texturing
Air Force “Space Command”
“Space Command” is a national USAF commercial that pushes the idea “that the future is happening today”, meaning, even while this commercial is all sci-fi and shtuff, it implies that high-tech futuristic warfare is actually the norm in modern military. It shows what happens when two pieces of space junk collide, sending debris on a collision course with a vital communications satellite, and the space borne USAF personnel’s quick reaction.
On the third day, I created earth. Or, actually high resolution textures for the “earth”. The direction was to not depict any recognizable land masses, so I combined several continents together, and generated separate interrelated maps for the land, water, and clouds. On the seventh day I rested, and and sanctified it.
The 30-second spot aired in late 2009 on the Adult Swim, BET, Comedy Central, ESPN, ESPNews, FX, FOX Soccer, G4, MTV, NFL, Speed, Spike TV, TBS, USA and History channels. Another interesting fact of these commercials is that they feature actual Air Force personnel, and not professional actors . . .
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
On Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I worked at Digital Domain texturing two of the Decepticon “Kitchen ‘Bots” – a transforming Nespresso Le Cube and a Garbage Disposal, as well as assisting on a transforming Dyson Vacuum Cleaner. The robots were both easy and difficult to texture; easy in that the models had so many pieces, and difficult because the models had so many pieces! The images shown here include stills from the film, texture review images, and some of the textures.
Quantum of Solace – Cinematic
I worked as a 3D artist at Zoic Studios on the game cinematic for the last 007 film, Quantum of Solace, where I created a forested landscape for use in the car chase/shoot’em squence of the opening cinematic. Check out the cinematic below (sorry, no audio)!
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.
Michelin “The Better Way Forward Workshop”
This is the 2007 Michelin commercial, “The Better Way Forward Workshop”. Besides modeling and texturing the “Bib Buildings” (big dome things), I also contributed 3D trees to the foreground. This shot began as a live action helicopter shot, then had a digital bumper-to-bumper highway, Michelin Man campus, and set extensions added.
You may also view my model at Michelin’s themed website, MICHELINMAN.COM. Go into “THE LOUNGE” to find a making-of documentary on the commercial.
Night at the Museum
As a Texture Artist, I used Adobe Photoshop and Right Hemisphere Deep Paint to create digital doubles of the stunt men who portrayed Roman soldiers during the production of the film, Night at the Museum, including their weapons, armor, clothing, and not least, themselves. These digital doubles were used to populate an entire miniature legion!
Underworld: Evolution – Werewolf
For this shot from Underworld: Evolution, I used camera projection techniques to turn a locked off plate into a fully “3D” hallway set, filling in all of the many (at least 75%) details that were unseen within the plate.
55 frames of movie magic!
Images present are of the wireframe over the projected plate, the plate itself, and the 3D texture after projection.
While this may not be a traditional matte painting, I feel it’s an example of the kind of “3D” matte painting becoming more and more required in today’s post production.
Underworld: Evolution – Fortress Environment
As a Digital Matte Painter on the 2006 feature, Underworld: Evolution, I used Photoshop to initially create mattes for the surrounding mountains and sky. I then broke the individual mountain ranges apart into layers, applied them as surface shaded textures in Maya to specifically laid out and conformed 3D cards, where they were rendered in sequences with Mental Ray.
The Cave
The Cave is where I made the leap from 3D Texture Artist and Modeler to Digital Matte Painter! I was initially given the task of texturing and modeling a digital set extension, but due to the uniqueness of the physical set construction (i.e. unrealistic) and the art direction (“the Grand Canyon underground”), matte paintings turned out to be a better solution.
The large image (with digital/rubber monster) was quite difficult to execute, and required the hard work of many people, which paid off, as it is one of the best visual effects shots of the film. I created the background using as set of 3 different mattes, each painted in perspective, and mapped on to 3D planes for rendering.
In the other shots I created background matte paintings, with the actress, Piper Perabo, and slice of set she’s on are the only “real” elements visible. The “Charlie’s Death” sequence for this show was quite challenging, as the physical set was VERY limited, and required over 36 individual 2D and 2.5D set extensions and mattes.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – Titanic
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, was my first feature production experience, where I performed as Texture Artist and Modeler. Luma Pictures, where I was employed, was assigned the entire “Underwater Battle” sequence, which you can view most of below.
I textured the “Cruiser Liner”, which was supposed to be the Titanic (but not). We received the model for this asset from the main SCATWOT post facility, and I wound up having to texture it completely from scratch three different times to please the Director and Producer team. Many times it was like painting the real thing with a 3” paint brush!
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow – Giant Grate
A still from the feature, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), where I textured and model detailed the “Cave Grate” from the underwater battle sequence. An official desktop background of this shot was issued, which you can view and download at the film website.
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 – 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 |
SAS “Flood” and “Harvest”
In 2001 I worked on two commercials, “Flood” and “Harvest”, which were 
developed by ad agency Howard, Merrell & Partners as part of a larger branding campaign for SAS Institute, and were directed by Richard Taylor.
They were designed to emphasize SAS’ position as a global leader in data analysis software (Big Brother), and began airing in national markets briefly around Jan. 22, 2002. One ad depicts a rainy cityscape and the other a vast wheat field. In both scenarios, digital information generated in the course of e-commerce overwhelms business people wading through the deluge.
I used Maya and Photoshop to develop and animate the falling “Data Rain” word sequences, particle effects, and related animated “Data Tornado” burst. As well as modeling and texturing several skyscrapers for the wide shots.
These commercials were produced at a Raleigh, NC area company called Alternate Route Studios, which had risen out of the ashes of a game studio I was also employed at called, SouthPeak Interactive. SouthPeak was actually an onsite subsidiary of SAS, and due to the Full Motion Video games (remember those?) we produced, our facilities and personnel were already geared toward commercial and broadcast production. So it was decided to restructure the company for this purpose. Basically, I changed jobs without so much as even changing desk chairs.