Visual Effects Demo Reel, 2009- CLICK TO PLAY

My 2009 Demo Reel… including some great new work from “The Guardian” and other projects.  For animation work please contact me directly.

Got a fast connection? View or Download a much higher quality copy of my Demo Reel

Want more specifics? View a detailed but slightly out of date Demo Reel Shot Breakdown as a PDF.

]]> http://rfanimationllc.com/wordpress/2009/08/2008-demo-reel/feed/ 0 http://rfanimationllc.com/wordpress/2009/08/what-can-i-do-for-you/ http://rfanimationllc.com/wordpress/2009/08/what-can-i-do-for-you/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:09:28 +0000 admin http://rfanimationllc.com/wordpress/?p=424

Samples of Available Services- Click to Play!

What can I do for you?

Visual effects work can be confusing, and sometimes directors don’t appreciate what can really be done.  I’ve worked on everything from removing pimples on teenage actors faces, to skydiving ninjas filmed entirely on green screen, and even rampaging computer generated dragons.

The overall goal is always the same- to help to tell a story, and to improve the production value of your film as it’s perceived by your audience.  Sometimes small changes, like removing distracting background elements or skin blemishes, can go a long way to making your film look top-notch.  You may have a story element that would be unsafe, impractical, or even impossible to shoot (rampaging dragon torching a medieval village, anyone?)  Or you may just benefit from getting the weather conditions you want, or by getting that night shot during a less-expensive daytime shoot.

I’ve decided to create a longer showreel exhibiting some of the options, set into broad categories.  A lot of these shots aren’t the kind of thing that would necessarily make it onto my main demo reel.  They’re here to help you understand what I offer, and maybe stir some ideas about what I can do for your film.  The reel is long, and it’ll get longer as I think of and add more examples!

In the end, though, your imagination is the limit.

For more information or to inquire about your project’s specific needs, please contact me directly.

Want a slicker, quicker presentation of my work? View online or download a much higher quality copy of my Demo Reel.

Recently, together with my partners at BluFire Studios, I had the opportunity to work on a series of commercials for display before films in movie theaters as well as eventual TV broadcast.  The idea was to create a true “jackass” of a used car salesman- in this case quite literally, since he’s a humanized donkey.

Really poor customer service... Click to play

Donkey at work- Click to play

The project was a very fun challenge.  Our project manager, Ammon Jones, did a fantastic job of planning the shoot and managing the schedule and assets.  I handled the matchmoving or tracking (as needed for the shot), rotoscoping, and compositing.  I also took care of 3D translation and export, since the donkey was created by Mikhail Merkurieff in Maya and shaded, lit, and rendered by Matt Hoffman in Cinema4D.

For tracking, I used SynthEyes whenever there was sufficient movement to allow for a solid object matchmove.  I tracked based on points around the collar, since that’s where we were worried about the mesh matching properly.  In most shots, however, there was too little information to reliably use or even need a 3D matchmove, so instead I chose to work more quickly by stabilizing the shot in Monet.  Mikhail could then animate to stable footage and I would then reapply the tracking information to the final render while setting up the composite.  It worked perfectly, and saved us a ton of time.

I’ve only included two shots as samples of three commercials with 11 total shots.

Matchmoving and crowd enhancement for "Lifeless"

Recently, I had the opportunity to work on several episodes of ABC’s series “Pushing Daisies”. The project was intense, with tight deadlines and some ambitious effects. It was a real opportunity and a learning experience.
I’ve also had work shown on the History Channel series “UFO Files”, the Discovery Channel series “Future Weapons”, and a privately funded independent series, “Lifeless”. I also recently helped the Navy complete a promotional piece for television detailing some of their efforts to use naval technology to help research shipwrecks.  The documentary ended up winning a 2009 Gold Screen “Award of Excellence” for government media.

Below you’ll find my current television filmography, with links to IMDB for the various projects, plus samples of some of the work that I am allowed to publicly share.

Current Filmography

“Pushing Daisies”

ABC (2007)

Episodes: Pie-lette, Dummy, The Fun in Funeral

“UFO Files”

History Channel (2004)

Episodes: Pilot Sightings, Red Alert, The Dragon Sea, UFOs of the ’70s

“Lifeless”

Independent (2007)

Episodes: 1, 2, and 3

“Future Weapons”

Discovery Channel (2007)

Episodes: Season 3.1 Opening Round, Season 3.3 Close Protection

“Partnership Runs Deep”

US Navy (2008)

Limited broadcasts

Single Episode

Shot Samples and Notes

(Click on the thumbnail images to play video samples)

Fort McHenry

“Footage from Partnership Runs Deep”
Matchmove, digital matte painting, renders, composite, audio.
Footage from Second Wind Films.
Detailed Breakdown of this shot.

Partnership Runs Deep

“Partnership Runs Deep”
Digital matte painting, composite.
Work for Second Wind Films and the US Navy.

Partnership Runs Deep

“Partnership Runs Deep”
Digital matte painting, composite.
Work for Second Wind Films and the US Navy.

Partnership Runs Deep

“Partnership Runs Deep”
Digital matte painting, composite.
Work for Second Wind Films and the US Navy.

Lifeless

“Lifeless”
Matchmoving, keying, composite.
Work for Rising Pictures.

Lifeless

“Lifeless”
Matchmoving, keying, composite.
Work for Rising Pictures.

LWRC International

“Future Weapons”
This shot is similar to my shots as used on the show.
Renders and composite.
Work for LWRC International