Arrow - Render

Ok, the arrow passes are rendering as i speak. I hope to comp them together over the next few days and i will upload the finshed shot soon.

CG Arrow - texture re-work

Here i have added some more layers of texture to the arrow head to help make it look as real as possible. It was a very quick lighting set up, so it does still look very CG. Hopefully in the final render it will look alot better.

CG Arrow

Over the last few days i have been modelling the CG arrow that will be 'zipping' through the forest to kill the Vampire. I have modelled from reference as i will be using a real arrow on set. Below is some print screens of the modelling stage, and the beginning of the animation of the arrow. The bow and arrow was kindly donated by the one and only Terry Marriot.

Compositing Reel: January 09

This is a temporary reel i put together for the Animex Festival. I will be making massive improvements to this over the next few weeks.


jan 09 reel from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

The Next Step

Ok guys, i have reached a milestone a week ahead of schedule. I am now going to use this week leading up to Animex '09 to start producing break downs for all the shots i have done so far, and put together a small reel incase i happen to meet anyone worth giving it too. I will post that up hopefully towards the end of next week.

I am booked in the Phoenix Studio on the 2nd of Feb to get the last of the green screen footage. From there its game on to the end to meet the Expotees deadline.

Dodge

Another shot with ricochets and muzzle flashes. I have remapped the time to improve the flow of the shot and removed 2 tracking markers.


blog_dodge 2 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Gun Battle

Here is another shot i have fired out over the last few days. This shot follows on from another slow-mo shot where Rou is charging at an Elder Vampire. In this shot Rou dodges a fatal shot to the head and flips the gun round back on the Vamp.


Rou/Elder gun battle from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Face - off

I began this shot a few months back and for some strange reason i put it aside and didnt finish it. This is a face-off shot with Rou and Nicolas, using the motion control rig in the Phoenix studio. I also shot a few Vamps in the background using multiple passes with the MC rig, and then tracked in the forest behind them. I may look into adding some fog, but i reckon it looks ok at the moment.


face_off from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Run and Duck

Another quick shot finished. This time its Rou running through the forest and an off screen Vamp fires, narrowly missing, hitting a tree just above Rou's head.

Similar to the 'arrow zip' shot, i tracked a ricochet and particles to the tree. I used a mask for the foreground tree and played around with the colour correction.


run and duck from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Howl shot take 2

I have been talking to a number of people who all agreed that the original 'Howl Shot' was too dark and the lighting wasn't as good as it could be. I have spent a little bit of time since trying to rectify this... i can't afford to spend too long over one shot so i am now leaving it as it is below, at least until i have time to go back.

I have altered the blue colour balance, and also lightened up the whole shot. There was also an issue with the shadow of the Werewolf not being dark enough, that has also been corrected.

Unfortunately, it is still dark on here due to bad compression, but there is an accompanying jpeg.


Howl 2 fog from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Elder firing off some clips

I finished this shot today, it only took an hour or so. I did originally track the muzzle flashes on to the gun, but as they were only a frame in length there was no need. The muzzle flashes were stock footage from one of Andrew Kramer's DVDs (action essentials). For the flashes on the trees, i painted them on to a frame in photoshop and imported them as a PNG, i think they work quite nicely. To finish it all off i added some shake with the wiggler and a quick colour grading.


Elder side on firing from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Clone 2 - Finished!

Finally! I have been slaving away rotoscoping 6 seconds of Elder Vamp out of the shot for just 2 second of final cut footage... but here it is. Although the grading may still be subject to change, i like it. The blues totally change the time of day, from mid-day to early morning.


clone 2 finished from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.


The picture below shows the change in colour.

Expotees 2009

I have recently had word from the University of Teesside accepting me to exibit my work at the forth coming Expotees exhibition. Expotees is a chance for the final year under-grads to exibit their work for potential employers to come and see.

The image below is what i uploaded to go into the brochure. At the time i did not have any finished shots that fully represented my project, but i chose this because i think it captures the feel of my trailer and was the best i could find at the time. It is by no mean a finished piece.

Clone 2

I am currently working on a new clone shot, similar to the one i did previously, except in this shot a group of Elder Vampires are searching for Rou in a forest.

This was a case of locking down a camera and asking my very co-operative bro (Jonathan Dawes) to do a number of takes walking past the camera, whilst wearing the embarrassing vamp suite. Then with the footage, roto around the Vamps to put them all in the one shot. For the 3 Vamps at the back of the shot i was able to roto a little loose, but for the Vamp closest to the camera (and for another even closer) i have to roto it very closely. This is the stage i am at now, i havn't quite finished with the guy closest, but will be soon moving on to adding another Elder Vampire in to the shot.

Will hopefully update again soon with the finished shot.

Arrow zip - UPDATE

The stage i am at with this 'arrow zip' shot is as so; i have altered the blur element with the adjustment layer tracked on to the end of the gun as a center point, there is an improved colour grading (still to be finalised), tracking markers removed and some particles using CC particle world have been used for debris from the bullets hitting the trees.

I am over all happy with the shot as it stands. On a later date when i have modelled, textured and rendered the CG arrow that will be 'zipping' through the forest, i will re-post the final shot. In the mean time i will be continuing to work on other shots.


Untitled from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.



(Still frame)

Arrow shot - UPDATE

I have been away and worked in the raw footage posted previously and this is where i am with it so far. I have stabilized it, i have tracked in some muzzle flashes and ricochets and i have also added a basic fast blur to the shot to keep the focus in the middle. Over the next week i plan to introduce some particles to enhance the ricochets and begin to remove the tracking markers from the trees. Below is the stage i am at now.


Test shot - Arrow through forest. from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Arrow shot

Ok, i have just got back from my christmas break and im all refreshed and ready to go.Over the holidays i did go out into the New Forest and shot some much needed footage for The Black Chapter. Although it took a few days to get something i was happy with it was worth it and im excited to get back on track and work on some nice shots.

The shot below is raw, but sped up to 5% of the original speed. Eventually i will be compositing in an arrow zipping through the trees towards the Vampire at the end.




Raw - Arrow shot from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.