1 year on...

Wow, so its been 1 year and 1 day since my last post.

To cap off... I feel my final project was successful. I achieved what i set out to, and ended with a satisfactory showreel. I now work at Double Negative VFX.

Signing out.

improved trailer

Ok, so Expotees 2009 has past and the project deadline is rapidly closing in. I am a good chunk through the report and hope to finish it over the next few days. But here is an updated version of the trailer... i have added a few additional vocal elements to enhance the authentic trailer feeling.

... here it is.


improved trailer from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Movie Posters

Here's a couple of posters i quickly put together for Expotees.

The Black Chapter - Trailer

This is pretty much the final trailer. I have recently recorded and added the last bits of voice over and i will now be looking at spending some time nailing my report. I will re-visit it before the deadline and decide whether its worth making any more changes, but for now i am happy. Enjoy.


Trailer from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

VFX Breakdown

The past few days have been spent touching up my trailer and putting together a VFX Breakdown. Find it embedded below.


FMP - VFX Breakdown from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.


The next couple of days will be used to record the final pieces of dialog for my trailer. It will hopefully be 100% finished by the end of the week. I am now starting to think about my report and i plan to continue on with it over the next 2-3 weeks.

More Sound!

Here is an updated version of the sound for the trailer. Obviously there is still no dialogue, but i hope to have that coming along soon. Also i am still not happy with the gun shots... but this is the stage i am at now... i see the end, and it smells great!

NOTE: due to compression etc the version in this post cannot be played with Vimeo's HD enabled, therefore it appears extremely dark and low quality... but you can just click on the link to view it on Vimeo, where HD is enabled.


test edit 3 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

First round of sound!

Ok, this is the first layer of sound for the trailer... i have used Video Co-pilot's Pro Scores to put together a track for the trailer. Its by no means perfect, and there are some timing issues at the end which will be sorted soon.


1st round of sound! from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

I also plan to go back stabilize the 'beach shot' at the beginning of the trailer.

Test Trailer!

This is my first edit of the final trailer with all but 2 shots which i filmed today. NOTE: there is no music, foli, dialogue or fades etc... this a rough edit.

There is also some grading issues that will be changed in due course.


test edit 1 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

New Titles

I have re-looked at my title sequence and decided this version is a lot more fitting for the Style of The Black Chapter.


The Black Chapter 2 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Title (b)


TheBlack Chapter (b) from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

What Next?

Ok, my plan for the next few days are as follows; I plan to replace the background on the Roar shot to one that is moving... it will only make a subtle difference but will help to enhance the authenticity of the shot. Also i am working on a shot that leads into to the 'arrow pan' shot, where Hannah raises her bow in preparation, before firing.

Extending planning on into the following week, i intend to start filming the remaining footage for the trailer so i can begin the final grading and rendering.

All the shots will then be transferred into FCP for editing. Any rough test i render off with be uploaded onto here.

Hannah ' Shocked"

This is potentially the last unique effects shot i will be working on for The Black Chapter. This shot actually follows on from the gun battle, Hannah hears the shot echo through the forest, spooking some bats, and she turns round to hear where it came from.

I used some footage from a shoot i did back in December with Nick Marshall in the New Forest as a background. I keyed the studio footage of Hannah and colour corrected it to match the back ground before adding an over all grading. For the bats... i used the same simulation from the Howl Shot and simply used a contrasted version of the shot as a matte, to put the bats behind the first layer of trees.


shocked_hannah from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Titles 2

Today i have been very busy. Here are 2 version of mid-titles for the trailer. The first, lighter video was my initial attempt. After a few peoples input i came to the conclusion that it wasnt professional enough for a trailer, and i had to re-think some of the fundamentals eg. the camera move, the lighting and colour scheme...


test_titles2 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

This second video is the greatly improved and preferred version of the titles. Here you can see i have simplified the whole thing down and reconsidered the colour scheme.


titles2_test2 from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Arrow Panorama

This is my penultimate Live-action effects shot. In this shot the half human/half vampire, Danielle, fires the arrow that eventually kills the Vampire in a previous effect shot i have uploaded (arrow zip). In After Effects i created a panorama of stills for the background as the camera tracks a CG arrow in slow motion.

Unfortunately my 3D skills are not amazing, so the arrow looks very CG. But i think the over all effect is quite nice.


arrow panorama from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

ROAR!

Here is a quick shot i managed to squeeze out during Animex. Clearly a Vampire has made me angry and i am roaring at the camera. There is a subtle warp on the mouth to increase the size of the roar, the footage has been keyed and placed on top of a background. There was also some roto needed to remove part of the rubber teeth. This shot was put together very quickly and will be re-visited.


roar from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

Arrow Zip - Rough & Final

Here is the first slap comp and the final comp for the 'arrow zipping through a forest shot'. The arrow does still look very CG, but for now i am happy leaving it how it is. I re-rendered this a number of times to get the animation right, i found that the less it moved round the screen the more realistic is looked, as the motion of the camera marked alot of the path of the arrow.

SLAP COMP


basic zip from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

FINAL COMP


final arrow zip from Sam Dawes on Vimeo.

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.