This is the story of a fake “Forensic Image Analysis” effect I created to pin the blame for some recent office pranks on my colleague, Kalimar. My faked police scanning effect was accompanied by doctored-up emails of my conversations with a local Fairfax detective in which he explains that modern CCD cameras actually capture a small amount of infrared light that can be extracted with their advanced forensic photography analysis. This set up the idea that the Prankster would be unmasked by this new image scanning technology!
That’s the last time I rent the place out on AirBnB!
When I first started using Blender, I wanted to try out all the tools that I couldn’t afford to buy twenty years ago. Back then, a system to do what you can now do for free with Blender would set you back over fifty grand. In this project, I experiment with camera tracking to composite a 3D rendered effect over live video. Continue reading Basement Hole VFX→
Three girls on a routine space mining mission in Sector 42 encounter an unknown intelligence. What will it mean to the Corporation? What will it mean to humanity?
Our amateur movie project that began as an idea on January first is finally complete! It’s been five months of long nights in the basement but it was truly a terrifically fun experience and Ken and I had a great time doing it all with our daughters.
We hope that you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!
We also enjoyed writing about it, so if you’re interested in the making-of, you’ll find our stories here:
My first amateur attempt at motion graphics, influenced heavily by Andrew Kramer’s ProScores assets and tutorials.
My good friend Brad, our awesome mobile developer and product lead, was leaving our small company after many years to take on a much larger leadership role elsewhere. We would all miss him and he was a perfect subject for a promo-style homage.
We’re now down to the final days of post-production for the asteroid-themed space thriller (trailer) starring our daughters. In this segment, we’ll talk about the final shoot, the interactive computer screens and how we put the whole production together.
Post-production for the asteroid-themed space thriller (trailer) starring our daughters continues. It’s finally time to put the girls into the shot and the whole live-action thing is certainly the hardest part. In this episode, we’ll go over the live-action shoot and incorporation of the live footage into the 3D set!
We’re making a film trailer for an asteroid-themed space thriller starring our daughters and while it completes post-production, I’m telling the story!
Once the interior set was mostly complete, we turned our attention to the exterior shots of space. We’ll start with the starship model and its original metallic-flake candy paint, as well as go over how we made all the tiny little asteroids.
The Artemis, a brave little scout ship in well-lit space
Ken and I put the girls in a space movie! Technically, it’s a space movie trailer but it was a surprisingly large project for just a trailer. Of course, we overdid it, but that’s how we roll. Here’s the story!
Maddie and I are proud to present her first stop-motion animation test! I have to say that it’s at least as good as my early basement projects.
Maddie captured the individual frames using her new video camera. I pulled the frames into Blender, adding titles and transitions. I also slowed the frame rate down to around 12fps before pulling it back up to 24fps.
Things we learned:
24 is a lot of frames to make 1 second of video
Use a tripod!
Lighting is important, and the sun is a good light source
