Through Thor Media, I was tasked with producing 3 pieces of concept art for our client, Adaptive Studios. The pieces were based on a semi-final script, with some direction from the director, and director of photography.
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The first piece was strictly an environment piece, based on a possible traveling exhibit around the 1940’s. This pieces primary purpose was to show potential investors that some effort and thought was being put into the production, to show that there was talent to help create the world of the story. So I tried to focus on the details of the objects in the tent, rather than characters, to see if I could just tell a basic story with the objects in the scene. This piece could be used for actual set design during production, but most likely not.
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The next painting was done for an area in the script called “Thieves Cross”. And old ghost town in the story where the main characters end up in, searching for clues. The town was originally a settlement for criminals, so, it didn’t have much in the way of development, except for the old chapel. I wanted to make the chapel the center of the image, so I set up my composition to perform this task. I used a dutch angle to add a bit of uneasiness to the scene. Like the painting before, I started with a 3D base done in Blender, and then moved into Krita for the final paint over. I have to say, working in 3D to begin with helps immensely with perspective and laying out the basic composition. It easily shave 1 or 2 hours off of each painting.
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The last painting was almost an illustration. Again, whether or not Art’s room will look anything like the painting in the final film is one thing, so, instead I focused on the mood and lighting of the moment given to me from the script. I feel that I got the composition right on in this painting. Every part of this painting just fell into place. For me, the color, lighting, composition, characters, mood. etc… just works! I love it!
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This was an awesome opportunity for me. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work on some pre-production art work. I love to see written stories come to life visually, and to have some control over how that happens is incredibly gratifying. This work has spurred Thor Media to leverage mine and Michael Buhler’s skills in producing art. We are currently putting together service packages in the areas of Storyboards and Concept art. They got me working on the Thor Media website and a booklet that we can pass out to potential clients. This is something that I have wanted to do for a while, and I hope it turns out well.
Another JagCorner video to talk about. We have kind of been all over the place with the kind of YouTube videos we would like to do. We know we will continue to do the BitJag Development Journals, and we are pretty sure we are going to keep doing the JagVirgin episodes as well.
I guess the reason why we are jumping all over the place is because we are trying to counteract all the negative coverage of the Atari Jaguar. Lets just say, this console doesn’t get the highest score on most gamer’s Hi-Score lists, but it’s unfortunate that there is so much negative for a system that has so much positive. I guess one of my personal goals with doing these JagCorner videos is to promote the great things about the system.
Moving on, what I really wanted to talk about was the opening skit for this review video. I am taking these videos as an opportunity to build a portfolio and push my visual effects skills, and I was glad to see that this shows well in this video.
Jacob and Bryce helped me come up with and execute the concept and it came together almost flawlessly. Everything was done in Blender. Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Animation, Camera Tracking, Compositing, Editing, and Rendering of the entire video included. I love the Blender tool set, and it never seems to fail me.
The hardest part about this video was the camera tracking. There were no purposely place tracking points in the shot, and the one section I had trouble with was when I stepped out of TV Specialists back door and then the camera swings to the left, revealing the Iron Soldier. I had to manually track 20 or so frames to get the camera swing, simply because all the information in the show was too blurred to track. Other than that, the track was fairly easy, with just a few minor slides and jitters in the final result, almost noticeable. At the end of the day, the entire production was 30 man hours. I wanted to spend more time, but we set a goal to have it released by Thanksgiving.
The end card is a bit special. To achieve a more nastalgic feel, I rendered it out at 320×180 (a 16:9 resolution) and then scaled it up to 1920×1080 with no filter. This maintains the jagged edges on the polygons making it still feel like a low resolution, up-scaled to a high resolution.
Overall, the result was almost exactly how we imagined it, and I love it when that happens.
The last week I have been working on some initial marketing stuff for Armored Empire, our next app project at Thor media. If you want to learn more about the game, and take a look at the wordpress site I put together for it, check out the official website.
This is another Blender and Gimp project, with audio done in Audacity. The one thing of any real note it the imitation of an old CRT monitor. This was the challenging part of this little project. I wanted to simulate a zoomed in shot, so using things like the scan-lines and dust on the glass seemed to pull off the effect well. The flickering of the text and the diagonal line that passes by make it feel old and worn a bit.
Overall I think that everything about this small teaser fits well with each other, thanks to some initial story boarding. The visuals and audio fit really well and help make the view curious. The doors closing are a good surprise, and just about everyone that has viewed the teaser liked the feeling that it makes.
My brothers and I really like video games, and we are trying to get to the point where we can bring our creative visions to life. The process of learning, building, and refining has been great for us, and it’s not as easy as some may think.
The project “Josh the Whale” started soon after trying to land another app project for another children’s story book and not getting it. We thought that kids books might be the way to get the attention of local children’s book illustrators and writers, and so we began the search for a story. We wanted a project that we could use, not only to attract clients, but to also use as a template for future projects. We also wanted it to be something that we really cared about in order to motivate ourselves to create a good finished product.
This is really the reason that we chose Josh the Whale. Originally a short illustrated story that our older brother, Aaron Thorup, wrote when he was in the third grade, we thought that it wasn’t just a good story about self-worth and perseverance, but it also had a good selling point. Whales and underwater stuff seem to go well with children, so, not only were we planning on entering the kids entertainment market, but we also had an attractive theme that should sell.
So we started. The first step was to get a solid script, based on the original story, written to base all the programming and visual aspects of the game on. The rewritten story, and the script, came together pretty fast, and with Aaron’s approval, I was able to begin on visual concept, and Bryce was able to start working with Shiva 3D (our 3D engine).
Mainly because of a lack of experience on my part, we planned to have a finished product by December. Basically, we did not take into account the learning curve Bryce would have with Shiva 3D. Bryce was picking up the new API, which was quite a bit different from what we were using for our live wallpapers. So, it turned into 6 months instead. We also had other video projects mixed into that schedule, but overall it was just the amount of learning needed that extended the schedule.
Concept work began, assets were being built, and Bryce began building code to use those assets with. Some specifics of that work can be viewed in previous posts HERE and HERE. Though progress was slow, it was steady, and from the beginning to the end of the project, there were no real stressful moments in the production. Just allot of trial and error in figuring out workflows in relation to the programming and asset creation.
Only minor changes were made to script and the original sequence of the game during production. In fact, only one scene was taken out of the game for programming reasons. Here is a really basic concept image of that scene. It had to do with the whales jumping out of the water at night, and the player helps Josh jump high enough to touch the moon.
Recording the narration was fun. Bryce and I decided that we wanted to have Aaron do the voice acting for the narration. This was a great choice because Aaron’s voice seemed to fit right inside Josh’s world, and complements the whole feeling of the book very well. This also made the project feel allot more personal to me, turning it into a family project. Jacob helped us out with the recording in a quite room over at my Grandma’s and Grandpa’s home. We used Audacity for the audio, and it all came out beautifully.
A little side note about the audio recording, most of the interactive moments of the game were conceptualized when I was preparing a script for lines that needed to be rerecorded or new lines, our second recording session. I felt that the game wasn’t quite balanced enough between the strictly narrative moments and the interactive moments of the game.
The music was done by April Thorup. She is not a professional composer, but she did a wonderful job on the music. Her playful styling fit into Josh’s world so well, and keeps the app interesting for kids. When we first started to drop the music into the app itself, the feeling of Josh’s world completely changed. Suddenly this small lonely whale had a story to tell, not only by the narrator, but by the music as well.
When it came to testing the app during the project, we usually just had one of our nieces or nephews take a peek at what we had, and payed attention to their reactions. Because of this “bug testing” we knew from the start that children responded well to the visual style and game play. And, towards the end of the project, we had an official bug testing session, that also brought back good results from children, and assured that we had a solid app structurally.
The app icon and other graphics were interesting to put together. The original thought was to stick to the same icon template and banner styles that we had used for our previous live wallpapers. As you can see from the images below, they weren’t the most impressive images to look at. But, after sifting through Google’s and Apple’s quality guide lines, we decided to redo all of the graphics for the app, creating a simpler style for the icon and banners.
For the final steps of the project, like marketing, I was put in charge. Gathering information on review websites that tailor to the audience we wanted to reach was important, and putting together a trailer and other material to show the app in action was done as well. This moment was probably the most educational for us as a company, mainly because I had never really done any marketing before, and because we have learned that hiring someone to handle the marketing is probably the best way to make sure that it is executed effectively.
One of the huge pluses to this whole project though, was the cost. I believe that the cost for a Shiva 3D license was $200, which covered porting the game to bother Android and iOS. Marketing was about $1000, but besides that there was no additional cost to the project besides our time. We used open source software for all asset creation and editing. This includes Blender, Gimp, Audacity, and Inkscape. Software that we have allot of experience with, and are all great programs.
We have only just released this app, and we have had a really good responses from reviewers, family, friends, and strangers, so far. We are proud of Josh the Whale, and so thankful for everyone that helped make it a reality. It represents our commitment to making products that we can be proud off and that others can enjoy. It represents our first step into the game development realm. And most of all, it shows that even a small whale can do great things, our goal for the future.
This is a quick post just to show off Thor Media’s new office. Nothing special, but it should help bring a new focus to our work and help us make better plans for the future.
This has been a long one in the making. I guess I shouldn’t put it that way, though. It took only a week or so to actually finish the work. I have just been waiting for the release of the actual short film, to get permission to post about it.
Over the last year and a half, I have had allot of opportunity to work with the Blendercompositor, and it has given me the chance to learn, in detail some of the things needed, to pull off some simple effects. One of these projects was “Spaceman“. A short film by producer Holly Tuckett and writer/director Jaron Kent Hermansen. Their short film required some visual effects work, and they asked Thor Media to step in and do the job. Here is a short breakdown video of a few of the shots that I worked with.
Here are some of the compositing trees. It looks allot more complicated than it actually is. And to put in new backgrounds only takes a few steps.
First thing is to track the footage, whether the camera is moving or not. The camera is always moving, whether its the wind blowing, or the heartbeat of the camera man, the image will always move. Next is keying the green screen, and creating any masks that are needed to maintain what you want out of the original footage. And attaching those masks to the camera tracking data.
After which you build your background and attach it to your camera tracking data, and adjust to make the movement look good. Then comes any color correction, adding other effects like glows or motion blur, adding film grain, and then the final composite.
The hard part is getting the new, digitally created elements to look good with the real stuff, speaking of style and lighting. This takes allot of patience, critique from other people, and just playing around with the options that are at your disposal.
This was especially hard with this project, because most of the visual effects take place in the boy’s dream, and are meant to be exaggerated a bit. But at the same time, I had to get a look that fit with the mood and style of the story, without making it feel like the visual effects were making light of the situation.
Overall it was a very fun project to work on. Jaron and Holly at Flying Hat Productions, are great people to work with, and gave me good feedback and direction on the project. And, also, my brothers Jacob and Bryce gave great feedback and critique. I hope there are similar job like this in the future for Thor Media. Free, fun and creative.
The short film hasn’t had an official release yet, but they have trailers and all sorts of content on the film’s blog. Click on this link, http://spacemanthemovie.blogspot.com/, to learn more about the short film and it’s creators. They did a great job putting it together, and would love to see your support.
Thor Media is coming up on the release of there latest project Josh the Whale. And during the last few days, I have been working on the official trailer for the app. Here it is.
It has been fun getting the last touches together for this app. One thing that has been especially interesting for me is the music. We have my sister in law putting together the music for the app, and even though she doesn’t compose professionally, she has done a fantastic job so far. Her music fits the moods that we are trying to get across in the app very well. The trailer itself came together really easy.
Most of the assets were already prepared. All the underwater scenery was practically done, because we used it in the initial concepts for the game. I had to do another animation for Josh, and do some simple compositing in the Blender video sequence editor. The only part that I had to put allot of time into was the beginning. I struggled with compositing distant water, before discovering how easy it is to add it in by using the z-buffer to create a fade between the distant water and the foreground water. Everything else was a cinch.
If you want to check out some beta screen shots of the app in action, head over to the official page HERE. We should be releasing the app in a few weeks or so, on both Android and iOS.
I won’t be able to get a weekly sketch review together this week. I have been swamped with finishing up Josh the Whale, and getting near future projects organized.
Luckily, with the spare time that I made today, I was able to get something together for the blog, and just break away from the paper work that I have been focusing so much on lately.
Unable to give any details in copy at the moment, but I had this image in my head since I have had conversations with Ryan Thatcher about the world our next project will take place in. And, well… That’s about all I can say without given too much away.
Enjoy the video, and look forward to some good news in the future. We will be releasing Josh the Whale soon, and deciding on the next five months or work for Thor Media LLC.
I had some time this week to do some environment paintings/drawings for project Nebula. And it has been great to have a project like this to help motivate me to do these sketch reviews.
I really enjoy the nebula painting, above and to the left. I like the composition, plus it gets a unique idea across to the viewer. The other two paintings, I don’t know. It was fun to play with a monochromatic blue values. But the painting doesn’t really stick out.
I have the feeling, when I am painting environments, that I don’t know quite where I am going with it. This isn’t a new feeling, but it tells me a few things.
I need lots of practice in this area. Been focusing too much on characters over the last while. This project is definitely going to stretch me though.
It also tells me I need to do more research. Research always comes in handy when broadening your skills and imagination. Whether you are looking at other artist’s paintings, photographs, or going outside. Studying others examples can be the best way to learn. And also add a few things to that bag of tricks of yours.
Next week’s sketch review will probably be more of the same. I am having a hard time eyeballing perspective, so, I think that I will focus on line drawing, to avoid being distracted by color and lighting.
I wish I had the mind to record all of these paintings, but here are a few of them, sped up, for your enjoyment.
Been hard at it the past few days. We have a good rough of Josh the Whale finished, just waiting on music before we start the polishing stage. Really looking forward to topping that project off.
Also, I have been doing allot of concept work for Project Nebula. Been working with Ryan to work out world details, and a little bit of character design.
Speaking of which. This design is mostly Ryan’s, but I adjusted some of the ideas, seeing where it would take me. I also took the time to put together a time lapse video, something that I regrettably haven’t done in a while.
I love to look back on my processes. Most of the time during painting, it is a blur. I can’t distinguish one moment from the next. So recording it, and comparing my technique to previous paintings is fun, as well as enlightening.
