Van_D

My Adventure to the world of VFX and Animation

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Holiday Card

Viewpoint Creative - Holiday Card from Viewpoint Creative on Vimeo.

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So here's the Cuboid Spiderman I've been working on over the last couple of days

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Our house

Our house is rarely quiet and we get up to some random stuff. We've been recording our shenanigans in the front room, to one day upload to our drawnthatway channel, but it's difficult to capture everything, so I was thinking of animating it. Currently thinking of modelling each of us in 3D and creating a web comic/animated re-enactments of the stuff we get up to. Be good practice and generally good fun. So, I better get doodling and design us ready for modelling. Should be a laugh.

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Whoever says editting is not an artform is out of their mind.

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This will never get old… it’s so tragically beautiful

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Gosh, it's been a while since I came across this.

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Flip

Stumbled across this delightful animated short just now. Lovely asthetic and well carried out.

Flip from motiontv on Vimeo.

[bmure]

I think I show this to most people I hold dear. I can’t help but love it. Whether you are artistically inclined or otherwise, if you’ve never seen it you definitely have to check it out. This fella took up drawing everyday eight years ago aged 22 and hasn’t stopped. Just check out the improvement from the first page to a few pages along and keep going.

So on the rare occasion I am bummed out about drawing or needing a lift I check this out and keep going.

I think I’m just posting this as a reminder to myself that it’s time to kick the dust up, set some challenges and lose some sleep.

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It's been on for a while and I've been meaning to share it. So here it is. I love this, it's awesome. Really clever idea and well editted. Simple and effective.

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Keeping busy

Well, in a manner of speaking anyway. Today has been productive of sorts. My friend Jay Julier questioned why the heck I'm not on Twitter. Apparently it's like a media hotspot. So on those words I decided to jump on the bandwagon and made my page. Nothing substantial is on there yet, but here is the link: www.twitter.com/willvandao Jay linked me to a guy she knew who was looking for animators, so in return, I filled his inbox with 2 emails and replied to his Tweet. Here's hoping he doesn't think it's spam mail and deletes it without reading it first. Next on the agenda is to finish this how-to video while I have abit of time to myself.

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Drawn That Way Studios

My friends and I decided that all the work we do as a group should be credited as such, so we decided to form a studio. The Three of us, Karl, Barnaby and myself, are all Southampton Solent graduates and were in the same class. It just so happens that we live together as well. We had a lot of fun coming up with a name, ideas flew about such as Splice of Life and Rare Footage were thrown into the mix, however Drawn That Way won us over. So begins our journey as Drawn That Way Studios. Projects complete: Uptight music video, Photoshop Handsome music video. Projects in progress: Top Heavy Down music video, Film Noir short film. The aim now is to get more work done, make a showreel and get ourselves out there and known.

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Lighting and Useful Material

I was browsing the internet as I usually do and came across this article. It's an interesting read and quite insightful. I enjoyed it. http://www.andrew-whitehurst.net/graduates.html Seriously thinking about getting hold of some of these books next pay day

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A friend of mine posted this on facebook the other day, amazing! So simple and charming :)

[actualalligator]

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Seriously amazing!!

[susyytp]

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Possibly the most moving opening to a film. EVER. Incredible.

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Beefing up the Portfolio

While we were talking about my portfolio, I was asked if I had any formal photography training. I replied no. I was asked if I had received any training on lighting, to which I replied not really. Then I realised how little I actually know about the basics of CG, that's when I knew that I wouldn't get it. My knowledged was lacking and it showed in my portfolio. So to rectify this, I'm planning on going through the vast amount of tutorials that are available online and familiarise myself with the basics. If I'm going to start from scratch I might as well pick up Maya and Houdini and get acquainted with them. I know my way around 3Ds Max, so the skills will be transferrable, or so I've been told. Only one way to find out I guess. Here's a list of projects I want to get stuck into and completed by the start of January. - Cuboid Spiderman composite - Create a CGI mapped alley - Create a photo real cityscape - Punching a dinosuar - Car of a cliff For the digital portfolio, I'm going to create myself an awesome realistic Megaman suit. I may even attempt something like this with it:

If anything, it's a bit of practice, I get to learn my way around new software and it's all potential showreel stuff.

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Trailers

Seeing the amount of trailers I see on a daily basis, there have only been a few that capture my attention every time I see it; and it doesn't bore me. It excites me. Here's a list of ones that have wowed me so far. Winnie The Pooh

Now here's a simple and charming trailer. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo

Fast paced and gritty. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

Fun and very clever.

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Enter Real Steel

When asked at the Interview what my favourite VFX film was at the moment, I replied Scott Pilgrim Vs The World almost instantly. Sure the effects were awesome, nostalgic and geeky cool, they stood out as rather CG. The "Pee bar" was an amazing touch, but all in all, it was a very comic book asthetic. Saying this, it is still one of my favourite films. Now, onto Real Steel. Now there's a goliath of a VFX film, where the seems of reality and CG blur into one. A combination of old school puppets and really well produced motion capture. I've come to realise that amazing VFX comes in not being able to seperate the two entities of reality and CGI. Creating a world that's believable, a seemless intergration; that's truly amazing. Here's the trailer: http://youtu.be/T75j9CoBVzE Combining the energy of the Rocky films with Rock 'em sock 'em Robots with brilliant visuals. This is one of the best films out this season, maybe all year for me. The acting is incredible, the storyline simple, so character focused and the soundtrack so uplifting. It's been a while since a film has made me want to jump up at join in with the crowd. It's so immersive. After watching the "Making Of" video, it awes me even further, as scenes where I truly thought it was real, turned out to be CG. Incredible. I'm not going into too much detail as if you haven't seen this film yet, go out and see for yourself. I need to get hold of the directors cut once it's out on bluray. Worth every penny. Here's the making of if you're interested: http://www.makingof.com/film/406/real-steel