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Michael Wentworth-Bell - Birthday Dinner

W.I.W.O: Week 30 – Siemens, Adobe Roadshow & my Birthday!

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)One Comment

I’ve just started working on a new 3D animation for Siemens. It’s a fun project with a very short deadline (for 3D animation) but I am excited about it! I am working on this project for Alf Kuhlmann (Reel Pictures). The animation centres on Fed Square and luckily we were supplied with an accurate 3D model of the entire Federation Square site. It’s very cool!

The file we were given originated as a CAD model which is both good and bad. Good because it is a very true-to-life representation of Fed square with correct placement of structures, individual triangle tiles(!), pavement blocks, etc. Bad because it was imported as well over 60,000 individual polygon objects into 3DS max! CAD models are designed for accurate construction of a real structure, not 3D animation! It took the better part of a day to combine/merge all the pieces and cleanup the whole model, but it was worth investing the time because the model is now quite nice! I spent the rest of this week preparing the shaders and queued up some test renders for this weekend.

Here’s a few quick renders of the whole model at this early stage in production.

[image title=”Fed Square animation – Michael Wentworth-Bell – complete view ” width=”544″ height=”306″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”2012week30″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/site_assets/image_uploads/FedSquareAll.jpg [/image] [image title=”Fed Square animation – Michael Wentworth-Bell – Overhead view” width=”544″ height=”306″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”2012week30″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FedOverhead.jpg [/image]

 

Earlier this week I attended the Adobe Roadshow at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The first 45 minutes were quite underwhelming and I thought it was going to be a massive waste of time! The free coffee and biscuits during the break were nice though, as were the partner booths displaying new tech like the Cintiq 24HD, but the best part of the day was the 2 ‘video breakout’ sessions after morning tea. These sessions were held in separate rooms 3 levels above the main show, and the attendance for these sessions was much, much less (around 100 people instead of 1000+. but they were truly unmissable, hosted by Karl Soule and Jon Adobe, 2 adobe Evangelists. Karl runs a few video production blogs and hosts many ‘how-to’ videos on tv.adobe.com. They covered a lot of new features in CS6 Production Premium. Many of these tips were focused on Media Encoder, Audition, Prelude & Speedgrade and they highlighted new features that I was completely unaware of.

Adobe Media Encoder CS6 - New Features

 

 

The most exciting part was at the end when they demo’ed a research project using Premiere Pro. This is a feature that may be released in a year, if it works. It was called ‘Premiere Pro – Edit Anywhere’. It allows 2+ Editors to work on the same sequence together from anywhere in the globe! all the source media (typically over 1TB of footage) is kept on a central server. The effects processing and compositing is done using the server, so the editor receives only the input and output frames as they edit and perform compositing operations. It’s very fast and secure! Karl said that the editing experience would remain responsive as long as you had a minimum 1.5Megabit internet connection.

For someone like Alf, this feature would be awesome! He often works on up to 30(!) Swisse Advertisements a week, collaborating with 2 editors remotely (one is in Portland). this feature would save a lot of time that would be spent transferring Gigabytes+ of source footage via FTP, courier, or airplane (sometimes quickest on a tight deadline).

At this stage, Adobe were talking of releasing this as a software solution only, so it would be up to the customer to setup the server hardware and security. This is a good move, allowing big studios to set up their own international network exactly how they want it, but i hope Adobe offers a subscription-style cloud server model for smaller shops that might only need it for an occasional job.

 

This was the week I finally launched a preview of my website (and the official facebook page) this week. Very exciting! I am still working on portfolio items, tutorials and proper body copy of the site as well as business card, letterheads and stationary design before I launch the website proper.

Finally, this week I also celebrated my birthday and had a great few days of celebration, including an epic dinner with my Girlfriend Ivy at the Melba Restaurant, Melbourne.
[image title=”Michael Wentworth-Bell – Birthday Dinner” width=”544″ height=”408″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”2012week30-light2″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/MichaelWentworth-BellBirthday.jpg[/image] [divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
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July 29, 2012
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W.I.W.O: Week 29 – Poster Designs & trying out Element3D

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)4 Comments

Had a lot of fun this week! I finished up 2 projects for Moonee Valley City council; promotional material for the Push Start Battle of the bands & Fling Fest short film festival.

Here’s a quick preview of the Battle of the 60’s themed bands poster!

[image title=”Battle of the Bands Poster Design by Michael Wentworth-Bell” width=”544″ height=”765″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”wiwo2012-29″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/BOB2012_Poster_Preview.jpg [/image]

The poster was finished in photoshop, using smart objects to link with Illustrator. It was a very helpful and powerful technique. I hope to write a quick tutorial about the workflow I used to create this poster, because it was very flexible, and a lot of fun!

This is how the Fling Fest poster turned out.

[image title=”Fling Fest Poster Design by Michael Wentworth-Bell” width=”544″ height=”765″ align=”center” lightbox=”true” group=”wiwo2012-29″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Fling-Fest-Purple.jpg [/image]

This poster was the first time I used After Effects to generate images for Print. The Lens flare, light rays and glows were all created in After Effects, and rendered out at 16bit for A2 Print resolution, over 700MB a frame!
I usually create 3D imagery for motion, so it’s a lot of fun to actually create 3D for stills. You can ‘cheat’ a whole lot more – creating effects, textures, shadows, light and other details in the compositing stage instead of having to do them in a 3D program so they will render and move correctly.

I’ve also spent this week expermenting with the new Element3D plugin from Video Copilot. Want to reserve a whole blog post to this plugin, but in short, it’s the most revolutionary and powerful plugin to be released for After Effects. It makes the new CS6 3D engine completely reduntant. This plugin changes my workflow enourmously and gives a lot more creative freedom to all After Effects users. Been a very exciting week!

I’m looking forward to next week, where i’ll be visiting the Adobe Creative Suite Melbourne Roadshow and celebrating my birthday!

Until next time!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]
July 22, 2012
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What i’m working on – 2012 – Week 28

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

Another very busy week. Definitely one of the craziest this year. This week I helped Alf @ Reel Pictures finish the corporate video for Swisse. It ended up having a million changes that were all finished within the extremely tight deadline. Glad to finally see it finished. A lot of complex animations and effects were created for the video but subsequently removed as part of the changes. Very frustrating, but that’s the nature of the business!

This week I also finished the demo reel for Cole Ewing, which was quite fun!

I’ve been working on 3D artwork for the Fling Fest short film festival. I’m using 3DS max and Vray. Here’s a quick 3D render of the artwork so far:

[image title=”Fling Fest 2012 Artwork – Progress Render” width=”544″ height=”455″ lightbox=”true” group=”2012-wiwo-28″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FlingFestRender.jpg [/image]

And here’s a screengrab of the 3DS max scene.

[image title=”Screengrab of the 3DS Max scene” width=”544″ height=”332″ lightbox=”true” group=”2012-wiwo-28″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screengrab.jpg [/image]

The lighting in this project has been the most enjoyable part. It’s lit using a HDRI environment and a single Key light against an endless background. I’m rendering it at Alf’s studio in Footscray. We’ve set up Distributed rendering there, meaning around 7 PCs can work together to render a single frame; a big time saver.

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]
July 15, 2012
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What i’m working on – 2012 – Week 27

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

It’s been an extremely hectic past few days! I’m unfortunately working through the weekend this week, which is never fun but made somewhat easier by the fantastic weather! I’ve spent most of the week powering through the SWISSE 3 (now closer to 4!) minute animation, working alongside Sam Van Ingen.

Alf has submitted a first draft of the entire animation, with the revised final draft due early next week. I’ve also signed onto 3 other contracts this week. I’m creating the promotional artwork for the Pushstart ‘Battle of the Bands’ event in Moonee Valley. This is the 3rd year i’ve worked on this project and it is always a lot of fun!

[image title=”Swisse Corporate Video” width=”544″ height=”306″] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Swisse_Ani1.jpg [/image]

I’m also creating a lot of content for the Moonee Valley ‘Fling Fest’ film festival, an event showcasing the best short films by VCE Media students in the community. I will first be working on the promotional materials (Posters, flyers, etc) which are due within a week. Later, I may work on the content for projecting the films on the night.
Finally, i’m cutting together a demo reel for budding Australian actor, Cole Ewing. Cole will be using the demoreel as he tries to get interest in Australia and L.A.

A lot of work to do this week, but the diversity of these projects makes it very fun! I love switching between Art Directing, Animation, Graphic Design for print & Video editing many times in the day, when I switch back to a project, I can look at it with new eyes and fresh ideas!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]
July 8, 2012
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Swisse Logo - Olympic Partner

What i’m working on – 2012 – Week 26

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

My post is a bit late this week! I’ve been working again for Alf at Reel Pictures this week. He has started producing over 3 minutes of animation for a SWISSE corporate video. The extremely lurcrative health supplement company will be moving abroad in July and will use this Corporate video for presentations, shows, and eventually online.

[image width=”460″ height=”198″ align=”center”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SwisseLogoOlympics.jpg [/image]

 The entire corporate video is to be animated in 3D – we’re using After Effects & 3DS Max. It is a very big project that must be completed in an exteremely tight deadline, so there will be a few long hours on this job.

I look forward to showing the finished product!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]
July 1, 2012
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What i’m working on – 2012 – Week 25

By Current Projects, What I'm Working on (WIWO)No Comments

I’d love to use my Digital Lode website as a way of sharing the projects i’m currently working on. Starting with this post, I will be aiming to create a quick, weekly blog about whatever project i’m currently working on.

This has been my first year out of uni and I have been working as a contract 3D generalist & Motion Graphics artist. So far, i’ve worked on jobs that last a couple of days and a few that have lasted weeks. I thought i’d make my first ‘What i’m working on’ (WIWO) post about a job i’ve been working on for around 6 weeks now; A stereoscopic 3D animation for the ‘Mission to Mars’ space experience at the Victorian Space Science Education Centre.

The Mission to Mars program allows secondary school students to spend a day simulating a trip to Mars. At the start of the journey, the crew watches a 12 minute briefing video which was shot, edited & produced by Chris Joiner and The Pod. I have been contracted by Alf @ Reel Pictures to help convert parts of this briefing video into Stereoscopic 3D. This has been a challenging, but really fun job!

The briefing video contains a lot of 3D animated content; showing the Ares space rocket launching from Earth and hooking up with the Mars Explorer spaceship. The Mars Explorer travels to Mars and the Mars Lander makes touches down on the red planet. There is about 6 minutes of content that needs to be re-animated and composited in Stereo3D.

At this stage in the project a lot of the animation is complete and I am now rendering & Compositing many of the scenes. I have included a couple of preview photos of how it’s looking so far – to view these images, you’ll need a pair of red/cyan 3D glasses like these.

[image title=”Ares1 Spacecraft – Orion Crew vessel detaching” width=”544″ height=”185″ lightbox=”true” group=”WIWO-Week25″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/S3D01.jpg [/image] [image title=”International Space Station in Earth’s orbit” width=”544″ height=”306″ lightbox=”true” group=”WIWO-Week25″ icon=”zoom”] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/S3D02.jpg [/image]

These are just the first preview shots, but I am pretty happy with the results! I have learnt more about the art/science of Stereoscopic 3D on this job then ever. The briefing video will be projected onto a 5 metre-wide screen, and will be viewed from a distance of 6.5 metres. With this information, we are creating the Stereo3D content to match that screen, which means, if you view these 3D images on a 5 metre screen and stand far back, it’ll look perfect! on a tiny screen, the 3D effect can ‘hurt’ a bit, or you may see some ‘ghosting’ around the edges of objects. The animation will be projected using a special projection technology from Germany. The VSSEC is one of the few places that are using, it’s not ‘active’ (most 3D TVs) or ‘passive’ (RealD at the movies) glasses, it’s something else, but it apparently looks awesome!

I’ve been using 3DS Max and Vray to create the 3D animation. It took about a week to setup a very solid 3DSmax -> Vray -> After Effects Stereo pipeline but it is now working well. I’m using a few Stereoscopic tools that ship with Vray to create the Stereo images. There are a few features that I think are missing from the Vray stereoscopic toolset and I have made a few feature requests on the Chaos Group forums. Vlado, the creator of Vray has replied and said he aims to add these features, though they might not be finished before my project’s done. Still, that’s what I call insanely awesome customer service! You can try and make a feature request for Max or After Effects, but the chances of getting a response, let alone getting your feature even half the way you want it, are very thin.

So this is the project i’ve been working on this week. I’ll still be working on it over the next few weeks amongst some other jobs that may need quicker attention. I hope I can post some new and improved Renders as I get seriously deep in 3D compositing!

[divider_line_padding] I try to create a quick journal entry at the end of each week that covers the projects, events and highlights of the past 7 days. These weekly blog posts are known as the ‘WIWO’ Series
(What I’m Working On).
[divider_line]

 

June 21, 2012
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Last Guitar Hero - Michael Wentworth-Bell

Side project – the ‘Last Guitar Hero’

By Personal ProjectsNo Comments

Last Guitar Hero - Michael Wentworth-Bell

This is a short post about one of the most ambitious personal projects i’ve ever undertaken;
The Last Guitar Hero.

Last Guitar Hero is a short film, shot entirely in ‘first person’ perspective and in Stereoscopic 3D using 2 Cameras. It is an visual effects-heavy short film with computer generated characters & visual effects, all of which are composited in a completely stereo3D environment. I started work on this film as part of my final honours year project & spent 13 weeks in an attempt to start and complete the project, but unfortunately did not finish the film in time! I did, however, learn a great deal during these 13 weeks –
I learn’t a lot of what NOT to do on a Stereo3D job – and in that respect, it was a successful research project.

I have started a website for the Last Guitar Hero in order to track the production of this project, to share my thoughts and techniques, and to hopefully document the mistakes I make on the way! My plan with this personal project is to:

[list style=”list_1″] [li]Create a short film that really pays homage to 2 of my favourite loves: Goldeneye n64 & Music[/li] [li]Create & working pipeline for Stereo3D visual effects using ‘standard’ affordable software (no Flame or NukeX allowed!)[/li] [/list]

I have received a lot of support from friends, classmates, mentors and workmates who have helped me work on the film so far, and I hope to finish the film in my spare time over the next year so I can thank them all, and show them what all the hard work was for!

I hope I can share some more good news about this project in the not too distant future!

 

June 11, 2012
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Tutorial 02 – Storyboarding a Short Film

By Digital Lode Tutorials, TutorialsOne Comment
[image title=”An overview of my Storyboarding Process” width=”544″ height=”385″] http://thelode.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Photoshop_Brush.jpg [/image]

I spent the 2nd half of 2011 working on the ‘Last Guitar Hero’ – an ambitious short film that was shot in ‘1st person perspective’ and in Stereoscopic 3D. This short tutorial covers the storyboarding stage for the film and details my workflow during these pre-production stages.

 

Button Text Tutorial is hosted on my second website ‘LastGuitarHero.com’

 

In a nutshell, my method of storyboarding involves using Photoshop and After Effects together so I can create a storyboard & animatic at the same time. For an animated production, or a Video production that relies on CGI & Visual FX, I think a method like this is timesaving and helpful! You can follow the link above to view the tutorial on my second website, ‘LastGuitarHero.com,’ which has been setup specifially for my short film. The short film was part of my final honours year assessment and is sadly yet to be completed. It will be, one day!

 

Button Text

 

 

June 11, 2012
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Tutorial 01 – Motion Blur In After Effects – All you need to know

By Digital Lode Tutorials, TutorialsNo Comments


Originally created for my student blog, this tutorial gives viewers an overview of motion blur and how this effect is achieved within After Effects.

The video covers both the standard motion blur switches, the global settings for motion blur, as well as some 1st and 3rd party plugins that can help you add motion blur to sharp footage or 3D rendered animations.

 

Button Text
June 11, 2012
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