Sundance Film Festival Projections

Having worked on the Sundance Institute Center's wall projections in 2013 we were asked again to produce some eye catching content for the 2014 festival. This was the 30th anniversary of the festival so we made every effort to make the graphics as striking as possible. Two simultaneous HD projections flanked either side of a touchscreen wall area and the content was all themed to promote the HP sponsored digital archives and history of the festival dating back to the eighties.

The project was commisioned by Simon Collins of London agency GMR Marketing. I worked closely with Joel Harrison who had been a major contributor to the first 2013 festival project. We also took on great help from designer / animator's Jun Iwakawa and Ian Macklin.

See a movie cut of it here.

CV Updates

just some of the letter 'O' shapes from the many jobs I've worked on. 

Here is an extract from my latest CV update outlining my skill set which I am now offering on a freelance basis.

Specialties: 

- 3d Maya Generalist

- Creative Design
- Compositing

- Motion graphics and 2d animation

- VFX Supervision

- On Set Supervision
- Bidding / Costing VFX Shots and sequences
- Delivering VFX

- Client Facing
- Pre-vis, storyboarding, animatics

- CG enhanced Illustration & photographic retouching
- Team Management & Recruitment
- PR / Marketing

- Business development

- CG business administration and consultation

Software expertise: Maya, Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop, Flash, ToonBoom, Filemaker

full details about me can be seen here.

Science and InfoGraphics

ebook pages

hologram presenter

Google infographics

ergonomics for Bosch products

BP interactive explainer Atlantis PQ

Greater Gabbard Wind Farm stakeholders explainer

Udan Emas - Kris Energy

Some of the  maps from the TV series Globe Trekker ( Lonely Planet / Pilot Productions )

made dozens of product explainers for JML point of sale videos

JML induction cooker

Eurovision Song Contest Promo

We made a fantasy world high end promo for Zlata Ognevich. We were asked to create an immersive animation for Zlata’s entry, Gravity, which was performed at the Eurovision Finals in Malmo, Sweden in May. Zlata came within 20 points of the eventual winner Denmark and she finished third in the end.

I headed the animation department which included all our guys plus some of our favourite freelancers to do some serious compositing, chromakeying, tracking and effects.  I personally composited the pictured scenes as well as making the 3d diamonds.

The video can be seen here on YouTube where it's had 2.5 million hits. 

Fairy Party Invite

Brief to make a party invite for a fantasy themed fancy dress party.

My Parents are Aliens

Job I storyboarded and animated, found in online archive:

Liquid Television Graphics was commissioned by Granada Media children's producer Beryl Richards to produce the titles for new comedy series My Parents Are Aliens. Designed by Tim Varlow, they were made in a 2D 1950s comic-book style, reflecting the show's storyline of two aliens who crash land in Surbiton and become parents to three orphaned children. Animated in Matador and composited in Illusion by Olly Tyler and Thorston Rienth, the new series debuts on Tuesday (9 November) on CITV.

Broadcast Magazine

5 November, 1999

WAA Mannequins

A job we did at SquareZero a few years ago that still makes me smile. The brief was unusual for us in that it was fro a print campaign only - so no animation needed. The dummies were made in Maya using some generic human figure. Jonson awkwardly bent them into stiff poses and rendered them high resolution. The photo backgrounds were supplied by the agency and we integrated them in Photoshop.

Hologram effects work

The company I founded in 2004 SquareZero  became the leading production company for content appearing in today's holographic projections. We created over 50 events for the Musion Eyeliner platform since our first hologram for the launch of the Toyota Auris.

The holograms were made possible by our partnership with the patent holding inventors of the projection system, a company called Musion. Their Musion Eyeliner foils use an old victorian stage illusion technique updated for the digital age using HD projectors and high tech projection foil.

I  helped design, animate, composite and shoot live action which was optimised for maximum effect on the system. We devised all the best practices to get the most impact out of the holograms and fully understand the do's and don't involved with making the most sensational events.

We also were involved in recreations of famous people - including Frank Sinatra for Simon Cowell's birthday.

We were the leading and principal content partner for Musion's Eyeliner system. We have created hologram media for a large range of events.

Dubai property development promotional event hologram

Afromedia 50th anniversary celebration event, Nigeria

Rostelcom hologram. Russian telecom giant corporate event.

Here is a selection of the more prominent projects:
Abbaworld - Earls Court, Afromedia, Agfa trade show, Audi Moscow, BT conference event, Cyberdolls - DJ Ursula, Caterpillar Munich trade show, Colt with Ferrari, Dubai Properties, Frank Sinatra for Simon Cowell, Foynes museum hologram, GT Bank - Nigerian bank, i.am Plus at Selfridges, Jake's BarMitzvah,  Laboutin retrospective at the Design Museum, LG phone launch with David Blaine, Martini, Morecombe and Wise for Children in Need, Mobitel - African mobile phone company. Paul Arden resurrected for Saatchi's at Cannes Lions, HRH Prince Charles virtual appearance, Kuwait National Day, Rostelcom telecoms event, Ranstad, Rock 3D - Entertainment installation in Gibraltar. Speedo Lzr Racer launch, Toyota Auris Promo (IVCA Award for Innovation), Swan Lake - Russian Ballet. Thales flight simulator launch, Transaero airline anniversary, Urjuan Nights, Vodafone.

SquareZero won industry awards for Speedo, Laboutin, Abbaworld and the Yota Swan Lake projects.

Michael Phelps in award winning hologram for launch of Speedo swimwear range

3d animations for lifesize Formula One car

Glittering gemstones

A project called for some sparkling diamonds. Although we already had some from before we needed a range of types of stone. I was interested by the structure and the shading / raytracing techniques involved so I looked for online tutorials. I followed an excellent one by an Indian guy - unfortunately cannot find again now. I made this selection from his set up - they really glint when animated.

3d Map of Europe

This 3d model is designed to be a simplified fully customisable map of Europe. Each country perfectly fits into it's neighbours. The effect is you cannot see borders unless you change country colouring. All countries are arranged so they can be labelled or grouped according to EU membership.

WW2 Destroyer

I found some great naval plans online for WW2 British destroyers. When I saw the elevations and deck plans plus a set of model kit instructions I though the model had to be made. Using Maya 2011 I put together a fairly simple model that would be low poly were it not for the railings going right around the deck. I also found quite a few photographs of the same or similar classes of destroyers - so I had good reference material for all colours, textures and materials.

Fifties Project

A collection of 1950's themed 3d models to practice my lighting and rendering skills in Maya. Using Maya with MentalRay and testing out some of the cool nDynamics features in the recent versions of Maya. Trying out glows, neons, refractions and environment maps as well- not to mention modelling berries and cherries.

I got this great Wurlitzer from Turbosquid and I've been relighting and texturing the whole thing.

An ice-cream sundae type dessert which I have modelled from scratch. Mental ray rendering and layered shaders to get a good semi- melted ice cream texture.

Ice- cubes splash into the nDynamics drink

Ice cubes and invisible inner glass model are made collision objects.

Then a gravity force is added plus a vortex to spin them in the glass. The nDynamics liquid is set to collide with the ice causing some good splashing and slooshing. When the ice is in the fluid the trick was to lower the gravity suddenly so they didnt just drop straight to the bottom of the glass but so they would swirl around in the liquid. When the gravity was released sometimes the ice cubes would bounce out and float off under their own simulated velocity !

The cars are from our archive - I had to take the basic meshes from .obj import and reassign all materials and textures