The Final Film

February Snow™ from Ben Murray on Vimeo.

final screenshots

Here are three final screenshots from the film.

Below is an early piece of concept artwork to compare with.

final tweaks and changes...

The film reached a completed stage last week, but i'm spending some time going over a number of the shots and tweaking and ajusting bits to make sure that it's looking its best.
The film has been shortlisted for the animation expose awards show this June and will be appearing on the UH Animation 09 DVD. I'm really excited and hugely thankful for everyone who has been a part of this in some way. The final film should be posted sometime at the end of this week so come and take a look then!

The Final Shot

the final shot is finished. the film is complete! Just got a few more days/weeks
of tweaking and re-editing then i'll post some finished screenshots and the film!

we're on the home straight

Above is a screenshot from some of the fusion work i've been doing on the penultimate shot with the whirlwind. I literally took the objects out from max spinning round a central pivot then i've looped certain passes in fusion such as clouds, particles and objects, animated them over time and you get a continuous whirlwind of objects for infinity. Result is pretty good. Since this shot i've reworked the background and i've also put a big light in the middle - the speed of the objects and the eskimo layered over gives a really energetic feel to the shots.

below isn't a shot from the film - this is just a pass i rendered because it looked quite nice.

Anyway. I'm now onto the final shot of the film where he lands back down on the ground. Should take no longer than a day to animate and get the cameras into the right positions - next day rendering and doing the post-production stuff. Then i have the final part of the week to do one or two tweaks before i save the film out for hand-in.

promotional screenshot

this week's work

We finally made it to the final third of the film. This is the fast paced electric climax of the film in which the eskimo lands in a floating mine field, sets a mine off and it explodes in light.
Here is a simple environment render. The sky colour changes dramatically to this chaotic red. The mines are almost completely silhouetted to give as much eye-grabbing sharp contrast as possible. And the eskimos blue coat works as a dash of complimentary colour to each composition. Here are some screenshots into the lead up.

update | screenshots

Here a few of the latest screenshots from the film. There are a number of shots i feel like i've really rushed through this week. I planned a week-by-week schedule for the production of the film and given that i lost friday to monday this week for Easter celebrations and other things i had to speed through alot of the MAX work and there's only so much 'healing' you can pick up in post. I may come back to the arrow shots if i have a spare moment next week and post some shots up.
I'm working on the falling shots the next couple of days and have to pray that it all goes smoothly so that i'm definitely on to the big climactic final scene by the final week of the Easter break ready for the BETA on the 29th. This is the dramatic bit in the film where the palette changes dramatically (the prodominant blue palette with hints of complimentary red/orange switches round to prodominant red/orange with the complimtary blue of the eskimos coat). Screenshots to follow this time next week.

New screenshots

New screenshots from week starting 06/04/09.



I also revised the silhouetted shot from before - I've deliberated quite a bit over this shot but i've decided it looks better with the transmitters in. So here we go.

Flight Test

Flight Test from Ben Murray on Vimeo.