Lens Flare Test

Sometimes in animation I need a lens flare to plus-up a project, but you can only modify the default After Effects lens flare effect so much before you need something more (and I never use the default flares without a lot of modification). However I've not yet had the need to spend a lot of money on a dedicated plugin, so this afternoon I did a quick test to see what I could do without a filter. Using only shape layers and expressions I was able to create an easy-to-use lens flare with very little hassle. I can foresee this method getting used for future projects.

Bendy Guitar

Another thing I never posted before, my first experiment with time displacement, which something I was playing around with during my Masters course.

Conflicting Ideas - Full Film

"An artist's rivaling creations fight for his attention."

The culmination of my year in MSc Animation and Visualisation. A short film that combines traditional 2D animation with live action with some VFX to boot.

Conflicting Ideas - Behind the Scenes

A short look at the production of my latest film which combines 2D animation with live action, in which an artist's prior creations exist in the same world he does - but not peacefully.

See more of this project here: http://upsidethebox.blogspot.com

Conflicting Ideas

A few stills from my latest film, which I just did the finishing touches on yesterday. It's not available to watch yet, but shall be premièred at the Dundee Masters Show next Saturday.

Elwood in the Kitchen

A rough first test for an effect I'm going to be using for my Masters project. There's a lot wrong with it but I discuss it all on my other blog: upsidethebox.blogspot.com/2010/11/first-compositing-test.html

Time Displacement

Playing around with time displacement effects on a flat piece of footage. No compositing.

Making of Trooper

A behind the scenes look my degree film Trooper. As part of the submission we had to produce a 'making of' film documenting the production process. A few folk have expressed interest in seeing it so I've uploaded it.

This was made right at the end of production when I was pretty worn out, so much as I tried, I don't sound very alive. Maybe I'll hire a narrator to re-do it...


Making of Trooper from Mark Haldane on Vimeo.

No Entry

An effect I'm testing for my current project:

Trooper in High Quality

I've made the Vimeo version of Trooper public so you can see it in better quality.

Trooper from Mark Haldane on Vimeo.

Effects Animation

Last Show - Lightning Animation on Vimeo.

I did the lightning effects in this film. Check out more on the Last Show blog!

Lens Flare Experiment

Piecing one together myself because the only half decent filters cost too much for how little I need them. The final thing will be no where near this extreme, this is just a test of the various elements I've made or collected.

Cannon Ball Smoke Test 2

Paul and I have been tweaking the previous test animation and have come up with this. It's looking much better. A lot closer to the concept drawing. Didn't use it as reference mind you so the colour's a bit different.

Concept:

Cannon Ball Smoke Test

Paul and I have been working for ages (or half an hour) on turning my 2D drawing into 3D. The cannon ball is going to be travelling and spinning in slow motion in the shot, so animating the gas/plasma it vents by hand would be tricky. Here's our first CG test...

Here's Paul's particle smoke:

And here's it again after I played with it in After Effects:

It's early days but we're on the way to getting a good 2D-style effect. I've devised a way to make it fade out like the picture, and Paul's working on getting it wavier.