@davidross-sfx - Tumblr Blog

Had fun working for ‘Mattes and Miniatures’ on sets for the new Aldi Christmas ad, just out! It ends on a proper cliffhanger :)

#Aldi #Kevin the carrot #holidays are coming #miniatures #models #vfx #advert #christmas ad

One of my favourite artists is Ralph McQuarrie, the concept artist responsible for much of the design work seen in the original Star Wars films.

They say one of the best ways to learn is by imitation - so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing! As I read through the enormous book on McQuarrie’s work, I’ve been making little sketches as I go.

Having just finished work on a technically complex VFX sequence, it’s been pretty cathartic to get back to the drawing pad. :)

Here is the ad! Miniature set at 0.38

I worked on this miniature set for 'Mattes and Miniatures’ last October, and I’d almost forgotten about it when it finally appeared on the telly the other night!

I got to do some poly-carving of volcanic mountains for the Clydesdale Bank ad, great fun!

#Clydesdale Bank #Mattes and Miniatures #model making #poly carving #advert #volcano

Hey everyone!

I'd like to introduce 'Turning Tide,' a WW2 adventure-drama, following a young boy as he discovers a mysterious bomber pilot washed up on the Scottish coast.

I’ve been making this short film over the last year with my friend Andrew Muir and others. So far we have funded the project ourselves and have spent over £5000 in the process, and the good news is principal photography is complete and we now have all of the live action footage for the film!

To make the final push and complete the film we need to raise £8000 to fund our miniatures, visual effects, sound mix, colour grade and music. If you like the look of the project then we’d be insanely grateful for any support you could give, no matter how little. Even if you don’t have the funds to donate, just sharing our page will help us enormously! Please check out our Facebook page and Kickstarter where you can find out all about the project and keep up to date with its progress. Many thanks! :)

And here is the link to our kickstarter! :)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2084503039/turning-tide

#Turning Tide ww2 World War two 2 Short Film Scotland Troon Period costumes #Ayrshire sfx vfx miniatures miniature fx spitfire German Bomber Heinkel he 111 battle of britain practical effects kickstarter

Dougal Wilson featured a 'barrel cabbage' in his "2001: A Space Odyssey" inspired advert for Lurpak after he saw our 'barrel earth' in Jamie Stone's 'Orbit Ever After.' You can see the 'barrel cabbage at 0.03 seconds in the video

Saturday Night Takeaway

http://www.itv.com/saturdaynighttakeaway/videos/2015-winter-blues-promo

Got to work on this last month! I'm over at the side of the set making Ant's cape flutter with fishing line :)

Mini Strat!

#Strat #Stratocaster #Fender #model #miniature

Mini Strat!

#Strat #Stratocaster #Fender #model #miniature

Orbit Ever After Concept Painting - Gouache on illustration board.

Here’s my effort at a Ralph McQuarrie style gouache painting of the ‘space hovel’ from Orbit Ever After. The space hovel is taken from the original sketch I did rather than the finished model. I would have loved to have done a painting like this in pre-production, but time didn’t allow. Here it is now though!

#Orbit Ever After #concept art #concept design #space ship #painting #Ralph McQuarrie #Jamie Stone

'The Monuments Men'

At "Mattes and Miniatures", I got to build and paint the bombed building cut-outs for this diorama, which was photographed in a variety of ways and used as a basis for matte paintings in George Clooney's latest, "The Monument's Men."

#The Monuments Men #George Clooney #Leigh Took #Mattes and Miniatures #Miniatures #Models #Special Effects #VFX #Visual Effects #SFX #Angus Bickerton #Diorama #Bombed Buildings #Matte Paintings

Painting + fave music = :)

The Monuments Men - Out Today!!

To all you love birds! For your Valentine's date tonight, you should go and see Clooneys new film "The Monuments Men." I did some work on this, and if that isn't reason enough to go see it then frankly I don't know what is.

Water has always been a problem when shooting miniatures - a drop of water is a drop of water, a ripple is a ripple, and a wave is a wave. It's not something you can 'miniaturise.' The only way around this problem is to build extremely large miniatures, such as this incredible 1/4th scale river and bridge collapse from Dantes Peak (1997). Pretty much everything but the actors is in miniature here!

Miniature Effects in “The Impossible”

Have you ever seen that film “The Impossible” about the Thailand tsumani? I saw it last night and when I saw the scene where the wave crashes in I was like “How did they do that??” It just looked so real, more real that CG water ever looks, but I just thought “Well it must just be the best CG water I’ve ever seen. They’re always making new progress with CG, so it must be that.” I also thought “If it is CG, then maybe I should stop banging on about miniatures.” Anyway, I looked it up, and it was done with miniatures…. check it out….

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/the_impossible/

The miniature work was greatly improved by CGI of course, and this was the reason I couldn’t tell it was a miniature. But the realistic, physical and visceral feeling of the shot came from the miniatures. The best of both worlds.