Effects Animation
Effects Animation is a phrase that covers a multitude of different animated effects. Anything from lightning bolts to flashing lights to streaking images or glowing eyes or even diaphanous gas.....you name it! There's a million gags one can do with traditional cel, laser and digital animation effects. And I 've figured out how to do ....well....a LOT of these......
I started back when cel animation was about the
ONLY way to achieve certain kinds of effects, so I understand and have used
those techniques well. Now that most animation effects are done via Computer
Graphic Imagery, I've made it a career objective to fully understand and
selectively exploit all the various software platforms in use - and in developement
- today, to get the very best from each of them.
Stop Motion Animation
Everybody knows what Stop Motion Animation is, right? Bringing inanimate objects to life on a frame by frame basis....It's a delicate art that has been practiced since the dawn of cinema and despite all the CGI doomsayers, it continues to live on.
Image #1:From the Motion Picture "Batman Forever"- This was one of the hardest shots I did on Batman Forever. Where do I begin? The miniature was built under the supervision of Mike Joyce. 1/24th in scale, this model featured over 400 miniature bulbs, working as practical lights. There were more than two dozen motion controlled moving searchlights. I can't remember the number of film passes we shot, but they included beauty lighting on the miniature, practical light passes (for all those little bulbs), searchlight smoke passes (exposed at 24 seconds per frame!), several steam projection passes( and the steam had to be photographed first), many, many, many refracted laser beam passes (with motion controlled refraction drums), mattes....lots of mattes, High-intensity UV passes for the white spiral, etc. Electrical beams and most excellent composites by CIS.
Image #2:From the Motion Picture "Gone in 60 Seconds"- One of the tougher challenges of my career was this
CGI gas. A valve has broken off this high pressure LPG tank and the escaping
pressurized gas propels the tank around like a missile. The tank, sans gas,
was launched at 40 mph over 65 feet through the air (and through the wall
of the shed) by the practical effects crew of Mike Meinardus. This was then
'split screened' in with a take of the live action people and cars. The
gas is the result of several months of research and development at The Secret
Lab. Particles animated in houdini (with custom software controls) and rendered
in Steamboat Software's Jig volumetric renderer gave us a great simulation
of semi-transluscent gas escaping, expanding and dissipating at seemingly
very high pressure and high volume. Some of the shots in this sequence benefited
from additional live gas elements layered on top of the 3D gas and a few
even had the tank itself rendered in 3D. Very fine work by The Secret Lab.
Image #3:From the Mini-series "Storm of the Century"- Another fine example of the beautiful work done
by my good friend and compositing artist supreme, Danny Mudgett. It's a
multi-layered, 2.5D shimmering beacon of blazing light, which fully interacts
photographically with the live action background. Note the finesse in the
rolloff of the light flares. The wrap of the light around foreground subjects.
Even the blending of grain into the light effect....Simply phenomenal! Pin
Registered Film Transfers and Composites by
CIS
Image #4:From the Pillsbury TV Commercial "Trumpet"- One of the nearly dozen Doughboy commercials I did with John Dykstra -back in the day- at Apogee. This one featured Stop Motion/Motion Controlled photography, in all it's glory. Unlike most stop motion animation projects, Leo Burnett (the advertising agency invoved) expects and demands perfection when rendering their little spokesboy. Animated "on ones" at 30 fps, he's a tough guy to get on film. And once he's on film, his foamrubber body requires more cosmetic fixes than a Michael Jackson video. Of course, nowadays they animate the doughboy in CGI. Pin Registered Film Transfers and Composites by CIS and impeccably animated by my good friend, William O'Neil.
Image #5:From the Pillsbury TV Commercial "Oven"- Another of the many Doughboy commercials, this one featuring an early usage (circa '91) of morph technology to inflate and animate the otherwise-static oven.This spot also featured Live Action and Stop Motion/Motion Controlled photography by Apogee Productions, Oven Expansion Animation by Insight Pix, Pin Registered Film Transfers and Composites by CIS. The Doughboy was impeccably animated once again by my good friend, William O'Neil.
Image 6:From the TV Commercial
"Roaches Below"- Shot on a shoestring at VIFX
in Marina Del Rey (since folded intoRhythm
and Hues), this fun little
ditty was also animated on ones. We utilized a Motion Controlled camera
boom, as we needed clean passes for the armature removal and to create a
nice bit of camera motion, at stop motion speeds.
Image #7:From the TV Logo
"MTV"- Shot for peanuts on spec,
this spot served as my directorial debut and featured a family of industrial
metalic scultpure 'robots' by Baron Margo. He's an amazing artist with a
wonderful imagination. It was all done with the help of my friends. We used
a Motion Controlled camera head, and shot it in three nights (after hours).
Pin Reg telecine and composites/clean up by CIS.
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