War on Tetris animation

I put this up because i just love this piece I think its ace! The flash animation is done very well and even though I thought is was annoying at first the voices doing the sounds were very annoying I've grown to like them and think they lend themselves to the animation.

Some More Calero Stuff...

These are a couple more pieces I found by Dennis Calero. The top 3 pieces are Marvel Noir Cover varients that Calero has produced. The piece beneath that is from the Stephen King Series called Dark Tower and the bottom is a piece that can be bought as a separate poster and I think it could be one of his most striking pieces yet. I love the subtlety of the green iris and the way the jacket belt balances out the whole image.

Alternative Wolverine Covers, Dennis Calero

After buying a "Wolverine Noir" graphic novel while in New York i discovered a cover artist called Dennis Calero. He created some Sin City / Frank Miller type covers and variants for the Novel I bought. Some we published in the back of the novel and some I found on the Marvel site. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love work like this so I had to put some up here.

As for the novels themselves written and edited by Stuart Moore, I like them. They're different to anything Marvel I've read or seen before. It's a refreshing take on the X-men franchise even if it is done in a retro style typical of Frank Miller and Will Eisner.

Thoughtful Portfolio Visit

This lunchtime I went to the Thoughtful Studio to have a portfolio visit with James and Stuart. I showed them some of my pieces and asked for some feedback. Obviously I could have asked that via email but it is always better when you talk to companies in person to get a more personal response. This ensures you can completely explain your ideas and what you wanted to communicate.

I think I came across well in the meeting and to start with Stuart told me that they were impressed with what they've seen of my work previously. They mentioned how well and mature I came across in presentations and how I seemed to explain myself well. This was very kind of them to say but also a great boost in my confidence before I presented my work to them this time.

VH1: I started by explaining my ideas behind the VH1 and what I wanted to show with the piece. They really liked the piece and told me that they liked the way it was done and at first they thought it was a mixture between real footage and maya work. I told them how I have redone the lighting to make the whole piece lighter. James disagreed and said he liked the lighting and it went well with the materials and the distressed look of everything. They both thought the music went well with the piece and really summed up the channel. The only thing they really suggested was maybe putting a foot in with the pedal.

E4: I showed the guys my ad that produced for the D&AD brief and they were very impressed. They liked the fact I hadn't just used 3D and stuck with that. They understood how hard it is to organise people and get locations which to film in. They thought the piece showed the guilty pleasures thing well. They also mentioned how good it was that I included the purple theme throughout the piece. All in all they respected my organisation skills.

Threat Of Exposure: After the E4 add I showed the guys my title sequence. I explained the brief and the plot. They understood and were impressed with my ideas and how I showed that in the piece. At this point Stuart asked me what my influences were for this title sequence. He mentioned Kyle Cooper which I agreed with using Se7en as an example. I also told them about Delicatessen which they saw the connections between. The only criticisms they had with this piece was that they suggested I filled the wall with newspaper clippings and didn't just have a few. They also agreed with Chris Hardcastle and thought I should distress the desk and the wall objects more to make them look like they've been torn out, creased and well used.

After speaking about this we spoke about how I would improve as I'am only a second year. We spoke of combining live footage with the 3D elements. This has made me think more about what I want to do for my final major next.

DO Lecture: To finish with I showed them the work I am currently working on to their brief. This was the intro and outro for the DO Lectures online web lectures. They were very impressed with what I had produced and they really want me to continue with the idea and maybe incorporate a strap-line and music as well as the natural sounds in the background.

After talking about my work, we were talking about their future projects and future work. I enjoyed hearing their ideas and how they are going to go about their next projects. I look forward to seeing how it turns out and seeing what they do in the future. I will be heading up to see them next year to see what other projects they get and their plans on how to tackle them.

Mainframe Contact Report

After contacting Chris Hardcastle at Mainframe he sent me back this contact repart after looking at both my title sequence and my VH1 ident. His constructive criticism was very helpful and I agree with every word he said and while I have some free time over the summer these are the areas in which I will try and improve!

Making of Camdem Crawl, Mainframe

This is a breakdown of a project produced by Mainframe. After Speaking with Chris Hardcastle from Mainframe I have been checking out the breakdowns on their website of how hey produced some of their pieces of work. I especially like this one as it shows you the step by step production and all they layers of development a job like this has to go through.

I started looking into Autodesk MatchMover last week and was intrested how they combined their 3D elements with their real time footage. This shows how they combine the 2 seamlessly. Over summer I am going to have a play with match moving and see what I can produce before coming back in September. I think this is the next logical step when i enjoy 3D work so much.

Water Piece

This is what matt wrote about our group piece (Water Project) when going to a studio visit and this is the feedback we got from Malcolm and John Watkins when sending a contact report.

Water Project:

Although there are things that we as a group have already decided that were going to change with the piece I decided to show this piece anyway. I felt that as we took this project on as a group project and it was different to the other briefs we have set, that this would be interesting to have a talk about. He loved the work and asked me to pass the feedback onto Steve and Luke. He said that the piece works really well in terms of narrative and telling the journey of the process. Interestingly, he thought that the length of the piece wasn't too long and if we chopped it up too much that it might loose something. He liked the music that me had used, but suggested that we consider the use f font and the way that the type is brought onto the screen. Maybe that it animates on either letter by letter or word by word, to fit with the flow of the piece. We were considering editing the length of the piece , however maybe its more important that we asses the way that the type is used. 

Portfolio visit with Malc Shannon

Water Project:
I like the water movie, it keeps you watching until the end. I would like to see the pipe moving all the time and maybe be followed. The house looks good. also maybe cut the length about about 2min. Very very good.

Contact Report with John Watkins