It hit me pretty hard.
I've submitted 6 After Effects templates to VideoHive within the past 2 months and they have all been rejected due to quality (or lack thereof). I don't have any approved-for-sale templates on VideoHive (VideoHive ID: AnglerDigital), except for a random piece of stock footage I took of some fireworks a couple years ago.
After some heated emails and discussions with VideoHive staff, I finally settled on some pretty important self-reflection and taking a good look at myself and my skills.
The bottom line: I'm just not quite there yet.
At least, certainly not VideoHive quality. I still think that some of the templates I have created are worth distributing to other people so that they can learn or just use it, but I also don't feel right about just giving them away for free, after all I worked long and hard on them.
So, while also pursuing other After Effects template stores in which to sell my stuff, that doesn't prevent me from providing the templates myself through my website. The problem is, how do I go about accomplishing this?
I've got several options:
1. Create a point-of-sale micro transaction for each template I want to sell, user buys through Paypal and then through a 3rd party system (which will require some money, and maybe quite a bit for large storage) is provided a short-time-usage download link to get to the template.
Difficulty: Hard
2. Employ a donation system, that with each individual donation, that user can select a template of their choice in which I will provide a download link (or location, maybe dropbox) for them to grab the template files for a limited time.
Difficulty: Medium
3. Continue to only sell through 3rd party sites like VideoHive and Revostock.
Difficulty: Medium
I just envisioned option 2 today, and I feel really good about that option. Maybe make the minimum donation of $2.00, so anyone can grab these templates for 2 bucks each. And I would make some of my simpler templates for free, like the MrFatalix intro.
I'm open to suggestions.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Done (again) with Gorgeous Knight
Finally done with the last scene of "Gorgeous Knight", and now it's really done as the premiere date of the film has been set to October 15th! The film hinged on the final scene that needed to be completed, a car chase scene.
For those that don't remember, "Gorgeous Knight" is a film shot entirely with over 30,000 pictures instead of actual film. The producers reached out to about 50 design artists and animators (including me) to create the motion using the photos for the film. However, the car chase scene was originally done by other animators a few weeks ago but they didn't like the outcome, so they asked me to take on this last scene for the film.
The next two and a half weeks I built a CG city, complete with traffic, and animated a car chase throughout the busy streets. With all the car and building and other models like a train, the project file in Cinema 4D turned out to be about 270mb, my largest project to date.
With ambient occlusion, a sun array for soft shadows, and hundreds of reflections it took about 57 hours to render out 35 seconds of animation across 6 shots. Then about 6 hours in After Effects to position lights, lens flares, camera shakes for violent motion, a unique design style, explosions, and a dramatic hero shot in the middle of the chase.
About halfway through the building and designing of the city and chase animation I started to lose focus. There were days in which I didn't even touch my computer, luckily the producers put a hard deadline in front of me and I forced myself to complete and meet it. I didn't have to meet the deadline, I was doing this scene for free anyways (all my work on Gorgeous Knight has been pro-bono).
But once the animation started rendering out and I got my glimpse of the final animation, I knew it was worth it. The hero shot alone was totally worth it, everything worked the first time surprisingly with no re-renders and fixing scenes after I had finished the first render. There are a few mistakes in the animation, but using some camera trickery; frame movement, and heavy camera shakes, I was able to create something fast paced, violent speed and overall epic.
The producers were extremely pleased with the results, and with the completion of this scene the film is finally done! Check out the Facebook page for the Gorgeous Knight film! I, alone, designed several key shots, including the opening cinematic titles.
So excited to finally see this film come about!
For those that don't remember, "Gorgeous Knight" is a film shot entirely with over 30,000 pictures instead of actual film. The producers reached out to about 50 design artists and animators (including me) to create the motion using the photos for the film. However, the car chase scene was originally done by other animators a few weeks ago but they didn't like the outcome, so they asked me to take on this last scene for the film.
The next two and a half weeks I built a CG city, complete with traffic, and animated a car chase throughout the busy streets. With all the car and building and other models like a train, the project file in Cinema 4D turned out to be about 270mb, my largest project to date.
With ambient occlusion, a sun array for soft shadows, and hundreds of reflections it took about 57 hours to render out 35 seconds of animation across 6 shots. Then about 6 hours in After Effects to position lights, lens flares, camera shakes for violent motion, a unique design style, explosions, and a dramatic hero shot in the middle of the chase.
About halfway through the building and designing of the city and chase animation I started to lose focus. There were days in which I didn't even touch my computer, luckily the producers put a hard deadline in front of me and I forced myself to complete and meet it. I didn't have to meet the deadline, I was doing this scene for free anyways (all my work on Gorgeous Knight has been pro-bono).
But once the animation started rendering out and I got my glimpse of the final animation, I knew it was worth it. The hero shot alone was totally worth it, everything worked the first time surprisingly with no re-renders and fixing scenes after I had finished the first render. There are a few mistakes in the animation, but using some camera trickery; frame movement, and heavy camera shakes, I was able to create something fast paced, violent speed and overall epic.
The producers were extremely pleased with the results, and with the completion of this scene the film is finally done! Check out the Facebook page for the Gorgeous Knight film! I, alone, designed several key shots, including the opening cinematic titles.
So excited to finally see this film come about!
Monday, September 19, 2011
New Beginnings
Two weeks ago we finally moved out of our extremely cramped one-bedroom condo. And we moved into a 3 bedroom town-home. Needless to say, the extra space is intimidating. Considering I've lived in one bedroom apartments for the past 11 years (Sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 roommates is the same thing), it really feels like home to me, but it also feels like it doesn't really exist... if that makes ANY sense :)
I come home from work, which is a really comfortable 5 minutes from home, and park in my garage (first time EVER parking in a garage), it really feels natural. What is really unnatural is my new office. The bigger of the two extra bedrooms is what my wife refers to as my "Man Cave", she even got me a sign to hang on the door. To me, it's my office. A "Man Cave" is something a man can come into and relax, watch a movie, play video games, watch the "big game" on a big TV screen and not have to worry about being too loud.
This room is not that. It's an office. A place where I can come and not be interrupted while I work on video/animation and be isolated from the rest of the house. I'm not used to being isolated, so I've found myself actually spending less time at the computer. Unfortunately that has also meant that work has not been getting done, so I've had to force myself to go in there and continue working.
Because of the move, my wife has had to quit her job. It was inevitable anyways because of the baby on the way, but it wasn't supposed to happen until February 2012. So the extra income of freelancing has instantly turned from fun extra change, to a necessary second job. It's still fun though, I'm enjoying the variety of work I'm working on at the moment, but it's feeling more like a chore now than an extracurricular hobby.
I love the potential of the office though, I've got tons of space to store my equipment and a nice big blank wall for a green screen and testing special effects, something I never had available until now. But it is taking a while to get completely settled in to see that.
I come home from work, which is a really comfortable 5 minutes from home, and park in my garage (first time EVER parking in a garage), it really feels natural. What is really unnatural is my new office. The bigger of the two extra bedrooms is what my wife refers to as my "Man Cave", she even got me a sign to hang on the door. To me, it's my office. A "Man Cave" is something a man can come into and relax, watch a movie, play video games, watch the "big game" on a big TV screen and not have to worry about being too loud.
This room is not that. It's an office. A place where I can come and not be interrupted while I work on video/animation and be isolated from the rest of the house. I'm not used to being isolated, so I've found myself actually spending less time at the computer. Unfortunately that has also meant that work has not been getting done, so I've had to force myself to go in there and continue working.
Because of the move, my wife has had to quit her job. It was inevitable anyways because of the baby on the way, but it wasn't supposed to happen until February 2012. So the extra income of freelancing has instantly turned from fun extra change, to a necessary second job. It's still fun though, I'm enjoying the variety of work I'm working on at the moment, but it's feeling more like a chore now than an extracurricular hobby.
I love the potential of the office though, I've got tons of space to store my equipment and a nice big blank wall for a green screen and testing special effects, something I never had available until now. But it is taking a while to get completely settled in to see that.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Tron Defiance - Last Update
I've thought long and hard about the Tron Defiance film, it has been coming along very nicely but many things have kept getting in the way. Lots of distractions, like trying to move to a new house, baby on the way, other paying gigs and short films taking up all of my extra time. I lost heart.
I knew it was something to be proud of, I had kept watching what I had completed in Tron Defiance and I was really excited about finishing it, but time just got in the way, so the project has been scrapped. Luckily I had finished enough to be a great animation piece to show, so I polished what I had and uploaded it to YouTube.
I'm sad that I won't be finishing it, but I'm also very relieved to not have that production weight on me. It was quite surprising the amount of work per shot and the workflow was frustrating:
-Animate the character in Daz 3D studio
-Bring animated character in Cinema 4D, apply textures (created in Photoshop) and position correctly. Then render 3D elements with separate passes for material luminance and 3D data.
-Bring rendered animation and 3D data into After Effects, apply 3 glow layers and 7 lens effect layers. Position other 3D elements like clouds and reflections into the scene. Render out the final animation
-Bring final render into Premiere, position into sequence, use Soundbooth for any sound production.
-Render out final piece.
The hardest, most time consuming part were the character animation in Daz Studio and bringing it correctly into Cinema 4D. That was just nuts! If one little piece was wrong it would screw up the entire animation key frames and I would need to start over. Daz Studio was just not a good idea to do character animation in, I probably should have used Poser but I was not familiar with it. I SHOULD have used Maya, considering THATS WHAT IT'S FOR! Argh.
I still believe that animated characters were the way to go, but I think I just went about it the wrong way. I couldn't imagine trying to use green screen actors instead. Costumes, actors, green screens, motion tracking, composition, refilming, etc., wow, that's like double the work per shot. And if I didn't do motion tracking, then I would not have been able to have the great sweeping cameras, it would have been pretty flat.
All in all, I'm proud and excited that I was able to finish enough to be a viable demo of my skills, in a way this is part 2 of my updated demo reel which I just released last week.
Here's to the future!
2011 Demo Reel
I knew it was something to be proud of, I had kept watching what I had completed in Tron Defiance and I was really excited about finishing it, but time just got in the way, so the project has been scrapped. Luckily I had finished enough to be a great animation piece to show, so I polished what I had and uploaded it to YouTube.
I'm sad that I won't be finishing it, but I'm also very relieved to not have that production weight on me. It was quite surprising the amount of work per shot and the workflow was frustrating:
-Animate the character in Daz 3D studio
-Bring animated character in Cinema 4D, apply textures (created in Photoshop) and position correctly. Then render 3D elements with separate passes for material luminance and 3D data.
-Bring rendered animation and 3D data into After Effects, apply 3 glow layers and 7 lens effect layers. Position other 3D elements like clouds and reflections into the scene. Render out the final animation
-Bring final render into Premiere, position into sequence, use Soundbooth for any sound production.
-Render out final piece.
The hardest, most time consuming part were the character animation in Daz Studio and bringing it correctly into Cinema 4D. That was just nuts! If one little piece was wrong it would screw up the entire animation key frames and I would need to start over. Daz Studio was just not a good idea to do character animation in, I probably should have used Poser but I was not familiar with it. I SHOULD have used Maya, considering THATS WHAT IT'S FOR! Argh.
I still believe that animated characters were the way to go, but I think I just went about it the wrong way. I couldn't imagine trying to use green screen actors instead. Costumes, actors, green screens, motion tracking, composition, refilming, etc., wow, that's like double the work per shot. And if I didn't do motion tracking, then I would not have been able to have the great sweeping cameras, it would have been pretty flat.
All in all, I'm proud and excited that I was able to finish enough to be a viable demo of my skills, in a way this is part 2 of my updated demo reel which I just released last week.
Here's to the future!
2011 Demo Reel
Friday, August 12, 2011
Massive Update
Lots of great things happening in the last few weeks; I finished several paying gigs which earned me enough money to buy a Canon EOS T3i, yay! And this camera will be shooting at the Windie City Shootout starting tonight! We will also be shooting with a 60D as well. The 72 Windie City Shootout is a film contest in which groups that enter are given a set of 3 requirements (A prop, a line and a location) that have to be implemented into the film. Then we have to shoot, edit and finalize a 5-10 minute film for the Monday deadline.
So, this weekend is going to be pretty busy, I don't foresee any special FX shots, but we might have a green screen shot for a short newsreel that might be used in the story. If that's the case then I might be the Director for "Unit B" while the main "Unit A" shoots the actual film.
We have a tentative script all thought out, with enough vagueness to accommodate the variety of requirements that we get tonight. Both the Story and the Production team are meeting tonight in Carol Stream to go over the requirements, finalize the script, and set a shooting schedule for tomorrow.
In other news, our recent film "Just Add Water" was screened at the 4th annual Land of Lincoln "21 Project" film contest, and we were nominated for 4 of the 5 categories. While we didn't win any awards, it was still an impressive set of nominations for a film in which I thought was a very small step backward from last year's entry. In addition to the other entries being a vast improvement over the previous years, we had a large pool of competitive short films to compete against. Overall it was a satisfying time in the midst of the Decatur festival, I only wish we could have stayed longer.
Other film updates; "Gorgeous Knight" is still being worked on. I got an update from the studio that the final "chase" scene came back from their animators wasn't good enough. So they may be looking to me for either technical advice, or to have some hands in it, not sure yet. They want me to review the current state of the scene and go from there. Right now they have me near the top of the Credits list as "Technical Advisor" and as top "Animator" / "Special Effects", so that's fantastic props already.
And more paying gigs coming up as well as non-paying gigs (just because I like to stay busy), so no rest for the weary!
So, this weekend is going to be pretty busy, I don't foresee any special FX shots, but we might have a green screen shot for a short newsreel that might be used in the story. If that's the case then I might be the Director for "Unit B" while the main "Unit A" shoots the actual film.
We have a tentative script all thought out, with enough vagueness to accommodate the variety of requirements that we get tonight. Both the Story and the Production team are meeting tonight in Carol Stream to go over the requirements, finalize the script, and set a shooting schedule for tomorrow.
In other news, our recent film "Just Add Water" was screened at the 4th annual Land of Lincoln "21 Project" film contest, and we were nominated for 4 of the 5 categories. While we didn't win any awards, it was still an impressive set of nominations for a film in which I thought was a very small step backward from last year's entry. In addition to the other entries being a vast improvement over the previous years, we had a large pool of competitive short films to compete against. Overall it was a satisfying time in the midst of the Decatur festival, I only wish we could have stayed longer.
Other film updates; "Gorgeous Knight" is still being worked on. I got an update from the studio that the final "chase" scene came back from their animators wasn't good enough. So they may be looking to me for either technical advice, or to have some hands in it, not sure yet. They want me to review the current state of the scene and go from there. Right now they have me near the top of the Credits list as "Technical Advisor" and as top "Animator" / "Special Effects", so that's fantastic props already.
And more paying gigs coming up as well as non-paying gigs (just because I like to stay busy), so no rest for the weary!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Upgrading
I'm all tingly just thinking about it, my first dive into the DSLR realm is about to commence! I ordered a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera today and it's all I can think about right now. I didn't get the kit, instead I got a 50mm f/1.8 EF lens to start off with. Along with a bag, lens hood, and a new 32gb SDHC card, I'm all set to begin my journey.
The reason why I bought the T3i and not a 60d or 7d or *gasp* 5D mkII, is that I'm all about the video. The video on the T3i is comparable to the 60d and 7d, and the 5d is definitely better, but it's also $2,000 more. And it's a canon DSLR, even though it might not have as many megapixels as the 7d, it still takes great photos. So, with my needs in check, I think this is a great place to start and is definitely a much sought after upgrade from my Canon Vixia HG21. I've worked with a 60d and a 7d before so I know what I'm getting myself into, and I like it.
Although, I'm going to say a few words about the HG21.... you were a great little camera, don't let no one tell you otherwise. You've been to 3 weddings, 4 interviews, 2 films, and countless special effects testing without having to worry about drive space or battery life. People never gave you respect in person, but they always enjoyed the video you produced, especially me *sniff*. I hope you will be able to go to a good home soon with someone that will appreciate your Samsonite heart.
And to my Panasonic TZ5, you were my first HD camera. You provided me with great video for my first special effects tests, and while your audio was atrocious you enabled me to grow and able to film some of our first anniversaries. We'll find you a good home too!
The reason why I bought the T3i and not a 60d or 7d or *gasp* 5D mkII, is that I'm all about the video. The video on the T3i is comparable to the 60d and 7d, and the 5d is definitely better, but it's also $2,000 more. And it's a canon DSLR, even though it might not have as many megapixels as the 7d, it still takes great photos. So, with my needs in check, I think this is a great place to start and is definitely a much sought after upgrade from my Canon Vixia HG21. I've worked with a 60d and a 7d before so I know what I'm getting myself into, and I like it.
Although, I'm going to say a few words about the HG21.... you were a great little camera, don't let no one tell you otherwise. You've been to 3 weddings, 4 interviews, 2 films, and countless special effects testing without having to worry about drive space or battery life. People never gave you respect in person, but they always enjoyed the video you produced, especially me *sniff*. I hope you will be able to go to a good home soon with someone that will appreciate your Samsonite heart.
And to my Panasonic TZ5, you were my first HD camera. You provided me with great video for my first special effects tests, and while your audio was atrocious you enabled me to grow and able to film some of our first anniversaries. We'll find you a good home too!
Friday, July 15, 2011
Checking things off...
The VFX for "Just Add Water" is finished. And 4 days early!!!! The last 4 years working on projects with Paul, it's usually been an exhausting task trying to get things looking good and done right up until the absolute final deadline (with deadline extensions). But this year I've been able to finish all my FX 4 days before the first deadline! I also believe that Jason is also like 99% done with his music and scoring, and Paul just has to do coloring and tweaking in the edit which looks to be all done by Saturday.
Albeit, they have had a couple all-nighters with editing and sound, but I've managed to keep my sleep schedule intact and pace myself. Plus it didn't hurt that, overall, the FX wasn't that hard (or maybe I'm just getting better?)... maybe.... Well, there was no green screen, 3 small FX sequences, 1 moderate FX scene, and the end credits. Yep, it was definitely easier. But this was my first film compositing 3D animation over live film, so this was really depended on accurate motion tracking which was tricky in R&D, but I was able to pull it off in production.
I really like the concept of this film, more so cause I really like fooling the audience and going for the unexpected. The first half of this film gives the impression of a low-budget, just-another-short-film, nothing special. But the last half gradually leads up to what is, hopefully, a shocker that the audience won't be expecting. In R&D before production I also tackled my first character animation, but sadly was not able to use it for the film. Instead I did what Pixar usually does, and added in the character animation during the credits.
In other news, I recently filmed 3 interviews at Fusion Studios and I developed a motion graphics template for introducing the music artist being filmed. The interviews are all done, they just need to be rendered and delivered which I will be able to do this weekend.
We are also putting together a group to enter the 72 hour Windie City Shootout in Chicago next month. So, that will definitely be fun to work on, plus it will be the first time I've worked with this group since "Orbit Control" which was a nice production.
Well, two more productions down, one coming up next month, I just may be able to startup my "Tron: Defiance" short film again in the next week or so!
Here's the Fusion interview template I designed:
Albeit, they have had a couple all-nighters with editing and sound, but I've managed to keep my sleep schedule intact and pace myself. Plus it didn't hurt that, overall, the FX wasn't that hard (or maybe I'm just getting better?)... maybe.... Well, there was no green screen, 3 small FX sequences, 1 moderate FX scene, and the end credits. Yep, it was definitely easier. But this was my first film compositing 3D animation over live film, so this was really depended on accurate motion tracking which was tricky in R&D, but I was able to pull it off in production.
I really like the concept of this film, more so cause I really like fooling the audience and going for the unexpected. The first half of this film gives the impression of a low-budget, just-another-short-film, nothing special. But the last half gradually leads up to what is, hopefully, a shocker that the audience won't be expecting. In R&D before production I also tackled my first character animation, but sadly was not able to use it for the film. Instead I did what Pixar usually does, and added in the character animation during the credits.
In other news, I recently filmed 3 interviews at Fusion Studios and I developed a motion graphics template for introducing the music artist being filmed. The interviews are all done, they just need to be rendered and delivered which I will be able to do this weekend.
We are also putting together a group to enter the 72 hour Windie City Shootout in Chicago next month. So, that will definitely be fun to work on, plus it will be the first time I've worked with this group since "Orbit Control" which was a nice production.
Well, two more productions down, one coming up next month, I just may be able to startup my "Tron: Defiance" short film again in the next week or so!
Here's the Fusion interview template I designed:
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