concepts
Gravity Weapon X
Honestly, I have nothing against the Eiffel Tower or Paris! It just seems that every modern disaster movie has to destroy this landmark, including an unnamed, and as yet unmade, broadcast feature I was briefly contracted to develop concepts for. The movie was about a “gravity weapon”, the after effects of it’s misuse, and the struggle of the good guys to put an end to the machine and its perpetrators.
In the above image, the hero is racing around the world trying to put a stop this gravity weapon, and finds himself caught in it’s after effect, an inverted gravity “push”, while flying a helicopter over Paris. He suddenly has to fly for his life through the floating Eiffel Tower itself! Also, freak weather accompanies these “pushes”.
Two more concept images to follow shortly.
The Storm – Concepts
From February to April in 2009 I was employed primarily as a Digital Matte Painter, but also Concept Artist and Storyboard Artist at LLP Digital, Inc. working on The Storm. The Storm is a two-part broadcast feature about a weather manipulation weapon, the people who want it, the people who want to stop it, and the consequences of its misuse. It aired July 26 and August 2 on NBC.
I primarily concepted VFX related to this weather weapon. The weapon was fired from the ground using and array of “satellite” dishes, which would have a strange electrical/energy effect with the atomosphere upon contact. Of course man shouldn’t mess with mother nature, and great holes began tearing in the atmosphere on their own, also with the strange electrical/engergy effect, letting in ultraviolet rays and space radiation which would basically cook anything in contact. Also, the weather becomes violently screwy!
Shown are an example each of the concepts I made exploring the look of the firing weapon, the resulting holes in the atmosphere/ionosphere, and some of the crazy weather. I generally created 4 to 10 examples for each required effect.
The Storm – Storyboards
In February-April 2009 I was employed primarily as a Digital Matte Painter, but also Storyboard Artist and Concept Artist at LLP Digital, Inc. working on The Storm. The Storm was a two-part broadcast feature about a weather manipulation weapon, the people who want it, the people who want to stop it, and the consequences of its misuse. It premiered Sunday, July 26 and Sunday, August 2 on NBC.
I contributed storyboards for the VFX sequences requiring the most organization and interaction between Production and Post. Represented here are two sets of storyboards, each representing only the VFX, but not any separate character dialogue or interaction. The first storyboard involves an ambulance’s escape from an oncoming twister, and the next three concern the weather weapon’s attack through a sand storm on a group of Afghani insurgents.
Meteor – Storyboards
From June to December 2008 I was employed at LLP Digital, Inc. primarily as a Digital Matte Painter, but also Concept Artist, on Meteor. Which is a four-hour miniseries where scientists discover that the giant meteor Kassandra, approximately three times the size of Mt. Everest, has been knocked out of its orbit and is now barreling straight for Earth, as showers of smaller meteorites begin to lay waste to major cities around the globe. It aired in two parts on July 12th and 19th on NBC.
In these storyboards, I helped concept and organize the primary VFX shots for the final act of the second installment of the feature. These boards concern only the VFX, and not any separate character dialogue or interaction. You can see how my storyboards affected the movie in the clip below!
Meteor – Concepts
Some of my more recent work comes from, Meteor, a two-part broadcast feature about giant mountainous meteors assaulting the Earth and mankind’s fight back.
For this film, I was involved not only as a Digital Matte Painter, but as a Concept Artist and Storyboard Artist. When I came onboard the project, many parts of the look and style of these giant 60-mile wide meteors were yet to be determined. So I was given the task of concepting the general shape, what the surface looked like, how it behaved in motion, and how it might act when reaching Earth’s atmosphere.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
One of my duties on the feature film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, was to concept the textured look of a WWII German U-Boat and an ocean liner so that my supervisors could determine the design wanted. I took a flat shaded image of a 3D model, and worked on top of it to create the finished look. Shown is one of 10 styles I created for the U-Boat.
My main employment was as a Texture Artist, surfacing ships and some of the digital “old man” Brad Pitt. Shown here is the ocean liner seen in the sequence where Benjamin takes the young Daisy on an early morning boat ride in the fog, and the “Chelsea” herself in her war paint.
The Golden Compass
For the feature, The Golden Compass, I worked with the Visual Effects Supervisor to create several look development concepts for the Ice Bridge set piece in order to dial in its crystalline hard yet fragile nature. Then I actually created six 2D animated cracking textures for use inside the bridge itself. All within Adobe Photoshop.
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising – Concepts
These are three concepts I did for the 2007 film, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.
They depict The Rider’s passage, literally spreading “The Dark” over the landscape. It was initially thought that “The Dark” should be a creeping hard yet liquid substance which consumes all. However, probably due to budgetary constraints, this effect was not used in the film, where instead The Rider uses blizzards, water and ice to this end.
Based on the acclaimed fantasy novel by Susan Cooper, this is the first film adaptation of the author’s acclaimed The Dark Is Rising Sequence.
The Firefly Man – The Film
The Firefly Man is a pagan fairy tale that celebrates the cycle of life and death through the story of an elderly hermit who is isolated by loss and then transformed by reunion. The production utilized an unusual and experimental combination of animation techniques including an animatronic version of an eighteenth century form of Japanese puppetry: bunraku, which requires multiple puppeteers operating manual rods for intricate lifelike movements. The puppets were animated from within miniature models, backdrops and sculptural elements, and then layered with 2D and 3D digital animations. The goal of uniting these disparate techniques was to merge them both visually and conceptually while paying tribute to the historical and contemporary processes of storytelling though animation. Since the eleven-minute short has no dialogue, the story is conveyed through sequential happenings compromised of classic symbols and southern gothic archetypes. Production was completed in October of 2002.
The Firefly Man – Concepts
Shown above are several pieces of concept art I created for the independent short film, The Firefly Man, for look development and to get our creative juices flowing.
The Firefly Man – About
MAKING OF
The animated short initially started as an in-house promotional piece for Alternate Route Studios in Cary, NC where the Director/Writer, Todd Fjelsted, and I were employed together – he as a scenic artist and I as a digital artist. We were put together to develop the project, and found ourselves a good creative match! Sadly, after initial development, the studio decided not to continue the short. But Todd and I, already immersed in the film, decided the project still had vast merit, so chose to continue developing the project ourselves, and were fortunate enough to gain the “official” blessing and support of the studio.
Even with this generous offer from our employer, it was difficult to internally find all the resources and people necessary to continuously develop the film, so we had to seek outside support and talent to join the production. We gained surprisingly enthusiastic response at every turn, and eventually the production turned into a vast “community arts project”, with artists and individuals from many different disciplines and walks of life contributing their time and talent to making The Firefly Man come to life.
Of course, my responsibilities included all aspects of post production! Where as VFX Supervisor/Director, I not only acted as lead 3D artist, but directed a team of five talented students in their first filmmaking experience, ensuring a consistent style and level of quality throughout. As well as 3D Supervision, I also handled many 2D tasks; creating matte paintings, rear-screen backdrops, and compositing some of the most difficult shots. As Producer, and with some key ARS help, I managed and developed The Firefly Man’s access and distribution to film festivals nationally and world wide.
BROADCAST AND DISTRIBUTION
As part of their Virtue and Vice Film Season, The Firefly Man played before the film, Black Narcissus, on Saturday July 7th, 2007 at the Sainsbury Wing Theatre of the The National Gallery in London (UK).
The Firefly Man has been nationally broadcast on The Sundance Channel on January 7th-28th and and September 23-26th, 2006.
The film was officially released on DVD in shorts! volume 2 from The Film Festival Collection in October, 2004. The DVD is a diverse group of award winning short films showcased at film festivals all over the globe. Featuring some of the best shorts seen at the Aspen ShortsFest, Cannes Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Starz Denver International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and more . . .
The Firefly Man was first broadcast online at AtomFilms.com in March, 2004, and was in their top 20 animated drama downloads for some time, but is not longer available for viewing. It has also received consistently high viewer ratings throughout. AtomFilms (Atom Entertainment) works with creative independent content developers to find and publish the very best casual games, short films, and video. You can view the film in streaming Windows Media or RealPlayer formats, and check out some of the great reviews it’s received while there.
The Firefly Man was an official selection of the following film festivals:
| WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival Houston, TX – USA Gold Remi Award – Animated Independent Short Subject April 12th, 2003 |
Philadelphia Video Festival Philadelphia, PA – USA June 14th, 2003 |
| Philadelphia Video Festival Philadelphia, PA – USA June 14th, 2003 |
DancesWithFilms Los Angeles, CA – USA July 31st, 2003 |
| Teulluride International Film Festival Telluride, CO – USA August 31st, 2003 |
St. Louis International Film Festival St. Louis, MO – USA November 18th, 2003 |
| Taos Picture Show Taos, NM – USA April 4th, 2004 |
AEAF Short Film Festival Melbourne, VIC – Australia June 1st, 2004 |
| ASIFA Colorado Children’s Summer Animation Festival Boulder, CO – USA August 12-19th, 2004 |
1 Reel Film Festival Seattle, WA – USA September 5th, 2004 |