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14 Sept 2022

Showreel 2022

 I've put together a showcase with a varied selection of both showreels and finished projects from my back catalogue. Hopefully this will help prospective employers see a more varied selction of my past work.

Click on the image below to open the playlist in YouTube 

Eurotrash 2000  titles










 




6 Sept 2022

Compositing

 I have been compositing in one form or another for 27 years now. I have used Aftereffects for many projects and also node based compositing originally using Shake and then Nuke. 

Click here for Compositing Showreel

Here are a few project highlights:

Industrial Salt pop promo

Colt - hologram event

Martini hologram launch

Passengers TV titles

Poppy Appeal promo

Speedo / Michael Phelps event

Zlata - Eurovision Song Contest

Mazda commercials

Miracles of Reshetova -  Feature film

BBC title sequence

 
Toyota Auris Launch



2d Animations

 

I have over the years made many fun engaging 2d animations - mostly using AfterEffects. There's a short showreel of these in an older post here.




TV titles



 

I Caesar for BBC

 


 
I created these time lapse 3d illustration / matte paintings for the BBC series 'I Caesar'. Working with a researcher I painted the scenes over the real modern locations using Photoshop. Some elements were created in 3d and painted over for more realistic lighting.

Discovery Channel Idents

 


 

I  composited this series of idents using Nuke. I also created some of the 3d elements such as the arrows and the pyramids at Giza using Maya.

8 Jul 2022

Modeling and Texturing new low poly Game Soldiers

So returning to modeling low poly warriors similar to my previous Normans and Bronze Age models. This time I am aiming at making a library of generic parts so as to easily recombine and create many different historicaly accurate digital miniatures. Also I am trying out Abobe Substance Painter for the texturing tasks.

Substance Notes: 

1: alt + mouse keys to navigate 3d. 

2: seperate materials for parts in Maya - come in as sepearte shaders in SP

3 May 2022

Unity Essentials Primer Course Completed

 

I completed the first introductory course on the official Unity learning programme. The next one is coding based and will be much more challenging. I have allowed 12 weeks to complete this next qualification.

29 Apr 2022

Unity Essentials Project - The Real-time Industry

This section of my course explains the interactive industry standards and conventions. Theres a typical series of production cycles similar to the film and TV linear content production business which I am already familiar with. I can therefore comparethem during this exercise.

Pre-Production

Storyline, planning, design , scheduling, deadlines, maps, UI, look and feel, testing, animatic, storyboard, budget planning, team building. To produce a design document. Pretty similar to film and TV pre-production which would plan out the scripts, shoots, design, post-production, budget and schedules. The film process would culminate in a script, storyboard and production budget and schedule.

Production

Team builds everything planned aiming to hit deadline and avoid 'feature creep' where more detail is added as it goes along. All assets have to be built and assembled - coded and set up so they work. A producer oversees deadlines and progress. 'Version control' is implemented so project can back track if necessary ( version control softwares include Github, Collaborate and PlasticsSCM ). Different from film and TV production which normally only involves the shooting and performance period.

Post-Production

Product is tested and amended until runs smoothly. Alpha Testing is done in house. Beta Testing is a limited release in order to smooth out bugs and receive feedback. This is different to traditional linear film post which normally involves editing, compositing, CGI, grading, exporting movies and alternate versions etc

Operations

Product is released and maintained, distributed, marketed, server support, bug fixes, website maintenance, promoteions etc.

Unity - Essentials of real time 2d - Working with Game Objects

Make and manipulate a Sprite:

2d objects include a library of Sprites. I made a circle shape and applied the 'knob' sprite to it. Then edited shape using the transform tool 'T' on keyboar same as Photoshop for free transform. Shift locks dimensions. Changing colour of the sprite is easy in the Inspector to the right.


Adding Components to 2d game objects:

In the Inspector the circle is given a rigidbody and a circle collider component - (added right at the bottom of the Inspector). A box is added below and also given similar components. Now the circle drops but stops when it hits the box or ground below.

Do NOT make changes whilst the game is running - changes will be lost. 

Sprites and readymade 2d or 3d art can be found at the Unity Asset Store so I grabbed a few to make my next exercise. Sprites tend to be low rez png files with transparency. To load them you go to Window/ package managaer in Unity. if you download them from the asset store you can download into the Unity package manager and then from there import them into the project.

Publishing the game to WebGL so it runs on a browser requires the WebGL Publisher package to be loaded. Instructions are here

click pic to run my Egg Pachinko

 

28 Apr 2022

Unity Essentials Level 2 - Make a 3d scene and publish it to the web

I have worked through a few of the basic tutorials in Unity. I've learned to navigate the UI and build from primitives. I've learned to add components to 3d models and give them physics attributes. I've learned to make prefabs - these are the same as Maya Instances. 

The navigation is almose the same as Maya. F is the focus hotkey just the same. 

The Inspector is the same as Maya's Attributes and Nukes Properties - it even sits on the right in the same place that those two position it. 

The Project panel at the bottom contains assets and materials etc - the same way as  the Aftereffects Project panel. 

Hierachy panel on the left is the same as Maya's Inspector.

I made a practice 'game' where coloured barrels fall onto slopes and I adjusted the elements until one finally went the whole course and landed in the target area at the end. I then set about making a 'build' of the game scene ( choices are MacOs, Windows or WebGL )

The WebGL build can be seen here - its not super exciting but I have now published my first Unity project.



9 Apr 2022

Examples of my Architectural 3d Models

 Some 3d environmental / architectural designs I have made whilst at SquareZero Ltd 2005-2013


Virtual set for corporate video 2005

Own architectural design for 3d video screen demo  2009

Own architectural design for 3d video screen demo  2009

Virtual set for TV chat show

Virtual set for HealthZone TV

29 Mar 2022

I'm studying the Unity Foundation Course

 Unity is a 3d real time engine which I was first made aware of around 2008. Our company SquareZero collaborated with a Unity company to create an AR demo of an inhaler for a medical company. We created the 3D model with an animation which they implemented for AR interactivity within Unity. Anyway I want to learn how to use Unity with my 3d assets so I can make interactive environments and possibly games. This comes from my recent interest in NFT land and metaverse spaces which are appearing everywhere and I want to be able to use my 3d skills in these spaces. As I read William Gibson's Neuromancer when it came out I thinks its fun that I could now be one of the architects of Cyberspace which he envisioned back then in the 80's.