a good test to control these urges, and allow Alex and dali to take there own control over the situation. And again i felt myself getting slightly frustrated, but managed to control the feeling and have a successful second day of shooting. Things i would like to do better from my point of view would be secure the primary location. Again a similar story to that of the torture shoot on my other project. Putting trust in people who quite literally do not care about your project is far from a good plan to follow! sniff them out early and dispose of them out of your options! Lesson learned!

2009-11-16T17:32:00.001Z

Torture Shoot: My Overview

The first shoot is in the can so to speak. One very evidential problem that was reassured after the shoot, the issue of planning and the way it is approached. More specifically, i solemnly had the belief that the use of hand drawn storyboards, even storyboards from more photorealistic media formats were both a considerable waste of time to produce in consideration to what there intended use is on set. (Barring the use for shot composition). However, i have no real answerable reason to solidify my belief in this. Before the start of this projects pre production, i took it upon myself to investigate this unanswerable belief in the use of storyboards and aim to underline a legitimate reason to why they do not seem to work.

After spending time theorising on the most productive approach to distributing the storyboards, as previously mentioned in a previous post. The document i finally produced had a very easy to follow system using colour co-ordination and numeric structure to allow our additional crew to make sense of the productions process. These techniques can be understood by infants, so in theory should make it slightly easier to understand. Getting a universal understanding correct was a vital issue that had to be addressed on location. If the document could be understood by someone who has never previously read a storyboard or shot list document, then the careful planning into the creation of the document will have been a success.

After numerous meetings with the cast and crew. Delegating copies of storyboards, talking them through the story, and with the crew discussing the theory behind the shot list. It appeared that they got a "general overview" of the production. And this circles back round to my question of how does the storyboard help in these situations? My deliverables go as follows:

I first of all had a belief that a storyboard was an aid to quite literally tell the entire story to everyone involved in the production. Now i realise how utterly stupid of an idea that is. How can one persons visuals be put across for a second person to get the exact same understanding? its not going to happen due to personalised interpretation. The result will always appear different. In addition how can a series of E.G 30 still images represent thousands of moving frames, even with no cuts involved, never mind simple cuts, or even complexed transitions.

So in conclusion, There is no way i am using these documents in the same light again, yes for composition and rough cinematography, they are great for that. Any other process is now obsolete. I shall look for replacements to fill the gaps in the upcoming projects.

The production as an operation was a very enjoyable experience. Regardless of the fact that our pre production was not as strong as it could have been, what we did accomplish in those early stages enabled us to feel comfortable on set, with a stress free focus on what we were doing an when it was to be done in the schedule we had set.

Torture Shoot Photo's:

2009-11-12T20:52:00.000Z

Producing updates: Location and other news

I have been e-mailing a nice fellow called Jack. Jack is a co founder and music promoter of Eiger Studios. Eiger is a Leeds based gig venue/recording/rehearsal studio. I know him on quite a personal level through rehearsal sessions i have there with the band. The studio has various spaces that would be sufficient for a music video.

The main space that myself and alex are interested in is the venue space. it is large and has a great visual that could be made to look stunning on video.

Where that side of things seems to be running smooth, the almost impossible task of organising shooting dates to both coincide with the college booking system and the bands availability is proving to be a nightmare. However, with constant open communication between alex, and my band members, we finally managed to get some "fixed" dates. And i still say this with hesitation. But its now down to trust in other peoples hands. All i can do is keep chasing up by phone and email to reassure the attendances. Fingers and toes crossed.

2009-10-30T11:52:00.001Z

Ready and waiting

Wednesday just gone. Myself and Graeme caught up with our additional crew members Jon, Jo and Mia. The meeting was literally a situation to talk through the storyboards and shot list comparison. This gave the crew a rich knowledge of the plan for the scheduled shoot coming up, and allowing them to feel comfortable in there designated roles, more so Jo, as she will have to be very independent and proactive on set. Normally i have struggled to communicate and feel at ease around people i do not know well, so far i have taken this opportunity to build my personality with colleagues to develop a solid relationship in preparation for the shoot. Lets hope this shows through in the outcome!

After previous discussions, we made the decision to give john the position of camera grip. In this briefing on Wednesday, I gave Jon a standard operational induction with the sony XD camera and lens mount. Knowing he was already camera literate, he really did not need this induction, he was naturally able with the equipment. although providing Jon with his on set roles was a vital issue that i needed to get across so there is no clash in interest when the camera is in operation on shoot.

With that said, the production is ready to get the good old lights camera and action. Will report back to blogger once the production has been canned, with thoughts and evaluation of the working day.

Until then! Wish us Luck!

2009-10-24T15:27:00.003+01:00

Shotlist: Keeping things ship shape!

After compiling the storyboards together and collectively analysing them for final production. The mentioning cropped up in a conversation regarding shortlists. Now until this date, i have never produced a shot list for a production. After trawling various websites and a few books in consideration to the creation of this said shot list. There are various methods to generate shotlists through software. To be fair and honest, these may work for some collectives, however the idea of installing software to do a job such as generation of a shotlist seemed a tad inappropriate for the needs that we request from a shotlist.

However inspiring and productive to see these techniques were, my personalised shotlist was more of a highbred storyboard. Providing that visual into the same document seeped the most appropriate methid to approach in the creation of these documents.

The document had a very easy to follow system to allow our additional crew to make sense of the productions process. This would be most crucial for jo, the continuity and shot list co-ordinator. The process behind making the document easily understandable for a non film production orientated being was to use formats that most people can relate to with no real difficulty.

How did i approach this? by using large thumbnails which are near enough shot by shot relevant, the crew were able to visualise the next shot in the sequence. Speaking of sequence, i organised the shot list in order of various priorities. These priorities were issues such as continuity (especially in the torture sequence, considering the use of SFX make up on actors) Another very vital priority was the use of equipment. When ever possible the shot list would group together equipment used in conjunction to where it is used. So for example; all the crane shots were put together for a start. then they would be placed in order to how far the equipment has to travel between shots. Also to add confusion this would come second to the continuity of bloody make up effects being used.

Those theories should keep us in good stead for the shoot, Fingers Crossed!

2009-10-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

Location, Locaion.. Oh wait maybe not!

Temple Mill

After Weeks of waiting and hoping following the very motivating recreational visit to Temple Mill in Holbeck, We have now reached a point where waiting for the location to materialise is casing a threat to the productivity of the schedule. As a result we have now chosen to opt for a backup plan of the studio theatre in the college. But again, booking the studio theatre a couple of weeks before you need the space has again proven near on impossible! So to "plan C" in theory.

We have successfully booked the second photography studio based next to the ceramic studio, this is located in what feels like another world in the deep bowls of the resistant materials quarter of the college.

However, the room does seem sufficient, although art direction will be taking a heavy directional shift, it is something i am already aware of and have had experience with previously. When i say this, my plan will be changing from relying on the much sought after location backgrounds which looked the part of a "torture location" with huge space, allowing freedom of movement and great depth to the camera, to a smaller photography studio with no interesting or even "relevant" background detail. The plan in mind will eliminate any background detail allowing the visual to look and feel like a huge room with very little lighting, this would appear black as the walls are not visible in shot due to the lack of light.

Here is some previous work i have produced to provide an example of this dark open space feel:

After Effects Demon from Mark Braithwaite on Vimeo.

2009-10-20T16:01:00.001+01:00

Tools or Weapons?

Did a little scout today to discover some nice hidden gems in my granddads workshop.
There was quite literally around seventeen and a half million Weapons "oops" i mean tools

To those familiar with the recent projects i am partaking in, will know with out a thought that these are props for the torture
scene. And if not well these images are of nice tools that we plan to use for weapon props in a short "torture porn" sequence

These images are but a minor amount of what was found in the rummage. It is quite safe to say that there is going to be no problems in the art direction for the weapons department. All we need now is everything else! including a secure location

2009-10-16T14:39:00.000+01:00

Got Wood?

Not too long ago back in the early days of october 2009 we all went on a little adventure. After trying all morning to contact both local joiners and corporate giants like Homebase and B&Q. We got a hint on some wood offcuts being stored at the B&Q on the A64 up Holbeck way. As you do , we sporadicly jumped into the car to seek out this wood.

To our amazement there was a good 20 to 40 pounds worth of wood going cheap. We pushed a little banter onto the woodsman and he let us take it away for the amazing price of £3!! yes absolute bargain!

The wood will aid us in the set building process for the seance sequence we are setting up in the lecture theatre

2009-10-15T20:45:00.003+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

Again similar process to the last test sequence, The more experiences i can squeeze into this academic year, the better i will become ultimately. I felt a genuine amount of confidence with the XD camera and its additional lens counterpart. It seemed almost like i have always known how it worked. Of course, having a sound knowledge in still photography and the advantage of how the lenses work set me up for a very nice head start.

Below are a set of screenshots taken form a second short experiment we produced. it was a simple idea to create tension through a staring competition using the camera alone to frame shots

and to top it off, it was still putting the 180 degree rule into great practice! a very productive day indeed!! Lessons well learned

2009-10-15T15:45:00.002+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

The plan behind this next section of research exploration was to test specific camera techniques that were presented in the project proposal. These would include methods such as: Pulling the focus and crossing the line (180 Degree Rule)

180 Degree Rule
The 180° rule is such a simple technique, yet something i have not fully realised and quite hounestly neglected in previous productions. Known for being a basic guideline in film making, it is a method that i intend to know inside out by the end of this production.

In a short sequence, we put the rule to the test taking extra care to follow the rule to perfection. Below are some screenshots providing a visul of the sequence.

Notice how both characters stay on the same side of the screen. when watching the sequence it soon becomes obvious to why the rule was implemented. It aids footage to run much smmother with a natural feeling.

If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. However, when this rule is broken, it cal look very odd and disrupt the flow of the sequence. This shot below pictures the characters from behind. This does break that rule, although when watching the sequence, it feels like a very natural cut. The reason for this can only be one thing, and it seems pretty obvious once you watch it armed with the knowledge that the shot is from behind.

The session was a great sucess and provided everything that we intended to gain from the research.

2009-10-14T13:28:00.001+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

Seance Research: Drag Me To Hell

This film is quite literally a pile of dog shit, however, as far as its seance scenes go. There is quite the possibly that we can salvage some tips and techniques on how to set dress a room and more importantly film such a bizarre series of events.

The seance clip has bee posted on youtube. The opening few shots are great to present to a viewer that something manic is going on in the room.

In addition the room that the seance is being held is pretty much what i would expect from such an activity. Low candle lit lighting, vintage furniture, high ceilings. An old rich mans mansion feel.

2009-10-13T17:48:00.000+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

Torture Mood board

Some more Torture visuals to fuel the decisions in the execution of the film. Especially decisions such as set design and colour treatment

2009-10-13T11:48:00.001+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

Seance Mood Board

2009-10-13T11:27:00.001+01:00

Project Metropolis: Music video production

Project metropolis are looking for a new music video for there latest track recording "Rothcore" This is a rather bizarre project to be involved in from my position. Because the word "involved" is quite literally an understatement on a stupidly large magnitude. Not only was it my inspiration that lead to the idea of the music video for the band, i am also a member of the band, and i will be working in the production and editing of the music video.

Funny Old Picture: LOLZ

To start with i will underline my specific duties i have been directed to partake in:

Producer: i will be organising all the scheduling of the band members, and equipment booking. I will also be on scout for shot locations, although another member of the project is undertaking this job on a more primary level. I will be more of a backup for that side of things.

Assistant Director: Although i will keep my input to a minimum, i intend to have some form of input into the directing, wether it involves something as simple as providing a second opinion, as well as speaking my opinion on how to approach matters that arise.

Editor: Although there will be a primary editor on the project, i will be creating an edit of my own. The main reason for this is my personal direction on how i wish to carry the story of the video. My opinion is more than likely to differ from the other editors choices.

On top of that, i will just float and try help out when ever i can. This project will always fall second to my main project with James and Graeme. Just to make that clear. My commitment will go into the post production side of things when the shooting has wrapped on the project with James and Graeme.

2009-10-12T15:35:00.001+01:00

Digital Media Development
Research and techniques

In the previous posts regarding the torture sequence, it has just come to realisation that covered the main concerns but one. That is the torturer. Although the Saw films provided a great reference for all the other aspects of this sequence. The one thing Saw does tend to approach differently to how we have planned our sequence is the role of the antagonist. The antagonist in the Saw films operates remotely, setting up self harm scenarios. We are looking for a one on one aggressor to victim situation. This then pointed in the direction of The Hostel Films.

The first detail i wish to point out in these films is the issue of a costume or in a more traditional sense "a disguise" Something that removes your personal identity from the victim. We have discussed the matter of costume and are still debating on the options of a balaclava or keeping the face exposed. The decision to consider the balaclava is down to the social stigma that the wearing of one may suggest an aggressive and somewhat rude personality stereotype.

2009-10-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

Research: Visual inspiration

Interrogation Sequence

The Interrogation Sequence:
Using a combination of carefully planned camera techniques and organized fight choreography, this sequence will provide an action packed blood curdling torture session that will get the adrenaline pumping.

When considering art direction and location in this sequence, by carefully planning and giving consideration to detail will ultimately make or break the success (or failure) of this particular sequence. Again the main point of this sequence is to develop an understanding of the relationship between choreography and film. Ultimately for my personal education, I intend to really dig into the use of the XD camera with the Canon lens adapter. However, being in control of cinematography, i deeply feel the urge to sucseed in the art direction on set. My hope is that even if the choreography does fail, we may be able to salvage some visually stunning footage from the shoot.

To aid with this decision on art direction, I decided to opt for the now typically cliche saw films. As horrifically cheesy they may have now become, they still manage to create some exceptional visuals in the films. Saw films are the closest "hollywood standard" reference to gain a visual aid on set dressing a location for a torture scene. There are other considerations such as the "Hostel Films" which are equally as impressive, but in my opinion fail to provide the same cinematic quality to them.

Below are a couple of screenshots from Saw II & IV. Although being two feature films apart. they both share very similar properties. The obvious similarity is the acid green colour grading used on both scenes

Other shared qualities can be picked up when watching the scene. The next of importance will be that both these screen grabs are shot in a very similar fashion, and both feature a victim, tied down, somewhat unconscious and in a very secluded, run down and dark location with alien objects surrounding them.

These visuals provide great techniques on how to introduce a torture victim into a scenario of such terrible circumstances.

Below are some stills taken from the opening scene of Saw IV. The sequence is set in in a morgue, with a very cold colour grading to footage. This suggests the cold feeling of death most likely? The main interest of these stills is the method used in filming a selection of cutting utensils sat upon a table. As we have planned to film a very similar sequence, this research is imperative to develop from. The only real difference between the Saw sequence and our torture version, is that we wish to imply an additional sexual reference to relationship between the weapons and the torturer.

2009-10-07T11:52:00.000+01:00

Personal Directives:

As mentioned in the project overview, the working group have been designated jobs to carry out thorough all areas of the production process. These are some short descriptions to what my jobs will be and what they may entail:

Preproduction

Storyboard/Pre visual Artist:
In preproduction, I tend to prefer taking a backseat to any real role. To send myself out of this my comfort zone, I shall be in control of the storyboarding and concept art for the duration of the project

Production

Cinematography/Camera Operator:
This job is a job assigned by preference, and in belief it is also a strength. The role does tend to piece together with the pre visualisation quite well.

Post Production

Special Effects:
One specific sequence demands a call for the use of visual effects. The effects will be in camera, and in postproduction combined. This job will be a challenge by providing the possibility to learn new skills and techniques. In addition, i shall also overlook the editing sessions to supply a fresh set of eyes, and catch out any mistakes that the other person may have missed.

2009-10-07T11:13:00.000+01:00

Digital Media Development

The sequences:

There are a total of three sequences in the preproduction pipeline at the moment. The idea behind each individual sequence is directed to exploit specific techniques and emotions that have been a failure in previous projects, or alternatively something that is a desire to accomplish. Find below short synopsis and descriptions that demonstrate in more detail the theory of the project.

1.Suspense Building Drama:
This sequence will concentrate on long establishing shots to deliver a feeling of being trapped. A big benefactor for this sequence will be the combination of an atmospheric track and soundtrack to capture a cringe worthy feeling of isolation.

2.Aggressive Torture:
Using a combination of carefully planned camera techniques and organized fight choreography, this sequence will provide an action packed blood curdling torture session that will get the adrenaline pumping

3.Séance:
The séance themed scene will provide a chance to dabble in the field of visual/sound effects. The plan to produce an intense suspense followed by a supernatural disaster, the sequence will provide a great opportunity to build a studio set.

2009-10-07T10:35:00.001+01:00

Digital Media Development

This is a short introduction to the project, and what the main objectives will entail

In a nutshell:

Create three short sequences (30-90 seconds) that strengthen and develop a various amount of specific film making techniques, in consideration to possible weak points from previous productions. As a result, reinforcing vital skills to produce quality products to the best possible ability.

The project:

The main objective of this brief is to build upon the skills obtained from the previous college years by developing and directing them into a successful and professional workflow. By taking consideration to eliminate all the unneeded errors and problems that have occurred in previous productions, the quality of work, and time taken to produce such work should in theory “improve dramatically”. The successful completion of the brief will also provide valuable additions to the building of a portfolio.

As a group of three, the production will delegate specific production jobs accordingly. This will allow for an equally distributed workload, and more importantly assign desired specialist jobs, in conjunction to the person’s skill strengths and preferences.

Me? a T-shirt Designer?

2009-07-24T09:20:00.003+01:00

After great success and a really nice amount of positive feedback from my previous T-shirt design, i was content with my sucess and thought nothing more of the matter. Then a band that we have played with at previous gigs approached me to commission a T-shirt design. There was no real deadline, or work-frame to meet, other than it was as "cool" as the other one. Now my brain has started to tick, if am being approached by this band, is it possible others may follow in a similar fashion? especially if i advertise, and push myself out there? something to consider in the coming months.

The band in the spotlight this time is a local leeds metal act known as "Book Of Job"

http://www.myspace.com/bookofjobmetal

Check them out, there pretty awesome!

Anyway, being the kind fella i am, and knowing the band personally, i designed the T-shirt free of charge, i saw it as a way to assess if i was capable rather than just assuming i was producing a product worthy of charging. Plus it all adds to a portfolio =D

The design looks like this:

The design is made up of some abnormal octo legged creature, a suppose its an octopus, but am not 100% sure to be honest. The creature is sucking on a book, why? who knows! the bands name "Book Of Job" Encouraged the involvement of a book, and what you see is the result hah! In the sketching process, i drew the book before anything else! which is pretty odd really.

2 down now, whats next to come in the band merch saga?

Keeping Busy: Project Metropolis - Monsters T-shirt

2009-07-19T15:56:00.005+01:00

A while has passed now since my first of two graduations, i have played hard since, been to lively Rome, Played my heart out at gigs and festivals. Nice change to the pressure of deadlines. However, no matter how stressful the working environment gets, i soon manage to miss it. As myself and the band "Project Metropolis" have been in good form, and had good luck in recent months, i am on the promotional and merch band wagon to help push us that little bit more.

To add to this positive note, through finding my passion for music again, and with the help of Phil Wall, and his inspiring illustrations, i decided to pick up a good old Berol Fineliner pen once again. And for the record, i quote " It feels Amazing" knowing that after over a year of pure digital creativity coursing through my veins, i can still create a good drawing.

With out any more psycho babble, i present the result of this refreshing voyage:

Probebly needless to say, i think i out did myself. I didn't believe i was capable of producing something of this quality. Some may recognize a similarity to an existing artist out there in the band mech design world. Yes, Godmachine. He has given direct influence with his designs. However, i would like to retain the fact that my design is a personalised approach to the style of Godmachine. Not copying =P If by some miraculous happening where Godmachine manages to lay eyes on this blog. Thank you for being such an inspiration to my revived drawing passion!

iPhone 3GS Photography

2009-06-20T21:03:00.001+01:00

Nice purple flower shot with the iPhone 3GS it's a great camera, and an even better video camera = D

iPhone 3GS

2009-06-18T18:55:00.004+01:00

iPhone 3GS

I have a mission tomorow, the mission goes as follows:

- Set the alarm on my old iphone for the very last time

- Wake up at stupid oclock to make it to the o2 store in crossgates

- hope there is no rush (i anticipate there will not be a repeat of the 3G release)

- Pay stupid amounts of money to own the leading smartphone on the release date

- take it home and spend my morning being all precious and giddy when unboxing it

- play with all the new features, and maybe blog about them

- Upload some nice video examples to youtube or vimeo if the quality deserves it

- Smile for a long time after =D

Editing TIme! Entry 10

2009-05-28T22:21:00.000+01:00

The final countdown!

Deadline tomorrow and approaching fast, the film is currently in a completed state and ready to write to DVD. We spent today reviewing the film for any obvious mistakes and problems we would like to change. In addition, I have tested the film in a private showing with close family, and a few friends. This was probably not the best thing to do, as all the response i received consisted of "wow thats awesome" and "well done, am proud of you" and other quotes of that nature. Nothing critical to aid an improvement of finalization process.

As it stands this evening, we are ready to collate all the pre production materials and other relevant data to add to the hand in DVD. The main inputs i shall be supplying is my editing journal, and other bits supporting that document. We shall cary out the file organization and DVD burning tomorrow morning, ready for the 4pm deadline.

Thats pretty much it for the editing journal am afraid, there will still be much more to come on the succession of additional improvements to the film, and in the bigger picture, a premier (of which i am really looking forward to) Also the process of entering the film into up and coming competitions and film festivals and cinema screenings is something we will be looking into over the summer months, so keep posted for announcements concerning such events.

The project was a great learning cure for both myself and my team, i have most certainly learned great new skills, and suffered at the hands of horrific mistakes. But this as we say, builds character, and moulds a more efficient professional. Its been a great experience for myself, and i hope i managed to share this experience with any reader following this series of editing posts.

Thankyou

Mark Braithwaite

EDITING TIME! Entry 9

2009-05-27T18:30:00.000+01:00

Deadlines closing in, the restriction is slowly cutting off the air supply. Time to get this project put to bed. The next and final process is to treat the sound for levels and broken audio levels in the projects cuts. This process was out of my specialist duristiction, but i still wanted to have some input on the process and learn new skills in the post production field. So I handed this over to james as his skills with sound design better mine. The process involved going through the film, and piece by piece edit the sound levels to avoid any very quiet sections, and more importantly any peaking levels that would sound horrificly destructive in the mix.

By keeping the levels to a standard mid level mix, it slowly turned a mixed up audio mess, ito a perfect sound mix to match the visuals quality. In addition to improove the sound, we applyed a graphic equalizer to all the problematic vocal clips. By changing specific frequencys in the equalizer, we managed to eliminate all the low frequency bass sounds of the boom rattling and the air conditioning scattered around the location. This resulted in the vocal levels sounding crisper in the mix.

As it stands now, we still need to apply a soundtrack for the final scene, this is something that we may have to consider sacrificing for the subission, and take more time over, and be more considerate to the production of a soundtrack ready for film festival entrys and other things of that nature in the up coming future.

Editing TIme! Entry 8

2009-05-26T21:52:00.000+01:00

Long time has past, and many things have been achieved since the previous editing blog entry.

Late last week editing finally started to become a major chore, a feeling i have long been anticipating, but thankfully came much closer to the end of the working session than i estimated. Although i did not intend to spend as long editing the film. Now, finally we have completed the edit, and just need some final sound treatment, and one additional soundtrack for the closing scene to the film.

In the later stages of the editing process i started to run into some workflow issues. These issues occured when we started to apply colour correction and colour application with the "Magic Bullet" plugin suite. It took some serious routing and head scratching to solve the issue. In the end it was my workflow to blame. By exporting the after effects camera edits in the "animation" codec format, it changed the final cut projects sequence settings to custom, and in addition to the file sizes being "HUGE" final cut quite litrely died. Its poor little heart stopped beating, and was replaced by apples multicouloued spinning wheel of death!!

ARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!

Anyway we managed to rectify the problem, by exporting a new movie file and using that new movie export as the project move, and resluted in final cuts ressusitation, after an hour of rendering the clip of course! the spinning wheel of death give way, and the cursor returned to alow the scrub of the projects timeline. happy days =D From there on in, it was a matter of matching up color correction and andding a desired color treatment to the films best visual intrest. Started doing this process but was cut of at 9pm as the colege shuts!

Editing TIme! Entry 7

2009-05-20T14:04:00.000+01:00

Tuesday/Wednsday

Pretty much picking up were i left off with the last post, at around 9-9.30pm yesterday evening we took out the XD cam and a tripod to capture some additional establishing shots of the main casino location and the surrounding area. We was intending to get some dusk shots and full night time shots! but to say the least, what i feared and what did become very apparent, May is not the best time of the calendar year to wait around with a camera and a tripod for nightfall to occur as i experienced, and fully well realized that the sun does not set until well after 10-10.30pm. With that in mind, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the XD cam and its censor was not adequate enough to capture efficient footage in extreme low light conditions. So the footage we managed to capture was in more a dusk like condition.

Now seen as we were on track, i decided to try a technique that i had in mind to get a more visually stunning effect in post production. With me being in charge of the D.O.P Job on set, i thought it would be nice to get a set of visually pleasing establishing shots. The technique i had in mind shares a very similar workflow process to that of HDR image processing in still photography. By taking two exposures of an exterior shot, an under exposed composite for the sky, and a correct exposure for the foreground, i would then overlay the two exposures on to separate layers in Adobe After Effects, and mask out the under exposed foreground on the under exposed file. This would result in having a nice exposed foreground with a nice contrasted sky instead of being blown out.

The main workflow for this process was very successful as i did the exposures in a fixed position, however i would like to have done the same with moving footage but to do the same process with moving footage would be impossible unless you have a perfect duplicate of the shot with two separate exposures, plus it would be a nightmare to mask out.

Heres some teaser screenshots of my D.O.P Work in the new film:

To explain the images shown, the first screenshot is from one of the establishing shots to the main casino location and/or the "jazz club" as it is known in the film, were the main character plays gigs from time to time. This is the shot were i used the exposure technique i explained above. plus the addition of some nice color treatment, we have a successful HDR style shot, crediting my cinematography skills! i am very happy with it also! =D

The second clip is of a nice focus blur. it was a spur of the moment thing, that has now made it into he final cut. The shot consists of flickering lights coming in and out of focus, and we have now linked it to the fading career of the main support actor "brandy" so its acting as a visual reference to the life of the films "brandy" character"
In addition to yesterdays progress and todays progress, i have applied the establishing clips into the final cut, and they do a great job of slowing the pace down in much needed places, and setting the scenes moods nicely.

Problems:

I ran into a major problem today, as we started to apply color editing to the clips, Apples final cut, pretty much had enough and grinded to a halt. This fault was being caused by huge files having very heavy effects applied to them, the software had no chance keeping up with the live rendering of the clips. To resolve the issue, i exported the clip and replaced in into the position of the reference clips from he scratch. Not ideal i know, but was the best option available considering the other option would have set the film back a week at least.

Apart from that we now look set to continue with color application, and finalize the sound and soundtrack! then ladies and gents, we may have finished with a bit of luck! fingers crossed!

Editing TIme! Entry 6

2009-05-19T19:48:00.003+01:00

Tuesday

What a long day today has been, and to add to that i am now
Blogging in what i consider to be a break due to having a location shoot at night fall! In the mean time i am sat blogging in the av suite, now thats comitment! I have been producing some of the sound design elements manly ambient background sound to cheat that busy feel to a scene. In addition to that, we went down to the casino location earlier today to capture some roulette table footage (as seen in the picture) this was essential for the story and its flow in the closing scenes. After a few hours and some nice sfx, i managed to slide them into the final cut! So the film is making steady progress, and hope to get the final footage in the next 2 hours! Then i will be tierd! Very tierd! But am still eager for tomorow! Av got a screw loose!

EDITING TIME! Entry Five

2009-05-18T18:39:00.008+01:00

Monday Monday Morning, and i was exited about getting the final cut complete today

I almost didn't get up this morning, and would not have done without knowing why i was getting up!
I have been having such weird sleeping sessions over last few weeks but thats not important!

Right todays editing session was great fun, but tedious all the same! got started fairly well and still had my workflow in great working order after the steady weekend break... well maybe not steady seen as i was either working, worrying about the FMP, or editing the title sequence! of which i shall be moving onto later.

Today schedule was to complete a cut of scene four, and with a bit of luck, complete the ending sequence A.K.A Scene nine. And we did it! we now have a complete rough cut for the film at a staggeringly long 10 minutes 20 seconds. But this is subject to a critical assessment and a second fine tooth-comb cut session later this week. Oh and the addition of some location establishing scenes to split up the pace of the films dialogue sequences.

We are now currently organizing a final shoot to get these location clips, and hopefully some more casino clips, especially of the roulette wheel itself as it seems relevant to the stories structure.

Now the exiting part..

I have been masking away in After Effects to produce the title sequence for the film. Its still not complete as of yet but its looking nice and tight to say the least. I am very impressed with myself on coming up with the idea to squeeze the title in at this point, and the process i went through is something i have been wanting to try for a while now.

Basically its a cut between two scenes, but in this case its to a title and not a second scene. Instead of just jump cutting to a new scene, i have masked an action within the scene to reveal the title underneath. To keep the film confidential, i am only providing film stills at this point in time to avoid any conflict with future entries to film festivals and things of that nature.

Anyway take a look at these stills, not great quality, but provides the point:

Nice? I would like to think so! please comment, and constructive criticism is more than welcome

Catch it, bin it, kill it!

2009-05-17T19:56:00.001+01:00

Although swine flu appears to be slowly fading from the media spotlight. And people now seem complacent that there is nothing to worry about anymore! I am
Still keeping to the good old catch it, bin it, kill it way of life! This "handy" bottle of hand sanitizer helps with vital routine, and has come in handy for keeping the imac nice and clean!

Testing of blogger iphone application

2009-05-17T19:26:00.001+01:00

Well am hoping this works! Will allow me to enter blog posts while on the move! Thank god a.k.a steve jobs for the iphone!

Film Title! Its a tricky one

2009-05-17T18:14:00.003+01:00

Its getting to a crucial stage of the project now. The summer sunshine is closing in, well it would be if it was any chance of the horrific rain clouds getting lost. The slow tightening slipknot around our necks that is the deadline starting to constrict the airways and blood flow of the FMP's progression. Today i have been racking the old noggin to eradicate the working title of "Brandy's Song" for a more suitable and more permanent alternative.

The struggle was not from lack in creativity, its more as a result of how abnormal the film is shaping up to be. Getting a title that can make sense of the plot seems to be near on impossible. However i do have some titles in the making and wish to share them:

Titles go as follows:

All or Nothing

Raise The Steaks

Bluff

Wild Spin

Last Spin

Last Odds

Whats The Odds

No Odds

True Odds

Wild Card

Loaded

Payoff

Am liking "Whats The Odds" and "Payoff" at the moment, and after an email from Greame, something along the lines of
"The Payoff Blues" or "The Blues Payoff" Its at least looking more promising that the working title of "Brandys song"

More to follow on that issue soon

EDITING TIME! Entry Four

2009-05-15T16:46:00.002+01:00

Thursday/Friday

Friday was not officially an editing day, and as you may have gathered Thursday was not either. This was because of the crit in the morning and then we exported the sound in the evening ready to be treated. Now back to Friday. As I said it was not a day for editing as we received sudden but really good news that our cast were all available for the final shoot at the location of Billy’s House. All hyped up and ready to go we all gathered at the location in healingly. The house we were using belonged to a good friend of Graeme’s. To say the least, we could not have asked for a better location when considering the scripts description of Billy’s Place =D

Besides the horrific rain and cold damp environment of the location. We could not have had a better performance from the cast! Its amazing how in the most uncomftable location with the tightest working timescale produced what appeared to be the best performances of the cast to date. This could be down to the fact that we have developed a relationship with the cast, and have past that ice breaking barrier and started to enjoy ourselves. Shame it happened on the last shoot of the production. But we shall be extending invites to all cast and crew for the premier of the film

Good times =D

After the shoot, we managed to capture the footage to the project file. And was halfway through doing next Mondays job of filtering the video clips into scenes and removing the unwanted clips before matt kicked us out at the very early time of 4pm!! Grrrrrr!!!

But never before have I looked forward to getting up on a Monday morning and getting on with some video editing ha-ha!!

EDITING TIME! Entry Three

2009-05-13T19:03:00.002+01:00

Wednsday

Wednsday was a straight forward day, it must be my editing workflow kicking in now. Rather than wasting time umming and arring, I knew what was happening and what was coming next in my editing workflow. To top it off it was also saving some valuable time in the day resulting in more scenes being edited at a faster rate.

We managed to manufacture the cuts on scenes four, six and partially seven. Throughout the day it became apparent that the sound design is going to need some serious work to match the films visual. We are already in the process of listing Foley that we will need to find or produce for the sound design. The dialogue in areas is very quiet and sometimes disrupted with odd background noises such as a passing vehicle or bar staff cleaning the location. This has also prompted the thoughts of dubbing the dialogue to replace the poor quality sections from the boom microphone recordings. This is something we shall make a decision on dependant on time restrictions and prioritising our jobs into a hierarchy of importance.

Problems and Solutions:

Sound design and its quality clashing in comparison to the visual
To solve it we need to go through a sound cleansing session and/or consider dubbing of the dialogue in more specific poor quality or quiet areas.

EDITING TIME! Entry Two

2009-05-12T19:24:00.004+01:00

Tuesday

Tuesday morning, as I would have assumed, we pretty much picked up were we left off the previous day, and watched back Mondays progress. This will most likely be a reoccurring feature in the editing process, and as far as I could assess from this morning, looking over the previous days work with a fresh set of eyes helps to pick out problems and mistakes that the long hard worked brain lets slip in the late afternoon of the previous day.

So.. what was achieved today. To start off, we got cracking on the opening scene between the characters Brandy (Alison) and Charlie (Peter) this scene was an odd editing experience. The reason I found it odd and unconventional was that the scene was a hyped argument between the characters but the odd thing was they was having this heated discussion through a closed door. Although the cut did come together quite nice, it was both odd for both the actors and myself in editing due to the lack of emotional reactions caused by the missing eye contact between the actors.

Now scene three was an awkward one for one main reason! Pace! And a clash between soundtrack and narrative. It only became apparent after it was edited together. The soundtrack plays from the end of the first scene, through the title sequence (scene two) and all through scene three. Now scene three opens up to a track shot of Billy (Andrew) and Roulette Dealer (Luke) then cuts into a dialogue sequence between the two. Problem is this dialogue sequence is in the middle of the soundtrack. This was the fist real editing problem we were presented with. The options were narrowed down to as follows:

Cut out the dialogue sequence to maintain pace of the soundtrack

Take the levels down or even mute the soundtrack thorough the dialogue sequence

Both obviously cause problems. But in the cut which one would be most beneficial for the story is most likely the one that will be selected for the final sequence. As of yet we have not decided on which to eliminate, but it is looking promising to drop the dialogue over the soundtrack.

Problems and Solutions:

Yes, as stated above. In short, Making crucial decisions over the two different routes of either dialogue or soundtrack should be informed and backed up by relevance to aid the script.

EDITING TIME! Entry One

2009-05-11T18:27:00.005+01:00

Monday

Monday morning bright fresh and ready to rock and roll with a huge virtual mountain of video captures sitting ready on the hard drive for myself (Editor) and James (Director) to spend pretty much all Monday morning choosing the cream of the crop, disposing unneeded captures and renaming files for reference to aid the editing workflow.

So in more detail regarding the workflow for this first step, to start of we had two folders named “Day One” and “Day Two” these names were a temporary measure from the capturing session after each days shoot hence the file names referring to the day of the shoot

From square one the first process in the workflow was to organise these folders into scenes. The most logical way to approach this was to look through the clips individually with the script in hand as a reference, and one by one assess the video clips against duplicate takes. We did this by opening each clip in finder and comparing it to other takes from the same camera angle. To make a successful choice at this stage, we looked for obvious continuity problems within the clip that would never be considered for the final cut, aspects like crew members appearing, boom microphones making an unwanted appearance and other problems of that nature. After such assessments were made, we would then remove what was not needed and drop the successful clips into there corresponding scene folders.

After that very long process, but most enjoyable at times (especially the bloopers ha-ha) it was time to set up a project folder in Apples Final Cut. Since all the files were organised and ready to go this made the process of setting it up with the scratch disks a breeze.

That was it the hard part over, or so it seemed, this opinion was soon to be changed! But that’s a story for later in the journal entry. In the afternoon I made a decision to slice and dice together the intro sequence, made up of arty farty slow motion clips. The clips look amazing alone! But when there edited together! The sequence was in a league of its own.

The idea of the sequence was to establish the visual appearance and attitude of the main location. Revealing a gambling, cheating, sleazy attitude with the contrast of a rich classy looking location where all this filth takes place. Without giving too much away, it’s a great little sequence and I am very happy with the outcome.

Problems and Solutions:

The only real problem was warming to the software again after a long time of not using Final Cut. Solved this problem by taking time on editing the intro sequence with no pressure.

iphone Firmware 2.2 Update

2008-12-24T14:06:00.007Z

Yesterday i braved the long anticipated challenge of updating my iphone. as of this time yesterday i had successfully locked my iphone, and i was very unhappy to say the least. But with hours of hard work and playing around i managed to get it working and updated with the latest firmware 2.2.

Anyway after that, i have had a good old revamp of the system and upgraded it to a nice custom all black theme... adding some nice little personal touches also:

first little adjustment was so meaningless but so cool at the same time, you can download an advanced settings section and with this you can enter a custom name for the carrier, in my case i have replaced my o2UK logo with my name. [i want to name the phone, but cant think of anything relevant as of yet]

Next i have replaced the lockscreen slide button with a nice touch button that matches the theme. so so so much better to use. And the most obvious thing visible is the theme itself, its a combonation of theme downloads for the springboard, the icons and the lockscreen. It also goes into things like the SMS and changes the blue hi-lighting for black.

And seen as its christmas, i have added some flashing Christmas lights around the springboard, how jolly =D

PPD - Some Recent Job Desires

2008-11-25T21:25:00.006Z

Company: Eyeframe
Location: Soho, London

Found this motion graphics company in Decembers issue of Digital Arts Magazine. They Appear to specialize in DVD Menu production, which is very ironic considering the recent project.

Below is a shot of the DVD Menu as seen in Shane Meadows "This is England"

This Is England

This would be an awesome career to be involved in, Although there not taking on people of my experience, its a good level to aim for while still in education.

For much more info, Videos and other great assets can be found on the Eyeframe website:

http://www.eyeframe.co.uk/

Visual Effects And Motion Graphics: Final Production

2008-10-22T19:33:00.002+01:00

The Night before the deadline, and a cant hold myself from uploading the video before the presentation, so here it is:

Channel 4 Fear Season from Mark Braithwaite on Vimeo.

Very much looking forward to seeing other idents from my colleagues and presenting mine tomorrow.

Beautiful Sunsets and Fisheyes

2008-09-28T13:34:00.003+01:00

Long time awaiting a wide angle lens, i finally executed a hot photo-shoot at Temple Newsam and the surrounding gardens. I just as i thought i had exhausted this place of photographs, i decided to try something new. Up until last night i have only ever took photographs during the day, so i challenge myself to do some nocturnal photography. As i ventured into the unknown, i was skeptical on what what about to be, and to my amazement, almost every photo i took looked amazing, although it was dark, there was a slight purple/red fade on the horizon, by exposing the camera, it picked these details up better that the eye can.

Here are some of the results, and bare in mind that i have done no color editing on them:

The mansions floodlights supplied some really nice light and shadows, and helped to produce this unrealistic feel that the images possess.

The gardens water fountain:

Please comment, Crit and enjoy =D

Looking at "Idents"

2008-09-28T11:52:00.004+01:00

When Reading the brief for the first time, I had to sit and ask myself "what is an ident" this small little word of mystery, of course i had my gut feeling as to what it may be, but was not sure all the same. So to clear this little problem I had, by doing a little research into what its actual meaning was, i have not only found out for a fact what it actually means in the broadcasting world, but it has aided me to do more detailed and productive research on source material. The best description of "ident" also known as a "sounder or stinger" came from Wikipedia under "Station Identification" it displays a great description for someone like myself who has very little knowledge on what the word actually means.

Description Below:

from reading this, have now gathered that a channel or radio station uses an "ident" as a mark/tag or signature in a more creative and visually exiting way, by making this attractive it also works as a memory imprint to lure people into watching the station/ listening to the radio similar to advertising. When thinking of a really good existing example that i can analyze and inspire from, it clicked to look at the infamous channel four moving shape idents, as they are relevant to the same channel as the brief, and they also pack a punch of visual effects and are very memorable.

The Youtube Video Below Has Some Of The Best Examples:

some nice visual effects in those idents, but as i am aware these are idents for the channel alone, to do a "FEAR SEASON" will include footage of films that will be featuring on the "FEAR SEASON" including a signature ident to the channel, in the briefs case, this is channel 4 too. So in terms of research i need to look at and analyze how idents work alone, and how they work along side an advertisement for a series/season. also i believe it will be beneficial to look at how the footage in these adverts is structured by considering aspects such as the editing of footage, and he footage to moving graphic ratio, and in addition to this, researching and analyzing some physiological and thriller movies will help to inspire and develop some scene ideas for the story boarding of my own " FEAR SEASON ON CHANNEL 4"

found some idents for the BBC although personally i feel there not as identifiable as the channel 4 versions

Ident mntage For BBC ONE:

Ident montage For BBC TWO:

Visual Effects And Motion Graphics

2008-09-26T20:21:00.007+01:00

After a long hard night at work yesterday evening, and an even harder day of racking my pounding head for some inspiration on the new brief now brings me to writing up the first blog of the project, and on that note, the academic year. Yesterday when I received the briefing on the Visual Effects Module, I had mixed feelings towards it. The brief in itself appeared to be a great, but I was in a way over anticipating how good it actually was, knowing about it from the end of the first year, I have allowed my self to build up expectation of a more open approach, and had all these ideas floating about in my head. As i know know, the brief is very specific and landed me and my pre return stewing brain right back to square one (I see this as a positive thing of course) Back to last night then, from the moment I had left college, there was a tie between the UFO-SI-FI Channel and the FEAR-Channel 4 breakouts, by the end of my shift, I had come to the decision of following the FEAR breakout. what were my reasons? I hear you all cry! Well I believe that the main and most academically justifiable explanation would be that the skills involved in creating "visual" and "emotional" material that is convincingly scary is by far the hardest emotion to capture. At this point of self assessment in my head, I was thinking.. OK so I have chosen FEAR, and to make this achievable, I am going to have to produce some pretty convincing material that can pass for hollywood quality SAW style horror, or its possible to go for a more comedy horror, with all the exaggerated blood and guts? but the brief does state psychological and thriller movies, so that narrows that pathway down to a prefered advantage. After a crap nights sleep due to suffering from the infamous man flu, I have been filtering through some DVDs to filter out some really nice inspirational source material that I can sigh at and say, ohh how I wish I could do that! But seriously, I have watched some nice motivating stuff today, especially on the good old Extra Features.

To start with, one of my favorite Shane Meadows films:

DEAD MANS SHOES

A great film to watch for gritty down to earth realistic horror, but with a twist of good nature mixed in to the chaos. Dead mans shoes is all about that grey "elephant man" gas mask, its unbelievably chilling, and awesome at the same time. As all gas masks are genuinely scary, when captured correctly on camera, they can send shivers down the spine, as it plays on that human cover up deformity feel. As i watched, and took note of the film, the use of sudden cut shots where an appearance is made then vanishes all of a sudden works wonders, its like a shark in deep water, you would prefer have a visual on the sharks thin "gas mask man" because when you loose that visual, all becomes calm, and that is even more terrifying.

Screenshot of the Gas Mask - Dead Mans Shoes

So the point i am trying to aim at from this particular film is that the sudden shock of this gas mask, then for it to disappear, this is the kind of material that makes us jump, and thus makes me think hold on, i can recreate this in my own style, its just considering where to put it into a television advertisement structure? at the moment I am not too sure how film season adverts look, or how they are structured. But this is something to look at as well as such inspiring source material such as this.

Promotional Material

2008-09-22T18:31:00.003+01:00

During My college warm up period, I have been heavily involved with my band and our current run to get back on track. We have suffered a deadly year with our guitarist leaving, we managed to find a new guitarist who is amazing, and now the original guitarist has come back to the family.. thus engaging us to become awesome once again! we have been working very hard to get back into the groove of things, and we have produced some exiting new material, and hope to be giging before we see the year out!

But thats not the point of this blog, as i was saying about being heavily involved with this in terms of college, i have produced some new graphics for promotion and maybe even my first long awaited T-shirt design.

The design is still a working progress for final production, but is starting to take shape:

Maybe a little rude for a sensitive soul, although it doesn't bother me in the slightest, its a work of art, all digitally produced by graphic tablet and photography, followed by production in photoshop. Am still yet to send it into the world of the bands Myspace page to be rated by the people who matter.. the fans and band members alike! but all the creatives out there, give it a good citing

Second Life: Phonebox

2008-09-18T15:39:00.002+01:00

3D Modeling: Phonebox

Through recent creative struggles, I have produced something worth showing with no pre intentions of doing so. While checking out second life again after a long break away from it, i decided to test my building skills by recreating a imitation phonebox.
With the object being very squared and ridged, this made the building process fairly unchallenging in terms of technical and complex building, but hey, am happy with the outcome no matter how much, or should i say how little effort it took.

Austrian Death Machine

2008-07-31T14:08:00.003+01:00

Austrian Death Machine

A new album produced entirely by the infamous Tim Lambesis from As I Lay Dying.

Austrian Death Machine is fast, pissed, and brutal metal, just how it should be, with classic lines from Arnold movies such as "GET TO THE CHOPPER"
No fantasy lyrics or overly poetic personal jargon. There are only forcefully chanted, testosterone drive phrases that governor Arnold would approve of.

Illustrated Recovery

2008-07-31T14:02:00.002+01:00

After a long drought of illustrated images, here is an ok effort created from todays boredom. The skin textures are rather nice, thanks to none other than the dodge and burn tools

Temple Newsam House

2008-07-30T17:34:00.002+01:00

Went for a nice walk in temple newsam parks and grounds today, and have taken a nice image of the good old mansion. weathers been great for a while now, had loads of photographic opportunities.

Temple Newsam House

Nice picture, and i am quite pleased with it. With a feel of a wide angle lense snapshot, although no such lense was used here, its down to the crazy perspective of the composition

Turning Water Into Wine

2008-07-22T21:23:00.002+01:00

Turning Water Into Wine
Just been on what turned out to be an unsuccessful photo shoot. The weather was not very pleasing. But hey, I still managed to salvage something worth keeping from the rubble of a poor photography session.

Conducted some major photoshop surgery on the image below:

As you can see.. not the best photograph in the world, lucky enough for me, my trusty friend Photoshop is always here to help me climb out of the huge hole that I dug myself into with my camera =P

With a bit of blood, sweat and many tears, as i said previously about salvaging something from nothing. This image arose from the ashes of the horrible originated image:

decided to go for the autumn feel with golds as opposed to the original green shades.

Please enjoy if you can, its not a great image, but its practice! And Criticize of corse =P

Focus That Photograph

2008-07-22T18:38:00.003+01:00

While reflecting on my previous discovery and blog on the HDR photography subject, with my personal talents flowing, i was staring at my lego man stood on my Imac, he was looking down at me. It was at this precise point when an idea popped into mind. How achievable would it be to merge two separate photos of the exact same image, but only differing in-terms of the lenses focal point. For example you set a camera up in a steady position, taking care that it will not move during the shot. From there you get a small object, in my case i used a small spray bottle. and this will act as your main foreground focal point. This will be the first of the two images. The second image will be at focus on the furthest object, in my example it was the clouds.

Images taken look as follows:

With the two images, you can be as creative as you like from there, personally, my first choice is to use photoshop and manually merge the two images were applicable to my pre imagined desire. obviously, you can also go nuts from that point. With RAW files you can really make them jump from the screen and ooze rich colors, shadows and hi-lights.

Here is what i ended up with anyway, was a great learning curve for my techniques, something that will be kept in mind to improve on A.S.A.P in my future photographical quests:

Enjoy as always.. and please do criticize, its what us designers need to improve! =)

Tropic Thunder

2008-07-22T10:44:00.002+01:00

Mother Nature Just Pissed Her Pants TOO! Already a classic line

Directed by Ben Stiller. Written by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen

Stiller is starring as Tugg Speedman, an action movie star who, along with four other macho co-stars, is forced to rely on his boot camp skills to stay alive when things go horribly awry on their new movie. Ben co-wrote the comedy screenplay with Justin Theroux (Zoolander, Charlie's Angels Full Throttle) and Etan Cohen (Idiocracy). Jack Black will play Jeff “Fats” Portnoy, an overweight gross-out comedian from "The Fatties" franchise, who’s forced to kick his drug addiction while filming on location in the jungle.

Also starring are Robert Downey as Kirk Lazarus, the greatest actor of his generation and a four-time Oscar winner. Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up) will play Kevin Sandusky, an unknown actor on the set. Brandon T. Jackson plays multi-platinum hip-hop-star-turned-entrepreneur-turned-actor Alpa Chino. Bill Hader (Superbad) plays Rob Slolom. Matt Levin (Zoolander) plays Cam. Andrew De Oliveira plays a pilates instructor.

Tom Cruise was also confirmed as appearing by Baruchel, and rumored to be playing the head of the movie studio. Reggie Lee (Pirates of the Caribbean) plays the heavy.

Tropic Thunder is hopefully set to be one of the films of the year, and for this supposed hype, i am very much looking forward to watching the film on release, with such great comedic actors all thrown into one great explosive action comedy, its bound to leave you with a stomach cramp from the constant laughter of Stiller's Genius.

HDR Photography: What A False Sense of Security

2008-07-22T09:29:00.002+01:00

Ever Since discovering High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography, I Soon realized that i have been using these techniques all along in my photographs. By using various exposure levels of the same image, You can create some stunning visuals from the HDR method of editing. From research i conducted, there is softwares specialized in Doing all this for you, also Photoshop has a HDR image processor. I have Tried and tested this process, and to say the least i am not the biggest fan. So what i have learned from this is that i can take the supposed theory of HDR editing and proceed to incorporate it with my self taught manual methods of editing.

To demonstrate this theory of mine, I have produced a few photographs using this idea.
Keep in mind that these are my first attempts and guarantee vast improvements with more practice.

Please Criticize, Give Feedback and Most Importantly.. ENJOY

Also Keep Posted For New Photographs Coming VERY SOON

WALL-E (2008)

2008-07-20T21:08:00.002+01:00

WALL-E (2008)
Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios - I am a huge fan of Pixar Studios and this film has most definitely rocketed to the top Pixar films category with the other greats such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc. WALL-E, a very simple yet lovable compact crushing robot stranded on planet earth all alone, with a very big heart waiting to be taken. Every second of the emotional and exiting journey that WALL-E endures, you are right there with him feeling every bit of pain, sorrow and joy that WALL-E does. On a technical side of things the animation is state of the art, some of the cinematography looks close to lifelike, the ability that these animators have to put all those human emotions into not just a robot, but a CG animated robot. This is what animation is all about in the end, forget visuals, its how you can incorporate life and feeling into that drawing or CG model.

Great Film 5* A Must See

UFO Photography

2008-07-18T13:36:00.003+01:00

With My new Polaroid camera, I went for a long walk up into temple newsam woods a couple of nights ago.
To my astonishment, there were a small group of aliens building wooden tipi's from the tree wood.

I managed to get close to a stranded one trying to make a fire, as it spotted me it soon became clear that they were friendly creatures and allowed me to photograph it as it stayed fixated on the flash of the camera.

Cool or what!

Hancock

2008-07-07T19:17:00.002+01:00

Film review on "HANCOCK" 2008

Hancock (Will Smith). A sarcastic, self indulged, misunderstood, PC incorrect super hero. Gives a half arsed effort to stop crime while causing more damage than its worth. Was most pleasing to watch the film in terms of the post production and editing that has taken place, mind blowing visuals and great cinematography also. As for the narrative, lets just say its another will smith film, which is good! But doesn't get a hall of fame position in my mind.

Title Sequence for Dysfunctional Art

2008-06-27T17:02:00.002+01:00

With this mini project i have set myself. I have successfully achieved two things rather than just the one. While learning the ways of Adobe After effects, I have simultaneously produced a nice working title sequence to represent my efforts in any future moving image productions i am involved with.

Using After effects and a photoshop document I created this:

I produced it from a hand drawn title font scanned from paper, and a photograph of this beautiful little cloud captured by my Canon D400. The cloud was all alone in the air as it caught my eye through the window as i was on the very computer i am tying this blog post, unfortunately the clouds outside at this moment in time are much larger and more populated and also much darker with moisture falling from them, I believe its commonly referred to as typical english weather?

Yeah, Comment... Criticize and ENJOY

Premier of Fallout

2008-06-13T18:47:00.002+01:00

So earlier this afternoon myself, james and Graeme hosted a linked Youtube premier of our entry to the horror competition/ college video drome project.

As of now the Video is going down quite well on youtube collecting small amounts of feedback and getting over 90 views in 3 hours. This in my opinion has ben a good start and a success in terms of what we was trying to achieve.

Here is the video now uploaded for refrence and enjoyment to all you crazy mofos:

Please watch, enjoy and leave some constructive criticism on my youtube page.

On that note that was the last hand in of the year for the DDM course.. how fast that went. I only wish the course went on through summer, that would be awesome =D

Instead i intend to do some personal development and hone my skills in various techniques including Adobe After effects and some film techniques... But more on that at a later date

Adobe After Effects: Muzzle, Flash and Pull Back Effect

2008-06-10T20:06:00.002+01:00

Behold a Gun Muzzle, Flash and Pull Back Effect I put together in Adobe After Effects.

This being the first of many mini projects to come over the summer
I am exited and pleasantly surprised with how simple after effects can be! As David once said " Its a simple transition from using Photoshop and any form of timeline/video editing software"

Watch The Video:

Learning Journey

2008-06-03T12:49:00.001+01:00

Here is the finale of the PPD module...

It comes in the form of an animation produced in flash

Evaluation to follow!

Flash Website

2008-05-10T22:59:00.002+01:00

Since i now have an interest in flash, i decided to have a look around for some nice flash based examples.
I came across this really nice example of a flash website.

This websites flash design has sparked off some ideas for my development to the personal/professional development project.
But for now my ideas remain a secret! SUSH!!

imac touchscreen?

2008-04-28T18:07:00.001+01:00

The Power of the ipod touch/iphone in the imac!

Something that i believe looks awesome but is completely inappropriate!! and useless in most ways.

Aesop Fable: My Inspiration

2008-04-16T11:06:00.003+01:00

Like a large percentage of my personal work and my inspirations for it, and in this case! My Aesops Fable project. It all revolves around one man, and his outstanding ability of never failing to impress me.

Alex Pardee:

The unmistakable styling of pardee, with his black ink and brown paper is by a long shot one of the most influential creative styles in my design career to date. Not to sound really obsessed but this is the style I am aiming for in the animation of the Aesop Fable : The Chicken that Lays the Golden Eggs

Interactive Media: Flash Websites

2008-04-16T10:17:00.004+01:00

Aardman Studios: Founded in 1976 as a low-budget project by animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton. Famous for the animated sequences in Vision On, for which they created Morph, a clay character. Aardman, together with Nick Park are also responsible for the infamous Wallace & Gromit and the Creature Comforts shorts.

The Aardman Studio has a very advanced interactive flash website: Take a look

Almost all the websites surface is interactive, this makes the website engaging and non repetitive. I have been on the website numerous times, and still find something new on each visit. The design of the animations and layout is also something to be appreciated for its exceptional quality. I only wish i could produce something like this for the Aesop's Fables Brief.

Applying Video Filter Layers: Photoshop

2008-04-15T15:48:00.003+01:00

With the animation that was posted earlier, with a feeling of in-contention, it was eating away at me to play with it further. Doing just that, i have applied a vintage look to my animation by applying a new adjustment layer in photoshop. By doing so, it has allowed me to do multiple things in editing the look and feel of the film.

Here are some examples:

I have noticed previously that this technique can either destroy or make a video. Its something of an art from. with the AESOP'S FABLES being hundreds of years old, i have gone for a destroyed vintage feel to give the animation some flavour!!

Here it is again!

Looks better already!

My Flash Development: Using audio

2008-04-15T14:40:00.003+01:00

During today I have created a test sequence for a title or introduction to my interactive animation on the Aesop's Fables Brief. I have created the sequence using Photoshops frame by frame animation program. to do this, as before I have cut an illustrated character into what will become the moving limbs. These "Limbs' will then be placed into a new document ready to animate.

Below is a photoshop screenshot on how the limb editing process happens:

The separated limbs are put into A new document and are processed in the same way each time. By the limb being the only layer, It made it easier to erase the execs white surrounding the limb using the pen tool. From there, all the separate limbs are placed into a new document corresponding to the laws of perspective so that limbs in the backdrop will fall behind limbs in the foreground as the cross paths in the animation process.

After completion of the animation i wanted to input some audio to enhance it. In a horrid scuffle with the exporting in IMovie, I must have been doing something wrong down the line, as it was not exporting the video file, hence i ended up with a quicktime file of which only had audio and a black screen. So... i decided to be brave and try the audio editing in Flash. And what a result it was. I did struggle with it slightly, and still have only a faint idea on how it was managed, but luckily i produced a working animation with audio in sync. I did this by using the time lines and adding key frames where the audio would start and end.

Here it is, the end product of today:

Getting a little better, moving multiple things simultaneously was a good challenge to take on.

P.S: The line drawing is looking good as it is with no rendering involved. I will carry out some rendered tests purely to see the difference,but i reckon am favoring the linear approach

Flash Tutorial: Walk Cycle

2008-04-14T14:05:00.003+01:00

Right.... Finally with a little blood and sweat, I have taken a design form my ABLE'S FABLE design. Imported it into Flash and animated a walk cycle. Similar to the photoshop animation previously, I have cut it up into "limbs" and animated it using the techniques I have learned earlier today. Problems in a technical view were aspects such as the motion tweening separate layers in conjunction with each other.

Below is the animation of a simple walk cycle across the stage:

Any good? I would say so, its for definite a good technical working start, next time i want to try getting more limb movement into the character.

More to come soon dudes and dudets

Flash Tutorial: Learning to Animate

2008-04-14T13:49:00.003+01:00

This morning in the Flash tutorial managed to FINALY pick up the techniques of animation in the Flash software. Discovering the techniques of motion tween and and motion guide, Gave birth to what is possibly thee worst animation ever made. However, the fundamentals of the softwares structure had at a moment of clarity.

Above shows the red circle and the motion guide of which was drawn with the pen tool. By snapping the animated shape onto the start of the guide and then onto the end. it applies its movement to the guided line. Great stuff

P.S

I off started the day off hating flash, and now am in two minds! it could be useful with some intensive practice.

Trying to Catch Herpies

2008-04-11T22:07:00.002+01:00

I have ben thinking...

When it comes to producing my animation, My mind is split down the middle in-terms of adding color and rendering to my drawings, only doing a basic hint of color, or not at all.

SO.. I decided to conduct some research into a linear style of animation and take further action from there.

I stumbled upon this animation:

The quality of realism that has been put into this particular stick man is really outstanding, definitely made me think twice about what style to peruse in my animation

The Basics of Animation

2008-04-10T19:36:00.004+01:00

I have just discovered that i can blog at work! whohooooo

I sit here for 5 hours on a thursday bored out of my tree! or sketching of course.
I have been reading a book on animation, and the fundimental elements of animation. Upon taking onboard some very useful facts and infomation, I decided to have a crack at some very raw animation of my own.

Here is what I ended up with:

Not bad for a first attempt? Also the whole animation is one single drawing cut up into "limbs" of which are then placed on seperate layers.

Chickens and Golden Eggs?

2008-04-10T15:15:00.003+01:00

Upon my recent decision to progress into the Aesop's fable: Chicken That Laid Golden Eggs, I have been submerging myself into the wonderful world of drawing. By drawing repetitive images of the same characters, considering slight variety tweaks still to be made, I have managed to development some rough characters for my fable design.

I am aiming for my own personal style, and warping the real form of a chicken into an abstract and disturbing version of my own:

The eyes look lifeless, this is an effect I will be aiming to achieve when it comes to animating the chicken/s. The long over exaggerated legs look obscure and quite frightening. Of course, with nice rendered textures, my visual will become more clear than in these liner sketches.

Below: I present to you all, something what is looking like a good final visual! Not set in stone but am liking the look so far.

To Come Soon:
Designs of the cottage people
Some first animation tests
Rendered Character Designs

A Disney Classic

2008-04-10T11:08:00.002+01:00

Found a semi-relevant animation with good professional levels of sound and drawing skill. Good old donald duck gets up to no good as always, in a story of collecting eggs to sell for cash. along the way, he meets an unsuspecting character who is most unpleased with his act of taking the eggs.

The character is a cockerel, at first i could not determine what character fit what role.

after watching it over twice, i made out that donald duck is the Antagonist, and the cockerel is the protagonist.

Aesop's Fables: The Frog and The Ox

2008-04-10T10:51:00.002+01:00

What the hell?

That was a very poor animated fable, although the mindless violence did have an element of humor to it.

i also noticed the sound engineering for the animation is very bitty and poor, and there is no realism to the characters.

York Minster Round 2: Ding Ding

2008-04-08T10:44:00.003+01:00

In the easter break, I spent a fair amount of time with a camera, snapping away at any thing or where. When an upcoming visit to York was in my sights, I made it a desired plan to reconstruct a second version of my weird and wonderful manipulated representation of the York minster.

Some may remember the original Minster shot:

Using a Cannon D400 (DSLR) I stand central facing the building and take a series of over lapping shots to get that warped bending look as i photograph the sides of the minster:

Example of overlaying technique:

I would open the nine separate images into photoshop, and overlay them to the best of my ability to give it some form of real perspective. As photographer david hockney does, overlaying the photographs to create a bigger picture. In my case, i seem the edges of these images together to create a realistic photomerge as opposed to an obvious overlaying photomerge like hockney.

Here is my finished sequel to the York Minster Montage Series:

Crits And Comments Welcomed and appreciated! =)

Drum Instructional Videos

2008-03-07T21:20:00.002Z

These examples are some of the examples i have researched in my sketchbook for analysis in technique to when i approach my own video production/ editing!

Video's in order of quality:

POOR
-
GOOD
-
BEST

This is a really poor excuse or even a piss take of an instructional video!

2008-02-19T17:30:00.002Z

This is a great example of how NOT to approach an instructional video in any way, shape or form. Yes the piece seems to be a mic take. but it demonstrates well some vital things to avoid when approaching your own instructional video.

For Example

Poor low res quality! not to mention the camera shake and bad focal skills

Cheesy acting, and horrid jokes

The use of one continuous shot with the same camera.

There is many more... but a think you get the point!

I Have a Thing For Birds!?

2008-02-06T09:27:00.000Z

Yet again i have produced an illustrated representation of a chicken. This time i have produced a meaner more adult and even male? version of the original!

Robot Technology!

2008-02-03T21:24:00.000Z

These robots look so life like in the movements

so unrobotic!

Robot Fight

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Human Resources - Considering Culture

2008-01-30T11:06:00.000Z

Upon todays critical studies session.. i have read through the brief and racked my brain to get a starting point. In todays session we have been focusing on Art and culture.. and how the style and form of art determines itself in society. We have discussed numerous points on a variety of points within this subject. We have looked at how Marcel Duchamp takes the meaning of high culture art, and scrutinizes it. For Example he took a postcard of the Famous painting titled: " The Monalisa" (Below)

And as you analyze the image, you may notice that the face has been defaced? this is Marcel taking the most well established art in the world today, and basically taking the Michael out of the art culture. The piece that marcel has created from a postcard was accepted as high culture art. To me this raises the question; How can a literal piss take of a traditional piece of art be considered as art? when digital design as an art form, with work associated with that section of the creative world is just seen as mass produced, common and basically worthless in comparison to a defaced piss take of art itself?

Human Resources

2008-01-29T16:14:00.000Z

I Have just scanned through a vintage magazine from way back in the fuzzy past of 1999.... and i came across this piece of advertising/subliminal messaging. I fancied having a go at writing up a blog on it, as at first impression suspected that i could never EVER get anything out of it.

So that is my challenge.

Critically, what can i analyze in this image? why and how is this relevant to my course studies?

At first glance my eyes are literally pulled to the bright red font at the header of the image. why? the hue and contrast levels in comparison to the rest of the image are in different worlds. Human resources? To be human = Bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species. It goes on, into a short paragraph describing in detail what 12 million tourists buy when they have unpacked their bags. then a visual of young adult males posed on a set of stairs eating Mc Donald's food.

So what is this symbolizing? and why?

I can only assume that this is proposing that other than Mc Donald's being a huge corporation and a favorite of many people
especially young males? is this also a sign. Also tourists may eat Mc Donald's when in a foreign country because of the reliability in knowing the brand name from there own country with Mc Donald's being in over 120 countries around the world.

Magazine Layout coming to a complete stage

2008-01-29T15:26:00.001Z

Not complete as of yet, still need to play around with the scale and position of certain layers.

Need to transfer it into Adobe Indesign also.

Second Life building takes an interesting turn!

2008-01-09T20:44:00.000Z

You may or may not have seen my chicken illustration, but yesterday evening, i took it upon myself to recreate my chicken (of who is now named "cluck" how original i know) and recreate cluck in the second life build function.

i have included a comparison below:

for my first serious build in the second life build engine, i am very pleased with the likeness it has to the original illustrated version!

Second Life.. its getting a bit obsessive

2007-12-17T19:21:00.001Z

Yes its true.. since the last post, i have managed to upload my own graphics for my t-shirt, shoes and camo shorts thanks to the help of alex and dave! =)

below is my virtual self working on a virtual i-mac HAHA how cool

Second Mark!

2007-12-14T21:09:00.000Z

Recently with the reigns of coursework finally loosening on me due to the christmas break! i have gone back to second life, over the past few days i have been figuring out my grounding, and generally coming to terms with the second life interface. and on that note i would like to say how much my initial feelings have swayed some what from my first encounters with the program.
I now actually have my own account and are becoming gradually confident with the basic functions of the software, i am looking very forward to building on the collective island, and uploading work into the second life world.

My avatar at the moment is as close as i could get to look like me, and he is called Marka Manamiko, sounds Italian haha!

Heres some screenshots of the avatars appearance!

I now wish to learn how to upload my own graphics and ad very much like to have some money too upload them!!!!

Lego Digital Designer

2007-12-12T21:01:00.001Z

After taking Annabeth's sound advice of the lego software being really super cool! of which it is! a virtual lego kit, oh how i would have loved one as a kid!
Anyway..
Upon downloading the Lego digital designer package from the lego website (of which is FREE by the way) it runs in a very similar fashion to the 3D engine that maya uses.. allowing you to build virtual lego creations... which i must say is rather bloody is excellent!

so.. being my creative little self, i decided to capture one of my long drawn dreams! and edit myself as a lego character!

FANCY OR WHAT!! lol

Emma Chambers - Freelance Photography

2007-12-12T16:20:00.001Z

Artist: Emma Chambers

These images above were taken as part of this photographers recent project. I asked permission to blog some of them as they are so well taken. I love how she has captured the sharp still and in focus drums clashing with the violent movement of the drummer and the cymbals caught in motion. very nice images, would have been proud to have taken them =) although it would be very hard to have photographed myself in action.

P.S

FOR A LONG TIME NOW I HAVE WANTED GOOD PICTURES OF ME DRUMMING!

Spider and chicken illustration

2007-12-12T15:58:00.000Z

Both of the above illustrations were initially pencil sketches, of which i then applied ink to a desired finnish.
From there i take the images to the scanner, and open them into photoshop!
(note) all my illustrating is done in photoshop! no other software used.

Dependent on what effect i am after, the Dodge, Burn and Smudge tool are vital in my rendering application.
using layer styles such as Multiply, Overlay and Darken achieves fab grunge styles when applied correctly.

With these images particular, I really enjoyed creating the lighting effects, and the contrast of light and dark is what i like about these particular illustrations.

2020 review

2007-12-10T14:13:00.001Z

PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE AND READ :)

Old Reseach

2007-12-10T13:42:00.000Z

Some paper cutouts i was originally going to add to my sketchbook.

but i didn't, why? am not sure but here they are! some interesting concepts on products today of which incorporate future tech.

Digital Paper?

2007-11-20T17:17:00.000Z

Amazon's $399 folly book reader

That's the cost of the company's Kindle, a gadget with an 800 x 600 E Ink screen. Apparently the company has been working on the device since 2004. It's priced at $100 more than Sony's E Ink-based reader, which has received rave reviews, and, like every electronic book-reading predecessor, has failed to set the world alight. Kindle, however, has a built-in Wi-Fi 3G connection - just what you always wanted from a book.

Kindling
The Kindle weighs 284g (10oz) and Amazon claims the battery lasts 30 hours per charge.

Why Amazon embarked on this folly isn't clear from a hagiographic feature by Newsweek's Steven "Collective Intelligence" Levy - whose brain must have fallen out in the course of his genuflecting before Amazon boss and amateur spaceman Jeff Bezos.

Levy doesn't mention the long history of ebook failures - Gemstar/Rocket, anyone? - nor does he give any justification for the title: "Reinventing the book". Levy raves about the "killer user interface" - does it kill humans? Or flies? - without explaining why. In addition to delivering digital books, Amazon also hopes to drive print subscriptions from the major publishers: Time Warner and the New York Times are partners for the launch, just as they've been partners for every e-book reader launch we can remember.

review taken from reghardware.co.uk

W.A.N.K (Excuse, and see past the vile side)

2007-11-03T17:19:00.000Z

Render Number Three For Today! But Now am going to enjoy the first of many bonfire nights =)

Vile or cool.. what ever you think... Please PLEASE Just appreciate it for the effort of creation

Image Rendering

2007-11-03T14:30:00.000Z

Couple of personal/ promotional renders i have knocked up today.

Very enjoyable to produce, with a rather exiting outcome =)

Titled: Really gone for it

Got A little bit over exited? and maby a little harsh on hisself? produced for album artwork.

Titled: The Shit Creature

A render i did on a random drawing in my sketchbook.. and it ended up looking like a piece of turd..

Article Layout

2007-10-30T10:30:00.000Z

Above: Article Research on layout and structure placment

Looking at structure of an article. It was interesting to find how it is actually set up when being produced for a magazine, as opposed to doing it all by guesswork with no guides. That was also a great little thing we were taught on photoshop, the ruler guides really enhance a layout.

The Future And Product Size

2007-10-22T08:53:00.001+01:00

Article taken from The Metro newspaper 22nd October 2007

The Size Of Computers, Yes we have handheld computers now, but as the article mentions a hand held super computer, super being better than the ones accessible now yes? the cables being one thousandth of the thickness of a human hair.

And This is in the next decade? which is a similar time to the brief title making it 2017 only 3 years in the past, but on the other hand a lot can happen in three years.

Photoshops New Functions

2007-10-11T10:57:00.000+01:00

3D LAYERING:

Just finished designing a CD cover to promote my bands ep/album launch.

And Thanks to a handy bit of photography and photoshops awesomeness, i have successfully managed to get a grip with the 3D visual filtering techniques. Daunting at first, but soon became second nature, a very easy and effective process to follow.

Anyway here is an example of some of the work i have been practicing these techniques on:

PLEASE CLICK TO VIEW FULL

All About me me me...

2007-10-10T14:03:00.000+01:00

Interactive desktop:

The idea was to have photoshop open and have other things which are of personal interest to me interacting with the software, like in a fun and playful manner.
Successful? i would like to believe so.. Sure, further developments could lead to more enhanced outcomes, although its a rather good start.

it was my 5th initial design and from what i believed, one of the stronger ones.

also when i was photoshopping away i was messing around with some photos from the photography induction last thursday, and came up with a nice little idea which combines my main idea of stacking personal belongings in a balancing act, and an alternative idea i have of using scale to an advantage.

This was the outcome:

Titled: DRUMS ON THE MIND

Using Visual interpretation you may be able to figure out that the image is a visual of my "affection"for drumming. The font placed above the bassdrum is to challenge you with the question " if the font was to be removed, would you still come to a similar conclusion of the visual being my love for drums" ?

My Personal alternative conclusion was it indicating that i have a headache due to a loud banging noise? the common term "my head is thumping/banging like a drum"

Something to consider!

About Me Development

2007-10-10T08:44:00.000+01:00

Were i am so far:

I have set the ball rolling with my main idea, at the moment its very raw, but you can notice the comparison to my previous sketch work. As i did say the image is really raw at this moment in time, also i need to photograph my personal positions to start applying them in a stacked form onto the bassdrum.

I am hoping the photoshop work wont be too challenging, but sometimes its an all or nothing experience, you get what you want, or it just looks like a rite horrible turd smeared all over the screen.

Anyway the image is as follows: (lets use our imaginations to see the stack of personal belongings)

Second Life

2007-10-09T17:24:00.000+01:00

I have now got an avatar design, it looks as follows:

ok its not amazing, but a reckon its a hell of a good start. The hat was made by shaping the functions to create a hat form.
The shorts are a library surface pattern which is actually moss, but it looks very simular to camo lol

Will be something to look at making better in the near future (hopefully)

About Me?

2007-10-01T16:05:00.000+01:00

Initial Idea Development:

Visualization of my idea in a sketch

click to enlarge and read thoughts!!

So far i intend to develop this idea further by researching into photography techniques, White/blue/green screening for easier overlay editing of the separate products I will appear to be balancing in the image.