'Conjure' | Main Project | Character Bios

Here are some blocked out ideas of the characters in the film...

TYLER (protagonist):

Tyler is conjoined to his twin brother Simon from birth. There was a situation when he and Simon were young where they could have been separated. Their parents chose against this because Tyler was most likely not to survive from this surgery, and even though it would appear with Simon being the stronger of the boys, it still was too much of a gamble for the parents if they were to lose both of their sons. Simon has more control of the two legs they share, and if they were to survive the surgery there was also a fear that they would end up both disabled/in wheelchairs. The negatives were too much for their parents.

Tyler very much relies on Simon because he needs to negotiate with him where they are to walk, as his brother has more power to do so. Tyler has begun to just let Simon decide, and has lost confidence, and been a little depressed, and even lazy.

He often wishes that this was not the case and he was able to try out independance some more and even walk where he so wishes. He doesn’t have a particularly good job and doesn’t have much luck with the girls as he has become to lack in confidence. He’s quite a spiritual person.

SIMON (antagonist):

Simon is getting married soon to a really lovely girl. He works in a steady assistant manager in a factory job which usually consists of him sat on a chair in the office, as his conjoined brother Tyler sleeps next to him during the day at Simon’s work. He has grown to tolerate this more but he occasionally feels it holds him back, but he loves his twin brother and heartwarmingly wants the best for him also.

MOTHER/RACHEL:

Always a very bubbly person. That’s what attracted her husband to her when they were in their early twenties. Her maternal experience is a scarred one. She possesses a lot of love for people and the world and especially her two sons. However, the daunting position she has found herself in with her companion, her husband, to make important decisions about the lives of those she loves and made her very tired with spells of insomnia within her life.

FATHER/LACH: 

A fairly timid and content man. Prone to letting life pan around before his eyes and think of ‘nothing’. In his old age, he has struggled to maintain the ability of memory. However, he has been very conscientious in his day. Very much stuck in a dead end job, but determined in his hobbies. These hobbies have become somewhat of a coping mechanism at some difficult stages of his life. He enjoys DIY and betting on horses.

Nothing particularly noticeable or interesting happened until he met his future wife. However, he never knew how interesting married life could end up being. At times the challenge in his life has stimulated his otherwise dull life and his response to it. He’ll still get the nerves when he has to prepare for something outside a comfortable day in the office.

FIANCE/ALONA (duel-antagonist):

She is a training nurse, and is a student of the world. She loves to travel and has studied several courses and worked for charities in order to aid her open lifestyle.
In the film, she is found talking on the phone in an alleyway. This can be because Tyler finds her very mysterious and enigmatic, wondering why she loves his brother so much to commit to marriage. It is also the setting before the hospital which makes the idea that she has left the hospital to take a call. She is concealing and covering up a lovely flamboyant dress under her coat - which can be thought of as a summery dress or a wedding dress.

Lecture to L2s and 3s

I was invited by Sharon Campbell to do a 30 minute presentation to level 2 and 3 undergraduate animation students on my studies in the use of and theory of composition in film.

It was good and encouraging to be asked to do this, and thanks for the good feedback. I hope what I discussed helps, and I am always up for hearing from anyone.

Click here to see the slides...

IB Lighting and Comp Tests

This is the whale from the Going Live project. It is set up to be lit by particular scenes.

Such techniques involving HDRIs and touching them up to light the character in a real life scene are very effective and much more interesting to me than just setting up Maya default lights by themselves and tweaking them... So this has been an interesting practice.

I have done a compositing test in Nuke here, matching the grain and colour correction of the scene. I am awaiting the texture/ displacement map/ colour map/ bump map for the whale. After getting these, we can do a test render and composite for one of the scenes... It should be exciting and better quality work than we have produced before.

Going Live | Guinness Packshot Tweaks

Ross has tweaked the pack shot to a style he has in mind. What is particularly interesting is the idea of the swirls creating the harp on the glass.

This should be finalised soon.

Going Live | Packshot Test

After our test, and subsequently lessons learnt, myself and Ross Douglas organised and executed the filming of the packshot. We organised to have the help of the experienced Malcolm Finnie, and I booked out the EX-1 and the facilities.

Yesterday we picked up our clear Guinness shaped glasses (x4) and today we filmed the shots.

We initially thought we would film a 'perfect' shot of the Guinness rising in the glass after being poured. However, it appeared with Malcolm's advice that a multiple exposure and combination/layering of the best clips would be best. So after stinking out the photography studio with booze, we bunged a few of the clips together, then I tweaked it in order to create a first test.

Here it is:

In order to create the swirling effect desired (in combination with the basic rising), and not waste cans of Guinness, we mixed the pint with a stick. This shook the glass a little, so this needed stabilised (this is still not perfectly executed). I also animated a mask to create the rising effect (I feel that we can make this fully rise and meet the head and therefore last longer). There is around five shots combined here in this test - set to 'Screen' with tweaked opacities.

We will have meetings during this week to discuss all of this.

I think this went night and day better than last week's attempt. Obviously a long weekend drinking Guinness in Belfast for my big brother's stag really helped!

'Conjure' | Pre-Vis/Preview

I have blocked out the basic shots and then went into more detail with the edit and the detail of the drawings. However, I think it is very necessary in the next stages to properly lay it out in the rule of thirds, odds, and start to add depth to the types of shots I'm using. I want to make the compositions as effective as possible. But, this is the basic 'feel' so far.

We will be shooting for this entire film and then I will be producing a selection of visual effects shots for the Masters Show.

For this semester I am handing in compositing tests in Nuke of the factory setting and other comp tests.

Factory Interior | Progress

Lina's progress with the factory interior. Really chuffed with the detail appearing, especially the wee car. That was unexpected.

This will hopefully be at a level to do a Nuke compositing test by the end of the semester...

A Plinth of Guinness

Special thanks to Alan Grieg in the woodwork studio.

Going Live Update

I have been working on several things during Going Live.

In the initial stages, I worked on touching up the storyboard, cleaning up and tracking a plate and getting Ross' voice over recorded with Brian Cox.

Since, I have worked with Sean on the pre-vis in order to finalise this, as I felt every meeting seemed to centre around everyone's dissatisfaction with it. After sitting down with Sean and working on the compositional layout, we met with the group the next week, and with a few minor tweaks, myself, Ross and team leader Sarah were very satisfied with the edit and deemed it 'final'. Everyone was satisfied with the composition myself and Sean created as well.

Myself, Ross and Isabel have had meetings and touched up the HDRIs in order to light the character within the environment. We have set them up in Maya with directional lights and final gathering and mental ray shaders, etc, and even added in some rough proxy geometry to create the scenes in a realistic way. I have also conducted rough Nuke comp tests. We will work on these more this week and once we get the final scale of the cameras from Jack and Sean.

Myself and Ross have begun work on the shot of the Guinness. We did what became a test run yesterday. We shot on a DSLR (video and photographs) and used what we could find to set it up. Malcolm Finnie set up the lighting. We were best reflecting light off of white columns rather than letting light directly hit the glass. We have since, after difficulties, countered our problems by requesting a custom-made plinth from the woodworking department to paint black; ordered a blank Guinness glass from the internet and booked out the EX-1, photography studio and Malcolm Finnie for next week. We also need to practice on our Guinness pint pouring technique, and cool the beer beforehand. This should be finalised soon, and here is a test photograph:

Basic Nuke Stuff

Just mucking about in Nuke, trying to get used to nodes like the RotoPaint, and merging some stuff in, using the light wrap etc.

Hopefully this will lead onto actual good work....

I am enjoying working at becoming more fluent in Nukeish...

Update on Factory | Basic

Lina has begun on the basic layout of the CG factory, and we have discussed some further stages.

Factory environment – basic | MSc Animation & Visualisation:

As well as the character being comp'd in in the doorway, and the smoke, I think I will comp other live action elements/photographs into the environment, as it comes to that..

More updates soon...

Composition Notes

I have become more enlightened in terms of how to compose an image. This will aid the finalising of my storyboard.

Particularly noticeable conventions are:

The rule of thirds - an image balances better if important elements lie on a choice of the four even intersections (2 vertical, 2 horizontal).

Rule of odds - an image balances better if there is an even number of characters or elements surrounding or supporting the central character or element.

The rule of space - by placing an image to a particular side, with space infront of them, implies movement.

Simplicity - not over-cluttering a composition will not distract the eye.

Balance, imbalance, orientation, angles, movement, lighting, montage.... so on... are also obviously extremely power in combination with these.

Even though these seem especially obvious, I feel they must not be forgotten, as they are very powerful in producing a professional composition. One element of the vast artform we call filmmaking.

Update on Practice - AF101 and VFX

Today, I completed the first half of my training on the Panasonic AF101 with Malcolm Finnie.

The Panasonic AF101

Co-cinematographer on the project Alan McIlrath, who also took part in the training, has experience working with this camera on such productions as Flyboy Film Production's Pigeon Song (2012) and likes the quality of image it produces. 

This is the camera which we will use in the production of my masters film 'Conjure' and it is always good as a compositor to learn more about cameras. When you deal with such things as lens distortion and camera tracking within compositing, it is clear this is one of the areas one must understand to be successful in the area. At least three of us need training to take this particular camera out. So myself, Alan, Jeppe and later Michal will have been trained, which is more than enough.

I feel that compositing and VFX is the combination of such things as general animation, physics, composition and photography. So it is activities such as this which will eventually lead to me having a very good basis of compositing within filmmaking.
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Other than this, essay writing, presenting, science visualisations and the 'private' Going Live project, I have begun on the collaboration on the factory shot for Conjure with Lina Ivanova after I touched up the storyboard and pre-vis and created concept art for it.

Here are two particular references:

Hugo (2011)

Station Park

This is the rough concept art image:

Other than even this, I have started to take footage/plates from an old project of mine in order to test out some compositing and tests for 'Conjure'. The pre-production and especially production for this project is a heavily collaborative process, which allows me to work on my specialty. That is a reason why myself and Lina are producing the factory interior this semester.

We shoot Conjure in May, and I will be conducting compositing within Nuke for those VFX shots, neglecting detailed editing and sound (even though I am not doing this) until after the programme ends - possibly submitting and displaying at the Masters Show merely those VFX shots achieved. (This theory of my final output has become a concrete thought now, considering similar posts previously.)

We are, and myself especially, excited about the project and the upcoming shoot in May. In early April, we will commence detailed planning and even fundraising. It is definitely looking good (touch wood).

Upcoming: Full pre-vis No. 1 (currently just a few more scenes to cut); VFX background replacement test in Nuke; and updates on the factory setting layout and composite tests...