Daniel Gies

I am essentially a digital puppeteer and an aspiring film maker. In any given month I will work as an illustrator, animator, editor, compositor, composer, sound designer, 3D modeler, texture artist, rigger and coder.

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Some of the latest WIP images from a project we are currently wrapping up. You can check out some of the behind the scenes streams on my Twitch channel --->https://www.twitch.tv/danielgies

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A short demo reel of one of a couple past projects and a bunch of Works in Progress that are currently in production. In this video we are showing Giant Bear, Retour a Hairy Hill and Let There Be Light.

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A short animation style and colour test I did for my personal film project “Return to Hairy Hill”. The paper render and treatment isn’t finished, but I think the animation and first rig setup is working pretty well. Music by “Slow Meadow”

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Just finished my first pass rig, animation and colour test for my personal film project, “Return to Hairy Hill”. This composite was thrown together for a short presentation so the render quality on the character is straight out of Mayas viewport 2. I am sure it will look better once I do a real render with proper lighting SSS and AOCC.

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Draft_05_HWHH_Animatic_Sept_29_wSound from E*D Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

Latest draft of Retour a Hairy Hill animatic.

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This is a pretty elaborate blocking shot and look test from my personal film “Return to Hairy Hill”. I was trying to accomplish three things at once with this. I am playing with the idea of the white trees, foliage, grass and bushes being the edges of her memory. I liked the idea of pure white shape cutting into the painting. This isn’t final artwork, but it portrays the feel I am going for.

I did it pretty quick in After Effects. The pieces are painted using Rebelle as I didnt have time to hand paint, scan and cutout. 

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Here is some Work in Progress from my personal film project “Return to Hairy Hill”. The old woman puppet is about 75% complete. The backgrounds are all just temp sketches that will be done properly once the second pass on the animatic is finished.

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Emily Narrated Presentation from E*D Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

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I am on the fence if I made her face to fine (detailed) and wrinkled. I may need to fatten up my pen and start over to get her closer to the detail level of the clothes. Less wrinkles and fine tipped shading, maybe??

If anyone has an opinion I welcome the feedback.

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I made a ghost buster costume for my son last Halloween out of cardboard. His favorite character is Winston from the cartoon. I really love working with paper, pen and cardboard cutouts and want to get that feel into my next film project.

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First quick animation test of Wren's rig. I put a really basic texture on her face and gave myself an hour to move her about. She was rendered in real time using Maya's viewport 2. The particles were done using the Element Plugin for After Effects

Music clip from Ben Lukas Boysen album - Spells

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I was experimenting with an idea for hand-made looking characters for "Home Was Hairy Hill" and came up with this approach using Maya. It definitely inspired more unique results.

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Giant Bear 2.5D Model in MAya from e.d.Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

This is a layered 2.5D model of the giant bear. Ready for rigging and weight painting.

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Hunter_ROT Maya 2016 Hardware Render from e.d.Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

I got the paint FX around the hood working now. I wish I could make it look more painterly, but Maya does not support textured Paint FX in Hardware Render. Overall I am happy with the results and the incredibly fast render times. It seems like a fair trade off for the time I save. Ultimately I will be going for a stop-motion look with a reduced frame rate. So it will feel less digital.

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Hunter_TurnTable_Draft_01_H264 from e.d.Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

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Maya Viewport 2.0 Render tests from e.d.Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

I have been testing some rendering pipelines using Maya's viewport 2.0 with the Shader FX materials. I am pretty happy with the results and the render time for these two shots was 1.5 minutes. SSAO is giving me problems as it seems to clip near the edge of curved surfaces. Generally it is not that noticeable, but I may render ao passes in Metal Ray.

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Maya Viewport 2.0 Render tests from e.d.Films (Daniel Gies) on Vimeo.

I have been testing some rendering pipelines using Maya's viewport 2.0 with the Shader FX materials. I am pretty happy with the results and the render time for these two shots was 1.5 minutes. SSAO is giving me problems as it seems to clip near the edge of curved surfaces. Generally it is not that noticeable, but I may render ao passes in Metal Ray.