26 February 2013

Class 6: Multi-shot update, the VFX Industry and Afonso Salcedo

Hey peeps! So sorry for not updating for the last couple of weeks, but I just thought the progress wasn't enough for a new blog post. Better make a juicy one like this week's! The King is 99% finished animationwise, although there are some things needing to be fixed. The scenario's size is wrong (technical mistake of mine), among others. The poker dancer is dancing again, but now there's no table anymore (as my mentor didn't quite like that idea) and the hip/feet are improved in order to give more weight to it. And, for the Rat rat shot, everything is on wheels, still o long way unfortunately!

 VFX Industry - I don't know if you peeps are aware of what happened in the Oscars and with R&H's bankruptcy and DreamWorks' layoffs. I don't want to be to political here, but I just want to say that I support all the VFX artist in struggle and I'm sure wheels got moving and the industry will be a better place for all of us in a few years. It's time we are acknowledged as artists and not technicians. Green Screen power! :)

 And to end up, I'd like to share the pleasure of attending my first real high-end VFX live talk, with Afonso Salcedo (Pixar, DreamWorks) the most successful Portuguese VFX artist! His talk was very interesting and mostly inspiring. He analyzed some shots from the coolest movies, such as Up, Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Wall-e, La Luna, etc. It was a shame that he had only an hour of stage time, but the Q&A session that followed was rad. Met some cool people and got to see again some old ones!
Afonso is now building his own studio, check it out here! Sutro Studios LLC

 That is all! Don't try this at home, kids!


Oh and by the way, meet the new family member, Bolt. This is when he first saw me (I was in Barcelona).

 

03 February 2013

Class 6: Rat Rat!

The creators of "The King", "Bad Luck", "Phantom Dance" etc, bring you "Rat Rat", the new shot starring Guido the mobster and his crime mastermind Lorenzo, godfather of the NY Mafia family.
So, the shot started. It's still early and it doesn't look great, but it will get there. My goal is to make my better shot to date! You know, the shot that gets me jobs. So I'm working on 300% on it! Also, The King has 'suffered' a couple of modifications, and the aspect ratio has changed. Now, it looks from a movie, not from a YouTube crappy video! It's finally over... NOT! Next week, we'll add motion blur, requested by my mentor :) But the animation is final. Enjoy!