Monday 2 July 2012

Me Again

Feels like a lifetime since I've been on here!

Where to start.

First off I'm working full time in a pc store in wanneroo which is cool...cheap parts is always good.

I'm in possession of an insanely powerful pc now so I can breeze through after effects.

I've got the galaxy s 3 which is very cool.

But best of all I'm currently working on a short film and a music video. Both just purely visual effects roles.

One is guns, smoke, bullets...all the cool, fun effects and the other is rain and background replacement. The kind of stuff that I'm hoping no one will know anything has been done vfx wise. Both extremely different but equally as great to work on and equally as challenging in different ways.

You might have noticed the blog name has changed. I changed that to the 'company' name I have created. Its just something to put in credits at the moment.

For now that's pretty much everything.

Also, keep an eye out on my YouTube feed...there's already a load more videos up that I had done between last time I was on and now.

LB

Monday 26 March 2012

First Show Reel

So tonight I made my first VFX show reel. It's nothing flash and as it's all my first/early work most of it's pretty shoddy...but it's a step in the right direction.

I'll link to it in this post.

Nothing much else to say tonight really except that I'm tired, it's late so I am off to bed.

Until next time,

LB

(EDIT - It isn't letting me upload the video direct to this post so here is the URL :



enjoy.)

Sunday 18 March 2012

3D Studio max; Part 2

A few days ago I got a copy of 3DS Max 2012. Ever since I've been on it making things, following tutorials and just seeing what it/I can do basically.

I've thrown out a couple of pretty shoddy attempts at a buclear bomb, some water and flamethrowers. My latest one was practice to intergrate live action footage I shot with some fire fx made in 3DS max.

It's no oscar winning piece of cg but it's a major accomplishment for me. It's the stepping stone to having 3D effects in my films/films I work on.

I'll link the piece I'm talking about at the bottom of this post.

LB

Wednesday 14 March 2012

3ds max 2012

So today I got 3ds Max 2012. Very cool (very confusing) piece of software!

After an hour or so with a tutorial I had a simple water collision animation that looked pretty cool. Ultra basic but hey, I'm no expert!

I'll be uploading it soon and then moving on to some flame tests. Hopefully it'll come in handy for the next film I'm on.

LB

Latest VFX job


I think this is my first post from my computer, not my phone...some cool features on here! I didn't realise I could place a video inside my post. Handy.

Anyway, March is definitely going better than Feb! got a couple of interviews, working on a couple of films and I'm back on After Effects.

The video above is a small test for he next film I will be working on. In the film I will have to create the effects that 1 - a house is on fire; and 2 - a bin is on fire. So this is the test for number 2. The below video is a test I did months ago which actually got me the job on the film.

Anyway, CoD then sleep.

LB

Saturday 10 March 2012

A shit month

February has always been a bit of a weird month...nothing much happens really. This year though, I get a phone call saying I'm sacked. After 5 years of hard work and never missing a shift that's all I get, a fucking phone call.

Ah well, things are starting to look up. I'm still working on some gunfire for a film, I've got another film I'll be doing some vfx for next month then possibly more after.

If all goes well I'll have the beginnings of a decent vfx show reel.

Haha I also recently got hold of the idevice app "action movie fx"...very cool bit of software. Check it out, the basic app is free.

That's all for now but once I get a job and some money, big things will happen, watch this space in around September/October.

LB

Monday 30 January 2012

Latest Effect

I've been working loads recently (I'm a projectionist) and a family friend is over so I've not had much time to get on the PC but tonight I've been on for about 5 hours and I've got a new effect/experiment.

A few days ago I recorded a short clip in my back garden and finally imported it tonight.

With this clip I wanted to make a meteor (or something along those lines) crash into my pool.

So I booted up AE, loaded the footage and realised I didn't have any meteor or smoke...so I started to create it.

About 3 hours later I had something I was fairly happy with that I created with the AE add on "particular 2".

Its looking OK for now, when I get chance I'll go over it again and get it better but I'll upload what I have at the moment...once its finished rendering!

Check it out on my YouTube or the links above.

Like usual its now 5am, I'm tired so I'm off to sleep.

LB

Wednesday 25 January 2012

First Job

I was working on a film a little while back, i wont go into any detail but it was a great experience...middle of nowhere, stayed overnight, lots of cool stuff happened...and while talking to the producers/directors they asked if I would be interested in doing the gunshots for the film.

Obviously I jumped at the opportunity.

So now I'm looking over loads of actual gun shot footage, figuring out how different guns look/work and just practising basically.

So, things I need to research/practice...

1) muzzle flashes,
2) how bullets react to different surfaces,
3) how the surface reacts to different bullets,
4) how to light the surrounding areas that would be lit by the muzzle flash,

I think that's most things.

I'll upload the practice stuff once I'm happy with them.

Anyway, its 5am, I'm tired, I'm going to bed.

LB

Saturday 21 January 2012

Im back

Got on After Effects on our other computer...works surprisingly well!

I've just uploaded a new clip, its just a video copilot tutorial but it looks alright.

Learnt some great tips for tracking, rotoscoping and colour correction so hopefully I can apply them to my own work soon.

LB

Thursday 19 January 2012

Back online...possibly.

So as I said recently, my laptop is not with us any more.

After some time with it, I managed to salvage the hdd, ram,wlan card and graphics card. I have no use for them but you never know.

I'm glad to have the hdd as I can pretty easily get the stuff off it.

And now some fairly good news, our other PC isn't as bad as I thought. Its a bit low on gpu power but it should be able to cope with some light after effects use.

I have installed ae onto it and will give it a tryout over the next couple of days.

Here's hoping it works OK.

LB