miércoles, 31 de marzo de 2010
martes, 30 de marzo de 2010
2D painting simulation 3D rendering
Check Sam Nielson aproach to 2D painting. This is so cool!
The site it self is also worth the look. I´m gonna bookmark it right away :)
lunes, 29 de marzo de 2010
Photos: Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road
I have uploaded a bunch of pictures taken last christmas in Melbourne and the great ocean road. I am trying to upload all the pictures from Australia so I can move on with the new ones from New Zealand and Hong Kong.
New job
It has been a while since my last post but things have been a little bit crazy lately. I got a new job!. Well in fact I got my American visa approved which means that I my job offer is now for real :). If nothing happens I would be joining Pixar as Lighting TD next June. A few weeks ago I left my previous job at Animal Logic in Sydney and me and my wife have been travelling around New Zealand and Hong Kong. I will try to update my flicker account with some cool photos I have been taking during the trip as soon as possible.
We are back in Spain during a few weeks and after that we will be moving to San Francisco.
Getting to work at Pixar is a dream come true and although I am quite excited about the idea I am a little bit cautious trying not be overexcited. I have been working in the CG industry for the last 14 years and ironically as I was getting better jobs my creativity and responsibilities were, everytime, knocked down a little bit. I have the feeling that working at Pixar could be quite disappointing creatively wise having about 1000 employees so I guess that you kind of become a serial number inside of a animated movie factory :P. By the time that the shot gets to you everything has been already sorted out so I have the feeling your contribution is something more related to execution rather than creation. The good thing about getting to work at Pixar is called Pixar University where you can attend to workshops and conferences given by Pixar employees at any discipline and that´s the part that is keeping me really excited. Having the opportunity to learn from the very best people in the industry is priceless hence I will try to soak up as much information as possible.
On the other hand and although I still don´t know which project I will be working on, it is quite likely that I´ll be working in Cars2, with Sharon Callahan as DP. For those who don´t know about Sharon she has been Pixar´s Director of Photography for films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Ratatuille. I am looking forward to sittting down in dailies just to hear about her comments on any shot which will be an invaluable help training my eye for sure
I have the feelling of getting back to school so that´s the real deal!
We will see how everything turns out...:)
We are back in Spain during a few weeks and after that we will be moving to San Francisco.
Getting to work at Pixar is a dream come true and although I am quite excited about the idea I am a little bit cautious trying not be overexcited. I have been working in the CG industry for the last 14 years and ironically as I was getting better jobs my creativity and responsibilities were, everytime, knocked down a little bit. I have the feeling that working at Pixar could be quite disappointing creatively wise having about 1000 employees so I guess that you kind of become a serial number inside of a animated movie factory :P. By the time that the shot gets to you everything has been already sorted out so I have the feeling your contribution is something more related to execution rather than creation. The good thing about getting to work at Pixar is called Pixar University where you can attend to workshops and conferences given by Pixar employees at any discipline and that´s the part that is keeping me really excited. Having the opportunity to learn from the very best people in the industry is priceless hence I will try to soak up as much information as possible.
On the other hand and although I still don´t know which project I will be working on, it is quite likely that I´ll be working in Cars2, with Sharon Callahan as DP. For those who don´t know about Sharon she has been Pixar´s Director of Photography for films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Ratatuille. I am looking forward to sittting down in dailies just to hear about her comments on any shot which will be an invaluable help training my eye for sure
I have the feelling of getting back to school so that´s the real deal!
We will see how everything turns out...:)
miércoles, 10 de marzo de 2010
How to train your dragon: Training lessons
Here you can see some animation tests that Dreamworks did a while ago and that have been recently released as movie teasers. I am not very kee on this movie, there is something in the style and the lighting that doesn't quite fit, but that's just my personal point of view. Nice and funny animation test though. :)
TRAINING LESSONS
TRAINING LESSONS
martes, 9 de marzo de 2010
Toy Story 3 : some color scripts
Dice Tsutsumi is the guy behind the color script in Toy Story 3. His artwork is top notch and he did a gorgeous work setting up the color and the mood of the film. I wish I had lit some of those shots.
I specially like the last one, still don't know why but it is so cool!
Tron 2
I am looking forward to this one. Nice photography work lighting and composing wise. You can take a look to this 70 high res images from the trailer and analize them.
HIGH RES IMAGES
HIGH RES IMAGES
lunes, 8 de marzo de 2010
More photos
A good lighting not only consist in shaping objects properly but also to create a mood. In this picture the people gets silhouetted against the car lights. The contrast between the warm lights and the cold sky filling the shadows gives you a very nice feeling. The dust is also playing an interesting role in framing the center of the image and helping with the mood.
Do you remember the contrast? Nice contrast between the pattern of bags and the guy walking. The difference in intensy in the lighting of the foreground and the background bags also helps to add some depth.
Nice mood lighting.
Brad Bird: Fostering innovation
Like Ed Catmull, Brad Bird is another of those inspiring guys always worth to read and to listen. I admire not only his huge knowdlege about animation and filmaking but his passion about his work.
This interview has been online for quite a while but I think it is always worth to re-read. Why does it seem so easy and so common sense but so difficult to be applied in other companies? Anyway...
Nice stop motion commercial from natural gas by Lovo Film
I will be posting interesting commercials that I find online, like this one from Lovo films for Natural Gas.
I will also try to "analize" interesting pictures or film photography lighting wise. I have the feeling that there is, out there, a lot of information and forums about modelling, zbrushing, animation and even visual effects but I haven't found that much information about lighting. Because lighting is "my thing" I though that I should share some tips and tricks that I hope people might fins interesting.
I have picked this two shots from the ad because I found them quite interesting lighting wise.
In this one you can see the depth achieved by placing the main source of light in the background, letting the ight fall off almost to black towards the foreground. You can notice how your eye is automatically driven to the window where you can see and feel the cold and snow outside.
In this second one the contrast principle is applied. you can see how the dark hand is standing out from the bright background. You can also notice here how the light is fading to black towards the camera giving again, a lot of depth to the shot.
For some strange reason I can't upload the second image but the shot I'm refering to is the one with the hand in the shower :(
And the making off...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ-mVJEbJpE
Nuke Ocula and stereo in Avatar
Interesting article about how Weta used The Foundry Ocula to solve stereo problems in Avatar HERE.
HDRI in-depth
Very dense pdf document about HDR images. Way too technical for me in some parts but also containing interesting info about how to create and use HDR maps.
HDRI
HDRI
domingo, 7 de marzo de 2010
Photography
As I mentioned in a previous post on of my hobbies is the photography. I usually sneak around finding very cool shots and I thought I could be interesting to start gathering some of the pictures that catch my attention compositing and lighting wise so there we go.
Contrast: We are very used to hearing the word contrast and we automatically link it with the definition of "difference between the lights and the shadows in one image". The truth is that the concept contrast can be used in many different ways. We often hear it when talking about animation, contrast between the characters, contrast in the timing contrast also helps a lot when it comes to compose an image. We can take a look at some of the images above.
Contrast: We are very used to hearing the word contrast and we automatically link it with the definition of "difference between the lights and the shadows in one image". The truth is that the concept contrast can be used in many different ways. We often hear it when talking about animation, contrast between the characters, contrast in the timing contrast also helps a lot when it comes to compose an image. We can take a look at some of the images above.
I simply love this image. The volumetric light plays a very nice atmospheric effect and it helps separating the different layers of depth. The way that lines compose are also awesome. In this case we can talk about the "original" contrast definition or a high contrasted image.
Very nice composition with the silhouetty in the bottom of the frame with the "heavy" sun over his head. Low camera position to enhance the graphic composition of the image. In this case we have a high contrasted image in terms of luminance but also a great contrast of the small figure against the large sun and sky.
The quality of the soft light leaking through the window or the door completelly sells the picture. In this case we can also talk about contrast in texture, a unified rock texture contrasting with the small kid. Contrast helps to focus your eye in the important things of the image.
Again high contrast. The soldiers are silhouetted against the lights facing the camera. The fact that there is still some ambient light illuminationg the ground also helps to make the soildiers be readable against the ground.
The source of light is directly illuminationg the main point of the image. Some dark and light areas in the background corridor add a lot of depth to the picture.
Very nice quality of light. The minutes before and after sunset are know as the "golden hour" because everything gets a nice warm and soft color. High lights and shadow areas are very well balanced giving a very pleasant look to the pictures.
Nice contrast between the soft light comming from the sky after sunset and the warm lights from the city.
I simply liked the composition of the image.
Awesome composition. All the diagonal lines help a lot with the feeling of speed and they also drive your eye to the skiier. Contrast in shapes (hard diagonal lines vs organic body) and contrast in color (warm vs cold)
Nice silhouette in both the guy and the flag. Both playing against a white background making them pop out. The snow at the same time sits on top of the black background helping with the depth and framing the skiier.
I will try to keep doing this excercise every so often as I find it very useful for training my own eye. Trying to analize images that you like is very useful in order to find why you like them.
Creative ad
I found this ad online and I thought that it was worth to share. We should keep this video at hand and play it every now and then to remind us of about basics :).
It seems easy, isn't it?
It seems easy, isn't it?
Ed Catmull, Pixar: Keep Your Crises Small
Most of the people attributes Pixar success to John Lasseter where one of the key persons making that success possible is Mr. Ed Catmull. I have the feeling that John Lasseter has always been the 'mediatic' guy where Mr. Catmull has always been somehow behind the scenes. For those who are not very familiar with Mr. Catmull work just to mention that he invented the antialiasing, texture mapping, z-buffering and motion blur among others plus of course he was one of the key developers of Renderman.
I recommend the reading of "The Pixar touch" in order to know how and why Pixar is Pixar.
I enclose an inspiring speech that Mr Catmull gave in 2007 at Standfor University worth to watch.
Photography and flickr
I am fond of taking pictures and I have been doing it for many years in an amateurish way. I few months ago I opened a flickr account where I have been uploading pictures taken during my stage in Australia. There are still a lot left, I'll be uploading them as soon as I have some time. You can also find some folders in the Flickr account containing photographs taken during some trips but again, a lot of them still missing.
Anyway, you can take a look at those photos HERE.
I hope you enjoy them!
viernes, 5 de marzo de 2010
Legend of the Guardians Trailer
Today Warner Brothers has released the official trailer of the film in which I have been working during the lat 9 months. I was working as Senior Lighting Artist and I lit and composed some shots in that trailer.
The movie is being produced at Animal Logic and it will be released next spring.
You can also download the HD version HERE
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