Wreck them Decks Girl - WIP

A bit of time tonight to work on some personal work.  Here is an update to "Wreck them Decks Girl".  Started modelling the turntables in Maya, figuring out what to do with her hair and text.

Little Miss Higgins "Bargain Shop Panties" Music Video Shoot

About a month and some ago we embarked on a journey about 2hrs away from Regina to the middle of no where.  It was here that the music video to "Bargain Shop Panties" was shot.  Tons of fun and it turned out quite nicely. Check it out, and a few stills from me wondering around the location from my iPhone.

Tweaking and drawing a bit.

Been a long while since I've posted anything so here are is a quick sketch of an idea I had to blow up and print to hang in the studio.  The other is a finish piece from months ago but never really liked the final outcome.  It's better I think now.. but if I could go back I would have done it a bit differently. 

Got really busy with work and such as we've gotten on good grounds with a few advertising agencies so we're pushing out a bunch of ads and commercial stuff. 

Some big news though which I am very, very excited for.  While I've now worked on a couple features that aren't really big name / big budget (Tall Man, Faces in the Crowd),  nothing really that has stood out - and both of them I haven't been on since the start of production.  But we (Red Hat) just got the green light last week on an upcoming feature and let me tell you, I'm giddy.  Can't really say what it is yet, but I love the series (even though the last one was mediocre IMO).  But it's exciting to be working with 6 other VFX houses which I heard are all Canadian based.  And this one should be a theatrical release ;)

Anyways - pix:

Matte Painting - A bit of my current process on the Armory

Hey guys - I just wanted to show a quick and dirty version of how I'm using Maya and C4D to create my 3D models what I do exactly to put them where I need them.

I model everything in Maya since it's what I first learned and have been keeping up with it as it evolves.  I haven't found anything else really that makes modelling easy so I just stick with it.  As you can see here I have my cargo train model that I'm going to put into the matte.  Everything is named properly and cleaned up - history has been deleted and everything has been centred since it's not going to be animated.

Here I have my UVs layed out and ready to be textured.  Not the best job, but depending on how close we are going to see the model or what it's going to be doing depends on how much effort I put into the UVs.  since this train will be static and you'll only see one side, it's a very quick UV job.

I have now imported my model into C4D.  Like all CG programs, some have their pros and some have their cons. I like C4D's easy texture building aspect and it's a nice program of keeping everything simple.   Now that I have my model, I duplicated it as needed.  I did a dirty job of texturing using my prior cargo textures (will be changed later) just to get a nice visual of what to expect. 

Finally, putting it together in photoshop. This is an actual 10 second shot but for now I'm building the still as a reference guide for when the footage is good to go.  Placed the train in its proper position and bam, just like that.  I removed the straps from the train as they were way too white.. and after seeing a few trains go by at yesterdays music video shoot, I didn't see too many trains with straps.

Here is the progress so far:

Matte Painting - Progress on the Armory today!

Here's a bit more progress done for the day.  Finished texturing the cargo containers, rendered out some temp stills of the cargo and banners just to see what it would look like.  Next up is to model the train.  I'm thinking about whether or not I should model the blimp. Might be a bit much - we'll see.

Here is the before and after pics (so far) - still a WIP.

Matte Painting - Dystopian Armory Matte Painting - Banner Simulation

A bit of cloth simulation testing today.  Trying out a few variations to see which I like and would fit in the matte.  I also included a rough textured quick rendered Cargo box.

Dystopian Armoury Matte Painting - Banner simulation tests from Jimmy Kounios on Vimeo.

Matte Painting - Dystopian Armory Progress

A bit more into the concept of the Dystopian Armory.  Plan is to remove the fence by placing 'cargo', a train and possibly rebuilding the building in 3D to cover it up.  Due to the perspective, painting it out wasn't going to happen - for me at least.   I got rid of the idea of having a giant ship up there, but possibly adding a blimp instead. 

Here are some progression shots of the 'concept'.